d and flourish, matched in magnitude and power by an armed
race of human beings, before whose awful might other tribes are but as
ants in the pathway of an elephant."

Waldo let escape a low, prolonged whistle of mingled wonder and
incredulity, but Bruno gave him a covert kick, himself too deeply
interested to bear with a careless interruption just then.

"Of course there may be something of exaggeration in all this," admitted
the enthusiastic professor. "Undoubtedly, there is at least a fair spice
of that; but, even so, enough remains to both waken and hold our keenest
interest. Listen, and take heed, my good lads.

"You have often enough, of late days, noticed these mountains, and if
you remark their altitude, the vast scope of country they dominate, the
position they fill, you must likewise realise one other fact: that an
immense quantity of snow in winter, rain in spring and autumn, surely
must fall throughout the Olympics. Understand?"

"Certainly; why not, uncle Phaeton?"

"Then tell me this: where does all the moisture go to? What becomes of
the surplus waters? For it is an acknowledged fact that, though rivers
and brooks surely exist in the Olympics, not one of either flows away
from this wide tract of country!"

The professor paused for a minute, to let his words take full effect,
then even more positively proceeded:

"You may say, what I have had others offer by way of solution, that all
is drained into a mighty inland sea or enormous lake. Granting so much,
which I really believe to be the truth as far as it goes, why does that
lake never overflow? Of all that surely must drain into its basin,
be that enormously wide and deep as it may, how much could ordinary
evaporation dispose of? Only an infinitesimal portion; scarcely worth
mentioning in such connection. Then,--what becomes of the surplusage?"

Another pause, during which neither Gillespie ventured a solution; then
the professor offered his own suggestion:

"It must flow off in some manner, and what other manner can that be
than--through a subterranean connection with the Pacific Ocean?"

Bruno gave a short ejaculation at this, while Waldo broke forth in
words, after his own particular fashion:

"Jules Verne redivivus! Why can't WE take a trip through the centre of
the earth, or--or--any other little old thing like that?"

"With the tank of compressed air as a life-preserver?" laughed Bruno, in
turn. "That might serve, but; unfortunately, we