Each gave his opinion, and each was alternately swayed by that of the others.

Some thought the objects of their search had gone aboard the sloop; some that they had gone to a village at three miles' distance; some whispered they might have been on board the lugger, a few planks and beams of which the tide now drifted ashore.
At this instant a shout was heard from the beach, so loud, so shrill, so piercing, so different from every sound which the woods that day had rung to, that nobody hesitated a moment to believe that it conveyed tidings, and tidings of dreadful import.

All hurried to the place, and, venturing without scruple upon paths which at another time they would have shuddered to look at, descended towards a cleft of the rock, where one boat's crew was already landed.

'Here, sirs, here! this way, for God's sake! this way! this way!' was the reiterated cry.

Ellangowan broke through the throng which had already assembled at the fatal spot, and beheld the object of their terror.