The White Waterfall
Page 32
place, whatan eventful five minutes that would be. But the big things of life arecrammed into minutes, and Time was bringing the most thrilling one ofour lives toward us as we scrambled up the chute. Our adventures uponthe Isle of Tears were to have a climax that fitted them.
Holman stopped as I had done and thrust his face down upon the rock ashis eyes caught a glimpse of the glittering wall of the crater that camesuddenly into view. The rays of the sun blazing down upon the stainedsides of the mysterious pit made the veins of colour appear likebrilliant snakes. The patch that was framed by the walls of the openingthrough which we gazed was a wild riot of scintillating, blindingcolours that dazzled our eyes as we stared at them.
For a minute Holman breathed hungrily of the hot air, then he attemptedto discover our exact position in the crater.
"We must be somewhere near the top," he declared. "Don't you rememberthat the colour of the walls darkened rapidly below the Ledge of Death?"
"I remember," I answered. "We must be nearly on a level with the Ledge."
"If we could look out from under this projecting piece of rock,"muttered the youngster.
"It's risky."
"I'll make a try, Verslun. Hold my legs. I'm going to hang out of thisburrow and take a peep around to get our bearings."
I gripped his legs, and turning upon his back he pushed himself slowlyout over the edge of the passage till he was able to look up in front ofthe piece of rock that projected like the peak of a cap above theopening.
Clinging to this peak with his two hands, the upper part of his bodybeing out over the abyss, he stared upward, and as I watched his face Inoticed the look of joy and amazement that spread across it.
"What is it, Holman?" I cried. "Are we saved? Tell me!"
He slid hurriedly back to safety and pounded the rock above his headwith his bare fists.
"Do you know what this is?" he yelled. "Do you know?"
I tried to utter the words that came to my tongue, but I could not. Icould see the joy in the youngster's eyes, but I was afraid to speak.
"It is the Ledge of Death!" he shouted. "There is only six inches ofrock above us!"
"Then we're saved!" I cried.
"Sure! If you put the rope around me I can crawl up on it, and oncethere I can haul up the others. Do you know what Soma told the Professorabout the bad men falling into this infernal pit?"
I nodded my head. I was unable to speak at that moment.
"Well, the Wizards of the Centipede fixed that! Don't you see? This wastheir seat! They leaned out of this place as I leaned out just now, andthey gripped the ankles of any poor devil they had a grouch against. Itwas devilish----"
I put my hand across his mouth and he became instantly mute. We held ourbreath and listened intently. From above us came the faint sound offootsteps and a cold perspiration broke out upon us. Some one waswalking slowly along the Ledge of Death!
The sounds ceased when the unknown was immediately above our heads, anda guilty look came upon Holman's face. The man on the Ledge hadprobably heard the youngster's voice, and he was puzzled to know wherethe sounds had come from.
We sat without moving a muscle. The silence convinced us that theunknown was listening. We knew that he hadn't climbed from the Ledge tothe top of the crater. The scratching of his shoes against the rockwould have come to our ears. He was waiting--waiting to discover fromwhat direction the voice had come that caused him to pause and listen.
The minutes passed like slow-dragging years. The man above wore shoesand the two men who wore shoes, outside our own party, were Leith andthe one-eyed man. Somehow we felt that Maru and Kaipi had settled withOne Eye, so there was only one person on the Isle of Tears who couldpossibly be listening.
Ten minutes passed, then Holman pointed to his own legs. I understoodthe sign and gripped his ankles. My head was bursting with the terrorinspired by the thought that our escape might be cut off after themiraculous manner in which the way out had been shown to us.
Without noise, yet with incredible swiftness, the youngster turned uponhis back and wriggled forward till his head and shoulders were again outover the pit. His body was tense, every muscle showing as he stiffenedhimself. Into my mind flashed a picture of the bloodthirsty Wizards ofthe Centipede stretching out in exactly the same manner centuries beforea white man sailed into the Pacific!
