84 GARRYOWEN 



seemed to resent the approach of the boat. On a 

 ledge of rock near the cave mouth something dark 

 moved swiftly and then plashed into the sea and 

 vanished. It was a seal. 



" I'll take you into the cave to have a look at it," 

 cried ^Ir Giveen, raising his voice to outshout the 

 cormorants. " You needn't be a bit afraid. The 

 Devil's not here to-day — it's too fine weather for 

 him." 



*' Don't go far in," cried Miss Grimshaw, and 

 as she spoke the words the boat, urged by the 

 rower, passed into the gloom beneath the archway. 



She saw the bottle-green water of the rising and 

 falling swell washing the pillars and the walls, from 

 which the sea- weed hung in fathom-long ribbons; 

 then they were in almost darkness, and as Mr 

 Giveen rested on his oars she could hear the 

 water slobbering against the walls, and from far 

 away in the gloom, every now and then, a bursting 

 sound as the swell fiUed some hole or shaft and was 

 spat out again. 



After a moment or two, her eyes becoming 

 accustomed to the darkness, the vast size of the 

 place became apparent. Far greater than the 

 inside of a cathedral, given over to darkness and 

 the sea, the Devil's Kitchen was a place to make 

 one pause. 



In the storms of winter, when, Hke the 

 mouth of some giant fighting the waves, it roared 

 and stormed and spat out volumes of water, filled 

 now almost to its roof, now blowing the sea out in 



