We stretched out our necks and looked, and I tried to thrust back the exclamation that came to my lips. Directly beneath the polished part of the rim, and about four feet below it, was a ledge barely three feet wide, and this narrow path wound away to the right and disappeared through a cavernous opening in the brightly tinted walls of the crater. The ledge was bare and unprotected, polished to the same velvety smoothness as the spot on the rim near which we stood, and when one looked at it and then let his eyes glance over the infernal depths that were immediately beneath, the brain reeled with thoughts of the danger to which a climber would be exposed while making his way along it to the cavern in the wall.
Holman took a great breath of air and turned savagely upon Leith.
"What sort of a fool game are you up to?" he cried. "What do you mean?"
Leith's lower jaw came forward menacingly. "You had better hold your tongue!" he roared. "If you don't I'll—I'll——"
He stopped and glared at the young fellow, a murderous expression creeping over his sallow face. The half-voiced objection to the route had stirred all the sleeping devil in him, and the big stubby fingers crooked as if certain they would be called upon to grip Holman's throat.
"You'll do what?" asked the youngster coolly.
"I'll bundle you back to the yacht!" screamed the giant. "You've been allowed to come on this trip through the good nature of Professor Herndon, but you mustn't think you have any voice in the direction of affairs."
Holman did not reply. The dangers of the path over which it was evident that Leith intended to take us dazed him, and he looked at me as if asking confirmation of his opinions.
"But the young ladies?" I inquired, looking at Leith. "Do you expect them to go down on to that path?"
"I don't expect the young ladies to do anything against their inclinations," he answered blandly. "They have come with the expedition through no urging from me. Regarding the ledge, there is absolutely no danger, and it is the only path by which we can reach the interior of the island. Soma, go over the rim and show them."