Jack and His Seven Foes — page 173: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

> wees As * 164 The air, too, grew warmer, and now the sulphurous odour was palpable to all. A feeling that they had had enough of this gruesome journey was growing on Jack’s followers, but he, with renewed determination, kept on. He was bent on seeing the end of the road. | Down, down, many fathoms deep, the cir getting warmer and warmer, the sulphurous odour increasing. | The torches having burnt low, they paused to hght others. While thus engaged, a low hissing sound fell upon Jack’s ear. ‘Be silent for a moment,” he said; and they all stood still, holding their very breath. Yes, the sound was there below them. A deadly hiss hke the warning sound from the mouth of a monstrous serpent. ‘This 1s horrible,” said Martin, shud- dering; ‘‘ we're near to the lair of some monster in the bowels of the earth.” «Let us see what the monster 1s like,” said Jack. ‘They all palpably held back, but Jack, with a dogged face, pursued his way. With dark dread in their hearts, they owly resumed their Journey. Down, down, with the hiss growing louder and louder, and the sulphurous smell becoming unbearable. “Master Jack, if we go any farther we shall all be poisoned.” It was Ralph who spoke, and Jack answered him. ‘‘ Hold up your torches. serpent in its lair.” They advanced, and holding up their 3 There is the JACK AND HIS SEVEN FOES. torches, saw that they were now in an_ open space, and before them a sheet of water gently steaming. Farther on it appeared to be boiling and bubbling. Above them, overhead, was a cloud of steam. ‘“One of the agencies of volcanic eruptions,’ said Harold Deane. ‘‘ Where there is a vent, we have the volcano. If there is none, the earthquake comes as soon as sufficient force to rend or rock the earth is stored.”’ “This way,” said Jack; “we can go no farther. The water touches the rocks right and left.’’ There was no doubt of it. They were doomed to disappointment. There was either another road or their quarry was in hiding. it was a bitter blow to Jack, and with a gloomy face he led the way back. They reached the chamber of stalac- tites, and, as they thought, returned by exactly the way they came. There was the opening, so it seemed, by which they entered, and Jack, enter- ing, went forward with confidence. it wound a little here and there, and by-and-by he began to think that there were strange features in the walls he had not observed before—fissures, pro- jJections, and water dripping from rock to rock. But he went on until he was pulled up by Ralph sayinge— “This isn’t our road. We have not been here before.” They paused without any feeling of dismay. | If they had indeed come wrong, it would be easy to retrace their steps. Five minutes, or ten at the outside, would enable them to reach the cave again. “ Liet us make sure,” said Jack. After a little wandering to and fro, they decided that they had come wrong, and turned backward. Nothing seemed easier thau to find the cave again. But they wandered on and on, and did not reach it in the time they expected they would, and Jack pulled up. ‘““Tiave we passed any opening on the way?” he asked. ‘Tt isn’t easy to say,’ replied Ralph. “The torches give such an uncertain light.” And soit was. A flickering flame is always an uncertain guide, and the sub- terranean passage had widened and narrowed, in some places gradually, in others abruptly, so that, taking all things together, 1 was probable that many passages had escaped their notice. - Blankly they stared at each other, dismay in their hearts. Jack was the first to rally himself. ‘Tf we have really made a mistake,” he said, ‘we had better rectify it at once.” “The torches can’t last many hours,” hinted Harold Deane. Their peril was indeed something to cause the stoutest heart to quail. GOMiGIoOo (E <SriG@