CHAPTER XLV.
MY HEART THROB IS STILLED, AND YET I LIVE.
"It now becomes my duty to inform you that this is one of the stages inour journey that can only be passed by the exercise of the greatest willforce. Owing to our former surroundings upon the surface of the earth,and to your inheritance of a so-called instinctive education, you wouldnaturally suppose that we are now on the brink of an impassable chasm.This sphere of material vacuity extends beneath us to a depth that I amsure you will be astonished to learn is over six thousand miles. We maynow look straight into the earth cavity, and this streaming light is thereflected purity of the space below. The opposite side of this crevice,out of sight by reason of its distance, but horizontally across fromwhere we stand, is precipitous and comparatively solid, extending upwardto the material that forms the earth's surface. We have, during ourjourney, traversed an oblique, tortuous natural passage, that extendsfrom the spot at which you entered the cave in Kentucky, diagonally downinto the crust of the globe, terminating in this shelving bluff. I wouldrecall to your mind that your journey up to this time has been of yourown free will and accord. At each period of vacillation--and you couldnot help but waver occasionally--you have been at liberty to return tosurface earth again, but each time you decided wisely to continue yourcourse. You can now return if your courage is not sufficient to overcomeyour fear, but this is the last opportunity you will have to reconsider,while in my company."
"Have others overcome the instinctive terrors to which you allude?"
"Yes; but usually the dread of death, or an unbearable uncertainty,compels the traveler to give up in despair before reaching this spot,and the opportunity of a lifetime is lost. Yes; an opportunity thatoccurs only in the lifetime of one person out of millions, of but few inour brotherhood."
"Then I can return if I so elect?"
"Certainly."
"Will you inform me concerning the nature of the obstacle I have toovercome, that you indicate by your vague references?"
"We must descend from this cliff."
"You can not be in earnest."
"Why?"
"Do you not see that the stone recedes from beneath us, that we stand onthe edge of a wedge overhanging bottomless space?"
"That I understand."
"There is no ladder," and then the foolish remark abashed me as Ithought of a ladder six thousand miles in length.
"Go on."
He made no reference to my confusion.
"There is practically no bottom," I asserted, "if I can believe yourwords; you told me so."
"And that I reiterate."
"The feat is impracticable, impossible, and only a madman would think oftrying to descend into such a depth of space."
Then an idea came over me; perhaps there existed a route at some otherpoint of the earth's crevice by which we could reach the under side ofthe stone shelf, and I intimated as much to the guide.
"No; we must descend from this point, for it is the only entrance to thehollow beneath."
We withdrew from the brink, and I meditated in silence. Then I creptagain to the edge of the bluff, and lying flat on my chest, craned myhead over, and peered down into the luminous gulf. The texture of thereceding mineral was distinctly visible for a considerable distance, andthen far, far beneath all semblance to material form disappeared--as thehull of a vessel fades in deep, clear water. As I gazed into the gulf itseemed evident that, as a board floating in water is bounded by water,this rock really ended. I turned to my guide and questioned him.
"Stone in this situation is as cork," he replied; "it is nearly devoidof weight; your surmise is correct. We stand on the shelving edge of acliff of earthly matter, that in this spot slants upward from beneathlike the bow of a boat. We have reached the bottom of the film of spacedust on the bubble of energy that forms the skeleton of earth."
I clutched the edge of the cliff with both hands.
"Be not frightened; have I not told you that if you wish to return youcan do so. Now hearken to me:
"A short time ago you endeavored to convince me that we could notdescend from this precipice, and you are aware that your arguments werewithout foundation. You drew upon your knowledge of earth materials, asyou once learned them, and realized at the time that you deludedyourself in doing so, for you know that present conditions are not suchas exist above ground. You are now influenced by surroundings that areentirely different from those that govern the lives of men upon theearth's surface. You are almost without weight. You have nearly ceasedto breathe, as long since you discovered, and soon I hope will agreeentirely to suspend that harsh and wearying movement. Your heartscarcely pulsates, and if you go with me farther in this journey, willsoon cease to beat."
I started up and turned to flee, but he grasped and held me firmly.
"Would you murder me? Do you think I will mutely acquiesce, while youcoolly inform me of your inhuman intent, and gloat over the fact that myheart will soon be as stone, and that I will be a corpse?" He attemptedto break in, but I proceeded in frenzy. "I _will_ return to upper earth,to sunshine and humanity. I _will_ retreat while yet in health andstrength, and although I have in apparent willingness accompanied you tothis point, learn now that at all times I have been possessed of themeans to defend myself from personal violence." I drew from my pocketthe bar of iron. "See, this I secreted about my person in the fresh airof upper earth, the sweet sunshine of heaven, fearing that I might fallinto the hands of men with whom I must combat. Back, back," I cried.
