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Updated: May 4, 2025
"Follow me," he said; "we must cross it to reach the caves. I will guide you. I have been over this way before." "But can we stand the heat?" "Oh, yes; when we get used to it, it is invigorating. I perspire in streams, but I feel better afterward. Come on." Branasko's head only was above the ground. "I am standing on a ledge," he said. "Get down beside me. Fear nothing.
But," he concluded, "we must at once try to find some way out other than that by which we came." They turned from the beautiful fountain, and, holding to each other's hands, and aided by the light behind them, they stumbled laboriously through the semi-darkness. Branasko's ears were very acute. He paused to listen. "Hark ye!" he cautioned.
And when their eyes had become accustomed to the rolling mist, they saw a great lake, and pouring into it from high above was a mighty waterfall. "Mercy!" ejaculated the Alphian, in great alarm. "If this is salt water we are lost. All Alpha will come to an end!" "What do you mean?" And Johnston wondered if Branasko's trials and struggle could have turned his brain.
The rapid motion of the swinging sphere made him dizzy, and he caught Branasko's arm to keep from falling. "How can we tell when we go over the wall?" he asked anxiously. "We shall have to guess at it," was the answer. "At any rate we must be near the lower door so as to get out quickly if it is necessary to do so to escape detection."
An instant later Johnston heard him strike the ledge beneath, and heard him cry out in pain. Then all was still except the echoes of Branasko's cry, which bounded and rebounded from side to side of the chasm, and grew fainter and fainter, till it was submerged in the roaring below. Then there was a rattle of stones, and Branasko's voice sounded: "A narrow escape!" he said faintly.
"I can't get down there!" shouted Johnston, to make himself heard above a sudden increase in the roaring in the chasm, "there is no way." "Wait a moment!" came from the Alphian. "This ledge seems to incline upward." Johnston stood perfectly motionless, afraid to move from the ledge either to right or to left, and heard Branasko's footsteps along the rock beneath.
Slowly he advanced on hands and knees, every moment feeling the sharp rock growing narrower, till finally he reached the end. He looked ahead. He could but faintly see the ledge and Branasko's tall form silhouetted upon it. "See, this is where you have to alight," cried the Alphian. "Jump, I will catch you!" "I am afraid I shall topple over when I stand up," replied the American.
This died away and was succeeded by a crash of musical thunder that thrilled Johnston's being to its very core. Branasko's face was aglow with enthusiasm. "Grand, glorious!" he ejaculated, "but if only you could see the lightning and the dawn in the east you would remember it all your life.
"All right so far," he called up, and his voice showed that he had gone to a considerable distance to the left, "the ledge seems to be still leading gradually upward. I think I can reach you." Fifteen minutes passed. The lone American could no longer hear Branasko's footsteps. Johnston was becoming uneasy and the hot air was causing his head to swim.
I never cared before. If I should happen to fall, go back to where we met, it is safer there without a guide than here." Without another word Branasko hurled himself forward. Johnston held his breath in horror, for Branasko's foot had slipped as he jumped. The Alphian had struck the opposite ledge, but not with his feet, as he intended.
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