nd the mine."

"I thought you had located it?"

"Yes, but it's a week's tramp from where we are at present, and we may
have some lively times before we arrive at the place."

It was nine o'clock at night when the party arrived at one of the most
peculiar natural retreats Desmond had ever seen. It was a cave, as we
will call it, in the side wall of a cliff rising from a gulch even more
wild and rugged than the one where the party had camped the previous
night. Some mighty convulsion of the mountain had separated the whole
front of the cliff from the main rock, so that a space of at least
twenty feet intervened, and between yawned a dark abyss that led down to
where no man had yet penetrated. Creedon led the way up along a ledge of
ascent which lined the outer edge of the great mass of detached cliff.
Once at the top he descended on the inner side. It was night, but he had
taken advantage of a mask lantern which he carried with him, and which
he said was the most useful article in his possession. He added:

"These lanterns may belong to the profession of detectives and burglars,
but I've found them the most useful articles a cliff-climber can own.
They are different from other lamps and torches; you can control the one
ray of light and indicate your path without any trouble whatever."

This was true, as the guide demonstrated, and his party walked along
the narrow ledge without any fear of being precipitated over; all it
required was a good eye and a steady nerve, and they possessed these
necessary qualifications.

The guide at length came to a halt, and said:

"You stand here and I'll get my bridge."

He proceeded along alone, but soon returned with two saplings, which he
had strung together, and of which he had made a rope ladder.

Desmond was greatly interested, and watched the guide as he threw his
ladder across the intervening abyss, and then he said:

"It will take a little nerve to crawl over, but once over we are all
safe, and I've got a storehouse over there. I prepared this place with a
great deal of patience and labor. We can spend two or three days here. I
know you will enjoy it, and we can take a good long rest. I will go over
first and then hold the light so you two can follow."

Desmond glanced at Brooks, and asked:

"Will you risk it?"

"Yes, I will, lad; I am not the fellow I was about six months ago; I can
climb a steeple now."

The guide went over, creeping across. The saplings bent unde