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Fire Island, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 40. A Grim Journey |
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_ CHAPTER FORTY. A GRIM JOURNEY Panton plunged at once down the slope as if to go diagonally to the water's edge, and his companions followed him in and out and over the blocks, which were a feast for Drew, while at every few steps some strange bird, insect, or quadruped offered itself as a tempting prize to Oliver, but no one paused. The gathering in of these prizes was left till some future time. It was as the others supposed, Panton was descending to the water's edge, reaching it just where the crater rose up more steeply and chaotically rugged than in the other parts. "Look out!" he cried, loudly, and, raising his piece, he fired at the great leopard-like creature which had evidently taken refuge here, and now bounded out with a fierce growl, and away along the rocks by the edge of the lake. The bullet sent after it evidently grazed the animal, for it sprang into the air and fell with a tremendous splash into the water, but scrambled out again, and went bounding away, while, instead of following their comrade's example, Oliver and Drew stood listening, appalled by the deep roar as of subterranean thunder, which ran away from close to their feet to die away in the distance, and then rise again--a strange reverberation that seemed to make the rocks quiver upon which they stood. "We must have him some day," said Panton, stepping right down on a stone, whose surface was just above the level of the water; and now, for the first time, Oliver saw that there was a slightly perceptible current running on either side of this stone, the water gliding by with a glassy motion, this evidently being the outlet of the lake; and on joining Panton he found himself facing what resembled a rugged Gothic archway at the foot of the stony walls, where a couple of great fragments of lava had fallen together. "Why, it is a cavern!" cried Oliver, as he bent forward, and tried to peer into the darkness before him. "A cavern? Yes; Aladdin's cave, and we're going to explore it," cried Panton. "Now then, Smith, five candles, please, and all lit ready for us to go in and see what there is to be seen." Smith walked right in, stepping from stone to stone for a few yards, and then leaping off the block on which he stood in midstream to the lava at the side; and, upon Oliver following him, he found that he was standing upon another stream, one which had become solid as it cooled, while the water which now filled the cup-like hollow had gradually eaten itself a channel in the stone, about a quarter of the width of the lava, and this flowed on into the darkness right ahead. "What do you think of it?" cried Panton. "Wet, dark, and creepy," said Oliver, as he listened to a peculiar whispering noise made by the water as it glided along in its stone canal, the sound being repeated in a faint murmur from the sides and top. Then _scritch-scratch_ and a flash of light which sank and then rose again, as the splint of wood, whose end Smith had struck, began to burn strongly. "Now, Billy! Candleses!" cried the sailor, and light after light began to burn, showing the shape of the place--a fairly wide rift, whose sides came together about twenty feet overhead. The floor was wonderfully level and some forty feet wide, the stream being another nine or perhaps but eight, but widening as it went on. As soon as the candles were lit Smith held up three, and Wriggs two, right overhead, so as to illuminate the place, and Oliver and Drew gazed with a feeling of awe at the sloping sides which glistened with magnificent crystals, many of which were pendent from sloping roof and sides, though for the most part they were embedded in the walls. "Well, is that wet, dark, and creepy?" cried Panton. "It is very wonderful," replied Drew. Oliver said nothing, for he was peering right before him into the darkness, and trying to master a curious feeling of awe. "This is something like a find," cried Panton, triumphantly. "How far does it go in?" said Oliver, at last. "Don't know. We are going to explore." "Will it be safe? This may lead right down into the bowels of the volcano." "I think not," said Panton, "but right away underground somewhere. Once upon a time when the volcano was in action it overflowed here or cut a way through the wall, and then the fiery stream forced its way onward, and was, no doubt, afterwards covered in by the stones and cinders hurled out by the mountain. Then, of course, after the volcano had played itself out, and the lake formed in the crater, it in turn overflowed, and the water ate its way along, as you see, right in the river of lava, which it followed naturally downwards." "And do you want us to follow the stream naturally downwards?" said Oliver. "Of course. I've only been in about fifty yards, but it is certainly the most wonderful place I have ever seen. Look here." He picked from a crevice a great bunch of soft dark brown filaments, somewhat resembling spun glass. "What's that? Some kind of fibre?" cried Drew. "But how does it come here?" "Is it fibre?" said Panton, smiling. "No; too brittle. It is glass." "Yes. Obsidian--a volcanic glass." "But it looks like the result of