Chapter XII. Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Years!
"You seem to have made the best of your time, old fellow," said Bickleyin rather a sour voice.
"I never knew people begin to call each other by their Christian namesso soon," added Bastin, looking at me with a suspicious eye.
"I know no other," I said.
"Perhaps not, but at any rate you have another, though you don't seem tohave told it to her. Anyway, I am glad they are gone, for I was gettingtired of being ordered by everybody to carry about wood and water forthem. Also I am terribly hungry as I can't eat before it is light. Theyhave taken most of the best fruit to which I was looking forward, butthank goodness they do not seem to care for pork."
"So am I," said Bickley, who really looked exhausted. "Get the food,there's a good fellow. We'll talk afterwards."
When we had eaten, somewhat silently, I asked Bickley what he made ofthe business; also whither he thought the sleepers had gone.
"I think I can answer the last question," interrupted Bastin. "I expectit is to a place well known to students of the Bible which even Bickleymentions sometimes when he is angry. At any rate, they seem to be veryfond of heat, for they wouldn't part from it even in their coffins, andyou will admit that they are not quite natural, although that GlitteringLady is so attractive as regards her exterior."
Bickley waved these remarks aside and addressed himself to me.
"I don't know what to think of it," he said; "but as the experience isnot natural and everything in the Universe, so far as we know it, has anatural explanation, I am inclined to the belief that we are sufferingfrom hallucinations, which in their way are also quite natural. It doesnot seem possible that two people can really have been asleep for anunknown length of time enclosed in vessels of glass or crystal, keptwarm by radium or some such substance, and then emerge from themcomparatively strong and well. It is contrary to natural law."
"How about microbes?" I asked. "They are said to last practically forever, and they are living things. So in their case your natural lawbreaks down."
"That is true," he answered. "Some microbes in a sealed tube and undercertain conditions do appear to possess indefinite powers of life. Alsoradium has an indefinite life, but that is a mineral. Only these peopleare not microbes nor are they minerals. Also, experience tells us thatthey could not have lived for more than a few months at the outside insuch circumstances as we seemed to find them."
"Then what do you suggest?"
"I suggest that we did not really find them at all; that we have allbeen dreaming. You know that there are certain gases which produceillusions, laughing gas is one of them, and that these gases aresometimes met with in caves. Now there were very peculiar odours in thatplace under the statue, which may have worked upon our imaginations insome such way. Otherwise we are up against a miracle, and, as you know,I do not believe in miracles."
"I do," said Bastin calmly. "You'll find all about it in the Bible ifyou will only take the trouble to read. Why do you talk such rubbishabout gases?"
"Because only gas, or something of the sort, could have made us imaginethem."
"Nonsense, Bickley! Those people were here right enough. Didn't they eatour fruit and drink the water I brought them without ever saying thankyou? Only, they are not human. They are evil spirits, and for my partI don't want to see any more of them, though I have no doubt Arbuthnotdoes, as that Glittering Lady threw her arms round his neck when shewoke up, and already he is calling her by her Christian name, if theword Christian can be used in connection with her. The old fellow hadthe impudence to tell us that he was a god, and it is remarkable thathe should have called himself Oro, seeing that the devil they worship onthe island is also called Oro and the place itself is named Orofena."
"As to where they have gone," continued Bickley, taking no notice ofBastin, "I really don't know. My expectation is, however, that whenwe go to look tomorrow morning--and I suggest that we should not do sobefore then in order that we may give our minds time to clear--we shallfind that sepulchre place quite empty, even perhaps without the crystalcoffins we have imagined to stand there."
"Perhaps we shall find that there isn't a cave at all and that we arenot sitting on a flat rock outside of it," suggested Bastin with heavysarcasm, adding, "You are clever in your way, Bickley, but you can talkmore rubbish than any man I ever knew."
"They told us they would come back tonight or tomorrow," I said. "Ifthey do, what will you say then, Bickley?"
"I will wait till they come to answer that question. Now let us go fora walk and try to change our thoughts. We are all over-strained andscarcely know what we are saying."
"One more question," I said as we rose to start. "Did Tommy suffer fromhallucinations as well as ourselves?"
