n, "for I don't think that we
shall have long to wait. I was expecting it to go down so low that I
should see the full daylight yesterday, but before I got the slightest
peep it began to rise again."

"But it came lighter than this?" said Aleck.

"No; I don't think it was so light as this. I believe it is just about
turning now."

The sailor proved to be right; and as soon as Aleck felt quite sure he
turned to his companion and proposed that they should start.

"I don't know what my uncle will say," he said. "You'd better come home
with me. He will be astonished when he sees that I have found you."

"Did he know that I was lost?"

"Of course. Your fellow officer came straight to our place to search
it, thinking we knew where you were. Well, uncle will be very glad.
Come along. I shall take the lanthorn with us to see our way up the
zigzag. I think I could manage in the dark, as I came down and know
something of the place, but it would be awkward for you."

"Oh, yes; let's have all the light we can," said the midshipman. "I'm
quite ready. Shall we start?"

"Yes, come on," was the reply, and, holding the lanthorn well down,
Aleck led the way along by the waterside till the rocks which had acted
as stepping-stones were reached, and which were now quite bare.

These were passed in safety, but not without two or three slips; and
then after a walk back towards the twilight, somewhere about equal to
the distance they had come, Aleck struck off up a slope and in and out
among the blocks that had fallen from the roof to where he easily found
the lowest slope of the zigzag, which they prepared to mount, the light
from the lanthorn showing the nicks cut in the stone at the side.

"It's much harder work climbing up than sliding down," said Aleck.

"Of course," replied the midshipman, who toiled on steadily in the rear;
"but it's very glorious to have one's leg free, and to know that before
long one will be up in the glorious light of day. I say, are you
counting how many of these slopes we have come up?"

"No," said Aleck, "I lost count; but I think we must be half way up."

"Bravo! But, I say, these smugglers are no fools. Who'd ever expect to
find such a place as this? It must have taken them years to make."

"They were making it or improving it for years," said Aleck; "but they
found the crack already made--it was natural."

"Think so?"

"Yes; the rock split just like a flash of lightning. Mind h