they persuaded Helmsley
to accompany them on some of their shorter rambles,--but he was not
strong enough to walk far, and he often left them half-way up the
"coombe," returning to the cottage alone. Mary had frequently expressed
a great wish to take him to a favourite haunt of hers, which she called
the "Giant's Castle"--but he was unable to make the steep ascent--so on
one fine afternoon she took Angus there instead. "The Giant's Castle"
had no recognised name among the Weircombe villagers save this one which
Mary had bestowed upon it, and which the children repeated after her so
often that it seemed highly probable that the title would stick to it
for ever. "Up Giant's Castle way" was quite a familiar direction to any
one ascending the "coombe," or following the precipitous and narrow path
which wound along the edge of the cliffs to certain pastures where
shepherds as well as sheep were in daily danger of landslips, and which
to the ordinary pedestrian were signalled by a warning board as
"Dangerous." But "Giant's Castle" itself was merely the larger and
loftier of the two towering rocks which guarded the sea-front of
Weircombe village. A tortuous grassy path led up to its very pinnacle,
and from here, there was an unbroken descent as straight and smooth as a
well-built wall, of several hundred feet sheer down into the sea, which
at this point swirled round the rocky base in dark, deep, blackish-green
eddies, sprinkled with trailing sprays of brown and crimson weed. It was
a wonderful sight to look down upon this heaving mass of water, if it
could be done without the head swimming and the eyes growing blind with
the light of the sky striking sharp against the restless heaving of the
waves, and Mary was one of the few who could stand fearlessly on almost
the very brink of the parapet of the "Giant's Castle," and watch the
sweep of the gulls as they flew under and above her, uttering their
brief plaintive cries of gladness or anger as the wild wind bore them to
and fro. When Reay first saw her run eagerly to the very edge, and stand
there, a light, bold, beautiful figure, with the wind fluttering her
garments and blowing loose a long rippling tress of her amber-brown
hair, he could not refrain from an involuntary cry of terror, and an
equally involuntary rush to her side with his arms outstretched. But as
she turned her sweet face and grave blue eyes upon him there was
something in the gentle dignity and purity of her l