"Why not?" answered Bickley. "He is an animal just as we are, or perhapswe thought we saw Tommy do the things he did."
"When you found that basket of fruit, Bastin, which the natives broughtover in the canoe, was there a bough covered with red flowers lying onthe top of it?"
"Yes, Arbuthnot, one bough only; I threw it down on the rock as it gotin the way when I was carrying the basket."
"Which flowering bough we all thought we saw the Sleeper Oro carry awayafter Tommy had brought it to him."
"Yes; he made me pick it up and give it to him," said Bastin.
"Well, if we did not see this it should still be lying on the rock, asthere has been no wind and there are no animals here to carry it away.You will admit that, Bickley?"
He nodded.
"Then if it has gone you will admit also that the presumption is that wesaw what we thought we did see?"
"I do not know how that conclusion can be avoided, at any rate so far asthe incident of the bough is concerned," replied Bickley with caution.
Then, without more words, we started to look. At the spot where thebough should have been, there was no bough, but on the rock lay severalof the red flowers, bitten off, I suppose, by Tommy while he wascarrying it. Nor was this all. I think I have mentioned that theGlittering Lady wore sandals which were fastened with red studs thatlooked like rubies or carbuncles. On the rock lay one of these studs.I picked it up and we examined it. It had been sewn to the sandal-strapwith golden thread or silk. Some of this substance hung from the holedrilled in the stone which served for an eye. It was as rotten astinder, apparently with extreme age. Moreover, the hard gem itself waspitted as though the passage of time had taken effect upon it, thoughthis may have been caused by other agencies, such as the action of theradium rays. I smiled at Bickley who looked disconcerted and even sad.In a way it is painful to see the effect upon an able and earnest man ofthe upsetting of his lifelong theories.
We went for our walk, keeping to the flat lands at the foot of thevolcano cone, for we seemed to have had enough of wonders and to desireto reassure ourselves, as it were, by the study of natural andfamiliar things. As it chanced, too, we were rewarded by sundry usefuldiscoveries. Thus we found a place where the bread-tree and otherfruits, most of them now ripe, grew in abundance, as did the yam. Also,we came to an inlet that we noticed was crowded with large and beautifulfish from the lake, which seemed to find it a favourite spot. Perhapsthis was because a little stream of excellent water ran in here,overflowing from the great pool or mere which filled the crater above.
At these finds we rejoiced greatly, for now we knew that we need notfear starvation even should our supply of food from the main island becut off. Indeed, by help of some palm-leaf stalks which we wove togetherroughly, Bastin, who was rather clever at this kind of thing, managedto trap four fish weighing two or three pounds apiece, wading into thewater to do so. It was curious to observe with what ease he adaptedhimself to the manners and customs of primeval man, so much so, indeed,that Bickley remarked that if he could believe in re-incarnation, hewould be absolutely certain that Bastin was a troglodyte in his lastsojourn on the earth.
However this might be, Bastin's primeval instincts and abilities were ofthe utmos
t service to us. Before we had been many days on that islandhe had built us a kind of native hut or house roofed with palm leaves inwhich, until provided with a better, as happened afterwards, we ate andhe and Bickley slept, leaving the tent to me. Moreover, he wove a netof palm fibre with which he caught abundance of fish, and madefishing-lines of the same material (fortunately we had some hooks) whichhe baited with freshwater mussels and the insides of fish. By means ofthese he secured some veritable monsters of the carp species that provedmost excellent eating. His greatest triumph, however, was a decoy whichhe constructed of boughs, wherein he trapped a number of waterfowl. Sothat soon we kept a very good table of a sort, especially after hehad learned how to cook our food upon the native plan by means of hotstones. This suited us admirably, as it enabled Bickley and myself todevote all our time to archaeological and other studies which did notgreatly interest Bastin.
By the time that we got back to camp it was drawing towards evening,so we cooked our food and ate, and then, thoroughly exhausted, madeourselves as comfortable as we could and went to sleep. Even ourmarvelous experiences could not keep Bickley and myself from sleeping,and on Bastin such things had no effect. He accepted them and that wasall, much more readily than we did, indeed. Triple-armed as he was inthe mail of a child-like faith, he snapped his fingers at evil spiritswhich he supposed the Sleepers to be, and at everything else that othermen might dread.
