er, but in reality it must have been a mighty
roaring column of smoke and steam and erupted material.

"There's life in the old girl, anyway," I commented, indicating the
image in the disk. "See her spout?"

We bent over the disk together, watching the white feather of steam.

"First time I've ever seen that," said Correy. "I know volcanic activity
has been reported before, but--look, sir! There's another--two more!"

Undoubtedly, things were happening deep in the bowels of Hydrot. There
were now three wisps of steam rising from the water, two of them fairly
close together, the other a considerable distance away, arranged to form
a very long pointed triangle, the short base of which ran close to the
equator, its longer sides reaching toward one of the poles; the north
pole, as we happened to view the image.

The columns of steam seemed to increase in size. Certainly they mounted
higher into the air. I could imagine the terrific roar of them as they
blasted their way through the sullen water and hurled it in steaming
spray around their bases, while huge stones fell hissing into the water
on all sides. The eruption must have shaken the entire sphere; the
gushing of those vomiting throats was a cataclysm of such magnitude that
I could not guess its effect.

Correy and I watched tensely, hardly breathing. I think we both felt
that something was about to happen: a pent-up force had been released,
and it was raging. We could almost hear the rumble of the volcanic
explosions and the ear-splitting hiss of the escaping steam.

Suddenly Correy clutched my arm.

"Look!" he whispered, "_Look!_"

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. I could see the water crawling
inside the triangle formed by the three wisps of steam: crawling in
white, foaming waves like tiny scraps of thread as it rushed headlong,
in mighty tidal waves, away from the center of that triangle.

The columns of steam flared up with fresh strength, darkening as though
with smoke. Here and there within the triangle black specks appeared,
grew larger, and ran together in crooked lines that widened continually.

"A--a new continent, sir!" said Correy almost reverently. "We've seen a
new continent born."

Correy had put my thoughts into words. We had seen a new continent born;
on the gray surface of Hydrot there was now a great irregular black
blotch from which mounted three waving pillars of smoke and steam.
Around the shores of the new continent the water