the cliffs themselves were
steep and unpromising, and the closer we drew the less I liked the look
of it.

"Dolly, my lad," I said at last, "you were the wise one, after all.
Yon's no shore for an honest man; he being made like a man and not like
an eagle. Let's try the starboard tack and see what luck will send us."

We headed the launch almost due south, and began to round the headland.
The men were elated, they didn't know at what; Dolly Venn had a boy's
delight in the difficulty.

"An ugly shore, sir," he said, pleased at my compliment. "A very ugly
shore. It would be a bad night which found a ship in these parts and no
better light than the fool's beacon we saw yesterday."

"As true as the parson's word," said I, "but, ugly or beautiful, I'll
be up on those heights before twelve o'clock if I have to swim ashore.
And speaking of that," said I, "there are men up yonder, or I'm a
Dutchman!" Well, he clapped his glass to his eye and searched the green
grass land as I had done; but the light was overstrong and the cliff
quickly shut the view from us, so that we found ourselves presently in
the loom of vast black rocks, with the tide running like a whirlpool,
and a great sword-fish reef a mile from the shore, perhaps, to catch
any fool that didn't want sea room. I took the tiller myself from this
point, and standing well out I brought the launch round gingerly
enough, but the water was deep and good once we were on the lee side;
and no sooner did we head north again than I espied the cove and knew
where Ruth Bellenden had gone ashore.

"It's there, lad," said I, "yonder, where the sand sparkles. There'll
be a way up the cliff and good anchorage. No one but an Irishman would
buy an island without a harbour; you tell Mr. Bligh that when we go
aboard again."

"Mr. Bligh says he's only Irish on the mother's side, sir; that's what
makes him bighearted towards the women. He'll be dying to come ashore
if there are any petticoats hereabouts."

"They haven't much use for that same garment on the Pacific Islands,"
said I. "Peter can marry cheap here, if it's the milliners' bills he's
minding--but I doubt, lad, from the look of it, whether we'll find a
jewel in this port. It's a wild-looking place, to be sure it is."

Indeed, and it was. Viewed from the eastward sea, I call Ken's Island
the most fearsome place I have come across in all my fifteen years
afloat. Vast cliffs, black and green and crystal, rose up sheer from
t