383 WILD sroRTS m the south. 



CHAPTER XXVn. 



SMOKIXG OUT THE ENEMY. 



" The creeping tide came up along the sand, 

 And o'er and o'er the sand, 

 And round and round the sand, 

 As far as eye could see ; 

 The blinding mist came do-vrn and hid the laud 

 And never home came she." 



KlNGSLEY. 



It was evening when Donald Laidlaw, Lou's uncle, 

 effected his escape into the light-house, and the next 

 morning found the two prisoners in the upper floor, 

 vainly seeking to spy out their foes, who had disappeared 

 like the uncouth shapes of a dream. The prisoners had 

 listened and waited all night long, but there was no 

 sound on the air but the low wash of the sea, and 

 nothing could be discerned from the apertures of the 

 tower save the sand and the trailing gleam of the lan- 

 tern on the ocean. 



Hour by hour glided by in perfect hush. The como- 

 rants flew past to their daily fishery, the gulls came in 

 from sea, and the shore birds ran in and out with the 

 ebbing tide as they were wont to do. Laidlaw emerged 

 out on the upper floor of the light-house, and turned out 

 tbe lamp, cautiously peering about him. He saw the 



