Slowly I lifted my head, and the truth came to me with stunning force.  It was God’s own sunlight that I had seen!  The chute ended within three paces of the spot where I lay, and immediately opposite the opening through which I looked was a patch of vermilion rock that blazed gloriously as the rays of the afternoon sun struck full upon it.  I knew that rock!  It had thrilled me as I looked at it on the afternoon when Leith had introduced us to the greatest natural wonder of the Pacific.  I was at the end of a passage that opened into the Vermilion Pit!

From where I lay I could not see the top of the crater.  When the passage had suddenly broadened, the roof came down upon it, so that the opening through which I looked at the opposite side of the great pit was about ten feet wide but not more than two feet in height.  An overhanging lip of rock prevented me from looking up, but I understood that I was lower than the slippery Ledge of Death that we had crossed to reach the Valley of Echoes.  It seemed years since we had crossed that path, yet it was less than a week.

I thought of the others waiting in the darkness, and I turned and slid down the chute up which I had scrambled.  The path to liberty was not yet plain, but there was fresh air and sunlight at the top of the chute, and one could see the faces of those they loved.  Bumping and bounding over the jagged rocks I went at a terrific speed to the bottom of the slide, and, scrambling through the opening, I shouted the news to the four who waited there.

“It opens into the Vermilion Pit!” I gasped.  “I can’t see how we can climb out, but there’s hope—­there’s hope!”

I was foolish in making the last statement, but the sight of the glorious sunbeams, striking down into the abyss, had made me blind to the difficulties that were yet to be faced!  And the Maori’s chant must surely be true!  Now that it had brought us to the light, I could not but believe that it would bring us to liberty.

The slippery chute brought a suggestion from Holman.  He advised that the two girls and the Professor remain at the bottom while he and I took one end of the rope to the top so that we could haul them up the wet track that I had scaled with difficulty.

“We won’t be five minutes!” I cried.  “Stay where you are till we signal.”

I didn’t think, as Holman and I crawled to the top of that place, what an eventful five minutes that would be.  But the big things of life are crammed into minutes, and Time was bringing the most thrilling one of our lives toward us as we scrambled up the chute.  Our adventures upon the Isle of Tears were to have a climax that fitted them.

Holman stopped as I had done and thrust his face down upon the rock as his eyes caught a glimpse of the glittering wall of the crater that came suddenly into view.  The rays of the sun blazing down upon the stained sides of the mysterious pit made the veins of colour appear like brilliant snakes.  The patch that was framed by the walls of the opening through which we gazed was a wild riot of scintillating, blinding colours that dazzled our eyes as we stared at them.