Throughout the remainder of the night the wind moaned incessantly round the top of the cliff. A score of times the men searched all over the shore, fearing always that the incoming tide might lay a little corpse upon the sand.
But there was nothing, nothing! Could the child have been carried out to sea by the waves?
About four o’clock when the ebb tide was just setting in after the slack, light appeared in the east.
At this moment Fritz, who was leaning against the back of the cave, thought he heard a kind of cry behind the wall. He listened, and fearing that he might be mistaken, went up to the captain.
“Come with me!” he said.
Without knowing, without even asking what Fritz wanted, Captain Gould went with him.
“Listen!” said Fritz.
Captain Gould listened intently.
“I can hear a bird’s cry,” he said.
“Yes, a bird’s cry!” Fritz declared.