t from below.

At last, late on in the afternoon, Oliver stopped short.

"We must get back before dark," he said. "Those chasms have to be
passed. What do you say, shall we go now?"

His proposal was agreed to at once, and they turned to have a good look
round. Above them towered the truncated cone looking precisely as it
did from the place where they had started that morning, and, while
Oliver adjusted his glass, Panton took out a pocket-compass, and Drew, a
watch-like aneroid barometer.

"I can see nothing but the barrier reef just as it was when we started.
Where are we now?" said Oliver. "Nearly north-east, are we not? and
sea, sea, sea, everywhere, nothing but sea in this direction."

"We are looking due north," said Panton, as the needle of his compass
grew steady.

"What, have we after all got round to the other side?"

"Seems so."

"Then the place is an island."

"Unless it joins the mainland somewhere west," said Panton.

"As far as I can see there is no land north or west. If we are on the
northern side now we must be able to see it at this height. How high
are we, Drew?"

"Just over four thousand feet, and I should say the mountain goes up
quite two thousand more, but it is very deceiving. Then we are upon an
island?"

"Hurrah!" cried Panton.

"I don't see where the hurrah comes in," said Oliver, quietly, "but I'm
glad that our journey has not been without some result."

"I should have liked to get to the top though," said Panton, looking
upward wistfully.

"I say, you two," said Drew, "we were to give a good look round for the
niggers."

"I've been doing so," said Oliver, whose eyes were still at his glass,
"and there isn't a sign of a hut, boat, or savage. Nothing but a
barrier reef shutting in a beautiful lagoon, and the cocoa-nut palms
fringing its edge."

"What about the lower slopes?" asked Drew.

"Dense forest for the most part, cut through every here and there by
what looks like old lava streams, which reach the lagoon, and form
cliffs."

"Then this side of the island is better wooded than the other?"

"Evidently, and there are two little streams running down from the dark
chaos of rock, that look to me different from the rest of the mountain.
You have a look, Panton."

The latter took the glass and stood sweeping the mountain slope for some
minutes, during which Smith and Wriggs sat down, and lit their pipes for
a restful smoke.

"All plain enough, as far as I c