Eric, consequently, could see nothing beyond the wall of heaving water which the rollers presented as they thundered on the shingle, dragging back the pebbles in their back-wash with a rattling noise, as if the spirits of the deep were playing with dice in the depths below under the waves! At his back, the lad could see the bonfire still blazing, casting the foreground in all the deeper shadow from its flickering light; and, never did he regret anything more in his life than the sudden impulse which had led him into so dangerous a freak, as that of lighting the bonfire.
Who knew what further terrible peril that treacherous fire might not lead to, besides the mischief it had already done?
Bye-and-bye, there came the sound of another gun from the sea.

The report sounded nearer this time; still, Eric could see nothing in sight on the horizon when some break in the clouds allowed him a momentary glimpse of the angry ocean--nothing but the huge billows chasing each other in towards the land and the seething foam at the base of the crags, on which they broke themselves in impotent fury when they found their further course arrested by the rocky ramparts of the island.
Nor could the lad hear anything beyond the crash of the breakers and splash of the eddying water, which sometimes washed up to his feet, as he stood on the boulder gazing out vainly to sea, the sound of the breaking billows being mingled with the shriek of the wind as it whistled by overhead.
Nothing but the tumult of the sea, stirred into frenzy by the storm- blast of angry Aeolus! After a time, Eric suddenly recollected that his brother could not move far from the hut and must be wondering what had become of him; and, recognising as well the fact that he was powerless alone to do anything where he was, even if a ship should be in danger, he returned towards the cottage to rejoin Fritz, his path up the valley being lit up quite clearly by the expiring bonfire, which still flamed out every now and then, as the wind fanned it in its mad rush up the gorge, stirring out the embers into an occasional flash of brilliancy.
Fritz, usually so calm, was in a terribly anxious state when his brother reached him.
"Well, have you seen anything ?" he asked impatiently.
"No," said Eric sorrowfully.

"There's nothing to be seen." "But _you_ heard another cannon, did you not ?" "Oh yes, and it seemed closer in." "So I thought, too," said the other, whom the sound of the heavy guns, from his old experience in war, appeared to affect like a stimulant.
"Can't we do anything?
It is terrible to stand idly here and allow our fellow-creatures to perish, without trying to save them!" "What could we do ?" asked Eric helplessly, all the buoyancy gone out of him.

He seemed to be quite another lad.
"You couldn't launch the boat without me, eh ?" "No," answered Eric; "I couldn't move it off the beach with all my strength--I tried just now." Fritz ground his teeth in rage at his invalid condition.
"It serves me right to be crippled in this fashion!" he cried.

"It all results from my making such a fool of myself the other day, after that goat on the plateau.