here was no house within
moderate distance at which assistance could be procured, and Wright, in
a tumult of conflicting emotions, determined to wait where he was, on
the chance of seeing the boat as it returned from Saint Catharine's
Head. It was already three o'clock, and he knew that the boys could not
now be longer than an hour at most; so with eager eyes he sat watching
the headland, round which he knew they would first come in sight. He
watched with wild eager eyes, absorbed in the one longing desire to
catch sight of them; but the leaden-footed moments crawled on like
hours, and he could not help shivering with agony and fear. At last he
caught a glimpse of them, and springing up, began to shout at the top of
his voice, and wave his handkerchief and his arms in the hope of
attracting their attention. Little thought those blithe, merry-hearted
boys, in the midst of the happy laughter which they sent ringing over
the waters, little they thought how terrible a tragedy awaited them.

At last Wright saw that they had perceived him, and were putting inland,
and now, in his fright, he hardly knew what to do; but feeling sure that
they could not fail to see Vernon, he ran off as fast as he could to
Starhaven, where he rapidly told the people at a farmhouse what had
happened, and asked them to get a cart ready to convey the wounded boy
to Roslyn School.

Meanwhile the tide rolled in calmly and quietly in the rosy evening,
radiant with the diamond and gold of reflected sunlight and transparent
wave. Gradually, gently it crept up to the place where Vernon lay; and
the little ripples fell over him wonderingly, with the low murmur of
their musical laughter, and blurred and dimmed the vivid splashes and
crimson streaks upon the white stone, on which his head had fallen; and
washed away some of the purple bells and green sprigs of heather round
which his fingers were closed in the grasp of death, and played softly
with his fair hair as it rose, and fell, and floated on their
undulations like a leaf of golden-coloured weed, until they themselves
were faintly discoloured by his blood. And then, tired with their new
plaything, they passed on, until the swelling of the water was just
strong enough to move rudely the boy's light weight, and in a few
moments more would have tossed it up and down with every careless wave
among the boulders of the glen. And then it was that Montagu's
horror-stricken gaze had identified the obje