As soon, therefore, as he heard the door close, he jumped out of bed,
and when, peeping through the blinds, he saw the carriage drive off
with its four occupants, he at once began to dress. He felt bruised and
sore from the blows he had received, and a red wheal round his chest,
beneath the arms, showed where the rope had almost cut into the flesh.
However, he soon dressed himself, and descended the stairs, went into
the kitchen, and told the astonished girl that he was going out; then,
having made a hasty meal of bread and cold meat, he put on his oilskins
again, and started for the shore.
He did not, however, wait long. So heavy was the sea, now, that nothing
whatever could be done should any vessel drive ashore, and, as for the
fisher boats, the sailors shook their heads as they spoke of them.
"They were farther away to the west, so the chaps as got ashore tells
us. They may have got in, somewhere, before it got to the worst. If
not, it must have gone hard with them."
Finding that there was nothing to be done, and that he was much more
stiff and bruised than he had believed, Jim made his way back again,
and turned into bed; where he soon fell asleep, and did not wake until
the following morning.
One of the grooms had come down from the Hall, at six o'clock, to
inquire how he was, and the message given by the girl, that he had been
out, but that he had come back and was now sound asleep, satisfied Mrs.
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