shingle round the bluff which shut
in one side of the little bay on which he stood, and along the narrow
line of beach, to Saint Winifred's head. This was possible sometimes,
and he fancied that the tide was sufficiently far out to enable him to
do it now. At any rate herein lay, so far as he saw, his only chance of
safety.

Down the cliff then he climbed once more, and though it was some ninety
feet high he found no difficulty in doing this, with care, till he came
to a place where its surface was precipitous for a height of some ten
feet, worn smooth by the beating of the waves. Holding with his hands
to the edge, he let himself fall down this height, and found himself
standing, a little shaken though unhurt, in a small pebbly bay or
indentation of the shore formed by a curve in the line of cliffs, with a
series of headlands and precipices trending away on one side far to his
right, and with the Ness of Saint Winifred's reaching out to his left.
Once round that headland he would be safe, and indeed if he once got
beyond the little pebbly inlet where he stood, he hoped to find some
place where he might scale the rocks, and so cross the promontory and
get home.

There was no time to be lost, and he ran with all his speed over the
loose stones towards the bluff, letting the unlucky straw hat drop on
the shore, as it had no string, and it impeded him to be obliged to hold
it on with one hand. Reaching the end of the shingle, he stumbled with
difficulty over some scattered rocks slimy with ooze and seagrass,
hoping with intense hope that when he rounded the projection of cliff,
he would see a line of beach, narrow indeed, but still wide enough to
allow of his running along it before the tide had come in, and reaching
some part of Saint Winifred's Head which he might be able to scale by
means of a sheep-path, or with the help of hands and knees. Very
quickly he reached the corner, and hardly dared to look; but when he
_did_ look, a glance showed him that but slender hope was left. At one
spot the tide had already reached the foot of the cliffs; but if he
could get to that spot while the water was yet sufficiently shallow to
allow him to run through it, he trusted that he might yet be saved. The
place was far-off, but he ran and ran; and ever as he ran the place
seemed to get farther and farther, and his knees failed him for fatigue,
as he sank at every step in the noisy and yielding mixture of sand and
pebbles.