t have been hurled upward from the mountain, and
fallen back on the slope in all probability white-hot.

"One will have warning," he thought, "and there may be no more fall
to-day."

Finishing his last mouthful, he took out an india-rubber cup, and
stooping down, filled it from the trickling course, raised it to his
lips, and then spurted out a mouthful in disgust, for it was hot,
bitter, salt, and had a most objectionable odour.

"Ugh!" he ejaculated, "mustn't depend on you." Then giving another
glance round, he shouldered his gun, and commenced the ascent, leaving
all vegetation behind him, and soon finding that his way lay over loose
scoria and finely-powdered pumice, into which his feet sank at every
step.

But as the difficulties and steepness of the ascent increased, so did
the desire to climb higher and see more of the volcano, and also more of
the country into which fate had brought him. Once a few hundred feet
higher, he felt he would be able to set all doubts at rest as to whether
they were surrounded by the sea; and to get this proof Oliver Lane
pressed on.

After a time he got more into the knack of climbing without slipping
back so much, but the sun was getting higher, and its beams grew warm,
while he was conscious of a sensation as of heat striking upward from
the ashy substance of which the slope was composed, and at last, to
gratify his curiosity, and to clear away a doubt, Lane stooped down to
lay his hand flat upon the ash, and snatch it away again, for it was
quite hot.

For a moment or two after this, he hesitated, but there above him rose
the cone with its crest of smoke, and apparently nothing to hinder him
from climbing steadily to the top, and from thence getting a bird's-eye
view of the country round.

That was enough to start him on, and setting himself manfully to the
task, in less than half an hour he found that he had reached an
atmospheric band where the breeze blew pleasantly cool and invigorating.
The cloud over the summit of the cone had floated away, and all was
clear and bright as he resumed the ascent, feeling now that an hour
would bring him to the top, when all at once he fell upon his knees, and
then threw himself at full length. For the mountain quivered beneath
his feet, and produced a giddy sensation as the surface rose and fell in
waves, whilst almost simultaneously there was a terrific roar, and he
saw a dense cloud driven out from above, and ascending to a tremen