“Rather startling. I did not expect that. Dropped my magnesium ribbon. Why, where’s the lantern?”
“It’s underneath me, father,” said Dick in a half-ashamed grumbling tone. “I tumbled back over it and knocked it out.”
“Never mind, Master Dick, I’ve got some matches,” said Will; and after a good deal of scratching, which only resulted in long lines of pale light, for every part of the boat seemed to be wet, there was a glow of light once more, and the lantern was lit; but its rays seemed pitiful in the extreme after the brilliant glare of the magnesium.
“And now where are the seals?” said Mr Temple, holding the lantern above his head.
“Out to sea long enough ago, sir,” said Josh. “They went under the boat, and I felt one of ’em touch the oar as they went off. You won’t see no more seals, sir, to-day.”
“Ah well!” said Mr Temple, “we’ve seen some, boys, at all events. Now let’s have a look round here.”
He held up the lantern, and as the boat was thrust onward he examined the rock here and there, taking out his little steel-headed hammer and chipping about.
“Granite—quartz—gneiss—quartz,” he said in a low voice, as he carefully examined each fresh fracture in the stone. “Why, boys, here’s tin here,” he said sharply. “This place can never have been worked.”
As he was speaking these latter words he held out a fragment of the stone he had broken off to Josh.
“That’s good tin, my man,” he said.