Now, as I have mentioned, after our talk with Marama, although we didnot think it wise to adventure ourselves among them again at present, wehad lost all fear of the Orofenans. In this attitude, so far as Maramahimself and the majority of his people were concerned, we were quitejustified, for they were our warm friends. But in the case of thesorcerers, the priests and all their rascally and superstitiousbrotherhood, we were by no means justified. They had not forgiven Bastinhis sacrilege or for his undermining of their authority by the preachingof new doctrines which, if adopted, would destroy them as a hierarchy.Nor had they forgiven Bickley for shooting one of their number, or anyof us for our escape from the vengeance of their god.
So it came about that they made a plot to seize us all and hale us offto be sacrificed to a substituted image of Oro, which by now they hadset up. They knew exactly where we slept upon the rock; indeed, our fireshowed it to them and so far they were not afraid to venture, since herethey had been accustomed for generations to lay their offerings tothe god of the Mountain. Secretly on the previous night, without theknowledge of Marama, they had carried two more canoes to the borders ofthe lake. Now on this night, just as the moon was setting about threein the morning, they made their attack, twenty-one men in all, for thethree canoes were large, relying on the following darkness to get usaway and convey us to the place of sacrifice to be offered up at dawnand before Marama could interfere.
The first we knew of the matter, for most foolishly we had neglected tokeep a watch, was the unpleasant sensation of brawny savages kneeling onus and trussing us up with palm-fibre ropes. Also they thrust handfulsof dry grass into our mouths to prevent us from calling out, although asair came through the interstices of the grass, we did not suffocate. Thething was so well done that we never struck a blow in self-defence, andalthough we had our pistols at hand, much less could we fire a shot. Ofcourse, we struggled as well as we were able, but it was quite useless;in three minutes we were as helpless as calves in a net and like calveswere being conveyed to the butcher. Bastin managed to get the gag outof his mouth for a few seconds, and I heard him say in his slow, heavyvoice:
"This, Bickley, is what comes of trafficking with evil spirits in museumcases--" There his speech stopped, for the grass wad was jammed down histhroat again, but distinctly I heard the inarticulate Bickley snortas he conceived the repartee he was unable to utter. As for myself, Ireflected that the business served us right for not keeping a watch, andabandoned the issue to fate.
Still, to confess the truth, I was infinitely more sorry to die than Ishould have been forty-eight hours earlier. This is a dull and in mostways a dreadful world, one, if we could only summon the courage, thatsome of us would be glad to leave in search of new adventures. But herea great and unprecedented adventure had begun to befall me, andbefore its mystery was solved, before even I could formulate a theoryconcerning it, my body must be destroyed, and my intelligence that wascaged therein, sent far afield; or, if Bickley were right, eclipsed.It seemed so sad just when the impossible, like an unguessed wanderingmoon, had risen over the grey flats of the ascertained and made themshine with hope and wonder.
They carried us off to the canoes, not too gently; indeed, I heard thebony frame of Bastin bump into the bottom of one of them and reflected,not without venom, that it served him right as he was the fount andorigin of our woes. Two stinking magicians, wearing on their headsundress editions of their court cages, since these were too cumbersomefor active work of the sort, and painted all over with various pigments,were just about to swing me after him into the same, or another canoe,when something happened. I did not know what it was, but as a result, mycaptors left hold of me so that I fell to the rock, lying upon my back.
Then, within my line of vision, which, it must be remembered, waslimited because I could not lift my head, appeared the upper part of thetall person of the Ancient who said that he was named Oro. I could onlysee him down to his middle, but I noted vaguely that he seemed to bemuch changed. For instance, he wore a different coloured dress, orrather robe; this time it was dark blue, which caused me to wonder whereon earth it came from. Also, his tremendous beard had been trimmedand dressed, and on his head there was a simple black cap, strangelyquilted, which looked as though it were made of velvet. Moreover,his face had plumped out. He still looked ancient, it is true, andunutterably wise, but now he resembled an antique youth, so great werehis energy and vigour. Also, his dark and glowing eyes shone with afearful intensity. In short, he seemed impressive and terrible almostbeyond imagining.
