s a chalky-green, though comparatively calm,
this part of the coast forming a shelter from wind in its present
quarter. The clouds had different velocities, and some of them shone
with a coppery glare, produced by rays from the west which did not enter
the inferior atmosphere at all. It was reflected on the distant waves in
patches, with an effect as if the waters were at those particular spots
stained with blood. This departed, and what daylight was left to the
earth came from strange and unusual quarters of the heavens. The zenith
would be bright, as if that were the place of the sun; then all overhead
would close, and a whiteness in the east would give the appearance of
morning; while a bank as thick as a wall barricaded the west, which
looked as if it had no acquaintance with sunsets, and would blush red no
more.

'Any other passengers?' shouted the master of the steamboat. 'We must be
off: it may be a dirty night.'

Sol and Mountclere went on board, and the pier receded in the dusk.

'Shall we have any difficulty in getting into Knollsea Bay?' said
Mountclere.

'Not if the wind keeps where it is for another hour or two.'

'I fancy it is shifting to the east'ard,' said Sol.

The captain looked as if he had thought the same thing.

'I hope I shall be able to get home to-night,' said a Knollsea woman. 'My
little children be left alone. Your mis'ess is in a bad way, too--isn't
she, skipper?'

'Yes.'

'And you've got the doctor from Sandbourne aboard, to tend her?'

'Yes.'

'Then you'll be sure to put into Knollsea, if you can?'

'Yes. Don't be alarmed, ma'am. We'll do what we can. But no one must
boast.'

The skipper's remark was the result of an observation that the wind had
at last flown to the east, the single point of the compass whence it
could affect Knollsea Bay. The result of this change was soon
perceptible. About midway in their transit the land elbowed out to a
bold chalk promontory; beyond this stretched a vertical wall of the same
cliff, in a line parallel with their course. In fair weather it was
possible and customary to steer close along under this hoary facade for
the distance of a mile, there being six fathoms of water within a few
boats' lengths of the precipice. But it was an ugly spot at the best of
times, landward no less than seaward, the cliff rounding off at the top
in vegetation, like a forehead with low-grown hair, no defined edge being
provided as a warning to