200 
THE SHELDRAKE. 
his body might he found by those friends who 
might venture out to search for him. Well ac- 
quainted with the usual rise of the tide, he had 
every reason to suppose that it would not reach 
above his middle, and that if he could endure the 
cold of six hours’ immersion, he might be saved. 
Unfortunately, however, he had not taken into 
account the state of the wind, or some other 
causes, which had not only brought the waters up 
more rapidly than usual, but would also add to 
their height. Accordingly, having first felt the 
chill and deadly sensation of ripple after ripple, 
now covering his feet, then bathing him knee deep, 
and then advancing beyond his waist, he was horror- 
struck at finding, that instead of receding, it still 
crept upwards, and had reached his shoulders ; the 
spray burst over his head : upon another minute’s 
rise or fall of tide, his life depended ; but still, 
though he gave himself up for lost, he firmly 
grasped his gun-barrel. The main land was too far 
distant to admit of his shouts being heard, and it 
was equally vain to hope, that any looker-out could 
descry such a speck upon the waves as the head of 
a human being. In this awful moment of sus- 
pense, on looking downwards, he thought he saw the 
uppermost button of his waistcoat beginning to 
appear. Intensely he watched it, but for some* time 
■without any well-founded assurance that he was 
right. At length, however, hope increased to cer- 
tainty, as he saw button after button rising slowly 
into view, an infallible sign that the height of the 
tide was over, and that it was now upon the ebb. 
Though chilled with cold, and almost fainting, this 
