but in vain.

"There is no way but to hew one out of the rock", said Fritz, or we
must not be beat."

"Well said, Fritz," said Jack; "we have each an axe. Why not try this
cliff at once?"

I gave them leave to try, and we soon set to work at the rock. From
this spot we had a good view of the whole bay, and could see both banks
of the stream.

With a piece of chalk I made a mark on the side of the cliff, to show
the width and height that the cave should be cut. Then each took an axe
to try what kind of stuff our rock was made of. We found it a hard kind
of stone; and, as we were not used to this sort of work, we had not
done much when the time came for us to leave off.

We came back next day, and got on with more speed, though we thought it
would not take us less than six months to make the cave, if our work
were done at the same rate each day.

At the end of five or six days we had got through the face of the rock,
and we found the stone soft. In a day or two more we came to what was
but hard clay, which gave way at a slight blow from the axe.

"We need not fear now," said I, "for we shall soon have a hole as large
as we want."

With the earth we took out we made a ridge in front of the cliff. The