“It was a rough trip through the passage, boy. I’m a little shaken.”

“That’s past. Shake the other way.” He was pirouetting round a tree.

“But how are we going back, lad?”

“This way,” he carelessly answered, making wing-motions with his arms.

“There was an earthquake, Beelo.”

He stopped short, and his eyes lighted deep.

“Yes!” he softly but impressively exclaimed.

The old caution settled in his face; he peered and listened warily, and then came a look of assured repose.

“That is good,” he said,—“if—” a cloud drifted over his face—“if they felt it on the surface.”

“They did,” interposed Christopher.