by E. H. Visiak
CHAPTER XX -
The Inexpressible Light
“Thus far,” said Mr. Huxtable, setting his papers in order on the table, “this work of writing I take a deal of pleasure in, though it’s a heavy labour, too. You shall help it out with making a fair copy, Will. I know you will be diligent.”
He fell silent after this, seeming to muse. The Captain in the meantime slept on, breathing soft and even as a child.
In all this time, while he read, my mind was extraordinary lively clear, to that degree each word and syllable seemed imprinted in my recollection as though ’twas a sort of perpetual wax. I had scarce need to copy them out (for his papers came afterwards into my hands, and I design, as my duty is, to publish them to the world).
But now, it is no wonder, the hour being long past my ordinary bedtime, and the cabin close and hot, that those drowsy sounds of the Captain began to subdue me to their element; so that, while I sat looking on Mr Huxtable, pondering what he had read, my thoughts passed gradually to a vague lost dreaming. I was just nodding off, with my arms on the table, when I heard Mr Huxtable utter an exclamation.
“The light!” cried he.
I was immediately sensible upon looking up, that something was befallen more than natural; for the cabin appeared all in a dim light, and yet such, notwithstanding as dazzled my eyes;which, indeed, might be the cause, and not (as it seems) the effect of the dimness. The lantern burned pale and ghostly, of the transparency of crystal; yet, what was no less remarkable and incredible than that dazzling dimness (by what I can express), the flames of its candles were undiminished.
Mr Huxtable, in his chair over against me, sat fixed in the aspect of amazement, with a look of exceeding great wonder in his staring eyes. I would have spoken to him; but I could not bring forth one word. I experienced that sense of ineffectual struggle which is a horror in some dreams, appearing to myself to lie under an all-enveloping soft weight, as if the air was becoming agglutinated into some heavier, supernatural consistence; and when I rose up from my chair and stepped toward where Mr Huxtable sat, it seemed not to be myself that laboured thus heavily across the cabin, but my phantom.
It was come into my thoughts that we were dead and that our ship lay drowned at the bottom of the sea; so that I was the less surprised when, upon coming to Mr Huxtable, and stretching forth my hand to have taken hold on him, though, by the appearance my fingers did approach the place, I could not feel that I touched anything at all. Neither made he the least stir in his posture, nor gave any token that he saw me, but continued, as before, staring wide with that fixed aspect, as if he were under enchantment.
The reader will think it strange, that, after my endeavours in vain to arouse Mr Huxtable, I did not repair to the Captain. However, I was distract to that degree I scarce knew what I did. But this which follows is stranger yet - that, without observing him particularly, I was sensible the Captain continued asleep in his chair; neither did I see anything surprising or beyond expectation in it.
But while I thus stood vainly groping in the air, the tumult of my terror and amazement, on a sudden, abated and sunk, leaving a strange intense stillness, a sense of loneliness and vague uneasy longing, or hankering of desire, for something, I knew not what; which increased until it was as a fretting wasting flame, become more ardent by wanting what it sought.
In the same time, that dim light in the cabin changed - not so as that it appeared more bright, but as having (by what I can express) a sort of internal shining in it, veiled. I felt a sweet rapture, an enthrilling, enchanting joy; while the light (as it should seem) flowed wavering with a charming soft motion into my soul, irradiating and dissolving my bodily sense, setting my spirit free in its element of sunny celestial air.
And now I knew what I before so vaguely divined and longed for. ’Twas the coming of Mr Huxtable’s beautiful lady; and, in a vision of felicity, I beheld her, and was with her in a society inexpressively intimate and dear; and what increased (if that were possible) my joy, I apprehended that Mr Huxtable was in the same communion; yea, I beheld it, as in a glimpse, in his shining eyes, so changed from what they looked before.
But the vision stayed not long, and was succeeded by very dreadful terrors. For, upon a sudden flickering of the light, the charm was broken; the bright crystalline mould was clouded o’er, distempered with a parching and freezing admixture, like an ague; and I heard a withering ghostly sound. I obscurely understood that the sound was the voice of my grandfather; who appeared before me in a meagre and shrunken feature, with his finger lifted in admonition. He looked on me, pointed downward, and vanished away.
In the same moment, the cabin was full of a sort of hideous creatures, dusky and grim, whom I took for infernal devils, with their high peaked heads,and great glistening dark globular eyes (for I did not immediately bethink me of that sea-monster which appeared in our ship). One of them clipped hold on me with his clammy dank hands, that resembled the flappers of a sea-beast, pressing me to his breast, that was all shaggy and dripping wet like seaweed, and bore me, nigh stifled across the cabin. Others were moving towards Mr Huxtable and the Captain.
’Twas like some frightful dream; and this the more since the creatures made no sound of speech, only slavered and slubbered, writhing their blubber jaws, breathing short with noisome fishy expirations. Thus, they transported me from the cabin, and out to the deck.
I was at first perfectly dumb with terror, but now I began to cry - or rather, to shriek out - calling upon our men to save me; for to escape of myself, even to make the least struggle in that soft blubber-like hold, was quite in vain. But there was not a man to see. Our deck, plainly apparent in the bright moonlight, appeared quite deserted.
