“What’s that in the water there?” said Wildney, pointing in the direction to which Wright was also looking. Montagu snatched the telescope out of his hand and looked. “Good God!” he exclaimed, turning pale; “what can be the matter?” “O _do_ let me look,” said Eric. “No! stop, stop, Eric, you’d better not, I think; pray don’t, it may be all a mistake. You’d better not--but it looked--nay, you really _mustn’t,_ Eric,” he said, and, as if accidentally, he let the telescope fall into the water, and they saw it sink down among the seaweeds at the bottom. Eric looked at him reproachfully. “What’s the fun of that, Monty? you let it drop on purpose.” “O never mind; I’ll get Wildney another. I really daren’t let you look, for fear you should _fancy_ the same as I did, for it must be fancy. O _don’t_ let us put in there--at least not all of us.” What _was_ that thing in the water?--When Wright and Vernon left the others, they walked along the coast, following the direction of the boat, and agreed to amuse themselves in collecting eggs. They were very successful, and, to their great delight, managed to secure some rather rare specimens. When they had tired themselves with this pursuit, they lay on the summit of one of the cliffs which formed the sides of Avon Glen, and Wright, who was very fond of poetry, read Vernon a canto of Marmion with great enthusiasm. So they whiled away the morning, and when the canto was over, Vernon took a great stone and rolled it for amusement over the cliff’s edge. It thundered over the side, bounding down till it reached the strand, and a large black cormorant, startled by the reverberating echoes, rose up suddenly, and flapped its way with protruded neck to a rock on the further side of the little bay. “I bet you that animal’s got a nest somewhere near here,” said Vernon eagerly. “Come, let’s have a look for it; a cormorant’s egg would be a jolly addition to our collection.” They got up, and looking down the face of the cliff, saw, some eight feet below them, a projection half hidden by the branch of a tree, on which the scattered pieces of stick clearly showed the existence of a rude nest. They could not, however, see whether it contained eggs or no. “I must bag that nest; it’s pretty sure to have eggs in it,” said Vernon, “and I can get at it easy enough.” He immediately began to descend towards the place where the nest was built, but he found it harder than he expected. “Hallo,” he said, “this is a failure. I must climb up again to reconnoitre if there isn’t a better dodge for getting at it.” He reached the top, and, looking down, saw a plan of reaching the ledge which promised more hope of success. “You’d better give it up, Verny,” said Wright. “I’m sure it’s harder than we fancied, _I_ couldn’t manage it, I know.”