"You don't think we are likely to have a fight soon, do you ?" "I hope not," said the doctor; "but we shall have to be always on the alert, for in a land like this we never know how soon danger may come." "I say, Jack," I whispered, "do you want to go back ?" "No: I don't want to go back," he said with a snort.

"I don't say I ain't afraid.

P'r'aps I am.

I always thought our place lonely, but it was nothing to these parts, where there don't seem to be no living people at all." "Well, let's get on," said the doctor, smiling; and we threaded our way as well as we could amongst the chaotic masses of stones till we were stopped short by a complete crack in the stony earth, just as if the land had been dragged asunder.
As we stood on the brink of the chasm, and gazed down at the bottom some hundred feet below, we could see that it was a wild stony place, more sterile than that we had traversed.

In places there were traces of moisture, as if water sometimes trickled down, and where this was the case I could see that ferns were growing pretty freely, but on the whole the place was barrennesss itself.
It seemed to have a fascination though for Jack Penny, who sat down on the edge and dangled his long legs over the rock, amusing himself by throwing down pieces of stone on to larger pieces below, so as to see them shatter and fall in fragments.
"Snakes!" he said suddenly.