some one. And the boat rode for a
brief minute head to wind before she turned southward. There were only
three on the thwarts--Loo Barebone and two others.

The group now broke up and straggled up toward the fire. One man
was being supported, and could scarcely walk. It was Captain Clubbe,
hatless, his grey hair plastered across his head by salt water.

He did not heed any one, but sat down heavily on the shingle and felt
his leg with one hand, the other arm hung limply.

"Leave me here," he said, gruffly, to two or three who were spreading
out a horse-cloth and preparing to carry him. "Here I stay till all are
ashore."

Behind him were several new-comers, one of them a little man talking
excitedly to his companion.

"But it is a folly," he was saying in French, "to go back in such a sea
as that."

It was the Marquis de Gemosac, and no one was taking any notice of
him. Dormer Colville, stumbling over the shingle beside him, recognised
Miriam in the firelight and turned again to look at her companion as if
scarcely believing the evidence of his own eyes.

"Is that you, Turner?" he said. "We are all here,--the Marquis,
Barebone, and I. Clubbe took us on board one dark night in the Gironde
and brought us home."

"Are you hurt?" asked Turner, curtly.

"Oh, no. But Clubbe's collar-bone is broken and his leg is crushed. We
had to leave four on board; not room for them in the boat. That fool
Barebone has gone back for them. He promised them he would. The sea out
there is awful!"

He knelt down and held his shaking hands to the flames. Some one handed
him a bottle, but he turned first and gave it the Marquis de Gemosac,
who was shaking all over like one far gone in a palsy.

Sea Andrew and the coast-guard captain were persuading Captain Clubbe to
quit the beach, but he only answered them roughly in monosyllables.

"My place is here till all are safe," he said. "Let me lie."

And with a groan of pain he lay back on the beach. Miriam folded a
blanket and placed it under his head. He looked round, recognised her
and nodded.

"No place for you, miss," he said, and closed his eyes. After a moment
he raised himself on his elbow and looked into the faces peering down at
him.

"Loo will beach her anywhere he can. Keep a bright lookout for him," he
said. Then he was silent, and all turned their faces toward the sea.

Another snow-squall swept in with a rush from the eastward, and half
of the fire was blown away--a