“I was examining these ferns. How curious it is.”
“What, their withering up so?” said Lane. “Yes, I was noticing it. Are they sensitive plants?”
“Oh, no!” cried Drew, “those are the mimosa family. But look here, you can see them fade and droop as you watch them; I suppose it is in some way due to our presence here.”
“Watcher fidgeting about, Billy?” said Smith, just then. “It’s hot enough without you playing the fool. Shuffling about like a cat on hot bricks.”
“That’s just what is the matter with me, matey,” grumbled Wriggs. “Just you put yer hand down here. This here rock’s as hot as a baker’s oven.”
“So’s this here,” said one of the men who had carried the provisions. “Hadn’t we better go ’fore there’s roast man for brexfass?”
“Really, gentlemen, it’s uncomfortably hot here,” said Mr Rimmer, and just then there was a peculiar tremor beneath them, and a shock as if they were upon a thin crust which had received a sharp blow from beneath.
They all started to their feet, and the first disposition was to run.
“Don’t leave your guns!” roared Panton, and each man snatched up his piece. The next moment they fell prostrate and clung to the nearest rocks, for the earth began to sink beneath them, and the huge stones upon which they had been seated a short time before glided away.
“Quick!” cried Lane, as the surface, which had been nearly level, now hung down in a precipitous slope. “This way!”