despite every effort of their elders, become unmanageable. These--after
each young man had been given two or three opportunities to reform, and
in the end been judged incorrigible--were banished to the
mountain-ranges which surround the great active surface-crater already
described, and which are from thirty to eighty miles distant from the
Capital of Hili-li. There they might either freeze or roast, as taste
should dictate.

"To-morrow evening," concluded Bainbridge, "I shall relate some
particulars in the lives of Pym and Peters in Hili-liland. The purely
personal experiences of these two adventurers I should ignore, were it
not that they take us into the region of the wonderful crater and its
peculiar surrounding mountains and valleys, where we shall see nature in
one of the strangest of her many strange guises." Then, after a second's
pause:

"Do you accompany me to see the poor old fellow, tomorrow?"

I promised that I would; and we agreed upon two o'clock as the time for
starting. Five minutes later Doctor Bainbridge arose, and saying
good-night, left me until the morrow.




The TWELFTH Chapter


The next evening at the appointed hour Doctor Bainbridge came in. I had
not been able to accompany him in his daily visit to Peters. As