ll have been killed on the rocks. But oh! I say
Cinder, don't talk about it."

The boy's face grew convulsed, and he looked so horrified that Vince
cried eagerly--

"Here, I say, don't take it like that. It was not so bad as we thought.
It wouldn't have happened if you'd held tight instead of blundering on
to me."

"Let's talk about something else," said Mike, trying to master his
feelings.

"All right. About that cove. You see the water comes rushing in at one
side and goes out at the other, and I daresay when the tide turns it
goes the other way. I should like to get right down to it, so as to see
the water close to."

Mike shuddered. "You won't try again, will you?" he said.

"Try again? Yes. Why not? Why, we might come a million times and
never slip again."

"Yes," said Mike, but rather shrinkingly. "Shall we go back home now?"

"No; not till we've had another good look down at the place. Here--hi!
you be off, or next time we come we'll bring a gun."

_Croak_! said the raven, and it took flight--not, however, at the words,
but from the cap sent skimming up at it where it perched watching them.

"Come on," cried Vince; and his companion sprang up as if ashamed of his
weakness.

Then together they climbed back to the scene of their adventure, and had
a good look down at the shut-in cove, calmly reconnoitring the danger
through which one of them had passed; and, after gazing long at the
entrance and place of exit of the tides, they climbed along the ridge
for some distance to the right, and then back and away to the left, but
they could see nothing more--nothing but the rock-bound bay shut-in from
the sea, and whose shore, if there was any, remained hidden from their
sight by the projecting edge of cliff at the bottom of the slope below
them.

"There," said Vince at last,--"I know how I feel."

"So do I," said Mike: "that we've had all our trouble for nothing."

"No, I don't; I feel as if I shan't be satisfied till I've been right
down there and seen what it's like."

"But we can't get there. Nobody could go in a boat."

"Perhaps not. We must climb down."

Mike suppressed a shudder. "Can't be done," he said.

"How do we know till we've looked right down over the edge?"

"Must bring a rope, then?"

"Of course, and one hold it while the other creeps to the edge and looks
over."

Mike nodded, and they began to retrace their steps, talking thoughtfully
as they went.

"Shall you