“He must be dashed to pieces!” Bertie Richmond gasped to himself, with a shudder.

The rope ceased to run.  Fisher had counted four hundred and fifty.  He counted on resolutely to five hundred, then turned and raised his hand to the men who held the coil.  They hauled at the rope.  It was limp.  Hand over hand they dragged it in through the foam.  Fisher peered downwards.  It came so rapidly that he thought it must have parted among the rocks.  Then he saw a dark object bobbing strangely among the waves.  He went down the steps, that quivered and trembled like cardboard under his feet.

Clinging to the iron rail, he reached out a hand and guided the rope to him.  A great sea broke over him and nearly swept him off.  He saved himself by hanging with both hands on to the rope.  Thus he was dragged up the steps to safety, and behind him, buffeted, bleeding, helpless, came two limp bodies lashed fast together.

They cut the two asunder by the light of the lanterns, and one of them, Charlie, staggered to his feet.

“I’ve got to go back!” he gasped.  “You pulled too soon.  There are two others.”

He dashed the blood from his face, seized a pocket flask someone held out to him, and drained it at a long gulp.

“That’s better!” he said.  “That you, Fisher?  Good-bye, old chap!”

The first pale light of a rising moon burst suddenly through the cloud drift.

“I’ll go myself,” Fisher abruptly said.

Even in that roar of sound they heard the boyish laugh that rang out upon the words.

“No, no, no!” shouted Charlie.  “Bless you, dear fellow!  But this is my job—­alone.  You’ve got to stay behind—­you’re wanted.”

He stood a few seconds poising himself on the steps, drawing deep breaths in preparation for the coming struggle.  The moonlight smote upon him.  He lifted his face to it, and seemed to hesitate.  Then suddenly he turned to Fisher and laid impetuous hands upon his shoulders.

“Lookers-on see most of the game,” he said.  “And I’ve been one from the first, though I own I thought at one time I should like to take a hand.  Go on and prosper, old boy!  You’ve played a winning game all along, you know.  You’re a better chap than I am, and it’s you she really cares for—­always has been.  That’s how I came to know what I’d got to do.  I find it’s easy—­thank God!—­it’s very easy.”

And with that he plunged down again into the breakers.  The tide was on the turn.  The worst fury was over.  The awful darkness had lifted.

Those who mutely watched him fancied they heard him laugh as he met the crested waves.

X

Molly had spent a night of feverish restlessness.  It was with a feeling of relief that she answered a tap that came at her door in the early dusk of the January morning; but she gave a start of surprise when she saw Mrs. Langdale enter.