He released his hold of my person, and folded his arms upon his breast,then quietly faced me, standing directly between myself and the passagewe had trod, while I stood on the brink, my back to that fearful chasm.
By a single push he could thrust me into the fathomless gulf below, andwith the realization of that fact, I felt that it was now a life anddeath struggle. With every muscle strained to its utmost tension, withmy soul on fire, my brain frenzied, I drew back the bar of iron to smitethe apparently defenseless being in the forehead, but he moved not, andas I made the motion, he calmly remarked: "Do you remember the historyof Hiram Abiff?"
"I DREW BACK THE BAR OF IRON TO SMITE THE APPARENTLYDEFENSELESS BEING IN THE FOREHEAD."]
The hand that held the weapon dropped as if stricken by paralysis, and aflood of recollections concerning my lost home overcame me. I had raisedmy hand against a brother, the only being of my kind who could aid me,or assist me either to advance or recede. How could I, unaided, recrossthat glassy lake, and pass through the grotesque forests of fungi andthe labyrinth of crystal grottoes of the salt bed? How could I find myway in the utter darkness that existed in the damp, soppy, drippingupper caverns that I must retrace before I could hope to reach thesurface of the earth? "Forgive me," I sobbed, and sunk at his feet."Forgive me, my friend, my brother; I have been wild, mad, am crazed."He made no reply, but pointed over my shoulder into the space beyond.
I turned, and in the direction indicated, saw, in amazement, floating inthe distant space a snow- and ice-clad vessel in full sail. She washeaded diagonally from us, and was moving rapidly across the field ofvision. Every spar and sail was clearly defined, and on her deck, and inthe rigging I beheld sailors clad in winter garments pursuing theirvarious duties.
As I gazed, enraptured, she disappeared in the distance.
"A phantom vessel," I murmured.
"No," he replied; "the abstraction of a vessel sailing on the oceanabove us. Every object on earth is the second to an imprint in anotherplace. There is an apparent reproduction of matter in so-called vacancy,and on unseen pages a recording of all events. As that ship sailed overthe ocean above us, she disturbed a current of energy, and it left itsimpress as an outline on a certain zone beneath, which is parallel withthat upon which we now chance to stand."
"I can not comprehend," I muttered.
"No," he answered; "to you it seems miraculous, as to all men anunexplained phenomenon approaches the supernatural. All that is isnatural. Have men not been told in sa
cred writings that their everymovement is being recorded in the Book of Life, and do they not oftendoubt because they can not grasp the problem? May not the greatestscientist be the most apt skeptic?"
"Yes," I replied.
"You have just seen," he said, "the record of an act on earth, and indetail it is being printed elsewhere in the Book of Eternity. If youshould return to earth's surface you could not by stating these factsconvince even the persons on that same ship, of your sanity. You couldnot make them believe that hundreds of miles beneath, both their vesseland its crew had been reproduced in fac simile, could you?"
"No."
"Were you to return to earth you could not convince men that you hadexisted without breath, with a heart dead within you. If you should tryto impress on mankind the facts that you have learned in this journey,what would be the result?"
"I would probably be considered mentally deranged; this I have beforeadmitted."
"Would it not be better then," he continued, "to go with me, by your ownfree will, into the unknown future, which you need fear less than areturn to the scoffing multitude amid the storms of upper earth? Youknow that I have not at any time deceived you. I have, as yet, onlyopened before you a part of one rare page out of the boundless book ofnature; you have tasted of the sweets of which few persons in the fleshhave sipped, and I now promise you a further store of knowledge that isrich beyond conception, if you wish to continue your journey."
"What if I decide to return?"
"I will retrace my footsteps and liberate you upon the surface of theearth, as I have others, for few persons have courage enough to passthis spot."
"Binding me to an oath of secrecy?"
"SPRUNG FROM THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF INTO THE ABYSS BELOW,CARRYING ME WITH HIM INTO ITS DEPTHS."]
"No," he answered; "for if you relate these events men will consider youa madman, and the more clearly you attempt to explain the facts that youhave witnessed, the less they will listen to you; such has been the fateof others."
"It is, indeed, better for me to go with you," I said musingly; "to thateffect my mind is now made up, my course is clear, I am ready."
With a motion so quick in conception, and rapid in execution that I wastaken altogether by surprise, with a grasp so powerful that I could nothave repelled him, had I expected the movement and tried to protectmyself, the strange man, or being beside me, threw his arms around mybody. Then, as a part of the same movement, he raised me bodily from thestone, and before I could realize the nature of his intention, sprungfrom the edge of the cliff into the abyss below, carrying me with himinto its depths.