"No, sir; a mackintosh would not be any use out there against what's coming. This will be a whole gale, or I'm a Dutchman. It's been brewing a long time, and we're going to have it now, and no mistake. I'll get you a set of oilskins, and maybe if you went up to the hotel and put your flask in your pocket, it wouldn't be out of the way by-and-by. I'll bring the oilskins up to the hotel."
"All right," said O'Brien; and he set off.
In less than half-an-hour he found himself in a clumsy, ill-fitting set of oilskins a size too big. Jim had brought a sou'-wester also. He himself wore his own oilskins and his sou'-wester, and, so equipped, the two set out for the Black Rock.
As they reached the high ground of the downs, another gust of wind, stronger and of longer duration than the former one, struck them. Jim tied the strings of his sou'-wester under his chin, and O'Brien followed his example.
"It will be a sneezer," said the boatman, shaking himself loose in his over-alls, as if getting ready for action.
The sea was still unruffled. The two puffs of wind which had come as the advance guard of the storm had passed lightly and daintily over the sleeping ocean. The long clean-backed rollers swept slowly shoreward, staggering a little here and there when they passed over some sunken rock. Down in the south-west the sky was leaden-coloured, with long fangs of cloud stretching towards the land and gradually stealing upward and onward. An unnatural stillness filled the air. No wild bird of any kind was to be seen. The gulls had long ago sailed far inland. There were few sea birds here but gulls.
"We'll be there before the first puff," said Phelan, buttoning the lowest button of his coat. "She hasn't spouted now since a little after Christmas. In that southerly gale we had then she spouted fine."
"Did it come over the cliffs?"
"No, sir--not quite up to the cliffs. 'Twas a southerly gale, you know; and it takes a south-westerly gale to send it over the cliffs. Ah, that was a stiffer squall than the last! It's coming on. Heaven help the ship that makes this a lee shore for the next twenty-four hours!"
The prediction was verified, for a fierce gust had caught O'Brien in front and threatened to tear the strings out of his sou'-wester.