I declare I almost heard her voice telling me again that the
Shivering Sand seemed to draw her to it against her own will, whenever
she went out--almost saw her face brighten again, as it brightened when
she first set eyes upon Mr. Franklin coming briskly out on us from among
the hillocks. My spirits fell lower and lower as I thought of these
things--and the view of the lonesome little bay, when I looked about to
rouse myself, only served to make me feel more uneasy still.
The last of the evening light was fading away; and over all the desolate
place there hung a still and awful calm. The heave of the main ocean on
the great sandbank out in the bay, was a heave that made no sound. The
inner sea lay lost and dim, without a breath of wind to stir it. Patches
of nasty ooze floated, yellow-white, on the dead surface of the water.
Scum and slime shone faintly in certain places, where the last of the
light still caught them on the two great spits of rock jutting out,
north and south, into the sea. It was now the time of the turn of the
tide: and even as I stood there waiting, the broad brown face of the
quicksand began to dimple and quiver--the only moving thing in all the
horrid place.
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