She looked at me with the utmost wonder and alarm, saying, 'Yes!'

'And you know what a voice is in it when the storm comes?'

'Yes!'

'You see how quiet and peaceful it lies before us, and you know
what an awful sight of power without pity it might be, this very
night!'

'Yes!'

'But if you had never heard or seen it, or heard of it in its
cruelty, could you believe that it beats every inanimate thing in
its way to pieces, without mercy, and destroys life without
remorse?'

'You terrify me, sir, by these questions!'

'To save you, young lady, to save you! For God's sake, collect
your strength and collect your firmness! If you were here alone,
and hemmed in by the rising tide on the flow to fifty feet above
your head, you could not be in greater danger than the danger you
are now to be saved from.'

The figure on the sand was spun out, and straggled off into a
crooked little jerk that ended at the cliff very near us.

'As I am, before Heaven and the Judge of all mankind, your friend,
and your dead sister's friend, I solemnly entreat you, Miss Niner,