"Say, how deep does it get before it stops?" inquired the Very Young Man. The Doctor smiled at him quietly. "Rogers's note put it about twelve thousand," he answered. "It should reach that depth and stop about"--he hesitated a moment, calculating--"about two o'clock," he finished. "Some climb," commented the Very Young Man. "We could do this a lot better than we're doing it, I think." For some time they sat in silence. From where they sat the valley had all the appearance of a rocky, barren canon of their own world above, as it might have looked on the late afternoon of a cloudless summer day. A gentle breeze was blowing, and in the sky overhead they could still see the huge light that for them was the sun. "The weather is certainly great down here anyway," observed the Very Young Man, "that's one consolation." The Big Business Man had replaced his shoes, taken a swallow of water, and risen to his feet, preparing to start downward again, when suddenly they all noticed a curious swaying motion, as though the earth were moving under them. "Now what?" ejaculated the Very Young Man, standing up abruptly, with his feet spread wide apart. The ground seemed pressing against his feet as if he were weighted down with a heavy load. And he felt a little also as though in a moving train with a side thrust to guard against. The sun was no longer visible, and the valley was plunged in the semidarkness of twilight. A strong wind sprang up, sweeping down upon them from above. The Very Young Man and the Big Business Man looked puzzled; the Doctor alone of the three seemed to understand what was happening. "He's moving the ring," he explained, with a note of apprehension in his voice. "Oh," ejaculated the Big Business Man, comprehending at last, "so that's the----" The Very Young Man standing with his back to the wall and his legs spread wide looked hastily at his watch. "Moving the ring? Why, damn it----" he began impetuously. The Big Business Man interrupted him. "Look there, look!" he almost whispered, awestruck. The sky above the valley suddenly had become suffused with red. As they watched it seemed to take form, appearing no longer space, but filled with some enormous body of reddish color. In one place they could see it broken into a line of gray, and underneath the gray, two circular holes of light gleamed down at them. The Doctor shuddered and closed his eyes; his two friends stared upward, fascinated into immobility. "What--is--that?" the Very Young Man whispered. Before he could be answered, the earth swayed under them more violently than before. The red faded back out of the sky, and the sun appeared sweeping up into the zenith, where it hung swaying a moment and then poised motionless. The valley was flooded again with light; the ground steadied under them and became quiet. The wind died rapidly away, and in another moment it was as though nothing unusual had occurred.