Tired, however, with her narrow promenade, when she reached the ledge spoken of, without any misgivings, she rambled across the rough pavement of broken stones, until she came to a large rock forming the terminus. On one side this rock was shelving. Fearless she walked down to the water's edge: the tide was running swiftly past, and this peculiar motion of the water being new to her, she laid herself down, and watched the coursing of the dark current with delight. When Peter returned, he saw nothing of Susie; and thinking she had gone to the other side of the fort, was hobbling round to look after her; when to his surprise, on turning the first angle, he saw the little boat close at hand, and apparently coming from a very different quarter than usual. 'Hulloa, my hearties: where do you hail from now?' 'The Horse Shoe,' said Sam, putting his hand to his mouth, and making as grum a noise as old Peter did. 'The Horse Shoe! What! druv down there in the gale?' 'Got lost in the fog, and made for the sand-bar; when the storm came up, we had a hard time of it.' Peter began to chew hard on his cud, and shake his head very violently; at the same time resting on his crutches, he doubled up his fist, and held it in a very threatening manner towards Sam. 'The fog--lost in the fog--and didn't you know better than to venture off shore, with no _pints of compass_, and _no reckoning_ and _no nothing_ to steer by, in _sich a craft_ as _that_? That ain't fit to trust a man's life in on a mill pond.' Sam smiled. 'It aint no laughing matter, my young man, to foller the water; I've tell'd you _that_, many a time; it ain't like the land, where you can lay to, and hold on jist as you likes. No, no; them that deals with the winds and the waves must keep a sharp look-out, and watch their chances; its nothin' more nor less but a temptin' o' Providence with your dumb-founded perverseness. But howsomever, I'm glad to see you; so jist haul up, and I'll call the Major.'