ke. You'd better not--but it looked--nay, you really
_mustn't_, Eric," he said, and, as if accidentally, he let the telescope
fall into the water, and they saw it sink down among the seaweeds at the
bottom.
Eric looked at him reproachfully. "What's the fun of that, Monty? you
let it drop on purpose."
"Oh, never mind; I'll get Wildney another. I really daren't let you
look, for fear you should _fancy_ the same as I did, for it must be
fancy. Oh, _don't_ let us put in there--at least not all of us."
What _was_ that thing in the water?
When Wright and Vernon left the others, they walked along the coast,
following the direction of the boat, and agreed to amuse themselves in
collecting eggs. They were very successful, and, to their great
delight, managed to secure some rather rare specimens. When they had
tired themselves with this pursuit, they lay on the summit of one of the
cliffs which formed the sides of Avon Glen, and Wright, who was very
fond of poetry, read Vernon a canto of _Marmion_ with great enthusiasm.
So they wiled away the morning, and when the canto was over, Vernon took
a great stone and rolled it for amusement over the cliff's edge. It
thundered over the side, bounding down till it reached the strand, and a
large black cormorant, startled by the reverberating echoes, rose up
suddenly, and flapped its way with protruded neck to a rock on the
farther side of the little bay.
"I bet you that animal's got a nest somewhere near here," said Vernon
eagerly. "Come, let's have a look for it; a cormorant's egg would be a
jolly addition to our collection."
They got up, and looking down the face of the cliff saw, some eight feet
below them, a projection half hidden by the branch of a tree, on which
the scattered pieces of stick clearly showed the existence of a rude
nest. They could not, however, see whether it contained eggs or no.
"I must bag that nest; it's pretty sure to have eggs in it," said
Vernon, "and I can get at it easy enough."
He immediately began to descend towards the place where the nest was
built, but he found it harder than he expected.
"Hallo," he said, "this is a failure. I must climb up again to
reconnoitre if there isn't a better dodge for getting at it."
He reached the top, and, looking down, saw a plan of reaching the ledge
which promised more hope of success.
"You'd better give it up, Verny," said Wright. "I'm sure it's harder
than we fancied. _I_ couldn't m
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