Read Online 04 Volcano Adventure by Willard Price - Free Book Online Page A

soles of his boots and made him move on in a hurry.
    They clambered over ridges twenty feet high that looked like great waves of the ocean suddenly turned to stone. They were panting and puffing now, and sweating at every pore.
    ‘I think we stop little time now, rest,’ suggested Kobo, and sat down heavily on a rock. He leaped up at once for the rock was as hot as a stove. They stumbled on along the crater’s edge.
    Hal suddenly stopped. He was looking down the steep slope into the crater. About thirty feet down gleamed some peculiar blue stones.
    ‘That’s something the doctor will want,’ said Hal, ‘a sample of that rock.’
    ‘But you cannot,’ objected Kobo. ‘It is too - up and down.’
    ‘You mean too steep? Oh, I don’t think so - if I take it slowly.’
    ‘But we have no rope.’
    ‘I think I can manage without one.’
    He turned his back on the crater and lay down on his stomach, his feet over the edge. Then he eased himself gradually down the slope, using his hands and feet as brakes. Fortunately the volcanic glass had given way to a sort of gravel that was not so hard on the hands.
    He was to learn in a moment, however, that even gravel can be dangerous. Stones that he dislodged with his fingers or feet tumbled down the slope, and kept on tumbling until they splashed into the fiery red lake far below.
    Hal had nearly reached his goal when he was suddenly terrified by a new sensation. The whole gravel bed on which he lay had started to slip. If this was a real landslide it would carry him straight to his death in the lake of fire.
    He tried to keep his nerve. He knew that if he scrambled upwards he would only make the slide move faster.
    He lay perfectly still while his body slipped inch by inch and the stones tumbled past him.
    Then the slipping stopped. He did not move. What to do now? If he tried to climb he would start the landslide.
    He could do nothing but stay where he was. Even that was dangerous, for his weight might start the gravel moving. He was in a pretty fix. Looking up, he saw that Kobo was starting down towards him.
    ‘Stay where you are,’ he cried. ‘You’ll only make it worse. Go and get Dr Dan.’
    He knew as he said it that it was a foolish suggestion. It would take an hour to fetch Dr Dan and this was a matter of minutes. At any second the slide might begin.
    ‘No time get doctor,’ called Kobo, and kept on coming.
    ‘Go back,’ demanded Hal. ‘You can’t do a thing. No use two of us getting bopped off.’
    He found himself thinking a crazy thought: if Kobo was ‘bopped off’ then all the time he had spent teaching the boy English would be wasted.
    Kobo was creeping lower. The idiot - he would start everything going and they would both slide down.
    But Kobo stopped on a solid flat rock about ten feet above his friend. He called down to Hal.
    Take off your…’ His English failed him. He slapped his legs. Take off - the word, I do not know.’
    ‘What are you talking about?’
    ‘These,’ he slapped his legs again. ‘Take off.’
    ‘You mean my trousers?’
    ‘Ah, yes - trousers! Take off. Do same like me.’ He undid his own trousers and began to slip them off.
    He’d gone plumb crazy, thought Hal. Gone clean out of his head.
    Suddenly he understood Kobo’s plan. Yes, it might work. Very carefully he moved his hands down to his belt. He loosened the belt and the waistband. The stones started moving and he lay still. When they stopped he began inching off his trousers. He took his time about it. Better go slow with this than fast with the avalanche.
    At last they were off. He tossed them up to Kobo. He did this as lightly as he could, yet it started a slipping of gravel. Hal slid three inches nearer the hungry fire - then the movement stopped.
    Kobo fastened the two pairs of trousers together with his belt. Then he lay flat on the rock and threw Hal one end of the crude lifeline. Hal caught it.
    But would Kobo be able to draw him up? Hal was much larger and