XL.
_THE WONDERS OF THE CAVE._
The other inmates of the cave had breakfasted whilst the old clergymanwas asleep. Toby was now occupied in preparing his dish of coffee, andMr. Villars invited the patriots to remain and take a cup with him.
Penn noticed Cudjo's discontent at seeing Toby usurp his function. Heremembered also a rare pleasure he had been promising himself wheneverhe should find Cudjo at leisure and circumstances favorable for hispurpose.
"Now is our time," he whispered Virginia. "Will Salina come too?"
"What to do?" Salina asked.
"To explore the cave," said Penn, courteously, yet trembling lest theinvitation should be accepted.
She excused herself: she was feeling extremely fatigued; much to Penn'srelief--that is to say, regret, as he hypocritically gave her tounderstand.
She smiled: though she had declined, Virginia was going, and she thoughthe looked consoled.
"What does anybody care for me?" she said bitterly to herself.
It was to save her the pain of a slight that Penn, always too honest toresort to dissimulation from selfish motives, had assumed towards her aregard he did not feel. But the little artifice failed. She saw she wasnot wanted, and was jealous--angry with him, with Virginia, withherself. For thus it is with the discontented and envious. They cannotendure to see others happy without them. They gladly make the most of aslight, pressing it like a thistle to the breast, and embracing it allthe more fiercely as it pierces and wounds. But he who has humility andlove in his heart says consolingly at such times, "If they can be happywithout me, why, Heaven be thanked! If I am neglected, then I must drawupon the infinite resources within myself. And if I am unloved, whosefault is it but my own? I will cultivate that sweetness of soul, thegrace, and goodness, and affection, which shall compel love!"
Something like this Carl found occasion to say to himself; for if youthink he saw the master he loved, and her who was dear to him as eversister was to younger brother, depart with Cudjo and the torches,without longing to go with them and share their pleasure, you know notthe heart of the boy. He was almost choking with tears as he saw thetorches go out of sight. But just as he had arrived at thisphilosophical conclusion, O joy! what did he see? Penn returning! Yes,and hastening straight to him! "Carl, why don't you come too?"
There was no mistaking the sincerity of Penn's frank, animated face.Again the tears came into Carl's eyes; but this time they were tears ofgratitude.
"Vould you really be pleased to have me?"
"Certainly, Carl! Virginia and I both spoke of it, and wondered why wehad not thought to ask you before."
"Then I vill get my wery goot friend the captain to excuse me. Isushpect he vill be wexed to part from me; but I shall take care thatthe ties that bind us shall not be proken."
In pursuance of this friendly design, Carl produced a good strong cordwhich he had found in the cave. This he attached to the handcuffs by aknot in the middle; then, carrying the two ends in opposite directionsaround one of the giant's stools, he fastened them securely on the sidefarthest from the prisoner. This done, he gave the pistol to Toby, andinvested him with the important and highly gratifying office of guarding"dat Shprowl."
"If you see him too much unhappy for my absence, and trying for somediwersion by making himself free," said Carl, instructing him in the useof the weapon, "you shall shust cock it _so_,--present it at his head orstomach, vichever is conwenient--_so_,--then pull the trigger as youplease, till he is vunce more quiet. That is all. Now I shall say gootpie to him till I come pack."
"Why don't you kill and eat him?" asked Withers, watching the boy'soperations with humorous enjoyment.
"Him?" said Carl, dryly. "Thank ye, sir; I am not fond of weal."
As Pomp and the patriots remained in the cave, it was not anticipatedthat Lysander would give any trouble.
With Carl at his side, Penn bore the torch above his head, and plungedinto the darkness, which seemed to retreat before them only to reappearbehind, surrounding and pursuing their little circle of light as itadvanced.
A gallery, tortuous, lofty, sculptured by the gnomes into grotesque andastonishing forms, led from the inhabited vestibule to the wondersbeyond. They had gone but a few rods when they saw a faint glimmerbefore them, which increased to a mild yellowish radiance flickering onthe walls. It was the light of Cudjo's torch.
They found Cudjo and Virginia waiting for them at the entrance of a longand spacious hall, whose floor was heaped with fragments of rock, someof huge size, which had evidently fallen from the roof.
"De cave whar us lives, des' like dis yer when me find um in de fustplace," the negro was saying to Virginia. "Right smart stuns dar."
"What did you do with them?"
"Tuk all me could tote to make your little dressum-room wiv. Lef' de big'uns fur cheers when me hab comp'ny, hiah yah! When Pomp come, him helpme place 'em around scrumptious like. Pomp bery strong--lif' like youneber see!"
Climbing over the stones, they reached, at the farther end of the hall,an abrupt termination of the floor. A black abyss yawned beyond. In itsinvisible depths the moan of waters could be heard. Virginia, who hadbeen thrilled with wonder and fear, standing in the hall of the stones,and thinking of those crushing masses showered from the roof, now foundit impossible not to yield to the terrors of her excited imagination.
