Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/210

210THE HALLIG.

thought he heard in it a call for help, and our readers
will understand that it was Oswald's fearful shriek.
It is true they were doubtful again, when their united
and often repeated halloo brought no reply. As they
had nothing else to guide their choice of a direction,
they determined to follow the one from which they fan-
cied the cry had proceeded. They rowed rapidly for-
ward, often relieving each other in order to keep up the
speed of the boat, only pausing now and then for a mo-
ment, to listen for an answer to their shouts. But
none came ; and the tide had already risen so high
that, in their present situation, it seemed scarcely pos-
sible to find the lost ones alive, if they had wandered
about until now. The fog having cleared away, the
surface of the sea as far as they could overlook it,
showed only the unbroken play of the waves in the
starlight ; yet they resolved once more to unite all their
strength in one long halloo, and then turn in another
direction.
  We now go back to those whom we left in the most
imminent peril of death. Their strength, which they
were constantly obliged to exert in order to withstand
the pressure of the advancing tide, was gradually fail-
ing. Had there not been a perfect calm, death would
long since have done its work. The triumphant spirit
which had animated Hold, and through his exhorta-
tions, the two islanders, had now sunk into a silent,
almost unconscious submission ; while Oswald's breast,
though his body had become completely torpid, was still
fearfully possessed with the dread of the coming doom ;
and the vain seeking for some word of comfort had tor-
tured him to frantic despair. He had indeed always