A Loose End

A Loose End

The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Loose End and Other Stories, by S.
Elizabeth Hall
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: A Loose End and Other Stories A Loose End; In a Breton Village;
Twice a Child; The Road by the Sea; The Halting Step; Tabitha's Aunt
Author: S. Elizabeth Hall
Release Date: May 27, 2005 [eBook #15922]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LOOSE
END AND OTHER STORIES***
E-text prepared by Steven Gibbs, Irma Spehar, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

A LOOSE END AND OTHER STORIES
by
S. ELIZABETH HALL
Author of The Interloper London: Simpkin, Marshall Hamilton, Kent
& Co., Ltd. London: Truslove and Bray, Printers, West Norwood, S.E.

CONTENTS.
A LOOSE END
IN A BRETON VILLAGE
TWICE A CHILD
THE ROAD BY THE SEA
THE HALTING STEP

TABITHA'S AUNT

A LOOSE END.

CHAPTER I.
One September morning, many years ago, when the Channel Islands
seemed further off than they do now, and for some of them
communication with the outer world hardly existed, some two hours
after the sun had risen out of the sea, and while the grass and the
low-growing bushes were still fresh with the morning dew, a young girl
tripped lightly along the ridge of a headland which formed the south
side of a cove on the coast of one of the smaller islands in the group.
The ridge ascended gradually till it reached a point on which stood a
ruined building, that was said to have been once a mill, and from which
on the right-hand side the path began to descend to a narrow
landing-place in the cove. The girl stood still for a moment when she
reached the highest point, and shading her eyes looked out to sea. On
the opposite side of the cove a huge rock, formed into an island by a
narrow shaft of water, which in the strife of ages had cleared its way
between it and the rocky coast, frowned dark and solemn in the shadow,
its steep and clear-cut sides giving it a character of power and
imperturbability that crowned it a king among islands. The sea beyond
was glittering in the morning sun, but there was deep purple shadow in
the cove, and under the rocks of the projecting headlands, which in
fantastic succession on either side threw out their weird arms into the
sea; while just around the edge of the shore, where the water was
shallow over rocks and weed, was a girdle of lightest, loveliest green.
Guernsey, idealized in the morning mist, lay like a dream on the
horizon. Here and there a fishing-boat, whose sail flashed orange when
the sun touched it, was tossing on the waves; nearer in a boat with
furled sail was cautiously making for the narrow passage--the Devil's
Drift, as the fishermen called it--between the island and the mainland, a
passage only traversed with oars, the oarsmen facing forwards; while
the two occupants of another were just taking down their sail
preparatory to rowing direct for the landing-place.

The moment the girl caught sight of this last boat she began rapidly to
descend the 300 feet of cliff which separated her from the cove below.
The path began in easy zig-zags, which, however, got gradually steeper,
and the last thirty feet of the descent consisted of a sheer face of rock,
in which were fixed two or three iron stanchions with a rope running
from one to the other to serve as a handrail; and the climber must
depend for other assistance on the natural irregularities of the rock,
which provided here and there an insecure foothold. The girl, however,
sprang down the dangerous path, without the slightest hesitation,
though her skilful balance and dexterity of hand and foot showed that
her security was the result of practice.
By the time she had reached the narrow strip of beach, one of the few
and difficult landing-places which the island offered, the two fishermen
were already out of the boat, which they were mooring to an iron ring
fastened in the rock. One of the men was young; the other might be,
from his appearance, between sixty and seventy. A strange jerking gait,
which was disclosed as soon as he began to move on his own feet,
suggested the idea that his natural habitat was the sea, and that he was
as little at ease on land as some kinds of waterfowl appear to be when
walking. He could not hold