At this moment the captain heard something, and turned to listen. It
was a voice--the voice of a boy. It was Ralph calling to him. Instantly
the captain turned and hurried away, and as he went he extinguished his
lantern. When he reached his pail of water he picked it up, and was
very soon joined by Ralph, who was coming to meet him over the bottom
of the lake.

"I have been looking for you everywhere, captain," said he. "What have
you been after? More water? And you took a lantern to find it, eh? And
you have been ever so far into the cave. Why didn't you call me? Let me
have the lantern. I want to go to explore."

But the captain did not give him the lantern, nor did he allow him to go
to explore.

"No, sir," said he. "What we've got to do is to hurry outside and help
get supper. We must wait on ourselves to-night."

When supper was over, that evening, and the little party was sitting out
on the plateau, gazing over the ocean at the sunlit sky, Mrs. Cliff
declared that she wished they could bring their bedding and spread it on
the ground out there, and sleep.

"It is dry enough," she said, "and warm enough, and if there is really
nothing to fear from animals or men, I don't want ever to go inside of
those caves again. I had such horrible fears and ideas when I was
sitting trembling in those dismal vaults, expecting a horde of human
devils to burst in upon us at any moment, that the whole place is
horrible to me. Anyway, if I knew that I had to be killed, I would