Now we could no longer see the country beneath, for it and even the towering volcano were hidden from us by an intervening ridge that seemed to be pierced by a single narrow gulley, towards which we headed.

Indeed, as the pillars showed us, thither ran the buried road.

By mid-day it appeared quite close to us, and we tramped on in feverish haste.

As it chanced, however, there was no need to hurry, for an hour later we learned the truth.
Between us and the mouth of the gulley rose, or rather sank, a sheer precipice that was apparently three or four hundred feet in depth, and at its foot we could hear the sound of water.
Right to the edge of this precipice ran the path, for one of the stone pillars stood upon its extreme brink, and yet how could a road descend such a place as that?
We stared aghast; then a possible solution occurred to us.
"Don't you see," said Leo, with a hollow laugh, "the gulf has opened since this track was used: volcanic action probably." "Perhaps, or perhaps there was a wooden bridge or stairway which has rotted.

It does not matter.