round Halket-head!--that person must have passed it;" thus
giving vent to the feeling of hope, though he had suppressed that of
apprehension.

"Thank God, indeed!" echoed his daughter, half audibly, half internally,
as expressing the gratitude which she strongly felt.

The figure which advanced to meet them made many signs, which the
haze of the atmosphere, now disturbed by wind and by a drizzling rain,
prevented them from seeing or comprehending distinctly.--Some time before
they met, Sir Arthur could recognise the old blue-gowned beggar, Edie
Ochiltree. It is said that even the brute creation lay aside their
animosities and antipathies when pressed by an instant and common
danger. The beach under Halket-head, rapidly diminishing in extent by
the encroachments of a spring-tide and a north-west wind, was in like
manner a neutral field, where even a justice of peace and a strolling
mendicant might meet upon terms of mutual forbearance.

"Turn back! turn back!" exclaimed the vagrant; "why did ye not turn when
I waved to you?"

"We thought," replied Sir Arthur, in great agitation, "we thought we
could get round Halket-head."

"Halket-head!--the tide will be running on Halket-head by this time like
the Fall of Fyers!--it was a' I could do to get round it twenty minutes
since--it was coming in three feet abreast. We will maybe get back by
Bally-burgh Ness Point yet. The Lord help us!--it's our only chance. We
can but try."

"My God, my child!"--"My father! my dear father!" exclaimed the parent
and daughter, as, fear lending them strength and speed, they turned to
retrace their steps, and endeavoured to double the point, the projection
of which formed the southern extremity of the bay.

"I heard ye were here frae the bit callant ye sent to meet your
carriage," said the beggar, as he trudged stoutly on a step or two
behind Miss Wardour; "and I couldna bide to think o' the dainty young
leddy's peril, that has aye been kind to ilka forlorn heart that cam
near her. Sae I lookit at the lift and the rin o' the tide, till I
settled it that if I could get down time eneugh to gie you warning, we
wad do weel yet. But I doubt, I doubt, I have been beguiled! for what
mortal ee ever saw sic a race as the tide is risening e'en now? See,
yonder's the Ratton's Skerry--he aye held his neb abune the water in my
day--but he's aneath it now."

Sir Arthur cast a look in the direction in which the old man pointed. A
huge rock, which in g