dge of the crater and pointed down.

"The road is directly beneath you," he remarked. "If you come closer to
the edge you can see it." Holman glanced at me in amazement, and moved
by the one impulse we stepped toward the ledge. The rim of the vast pit,
at the point where Leith was standing, was composed of porphyry of a
dark-green shade, and as we neared the edge we noticed that this had
been worn to that peculiar velvety smoothness that one notices on the
pillars of Indian temples, where the sweaty hands of millions of
worshippers have helped in the polishing process through unnumbered
centuries.

Leith noticed that our glances were directed upon the peculiar polished
portion of the rim, and his grin broadened.

"You won't be the first to go over on to the track below," he drawled.
"If I had a dollar for every man who slipped over here since the world
began I wouldn't bother with specimens for American and European
museums. See, the ledge is directly beneath, and it leads away to the
right."

We stretched out our necks and looked, and I tried to thrust back the
exclamation that came to my lips. Directly beneath the polished part of
the rim, and about four feet below it, was a ledge barely three feet
wide, and this narrow path wound away to the right and disappeared
through a cavernous opening in the brightly tinted walls of the crater.
The ledge was bare and unprotected, polished to the same velvety
smoothness as the spot on the rim near which we stood, and when one
looked at it and then let his eyes glance over the infernal depths that
were immediately beneath, the brain reeled with thoughts of the danger
to which a climber would be exposed while making his way along it to the
cavern in the wall.

Holman took a great breath of air and turned savagely upon Leith.

"What sort of a fool game are you up to?" he cried. "What do you mean?"

Leith's lower jaw came forward menacingly. "You had better hold your
tongue!" he roared. "If you don't I'll--I'll----"

He stopped and glared at the young fellow, a murderous expression
creeping over his sallow face. The half-voiced objection to the route
had stirred all the sleeping devil in him, and the big stubby fingers
crooked as if certain they would be called upon to grip Holman's throat.

"You'll do what?" asked the youngster coolly.

"I'll bundle you back to the yacht!" screamed the giant. "You've been
allowed to come on this trip through the good nature of Professor