Chapter XXV. Sacrifice
"The air in this place must be charged with some form of electricity,but the odd thing is that it does not seem to harm us," said Bickleyin a matter-of-fact fashion as though he were determined not to beastonished.
"To me it looks more like marsh fires or St. Elmo lights, though howthese can be where there is no vapour, I do not know," I answered.
As I spoke a particularly large ball of flame fell from above. Itresembled a shooting star or a meteor more than anything else that Ihad ever seen, and made me wonder whether we were not perhaps standingbeneath some inky, unseen sky.
Next moment I forgot such speculations, for in its blue light, whichmade him terrible and ghastly, I perceived Oro standing in front of usclad in a long cloak.
"Dear me!" said Bastin, "he looks just like the devil, doesn't he, andnow I come to think of it, this isn't at all a bad imitation of hell."
"How do you know it is an imitation?" asked Bickley.
"Because whatever might be the case with you, Bickley, if it were, theLady Yva and I should not be here."
Even then I could not help smiling at this repartee, but the argumentwent no further for Oro held up his hand and Yva bent the knee ingreeting to him.
"So you have come, all of you," he said. "I thought that perhaps therewere one or two who would not find courage to ride the flying stone. Iam glad that it is not so, since otherwise he who had shown himself acoward should have had no share in the rule of that new world which isto be. Therefore I chose yonder road that it might test you."
"Then if you will be so good as to choose another for us to return by, Ishall be much obliged to you, Oro," said Bastin.
"How do you know that if I did it would not be more terrible, Preacher?How do you know indeed that this is not your last journey from whichthere is no return?"
"Of course I can't be sure of anything, Oro, but I think the questionis one which you might more appropriately put to yourself. Accordingto your own showing you are now extremely old and therefore your end islikely to come at any moment. Of course, however, if it did you wouldhave one more journey to make, but it wouldn't be polite for me to sayin what direction."
Oro heard, and his splendid, icy face was twisted with sudden rage.Remembering the scene in the temple where he had grovelled before hisgod, uttering agonised, unanswered prayers for added days, I understoodthe reason of his wrath. It was so great that I feared lest he shouldkill Bastin (who only a few hours before, be it remembered, had tried tokill him) then and there, as doubtless he could have done if he wished.Fortunately, if he felt it; the impulse passed.
"Miserable fool!" he said. "I warn you to keep a watch upon your words.Yesterday you would have slain me with your toy. Today you stab me withyour ill-omened tongue. Be fearful lest I silence it for ever."
"I am not in the least fearful, Oro, since I am sure that you can't hurtme at all any more than I could hurt you last night because, you see, itwasn't permitted. When the time comes for me to die, I shall go, but youwill have nothing to do with that. To tell the truth, I am very sorryfor you, as with all your greatness, your soul is of the earth, earthy,also sensual and devilish, as the Apostle said, and, I am afraid, verymalignant, and you will have a great deal to answer for shortly. Yourswon't be a happy deathbed, Oro, because, you see, you glory in your sinsand don't know what repentance means."
I must add that when I heard these words I was filled with the mostunbounded admiration for Bastin's fearless courage which enabled himthus to beard this super-tyrant in his den. So indeed were we all, for Iread it in Yva's face and heard Bickley mutter:
"Bravo! Splendid! After all there is something in faith!"
Even Oro appreciated it with his intellect, if not with his heart, forhe stared at the man and made no answer. In the language of the ring, hewas quite "knocked out" and, almost humbly, changed the subject.
"We have yet a little while," he said, "before that happens which I havedecreed. Come, Humphrey, that I may show you some of the marvels of thisbubble blown in the bowels of the world," and he motioned to us to pickup the lanterns.
Then he led us away from the wall of the cavern, if such it was, for adistance of perhaps six or seven hundred paces. Here suddenly we came toa great groove in the rocky floor, as broad as a very wide roadway, andmayhap four feet in depth. The bottom of this groove was polished andglittered; indeed it gave us the impression of being iron, or other orewhich had been welded together beneath the grinding of some immeasurableweight. Just at the spot where we struck the groove, it divided intotwo, for this reason.
In its centre the floor of iron, or whatever it may have been, rose, thefraction of an inch at first, but afterwards more sharply, and this ata spot where the groove had a somewhat steep downward dip which appearedto extend onwards I know not how far.
