The whole scene might
have furnished material for another canto of Dante's 'Inferno',
as Curtis said.
'I say, you fellows, let's get out of this or we shall all go
off our heads,' sung out Good; and we were not slow to take the
hint. Pushing the canoe, around which the animals were now crawling
by hundreds and making vain attempts to climb, off the rocks,
we bundled into it and got out into mid-stream, leaving behind
us the fragments of our meal and the screaming, foaming, stinking
mass of monsters in full possession of the ground.
'Those are the devils of the place,' said Umslopogaas with the
air of one who has solved a problem, and upon my word I felt
almost inclined to agree with him.
Umslopogaas' remarks were like his axe -- very much to the point.
'What's to be done next?' said Sir Henry blankly.
'Drift, I suppose,' I answered, and we drifted accordingly.
All the afternoon and well into the evening we floated on in
the gloom beneath the far-off line of blue sky, scarcely knowing
when day ended and night began, for down in that vast gulf the
difference was not marked, till at length Good pointed out a
star hanging right above us, which, having nothing better to
do, we observed with great interest.
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