A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder James De Mille

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and so as I stood there I waved my arms and gesticulated violently.
The pursuing athaleb seemed frightened at such an unusual occurrence,
for he veered off, and soon was lost in the darkness.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE ISLAND OF FIRE
At last there appeared before us what seemed like a long line of
dull-red fires, and as we looked we could see bursts of flame at
fitful intervals, which shone out for a few moments and then died
away. Upon this now our whole attention was fixed; for it seemed as
though we were approaching our destination, and that this place was
the Island of Fire--a name which, from present appearances, was fully
justified. As we went on and drew steadily nearer, the mass of glowing
fire grew larger and brighter, and what at first had seemed a line was
broken up into different parts, one of which far surpassed the others.
This was higher in the air, and its shape was that of a long, thin,
sloping line, with a burning, glowing globule at each end. It seemed
like lava running down from the crater of a volcano, and this
appearance was made certainty on a nearer approach; for we saw at the
upper point, which seemed the crater, an outburst of flame, followed
by a new flow of the fiery stream. In other places there were similar
fires, but they were less bright, either because they were smaller or
more remote.
At length we heard beneath us the roar of breakers, and saw long white
lines of surf beating upon the shore. Our athaleb now descended and
alighted; we clambered to the ground, and I, taking the grapple, fixed
it securely between two sharp rocks. We were at last on Magones, the
Island of Fire.
The brightness of the aurora light had left us, but it needed not
this to show us the dismal nature of the land to which we had come.
It was a land of horror, where there was nothing but the abomination
of desolation--a land overstrewn with blasted fragments of fractured
lava-blocks, intermixed with sand, from which there arose black
precipices and giant mountains that poured forth rivers of fire and
showers of ashes and sheets of flame. A tremendous peak arose before
us, with a crest of fire and sides streaked with red torrents of