Olive was immensely relieved. The colour came back into her pale cheeks and she tried to laugh, succeeding a little hysterically, it must be owned. She had been a good deal scared, and, all things considered, there was some excuse for her. This lonely rock, banned by popular superstition, was dread and forbidding enough in itself. Add to this the gloomy sky and the moaning sea; the rather precarious descent yet lying before them; and remember that the spectral hound wae believed in as firmly among the seafaring population as the Deity Himself, and a great deal more feared; that disaster, more or less grave--and sometimes, according to that belief, fatal--had overtaken those upon whose ears the spectral voice had fallen; and it follows that if the girl was momentarily unnerved by a weird and mysterious howl, which, owing to some acoustic peculiarity in its formation, seemed to come from _within_ the haunted rock itself, there was every excuse for her. "How ridiculous of me to forget all about Roy!" she said. "But anyhow, let us go down now." "We had better," assented he quietly. A very uncomfortable misgiving had flashed across his mind. Far away over the sea a black curtain of cloud was approaching rapidly, its advance marked by a line of troubled water breaking into white foamy crests. He knew that a violent squall would be upon them in a few minutes--and if it caught them on that wretched ledge their position would be horribly dangerous. "Let me get past you!" he said in an unconcerned voice. "There; now if you should chance to slip I can easily catch you. We had better get back to Minchkil rather soon, in case the wind rises." "Oh dear, I forgot that. It looks dreadfully rough already. I feel almost afraid to get into the boat again. Couldn't we wait until Pollock comes to look for us? He is sure to do so when he finds we don't come back." "Not to be thought of. In half an hour the tide will be all over the landing place. To use a succinct and expressive metaphor, it's a case of `between the devil and the deep sea.' Careful here!" he enjoined warningly, holding out his hand to help her over a place where the path had fallen away, leaving an ugly and formidable gap, up which the waves were now shooting in clouds of misty spray. All would have gone well, but just at the moment of stepping across this gap, a piercing, unearthly shriek rang out in their very ears, as something cleft the air with a swirl and a rush almost between their faces. Olive, already unnerved by her former alarm, uttered a quick gasp, and an ashen pallor spread over her features. For a fraction of a moment she stood tottering; then her eyes closed, she swayed heavily and--a strong arm was flung round her and she was held firmly against the cliff. "Don't look down, Olive. You're quite safe now. Keep perfectly cool and do exactly as I tell you."