. "I saw the boat
come from under the cliff just as you hung down from the ledge. At first
I hoped that you would get back on the rock, but when I saw you try and
do it and fail I thought that you were lost."

The American could not speak for exhaustion; but, as he looked at the
departing craft with concern, Branasko laughed again: "Oh, you thought
it had a crew; so did I at first, but it has no one aboard. It is drawn
by a cable, and seems to be laden with coal."

"Did they notice our fall up there?" panted Johnston, nodding toward the
lights in the distance.

"No, they are farther away than I thought."

"Well, what ought we to do?" "Hide here among the rocks till our
clothing dries and then look about us. We have nearly twenty-four hours
to wait for the sun to return through the tunnel."

"Where is the tunnel?"

"Over on the other side of that black hill. There, you can see the mouth
of the tunnel through which the sun comes."

"We need sleep," said the Alphian, when their clothing was dry, "and it
may be a long time before we get a chance to get it. Let us lie down in
the shadow of that rock and rest."

Johnston consented, and, lying down together, they soon dropped asleep.
They slept soundly.

Johnston was the first to awake. He felt so refreshed that he knew he
must have been unconscious several hours. He touched Branasko and the
latter sat up and rubbed his eyes and looked about him bewildered.

"I had a horrible dream," he said shuddering. "I thought that we were in
the sun and over the capital city when it fell down. I thought the
fall was awful, and that all Alpha was aflame. Then the fires went out.
Everything was black, and the whole world rang with cries of terrified
people. Ugh! I don't want to dream so again; I'd rather not sleep at
all. But hush! what is that?"

Far away, as if in the centre of the earth, they heard a low monotonous
rumbling. They listened breathlessly. Every moment the sound increased.
They could feel the ground trembling as if shaken by an earthquake.

"It is the coming sun," said Branasko. "We must get nearer the tunnel
and see what can be done. It would be useless to try to go back now."

Stealing along in the shadow of the cliffs to keep from being seen by
the workmen on the plateau above, they climbed over a rocky incline
and saw in the side of a towering cliff, a great black hole. It was the
mouth of the tunnel. Into it ran eight wide tracks of railway and six
mammo