d stow them down in the hold. No; they'd
have to go ashore. It's risky enough for men who know their way about
to beach a boat along this coast among the rocks and breakers, and
especially after dark; and the only chance for these fellows would be
to make the harbour and land on the quay. Bless you, they were too
reckless and fuddled to think of the chances of being caught. They've
all been nabbed safe enough, and had time by now to cool their heads
and remember whom they left behind. We shall be taken off directly,
and in the meanwhile I don't see why we shouldn't have breakfast."

I sat down readily enough, and ate my share of what was left of the
pheasant, and a small wedge of cheese, washing down the repast with a
draught of the fresh water in the broken bottle. Still there was no
sign of the relief party, for the arrival of which we kept a constant
lookout, and I thought I noticed an uneasy look on Woodley's face,
which did not tend to allay my own misgivings.

Growing restless at this delay, we longed to be doing something, and at
length decided to try to secure some more pieces of the floating
wreckage. George was the first to rise to his feet, and as he did so
he exclaimed,--

"Hullo! here's a find!"

Lying on the ledge of rock where Rodwood had left it on the previous
evening was the warder's pistol. My companion examined it, and finding
that it was loaded and primed, clambered up and put it in a niche of
the rock high above his head, remarking as he did so,--

"There, that's safer than letting it lie about on the ground. A chance
kick might send it off, and one of us get the ball in his foot."

The set of the current seemed to have drifted more wreckage into the
cavern, and the flowing tide had brought a quantity of it close to the
extreme end of the cave, where it floated in a jumbled mass at the foot
of our platform. By clambering down to the water's edge and "fishing"
with another broken spar, we had no difficulty in drawing it towards us
and then throwing it up to the rock above. One piece of timber which
seemed a portion of a mast had a quantity of rope attached to it, and a
couple of blocks with more cordage were also secured. At length my eye
rested on another of those mischievous kegs, but this one apparently
half or wholly empty, judging from the manner in which the greater
portion of it appeared above the surface of the water.

"There's another of those little barrels," I said to