renda
screamed faintly, but her scream was stifled at once.

'I'll send the bucket down again the moment I get up,' Lucy called out;
and a moment later, 'it feels awfully jolly, like a swing.'

And so saying she was drawn up into the hole in the roof of the dome.
Then a sound of voices came down the shaft, a confused sound; the
anxious little party on the _Lightning Loose_ could not make out any
distinct words. They all stood staring up, expecting, waiting for the
bucket to come down again.

'I hate leaving the ship,' said Philip.

'You shall be the last to leave her,' said the parrot consolingly; 'that
is if we can manage about Max without your having to sit on him in the
bucket if he gets in first.'

'But how about you?' said Philip.

[Illustration: The bucket began to go up.]

A little arrogantly the parrot unfolded half a bright wing.

'Oh!' said Philip enlightened and reminded. 'Of course! And you might
have flown away at any time. And yet you stuck to us. I say, you know,
that was jolly decent of you.'

'Not at all,' said the parrot with conscious modesty.

'But it was,' Philip insisted. 'You might have---- hullo!' cried Philip.
The bucket came down again with a horrible rush. They held their breaths
and looked to see the form of Lucy hurtling through the air. But no, the
bucket swung loose a moment in mid-air, then it was hastily drawn up,
and a hollow metallic clang echoed through the cavern.

'Brenda!' the cry was wrung from the heart of the sober self-contained
Max.

'My wings and claws!' exclaimed the parrot.

'Oh, bother!' said Philip.

There was some excuse for these expressions of emotion. The white disk
overhead had suddenly disappeared. Some one up above had banged the lid
down. And all the manly hearts were below in the cave, and brave Lucy
and helpless Brenda were above in a strange place, whose dangers those
below could only imagine.

'I wish _I'd_ gone,' said Philip. 'Oh, I _wish_ I'd gone.'

'Yes, indeed,' said Max, with a deep sigh.

'I feel a little faint,' said the parrot; 'if some one would make a cup
of cocoa.'

Thus did the excellent bird seek to occupy their minds in that first
moment of disaster. And it was well that the captain and crew were thus
saved from despair. For before the kettle boiled, the lid of the shaft
opened about a foot and something largeish, roundish and lumpish fell
heavily and bounced upon the deck of the _Lightning Loose_.

It was a pine-apple,