Chapter XVII. Yva Explains
When I reached the rock I was pleased to find Marama and about twentyof his people engaged in erecting the house that we had ordered themto build for our accommodation. Indeed, it was nearly finished, sincehouse-building in Orofena is a simple business. The framework of poleslet into palm trunks, since they could not be driven into the rock, hadbeen put together on the further shore and towed over bodily by canoes.The overhanging rock formed one side of the house; the ends were of palmleaves tied to the poles, and the roof was of the same material. Theother side was left open for the present, which in that equable andbalmy clime was no disadvantage. The whole edifice was about thirty feetlong by fifteen deep and divided into two portions, one for sleepingand one for living, by a palm leaf partition. Really, it was quite acomfortable abode, cool and rainproof, especially after Bastin had builthis hut in which to cook.
Marama and his people were very humble in their demeanour and imploredus to visit them on the main island. I answered that perhaps we wouldlater on, as we wished to procure certain things from the wreck. Also,he requested Bastin to continue his ministrations as the latter greatlydesired to do. But to this proposal I would not allow him to give anydirect answer at the moment. Indeed, I dared not do so until I was sureof Oro's approval.
Towards evening they departed in their canoes, leaving behind them theusual ample store of provisions.
We cooked our meal as usual, only to discover that what Yva had saidabout the Life-water was quite true, since we had but little appetitefor solid food, though this returned upon the following day. The samething happened upon every occasion after drinking of that water whichcertainly was a most invigorating fluid. Never for years had any of usfelt so well as it caused us to do.
So we lit our pipes and talked about our experiences though of these,indeed, we scarcely knew what to say. Bastin accepted them as somethingout of the common, of course, but as facts which admitted of nodiscussion. After all, he said, the Old Testament told much the samestory of people called the Sons of God who lived very long lives and ranafter the daughters of men whom they should have left alone, and thusbecame the progenitors of a remarkable race. Of this race, he presumedthat Oro and his daughter were survivors, especially as they spoke oftheir family as "Heaven born." How they came to survive was more than hecould understand and really scarcely worth bothering over, since therethey were.
It was the same about the Deluge, continued Bastin, although naturallyOro spoke falsely, or, at any rate, grossly exaggerated, when hedeclared that he had caused this catastrophe, unless indeed he wastalking about a totally different deluge, though even then he could nothave brought it about. It was curious, however, that the people drownedwere said to have been wicked, and Oro had the same opinion about thosewhom he claimed to have drowned, though for the matter of that, he couldnot conceive anyone more wicked than Oro himself. On his own showing hewas a most revengeful person and one who declined to agree to a quitesuitable alliance, apparently desired by both parties, merely because itoffended his family pride. No, on reflection he might be unjust to Oroin this particular, since he never told that story; it was only shownin some pictures which very likely were just made up to astonish us.Meanwhile, it was his business to preach to this old sinner down in thathole, and he confessed honestly that he did not like the job. Still, itmust be done, so with our leave he would go apart and seek inspiration,which at present seemed to be quite lacking.
Thus declaimed Bastin and departed.
"Don't you tell your opinion about the Deluge or he may cause anotherjust to show that you are wrong," called Bickley after him.
"I can't help that," answered Bastin. "Certainly I shall not hide thetruth to save Oro's feelings, if he has got any. If he revenges himselfupon us in any way, we must just put up with it like other martyrs."
"I haven't the slightest ambition to be a martyr," said Bickley.
"No," shouted Bastin from a little distance, "I am quite aware of that,as you have often said so before. Therefore, if you become one, I amsorry to say that I do not see how you can expect any benefit. Youwould only be like a man who puts a sovereign into the offertory bag inmistake for a shilling. The extra nineteen shillings will do him no goodat all, since in his heart he regrets the error and wishes that he couldhave them back."
Then he departed, leaving me laughing. But Bickley did not laugh.
"Arbuthnot," he said, "I have come to the conclusion that I have gonequite mad. I beg you if I should show signs of homicidal mania, whichI feel developing in me where Bastin is concerned, or of other abnormalviolence, that you will take whatever steps you consider necessary, evento putting me out of the way if that is imperative."
"What do you mean?" I asked. "You seem sane enough."
"Sane, when I believe that I have seen and experienced a great number ofthings which I know it to be quite impossible that I should have seenor experienced. The only explanation is that I am suffering fromdelusions."
"Then is Bastin suffering from delusions, too?"
"Certainly, but that is nothing new in his case."
