After a few minutes, it was astonishing how his eyes found themselves able to penetrate the darkness which at first had seemed like a black wall.

Some distance to the right he could make out the outline of a deserted barn, once used as a coast-guard station and now only a depository for the storing of life belts.

In front of him he could trace the bank of shingle and the line of the sea, and presently the outline of some dark object, lying just out of reach of the breaking waves, attracted his attention.

He watched it steadily.

For some time it was as motionless as the log he presumed it to be.