uld turn in for a little. Two or three of the others also
rose, and were about to ascend to their barrack, when a heavy sea struck
the building, causing it to quiver to its foundation.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

THE STORM.

"'Tis a fearful night," said Logan, pausing with his foot on the first
step of the ladder. "Perhaps we had better sit up."

"What's the use?" said O'Connor, who was by nature reckless. "Av the
beacon howlds on, we may as well slape as not; an' if it don't howld on,
why, we'll be none the worse o' slapin' anyhow."

"_I_ mean to sit up," said Forsyth, whose alarm was aggravated by
another fit of violent toothache.

"So do I," exclaimed several of the men, as another wave dashed against
the beacon, and a quantity of spray came pouring down from the rooms
above.

This latter incident put an end to further conversation. While some
sprang up the ladder to see where the leak had occurred, Ruby opened the
door, which was on the lee-side of the building, and descended to the
mortar-gallery to look after his tools, which lay there.

Here he was exposed to the full violence of the gale, for, as we have
said, this first floor of the beacon was not protected by sides. There
was sufficient light to enable him to see all round for a considerable
distance. The sight was not calculated to comfort him.

The wind was whistling with what may be termed a vicious sound among the
beams, to one of which Ruby was obliged to cling to prevent his being
carried away. The sea was bursting, leaping, and curling wildly over
the rocks, which were now quite covered, and as he looked down through
the chinks in the boards of the floor, he could see the foam whirling
round the beams of his trembling abode, and leaping up as if to seize
him. As the tide rose higher and higher, the waves roared straight
through below the floor, their curling backs rising terribly near to
where he stood, and the sprays drenching him and the whole edifice
completely.

As he gazed into the dark distance, where the turmoil of waters seemed
to glimmer with ghostly light against a sky of the deepest black, he
missed the light of the _Smeaton_, which, up to that time, had been
moored as near to the lee of the rock as was consistent with safety. He
fancied she must have gone down, and it was not till next day that the
people on the beacon knew that she had parted her cables, and had been
obliged to make for the Firth of Forth for shelter fr