The tide wouldn't come in until noon, right? It had done so last time he had taken a stroll, and poor Gabriel, who had never had to do much with the sea, naively assumed the tides turned at the same time every day. And so he was taking a stroll along the shale area beneath the East cliff which locals called the 'Scaur', entirely aware of the impending danger. He had walked a long way along the cliffs, beyond where fishing women gathered to collect bait and other materials, admiring the view of the cliffs and headland in the distance, and looking for fossils below in the shale. 

At some point he stopped to admire a whole set of fossils in the shale, crouching down and reflecting on the perfection of the round spiral ammonite shells and the vastness of time that lay between him and these creatures. He was so lost in his grand reflections, that he did not see how the sea was rolling in fast, until the water came close to his feet and he rose, alarmed.

The priest started striding back, but he was too far out of town and forced to walk ever closer to the high cliff as the water came further in with every wave. Suddenly, a flood of water washed over his feet, and he felt it run into his shoes - a very unpleasant experience on a winter's morning. But he had greater worries. He would never reach Whitby in time. 

Gabriel looked around anxiously and suddenly spotted one other person, some way off. And then he noticed a cave, or maybe an old mineshaft, in the cliff nearby. He was terrified to go near it, for he had heard that cliff erosion and landslides were common. But he would still choose the risk over drowning. "Hey!" he shouted at the other person. "Over here!" And he rushed to the cave with soaked feet. With some effort, he managed to climb up to where the cave was and he entered it, praying that the water wouldn't reach this high.