“But suppose they choose this place and come here?”
“Not likely, Ned. If they do we must go farther into its depths.”
“Ugh!” cried the man with a shudder. “I want to get out of the hole. It’s hot and steamy, and unnatural. I believe some of the melted stuff came out this way.”
“What, the molten lava? Of course,” said Jack coolly. “I don’t understand much about it, but it’s plain enough that this was all liquid molten matter once, and that it ran out along here.”
“What, this rock, Mr Jack? Do you mean melted like lead and running down?”
“Of course.”
“Oh, I say, Mr Jack, is this a time, with black Indians close at hand, to go stuffing a fellow with cranky tales?”
“I am only telling you the simple truth, Ned.”
“But hard stone can’t melt.”
“Yes, it can, if the heat is great enough. This was all running like molten metal once, this part under our feet.”