Following along this central rise for a great way, nearly a mile, Ishould think, we observed that it became ever more pronounced, till atlength it ended in a razor-edge cliff which stretched up higher thanwe could see, even by the light of the electrical discharges. Standingagainst the edge of this cliff, we perceived that at a distance from itthere were now two grooves of about equal width. One of these ran awayinto the darkness on our right as we faced the sharp edge, and at anever-widening angle, while the other, at a similar angle, ran into thedarkness to the left of the knife of cliff. That was all.
No, there were two more notable things. Neither of the grooves now laywithin hundreds of yards of the cliff, perhaps a quarter of a mile, forbe it remembered we had followed the rising rock between them. To put itquite clearly, it was exactly as though one line of rails had separatedinto two lines of rails, as often enough they do, and an observerstanding on high ground between could see them both vanishing intotunnels to the right and left, but far apart.
The second notable thing was that the right-hand groove, where first wesaw it at the point of separation, was not polished like the left-handgroove, although at some time or other it seemed to have been subjectedto the pressure of the same terrific weight which cut its fellow out ofthe bed of rock or iron, as the sharp wheels of a heavily laden wagonsink ruts into a roadway.
"What does it all mean, Lord Oro?" I asked when he had led us back tothe spot where the one groove began to be two grooves, that is, a mileor so away from the razor-edged cliff.
"This, Humphrey," he answered. "That which travels along yonder road,when it reaches this spot on which we stand, follows the left-hand pathwhich is made bright with its passage. Yet, could a giant at that momentof its touching this exact spot on which I lay my hand, thrust it withsufficient strength, it would leave the left-hand road and take theright-hand road."
"And if it did, what then; Lord Oro?"
"Then within an hour or so, when it had travelled far enough upon itsway, the balance of the earth would be changed, and great things wouldhappen in the world above, as once they happened in bygone days. Now doyou understand, Humphrey?"
"Good Heavens! Yes, I understand now," I answered. "But fortunatelythere is no such giant."
Oro broke into a mocking laugh and his grey old face lit up with afiendish exultation, as he cried:
"Fool! I, Oro, am that giant. Once in the dead days I turned the balanceof the world from the right-hand road which now is dull with disuse, tothe left-hand road which glitters so brightly to your eyes, and the faceof the earth was changed. Now again I will turn it from the left-handroad to the right-hand road in which for millions of years it was wontto run, and once more the face of the earth shall change, and those whoare left living upon the earth, or who in the course of ages shall cometo live upon the new earth, must bow down to Oro and take him and hisseed to be their gods and kings."
When I heard this I was overwhelmed and could not answer. Also Iremembered a certain confused picture which Yva had shown to us in theTemple of Nyo. But supported by his disbelief, Bickley asked:
"And how often does the balance of which you speak come this way, LordOro?"
&
nbsp; "Once only in many years; the number is my secret, Bickley," he replied.
"Then there is every reason to hope that it will not trouble us,"remarked Bickley with a suspicion of mockery in his voice.
"Do you think so, you learned Bickley?" asked Oro. "If so, I do not.Unless my skill has failed me and my calculations have gone awry, thatTraveller of which I tell should presently be with us. Hearken now! Whatis that sound we hear?"
As he spoke there reached our ears the first, far-off murmurs ofa dreadful music. I cannot describe it in words because that isimpossible, but it was something like to the buzz of a thousandhumming-tops such as are loved by children because of their weird song.
"Back to the wall!" cried Oro triumphantly. "The time is short!"
So back we went, Oro pausing a while behind and overtaking us with long,determined strides. Yva led us, gliding at my side and, as I thought,now and again glanced at my face with a look that was half anxious andhalf pitiful. Also twice she stooped and patted Tommy.
We reached the wall, though not quite at the spot whence we had startedto examine the grooved roads. At least I think this was so, since nowfor the first time I observed a kind of little window in its rockyface. It stood about five feet from its floor level, and was perhaps teninches square, not more. In short, except for its shape it resembled aship's porthole rather than a window. Its substance appeared to be talc,or some such material, and inches thick, yet through it, after Orohad cast aside some sort of covering, came a glare like that of asearch-light. In fact it was a search-light so far as concerned one ofits purposes.
