After London; Or, Wild England

by Richard Jefferies

  CHAPTER XXIV

  FIERY VAPOURS

  Felix tried to run, but his feet would not rise from the ground; hislimbs were numb as in a nightmare; he could not get there. His bodywould not obey his will. In reality he did move, but more slowly thanwhen he walked. By degrees approaching the canoe his alarm subsided, foralthough it burned it was not injured; the canvas of the sail was noteven scorched. When he got to it the flames had disappeared; likeJack-o'-the-lantern, the phosphoric fire receded from him. With all hisstrength he strove to launch her, yet paused, for over the surface ofthe black water, now smooth and waveless, played immense curling flames,stretching out like endless serpents, weaving, winding, rolling overeach other. Suddenly they contracted into a ball, which shone with asteady light, and was as large as the full moon. The ball swept along,rose a little, and from it flew out long streamers till it was unwoundin fiery threads.

  But remembering that the flames had not even scorched the canvas, hepushed the canoe afloat, determined at any risk to leave this dreadfulplace. To his joy he felt a faint air rising; it cooled his forehead,but was not enough to fill the sail. He paddled with all the strength hehad left. The air seemed to come from exactly the opposite direction towhat it had previously blown, some point of east he supposed. Labour ashard as he would, the canoe moved slowly, being so heavy. It seemed asif the black water was thick and clung to her, retarding motion. Still,he did move, and in time (it seemed, indeed, a time) he left the island,which disappeared in the luminous vapours. Uncertain as to thedirection, he got his compass, but it would not act; the needle had nolife, it swung and came to rest, pointing any way as it chanced. It wasdemagnetized. Felix resolved to trust to the wind, which he was certainblew from the opposite quarter, and would therefore carry him out. Thestars he could not see for the vapour, which formed a roof above him.

  The wind was rising, but in uncertain gusts; however, he hoisted thesail, and floated slowly before it. Nothing but excitement could havekept him awake. Reclining in the canoe, he watched the serpent-likeflames playing over the surface, and forced himself by sheer power ofwill not to sleep. The two dark clouds which had accompanied him to theshore now faded away, and the cooling wind enabled him to bear up betteragainst his parching thirst. His hope was to reach the clear andbeautiful Lake; his dread that in the uncertain light he might strike aconcealed sandbank and become firmly fixed.

  Twice he passed islands, distinguishable as masses of visible darkness.While the twisted flames played up to the shore, and the luminous vapouroverhung the ground, the island itself appeared as a black mass. Thewind became by degrees steadier, and the canoe shot swiftly over thewater. His hopes rose; he sat up and kept a keener look-out ahead. Allat once the canoe shook as if she had struck a rock. She vibrated fromone end to the other, and stopped for a moment in her course. Felixsprang up alarmed. At the same instant a bellowing noise reached him,succeeded by a frightful belching and roaring, as if a volcano had burstforth under the surface of the water; he looked back but could seenothing. The canoe had not touched ground; she sailed as rapidly asbefore.

  Again the shock, and again the hideous roaring, as if some force beneaththe water were forcing itself up, vast bubbles rising and turning.Fortunately it was at a great distance. Hardly was it silent before itwas reiterated for the third time. Next Felix felt the canoe heave up,and he was aware that a large roller had passed under him. A second anda third followed. They were without crests, and were not raised by thewind; they obviously started from the scene of the disturbance. Soonafterwards the canoe moved quicker, and he detected a strong currentsetting in the direction he was sailing.

  The noise did not recur, nor did any more rollers pass under. Felix feltbetter and less dazed, but his weariness and sleepiness increased everymoment. He fancied that the serpent flames were less brilliant andfarther apart, and that the luminous vapour was thinner. How long he satat the rudder he could not tell; he noticed that it seemed to growdarker, the serpent flames faded away, and the luminous vapour wassucceeded by something like the natural gloom of night. At last he saw astar overhead, and hailed it with joy. He thought of Aurora; the nextinstant he fell back in the canoe firm asleep.

  His arm, however, still retained the rudder-paddle in position, so thatthe canoe sped on with equal swiftness. She would have struck more thanone of the sandbanks and islets had it not been for the strong currentthat was running. Instead of carrying her against the banks this wardedher off, for it drew her between the islets in the channels where it ranfastest, and the undertow, where it struck the shore, bore her back fromthe land. Driving before the wind, the canoe swept onward steadily tothe west. In an hour it had passed the line of the black water, andentered the sweet Lake. Another hour and all trace of the marshes hadutterly disappeared, the last faint glow of the vapour had vanished. Thedawn of the coming summer's day appeared, and the sky became a lovelyazure. The canoe sailed on, but Felix remained immovable in slumber.

  Long since the strong current had ceased, it scarcely extended into thesweet waters, and the wind only impelled the canoe. As the sun rose thebreeze gradually fell away, and in an hour or so there was only a lightair. The canoe had left most of the islets and was approaching the openLake when, as she passed almost the last, the yard caught theoverhanging branch of a willow, the canoe swung round and groundedgently under the shadow of the tree. For some time the little waveletsbeat against the side of the boat; gradually they ceased, and the clearand beautiful water became still. Felix slept till nearly noon, when heawoke and sat up. At the sudden movement a pike struck, and two moorhensscuttled out of the water into the grass on the shore. A thrush wassinging sweetly, whitethroats were busy in the bushes, and swallowsswept by overhead.

