have fallen
from this part of the cliff; and it has left no breach for entering."

They were both right; we must seek entrance elsewhere. After a rest
of ten minutes, we clambered up close to the foot of the wall, and
began to make a circuit of its base.

Assuredly the Great Eyrie now took on to my eyes an aspect absolutely
fantastic. Its heights seemed peopled by dragons and huge monsters.
If chimeras, griffins, and all the creations of mythology had
appeared to guard it, I should have been scarcely surprised.

With great difficulty and not without danger we continued our tour of
this circumvallation, where it seemed that nature had worked as man
does, with careful regularity. Nowhere was there any break in the
fortification; nowhere a fault in the strata by which one might
clamber up. Always this mighty wall, a hundred feet in height!

After an hour and a half of this laborious circuit, we regained our
starting-place. I could not conceal my disappointment, and Mr. Smith
was not less chagrined than I.

"A thousand devils!" cried he, "we know no better than before what is
inside this confounded Great Eyrie, nor even if it is a crater."

"Volcano, or not," said I, "there are no suspicious noises now;
neither smoke nor flame rises above it; nothing whatever threatens an
eruption."

This was true. A profound silence reigned around us; and a perfectly
clear sky shone overhead. We tasted the perfect calm of great
altitudes.

It was worth noting that the circumference of the huge wall was about
twelve or fifteen hundred feet. As to the space enclosed within, we
could scarce reckon that without knowing the thickness of the
encompassing wall. The surroundings were absolutely deserted.
Probably not a living creature ever mounted to this height, except
the few birds of prey which soared high above us.

Our watches showed three o'clock, and Mr. Smith cried in disgust,
"What is the use of stopping here all day! We shall learn nothing
more. We must make a start, Mr. Strock, if we want to get back to
Pleasant Garden to-night."

I made no answer, and did not move from where I was seated; so he
called again, "Come, Mr. Strock; you don't answer."

In truth, it cut me deeply to abandon our effort, to descend the
slope without having achieved my mission. I felt an imperious need of
persisting; my curiosity had redoubled. But what could I do? Could I
tear open this unyielding earth? Overleap the mighty cliff? Throwing
one l