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Morning found thethened Even before they made their fire or prepared their breakfast they were exploring along the edge of the gigantic cleft

Going first to irl's tread, no danger threaten, Stern tested every foot of the way to the very edge of the sheer chasot to be careful here My God, what a drop!"

Awed, despite themselves, they stood there on a flat slab of schist that projected boldly over the void Seen froness opened out below them even more terrible than it had seee that a height, viewed fro than fro or a monument Giddiness vanishes when no solid support lies under the feet This fact Stern and the girl appreciated to the full as they peered over the edge Ten tihtful the vast blue mystery beneath them now appeared than it had seeirl "By lying flat and peering over, there can't be any danger"

"All right, but only on condition that I keep tight hold of you!"

Cautiously they lay down and worked their way to the edge The engineer circled Beta's supple waist with his arm

"Steady, now!" he warned "When you feel giddy, let o back"

The effect of the chas It was like nothing ever seen by hu down into the Grand Canyon of the Colorado would have been child's play beside it For this was no question of looking down a half-mile, a mile, or even five, to so save dull purple haze, shifting vapors, and an unearthly dih the sun's rays, reflected, were striving to beat up again

"There must be miles and miles of air below us," said Stern, "to account for this curious light-effect Air, of course, will eventually cut off the vision Given a sufficiently thick layer, say a few hundred h So if there is a bottom to this place, be it one hundred or even five hundred miles down, of course we couldn't see it All we could see would be the air, which would give this sort of blue effect"

"Yes; but in that case how can we see the sun, or the moon, or stars?"