e boldly on over the lava
stream, his two friends feeling bound to follow him, while Smith and
Wriggs came last.

"How do you feel, Tommy?" whispered the latter.

"Bad," was the laconic reply.

"Don't seem no good in going no furder, do it?"

"Not a bit, and these here candles'll be out d'rectly. Hold hard,
please, sir, we've got to light up again."

Oliver heard his words, and hailed Drew, who in turn called to Panton.
But the latter was just at an angle where the lava stream swept round to
the left, and there was a reason why he did not hear the call, and they
saw him disappear round the corner with his light.

Drew hastened his steps and followed, catching sight of him for a
moment, and then losing him again, for Panton's light was extinguished,
and Drew stood peering forward in an agony of dread, feeling certain
that their companion had dropped down into some horrible crevice in the
lava; while he had suddenly himself stepped from almost perfect silence
into a part of the cavern where his ears were smitten by a fearful din
of falling water.

The next minute, in an agony of spirit that seemed too hard to bear, his
outstretched candle lit up Panton's face, which was farther illumined by
the lights the others bore.

"My light's burned out," cried Panton, placing his lips close to Drew's
ear. "I say, what a row the water makes."

The effort to speak grew troublesome, and signs were resorted to. Fresh
candles were lit, and in spite of an objection raised by Oliver, Panton
was for going on again.

"We must see the falls now we are so near," he shouted. "We can't be
many yards away. We'll come better provided with lights another time."

Starting on again, but going very carefully, Panton continued his way
onward pretty close to the edge of the smooth river which ran now
several feet below the level on which they walked. And as he held out
his candle, so as to clearly see the edge, the light gleamed fitfully
from the black glassy surface of the stream.

All at once Panton found himself at an angle of the rock, where a second
stream joined the one by which they had come, and as the others joined
him, it seemed as if their progress was at an end. This second stream
was a surprise, for it was larger than the one by their right, and
coming as it did almost at right angles from their left, it was puzzling
as to whence it could come, for it did not seem possible that it could
have issued from the crater lake