h across my cheek.

"Did you feel that?" I said quickly.

"Feel what, Cob?"

"Something breathing against us?"

"No--yes!" he cried joyfully. "It was the wind."

The same touch came again, but stronger. There was light above our
heads. I could dimly see my companion, and then a cloud that looked
white and strange in the moonlight was gliding slowly away from us over
what seemed to be a vast black chasm whose edge was only a few yards
away.

It was wonderful how quickly that mist departed and went skimming away
into the distance, as if a great curtain were being drawn, leaving the
sky sparkling with stars and the moon shining bright and clear.

"You see now the danger from which you escaped?" said Uncle Bob with a
shudder.

"Yes," I said; "but did--do you think--"

He looked at me without answering, and just then there came from behind
us a loud "Ahoy!"

"Ahoy!" shouted back Uncle Bob; and as we turned in the direction of the
cry we could see Uncle Jack waving his white handkerchief to us, and we
were soon after by his side.

They gripped hands without a word as they met, and then after a short
silence Uncle Jack said:

"We had better get on and descend on the other, side."

"But Uncle Dick!" I cried impetuously; "are you not going to search for
Uncle Dick?"

The brothers turned upon me quite fiercely, but neither of them spoke;
and for the next hour we went stumbling on down the steep slope of the
great hill, trying to keep to the sheep-tracks, which showed pretty
plainly in the moonlight, but every now and then we went astray.

My uncles were wonderfully quiet, but they kept steadily on; and I did
not like to break their communings, and so trudged behind them, noting
that they kept as near as seemed practicable to the place where the
mountain ended in a precipice; and now after some walking I could look
back and see that the moon was shining full upon the face of the hill,
which looked grey and as if one end had been dug right away.

On we went silently and with a settled determined aim, about which no
one spoke, but perhaps thought all the more.

I know that I thought so much about the end of our quest that I kept
shuddering as I trudged on, with sore feet, feeling that in a short time
we should be turning sharp round to our left so as to get to the foot of
the great precipice, where the hill had been gnawed away by time, and
where the loose earth still kept shivering down.

It was as I ex