“Any sight of theDo-me, Miss Spinks?” he asked her.

She shook her head.

“I’m going home to make tea and take it to mother,” she said. “She won’t leave the headland. She won’t come home and wait.” Her control gave way at last under the long strain, and in her voice was a sob.“Oh, Mr Blade! I’m afraid… I’m afraid.”

“But, Miss Spinks, this wind will bring theDo-me to port somewhere.”

“Yes, I am hoping that about theDo-me. I am afraid now for mother. She’s taking on so. I can’t do anything with her, and she won’t come home. She says she must stop on the headland looking for theDo-me.”

“Have you both been up there all day?”

Marion nodded her head, dumbly miserable, even desperate. Blade was quick to make a suggestion.

“Well, then, while you are home getting the tea, I’ll slip off home and ask the wife to go with you and persuade your mother to come home. Mrs Blade once was a trained nurse, you know, and she would know how to manage your mother.”

“Oh, if Mrs Blade would!”

“Shewill, I’m sure. I’ll have her here when you pass with the tea,”

Blade smiled encouragement at the girl, and she went on her way. Looking after her, memory of her eyes big with dread stayed with him, but he could not help noticing her poise and dignity.

His wife was with him in the office when Marion returned carrying a basket and a billy of tea. He stood in his doorway watching them pass along the street, pass the hotel, gain the end of the road and take the path to the summit of the headland.

The first of the launches in this evening was a smart craft namedVida; its owner reported that the sea was rising before the wind and predicted a stormy night. He had no news of the missing launch and, as the other launches were all hurrying in, he thought no news of theDo-me had been gained.