nd lifting.

I had remarked Glora's downward glance, and shuddered. Suppose, in
some slightly smaller size, Babs had been here among these rocks!

The pit widened steadily. The movement was far swifter now. We stood
presently in a great circular valley. It seemed fully a mile in
diameter, with huge encircling walls like a crater rim towering
thousands of feet into the air. We ran along the base of one expanding
wall, following Glora.

I noticed now that overhead the turgid murk had turned into the blue
of distance. A sky. It was faintly sky-blue, and there seemed a haze
in it, almost as though clouds were forming. It had been cold when we
started. The exertion had kept us fairly comfortable; but now I
realized that the air was far warmer. It was a different air, more
humid, and I thought the smell of moist earth was in it. Rocks and
boulders were strewn here on the floor of this giant valley, and I saw
occasional pools of water. There had been rain recently!

The realization came with a shock of surprise. This was a new world! A
faint, luminous twilight was around us. And then I noticed that the
light was not altogether coming from overhead. It seemed inherent to
the rocks themselves. They glowed very faintly luminous, as though
phosphorescent.

We were now well embarked upon this strange journey. We spoke seldom.
Glora was intent upon guiding us. She was trying to make the best
possible speed. I realized that it was a case of judgment, as well as
physical haste. We had dropped into that six-foot pit. Had we waited a
few moments longer, the depth would have been a hundred feet, two
hundred, a thousand! It would have involved hours of arduous
descent--if we had lingered until we were a trifle smaller!

* * * * *

We took other pellets. We traveled perhaps an hour more. There were
many instances of Glora's skill. We squeezed into a gully and waited
until it widened; we leaped little expanding caverns; we slid down a
smooth yellowish slide of rock like a child's toboggan, and saw it
behind and over us, rising to become a great spreading ramp extending
upward into the blue of the sky. Now, up there, little sailing white
clouds were visible. And down where we stood it was deep twilight,
queerly silvery with the phosphorescence from the luminous rocks as
though some hidden moon were shining.

Strange, new world! I suddenly envisaged the full strangeness of it.
Around me were spreading