time. But what, think you, can be the cause of this extraordinary hot
spring?"

"Fire!" returned the Greek promptly.

"Truly that must be so," returned the prince, with a laugh. "You are
unusually sharp this morning, my friend. But what originates the fire,
and where is it, and why does it not set the whole world on fire, seeing
that it must needs be under the earth?"

"It would be better to put such questions to the wise men of Egypt, next
time you have the chance, than to me," returned Dromas, "for I am not
deep enough in philosophy to answer you. Nevertheless, it does not seem
presumptuous to make a guess. That there is abundance of fire beneath
the ground on which we tread is clear from the burning mountains which
you and I have seen on our way from Hellas. Probably there are many
such mountains elsewhere, for if the fire did not find an escape in many
places, it would assuredly burst our world asunder. What set the inside
of the world on fire at the beginning is, of course, a puzzle; and why
everything does not catch fire and blaze up is another puzzle--for it is
plain that if you were to set fire to the inside of your booth, the
outside would be shrivelled up immediately. Then," continued Dromas,
knitting his brows and warming with his subject, "there must be a big
lake under the earth somewhere, and quite close to the fire, which sets
it a-boiling and makes it boil over--thus."

He pointed to the fountain as he spoke.

"There may be truth in what you say, Dromas. At all events your theory
is plausible, and this, I know, that ever since I came here, there has
not been the slightest diminution in the volume of hot water that has
poured forth; from which I would conclude that it has been flowing thus
from the beginning of time, and that it will go on flowing thus to the
end."

We know not whether the reader will be inclined to class Bladud among
the prophets, but there are some prophets who have less claim to the
title, for it is a fact that in this year of grace, 1892, the output of
hot water from the same fountain, in the town of Bath, is one million
tons every year, while the quantity and the temperature never vary in
any appreciable degree, summer or winter, from year to year!

Having discussed the philosophical aspect of the fountain, the two
friends proceeded with the work then in hand.

Of course, as they gazed around at the richly wooded hills and
attractive eminences, which were not only