CHAPTER XV.
IN THE VOLCANO’S MOUTH.
But gradually a belief stole into the American’s mind that the end was not yet.
The water had become calm.
Max, while keeping his right hand firm on the side of the boat, gradually threw off the covering from his head.
A sight met his gaze which caused him to shiver with fear.
Above his head he could see the clear, blue Oriental sky and the bright, twinkling stars.
A shaft, yet not regularly made, but one excavated by volcanic action, rose above him.
It seemed hundreds of feet to the top.
The boat was resting placidly on the water, if the strange-looking liquid could be called by such a name.
Strange looking!
But few ever saw a lake or river like unto it.
That there was water was not a matter of doubt, but in it floated strange-looking lizards and fishes.
Pieces of stone, or glass, seemed as buoyant as the fish themselves.
Curiosity got the better of fear, and Max grabbed one of the fish as it floated by.
He dropped it in the boat, and it broke in two.
It was petrified, or rather changed into lava.
“Girzilla! Girzilla! my own—my love! Fit queen of my household, where art thou?”
Ibrahim was talking in his delirium.
“Get up, old fellow; stop your dreaming!” shouted Max so loudly that he was startled by the sound of his own voice.
Ibrahim moved so uneasily that Max was afraid he would capsize the boat.
He held him firmly on his seat, and shouted in his ear:
“Wake up!”
“Where am I?”
“Uncover your head and see.”
When Ibrahim was sufficiently awake to do so, he was as charmed as if he had awoke in an enchanted land.
“Allah be praised!” he exclaimed.
“Yes, old fellow, but how are we going to get out?”
“Allah will save us.”
“I believe it, Ib; but we have a saying in my country that ‘God helps only those who try to help themselves.’”
“Where is the fire?” asked the Persian, not noticing the American’s quotation.
“I don’t know, but I have an idea.”
“What is it?”
“The fire we saw was an erratic eruption of some volcano. We are in the crater——”
“Wha-at?”
“We are in the crater, I repeat, at the present time. The boat is stationary, and if——”
“What?”
“If the eruption starts again we shall go ge-whiz, ker-slush, up there.”
As Max spoke Ibrahim looked up the shaft and shuddered.
The slang expressions used by Max had raised him much in the estimation of the Persian, for he imagined the American was speaking in some language of which Ibrahim was ignorant.
“How can we get out?”
“Could you climb that shaft?” asked Max.
“No, not if my life depended on it.”
“Could you, Selim?”
The Arab was staring upward at the clear sky, and had to be asked several times before he would answer.
He shook his head, and Max shrugged his shoulders.
“I could.”
“You could climb those walls?”
“Yes; it is easy.”
“Easy!”
Ibrahim could only repeat the word in an inane manner.
“Yes; the surface is so irregular that there are plenty of footholds.”
“Shall you do so?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because——”
Max stopped. He was hesitating whether to tell the whole truth or not.
“Because what?”
“It seems our only chance of safety.”
“Then why not seek it?”
“You cannot climb.”
“What of that?”
“We will be saved together or die in each other’s company.”
“And you could save yourself?”
“Perhaps not.”
But Max was confident he could do it.
“Since you think that is impracticable, we must find some other way out.”
Ibrahim pleaded with Max, and implored him to save himself, but the American was firm.
When once he had resolved on a thing, nothing could cause him to change.
“If we had only some oars——”
“But we have not.”
“No, and yet we must get away from here.”
“How?”
“In the way our ancestors did before they invented oars.”
“How was that?”
“With our hands.”
And the three set to work, leaning over the sides of the boat with their hands agitating the water and acting as oars.
It was slow—very slow work—but the boat moved.
“Get it to the side.”
To do so was a work of considerable time; but when they succeeded progression was much more rapid.
The only chance of escape seemed to be in following the current; that is, if they were able to find it.
It seemed certain that the water did not empty itself into the crater of the volcano alone, as the natives believed.
There must be some other outlet.
When the other side of the crater had been reached, they were surprised at its immensity.
When in the center they had imagined the diameter of the almost circular crater to be some fifty or sixty feet, but as they pushed their boat round, they discovered that it must be more than three times that distance.
Another thing puzzled them.
Were fish and lizards constantly petrified as they floated or swam into the vortex, or was it only during an eruption?
“Shall we go on or wait here?” asked Ibrahim.
“We will go on after we have had something to eat.”
“Happy thought that, Max, for I am hungry.”
A package of food was opened out, and Max commenced eating; but he made such a grimace that Ibrahim laughed heartily.
“Stop that. The echo will drive me mad!” exclaimed Max, who recalled that terrible time in the tomb near Cairo.
“Stop making faces then.”
“You will make a worse one when you taste——”
“What?”
“Your lunch.”
“Why?”
“It is strong with sulphur.”
Alas! all their food had become impregnated with sulphur fumes and almost turned them sick, but they could get no other and hunger is a tyrannic master.
They ate heartily, notwithstanding the sulphur, Max telling them how civilized people will travel many miles and spend large sums of money in order to drink water impregnated with sulphur.
“Had we better commence to limit our rations?” asked Ibrahim, when he had eaten all he possibly could.
They had not thought of that.
It was becoming serious. They might be a long time before they could obtain a fresh supply of food.
“We will start to-morrow,” Max decided.
The water began to be agitated again and it was deemed advisable to get away from the crater.
After a short journey through another tunnel they reached daylight.
The river ran sluggishly along between two high cliffs.
“I am sure we are the first to navigate this river.”
“I think so, too, Max.”
“I am sure of it. It is not on any map, for I have always been interested in African deserts.”
“You have?”
“Yes, I think a wonderful people are to be found in Sahara—white people whose knowledge is greater than ours.”
“Fact?”
“Yes, Ib. I have often thought that the ancient Egyptians knew many engineering secrets which are lost to us; they certainly had power of divination and many other things which puzzle the brains of our best men to-day. Why should not these old fellows have left Egypt and founded a new country where they would be free from the incursions of other nations?”
“But they died thousands of years ago.”
“Of course they did, but we didn’t. And their descendants may be living.”
“Don’t say a word to Uncle Sherif, or he will make us start off in search at once.”
“Seriously, do you ever expect to see your uncle or Girzilla again?”
It was a cruel question to ask, but Max was in the same boat, and he had but little hope of escape.
“I hope so. Why not?”
“Because—— Hello! we are in the dark again.”