"By glancing at this map of Hili-liland, you will observe that the
sea-course to 'Crater Mountains' was almost direct, it lying in a
straight line out of Hili-li Bay and across the open sea for thirty
miles. They were to enter 'Volcano Bay,' which pursued a tortuous course
amid the mountains, until they should reach a certain pass between two
of the highest mountains in the whole range. In the centre of one of
these mountains was a peak some eight miles high, named by the founders
of Hili-li 'Mount Olympus.' It was possible to sail (or to push their
boat) to within seven miles of a point where the lavabed was still red
hot--about thirteen miles from the edge of the central, white-hot,
boiling lava. This, however, they did not do; first, because the pass
mentioned, which was the best course up into the mountains, began about
three or four miles short of the inner extremity of Volcano Bay; and
second, because within a mile or two of that extremity the water of the
bay sometimes actually boiled, and the heat would there be quite
unendurable."
Here Bainbridge paused for a moment, and then continued, "Well, my
attentive friend, 'the witching hour' approaches. We lost too much time
in discussion this evening--What! only ten o'clock?" he said, looking at
his watch. "Well, I am at a good resting-place in the story, anyway, as
you will to-morrow evening admit. Why, if I started you up into those
mountains to-night, we should get no sleep before daylight. No, no:
'sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof; more I would'--how does it
go? Well, it means that the evils of two days should not be crowded into
one day. The attempted quotation--as generally happens when I attempt
quotation from the Bible--is a double failure: not a success simply in
accuracy of repetition; and, at best, not appropriate. For I have more,
and a great deal more. But"--rising from his chair--"I must depart. So
adieu until the morrow--and good-night to you."
He had not been gone five minutes, and I was just complimenting Arthur
on his silence and otherwise commendable behavior, when Doctor Castleton
bounced into the room. He knew in a general way the drift of Peters'
story, up to the developments of the evening before. His curiosity to
hear what Doctor Bainbridge had so patiently and laboriously gleaned
from Peters did not seem intense, or it was wonderfully well suppressed.
Still, he liked briefly to learn from me the outlines of the story, and
had not failed to meet me at some period of each day, and to hint at a
desire for information. Therefore, I knew with what object he had this
evening come to see me, and I ran rapidly over the facts developed the
preceding evening, and then over those of that evening.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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