Under the watchful eye of Leith I endeavoured to cheer her up, while
inwardly I cursed the prattling old Professor who chattered of the
honours he expected as the rewards of his discoveries. The affair was
enough to bring tears to the eyes of a man with a heart of stone.

"I'm just thinking we should have stopped this business before it got
this far," muttered Holman, as he reached closer to get a light for his
cigarette.

"What should we have done?" I asked.

"I don't know," he growled. "We should have done something though. Pity
we didn't lose Leith overboard with your friend Toni."

"What's wrong now? Has anything happened?"

"No, nothing has happened," he replied. "I wish something would. This
silence is beginning to put my nerves on edge, but I'm afraid to yell
out for fear that I might wake something that has been dead for
centuries. Does it strike you that way?"

"Very much."

"Well, it's the same with the girls," muttered Holman. "The stillness of
the place has brought their ordinary conversational tone down to a
whisper."

Leith lurched across and interrupted our conversation. "Get the boys
going, Mr. Verslun," he said. "We want to cross the Vermilion Pit while
the light is good, and it is hard going from here on."