, going east; so she planned to
make for the little cove, midway between the Station and the halfway
house, and take Billy by surprise and assault.

She chuckled delightedly as she constructed her mode of attack. She was
hungry to feel the comfort of Billy's understanding love and trust. The
more she had to conceal from Billy, the more she yearned to be near him.

The _Comrade_, responding to the steady hand upon the tiller, shot into
the cove. The girl secured the boat and ran lightly over the dunes to
the seaward side; then she lay down among the sand grasses and waited.

She seemed alone in God's world. The moon-lighted ocean spread full and
throbbing before her. The sky, star-filled and blue-black, arched in
unbroken splendor. The waste and solitude held no awe for this girl of
the Station. They had been her heritage and were natural and homelike to
her. Under summer skies and through winter's storms she knew the coast's
every phase of beauty or danger. It was hers, and she belonged to it. A
common love held them together. She crouched close to the sandy
hillock. The night was growing old, the tide had turned, and still she
sat absorbed in thought and tender memory. How beautiful the world and
life were! She took from her bosom the tiny whistle, which had been for
five long, delicious weeks her power of summoning unlimited joy to
herself. What a new element had entered into her existence! How powerful
and self-sufficient she felt as she recalled her part in those wonderful
pictures that were growing day by day in the shanty on the Hills!

Her blood rose hotly in her young body, as she lived again, under the
calm sky, those weeks of perfect bliss.

Suddenly the girl sat upright, put the whistle in its hiding place, and
strained her eyes toward the Station.

Yes: there came Billy! He was striding along; head bowed, except when
conscientiously he gazed seaward, scanning with his far-sighted eyes the
bar where danger lay, come storm or fog. But could there be danger on
such a night as this?

Billy, faithful soul, had not a nature attuned to the glory of the
night, but he had a soul sensitive to a brother's need. If he gave heed
at all to the summer beauty, it was merely in thankfulness that all was
well.

"Help! help!" Billy stopped suddenly and raised his head. "Help! help!
Here's a poor, little brig on the bar!"

A smile of joy overspread the man's face, a smile that drove all care
and weariness before it.