earnestness that spoke well of his devotion, "the captain
found he couldn't, he dared not leave the ship--he is the only one who
knows the bearings of these waters here--any one of us might run her
on the bank, and where would we be then, madam, and you, if we were
found in daylight still in these parts?--'For God's sake, Curwen,'
says he, 'implore the lady not to be afraid and tell her to trust, as
she has promised,' so he says. And for God's sake, say I, madam, trust
us. In five minutes you will be with him? Say the word, madam, am I to
make the signal? There he is, eating his heart out. There are all the
lads ready waiting for your foot on the ladder, to hoist sail. No time
to lose, we are already behind. Shall I signal?"

Molly's heart beat violently; under the sudden impulse, the
fascination of the black chasm, of the peril, the adventure, the
unfathomed, took possession of her, and whirled her on.

"Yes," she said.

On the very utterance of the word the man, who had not yet spoken,
uncovered a lantern, held it aloft, as rapidly replaced it under his
coat, and moved away.

Almost immediately, against the black pall, behind the dim line of
grey that marked the shore, suddenly sprang up three bright points in
the form of a triangle.

It was as if all the darkness around had been filled with life; as if
the first fulfilment of those promises with which it had been drawing
this woman's soul was now held out to her to lure her further still.

"See, madam, how they watch!--By your leave."

And with no further warning, Molly felt herself seized with
uncompromising, but deferential, energy, by a pair of powerful arms;
lifted like a child, and carried away at a bear-like trot. By the
splashing she judged it was through the first line of breakers. Then
she was handed into another irresistible grasp. The boat lurched as
the mate jumped in. Then:

"Now give way, lads," he said, "and let her have it. Those lights must
not be burning longer than we can help. Tain't wholesome for any of
us."

And under the pulse of four willing pairs of arms the skiff, like a
thing of life, clove the black waters and rose to the billows.

"You see, madam," explained the mate, "we could not do without the
lights, to show us where she lay, and give us a straight course. We
are all right so long as we keep that top 'un in the middle--but he
won't be sorry, I reckon, when he can drop them overboard. They can't
be seen from the offing yet