XXVII
WE LEAP
We passed through the caves without trouble, but when we came to theslope of the inverted cone two difficulties stared us in the face. Thefirst of these was the laborious nature of the ascent, and the next theextreme difficulty of finding our way. Indeed, had it not been for themental notes that I had fortunately taken of the shape of various rocks,I am sure that we never should have managed it at all, but have wanderedabout in the dreadful womb of the volcano--for I suppose it mustonce have been something of the sort--until we died of exhaustion anddespair. As it was we went wrong several times, and once nearly fellinto a huge crack or crevasse. It was terrible work creeping aboutin the dense gloom and awful stillness from boulder to boulder,and examining it by the feeble light of the lamps to see if I couldrecognise its shape. We rarely spoke, our hearts were too heavyfor speech, we simply stumbled about, falling sometimes and cuttingourselves, in a rather dogged sort of way. The fact was that our spiritswere utterly crushed, and we did not greatly care what happened to us.Only we felt bound to try and save our lives whilst we could, and indeeda natural instinct prompted us to it. So for some three or four hours,I should think--I cannot tell exactly how long, for we had no watchleft that would go--we blundered on. During the last two hours we werecompletely lost, and I began to fear that we had got into the funnel ofsome subsidiary cone, when at last I suddenly recognised a very largerock which we had passed in descending but a little way from the top.It is a marvel that I should have recognised it, and, indeed, wehad already passed it going at right angles to the proper path, whensomething about it struck me, and I turned back and examined it in anidle sort of way, and, as it happened, this proved our salvation.
After this we gained the rocky natural stair without much furthertrouble, and in due course found ourselves back in the little chamberwhere the benighted Noot had lived and died.
But now a fresh terror stared us in the face. It will be remembered thatowing to Job's fear and awkwardness, the plank upon which we had crossedfrom the huge spur to the rocking-stone had been whirled off into thetremendous gulf below.
How were we to cross without the plank?
There was only one answer--we must try and _jump_ it, or else stop theretill we starved. The distance in itself was not so very great, betweeneleven and twelve feet I should think, and I have seen Leo jump overtwenty when he was a young fellow at collage; but then, think of theconditions. Two weary, worn-out men, one of them on the wrong side offorty, a rocking-stone to take off from, a trembling point of rock somefew feet across to land upon, and a bottomless gulf to be cleared in araging gale! It was bad enough, God knows, but when I pointed out thesethings to Leo, he put the whole matter in a nutshell, by replying that,merciless as the choice was, we must choose between the certainty of alingering death in the chamber and the risk of a swift one in the air.Of course, there was no arguing against this, but one thing was clear,we could not attempt that leap in the dark; the only thing to do was towait for the ray of light which pierced through the gulf at sunset.How near to or how far from sunset we might be, neither of us had thefaintest notion; all we did know was, that when at last the light cameit would not endure more than a couple of minutes at the outside, sothat we must be prepared to meet it. Accordingly, we made up our mindsto creep on to the top of the rocking-stone and lie there in readiness.We were the more easily reconciled to this course by the fact that ourlamps were once more nearly exhausted--indeed, one had gone out bodily,and the other was jumping up and down as the flame of a lamp does whenthe oil is done. So, by the aid of its dying light, we hastened to crawlout of the little chamber and clamber up the side of the great stone.
As we did so the light went out.
The difference in our position was a sufficiently remarkable one.Below, in the little chamber, we had only heard the roaring of thegale overhead--here, lying on our faces on the swinging stone, we wereexposed to its full force and fury, as the great draught drew first fromthis direction and then from that, howling against the mighty precipiceand through the rocky cliffs like ten thousand despairing souls. We laythere hour after hour in terror and misery of mind so deep that I willnot attempt to describe it, and listened to the wild storm-voicesof that Tartarus, as, set to the deep undertone of the spur oppositeagainst which the wind hummed like some awful harp, they called to eachother from precipice to precipice. No nightmare dreamed by man, no wildinvention of the romancer, can ever equal the living horror of thatplace, and the weird crying of those voices of the night, as we clunglike shipwrecked mariners to a raft, and tossed on the black, unfathomedwilderness of air. Fortunately the temperature was not a low one;indeed, the wind was warm, or we should have perished. So we clung andlistened, and while we were stretched out upon the rock a thing happenedwhich was so curious and suggestive in itself, though doubtless a merecoincidence, that, if anything, it added to, rather than deducted from,the burden on our nerves.
