He glanced down and saw beneath him only an illuminated hole, fading away at the bottom.

Then he turned to speak to Bryce, but to his surprise he could think of nothing to say.

After that he lighted another cigar and sat quietly.
Some minutes passed--he did not know how many--and he looked down through the gratings at the floor of the car.

The electric light streamed downward through a deep orifice, which did not fade away and end in nothing; it ended in something dark and glittering.

Then, as he came nearer and nearer to this glittering thing, he saw that it was his automatic shell, lying on its side, but he could see only a part of it through the opening of the bottom of the shaft which he was descending.
In an instant, as it seemed to him, the car emerged from the narrow shaft, and he seemed to be hanging in the air-at least there was nothing he could see except that great shell, lying some forty feet below him.
But it was impossible that the shell should be lying on the air! He rang to stop the car.
"Anything the matter ?" cried Bryce, almost at the same instant.
"Nothing at all," Clewe replied.