Wild Adventures round the Pole
Page 23
happen to them dere vill be for me no morepeace in dis world."
Allan was silent.
But when hours passed away and there were no signs of their returning,when gloaming itself began to fall around them, and the stars at thecrater's mouth assumed a brighter hue, Allan's anxiety knew no bounds,and he proposed to De Vere to go in search of his friends.
"Ah! if dat vere indeed possible!" was the reply.
"And why not?" said Allan.
"For many reasons: de balloon vill even now hardly bear de strain on heranchors; de loss of even your veight vould require such delicatemanipulation on my part, dat I fear I could not successfully vork insuch small space. Alas! ve must vait. But there yet is hope."
Meanwhile it behoves us to follow Ralph and Rory. They had faithfullypromised De Vere they would go but a short distance from the car, andthat promise they had meant to redeem. They found that the groundsloped downwards from the mouth of the crater, but there was no want oflight, as yet at least, and thus not the slightest danger of beingunable to find their way back, for were there not their footsteps in thesnow to guide them? So onward they strolled, cheerfully enough,arm-in-arm, like brothers, and that was precisely how they felt towardseach other.
The road--if I may say "road" where there was no road--was rough enoughin all conscience, and at times it was difficult for them to preventstumbling over a boulder.
"I wonder," said Rory, "how long these boulders have lain here, and Iwonder what is beneath us principally, and what those vast stalactitepillars are formed of."
"`Bide a wee,' as the doctor says," replied Ralph; "don't hurry me withtoo many questions, and don't forget that though I am ever so muchbigger and stronger than you, I don't think I am half so wise. But theboulders may have lain here for ages: those ghostly-looking pillars aredoubtless ice-clad rocks, partly formed through the agency of fire,partly by water. I think we stand principally on rocks and on ice,with, far, far down beneath us, fire."
"Dear, dear!" said Rory, talking very seriously, and with the perfectEnglish he always used when speaking earnestly; "what a strange,mysterious place we are in! Do you know, Ralph, I am half afraid to gomuch farther."
"Silly boy!" said his companion, "how thoroughly Irish you are atheart--joy, tears, sunshine and fun, but, deep under all, a smoulderingsuperstition."
"Just like the fires," added Rory, "that roll so far beneath us. Butyou know, Ray,"--in their most affectionate and friendly moods Ralph hadcome to be "Ray" to Rory, and Rory "Row" to Ralph--"you know, Ray, thatthe silence and gloom of this eerie place are enough to make any onesuperstitious--any one, that is, whose soul isn't solid matter-of-fact."
"Well, it _is_ silent. But I say, Row--"
"Well, Ray?"
"Suppose we try to break it with a song? I daresay they have neverheard much singing down here."
"Who?" cried Rory, staring fearfully into the darkness.
"Oh!" said Ralph, carelessly, "I didn't mean any one in particular.Come, what shall we sing--`The wearing o' the green'?"
"No, Ray, no; that were far too melancholic, though I grant it is alovely melody."
"Well, something Scotch, and stirring. The echoes of this cavern mustbe wonderful."
They were, indeed; and when Rory started off into that world-known butever-popular song, "Auld lang syne," and Ralph chimed with deep andsonorous bass, the effect was really grand and beautiful, for a thousandvoices seemed to fill the cavern. They heard the song even in the carof the balloon, and it caused Allan to remark, smilingly, for they hadnot yet been long gone, "Ralph and boy Rory seem to be enjoyingthemselves; but I trust they won't be long away."
Rory was quite lively again ere he reached the words--
"And we'll tak' a richt good-willy waught For auld lang syne."
He burst out laughing. "Indeed, indeed! there is no wonder I laugh," hesaid; "fancy the notion of taking a `good-willy waught' in a place likethis! And now," he added, "for a bit of a sketch."
"Don't be long in nibbing it in, then."
