ff. It will
be a race between them and the tide. If all goes well, they will be here
in time. If not, we shall all be drowned."

"Is there no way up the cliff?" said Barton.

"None. The cliff overhangs. There is a place where I have just come
through, but I doubt if I could reach it again; and I am sure neither of
you could stand the surf. You must wait." He then turned from them, and
sat himself down on a fallen piece of the cliff, and buried his face in
his hands. Nellie sank down on the rock where she and Barton had been
sitting, and he stood by her, helplessly gazing alternately with a pale
face and bewildered mind at his two companions. Two or three minutes
passed without any motion or sound from the living occupants of the bay;
but the roaring of the sea grew louder and louder, and the terror of it
sank into the hearts of all three. At last Hawkstone raised his head,
and immediately Barton approached him.

"Forgive me, Hawkstone," he said, "I have done you a great wrong, and I
am sorry for it."

"What's the good in saying that? You can't mend the wrong you have
done," and his head sank down again between his hands.

There was a pause. Barton felt that what had been said was true and not
true. One of the most painful consequences of wrong-doing is that the
wrong has a sort of fungus growth about it, and insists upon appearing
more wrong than it ever was meant to be.

"Hawkstone," he said at last, "I swear to you, on my honour as a
gentleman, I have never dreamed of doing her an injury. I have been
very, very foolish; I have come between you and her with my cursed folly.
I deserve anything you may say or do to me. I care nothing about the
waves; let them come. Take her with you up the cliff, and leave me to
drown. It's all I'm fit for. She will forget me soon enough, I feel
sure, for I am not worth remembering."

Hawkstone still kept himself bent down, his hands covering his face, and
his body swaying to and fro with his strong emotions.

"You talk, you talk," he muttered. "You seem to have ruined her, and me,
and yourself too."

"Not ruined her!" cried Barton, "I have told you, I swear to you. I
swear--"

"Yes!" cried Hawkstone, springing up in a passion and towering above
Barton, with his hands tightly clenched and his chest heaving, "Yes! you
are too great a coward for that. In one moment I could crush you as I
crush the mussels in the harbour with my heel."

Nelly threw herself