Born to Wander Part 23

"'It was but to keep up my sinking heart.'

"'Well, sing again.'

"'Nay, nay; I dare not.'

"'Well, Tom, stretch your hand out here, and let me grasp it. Thanks.

This seems a little comfort, anyhow.'

"'Shall we talk, Tom?'

"'No, I feel more inclined to sleep. I feel a strange, unaccountable drowsiness steal--steal--'

"Tom said no more. He was fast asleep.

"So was grand-dad.

"How long they slept or how far the canoes had drifted on through the subterranean darkness they never could tell, but they awoke at last, and found that the boats had grounded at the side.

"Tom struck a light, and lit a torch.

"Nothing around them but black wet rocks, and the black water rippling past.

"'Tom,' said my grand-dad, 'it is possible enough, you know, that this river may run but a few more miles, then emerge into the light.'

"'Oh, wouldn't that be glorious!' cried Tom.

"'Well, let us push off again, and try to keep awake.'

"Tom extinguished the torch, and the boats were once more shoved into the stream.

"'John,' said Tom after a time.

"'Yes, Tom.'

"'Don't you remember when we were at school reading in heathen books of the awful river Styx, that flows nine times round the abode of the dead.'

"'Ay, Tom, and we seem on it now. It would hardly surprise me to see a door open in the rock, and the three-headed dog Cerberus appear, or the fearful ferryman.'

"The boats rushed on now for hours, without ever grounding, though at times they touched at either side; and all this time those poor despairing souls sat hand in hand, for the silence was as saddening as even the darkness.

"Gradually, however, a sound began to grow upon their ears, and increase and increase momentarily. It was the roar of a cataract far ahead.

"Tom speedily lit his torch, and they paddled in towards the side, and grounding, leapt on sh.o.r.e, and drew up the boats.

"If they could have been surprised at anything the warmth of the sh.o.r.e would have caused them to wonder, but they felt, in a measure, already dead, and their senses were benumbed. One sense, however, was left-- that of hunger. They extracted provisions, and, strange to say, both ate heartily, then almost immediately sank to sleep.

"'Tom,' said grand-dad, awaking at last.

"'John,' said Tom.

"'I think, Tom, we had better end this at once. Down yonder is the cataract. We have but to push off into the stream, and in a minute more all will be over.'

"'Nonsense,' replied Tom. 'Come, John, old man, I'm getting hopeful; and I do think, if we can drag the boats along this gloomy sh.o.r.e, we may avoid that waterfall, and launch again below it. Let us try.' So Tom lit the torch again, and away they went, dragging the light canoes behind them.

"It was rough work, but they succeeded at last.

"Once more the boats were launched, once more the same irrepressible drowsiness stole over them, and they slept for what seemed to them, when they awoke, a wondrously long time.

"Again they grounded, ate, and slept.

"And so they kept on and on and on, rushing down the mysterious subterranean river, but they came to no more cataracts.

"On and on, for days perhaps; for aught they knew for weeks.

"The regions in which they now found themselves were oppressively hot, but they only slept the sounder. Awakening one night, if one may so speak of a time that was all night, they were surprised in the extreme to find themselves in the midst of a strange glimmering light. It was a light by which they could see each other's faces, and blue and ghastly they looked, but a light that cast no shadow, at which they marvelled much, till they found out that the river here had broadened out into a kind of lake, that the rocks all round them were covered with fungi or toadstools, all emitting a phosph.o.r.escent glimmer, and that the water itself contained thousands of strange fishes, and that these all gave light.

"There was but little current here, so paddles were got out, and the boats helped onwards, though, to tell the truth, both my grand-dad and Tom Turner were more frightened at the strange spectral light that now glared round them, than they had been of the darkness.

"The fishes, too, looked like things uncanny, and indeed they were wholly uncouth and quite dissimilar in shape and actions from anything they had ever seen in the world above.

"They had reached a part of the river when it began once more to narrow and the current to become stronger, while at the same time it began to get darker, and the spectral-like fishes fewer. But suddenly Tom clutched my grand-dad by the wrist with his disengaged hand, and with a visage distorted by terror he drew his attention to something that lay half curled up at the bottom of a deep slimy pool.

"However dark it had been they would have seen that awful creature, for its body from stem to stern was lit up with a phosph.o.r.escent gleam. It was in the shape of a gigantic snake, full twenty fathoms long, with two terrible alligator-like arms and claws in front. It had green glaring eyes, that never closed or winked. Its whole appearance was fearsome enough, my grand-dad said, to almost turn a beholder into stone.

"Whether it was asleep or awake they could not tell, but it seemed to glide astern as the boat swept over it, and gradually to lose shape and disappear. In a few minutes more they were plunged once more in Cimmerian darkness.

"For many days the boats plunged on and on over the subterranean river, till their very life became a burden and a weariness to them, that they would gladly have laid down for ever.

"But one time, on awaking from a deep sleep, they found that something very strange and unusual had occurred. They were still in darkness, but not altogether in silence; the water made a lapping sound on the rocky river bank, and the boat was no longer in motion.

"Moreover, it was less warm around them than usual.

"Tom lit a torch, and they landed. Yes, there was the water lapping up and receding again.

"'Can you give us more light?' said my grand-dad.

"'We may burn the centre canoe,' replied Tom, undoing it as he spoke, while his companion held the torch on high. There are no more provisions except enough for once and a few pounds of tallow.

"The canoe was broken up and set fire to. The flames leapt up, and lo!

in front of them was the end of the mysterious river, a black and solid rock, beneath which no man or boat could penetrate.

"Tom looked at my grand-dad, and grand-dad looked at him.

"'Lost! Imprisoned! The end has come!'

"These were the words they uttered.

"'Let us eat our last meal, then,' said Tom.