the other,
according to what we believed at the moment to be most pressing. And
this state of affairs prevailed with us until we had salved everything
possible from the wreck, and until we had built our catamaran; after
which we felt that we might with advantage adopt some sort of system in
the arrangement of our work.

Now among a number of the things that we desired to do, but had
postponed in favour of other matters, which had seemed more pressingly
urgent, was the exploration of our cave. This cave was situated only
some thirty yards from the beach, in North Bay, in the heart of a
steeply rising acclivity which gradually merged itself in the plateau
constituting the western extremity of the island. It was only by the
merest accident that we had discovered the existence of the cavern on
that day when we undertook the exploration of the island--although there
is no doubt that we should have found it sooner or later--for the
entrance was so small that only one person could pass through at a time,
and even then only in a crouching position; and it was this latter
circumstance which at first so strongly commended the place to us as a
residence, for it was in fact quite a stronghold in its way, being
capable of defence for a practically unlimited period by a single armed
man. Once past that low and narrow opening, however, one found oneself
in quite a spacious chamber of roughly circular shape, some thirty feet
in diameter by about twelve feet high, with a perfectly smooth, dry,
sandy floor, rendering the cave a most comfortable place of abode, as we
discovered when we had taken up our quarters in it.

Thereafter we had all been so strenuously busy that, with the exception
of Cunningham, we had used the cave merely as a sleeping place; while
the engineer, absorbed in his drawings and calculations, had never
thought of exploring the cave and examining its extent, resting
satisfied with the knowledge that the place was amply large enough for
all our requirements, while the situation of the island rendered the
presence of wild animals or noxious reptiles within it an impossibility.
And so, absorbed in our various occupations, we had allowed the matter
to go on from day to day, recognising, in an abstract sort of fashion,
the fact that it would be no more than an act of common prudence to
examine the cavern, but daily postponing the examination until a more
convenient season. Thus the matter had been allowed to slide un