were alive, and, last o' hall, you with your hammer--ay, that's
it!--and your myklescrope and bottle o' stuff as you puts on a bit o'
stone to make it fizzle and tell yer what kind it is. It's fine, sir,
it's fine, and it makes us two think what a couple o' stoopid, common
sailors we are, don't it, Billy?"

"Ay, Tommy, it do, but yer see we had to go as boys afore the mast, and
never had no chances o' turning out scholards."

"But you turned out a couple of first class sailors," said Oliver
warmly, "and as good and faithful helpmates as travellers could wish to
have at their backs. We couldn't have succeeded without you."

"So long, sir, as their legs don't want to run away with 'em, eh,
messmate?" said Smith with a comical look at Wriggs.

"Ay, they was a bit weak and wankle that day," said Wriggs, chuckling.

"Never mind about that, my lads," cried Panton, who had been busy
breaking off a bit of the stone on which Oliver had sat--a very dark
time-stained blackish-brown, almost covered with some form of growth,
but the fresh fracture was soft glittering, and of a silvery grey, as
pure and clear as when it was thrown out of the crater as so much
vesicular cindery scum.

"Yes," said Drew, examining the fragment. "You are right. Well, I say
thank you for bringing us up to see this glorious place."

"And I too, as heartily," said Oliver. "We must come up here regularly
for the next month at least; why, there are specimens enough here to
satisfy us all."

"Quite," said Drew, "and I propose we begin collecting to-day."

"And I second you," said Lane.

"And I form the opposition," cried Panton. "Do you suppose I made all
that fuss to bring you only to see this old crater?"

"Isn't it enough?" said Oliver.

"No," cried Panton excitedly. "This is nothing to the wonders I have to
show. Now, then, this way. Come on."

CHAPTER FORTY.

A GRIM JOURNEY.

Panton plunged at once down the slope as if to go diagonally to the
water's edge, and his companions followed him in and out and over the
blocks, which were a feast for Drew, while at every few steps some
strange bird, insect, or quadruped offered itself as a tempting prize to
Oliver, but no one paused. The gathering in of these prizes was left
till some future time.

It was as the others supposed, Panton was descending to the water's
edge, reaching it just where the crater rose up more steeply and
chaotically rugged than in the other parts.

"Look