of a dog!

He thrust his hand to his breast for the remaining pistol, and uttered a
cry of alarm. He had dropped it. He felt round about him in the darkness
for some stick or stone that might serve as a weapon. In vain. His
fingers clutched nothing but prickly scrub and coarse grass. The sweat
ran down his face. With staring eyeballs, and bristling hair, he stared
into the darkness, as if he would dissipate it by the very intensity of
his gaze. The noise was repeated, and, piercing through the roar of wind
and water, above and below him, seemed to be close at hand. He heard a
man's voice cheering the dog in accents that the gale blew away from
him before he could recognize them. It was probable that some of the
soldiers had been sent to the assistance of McNab. Capture, then,
was certain. In his agony, the wretched man almost promised himself
repentance, should he escape this peril. The dog, crashing through the
underwood, gave one short, sharp howl, and then ran mute.

The darkness had increased the gale. The wind, ravaging the hollow
heaven, had spread between the lightnings and the sea an impenetrable
curtain of black cloud. It seemed possible to seize upon this curtain
and draw its edge yet closer, so dense was it. The white and raging
waters were blotted out, and even the lightning seemed unable to
penetrate that intense blackness. A large, warm drop of rain fell upon
Rex's outstretched hand, and far overhead rumbled a wrathful peal of
thunder. The shrieking which he had heard a few moments ago had ceased,
but every now and then dull but immense shocks, as of some mighty bird
flapping the cliff with monstrous wings, reverberated around him, and
shook the ground where he stood. He looked towards the ocean, and a
tall misty Form--white against the all-pervading blackness--beckoned
and bowed to him. He saw it distinctly for an instant, and then, with
an awful shriek, as of wrathful despair, it sank and vanished. Maddened
with a terror he could not define, the hunted man turned to meet the
material peril that was so close at hand.

With a ferocious gasp, the dog flung himself upon him. John Rex was
borne backwards, but, in his desperation, he clutched the beast by the
throat and belly, and, exerting all his strength, flung him off. The
brute uttered one howl, and seemed to lie where he had fallen; while
above his carcase again hovered that white and vaporous column. It was
strange that McNab and the soldier did not f