the window, the last thing at night, and
saw the stars twinkling overhead, with that extreme brilliancy which
is often seen in the intervals of fitful storms, and which suggested
thoughts that sent him to sleep in a vague, soothing dream.

He was wakened by one tremendous continued roar of sea, wind, and
thunder combined. Such was the darkness, that he could not see the form
of the window, till a sheet of pale blue lightning brought it fully out
for the moment. He sat up, and listened to the 'glorious voice' that
followed it, thought what an awful night at sea, and remembered when he
used to fancy it would be the height of felicity to have a shipwreck at
Redclyffe, and shocked Mrs. Bernard by inhuman wishes that a ship would
only come and be wrecked. How often had he watched, through sounds like
these, for a minute gun! Nay, he had once actually called up poor Arnaud
in the middle of the night for an imaginary signal. Redclyffe Bay was
a very dangerous one; a fine place for a wreck, with its precipitous
crags, its single safe landing-place, and the great Shag Stone, on the
eastern side, with a whole progeny of nearly sunken rocks, dreaded
in rough weather by the fishermen themselves; but it was out of the
ordinary track of vessels, and there were only a few traditions of
terrible wrecks long before his time.

It seemed as if he had worked up his fancy again, for the sound of a gun
was for a moment in his ear. It was lost in the rush of hail against the
window, and the moaning of the wind round the old house; but presently
it returned too surely to be imaginary. He sprang to the window, and the
broad, flickering glare of lightning revealed the black cliff and pale
sea-line; then all was dark and still, while the storm was holding
its breath for the thunder-burst which in a few more seconds rolled
overhead, shaking door and window throughout the house. As the awful
sound died away, in a moment's lull, came the gun again. He threw up the
window, and as the blast of wind and rain swept howling into the room,
it brought another report.

To close the window, light his candle, throw on his clothes, and hasten
down-stairs, was the work of a very few seconds. Luckily, the key of
the boat-house was lying on the table in the hall, where he had left it,
after showing the boat to the Ashford boys; he seized it, caught up the
pocket telescope, put on a rough coat, and proceeded to undo the endless
fastenings of the hall-door, a ver