To this our only answer was to attend to the lighting of our lamps and the disposal of our small impedimenta, such as our tins of oil and water bottles. Yva noted this and laughed outright.
"Courage did not die with the Sons of Wisdom," she said.
Then we set out, Yva walking ahead of us and Tommy frisking at her side.
Our road led us through the temple. As we pa.s.sed the great gates I started, for there, in the centre of that glorious building, I perceived a change. The statue of Fate was no more! It lay broken upon the pavement among those fragments of its two worshippers which I had seen shaken down some hours before.
"What does this mean?" I whispered to Yva. "I have felt no other earthquake."
"I do not know," she answered, "or if I know I may not say. Yet learn that no G.o.d can live on without a single worshipper, and, in a fashion, that idol was alive, though this you will not believe."
"How very remarkable," said Bastin, contemplating the ruin. "If I were superst.i.tious, which I am not, I should say that this occurrence was an omen indicating the final fall of a false G.o.d. At any rate it is dead now, and I wonder what caused it?"
"I felt an earth tremor last night," said Bickley, "though it is odd that it should only have affected this particular statue. A thousand pities, for it was a wonderful work of art."
Then I remembered and reminded Bickley of the crash which we had heard while Yva and Bastin were absent on some secret business in the chamber.
Walking the length of the great church, if so it could be called, we came to an apse at the head of it where, had it been Christian, the altar would have stood. In this apse was a little open door through which we pa.s.sed. Beyond it lay a s.p.a.ce of rough rock that looked as though it had been partially prepared for the erection of buildings and then abandoned. All this s.p.a.ce was lighted, however, like the rest of the City of Nyo, and in the same mysterious way. Led by Yva, we threaded our path between the rough stones, following a steep downward slope.
Thus we walked for perhaps half a mile, till at length we came to the mouth of a huge pit that must, I imagine, have lain quite a thousand feet below the level of the temple.
I looked over the edge of this pit and shrank back terrified. It seemed to be bottomless. Moreover, a great wind rushed up it with a roaring sound like to that of an angry sea. Or rather there were two winds, perhaps draughts would be a better term, if I may apply it to an air movement of so fierce and terrible a nature. One of these rushed up the pit, and one rushed down. Or it may have been that the up rush alternated with the down rush. Really it is impossible to say.
"What is this place?" I asked, clinging to the others and shrinking back in alarm from its sheer edge and bottomless depth, for that this was enormous we could see by the shaft of light which flowed downwards farther than the eye could follow.
"It is a vent up and down which air pa.s.ses from and to the central hollows of the earth," Yva answered. "Doubtless in the beginning through it travelled that mighty force which blew out these caves in the heated rocks, as the craftsman blows out gla.s.s."
"I understand," said Bastin. "Just like one blows out a bubble on a pipe, only on a larger scale. Well, it is very interesting, but I have seen enough of it. Also I am afraid of being blown away."
"I fear that you must see more," answered Yva with a smile, "since we are about to descend this pit."
"Do you mean that we are to go down that hole, and if so, how? I don"t see any lift, or moving staircase, or anything of that sort."
"Easily and safely enough, Bastin. See."
As she spoke a great flat rock of the size of a small room appeared, borne upwards, as I suppose, by the terrific draught which roared past us on its upward course. When it reached the lip of the shaft, it hung a little while, then moved across and began to descend with such incredible swiftness that in a few seconds it had vanished from view.
"Oh!" said Bastin, with his eyes almost starting out of his head, "that"s the lift, is it? Well, I tell you at once I don"t like the look of the thing. It gives me the creeps. Suppose it tilted."
"It does not tilt," answered Yva, still smiling. "I tell you, Bastin, that there is naught to fear. Only yesterday, I rode this rock and returned unharmed."
"That is all very well, Lady Yva, but you may know how to balance it; also when to get on and off."
"If you are afraid, Bastin, remain here until your companions return.
They, I think, will make the journey."
Bickley and I intimated that we would, though to tell the truth, if less frank we were quite as alarmed as Bastin.
"No, I"ll come too. I suppose one may as well die this way as any other, and if anything were to happen to them and I were left alone, it would be worse still."
"Then be prepared," said Yva, "for presently this air-chariot of ours will return. When it appears and hangs upon the edge, step on to it and throw yourselves upon your faces and all will be well. At the foot of the shaft the motion lessens till it almost stops, and it is easy to spring, or even crawl to the firm earth."
Then she stooped down and lifted Tommy who was sniffing suspiciously at the edge of the pit, his long ears blown straight above his head, holding him beneath her left arm and under her cloak, that he might not see and be frightened.
We waited a while in silence, perhaps for five or six minutes, among the most disagreeable, I think, that I ever pa.s.sed. Then far down in the brightness below appeared a black speck that seemed to grow in size as it rushed upwards.
