'To pass over many years and come to the 2nd of December last (1718).
That night, about 11 o'clock, I sat in my library reading. It was
blowing hard without, the wind W.N.W.; but I had forgotten the gale
in my book, when a sound, as it were a distant outcry of many voices,
fetched me to unbar the shutters and open the window to listen.
The sound, whatever it was, had died away: I heard but the wind
roaring and the surf on the beaches along the Bay: and I was closing
the window again when, close at hand, a man's voice called to me to
open the front door. I went out to the hall, where a lamp stood, and
opened to him. The light showed me the young man Luke, on whom I had
not set eyes for these four-and-twenty years: nor, amazed and
perturbed as I was, did it occur to me as marvellous that he had not
aged a day. "There is a wreck," said he, "in the Porth below here;
and you, sir, are concerned in it. Will you fetch a lantern and come
with me?" He put this as a question, but in his tone was a command:
and when I brought the lantern he took it from me and led the way.
We struck across the Home Parc southward, thence across Gew Down and
the Leazes, and I knew that he was making for the track which leads
down to the sea by Prah Sands.
Pages:
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113