They gaped before us right in our path.

I had not the courage to look down either of them.

But Professor Liedenbrock had hastily surveyed all three; he was panting, running from one to the other, gesticulating, and uttering incoherent expressions.

Hans and his comrades, seated upon loose lava rocks, looked at him with as much wonder as they knew how to express, and perhaps taking him for an escaped lunatic.
Suddenly my uncle uttered a cry.

I thought his foot must have slipped and that he had fallen down one of the holes.