row
ledge before referred to, stretched out his hands, pressed himself flat
against the rock, let go the rope, and remained fast, like a fly
sticking to a wall.

This state of comparative safety he announced to his anxious friend
above by exclaiming,--"All right, _John--I've_ got the daws."

This statement was, however, not literally true, for it cost him several
minutes of slow and careful struggling to enable him so to fix his
person as to admit of his hands being used for "stroobing" purposes. At
length he gained the object of his ambition, and transferred the
horrified daws from their native home to his own warm but unnatural
bosom, in which he buttoned them up tight. A qualm now shot through
Maggot's heart, for he discovered that in his anxiety to secure the daws
he had let go the rope, which hung at a distance of full six feet from
him, and, of course, far beyond his reach.

"Hullo! John," he cried.

"Hullo!" shouted John in reply.

"I've got the _daws_," said Maggot, "but I've lost the _rope_!"

"Aw! my dear," gasped John; "have 'ee lost th' rope?"

It need scarcely be said that poor John Cock was dreadfully alarmed at
this, and that he eagerly tendered much useless advice--stretching his
neck the while as far as was safe over the cliff.

"I say, John," shouted Maggot again.

"Hullo!" answered John.

"I tell 'ee what: I'm goin' to jump for th' rope. If I do miss th'
rope, run thee round to Porth Ledden Cove, an' tak' my shoes weth 'ee;
I'll be theere before 'ee."

Having made this somewhat bold prediction, Maggot collected all his
energies, and sprang from his narrow perch into the air, with arms and
hands wildly extended. His effort was well and bravely made, but his
position had been too constrained, and his foothold too insecure, to
admit of a good jump. He missed the rope, and, with a loud cry, shot
like an arrow into the boiling flood below.

John Cock heard the cry and the plunge, and stood for nearly a minute
gazing in horror into Zawn Buzzangein. Presently he drew a deep sigh of
relief, for Maggot made his appearance, manfully buffeting the waves.
John watched him with anxiety while he swam out towards the sea, escaped
the perpendicular sides of the Zawn, towards which the breakers more
than once swept him, doubled the point, and turned in towards the cove.
The opposite cliffs of the gorge now shut the swimmer out from John's
view, so he drew another deep sigh, and picking up his com