"We will surely escape," I muttered, as I scratched and clawed in an
effort to drag myself up the slippery path. "We will escape! I know it!
We will escape! I know--"
The muttered words died upon my lips. The crevice turned and then
broadened suddenly, and a blinding flash of light forced me to fling
myself face downward upon the rock. For a moment I lay there, wondering
stupidly whether something had happened to my eyes or whether I had come
suddenly into the light of day. I had seen light--the light of what?
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.
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