cut up in the Dardanelles as
'filling' for bombs.]

[Illustration: Our gallant bluejackets cheered the return of the
triumphant submarine after her wonderful achievement.]

Roy drew a long breath.

'That was a bad bit,' he said. 'As bad as anything I ever struck. Don't
mind telling you now, Ken, that I was in a blue funk.'

'You didn't show it,' Ken answered rather breathlessly. 'If you had, I
believe I should have crocked.'

'You didn't, anyhow. That's the main thing. And I wouldn't ask a better
man to go climbing with. You kept your head, and did what you were told.
Well, now I think the worst is over. This looks like a regular fault in
the strata, and it ought to take us to the bottom.

Roy's judgment was correct. There were still some nasty places, but
nothing like what they had already tackled, and within another quarter of
an hour they had reached the bottom of the gorge.

A little stream ran down the centre, finding its way among piled masses of
fallen rock. On each side the cliffs towered so high that only a mere slit
of sky was visible. It was as wild and gloomy a spot as Ken had ever seen.

'I've seen better walking,' observed Roy, as a flat stone slipped under
his foot, and nearly pitched him over into the bed of the brook.

'It's better than that abominable cliff, anyhow,' returned Ken. 'But I'd
give something to know where we're going.'

'I can tell you. The sea. If we follow the stream we're bound to reach
salt water.'

'But where?' said Ken--'where? I don't know that I've got the points of
the compass very clear in my head, and there's no sun visible yet, but if
I'm not mistaken, this brook runs east, not west.'

Roy pulled up with a puzzled expression on his face.

'Pon my Sam, I believe you're right. In that case, this is the head waters
of some stream that runs out into the Straits.'

'That's my notion, and consequently we're still going plumb in the wrong
direction.'

'We can't help it,' said Roy. 'It's no use trying to climb up the far side
over the top of the hill.'

'Not a bit. The first thing to do is to get out of this gorge. After that
we must see if we can't skirt round the base of the hill, and get back
somehow.'

Roy nodded, and for some distance they continued on their uncomfortable
way in silence.

'Not much more of it,' said Roy at last. 'We're getting near the mouth
now.'

'And that's where our troubles are going to begin,' said Ken with a smile.
'It looks to me a