“What! Why, give it time and it will wash away a continent. But an island like this would be nothing to it without the coral insects stopped it. Some volcanoes rise in these seas and never get much above the surface—the waves wash them away as fast as they form. You see they are only made up of loose cinders and ashes which fall over outside as they are thrown up. Others are more solid if liquid lava boils over the edge of the crater and runs down. This gradually hardens into massive rock, and resists the beating of the sea till the coral insects have done their work, building up to the surface of the sea, and then going on at the sides.”
“I suppose you are right,” said Jack with a yawn, “but the sooner we get away from this ugly place the better.”
“Think so? Well, wait and see it by daylight first. Look!”
He pointed to where, nearly a mile above them, a bright golden spot had appeared.
“Why, the volcano’s burning,” cried Jack excitedly. “Look! It’s red-hot, and gradually increasing. There’s going to be an eruption. How grand! But shall we be safe here?”
“Quite,” said the mate, smiling, and he stood watching his companion’s face, and its changes in the glowing light of the magnificent spectacle, as the golden red-hot aspect of the mountain top rapidly increased, displaying every seam, ravine, and buttress, that seemed to be of burning metal, fiery spot after fiery spot, that the minute before was of a deep violet black. And this went on, with the fire appearing to sink gradually down till the whole of the mountain top was one grand blaze of glory, which went on apparently sinking behind a belt of clouds, till from being of dark and gloomy grey they began to glow and become of a wonderful translucency.
“Oh!” panted the lad, “I never saw anything so grand as that. Look how the awful fire is reflected in the sky all round there.”
“Yes, it’s brightening it well up,” said the mate, smiling; and then the boy looked in his face, and the truth came to him like a flash from the great orb to enlighten his understanding.
“Why, you’re laughing at me,” he cried. “How stupid! I thought the mountain was burning. You should have told me. How was I to— Yes, I ought to have known that mountain tops first caught the light. Oh, I wish I were not so ignorant.”
“You are not the first who has been deceived,” said the mate quietly. “Well, the mountain does not look so gloomy now, does it?”