  Felix drew a long deep breath of intense relief; it was like awakeningin Paradise. He snatched up a cup, dipped, and satisfied his cravingthirst, then washed his hands over the side, and threw the water overhis face. But when he came to stand up and move, he found that his limbswere almost powerless. Like a child he tottered, his joints had nostrength, his legs tingled as if they had been benumbed. He was so weakhe crawled on all fours along to the mast, furled the sail kneeling, anddragged himself rather than stepped ashore with the painter. The instanthe had fastened the rope to a branch, he threw himself at full length onthe grass, and grasped a handful of it. Merely to touch the grass aftersuch an experience was intense delight.

  The song of the thrush, the chatter of the whitethroats, the sight of ahedge-sparrow, gave him inexpressible pleasure. Lying on the sward hewatched the curves traced by the swallows in the sky. From the sedgescame the curious cry of the moorhen; a bright kingfisher went by. Herested as he had never rested before. His whole body, his whole beingwas resigned to rest. It was fully two hours before he rose and crept onall fours into the canoe for food. There was only sufficient left forone meal, but that gave him no concern now he was out of the marshes; hecould fish and use his crossbow.

  He now observed what had escaped him during the night, the canoe wasblack from end to end. Stem, stern, gunwale, thwart, outrigger, mast andsail were black. The stain did not come off on being touched, it seemedburnt in. As he leaned over the side to dip water, and saw hisreflection, he started; his face was black, his clothes were black, hishair black. In his eagerness to drink, the first time, he had noticednothing. His hands were less dark; contact with the paddle and ropes hadpartly rubbed it off, he supposed. He washed, but the water did notmaterially diminish the discoloration.

  After eating, he returned to the grass and rested again; and it was nottill the sun was sinking that he felt any return of vigour. Still weak,but able now to walk, leaning on a stick, he began to make a camp forthe coming night. But a few scraps, the remnant of his former meal, wereleft; on these he supped after a fashion, and long before the white owlbegan his rounds Felix was fast asleep on his hunter's hide from thecanoe. He found next morning that the island was small, only a fewacres; it was well-wooded, dry, and sandy in places. He had littleinclination
or strength to resume his expedition; he erected a booth ofbranches, and resolved to stay a few days till his strength returned.

  By shooting wildfowl, and fishing, he fared very well, and soonrecovered. In two days the discoloration of the skin had faded to anolive tint, which, too, grew fainter. The canoe lost its blackness, andbecame a rusty colour. By rubbing the coins he had carried away he foundthey were gold; part of the inscription remained, but he could not readit. The blue china-tile was less injured than the metal; after washingit, it was bright. But the diamond pleased him most; it would be asplendid present for Aurora. Never had he seen anything like it in thepalaces; he believe it was twice the size of the largest possessed byany king or prince.

  It was as big as his finger-nail, and shone and gleamed in the sunlight,sparkling and reflecting the beams. Its value must be very great. Butwell he knew how dangerous it would be to exhibit it; on some pretext orother he would be thrown into prison, and the gem seized. It must behidden with the greatest care till he could produce it in Thyma Castle,when the Baron would protect it. Felix regretted now that he had notsearched further; perhaps he might have found other treasures forAurora; the next instant he repudiated his greed, and was only thankfulthat he had escaped with his life. He wondered and marvelled that he haddone so, it was so well known that almost all who had ventured in hadperished.

  Reflecting on the circumstances which had accompanied his entrance tothe marshes, the migration of the birds seemed almost the most singular.They were evidently flying from some apprehended danger, and that mostprobably would be in the air. The gale at that time, however, wasblowing in a direction which would appear to ensure safety to them;into, and not out of, the poisonous marshes. Did they, then, foreseethat it would change? Did they expect it to veer like a cyclone andpresently blow east with the same vigour as it then blew west? Thatwould carry the vapour from the inky waters out over the sweet Lake, andmight even cause the foul water itself to temporarily encroach on thesweet. The more he thought of it, the more he felt convinced that thiswas the explanation; and, as a fact, the wind, after dropping, did ariseagain and blow from the east, though, as it happened, not with nearlythe same strength. It fell, too, before long, fortunately for him.Clearly the birds had anticipated a cyclone, and that the wind turningwould carry the gases out upon them to their destruction. They hadtherefore hurried away, and the fishes had done the same.

  The velocity of the gale which had carried him into the black waters hadproved his safety, by driving before it the thicker and most poisonousportion of the vapour, compressing it towards the east, so that he hadentered the dreaded precincts under favourable conditions. When itdropped, while he was on the black island, he soon began to feel theeffect of the gases rising imperceptibly from the soil, and had he nothad the good fortune to escape so soon, no doubt he would have fallen avictim. He could not congratulate himself sufficiently upon his goodfortune. The other circumstances appeared to be due to the decay of theancient city, to the decomposition of accumulated matter, tophosphorescence and gaseous exhalations. The black rocks that crumbledat a touch were doubtless the remains of ancient buildings saturatedwith the dark water and vapours. Inland similar remains were white, andresembled salt.

  But the great explosions which occurred as he was leaving, and whichsent heavy rollers after him, were not easily understood, till heremembered that in Sylvester's "Book of Natural Things" it was relatedthat "the ancient city had been undermined with vast conduits, sewers,and tunnels, and that these communicated with the sea". It had been muchdisputed whether the sea did or did not still send its tides up to thesite of the old quays. Felix now thought that the explosions were due tocompressed air, or more probably to gases met with by the ascendingtide.