the house, look up at it, but as though he did not
recognise that she was there, and then turn away towards the flagstaff
and the old town. It was odd and unlike him, and Sally was alarmed.
Besides, how white he looked!

Bear this in mind, that Sally knew absolutely nothing of the cataclysm
of revived memory in Jeremiah. Remember that the incident of the
galvanic battery at the pier-end is only four days old. Do not be
misled by the close details we have given of these four days.

Sally's alarm at the haggard look of her stepfather's face took away
her breath; at least, she did not find her voice soon enough for him
to hear her call out--she did not like to shout loud because of her
mother--as he turned away. Or it seemed so, for that was the only way
she could account for his walking away so abruptly. In her hurry to
get dressed and follow him, she caught up an undergarment that lay on
the floor, without seeing that her own foot was on the tape that was
to secure it, and a rip and partial disruption was the consequence.
Never mind, it would hold up till she came in. Or, if it didn't, where
was that safety-pin that was on her dressing-table yesterday? Not
there? Again, never mind! She would do, somehow. She hurried on her
clothes, and her hat and waterproof, and left the house, going quickly
on what she supposed to be the track of Jeremiah, who was, by now, no
longer visible.

But she caught sight of him returning, while she was still two or
three minutes' walk short of the flagstaff he was approaching from the
other side. He would stop to talk with the coastguard. He always did.
Surely he would, this time. But no--he didn't.

He may have spoken, but he did not stop. So Sally noted as she
hesitated an instant, seeing him turn off at an angle and go towards
the pier. There was a shorter cut to the pier, without going to the
flagstaff. Sally turned herself, and took it. She would catch him as
he came back from the pier-end, if he was going to walk along it.

She saw him as she descended the slope that, part pathway and part
steps, led down towards the sea. He walked straight towards the pier,
passing as he went a man and boy, who were carrying what she took,
at that distance, for well-made coils of rope; and then, arriving at
the pier-turnstile just as they did, pass them, and, leaving them
apparently in conversation with the gatekeeper, walk steadily on
towards the pier-end.

* * * *