y half an hour
before. It was with almost incredulous horror that she saw that the
waves were already breaking at the foot of the cliffs she had skirted.

She turned with a sudden, awful fear at her heart to look towards the
farther point. It was a full mile away, and she saw instantly that she
could not possibly reach it in time. The waves were already foaming
white among the scattered boulders at its base.

Again a great wave broke behind her with a sound like the booming of a
gun; and she realised that she would be surrounded in less than thirty
seconds if she remained where she was. She slipped and slid down the
side of the rock with the speed of terror, and plunged recklessly into a
foot of water at the bottom. Before another wave broke she was dashing
and stumbling among the rocks like a frenzied creature seeking safety
from the remorseless, devouring monster that roared behind her.

The next five minutes of her life held for her an agony more terrible
than anything she had ever known. Sea, sky, wind, and sudden pelting
rain seemed leagued against her in a monstrous array against which she
battled vainly with her puny woman's strength. The horror of it was like
a leaden, paralysing weight. She fought and struggled because instinct
compelled her; but at her heart was the awful knowledge that the sea had
claimed her and she could not possibly escape.

She made for the farther point of the bay, though she knew she could not
reach it in time. The loose shingle crumbled about her feet; the seaweed
trapped her everywhere. She fell a dozen times in that awful race, and
each time she rose in agony and tore on. The tumult all about her was
like the laughter of fiends. She felt as if hell had opened its mouth,
and she, poor soul, was its easy prey.

There came a moment at last when she tripped and fell headlong, and
could not rise again. That moment was the culmination of her anguish.
Neither soul nor body could endure more. Darkness--a howling, unholy
darkness--came down upon her in a thick cloud from which there was no
escape. She made a futile, convulsive effort to pray, and lost
consciousness in the act.

* * * * *

Out of the darkness at length she came.

The tumult was still audible, but it was farther away, less
overwhelming. She opened her eyes in a strange, unnatural twilight, and
stared vaguely upwards.

At the same instant she became aware of some one at her side, bending