but the air here is splendidly invigorating, and we turn to finish our last hit of a few hundred feet over loose lava, pumice, and scoria. It is hard work, but we give one another a hand, and at last we stand at the edge of a tremendous depression like a vast cup in the top of the mountain, whose other side, similar to that on which we stand, is a mile away, while below its the cup is brimming with the verdure which runs up from a lovely blue lake a thousand feet below. All is beautiful, so beautiful, that it seems to take away our breath, for flowers are all about, the gorgeous butterflies are on the wing, noisy paroquets are climbing head up or head down, and there is nothing to show that we are on the edge of the crater of some tremendous volcano, but we catch sight of a thin thread of steam rising to form a cloud over a bare rock-strewn patch on one side. That tells us the fierce gases below are not quite extinct, but are smouldering ready to burst out at any time, sending forth the fiery rain to destroy the verdure, torrents of molten stone to run in streams down to the sea, or a flood of boiling mud to turn the lovely island into a wilderness. All is so beautiful that we can hardly turn away to begin our descent to where the yacht is lying in the lagoon, which forms a perfectly safe port into which it has been towed by the crew. But go down we must, for we are choking with thirst--at least I am, through talking; so long, and I'll trouble you, steward, for another glass of water." "Oh," cried Jack, who had been drinking in every word, his face flushed and eyes bright with excitement as he pictured mentally the glorious place the doctor had described, "what a cruel mockery to raise one's expectations like that. It's like waking one suddenly from a beautiful dream." "Don't quarrel with him, my boy. I say, Jack! I did not know the doctor could be so florid." "I didn't either," said the doctor, laughing, "not till I tried." "Capital!" cried the mate, clapping his hands softly. "Yes, excellent," said the captain, smiling, with a peculiar twinkling about the eyes. "But it seems to me, Sir John, that you do not need any guide." "Why not?" "Because I see the doctor has been there." "I never was farther from home than Switzerland in my life." "That's strange," said the captain, "for that's the very island I am making for now." "Oh! won't do," said the doctor. "Mine was all exaggeration, built up out of old books of travels." "The description was perfect, sir," said the captain quietly. "Eh, Bartlett?" "Photographic," said the mate. "Come, come, gentlemen, that won't do," said the doctor merrily. "I gave rein to my fancy. I knew that the coral islands are very lovely, and the volcanic islands very grand, and so I said to myself, I'll paint a regular tip-top one, such as ought to please friend Jack here, and I joined the volcanic on to the coral and astonished myself." "And me too," said Sir John, laughing.