d then retraced his steps and followed the shore, but even that was
almost impassable. He worked his way slowly along, until all at once,
when he had climbed a ledge, he found himself looking down into what
seemed like a sunken lake surrounded by a wall, with a narrow opening on
the seaward side, and so still that not a ripple disturbed its surface.
Cautiously he crawled down to the edge and glanced about! The spot
seemed to fascinate him, and as he gazed at the irregular cliff wall
shutting him in, he felt he had descended into a den infested by evil
spirits!

Then he started around the shore of this harbor, avoiding the
weed-covered rocks, for the tide was low, and as he was slowly moving
along, he came suddenly upon a keg caught between two rocks, and just
above high-water mark. Its staves were warped and gaping, and when he
stooped to lift it they fell apart and disclosed another keg inside.
This he found was heavy, and as he stood it on end he discovered it was
filled with some liquid. For a moment he was dazed by the discovery,
and then he turned it around till he came to a piece of metal midway
between the rusted hoops, and this he pried off with his knife and found
it covered a small bung. Trembling with excitement at this mysterious
find, he hunted for a pointed stone, and with it drove the bung in, when
to his intense surprise he was saluted by the well-known odor of rum!

For an instant his heart almost stopped beating, as there flashed
through his mind all the vague tales of this island having been a
smuggler's hiding-place long before, and then he looked quickly about
him. Naught was visible save the frowning rock walls and the still cove.
Then he stooped again and inserted a finger in the keg and smelled and
then tasted! Rum it was, and no mistake, and the best he had ever
sipped! But what a find! And what a place to find it in! He looked about
him again. Crusoe, when he came upon the footprints in the sand, was not
more surprised than Manson at this moment.

Unconscious of the lapse of time, or where he was, or how he came there,
he gazed upon that harmless keg as if it held some ghastly secret
instead of rum! Where did it come from? Who brought it there? Why had
it been concealed in an outer shell? What did it all mean, and was he
about to make some horrible discovery? Once more he looked about, and
then in an instant, he found himself staring at a dark opening beneath
an overhanging shelf of rock not