"I cannot go any farther!" she said, recoiling from the gulf, anddrawing Penn back from it.
"Come right 'long!" cried Cudjo; "no trouble, missis!"
"See, he has piled stones in here and made some very good and safestairs. Take my torch, Carl, and follow; Cudjo will go before with his.Now, one step at a time. I will not let thee fall."
Thus assured, she ventured to make the descent. A strong arm was abouther waist; a strong and supporting spirit was at her side; and from thatmoment she felt no fear.
The limestone, out of which the cave was formed, lay in nearlyhorizontal strata; and, at the bottom of Cudjo's stairs, they came uponanother level floor. It was smooth and free from rubbish. A gray vaultglimmered above their heads in the torchlight. The walls showed strangeand grotesque forms in bas-relief, similar to those of the firstgallery: here a couchant lion, so distinctly outlined that it seemed asif it must have been chiselled by human art; an Indian sitting in aposture of woe, with his face buried in his hands; an Arctic hunterwrestling with a polar bear; the head of a turbaned Turk; and, mostwonderful of all, the semblance of a vine (Penn named it "Jonah'sgourd"), which spread its massive branches on the wall, and, climbingunder the arched roof, hung its heavy fruit above their heads.
Close by "Jonah's gourd" a little stream gushed from the side of therock, and fell into a fathomless well. The torches were held over it,and the visitors looked down. Solid darkness was below. Carl took fromhis pocket a stone.
"It is the same," he said, "that Mishter Sprowl pumped his head against.I thought I should find some use for it; and now let's see."
He dropped it into the well. It sunk without a sound, the noise of itsdistant fall being lost in the solemn and profound murmur of thedescending water.
"What make de cave, anyhow?" asked Cudjo.
"The wery question I vas going to ask," said Carl.
"It will take but a few words to tell you all I know about it," saidPenn. "Water containing carbonic acid gas has the quality of dissolvingsuch rock as this part of the mountain is made of. It is limestone; andthe water, working its way through it, dissolves it as it would sugar,only very slowly. Do you understand?"
"O, yes, massa! de carbunkum asses tote it away!"
Penn smiled, and continued his explanation, addressing himself to Carl.
"So, little by little, the interior of the rock is worn, until thesegreat cavities are formed."
"But what comes o' de rock?" cried Cudjo; "dat's de question!"
"What becomes of the sugar that dissolves in your coffee?"
"Soaks up, I reckon; so ye can't see it widout it settles."
&
nbsp; "Just so with the limestone, Cudjo. It _soaks up_, as you say. Andsee!--I will show you where a little of it has settled. Notice this longwhite spear hanging from the roof."
"Dat? Dat ar a stun icicle. Me broke de pint off oncet, but 'pears likeit growed agin. Times de water draps from it right smart."
"A good idea--a stone icicle! It grew as an icicle grows downward fromthe eaves. It was formed by the particles of lime in the water, whichhave collected there and hardened into what is called _stalactite_.These curious smooth white folds of stone under it, which look so muchlike a cushion, were formed by the water as it dropped. This is called_stalagmite_."
"Heap o' dem 'ar sticktights furder 'long hyar," observed Cudjo, anxiousto be showing the wonders.
They came into a vast chamber, from the floor of which rose against thedarkness columns resembling a grove of petrified forest trees. Theflaming torches, raised aloft in the midst of them, revealed, supportedby them, a wonderful gothic roof, with cornice, and frieze, and groinedarches, like the interior of a cathedral. A very distinct fresco couldalso be seen, formed by mineral incrustations, on the ceiling and walls.On a cloudy background could be traced forms of men and beasts, offorests and flowers, armies, castles, and ships, not sculptured like thefigures before described, but designed by the subtile pencil of somesprite, who, Virginia suggested, must have been the subterranean brotherof the Frost.
"How wonderful!" she said. "And is it not strange how Nature copiesherself, reproducing silently here in the dark the very same forms wefind in the world above! Here is a rose, perfect!"
"With petals of pure white gypsum," said Penn.
Whilst they were talking, Cudjo passed on. They followed a littledistance, then halted. The light of his torch had gone out in theblackness, and the sound of his footsteps had died away. Carl remainedwith the other torch; and there they stood together, without speaking,in the midst of immense darkness ingulfing their little isle of light,and silence the most intense.
Suddenly they heard a voice far off, singing; then two, then threevoices; then a chorus filling the heart of the mountain with a strangespiritual melody. Virginia was enraptured, and Carl amazed.
Penn, who had known what was coming, looked upon them with pride anddelight. At length the music, growing faint and fainter, melted and waslost in the mysterious vaults through which it had seemed to wander andsoar away.
