rilgo's hand grew limp he snatched away the knife. There was
no helping what he did for the two others were close upon him.

A thrust, a slashing blow, and the Drilgo was weltering in his
life-blood. A backward leap, and Jim evaded the flung spear by a
hair's breadth.

Knife in hand he leaped forward, and, dodging in beneath the long
shaft of the weapon, got in a slash that almost cut the Drilgo's body
in two.

The third Drilgo, seeing his two companions in their death-throes,
flung away his spear and fled with loud howls into the jungle.

Jim stepped back. Lucille and her father were already almost at his
heels. "It's all right," he called. "Come this way!" He led them
through the ferny growth in such a manner that they should not see the
two dead bodies. Nevertheless, he felt that Lucille knew.

"Let's see what they were cooking," he said.

But again he turned quickly. He could not know for sure what flesh
that was, roasting and scorching on the embers, and he had no desire
to know. It might have been monkey, but ... he turned away, and as he
did so, Parrish picked up several round objects that were lying a
little distance away.

"These are good to eat," he said. "A sort of bread-fruit. I've lived
on it for five years," he added with a sort of grotesque pathos.

They munched the fruit as they proceeded up the mountain, and found it
satisfying. Parrish seemed more himself again, though he still
muttered at intervals. Lucille clung closely to Jim as they proceeded.

* * * * *

They were treading on lava now, vitreous, and smooth as glass. It was
impossible to proceed further in that direction. They turned their
steps around the base in the direction of the sea.

After another hour, during which their way was lit by almost
continuous lurid flashes from the crater, a patch of illumination,
apparently out at sea, began to become visible. A half hour more, and
they were rounding the volcano's base, and suddenly it burst upon
them, a stupendous spectacle that drew an exclamation of amazement
from Jim's lips.

That low, flat background was the sea, the sound of whose breakers was
faintly audible. Between sea and land ran a narrow, slender causeway,
perhaps a mile in length. And beyond that, set on a small island, was
the most splendid city that Jim could have imagined.

Like New York--very like New York, with its mighty towers, but more
symmetrical, sloping upward from the sea to