Page 510 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

all his strength, flung him off. The brute uttered one howl,
and seemed to lie where he had fallen; while above his car-
case again hovered that white and vaporous column. It was
strange that McNab and the soldier did not follow up the
advantage they had gained. Courage—perhaps he should
defeat them yet! He had been lucky to dispose of the dog
so easily. With a fierce thrill of renewed hope, he ran for-
ward; when at his feet, in his face, arose that misty Form,
breathing chill warning, as though to wave him back. The
terror at his heels drove him on. A few steps more, and he
should gain the summit of the cliff. He could feel the sea
roaring in front of him in the gloom. The column disap-
peared; and in a lull of wind, uprose from the place where
it had been such a hideous medley of shrieks, laughter, and
exultant wrath, that John Rex paused in horror. Too late.
The ground gave way—it seemed—beneath his feet. He was
falling—clutching, in vain, at rocks, shrubs, and grass. The
cloud-curtain lifted, and by the lightning that leaped and
played about the ocean, John Rex found an explanation of
his terrors, more terrible than they themselves had been.
The track he had followed led to that portion of the cliff in
which the sea had excavated the tunnel-spout known as the
Devil’s Blow-hole.
Clinging to a tree that, growing half-way down the preci-
pice, had arrested his course, he stared into the abyss. Before
him—already high above his head—was a gigantic arch of
cliff. Through this arch he saw, at an immense distance be-
low him, the raging and pallid ocean. Beneath him was an
abyss splintered with black rocks, turbid and raucous with

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