“Courage!” the king cried at length, “the end is at hand.” Within a few moments they all stood in the mouth of a narrow tunnel, which stretched before them far into the heart of the cliff. “Thank heaven that’s over!” muttered Wilson. “My leg’s still too stiff to stand much of that kind of thing.” “Your wound hasn’t broken out afresh?” Seymour inquired anxiously. “No,” the engineer returned, “there’s no chance of that now.” “That’s good,” cried Haverly; “a wounded leg’s kinder awkward to rub along with. Jupiter!” His sentence ended in a gasp, as a brilliant light flooded the tunnel. “The sun!” Mervyn cried excitedly; “let us move forward again,” and, suiting the action to the word, he strode on over the slanting floor of the tunnel. But he pulled up again in a moment with a startled “Oh!” as the light, dying out as suddenly as it had come, left him in pitchy darkness. Seymour burst into a laugh. “You were a bit too previous, Mervyn,” he said. “Did you forget that the light only lasted for a few seconds?” “I had almost persuaded myself that we should emerge into the open air within a few yards,” returned the scientist; “but I think I’ll let Chenobi take the lead. Come along; are you going to stand there all day?” “Don’t get impatient, old chap,” retorted the Yankee; “we’re comin’ along right now.” And now began a journey which taxed their strength to the utmost. The floor of the passage sloped almost as steeply as a house-roof, and the adventurers had the greatest difficulty in keeping their feet. Chenobi, going barefoot, got over the ground rapidly, but with the others, in their heavy boots, slips were frequent. Hour after hour they pressed upward, pausing occasionally for rest and refreshment; then on once again with unflagging energy, knowing that each step brought them nearer to the daylight. Thrice in the course of that climb did the light of the sun penetrate the recesses of the tunnel, so that the journey must have taken them at least three days. Then the water began to run short, and many were the anxious queries addressed to Chenobi as to the means of renewing the supply. “There is water above,” he replied to all these questions. “Ere the light shall again strike upon the eye of the carven Ramouni our journey will be at an end.”