He looked about him slowly, then asked in a deep, cold voice, speakingin the Orofenan tongue:
"What do you, slaves?"
No one seemed able to answer, they were too horror-stricken at thissudden vision of their fabled god, whose fierce features of wood hadbecome flesh; they only turned to fly. He waved his thin hand and theycame to a standstill, like animals which have reached the end of theirtether and are checked by the chains that bind them. There they stoodin all sorts of postures, immovable and looking extremely ridiculous intheir paint and feathers, with dread unutterable stamped upon their evilfaces.
The Sleeper spoke again:
"You would murder as did your forefathers, O children of snakes and hogsfashioned in the shape of men. You would sacrifice those who dwell in myshadow to satisfy your hate because they are wiser than you. Come hitherthou," and he beckoned with a bony finger to the chief magician.
The man advanced towards him in short jumps, as a mechanical toy mightdo, and stood before him, his miniature crate and feathers all awry andthe sweat of terror melting the paint in streaks upon his face.
"Look into the eyes of Oro, O worshipper of Oro," said the Sleeper, andhe obeyed, his own eyes starting out of his head.
"Receive the curse of Oro," said the Ancient again. Then followed aterrible spectacle. The man went raving mad. He bounded into the air toa height inconceivable. He threw himself upon the ground and rolled uponthe rock. He rose again and staggered round and round, tearing piecesout of his arms with his teeth. He yelled hideously like one possessed.He grovelled, beating his forehead against the rock. Then he sat up,slowly choked and--died.
His companions seemed to catch the infection of death as terrifiedsavages often do. They too performed dreadful antics, all except threeof them who stood paralysed. They rushed about battering each other withtheir fists and wooden weapons, looking like devils from hell intheir hideous painted attire. They grappled and fought furiously. Theyseparated and plunged into the lake, where with a last grimace they sanklike stones.
It seemed to last a long while,
but I think that as a matter of factwithin five minutes it was over; they were all dead. Only the threeparalysed ones remained standing and rolling their eyes.
The Sleeper beckoned to them with his thin finger, and they walkedforward in step like soldiers.
"Lift that man from the boat," he said, pointing to Bastin, "cut hisbonds and those of the others."
They obeyed with a wonderful alacrity. In a minute we stood at libertyand were pulling the grass gags from our mouths. The Ancient pointedto the head magician who lay dead upon the rock, his hideous, contortedcountenance staring open-eyed at heaven.
"Take that sorcerer and show him to the other sorcerers yonder," hesaid, "and tell them where your fellows are if they would find them.Know by these signs that the Oro, god of the Mountain, who has slept awhile, is awake, and ill will it go with them who question his power ordare to try to harm those who dwell in his house. Bring food day by dayand await commands. Begone!"
The dreadful-looking body was bundled into one of the canoes, thatout of which Bastin had emerged. A rower sprang into each of them andpresently was paddling as he had never done before. As the settingmoon vanished, they vanished with it, and once more there was a greatsilence.
"I am going to find my boots," said Bastin. "This rock is hard and Ihurt my feet kicking at those poor fellows who appear to have come to abad end, how, I do not exactly understand. Personally, I think that moreallowances should have been made for them, as I hope will be the caseelsewhere, since after all they only acted according to their lights."
"Curse their lights!" ejaculated Bickley, feeling his throat which wasbruised. "I'm glad they are out."
Bastin limped away in search of his boots, but Bickley and I stood wherewe were contemplating the awakened Sleeper. All recollection of therecent tumultuous scene seemed to have passed from his mind, for he wasengaged in a study of the heavens. They were wonderfully brilliant nowthat the moon was down, brilliant as they only can be in the tropicswhen the sky is clear.
Something caused me to look round, and there, coming towards us, was shewho said her name was Yva. Evidently all her weakness had departed also,for now she needed no support, but walked with a peculiar gliding motionthat reminded me of a swan floating forward on the water. Well had wenamed her the Glittering Lady, for in the starlight literally she seemedto glitter. I suppose the effect came from her golden raiment, which,however, I noticed, as in her father's case, was not the same that shehad worn in the coffin; also from her hair that seemed to give out alight of its own. At least, she shimmered as she came, her tall shapeswaying at every step like a willow in the wind. She drew near, andI saw that her face, too, had filled out and now was that of one inperfect health and vigour, while her eyes shone softly and seemedwondrous large.
