miserable and a senseless conventionality. Dash it, I say!"

As Dacres growled out this Hawbury elevated his eyebrows, and stroked
his long, pendent whiskers lazily with his left hand, while with his
right he drummed on the table near him.

"Well," resumed Dacres, "the child-angel ran up for some distance,
leaving Ethel behind. Ethel called after her for some time, and then
began to follow her up. Meanwhile the guides, who had thus far stood
apart, suddenly caught sight of the child-angel's figure, and, with a
loud warning cry, they ran after her. They seemed to me, however, to
be a lazy lot, for they scarce got up as far as the place where Ethel
was. Now, you know, all this time I was doomed to inaction. But at
this juncture I strolled carelessly along, pretending not to see any
thing in particular; and so, taking up an easy attitude, I waited for
the denouement. It was a terrible position too. That child-angel! I
would have laid down my life for her, but I had to stand idle, and see
her rush to fling her life away. And all because I had not happened to
have the mere formality of an introduction."

[Illustration: "I SAW HER TURN AND WAVE HER HAND IN TRIUMPH."]

"Well, you know, I stood there waiting for the dénouement. Now it
happened that, as the child-angel went up, a brisk breeze had started,
which blew away all the smoke, so that she went along for some
distance without any apparent inconvenience. I saw her reach the top;
I saw her turn and wave her hand in triumph. Then I saw her rush
forward quickly and nimbly straight toward the crater. She seemed to
go down into it. And then the wind changed or died away, or both, for
there came a vast cloud of rolling smoke, black, cruel, suffocating;