crept down cautiously, and told Ching all I had seen; whereupon he
nodded his head sagely, and placed his lips to my ear.

"Plenty big stone," he whispered. "Plenty sand; velly quiet; 'top up
hole."

I shrank from making any movement, but, softly and silently, Ching crept
nearly to the opening by which we had entered, and began moving the
fragments embedded in sand, which formed the flooring of our narrow
refuge, turning over peat shaley pieces, and laying them naturally
between us and the light, and, after planting each heavy piece, scooping
up the dry sand with both hands, and pouring it over the stone. Then
another piece and another followed, awkward bits so heavy that he could
hardly lift them; and, gaining courage, I let to as well, pulling blocks
from out of the sand where I knelt, and passing them to him.

He nodded his satisfaction, and we both worked on slowly and silently,
building up till the erection became a breast-work, rapidly growing
narrower as it rose higher; the sand poured in, filling up the
interstices and trickling down on the other side, thus giving our rugged
wall the appearance of being a natural heap, over which the dried sand
had been swept in by the storm.

I was in agony as we worked on, expecting moment by moment to hear a
stone fall, or a loud clap of one against another; but Ching worked in
perfect silence, while the busy chattering of the men without kept on,
and then by slow degrees grew more smothered as our wall arose; while as
it progressed our shelter grew more gloomy.

There was plenty of material to have made a wall ten times the size,
whereas, roughly speaking, ours was only about four feet in length from
the fallen rock to the base of the cliff, and sloped inward till, at
breast height, it was not more than two feet, and from there rapidly
diminished till Ching ceased, and breathing hard, and wet with
perspiration, he whispered to me--

"No leach no higher; can'tee find now."

It was so dark that we could only just see each other's faces, but in a
short time we became so accustomed to the gloom, that we could watch the
changes in Tom Jecks' countenance as he lay sleeping, by the faint rays
which stole in over the top of our cavern, and through the tuft of
herbage which grew high up at the other end. But the heat was terrible
in so confined a space, and, exhausted as I was with lifting stones and
scooping up sand, there were moments when everything appeared dreamy and