safe conjunction, so Mrs. Ashford put the matter off for the
present by the unseasonableness of the weather; and Mr. Ashford asked
one or two of the fishermen how far they thought landing on the Shag a
prudent attempt.

They did not profess to have often tried, they always avoided those
rocks; but it could hardly be very dangerous, they said, for when Sir
Guy was a boy, he used to be about there for ever, at first with an
old boatman, and afterwards alone in his little boat. They had often
wondered he was trusted there; but if any one knew the rocks, he did.

Still, Mrs. Ashford could not make up her mind to like the idea, and the
boys came to Sir Guy in a state of great discomposure.

'Never mind' he said, 'perhaps we shall manage it in the summer. We will
get your father to go out with us himself; and, in the meantime, who
likes to come with me after the rabbits in Cliffstone Copse? Farmer
Holt will thank Robin for killing a dozen or so, for he makes grievous
complaints of them.'

Guy conducted the boys out of sight of the sea, and, to console them,
gave them so much more use of the gun than usual, that it might be
considered as a wonder that he escaped being shot. Yet it did not
prevent a few sighs being spent on the boating.

'Can't you forget it?' said Guy, smiling. 'You have no loss, after all,
for we are likely to have no boating weather this long time. Hark! don't
you hear the ground-swell?'

'What's that?' said the boys, standing still to listen to the distant
surge, like a continuous low moan, or roar, far, far away, though there
was no wind, and the sea was calm.

'It is the sound that comes before stormy weather,' said Guy. 'It is as
if the sea was gathering up its forces for the tempest.'

'But what?--how? Tell me what it really is,' said Robin.

'I suppose it is the wind on the sea before it has reached us,' said
Guy. 'How solemn it is!'

Too solemn for the boys, who began all manner of antics and noises, by
way of silencing the impression of awfulness. Guy laughed, and joined in
their fun; but as soon as they were gone home, he stood in silence for
a long time, listening to the sound, and recalling the mysterious dreams
and fancies with which it was connected in his boyhood, and which he had
never wished thus to drive away.

The storm he had predicted came on; and by the evening of the following
day, sea and wind were thundering, in their might, against the foot of
the crags. Guy looked from