the sound, and with all her strength
called upon the new-comers to speed.

"Here--here, for God's sake! Hasten or it will be too late!"

Her voice seemed to her, in the midst of the endless space, weak as a
child's; but it was heard.

"Coming!" answered a gruff shout from afar. And the oar beat came
closer, and fell with swifter rhythm. Stumbling, catching in her
skirts, careless of pool or stone beneath her little slippered feet,
Lady Landale came flying round the ruins: a couple of boats crashed in
upon the shingle, and the whole night seemed suddenly to become alive
with dark figures--men in uniform, with gleams upon them of brass
badges and shining belts, and in their hands the gleam of arms.

For the moment she could not move. It was as if her knees were giving
way, and she must fall.

None of them saw her in the shadow; but as they passed, she heard them
talking to each other about the signal, the signal which they had been
told to look for, which had been brought to them ... the signal _she_
had made. Then with a wave of rage, the power of life returned to her.
This was Rupert's work! But all was not lost yet. The other boat was
coming, the other boat must be the rescue after all; the Shearman's
boat, or--who knows?--if there was mercy in Heaven, the _Peregrine_,
whose crew might have heard of their captain's risk.

Back she raced to the seaward beach, hurling--unknowing that she spoke
at all--invectives upon her husband's brother.

"Serpent, blood-hound, devil, devil, you shall not have him!"

As she reached the landing-place, breathless, a boat was landing in
very truth. Even as she came up a tall figure jumped out upon the
sand, and crunched towards her with great strides.

She made a leap forward, halted, and cried out shrilly:

"Adrian!"

"Molly--wife! Thank God!" His arms were stretched out to her, but he
saw her waver and shudder from him, and wring her hands. "My God, what
has happened? The light out, too! What is it?"

She fastened on him with a sudden fierceness, the spring of a wild
cat.

"Come," she said, drawing him towards the peel, "if you would save
him, lose not a second."

He hesitated a moment, still; she tugged at him like one demented,
panting her abjurations at him, though her voice was failing her.
Then, without a word, he fell to running with her towards the keep,
supporting her as they went.

The great door had swung back on its hinges, and the men were
pressing, in a