t down pretty easily. The tide is out, so
we have lots of time.'

'Can we really climb down there,' said Harry, as they came to where a
chasm opened in the line of cliff, with rough steps and ledges of rock
standing out in the riven walls. Not a bird was to be seen in the
gloomy crevasse; although the skuas and black-backed gulls were flying
about and clamouring before the face of the cliff.

'Come along,' said Allan on the first step. 'Are you a good climber,
Harry?'

'Pretty fair,' replied Harry, with a rather wild look in his eyes.
Gerald said nothing, but swung himself down with a serious countenance.

'If any one wants help, just sing out,' cried Allan, descending by the
rocky steps. 'Don't look down, and you'll be all right.'

'Take my hand, Gerald,' said Tricksy graciously to Gerald, who
hesitated at a perilous-looking gap.

Gerald flushed pink, and pretended not to have heard the offer of
assistance; and the two strangers braced themselves to their
unaccustomed feat.

The way led round the chasm and downward, sometimes approaching the
face of the cliff, where the inquisitive eyes and red bills of the
puffins peered out of the crevices, and whole rows of auks and
kittiwakes were thrown into violent agitation by the sight of the
intruders; and sometimes leading back to the dark interior of the
chasm. The place was full of echoes; the hollow boom of the breakers,
the swirling of water round half-submerged rocks, the hoarse cries of
the gulls and the shrill scream of the smaller sea-birds joining in an
uproar which made the air tremble. Many a time, during the descent, it
cost the new-comers an effort to avoid being overcome by dizziness.

At last Allan reached the last ledge, and swung himself to the ground;
Reggie and Marjorie followed; Tricksy came last, and the Grahams
dropped down with an air of relief.

'Well done for you,' said Allan approvingly; 'it's your first climb of
the kind, and you haven't shown an atom of funk.'

Gerald's cheeks became a little redder, and Harry bore himself with
greater self-consciousness.

'Only Hamish now,' said Allan, looking up at the cliff; 'how cautiously
the old fellow is coming down; he has the steadiest head of the lot of
us although he is so slow.'

'"Sleepy Hamish,"' remarked Harry to Gerald in an aside, repeating a
nickname which he had heard Allan use. Low as the words were spoken,
Marjorie heard them, and turned upon the boy like a flash.

'Some