92 HIS HEART FELL 



his wa}', heading for an outlying turf-stack which 

 stood between him and the pool. In the teeth 

 of the hurricane he made slow progress, but 

 he reached it at length, and glad of the shelter 

 it afforded he sat down on the lee side, facing 

 the ground he had just trav^ersed. Soon 

 he saw the lurcher coming, and watched her 

 anxiously as she stood on the brow of the rising 

 ground scanning the moor. The moment she 

 set foot on the marshy ground, where she was 

 lost to view, he quitted his shelter and made for 

 the pool. Many a time he had covered the 

 intervening ground in a minute or tw^o ; but 

 the wind seemed bent on arresting his pro- 

 gress ; in his exhausted state all he could do 

 battling against it was to make headway. At 

 length he gained the pool, and there his heart 

 fell, for betw^een him and his goal, the islet, lay 

 a stretch of raging water. He had not reckoned 

 on that. 



He was a miserable creature as he sat on the 

 shore, looking now towards the islet, now back 

 over the moor. He could see no hope ; death 

 stared him in the face in both directions ; yet 

 the instant he saw the lurcher coming he de- 

 cided to entrust himself to the pool. Strangely 

 enough, he did not wade in, but galloped a 

 score yards along the strand and then cast 



