cted with it. There is no spot, as far as I
know, where we could land for fifteen miles on either side, and there
would only be small villages where everything we did would be seen and
talked about. There is no place where we could keep a boat here, for if
even a slight breeze sprang up the swell coming in round the passage
between the rocks and the cliff would smash her up in no time."

"That is so, senor."

Harry was silent again for some time, and then said: "The only plan I
can think of is to get some strong leather bags. Then we could take one
down with us when we dive, with a strong cord tied to it, put a couple
of the ingots into it, and you could haul it up on to the rocks, and so
on until we have finished a day's work. Then we could carry them to
this side of the rocks; there you could put them, three or four at a
time, into the bag, and drop them down in the water. We would swim up
the tunnel and haul them in, and then bring the bag back again. We
sha'n't be able to get anything approaching all the ingots, for a great
many of them must have gone in between the crevices of the rocks, and
unless we broke it up with powder, which would be next to impossible
without a diving-dress and air-pumps and all sorts of things, which
cannot be bought in this country, we could not get at them. However, we
have only just begun to look for them yet; we may come across a pile.
Heavy as the sea must be on this coast in a gale, I hardly think it
would much affect a pile of ingots; their weight would keep them steady
even were big rocks rolled about.

"I think the best thing, Dias, would be for you to go off with two or
three mules. We shall soon be running short of provisions, and you had
better get enough flour and dried meat to last us for a month. I don't
suppose we shall be as long as that, but it is as well to have a good
store so as not to have to make the journey again. Then you had better
get twenty leather bags, such as those in which they bring the ore down
from the mountains. We have plenty of stout rope, but w