ectrified at the sound of their voices above. They called
once or twice to the dead man, now buried many feet in sand, and of
course receiving no answer, we found they were preparing to let a man
down.

"Oh! Mother," said Oscar, "let us stone him well as he comes down, and
that will frighten him." "And let us hiss like snakes," said Felix,
"and he'll think he has got into a nest of big snakes." "Capital," said
Gatty, "it will be glorious fun." "No, we must shoot him," said
Schillie. "No, no, little Mother, do let us stone him, and hiss him
out," said all the little ones, and they ran to collect stones.

"Indeed, Schillie, I think the children's idea a very good one. If he is
well stoned he won't come down, and if we hiss they will certainly think
us snakes and, being already fearful about them, who knows but the fear
of their being in the caverns of the island may drive them all away."

_Schillie._--"Did ever any one hear of anything so silly. As if a man
with an ounce of brains would be taken in by such a child's trick as
this."

_Oscar._--"Then keep the guns ready, cousin, and you and I will have a
shot at him if necessary."

"Agreed," said she. "Now make haste, every one hide in different
corners; he is coming down."

Most of this conversation was, of course, in whispers. Gatty was to give
the signal for the stoning operations by her most accomplished hiss.

A sudden burst of daylight; he was cutting the brushwood away to
investigate as far as he could before descending. We were all like
silent mice. Three hairy faces peered down. We shivered, and picked up
the biggest stones. Now then he is coming, they say all right in
Spanish, and he requests they will let him down very slowly. Now we see
his legs, now his body, now the whole of him. Why does not Gatty give
the signal? Lower and lower, I must hiss in a minute if she does not; at
last he is fairly half way down. A great hiss, a perfect hurricane of
hisses ensues, and a shower of stones aimed with such right goodwill
that the man roared again. In their start and alarm above they had let
him slip down suddenly a few feet, but his violent cries and entreaties
to be drawn up were quickly attended to, and, amidst incessant hitting,
and such a volley of stones that I do not think one inch of his body
escaped a bruise, he disappeared from our sight.

We heard him groaning and moaning above, while the others questioned
him. He was too much stunned however to say a