" continued Oliver.

"Look, look, sir," whispered Wriggs, stopping short, and catching the
young man's arm.

"What at? The fire? Yes, I see it."

"No, sir, close to it. There, it's a-moving. Tommy Smith's ghost."

"Ahoy, ghost!" shouted Oliver, as he caught sight of the figure.

"Ahoy it is, sir," came in stentorian tones. "Seen anything o' poor
Billy Wriggs, sir? He's wanished."

"Mussy on me, Tommy," shouted Wriggs, running forward to grasp his
comrade's hand, "I thought you was a dead 'un."

"Not so bad as that, messmet," said Smith shaking hands heartily, "but I
had a nasty tumble down into a sort o' crack place, and it reg'lar
stunned me for a bit, and when I come back you was gone."

"But did you hear 'em?" said Wriggs, in a husky whisper.

"Who's 'em?" said Smith.

"Sarpents."

"What, a-hissin' like mad?"

"Ay."

"'Tarn't serpents, Billy, it's some hot water holes clost by here, and
every now and then they spits steam. Fust time I heerd it I thought it
was a cat."

Half an hour later all were sleeping soundly, only one having his
slumber disturbed by dreams, and that was Wriggs, who had turned over on
his back, and in imagination saw himself surrounded by huge snakes, all
in two pieces. They rose up and hissed at him while he struggled to get
away, but seemed to be held down by something invisible; but the most
horrible part of his dream was that some of the serpents hissed at him
with their heads, and others stood up on the part where they had been
divided, and hissed at him with the points of their tails.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

UP THE MOUNTAIN.

The sun was shining upon the globular mist which floated high up over
the top of the mountain when Panton woke and roused his companions, and
while the men raked up the embers, added wood to get the kettle to boil,
the three young companions walked to the spring for a bathe, by way of
preparation for an arduous day's work. Here they found, deep down in a
crack among the rocks, quite an extensive pool, into which the hot
spring flowed, and a journey of thirty or forty yards among the rocks,
exposed to the air, was sufficient to temper its heat into a pleasant
warmth, whose effects were delicious, giving to the skin, as it did,
consequent upon the salts it contained, a soft, silky feeling, which
tempted them to stay in longer.

"It wouldn't do," said Panton, withdrawing himself from the seductive
influence of the bath. "It would be e