orts. It was owing to the fact that some of these, no doubt
rotten with age, had given way, that the fall had occurred which formed
the block against which we had been brought up short. We at once
proceeded to examine this obstruction, and had hardly turned our light
upon it before we made an important discovery. The fall had not been
of sufficient volume to quite block the tunnel; there was a narrow
opening still at the top of the heap of _debris_, but not wide enough,
as we could see at a glance, to admit of the passage of a human being.

"Hurrah!" cried the guard. "D'you see that, sir? We'll soon scratch a
hole there big enough to crawl through, or my name ain't George
Woodley."

"I'm afraid if you do it won't be much good," I answered. "If the roof
has fallen here, it's almost sure to have fallen again further on in
several places, before the tunnel comes to the surface. This shows
that no one has been along it for some time."

We turned away, and examined the rest of the passage as far as the top
of the shaft; but only one thing did we find, and that was an empty
bottle stowed away in a hole in the rock. It was a queer, misshapen
old thing, which had, perhaps, held good liquor in its time, but
evidently belonged to a by-gone age. Worthless as it might have
appeared under ordinary circumstances, to us it proved a valuable find;
and George offered at once to go down and fill it with water from the
cave below. The discovery and the suggestion were both made none too
soon. Another half-hour and it would have been impossible, for both
wind and tide were rising; the big waves were already breaking into the
entrance of the cavern with a booming roar, and the boiling surf swept
clean over the platform just as George was re-ascending the rope.

I was a strong, healthy boy, but the long hours of cold, terror, and
semi-starvation were beginning to tell. I felt weak and feverish, my
skin was dry and parched, yet the chill from my sodden clothes seemed
still to strike right through into my very bones. With the aid of his
knife George fashioned the fragment of plank into something resembling
a short spade; then scrambling up the bank of earth, he began to dig
with the intention of enlarging the existing hole till it should be big
enough for us to crawl through. With burning eyes and chattering teeth
I stood below, and assisted as best I could by dragging away the loose
earth with my hands. What with my deafness