“Look ahead, can’t you see a ray of daylight?”
All heads were immediately screwed to one side and a glance thrown ahead.
“Yes, that is surely daylight,” said Mr. Graham, “but how in the world, or in this hole, does it get there?”
“Shall we go on and see?” asked Mr. Bruce.
“Yes, by all means,” answered the King.
So the party again pushed on, now at a little livelier gait, for they could no longer be mistaken that that was the light of day penetrating this dark crevice. Hurriedly now they advanced, so anxious had they grown to see what sort of hole it was that admitted the sunlight; and after a short walk further they burst out into the bright open light of day. They looked above them and there, sure enough, was the bright, blue sky.
“What do you make of it, Mr. Graham?” asked Mr. Bruce.
“Well,” replied Mr. Graham, “I should say that we are looking up out of one of the crevices which opened into the crater of the volcano.”
“That’s so,” replied Mr. Bruce, “I did not think of that. But I supposed these cracks must have opened far into the bowels of the earth, and were vents for the steam, ashes and lava.”
“Some of them undoubtedly are,” said Mr. Graham, “but this is surely not. This may have been caused by one of the earthquakes, and was later widened by the excessive heat. Whatever the cause, it is here at any rate.”