"Quite near. Come; I'll guide you."
Leading me by the hand, she stepped over the brink and we began to descend the easy grass slope together.
There was no difficulty about it at all. Down we went, nearer and nearer to the wall of steam, until at last, when but fifteen feet away from it, I felt the heat from the flames which sparkled below the wall of vapour.
Here we seated ourselves upon the grass, and I knitted my brows and fixed my eyes upon this curious phenomenon, striving to discover some reason for it.
Except for the vapour and the fires, there was nothing whatever volcanic about this spectacle, or in the surroundings.
From where I sat I could see that the bed of fire which encircled the crater; and the wall of vapour which crowned the flames, were about three hundred feet wide. Of course this barrier was absolutely impassable. There was no way of getting through it into the bottom of the crater.
A slight pressure from Miss Blythe's fingers engaged my attention; I turned toward her, and she said:
"There is one more thing about which I have not told you. I feel a little guilty, because that is the real reason I asked you to come here."
"What is it?"
"I think there are emeralds on the floor of that crater."