hat,' exclaimed Alan.

'If he has,' went on Marjorie, while Estelle and Georgie watched Alan
anxiously, 'what do you mean by "only one way of finding him?"'

'Well,' returned Alan, hesitating as if his mind were not quite made up,
'we know of no path up, so there is nothing for it except to climb the
cliff. I am sure I can do it, and who knows what I may find out?'

This proposal did not meet with favour from anybody. Marjorie declared
it was impossible, and too dangerous to try--the cliff was far too
steep. Alan and she could manage the boat quite well on a calm day. It
would be less of a risk.

Estelle suggested they should go as far into the cave as possible--for
Alan had told her that the end of it was above high-water mark--and
remain there till the tide went down. It would certainly be very horrid,
but it was better than going alone in the boat, or Alan trying to climb
those terrible cliffs.

All her cousins laughed.

'It will be hours and hours before the tide is low again,' said Alan.
'Everybody would think we had come to grief, and there would be a pretty
to-do. Aunt Betty would be wild, fancying you were lost. No, that will
not do. It must be the cliff, and nothing but the cliff.'

Without waiting for further discussion, he went slowly along the beach,
examining the great wall of rock. The other children followed,
frightened into silence by his determined face and the dangers of the
attempt. To Estelle there appeared to be no foothold possible in all
that broad, dark surface; but Alan's keen eyes were not long in
discovering a part which he might attack with some hope of success.

Pulling off his coat and tightening his belt, he took firm hold of the
only projecting piece of rock he could find, and drew himself up to the
first narrow ledge. There he paused to look back triumphantly, but such
a row of anxious faces were staring up at him that he called out,
impatiently, 'Now, do go and play. I am all right, and it is a jolly
good thing to have a place to stand upon. Don't look at me all the time.
You will make me nervous, and there will be an accident.'

But it was impossible for the other children to turn their eyes away as
he crept up and up, hoisting himself by strength of arm in one place,
seeking a foothold in another. Sometimes it appeared as if he were
hanging literally by his fingers, and the lookers-on shuddered in terror
lest he should fall. At other places he seemed to move along with more