“I am sorry for this, my friends,” Mervyn said at length, with a strange, unnatural quiver in his voice. “Would God I had never led you on this fatal voyage! As for me, I have almost reached the allotted span; my work is done, and I may as well face death here as elsewhere. But you had many years of life before you yet, had it not been for this ill-fated journey, and my own death will be embittered by the thought that I have led you into yours.” The American fixed his piercing eyes upon the scientist’s face as he finished speaking. “See here, Mervyn,” he said, “don’t you go blamin’ yourself for what ain’t your fault. I guess not one of us reckoned on strikin’ this yer magnetic volcano, else we’d ha’ come in a wooden boat, ’stead of this old steel tank. What we’ve got to do as I figure it out is to keep a stiff lip to the last. I calculate me an’ Seymour’s been in tighter corners than this before now, an’ come out right side up after all, eh, William?” “Yes,” Seymour replied, “we’ve pulled some big things off together, you and I, Silas, but I am afraid this is the end. We only realise our own weakness when we are pitted against the forces of Nature. Great Heaven!” His sentence ended in a startled exclamation, as a monster boulder, white-hot from the crater-mouth, hurtled close over the turret roof and splashed into the lake, hissing and spluttering scarce three yards from the stern of the _Seal._ But of all the showers of glowing missiles which followed, not one came near the boat. Her very nearness to the base of the cone proved her salvation from this frightful peril; for the flying boulders, any one of which could have crushed the _Seal_ to scrap-iron, whizzed high overhead, illuminating the waters of the lake with a fiery glare, as they plunged, hissing, beneath the surface. The beach beneath the vessel heaved and fell, and tongues of flame leapt from the lake, to meet the glowing hail of stones. The outer line of cliffs bent and swayed as though shaken by a giant hand, and, amid all this fearful confusion, rang the thunderous reports from the crater, deafening and terrible. Crash succeeded crash, explosion followed explosion, and the waters of the lake, lashed to fury, once more roared over the helpless _Seal._ For the second time since her arrival in this gloomy lake the vessel was submerged. When the waters again receded the din of the eruption had ceased, but the brooding silence--pregnant with sinister meaning--which had followed, was almost worse than the volcanic outbreak. The character of the surrounding cliffs was altogether changed. Where the canyon had been a steaming wall of rock towered, its summit lost to sight in the overhanging veil of smoke, so that there was now no possible means of escape to the sea! The watchers gazed with despairing eyes upon this fresh misfortune. It was the last straw.