requires me to leave in the course of a few days at any rate, so,
whether the eruption becomes fiercer or feebler, it will not matter to
us. I have preparations to make, however, and I have no doubt you won't
object to remain till all is ready for a start?"

"Oh, as to that," returned the youth, slightly hurt by the implied doubt
as to his courage, "if _you_ are willing to risk going off the earth
like a skyrocket, I am quite ready to take my chance of following you!"

"An' Moses am de man," said the negro, smiting his broad chest with his
fist, "what's ready to serve as a rocket-stick to bof, an' go up along
wid you!"

The hermit made the nearest approach to a laugh which Nigel had yet
seen, as he left the cave to undertake some of the preparations above
referred to.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: See _The Eruption of Krakatoa and Subsequent Phenomena_, p.
11. (Trübner and Co., London.)]




CHAPTER IX.

DESCRIBES, AMONG OTHER THINGS, A SINGULAR MEETING UNDER PECULIAR
CIRCUMSTANCES.