XXVII
WE LEAP
We passed through the caves without trouble, but when we came to the
slope of the inverted cone two difficulties stared us in the face. The
first of these was the laborious nature of the ascent, and the next the
extreme difficulty of finding our way. Indeed, had it not been for the
mental notes that I had fortunately taken of the shape of various rocks,
I am sure that we never should have managed it at all, but have wandered
about in the dreadful womb of the volcano--for I suppose it must
once have been something of the sort--until we died of exhaustion and
despair. As it was we went wrong several times, and once nearly fell
into a huge crack or crevasse. It was terrible work creeping about
in the dense gloom and awful stillness from boulder to boulder,
and examining it by the feeble light of the lamps to see if I could
recognise its shape. We rarely spoke, our hearts were too heavy
for speech, we simply stumbled about, falling sometimes and cutting
ourselves, in a rather dogged sort of way.
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