At first sight I should say that we are standing on the lip of a crater of some vast extinct volcano.

Look how it curves to north and south and at the slope running down to the lake." I nodded.
"Lucky that the tidal wave did not get over the cliff," I said.

"If it had the people here would have all been drowned out.

I wonder where they have gone ?" As I spoke Bastin pointed to the edge of the bush some hundreds of yards away, where we perceived brown figures slipping about among the trees.

I suggested that we should go back to the mouth of our path, so as to have a line of retreat open in case of necessity, and await events.