grateful to him as long as I live if he finds Michael,"
answered Nelly, who thought her grandmother condemned Eban without
sufficient cause.

Had she known how he had often talked to Michael, she might have been of
a different opinion.

The storm continued to blow as fiercely as ever, and the rain again came
pelting down; ever and anon peals of thunder rattled and crashed
overhead, and flashes of lightning, seen more vividly through the
thickening gloom, darted from the sky.

Dame Lanreath and Nelly sat in their cottage by the dead--the old woman
calm and unmoved, though Nelly, at each successive crash of thunder or
flash of lightning, drew closer to her grandmother, feeling more secure
in the embrace of the only being on whom she had now to rely for
protection in the wide world.

CHAPTER SIX.

Young Michael sat all alone in his boat, tossed about by the foaming
seas. His anchor held, so there was no fear of his drifting. But that
was not the only danger to which he was exposed. At any moment a sea
might break on board and wash him away, or swamp the boat.

He looked round him, calmly considering what was best to be done. No
coward fear troubled his mind, yet he clearly saw the various risks he
must run. He thought of heaving his ballast overboard and trying to
ride out the gale where he was, but then he must abandon all hope of
reaching the harbour by his own unaided efforts. He might lash himself
to a thwart, and thus escape being washed away; still the fierce waves
might tear the boat herself to pieces, so that he quickly gave up that
idea. He was too far off to be seen from the shore, except perhaps by
the keen-sighted coast-guard men; but even if seen, what boat would
venture out into the fast-rising sea to his rescue. He must, he felt,
depend upon himself, with God's aid, for saving his life.

Any longer delay would only increase his peril. The wind and tide would
prevent him gaining any part of the coast to the northward. He would
therefore make sail and run for Landewednach, for not another spot where
he had the slightest prospect of landing in safety was to be found
between the Gull Rock and the beach at that place. He very well knew,
indeed, the danger he must encounter even there, but it was a choice of
evils. He quickly made up his mind.

He at first set to work to bail out the boat, for already she had
shipped a good deal of water. He had plenty of sea room, so that he
might ventu