Was she dead? Ah, no. He could hear her faint, regular breathing as he pressed his lips to hers. Wave after wave swept their precarious refuge, but now he was filled with a new hope. They had been spared for a purpose. Even if they were to die they would die together, and this reflection was sufficient to fill him with the keenest bliss after the awful agony of that moment of separation. With one foot planted firmly against a projection in the rock, and grasping with both hands the slender and precarious hold which the seaweed and rock afforded above, Roland Dorrien crouched there for two long hours in the pitchy darkness, supporting the girl's unconscious form. Waves surged over them, and more than once it was all he could do to avoid being swept from the slanting ledge, and his muscles cracked as he strained every nerve to resist the potent suction of the receding seas. For two long hours he dared not move a finger or alter his position by a hair's breadth, and his laboured breathing was loud and stertorous in the intervals between the howling of the waves in the cavernous gloom and the hollow, metallic echoes, like the booming toll of a great bell, which thundered from the overhanging rocks. At length, when his exhausted strength threatened to bear no more, he suddenly realised that the onslaughts of the waves were becoming less frequent, and their force when they did come was weaker. Surely the tide had turned. CHAPTER THIRTY THREE. CAIN. "Are you here, Roland?" The tone was the faintest of whispers, but the voice was as if the silvern echoes of heavenly harps had suddenly been wafted to the listener's anxious ear. He could hardly murmur a reply. "Where are we? How dark it is!" continued she, in an awed whisper. "We are safe." "Safe?--Oh, I remember." "Don't talk yet, my darling. Lie still and let yourself be perfectly at rest, as much so as you can, that is, in this uncomfortable attitude. We shall have to hold on here for some time longer." "But you?" "Never mind me. Wait. That's better now," shifting his position. And, indeed, it was a real relief--so great had been the strain upon his powers. "Now try to sleep," he continued. "We shall have to stay here for some time; in fact, it will be difficult to get down in the dark. We were literally washed up here--and here we had better stay." Though the seas no longer reached their place of refuge they still surged angrily through the chasm. Olive shivered. "How cold it is!" she said faintly. "Yes. Take a `nip' of this. It is absolutely necessary!" he said, unscrewing the top of a small brandy flask. She obeyed, for she felt very faint and exhausted. The potent cordial restored her a little and sent the blood coursing through her veins with renewed life. "There! Fortunate I had it with me," he went on. "And now, darling, you must sleep if you can. You will be perfectly safe until they find us, for they will be sure to send out a strong search party."