not as great as my own, for I had my own fears of
what had happened and they knew nothing."

"Yes, yes. You could have done no other," and she fell silent for a time,
refitting her thoughts of Helier, no doubt.

So far, the most striking things in our rock parlour had been the silence
and the darkness, but before long we had noise and to spare.

First, a low harsh growling from the tunnel by which we had entered, and
that was the returning tide churning among the shingle and boulders in the
rock channels outside. Then it grew into a roar which rose and fell as the
long western waves plunged into the Boutiques, and swelled and foamed along
its echoing sides, and then sank back with a long weltering sob, and rose
again higher than before, and knew no rest. We could hear it all so clearly
that none could doubt the existence of passages between the two caves.

We sat and listened to it, and ate at times, but could not talk much for
the uproar. But for me it was enough to sit with Carette inside my arm and
close against my heart, and there was something in that long swelling roar
and sighing sob which, after a while, set weights on the eyelids and the
senses and disposed one to sleep. For a time we counted the coming of the
larger wave, and then the countings grew confused and we fell asleep.

As a matter of fact we lost all count of time in that dark place. When we
woke we ate again by lantern light, and though either one of us alone must
have fallen into melancholy as black as the place, being together, and
having that within us which made for glad hearts, we were very well
content, though still hoping soon to be out again in the free air and
sunshine.

My arm gave me little pain. Aunt Jeanne's simples had taken the fire out of
the wound, and kept the muscles of an even temper. And whenever the
bandages got dry and stiff Carette soaked them in fresh water and tied me
up again, and seemed to like the doing of it.

Mindful of Uncle George's saying that the water-cave held light at times,
we visited it again, and yet again, until coming down the sloping path one
time, we saw the narrow roof above us and the rough walls on either side
tinged with a faint soft light, and hastening down like children into a
forbidden room, we found ourselves in a curious place.

The tide was very far out, and the black cave, in which we had hitherto
seen only sulky waves tumbling unhappily, had become a wonder equal to
those Krok used to