safety. We warily crept along this, steadying ourselves by the
naked roots of the shrubs that clung to every fissure. As we
proceeded, the narrow path became still more contracted,
rendering it difficult for us to maintain our footing, until
suddenly, as we reached an angle of the wall of rock where we had
expected it to widen, we perceived to our consternation that a
yard or two further on it abruptly terminated at a place we could
not possibly hope to pass.

Toby as usual led the van, and in silence I waited to learn from
him how he proposed to extricate us from this new difficulty.

'Well, my boy,' I exclaimed, after the expiration of several
minutes, during which time my companion had not uttered a word,
'what's to be done now?'

He replied in a tranquil tone, that probably the best thing we
could do in our present strait was to get out of it as soon as
possible.

'Yes, my dear Toby, but tell me how we are to get out of it.'

'Something in this sort of style,' he replied, and at the same
moment to my horror he slipped sideways off the rocks and, as I
then thought, by good fortune merely, alighted among the
spreading branches of a species of palm tree, that shooting its
hardy roots along a ledge below, curved its trunk upwards into
the air, and presented a thick mass of foliage about twenty feet
below the spot where we had thus suddenly been brought to a
standstill. I involuntarily held my breath, expecting to see the