'Went to pieces? Ay, that she did. A cat couldn't have lived out there that night.' 'Any one lost?' 'Nobody saved, sir--not a living soul.' 'Is there a lifeboat anywhere near?' 'No nearer nor B---- and it's there I'm going as fast's I can; but it's ten good miles yet.' 'Won't detain you,' said Antony. 'But could nothing be done to warn the station?' Kelly was moving on. 'Ay,' he shouted up the wind, 'if the fools on the bark show a rocket or two; but they won't do that till they strike, and then'---- Kelly was supposed to have added the words 'too late,' but they were not distinctly heard. Antony took Lotty's hand, so that together they might run down the distance that intervened betwixt this high outlook-cliff and the camp. The child was trembling all over. 'You're not afraid, are you, dear?' 'No--that is, not much, Mr Blake,' she replied; 'but, oh, wouldn't it be dreadful if the ship went to pieces on the Partans' Rock, and poor dear dead sailors were washed up through the firth to our camp?' 'But I don't think it will be so bad as that, Lotty. Those coastguards generally make the worst of things.' 'Did not Kelly say something about rockets?' 'Yes, dear.' 'And we have lots in our camp.' 'But, child, the bark may have some; anyhow, our sending up rockets would, I feel certain, only confuse the coastguard. They would know even in the dark that these were sent up from the shore, and imagine we were only just having some fireworks.' 'That is true; but, oh dear, it is terrible!' Then suddenly she added, 'I think we should light a fire just here; that would warn them off.' 'Yes, Miss Lotty.' The child let go Antony's hand now, and he knew she meant business. There was dead wood, with withered furze, lying about here, and all hands commenced at once to collect it. Even Wallace brought piece after piece and wisely laid it down beside the rest. And in five minutes' time a red, roaring fire was gleaming through the darkness far across the sea. Those on that devoted bark saw the fire even if they could not perceive the treacherous rock; and, knowing too well what it meant, tried to luff and get farther out to northwards. From the lights which now appeared upon her, Lotty could tell that she had put about and was trying to work into the wind's eye. They left the cliff, and left Chops there to feed the flames, and by making all haste were not long before they reached the camp. It would now be about nine o'clock, or hardly; and so heavy were the clouds that nothing was to be seen, never a star above, and only the shifting lights in the camp. Little to be heard either except the wash and swell of the breakers and the occasional wild scream of a sea-bird. That was an ugly coast at night for vessels to get near when the shore was a lee one, and more especially in the dark o' the neap, with a falling tide.