fty feet above the bottom; and Spanish curiosity doesn't go in much
where it cannot walk.

Now laddering such caves from below would have been cumbersome, but a
light knotted rope is easily carried, and though it would have been hard
to climb up this, our plan was to descend on each cave mouth from above,
and then slip down to the foot of the cliffs, and start again AB INITIO
for the next.

Coppinger is plucky enough, and he has a good head on a height, but
there is no getting over the fact that he is portly and nearer fifty
than forty-five. So you can see he must have been pretty keen. Of course
I went first each time, and got into the cave mouth, and did what I
could to help him in; but when you have to walk down a vertical cliff
face fly-fashion, with only a thin bootlace of a rope for support, it
is not much real help the man below can give, except offer you his best
wishes.

I wanted to save him as much as I could, and as the first three caves
I climbed to were small and empty, seeming to be merely store-places,
I asked him to take them for granted, and save himself the rest. But
he insisted on clambering down to each one in person, and as he decided
that one of my granaries was a prison, and another a pot-making factory,
and another a schoolroom for young priests, he naturally said he hadn't
much reliance on my judgment, and would have to go through the whole
lot himself. You know what these thorough-going archaeologists are for
imagination.

But as the day went on, and the sun rose higher, Coppinger began clearly
to have had enough of it, though he was very game, and insisted on going
on much longer than was safe. I must say I didn't like it. You see
the drop was seldom less than eighty feet from the top of the cliffs.
However, at last he was forced to give it up. I suggested marching off
to Santa Brigida forthwith, but he wouldn't do that. There were three
more cave-openings to be looked into, and if I wouldn't do them for him,
he would have to make another effort to get there himself. He tried to
make out he was conferring a very great favour on me by offering to take
a report solely from my untrained observation, but I flatly refused to
look at it in that light. I was pretty tired also; I was soaked with
perspiration from the heat; my head ached from the violence of the sun;
and my hands were cut raw with the rope.

Coppinger might be tired, but he was still enthusiastic. He tried to
make me enthusiastic