FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107  
108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   >>   >|  
because he knew in their exhausted condition it would be bad for them to eat heartily. It was about two o'clock when they noticed that objects around them no longer were increasing in size. They had finished their meal and felt greatly refreshed. "Things have stopped growing," observed the Very Young Man. "We've done four pills' worth of the journey anyway," he added facetiously. He rose to his feet, stretching. He felt sore and bruised all over, but with the meal and a little rest, not particularly tired. "I move we go on down now," he suggested, walking to the edge of the huge crevice in which they were sitting. "It's only a couple of thousand feet." "Perhaps we might as well," agreed the Doctor, rising also. "When we get to the floor of the valley, we can find a good spot and turn in for the night." The incongruity of his last words with the scene around made the Doctor smile. Overhead the sky still showed a narrow ribbon of blue. Across the valley the sunlight sparkled on the yellowish crags of the rocky wall. In the shadow, on the side down which they were climbing, the rocks now shone distinctly phosphorescent, with a peculiar waviness of outline. "Not much like either night or day, is it?" added the Doctor. "We'll have to get used to that." They started off again, and in another two hours found themselves going down a gentle rocky slope and out upon the floor of the valley. "We're here at last," said the Big Business Man wearily. The Very Young Man looked up the great, jagged precipice down which they had come, to where, far above, its edge against the strip of blue marked the surface of the ring. "Some trip," he remarked. "I wouldn't want to tackle that every day." "Four o'clock," said the Doctor, "the light up there looks just the same. I wonder what's happened to George." Neither of his companions answered him. The Big Business Man lay stretched full length upon the ground near by, and the Very Young Man still stood looking up the precipice, lost in thought. "What a nice climb going back," he suddenly remarked. The Doctor laughed. "Don't let's worry about that, Jack. If you remember how Rogers described it, getting back is easier than getting in. But the main point now," he added seriously, "is for us to make sure of getting down to Arite as speedily as possible." The Very Young Man surveyed the barren waste around them in dismay. The floor of the valley was strewn with even la
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107  
108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Doctor

 

valley

 

remarked

 
Business
 

precipice

 

surface

 

wouldn

 

exhausted

 
happened
 

George


tackle

 
wearily
 

gentle

 
heartily
 

looked

 

Neither

 

jagged

 
condition
 

marked

 

easier


remember

 
Rogers
 

dismay

 

strewn

 

barren

 

surveyed

 
speedily
 

ground

 
length
 

answered


stretched

 

thought

 

laughed

 

suddenly

 
companions
 
started
 
crevice
 

sitting

 

couple

 

finished


walking

 

refreshed

 
greatly
 

suggested

 

thousand

 

Perhaps

 
longer
 

rising

 

increasing

 

agreed