Tyler's party had been able to navigate this channel because their
craft had been a submarine; but the Toreador could as easily have
flown over the cliffs as sailed under them. Jimmy Hollis and Colin
Short whiled away many an hour inventing schemes for surmounting
the obstacle presented by the barrier cliffs, and making ridiculous
wagers as to which one Tom Billings had in mind; but immediately
we were all assured that we had raised Caprona, Billings called us
together.
"There was no use in talking about these things," he said, "until
we found the island. At best it can be but conjecture on our part
until we have been able to scrutinize the coast closely. Each
of us has formed a mental picture of the Capronian seacoast from
Bowen's manuscript, and it is not likely that any two of these
pictures resemble each other, or that any of them resemble the
coast as we shall presently find it. I have in view three plans
for scaling the cliffs, and the means for carrying out each is in
the hold. There is an electric drill with plenty of waterproof
cable to reach from the ship's dynamos to the cliff-top when the
Toreador is anchored at a safe distance from shore, and there is
sufficient half-inch iron rod to build a ladder from the base to
the top of the cliff. It would be a long, arduous and dangerous
work to bore the holes and insert the rungs of the ladder from the
bottom upward; yet it can be done.
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