a grand place for a hut," he said to himself. "Of course we
could not put it on the rock, for we might be swept away by a sudden
flood, and besides there would be no shade. But just inside the edge of
trees we should do splendidly."

He found, in fact, that at a distance of twenty yards from the edge of the
bare rock it was but the same distance from the edge of the pool to the
brow of the cliff.

"We could only be attacked on one side here," he said. "And though we
could not cut down the trees, we might make a defence with creepers twined
in and out among the trunks that would be quite sufficient against a
sudden attack; and with such a store of muskets as we have got we might
keep a whole tribe at bay. The question is how to get the casks and things
up here."

Going to the edge he found that one of the trees had a large arm
overhanging the cliff.

"By fixing a block there," he said, "we might bring them up from below
without difficulty."

Looking over, he shouted to the two men below.

"I have found a place here," he said, "where we can make ourselves very
comfortable, and with a little labour defend ourselves from any number of
savages."

"How can we get the things up?" the captain shouted back.

"Easily enough. We have but to fix a block to the arm of this tree over my
head, and we can then run them up without difficulty. Come up, captain.
You will see at once the advantages of the position."

In a quarter of an hour the Peruvian captain joined him, and, when Stephen
explained his plan, agreed that it was a good one.

"As you say," he said, "we can only be attacked along this narrow place,
and we could strengthen it so that they would hardly venture to try it."
He broke off suddenly. "There are two cases of swords in the hold. I never
thought of them before. They might not be much good for cutting trees, but
they would do for chopping down bushes, and especially those long
creepers, which, being as tough as cables, would blunt our knives in no
time. If I remember rightly, the cases were stowed just under the barrels
of ammunition we got out, so there won't be much trouble in getting at
them."

"That would be first-rate," Stephen said. "As there is nothing to do now,
we had better go back to the ship, and get one of the cases out at once.
When we have done that we can begin the work of rolling the barrels along
the sand to the stream."

"It will be terrible work getting them to the foot of the cliff,"