She piled the fire high, gave us a huge breakfast, and left us alone with a chess set that had belonged to her husband. Neither of us had played chess for a long time. We played all day, while the rain lashed at the windows and the gale shook the house. We spent the night there for we knew there would be no sleep for us on board. Next day the wind had dropped and the sun shone on a drenched world. We went back along the cliffs and saw the sea thundering at the cliffs with blows that looked like depth charges. The tide was falling. When we reached the cove it was just as I’d first seen it. Of our three days’ work there was not a trace. “But what about the boulders?” Stuart said. “Surely they haven’t been sucked out to sea?” “Buried under the sand,” I told him. “It’s lucky we hadn’t started shifting her.” “There is that,” he agreed. “Once we do start moving her we’ll have to work fast.” Two plates had been buckled and looked as though they might have sprung a leak.