glass-blowing," said Oliver. "Right; so it is. Volcanic glass-blowing. This must have been driven out of some aperture in the burning mountain during an eruption, steam acting upon flint and lime when in a state of fusion." "But where are you going to get your flint and lime from to make a glass like this?" said Oliver. "Who can say? From the interior of the earth, or from deposits made by the sea." "I don't see that," said Drew. "Indeed! Why, haven't you silicious sand, the lime from the coral and shells and soda from the seaweeds of thousands of years. Plenty from that supply alone, without calculating what may be beneath us. Now then, forward: I'll lead, and we had better all go carefully, in case of there being any chasms. As far as I've been the floor was all like this, smooth and just faintly marked by a grain formed by the flow." He took a candle, and, holding it high above his head, led the way, closely followed by Oliver. "No fear of our losing our way," said the latter. "We have only to keep on by the side of the stream, and then notice which way it flows. If we go against it, we must be right in coming back." The way widened as they progressed, and was to a small extent down-hill, but not sufficiently so to make the water rush onwards, only sufficient for it to glide along in a glassy smooth fashion, keeping up the same mysterious whispering which grew as they went on into the darkness, not seeming to be louder, but so to speak as if there were more and more of this strange murmur extending onward and onward to infinity. Once they all stopped to look back at the light which shone in through the cavern's mouth, and looking dazzlingly bright as it played upon the water gliding in softly from the lake, but soon growing softer and opalescent, and gradually dying away. Five minutes later, when Oliver turned back to look again, he found that they must have unconsciously descended, for there was only a faint dawn of light upon the roof of the cave, and a minute later all was black. "Now," said Drew, with an involuntary shiver which he turned off as being from the temperature. "What are you going to show us? for it's getting chilly here." "One of the wonders of the world," replied Panton. "Look at the crystals here." "Yes, but we saw them before." "Then look at the incrustations of sulphur here. These must have been here for countless ages. Look, too, how it is heaped against this wall." "Yes, wonderful, but we saw plenty of sulphur when you came up out of that hole where you first went down, if you remember, and brought plenty up." "Yes," said Oliver. "Can't you show us something more like what must have been in Aladdin's cave, gold, silver, and precious stones?" Panton held up his light as they turned round a bend of the rocky side on their left, and pointed to the coloration of the rocks and the half loose fragments, which still clung in their place, while other bits had fallen down. "There," he said, "those are as bright as anything in Aladdin's cave." "And as valuable?" "That depends on the value people put upon them. From a geological point of view, and the study of the formation of crystals by volcanic heat they are priceless." "But how much farther are you going?" said Drew. "As far as the candles will let us," said Panton. "Hallo!" His voice was echoed from a distance as loudly as he had spoken, and the "Hallo!" went reverberating away in the gloom. "We must be in a big opening," he said, and again his voice echoed, and then went on repeating itself and dying away. Panton thrust a hand into his pocket and brought out a roll of magnesium wire, gave Wriggs his gun to hold, and then lit one end which flashed out into a brilliant whitish light, surrounded by dense fumes of smoke, and illuminating the vast hall in which they stood, for here the tiny river ran in a wide-spreading plain of smooth lava which must at one time have been a lake of molten stone, now hard, cold, and dry, save where the water glided on like so much steel in motion. As the magnesium wire burned out, the candles which were getting short looked like so many yellowish sparks in the midst of utter blackness, and it was some minutes before even Panton showed any disposition to stir. But at last the eyes of all began to lose the dazzled sensation caused by the white glare, and Panton proposed that they should go on. "What for?" said Drew. "There are specimens enough for you here without going farther, and the place seems to be all alike." "Oh, no: all variety. You are not afraid, are you?" "Well, I don't know so much about that," replied Drew, quietly. "I have no wish to seem cowardly, but it is not very pleasant moleing along here in the darkness. I keep expecting to step down into some bottomless pit." "If we come across one, you'll see me go down first. But hark! What's that?" "I don't hear anything," said Drew. "Don't you, Lane?" cried Panton. "Well, yes, I fancy I can hear a dull sound as of falling water." "There must be a cascade, then, farther in. Come on, I must see that. I've got some more wire." Holding his candle well on high, he strode boldly on over the lava stream, his two friends feeling bound to follow him, while Smith and Wriggs came last. "How do you feel, Tommy?" whispered the latter. "Bad," was the laconic reply. "Don't seem no good in going no furder, do