Had not the fellow warned him that retreat by way of the cliff-path would be cut off in thirty seconds when the tide raced up like that?
And if he failed to reach that, only the quicksand was left--the quicksand that dragged a man down quicker than hell! He set his teeth and turned his face to the cliff.

A light was shining half-way up it--that must come from the window of Rufus's cottage.

He took it as a beacon, and began to stumble through the howling darkness towards it.

He knew the cliff-path.

He had come down it only that night to make sure that there was no one spying upon them.