ould not fail to notice that at every step the heat
grew greater and greater. A suffocating, sulphurous smell became
perceptible also, and the roaring sound grew almost deafening. It became
possible to discern the walls of the corridor ahead because of a sort of
eerie bluish light which had now become visible.

"Gentlemen, I don't say that I hesitated in a physical sense: I went
right on walking ahead. But a voice somewhere deep down inside me was
whispering that this was the road to hell.

"At a point where the heat and the smell were almost unendurable the
corridor was blocked by massive iron bars beyond which the reflection of
some gigantic fire danced upon the walls of a vast cavern.

"The heat was so great that my garments, saturated by the curtain of
water through which I had passed, were now bone dry, and I stood peering
through those bars at a spectacle which will remain with me to the
merciful day of my death.

"A hundred feet beneath me was a lake of fire! That is the only way I
can describe it: a seething, bubbling lake of fire. And above, where the
roof of the cavern formed a natural cone, was a square section formed of
massive stone blocks, and quite obviously the handiwork of man. The
bars were too hot to touch, and the heat was like that of a furnace, but
while I stood, peering first upward and then downward, a thing happened
which I almost hesitate to describe, for it sounds like an incident from
a nightmare.

"Heralded by a rumbling sound which was perceptible above the roar of
the fire below, the centre block in the roof slid open. A tremendous
draught of air swept along the passage in which I was standing, and
doubtless along other passages which opened upon this hell-pit.

"As if conjured up by magic, a monstrous column of blue flame arose,
swept up scorchingly, and licked like the tongue of a hungry dragon upon
the roof of the cavern. Instantly the trap was closed again; the tongue
of fire dropped back into the lake from which it had arisen on the
draught of air.

"And right past me where I stood, rigid with horror, looking through
those bars, fell a white-robed figure--whether man or woman I could not
determine! Down, down into the fiery pit, a hundred feet below!

"One long-drawn, dying shriek reached my ears.

"Of my return to the place at which I had left my bundle and rifle I
retain absolutely not one recollection. I was aroused from a sort
of stupor of horror by the sight of a faint