From here he made his way with
great care, almost crawling, until he came to the stile. In the
marshes he was twice in salt water over his knees, but he
scrambled out until he reached the grass-grown sand bank which
Furley had indicated. Obeying orders, he lay down and listened
intently for any fainter sounds mingled with the tumult of nature.
After a few minutes, it was astonishing how his eyes found
themselves able to penetrate the darkness which at first had
seemed like a black wall. Some distance to the right he could
make out the outline of a deserted barn, once used as a
coast-guard station and now only a depository for the storing of
life belts. In front of him he could trace the bank of shingle
and the line of the sea, and presently the outline of some dark
object, lying just out of reach of the breaking waves, attracted
his attention. He watched it steadily. For some time it was as
motionless as the log he presumed it to be. Then, without any
warning, it hunched itself up and drew a little farther back.
There was no longer any doubt. It was a human being, lying on its
stomach with its head turned to the sea.
Julian, who had entered upon his adventure with the supercilious
incredulity of a staunch unbeliever invited to a spiritualist's
seance, was conscious for a moment of an absolutely new sensation.
A person of acute psychological instincts, he found himself
analysing that sensation almost as soon as it was conceived.
"There is no doubt," he confessed under his breath, "that I am
afraid!"
His heart was beating with unaccustomed vigour; he was conscious
of an acute tingling in all his senses.
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