Fire Island Part 65

He took a candle, and, holding it high above his head, led the way, closely followed by Oliver.

"No fear of our losing our way," said the latter. "We have only to keep on by the side of the stream, and then notice which way it flows. If we go against it, we must be right in coming back."

The way widened as they progressed, and was to a small extent down-hill, but not sufficiently so to make the water rush onwards, only sufficient for it to glide along in a gla.s.sy smooth fashion, keeping up the same mysterious whispering which grew as they went on into the darkness, not seeming to be louder, but so to speak as if there were more and more of this strange murmur extending onward and onward to infinity.

Once they all stopped to look back at the light which shone in through the cavern's mouth, and looking dazzlingly bright as it played upon the water gliding in softly from the lake, but soon growing softer and opalescent, and gradually dying away. Five minutes later, when Oliver turned back to look again, he found that they must have unconsciously descended, for there was only a faint dawn of light upon the roof of the cave, and a minute later all was black.

"Now," said Drew, with an involuntary shiver which he turned off as being from the temperature. "What are you going to show us? for it's getting chilly here."

"One of the wonders of the world," replied Panton. "Look at the crystals here."

"Yes, but we saw them before."

"Then look at the incrustations of sulphur here. These must have been here for countless ages. Look, too, how it is heaped against this wall."

"Yes, wonderful, but we saw plenty of sulphur when you came up out of that hole where you first went down, if you remember, and brought plenty up."

"Yes," said Oliver. "Can't you show us something more like what must have been in Aladdin's cave, gold, silver, and precious stones?"

Panton held up his light as they turned round a bend of the rocky side on their left, and pointed to the coloration of the rocks and the half loose fragments, which still clung in their place, while other bits had fallen down.

"There," he said, "those are as bright as anything in Aladdin's cave."

"And as valuable?"

"That depends on the value people put upon them. From a geological point of view, and the study of the formation of crystals by volcanic heat they are priceless."

"But how much farther are you going?" said Drew.

"As far as the candles will let us," said Panton. "Hallo!"

His voice was echoed from a distance as loudly as he had spoken, and the "Hallo!" went reverberating away in the gloom.

"We must be in a big opening," he said, and again his voice echoed, and then went on repeating itself and dying away.

Panton thrust a hand into his pocket and brought out a roll of magnesium wire, gave Wriggs his gun to hold, and then lit one end which flashed out into a brilliant whitish light, surrounded by dense fumes of smoke, and illuminating the vast hall in which they stood, for here the tiny river ran in a wide-spreading plain of smooth lava which must at one time have been a lake of molten stone, now hard, cold, and dry, save where the water glided on like so much steel in motion.

As the magnesium wire burned out, the candles which were getting short looked like so many yellowish sparks in the midst of utter blackness, and it was some minutes before even Panton showed any disposition to stir. But at last the eyes of all began to lose the dazzled sensation caused by the white glare, and Panton proposed that they should go on.

"What for?" said Drew. "There are specimens enough for you here without going farther, and the place seems to be all alike."

"Oh, no: all variety. You are not afraid, are you?"

"Well, I don't know so much about that," replied Drew, quietly. "I have no wish to seem cowardly, but it is not very pleasant moleing along here in the darkness. I keep expecting to step down into some bottomless pit."

"If we come across one, you'll see me go down first. But hark! What's that?"

"I don't hear anything," said Drew.

"Don't you, Lane?" cried Panton.

"Well, yes, I fancy I can hear a dull sound as of falling water."

"There must be a cascade, then, farther in. Come on, I must see that.

I've got some more wire."

Holding his candle well on high, he strode boldly on over the lava stream, his two friends feeling bound to follow him, while Smith and Wriggs came last.

"How do you feel, Tommy?" whispered the latter.

"Bad," was the laconic reply.

"Don't seem no good in going no furder, do it?"

"Not a bit, and these here candles'll be out d'rectly. Hold hard, please, sir, we've got to light up again."

Oliver heard his words, and hailed Drew, who in turn called to Panton.

But the latter was just at an angle where the lava stream swept round to the left, and there was a reason why he did not hear the call, and they saw him disappear round the corner with his light.

Drew hastened his steps and followed, catching sight of him for a moment, and then losing him again, for Panton's light was extinguished, and Drew stood peering forward in an agony of dread, feeling certain that their companion had dropped down into some horrible crevice in the lava; while he had suddenly himself stepped from almost perfect silence into a part of the cavern where his ears were smitten by a fearful din of falling water.

The next minute, in an agony of spirit that seemed too hard to bear, his outstretched candle lit up Panton's face, which was farther illumined by the lights the others bore.

"My light's burned out," cried Panton, placing his lips close to Drew's ear. "I say, what a row the water makes."

The effort to speak grew troublesome, and signs were resorted to. Fresh candles were lit, and in spite of an objection raised by Oliver, Panton was for going on again.

"We must see the falls now we are so near," he shouted. "We can't be many yards away. We'll come better provided with lights another time."

Starting on again, but going very carefully, Panton continued his way onward pretty close to the edge of the smooth river which ran now several feet below the level on which they walked. And as he held out his candle, so as to clearly see the edge, the light gleamed fitfully from the black gla.s.sy surface of the stream.

All at once Panton found himself at an angle of the rock, where a second stream joined the one by which they had come, and as the others joined him, it seemed as if their progress was at an end. This second stream was a surprise, for it was larger than the one by their right, and coming as it did almost at right angles from their left, it was puzzling as to whence it could come, for it did not seem possible that it could have issued from the crater lake.

And there they stood in a noise that was now deafening, holding their lights on high, and trying to pierce the black darkness in front, but of course in vain.

A peculiar fact struck Oliver now, as he stood pretty close to the lava edge of the angular platform upon which they had halted, and this was, that the flames of all their candles were drawn away from them toward where the water of the conjoined streams must be falling in one plunge down into some terrible gulf. He knew at once that this was caused by a strong, steady current of air setting towards the falls, and in his uneasiness he was about to point out to Panton that their candles were rapidly burning away, when the latter suddenly lit his remaining piece of magnesium wire, and the next minute they were all straining their eyes, and now looking into a misty glare of light, right in front-- evidently the mist rising from the churned-up water--or now upon their grotesque black shadows, cast by the white-smoked magnesium upon the floor and the ceiling far above.

But there was no sign of the water itself, only the conformation of the lava stream whose edge could be seen upon the other side of the second river at least thirty feet away.

"What's to be done?" said Panton at last, as the magnesium burned out and all was once more black darkness.

"Get back," said Oliver, with his lips to his friend's ear. "The candles are guttering away terribly, and we must not be left in the dark."

"No," yelled Panton, "that wouldn't be pleasant. Hang it, all my candle's done."

Time had gone faster than they had expected since the second candles were lit, and turning to Oliver he said, sharply,--

"There, you lead the way back. It isn't far if you step out. Forward!"