o them the following day, and the tools, wheelbarrow and the
cart had been drawn aside, clearing the space for action.

"Tomorrow, boys, we'll be bringing home _hi-yu_ gold!" Shane asserted
confidently at supper. "And before the end of the week we'll all have
enough to go anywhere we wish. Now that we are certain of plenty of
birds sure our hearts should be light as feathers--for a boat will
surely be along soon!"

On the Lookout that night Jean said good-night early to Harlan. As she
came down the hill to the cabin she stopped to look at the
wide-spreading ocean. The sun had gone down in a strange sea mist and
below her the waters heaved dim and vast and ghost-like in the
twilight. There was a hushed feeling in the air. It may have been
that she was more tired than usual, for when she slipped into her
little bunk she fell into a heavy sleep almost as soon as her head
touched the pillow.

It was Shane's incredulous shout that awakened her.

"Kayak! Come here!"

She could hear Kayak Bill moving quickly toward the door in the
living-room.

"Ellen, you come out, too!" It was evident that Shane was laboring
under an intense astonishment.

The girl clambered out of her bunk and flinging on a kimono, started
for the porch. Before she reached the door Kayak Bill's unbelieving
exclamation sounded:

"By--hell! The lake--" he paused in sheer leaden amazement. "The lake
is _gone_!"

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE CLEFT

On the porch all eyes were turned toward the south where the silver of
the little lake off Skeleton Rib had always glimmered through its
screen of alders. There was no friendly sparkle of water this morning,
and gone were the trees that bordered the shore nearest the beach.
Instead, a strange desolation, more noticeable because of the brilliant
sunshine, hung over the spot, which now showed a vague-reddish brown in
the distance. It had the sickening effect of an empty socket from
which the eye has been torn.

The bewildered look on Kayak's face was slowly changing to one of
enlightenment.

"Folks," he said quietly. "We're lucky to be alive this morning.
There's been a tidal wave!"

His eye was taking in the length of the beach that lay between the
cabin and the lake. There was a weird look of alteration about it, as
if a giant hand had tampered with it during the night. Piles of
drift-logs were stacked up far inland, and the vegetation on the banks
above the beach was flattened and i