Tradmos smiled good-humoredly.

"I shall leave you now," he said, and with a bow he withdrew.

"This is an adventure in earnest," whispered Johnston; "my stars!
what can they intend to do with us?"

"One of the first things will be to take us down to the bottom of
this lake where we saw them awhile ago, and I don't fancy it at
all; what if this blasted glass-case should burst? We may have
dropped into a den of outlaws on a gigantic scale, and it may be
necessary to put us out of the way to keep our mouths closed."

"I am hungry, and am going to eat," said the American, drawing a
cushioned stool up to the table. "Here goes for some of the wine;
remember, it is a sort of breath-restorer. I am curious enough
not to want to collapse till I have seen this thing through. He
said something about a palace and a king. Where can we be going?"

"Down into the centre of the earth, possibly," and the handsome
Englishman moved a stool to the table and took the glass of
green-colored wine that Johnston pushed toward him. "Some
scientists hold that the earth is filled with water instead of
fire. Who knows where this blamed thing may not take us? Here is
to a safe return from the amphibious land!"

Both drank their wine simultaneously, lowered their glasses at
the same instant, and gazed into each other's eyes.

"Did you ever taste such liquor?" asked Thorndyke, "it seems to