Valentine Williams

“ Moreover, I knew very little about conditions on Cock Island, and, were there any wild animals about, it would be as well, I reflected, to pitch our camp in some spot not easily accessible to attack.
After exploring round a bit, I came upon, behind a mantle of hanging creeper, the mouth of a cave. Set in the lofty grey rocks, dominating the beach, it was well clear of high tide-level and clean and dry into the bargain. The roof sloped somewhat, but there was ample clearance for Garth's six feet when he stood erect, and the cave ran back for some twenty feet into the rock. ”

“ The timber flooring had rotted away, and through the mouldering planks the jungle had thrust its shoots profusely as though to claim its own. But in one corner, where a roughly carpentered bedstead of timber stood, some attempt had apparently been made to thin out the ferns for a space. On the bed there lay a rotting blanket; on the floor close by some empty canned beef tins red with rust. The blanket practically fell to pieces at the touch. It was not marked, and, though we groped pretty thoroughly among the ferns, that was all we found in the hut. ”

“ I removed wire and all and slipped the mirror into my pocket. Garth did not notice the action, for he was busy pottering about the clearing. From the luxuriant undergrowth he ultimately collected a cigar-box which, I make no doubt, was the identical one from which the man Dutchy had established the fact that Black Pablo and his friends had visited the island. It was curious to find everything in the same state as it had been left more than a year ago. I felt rather as a man must feel who violates a grave. ”

“ It had obviously been cut by the hand of man out of the friable rock, for a number of caves scooped out of the back wall showed that cave-dwellers must have lived here in that remote period when the island had been inhabited. The ledge was in fact nothing but a street for communication between the different cave-houses. The caves were low-roofed and empty. By craning our necks upwards, we saw that the whole face of the cliff was thus honeycombed with cave-dwellings in a succession of terraces. ”

“ The appearance of the foreshore, exposed to the full force of the wind in unfavourable weather, did not impress me favourably, nor, owing to the danger from lightning in the thunder storms that spring up so suddenly in these climes, did the obvious solution of erecting our huts under the shelter of the trees higher up on the shore commend itself. ”