were much disconcerted to observe how distinctly she could be seen upon
the surface of the starlit water by eyes which had become accustomed to
the surrounding gloom.

I should have been seriously apprehensive of almost instant discovery,
but for Rawlings's steady adherence to his original statement that no
one would ever approach the place after dusk upon any consideration. As
it was, I felt that the sooner Rawlings was once more on board and on
his way back to the ship, the easier should I be in my mind; I therefore
proposed that we should push ahead for the high road without further
pause.

The spot was indeed of a character calculated to impress with awe and
superstitious dread the uneducated mind. The ground sloped steeply
toward the shore, terminating, at its juncture with the beach, in a sort
of low cliff or precipitous bank about thirty feet high, the face of
which was densely overgrown with shrubs of various kinds, from the midst
of which irregular strata of a coarse dirty-white marble cropped out.
On the extreme verge of the cliff stood the shattered ruin already
referred to, barely distinguishable from where we stood, as a gaunt,
shapeless, indefinable mass; while the beach below was encumbered with
stones and blocks of masonry which had fallen from it from time to time.
The uneven surface of the ground for some distance on each side of the
ruin, and as far back as the road, was completely overshadowed by
enormous cypress-trees, all of which seemed extremely ancient, while
some appeared quite dead and withered. There was, in addition to these
trees, a thick undergrowth of long rank grass and stunted shrubs, among
which an outrageously prickly variety of the cactus made itself
conspicuously apparent to the touch; while, more than half hidden by the
undergrowth, there were dotted here and there a few sepulchral stones
and monuments in the very last stage of irretrievable dilapidation. Add
to these sombre surroundings the melancholy sighing of the night-wind
through the branches of the trees overhead, and the occasional weird cry
of some nocturnal bird, and it will not be wondered at if I confess I
felt a strong desire to get beyond the precincts of the eerie place with
as little delay as possible.

After listening intently for a minute or two, without hearing any sound
whatever indicative of the proximity of the enemy, our eyes meanwhile
growing more accustomed to the intense darkness, we pushed forward