Boats were manned to search the sea-shore, which, on the other side of the Point, rose into high and indented rocks.

A vague suspicion was entertained, though too horrible to be expressed, that the child might have fallen from one of these cliffs.
The evening had begun to close when the parties entered the wood, and dispersed different ways in quest of the boy and his companion.

The darkening of the atmosphere, and the hoarse sighs of the November wind through the naked trees, the rustling of the withered leaves which strewed the glades, the repeated halloos of the different parties, which often drew them together in expectation of meeting the objects of their search, gave a cast of dismal sublimity to the scene.
At length, after a minute and fruitless investigation through the wood, the searchers began to draw together into one body, and to compare notes.
The agony of the father grew beyond concealment, yet it scarcely equalled the anguish of the tutor.

'Would to God I had died for him!' the affectionate creature repeated, in notes of the deepest distress.

Those who were less interested rushed into a tumultuary discussion of chances and possibilities.