e night I was roused by Agnew. He
pointed far away to the distant horizon, where I saw a deep red glow
as of fire. We were both filled with wonder at the sight, and were
utterly unable to account for it. We knew that it could not be caused
by the sun or the moon, for it was midnight, and the cause lay on the
earth and not in the skies. It was a deep, lurid glow, extending along
the horizon, and seemed to be caused by some vast conflagration.

CHAPTER III

A WORLD OF FIRE AND DESOLATION

At the sight of that deep-red glow various feelings arose within us:
in me there was new dejection; in Agnew there was stronger hope. I
could not think but that it was our ship that was on fire, and was
burning before our eyes. Agnew thought that it was some burning
forest, and that it showed our approach to some habitable and
inhabited land. For hour after hour we watched, and all the time the
current drew us nearer, and the glow grew brighter and more intense.
At last we were too weak to watch any longer, and we fell asleep.

On waking our first thoughts were about the fire, and we looked
eagerly around. It was day, but the sky was as gloomy as ever, and the
fire was there before our eyes, bright and terrible. We could now see
it plainly, and discern the cause also. The fire came from two points,
at some distance apart--two peaks rising above the horizon, from which
there burst forth flames and smoke with incessant explosions. All was
now manifest. It was no burning ship, no blazing forest, no land
inhabited by man: those blazing peaks were two volcanoes in a state of
active eruption, and at that sight I knew the worst.

"I know where we are now," I said, despairingly.

"Where?" asked Agnew.

"That," said I, "is the antarctic continent."

"The antarctic fiddlestick," said he, contemptuously. "It is far more
likely to be some volcanic island in the South Sea. There's a
tremendous volcano in the Sandwich Islands, and these are something
like it."

"I believe," said I, "that these are the very volcanoes that Sir James
Ross discovered last year."

"Do you happen to know where he found them?" Agnew asked.

"I do not," I answered.

"Well, I do," said he, "and they're thousands of miles away from this.
They are south latitude 77 degrees, east longitude 167 degrees; while
we, as I guess, are about south latitude 40 degrees, east longitude
60 degrees."

"At any rate," said I, "we're drifting straight toward them."

"So