could see
the black mass in the midst of the surging white waters at their feet.
The sailors had paused some way up the ascent, appalled by the
difficulties which the boys, lighter and more active, had
accomplished.

"Go up to the top again," Hawtry said, climbing back to them. "Bring
down one of those spars we brought down, a block, a long rope, and a
short one to serve as a guy. Get half-a-dozen more hands. You'd better
fix a rope at the top firmly, and use it to steady you as you return.
There's a ship ashore just underneath us, and I think we can get
down."

In a few minutes the sailors descended again, carrying with them a
spar some twenty feet long. With immense difficulty this was lowered
to the spot which the boys had reached. One of the sailors had brought
down a lantern, and by its light a block was lashed to the end, and a
long rope roved through it. Then a shorter rope was fastened to the
end as a guy, and the spar lowered out, till it sloped well over the
edge. The lower edge was wedged in between two rocks, and others piled
round it.

"Now," Dick said, "I will go down."

"You'll never get down alive, sir," one of the sailor said. "The wind
will dash you against the cliff. I'll try, sir, if you like; I'm
heavier."

"Let me go down with you," Jack said. "The two of us are heavier than
a man, and we shall have four legs to keep us off the cliff. Besides,
we can help each other down below."

"All right," Dick said. "Fasten us to the rope, Hardy. Make two loops
so that we shall hang face to face, and yet be separate, and give me a
short rope of two or three fathoms long, so that we can rope ourselves
together, and one hold on in case the other is washed off his feet
when we get down. Look here, Hardy, do you lie down and look over the
edge, and when you hear me yell, let them hoist away. Now for it!"

The boys were slung as Dick had ordered. "Lower away steadily," Dick
said. "Stop lowering if we yell."

In another minute the lads were swinging in space, some ten feet out
from the face of the cliff. For the first few yards they descended
steadily, and then, as the rope lengthened, the gusts of wind flung
them violently against the face of the cliff.

"Fend her off with your legs, Jack; that's the way. By Jove, that's a
ducking!" he said, as a mighty rush of spray enveloped them as a
mountainous sea struck the rock below. "I think we shall do it.
There's something black down below, I think some part