No one would know,--no one would guess--except Vesey--the real object with which I started on this wild goose chase after the impossible.

It is a foolish quest! Perhaps after all I had better give it up, and return to the old wearisome life of luxury,--the old ways!--and die in my bed in the usual 'respectable' style of the rich, with expensive doctors, nurses and medicines set in order round me, and all arrangements getting ready for a 'first-class funeral'!" He laughed drearily.

Another flash of lightning, followed almost instantaneously by a terrific crash of thunder, brought him to a pause.
He was now at the bottom of the hill which he had ascended from the other side, and perceived a distinct and well-trodden path which appeared to lead in a circuitous direction towards the sea.

Here there seemed some chance of getting out of the labyrinth of hills into which he had incautiously wandered, and, summoning up his scattered forces, he pressed on.

The path proved to be an interminable winding way,--first up--then down,--now showing glimpses of the raging ocean, now dipping over bare and desolate lengths of land,--and presently it turned abruptly into a deep thicket of trees.