“We must get back before dark,” he said. “Those chasms have to be passed. What do you say, shall we go now?”
His proposal was agreed to at once, and they turned to have a good look round. Above them towered the truncated cone looking precisely as it did from the place where they had started that morning, and, while Oliver adjusted his glass, Panton took out a pocket-compass, and Drew, a watch-like aneroid barometer.
“I can see nothing but the barrier reef just as it was when we started. Where are we now?” said Oliver. “Nearly north-east, are we not? and sea, sea, sea, everywhere, nothing but sea in this direction.”
“We are looking due north,” said Panton, as the needle of his compass grew steady.
“What, have we after all got round to the other side?”
“Seems so.”
“Then the place is an island.”
“Unless it joins the mainland somewhere west,” said Panton.
“As far as I can see there is no land north or west. If we are on the northern side now we must be able to see it at this height. How high are we, Drew?”
“Just over four thousand feet, and I should say the mountain goes up quite two thousand more, but it is very deceiving. Then we are upon an island?”