This went on till it grew unbearable, so, leaping out of bed, Harry went to the window, drew up the blind, and threw open the casement, to lean out and gaze at the grey sea, that looked so dark in the early dawn of morning. It was as smooth as a pond, except where, with a low moan, it heaved up and beat against Carn Du, falling back with an angry hiss as if of disappointment, while all above looked calm and dark and starlit. Away to the east, though, there was a faint light, telling of the coming day; and as Harry Paul stood there, with the soft fresh morning breeze blowing in his hair, he made up his mind that he would go and fish for three or four hours before breakfast, as he could not sleep. A good wash made him feel fresher. Then dressing, he took a couple of lines from a cupboard down-stairs, and went out. He had no difficulty in getting half-a-dozen damaged mackerel down in the harbour--fish that had been torn by the nets; but he was only just in time, for in the soft grey light he could see the gulls already busy floating down on their ghostly-looking wings in the gloom, uttering a mournful, peevish wail, and carrying off fragments of fish for their morning meal. "Another ten minutes, and there would not have been one left," muttered Harry, as he strode along the rock-strewn shore to where his boat was drawn up high and dry. He, however, soon had her afloat, and, taking one of the oars, he stood up in the stern and sculled her out with that peculiar fish-tail motion which is so puzzling to one not used to the custom. Half an hour's sculling took him out to a great buoy close by some sunken rocks; and having made fast his boat to the rusty, barnacle-encrusted ring, he proceeded to bait his lines, and lowered down the leads into the deep water below. "What's it to be this morning?" he said. "They ought to bite on such a tide as this." He held one line in his hand, twisted the other round one of the thole-pins of the boat, and then sat waiting. There was black Carn Du right in front, with the waters rising up dark and glistening, to fall back fringed with pale ghostly white. Then, as no fish bit to take up his attention, he began to think of the great black mass of rock, and to ask himself whether it was worth his while to go that or the next evening, and, climbing up, take the plunge as he had seen so many young men take it before. "If I did," he said, "it would please a good many people, and they would no longer look upon me as a coward. I think I could--I feel sure I could. But if I did take the dive how people would triumph after all, and say that I was stung into doing it by what they had said!" "No," he added, after a little more consideration; "they may say what they like. I'll hold to my determination. Coward or no, I'm not going to prove my courage for the sake of gratifying busy tattling people. Better remain a coward all my--Ah, that's one!"