up there. We must start for it, as soon as we have eaten,
and we may reach it by night."

The three stood gazing up toward the summit of the great mountain.
Suddenly, as the sun rose higher in the heavens, it sent a shaft of rosy
light on the face of the berg that had been scarred by the landslide.
Tom Swift uttered an exclamation, and pointed at something.

"See!" he cried. "Look where the trail is--the trail down which the
phantom must have come. It is on the edge of a cliff now!"

They looked, and saw that this was so. The increasing light had just
revealed it to them. When the lightning bolt had torn away a great
portion of the mountain it had cut sheer down for a great depth and
when the earth and stones fell away they left a narrow pathway, winding
around the mountain, but so near the edge of a great chasm, that there
was room but for one person at a time to walk on that footway. The
uncertain trail up Phantom Mountain had all but been destroyed.

"The way up to the peak is by that path, now," spoke Tom, in a low
voice.

"Bless my soul!" cried Mr. Damon. "It's as much as a man's life is worth
to attempt it. If he got dizzy, he'd topple over, and fall a thousand
feet. Dare we risk it?"

"It's the only way to get up," went on Tom. "It's either that way, or
not at all. We've tried the other side without success. We must go up
this way--or turn back."

"Then we'll go up!" cried Mr. Jenks. "It may not be as dangerous as it
looks from here."

But it was even more dangerous than it appeared, when they went part way
up it after a hasty breakfast. The trail was a mere ledge of rock now,
and in some places, to get around a projecting edge of the mountain,
they had to stand with their backs to the dizzy depths at their feet,
and with both arms outstretched work their way around to where the trail
was wider.

"Shall we risk it?" asked Tom, when they had tried the way, and found
it so dangerous. "We can't take anything with us--even our guns, for
we couldn't carry them, and if we reach the month of the cave, and find
those men there--"

He paused significantly. The adventurers looked at one another. The
search for the diamond makers was becoming more and more dangerous.

"I say let's go on!" decided Mr. Damon, suddenly. "We want to locate
that cave, first of all. Perhaps, when we do find it, we may see some
easier way of getting to it than this. And if those diamond makers do
attack us--well, I don't believe the