And so we sped on, we knew not whither, but keeping a sharp look-out. Our course was nearly due north, a point or so east. The country, so far as we could judge in the deepening gloom, was forbidding in appearance, and the reflection from the lake of molten fire shone on the heavens for a vast distance. We seemed to have left all fertile lands behind us, and were hastening into regions of desert barrenness. Two hours after our escape from Remagaloth, our stock of electricity showed signs of becoming exhausted. We had not the wherewithal to generate more. We were now quite two hundred miles away to the north-eastward of the fire-lake, and here we were compelled to descend. We dropped gently down on what seemed to be a vast plain, barren of vegetation; and there, safe in the _Sirius_, we ate a hearty meal, enjoyed the luxury of a cigar, and went to sleep, all eager for the dawn to disclose to us the nature of the country we had entered. CHAPTER XIV. ACROSS THE DESERT CHADOS. We awoke at dawn feeling like new men, scarcely being able to realise the fact that we were free! The events of yesterday still lingered in our minds, like the remnants of a more than usually vivid dream. That all was real and true we could not bring ourselves to believe, so awful and inhuman seemed the doom we had so miraculously escaped. But the sun, as it rose in solemn splendour above the eastern edge of this strange world, soon dispelled our morbid thoughts and cheered us into activity. The view from the balcony of the _Sirius_ was grand, though the country round us was sterile and desolate as the Valley of Death below Remagaloth, from which we had been delivered at yester e'en! But we had life and liberty; the future was once more before us, full of hopes and possibilities, and each one felt that the worst was over and brighter prospects were now before us. We found everything in the _Sirius_ precisely as we had left it. Evidently the people of Edos had shunned our carriage, and desired that we and all our belongings might be destroyed together. This was a fortunate circumstance for us, for had the _Sirius_ been dismantled and pillaged we should have been in this wilderness without food. As soon as breakfast was over we consulted together as to what was best to be done. "There is no help for it, my friends," said the Doctor; "the _Sirius_ is wrecked, and we shall have to leave her to her fate. Alas! she can give us safety no longer, and we may stay in her at our peril. We may be sure a search will be made for us, and that very quickly. Our only course is to abandon her, taking with us as many absolute necessaries as we can conveniently carry among us, and set off at once towards more fertile country. The future must take care of itself entirely, and we be guided further solely by circumstances." "But, Doctor, is there no hope of patching her up for a little time longer?"