ver it, and sent down showers of
water on the men below.

Little cared Forsyth for that. He lay almost stunned on his couch,
quite regardless of the storm. To his surprise, however, the toothache
did not return. Nay, to make a long story short, it never again
returned to that tooth till the end of his days!

The storm now blew its fiercest, and the men sat in silence in the
kitchen listening to the turmoil, and to the thundering blows given by
the sea to their wooden house. Suddenly the beacon received a shock so
awful, and so thoroughly different from any that it had previously
received, that the men sprang to their feet in consternation.

Ruby and the smith were looking out at the doorway at the time, and both
instinctively grasped the woodwork near them, expecting every instant
that the whole structure would be carried away; but it stood fast. They
speculated a good deal on the force of the blow they had received, but
no one hit on the true cause; and it was not until some days later that
they discovered that a huge rock of fully a ton weight had been washed
against the beams that night.

While they were gazing at the wild storm, a wave broke up the
mortar-gallery altogether, and sent its remaining contents into the sea.
All disappeared in a moment; nothing was left save the powerful beams
to which the platform had been nailed.

There was a small boat attached to the beacon. It hung from two davits,
on a level with the kitchen, about thirty feet above the rock. This had
got filled by the sprays, and the weight of water proving too much for
the tackling, it gave way at the bow shortly after the destruction of
the mortar-gallery, and the boat hung suspended by the stern-tackle.
Here it swung for a few minutes, and then was carried away by a sea.
The same sea sent an eddy of foam round towards the door and drenched
the kitchen, so that the door had to be shut, and as the fire had gone
out, the men had to sit and await their fate by the light of a little
oil-lamp.

They sat in silence, for the noise was now so great that it was
difficult to hear voices, unless when they were raised to a high pitch.

Thus passed that terrible night; and the looks of the men, the solemn
glances, the closed eyes, the silently moving lips, showed that their
thoughts were busy reviewing bygone days and deeds; perchance in making
good resolutions for the future--"if spared!"

Morning brought a change. The rush of the sea was i