by Basil Copper
which obscured our vision, so that we might have been advancing toward some distant horizon. Indeed, the illusion was so complete that there were times when I completely forgot that we were not still upon the surface. Scarsdale had not forgotten our place or purpose, however, as I noticed he had his revolver out and beside him on the chart-table. Van Damm maintained the radio link and apart from our taking station abreast and the fact that we had no artificial lighting switched on, all seemed as normal as our habitual routine underground.
And yet it was not normal, could not be normal, and for the first time since we had been beneath the surface of the mountains, I began to experience a fueling of tingling excitement; I put this down to the illusion of being on the surface. Truth to tell I could not have maintained my morale had we continued much longer within the eternal darkness of the tunnel. The mileage recorder registered a little over eighty-six miles when we at last came to the extreme limit of our journey, at least so far as the tractors were concerned.
I had for some minutes been conscious of a humidity in the atmosphere and a slight disturbance in the middle distance which resembled the lazy breathing of a restless giant. As we advanced over suddenly wet sand I then saw what appeared to be a thin line of surf which flowed and receded before us, leaving a glistening iridescence upon the sloping surface of what, for want of a better term, I will call the beach. I was already slackening the tractor's speed and at the executive signal both machines turned to port together and we drew back up the shore-line to a commanding position where the water was unlikely to penetrate.
Curiously, now that we were nere Scarsdale seemed to nave lost all interest in the scene before us. To my mild astonishment 1 heard him give radio orders to Van Damm that no-one was to leave the tractors; that as soon as engines were switched off we were to start battery re-charging procedures, clear up the interiors, check rubber boats, weapons and ammunition. Looking back now, this routine and somewhat dull programme made excellent sense. We did not know what we would be facing and there would be all the time in the world for examination of our surroundings later.
Our survival would depend upon the efficiency of our equipment and if anything happened to the tractors it seemed, despite the Professor's previous experience, unlikely that so large a party would get back on foot without some major disaster. Scarsdale was an exceptional man and one built for survival under adverse conditions, but I did not see myself as being cast from that heroic mould and the remainder of our companions, though exceptional men in their fields, were probably not of sufficient physical calibre, though these things are always difficult to ascertain with any degree of accuracy.
So we spent the remainder of the morning on our allotted tasks, without going outside and even lunched within the tractors, until our leader was satisfied that things were as far forward as they could possibly be. Then he set us all to dragging out the rubber boats, military stores and other equipment on to the foreshore; it was not until late afternoon, when we had set a guard, inflated the two large rubber boats and set up two machine-guns on tripods that he announced his plans. To our astonishment he said that it would be a further two days before we would embark upon the underground lake; he called it a lake but it was like a small tidal sea. He did not know its limits but despite the vast length of the tunnel we had traversed, he would guess it to be fairly small, even though it had a minute tidal movement. He had ascertained on his previous visit that the water was brackish and it did not seem to contain any marine life of any sort.
His plan was to continue to steer almost due north and hope to hit another beach on the far side of the lake. The party would then explore onwards, always leaving good margins for food, water and stores in order that we could return. The boats would be left on the far shore and we would then proceed with tents. The time spent at the present site, which Scarsdale had designated Camp Two, to distinguish it from the spot where we had left the reserve tractor at the tunnel entrance, would be employed in training and exploration.
As I saw it Scarsdale intended us to concentrate on our weapon training; and we would also be taught how to handle the somewhat cumbersome rubber boats, which were of bright red material, which stood out well under the dim phosphorescence of the atmosphere. We would try to explore the limits of the beach; take samples of sand, rock and water for analysis; perform life-jacket and life-saving drill; practise filling the special packs in which we would have to transport our belongings; and also pitch tents and strike camp, all things we would have to get used to on the other side of the lake.
Scarsdale, somewhat jokingly, had suggested naming the tunnel along which we had so laboriously travelled, the Van Damm Passage, in honour of our companion; the doctor had flushed scarlet at this and had stammeringly disclaimed the distinction but Scarsdale insisted on pencilling it on the large- scale maps that were being drawn by our companions. Now, as we walked briefly on our first reconnoitre towards the shore, Van Damm reciprocated by suggesting that we dub the lake the Scarsdale Sea, a suggestion which found favour with the whole party.
It was in this amiable state of mind that we all set to after lunch, only Prescott's movements being conscribed, as he was on the first guard-duty, having to remain by the tractors and within easy reach of the klaxon and machine-gun. The remainder of us then walked slowly down towards the water's edge, three of us at least marvelling at the unearthly vista before us. Before I describe our surroundings, one action of the Professor's drew audible comment from Holden; oblivious to the weird beauty of the scene he seated himself on a spur of black, basaltic rock which thrust itself out of the sand before us and buried himself in The Ethics of Ygor, occasionally humming to himself as he consulted his columns of figures.