In her hands she carried those two plates of metal which I had seenlying in the coffin of the Sleeper Oro. These she gave to him, then fellback out of his hearing--if it were ever possible to do this, a pointon which I am not sure--and began to talk to me. I noted at once that inthe few hours during which she was absent, her knowledge of the Orofenantongue seemed to have improved greatly as though she had drunk deeplyfrom some hidden fount of memory. Now she spoke it with readiness, asOro had done when he addressed the sorcerers, although many of the wordsshe used were not known to me, and the general form of her languageappeared archaic, as for instance that of Spenser is compared withmodern English. When she saw I did not comprehend her, however, shewould stop and cast her sentences in a different shape, till at length Icaught her meaning. Now I give the substance of what she said.
"You are safe," she began, glancing first at the palm ropes that layupon the rock and then at my wrists, one of which was cut.
"Yes, Lady Yva, thanks to your father."
"You should say thanks to me. My father was thinking of other things,but I was thinking of you strangers, and from where I was I saw thosewicked ones coming to kill you."
"Oh! from the top of the mountain, I suppose."
She shook her head and smiled but vouchsafed no further explanation,unless her following words can be so called. These were:
"I can see otherwise than with my eyes, if I choose." A statement thatcaused Bickley, who was listening, to mutter:
"Impossible! What the deuce can she mean? Telepathy, perhaps."
"I saw," she continued, "and told the Lord, my father. He came forth.Did he kill them? I did not look to learn."
"Yes. They lie in the lake, all except three whom he sent away asmessengers."
"I thought so. Death is terrible, O Humphrey, but it is a sword whichthose who rule must use to smite the wicked and the savage."
Not wishing to pursue this subject, I asked her what her father wasdoing with the metal plates.
"He reads the stars," she answered, "to learn how long we have beenasleep. Before we went to sleep he made two pictures of them, asthey were then and as they should be at the time he had set for ourawakening."
"We set that time," interrupted Bickley.
"Not so, O Bickley," she answered, smiling again. "In the divine Oro'shead was the time set. You were the hand that executed his decree."
When Bickley heard this I really thought he would have burst. However,he controlled himself nobly, being anxious to hear the end of thismysterious fib.
"How long was the time that the lord Oro set apart for sleep?" I asked.
She paused as though puzzled to find words to express her meaning, thenheld up her hands and said:
"Ten," nodding at her fingers. By second thoughts she took Bickley'shands, not mine, and counted his ten fingers.
"Ten years," said Bickley. "Well, of course, it is impossible, butperhaps--" and he paused.
"Ten tens," she went on with a deepening smile, "one hundred."
"O!" said Bickley.
"Ten hundreds, one thousand."
"I say!" said Bickley.
"Ten times ten thousand, one hundred thousand."
Bickley became silent.
"Twice one hundred thousand and half a hundred thousand, two hundred andfifty thousand years. That was the space of time which the lord Oro, myfather, set for our sleep. Whether it has been fulfilled he will knowpresently when he has read the book of the stars and made comparison ofit with what he wrote before we laid us down to rest," and she pointedto the metal plates which the Ancient was studying.
Bickley walked away, making sounds as though he were going to be ill andlooking so absurd in his indignation that I nearly laughed. The Lady Yvaactually did laugh, and very musical was that laugh.
"He does not believe," she said. "He is so clever he knows everything.But two hundred and fifty thousand years ago we should have thought himquite stupid. Then we could read the stars and calculate their movementsfor ever."
"So can we," I answered, rather nettled.
"I am glad, O Humphrey, since you will be able to show my father if inone of them he is wrong."
Secretly I hoped that this task would not be laid on me. Indeed, Ithought it well to change the subject for the edification of Bickley whohad recovered and was drawn back by his eager curiosity. Just then, too,Bastin joined us, happy in his regained boots.
"You tell us, Lady Yva," I said, "that you slept, or should have sleptfor two hundred and fifty thousand years." Here Bastin opened his eyes."If that was so, where was your mind all this time?"
