The Love That Prevailed

by Frank Frankfort Moore

CHAPTER XXIII

The first faint breath of the dawn—that sigh of light of which the air was scarcely conscious—made him aware as he walked along the sands of the fact that the beach was strewn with wreckage. He found himself examining a broken spar upon which he had struck his foot. Further on he stumbled over a hen-coop, and then again a fragment that looked like the cover of a hatchway.

He had heard nothing about a vessel's having come ashore during the tempest of the morning; but there was nothing remarkable in the sudden appearing of wreckage on this wild Cornish coast. Almost every tide washed up something that had once been part of a gallant ship. Wreckage came without anyone hearing of the wreck from which it had come. He examined the broken spar, and his fancy showed him the scene at the foundering of such a ship as the Gloriana, whose carcase had been so marvellously uncovered on the Sunday evening. He had had enough experience of seafaring to be able to picture the details of the wreckage of such a ship.

He left the beach and went on to the ascent of the higher part of the shore, thinking that it might be that when the dawn strengthened it might reveal the shape of some craft that had run ashore on the outer reef at this dangerous part of the coast; and even before he reached the elevated ground the dawn light had spread its faint gauze over the sea, and the shapes of the rocks were plain. He looked out carefully, scanning the whole coast, but he failed to see any wreck between the horns of the bay.

But when he had continued his slow walk for a few hundred yards he fancied that he saw some objects that looked dark against the pale sands. At first he thought that he was looking at a rock that had some resemblance to the form of a man; but a movement of a portion of the object showed that it was indeed a man who was standing there.

Wesley had no mind for a companion on this stroll of his, so he went a short way inland in order to save himself from being seen, and he did not return to the sandy edge of the high ground until he judged that he had gone beyond the spot where he had seen the man. Turning about, he found that he had done what he intended: he saw the dark figure walking from where he had been, in the direction of the sea.

But by this time the light had so increased that he was able to see that the man was walking away from the body of another that was lying on the beach.

He had scarcely noticed this before the man stopped, looked back, and slowly returned to the body. But the moment he reached it Wesley was amazed to see him throw up his arms as if in surprise and then fling himself down on the body with his hands upon its throat.

Wesley knew nothing except that the man's attitude was that of one who was trying to strangle another. But this was surely enough. He shouted out and rushed toward the place with a menace.