ainder.
Elsewhere it looked flexuous, here it looked vermiculated and lumpy, and
her marine experiences suggested to her in a moment that two currents met
and caused a turmoil at this place.

She descended as hastily as her trembling limbs would allow. The way
down was terribly long, and before reaching the heap of clothes it
occurred to her that, after all, it would be best to run first for help.
Hastening along in a lateral direction she proceeded inland till she met
a man, and soon afterwards two others. To them she exclaimed, 'I think a
gentleman who was bathing is in some danger. I cannot see him as I
could. Will you please run and help him, at once, if you will be so
kind?'

She did not think of turning to show them the exact spot, indicating it
vaguely by the direction of her hand, and still going on her way with the
idea of gaining more assistance. When she deemed, in her faintness, that
she had carried the alarm far enough, she faced about and dragged herself
back again. Before reaching the now dreaded spot she met one of the men.

'We can see nothing at all, Miss,' he declared.

Having gained the beach, she found the tide in, and no sign of Charley's
clothes. The other men whom she had besought to come had disappeared, it
must have been in some other direction, for she had not met them going
away. They, finding nothing, had probably thought her alarm a mere
conjecture, and given up the quest.

Baptista sank down upon the stones near at hand. Where Charley had
undressed was now sea. There could not be the least doubt that he was
drowned, and his body sucked under by the current; while his clothes,
lying within high-water mark, had probably been carried away by the
rising tide.

She remained in a stupor for some minutes, till a strange sensation
succeeded the aforesaid perceptions, mystifying her intelligence, and
leaving her physically almost inert. With his personal disappearance,
the last three days of her life with him seemed to be swallowed up, also
his image, in her mind's eye, waned curiously, receded far away, grew
stranger and stranger, less and less real. Their meeting and marriage
had been so sudden, unpremeditated, adventurous, that she could hardly
believe that she had played her part in such a reckless drama. Of all
the few hours of her life with Charles, the portion that most insisted in
coming back to memory was their fortuitous encounter on the previous
Saturday, and those bi