“I believe you, of course, but if any one else had told me that a balloon could be strong enough to carry an elephant that size I would not have believed it possible, but I can believe anything any one tells me about what that wonderful old man can do.”
They had now arrived at one of the gates of Hades.
“Now let us start down through this first gate, make a tour of the interior and come out at the seventh gate,” suggested the guide.
Just then a burst of flames and the suffocating fumes of sulphur poured out of one of the caves near by and nearly choked them. This settled the girls. They decided to remain where they were.
“I hate to have you go down, dear,” said the Princess; “the fumes may suffocate you.”
“Oh, no,” said the new guide who had arrived, “those fumes only arise when the fires are being replenished. These holes are like chimneys and no one can be entirely overcome. Attendants take good care of that for they are instructed to prolong the sufferings of their victims but not to kill them.”
“What relentless, cruel people these long-faced, sly-looking Saturnians are,” exclaimed Ione.
As the boys disappeared through the opening, the girls called after them, “Do be careful and hurry back.”
Down and down they went, choking and coughing the while as they penetrated farther and deeper into the very bowels of the planet. The air grew hotter and hotter and peering over the narrow, winding stairway, they could see at the extreme bottom a red hot mass of seething, burning matter.
“Hark! I thought I heard the Princess scream,” said the Prince, abruptly stopping on his way.