Jervis was tired, having pulled many miles through a choppy sea with the wind against him, and he was thinking that it would be really pleasant to sit writing for an hour or two somewhere out of the roaring of the wind.  Entering his office, he took off his jacket and sat down on the rough stool before the equally rough desk where his clerical work was principally done.

But he had not entered two items in his book of takings when Mr. Selincourt came in hastily, with a worried look on his face.

“Have you seen Mary in your travels?” he asked.

“No; I didn’t even know that Miss Selincourt was at Seal Cove this morning,” Jervis answered, looking up from his writing.

“She came down a good two hours before I did; said she wanted to go over the rocks to test some ironstone formation which she discovered the other day.  She promised to be back here to meet me when I arrived, but that is three hours ago, and she has not come yet.”

Jervis sat looking at him in an abstracted fashion, as if trying to settle some clue which threatened to escape him; then, with a start, he asked:  “Had she a dog with her?”

“Most likely; she never moves very far without one or two of those great brutes from the store to keep her company, and a good thing too.  I always feel more comfortable about her then, than if she were alone.”

Jervis jumped up and began to pull on his jacket with nervous haste.  He was remembering the dog he had seen on the rocks an hour or two ago, and the creature’s evident distress, which probably meant that Miss Selincourt was in trouble also.

“What is the matter?” demanded Mr. Selincourt.

“Nothing, I hope.  But as I came home a while ago from the inlet I noticed a dog on the rocks, a big creature that seemed in trouble.  I didn’t think much of it then, but of course it must have been the animal that was with Miss Selincourt, so I am going to see if she is all right,” Jervis answered.

“I will come with you,” said Mr. Selincourt.

“Please, no; I can go faster alone.  And if she is not really in difficulties we might both miss her, and have a long, anxious hunt for no purpose at all.  If you will walk over beyond the fish-flakes, and come to the rocks from that direction, you will either meet her or meet me,” Jervis said, then hurried off to his boat, which was drawn up on the shore at a little distance from the fish shed.

It must have been two miles away, perhaps three, that he had seen the dog, and now he blamed himself because he had not taken more notice of its trouble.  The worst of it was, he was not quite sure as to where he had seen the creature.  The sky was overcast, and the weather looked so threatening that, unless he could find Miss Selincourt soon, and hurry her home, she would scarcely escape a very bad wetting.

Resting on his oars, he sent out a mighty shout, then waited with every sense on the alert.  One minute passed—­two—­and when five minutes had gone he shouted again, following this up with a whistle so piercing that it fetched a distant echo from the rocks.