"The foundation rocks of the earth are left raw and exposed, as they may be after some terrific land-slip. But nothing more. We sail here high above the earth——"
"Looks like we were below it now," muttered Mark.
"But if we have been observed from the earth—and of course those great telescopes at the Lick Observatory have found us out ere this—we will appear above her," said the professor. "Many things about this strange happening we may only guess at. Of one thing we are sure—we have air to breathe, water to drink, there are wild animals to kill for food, vegetation exists; we are, in fact, upon a miniature world which is not much different from that we have left—as yet, at least."
"All that sounds mighty fine," interrupted Phineas Roebach. "And I expect you believe it all, Professor Henderson. But there's just one thing that I believe: We're down here, two hundred feet or more from the top of this ice wall, and the game, or the vegetation, or anything else, isn't going to help us much while we're here. What I want to know is: How are we going to get out of this crevasse?"
CHAPTER XVIII
IMPRISONED IN THE ICE
The oil hunter's demand was like a bomb thrown in their midst. The boys had been so deeply interested in the professor's relation of facts, and in the scientific phase of their situation, that the more practical questions of their mere existence on this island in the air had not before held their attention for long.
"We've got to find some way of climbing out, I reckon," Mark said, slowly.
"Well, find it!" snapped Phineas Roebach. "Let's talk of something practical. We'll freeze to death down here very soon, if we don't starve first."
"Very true," said the professor. "Mr. Roebach is eminently practical.
We must give our attention to the immediate peril that menaces us."