The land on top of the Beak was very wild, desolate even; as it sloped
very slightly downward to the cliff edge it behoved a wanderer to go
cautiously. The Beak was not perpendicular. It could be climbed by an
expert, or even an agile, clear-headed person like Pamela, but as she
said to herself, "It was not the sort of thing you’d pick out to do,
unless you had a very strong mood on."
She thought that as she looked over, and out to sea. No sail was within
her vision. The water was visible, but through a fluff of thick white
haze, that moved with the ceaseless shift of a kaleidoscope. Very
dazzling. It made her giddy to watch the curious floating rags of
it--coming, coming, ever thicker. If the yawl were close she could not
be seen.
Of course it will be understood that the bluff of a headland is not a
narrow point. It is a long stretch of wild high land that juts out to
sea. There are such things as actual peaks sticking out to seaward, but
these are rock, sheer, bare rock, to be found--some at any rate--in the
Channel Islands, where you see most kinds of rocky headland in every
weird shape.
But the Beak on which Pamela stood was a very blunt beak. The
lighthouse lay perhaps half a mile to the south--invisible from the
top--and Bell Bay was certainly half a mile to the north; all between
was wild cliff trending outward like a huge bent elbow.
Pamela sat down on a gorsy hump, and looked towards Ramsworthy and
Netheroot sands. She could not see them because of the fog. Nor could
she see any sail. It was profoundly lonely, except for the sea-birds
which kept up a constant wailing cry. They had noticed a human being
appear on the scene, and instantly rose in whity-grey clouds, crying and
screaming, circling round and round uneasily. When nothing happened they
settled down, and presently there was silence again--complete silence
except for one bird, that wailed distressfully at short intervals. From
the sound, Pamela thought it was young--or very old--or wounded. It was
not quite like the others. However, it was impossible to distinguish,
as when it cried all the others rose up and began again.
She sat there perhaps ten minutes, then she went off back to the road,
and presently, at the turning, away down to the farm.
Mrs. Ensor was leaning over the gate with the baby in her arms. She
greeted Pamela with some satisfaction and said she had plenty of eggs.
They went in together to the dairy, and Mrs. Ensor, putting the baby
down, proceeded to pick out eggs by dates pencilled on them. Meanwhile
she talked.
"Suppose you don’t happen to have met with our Reube--which way did you
come, Missie?"
Pamela explained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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