It was a minute after all was still before either spoke.
"Certainly," Virginia exclaimed, "if I had not heard of a similar effectproduced in the Mammoth Cave, I should never have believed thatmarvellous chorus was sung by a single voice!"
"A single woice!" repeated Carl, incredulous. "There vas more as a dozenwoices!"
"Right, Carl!" laughed Penn. "The first was Cudjo's; and all the restwere those, of the nymph Echo and her companions."
They continued their course through the halls of the echoes, and sooncame to an arched passage, at the entrance of which Penn paused andplaced the torch in a niche. A projection of the rock prevented thelight from shining before them, yet their way was softly illumined frombeyond, as by a dim phosphorescence. They advanced, and in a momenttheir eyes, grown accustomed to the obscurity, came upon a scene ofsurprising and magical beauty.
"The Grotto of Undine," said Penn.
It was, to all appearances, a nearly spherical concavity, some thirtyyards in length, and perhaps twenty in perpendicular diameter. Carl'storch was concealed in the niche, and Cudjo's was nowhere visible; yetthe whole interior was luminous with a dim and silvery halo. A narrowcorridor ran round the sides, and resembled a dark ring swimming innebulous light, midway between the upper and nether hemispheres of thewondrous hollow globe. Within this horizontal rim, floor there was none;and they stood upon its brink; and, looking up, they saw the marvellousvault all sparkling with stars and beaming with pale, pendent, taper,crystalline flames, noiseless and still; and, looking down, beheldbeneath their feet, and shining with a yet more soft and dreamy lustre,the perfect counterpart of the vault above.
Penn held Virginia upon the verge. A bewildering ecstasy captivated herreason as she gazed. They seemed to be really in the grotto of somenymph who had fled the instant she saw her privacy invaded, or veiledthe immortal mystery and loveliness of her charms in some mesh of theglimmering nimbus that baffled and entangled the sight. Save one or twostifled cries of rapture from Virginia and Carl, not a syllable wasuttered: perfect stillness prevailed, until Penn said, in a whisper,--
"Wouldst thou like to see the face of Undine? Bend forward. Do not fear:I hold thee!"
By gentle compulsion he induced her to comply. She bent over the brink,and looked down, when, lo! out of the hazy effulgence beneath, emerged aface looking up at her--a face dimly seen, yet full of vague wonder andsurprise--a face of unrivalled sweetness and beauty, Penn thought. Whatdid Virginia think?--for it was the reflection of her own.
"O, Penn! how it startled me!"
"But isn't she a Grace? Isn't she loveliness itself?"
"I hope you think so!" she whispered, with arch frankness, a sweetcoquettish confidence ravishing to his soul.
"I do!" And in the privacy of telling her so, his lips just brushed herear. Did you ever, in whispering some secret trifle, some all-important,heavenly nothing, just brush the dearest little ear in the world withyour lips? or, in listening to the syllables of divine nonsense, feelthe warm breath and light touch of the magnetic thrilling mouth? Thenyou know something of what Penn and Virginia experienced for a briefmoment in the Grotto of Undine.
Just then a duplicate glow, like a double sunrise, one part above andthe other below the horizon, appeared at the farther end of the grotto.It increased, until they saw come forth from behind an upright rock anupright torch; and at the same time, from behind a suspended rockbeneath, an inverted torch. Immediately after two Cudjoes came in sight;one standing erect on the rock above, and the other standing upside downon--or rather under--the rock below.
"Take your torch, Carl," said Penn, "and go around and meet him."
The boy returned to the niche; and presently two Carls, with twotorches, were seen moving around the rim of the corridor, one uprightabove, the other walking miraculously, head downwards, below.
The two Carls had not reached the rock, when the two Cudjoes stooped,and took up each a stone and threw them. One fell _upward_ (so tospeak), as the other fell downward: they met in the centre: there was astrange clash, which echoed through the hollow halls; and in a momentthe entire nether hemisphere of the enchanted grotto was shattered intonumberless flashing and undulating fragments.
Virginia had already perceived that the appearance of a concave spherewas an illusion produced by the ceiling lighted by Cudjo's hidden torch,and mirrored in a floor of glassy water. Yet she was entirely unpreparedfor this astonishing result; and at sight of the Cudjo beneathinstantaneously annihilated by the plashing of a stone, she started backwith a scream. Fortunately, Penn still held her close, no doubt in a fitof abstraction, forgetting that his arms were no longer necessary toprevent her falling, as when she leaned to look at the shadowy Undine.