"I don't agree with you, Bickley--about Bastin, I mean. I am by no meanscertain that he is not the wisest of the three of us. He has a faith andhe sticks to it, as millions have done before him, and that is betterthan making spiritual experiments, as I am sorry to say I do, orrejecting things because one cannot understand them, as you do, which isonly a form of intellectual vanity."
"I won't argue the matter, Arbuthnot; it is of no use. I repeat that Iam mad, and Bastin is mad."
"How about me? I also saw and experienced these things. Am I mad, too?"
"You ought to be, Arbuthnot. If it isn't enough to drive a man madwhen he sees himself exactly reproduced in an utterly impossiblemoving-picture show exhibited by an utterly impossible young woman in anutterly impossible underground city, then I don't know what is."
"What do you mean?" I asked, starting.
"Mean? Well, if you didn't notice it, there's hope for you."
"Notice what?"
"All that envoy scene. There, as I thought, appeared Yva. Do you admitthat?"
"Of course; there could be no mistake on that point."
"Very well. Then according to my version there came a man, still young,dressed in outlandish clothes, who made propositions of peace and wantedto marry Yva, who wanted to marry him. Is that right?"
"Absolutely."
"Well, and didn't you recognise the man?"
"No; I only noticed that he was a fine-looking fellow whose appearancereminded me of someone."
"I suppose it must be true," mused Bickley, "that we do not knowourselves."
"So the old Greek thought, since he urged that this should be ourspecial study. 'Know thyself,' you remember."
"I meant physically, not intellectually. Arbuthnot, do you mean to tellme that you did not recognise your own double in that man? Shave offyour beard and put on his clothes and no one could distinguish youapart."
I sprang up, dropping my pipe.
"Now you mention it," I said slowly, "I suppose there was a resemblance.I didn't look at him very much; I was studying the simulacrum of Yva.Also, you know it is some time since--I mean, there are no pier-glassesin Orofena."
"The man was you," went on Bickley with conviction. "If I weresuperstitious I should think it a queer sort of omen. But as I am not, Iknow that I must be mad."
"Why? After all, an ancient man and a modern man might resemble eachother."
"There are degrees in resemblance," said Bickley with one of hiscontemptuous snorts. "It won't do, Humphrey, my boy," he added. "I canonly think of one possible explanation--outside of the obvious one ofmadness."
"What is that?"
"The Glittering Lady produced what Bastin called that cinematograph showin some way or other, did she not? She said that in order to do this sheloosed some hidden forces. I suggest that she did nothing of the sort."
"Then whence did the pictures come and why?"
/> "From her own brain, in order to impress us with a cock-and-bull,fairy-book story. If this were so she would quite naturally fill therole of the lover of the piece with the last man who had happened toimpress her. Hence the resemblance."
"You presuppose a great deal, Bickley, including supernatural cunningand unexampled hypnotic influence. I don't know, first, why she shouldbe so anxious to add another impression to the many we have receivedin this place; and, secondly, if she was, how she managed to mesmerisethree average but totally different men into seeing the same things. Myexplanation is that you were deceived as to the likeness, which, mindyou, I did not recognise; nor, apparently, did Bastin."
"Bastin never recognises anything. But if you are in doubt, askYva herself. She ought to know. Now I'm off to try to analyse thatconfounded Life-water, which I suspect is of the ordinary springvariety, lightened up with natural carbonic acid gas and possibly notuninfluenced by radium. The trouble is that here I can only apply somevery elementary tests."
So he went also, in an opposite direction to Bastin, and I was leftalone with Tommy, who annoyed me much by attempting continually towander off into the cave, whence I must recall him. I suppose that myexperiences of the day, reviewed beneath the sweet influences of thewonderful tropical night, affected me. At any rate, that mysticalside of my nature, to which I think I alluded at the beginning of thisrecord, sprang into active and, in a sense, unholy life. The normalvanished, the abnormal took possession, and that is unholy to most of uscreatures of habit and tradition, at any rate, if we are British. I lostmy footing on the world; my spirit began to wander in strange places;of course, always supposing that we have a spirit, which Bickley woulddeny.
I gave up reason; I surrendered myself to unreason; it is a notunpleasant process, occasionally. Supposing now that all we see andaccept is but the merest fragment of the truth, or perhaps only arefraction thereof? Supposing that we do live again and again, and thatour animating principle, whatever it might be, does inhabit variousbodies, which, naturally enough, it would shape to its own taste andlikeness? Would that taste and likeness vary so very much over, letus say, a million years or so, which, after all, is but an hour, or aminute, in the aeons of Eternity?
