for her safety with all his heart and soul.

Then, after an age of this numb agony of waiting, a tiny bead of light
flickered on the outer darkness, as though Hope with a golden pin-point
had pricked the black curtain of despair, and let a gleam of her glory
peep through. It swung to and fro, and he fell forward with his face in
his ice-cold hands and sobbed, "Thank God! Thank God! She is safe! She
is safe!"

When he tried to get up, his legs gave way under him, and he had to sit
and wait till they recovered. And when at last he got under way along
the ridge, he stumbled like a drunken man.

He tangled his feet in the blanket and fell in a heap. He wondered
dimly where the cloak was--remembered Nance had worn it till she took to
the sea--and stumbled off through the dark again to find it. Nance had
worn it. To him it was sacred.

When he got back with it, he wrapped it round him and crept into his
shelter and slept like a dog.

CHAPTER XXVIII

HOW THE OTHERS CAME TO MAKE AN END

He woke next morning with a start. The sun was high, by the shadow of
his doorway; and by that same token the tide would be at half-ebb, if
not lower, and the gates of his fortress at his enemy's mercy.

He picked up his gun, listened anxiously for sound of him, and then
crept cautiously out, with a quick glance along each slope.

Nothing!--nothing but the cheerful sun and the cloudless sky, and the
empty blue plain of the sea, and the birds circling and diving and
squabbling as usual--and Nance's little parcel lying where she had
dropped it. He had had other things to think about last night.

The composure of the birds reassured him somewhat. Still, they might
have landed on the other side of the rock and be lying in wait for him.

He picked up Nance's parcel with a feeling of reverence. It might have
cost her her life, in spite of her bladders. Then he climbed cautiously
to the ridge and peered over.

Sark lay basking in the sunshine, peaceful and placid, as if no son of
hers had ever had an ill thought of his neighbour, much less sought his
blood.

Not a boat was in sight, and the birds on the north slope seemed as
undisturbed as their fellows on the south.

The invasion in force needed time perhaps to prepare and would be all
the more conclusive when completed.

Meanwhile, he would eat and watch at the same time, for he felt as empty
as a drum, and an empty man is not in the pinkest of condition for a
fight.

Nev