Can we ?" "Alas, Miss Croyden," I said, "I fear that there is but little to see.
Our island, so far as I can judge, is merely one of the uninhabited keys of the West Indies.

It is nothing but rock and sand and scrub.

There is no life upon it.

I fear," I added, speaking as jauntily as I could, "that unless we are taken off it we are destined to stay on it." "Still I should like to see it," she persisted.
"Come on, then," I answered, "if you are good for a climb we can take a look over the ridge of rocks where I went up on the first day." We made our way across the sand of the beach, among the rocks and through the close matted scrub, beyond which an eminence of rugged boulders shut out the further view.
Making our way to the top of this we obtained a wide look over the sea.
The island stretched away to a considerable distance to the eastward, widening as it went, the complete view of it being shut off by similar and higher ridges of rock.
But it was the nearer view, the foreground, that at once arrested our attention.

Edith seized my arm.