the place he had selected, followed by his companions.
And thus the three adventurers began their descent into the ring.

CHAPTER XV

THE VALLEY OF THE SACRIFICE

For the first half-hour of their climb down into the valley of the
scratch, the three friends were too preoccupied with their own safety to
talk more than an occasional sentence. They came upon many places that
at first glance appeared impassable, or at least sufficiently hazardous
to cause them to hesitate, but in each instance the changing contour of
the precipice offered some other means of descent.

After thirty minutes of arduous effort, the Big Business Man sat down
suddenly upon a rock and began to unlace his shoes.

"I've got to rest a while," he groaned. "My feet are in terrible shape."

His two companions were glad of the opportunity to sit with him for a
moment.

"Gosh, I'm all in, too!" said the Very Young Man with a sigh.

They were sitting upon a ledge about twenty feet wide, with the wall
down which they had come at their back.

"I'll swear that's as far down there as it ever was," said the Big
Business Man, with a wave of his hand towards the valley below them.

"Further," remarked the Very Young Man. "I've known that right along."

"That's to be expected," said the Doctor. "But we're a third the way
down, just the same; that's the main thing." He glanced up the rocky,
precipitous wall behind them. "We've come down a thousand feet, at
least. The valley must be three thousand feet deep or more now."

"Say, how deep does it get before it stops?" inquired the Very Young
Man.

The Doctor smiled at him quietly. "Rogers's note put it about twelve
thousand," he answered. "It should reach that depth and stop about"--he
hesitated a moment, calculating--"about two o'clock," he finished.

"Some climb," commented the Very Young Man. "We could do this a lot
better than we're doing it, I think."

For some time they sat in silence. From where they sat the valley had
all the appearance of a rocky, barren canon of their own world above, as
it might have looked on the late afternoon of a cloudless summer day. A
gentle breeze was blowing, and in the sky overhead they could still see
the huge light that for them was the sun.

"The weather is certainly great down here anyway," observed the Very
Young Man, "that's one consolation."

The Big Business Man had replaced his shoes, taken a swallow of water,
and risen to his feet, preparing to