Winifred paused here as though she expected me to say something.  A thousand things occurred to me to ask, but until I knew more—­until I knew how much and how little she remembered of that dreadful time, I dared ask her nothing—­I dared make no remark at all.  I said, ’Go on, Winnie; pray do not break your story.’

‘Well,’ said she, ’I found that my father had not returned during the night.  I did not feel disturbed at that, his ways were so uncertain.  I did not even hurry over my breakfast, but dallied over it, recalling the scenes of the previous night, and wondering what some of them could mean.  I then went down the gangway at Needle Point to walk on the sands.  I thought I might meet father coming from Dullingham.  I had to pass the landslip, where a great number of Raxton people were gathered.  They were looking at the frightful relics of Raxton churchyard.  They were too dreadful for me to look at.  I walked right to Dullingham without meeting my father.  At Dullingham I was told that he had not been there for some days.  Then, for the first time, I began to be haunted by fears, but they took no distinct shape.  When I returned to the landslip the people were still there, and still very excited about it.  In the afternoon I went again on the sands, thinking that I might see my father and also that I might see you.  I walked about till dusk without seeing either of you, and then I went back to the cottage.  I had now become very anxious about my father, and sat up all night.  The next morning after breakfast I went again on the sands.  The number of people collected round the landslip seemed greater than ever, and many of them, I think, came from Graylingham, Rington, and Dullingham.  They seemed more excited than they had been on the previous day, and they did not notice me as I joined them.  I heard some one say in a cracked and piping voice, “Well, it’s my belief as Tom lays under that there settlement.  It’s my belief that he wur standing on the edge of the churchyard cliff, and when the cliff fell he fell with it.”  Then the kind and good-natured little tailor Shales saw me, and I thought he must have made some signal to the others, for they all stood silent.  I felt sure now that for some reason, unknown to me, it was generally believed that my father had perished in the landslip.  Mrs. Shales took me by the hand, and gently led me away up the gangway.  When we reached the cottage I asked her whether my father’s body had been found.  She told me that it had not, and was not likely to be found, for if he had really fallen with the landslip his body lay under tons upon tons of earth.  I shall never forget the misery of that night; kind Mrs. Shales would not leave me, but slept in the cottage.  I had very little doubt that the Raxton people were right in their dreadful guesses about my father.  I had very little doubt that while walking along the cliff, either to or from the cottage, he had reached the point at the back of the church at the moment of the landslip, and been carried down with it, and I now felt sure that the shriek you and I both heard was his shriek of terror as he fell.  I bethought me of the jewels that my father’s sailor friend was to give him, and searched the cottage for them.  As I could not find them, I felt sure that it was on his return from his meeting with his sailor friend, when the jewels were upon him, that he fell with the landslip.’