"Are you sufficiently rested, Mr. Winslow?" asked Miss Gaston, smiling.
"Quite so, thank you," replied Winslow, at once making his way up the mountain through the thick growth of trees and underbrush. From this point they were able to make their way with comparative ease and comfort to the top of the bluff and along the summit.
"At last, at last!" cried Miss Forest, as they clambered up the last part of the steep bluff, and found themselves on the level ground, over which they could now proceed to their destination. They did not pause to enjoy the magnificent view presented from the top of Cape Blomidon, but hurried downward, the delight of their escape lending renewed strength to their limbs. The roar of the sea came to their ears from the shore hundreds of feet below them, and the sun was now about to dip into the crimson and gold lights of the west.
Miss Forest had recovered her natural vivacity of manner and speech.
"Our meeting was a fortunate one for us, Mr. Winslow. But for you we would still be prisoners in that dreadful place, and perhaps would not have been able to get away from it till after dark. You certainly saved my peace of mind, and my mother will thank you for thus restoring her daughter to her arms."
"I shall be glad to tell her what a good mountain climber her daughter is," smiled Winslow. "You both did well, and gave a good exhibition of American pluck. If I mistake not, you are Americans? Almost all the tourists who come here are Americans."
"Yes, we are New Yorkers," she replied.
"My home also for several years," said Winslow. "My summers are usually spent away."
"It may seem strange to you that we should have been caught in such a trap, but we had been told to return in an hour, and we did not think it possible that the tide could rise so rapidly as it did. We are collecting mineral specimens,—not as some of you gentlemen fish, you know, with silver hooks, but we find our own specimens, and in our enthusiasm among the agates and amethysts we did not note how far we were away from the point until too late."
"And our lovely specimens!" cried Miss Gaston. "We have left them on the beach; I did not bring a crystal of any kind."