"If by my mind you mean spirit, O Humphrey, I have to answer that atpresent I do not know for certain. I think, however, that it dweltelsewhere, perhaps in other bodies on the earth, or some differentearth. At least, I know that my heart is very full of memories which asyet I cannot unroll and read."
"Great heavens, this is madness!" said Bickley.
"In the great heavens," she answered slowly, "there are many thingswhich you, poor man, would think to be madness, but yet are truth andperfect wisdom. These things, or some of them, soon I shall hope to showyou."
"Do if you can," said Bickley.
"Why not?" interrupted Bastin. "I
think the lady's remarks quitereasonable. It seems to me highly improbable if really she has slept fortwo hundred and fifty thousand years, which, of course, I can't decide,that an immortal spirit would be allowed to remain idle for so long.That would be wallowing in a bed of idleness and shirking its duty whichis to do its work. Also, as she tells you, Bickley, you are not halfso clever as you think you are in your silly scepticism, and I have nodoubt that there are many things in other worlds which would expose yourignorance, if only you could see them."
At this moment Oro turned and called his daughter. She went at once,saying:
"Come, strangers, and you shall learn."
So we followed her.
"Daughter," he said, speaking in Orofenan, I think that we mightunderstand, "ask these strangers to bring one of those lamps of theirsthat by the light of it I may study these writings."
"Perhaps this may serve," said Bickley, suddenly producing an electrictorch from his pocket and flashing it into his face. It was his form ofrepartee for all he had suffered at the hands of this incomprehensiblepair. Let me say at once that it was singularly successful. Perhaps thewisdom of the ages in which Oro flourished had overlooked so small amatter as electric torches, or perhaps he did not expect to meet withthem in these degenerate days. At any rate for the first and last timein my intercourse with him I saw the god, or lord--the native word bearseither meaning--Oro genuinely astonished. He started and stepped back,and for a moment or two seemed a little frightened. Then mutteringsomething as to the cleverness of this light-producing instrument,he motioned to his daughter to take it from Bickley and hold it in acertain position. She obeyed, and in its illumination he began to studythe engraved plates, holding one of them in either hand.
After a while he gave me one of the plates to hold, and with hisdisengaged hand pointed successively to the constellation of Orion, tothe stars Castor, Pollux, Aldebaran, Rigel, the Pleiades, Sirius andothers which with my very limited knowledge I could not recogniseoffhand. Then on the plate which I held, he showed us those same starsand constellations, checking them one by one.
Then he remarked very quietly that all was in order, and handing theplate he held to Yva, said:
"The calculations made so long ago are correct, nor have the starsvaried in their proper motions during what is after all but an hour oftime. If you, Stranger, who, I understand, are named Humphrey, shouldbe, as I gather, a heaven-master, naturally you will ask me how I couldfix an exact date by the stars without an error of, let us say, fromfive to ten thousand years. I answer you that by the proper motion ofthe stars alone it would have been difficult. Therefore I remember thatin order to be exact, I calculated the future conjunctions of those twoplanets," and he pointed to Saturn and Jupiter. "Finding that one ofthese occurred near yonder star," and he indicated the bright orb,Spica, "at a certain time, I determined that then I would awake. Behold!There are the stars as I engraved them from my foreknowledge, upon thischart, and there those two great planets hang in conjunction. DaughterYva, my wisdom has not failed me. This world of ours has travelled roundthe sun neither less nor more than two hundred and fifty thousand timessince we laid ourselves down to sleep. It is written here, and yonder,"and he pointed, first to the engraved plates and then to the vastexpanse of the starlit heavens.
Awe fell on me; I think that even Bickley and Bastin were awed, at anyrate for the moment. It was a terrible thing to look on a being, to allappearance more or less human, who alleged that he had been asleepfor two hundred and fifty thousand years, and proceeded to prove it bycertain ancient star charts. Of course at the time I could not checkthose charts, lacking the necessary knowledge, but I have done so sinceand found that they are quite accurate. However this made no difference,since the circumstances and something in his manner convinced me that hespoke the absolute truth.
He and his daughter had been asleep for two hundred and fifty thousandyears. Oh! Heavens, for two hundred and fifty thousand years!