"You may have a stomach full of fighting yet before we find the mine."

"I thought you had located it?"

"Yes, but it's a week's tramp from where we are at present, and we may
have some lively times before we arrive at the place."

It was nine o'clock at night when the party arrived at one of the most
peculiar natural retreats Desmond had ever seen. It was a cave, as we
will call it, in the side wall of a cliff rising from a gulch even more
wild and rugged than the one where the party had camped the previous
night. Some mighty convulsion of the mountain had separated the whole
front of the cliff from the main rock, so that a space of at least
twenty feet intervened, and between yawned a dark abyss that led down to
where no man had yet penetrated. Creedon led the way up along a ledge of
ascent which lined the outer edge of the great mass of detached cliff.
Once at the top he descended on the inner side. It was night, but he had
taken advantage of a mask lantern which he carried with him, and which
he said was the most useful article in his possession. He added:

"These lanterns may belong to the profession of detectives and burglars,
but I've found them the most useful articles a cliff-climber can own.
They are different from other lamps and torches; you can control the one
ray of light and indicate your path without any trouble whatever."

This was true, as the guide demonstrated, and his party walked along
the narrow ledge without any fear of being precipitated over; all it
required was a good eye and a steady nerve, and they possessed these
necessary qualifications.