There was not a cloud nor a vapor to catch the tints of the declining beams;
the surface of the ice did not, as a liquid sea would, reflect the last green

ray of light; but the radiant orb, enlarged by the effect of refraction,
its circumferencesharply defined against the sky, sank abruptly, as though

a trap had been opened in the ice for its reception.
Before the daylight ended. Captain Servadac had cautioned

the party to collect themselves betimes into one group.
"Unless you are sure of your whereabouts before dark," he said,

"you will not find it after. We have come out like a party
of skirmishers; let us go back in full force."

The night would be dark; their moon was in conjunction, and would not be seen;
the stars would only give something of that "pale radiance" which the poet

Corneille has described.
Immediately after sunset the torches were lighted, and the long

series of flames, fanned by the rapid motion of their bearers,
had much the appearance of an enormous fiery banner. An hour later,

and the volcano appeared like a dim shadow on the horizon, the light
from the crater shedding a lurid glare upon the surrounding gloom.

In time the glow of the burning lava, reflected in the icy mirror,
fell upon the troop of skaters, and cast their lengthened shadows

grotesquely on the surface of the frozen sea.
Later still, half an hour or more afterwards, the torches were

all but dying out. The shore was close at hand. All at once,
Ben Zoof uttered a startled cry, and pointed with bewildered

excitement towards the mountain. Involuntarily, one and all,
they plowed their heels into the ice and came to a halt.

Exclamations of surprise and horror burst from every lip.
The volcano was extinguished! The stream of burning lava had

suddenly ceased to flow!
Speechless with amazement, they stood still for some moments.

There was not one of them that did not realize, more or less,
how critical was their position. The sole source of the heat that had

enabled them to brave the rigor of the cold had failed them! death,
in the cruellest of all shapes, seemed staring them in the face--

death from cold! Meanwhile, the last torch had flickered out.
It was quite dark.

"Forward!" cried Servadac, firmly.
At the word of command they advanced to the shore; clambered with no

little difficulty up the slippery rocks; gained the mouth of the gallery;
groped their way into the common hall.

How dreary! how chill it seemed!
The fiery cataract no longer spread its glowing covering over the mouth

of the grotto. Lieutenant Procope leaned through the aperture.
The pool, hitherto" target="_blank" title="ad.至今，迄今">hitherto kept fluid by its proximity to the lava,

was already encrusted with a layer of ice.
Such was the end of the New Year's Day so happily begun.

CHAPTER XII
THE BOWELS OF THE COMET

The whole night was spent in speculating, with gloomy forebodings, upon the
chances of the future. The temperature of the hall, now entirely exposed

to the outer air, was rapidly falling, and would quickly become unendurable.
Far too intense was the cold to allow anyone to remain at the opening,

and the moisture on the walls soon resolved itself into icicles. But the
mountain was like the body of a dying man, that retains awhile a certain

amount of heat at the heart after the extremities have become cold and dead.
In the more interior galleries there was still a certain degree of warmth,

and hither Servadac and his companions were glad enough to retreat.
Here they found the professor, who, startled by the sudden cold,

had been fain to make a precipitateretreat from his observatory.
Now would have been the opportunity to demand of the enthusiast whether

he would like to prolong his residenceindefinitely upon his little comet.
It is very likely that he would have declared himself ready to put up with

any amount of discomfort to be able to gratify his love of investigation;
but all were far too disheartened and distressed to care to banter him

upon the subject on which he was so sensitive.
Next morning, Servadac thus addressed his people.

"My friends, except from cold, we have nothing to fear.
Our provisions are ample--more than enough for the remaining

period of our sojourn in this lone world of ours; our preserved
meat is already cooked; we shall be able to dispense with all

fuel for cooking purposes. All that we require is warmth--
warmth for ourselves; let us secure that, and all may be well.

Now, I do not entertain a doubt but that the warmth we require
is resident in the bowels of this mountain on which we are living;

to the depth of those bowels we must penetrate; there we shall
obtain the warmth which is indispensable to our very existence."

His tone, quite as much as his words, restored confidence to many
of his people, who were already yielding to a feeling of despair.

The count and the lieutenantfervently, but silently, grasped his hand.
"Nina," said the captain, "you will not be afraid to go down to the lower

depths of the mountain, will you?"
"Not if Pablo goes," replied the child.

"Oh yes, of course, Pablo will go. You are not afraid to go,
are you, Pablo?" he said, addressing the boy.

"Anywhere with you, your Excellency," was the boy's prompt reply.
And certain it was that no time must be lost in penetrating below

the heart of the volcano; already the most protected of the many
ramifications of Nina's Hive were being pervaded by a cold that

was insufferable. It was an acknowledged impossibility to get access
to the crater by the exterior declivities of the mountain-side;

they were far too steep and too slippery to afford a foothold.
It must of necessity be entered from the interior.

Lieutenant Procope accordinglyundertook the task of exploring all
the galleries, and was soon able to report that he had discovered one

which he had every reason to believe abutted upon the central funnel.
His reason for coming to this conclusion was that the caloric emitted

by the rising vapors of the hot lava seemed to be oozing, as it were, out of
the tellurium, which had been demonstrated already to be a conductor of heat.

Only succeed in piercing through this rock for seven or eight yards,
and the lieutenant did not doubt that his way would be opened into the old

lava-course, by following which he hoped descent would be easy.
Under the lieutenant's direction the Russian sailors were

immediately set to work. Their former experience had convinced
them that spades and pick-axes were of no avail, and their

sole resource was to proceed by blasting with gunpowder.
However skillfully the operation might be carried on,

it must necessarily occupy several days, and during that time
the sufferings from cold must be very severe.

"If we fail in our object, and cannot get to the depths of the mountain,
our little colony is doomed," said Count Timascheff.

"That speech is not like yourself," answered Servadac, smiling.
"What has become of the faith which has hitherto" target="_blank" title="ad.至今，迄今">hitherto carried you

so bravely through all our difficulties?"
The count shook his head, as if in despair, and said, sadly, "The Hand

that has hitherto" target="_blank" title="ad.至今，迄今">hitherto been outstretched to help seems now to be withdrawn."
"But only to test our powers of endurance," rejoined the captain, earnestly.

"Courage, my friend, courage! Something tells me that this cessation
of the eruption is only partial; the internal fire is not all extinct.

All is not over yet. It is too soon to give up; never despair!"
Lieutenant Procope quite concurred with the captain.

Many causes, he knew, besides the interruption of the influence
of the oxygen upon the mineral substances in Gallia's interior,

might account for the stoppage of the lava-flow in this one
particular spot, and he considered it more than probable that a

fresh outlet had been opened in some other part of the surface,
and that the eruptive matter had been diverted into the new channel.

But at present his business was to prosecute his labors
so that a retreat might be immediately effected from their

now untenable position.
Restless and agitated, Professor Rosette, if he took any

interest in these discussions, certainly took no share in them.
He had brought his telescope down from the observatory into

the common hall, and there at frequent intervals, by night
and by day, he would endeavor to continue his observations;

but the intense cold perpetually compelled him to desist,
or he would literally have been frozen to death.

No sooner, however, did he find himself obliged to retreat
from his study of the heavens, than he would begin overwhelming

everybody about him with bitter complaints, pouring out his
regrets that he had ever quitted his quarters at Formentera.