The silence seemed to sap my strength. I watched Holman with eyes thatwere half-blinded by the perspiration that rolled down my forehead.There was no movement upon the ledge, and the fingers of the youngsterwere reaching slowly--slowly upward.
It was a yell of horror that shattered the awful quiet--a yell that wentup through the hot air like the shriek of a lost soul. It swirled aroundand around like a lariat of brass. It was a terrible yell. It wrenchedmy inmost being till the very spirit seemed to go out of me for aninstant, and I returned to consciousness to find myself struggling tohold Holman from being dragged into the depths below.
It was the youngster's voice that seemed to bring me back to a knowledgeof the surroundings. In an instant's pause in the torrent of blasphemyhis words came to me clear and distinct.
"Hold me tight, Verslun!" he cried. "Hold me tight, man! _I have him!_"
"Hold me tight, Verslun!" he cried. "Hold me tight, man!_I have him!_"]
I shut my eyes to escape the fascination of the depths, and I grippedHolman's ankles till my nails burrowed into his flesh. I felt his bodyheave with a tremendous effort, then another yell, shorter but moreterrifying than the first, told me that the struggle was over.
I dragged Holman back to safety, and, stretched side by side upon therock, we listened. Down in the pit--miles, leagues away, something wasfalling!
The youngster pulled himself together after the silence had settled uponthe place like a film.
"Let's tie the rope and get the girls up here," he said quietly, "In awhile--in a little while--I can crawl on to the ledge and pull them upwith a rope."
CHAPTER XXIV
THE WAY TO HEAVEN
With quick-beating pulses we fixed the rope and shouted directions downthe slippery passage to the girls and the Professor, and inside of tenminutes they were beside us, looking out with frightened eyes at thecoloured wall of the opposite side of the pit. The faces of Edith andBarbara looked pale and careworn, but they smiled bravely when Holmanassured them that we were within a yard of the path by which we hadcrossed to the Valley of Echoes.
"Be brave," he said cheerfully. "You'll be on your way back to theshore before many hours have passed by. There is no--no danger now."
I do not know if the two girls understood the meaning of his words, butthey asked no questions. Somehow I think that they knew what hadhappened. Those two terrible cries must have reached their ears as theywaited at the foot of the chute that led to the wizards' seat, but ifthey had any doubts concerning their origin, they refrained from seekinginformation. But the Professor knew. A melancholy that had tied histongue all through the long day in the Black Kindergarten left him as hecame to the sunlight, and he became light-hearted and merry. He feltthat he had been relieved of his load of nightmares, and the dangers ofthe climb to the rocky shelf above our heads did not trouble him in theleast.
It was Holman who performed the heroic work on the late afternoon ofthat eventful day. With the rope tied around his waist, he pushedhimself out as he had done twice before during the preceding hour, then,gripping the edge of the shelf, dragged himself forward. For a moment,as he swung over the depths, it looked as if he would be unable to draghimself up, and we clung on to the rope and watched him with frightenedeyes. But youth and courage won the day. Slowly, inch by inch, he liftedhimself, the lips of the two girls moving in dumb prayer; then we lostsight of him as he drew his legs up on to the ledge, and we knew that wewere safe!
The youngster secured the rope to a projection on the shelf above, andthe Professor, nervous but game, was the next to make the perilousjourney. It was blood-curdling to watch the old man swaying over thedepths while Holman, ly
ing flat upon his stomach, gripped him beneaththe arms and dragged the poor old scientist to safety.
Barbara went next, and when the rope was lowered once more I secured itaround Edith's waist. I held her in my arms as I pushed her body forwardto Holman's strong hands that waited just below the ledge, and for onebrief instant her lips came close to mine, and with a mad, wild lovethat had been born in danger, where there was no time for words, Istooped and kissed her. And even in that moment of extreme peril a faintsmile swept over her face as she looked up into mine, and I knew thatshe understood.
It was nearly sunset when we moved away from the top of the VermilionPit, but we had not gone ten paces when we stopped. A yell came out ofthe place, then another and another, and Holman and I rushed back to theedge. Down beneath us, on the slippery Ledge of Death,