It will be remembered that when Ayesha was standing on the spur, beforewe crossed to the stone, the wind tore her cloak from her, and whirledit away into the darkness of the gulf, we could not see whither. Well--Ihardly like to tell the story; it is so strange. As we lay there uponthe rocking-stone, this very cloak came floating out of the black space,like a memory from the dead, and fell on Leo--so that it covered himnearly from head to foot. We could not at first make out what it was,but soon discovered by its feel, and then poor Leo, for the first time,gave way, and I heard him sobbing there upon the stone. No doubt thecloak had been caught upon some pinnacle of the cliff, and was thenceblown hither by a chance gust; but still, it was a most curious andtouching incident.
Shortly after this, suddenly, without the slightest previous warning,the great red knife of light came stabbing the darkness through andthrough--struck the swaying stone on which we were, and rested its sharppoint upon the spur opposite.
Now for it, said Leo, now or never.
We rose and stretched ourselves, and looked at the cloud-wreaths stainedthe colour of blood by that red ray as they tore through the sickeningdepths beneath, and then at the empty space between the swaying stoneand the quivering rock, and, in our hearts, despaired, and prepared fordeath. Surely we could not clear it--desperate though we were.
Who is to go first? said I.
Do you, old fellow, answered Leo. I will sit upon the other side ofthe stone to steady it. You must take as much run as you can, and jumphigh; and God have mercy on us, say I.
I acquiesced with a nod, and then I did a thing I had never done sinceLeo was a little boy. I turned and put my arm round him, and kissed himon the forehead. It sounds rather French, but as a fact I was taking mylast farewell of a man whom I could not have loved more if he had beenmy own son twice over.
Good-bye, my boy, I said, I hope that we shall meet again, whereverit is that we go to.
The fact was I did not expect to live another two minutes.
Next I retreated to the far side of the rock, and waited till one of thechopping gusts of wind got behind me, and then I ran the length of thehuge stone, some three or four and thirty feet, and sprang wildly outinto the dizzy air. Oh! the sickening terrors that I felt as I launchedmyself at that little point of rock, and the horrible sense of despairthat shot through my brain as I realised that I had _jumped short!_ butso it was, my feet never touched the point, they went down into space,only my hands and body came in contact with it. I gripped at it witha yell, but one hand slipped, and I swung right round, holding by theother, so that I faced the stone from which I had sprung. Wildly Istretched up with my left hand, and this time managed to grasp a knob ofrock, and there I hung in the fierce red light, with thousands of feetof empty air beneath me. My hands were holding to either side ofthe under part of the spur, so that its point was touching my head.Therefore, even if I could have found the strength, I could not pullmyself up. The most that I could do would be to hang for about a minute,and then drop down, down into the bottomless pit. If any man can imaginea more hideous position, let him speak! All I know is that the tortureof that half-minute nearly turned my brain.
I heard Leo give a cry, and then suddenly saw him in mid air springingup and out like a chamois. It was a splendid leap that he took under theinfluence of his terror and despair, clearing the horrible gulf as if itwere nothing, and, landing well on to the rocky point, he threw himselfupon his face, to prevent his pitching off into the depths. I felt thespur above me shake beneath the shock of his impact, and as it did so Isaw the huge rocking-stone, that had been violently depressed by him ashe sprang, fly back when relieved of his weight till, for the first timeduring all these centuries, it got beyond its balance, fell with amost awful crash right into the rocky chamber which had once served thephilosopher Noot for a hermitage, and, I have no doubt, for ever sealedthe passage that leads to the Place of Life with some hundreds of tonsof rock.
All this happened in a second, and curiously enough, notwithstanding myterrible position, I noted it involuntarily, as it were. I even rememberthinking that no human being would go down that dread path again.
Next instant I felt Leo seize me by the right wrist with both hands. Bylying flat on the point of rock he could just reach me.
You must let go and swing yourself clear, he said in a calm andcollected voice, and then I will try and pull you up, or we will bothgo together. Are you ready?
By way of answer I let go, first with my left hand and then with theright, and, as a consequence, swayed out clear of the overshadowingrock, my weight hanging upon Leo's arms. It was a dreadful moment. Hewas a very powerful man, I knew, but would his strength be equal tolifting me up till I could get a hold on the top of the spur, when owingto his position he had so little purchase?
For a few seconds I swung to and fro, while he gathered himself for theeffort, and then I heard his sinews cracking above me, and felt myselflifted up as though I were a little child, till I got my left arm roundthe rock, and my chest was resting on it. The rest was easy; in two orthree more seconds I was up, and we were lying panting side by side,trembling like leaves, and with the cold perspiration of terror pouringfrom our skins.
And then, as before, the light went out like a lamp.
