The sun was going down on the Dedlow Marshes. The tide was followingit fast as if to meet the reddening lines of sky and water in the west,leaving the foreground to grow blacker and blacker every moment, and tobring out in startling contrast the few half-filled and half-lit poolsleft behind and forgotten. The strong breath of the Pacific fanningtheir surfaces at times kindled them into a dull glow like dyingembers. A cloud of sand-pipers rose white from one of the nearerlagoons, swept in a long eddying ring against the sunset, and became ablack and dropping rain to seaward. The long sinuous line of channel,fading with the light and ebbing with the tide, began to give off hereand there light puffs of gray-winged birds like sudden exhalations.High in the darkening sky the long arrow-headed lines of geese and'brant' pointed towards the upland. As the light grew more uncertainthe air at times was filled with the rush of viewless and melancholywings, or became plaintive with far-off cries and lamentations. As theMarshes grew blacker the far-scattered tussocks and accretions on itslevel surface began to loom in exaggerated outline, and two humanfigures, suddenly emerging erect on the bank of the hidden channel,assumed the proportion of giants.
When they had moored their unseen boat, they still appeared for somemoments to be moving vaguely and aimlessly round the spot where theyhad disembarked. But as the eye became familiar with the darkness itwas seen that they were really advancing inland, yet with a slowness ofprogression and deviousness of course that appeared inexplicable to thedistant spectator. Presently it was evident that this seemingly even,vast, black expanse was traversed and intersected by inky creeks andsmall channels, which made human progression difficult and dangerous.As they appeared nearer and their figures took more naturalproportions, it could be seen that each carried a gun; that one was ayoung girl, although dressed so like her companion in shaggy pea-jacketand sou'wester as to be scarcely distinguished from him above the shortskirt that came halfway down her high india-rubber fishing-boots. Bythe time they had reached firmer ground, and turned to look back at thesunset, it could be also seen that the likeness between their faces wasremarkable. Both, had crisp, black, tightly curling hair; both haddark eyes and heavy eyebrows; both had quick vivid complexions,slightly heightened by the sea and wind. But more striking than theirsimilarity of coloring was the likeness of expression and bearing.Both wore the same air of picturesque energy; both bore themselves witha like graceful effrontery and self-possession.
The young man continued his way. The young girl lingered for a momentlooking seaward, with her small brown hand lifted to shade her eyes,—aprecaution which her heavy eyebrows and long lashes seemed to renderutterly gr