moon, for the light was fitful, and sometimes flashed into a baleful
brightness, which soon subsided into a dimmer lustre. New alarm arose
within me, for this new sight suggested something more terrible than
anything that I had thus far thought of. This, then, I thought, was to
be the end of my voyage; this was my goal--a pit of fire, into which I
should be hurled! Would it be well, I thought, to wait for such a
fate, and experience such a death-agony? Would it not be better for me
to take my own life before I should know the worst? I took my pistol
and loaded it, so as to be prepared, but hesitated to use it until my
fate should be more apparent. So I sat, holding my pistol, prepared to
use it, watching the light, and awaiting the time when the glowing
fires should make all further hope impossible. But time passed, and
the light grew no brighter; on the contrary, it seemed to grow
fainter. There was also another change. Instead of shining before me,
it appeared more on my left. From this it went on changing its
position until at length it was astern. All the time it continued to
grow fainter, and it seemed certain that I was moving away from it
rather than toward it. In the midst of this there occurred a new
thought, which seemed to account for this light--this was, that it
arose from these same volcanoes which had illuminated the northern sky
when I was ashore, and followed me still with their glare. I had been
carried into this darkness, through some vast opening which now lay
behind me, disclosing the red volcano glow, and this it was that
caused that roundness and resemblance to the moon. I saw that I was
still moving on away from that light as before, and that its changing
position was due to the turning of the boat as the water drifted it
along, now stern foremost, now sidewise, and again bow foremost. From
this it seemed plainly evident that the waters had borne me into some
vast cavern of unknown extent, which went under the mountains--a
subterranean channel, whose issue I could not conjecture. Was this the