e
cliff. Permit me, mademoiselle. I am acquainted with each step."

He took her hand. Philip followed. He was young enough to long for an
opportunity to tell San Benavides that he was a puppy, a mongrel puppy.
Just then he would have given a gun-metal case, filled with cigars--the
only treasure he possessed--for a Portuguese dictionary.

After a really difficult and hazardous descent, they found the others
awaiting them in a rock-shrouded cove. The barest standing-room was
afforded by a patch of shingle and detritus. Alongside a flat stone
lay three broad planks tied together with cowhide. The center plank
was turned up at one end. This was the catamaran, which de Sylva had
dignified by the name of boat. The primitive craft rested in a black
pool in which the stars trembled, though they were hardly visible as
yet in the brighter sky. The water murmured in response to the
movement of the tide, but to the unaided eye there was no vestige of a
passage through the volcanic barrier that reared itself on every hand.

"Were 'ave you bin?" growled Coke. "We've lost a good ten minnits.
You ought to 'ave known, Hozier, that it's darkest just after sunset."

"We could not have started sooner, sir."

"W'y not? We were kep' waitin' up there, searchin' for you."

"That was our best slice of luck to-day. Had any of you appeared on
the ledge you would have been seen from the launch."

"Wot launch?"

"The launch that visited us this morning. Ten minutes ago she was
standing by at the foot of the rock."

Philip spoke slowly and clearly. He meant his news to strike home. As
he anticipated, De Sylva broke in.

"You _saw_ it?" he asked, and his deep voice vibrated with dismay.

"Yes. I even made out, by actions rather than words, that the darkness
alone prevented the soldiers from coming here to-night. The skipper
would not risk it."

De Sylva said something under his breath. He spoke rapidly to San
Benavides, and the latter seemed to be cowed, for his reply was brief.
Then the ex-President reverted to English.

"I have decided to send Marcel and Domingo ashore first," he said.
"They will select the safest place for a landing. Marcel will bring
back the catamaran, and take off Mr. Hozier and the young lady.
Captain Coke and I will follow, and the others in such order as Senhor
Benavides thinks fit. The catamaran will only hold three with safety,
but Marcel believes he can find another for Domingo. Rememb