it?" "Not a bit, and these here candles'll be out d'rectly. Hold hard, please, sir, we've got to light up again." Oliver heard his words, and hailed Drew, who in turn called to Panton. But the latter was just at an angle where the lava stream swept round to the left, and there was a reason why he did not hear the call, and they saw him disappear round the corner with his light. Drew hastened his steps and followed, catching sight of him for a moment, and then losing him again, for Panton's light was extinguished, and Drew stood peering forward in an agony of dread, feeling certain that their companion had dropped down into some horrible crevice in the lava; while he had suddenly himself stepped from almost perfect silence into a part of the cavern where his ears were smitten by a fearful din of falling water. The next minute, in an agony of spirit that seemed too hard to bear, his outstretched candle lit up Panton's face, which was farther illumined by the lights the others bore. "My light's burned out," cried Panton, placing his lips close to Drew's ear. "I say, what a row the water makes." The effort to speak grew troublesome, and signs were resorted to. Fresh candles were lit, and in spite of an objection raised by Oliver, Panton was for going on again. "We must see the falls now we are so near," he shouted. "We can't be many yards away. We'll come better provided with lights another time." Starting on again, but going very carefully, Panton continued his way onward pretty close to the edge of the smooth river which ran now several feet below the level on which they walked. And as he held out his candle, so as to clearly see the edge, the light gleamed fitfully from the black glassy surface of the stream. All at once Panton found himself at an angle of the rock, where a second stream joined the one by which they had come, and as the others joined him, it seemed as if their progress was at an end. This second stream was a surprise, for it was larger than the one by their right, and coming as it did almost at right angles from their left, it was puzzling as to whence it could come, for it did not seem possible that it could have issued from the crater lake. And there they stood in a noise that was now deafening, holding their lights on high, and trying to pierce the black darkness in front, but of course in vain. A peculiar fact struck Oliver now, as he stood pretty close to the lava edge of the angular platform upon which they had halted, and this was, that the flames of all their candles were drawn away from them toward where the water of the conjoined streams must be falling in one plunge down into some terrible gulf. He knew at once that this was caused by a strong, steady current of air setting towards the falls, and in his uneasiness he was about to point out to Panton that their candles were rapidly burning away, when the latter suddenly lit his remaining piece of magnesium wire, and the next minute they were all straining their eyes, and now looking into a misty glare of light, right in front-- evidently the mist rising from the churned-up water--or now upon their grotesque black shadows, cast by the white-smoked magnesium upon the floor and the ceiling far above. But there was no sign of the water itself, only the conformation of the lava stream whose edge could be seen upon the other side of the second river at least thirty feet away. "What's to be done?" said Panton at last, as the magnesium burned out and all was once more black darkness. "Get back," said Oliver, with his lips to his friend's ear. "The candles are guttering away terribly, and we must not be left in the dark." "No," yelled Panton, "that wouldn't be pleasant. Hang it, all my candle's done." Time had gone faster than they had expected since the second candles were lit, and turning to Oliver he said, sharply,-- "There, you lead the way back. It isn't far if you step out. Forward!" Oliver wanted no telling, and he started back, but did not begin to breathe freely till the angle of the rock wall was passed and they found themselves again in silence, just too as another candle began to flicker. "Hullo!" cried Oliver, glancing back. "What does this mean?" "What?" said Panton. "The number of lights. Yours is gone and this one will be out directly, but there ought to be three more. Drew, Smith, ourselves. Here, where is Wriggs?" There was no answer, and in a strained, excited voice, Smith shouted,-- "Hi, Billy lad, where are yer?" There was a whispering echo, but nothing more till Oliver spoke,-- "Where did you see him last?" "See him, sir, why yonder, where the magneshy was burnt. Billy ahoy-y-y-y!" But there was no answer, and they stood in a little group appalled by the knowledge that their lights would not last many minutes longer. "Here--quick, Smith, you have some more candles?" cried Oliver. "Not a blessed one, sir. Billy Wriggs has got what there is left in his jersey." The truth forced itself upon them now with horrifying force that they had done wrong in making this attempt so badly provided, and in trusting so fully to Panton, who in his eager enthusiasm had gone too far. One thought was in every mind, would they ever be able to find their way out of this terrible darkness when the last ray of light had failed? _ |
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