He was about climbing over the bulwarks, when, chancing to turn his head towards the schooner's bows, he fancied he saw the phantom face of the drowned passenger as it was hastily withdrawn!
"P'shaw, this is mere imagination," muttered the captain, as he sprung over the rail to the beach, where he found Mary anxiously waiting for him.
"Quick! make haste!" exclaimed the young girl.
It almost seemed to Brand, as he encountered the gaze of those wild eyes, that he beheld a second phantom, so alike were the eyes of father and daughter.
Throwing the coil over his shoulders, he hurried along to the cliff and commenced the ascent, followed by Mary, who, in her anxiety for her lover's safety, would almost have followed the man into the very flames.
In a short time they were at a point, whence the rope might be lowered to the two imperiled men upon the ledge.
Brand, therefore, uncoiling the line, lowered the end to them at a point where the flames could not come into contact with it, fastening the other part to a spur.
It was evident, however, that the two must make good speed, else the strands would become so weakened by the heat that there would be danger of their giving way.
The two men found the rope, where they lowered it over the edge of the rocky shelf, long enough to reach to the ground, about one hundred and fifty feet beneath them.
Then Turk commenced the descent, succeeding in reaching the ground safely.