am he had leaped over
with the skill and luck of madmen. Nor could they get around it.
Altamont in vain tried to pass; he was nearly lost in trying to cross
the stream of lava; his companions were obliged to hold him by force.

[Illustration]

"Hatteras, Hatteras!" shouted the doctor.

But the captain did not answer; Duke's barking alone was heard upon
the mountain.

Still, Hatteras could be seen at intervals through the column of smoke
and the showers of cinders. Sometimes his arm or head would emerge
from the whirlwind. Then he would disappear and be seen again higher
up in the rocks. His height diminished with the fantastic swiftness of
objects rising in the air. Half an hour later he seemed but a fraction
of his usual size.

The air was filled with the dull noises of the volcano; the mountain
was roaring like a boiler, its sides were quivering. Hatteras kept on,
and Duke followed. From time to time some enormous rock would give way
beneath them and go crashing down to the sea. But Hatteras did not
look back. He had made use of his staff as a pole on which to fasten
the English flag. His companions observed every one of his movements.
His dimensions became gradually smaller, and Duke seemed no larger
than a rat. One moment the wind seemed to drive down upon them a great
wave of flame. The doctor uttered a cry of anguish, but Hatteras
reappeared, standing and brandishing the flag.

[Illustration: "But Hatteras did not look back. He had made use of his
staff as a pole on which to fasten the English flag."]

This sight lasted for more than an hour,--an hour of struggle with the
trembling rocks, with the beds of ashes into which this madman would
sink up to the waist. Now he would be climbing on his knees and making
use of every inequality in the mountain, and now he would hang by his
hands at some sharp corner, swinging in the wind like a dry leaf.

At last he reached the top, the yawning mouth of the crater. The
doctor then hoped that the wretched man, having attained his object,
would perhaps return and have only those dangers before him.

He gave a last shout.

"Hatteras, Hatteras!"

The doctor's cry moved the American's heart so that he cried out,--

"I will save him!"

Then with one leap crossing the fiery torrent at the risk of falling
in, he disappeared among the rocks. Clawbonny did not have time to
stop him. Still, Hatteras, having reached the top, was climbing on top
of a rock which overhung t