leaden-coloured. By degrees they
rowed, as it were, into a brighter region. The sea ahead lightened up,
became pale yellow, then warmed into saffron, and, when the sun rose,
blazed into liquid gold.

The words spoken by the boatmen, though few, were significant. The
"rock" alluded to was the celebrated and much dreaded Inch Cape--more
familiarly known as the Bell Rock--which being at that time unmarked by
lighthouse or beacon of any kind, was the terror of mariners who were
making for the firths of Forth and Tay. The "something" that was
expected to be found there may be guessed at when we say that one of the
fiercest storms that ever swept our eastern shores had just exhausted
itself after strewing the coast with wrecks. The breast of ocean,
though calm on the surface, as has been said, was still heaving with a
mighty swell, from the effects of the recent elemental conflict.

"D'ye see the breakers noo, Davy?" enquired the ill-favoured man, who
pulled the aft oar.

"Ay, and hear them, too," said Davy Spink, ceasing to row, and looking
over his shoulder towards the seaward horizon.

"Yer een and lugs are better than mine, then," returned the ill-favoured
comrade, who answered, when among his friends, to the name of Big
Swankie, otherwise, and more correctly, Jock Swankie. "Od! I believe
ye're right," he added, shading his heavy red brows with his heavier and
redder hand, "that _is_ the rock, but a man wad need the een o' an eagle
to see onything in the face o' sik a bleezin' sun. Pull awa', Davy,
we'll hae time to catch a bit cod or a haddy afore the rock's bare."

Influenced by these encouraging hopes, the stout pair urged their boat
in the direction of a thin line of snow-white foam that lay apparently
many miles away, but which was in reality not very far distant.

By degrees the white line expanded in size and became massive, as though
a huge breaker were rolling towards them; ever and anon jets of foam
flew high into the air from various parts of the mass, like smoke from a
cannon's mouth. Presently, a low continuous roar became audible above
the noise of the oars; as the boat advanced, the swells from the
south-east could be seen towering upwards as they neared the foaming
spot, gradually changing their broad-backed form, and coming on in
majestic walls of green water, which fell with indescribable grandeur
into the seething caldron. No rocks were visible, there was no apparent
cause for this wild