“Of course not,” said the professor; “but I thought if any of you are superstitiously inclined, I would warn you.”
“I guess it would take more than talk like that to turn us back now,” said Joe. “I’d face a legion of spooks to investigate that place.”
The others agreed with him. Indeed, as the Discoverer grew nearer, the marvels of the lost city grew more and more awe-inspiring.
What had appeared in the distance to be a mere huddle of terraced buildings, were now seen to be stately palaces, some of them with trees still growing amidst them. The buildings rose in this form till they reached their climax at the great gold-plated dome that capped the summit of the wonderful isle.
The walls, so far as could be seen, were white, but profusely ornamented with barbaric magnificence.
Not a little of the mystic effect of the island was gained from the precipitous and rugged cliffs of the mountains that walled the lake.
“However do you suppose a lake came to be in such a situation?” wondered Nat, addressing the professor.
“In my opinion,” said the scientist, “that lake is what was once the crater of a volcano, more enormous than any yet known.”
“And what we thought were separate mountains were once only part of the summit of that volcano?” asked Nat wonderingly.
“I think we would be correct in assuming so. In many parts of the world the craters of extinct volcanoes are found to be filled with water, just as this one is.”