XXIV
WALKING THE PLANK
Next day the mutes woke us before the dawn; and by the time that we hadgot the sleep out of our eyes, and gone through a perfunctory wash at aspring which still welled up into the remains of a marble basin in thecentre of the North quadrangle of the vast outer court, we found _She_standing by the litter ready to start, while old Billali and the twobearer mutes were busy collecting the baggage. As usual, Ayesha wasveiled like the marble Truth (by the way, I wonder if she originallygot the idea of covering up her beauty from that statue?). I noticed,however, that she seemed very depressed, and had none of that proud andbuoyant bearing which would have betrayed her among a thousand women ofthe same stature, even if they had been veiled like herself. She lookedup as we came--for her head was bowed--and greeted us. Leo asked her howshe had slept.
"Ill, my Kallikrates," she answered, "ill. This night have strange andhideous dreams come creeping through my brain, and I know not what theymay portend. Almost do I feel as though some evil overshadowed me; andyet how can evil touch me? I wonder," she went on with a sudden outbreakof womanly tenderness, "I wonder if, should aught happen to me, so thatI slept awhile and left thee waking, thou wouldst think gently of me? Iwonder, my Kallikrates, if thou wouldst tarry till I came again, as forso many centuries I have tarried for thy coming?"
Then, without waiting for an answer, she went on: "Come, let us besetting forth, for we have far to go, and before another day is born inyonder blue should we stand in the place of Life."
In five minutes we were once more on our way through the vast ruinedcity, which loomed at us on either side in the grey dawning in a waythat was at once grand and oppressive. Just as the first ray of therising sun shot like a golden arrow athwart this storied desolation wegained the further gateway of the outer wall, and having given one moreglance at the hoar and pillared majesty through which we had journeyed,and (with the exception of Job, for whom ruins had no charms) breatheda sigh of regret that we had not had more time to explore it, passedthrough the great moat, and on to the plain beyond.
As the sun rose so did Ayesha's spirits, till by breakfast-time they hadregained their normal level, and she laughingly set down her previousdepression to the associations of the spot where she had slept.
"These barbarians swear that Kôr is haunted," she said, "and of a truthI do believe their saying, for never did I know so ill a night save one.I remember it now. It was on that very spot when thou didst lie dead atmy feet, Kallikrates. Never will I visit it again; it is a place of evilomen."
After a very brief halt for breakfast we pressed on with such good willthat by two o'clock in the afternoon we were at the foot of the vastwall of rock that formed the lip of the volcano, and which at this pointtowered up precipitously above us for fifteen hundred or two thousandfeet. Here we halted, certainly not to my astonishment, for I did notsee how it was possible that we should go any farther.
"Now," said Ayesha, as she descended from her litter, "doth our labourbut commence, for here do we part with these men, and henceforward mustwe bear ourselves;" and then, addressing Billali, "do thou and theseslaves remain here, and abide our coming. By to-morrow at the middayshall we be with thee--if not, wait."
Billali bowed humbly, and said that her august bidding should be obeyedif they stopped there till they grew old.
"And this man, oh Holly," said _She_, pointing to Job; "best is itthat he should tarry also, for if his heart be not high and his couragegreat, perchance some evil might overtake him. Also, the secrets of theplace whither we go are not fit for common eyes."
I translated this to Job, who instantly and earnestly entreated me,almost with tears in his eyes, not to leave him behind. He said he wassure that he could see nothing worse than he had already seen, and thathe was terrified to death at the idea of being left alone with those"dumb folk," who, he thought, would probably take the opportunity tohot-pot him.
I translated what he said to Ayesha, who shrugged her shoulders, andanswered, "Well, let him come, it is naught to me; on his own head beit, and he will serve to bear the lamp and this," and she pointed to anarrow plank, some sixteen feet in length, which had been bound abovethe long bearing-pole of her hammock, as I had thought to make curtainsspread out better, but, as it now appeared, for some unknown purposeconnected with our extraordinary undertaking.
Accordingly, the plank, which, though tough, was very light, was givento Job to carry, and also one of the lamps. I slung the other on to myback, together with a spare jar of oil, while Leo loaded himself withthe provisions and some water in a kid's skin. When this was done _She_bade Billali and the six bearer mutes to retreat behind a grove offlowering magnolias about a hundred yards away, and remain there underpain of death till we had vanished. They bowed humbly, and went, and,as he departed, old Billali gave me a friendly shake of the hand, andwhispered that he had rather that it was I than he who was going on thiswonderful expedition with "_She-who-must-be-obeyed_," and upon my wordI felt inclined to agree with him. In another minute they were gone, andthen, having briefly asked us if we were ready, Ayesha turned, and gazedup the towering cliff.
