hly painted sides of the
cutter from chafe against the rock.

Nicholls and Simpson betrayed the profoundest astonishment and
admiration at the singularly perfect adaptation of the cove to the
purposes of a harbour for small craft, and could scarcely be persuaded
to drag themselves away from the water's edge. But when at length they
had been induced to climb up the almost vertical face of the cliffs and
found themselves at the mouth of the treasure-cave, their wonder at what
they saw was greater than ever. They uttered loud exclamations of
astonishment when they were invited to lift one of the hide-bound gold
bricks, and felt the unexpected weight of it; but neither of them
appeared to have the remotest suspicion of the real nature of the stuff
they were handling, Nicholls merely commenting upon its excellence as
ballast, and lauding Leslie's wisdom in having decided to so use it
instead of those portions of the lead castings that he had rejected.
Indeed, both men appeared to regard the queer little black leather--
bound blocks as merely something especially suitable for ballast, and
taken by Dick for that purpose and reason alone; it was the massive,
ancient-looking, carved chests, with their elaborate binding of rusty
metal-work that they appeared to regard as the receptacles of the
"valuables" about the safety of which Leslie was so anxious.

They managed to get sixty of the gold bricks down aboard the cutter and
stowed under her cabin floor that same afternoon, and by the time that
they had accomplished this, the level rays of the declining sun warned
them that the moment had arrived when they ought to be starting upon
their march across country toward their camp.

The broken character of the country claimed a larger share of Leslie's
attention upon this occasion than when he had last visited the cave.
Perhaps it was because his mind was now more at rest than it had then
been--for the cutter that was at the former period merely a possibility,
was now an actuality; and, more than that, already carried a very
respectable little fortune snugly stowed away in her interior; or,
possibly--who can tell?--there may have been some vague, unsuspected
mental prevision that ere long an intimate knowledge of every detail of
those curiously shapeless earthquake upheavals would be of priceless
value to him. Be that as it may, he now looked about him with the eyes
of the warrior rather than the explorer, noting with astonishmen