shepherding tours to hunting out some place where he
could descend the terrible precipice into that glorious valley far
below, where there were sheep and cattle, plenty of water, and no doubt
wild fruits to enable him to subsist.

"And if he found his way down, why shouldn't I?" said Nic, with a little
laugh. Then, shouldering his gun, he dived in among the trees and
wattle scrub which lay between him and the edge of the precipice, with
the intention of keeping cautiously along it, first in one direction and
then in the other, till he found traces of some one having climbed down.

Two hours' work convinced him that he had undertaken a task that might
have made Hercules sit down and scratch his ear, for it promised to be
hard enough to equal any of the celebrated labours of that mythic
personage. Nic had toiled on in one direction only, forcing his way
through thorns, tangles, and over and between rocks, pausing from time
to time, whenever he came to an opening, to gaze across the tremendous
gap at the glories of the rock wall opposite, or to look shuddering down
into the beautiful paradise thousands of feet below, where the tints of
green were of the loveliest hues, and he could see the cattle calmly
grazing, mere dots in the natural meads which bordered the flashing
waters seen here and there like lakes, but joined possibly, for the
trees shut out broad stretches of the river in the vale.

For a time he would lie there, resting and listening to the whistling
calls of birds whose names he did not know, to the shrieks of parrots,
and now and then catch sight of what seemed to be tiny fragments of
paper falling fluttering down, till he saw them turn, and knew that he
was gazing at cockatoos.

Then, after yielding to the fascination of peering down into the awful
depth, he would turn suddenly away, for a cold chill would run through
him as he experienced the sensation as of something drawing him
downward, and he would creep yards distant and sit there wiping the
perspiration from his face.

He soon recovered, though, and once more continued his search for a way
down.

"It is as if it would take years," he said to himself; "but I don't
care, I shall come again and again and keep on trying. I will find it,"
he said half aloud, as he set his teeth in dogged determination, and for
another hour he struggled on, till, feeling utterly exhausted, he seated
himself at the edge of the precipice at a point where he could div