was obliged to bring my explorations to
a temporary end for lack of light. But by careful pacing from side to
side, I found that the passage was at this point some eighteen feet
wide, with a tolerably flat floor, while its height was such that I
could not reach it with my upstretched arm. Its length I could not
tell, but it seemed to extend considerably farther inward; to determine
just how far, however, I should need a torch. I therefore decided to
return to the rest of the party, report upon my find, and bring them
back with me after breakfast, that they might pass an opinion upon its
possibilities.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

THE WAR CANOES.

Our breakfast that morning consisted of bananas, mangoes, and coconuts,
all of which the island seemed to produce in profusion, as well, no
doubt, as many other fruits, when we should have time to seek for them.
At present our main concern was to establish ourselves in a shelter of
some sort, where we should find complete protection in every kind of
weather; and all expressed themselves as eager to inspect the cavern of
which I had been telling them. To do this effectually torches were
needed, and the means to kindle them. The latter was fortunately at
hand in the shape of a large and powerful magnifying lens, with which
Julius was fond of amusing himself and which he habitually carried in
his pocket. With regard to torches--well, doubtless dry branches could
be found lying about under the trees; or, failing these, flambeaux could
be made of dry grass bound up into bundles. We decided that dry
branches would best serve our purpose, and accordingly Julius and I
plunged into the nearest clump of timber in search of what we required,
quickly returning with a bundle each, as big as we could conveniently
carry, bound together with long strips of "monkey rope", of which there
seemed to be an inexhaustible quantity in the woods. It was necessary
to carry our fire with us, since the path we should have to traverse to
reach the cave, as well as the cave itself, lay in a deep ravine, into
which the sun's rays struck only for about three hours during the course
of a day. We therefore collected a little heap of dry grass and leaves,
set fire to it by concentrating the sun's rays upon it through Julius's
burning-glass, and from it ignited a branch, which I carried along with
us.

The distance from our temporary camp to the cave was about a mile and a
quarter, but we took nearly an