e water would have stood about twelve or fourteen feet on the sides of
the tower, leaving a space of about the same height between its surface
and the spot at the top of the copper ladder where Ruby stood; but such
was the wild commotion of the sea that this space was at one moment
reduced to a few feet, as the waves sprang up towards the doorway, or
nearly doubled, as they sank hissing down to the very rock.

Acres of white, leaping, seething foam covered the spot where the
terrible Bell Rock lay. Never for a moment did that boiling cauldron
get time to show one spot of dark-coloured water. Billow after billow
came careering on from the open sea in quick succession, breaking with
indescribable force and fury just a few yards to windward of the
foundations of the lighthouse, where the outer ledges of the rock,
although at the time deep down in the water, were sufficiently near the
surface to break their first full force, and save the tower from
destruction, though not from many a tremendous blow and overwhelming
deluge of water.

When the waves hit the rock they were so near that the lighthouse
appeared to receive the shock. Rushing round it on either side, the
cleft billows met again to leeward, just opposite the door, where they
burst upwards in a magnificent cloud of spray to a height of full thirty
feet. At one time, while Ruby held on by the man-ropes at the door and
looked over the edge, he could see a dark abyss with the foam shimmering
pale far below; another instant, and the solid building perceptibly
trembled, as a green sea hit it fair on the weather-side. A continuous
roar and hiss followed as the billow swept round, filled up the dark
abyss, and sent the white water gleaming up almost into the doorway. At
the same moment the sprays flew by on either side of the column, so high
that a few drops were thrown on the lantern. To Ruby's eye these sprays
appeared to be clouds driving across the sky, so high were they above
his head. A feeling of awe crept over him as his mind gradually began
to realise the world of water which, as it were, overwhelmed him--water
and foam roaring and flying everywhere--the heavy seas thundering on the
column at his back--the sprays from behind arching almost over the
lighthouse, and meeting those that burst up in front, while an eddy of
wind sent a cloud swirling in at the doorway, and drenched him to the
skin! It was an exhibition of the might of God in the storm such as