"Goodness me, Leo," I said, "surely we are not going to climb thatprecipice!"
Leo shrugged his shoulders, being in a condition of half-fascinated,half-expectant mystification, and as he did so, Ayesha with a suddenmove began to climb the cliff, and of course we had to follow her. Itwas perfectly marvellous to see the ease and grace with which she sprangfrom rock to rock, and swung herself along the ledges. The ascent wasnot, however, so difficult as it seemed, although there were one or twonasty places where it did not do to look behind you, the fact being thatthe rock still sloped here, and was not absolutely precipitous as it washigher up. In this way we, with no great labour, mounted to the heightof some fifty feet above our last standing-place, the only reallytroublesome thing to manage being Job's board, and in doing so drew somefifty or sixty paces to the left of our starting-point, for we went uplike a crab, sideways. Presently we reached a ledge, narrow enough atfirst, but which widened as we followed it, and moreover sloped inwardslike the petal of a flower, so that as we followed it we gradually gotinto a kind of rut or fold of rock, that grew deeper and deeper, till atlast it resembled a Devonshire lane in stone, and hid us perfectly fromthe gaze of anybody on the slope below, if there had been anybody togaze. This lane (which appeared to be a natural formation) continuedfor some fifty or sixty paces, and then suddenly ended in a cave, alsonatural, running at right angles to it. I am sure it was a naturalcave, and not hollowed by the hand of man, because of its irregular andcontorted shape and course, which gave it the appearance of having beenblown bodily in the mountain by some frightful eruption of gas followingthe line of the least resistance. All the caves hollowed by the ancientsof Kôr, on the contrary, were cut out with the most perfect regularityand symmetry. At the mouth of this cave Ayesha halted, and bade us lightthe two lamps, which I did, giving one to her and keeping the othermyself. Then, taking the lead, she advanced down the cavern, picking herway with great care, as indeed it was necessary to do, for the floor wasmost irregular--strewn with boulders like the bed of a stream, and insome places pitted with deep holes, in which it would have been easy tobreak one's leg.
This cavern we pursued for twenty minutes or more, it being, so far asI could form a judgment--owing to its numerous twists and turns no easytask--about a quarter of a mile long.
At last, however, we halted at its farther end, and whilst I was stilltrying to pierce the gloom a great gust of air came tearing down it, andextinguished both the lamps.
Ayesha called to us, and we crept up to her, for she was a little infront, and were rewarded with a view that was positively appalling inits gloom and grandeur. Before us was a mighty chasm in the black rock,jagged and torn and splintered through it in a far past age by someawful convulsion of Nature, as though it had been cleft by stroke uponstroke of the lightning. This chasm, which was bounded by a precipice onthe hither, and presumably,
though we could not see it, on the fartherside also, may have measured any width across, but from its darkness Ido not think it can have been very broad. It was impossible to make outmuch of its outline, or how far it ran, for the simple reason that thepoint where we were standing was so far from the upper surface of thecliff, at least fifteen hundred or two thousand feet, that only a verydim light struggled down to us from above. The mouth of the cavern thatwe had been following gave on to a most curious and tremendous spurof rock, which jutted out in mid air into the gulf before us, fora distance of some fifty yards, coming to a sharp point at itstermination, and resembling nothing that I can think of so much as thespur upon the leg of a cock in shape. This huge spur was attached onlyto the parent precipice at its base, which was, of course, enormous,just as the cock's spur is attached to its leg. Otherwise it was utterlyunsupported.
"Here must we pass," said Ayesha. "Be careful lest giddiness overcomeyou, or the wind sweep you into the gulf beneath, for of a truth it hathno bottom;" and, without giving us any further time to get scared, shestarted walking along the spur, leaving us to follow her as best wemight. I was next to her, then came Job, painfully dragging his plank,while Leo brought up the rear. It was a wonderful sight to see thisintrepid woman gliding fearlessly along that dreadful place. For mypart, when I had gone but a very few yards, what between the pressureof the air and the awful sense of the consequences that a slip wouldentail, I found it necessary to go down on my hands and knees and crawl,and so did the other two.
But Ayesha never condescended to this. On she went, leaning her bodyagainst the gusts of wind, and never seeming to lose her head or herbalance.
