She caught the descending sling with a dexterity that astonished him,
and seated herself in it before he could rise to assist her.

"Haul away," she called in a clear voice that held no note of
timidity. Those above at the tackle hastened to obey. As she was swung
upwards, she looked down at the earl and waved him to put off.

"Hasten!" she urged. "Do not wait. I am all right now. Even if he is
returning, go to the cleft and see."

He shook his head, and waited until she had been hauled up the ship's
side. But as her little moccasined feet cleared the bulwarks and Meggs
himself leaned out to draw her inboard, he signed the oarsmen to
thrust off again.

Knowing the course, they made direct for the end of the sunken ledge.
Blake had not returned, nor was he anywhere in sight. They skirted in
along the rocky slope of the cliff foot to where it curved away into
the sand beach of the plain. Lord James sprang ashore alone and
hastened inland along the base of the cliffs.

A brisk walk of ten minutes over the sandy plain brought him to the
grove at the foot of the cleft. In the midst of the trees was a pool,
half choked with the dried mud and rubbish of a recent flood from the
ravine. The wash had obliterated all tracks below; but there were
traces of a trail leading up the ravine over a four-foot ledge. He
took the rock at a bound, and hastened on upwards between the lofty
walled sides of the cleft.