The Argosy — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

6 In the Dead of Night. and how best to avoid them. Over some of the rocks he had to clamber on all fours ; round others he had to pick his way, waist-deep in water. Now and then, a larger wave than common would seize him, dash him like a log against the rocks, and then leave him, bruised and breathless, to gather up its forces for another attack. But Lionel never faltered or looked back. Onward he went, slowly but surely nearing the object of which he was in search. Nearly exhausted, all but worn out, at length he reached the heap of débris formed by the falling of the cliff—or rather that portion of it which the sea had spared. He was terribly anxious by this time. If the body of the stranger when it fell had been caught by any of the ledges or rough projecting angles of the débris, and had iodged there, there was just a faint possibility that the man might be still alive. But if, on the contrary, it had rolled down to the foot of the cliff, the waves would long ago have claimed it as their own. The storm was passing away inland. The lightning was no oe either so frequent or so vivid. Lionel’s difficulty was to find the exact point of the cliff from which the stranger had fallen. At the most he could only guess at it. Still, here was the mass of fallen cliff, and the body, unless washed away by the tide, could not be far away. Having accomplished so much, he had neither long nor far to search. Putting out his hand in the dark to grasp a projecting ledge of rock, which the last flash of lightning had shown to him, his fingers touched a clammy ice-cold face. He drew back his arm with an involuntary shudder. Next moment his heart gave a great throb of relief, and he felt that, whether the man were alive or dead, his labour had not been entirely in vain. The body was lying among a heap of jagged rocks, half in and half out of the water. Lionel’s first idea was that the man was stone dead. But a more careful examination, which he made as soon as he had dragged the body beyond reach of the still-rising tide, convinced him that there were still some flickering signs of life—just the faintest pcssible pulsation of the heart. The forehead was marked by a thin streak of blood, which Lionel tried to staunch with his handkerchief. For the rest, he made out, by the momentary glimpses which the lightning afforded him, that the man was young, fair, slightly built, and to allappearance, a gentleman. Feeling some hard substance, Lionel put his hand into the stranger’s pocket, and drew from it a small travel- ling flask. It contained a little brandy, with which Lionel moistened the unconscious lips, but the stranger’s teeth were so firmly set that he found it impossible to open them. What more could he do? he asked himself, and he was obliged to answer, Nothing. If Bunce had not deserted him, help would be forthcoming before long. Other- wise, he must wait there for daybreak and the ebbing of the tide. — But faithful ,good-hearted Bunce had not deserted him. He had Gomicbooks-com