nd staircase, is of panelled oak. The thickness of
this partition is just sufficient to contain the bookcase; also a
cleverly contrived bedstead, which can be folded up during the day out
of sight. There is also a small cupboard of oak, which serves the
double purpose of affording shelf accommodation and concealing the iron
smoke-pipe which rises from the kitchen, and, passing through the
several storeys, projects a few feet above the lantern. The centre
window is ornamented with marble sides and top, and above it stands a
marble bust of Robert Stevenson, the engineer of the building, with a
marble slab below bearing testimony to the skill and energy with which
he had planned and executed the work.

If not precisely what we have described it to be at the present time,
the library must have been somewhat similar on that morning when our
hero issued from it and descended to the rock.

The first stair landed him at the entrance to the sleeping-berths. He
looked into one, and observed Forsyth's head and arms lying in the bed,
in that peculiarly negligent style that betokens deep and sweet repose.
Dumsby's rest was equally sound in the next berth. This fact did not
require proof by ocular demonstration; his nose announced it sonorously
over the whole building.

Passing to the kitchen, immediately below, Ruby found his old messmate,
Jamie Dove, busy in the preparation of breakfast.

"Ha! Ruby, good mornin'; you keep up your early habits, I see. Can't
shake yer paw, lad, 'cause I'm up to the elbows in grease, not to speak
o' sutt an' ashes."

"When did you learn to cook, Jamie?" said Ruby, laughing.

"When I came here. You see we've all got to take it turn and turn
about, and it's wonderful how soon a feller gets used to it. I'm rather
fond of it, d'ye know? We haven't overmuch to work on in the way o'
variety, to be sure, but what we have there's lots of it, an' it gives
us occasion to exercise our wits to invent somethin' new. It's
wonderful what can be done with fresh beef, cabbage, carrots, potatoes,
flour, tea, bread, mustard, sugar, pepper, an' the like, if ye've got a
talent that way."

"You've got it all off by heart, I see," said Ruby.

"True, boy, but it's not so easy to get it all off yer stomach
sometimes. What with confinement and want of exercise we was troubled
with indigestion at first, but we're used to it now, and I have acquired
quite a fancy for cooking. No doubt you'll hear Forsyth an