st as they were congratulating themselves on their escape, came
a dull, reverberating explosion--and as they clung to their insecure
footholds, a volcano of snow and ice rose ahead. Thousands of tons of
debris avalanched into the chasm below.

* * * * *

Stunned, deafened, they looked around.

Down in that pocket where the Thunderbolt had so recently gleamed was
one vast chaos, and above, where that razor-back ridge had led across
the intervening chasms to safety, was a dazzling void.

To both came the same thought, but Stoddard expressed it first.

"Krassnov--he's dynamited the ridge!" he gasped.

"Then we--we'll never get back now!" echoed Professor Prescott.

"No, but they'll never get us here!"

"Scant comfort, though, when we're pinioned here like a couple of
birds with their wings clipped."

"Right; but let's see. Let's figure. We're better off than we were.
And what was it Napoleon once said: 'When you can't retreat, advance.'
So suppose we--"

"But listen!"

* * * * *

Stoddard heard. It was the sound of rifle shots. And looking down, he
saw a feverish activity surrounding the rocket. Myriads of the pigmies
were swarming upon it, while a handful of Cossacks were holding them
off.

"Something doing down there, all right!" he muttered. "Looks to me
like--why, sure I've got it! That madman has overshot himself, for
once! He's buried their precious meteor, in blowing up our ridge, and
they've turned on him!"

"I think you're right," agreed Professor Prescott. "Suppose we advance
as you say. It looks like a chance."

"Right," said Stoddard.

Slowly, cautiously, they returned down the slope.

When within a hundred yards, they knew they had sized up the situation
correctly. With frantic speed, Krassnov was supervising the shoveling
out of his rocket from amid the debris; was directing its loading,
while the free members of his crew held off the enraged natives who
were obstructing them.

Descending even more cautiously now, they neared the scene of
activity.

"My plan is this--to get aboard and find out where they're going!"
said Stoddard, through shut teeth. "What do you say?"

"Lead on!" said the professor.

So they continued down, neared the resting-place of that strange
craft, and, under shelter of the moonlight shadows, stole through the
confused ranks surrounding it and crept aboard.

* * * *