CHAPTER XIV.
FAREWELL TO GOD'S SUNSHINE.--THE ECHO OF THE CRY.
Thus speaking, my quiet leader, who had so long been as a shepherd to mywandering feet, on the upper earth, grasped my hands tightly, and placedthem in those of my new companion, whose clammy fingers closed over themas with a grip of iron. The mysterious being, now my custodian, turnedtowards the creek, drawing me after him, and together we silently andsolemnly waded beneath the stone archway. As I passed under the shadowof that dismal, yawning cliff, I turned my head to take one last glimpseof the world I had known--that "warm precinct of the cheerful day,"--andtears sprang to my eyes. I thought of life, family, friends,--of all forwhich men live--and a melancholy vision arose, that of my lost, losthome. My dear companion of the journey that had just ended stood in thesunlight on the banks of the rippling stream, gazing at us intently, andwaved an affectionate farewell. My uncouth new associate (guide ormaster, whichever he might be), of the journey to come, clasped mefirmly by the arms, and waded slowly onward, thrusting me steadilyagainst the cold current, and with irresistible force pressed me intothe thickening darkness. The daylight disappeared, the pathwaycontracted, the water deepened and became more chilly. We wereconstrained to bow our heads in order to avoid the overhanging vault ofstone; the water reached to my chin, and now the down-jutting rooftouched the crown of my head; then I shuddered convulsively as the lastray of daylight disappeared.
Had it not been for my companion, I know that I should have sunk indespair, and drowned; but with a firm hand he held my head above thewater, and steadily pushed me onward. I had reached the extreme ofdespondency: I neither feared nor cared for life nor death, and Irealized that, powerless to control my own acts, my fate, the future, myexistence depended on the strange being beside me. I was mysteriouslysustained, however, by a sense of bodily security, such as comes over usas when in the hands of an experienced guide we journey through awilderness, for I felt that my pilot of the underworld did not purposeto destroy me. We halted a moment, and then, as a faint light overspreadus, my eyeless guide directed me to look upward.
"We now stand beneath the crevice which you were told by your formerguide would admit the last ray of sunlight on your path. I also say toyou, this struggling ray of sunlight is to be your last for years."
I gazed above me, feeling all the wretchedness of a dying man who, withfaculties intact, might stand on the dark edge of the hillside ofeternity, glancing back into the bright world; and that small openingfar, far overhead, seemed as the gate to Paradise Lost. Many a person,assured of ascending at will, has stood at the bottom of a deep well orshaft to a mine, and even then felt the undescribable sensation ofdread, often terror, that is produced by such a situation. Awe, mystery,uncertainty of life and future superadded, may express my sensation. Itrembled, shrinking in horror from my captor and struggled violently.
"Hold, hold," I begged, as one involuntarily prays a surgeon to delaythe incision of the amputating knife, "just one moment." My companion,unheeding, moved on, the light vanished instantly, and we weresurrounded by total darkness. God's sunshine was blotted out.
"THIS STRUGGLING RAY OF SUNLIGHT IS TO BE YOUR LAST FORYEARS."]
Then I again became unconcerned; I was not now responsible for my ownexistence, and the feeling that I experienced when a prisoner in theclosed carriage returned. I grew careless as to my fate, and with stolidindifference struggled onward as we progressed slowly against thecurrent of water. I began to interest myself in speculations regardingour surroundings, and the object or outcome of our journey. In placesthe water was shallow, scarce reaching to our ankles; again it was sodeep that we could wade only with exertion, and at times the passage upwhich we toiled was so narrow, that it would scarcely admit us. After along, laborious stemming of the unseen brook, my companion directed meto close my mouth, hold my nostrils with my fingers, and stoop; almostdiving with me beneath the water, he drew me through the submergedcrevice, and we ascended into an open chamber, and left the creek behindus. I fancied that we were in a large room, and as I shouted aloud totest my hypothesis, echo after echo answered, until at last the cryreverberated and died away in distant murmurs. We were evidently in agreat pocket or cavern, through which my guide now walked rapidly;indeed, he passed along with unerring footsteps, as certain of hiscourse as I might be on familiar ground in full daylight. I perceivedthat he systematically evaded inequalities that I could not anticipatenor see. He would tell me to step up or down, as the surroundingsrequired, and we ascended or descended accordingly. Our path turned tothe right or the left from time to time, but my eyeless guide passedthrough what were evidently the most tortuous windings without a mishap.I wondered much at this gift of knowledge, and at last overcame myreserve sufficiently to ask how we could thus unerringly proceed inutter darkness. The reply was:
"The path is plainly visible to me; I see as clearly in pitch darknessas you can in sunshine."
"Explain yourself further," I requested.
He replied, "Not yet;" and continued, "you are weary, we will rest."
He conducted me to a seat on a ledge, and left me for a time. Returningsoon, he placed in my hands food which I ate with novel relish. Thepabulum seemed to be of vegetable origin, though varieties of it had apeculiar flesh-like flavor. Several separate and distinct substanceswere contained in the queer viands, some portions savoring of wholesomeflesh, while others possessed the delicate flavors of various fruits,such as the strawberry and the pineapple. The strange edibles were of apulpy texture, homogeneous in consistence, parts being juicy and acidlike grateful fruits. Some portions were in slices or films that I couldhold in my hand like sections of a velvet melon, and yet were in manyrespects unlike any other food that I had ever tasted. There was neitherrind nor seed; it seemed as though I were eating the gills of a fish,and in answer to my question the guide remarked:
"Yes; it is the gill, but not the gill of a fish. You will be instructedin due time." I will add that after this, whenever necessary, we weresupplied with food, but both thirst and hunger disappeared altogetherbefore our underground journey was finished.
After a while we again began our journey, which we continued in what wasto me absolute darkness. My strength seemed to endure the fatigue to awonderful degree, notwithstanding that we must have been walking hourafter hour, and I expressed a curiosity about the fact. My guide repliedthat the atmosphere of the cavern possessed an intrinsic vitalizingpower that neutralized fatigue, "or," he said, "there is here aninherent constitutional energy derived from an active gaseous substancethat belongs to cavern air at this depth, and sustains the life force bycontributing directly to its conservation, taking the place of food anddrink."
"I do not understand," I said.
"No; and you do not comprehend how ordinary air supports mind andvitalizes muscle, and at the same time wears out both muscle and allother tissues. These are facts which are not satisfactorily explained byscientific statements concerning oxygenation of the blood. As we descendinto the earth we find an increase in the life force of the cavern air."
This reference to surface earth recalled my former life, and led me tocontrast my present situation with that I had forfeited. I was seizedwith an uncontrollable longing for home, and a painful craving for thepast took possession of my heart, but with a strong effort I shook offthe sensations. We traveled on and on in silence and in darkness, and Ithought again of the strange remark of my former guide who had said:"You are destined to go deeper into the unknown; yes, into and beyondthe Beyond."