he nails
driven into the two Douvres, he fortified from within with this chain
the rampart of planks and beams, already protected from without by the
cross chain. Far from opening the entrance to the defile, he made the
barrier more complete.

The phosphorescence lighted him still, but it was diminishing. The day,
however, was beginning to break.

Suddenly he paused to listen.

XI

A WORD TO THE WISE IS ENOUGH

A feeble, indistinct sound seemed to reach his ear from somewhere in the
far distance.

At certain hours the great deeps give forth a murmuring noise.

He listened a second time. The distant noise recommenced. Gilliatt shook
his head like one who recognises at last something familiar to him.

A few minutes later he was at the other extremity of the alley between
the rocks, at the entrance facing the east, which had remained open
until then, and by heavy blows of his hammer was driving large nails
into the sides of the gullet near "The Man Rock," as he had done at the
gullet of the Douvres.

The crevices of these rocks were prepared and well furnished with
timber, almost all of which was heart of oak. The rock on this side
being much broken up, there were abundant cracks, and he was able to fix
even more nails there than in the base of the two Douvres.

Suddenly, and as if some great breath had passed over it, the luminous
appearance on the waters vanished. The twilight becoming paler every
moment, assumed its functions.

The nails being driven, Gilliatt dragged beams and cords, and then
chains to the spot; and without taking his eyes off his work, or
permitting his mind to be diverted for a moment, he began to construct
across the gorge of "The Man" with beams fixed horizontally, and made
fast by cables, one of those open barriers which science has now adopted
under the name of breakwaters.

Those who have witnessed, for example, at La Rocquaine in Guernsey, or
at Bourg-d'Eau in France, the effect produced by a few posts fixed in
the rock, will understand the power of these simple preparations. This
sort of breakwater is a combination of what is called in France _epi_
with what is known in England as "a dam." The breakwater is the
chevaux-de-frise of fortifications against tempests. Man can only
struggle against the sea by taking advantage of this principle of
dividing its forces.

Meanwhile, the sun had risen, and was shining brightly. The sky was
clear, the sea calm.

Gilliatt presse