For a minute Holman breathed hungrily of the hot air, then he attempted to discover our exact position in the crater.

“We must be somewhere near the top,” he declared.  “Don’t you remember that the colour of the walls darkened rapidly below the Ledge of Death?”

“I remember,” I answered.  “We must be nearly on a level with the Ledge.”

“If we could look out from under this projecting piece of rock,” muttered the youngster.

“It’s risky.”

“I’ll make a try, Verslun.  Hold my legs.  I’m going to hang out of this burrow and take a peep around to get our bearings.”

I gripped his legs, and turning upon his back he pushed himself slowly out over the edge of the passage till he was able to look up in front of the piece of rock that projected like the peak of a cap above the opening.

Clinging to this peak with his two hands, the upper part of his body being out over the abyss, he stared upward, and as I watched his face I noticed the look of joy and amazement that spread across it.

“What is it, Holman?” I cried.  “Are we saved?  Tell me!”

He slid hurriedly back to safety and pounded the rock above his head with his bare fists.

“Do you know what this is?” he yelled.  “Do you know?”

I tried to utter the words that came to my tongue, but I could not.  I could see the joy in the youngster’s eyes, but I was afraid to speak.

“It is the Ledge of Death!” he shouted.  “There is only six inches of rock above us!”

“Then we’re saved!” I cried.

“Sure!  If you put the rope around me I can crawl up on it, and once there I can haul up the others.  Do you know what Soma told the Professor about the bad men falling into this infernal pit?”

I nodded my head.  I was unable to speak at that moment.

“Well, the Wizards of the Centipede fixed that!  Don’t you see?  This was their seat!  They leaned out of this place as I leaned out just now, and they gripped the ankles of any poor devil they had a grouch against.  It was devilish——­”

I put my hand across his mouth and he became instantly mute.  We held our breath and listened intently.  From above us came the faint sound of footsteps and a cold perspiration broke out upon us.  Some one was walking slowly along the Ledge of Death!

The sounds ceased when the unknown was immediately above our heads, and a guilty look came upon Holman’s face.  The man on the Ledge had probably heard the youngster’s voice, and he was puzzled to know where the sounds had come from.

We sat without moving a muscle.  The silence convinced us that the unknown was listening.  We knew that he hadn’t climbed from the Ledge to the top of the crater.  The scratching of his shoes against the rock would have come to our ears.  He was waiting—­waiting to discover from what direction the voice had come that caused him to pause and listen.