“Your mother is well and sleeping, but do not make a noise, lads, when you go in,” exclaimed Dame Lanreath, who had followed Nelly to the door. “Why are you in such a hurry?”
“We needs be to get out of the storm, dame,” answered one of the boys. “Father told us to make haste home; but he has gone off in the ‘Rescue’ with Uncle Reuben Lanaherne to look after the ‘Sea-Gull,’ which they say has lost her mast, and was seen driving on the Gull Rock; there is little hope of any of the poor lads escaping aboard her.”
“What is that you say,” shrieked poor Nelly; “the ‘Sea-Gull’ driving on shore?”
“I forgot, Mistress Nelly, that Michael Penguyne was aboard her,” answered the thoughtless boy. “I would not have said it to frighten you so, but it may be father and the others will find them if they are not all drowned before they get there.”
“O granny, I was afraid something dreadful was happening,” exclaimed Nelly, gasping for breath. “I must go down to the harbour’s mouth. I do not mind the wind and rain; don’t stop me, granny,” for Dame Lanreath had taken Nelly’s arm, thinking she was about to fall, she trembled so violently. “Let me go, granny, that I may hold him in my arms, and warm him, and breathe into his mouth when he is brought on shore. Oh, I shall die if I stay at home, and he out struggling maybe for life in the cold foaming seas.”
“But the lads may be mistaken, dear Nelly,” urged Dame Lanreath; “it may not be the ‘Sea-Gull’ that has met with the damage, and if she has Michael and the rest, who are stout lads and know how to handle her, they may manage to keep her off the rocks, and get in safe notwithstanding.”
Nelly, however, was not to be reasoned with. She knew the way to the harbour’s mouth in the darkest night as well as by daylight; the rain and wind were nothing to her, and if Michael had got safe on shore her anxiety would the sooner be set at rest, and she should be ready to welcome him.
The dame, finding that she could not persuade Nelly to remain at home, insisted on accompanying her, for though she had tried to make her believe that Michael would return in safety, she herself could not help entertaining the fear that he had shared the fate of the many she had known in her
time who had lost their lives on the treacherous ocean.