two thousand feet down there," said the Big Business Man, stepping cautiously nearer to the edge. "Rogers didn't say it was so deep."
"That's because we've been so much longer getting here," explained the Doctor.
"How are we going to get down?" asked the Very Young Man as he stood beside the Big Business Man within a few feet of the brink. "It's getting deeper every minute, don't forget that."
The Big Business Man knelt down and carefully approached to the very edge of the precipice. Then, as he looked over, he got upon his feet with a laugh of relief. "Come here," he said.
They joined him at the edge and, looking over, could see that the jagged roughness of the wall made the descent, though difficult, not exceptionally hazardous. Below them, not more than twenty feet, a wide ledge jutted out, and beyond that they could see other similar ledges and crevices that would afford a foothold.
"We can get down that," said the Very Young Man. "There's an easy place," and he pointed farther along the brink, to where a break in the edge seemed to offer a means of descent to the ledge just below.
"It's going to be a mighty long climb down," said the Big Business Man. "Especially as we're getting smaller all the time. I wonder," he added thoughtfully, "how would it be if we made ourselves larger before we started. We could get big enough, you know, so that it would only be a few hundred feet down there. Then, after we got down, we could get small again."
"That's a thought," said the Very Young Man.
The Doctor sat down somewhat wearily, and again took the papers from his belt. "The idea is a good one," he said. "But there's one thing you overlook. The larger we get, the smoother the wall is going to be. Look, can't you see it changing every moment?"
It was true. Even in the short time since they had first looked down, new crevices had opened up. The descent, though longer, was momentarily becoming less dangerous.
"You see," continued the Doctor, "if the valley were only a few hundred feet deep, the precipice might then be so sheer we could not trust ourselves to it at all."
"You're right," observed the Big Business Man.
"Well, it's not very hard to get down now," said the Very Young Man. "Let's get going before it gets any deeper. Say," he added, "how about stopping our size where it is? How would that work?"
The Doctor was reading the papers he held in his hand. "I think," he said, "it would be our wisest course to follow as closely as possible what Rogers tells us to do. It may be harder, but I think we will avoid trouble in the end."
"We could get lost in size just as easily as in space, couldn't we?" the Big Business Man put in. "That's a curious idea, isn't it?"
"It's true," agreed the Doctor. "It is something we must guard against very carefully."
"Well, come on then, let's get going," said the Very Young Man, pulling the Doctor to his feet.
The Big Business Man glanced at his watch. "Twenty to ten," he said. Then he looked up into the sky. "One hour and a half ago," he added sentimentally, "we were up there. What will another hour bring—I wonder?"
"Nothing at all," said the Very Young Man, "if we don't ever get started. Come on."
He walked towards the place he had selected, followed by his companions. And thus the three adventurers began their descent into the ring.
CHAPTER XV.
THE VALLEY OF THE SACRIFICE
For the first half-hour of their climb down into the valley of the scratch, the three friends were too preoccupied with their own safety to talk more than an occasional sentence. They came upon many places that at first glance appeared impassable, or at least sufficiently hazardous to cause them to hesitate, but in each instance the changing contour of the precipice offered some other means of descent.
After thirty minutes of arduous effort, the Big Business Man sat down suddenly upon a rock and began to unlace his shoes.
"I've got to rest a while," he groaned. "My feet are in terrible shape."
His two companions were glad of the opportunity to sit with him for a moment.
"Gosh, I'm all in, too!" said the Very Young Man with a sigh.
They were sitting upon a ledge about twenty feet wide, with the wall down which they had come at their back.
"I'll swear that's as far down there as it ever was," said the Big Business Man, with a wave of his hand towards the valley below them.
"Further," remarked the Very Young Man. "I've known that right along."
"That's to be expected," said the Doctor. "But we're a third the way down, just the same; that's the main thing." He glanced up the rocky, precipitous wall behind them. "We've come down a thousand feet, at least. The valley must be three thousand feet deep or more now."
"Say, how deep does it get before it stops?" inquired the Very Young Man.
The Doctor smiled at him quietly. "Rogers's note put it about twelve thousand," he answered. "It should reach that depth and stop about"—he hesitated a moment, calculating—"about two o'clock," he finished.
"Some climb," commented the Very Young Man. "We could do this a lot better than we're doing it, I think."
For some time they sat in silence. From where they sat the valley had all the appearance of a rocky, barren cañon of their own world above, as it might have looked on the late afternoon of a cloudless summer day. A gentle breeze was blowing, and in the sky overhead they could still see the huge light that for them was the sun.
"The weather is certainly great down here anyway," observed the Very Young Man, "that's one consolation."
The Big Business Man had replaced his shoes, taken a swallow of water, and risen to his feet, preparing to start downward again, when suddenly they all noticed a curious swaying motion, as though the earth were moving under them.
"Now what?" ejaculated the Very Young Man, standing up abruptly, with his feet spread wide apart.
The ground seemed pressing against his feet as if he were weighted down with a heavy load. And he felt a little also as though in a moving train with a side thrust to guard against. The sun was no longer visible, and the valley was plunged in the semidarkness of twilight. A strong wind sprang up, sweeping down upon them from above.
The Very Young Man and the Big Business Man looked puzzled; the Doctor alone of the three seemed to understand what was happening.
"He's moving the ring," he explained, with a note of apprehension in his voice.
"Oh," ejaculated the Big Business Man, comprehending at last, "so that's the——"
The Very Young Man standing with his back to the wall and his legs spread wide looked hastily at his watch. "Moving the ring? Why, damn it——" he began impetuously.
The Big Business Man interrupted him. "Look there, look!" he almost whispered, awestruck.
The sky above the valley suddenly had become suffused with red. As they watched it seemed to take form, appearing no longer space, but filled with some enormous body of reddish color. In one place they could see it broken into a line of gray, and underneath the gray, two circular holes of light gleamed down at them.
The Doctor shuddered and closed his eyes; his two friends stared upward, fascinated into immobility.
"What—is—that?" the Very Young Man whispered.
Before he could be answered, the earth swayed under them more violently than before. The red faded back out of the sky, and the sun appeared sweeping up into the zenith, where it hung swaying a moment and then poised motionless. The valley was flooded again with light; the ground steadied under them and became