e
stone is a genuine emerald."

I gazed at her blankly.

"You are here for purposes of scientific investigation," she added,
sweetly. "I should not think of taking your time for the mere sake of
accumulating wealth for my father and me."

There didn't seem to be anything for me to say at that moment. Chilled,
I gazed at the flashing ring of fire.

And, as I gazed, suddenly I became aware of a little, pointed muzzle, two
pricked-up ears, and two ruby-red eyes gazing intently out at me from the
mass of flames.

The girl beside me saw it, too.

"Don't move!" she whispered. "That is one of the flame creatures. It may
venture out if you keep perfectly still."

Rigid with amazement, I sat like a stone image, staring at the most
astonishing sight I had ever beheld.

For several minutes the ferret-like creature never stirred from where it
crouched in the crater fire; the alert head remained pointed toward us; I
could even see that its thick fur must have possessed the qualities of
asbestos, because here and there a hair or two glimmered incandescent;
and its eyes, nose, and whiskers glowed and glowed as the flames pulsated
around it.

After a long while it began to move out of the fire, slowly, cautiously,
cunning eyes fixed on us--a small, slim, wiry, weasel-like creature on
which the sunlight fell with a vitreous glitter as it crept forward into
the grass.

Then, from the fire behind, another creature of the same sort appeared,
another, others, then dozens of eager, lithe, little animals appeared
everywhere from the flames and began to frisk and play and run about in
the grass and nibble the fresh, green, succulent herbage with a snipping
sound quite audible to us.

One came so near my feet that I could examine it minutely.

Its fur and whiskers seemed heavy and dense and like asbestos fibre, yet
so fine as to appear silky. Its eyes, nose, and claws were scarlet, and
seemed to possess a glassy surface.

I waited my opportunity, and when the little thing came nosing along
within reach, I seized it.

Instantly it emitted a bewildering series of whistling shrieks, and
twisted around to bite me. Its body was icy.

"Don't let it bite!" cried the girl. "Be careful, Mr. Smith!"

[Illustration: "'Don't let it bite!' cried the girl. 'Be careful, Mr.
Smith!'"]

But its jaws were toothless; only soft, cold gums pinched me, and I held
it twisting and writhing, while the icy temperature of its body began to
benumb