“I t’ink, massa, if I may ventur’ to speak,” said Moses, “dat de sooner we git off his lip de better lest we tumble into his mout’.”

“You may be right, Moses, and I have no objection to quit,” returned the hermit, “now that I have secured the photograph and papers.  At the same time I fear the rain of stones and lava is growing worse.  It might be safer to stay till there is a lull in the violence of the eruption, and then make a dash for it.  What say you, Nigel?”

“I say that you know best, Van der Kemp.  I’m ready to abide by your decision, whatever it be.”

“Well, then, we will go out and have a look at the state of matters.”

The view from the entrance was not calculated to tempt them to forsake the shelter of the cave, however uncertain that might be.  The latest explosions had enshrouded the island in such a cloud of smoke and dust, that nothing whatever was visible beyond a few yards in front, and even that space was only seen by the faint rays of the lamp issuing from the outer cave.  This lamp-light was sufficient, however, to show that within the semicircle of a few yards there was a continuous rain of grey ashes and dust mingled with occasional stones of various sizes—­some larger than a man’s fist.

“To go out in that would be simply to court death,” said Nigel, whose voice was almost drowned by the noise of the explosions and fall of material.

As it was manifest that nothing could be done at the moment except to wait patiently, they returned to the cave, where they lighted the oil-stove, and Moses—­who had taken the precaution to carry up some provisions in a bag from the canoe—­proceeded to prepare a meal.

“Stummicks must be attended to,” he murmured to himself as he moved about the cave-kitchen and shook his head gravely.  “Collapses in dat region is wuss, a long way, dan ’splosion of the eart’!”

Meanwhile, Nigel and the hermit went to examine the passage leading to the observatory.  The eruption had evidently done nothing to it, for, having passed upwards without difficulty, they finally emerged upon the narrow ledge.

The scene that burst upon their astonished gaze here was awful in the extreme.  It will be remembered that while the hermit’s cave was on the southern side of Krakatoa, facing Java, the stair and passage leading to the observatory completely penetrated the peak of Rakata, so that when standing on the ledge they faced northward and were thus in full view of all the craters between them and Perboewatan.  These were in full blast at the time, and, being so near, the heat, as well as the dust, molten lava, and other missiles, instantly drove them back under the protection of the passage from which they had emerged.