For some half-hour we lay thus without speaking a word, and then atlength began to creep along the great spur as best we might in the densegloom. As we drew towards the face of the cliff, however, from which thespur sprang out like a spike from a wall, the light increased, thoughonly a very little, for it was night overhead. After that the gusts ofwind decreased, and we got along rather better, and at last reached themouth of the first cave or tunnel. But now a fresh trouble stared asin the face: our oil was gone, and the lamps were, no doubt, crushed topowder beneath the fallen rocking-stone. We were even without a drop ofwater to stay our thirst, for we had drunk the last in the chamberof Noot. How were we to see to make our way through this lastboulder-strewn tunnel?
Clearly all that we could do was to trust to our sense of feeling, andattempt the passage in the dark, so in we crept, fearing that ifwe delayed to do so our exhaustion would overcome us, and we shouldprobably lie down and die where we were.
Oh, the horrors of that last tunnel! The place was strewn with rocks,and we fell over them, and knocked ourselves up against them till wewere bleeding from a score of wounds. Our only guide was the side ofthe cavern, which we kept touching, and so bewildered did we grow in thedarkness that we were several times seized with the terrifying thoughtthat we had turned, and were travelling the wrong way. On we went,feebly, and still more feebly, for hour after hour, stopping every fewminutes to rest, for our strength was spent. Once we fell asleep, and, Ithink, must have slept for some hours, for, when we woke, our limbs werequite stiff, and the blood from our blows and scratches had caked, andwas hard and dry upon our skin. Then we dragged ourselves on again, tillat last, when despair was entering into our hearts, we once more saw thelight of day, and found ourselves outside the tunnel in the rocky foldon the outer surface of the cliff that, it will be remembered, led intoit.
It was early morning--that we could tell by the feel of the sweet airand the look of the blessed sky, which we had never hoped to see again.It was, so near as we knew, an hour after sunset when we entered thetunnel, so it followed that it had taken us the entire night to crawlthrough that dreadful place.
One more effort, Leo, I gasped, and we shall reach the slope whereBillali is, if he hasn't gone. Come, don't give way, for he had casthimself upon his face. He rose, and, leaning on each other, we got downthat fifty feet or so of cliff--somehow, I have not the least notionhow. I only remember that we found ourselves lying in a heap at thebottom, and then once more began to drag ourselves along on our handsand knees towards the grove where _She_ had told Billali to wait herre-arrival, for we could not walk another foot. We had not gone fiftyyards in this fashion when suddenly one of the mutes emerged fromthe trees on our left, through which, I presume, he had been taking amorning stroll, and came running up to see what sort of strange animalswe were. He stared, and stared, and then held up his hands in horror,and nearly fell to the ground. Next, he started off as hard as hecould for the grove some two hundred yards away. No wonder that he washorrified at our appearance, for we must have been a shocking sight.To begin, Leo, with his golden curls turned a snowy white, his clothesnearly rent from his body, his worn face and his hands a mass ofbruises, cuts, and blood-encrusted filth, was a sufficiently alarmingspectacle, as he painfully dragged himself along the ground, and Ihave no doubt that I was little better to look on. I know that two daysafterwards when I inspected my face in some water I scarcely recognisedmyself. I have never been famous for beauty, but there was somethingbeside ugliness stamped upon my features that I have never got ridof until this day, something resembling that wild look with which astartled person wakes from deep sleep more than anything else that I canthink of. And really it is not to be wondered at. What I do wonder at isthat we escaped at all with our reason.
Presently, to my intense relief, I saw old Billali hurrying towardsus, and even then I could scarcely help smiling at the expression ofconsternation on his dignified countenance.
Oh, my Baboon! my Baboon! he cried, my dear son, is it indeed theeand the Lion? Why, his mane that was ripe as corn is white likethe snow. Whence come ye? and where is the Pig, and where too_She-who-must-be-obeyed_?
Dead, both dead, I answered; but ask no questions; help us, and giveus food and water, or we too shall die before thine eyes. Seest thou notthat our tongues are black for want of water? How, then, can we talk?
Dead! he gasped. Impossible. _She_ who never dies--dead, how can itbe? and then, perceiving, I think, that his face was being watched bythe mutes who had come running up, he checked himself, and motioned tothem to carry us to the camp, which they did.
Fortunately when we arrived some broth was boiling on the fire, and withthis Billali fed us, for we were too weak to feed ourselves, therebyI firmly believe saving us from death by exhaustion. Then he bade themutes wash the blood and grime from us with wet cloths, and after thatwe were laid down upon piles of aromatic grass, and instantly fell intothe dead sleep of absolute exhaustion of mind and body.