By this window or porthole lay a pile of cloaks, also four objects whichlooked like Zulu battle shields cut in some unknown metal or material.Very deftly, very quietly, Yva lifted these cloaks and wrapped one ofthem about each of us, and while she was thus employed I noticed thatthey were of a substance very similar to that of the gown she wore,which I have described, but harder. Next she gave one of the metal-likeshields to each of us, bidding us hold them in front of our bodies andheads, and only to look through certain slits in them in which wereeyepieces that appeared to be of the same horny stuff as the searchlightwindow. Further, she commanded us to stand in a row with our backsagainst the rock wall, at certain spots which she indicated with greatprecision, and whatever we saw or heard on no account to move.
So there we stood, Bickley next to me, and beyond him Bastin. Then Yvatook the fourth shield, as I noted a much larger one than ours, andplaced herself between me and the search-light or porthole. On the otherside of this was Oro who had no shield.
These arrangements took some minutes and during that time occupied allour attention. When they were completed, however, our curiosity and fearbegan to reassert themselves. I looked about me and perceived that Orohad his right hand upon what seemed to be a rough stone rod, in shapenot unlike that with which railway points are moved. He shouted to usto stand still and keep the shields over our faces. Then very gently hepressed upon the lever. The porthole sank the fraction of an inch, andinstantly there leapt from it a most terrific blaze of lightning, whichshot across the blackness in front and, as lightning does, revealedfar, far away another wall, or rather cliff, like that against which weleant.
"All works well," exclaimed Oro in a satisfied voice, lifting his handfrom the rod, "and the strength which I have stored will be more thanenough."
Meanwhile the humming noise came nearer and grew in volume.
"I say," said Bickley, "as you know, I have been sceptical, but I don'tlike this business. Oro, what are you going to do?"
"Sink half the world beneath the seas," said Oro, "and raise up thatwhich I drowned more than two thousand centuries ago. But as you do notbelieve that I have this power, Bickley, why do you ask such questions?"
"I believe that you have it, which was why I tried to shoot youyesterday," said Bastin. "For your soul's sake I beg you to desist froman attempt which I am sure will not succeed, but which will certainlyinvolve your eternal damnation, since the failure will be no fault ofyours."
Then I spoke also, saying:
"I implore you, Lord Oro, to let this business be. I do not know exactlyhow much or how little you can do, but I understand that your object isto slay men by millions in order to raise up another world of which youwill be the absolute king, as you were of some past empire that has beendestroyed, either through your agency or otherwise. No good can come ofsuch ambitions. Like Bastin, for your soul's sake I pray you to let thembe."
"What Humphrey says I repeat," said Yva. "My Father, although you knowit not, you seek great evil, and from these hopes you sow you willharvest nothing save a loss of which you do not dream. Moreover, yourplans will fail. Now I who am, like yourself, of the Children of Wisdom,have spoken, for the first and last time, and my words are true. I prayyou give them weight, my Father."
Oro heard, and grew furious.
"What!" he said. "Are you against me, every one, and my own daughteralso? I would lift you up, I would make you rulers of a new world; Iwould destroy your vile civilisations which I have studied with my eyes,that I may build better! To you, Humphrey, I would give my only childin marriage that from you may spring a divine race of kings! And yet youare against me and set up your puny scruples as a barrier across my pathof wisdom. Well, I tread them down, I go on my appointed way. But bewarehow you try to hold me back. If any one of you should attempt to comebetween me and my ends, know that I will destroy you all. Obey or die."
"Well, he has had his chance and he won't take it," said Bastin in thesilence that followed. "The man must go to the devil his own way andthere is nothing more to be said."
I say the silence, but it was no more silent. The distant humming grewto a roar, the roar to a hellish hurricane of sound which presentlydrowned all attempts at ordinary speech.
Then bellowing like ten millions of bulls, at length far away thereappeared something terrible. I can only describe its appearance as thatof an attenuated mountain on fire. When it drew nearer I perceived thatit was more like a ballet-dancer whirling round and round upon her toes,or rather all the ballet-dancers in the world rolled into one and thenmultiplied a million times in size. No, it was like a mushroom with twostalks, one above and one below, or a huge top with a point on which itspun, a swelling belly and another point above. But what a top! Itmust have been two thousand feet high, if it was an inch, and itscircumference who could measure?
On it came, dancing, swaying and spinning at a rate inconceivable, sothat it looked like a gigantic wheel of fire. Yet it was not fire thatclothed it but rather some phosphorescence, since from it came no heat.Yes, a phosphorescence arranged in bands of ghastly blue and lurid red,with streaks of other colours running up between, and a kind of wavingfringe of purple.