On this hypothesis, which is so wild that one begins to suspect that itmay be true, was it impossible that I and that murdered man of thefar past were in fact identical? If the woman were the same, preservedacross the gulf in some unknown fashion, why should not her lover be thesame? What did I say--her lover? Was I her lover? No, I was the lover ofone who had died--my lost wife. Well, if I had died and lived again,why should not--why should not that Sleeper--have lived again during herlong sleep? Through all those years the spirit must have had some home,and, if so, in what shapes did it live? There were points, similarities,which rushed in upon me--oh! it was ridiculous. Bickley was right. Wewere all mad!
There was another thing. Oro had declared that we were at war withGermany. If this were so, how could he know it? Such knowledge wouldpresume powers of telepathy or vision beyond those given to man. I couldnot believe that he possessed these; as Bickley said, it would be pastexperience. Yet it was most strange that he who was uninformed as to ournational history and dangers, should have hit upon a country with whichwe might well have been plunged into sudden struggle. Here again I wasbewildered and overcome. My brain rocked. I would seek sleep, and in itescape, or at any rate rest from all these mysteries.
On the following morning we despatched Bastin to keep his rendezvous inthe sepulchre at the proper time. Had we not done so I felt sure thathe would have forgotten it, for on this occasion he was for oncean unwilling missioner. He tried to persuade one of us to come withhim--even Bickley would have been welcome; but we both declared that wecould not dream of interfering in such a professional matter; also thatour presence was forbidden, and would certainly distract the attentionof his pupil.
"What you mean," said the gloomy Bastin, "is that you intend to enjoyyourselves up here in the female companionship of the Glittering Ladywhilst I sit thousands of feet underground attempting to lighten thedarkness of a violent old sinner whom I suspect of being in league withSatan."
"With whom you should be proud to break a lance," said Bickley.
"So I am, in the daylight. For instance, when he uses your mouth toadvance his arguments. Bickley, but this is another matter. However, ifI do not appear again you will know that I died in a good cause, and, Ihope, try to recover my remains and give them decent burial. Also, youmight inform the Bishop of how I came to my end, that is, if you everget an opportunity, which is more than doubtful."
"Hurry up, Bastin, hurry up!" said the unfeeling Bickley, "or you willbe late for your appointment and put your would-be neophyte into a badtemper."
Then Bastin went, carrying under his arm a large Bible printed in thelanguage of the South Sea Islands.
A little while later Yva appeared, arrayed in her wondrous robes which,being a man, it is quite impossible for me to describe. She saw uslooking at these, and, after greeting us both, also Tommy, who wasenraptured at her coming, asked us how the ladies of our country attiredthemselves.
We tried to explain, with no striking success.
"You are as stupid about such matters as were the men of the Old World,"she said, shaking her head and laughing. "I thought that you had withyou pictures of ladies you have known which would show me."
Now, in fact, I had in a pocket-book a photograph of my wife inevening-dress, also a miniature of her head and bust painted on ivory,a beautiful piece of work done by a master hand, which I always wore.These, after a moment's hesitation, I produced and showed to her,Bickley having gone away for a little while to see about somethingconnected with his attempted analysis of the Life-water. She examinedthem with great eagerness, and as she did so I noted that her face grewtender and troubled.
"This was your wife," she said as one who states what she knows to be afact. I nodded, and she went on:
"She was sweet and beautiful as a flower, but not so tall as I am, Ithink."
"No," I answered, "she lacked height; given that she would have been alovely woman."
"I am glad you think that women should be tall," she said, glancing ather shadow. "The eyes were such as mine, were they not--in colour, Imean?"
"Yes, very like yours, only yours are larger."
"That is a beautiful way of wearing the hair. Would you be angry if Itried it? I weary of this old fashion."
"Why should I be angry?" I asked.
At this moment Bickley reappeared and she began to talk of the detailsof the dress, saying that it showed more of the neck than had been thecustom among the women of her people, but was very pretty.
"That is because we are still barbarians," said Bickley; "at least, ourwomen are, and therefore rely upon primitive methods of attraction, likethe savages yonder."
She smiled, and, after a last, long glance, gave me back the photographand the miniature, saying as she delivered the latter:
"I rejoice to see that you are faithful, Humphrey, and wear this pictureon your heart, as well as in it."
"Then you must be a very remarkable woman," said Bickley. "Neverbefore did I hear one of your sex rejoice because a man was faithful tosomebody else."
"Has Bickley been disappointed in his love-heart, that he is so angryto us women?" asked Yva innocently of me. Then, without waiting foran answer, she inquired of him whether he had been successful in hisanalysis of the Life-water.
