THE WARNING 135 



There was little wind on the cKffs, and the sea 

 was coming in unruffled, yet hugely stirring in 

 league-long lapses of swell. 



Boom ! 



The whole coast answered with a deep organ note 

 to the leisurely breaking of the billows. 



Boom! 



You could hear the voice of the Devil's Kitchen, 

 the voices of the Seven Sisters, the voice of the 

 long Black Strand, the voices of the headlands, as 

 billow after billow struck the coast; great waves 

 from the very heart of the ocean, and the snarl of 

 the pebbles to the undertow on the strand beneath 

 could be heard shrill, like the voice of each dying 

 wave, " I have come from afar — afar — afar." 



No other sound. 



Not a whisper from the land stretching away to 

 the distant hills under the dull grey sky; not a 

 whisper from the heaving sea stretching away to 

 the fleckless grey horizon. 



Boom! 



" I have come from afar — afar — afar." Nothing 

 more except the cry of a gull. The girl stood on 

 the cliS edge, looking and hstening. The air was 

 sweet with the recent rain, invigorating as wine, 

 clear as crystal, filled with ozone from the seaweed- 

 strewn shore and the perfume of earth from the 

 rain-soaked land. 



She could see the Seven Sisters seated in their 

 rings of foam; miles of coast lay on either hand, 

 cliff, and headland, and bay singing together, and 