The fire-mountain thundered on with a voice like to that of avalanchesor of icebergs crashing from their parent glaciers to the sea. Itsterrific aspect was appalling, and its weight caused the solid rockto quiver like a leaf. Watching it, we felt as ants might feel at theadvent of the crack of doom, for its mere height and girth and sizeoverwhelmed us. We could not even speak. The last words I heard werefrom the mouth of Oro who screamed out:
"Behold the balance of the World, you miserable, doubting men, andbehold me change its path--turning it as the steersman turns a ship!"
Then he made certain signs to Yva, who in obedience to them approachedthe porthole or search-light to which she did something that I could notdistinguish. The effect was to make the beam of light much strongerand sharper, also to shift it on to the point or foot of the spinningmountain and, by an aiming of the lens from time to time, to keep itthere.
This went on for a while, since the dreadful thing did not travel fastnotwithstanding the frightful speed of its revolutions. I should doubtindeed if it advanced more quickly than a man could walk; at any rateso it seemed to us. But we had no means of judging its real rate ofprogress whereof we knew as little as we did of the course it followedin the bowels of the earth. Perhaps that was spiral,
from the world'sdeep heart upwards, and this was the highest point it reached. Orperhaps it remained stationary, but still spinning, for scores orhundreds of years in some central powerhouse of its own, whence, inobedience to unknown laws, from time to time it made these terrificjourneys.
No one knows, unless perhaps Oro did, in which case he kept theinformation to himself, and no one will ever know. At any rate there itwas, travelling towards us on its giant butt, the peg of the top as itwere, which, hidden in a cloud of friction-born sparks that enveloped itlike the cup of a curving flower of fire, whirled round and round atan infinite speed. It was on this flaming flower that the search-lightplayed steadily, doubtless that Oro might mark and measure its monstrousprogress.
"He is going to try to send the thing down the right-hand path," Ishouted into Bickley's ear.
"Can't be done! Nothing can shift a travelling weight of tens ofmillions of tons one inch," Bickley roared back, trying to lookconfident.
Clearly, however, Yva thought that it could be done, for of a sudden shecast down her shield and, throwing herself upon her knees, stretched outher hands in supplication to her father. I understood, as did we all,that she was imploring him to abandon his hellish purpose. He glared ather and shook his head. Then, as she still went on praying, he struckher across the face with his hand and pushed her to her feet again. Myblood boiled as I saw it and I think I should have sprung at him, hadnot Bickley caught hold of me, shouting, "Don't, or he will kill her andus too."
Yva lifted her shield and returned to her station, and in the bluedischarges which now flashed almost continuously, and the phosphorescentglare of the advancing mountain, I saw that though her beautiful faceworked beneath the pain of the blow, her eyes remained serene andpurposeful. Even then I wondered--what was the purpose shining throughthem. Also I wondered if I was about to be called upon to make thatsacrifice of which she had spoken, and if so, how. Of one thing I wasdetermined--that if the call came it should not find me deaf. Yet allthe while I was horribly afraid.
At another sign from Oro, Yva did something more to the lens--again,being alongside of her, I could not see what it was. The beam of lightshifted and wandered till, far away, it fell exactly upon that spotwhere the rock began to rise into the ridge which separated the twogrooves or roads and ended in the razor-edged cliff. Moreover I observedthat Oro, who left it the last of us, had either placed something whiteto mark this first infinitesimal bulging of the floor of the groove, orhad smeared it with chalk or shining pigment. I observed also what Ihad not been able to see before, that a thin white line ran across thefloor, no doubt to give the precise direction of this painted rise ofrock, and that the glare of the search-light now lay exactly over thatline.
The monstrous, flaming gyroscope fashioned in Nature's workshop, forsuch without doubt it was, was drawing near, emitting as it camea tumult of sounds which, with the echoes that they caused, almostover-whelmed our senses. Poor little Tommy, already cowed, although hewas a bold-natured beast, broke down entirely, and I could see from hisopen mouth that he was howling with terror. He stared about him, thenran to Yva and pawed at her, evidently asking to be taken into her arms.She thrust him away, almost fiercely, and made signs to me to lift himup and hold him beneath my shield. This I did, reflecting sadly thatif I was to be sacrificed, Tommy must share my fate. I even thought ofpassing him on to Bickley, but had no time. Indeed I could not attracthis attention, for Bickley was staring with all his eyes at thenightmare-like spectacle which was in progress about us. Indeed nonightmare, no wild imagination of which the mind of man is capable,could rival the aspect of its stupendous facts.
