Page:The Missing Chums.djvu/117

Rh moving so quickly I couldn't have shot him. He was stirred up and angry, too. I guess I must have disturbed his morning nap."

"We'll stick to the rocks for a while, I guess. It's time enough to go nosing around the interior when we've finished with the outside of the island."

The boys descended a rocky slope that led into a small bay protected from the sea by a black reef. There were no snakes in sight as they skirted the shore, and then they came upon a well-beaten path leading up the side of a cliff.

"By the look of this path, the island isn't as deserted as it looks," Frank commented. "Perhaps we'll have better luck following it."

The path wound about among the rocks, seemingly in an aimless fashion, now diverging toward the shore, now bringing them farther inland. They followed it doggedly, however, convinced that it must have an ending somewhere, and that the termination would give them some clue as to the people who had used the trail before.

The trail at length brought them in front of a huge black opening in the rocks. It was a cave, over twelve feet in height, dark, gloomy and forbidding.

"Now what?" asked Joe.

Frank glanced at his brother.