east itself!"

"My dear Phil," remonstrated Dick, "are you talking to yourself or to
me? Because, if the latter, let me remind you that I don't in the least
understand what you are referring to."

"No," laughed Stukely, "of course you don't. But all in good time,
friend; hurry no man's cattle. Thou wilt understand when I explain.
Know, then, O most matter-of-fact Dick, that I have this day seen a
sight--or two sights, to be strictly truthful--that will cause thee to
open thine eyes in amazement. The first of them is, as I have already
said, a cliff pictured all over its face with strange and wonderful
sculptures, which doubtless tell a story if one had but the wit to read
them; and that reminds me that we ought to take the ancient along with
us when we go to see them to-morrow; he may be able to interpret their
meaning to us. Now, among those pictures there is one depicting--as I
read it--a man being thrown to a huge and monstrous beast; and inside a
cave in that same cliff I not only found the beast himself, but narrowly
escaped being devoured by him. Fortunately for me, there happened to be
a hole in the rock big enough for me to enter, but not big enough for
him; and when he would fain have followed me his head got stuck fast in
the opening, in which position, he being at my mercy, I drove an arrow
into his left eye, and escaped while he was endeavouring to free himself
therefrom. But we must all go together to-morrow, Dick, and see these
wonders; for they are worth seeing, I warrant thee."

Dick Chichester, however, was not to be satisfied with any such bald and
incomplete statement as the foregoing, and accordingly, when they sat
down, an hour later, to take their last meal for the day, Stukely gave a
full, true, and particular account of his entire afternoon's adventure;
and it was agreed, then and there, that the first business of the
following day should be a visit to the sculptured rocks and the slaying
of the strange and monstrous beast.

Accordingly, on the following morning, immediately after an early
breakfast, the trio set out, arriving in due course at the glade which
lay at the foot of the cliff. As usual, they approached the open space
with the utmost precaution, and were thus enabled to secure an antelope,
one of a small herd that happened to be grazing there at the moment of
their arrival. They killed the creature, not because they required it
for food, but because Phil was of opinion that