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Updated: June 24, 2025
I went round the tower to the other side, and there saw him at a little distance below me, but further out on a great rock that overhung the sea, connected with the cliff by a long narrow isthmus, a few yards lower than the cliff itself, only just broad enough to admit of a footpath along its top, and on one side going sheer down with a smooth hard rock-face to the sands below.
The wind tore apart the fabric of lacy cloud which had been looped in folds across the rock-face, like a veil hiding the worn features of some aged nun, and showed jagged mountain peaks, towering against a sky of mother-o'-pearl. Suddenly, after a steep ascent, we saw before us a tall, lonely mass of grey stone, built upon the rock.
Epic material is fragmentary, scattered, loosely related, sometimes contradictory, each piece of comparatively small size, with no intention beyond hearty narrative. It is a heap of excellent stones, admirably quarried out of a great rock-face of stubborn experience.
The air was oppressed with a leaden blackness no glimmer of light on any hand; and as they began the ascent of the Pass they reached out blind hands to feel along the rock-face. A sea-fret, cool and wetting, fell. A few big rain-drops splashed heavily down. The wind rose with a leap and roared past them up the rocky track. And the water-gates of heaven were flung wide.
'Fourscore feet deep in the north well, 'fourscore feet deep in the well to north' 'fourscore feet north of the deep well, so the words went round and round in my head, till I was tired and giddy, and fell unawares asleep. It was daylight when I awoke, and the wind had fallen, though I could still hear the thunder of the swell against the rock-face down below.
'Heh, Crauford, what the deuce is this? asked the thin man. 'D'you hear, sir? cried the man with the red coat. 'Lord Wellington wants to know what this means. My poor Bart broke into an account of all that had occurred, but that rock-face never softened for an instant. 'Pretty fine, 'pon my word, General Crauford, he broke in. 'The discipline of this force must be maintained, sir.
Close to the tunnel-head we alighted, and went on into the dream on foot, the gallery contracting to a few feet in height, where a group of black figures bent over rock-drills which creaked and groaned. I saw the drill-holes filled with dynamite, and retired with the others while the fuse was lighted. I heard from afar off the thunderous detonations as the rock-face was shattered.
So the boy consented; and they came to the cave; but Ralph wondered exceedingly to see a door set in the rock-face; and he put out his hand and pulled the door; and it opened; and a voice from within called him by name. Then in a moment Ralph saw that he was in the house of the Wise Man, who sate in his chair, regarding him with a smile, like a father welcoming a son.
It was a ledge some twenty feet above the valley level, with a sort of natural parapet behind which he could crouch, and, unseen, keep an eye on all the glades and runways below. Behind him the rock-face was so nearly perpendicular that no enemy could steal upon him from the rear.
I moved as swiftly as I dared, making no noise, nor looked behind me until I reached the rocks under the cliff the path by which Mr. Goodfellow had crept round to scuttle the boat. I calculated that by working my way along for fifty yards between them and the rock-face I should gain an opening which, observed from below, had seemed to promise me an excellent view of the next beach.
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