In a few minutes we had crossed some twenty paces of this awful bridge,which got narrower at every step, and then all of a sudden a great gustcame tearing along the gorge. I saw Ayesha lean herself against it, butthe strong draught got under her dark cloak, and tore it from her, andaway it went down the wind flapping like a wounded bird. It was dreadfulto see it go, till it was lost in the blackness. I clung to the saddleof rock, and looked round, while, like a living thing, the great spurvibrated with a humming sound beneath us. The sight was a truly awesomeone. There we were poised in the gloom between earth and heaven. Beneathus were hundreds upon hundreds of feet of emptiness that gradually grewdarker, till at last it was absolutely black, and at what depth it endedis more than I can guess. Above was space upon space of giddy air, andfar, far away a line of blue sky. And down this vast gulf upon which wewere pinnacled the great draught dashed and roared, driving clouds andmisty wreaths of vapour before it, till we were nearly blinded, andutterly confused.
The whole position was so tremendous and so absolutely unearthly, that Ibelieve it actually lulled our sense of terror, but to this hour I oftensee it in my dreams, and at its mere phantasy wake up covered with coldsweat.
"On! on!" cried the white form before us, for now the cloak had gone,_She_ was robed in white, and looked more like a spirit riding down thegale than a woman; "On, or ye will fall and be dashed to pieces. Keepyour eyes fixed upon the ground, and closely hug the rock."
We obeyed her, and crept painfully along the quivering path, againstwhich the wind shrieked and wailed as it shook it, causing it to murmurlike a vast tuning-fork. On we went, I do not know for how long, onlygazing round now and again, when it was absolutely necessary, until atlast we saw that we were on the very tip of the spur, a slab of rock,little larger than an ordinary table, that throbbed and jumped like anyover-engined steamer. There we lay, clinging to the ground, and lookedabout us, while Ayesha stood leaning out against the wind, down whichher long hair streamed, and, absolutely heedless of the hideous depththat yawned beneath, pointed before her. Then we saw why the narrowplank had been provided, which Job and I had painfully dragged alongbetween us. Before us was an empty space, on the other side of which wassomething, as yet we could not see what, for here--either owing to theshadow of the opposite cliff, or from some other cause--the gloom wasthat of night.
"We must wait awhile," called Ayesha; "soon there will be light."
At the moment I could not imagine what she meant. How could more lightthan there was ever come to this dreadful spot? While I was stillwondering, suddenly, like a great sword of flame, a beam from thesetting sun pierced the Stygian gloom, and smote upon the point ofrock whereon we lay, illumining Ayesha's lovely form with an unearthlysplendour. I only wish I could describe the wild and marvellous beautyof that sword of fire, laid across the darkness and rushing mist-wreathsof the gulf. How it got there I do not to this moment know, but Ipresume that there was some cleft or hole in the opposing cliff, throughwhich it pierced when the setting orb was in a direct line therewith.All I can say is, that the effect was the most wonderful that I eversaw. Right through the heart of the darkness that flaming sword wasstabbed, and where it lay there was the most surpassingly vivid light,so vivid that even at a distance we could see the grain of the rock,while, outside of it--yes, within a few inches of its keen edge--wasnaught but clustering shadows.
And now, by this ray of light, for which _She_ had been waiting, andtimed our arrival to meet, knowing that at this season for thousands ofyears it had always struck thus at sunset, we saw what was before us.Within eleven or twelve feet of the very tip of the tongue-like rockwhereon we stood there arose, presumably from the far bottom of thegulf, a sugarloaf-shaped cone, of which the summit was exactly oppositeto us. But had there been a summit only it would not have helped usmuch, for the nearest point of its circumference was some forty feetfrom where we were. On the lip of this summit, however, which wascircular and hollow, rested a tremendous flat boulder, something like aglacier stone--perhaps it was one, for all I know to the contrary--andthe end of this boulder approached to within twelve feet or so of us.This huge rock was nothing more or less than a gigantic rocking-stone,accurately balanced upon the edge of the cone or miniature crater, likea half-crown on the rim of a wine-glass; for, in the fierce light thatplayed upon it and us, we could see it oscillating in the gusts of wind.
"Quick!" said Ayesha; "the plank--we must cross while the light endures;presently it will be gone."
"Oh, Lord, sir!" groaned Job, "surely she don't mean us to walk acrossthat there place on that there thing," as in obedience to my directionhe pushed the long board towards me.
