rock descended sheer into the black flood, but in little niches which had been rudely fashioned, lay small heaps of gold ornaments and glittering gems, the sacrifices of this stone god's votaries. Together we pulled our canoe close to the rock, taking care that the rapid swirl of the current did not hurl our craft against the jagged stones, and with my hand I clutched a heap of fine ornaments set with emeralds, pearls, and diamonds. In the sunlight we both examined them, finding they were evidently of very ancient manufacture, possibly the spoils of war against some long-forgotten but cultured nation. In workmanship they were similar to the ornaments found in the tombs of ancient Egypt; they had evidently never been manufactured by the barbarous people into whose possession they had passed.

Before us was blackness impenetrable, and upon our ears there broke a distant roar, as of a cataract. The sound appalled us. If a cataract actually lay before, then escape was absolutely hopeless.

But the fact that far above gleamed the sun gave us renewed courage, and after some discussion we became convinced that, this colossal face being regarded as the guardian of the unexplored country, an exit existed there. After some difficulty we ignited one of our torches, and with it stuck in the bows of the canoe, rode backwards and forwards, minutely examining the base of the rock. Once we passed so near that my companion was able to secure a handful of gems for himself, and both of us secreted these stolen votive offerings about our garments. The two parallel shafts of light from the eyes of the graven monstrosity, striking deep into the river, revealed curious fish and water-snakes disporting themselves around the boat, while great black bats which had come in through the two openings, startled by our presence, circled about us ominously with wide-spread flapping wings.

The water glittering beneath the torch's

A

uncertain rays flowed past so swiftly, that we were compelled to continue pulling in order to remain abreast of the idol. Long and earnestly we both searched to find some means by which we could reach the two holes that formed the idol's eyes, yet they seemed so small that it was questionable whether, even if we successfully clambered up the sculptured face, we could squeeze our bodies through. dozen times we allowed the canoe to drift past while I endeavoured to discover some means by which to reach those glaring eyes. But the bright sunlight dazzled us, and beyond the tiny niches filled with. jewels there was no other inequality to serve as foothold to gain the narrow ledge which formed the lips. Again, if I made a false step I should be instantly swept away by the swirling current and lost for ever in the dark whirling flood.

At length, however, my companion, muscular and agile, succeeded in springing clear of the canoe and gripping one of the small niches, tossing the jewels into the water by his frantic efforts. For an instant he struggled, his legs dangling in mid-air, then presently his toes found foothold, and he commenced slowly to clamber up the chin of the gigantic visage towards a kind of long ledge. I watched his progress breathlessly, not daring to utter a word, but keeping the canoe in readiness to row after him if he fell. With difficulty he ascended, clinging on to the face of the rock until he reached the great grinning mouth and stood up facing me.

"What do you find?" I shouted, my voice echoing weirdly. I had noticed that as he glanced along the spot where he stood his face became transfixed by horror.

"Follow me," he replied hoarsely. "Have a care, a single false step means death!"

At that instant the boat was passing the spot where he had gripped the rock's face, and without hesitation I followed his

Rosebery, had thrown her. Their offspring was this Dougal, an individual in whom his mother's versatility was blended in the oddest way with the grim simplicity of his other parent, at once full of fine sentiments and brutal common-sense, romantic and prosaic, so mercenary

that he would have certainly raised a "bawbee" without compunction on the very torch of Love itself, if he could have laid hold of that article, and yet a keen sufferer himself from the scorchings of that celestial flame. Just lately Dougal had singed his wings rather badly in this direction, and consequently had forsworn for a month at least the whole race of lovers, and in the gloomy abstraction of a more than usually sombre state of mind had been engaged in the consideration of all sorts of schemes for their curtailment and suppression.

Now, nothing is so unpleasant to the imperfect human heart as to witness others in the enjoyment of pleasures from which our own virtue or necessities debar us, and the lovelorn Dougal, having taken a summer outing to a well-known northern watering-place to let solitude and sea air heal the raw wounds inflicted on him by one of the faithless sex, had come back shocked and pained beyond measure, it appeared, at the number of newlymarried couples he had observed at that seaside place wandering about, a nuisance to the sober-minded public, and an embarrassment, in the first flush of their selfconsciousness, even to themselves.

All this I found out later on. I greeted my friend as he stalked into my room as heartily as though he were a rich uncle come to consult me about the making of his will. I gave him a chair, and down we sat facing each other, and "What is it, old fellow?" I asked again. "If it is another 'pony' you want to borrow," I said-leading up gently to another weakness of his "why, it might be managed!" But Dougal only shook his head and stared at me vacantly.

"Then, perhaps you have writter a poem, or invented something?" I ventured-suiting my guesses to the utter blankness of his face.

Again he shook his head. "Surely," was my next venture, "you are not in love again! I should have thought you had had enough of love to last you for some time to come."

'Enough!" said the Scotchman, at last moved out of his silence, his expressive eyes flashing with virtuous indignation as he placed his hands upon his knees and, leaning forward, addressed me in a rich Doric which I dare not attempt to imitate. "Enough man! ay, and too much. Here I go down to the sea just to improve my nerves at a moderate cutlay, and to escape the whole of womankind, and what do I find? Why, that a miserable lot of weak-headed young men, with a month's salary in their pockets and a month's leave of absence, have taken advantage of this juncture of circumstances to get married to an equally misguided lot of girls, and are carrying on their silly billings and cooings in every nook and corner. Nerves! why, sir, these things make the country intolerable to a person of delicacy. You stumble on vagrant lovers in every hotel passage; if you fly for solitude to the sea-shore, every cove and nook behind the rocks is ambushed with waist-encircling idiots; the country lanes are made intolerable to the man of susceptibilities by them; the tops of coaches are unsafe to the modest bachelor; the saloons of the touring steamers are haunted by their dual presences; whole trains at a time are reserved for their compartmental selfishness by hireling guards, and so on, until at last the man who has a soul above such frailties, and would fain escape from all this nonsense, flits miserably, a very Eugene Aram, from place to place, seeing amorous forms in every shadow on his path, and everywhere hearing tender whispers he was never meant to

hear!"

"Well, but," I said, "how can this be