"Oh, how horrible!" gasped Beatrice, shrinking, as they clambered down the stairs and emerged into this scene of chaos, darkness, death.
Where long ago the arcade had stretched its path of light and life and beauty, of wealth and splendor, like an epitome of civilization all gathered in that constricted s.p.a.ce, the little light disclosed stark horror.
Feeble as a will-o"-the-wisp in that enshrouding dark, the torch showed only hints of things--here a fallen pillar, there a shattered ma.s.s of wreckage where a huge section of the ceiling had fallen, yonder a gaping aperture left by the disintegration of a wall.
Through all this rubbish and confusion, over and through a score of the little dust-piles which Stern had so carefully avoided explaining to Beatrice, they climbed and waded, and with infinite pains slowly advanced.
"What we need is more light!" exclaimed the engineer presently. "We"ve got to have a bonfire here!"
And before long he had collected a considerable pile of wood, ripped from the door-ways and window-casings of the arcade. This he set fire to, in the middle of the floor.
Soon a dull, wavering glow began to paint itself upon the walls, and to fling the comrades" shadows, huge and weird, in dancing mockery across the desolation.
Strangely enough, many of the large plate-gla.s.s windows lining the arcade still stood intact. They glittered with the uncanny reflections of the fire as the man and woman slowly made way down the pa.s.sage.
"See," exclaimed Stern, pointing. "See all these ruined shops?
Probably almost everything is worthless. But there must be some things left that we can use.
"See the post-office, down there on the left? Think of the millions in real money, gold and silver, in all these safes here and all over the city--in the banks and vaults! Millions! Billions!
"Jewels, diamonds, wealth simply inconceivable! Yet now a good water supply, some bread, meat, coffee, salt, and so on, a couple of beds, a gun or two and some ordinary tools would outweigh them all!"
"Clothes, too," the girl suggested. "Plain cotton cloth is worth ten million dollars an inch now."
"Right," answered Stern, gazing about him with wonder.
"And I offer a bushel of diamonds for a razor and a pair of scissors."
Grimly he smiled as he stroked his enormous beard.
"But come, this won"t do. There"ll be plenty of time to look around and discuss things in the morning. Just now we"ve got a definite errand. Let"s get busy!"
Thus began their search for a few prime necessities of life, there in that charnel-house of civilization, by the dull reflections of the firelight and the pallid torch glow.
Though they forced their way into ten or twelve of the arcade shops, they found no clothing, no blankets or fabric of any kind that would serve for coverings or to sleep upon. Everything at all in the nature of cloth had either sunk back into moldering annihilation or had at best grown far too fragile to be of the slightest service.
They found, however, a furrier"s shop, and this they entered eagerly.
From rusted metal hooks a few warped fragments of skins still hung, moth-eaten, riddled with holes, ready to crumble at the merest touch.
"There"s nothing in any of these to help us," judged Stern. "But maybe we might find something else in here."
Carefully they searched the littered place, all dust and horrible disarray, which made sad mockery of the gold-leaf sign still visible on the window: "Lange, Importer. All the Latest Novelties."
On the floor Stern discovered three more of those little dust-middens which meant human bodies, pitiful remnants of an extinct race, of unknown people in the long ago. What had he now in common with them?
The remains did not even inspire repugnance in him. All at once Beatrice uttered a cry of startled gladness. "Look here! A storage chest!"
True enough, there stood a cedar box, all seamed and cracked and bulging, yet still retaining a semblance of its original shape.
The copper bindings and the lock were still quite plainly to be seen, as the engineer held the torch close, though green and corroded with incredible age.
One effort of Stern"s powerful arms sufficed to tip the chest quite over. As it fell it burst. Down in a ma.s.s of pulverized, worm-eaten splinters it disintegrated.
Out rolled furs, many and many of them, black, and yellow, and striped--the pelts of the grizzly, of the leopard, the chetah, the royal Bengal himself.
"Hurray!" shouted the man, catching up first one, then another, and still a third. "Almost intact. A little imperfection here and there doesn"t matter. Now we"ve got clothes and beds.
"What"s that? Yes, maybe they are a trifle warm for this season of the year, but this is no time to be particular. See, now, how do you like _that?_"
Over the girl"s shoulders, as he spoke, he flung the tiger-skin.
"Magnificent!" he judged, standing back a pace or two and holding up the torch to see her better. "When I find you a big gold pin or clasp to fasten that with at the throat you"ll make a picture of another and more splendid Boadicea!"
He tried to laugh at his own words, but merriment sat ill there in that place, and with such a subject. For the woman, thus clad, had suddenly a.s.sumed a wild, barbaric beauty.
Bright gleamed her gray eyes by the light of the flambeau; limpid, and deep, and earnest, they looked at Stern. Her wonderful hair, shaken out in bewildering ma.s.ses over the striped, tawny savagery of the robe, made colorful contrasts, barbarous, seductive.
Half hidden, the woman"s perfect body, beautiful as that of a wood-nymph or a pagan dryad, roused atavistic pa.s.sions in the engineer.
He dared speak no other word for the moment, but bent beside the shattered chest again and fell to looking over the furs.
A polar-bear skin attracted his attention, and this he chose. Then, with it slung across his shoulder, he stood up.
"Come," said he, steadying his voice with an effort; "come, we must be going now. Our light won"t hold out very much longer. We"ve got to find food and drink before the alcohol"s all gone; got to look out for practical affairs, whatever happens. Let"s be going."
Fortune favored them.
In the wreck of a small fancy grocer"s booth down toward the end of the arcade, where the post-office had been, they came upon a stock of goods in gla.s.s jars.
All the tinned foods had long since perished, but the impermeable gla.s.s seemed to have preserved fruits and vegetables of the finer sort, and chipped beef and the like, in a state of perfect soundness.
Best of all, they discovered the remains of a case of mineral water.
The case had crumbled to dust, but fourteen bottles of water were still intact.
"Pile three or four of these into my fur robe here," directed Stern.
"Now, a few of the other jars--that"s right. To-morrow we"ll come down and clean up the whole stock. But we"ve got enough for now."
"We"d best be getting back up the stairs again," said he. And so they started.
"Are you going to leave that fire burning?" asked the girl, as they pa.s.sed the middle of the arcade.
"Yes. It can"t do any harm. Nothing to catch here; only old metal and cement. Besides, it would take too much time and labor to put it out."
Thus they abandoned the gruesome place and began the long, exhausting climb.
It must have taken them an hour and a half at least to reach their eerie. Both found their strength taxed to the utmost.
Before they were much more than halfway up, the ultimate drop of alcohol had been burned.
The last few hundred feet had to be made by slow, laborious feeling, aided only by such dim reflections of the gibbous moon as glimmered through a window, cobweb-hung, or through some break in the walls.