eads when he
questioned them. It was plain that they had given up hope.

Seton raged up and down the quay in impotent agony of mind. The
off-shore wind continued for some hours. There was not the smallest doubt
that the boat had been driven out to sea, unless--a still more awful
possibility--she had been swamped and sunk long ago. As darkness fell,
the gale at length abated, and Quiller the younger approached Seton.

"Tell you what, sir," he said. "There's a cruiser been up and down a
matter of ten miles out. Me and my mates will put out at daybreak and see
if we can get within hail of her. There's the light-ship, too, off
Morden's Shoal. 'Tain't likely as a boat could have slipped between 'em
without being seen. For if she was just drifting, you know, sir, she
wouldn't go very fast."

"All right," said Seton. "And thanks! I'll go with you in the morning."

Quiller lingered, though there was dismissal in the tone.

"Go in and get a rest, sir!" he said persuasively. "There ain't no good
in your wearing yourself out here. You can't do nothing, sir, except pray
for a calm sea. Given that, we'll start with the light."

"Very well," said Seton, and turned away. He knew that the man spoke
sense and he put pressure on himself to behave rationally. Nevertheless,
he spent the greater part of the night in a fever of restlessness which
no strength of will could subdue; and he was down on the quay long before
the first faint gleam of light shot glimmering over the quiet water.

* * * * *

It was during those first wonderful moments of a new day that Mab woke up
with a start shivering, and stretched out her arms with a cry of wonder.

Hours before, Merefleet had persuaded her to try to rest, and she had
fallen asleep with her head against his knee, soothed by the calm that at
length succeeded the storm. He had watched over her with grim endurance
throughout the night, and not once had he seen a light or any other
object to raise his hopes.

They were out of sight of land; alone on the dumb waste. He had not the
smallest notion as to how far out to sea the boat had drifted. Only he
fancied that they had been driven out of the immediate track of steamers,
and in the great emptiness around him he saw no means of escape from the
fate that seemed to dog them.

The boat had lived miraculously, it seemed to him, through the awful
storm of the day. Tossed ruthlessly and aimlessly to and fro, drenche