Further exploration of the ruined town was made, but nothing of great interest was discovered, and finally Frank concluded to go on. So all went on board the Scorcher, and it rolled away across the Polar country.
Everywhere was that same desolate, abandoned appearance. What had become of the Polar people, it was not easy to guess.
Cities and towns to the number of a dozen were encountered in the next week. Then, the explorers came to a high mountain range, which Frank declared marked exactly the locality of the South Pole.
It must have been ten or twelve thousand feet in height, and was all of solid granite.
Sheer from the green plains the mountain walls rose to a dizzy height. It was a stupendous sight.
Nowhere did they seem possible of ascent. But as he studied them an idea occurred to Frank.
What was on the other side of them?
Was there a fertile region like this, or was it a desert waste? Who could say that the mysterious disappearance of the Polar people was here capable of explanation?
Perhaps they bad abandoned the region this side of the range for a land of milk and honey on the other. Frank had a powerful desire to see what was on the other side of that impenetrable and insurmountable wall.
But he saw no easy way of scaling it. It was shut in on both sides by an equal wall, extending for over a hundred miles in both directions.