“That is another problem with Toplinsky dead. Just the same I am going to see just how easy it will be for us to fly up to the outer crust through Crater Agrippa.”
“When you make the attempt I go with you,” said the loyal Joan.
“Count me in it,” Billy added.
“Very well; we are on our way.”
To accomplish the ascending flight Epworth made three large motor-gliders. Well supplied with provisions for the trip, the three hardy Americans, accompanied by Moawha, made their way to the spot where the hole of the crater opened out from the inner world of the moon. It was a great frowning, black hole but the hardy adventurers did not let the looks of the route affect them. They bade Moawha a pleasant farewell, climbed into their gliders, and began to pedal around in a circle. In this manner they soon left the land of the Selinites, the light of day, and climbed up into the darkness with their flashlights in hand and their cavern lanterns fastened to their heads.
The upward trip was uneventful until Epworth suddenly found himself flying near a roof of large boulders and rocks which had not been there when they came down from the cricket nest. When he was joined by Joan and Billy all three flew around in a circle looking for an opening that would lead them upward.
They could find no way to go out.
“What has happened?” Billy inquired in great alarm when they discovered that their way out was blocked. “All these rocks were not here when we came down.”
“It looks to me as if that terrific explosion that Toplinsky set off has caused the insides of the crater to fall in and block all passage upward,” Epworth reasoned. “We are probably in a part of the crater which was narrow, and when the big boulders fell they crashed together.”
“That means that we are not going out,” Joan observed very quietly. She was very anxious to get out and try to get back to the earth. Of the three she was the one who had little interest in the inside of the moon. “I—I—had been building up great hopes.”