Then they stood still and stole a furtive look at each other, and all hope died away within their hearts. To the mind of each there came the same thought. The man's wild prayer and desperate vow had been heard and answered. The King of Terrors was about to exact the fulfilment of the awful bargain--and to exact it with interest--and the great, cruel sea, which alone had witnessed and registered the reckless vow, was now lending itself and its rage a willing instrument for the pitiless fulfilment of that vow. CHAPTER THIRTY TWO. IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW. "Olive, it is I who have brought you to your death!" His face was ghastly with the horror of his self-reproach and desperation. The two were standing now, locked in each other's embrace, beneath the cliff, watching the narrow strip of beach rapidly disappear as the fierce tide came pouring in. Nothing could be seen immediately above, for the rock beetled overhead as though about to topple upon them, but running out on each side of the bay rose a crescent of frowning wall. And from thence no succour need be expected, for its summit was lost in the gathering mist. The winter twilight was fast descending, the chill blast howled and shrieked over the heaving, storm-lashed main, and a chaos of driving, leaping billows, whose great leaden backs and white rearing crests rose hideous and spectral in the gloaming as they dashed the one upon the other in their tumultuous rush, flinging themselves high against the adamantine walls and falling back with a roar and a hiss. The grim coastline was enveloped in wreathe of white spray, and the surf-lashed base of the heights rang again as it repelled the onset of each watery monster, while in showers of milky foam the sea ran from the black, slippery rocks. A scene of wild grandeur, unparalleled in its tremendous loneliness--a terrible scene, even when viewed from a point of safety. What must it then have been to the two who stood there awaiting an inevitable death! "It is I who have brought you to this!" She looked up at him and nestled more closely in his embrace. In the midst of her bodily fear-- the natural fear of a weak woman suddenly brought face to face with a horrible death--she was able to smile. And it was a smile of unselfish reassurance. "No, dearest. It is not your doing," she said. "If it had not been for finding me here, you would have gone your way in safety. Roland--it is I who have destroyed _you_."