“Just a little further north, then,” said David, “and I shall be ready to turn back with you,” and so they forged ahead over snow covered ground into the deepening gloom that filled the souls of the Pellucidarians with terror. But after a while the wind changed and blew from the south and the snow melted and the air became balmy again, and still further on the twilight slowly lifted and the light increased, though the midday sun of Pellucidar was now scarcely visible behind them. “I cannot understand it,” said Ja. “Why should it become lighter again, although the sun is ever further away behind us?” “I do not know,” said Tanar. “Ask David.” “I can only guess,” said David, “and my guess seems so preposterous that I dare not voice it.” “Look!” cried Stellara, pointing ahead. “It is the sea.” “Yes,” said Gura, “a gray sea; it does not look like water.” “And what is that?” cried Tanar. “There is a great fire upon the sea.” “And the sea does not curve upward in the distance,” cried Stellara. “Everything is wrong in this country and I am afraid.” David had stopped in his tracks and was staring at the deep red glow ahead. The others gathered around him and watched it, too. “What is it?” demanded Ja. “As there is a God in heaven it can be but one thing,” replied David; “and yet I know that it cannot be that thing. The very idea is ridiculous. It is impossible and outlandish.” “But what might it be?” demanded Stellara. “The sun,” replied David. “But the sun is almost out of sight behind us,” Gura reminded him. “I do not mean the sun of Pellucidar,” replied David; “but the sun of the outer world, the world from which I came.” The others stood in silent awe, watching the edge of a blood red disc that seemed to be floating upon a gray ocean across whose reddened surface a brilliant pathway of red and gold led from the shoreline to the blazing orb, where the sea and sky seemed to meet. XV MADNESS “Now,” said Stellara, “we can go no further;” nor indeed could they for east and west and north stretched a great, sullen sea and along the shore-line at their feet great ice cakes rose and fell with sullen roars and loud reports as the sea ground the churning mass. For a long time David Innes, Emperor of Pellucidar, stood staring out across that vast and desolate waste of water. “What lies beyond?” he murmured to himself, and then, shaking his head, he turned away. “Come,” he said, “let us strike back for Sari.” His companions received his words with shouts of joy. Smiles replaced the half troubled expressions that had marked their drawn faces since the moment that they had discovered that their beloved noonday sun was being left behind them. With light steps, with laughter and joking, they faced the long, arduous journey that lay ahead of them.