as I
said to you once before, that it stands not so much above the old crater
as above and on the safe side of its lip."

"I t'ink, massa, if I may ventur' to speak," said Moses, "dat de sooner
we git off his lip de better lest we tumble into his mout'."

"You may be right, Moses, and I have no objection to quit," returned the
hermit, "now that I have secured the photograph and papers. At the same
time I fear the rain of stones and lava is growing worse. It might be
safer to stay till there is a lull in the violence of the eruption, and
then make a dash for it. What say you, Nigel?"

"I say that you know best, Van der Kemp. I'm ready to abide by your
decision, whatever it be."

"Well, then, we will go out and have a look at the state of matters."

The view from the entrance was not calculated to tempt them to forsake
the shelter of the cave, however uncertain that might be. The latest
explosions had enshrouded the island in such a cloud of smoke and dust,
that nothing whatever was visible beyond a few yards in front, and even
that space was only seen by the faint rays of the lamp issuing from the
outer cave. This lamp-light was sufficient, however, to show that
within the semi-circle of a few yards there was a continuous rain of
grey ashes and dust mingled with occasional stones of various sizes--
some larger than a man's fist.

"To go out in that would be simply to court death," said Nigel, whose
voice was almost drowned by the noise of the explosions and fall of
material.

As it was manifest that nothing could be done at the moment except to
wait patiently, they returned to the cave, where they lighted the
oil-stove, and Moses--who had taken the precaution to carry up some
provisions in a bag from the canoe--proceeded to prepare a meal.

"Stummicks must be attended to," he murmured to himself as he moved
about the cave-kitchen and shook his head gravely. "Collapses in dat
region is wuss, a long way, dan 'splosion of the eart'!"

Meanwhile, Nigel and the hermit went to examine the passage leading to
the observatory. The eruption had evidently done nothing to it, for,
having passed upwards without difficulty, they finally emerged upon the
narrow ledge.

The scene that burst upon their astonished gaze here was awful in the
extreme. It will be remembered that while the hermit's cave was on the
southern side of Krakatoa, facing Java, the stair and passage leading to
the observatory completely penetrat