On either
side we saw them leaping upwards round the tall tufts of dry herbage.
We shrieked with pain and terror. The rock was reached, but to scale
its steep sides seemed beyond our power. With a strength I did not
believe myself to possess, I seized Jerry and hoisted him up. Grasping
the clumps of grass and rugged lumps of rock, he scrambled to the top,
and then leaning over, lent me his hand, and dragged me after him.
Horror of what might be my fate enabled me to do what I otherwise could
not have accomplished. At the same moment that I reached the top of the
rock, the whole surrounding surface of the ground below became a sea of
raging fire--leaping, tossing, hissing, roaring, the flames blown here
and there by the wind; it was like the ocean in a storm. The devouring
element came circling round us, the bright flames darting up like the
tongues of huge serpents, eager to make us their prey. Bewildered by
the scorching heat and black circles of smoke, we were nearly falling
back into the fiery sea. I felt that I could not much longer retain my
senses. I seized Jerry's arm, and dragging him back, we retreated
towards the centre of the rock. Even there the heat was so intense, and
the smoke so suffocating, that it was with difficulty we could breathe.

"This is dreadful!" he exclaimed faintly. "Harry, I cannot stand it--I
am going to die." Saying this, he sunk gasping to the ground. At the
same time I felt an agonising sensation in my chest, and fully believing
that the same fate as his was about to overtake me also, I dropped down
senseless by his side.

CHAPTER SIX.

OUR BOAT ADVENTURE AMONG THE FALKLANDS.

A current of cool air was passing over the face of the rock, I conclude,
for, to my no small satisfaction, I discovered that I was alive, and
could very speedily sit up. The spectacle which met my sight, however,
was terrific in the extreme. Far as the eye could reach, the whole
country was in a blaze, the flames crackling and hissing as they
fiercely attacked clump after clump of the tall tussac grass, while the
ground over which they had passed was charred and blackened, the
globular masses of the bog balsam glowing with fervent heat. The flames
also still burned brightly close round us, and I saw no means by which
we could escape from our position. As soon as I had collected my
thoughts, I remembered my companion. I found a few drops of spirits and
water in our flask. I poured them do