For, evidently frantic with dread, and helpless as far as relief was concerned, the three seals, as if moved by one idea, gave a wallowing movement, and dashed from the rocks together, seeming for the moment as if they were bent on leaping into the boat, but of course falling short and plunging into the water with a tremendous splash, which sent the spray all over those who were nearest; and at the same moment there was a hiss, and they were in total darkness. "I won't be afraid," said Arthur to himself; and he clenched his teeth as his father said loudly: "Rather startling. I did not expect that. Dropped my magnesium ribbon. Why, where's the lantern?" "It's underneath me, father," said Dick in a half-ashamed grumbling tone. "I tumbled back over it and knocked it out." "Never mind, Master Dick, I've got some matches," said Will; and after a good deal of scratching, which only resulted in long lines of pale light, for every part of the boat seemed to be wet, there was a glow of light once more, and the lantern was lit; but its rays seemed pitiful in the extreme after the brilliant glare of the magnesium. "And now where are the seals?" said Mr Temple, holding the lantern above his head. "Out to sea long enough ago, sir," said Josh. "They went under the boat, and I felt one of 'em touch the oar as they went off. You won't see no more seals, sir, to-day." "Ah well!" said Mr Temple, "we've seen some, boys, at all events. Now let's have a look round here." He held up the lantern, and as the boat was thrust onward he examined the rock here and there, taking out his little steel-headed hammer and chipping about. "Granite--quartz--gneiss--quartz," he said in a low voice, as he carefully examined each fresh fracture in the stone. "Why, boys, here's tin here," he said sharply. "This place can never have been worked." As he was speaking these latter words he held out a fragment of the stone he had broken off to Josh. "That's good tin, my man," he said. Josh growled. He had more faith in a net or a bit of rope. "What do you say to it, Will?" said Mr Temple. Will took the piece of quartz that was sparkling with tiny black crystals and turned it over several times close to the light. "Good tin ore, and well worth working," he exclaimed readily. "Yes," said Mr Temple, "you are right, my lad. It is well worth working. Let's look a little farther. Here, you come and stand up and hold the lantern. We can land here." Will obeyed, and as the boys watched, and Josh solaced himself with cutting a bit of cake tobacco to shreds, Mr Temple and Will climbed from place to place, the boys seeing the dark wet pieces of rock come out clear and sparkling as the blows fell from the hammer. Now they were here, now there, and the more Mr Temple hammered and chipped the more interested he seemed to grow.