ried in by the great wave," continued Panton. "Once
an island like this is thrust up from the bottom of the sea, the coral
insects soon begin to be busy and build all round it. Look at the reef
yonder."

"Then you think the volcano is in the middle of the island?" said Drew,
taking out his pocket lens to examine a tiny blossom.

"That doesn't follow," said Panton, oracularly, as he chipped off a
fragment of lava, which fresh fracture glistened brightly. "The
mountain may be just at the edge of the island, possibly on a cape. I
should say this one is, and cut off from sight by that wall of mist,
which seems to be rising from a gulf extending right across. What are
you men muttering there about tools?"

"Beg pardon, sir," said Smith, "I only said to my mate as you gents
seemed to have tools for everything."

"There," cried Oliver, "time's getting on, and I want to reach that
mist, get through, and see what the place is like on the other side.
Ready?"

For answer the others sprang up, all being eager to see more of the
country upon which they had been so singularly cast, and for the next
hour they were fighting their way through the dense forest, every cut
and slash they made with their pocket-knives to rid themselves of
creeper and thorn, destroying growth which was of intense interest to
Drew, while Panton damaged his shins over blocks of stone he longed to
chip, while dislodging insects and scaring birds and quadrupeds, of
which Oliver got but a glance.

They were constantly stopping to mop their faces, for the heat was
tremendous, and their progress very slow, but still they got on, some
open patch caused by the falling of a great tree rotted away by age, or
strangled by some creeper, giving them light and a breath of the soft
sea air overhead.

Everything here was beautifully green and fresh, the eruption having
left it unharmed, till, at the end of another tedious hour's work over
gradually rising ground full of jagged rifts and tumbled together
stones, which told of a convulsion of nature far back in some distant
age, when, in place of towering forest trees all must have been
absolutely bare and level. Smith, who was in front, cutting and
slashing with his jack-knife, uttered a shout.

"Land ho!" he cried, for they were evidently nearly through the sea of
verdure, the sky showing beneath the huge branches.

"At last!" cried Oliver, who was panting with the exertion, while his
companions' faces were