We waited politely until he had finished his calculations before moving on; when he was ready Scarsdale jumped up with a muttered apology and came towards us. He then acted as our guide, setting off along the shore at a brisk pace, the rest of us falling into step. I do not think I shall ever forget the spectacle that was spread before us that afternoon, in a place which had no dawn, day, night or sunset and in which all sense of time was lost; a region of other-worldly beauty which we were forced to subordinate to our man-made notions of time, order and routine.
The first thing we noticed was that the sluggish tide which rose and fell a foot or two on the shallow shelving shore, was itself as phosphorescent as the light which came from the sky. In between was a sort of vaporous mist which hung in thin sheets over the surface of the water, so that we were able only to see about two hundred yards out from the beach, when all was lost amid the indistinct haze. But the faint luminosity of the water, the brief lacunae caused by the mist and the recurrence of the vibrating brightness from the vast roof of the cave, hidden from us, made the whole atmosphere nothing more reminiscent than some great painting of Turner, gigantically enlarged.
We walked for about a mile westwards along the beach until our passage was barred by a configuration of rocks which thrust out into the water, so sealing us off, as the landward side of the mass was sheer and unclimbable. We came back, each heavy with his own thoughts, all of us exhilarated and moved at the strangeness of our surroundings. On our return I relieved Prescott who was then free to join the others in another sweep to eastward. I remained on top of the tractor, straining my eyes until the last of my companions had dissolved into the blur of the atmosphere.
I passed a long hour and was then relieved to see the four of them returning. They had found a similar situation to that obtaining to the west. A broad beach, misty water and finally impassable rocks. Scarsdale was inclined to the theory that the rock formations were masses broken away from the main walls of the vast cavern when it had solidified in pre-historic times and the others were of similar opinion. None of them felt that the rocks had any particular significance and that if it had been possible to scale them they would have merely led the explorer, sooner or later, to the blank, impassable walls of the main cave.
From figures the P
rofessor had worked out, based on measurements and theories expounded on his walk, he.had advanced the opinion that the lake or tarn, despite its apparent tidal tendencies, would not prove to be of vast size, though he had surmised it might be a mile or more in width. We were not proposing to explore -its longitudinal limits and Van Damm felt that the tide might be caused by inlets, at some vast distance beneath the earth, running down into one end of the lake and out at the other.
We debated earnestly within the tractor that evening and many were the theories that Van Damm and Scarsdale argued; it was, from my point of view, one of the most stimulating and interesting evenings we had yet spent, the burden of the earlier nights having given way to a light-hearted optimism on the part of the three junior members. Even Holden was more like his normal self, though I noticed, that, even when off watch, he cast occasional glances through the windscreen, as if to assure himself that all was well outside.
Van Damm had taken the first of the two-hour watches and was, thus, the first to observe the sheer monotony of the atmosphere here, the light never varying by the slightest degree from the overall twilight. But even this mundane fact was written up in the voluminous notebooks which the Professor and his companions were beginning to fill with columns of figures and other statistics. I took my own watch at four in the morning and though the slight breeze from the north still blew, the atmosphere was not damp as might have been supposed from the nearby presence of water; neither did I hear or see anything untoward.
Ever since the strange flapping noise I had first heard at the great portico entrance several days ago, which might now almost be measured in years so long did we seem to have been beneath the surface, my nerves had been playing me strange tricks. The horrifying and quite unexplainable death of Zalor had completed the stealthy undermining of my morale and so I faced my first turn of sentry-duty, my companions all being asleep, with rather more tension that I would have liked.
But all passed without incident as did the subsequent spells of watching over the next two days. We fired the various weapons, with differing degrees of success, the dull explosions seeming to start weird echoes from far off across the water. We hauled the rubber boats down to the edge of the brackish lake and embarked, paddling a few hundred yards out into the mist by compass, and then turning again, making our way back to the beach without mishap. The rubber lifebelts were duly inflated and each of us — not without forebodings, though the water had been already declared non-injurious to health — plunged into the cold tide until their buoyancy had been duly tested.
These, and other equally strenuous enterprises occupied us for the allotted time, until Scarsdale had professed himself satisfied with our efficiency. On the third morning, after a substantial breakfast, shortly after seven a.m. the five of us, in two rubber boats attached one to the other by the painters, slipped into the cold tide, leaving the two locked tractors shrouded under their tarpaulins, and splashed out somewhat hesitantly into the misty unknown.
Twelve
1
Scarsdale, Van Damm and Holden embarked in the first rubber boat, while Prescott and I followed. The noise of the paddles, the dripping of water, seemingly magnified by the mist and the curious pallor of the light from above made an unforgettable scene as we thrust out from the shore and were soon undulating on the choppy surface, our horizons limited by the faint mist which clung to the surface.
The rubber boats were dangerously low, we had packed so much equipment in with us and I hoped that the current would not get any stronger farther out; if we had to paddle for our lives Prescott and I were singularly ill-equipped for the task. Scarsdale's boat carried the compass and we were attached by the rope in any case so we had no navigation to do. Even so, we were hard put to it to keep up and every so often Scarsdale's sharp injunction would come across to us as the line went taut, due to our inability to match their speed.
