It may come as handy as a shillelah in a scrimmage, so ye does hold on to the same." Fred took it rather gingerly, for he did not fancy the idea of going off with property taken from a dead man, but he suffered his friend to pursuade him, and the arrangement was made.
In the belief that there might be others somewhere around, Mickey spent an hour or two longer in an exploration of the cave, with the single purpose of looking for bodies.

They approached the ravine in which Fred had dropped his gun.

The Irishman leaped across, torch in hand, and prosecuted his search along that side; but they were compelled to give over after a time and conclude that only a single individual had preceded them in the cave.
"Where he came from must iver remain a mystery," said Mickey.

"He hasn't been the kind of chaps you find in this part of the world; but whoever he was, it must have been his luck to drop through the skylight, just as we did.

He must have found the wood here and kindled a fire.