there, do you?"

"Sure thing. We're this far now and, by George, we're going to find
out all there is to learn."

"How deep do you suppose it is?"

"Pretty deep, Tommy. But we can get an idea by dropping a stone and
counting the seconds until it strikes."

* * * * *

He played the light of the flash over the floor and soon located a
smooth round stone of the size of a baseball. This he tossed over the
rim of the pit and awaited results.

"Good grief!" exclaimed Tommy. "It's not falling!"

What he said was true, for the stone poised lightly over the opening
and drifted like a feather. Then slowly it moved, settling gradually
into oblivion. Frank turned the flash downward and they watched in
astonishment as the two-pound pebble floated deliberately down the
center of the shaft at the rate of not more than one foot in each
second.

"Well, I'll be doggoned," breathed Frank admiringly. "Leland has done
it. He has conquered gravity. For, in that pit at least, there is no
gravity, or at any rate not enough to mention. It has been almost
completely counteracted by some force he has discovered and now we
know how to follow him down there. Come on Tommy, let's go!"

And, suiting action to his words, Frank jumped into the mouth of the
pit where he bobbed about for a moment as if he had jumped into a
pool of water. Then slowly he sank from view, and Tommy followed him.

* * * * *

It was a most unique experience, that drop into the heart of the
mountain. Practically weightless, the two young men found it quite
difficult to negotiate the passage. For the first hundred or more feet
they continued to bump about in the narrow shaft and each sustained
painful bruises before he learned that the best and simplest method of
accommodating himself to the strange condition was to remain
absolutely motionless and allow the greatly weakened gravity to take
its course. Each movement of an arm or leg was accompanied by a change
in direction of movement, and contact with the hard stone walls
followed. If they endeavored to push themselves from the contact the
result was likely to be an even more serious bump on the opposite side
of the shaft. So they continued the leisurely drop into the unknown
depth of the pit.

Frank had turned off the flashlamp, for its battery was giving out and
he wished to conserve its remaining energy for eventualities. Thus
they were in Stygian