But after half an hour Prescott and I had settled down to stroke and our thoughts wandered in a pleasant form of euphoria, our responsibilities surrendered to those on the main craft, our minds as well at ease in this place as they would ever be. We needed both hands for the paddles, but even so our rifles were hardly at our feet, wedged against crates, cases and bundles of camping equipment. My main concern had been the safety of my cameras and my supply of photographic plates; to this end I had secured them in the middle of the mound, well wrapped in waterproof material. My companions had regarded my possibly excessive precautions as faintly ludicrous and even Van Damm was tempted to remark, on embarkation, 'We aren't going to America, Plowright.'
'Who knows where we are going?' Scarsdale had put in unexpectedly and, on reflection, he was, of course, right. The lake might be of enormous extent, if it were on the scale of the works we had already seen. My reflections were interrupted at this point by a sudden lurching movement of the craft, and its tipping at one end, accompanied by a slight ingress of water. My smothered exclamation was followed by a curt shout from the Professor and a muttered apology from Prescott, who had caught his paddle in the securing line.
The interruption was timely, however, and I looked more sharply about me, noting that the phosphorescence of the water remained unabated; that the slight tidal movement continued; and that the surface vapour had receded a little so that our two craft floated in a clear circular area about half a mile in extent. The illumination from above continued steadily so that we seemed to be sailing beneath the dim sky of earth and the warm breeze which had blown steadily from the north appeared, to my imagination at least, to be a little stronger.
With it, I fancied a faint vibration as of some great machine a long way off, giving out a pulsation like a heart-beat. I glanced at Prescott but saw that he had already heard it and looking ahead, I could see that the other party had stopped their vigorous paddling and were all poised, water running off their paddle blades in fiery particles, as they listened intently.
I was amused to see that almost immediately Van Damm bent to his knees and I then made out that he was scribbling furiously in his notebook; he glanced at his wristwatch and continued his entry as he recorded a log observation of the phenomena. After this slight pause the three paddles of our companions dipped as one and Prescott and I measured our own strokes to theirs and so the two ungainly rubber craft went bobbing and nodding into the mist.
Some fairly stiff paddling followed and from various indications, verified by Prescott, we estimated that we might be about halfway across the lake; the current strength was increasing here and it seemed to run roughly from east to west, bearing out Scarsdale's earlier theory. However, nowhere was it really troublesome and by allowing for it by heading off from true north on the compass Scarsdale and his companions ahead of us continued travelling almost due north over the ground.
It was slow work though, and we had no means of estimating our progress as we had on the tractors; without benefit of the compass and because of the encircling mist Prescott and I would have been completely lost but for the guidance of the lead craft and one could go round for hours in those conditions without navigational aids. The strangeness of the light also, both from the water as well as from what we called the sky, resulted in a peculiar sense of disorientation, and we were both glad to hear Scarsdale's hail from the lead craft about two hours later, that we were approaching the opposite shore.
At a conservative estimate we must have been covering something like three miles an hour over the ground so the extent of the lake width might be somewhere in the region of five miles; a prodigious area for an underground feature of this sort. The Scarsdale See was living up to its newly given name. Prescott and I slackened our paddling and as we drifted farther towards Scarsdale's boat, which had also paused in front of us, we could distinctly hear the faint susurrance of water on the shore before us.
As we rocked slowly inwards, parallel with the first rubber boat, I could see, from the first glimpse, that the shore was almost an exact replica of the one we had left. Here were the same black rock
s, the water lapping at the dark sand and tumbling phosphorescent round the base of the rocks; the mist low down on the shoreline; the dim light coming downwards through the vaporous haze; and the sand receding into rocky distance.
I noticed that Scarsdale and our companions had their revolvers drawn and we all waited in that uneasy surge until a gesture from our leader set us all to paddling again, so that the two boats grated and foamed their way ashore. We jumped on to the wet, yielding sand and dragged the frail craft up way beyond the water line. As before, Scarsdale was in no hurry to proceed; exploration could wait while he established another camp and we unloaded the supplies. We chose a spot in the rear of a heaped tumble of boulders and there set up the tents, unpacked what equipment we would need for a night's stay and dragged up the two boats, which the Professor insisted should be tethered to stakes driven into the sand, though what purpose that served I did not quite see.
This was named Camp Three and the boats and the heavier stores would remain here while the five of us, reduced to a walking party, went on with the packs, tents and more portable supplies. But the day's activities would include a preliminary exploration inwards by three of the party; the remaining two would prepare the camp's midday meal and make an effort to investigate this far shoreline if there were time. Once again machine-guns were dragged out and mounted on their tripods. Their line of fire commanded both approaches to the beach, that is from west to east, but again I could not possibly see what lay behind the Professor's reasoning.
Apart from the flapping of what I took to be wings, we had heard or seen nothing of any living creature since we went underground, though I could not deny that the dwarfs mysterious and sinister end was enough to ensure the most stringent precautions. We drew lots for the parties and it fell to Van Damm and Holden to remain in camp while Prescott and I under Scarsdale's guidance would press on to see what lay beyond the beach.