pon the rock. For a moment I lay there, wondering
stupidly whether something had happened to my eyes or whether I had come
suddenly into the light of day. I had seen light--the light of what?

Slowly I lifted my head, and the truth came to me with stunning force.
It was God's own sunlight that I had seen! The chute ended within three
paces of the spot where I lay, and immediately opposite the opening
through which I looked was a patch of vermilion rock that blazed
gloriously as the rays of the afternoon sun struck full upon it. I knew
that rock! It had thrilled me as I looked at it on the afternoon when
Leith had introduced us to the greatest natural wonder of the Pacific. I
was at the end of a passage that opened into the Vermilion Pit!

From where I lay I could not see the top of the crater. When the
passage had suddenly broadened, the roof came down upon it, so that the
opening through which I looked at the opposite side of the great pit was
about ten feet wide but not more than two feet in height. An overhanging
lip of rock prevented me from looking up, but I understood that I was
lower than the slippery Ledge of Death that we had crossed to reach the
Valley of Echoes. It seemed years since we had crossed that path, yet it
was less than a week.

I thought of the others waiting in the darkness, and I turned and slid
down the chute up which I had scrambled. The path to liberty was not yet
plain, but there was fresh air and sunlight at the top of the chute, and
one could see the faces of those they loved. Bumping and bounding over
the jagged rocks I went at a terrific speed to the bottom of the slide,
and, scrambling through the opening, I shouted the news to the four who
waited there.

"It opens into the Vermilion Pit!" I gasped. "I can't see how we can
climb out, but there's hope--there's hope!"

I was foolish in making the last statement, but the sight of the
glorious sunbeams, striking down into the abyss, had made me blind to
the difficulties that were yet to be faced! And the Maori's chant must
surely be true! Now that it had brought us to the light, I could not
but believe that it would bring us to liberty.

The slippery chute brought a suggestion from Holman. He advised that the
two girls and the Professor remain at the bottom while he and I took one
end of the rope to the top so that we could haul them up the wet track
that I had scaled with difficulty.

"We won't be five minutes!" I cried. "Stay where