mewhere, so I suppose there is. Want to hear any more about
the place?"

"No, no. Come up now."

"All right, old chap; then I will, after one more look round and down
below. The water is wild, though, and the rocks are grand; but old Joe
is as right as can be: it's a terrible place, and unless any one likes
to hang at the end of a three-hundred-feet rope he cannot get to the
bottom here nor anywhere else along this cliff. It's just three parts
of a round, and goes in all of a hollow below, where I am. There--
that's all; and now I'm coming up."

"Hah!" ejaculated Mike, in a tone full of thankfulness; and as Vince
shuffled himself a little way--not much, for there was not room--the
rope tightened about his chest, giving him so strong a support that he
leaned back, pressed his hands down on either side of him to steady
himself, and drew up one leg till he could plant his heel on the stone
where he had been seated. A steady draw up of the other leg, and it was
beside its fellow; then, getting well hold of the nearest projections on
either side, he shouted up to his companion to haul hard--shouted,
though in the immensity of the place his words, like those which had
preceded them, sounded weak and more like whispers.

"Right!" said Mike; and then he uttered a wild cry, for as Vince thrust
with feet and hands together, straightening himself out, the rope
tightened at the same moment, and then the lad hung motionless against
the slope.

The rain and frost had been hard at work upon the edge of that
precipice, as its sharply gnawed-off edge showed and the huge stone
which the venturous lad had stridden was only waiting for the sharp
thrust which it had received, for with a dull crack it was separated
from the side, with an enormous mass beneath it, and went rushing down,
leaving a jagged curve, as if the piece had been bitten out, just below
the lad's feet.

Vince did not stir even to feel for a place to plant his hands, but
remained motionless for some moments. Then there was a dull splash
echoed from the barrier rock which shut-in the cove, and the rushing
sound of wings, as the startled birds rose in clouds from their
resting-places all around.

At last the full sense of his perilous position came to the boy, and
with it his coolness; and he grasped the rock as well as he could, and
called up to his companion.

"Grip hard, Ladle!" he cried. "I'm going to try and turn face to you."

There was no reply; bu