“No fear, sir, about my being punctual,” answered Roger, and his heart bounded as he thought that in a few hours more he should be on board the stout ship which rode at anchor out in the bay. He and Stephen stood on the beach watching the boat till she was lost to sight in the fast increasing gloom. Already, as they stood there, they observed that although the calm was as perfect as before, the water had begun to break with considerably more force than it had done since the morning. Smooth undulations came rolling in and burst with a dull splash on the sand, then rushed up in a sheet of snowy foam, which had scarcely disappeared before another took its place.
“I cannot quite make it out,” observed Stephen. “It seems to me that the sky is unusually dark away to the south and south-west; to say the truth, it looks to me as if there was a bank of dark clouds out there.”
“I do not see any bank. It is simply the coming gloom of evening which darkens the sky in that direction,” answered Roger. “I think you are mistaken; however, it is time that we should get back, as I have many things to do, and I don’t like to desert my poor father, as it will be the last evening I shall spend with him for many a day.”
Stephen acknowledging this, they hastened back to the manor-house.
Chapter Two.
Madam Pauline, aided by Alice and several active-fingered maidens, laboured without cessation for several hours till they had prepared Roger’s kit as far as circumstances would allow. The Colonel had retired to his chamber, and Mr Willoughby had seen Master Handscombe to one which had been prepared for him. Roger and Stephen had fallen asleep in spite of their intention of sitting up all night to be ready for the morning, when suddenly a strong blast, which found its way through the window, blew out two of the lamps at which the maidens had been working. Madam Pauline ordered them to run and shut it. Scarcely had this been done, when another blast, sweeping round the house, shook it almost to its foundation, setting all the windows and doors rattling and creaking. Even Stephen and Roger were at length awakened. The wind howled and whistled and shrieked among the surrounding trees, the thunder roared, the lightning flashed, the rain came down in torrents.
“Which way does the wind blow, think you?” asked Roger in an anxious tone.
“From the south-west, I fear,” answered Stephen. “And if so, Captain Benbow will have reason to wish that he had got a good offing from the shore before it came on.”