perpendicular wall, as
seen from a distance, all was broken up where the rock had split, and
huge masses had come thundering down in avalanches of stone. In fact,
in several places it seemed that an active man could climb up to where a
thin fringe of green turf rested upon the edge of the cliff; but this
did not satisfy Hilary, who felt convinced that such a place was not
likely to be chosen for the landing of a cargo.

No opening in the cliff being visible, he spread his men to search right
and left, but there was no sand here; all was rough shingle and broken
_debris_ from the cliff with massive weathered blocks standing up in all
directions, forming quite a maze, through which they threaded their way.

"There might be a regular cavern about somewhere big enough to hold a
dozen cargoes," thought Hilary, as he searched here and there, and then
sat down to rest for a few minutes, and wiped the perspiration from his
forehead, when it suddenly occurred to him that they had been hours away
from the cutter, and that if he did not soon make some discovery he had
better return.

"And I don't like to go back without having done something," he thought.
"Perhaps if we keep on looking we may make a find worth the trouble,
and--what's that?"

Nothing much; only a little bird that kept rising up from a patch of
wiry herbage at the foot of the cliff, jerking itself up some twenty or
thirty feet and then letting itself down as it twittered out a pleasant
little song.

Only a bird; but as he watched that bird, he did not know why, it
suddenly went out of sight some twenty feet or so up the rock, and while
he was wondering it came into sight again and fluttered downwards.

"Why, there must be a way through there," he cried, rising and gazing
intently at the face of the rock, but seeing nothing but yellowish
sandstone looking jagged and wild.

"No, there can't be," he muttered; "but I'll make sure."

Climbing over three or four large blocks, he lowered himself into a
narrow passage which seemed to run parallel with the cliff, but doubled
back directly, and in and out, and then stopped short at a perpendicular
mass some twenty feet high.

"Leads nowhere," he said, feeling very hot and tired, and, turning to go
back disappointed and panting, he took another look up at the lowering
face of the cliff to see now that a large portion was apparently split
away, but remained standing overlapping the main portion, and so like it
tha