As the day wore on, the air became more amiable still, and a delicate haze settled over the water and over the land, making softer to the eye house and hill and rock and sea.
There was little life in the town of St.Heliers, there were few people upon the beach; though now and then some one who had been praying beside a grave in the parish churchyard came to the railings and looked out upon the calm sea almost washing its foundations, and over the dark range of rocks, which, when the tide was out, showed like a vast gridiron blackened by fires.

Near by, some loitering sailors watched the yawl-rigged fishing craft from Holland, and the codfish-smelling cul-de-poule schooners of the great fishing company which exploited the far-off fields of Gaspe in Canada.
St.Heliers lay in St.Aubin's Bay, which, shaped like a horseshoe, had Noirmont Point for one end of the segment and the lofty Town Hill for another.

At the foot of this hill, hugging it close, straggled the town.
From the bare green promontory above might be seen two-thirds of the south coast of the island--to the right St.Aubin's Bay, to the left Greve d'Azette, with its fields of volcanic-looking rocks, and St.
Clement's Bay beyond.

Than this no better place for a watchtower could be found; a perfect spot for the reflective idler and for the sailorman who, on land, must still be within smell and sound of the sea, and loves that place best which gives him widest prospect.
This day a solitary figure was pacing backwards and forwards upon the cliff edge, stopping now to turn a telescope upon the water and now upon the town.

It was a lad of not more than sixteen years, erect, well-poised, having an air of self-reliance, even of command.