COCOS— A TALE OF TREASURE 265 



looking down at us, and we could feel the little 

 breeze from those immaculate fanning wings. 

 Standing in that lovely sea-girt forest, in the 

 jungle hush of noon-day, we thought of a Biblical 

 snow-white bird with no feeling of sacrilege. 



Then another and another came, and the trio 

 hovered fearlessly about us till, their curiosity satis- 

 fied, they fluttered away among the trees. We 

 continued the wide circle we had commenced and 

 finally rejoined the river, which at this height was 

 no more than a small brook, flowing in a deep 

 ravine, with sides so steep and slippery that it 

 was impossible to leave the stream-bed, no matter 

 what obstacles were encountered in it. The 

 densely-wooded hills towered almost straight up 

 at each side and made even midday gloomy to us 

 at the bottom of this narrow crack. The vegeta- 

 tion was swamp-like in its luxm'iance and character, 

 and many of the plants were an unnaturally vivid 

 green, like artificial things. When we reached the 

 top of the waterfall that we had circumnavigated on 

 the way up, we hung over the edge and watched the 

 falling sparkle, while we chose a way down. Noth- 

 ing could be worse than the way we had come up, 

 so we decided to try the other side for our descent, 

 and discovered that going down is always worse 

 than climbing. I am sure that we defied gravita- 

 tion most of the way, and the proceeding was not 

 made easier by each of us finding the other's pre- 

 dicaments and postures irresistibly funny. 



The last few feet we fell, abruptly and simul- 

 taneously, and landed near the little cave, caked 



