a considerable portion of time and space, and
convey the reader, by a forced march, to the crater of an active
volcano. By that time Verkimier's ankle had recovered and the pony had
been dismissed. The heavy luggage, with the porters, had been left in
the low grounds, for the mountain they had scaled was over 10,000 feet
above the sea-level. Only one native from the plain below accompanied
them as guide, and three of their porters whose inquiring minds tempted
them to make the ascent.

At about 10,000 feet the party reached what the natives called the dempo
or edge of the volcano, whence they looked down into the sawah or
ancient crater, which was a level space composed of brown soil
surrounded by cliffs, and lying like the bottom of a cup 200 feet below
them. It had a sulphurous odour, and was dotted here and there with
clumps of heath and rhododendrons. In the centre of this was a cone
which formed the true--or modern--crater. On scrambling up to the lip
of the cone and looking down some 300 feet of precipitous rock they
beheld what seemed to be a pure white lake set in a central basin of 200
feet in diameter. The surface of this lakelet smoked, and although it
reflected every passing cloud as if it were a mirror, it was in reality
a basin of hot mud, the surface of which was about thirty feet below its
rim.

"You will soon see a change come over it," said the hermit, as the party
gazed in silent admiration at the weird scene.

He had scarcely spoken, when the middle of the lake became intensely
black and scored with dark streaks. This, though not quite obvious at
first from the point where they stood, was caused by the slow formation
of a great chasm in the centre of the seething lake of mud. The lake
was sinking into its own throat. The blackness increased. Then a dull
sullen roar was heard, and next moment the entire lake upheaved, not
violently, but in a slow, majestic manner some hundreds of feet into the
air, whence it fell back into its basin with an awful roar which
reverberated and echoed from the rocky walls of the caldron like the
singing of an angry sea. An immense volume of steam--the motive power
which had blown up the lake--was at the same time liberated and
dissipated in the air.

The wave-circles died away on the margin of the lake, and the placid,
cloud-reflecting surface was restored until the geyser had gathered
fresh force for another upheaval.

"Amazing!" exclaimed Nigel, who h