Think of them! The unmeasured space of blackness threaded by thoseglobes of ghastly incandescence that now hung a while and now shotupwards, downwards, across, apparently without origin or end, like astream of meteors that had gone mad. Then the travelling mountain, twothousand feet in height, or more, with its enormous saucer-like rimpainted round with bands of lurid red and blue, and about its grindingfoot the tulip bloom of emitted flame. Then the fierce-faced Oro at hispost, his hand upon the rod, waiting, remorseless, to drown half of thisgreat world, with the lovely Yva standing calm-eyed like a saint in helland watching me above the edge of the shield which such a saint mightbear to turn aside the fiery darts of the wicked. And lastly we threemen flattened terror-stricken, against the wall.
Nightmare! Imagination! No, these pale before that scene which it wasgiven to our human eyes to witness.
And all the while, bending, bowing towards us--away from us--makingobeisance to the path in front as though in greeting, to the path behindas though in farewell; instinct with a horrible life, with a hideous andgigantic grace, that titanic Terror whirled onwards to the mark of fate.
At the moment nothing could persuade me that it was not alive and didnot know its awful mission. Visions flashed across my mind. I thoughtof the peoples of the world sleeping in their beds, or going about theirbusiness, or engaged even in the work of war. I thought of the shipsupon the seas steaming steadily towards their far-off ports. Then Ithought of what presently might happen to them, of the tremors followedby convulsions, of the sudden crashing down of cities, such as we hadseen in the picture Yva showed us in the Temple, of the inflow of thewaters of the deep piled up in mighty waves, of the woe and desolationas of the end of the world, and of the quiet, following death. SoI thought and in my heart prayed to the great Arch-Architect of theUniverse to stretch out His Arm to avert this fearsome ruin of Hishandiwork.
Oro glared, his thin fingers tightened their grip upon the rod, his hairand long beard seemed to bristle with furious and delighted excitement.The purple-fringed rim of the Monster had long overshadowed the whitedpatch of rock; its grinding foot was scarce ten yards away. Oro mademore signs to Yva who, beneath the shelter of her shield, again bentdown and did something that I could not see. Then, as though her partwere played, she rose, drew the grey hood of her cloak all about herface so that her eyes alone remained visible, took one step towards meand in the broken English we had taught her, called into my ear.
"Humphrey, God you bless! Humphrey, we meet soon. Forget not me!"
She stepped back again before I could attempt to answer, and nextinstant with a hideous, concentrated effort, Oro bending himself double,thrust upon the rod, as I could see from his open mouth, shouting whilehe thrust.
At the same moment, with a swift spring, Yva leapt immediately infront of the lens or window, so that the metallic shield with which shecovered herself pressed against its substance.
Simultaneously Oro flung up his arms as though in horror.
Too late! The shutter fell and from behind it there sprang out a rush ofliving flame. It struck on Yva's shield and expanded to right and left.The insulated shield and garments that she wore seemed to resist it.For a fraction of time she stood there like a glowing angel, wrapped infire.
Then she was swept outwards and upwards and at a little distancedissolved like a ghost and vanished from our sight.
Yva was ashes! Yva was gone! The sacrifice was consummated!
And not in vain! Not in vain! On her poor breast she had received thefull blast of that hellish lightning flash. Yet whilst destroying, itturned away from her, seeking the free paths of the air. So it cameabout that its obstructed strength struck the foot of the travellinggyroscope, diffused and did not suffice to thrust it that one necessaryinch on which depended the fate of half the world, or missing italtogether, passed away on either side. Even so the huge, gleamingmountain rocked and trembled. Once, twice, thrice, it bowed itselftowards us as though in majestic homage to greatness passed away. For asecond, too, its course was checked, and at the check the earth quakedand trembled. Yes, then the world shook, and the blue globes of firewent out, while I was thrown to the ground.
When they returned again, the flaming monster was once more sailingmajestically upon its way and down the accustomed left-hand path!
Indeed the sacrifice was not in vain. The world shook--but Yva had save
dthe world!