ral
bridge to the main cliff, of which the foundation of the castle was the
vast slice, split away, most probably by some volcanic disturbance.
Masses of lava and scoria uncovered by the miners, from time to time,
showed that volcanic action had been rife there at one period;
additional suggestion that the said action had not yet died out, being
afforded by the springs of beautifully clear warm water, which bubbled
out in several places in the district.

As the lad crossed the bridge, thinking nothing of the giddy, profound
depths on either side, there being not the slightest protection in the
way of rail to the six-foot wide path, he shook back his brown hair,
thrust his hands in his pockets, and with the sheath of his sword
banging against his legs, started off along the first level place for a
run.

A looker-on would have wondered why he did this, and would have gazed
ahead to see what there was to induce him to make so wild a rush in a
dangerous place. But he would have seen nothing but rugged path,
tree-top, and the face of the cliff, and would not have grasped the fact
that the reason for the boy's wild dash was, that he was overcharged
with vitality, and that energy which makes a lad exert himself in that
natural spontaneous effort to get rid of some of the vital gas, flashing
along his nerves and bubbling through his veins.

"What a day!" he cried aloud. "How blue the sky is. Hallo! there they
go."

He stopped suddenly to watch a cavernous hole in the cliff, from which
half-a-dozen blue rock-pigeons had darted out, and as he watched, others
swooped by, and darted in.

The next minute he went on, followed the path, and turned a
buttress-like corner, which took him to the other side of the great
chine of limestone, which was here quite as precipitous, but clothed
with trees, which softened the asperities of nature, and hung from
shelf, crack, and chasm, to cast shadows down and down, right to where
the river flashed and sparkled in its rapid flow, or formed deep dark
pools, which reflected the face of the cliff in picture after picture.

"One never gets tired of this place," muttered the lad, as he began to
descend a zigzag path, worn in the face of the cliff, starting the
powdered-headed jackdaws from their breeding shelves and holes, and
sending the blackbirds chinking from out of the bushes which clung to
the grey precipice.

"That's where the brown owl's nest was," muttered the lad. "Bound to
say