d happen to discover the truth.

So he lay, while the sun mounted high and baked him on the bare stones,
but he did not find it hot.

And then, of a sudden, he stiffened and lay watching anxiously. For
there, from out the Creux had come a boat--and another, and another, and
another--four boat-loads of them again!

So they were coming, after all, and his hopes died sudden death.

Well--let them come and take him and have their will. He was not the
first who had paid the price for what he had not done, and human nature
must fall to pieces if hung too long on tenterhooks.

He watched them listlessly. He could crawl into his innermost cavern, of
course, and could hold it against them all till the end of time, which
in this case would be but a trifling span, for a man must eat to live.
But what was the use? As well die quick as slow, since there could be
but one end to it. And then, to his very great surprise, the boats crept
slowly out of sight round the corner of Coupee Bay, and he lay
wondering.

What could be the meaning of that? Why had they put in there? Why
couldn't they come on and finish the matter?

The sea was all deserted again. If he had not just happened to catch
sight of them stealing across there, he would have felt sure they were
not coming to-day.

Perhaps they were going to wait there till night, though why on earth
they should wait there instead of at the Creux, was past his
comprehension.

And then, after a time, to his amazement, he saw them all go crawling
back the way they had come. One, two, three, four--yes, they were all
there, and they crept slowly round Laches point and disappeared, and
left him gaping.

It was past believing. It was altogether beyond him. He lay, with his
eyes glued to the point round which they had gone, stupid with the
wonder of it.

They had actually given it up--for to-day, at least, and gone back! He
cudgelled his brains for the meaning of it all, till they grew dull and
weary with futile thinking.

Perhaps Nance and the Vicar and the Senechal had prevailed after all!
Perhaps something had turned up at last to prove to the Sark men their
misjudgment! Perhaps--well, any way, it was good to be left alone.

He lay there, laxed with the over-strain of all this upsetting, but
rejoicing placidly in this one more day of life.

He felt like one granted a day's respite as he stands on the scaffold
with the rope round his neck.

Never had the sun shone so brightly