12 Star anfr TOeatbet Gossip 



master and the Customs boatman to their cheerful 

 cabins. 



The veteran lighthouse-keeper sauntered out on to 

 his giddily perched balcony, night-glass in hand, cast 

 a look alow and aloft, and muttered, " We'll git some 

 dirt afore mornin', ah'm thinkin'." 



Without doubt, there was an instinctive unquiet 

 abroad on that bleak bit of sea-coast that night. 



Yet there were but hollow draughts of air and sigh- 

 ing sounds, and the cliffs but re-echoed the languid 

 splash of the muddy swell upon the black rocks. 



Orion the Peerless was almost midway to the 

 meridian, and the dazzling Dog Star hung over the 

 edge of the sea, when a bank of cloud drifted athwart 

 their radiance. The aerial forces of the storm were 

 gathering for the fight. 



List ! was that languid splash of the muddy swell 

 upon the black rocks deepening into a hollow boom ? 

 Did those sighing sounds of air bring a coldness to the 

 heart ? Or was it mere fancy, after all ? 



No, it was very real, for while the senses received 

 these impressions the whole eastern sky grew heavy 

 with scud and a blackness fell on the water. Then a 

 snappish blast, with a sputter of rain, darted across 

 the promontory. Down it rushed to the little harbour, 

 making plaintive music as it soughed among the 

 cluster of masts and sped onward to the grassy uplands 

 crowned by a white windmill into the starlit void 

 beyond. 



Yet another blast, chillier and more snappish, I 

 thought, than its predecessor. And yet another, and 

 another. The breath of the storm was being felt. 

 Already the water was agitated. 



