y or slit behind some tall stones piled right above
it, and shutting it from the sight of anyone walking by. In fact, we
had missed it as we came.

"That might be a good place," said Bigley; "but it wouldn't be safe to
try, for perhaps the sea fills it right up every tide."

We went on back, looking eagerly upwards, and stumbling over the stones
that strewed our path, till we met my father and Bob Chowne.

"Well," said my father, in his short stern way, as if he were addressing
his sailors on board ship. "Report!"

"No way up to the top, sir," said Bigley.

"No, father, none," I said.

"No way?" said my father, and he frowned severely; "and there is no way
up whatever at our end. Boys, we shall have to venture out, and swim
round the point."

Bob Chowne shuddered, and I felt a curious sensation of dread creeping
over me which I tried to shake off.

"But there seems to be a way up to a shelf of rock, father," I said;
"close there by the point."

"Ah!" he cried.

"But no higher."

"Never mind," he said sharply. "Go on first. Quick!"

It was quite necessary to be quick, for the water was already lapping
among the stones at the foot of the chink and mounting fast.

"Yes, I see," said my father. "There! Lose no time. Up with you,
Uggleston. You next, Chowne. Climb your best, boys, and help one
another."

The climb was awkward and steep, but possible, and by one giving another
a back and then crouching on some ledge and holding down his hand to the
others, we got on up and up, till the big ledge was reached, and proved
to be some twenty feet long by about nine broad in the middle, but going
off to nothing at either end, while it went in right under a tremendous
projecting portion of the cliff, that looked as if it would crumble down
and crush us at any moment.

"Hah!" ejaculated my father breathlessly, as he partly dragged himself
up, and was partly dragged by us on to the shelf. "What a place! Why,
we must be at least eighty feet above the shingle."

"As much as that, father?"

"Yes, my boy; so mind all of you. No rolling off. Now, then, is there
any other way of getting higher, and so on to the slope?"

A very few minutes' examination satisfied him that there was none.

"No; only a fly could get up there, boys," he said merrily. "Well, we
are safe and quite comfortable. This will be another adventure for you.
Why, my lads, I shall never have the heart to scold you for getting
into sc