“Great Scott! Sunshine!”
A ray of light stabbed the darkness like a golden sword, striking full upon the monstrous eye of Ramouni, which flashed and scintillated with a dazzling lustre.
“Sunshine!” echoed the others in a breath, and then, somewhere in the interior of the image, a bell began to toll. Astounded, the explorers stood gazing at the wonderful beam of light.
“It comes through a passage in the dead fire-mountain,” Chenobi volunteered, “and lasts for but a few moments. See, it fades already.”
Even as he spoke the tolling of the bell ceased, and the sunlight vanished as suddenly as it had come, leaving the twilight of the underworld the more gloomy for its brief visit.
[CHAPTER XXII.]
THE TERROR OF THE JUNGLE.
“IS there, then, a way out of this underworld?”
Seymour’s voice betrayed his agitation as he put this question to Chenobi. So much depended on the Ayuti’s answer that each of the adventurers held their breath to listen.
“Yea,” came the reply, “there is a passage through the heart of the dead fire-mountain, by which my people entered this land, but it lies far away through the jungle.”