Free The Castaways of the Flag by Jules Verne

only small recesses, others were deep and also dark, owing to the
heaps of sea-weed in front of them. But it was quite likely that in the
opposite part, which was less exposed to the winds from the sea, some cavern
opened into which they might carry the stores from the boat.
     
                Trying to
keep as near as possible to where the boat was moored, Fritz and his companions
walked towards the eastern bastion. They hoped to find this more practicable
than the other, because of its elongated outline in its lower portion, and
thought that they might be able to get round it. Although it stood up sheer in
its upper portion, it sloped towards the middle and ended in a point by the sea.
     
                Their
anticipations were not disappointed. In the corner formed by the bastion was a
cave quite easy of access. Sheltered from the easterly, northerly, and
southerly winds, its position exposed it only to the winds from the west, less
frequent in these regions.
     
                The four men
went inside this cave, which was light enough for them to see all over it. It
was some twelve feet high, twenty feet wide, and fifty or sixty feet deep, and
contained several unequal recesses forming, as it were, so many rooms set round
a common hall. It had a carpet of fine sand, free from any trace of damp.
Entrance to it was through a mouth which could be easily closed.
     
                "As I am
a boatswain," John Block declared, "we couldn't have found anything
better!"
     
                "I
agree," Fritz replied. "But what worries me is that this beach is
absolute desert, and I am afraid the upper plateau may be so too."
     
                "Let us
begin by taking possession of the cave, and we will attend to the rest
presently."
     
                "Oh!"
said Frank. ''That is not much like our house at Rock Castle, and I don't even
see a stream of fresh water to take the place of our Jackal River!"
     
                "Patience!
Patience!" the boatswain answered. "We shall find some spring all
right by and by among the rocks, or else a stream coming down from the top of
the cliff."
     
                "Anyhow,"
Fritz declared, "we must not think of settling on this coast. If we do not
succeed in getting round the base of those bastions on foot we must take the
boat and reconnoitre beyond them. If it is a small island we have come ashore
upon, we will only stay long enough to set Captain Gould up again. A fortnight
will be enough, I imagine."
     
                "Well,
we have the house, at all events," John Block remarked. "As for the
garden, who is to say that it isn't quite close by—on the other side of this
point, perhaps?"
     
                They left the
cave and walked down across the beach, so as to get round the bastion.
     
                From the cave
to the first rocks washed by the sea at the half-ebb was about two hundred
yards. On this side there were none of the heaps of sea-weeds found on the
left-hand side of the beach. This promontory was formed of heavy masses of
rocks which seemed to have been broken off from the top of the cliff. At the
cave it would have been impossible to cross it, but nearer the sea it was low
enough to get across.
     
                The
boatswain's attention was soon caught by a sound of running water.
     
                A hundred
feet from the cave, a stream murmured among the rocks, escaping in little
liquid threads.
     
                The stones
were scattered here, which enabled them to reach the bed of a little stream fed
by a cascade that came leaping down to lose itself in the sea.
     
                "There
it is! There it is! Good fresh water!" John Block exclaimed, after a
draught taken up in his hands.
     
                "Fresh
and sweet!" Frank declared when he had moistened his lips with it.
     
                "And