Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1902-01-06
The Hole IN
the Cliff ~ ~
BY T. C. HARBAUGH.

Il n THE warm summer sunshine that
frightened a very Misunderstanding
Cornish home a ruddy-faced boy of
10 sat overhauling a bird-hunter's
rope. So intent was he with his work
that he did not notice the addressed
figure that slouched down the mar
row road toward him, and paused
at last few feet away to watch him
with pair of jealous eyes.
'Mending your rope, are you?' sud
denly asked the man.
The boy looked up and for the first
time saw the evil-loolling speaker.
Eyes, Sid, I'm strengthening a few
strands" answered the ropemaker.
''The sharp rocks cut, you know, and
one wants everything safe when he
goes down."
"There's something better than egg
hunting in the wind just now," said
Sid Sloper, the ragged fellow.
"What is it?"
They've just posted a reward for
information that will lead to the de-
dred pounds amt to be picked up ev-
cry day, boy, and it's better than GO
ing down over the cliffs after gulls'
eggs"
The Cornish youth, who was ac-
counted the most successful egg-hunt-
er along the coast, made no reply,
but dropped his eyes to his work and
did not look up again for a few mo-
ments.
When he raised his eyes, Sid Sloper
was gone, and he thought he saw the
ragged mans retreating figure van
ish down the road, but was not sure.
Egg hunting is profitable enough
for me-" thought the boy, "but L
would not mind earning the 800.
Sid Sloper's word is to be taken with
a good deal of allowance, though the
coast guard is very anxious to catch
the smugglers, and the reward may
be out"
The village mentioned by Sloper,
the vagabondish Cornishman, was sit
uated a good mile from the coast. 1t
was farther away than the home of
Brant Burton, the young egg hunter,
and as the boy had not been there
for some days, he did not altogether
disbelieve the mans statement about
the reward.
The sun was hanging very low in
the west, when, provided with a bas-
ket and a rope, he set out for the
Cornish cliffs. He had discovered a
hole right above a narrow ledge of
rock which promised good results,
and the number of birds that whirled
about the place tempted the boy as
he had not been tempted before of
late.
There existed among the egg-hunt-
ers of Cornwall a most intense ieal-
ousy They would watch one another
like paid spies, and some even went
far as to cut the ropes hanging
over the cliffs, leaving the poor bird
hester in terrible predicament.
Brant Burton, the gull-hunter, had
resolved to investigate the opening
IN the cliff about shutdown when there
was not so much danger of his being
seen; and when he reached the edge
of the wall the sun was disappearing.
ball of fire, beneath the waves of
the channel.
raging out his rope, he made one
end fast to jagged rock near the
brink of the cliff, and with his. bas-
ket strapped to his back, swung him
self over the wall.
1t was not his first descent ON a
similar mission. He always kent a
cool head and steady hands on such
occasions, for beneath him, hundreds
of feet sometimes, boiled the wbirI-
pools of the English channel.
This time his good rope did not fail
him, for after a brisk descent he
stood on scanty ledge of rock with
The darkening sky far above and the
wild waters below.
The hole in the cliff was large
enough to admit a man, though ii had
not looked so from his point of OBJ
servation. To the Cornish boy it
seemed more than a mere rendezvous
for gulls.
All at once something fell past the
boy, and the next moment to his hor-
ror he discovered that his rope had