“None that I ever heard of,” said Hilary, “but there might be a few snakes.”
“Excuse me, then,” Cathalina remarked. “But they say that the Cliffs are full of caves, something like that one at the island.”
The girls found plenty of drift wood, but instead of building their fire on the wide shelf of rock, as they had intended, they found it easier to collect the material and build the fire on the beach below, where the boulders were few.
“It looks as if the rocks had been cleared away on purpose,” said Helen as she speared a piece of bacon and held it over the fire.
“Why, look at this, girls,” directed Isabel, who was reaching behind a big rock for a piece of drift wood. “It’s an iron ring fastened here and a piece of old rope in it!”
The girls all stepped over to look at the ring. “That’s funny,” said Pauline. “It looks as if there were a sort of path up to the shelf too.”
“Nonsense! We made that sliding down,” said Isabel.
“Have a piece of bacon, Juliet?” offered Pauline.
“What a place for mermaids this is, a rocky cave, a shelf or boulder to sit and comb their locks.”
“Not a very good beach to run around on, though.”