started--possibly enough to get us all the way down. Then before we
moved at all we could take the other six. That would keep it straight,
wouldn't it?"

"Great idea," said the Very Young Man. "I'm in favor of that."

"It sounds feasible--certainly if we can get all the way down with six
pills we will save a lot of climbing."

"If six aren't enough, we can easily take more," added the Big Business
Man.

And so they decided to take only six pills of the drug and to get down
to the bottom of the pit, if possible, without taking more. The pit, as
they stood looking down into it now, seemed quite impossible of descent,
for its almost perpendicular wall was smooth and shining as polished
brass.

They took the drug, standing close together at the edge of the pit.
Immediately began again the same crawling sensation underfoot, much more
rapid this time, while all around them the rocks began very rapidly
increasing in size.

The pit now seemed widening out at an astounding rate. In a few minutes
it had broadened so that its opposite side could not be seen. The wall
at the brink of which they stood had before curved in a great sweeping
arc to enclose the circular hole; now it stretched in a nearly straight,
unbroken line to the right and left as far as they could see. Beneath
them lay only blackness; it was as though they were at the edge of the
world.

"Good God, what a place to go down into," gasped the Big Business Man,
after they had been standing nearly half an hour in silence, appalled at
the tremendous changes taking place around them.

For some time past the wall before them had become sufficiently indented
and broken to make possible their descent. It was the Doctor who first
realized the time--or perhaps it should be said, the size--they were
losing by their inactivity; and when with a few crisp words he brought
them to themselves, they immediately started downward.

For another six hours they traveled downward steadily, stopping only
once to eat. The descent during this time was not unlike that down the
side of the valley, although towards the last it began rapidly to grow
less precipitous.

They now found themselves confronted frequently with gentle slopes
downward, half a mile or more in extent, and sometimes by almost level
places, succeeded by another sharp descent.

During this part of the trip they made more rapid progress than at any
time since starting, the Very Young Man in his enthusiasm at time