after making his way diagonally upward, he came upon
the beginning of a steep narrow gully, going right down more and more
deeply, so that forty or fifty yards away he could not see the bottom,
the place having the appearance of being a vast crack formed by a sudden
subsidence of the rocky cliff.

He was now out of sight from the other side of the great depression, and
was just congratulating himself upon his selection of a hiding-place and
look-out combined, when he recalled the sounds he had heard during a
former visit.

"Why, it must have been caused by something falling down here," he
argued, and he looked outward, to see that this was one of the
narrowest, deepest and most savage-looking gullies he had seen, the
place being giddy to look down and impressing him with the belief that
the greatest care was necessary for anyone to move about; and as he
dropped down upon his knees it was with a feeling of relief and safety,
for accustomed though he was to climbing about upon the cliffs, this one
particular spot looked giddy and wild.

To his great satisfaction he found that he could follow the crack right
down to the sea and obtain a good view without being seen, unless anyone
had followed his example and climbed; but what most took his attention
was that though he had been climbing about the place often in search of
the eggs of rare birds, he had never been there before, or noted the
existence of such a deeply-split cavity in the cliffs.

"I must have been able to see it from off the sea," he argued, but gave
himself up to the thought directly after that ridges and hollows had a
completely different aspect when seen from below.

"I should know it now directly if I were sailing by and looked up, of
course. I fancy I can recollect this steep wall-like bit down below
where I'm sitting."

He started the next moment, for a great gull had come gliding up from
behind and passed so closely over his head that he was startled by the
faint whizz of its outspread wings, while the bird itself was so
startled that it uttered a hoarse cry of alarm and plunged down head
foremost like a stone.

"Why, that must have been the kind that made that cry like a hail,"
cried Aleck, as the bird disappeared into the depths of the gully, while
he had hardly realised the thought before there rose from below a faint,
hoarse cry.

"I thought so," he said; "those birds have different cries and they
sound strange, according to where you ar