"That's it, Job," I halloaed in ghastly merriment, though the idea ofwalking the plank was no pleasanter to me than to him.
I pushed the board on to Ayesha, who deftly ran it across the gulf sothat one end of it rested on the rocking-stone, the other remaining onthe extremity of the trembling spur. Then placing her foot upon it toprevent it from being blown away, she turned to me.
"Since I was last here, oh Holly," she called, "the support of themoving stone hath lessened somewhat, so that I am not certain if it willbear our weight or no. Therefore will I cross the first, because noharm will come unto me," and, without further ado, she trod lightly butfirmly across the frail bridge, and in another second was standing safeupon the heaving stone.
"It is safe," she called. "See, hold thou the plank! I will stand onthe farther side of the stone so that it may not overbalance with yourgreater weights. Now, come, oh Holly, for presently the light will failus."
I struggled to my knees, and if ever I felt terrified in my life it wasthen, and I am not ashamed to say that I hesitated and hung back.
"Surely thou art not afraid," this strange creature called in a lull ofthe gale, from where she stood poised like a bird on the highest pointof the rocking-stone. "Make way then for Kallikrates."
This settled me; it is better to fall down a precipice and die thanbe laughed at by such a woman; so I clenched my teeth, and in anotherinstant I was on that horrible, narrow, bending plank, with bottomlessspace beneath and around me. I have always hated a great height, butnever before did I realise the full horrors of which such a position iscapable. Oh, the sickening sensation of that yielding board resting onthe two moving supports. I grew dizzy, and thought that I must fall;
my spine _crept_; it seemed to me that I was falling, and my delight atfinding myself sprawling upon that stone, which rose and fell beneath melike a boat in a swell, cannot be expressed in words. All I know is thatbriefly, but earnestly enough, I thanked Providence for preserving me sofar.
Then came Leo's turn, and though he looked rather queer, he came acrosslike a rope-dancer. Ayesha stretched out her hand to clasp his own, andI heard her say, "Bravely done, my love--bravely done! The old Greekspirit lives in thee yet!"
And now only poor Job remained on the farther side of the gulf. He creptup to the plank, and yelled out, "I can't do it, sir. I shall fall intothat beastly place."
"You must," I remember saying with inappropriate facetiousness--"youmust, Job, it's as easy as catching flies." I suppose that I musthave said it to satisfy my conscience, because although the expressionconveys a wonderful idea of facility, as a matter of fact I know no moredifficult operation in the whole world than catching flies--that is, inwarm weather, unless, indeed, it is catching mosquitoes.
"I can't, sir--I can't, indeed."
"Let the man come, or let him stop and perish there. See, the light isdying! In a moment it will be gone!" said Ayesha.
I looked. She was right. The sun was passing below the level of the holeor cleft in the precipice through which the ray reached us.
"If you stop there, Job, you will die alone," I called; "the light isgoing."
"Come, be a man, Job," roared Leo; "it's quite easy."
Thus adjured, the miserable Job, with a most awful yell, precipitatedhimself face downwards on the plank--he did not dare, small blame tohim, to try to walk it, and commenced to draw himself across in littlejerks, his poor legs hanging down on either side into the nothingnessbeneath.
His violent jerks at the frail board made the great stone, which wasonly balanced on a few inches of rock, oscillate in a most dreadfulmanner, and, to make matters worse, when he was half-way across theflying ray of lurid light suddenly went out, just as though a lamphad been extinguished in a curtained room, leaving the whole howlingwilderness of air black with darkness.
"Come on, Job, for God's sake!" I shouted in an agony of fear, while thestone, gathering motion with every swing, rocked so violently that itwas difficult to hang on to it. It was a truly awful position.
"Lord have mercy on me!" cried poor Job from the darkness. "Oh, theplank's slipping!" and I heard a violent struggle, and thought that hewas gone.
But at that moment his outstretched hand, clasping in agony at theair, met my own, and I hauled--ah, how I did haul, putting out allthe strength that it has pleased Providence to give me in suchabundance--and to my joy in another minute Job was gasping on the rockbeside me. But the plank! I felt it slip, and heard it knock against aprojecting knob of rock, and it was gone.
"Great heavens!" I exclaimed. "How are we going to get back?"
"I don't know," answered Leo, out of the gloom. "'Sufficient to the dayis the evil thereof,' I am thankful enough to be here."
But Ayesha merely called to me to take her hand and creep after her.
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