THE CASE O ROGIZR CARLSO YN/ 241

The fall was almost sheer and quite impos- sible to descend. T owas greatly agitated, and for some moments was at a loss what to

do. T behieved my friend lay at the foot of

the precipice, but could form no conjecture as to how he could have got there.”

“ Deseribe your course of action.”

“1 retuned to the ponies, with the purpose of riding with all speed to find the nearest point of descent, and was 1 the act of mounting when 1 osaw two men on foot approaching from the angle of the road behimd me. Phey were two working moen, and are now 1 court.”

“You rushed to mect them and told them what had occurred ? 7”7

“ 1 did. They iformed me that T should find a descent about a mile further on, and offcred to gurde me to the spot. 1 gladly accepted 5 we set forward i the direction in which we had been travelling, and had nearly rcached the other angle of the bay round which the path agan turned, when some heavy objeet fell from the eliff upon the road, a few yards from us. We o darted forward to the spot, and I took 1t up. Tt was AMr. Carboyne's ficld-glass.” (Sensation 1 court. )

“Procced, Mr. Staymer.”

“We all three then looked up and saw, on

. . o

BT WAS MR, CARBOYI\'ES FIELD-GLASS

the top of a young sapling which shot out almost at nght angles to the ohffl a cap hanging. It was about half-way up the chff some thirty feet or so.”

“You recognised the cap.”

“Yes ot was Mr. Carboyne’s.”

“You formed no 1dea as to how it got there 27

• None.

am still.”

“ Did vou attempt to reach the cap ?”

“No it was 1mpossible to do so. The clff was sheer wall —a goat could not have found a foothold.”

“What happenced next ?”

“1 endeavoured, with the aid of my own glasses, to discover any other trace or clue, but faled to do so. At the top the chff overhung a hittle, and then appeared to form a platcau, of which, of course, T could not sce the surface. 1 resolved to ascend to i, and to look down; 1 hardly know what 1

I was completely hewildered, andd