y to land. I can't imagine where the light comes from unless
it be from the people waiting for the arrival of the sun." Every instant
the speed was lessening. Overhead the cables were beginning to creak
and groan, and, now and then, the great globe swung perilously near some
tall stony peak, or passed under a mighty stalactite. Slower and slower
it got till, when within a few feet of the ground, it stopped its onward
motion and only swung back and forth like a pendulum.

"Quick," whispered Branasko, "we must get down while it is swinging, no
time to lose--not an instant!" And as the sun moved backward, with his
hand on the doorsill, he leaped to the earth. Johnston followed him.
They were not a moment too soon, for about fifty yards away they saw a
body of sixty or seventy men with lights in their hands hastening toward
them.

"Just in time," exulted Branasko, and he quickly drew Johnston into a
little cave in the face of a cliff. Crouching behind a great rock, they
saw and heard the men as they approached.

Some of them walked around the sun, and two, evidently in authority,
entered the door. The others were placing ladders against the side of
the sphere, when suddenly there was a loud clattering in the interior, a
whirling of wheels under the platform above, and the surface of the sun
burst into light.

The two refugees were momentarily blinded. Branasko had the presence of
mind to quickly draw his companion down close to the earth behind the
rock. "They could see us in the light," he whispered.

There was a joyous clamoring of voices among the men, and they withdrew
several yards to look at the sun. This drew them nearer the hiding-place
of the two refugees.

"Only an accident," said a voice; "it won't happen again."

Then one of them went into the sun and the lights died out. In a moment
the sun began to move. Slowly and majestically it swept over the rocky
earth, followed by the crowd, till it reached a great hole and sank into
it.

"Gone into the tunnel," said the Alphian, as the crowd disappeared
behind the cliff.

"What are we to do now?" asked Johnston. "We certainly can't go through
with the sun."

"Wait till the next trip," grimly replied Branasko.

The rumbling noise from the big hole gradually died away, and the two
men left their hiding-place.

"What is that?" asked Johnston. He pointed to the west, where a red
light shone against the towering cliffs.

"It must be the internal fires," answ