Part 46 (1/2)

”Well, we shan't have hi the spy to-day,” said Vince, as in capital spirits ”Now, if we could see old Lobster going too, we should be all right”

”I dare say his father's got hi We shan't see him”

They did not see Je but a cohich raised its soft eyes to gaze at theed into the scrub-wood, and, once there, felt safe Then, after their usual laborious work beneath the trees, they reached the granite wilderness, cla an eye as ht, in case of the Lobster being there, and finally reached the opening, juh the brambles, and at once made for the spot where the lanthorn and tinder-box were stowed

”I say, isn't it jolly?” cried Mike eagerly ”Just like old tiain What a while it seeinning to strike a light ”I hope nothing has happened since ere here”

”Eh?” cried Mike excitedly ”What can have happened?”

”Sea washed the place out, and taken all our kitchen and parlour things away”

”Nonsense!” said Mike conteht, you know; there would have been no waves, but there h tide There h tides down there at one time, so as to have washed out those caves”

”Ah! it's a precious long time since they've been washed out, I know,”

said Mike, laughing ”They don't ever get swept out now”

”No, but they're kept neat, with sand on the floor,” said Vince, snapping to the door of the lanthorn and holding it up for the soft yellow light to shi+ne upon the granite walls ”I say, Mike, don't you think we're a pair of old stupids to round?”

”No: why should we be?”

”Because it doesn't seeoing down the hole like worms, so as to crawl about there in the sand”

”And what about the beautiful caves, and the rocks where we sit and watch the sea-birds?”

”We could see thereat walls of rock all round, and the current racing round like a whirlpool?”

”Plenty of currents and eddies anywhere off the coast”

”But the fishi+ng?”

”We could fish in easier places,” said Vince, talking loudly now they ell down in the passage ”Why, we've had better luck everywhere than here”

”Oh, you are a discontented chap!” said Mike ”You ought to think yourself wonderfully well off, to be able to come down to such a place

See what jolly feasts we've had down here all alone”

”Yes, but it see potatoes and frying fish down in a cave, e could sit comfortably at a table at your house or ours, and have no trouble at all”

”Well, you are a fellow!” cried Mike ”You said one day that the fish we cooked down there tasted twice as good as it did at hoot it set it smoky,” protested Mike ”But I say, don't talk like that You were as eager to make our little secret place there as I was You don'ttired of it?”

”I don't know,” said Vince ”Yes, I do No, I' tired of it yet, for it does seeet down here all alone, and feel as if ere thousands of et tired of it soood since we found the way into the other cave”

”I do,” said Mike ”It's splendid to have made such a discovery, and to find that once upon a tilers here”