"How do you know what I was doing with the Life-water? Did Bastin tellyou?" exclaimed Bickley.
"Bastin told me nothing, except that he was afraid of the descent toNyo; that he hated Nyo when he reached it, as indeed I do, and that hethought that my father, the Lord Oro, was a devil or evil spirit fromsome Under-world which he called hell."
"Bastin has an open heart and an open mouth," said Bickley, "for whichI respect him. Follow his example if you will, Lady Yva, and tell us whoand what is the Lord Oro, and who and what are you."
"Have we not done so already? If not, I will repeat. The Lord Oro andI are two who have lived on from the old time when the world wasdifferent, and yet, I think, the same. He is a man and not a god, and Iam a woman. His powers are great because of his knowledge, which he hasgathered from his forefathers and in a life of a thousand years beforehe went to sleep. He can do things you cannot do. Thus, he can passthrough space and take others with him, and return again. He can learnwhat is happening in far-off parts of the world, as he did when hetold you of the war in which your country is concerned. He has terriblepowers; for instance, he can kill, as he killed those savages. Also, heknows the secrets of the earth, and, if it pleases him, can change itsturning so that earthquakes happen and sea becomes land, and land sea,and the places that were hot grow cold, and those that were cold growhot."
"All of which things have happened many times in the history of theglobe," said Bickley, "without the help of the Lord Oro."
"Others had knowledge before my father, and others doubtless will haveknowledge after him. Even I, Yva, have some knowledge, and knowledge isstrength."
"Yes," I interposed, "but such powers as you attribute to your fatherare not given to man."
"You mean to man as you know him, man like Bickley, who thinks that hehas learned everything that was ever learned. But it is not so. Hundredsof thousands of years ago men knew more than it seems they do today, tentimes more, as they lived ten times longer, or so you tell me."
"Men?" I said.
"Yes, men, not gods or spirits, as the uninstructed nations supposedthem to be. My father is a man subject to the hopes and terrors of man.He desires power which is ambition, and when the world refused his rule,he destroyed that part of it which rebelled, which is revenge. Moreover,above all things he dreads death, which is fear. That is why hesuspended life in himself and me for two hundred and fifty thousandyears, as his knowledge gave him strength to do, because death was nearand he thought that sleep was better than death."
"Why should he dread to die," asked Bickley, "seeing that sleep anddeath are the same?"
"Because his knowledge tells him that Sleep and Death are not the same,as you, in your foolishness, believe, for there Bastin is wiser thanyou. Because for all his wisdom he remains ignorant of what happens toman when the Light of Life is blown out by the breath of Fate. That iswhy he fears to die and why he talks with Bastin the Preacher, who sayshe has the secret of the future."
"And do you fear to die?" I asked.
"No, Humphrey," she answered gently. "Because I think that there is nodeath, and, having done no wrong, I dread no evil. I had dreams while Iwas asleep, O Humphrey, and it seemed to me that--"
Here she ceased and glanced at where she knew the miniature was hangingupon my breast.
"Now," she continued, after a little pause, "tell me of your world,of its history, of its languages, of what happens there, for I long toknow."
So then and there, assisted by Bickley, I began the education of theLady Yva. I do not suppose that there was ever a more apt pupil in thewhole earth. To begin with, she was better acquainted with every subjecton which I touched than I was myself; all she lacked was information asto its modern aspect. Her knowledge ended two hundred and fifty thousandyears ago, at which date, however, it would seem that civilisation hadalready touched a higher water-mark than it has ever since attained.Thus, this vanished people understood astronomy, natural magnetism, theforce of gravity, steam, also electricity to some subtle use of which,I gathered, the lighting of their underground city was to be attributed.They had mastered architecture and the arts, as their buildings andstatues showed; they could fly through the air better than we havelearned to do within the last few years.
More, they, or some of them, had learned the use of the FourthDimension, that is their most instructed individuals, could move throughopposing things, as well as over them, up into them and across them.This power these possessed in a two-fold form. I mean, that they couldeither disintegrate their bodies at one spot and cause them to integrateagain at another, or they could project what the old Egyptians calledthe Ka or Double, and modern Theosophists name the Astral Shape, toany distance. Moreover, this Double, or Astral Shape, while itselfinvisible, still, so to speak, had the use of its senses. It could see,it could hear, and it could remember, and, on returning to the body, itcould avail itself of the experience thus acquired.
Thus, at least, said Yva, while Bickley contemplated her with a coldand unbelieving eye. She even went further and alleged that in certaininstances, individuals of her extinct race had been able to pass throughthe ether and to visit other worlds in the depths of space.
