can't get any chocolates nowadays. We'll go and see, though, if it
really is a cave. I love exploring."

To reach the place Morland had pointed out, they were obliged to
struggle through jungles of brown sea-weed, and to slip down little
precipices slimy with green sea-grass, and to scramble over rough
projecting points of rock, honey-combed into queer shapes by the action
of the tide. A jump across a crevice and a climb up a few feet of sheer
precipice landed them at the entrance of the cave. Morland scrambled in
front, and gave a hand to the others.

They found themselves in a large, rounded grotto, the walls of which
shelved gently in a series of natural ledges; the floor was dry, and
covered with fine silvery sand, and at the far end lay a pile of timber,
washed in perhaps from some wreck by an abnormally high tide. The
afternoon sun shone through the entrance and gleamed on little bits of
mica and spar in the walls, making them glitter like diamonds.

"What an adorable place!" exclaimed Claudia with enthusiasm.

"Topping!" agreed Morland.

"A regular sea-nymphs' grotto!" exulted Lorraine, and Landry, who was
not given to words, smiled, and pulling out a piece of timber sat down
upon it.

"A good idea!" said Lorraine, following suit. "Look here, I've just had
a brain wave. Let's appropriate the cave, and call it ours. Except just
in the August holidays, I don't suppose anybody ever comes here, so we
should have it quite to ourselves. It shall be a real sea-nymphs'
grotto. We'll get shells from the shore, and make lovely patterns with
them all along those ledges, and hang sea-weeds about, and make some
seats with those pieces of wood, and we'll come out here on Saturdays
sometimes, and bring our lunch. What votes?"

"A1! I'm your man, or rather your merman!" grinned Morland. "Any good
recipe for growing a fish's tail, please? A diet of whelks and winkles
not welcome, for my digestion's delicate."

"It's a chubby idea!" beamed Claudia. "I'd love it, only I _do_ bargain
we keep it to ourselves. I don't want the whole tribe trailing after us
every time we come. The little ones mustn't know anything about it."

"_I_ shan't tell them, you bet!" declared Morland.

"It isn't a suitable place to bring children," agreed Lorraine. "I
won't say anything to Monica, or even to Mervyn, because he'd be sure to
blurt it out to her. It shall be just our own secret."

"I expect it has been a sort of secret place," said Mor