e a
human foot last disturbed the solitude.

A few vigorous blows with the stick cleared away obstructing plants and
leafy branches. The sailor stooped and looked into the cavern, for the
opening was barely five feet high. He perceived instantly that the
excavation was man's handiwork, applied to a fault in the hard rock. A
sort of natural shaft existed, and this had been extended by manual
labor. Beyond the entrance the cave became more lofty. Owing to its
position with reference to the sun at that hour Jenks imagined that
sufficient light would be obtainable when the tropical luxuriance of
foliage outside was dispensed with.

At present the interior was dark. With the stick he tapped the walls
and roof. A startled cluck and the rush of wings heralded the flight of
two birds, alarmed by the noise. Soon his eyes, more accustomed to the
gloom, made out that the place was about thirty feet deep, ten feet
wide in the center, and seven or eight feet high.

At the further end was a collection of objects inviting prompt
attention. Each moment he could see with greater distinctness. Kneeling
on one side of the little pile he discerned that on a large stone,
serving as a rude bench, were some tin utensils, some knives, a
sextant, and a quantity of empty cartridge cases. Between the stone and
what a miner terms the "face" of the rock was a four-foot space. Here,
half imbedded in the sand which covered the floor, were two pickaxes, a
shovel, a sledge-hammer, a fine timber-felling axe, and three crowbars.

In the darkest corner of the cave's extremity the "wall" appeared to be
very smooth. He prodded with the stick, and there was a sharp clang of
tin. He discovered six square kerosene-oil cases carefully stacked up.
Three were empty, one seemed to be half full, and the contents of two
were untouched. With almost feverish haste he ascertained that the
half-filled tin did really contain oil.

"What a find!" he ejaculated aloud. Another pair of birds dashed from a
ledge near the roof.

"Confound you!" shouted the sailor. He sprang back and whacked the
walls viciously, but all the feathered intruders had gone.

So far as he could judge the cave harbored no further surprises.
Returning towards the exit his boots dislodged more empty cartridges
from the sand. They were shells adapted to a revolver of heavy caliber.
At a short distance from the doorway they were present in dozens.

"The remnants of a fight," he thought. "The man