"All those stalactites," said he, as the two torches were held towardsthe roof, "are of the most beautiful crystalline structure; and thespaces between are all studded with brilliant spars. The first time Iwas here, it was April; the mountain springs were full, and every one ofthese _stone icicles_ was dripping with water that percolated throughthe strata above. The effect was almost as surprising as what we sawbefore Cudjo cast the stone. The surface of the pool seemed all leapingand alive with perpetual showers of dancing pearls. But now the springsare low, or the water has found another channel. Yet this basin isalways full."
"Why, so it is! I had no idea the water was so near!" And Virginia,stooping, dipped her hand.
The mirrored crystals were still coruscating and waving in the ripples,as they passed around the rim of rock, and followed Cudjo into ascarcely less beautiful chamber beyond.
Here was no water; but in its pla
ce was a floor of alabaster, from whicharose a great variety of pure white stalagmites, to meet each its twinstalactite pendent from above. In some cases they did actually meet andgrow together in perfect pillars, reaching from floor to roof.
"The stalagmites are very beautiful," said Virginia; "but thestalactites are still more beautiful."
"I think," said Penn, "there is a moral truth symbolized by them. As therock above gives forth its streaming life, it benefits and beautifiesthe rock below, while at the same time it adorns still more richly itsown beautiful breast. So it always is with Charity: it blesses him thatreceives, but it blesses far more richly him that gives."
"O, must we pass on?" said Virginia, casting longing eyes towards allthose lovely forms.
"We are to return the same way," replied Penn. "But now Cudjo seems tobe in a hurry."
"Dat's de last ob de sticktights," cried the black, standing at the endof the colonnade, and waving his torch above his head. "Now we's comin'to de run."
"Come," said Penn, "and I will show thee what Hood must have meant bythe 'dark arch of the black flowing river.'"
A stupendous cavern of seemingly endless extent opened before them.Cudjo ran on ahead, shouting wildly under the hollow, reverberatingdome, and waving his torch, which soon appeared far off, like a flamingstar amid a night of darkness. Then there were two stars, whichseparated, and, standing one above the other, remained stationary.
"Listen!" said Penn. And they heard the liquid murmur of flowing water.
He took the torch from Carl, and advancing towards the right wall of thecavern, showed, flowing out of it, through a black, arched opening, ariver of inky blackness. It rolled, with scarce a ripple, slow, andsolemn, and still, out of that impenetrable mystery, and swept alongbetween the wall on one side and a rocky bank on the other. By this bankthey followed it, until they came to a natural bridge, formed by alimestone cliff, through which it had worn its channel, and under whichit disappeared. On this bridge they found Cudjo perched above the waterwith his torch.
They passed the bridge without crossing,--for the farther end abuttedhigh upon the cavern wall,--and found the river again flowing out on thelower side. Few words were spoken. The vastness of the cave, thedarkness, the mystery, the inky and solemn stream pursuing its noiselesscourse, impressed them all. Suddenly Virginia exclaimed,--
"Light ahead!" though Carl was with her, and Cudjo now walked behind.
It was a gray glimmer, which rapidly grew to daylight as they advanced.
"It is the chasm, or sink, where the roof of the cave has fallen in,"said Penn.
While he spoke, a muffled rustling of wings was heard above their heads.They looked up, and saw numbers of large black bats, startled by thetorches, darting hither and thither under the dismal vault. Birds, too,flew out from their hiding-places as they advanced, and flapped andscreamed in the awful gloom.
To save the torches for their return, Cudjo now extinguished them. Theywalked in the brightening twilight along the bank of the stream, andfound, to the surprise and delight of Virginia, some delicate ferns andpale green shrubs growing in the crevices of the rock. Vegetationincreased as they proceeded, until they arrived at the sink, and sawbefore them steep banks covered with vines, thickets, and forest trees.
The river, whose former course had evidently been stopped by the fallingin of the forest, here made a curve to the right around the banks, andhalf disappeared in a channel it had hollowed for itself under thecliff. Here they left it, and climbed to the open day.
"How strangely yellow the sunshine looks!" said Virginia. "It seems asthough I had colored glasses on. And how sultry the air!"
She looked up at the towering rocks that walled the chasm, and at thetrees upon whose roots she stood, and whose tops waved in the summerbreeze and sunshine, at the level of the mountain slope so far above.She could also see, on the summit of the cliffs, the charred skeletonsof trees the late fire had destroyed.
"It was here," said Penn, "that Stackridge and his friends escaped. Thisleaning tree with its low branches forms a sort of ladder to the limbsof that larger one; and by these it is easy to climb----"
As he was speaking, all eyes were turned upwards; when suddenly Cudjouttered a warning whistle, and dropped flat upon the ground.
"A man!" said Carl, crouching at the foot of the tree.
Penn did not fall or crouch, nor did Virginia scream, although, lookingup through the scant leafage, they saw, standing on the cliff, andlooking down straight at them, at the same time waving his handexultantly, one whom they well knew--their enemy, Silas Ropes.