J. J. Bell

“ They had secured for the present, however, comparative safety and shelter, though in that tugging, tumbling boat a landsman could have found neither moral nor bodily comfort of the slightest. Saving the surge-battered, foam-spattered skerry, with its floating fringes of brown weed and its satellites of all but submerged rocks, the Atlantic, as far as eye could discern in the dull atmosphere, was empty. There were no sounds besides the noise of many waters and the intermittent complaints of sea-birds. ”

“ And thereupon Angus opened his mouth to yell to deaf, snoring Donald; but ere utterance could be made, the fog above him glowed, and upon his wet face he felt a warmth. In a moment it was past; the glow and warmth were gone; but the roaring flurry, now intermittent, and failing with the distance, continued, till of a sudden, with the shriek of ardent metal plunged in water, it ceased.
Angus threw himself from the thwart and frantically shook the sleeper.
“Donald!—your knife—cut the rope! See, yonder!”—-pointing to the dim, inert shape on the weedy verge—“A man! He fell...” ”

“ The partners had been caught before, and in far dirtier weather. This was merely a summer blast that would soon and suddenly exhaust itself. Also, the lifting of the creels was already overdue, and the postal orders from the London merchant would be very welcome indeed. At the worst, they could anchor in the lee of the largest skerry, and there wait—wait with that wonderful, placid patience which the wind and sea had taught their souls and bodies through the souls and bodies of generations before them. ”