and other woods he did not know, resembling ebony and cedar. A number
of stumps showed that the axe had been at work, but not recently. He
passed into the cleft and climbed a tree that offered easy access. As
he expected, after rising a few feet from the ground, his eyes
encountered the solemn blue line of the sea, not half a mile distant.

He descended and commenced a systematic search. Men had been here. Was
there a house? Would he suddenly encounter some hermit Malay or
Chinaman?

At the foot of the main cliff was a cluster of fruit-bearing trees,
plantains, areca-nuts, and cocoa-palms. A couple of cinchonas caught
his eye. In one spot the undergrowth was rank and vividly green. The
cassava, or tapioca plant, reared its high, passion-flower leaves above
the grass, and some sago-palms thrust aloft their thick-stemmed trunks.

"Here is a change of menu, at any rate," he communed.

Breaking a thick branch off a poon tree he whittled away the minor
stems. A strong stick was needful to explore that leafy fastness
thoroughly.

A few cautious strides and vigorous whacks with the stick laid bare the
cause of such prodigality in a soil covered with drifted sand and lumps
of black and white speckled coral. The trees and bushes enclosed a
well--safe-guarded it, in fact, from being choked with sand during the
first gale that blew.

Delighted with this discovery, more precious than diamonds at the
moment, for he doubted the advisability of existing on the water supply