166 THE MASTER OF THE WORLD
hundred feet straight upwards in the air rose the rocky wall
which formed the final crest, the last defence of the Great
Eyrie.
From this side, the summit of the wall showed capri- ciously irregular, rising in rude towers and jagged needles. At one point the outline appeared to be an enormous eagle silhouetted against the sky, just ready to take flight. Upon this side, at least, the precipice was insurmountable.
"Rest a minute," said Mr. Smith, "and we will see if it is possible to make our way around the base of this cliff." At any rate," said Harry Horn, "the great block must have fallen from this part of the cliff; and it has left no breach for entering."
They were both right; we must seek entrance elsewhere. After a rest of ten minutes, we clambered up close to the foot of the wall, and began to make a circuit of its base. Assuredly the Great Eyrie now took on to my eyes an aspect absolutely fantastic. Its heights seemed peopled by dragons and huge monsters. If chimeras, griffins, and all the creations of mythology had appeared to guard it, I should have been scarcely surprised.
With great difficulty and not without danger we contin- ued our tour of this circumvallation, where it seemed that nature had worked as man does, with careful regularity.
Nowhere was there any break in the fortification; nowhere a fault in the strata by which one might clamber up. Al- ways this mighty wall, a hundred feet in height!
After an hour and a half of this laborious circuit, we re- gained our starting-place. I could not conceal my disap- pointment, and Mr. Smith was not less chagrined than I.
"A thousand devils!" cried he, we know no better than before what is inside this confounded Great Eyrie, nor even if it is a crater."
"Volcano, or not," said I, "there are no suspicious noises now; neither smoke nor flame rises above it; nothing what- ever threatens an eruption."
This was true. A profound silence reigned around us; and a perfectly clear sky shone overhead. We tasted the perfect calm of great altitudes.
It was worth noting that the circumference of the huge wall was about twelve or fifteen hundred feet. As to the space enclosed within, we could scarce reckon that without
