."

"Just as if it was likely I should risk it, with my clothes on!" said
Vince scornfully. "Do you suppose I want a soaking? I think, you know,
that if I get along there I shall be able to hold on and look up at this
part of the cliffs. 'Tis a pity there isn't a narrow shore, so that you
could walk right round."

"Well, take care," said Mike. "Mind, I'm not coming in after you, to
get wet."

Vince laughed, and, picking his way, he stepped from stone to stone,
till he was only a short distance from the massive wall of the buttress,
and not far from where the sun shone upon the water.

"Why, it's as shallow as shallow!" he cried. "I thought it was, it
looked so pale and green. I don't believe it's a foot deep, and it's
all sand, just like a garden walk; you can wade right out here, Mike,
and round by the corner, and I dare say all round the cove like this."

"Oh, do mind!" cried Mike.

"Of course I'll mind. Don't suppose I want to drown myself, do you?
What are you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid."

"Yes, you are. You keep thinking of old Joe's nonsense about the place
being full of water bogies and things, when all the time there's nothing
but some dangerous rocks, and the sharp eddies and currents. Why, I
haven't even seen a fish!"

"Well, I have," said Mike. "I can see the mullet lying down here in the
still black water, so thick that they almost touch one another."

"You can? Well, I'll come and have a look presently. Here goes for a
wade."

Vince gave the bottoms of his trousers an extra roll, so as to get them
as high as possible above his knees, and leaning forward from where he
stood upon a detached block of stone, he rested his hands upon the side
of the great buttress, and lowered one foot into the water over ankle,
calf, and knee; and then he uttered a cry, and nearly went headlong, but
making a violent effort, he wrenched himself back, thrusting the rock
with all his might, and came down in a sitting position upon the great
stone.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

LOST IN THE DARKNESS.

"What was it?" cried Mike excitedly: "something get hold of your leg?"

"No," replied the boy, with a shiver, as his face turned clayey-looking.
"Yes."

"What was it--crab or a conger?"

"Something ever so much worse," said Vince, with a shiver. "It looks
quite hard down there, and all as tempting as can be; but it's loose
quicksand, and my foot went down into it just as if it was so much
sticky oil. The