the center of the island, which was crescent-shaped. It was no larger
than the sailor had estimated. The new slopes now revealed were covered
with verdure down to the very edge of the water, which, for nearly a
mile seawards, broke over jagged reefs. The sea looked strangely calm
from this height. Irregular blue patches on the horizon to south and
east caught the man's first glance. He unslung the binoculars he still
carried and focused them eagerly.

"Islands!" he cried, "and big ones, too!"

"How odd!" whispered Iris, more concerned in the scrutiny of her
immediate surroundings. Jenks glanced at her sharply. She was not
looking at the islands, but at a curious hollow, a quarry-like
depression beneath them to the right, distant about three hundred yards
and not far removed from the small plateau containing the well, though
isolated from it by the south angle of the main cliff.

Here, in a great circle, there was not a vestige of grass, shrub, or
tree, nothing save brown rock and sand. At first the sailor deemed it
to be the dried-up bed of a small lake. This hypothesis would not
serve, else it would be choked with verdure. The pit stared up at them
like an ominous eye, though neither paid further attention to it, for
the glorious prospect mapped at their feet momentarily swept aside all
other considerations.

"What a beautiful place!" murmured Iris. "I wonder what it is called."

"Limbo."

The word came instantly. The sailor's gaze was again fixed on those