where the cave had been, and, bidding Flora to
sit down and rest while he further investigated, he began to grope about
here and there among the confused mass of rocks, studying them intently
as he did so. For upwards of two hours Leslie searched and toiled in
vain; but at length he came upon a piece of rock face that seemed
familiar to him, and upon removing a number of blocks of splintered rock
he disclosed a small hole, creeping into which he found himself once
more, to his infinite joy, in the treasure-cave, with the treasure safe
within it. He stayed but long enough to satisfy himself that everything
was as he had left it, and then, emerging once more into the open
daylight, he carefully masked the entrance again by placing the blocks
very much as he had found them.

Pretty thoroughly fatigued by this time, he made his way to the spot
where Flora was seated, and acquainted her with his success, while she
unpacked the luncheon and spread it out invitingly upon the surface of
the rock. This rock upon which they were seated occupied a somewhat
commanding position, from the summit of which a fairly extended view of
the surrounding country was to be obtained; and it was while the pair
were leisurely eating their midday meal that Dick's eye suddenly caught
the glint of water at no great distance. Now, he knew that when he was
last on the spot there was no water anywhere nearer than the open ocean;
yet this, as he saw it through the interlacing boughs and trunks of the
trees, flickered with the suggestion of a surface agitated by an
incoming swell. As soon, therefore, as they had finished their lunch,
the pair made their way in the direction of this appearance of water;
and after about ten minutes of easy walking found themselves standing
upon the brink of a kind of "sink" or basin about a quarter of a mile in
diameter, having a narrow opening communicating with the open sea. It
was a strange-looking place, presenting an appearance suggestive of a
vast hollow under the coast-line having fallen in and swallowed up a
circular piece of the island, leaving two rocky headlands standing, the
southern headland slightly overlapping the northern one and thus
completely masking the basin or cove from the sea. The surrounding
cliffs were about a hundred feet high, composed entirely of rock, and
presenting an almost vertical face; but so rough and broken was this
face, and so numerous were the projections, that not only Dick b