The Sergeant recovered himself instantly.

He put them back from me; he said I was an old man; he said the discovery had shaken me; he said, "Let him alone a little." Then he turned to Yolland, and asked, "Is there any chance of finding her, when the tide ebbs again ?" And Yolland answered, "None.

What the Sand gets, the Sand keeps for ever." Having said that, the fisherman came a step nearer, and addressed himself to me.
"Mr.Betteredge," he said, "I have a word to say to you about the young woman's death.

Four foot out, broadwise, along the side of the Spit, there's a shelf of rock, about half fathom down under the sand.

My question is--why didn't she strike that?
If she slipped, by accident, from off the Spit, she fell in where there's foothold at the bottom, at a depth that would barely cover her to the waist.