and only escaped owing to the vigilance of the chief woman in the valley, who exercises control over the band, and who had her own purpose to achieve in saving my life.  I was useful to her.  When ultimately, after much labour, I discovered the only safe way out, I was, owing to repeated attacks of fever, too weak to avail myself of the discovery.  My hope is that my efforts may be of service to some one —­if, unhappily, any should follow in my footsteps—­who would be better prepared to face the dangers and the difficulties of the forest beyond.  Listen, then, to these instructions; On the ledge skirting the south cliff, and leading up to the gorge, there is a cave, which may be recognized from the existence near it of a bath hewn out of the lava by human hands.  That cave is the key to the underground passage.”

Compton looked up with shilling eyes.  “The very place I am in,” he muttered.

“For many months it was my home—­if I may so misuse a word so charged with bitterness to me.  Not a day passed but my thoughts went in sickness of spirit to my home, to my wife and little one; and it was when I was thinking of them that I thought I heard them calling my name from the cave.  A sick man’s fancy!  But there had been a sound, and on entering to the far end of the cavern, I heard it repeated—­a faint droning, such as would be produced by a shell held to the ear.  There was, too, a current of air, and, feeling in the darkness, I found the crack through which it emerged.  With a spear-head I easily broke the rock away, for it was a mere envelope.  Thrusting the spear in, I felt there was an opening beyond.  When I had satisfied myself that the passage extended for some distance, my first precaution was to find a slab of rock to fit the opening I had made.”

Compton laid down the book, looked out to see that no one was near, and crept to the far end of the cave.  Pressing with his hand, he soon found the rock yield.  Satisfied, he returned to the journal with renewed eagerness.

“My first careful examination of the passage disclosed the welcome fact that it extended a great distance in a westerly direction, but without lights I saw it would be dangerous to attempt a thorough investigation.  Accordingly, I occupied myself for several days in making a supply of candles, using the barrels of my gun as a mould, and mixing beeswax with oil clarified from the fat of animals, such as monkeys and coneys.  Provided with two such candles, I began my explorations underground, and after many failures discovered a way of escape, which others may benefit by.  The passage, in an uninterrupted course, dips under the gorge and enters the south-west cliff, which is completely honeycombed.  After dipping under the gorge, it branches in several directions, but care must be taken to follow the extreme right-hand passage.  This follows the outer shell, skirts what I have called the Hall of Winds, dips down through a long tunnel, and emerges on the outer slope at a