' But the
very confidence with which she spoke these simple words startled me
as from a dream. 'Suppose,' I thought, 'suppose my last drop of bliss
with Winnie were being tasted now!' In a moment I felt like a coward.
But then there came a loud crash and a thunder from behind the
landslip.
'The settlement!' I cried. 'The coming in of the tide has made the
landslip settle!'
When I sat with closed eyes examining my fiery photograph, I had
calculated the 'settlement' at the return of the tide as being among
the chances of escape. But feeling myself to be engaged in a duel
with Circumstance (more cruel than the fiends), I believed that the
settlement would come too late for us, or even if it did not come too
late, it might not hide away the spectacle. The settlement had come;
what had it done for us? This I must know at once.
'Untie the rope,' I said; 'quick, untie the rope, there is a
settlement of the landslip.'
'But what has the settlement to do with us?' said Winnie.
'It _has_ to do with us, dear; untie the rope. It has much to do with
us, Winnie,' I said; for now the determination to save her life came
on me stronger than ever.
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