oy our post-prandial smoke, according to
invariable usage. My sister Ada would not permit us the indulgence of
that luxury indoors, and no conceivable disturbance of the elements
could compel us to forego it altogether.

We were pacing the verandah side by side, quarter-deck fashion, with our
hands behind our backs and our weeds between our teeth, making an
occasional remark about the weather as the sheeted rain swept past us,
and the trees in the distance and the leaf-denuded shrubs in the garden
bowed before the fury of the blast, when a coastguard-man, whom I had
occasionally encountered and spoken to in my rambles, came running past,
enveloped in oilskins and topped by a sou'-wester.

As he went by, seeing us, he shouted, "Ship coming ashore in the West
Bay, sir!" and was the next minute at the bottom of the hill, _en
route_, as fast as his legs could carry him, for the town.

Our house was situated in a pleasant suburb called Rodwell; the high-
road which passed our door led direct to the Smallmouth Sands, at the
farther extremity of which was the Chesil Beach; and we conjectured that
the coastguard-man had come from the beach along this road to give
notice to the chief officer stationed in the town.

To run indoors, don our foul-weather rigging, and notify my sister that
we were off to the scene of the anticipated wreck, was the work of a
moment. The next we were in the road, inclined forward at an angle of
forty-five degrees against the wind, and staggering slowly ahead in the
direction of the sands. The coastguard-man had a fair wind of it, and
was going a good eight knots when he passed us; but just at the top of
the hill, as we were exposed to the full strength of the gale, we did
not forge ahead at more than about one knot. However, matters mended
soon after, for we surmounted the brow of the hill, and began the
descent on the opposite side; here the road took a slight bend, which
brought the wind well abeam; so keeping close under the hedge to
windward of us, we rattled away as fast as we could go.

After nearly an hour's severe exertion we reached the beach. The vessel
which was expected to come on shore was a full-rigged ship, apparently
of about eight hundred or a thousand tons, and evidently a foreigner, by
her build and rig. Some conjectured her to be French, some Spanish, and
others avowed their belief that she was a German; but she was still too
far off, and the weather too thick, to enable