Up--up went the little train, working on wire ropes like a bucket coming out of a well.

Higher and higher and higher it rose up the terrific incline, over masses of cinders, towards the thick cloud of smoke that loomed above.

It stopped at last at a big iron gate, which opened to admit the passengers on to the summit.

Here the guides were waiting, and after some parleying in Italian, Miss Morley engaged a couple of them to escort her party.

Led by these men, who knew every inch of the way, they started to walk to the crater of the volcano.