ood, if they haven't found it."

"Could you eat now?" said Mike, with a look of horror.

"Eat? I could almost eat you," replied Vince.

"Ugh!" said Mike, with a shudder. "I feel so faint and sick and sinking
inside, I couldn't touch anything."

"Shouldn't like to trust you," said Vince, whom the bright sunshine and
the beauty of the place were influencing in his spirits. "But now,
then, let's have a good look this time."

They were going round swiftly enough, and noted the entrance to the
first low, arched cavern, which was some forty or fifty yards to the
westward of the seal hole; then they glided by the others in turn, and
tried hard to make out how the men had managed to thrust the big boat
through the running waters beyond that great beach and into the eddy
which bore them in the other direction.

"Do you see?" asked Mike.

"No, not yet; but perhaps I shall when we come round again. But, I say,
we can't keep on sailing round like this. We must land."

"But Jacques and his men, they won't be gone till to-night. You heard
what was said by old Joe?"

"Don't mention his name," cried Vince passionately. "I should like to
see the old wretch flogged."

"I should like to do it," said Mike grimly. "They'll come back and find
us here, for certain, if we don't hide," said Vince; "but I don't know
that I shall much mind now, for I'm afraid we shan't get away."

They glided round again, and in passing the spot where they believed the
exit to be, Vince fancied he detected an eddy among some rocks, but he
could not be sure; and at last they were once more approaching the
cavern, with its low arch, when Vince, who was watching the far end and
trying to fit together the means for getting away, suddenly snatched up
the boat-hook, thrust it out, and, leaning over the stern, caught hold
of a projecting rock, some two feet above the water. Then hauling hard,
hand over hand along the ash pole, he checked the progress of the boat
and drew it close in. Next, quick as lightning, he made another dash
with the hook and caught at another projection, missed, and, as the boat
was gliding back again, made another--a frantic--dash, and caught the
hook in a rift, while Mike thrust out an oar against a rock to help.

This time he drew the boat right up to the mouth of the new cavern, and
whispered sharply to his companion:

"Now--quick! help me run her in. Mind! duck down!"

Mike obeyed, and the boat glided in under the l