A great cry from Hayle reached our ears.

A moment later they had disappeared into the abyss, while we stood staring straight before us, too terrified to speak or move.
[Illustration: "THE WOODWORK SNAPPED, AND THE TWO MEN FELL OVER THE EDGE."] Leglosse was the first to find his voice.
"My God!" he said, "how terrible! how terrible!" Then little Codd sank down, and, placing his head upon his hands on the table, sobbed like a little child.
"What is to be done ?" I asked, in a horrified whisper.
"Go down to the rocks and search for them," said the Sicilian officer, "but I doubt if we shall be able to find them; the sea is very deep off this point." We went! Kitwater's body we discovered, terribly mutilated upon the rocks.

Hayle's remains were never found.

Whether he fell into the deep water and was washed out to sea, or whether his body was jammed between the rocks under the water, no one would ever be able to say.

It was gone, and with it all that were left of the stones that had occasioned their misery.
Codd did not accompany us in the search, and when we returned to the villa above he was not to be found.