chers in the
pavilion, now heavy steamer rugs were brought, to keep out that
penetrating chill. The Judge had on his heaviest overcoat and yet
shivered, himself covering his long legs with a thick blanket. He had
made several efforts to induce Mrs. Stark to go indoors but all had
failed.

The fog that was slowly rising when the boat-owner took his station on
the little quay below had crept nearer and nearer into shore, and
finally enveloped everything and hidden it. So dense it was that from
his bench on one side the circular pavilion the Judge could barely make
out the white pillars on its opposite side. A lamp had been lighted in
the roof but against this Mrs. Stark had vehemently protested, because
it made that wall of white mist seem closer and more impenetrable, and
without it she fancied that her eye could still pierce the distance,
still discover any incoming craft.

About midnight the wind rose and the fog began to thin and scatter. The
boatman on the pier had long ago left it, forced off by the rising tide,
and now sat floating in one of the row-boats fastened there. He had put
on his oilskins and set his oars in readiness for the first sign of
distress on the face of the waters; but he had about given up hope of
his pretty "Digby Chicken." That a couple of touring lads, even though
one had protested that he was a good sailor, that these should come
safely through a night like this seemed unlikely; but now that the wind
was rising and the fog lifting, he drew his boat close under the pole at
the pier's end and lighted the lantern which swung there. There was now
a chance that its gleam might be seen from beyond and there had been
none before.

Then another time of waiting, which ended with the boatman pulling out
from shore. The watchers above had heard nothing, had not even seen him
leave, although the lantern had faintly shown him riding upon the wave,
moored to the pier by a rope.

But now, rubbing her strained eyes to clear their vision Mrs. Stark
broke the long silence with a cry:

"The man! He isn't there? He's gone--to meet them!"

She was as sure of this now as she had been before that her son was
drowned, and Mrs. Hungerford slipped an arm about her waist in pity. She
dared not think what the result would be of a fresh disappointment.

However, their long vigil was really ended. The trained ear of the
boatman had caught a faint halloo from somewhere on the water and had
rowed toward the sound