"Just the thing," he said, slipping the loop over the stake as he drove it into the crack in position. It caused him many a twinge of pain, and Marie's quick ears heard an occasional groan, and his face had become pale again. She called her father's attention to this.
"You cannot feel sure of being able to come down the rope with one hand," said Pierre, "though you have courage and determination. You have not strength enough. We cannot go to you to help you any more. It would only add to your danger. The rope is not long enough to lower you down. Rest awhile, and when you are fully prepared to try the rope, the tide will be in the cove and a fall will be less serious, if such an accident should occur."
And then, turning to Len, Pierre went on: "It is time you were looking after your boat."
"I see the water is already nearing the cove," said Winslow, now resting as easily as he could, and showing in his voice and face that his strength was much reduced.
As Len went away Pierre said to Marie, "I must leave you here for a short time. Will you be afraid to stay?"
"No, père, but do not be gone long."
Marie, with all her pity disclosed in her eyes, was alone with Winslow. Her shyness was forgotten in the fear that possessed her for his safety. She gazed at him steadily as he lay against the cliff with his eyes closed and the marks of his accident still upon him.
They remained in this situation for some time, Marie's alarm becoming greater with vague uncertainty and doubt as the minutes passed without any sign of her father's approach.
The tide had now come well into the cove and was rising rapidly, moving steadily towards her where she sat. She could now detect the sound of rolling pebbles on the edge of the tide. The cove was filled with a loud noise as of some new, invisible life stirring and hurrying about from one side to the other and whispering incoherently. A cool breeze had followed the tide and was blowing into the place in gusts, and as she watched Winslow she could see it move his hair, or lift the long tie that hung from his throat. He opened his eyes as the sound of Pierre's voice made Marie start to her feet. The noise of a cart bumping over the rocks filled the cove with loud echoes, and the voice that guided them recalled Winslow to affairs about him. Marie ran to her father as he appeared in sight and spoke to him, in her anxiety expressing herself in the Acadian tongue.
Pierre came up towards the head of the cove and spoke encouragingly to Winslow.