This way!"

He set the example of climbing upward, and they reached a level spot
again just as there was a sharp crack, a deafening roar, and from out of
the vast chasm, which had opened, there was a rush of fire, and smoke
rose suddenly towards where they clustered.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

SMITH TURNS TURTLE.

The rush of smoke and fire passed away as rapidly as it had come, but
the slope newly made ran down to where the light of day was reflected
back from a dim mist which bore somewhat the aspect of disturbed water,
but the earth, being quiescent once more, no one displayed any desire to
make an examination of the opening, but at once gave it what the mate
called a wide berth.

"Let's get back to the boat," he said. "You must be pretty well done
up, Mr Lane."

"Well, I am stiff," said Oliver, stooping to give one leg a rub, "but I
feel refreshed now, and I was thinking--"

He stopped short and gazed back at the mountain with its glistening
cloud cap and smooth slope of ashes dotted with blocks of lava and
pumice, the latter flashing in the sunshine, and the whole having an
alluring look which was tempting in the extreme.

"What were you thinking?" said Panton; "not of climbing up again?"

"Yes, I was thinking something of the kind. It seems a shame, now we
are on the slope, not to go right up and see the crater and the view of
the whole island which we should get from there?"

The mate gave one of his ears a vexatious rub, and wrinkled up his
forehead as he turned to give Drew a comical look.

"Yes; what is it?" said that gentleman.

"Oh, nothing, sir," replied Mr Rimmer. "I was only thanking my stars
that I wasn't born to be a naturalist. For of all the unreasonable
people I ever met they're about the worst."

"Why?" said Oliver, innocently.

"Why, sir!" cried the mate; "here have you been missing all this time,
and by your own showing you've been nearly bitten by snakes and clawed
by a leopard, suffocated, swallowed up, stuck on a bit of a bridge
across a hole that goes down to the middle of the earth, and last of all
nearly scorched like a leaf in a fireplace by that puff which came at
us. And now, as soon as you have had a bite and sup, you look as if
you'd like to tackle the mountain again."

"Of course, that's what I do feel," said Oliver, laughing. "So do we
all."

"I'll be hanged if I do!" cried Mr Rimmer. "The brig isn't floating, I
know, but she stands up pretty solid, and I feel