Rory was seated on a boulder now, tracing on his page the outlines ofthose strange, weird pillars that hands of man had never raised norhuman eyes gazed upon before. So the silence once more became irksome,and the time seemed long to Ralph, but Rory had finished at last.
Then the two companions, after journeying on somewhat farther, began toawaken the echoes by various shouts; and voices, some coming from a longdistance, repeated clearly the last words.
"Let us frighten those ghouls down there by rolling down boulders," saidRory.
"Come on, then," said Ralph; "I've often played at that game."
They had ten minutes of this work. It was evident this hill within ahill, this crater's point, was of depth illimitable from the distanthissing noises which the broken boulders finally emitted.
"It's a regular whispering gallery," said Rory.
"It is, Row. But do let us get back. See, there is already barelylight enough to reveal our footsteps."
"Ah! but, my boy," said Rory, "the nearer the car we walk the more lightwe'll have. And I have just one more surprise for you. You see thislittle bag?"
"Yes. What is in it--sandwiches?"
"Nay, my Saxon friend! but Bengal fires. Now witness the effects of thegrand illumination of the Cave of the King of Ice by us, his two ghoulsof a thousand winters!"
The scene, under weird blue lights, pale green or crimson, was reallymagical. All the transformation scenes ever they had witnessed dwindledinto insignificance compared to it.
"I shall remember this to my dying day?" Rory exclaimed.
"And I too!" cried Ralph, entranced.
"Now the finale?" said the artist; "it'll beat all the others! Thiswhite light of mine will eclipse the glory of the rest as the morningsun does that of moonlight! It will burn quite a long time, too; I madeit last night on purpose."
It was a Bengal fire of dazzling splendour that now was lit, and ourheroes themselves were astonished.
"It beats the `Arabian Nights'!" cried Rory. "Look, look!" hecontinued, waving it gently to and fro, "the stalactites seem to danceand move towards us from out the gloom arrayed in robes of transplendentwhite. Yonder comes the King of Ice himself to bid us welcome."
"Put it out! put it out!" murmured Ralph, with his hand on his brow.
It presently burned out, but lo! the change!--total darkness!
_Rory and Ralph were snowblind_!
"Oh, boy Rory!" said Ralph, "that brilliant of yours has sealed ourfate. It will be hours ere our eyes can be restored, and long beforethen the darkness of night will have enshrouded us. We are lost!"
"Let us not lose each other, at all events," said Rory, feeling for hisfriend's arm, and linking it in his own.
"You think we are lost; dear Ralph, I have more hopes. Something withinme tells me that we were never meant to end our days in the awfuldarkness of this terrible cavern. Pass the night here it is certain wemust, but to-morrow will bring daylight, and daylight safety, for beassured Allan and De Vere will not leave us, unless--"
Here the hope-giver paused.
"Unless," added Ralph--"for I know what you would say--an accidentshould be imminent--unless they _must_ leave. A balloon needs strangemanagement."
"Even then they will return to seek us by morning light. Do you knowwhat, Ray?" he continued, "our adventures have been too foolhardy.Providence has punished us, but He will not utterly desert us."
"Hope springs eternal in the human breast."
The lamp of hope was flickering--had, indeed, burned out--in Ralph'sheart, but his friend's words rekindled it. Perhaps Rory's truecharacter never shone more clearly out than it did now, for, whiletrying to cheer his more than friend, he fully appreciated thedesperateness of the situation, and had but little hope left in him,except his extreme trust in the goodness of a higher Power.
"Could we not," said Ralph, "all snowblind as we are, try to grope ourway upwards?"
"No, no, no!" cried Rory;
"success in that way is all but impossible;and, remember, we have but the trail of our footprints to guide us evenby day."
Something of the ludicrous invariably mixes itself up with the mosttragic affairs of this world. I have seen the truth of this in thechamber of death itself, in storms at sea, and in scenes where mengrappled each other in deadly strife. And it is well it should be so,else would the troubles of this world oftentimes swamp reason itself.The attempts of Rory to keep his companion in cheer, partook of thenature of the ludicrous,