Page:Off For Hawaii.djvu/253

Rh could speak. "Talk about snow sliding! This beats anything I ever saw before!"

"Are you hurt?" I asked.

"Scratched a little, that's all."

"How about you, Dan?"

"I feel rather sick at my stomach. But that doesn't matter. I'm glad to escape with my life. Now where have we come to?"

"We're down in a part of the volcano basin, that is all I can tell you."

"Any danger of breaking through and going to kingdom come?"

"That's to be found out later. We'll have to proceed with caution."

"I don't see any way by which we can reach that hill again," put in Oliver. "The whole side of the crater seems to be most tremendously steep."

We walked on slowly and cautiously, our feet crunching the lava with a sound that occasionally made our hearts leap with fear. Once I broke through up to my ankles, but I speedily leaped to a safer spot.

"It's pretty hot," said Oliver. He put his hand down to the lava, but quickly withdrew it. "Jingo, it burnt me!"

"We must be over an active portion of Kilauea," said Dan. "For my part, we can't get away too fast."