benefit of that profound slumber which bids defiance to turmoil and
noise, however stupendous, and which seems to be the peculiar privilege
of healthy infants and youthful seamen.

Perboewatan had subsided considerably towards morning, and had taken to
that internal rumbling, which in the feline species indicates mitigated
indignation. The hermit had therefore come to the conclusion that the
outburst was over, and went with Moses to make arrangements for setting
forth on his expedition after breakfast.

They had scarcely left the cave when Nigel awoke. Feeling indisposed for
further repose, he got up and went out in that vague state of mind which
is usually defined as "having a look at the weather." Whether or not he
gathered much information from the look we cannot tell, but, taking up
his short gun, which stood handy at the entrance of the cave, he
sauntered down the path which his host had followed a short time before.
Arrived at the shore, he observed that a branch path diverged to the
left, and appeared to run in the direction of a high precipice. He
turned into it, and after proceeding through the bushes for a short way
he came quite unexpectedly on a cavern, the mouth of which resembled,
but was much higher and wider than that which led to the hermit's home.

Just as he approached it there issued from its gloomy depths a strange
rumbling sound which induced him to stop and cock his gun. A curious
feeling of serio-comic awe crept over him as the idea of a fiery dragon
leaped into his mind! At the same time, the fancy that the immense abyss
of darkness might be one of the volcanic vents diminished the comic and
increased the serious feeling. Ere long the sound assumed the definite
tone of footsteps, and the dragon fancy seemed about to become a reality
when he beheld a long narrow thing of uncertain form emerging from the