and as there was plenty of
room he sat down and gazed out to sea, noting a sail far away to the
right, but the vessel was a schooner--it was not that which he sought.

He was apparently cool enough, but his pulses beat more rapidly than was
consistent with the exertion through which he had gone, and being after
a few minutes eager now to get his task at an end, he tried to the left,
to find no way up there, to the right, but everywhere the rock was
perpendicular, and offered no foothold; or else sloped outward, and
concealed what was above.

He tried again and again, hoping against hope, but without result.

"Must be a way up," he said, evidently considering that there must be
because he wanted it, and he took tightly hold of a rough corner and
leaned out a little to gaze upward, to find, in whichever direction he
looked, right or left, there was nothing but rugged limestone, which had
been splintered and moulded by time till there was not a spot where the
most venturesome climber could obtain foothold; in fact, above him he
could not see a spot where even the sea-birds had been in the habit of
finding a resting-place.

It was for liberty, and naturally enough the midshipman made no
superficial search. His next plan was to lie flat down in the niche he
had made his temporary resting-place, lean over, and try and map out a
course by which he could descend a little way and then pass along for a
distance, and resume his climb upward with better chances of success.

But no; he could see no sign to help him, and, as a keen sense of
disappointment assailed him that he should have got so near liberty and
have to give up, he decided that the way to freedom was downward.

And now, as he looked over the edge of the shelf on which he lay, it
struck him for the first time that it was a very terrible descent, and,
turning his eyes away, he looked up again for a way there.

All in vain. He was fully a hundred and twenty feet from the top of the
huge cliff, and, half afraid now that he should be quite afraid, he
determined to lose no time, and, going to the spot where he had crept on
to the niche floor, he began to lower himself slowly down.

"Be a good thing," he said to himself, as he searched with his feet and
made sure of his footing, "if one could leave all one's thoughts behind
at a time like this, or only keep enough to think where to put one's
feet."

"Glad I haven't got on my uniform," he said a few moments later,