You're just in time for a frolic by
moonlight!"

Midwinter suggested a frolic by daylight, and an adjournment to bed in
the meantime.

"Bed!" cried Allan, on whose harum-scarum high spirits Mr. Hawbury's
hospitality had certainly not produced a sedative effect. "Hear him,
doctor! one would think he was ninety! Bed, you drowsy old dormouse!
Look at that, and think of bed if you can!"

He pointed to the sea. The moon was shining in the cloudless heaven;
the night-breeze blew soft and steady from the land; the peaceful waters
rippled joyfully in the silence and the glory of the night. Midwinter
turned to the doctor with a wise resignation to circumstances: he had
seen enough to satisfy him that all words of remonstrance would be words
simply thrown away.

"How is the tide?" he asked.

Mr. Hawbury told him.

"Are there oars in the boat?"

"Yes."

"I am well used to the sea," said Midwinter, descending the pier steps.
"You may trust me to take care of my friend, and to take care of the
boat."

"Good-night, doctor!" shouted Allan. "Your whisky-and-water is
delicious--your boat's a little beauty--and you're the best fellow I
ever met in my life!"

The doctor laughed and waved his hand, and the boat glided out from the
harbor, with Midwinter at the helm.

As the breeze then blew, they were soon abreast of the westward
headland, bounding the Bay of Poolvash, and the question was started
whether they should run out to sea or keep along the shore. The wisest
proceeding, in the event of the wind failing them, was to keep by the
land. Midwinter altered the course of the boat, and they sailed on
smoothly in a south-westerly direction, abreast of the coast.

Little by little the cliffs rose in height, and the rocks, massed wild
and jagged, showed rifted black chasms yawning deep in their seaward
sides. Off the bold promontory called Spanish Head, Midwinter looked
ominously at his watch. But Allan pleaded hard for half an hour more,
and for a glance at the famous channel of the Sound, which they were now
fast nearing, and of which he had heard some startling stories from
the workmen employed on his yacht. The new change which Midwinter's
compliance with this request rendered it necessary to make in the course
of the boat brought her close to the wind; and revealed, on one side,
the grand view of the southernmost shores of the Isle of Man, and, on
the other, the black precipices of the islet called the Calf, separated