But now, even upon the shock of this new amazement, I bethought me of that monstrous creature which Obadiah had concealed in our ship, perceiving the resemblance thereto of that which clasped me and the rest that broke into the cabin. I remembered that Obadiah said it was a harmless monster; but this recollection was of brief comfort to me now; for just as it was come into my thoughts, the creature, on a sudden, leaped, with me in its arms, upon the gunnel. In the same moment, while it stood in the fact of dropping overboard, I beheld a scene, that, of all my exceeding strange experiences in this voyage, is the most lively imprinted in my mind.
This was the appearance, about a cable’s length away on our quarter, of a pillar of black rock, rising fourteen or fifteen foot above the waves, that, though they were so small, yet made a high rippling along the base; and, in the parts of sea between, approaching nigh unto it, I saw many dark objects like to the heads of men swimming. Thereupon, the creature sprang with me from the bulwarks.
The shock of plunging through the cold water somewhat revived my courage, and, upon recovering my breath when we were returned to the surface, I was sufficiently in my wits to deliver an indifferent true account to myself of what after befell.
The fish-like creature, clasping me in one arm and swimming with the other, horsed me through the waves, directing its course toward that pillar-like rock. It seem extraordinary quick; and soon we approached near to the rock. I thereupon observed that there rose at the back of it a kind of table-land of the same black stone, but scarce higher than the sea, which ran over it in a foaming flood whenever any wave broke upon it.
Arriving this rock table-land, the monster laid hold on the verge, and, with one heave, hoisted up himself and me thereon, setting me down, all breathless, on the wave-washed top.
Thereupon, getting to its feet, it seized hold on me by the collar of my coat, and pulled me up by its side. I immediately observed, at a few paces from where I stood, an orifice in the rock, being regularly square if it had been made by art, into which the water flowed every time the waves made a breach over the rock. ’Twas about the bigness of a ship’s hatch; and that singular strange pillar, standing like the stump of a broken mast, increased the similitude - I mean, to a shipwreck lying low sunk or water-logged (as sailors call it) in the sea.
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br /> This appearance hinted me to see for our ship; which I spied a good way off, standing still and shaking her sails, having just fallen into the wind, which was now a little sprung up.
I could take but the one look; for, gripping hold on my arm with his blubber fingers, the creature began to hale me, all helpless, toward that rock-chasm; and now, indeed, coming to the verge, and thrust violently over, I yielded myself utterly for lost, scarce able so much as to utter a cry.
Nevertheless, my fall was not far, and the brunt of it was tempered by something less hard than a ground of rock. I was sensible it was the body of a man; but I did not perceive this certainty, and in a moment my senses departed.
CHAPTER XXI -
Gorgonian Terror
When I came to myself I was in that weak and apathetic state as scarce to be sensible that I breathed; in which I did continue (as I believe) above an hour, with my nerves and the powers of my mind perfectly listless and numb.
The first thing I really took notice of was that I lay in darkness; which made me think at first - yet without the least sentiments of fear or repining - that this might be the very state of death. Suddenly my sensible or apperceiving faculty revived; and staring round in horror, I saw that the darkness was not total, but a sort of dismal tenebrous gloom, which vaguely discovered a large concave place, being about twelve times the size of a castle-tower, having walls of rock and an oval shaped top like a vault’s. But immediately I observed that I lay, upon a thick covering of dry seaweed, on a sort of ledge, which ran all round, projecting from the sides, and also that others lay thereon. I saw them on either side of me, at short intervals, lying, as I lay, on their backs, with their toes toward, and near touching, the verge; and I just descried them, in the obscurity, to be some of our men.
I called to him who lay nearest me with a hushed voice, and then more loud; while I turned upon my belly and crept towards him. But he neither spoke nor stirred.
Coming to him, I found he was the boatswain. He lay with his eyes open in a fixed glare; and at first I concluded he was dead; thence that they were all dead.
It cannot be that the horror and dismay I was in was increased by this conclusion, it was too wrought up already - no, nor that it was abated when I perceived, as I did by setting my hand to the man’s mouth, which stood a little open, that he breathed.
I took hold of his arm and shook him; but in vain. The look upon his face was terrible to me. There was some significance in those eyeballs, that glared - or seemed to glare - on me as with some wicked and impetuous joy. My soul recoiled - yea, did start back with a loathing and shuddering motion. I violently turned from the sight. It now came into my thoughts, recollecting how I had been cast down by that monstrous savage creature into the orifice in the rock (as I have related), that this dreadful place was a sort of cavern under the sea.
I was about to look over the parapet, when, a little on one side of me, I spied, in the obscurity, something that moved along upon the verge with a sliding, writhing motion. “Twas a thick, oval, blubber-like object, in colour a darkish red, being (as it should seem) the extremity of a sort of trunk, like the body of a huge serpent; and, staring on it with a horrid fascination, a fearful inquisitiveness, I observed that it was embossed with a sort of cup-like emboluses, or suckers. On a sudden, it vanished over the edge with a faint shuffling sound, leaving me staring on the place where it disappeared.
