We tried to find some traces of the wreck of the Undine, or of
anyone having lived there, but we found nothing beyond a great heap
of oyster shells that had been thrown into one corner. But Carver
Kinlay might very well have existed comfortably in this immense
place, for, besides the dried fish that he was said to have found
among the wreckage, there was a fine bed of oysters within easy
reach of the entrance to the cave, and these shellfish are good
enough eating, I believe. How he managed to keep Thora alive for so
long without other food was, however, a thing I could with
difficulty understand, unless she fed upon the sea-birds' eggs.
Thora, herself, remembered nothing of having been in the cave
before, but she was very anxious to reach its furthest limits, and,
trusting to me to follow her, she went fearlessly onward.
Sometimes she would stoop to lift a stone, and would throw it in
front of her to discover if there was a clear passage, for the
light burned but dimly. Once when she did so the stone fell upon
something that gave a peculiar hollow sound, as though some wooden
box or barrel had been struck.
I took little notice of this, for I was at the moment groping my
way into a side chamber of the cave. I was feeling my way back
towards the torch, when Thora called me to her as though she had
made some new discovery.
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