A few words of adieu were spoken, and then the boat rowed out to sea again, while Archie and Ronald turned away from the landing place.
"It were best," the young fisherman said, "to find a seat among the rocks, and there to await the dawn, when I can guide you to some caves hard by; but in the darkness we might well fall and break a limb did we try and make our way across the coast." A niche was soon found, and Archie and his companion sat down for a while.

Archie, however, soon discovered that the sides and back of his seat were formed of the strange columns of which Duncan had spoken, and that he was sitting upon the tops of others which had broken off.

Eagerly he passed his hands over the surface of these strange pillars, and questioned his companion as to what he knew about them; but Ronald could tell him no more than his father had done, and Archie was forced to await the dawn to examine more closely the strange columns.

Daylight only added to his wonder.
On all sides of him stretched the columns, packed in a dense mass together, while range above range they stood on the face of the great cliffs above him.

The more he examined them the more his wonder grew.
"They can neither be the work of men nor giants," he said, "but must have been called up by the fantastic freak of some powerful enchanter.