"Have you ever done that?" asked Bickley.
"Once or twice I dreamed that I did," she replied quietly.
"We can all dream," he answered.
As it was my lot to make acquaintance with this strange and uncannypower at a later date, I will say no more of it now.
Telepathy, she declared, was also a developed gift among the Sons ofWisdom; indeed, they seem to have used it as we use wireless messages.Only, in their case, the sending and receiving stations were skilled andsusceptible human beings who went on duty for so many hours at a time.Thus intelligence was transmitted with accuracy and despatch. Those whohad this faculty were, she said, also very apt at reading the minds ofothers and therefore not easy to deceive.
"Is that how you know that I had been trying to analyse yourLife-water?" asked Bickley.
"Yes," she answered, with her unvarying smile. "At the moment I spokethereof you were wondering whether my father would be angry if he knewthat you had taken the water in a little flask." She studied him for amoment, then added: "Now you are wondering, first, whether I did notsee you take the water from the fountain and guess the purpose, and,secondly, whether perhaps Bastin did not tell me what you were doingwith it when we met in the sepulchre."
"Look here," said the exasperated Bickley, "I admit that telepathy andthought-reading are possible to a certain limited extent. But supposingthat you possess those powers, as I think in English, and you do notknow English, how can you interpret what is passing in my mind?"
"Perhaps you have been teaching me English all this while withoutknowing it, Bickley. In any case, it matters little, seeing that whatI read is the thought, not the language with which it is clothed. Thethought comes from your mind to mine--that is, if I wish it, which isnot often--and I interpret it in my own or other tongues."
"I am glad to hear it is not often, Lady Yva, since thoughts aregenerally considered private."
"Yes, and therefore I will read yours no more. Why should I, when theyare so full of disbelief of all I tell you, and sometimes of otherthings about myself which I do not seek to know?"
"No wonder that, according to the story in the pictures, those Nations,whom you named Barbarians, made an end of your people, Lady Yva."
"You are mistaken, Bickley; the Lord Oro made an end of the Nations,though against my prayer," she added with a sigh.
Then Bickley departed in a rage, and did not appear again for an hour.
"He is angry," she said, looking after him; "nor do I wonder. It is hardfor the very clever like Bickley, who think that they have mastered allthings, to find that after all they are quite ignorant. I am sorry forhim, and I like him very much."
"Then you would be sorry for me also, Lady Yva?"
"Why?" she asked with a dazzling smile, "when your heart is athirst forknowledge, gaping for it like a fledgling's mouth for food, and, asit chances, though I am not very wise, I can satisfy something of yoursoul-hunger."
"Not very wise!" I repeated.
"No, Humphrey. I think that Bastin, who in many ways is so stupid, hasmore true wisdom than I have, because he can believe and accept withoutquestion. After all, the wisdom of my people is all of the universeand its wonders. What you think magic is not magic; it is only gatheredknowledge and the finding out of secrets. Bickley will tell you thesame, although as yet he does not believe that the mind of man can
stretch so far."
"You mean that your wisdom has in it nothing of the spirit?"
"Yes, Humphrey, that is what I mean. I do not even know if there is sucha thing as spirit. Our god was Fate; Bastin's god is a spirit, and Ithink yours also."
"Yes."
"Therefore, I wish you and Bastin to teach me of your god, as does Oro,my father. I want--oh! so much, Humphrey, to learn whether we live afterdeath."
"You!" I exclaimed. "You who, according to the story, have slept fortwo hundred and fifty thousand years! You, who have, unless I mistake,hinted that during that sleep you may have lived in other shapes! Do youdoubt whether we can live after death?"
"Yes. Sleep induced by secret arts is not death, and during that sleepthe I within might wander and inhabit other shapes, because it isforbidden to be idle. Moreover, what seems to be death may not be death,only another form of sleep from which the I awakes again upon the world.But at last comes the real death, when the I is extinguished to theworld. That much I know, because my people learned it."
"You mean, you know that men and women may live again and again upon theworld?"
"Yes, Humphrey, I do. For in the world there is only a certain store oflife which in many forms travels on and on, till the lot of each I isfulfilled. Then comes the real death, and after that--what, oh!--what?"
"You must ask Bastin," I said humbly. "I cannot dare to teach of suchmatters."
"No, but you can and do believe, and that helps me, Humphrey, who amin tune with you. Yes, it helps me much more than do Bastin and his newreligion, because such is woman's way. Now, I think Bickley will soonreturn, so let us talk of other matters. Tell me of the history of yourpeople, Humphrey, that my father says are now at war."