Page:Silver Shoal Light.djvu/115

Rh below high-water mark. Even as he sawed and chafed at the fraying rope, a wave licked about his leg, cold as ice. The next, he knew, would cover him; the next— The water dashed over him, drenching him with a rush of spray. He struggled up, half smothered. Desperately he attacked his bonds again. The cord parted! In a flash he had drawn his knife and cut his ankles free. He leaped up as the next wave surged around him and, turning, raced up the beach.

"Though he was wet to the skin and shivering with cold, it was impossible to go back to Radulgo, and there was nothing for it but to strike across country. But what with climbing up and up from the shore and stumbling through the gorse in the early light, he lost his direction and found himself at last upon the far side of Rangor Head. The great rock dropped sheer away at his feet, with gulls screaming halfway down its towering height; and below lay a little crescent of white sand. Great needle-like rocks sprang from the sea before it, and the crag rose straight behind, so that Roger thought no human foot could ever have trod the place. Yet, as he lay in the heather, gazing down at the smother of foam far below, he saw the figure