He could see the
lithe undulations of her form as she alternately yielded to its
power, and again drew the door against it, coiling herself around
the log-hewn doorpost with a hideous, snake-like suggestion. And
then a struggle and a heavy blow, which shook the very foundations
of the structure, awoke him. He leaped to his feet, and into an
inch of water! By the flickering firelight he could see it oozing
and dripping from the crevices of the logs and broadening into a
pool by the chimney. A scrap of paper torn from an envelope was
floating idly on its current. Was it the overflow of the backed-up
waters of the river? He was not left long in doubt. Another blow
upon the gable of the house, and a torrent of spray leaped down the
chimney, scattered the embers far and wide, and left him in utter
darkness. Some of the spray clung to his lips. It was salt. The
great ocean had beaten down the river bar and was upon him!
Was there aught to fly to? No! The cabin stood upon the highest
point of the sand spit, and the low swale on one side crossed by
his late visitors was a seething mass of breakers, while the
estuary behind him was now the ocean itself.
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