ng
birds.

"We'll have to get around behind," said Rob; "nobody could climb up on
this side, that's sure."

Scrambling over the loose rocks, left wet and slippery by the tide, they
passed to the rear of these pillars, first having made fast the dory so
that it could not be carried away. In the pools of sea-water they found
many strange shells and several specimens of the squid, or cuttle-fish,
upon which Skookie fell gleefully. He and his people are fond of this
creature as an article of food; but its loathsome look turned the others
against it, so that with reluctance he was forced to throw them away
again.

At the back of the largest of these rock pinnacles they stood in
hesitation for a moment, for the ascent seemed hard enough. At last,
however, Rob found a sort of cleft or large crack, which seemed to lead
up toward the top, and whose rough sides seemed to give foothold
sufficient for a bold climber. "Here we go, fellows!" he said, and so
started on up, hand over hand, the best he could. To their satisfaction,
however, they found the going not so hard as it had looked from below.
At the top, the sides of the cleft seemed to pinch together, so that in
some places they were obliged to climb as a chimney-sweep does, their
legs pressed across the open space; but as they were all out-of-door
boys and well used to Alaska mountain work, they went ahead fearlessly
and soon found themselves at the summit of the tower-like rock, whence
they had a splendid view of the bay and the surrounding country.
Startled by their presence, the sea-birds took wing in hundreds and
thousands, soaring around them, flapping almost in their faces, and
uttering wild, discordant cries. The boys fought these off as they began
to explore the top of the rock.

"Mostly little gulls here," said John, "and I never heard they were good
to eat. I don't like the look of these eggs, either. Looks as if we were
too late for a real good egg season."

"Well," said Rob, "anyhow, we have had a good climb and a good look over
the country. Now, what I propose to do is to see what there is lower
down on the face of the cliff. I'm sure there's a lot of sea-parrots
there, because I can see them flying in and out down below."

"Let me go down, Rob," said John. "I'm lighter than you are."

"No," said Jesse, "I think I ought to go down, because I am even lighter
than you, John, and Rob is stronger than either of us."

"I'll tell you how we'll fix that," said