the nerves of the younger girl, and she viewed the crater with much more
composure than on the previous afternoon. Soma had the rope in
readiness when we approached the edge, and together with another carrier
he slipped down upon the slippery pathway, and, with head above the rim,
grinned an invitation to the party to follow his example.

"Now who goes first?" asked Leith.

I had settled that matter with Holman as we sat smoking the night
before, and I stepped forward while the youngster gripped the rope with
Kaipi and the other four carriers. We had decided that I should go down
to the ledge to assist the two girls to the cavern, while he should stay
above ground to make certain that no hitch would occur while they were
being lowered.

That place wasn't so bad when you turned your back upon it. After the
rope had been adjusted I crawled back carefully till my toes hung over
the edge, then thrusting my hands into the two small crevices in the
rock I slipped over, feeling at the same time that peculiar sensation in
the pit of the stomach that one gets when an elevator drops about six
floors at a fast gait. I was perfectly satisfied that a critical
examiner, reasoning on Soma's theory of courage, would not have marked
me down as a great fighter by witnessing the careful manner in which I
made the descent.

I didn't attempt to look at the gulf beneath me either. Not that one
could be ignorant of its existence. Every inch of skin seemed to be
yelling out the information to my brain, but I kept my chin up, and
tried to ignore the black depths which chilled me whenever I allowed the
mental photographs of the place to rise up before my vision.