gs down here."

"Don't you be afraid of that," said Mike. "Hi, look! There's a shoal
of fish out there. Mackerel, I think."

"Oh, the place teems with fish, I'm sure," said Vince, as he watched the
shimmering of the surface just in a smooth patch beyond where the sea
was troubled. "Now, then, shall we go and look at the other place
before we go back?"

"Yes," said Mike, but his tone suggesting no. "I feel as if I could sit
down in the sand and look out at the sea and the birds on the rocks
there opposite for ever."

"Without getting hungry, I suppose," said Vince. "Come on. It won't be
long before we come down again. I say, Ladle, what a place to come to
on wet days!"

"Splendid; and I shan't be satisfied till you and I have sailed round
here to see if there isn't a way of getting into the bay with a boat."

"We might; but I daresay there isn't. Very likely it's such a race and
so full of rocks that we should be upset directly. Come on."

They went down and peered through the low arch into the narrow way
between the rocks, and onward into the other chamber, which looked black
and dark to them as they entered from the well-lit outer cavern. But in
a few minutes their eyes were accustomed to the gloom, and the place
seemed filled with a soft, pearly light which impressed Mike, who was
the poetical lad of the pair.

"I say," he said softly, "isn't this one beautiful?"

"Not half so beautiful as the other," said Vince bluntly.

"Oh yes, it is so soft and grey. It's just as if it was the inside of a
great oyster-shell."

"And you were a pearl," cried Vince, laughing. "Never mind; it is very
jolly, though, and if ever we slept here this place would do for
bedroom, but I don't think that's very likely. Well, I suppose we'd
better go. We've been here a precious long time, and I shall be late
for tea."

"Never mind: come home and have tea with me. I don't feel in much of a
hurry to go up through that black hole."

"We shan't mind it if it hasn't tumbled in since we came, and shut us
up."

"I say, don't!" cried Mike, with a look of horror. "That might be true,
you know."

"Yes; but pigs might fly," cried Vince, laughing. "I say, what a chap
you are to take fright! Puzzle a stone place like that to tumble in. A
few bits might come off the roof, but even then we could crawl over
them, for they must leave a hole where they come from. Ready?"

"Yes," said Mike unwillingly, and they walked to