"One second and I have him," the scientist called back.
At the same instant he made a dart at the dead creature's shaggy fur and appeared to grasp something. He hastily drew out a bottle and dropped whatever he had seized into it and then started leaping and bounding toward the aeroplane, his long legs looking like stilts as he advanced over the uneven ground.
He was just in time.
As the aeroplane left the ground the water in the lakes became violently agitated and steam arose from fissures in the mountain side. Flames shot up to a considerable height above the crater and a torrent of black lava began to flow toward the lakes, falling into them with a loud hissing sound that was audible to the boys, even after they had put many miles between themselves and the burning mountain.
"That will be the last of those monsters, I expect," remarked Harry as they flew steadily northward.
"I don't know," observed the professor, "they may have caves under water where they can keep cool. They evidently knew what to expect when they felt the first rumblings and shaking of the earth and must have had previous experience. I guess I was mistaken in thinking the volcano inactive."
"It was a piece of great good luck for us that the eruption came when it did," said Frank.
"It was a terrific one," commented Billy.
The professor laughed.
"Terrific," he echoed, "why, my boy, you ought to see a real eruption.
This was nothing. See, the smoke is already dying down. It is over."