Chapter Forty.
A Grim Journey.
Panton plunged at once down the slope as if to go diagonally to the water’s edge, and his companions followed him in and out and over the blocks, which were a feast for Drew, while at every few steps some strange bird, insect, or quadruped offered itself as a tempting prize to Oliver, but no one paused. The gathering in of these prizes was left till some future time.
It was as the others supposed, Panton was descending to the water’s edge, reaching it just where the crater rose up more steeply and chaotically rugged than in the other parts.
“Look out!” he cried, loudly, and, raising his piece, he fired at the great leopard-like creature which had evidently taken refuge here, and now bounded out with a fierce growl, and away along the rocks by the edge of the lake.
The bullet sent after it evidently grazed the animal, for it sprang into the air and fell with a tremendous splash into the water, but scrambled out again, and went bounding away, while, instead of following their comrade’s example, Oliver and Drew stood listening, appalled by the deep roar as of subterranean thunder, which ran away from close to their feet to die away in the distance, and then rise again—a strange reverberation that seemed to make the rocks quiver upon which they stood.
“We must have him some day,” said Panton, stepping right down on a stone, whose surface was just above the level of the water; and now, for the first time, Oliver saw that there was a slightly perceptible current running on either side of this stone, the water gliding by with a glassy motion, this evidently being the outlet of the lake; and on joining Panton he found himself facing what resembled a rugged Gothic archway at the foot of the stony walls, where a couple of great fragments of lava had fallen together.
“Why, it is a cavern!” cried Oliver, as he bent forward, and tried to peer into the darkness before him.
“A cavern? Yes; Aladdin’s cave, and we’re going to explore it,” cried Panton. “Now then, Smith, five candles, please, and all lit ready for us to go in and see what there is to be seen.”
Smith walked right in, stepping from stone to stone for a few yards, and then leaping off the block on which he stood in midstream to the lava at the side; and, upon Oliver following him, he found that he was standing upon another stream, one which had become solid as it cooled, while the water which now filled the cup-like hollow had gradually eaten itself a channel in the stone, about a quarter of the width of the lava, and this flowed on into the darkness right ahead.