"It comes," said Yva. "Prepare and do as I do. Do not spring, or run, lest you should go too far. Step gently on to the rock and to its centre, and there lie down. Trust in me, all of you."
"There"s nothing else to do," groaned Bastin.
The great stone appeared and, as before, hung at the edge of the pit.
Yva stepped on to it quietly, as she did so, catching hold of my wrist with her disengaged hand. I followed her feeling very sick, and promptly sat down. Then came Bickley with the air of the virtuous hero of a romance walking a pirate"s plank, and also sat down. Only Bastin hesitated until the stone began to move away. Then with an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of "Here goes!" he jumped over the intervening crack of s.p.a.ce and landed in the middle of us like a sack of coal. Had I not been seated really I think he would have knocked me off the rock. As it was, with one hand he gripped me by the beard and with the other grasped Yva"s robe, of neither of which would he leave go for quite a long time, although we forced him on to his face. The lantern which he held flew from his grasp and descended the shaft on its own account.
"You silly fool!" exclaimed Bickley whose perturbation showed itself in anger. "There goes one of our lamps."
"Hang the lamp!" muttered the prostrate Bastin. "We shan"t want it in Heaven, or the other place either."
Now the stone which had quivered a little beneath the impact of Bastin, steadied itself again and with a slow and majestic movement sailed to the other side of the gulf. There it felt the force of gravity, or perhaps the weight of the returning air pressed on it, which I do not know. At any rate it began to fall, slowly at first, then more swiftly, and afterwards at an incredible pace, so that in a few seconds the mouth of the pit above us grew small and presently vanished quite away.
I looked up at Yva who was standing composedly in the midst of our prostrate shapes. She bent down and called in my ear:
"All is well. The heat begins, but it will not endure for long."
I nodded and glanced over the edge of the stone at Bastin"s lantern which was sailing alongside of us, till presently we pa.s.sed it. Bastin had lit it before we started, I think in a moment of aberration, and it burned for quite a long while, showing like a star when the shaft grew darker as it did by degrees, a circ.u.mstance that testifies to the excellence of the make, which is one advertised not to go out in any wind. Not that we felt wind, or even draught, perhaps because we were travelling with it.
Then we entered the heat zone. About this there was no doubt, for the perspiration burst out all over me and the burning air scorched my lungs. Also Tommy thrust his head from beneath the cloak with his tongue hanging out and his mouth wide open.
"Hold your breaths!" cried Yva, and we obeyed until we nearly burst. At least I did, but what happened to the others I do not know.
Fortunately it was soon over and the air began to grow cool again. By now we had travelled an enormous distance, it seemed to be miles on miles, and I noticed that our terrific speed was slackening, also that the shaft grew more narrow, till at length there were only a few feet between the edge of the stone and its walls. The result of this, or so I supposed, was that the compressed air acted as a buffer, lessening our momentum, till at length the huge stone moved but very slowly.
"Be ready to follow me," cried Yva again, and we rose to our feet, that is, Bickley and I did, but poor Bastin was semi-comatose. The stone stopped and Yva sprang from it to a rock platform level with which it lay. We followed, dragging Bastin between us. As we did so something hit me gently on the head. It was Bastin"s lamp, which I seized.
"We are safe. Sit down and rest," said Yva, leading us a few paces away.
We obeyed and presently by the dim light saw the stone begin to stir again, this time upwards. In another twenty seconds it was away on its never-ending journey.
"Does it always go on like that?" said Bastin, sitting up and staring after it.
"Tens of thousands of years ago it was journeying thus, and tens of thousands of years hence it will still be journeying, or so I think,"
she replied. "Why not, since the strength of the draught never changes and there is nothing to wear it except the air?"
Somehow the vision of this huge stone, first loosed and set in motion by heaven knows what agency, travelling from aeon to aeon up and down that shaft in obedience to some law I did not understand, impressed my imagination like a nightmare. Indeed I often dream of it to this day.
I looked about me. We were in some cavernous place that could be but dimly seen, for here the light that flowed down the shaft from the upper caves where it was mysteriously created, scarcely shone, and often indeed was entirely cut off, when the ever-journeying stone was in the narrowest parts of the pa.s.sage. I could see, however, that this cavern stretched away both to right and left of us, while I felt that from the left, as we sat facing the shaft, there drew down a strong blast of fresh air which suggested that somewhere, however far away, it must open on to the upper world. For the rest its bottom and walls seemed to be smooth as though they had been planed in the past ages by the action of cosmic forces. Bickley noticed this the first and pointed it out to me.
We had little time to observe, however, for presently Yva said:
"If you are rested, friends, I pray you light those lamps of yours, since we must walk a while in darkness."
We did and started, still travelling downhill. Yva walked ahead with me and Tommy who seemed somewhat depressed and clung close to our heels.