"Many years have gone," she continued, "yet, to the aged, many years appear as yesterday. I was sitting by the door of this very cottage, which had just been made public--for your poor father--(honest man that he was, far above your mother in wisdom and goodness)--your poor father, I say, had been drowned the winter before, and I was obliged to do something to keep the children, and so thought of making the cottage a public; well--I sat at the door, and you were in my arms." The aged woman's mind appeared to wander for a few moments, as if she was calling her thoughts from a long distance. "It was night, dark, dark night, and many runagades had been about the coast all day trafficking and trading and smuggling, and the gentry helping them, for things were not strict then:--it was pitch dark, with now and then a gleam of light from a bright cloud; and there came towards me a gentleman I knew full well--a gallant, handsome gentleman: he stood upon the rock that hangs over the sea, where the sea is ever wildest. Presently some of the strange-looking men joined him, and they talked and talked, though I heard them not, for the wind was whistling around me, and I was watching you asleep." The woman again paused, but soon resumed her story. "Well, as I was saying, they talked; but soon I heard a cry through the storm, and the next minute there was a gleam of light--I saw him struggling; but darkness fell again, and on a sudden, while you would clap your hands, came a scream for help. O God! O God! I hear it now!--now I hear it!--Robin, another drink of the strong waters, that will silence it!" "Mother," said the Ranger, as he held the cup which her skinny fingers were extended to grasp, while her parched lips clanked against each other impatient of moisture--"Mother, take but little for you have need of prayer; that will stifle the cry far better than this." "And I will pray," returned the woman, "when my tale is finished. There was but that one loud, loud scream, and a heavy splash in the ocean, and with it the darkness again passed: but, Robin Hays, Robin Hays, the men had passed too, and one of them returned no more! And why did he not? He had broad and fair lands, such as make people cling to their own country, but he came not back. Soon after, I heard the noise of oars, and--mind your mother now, Robin,--another man came to the cliff--to the brow of the same cliff--I saw him look down, and along the waves, and, all of a sudden, a pistol flash from the boat sprang through the darkness, and he who came last stood while you could count ten, and passed away. But mind again, Robin, he came with a weak step, and he went as a strong man." Robin shuddered; his mother after a brief pause continued.