hat he had seen and heard.

"H'm! then there was a vessel coming in last night, and old Ben was not
mistaken?" exclaimed Percival.

"No, he was not, and she is in a cove somewhere on the other side of the
rocks. I don't know how far up it goes, but there is one there. I could
not see the vessel either."

"We must try to find it, Jack."

"Yes, and we must get around these rocks. There is no way of getting to
the cove this way, unless we climb another high rock, and it is dangerous
and we might be seen also."

"Then let's look for another way."

They went back for a distance, and then began clambering over masses of
other rocks they came to, getting higher and higher, but at last coming to
a great mass of ledge rock, which rose sheer above their heads for twenty
feet without a single projection upon which they could rest their feet and
without a crevice where they might get a finger hold.

"There is no use trying to get up there, Jack," murmured Percival in
disgust. "A goat could not climb up there. Nothing without wings could
manage it, in fact."

"No, there is clearly no getting around this way, Dick. We shall have to
go back and try some other place. There is a vessel on the other side of
those rocks, but how to get a sight of her is the question. I think we
would better try to find the head of the cove."

They went back, therefore, to where they had tried to ascend the rocks,
and pushed on toward the interior of the island, finding the way
difficult, but at length getting clear of the rocks and after struggling
through a perfect jungle coming out upon one of the paths they had
themselves made in their explorations.

"Well, we know where we are now!" exclaimed Percival with considerable
satisfaction, "but we seem to be no nearer the head of the cove than
before. What are you going to do, Jack?"

"Look for the cove," said Jack tersely.

"All right, my boy, I am with you," said Dick with a chuckle, as if the
idea was a most amusing one.

"Seems funny, doesn't it?" said Jack, smiling. "Well, we have had a lot of
trouble, I admit, but you are not the one to give up when you undertake a
task, and you know that I do not like to."

"Not only that you don't like to, Jack, but that you don't do it."

They set out toward the shore again, determined to find the cove if it
were a possible thing, and looking for every possible clue to its
whereabouts, and plunging into what seemed the most impassable thickets in