CHAPTER XXIX.
ACROSS THE LAKE.
A few minutes after passing the bend in the stream, which hid the rockand the sleeping sentinel from sight, Fred Ashman observed that thesmooth current broadened into a lake, forming the extraordinary sheetof water of which he had heard such strange accounts.
He held the paddle suspended, and looked around.
The surface was as calm as the face of a mirror, and in the strongmoonlight, as he looked down he could see that it was of crystallineclearness--so much so, indeed, that a boat or any floating objectlooked as if suspended in mid-air.
It expanded right and left and in front, until he could barely discernthe dim outlines of trees and rocks that shut it in. It was probablytwo or three square miles in extent, and to the westward the shoreappeared to be composed of enormous boulders and masses of rocks.
Directly ahead, was a crag more massive than the rest, towering ahundred feet above the lake, with a breadth fully one half as great.It resembled some gigantic sentinel, keeping ward and watch over thestrange region unknown to few if any white man.
Ashman turned to his companion with the question, what course he shouldtake, and, without speaking, she pointed to the rock which she saw hadattracted his attention.
Very slight effort was required to propel the delicate craft, whichseemed to become sentient, and to move forward in obedience to thewishes of its occupants. He barely dipped the blade into the water,when it skimmed forward like a swallow. After a number of strokes heceased and fixed his eyes on the landmark by which he was proceeding.
A singular emotion held him speechless for the time. The vast mass ofstone appeared to be slowly rising from the bosom of the lake, and,instead of remaining motionless, was advancing to meet the tiny canoeand its awed occupants. One moment, it was like some vast ogre,stealing silently about to crush them beneath the clear waters, andthen it became a friendly giant, reaching out its hand to lead themforward.
But for the distant sounds of firing at the Murhapa village, FredAshman would have felt that it was all a vision of sleep, from which hemust soon awake to the realities of life.
But that horrible, grinding discord continually creeping into theirears told too plainly the dreadful scenes at comparatively a shortdistance. Even in his exalted mental state, Ashman began to askhimself what was to be the end of the strange venture upon which he hadstarted. A disquieting misgiving arose, that perhaps he had not donethe wisest thing in leaving his imperilled friends.
But he reflected that he had only obeyed the orders of Ziffak, whoindeed would not have permitted his wishes to be disregarded, for whoshould know the wisest course so well as he? Besides, his own reasontold him that if the Professor and his companion were attacked in thecabin, it was impossible for him to raise a finger in their behalf.
And so he dismissed that phase of the marvellous business from his mindand faced the present situation.
He had fled with Ariel from her father, King Haffgo. Instead ofturning to the northward down the Xingu, they had gone further up thestream and directly away from the right course out of the perilouscountry.
But while, in one sense, this might be looked upon as the height ofrecklessness, he saw it was unavoidable. Had they turned down theXingu, there would have been no escaping their foes, while theenchanted lake and its surroundings must afford secure shelter for atime.
But for how long?
That was the question which obtruded itself, even while filled with thedelightful thrill of his new love, and when _en rapport_ with hismarvellous surroundings.
The intimate knowledge which Ariel possessed of the region would guidethem to some spot where they could reasonably hope to be safe frompursuit, unless such pursuit was led by her enraged parent.
Ashman was still scrutinizing the great mass of rock, steadily assumingmore definite shape in the moonlight as the intervening distancedecreased, when he was surprised that he had not noticed themountainous elevation behind it. The immense rock seemed but thebeginning of others rising beyond to the height of a thousand feet,while they broadened to the right and left until they stretched over anextent of several miles.
It seemed to him that these constituted a spur of the Geral range,which extend in a northwesterly direction between the Guapore River(forming a part of the eastern boundary of Bolivia) and the headwatersof the Tapajos and Xingu. If so, their extent was continuous for ahundred miles.
Ashman had ceased paddling, though, under the faint momentum remaining,the canoe continued slowly moving over the lake and gradually drawingnear the rock. He did not break the silence, but asked himself whatcould be the reason of Ariel's direction for him to paddle toward therock. He supposed there was some place of concealment which she had inmind, though he discerned nothing of that nature.
"We cannot stay there forever," was the practical thought in the mindof the lover, who felt the next moment as though he would be happy todwell forever anywhere with her.
"After we have staid here until pursuit is given up--_if it ever willbe_--then we must leave the country. I will take her to my home inNorth America, where I shall love and cherish her and become the enviedof all men."
"We are approaching the rock," he said, addressing her; "what next,dearest Ariel."
"Paddle right on," was the astonishing reply.
He looked at her with a questioning smile. Could she be in earnest?
"Right on," she repeated, reading his thoughts aright.
"Very well; the slave obeys his mistress," he replied, giving thepaddle another dip in the water.
Gazing ahead, he instantly discovered the cause of her reply. A tunnelopened into the rock, seemingly near the centre. It was perhaps tenfeet in height and with a width slightly greater. Could it be shemeant he should enter that black forbidding passage? He asked thequestion and she replied that such was her wish.
He could not decline to take her whither she desired to go. Gentlyswaying the blade, he sent the boat within the dark opening, whichappeared to distend its jaws to swallow the canoe and them from theworld to which they had bidden good-bye.
Ashman was beginning to ask himself how he was to continue the advancein the darkness, which must become impenetrable as they passed beyondthe limit of the moonlight, when he perceived the water into which hedipped the paddle.
Not only that, but it grew more distinct as he progressed, until oncemore the form of his beloved came out to view, as she sat near him inthe canoe.
Wondering what it all meant, he gazed ahead. The surface of the watergrew plainer, as his eye ranged along the tunnel, until, only a shortdistance away, the view was clearer than on the lake itself, beneaththe full moon.
What was the explanation of this wonderful sea of illumination intowhich he was guiding the canoe?