small, and so utterly inadequate to sustain the substantial spars about
me, that, quite unconsciously, I found myself moving with the utmost
precaution, lest my additional weight should capsize the ship."

"Yes," assented Earle. "I guess that was something like what I felt,
except that, in my case, I was convinced I should never be able to get
back to safety. Nevertheless, here I am, safe and sound. And now the
question arises: How are we going to get down into that valley? So far
as I can see the cliffs are everywhere vertical, like this one; yet
there must be a way down somewhere; else how did the inhabitants of the
city get there?"

"Oh yes, of course there is a way down, somewhere," agreed Dick. "We'd
better camp, hadn't we, and pursue our usual tactics, you going one way,
and I the other, exploring?"

"Yes," assented Earle. "But we won't camp just here, thank you. I
should be afraid that some of us would go sliding over that cliff edge
before we knew it. We will go along yonder, to the eastward, a bit.
The ground looks less steep in that direction, and probably we shall
find a suitable camping place before long."

They did, about a mile and a half to the eastward; and the camp having
been pitched, Earle accompanied by Inaguy, set off in one direction,
while Dick, accompanied by another Indian, named Moquit, went in the
other, in search of a practicable route down to the plain and the shore
of the lake, the two white men taking their rifles, as usual, and each
carrying a pair of powerful binoculars slung over his shoulder.

The way taken by Dick led him back along the edge of the cliff by the
route which they had traversed shortly before; and having reached the
spot where Earle had taken his thrilling peep down into the abyss, the
young man continued on, eventually entering a fir wood, through which he
passed, bagging two brace of a species of pheasant as he went. Emerging
from the wood, which was about a mile long, he found himself approaching
a spot where the cliff seemed to dip somewhat, and halting for a moment
to reconnoitre the prospect through his field-glasses, he became aware
of the fact that work in the valley had begun for the day; for he
observed smoke issuing from the chimneys of a number of detached
buildings which he took to be farmhouses; while, studying the scene more
intently, he was presently able to pick out the forms of numerous people
apparently engaged in tilling the wide fields