half the distance around the volcano had
been covered he called Zircon and reported, then told the big scientist
it would be their last contact for a while.

Within a hundred feet the lights of the village came in sight far below.
The boys paused to survey the situation, and to examine the western part
of the island. Most of it was visible from their vantage point. Only the
cove where the vintas were kept and the section of village closest to
the cliff were out of sight. Rick could see the beach clearly, and
wondered if the guards were looking their way.

"Go carefully," Scotty whispered. "This is no time to start a
landslide."

"Good advice," Rick whispered back. "But which way do we go now?"

"The slope to the left looks pretty good," Scotty answered softly. "We
can cut back when we get down a little."

At the bottom of the slope, they found another drift that angled away
toward the north. By the time they reached the bottom of it, Rick
whispered that they must be directly above the cave. He could see the
lighter path of the street that ran from below the shelf toward the
western end of the island. Now all that remained was to make their way
down to within reach of the scientists.

They moved with extreme caution, fearful that the slightest noise would
give them away, or that a wrong step would start a rockslide. It was
painful work, going down backward most of the way. Once they reached
what seemed to be a dead end, and lay on their stomachs surveying a
sheer wall nearly twelve feet high.

Rick solved the problem by finding a lava boulder big enough and stable
enough to serve as a rope anchor. They took an extra length of line
Scotty carried and made it fast, then went down the rope hand over hand.

The whole village was spread before them now. Rick could even see the
cross street that ran below the base of the cliff, and he knew they must
be nearly within sight of the shelf on which the scientists were
imprisoned.

"Tough section below," Scotty whispered so low that Rick could barely
hear him. "I think it drops off sheer."

Another dozen feet of slow progress proved that Scotty was right. There
was a small shelf, then the slope dropped away abruptly. Both boys lay
flat, and slowly inched up to the drop and looked over.

Rick felt Scotty's hand grip his arm like an iron clamp at the same
moment that he realized that another shelf was directly below, a tiny
campfire burning on it!

But that wasn't what