What it was, or possibly could be, I had no notion, but the sight of it set me in a cold damp; I felt the hair start upon my scalp. Thereupon, drawn by horror’s fearful traction, I moved to the verge of the parapet and looked down.
My eyes were now become somewhat accustomed to the gloom; and I found that I was looking, as it might be, into the cavity of a prodigious great well; for, about fifty foot below me in that circular cavern, there was the appearance of water.
Not in that moment, however (I mean, of my looking over the parapet), was I sensible of this - nor, indeed, of anything besides, save only of two enormous round protuberant eyes, being fully as large as port-holes - nay, much larger, with their thick round rims, that appeared to gaze up at me with a baleful and astonied glare. Infernal fury seemed pent to bursting in those eyes, which glimmered like metal in the darkness, and measureless, merciless hate! As if they were the eyes of Medusa herself, the sight of them benumbed me all over. I could not stir, not cry out, any more than if I had been a figure of stone.
But now I vaguely discerned the body from which those frightful eyes stood forth at the upper part - being narrow, but bulging huge and broad below - half raised from out the pool of inky-black water; and, above and around the head (the upper part of the body, rather; for this Terror appeared all body) there did branch forth arms, or trunks, like huge massive serpents, that waved sprawling about the sides of the cavern. I observed that they were covered with emboluses, like to those I saw in that object which moved along the edge of the parapet.
Suddenly I was become sensible of a small scraping sound close under where I lay; and, looking quickly, I spied the extremity of one of those serpent-like trunks, being the same, no doubt, as that which I had seen moving along the rock. It was mounting again, being but a yard below the parapet, with a steady pushing motion. Moved by an urgent prompting beyond my will, I violently cast myself backwards, and lay over on my side; while, arriving the top, the monstrous thing, on a sudden, darted forward, with its suckers wide open like a sort of horrible, eager, gluttonous mouths. It passed but an inch from my shoulder.
Being thus foiled of its object, it held for a moment turning slowly in the air, and thereupon began searching hither and thither over the surface of the rock. In the meantime, however, with panic expedition heaving myself upon my belly, I was gotten a good way to one side just near that of one of our men who lay next along on the parapet - I mean, in the contrary direction to the boatswain: whereupon, being quite overcome with such terrors (which is no wonder), I immediately sunk into a swoon.
I revived (as I believe) soon after; for I appear to myself to recollect opening my eyes - yet no more than a glimpse - and then I fell off into a sleep - but no ordinary or natural sleep; for ’twas haunted by a dream that was more lively substantial than any mere figment of the brain, and much more terrible.
And I beheld in this prodigious dream, upon a wizard dark ocean, the appearance of a ship; yet in form and fashion much unlike a ship, being oval, as well the deck as the sides of it; neither had it any masts or other sailing-gear. The colour of it was bluish green, glistening as the interior of some sea-shells and wavering with a sort of inner and unearthly lustre. Though I have called it a ship, I vaguely apprehended that it was also (by what I can express) a living creature.
‘Twas all shadowy and obscure; but it was become presently a little more clear; and then I observed that the bows, which now perfectly engaged my attention, were of an exceeding strange fashion, and in substance not wooden, or of any hard consistency, but of a corporeal, and sort of inexpressive alluring strange softness. I began to discern the appearance of a shape that was feminine, but not human; yet in what manner differing from human I know not. It was enchanting beyond utterance; than any mortal woman, though it were Helen, or Cleopatra, more seductively and ravishing fair.
I never distinctly descried the appearance (in which, as I apprehend, I was not unblessed); for, on a sudden, there fell a flash as of sulphureous fire, and, on all sides of that obscure and mysterious object there was shot forth monstrous great trunks, that, Gorgon-like, waved curling amidst the clouds.
Thereupon, darkness fell, and horror: thick darkness in which my soul seemed smothered, engulfed in some infernal and abominable element; and, with deadly struggling and pangs of loathing past utterance, I came to myself.
This, however, was but to pass from one state of horror to another, when I was become sensible in what place I lay.
But that dreadful cavern was no longer silent; for there came from all sides around a sort of confused low humming or roarin
g, being occasioned, as I soon perceived, by our men who lay therein; and rising all trembling to my feet, I beheld some of them in the dun light, being all huddled forward, most upon their hands and knees, whilst they looked over the parapet. They looked to be spectators in some obscure and demonic theatre.
A sort of still and deathly curiosity, on a sudden, succeeded my terror; and, stooping down, I peeped over the ledge.
I dared not, however, look directly below, to have beheld a second time those fiendlike orbs. Yet, notwithstanding, the sight that met my eyes was more actually dreadful; for one of those monstrous great serpent-like trunks, raised aloft in the cavity, was coiled about the body of a man, being not above four or five yards from where I lay. It was Mr Falconer.
He did not strive, or cry out: constrained (as I did suppose) by the excess of terror and dismay; but, when his face, at first averted from me, was, with the slow turning of the trunk, discovered plainly to my sight (for he was lifted quite near me), I beheld thereon much resembling what I had seen on the face of the boatswain, a look of a sort of abounding, extravagant, and antic joy.