CHAPTER XXI
I CLIMB THE CRAGS A SECOND TIME
I remember that I looked over the brink into the yeasty abyss with amind hovering between perplexity and tears. I wanted to sit down andcry--why, I did not know, except that some great thing had happened.My brain was quite clear as to my own position. I was shut in thisplace, with no chance of escape and with no food. In a little I mustdie of starvation, or go mad and throw myself after Laputa. And yet Idid not care a rush. My nerves had been tried too greatly in the pastweek. Now I was comatose, and beyond hoping or fearing.
I sat for a long time watching the light play on the fretted sheet ofwater and wondering where Laputa's body had gone. I shivered and wishedhe had not left me alone, for the darkness would come in time and I hadno matches. After a little I got tired of doing nothing, and wentgroping among the treasure chests. One or two were full ofcoin--British sovereigns, Kruger sovereigns, Napoleons, Spanish andPortuguese gold pieces, and many older coins ranging back to the MiddleAges and even to the ancients. In one handful there was a splendidgold stater, and in another a piece of Antoninus Pius. The treasurehad been collected for many years in many places, contributions ofchiefs from ancient hoards as well as the cash received from I.D.B. Iuntied one or two of the little bags of stones and poured the contentsinto my hands. Most of the diamonds were small, such as a labourermight secrete on his person. The larger ones--and some were verylarge--were as a rule discoloured, looking more like big cairngorms.But one or two bags had big stones which even my inexperienced eye toldme were of the purest water. There must be some new pipe, I thought,for these could not have been stolen from any known mine.
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After that I sat on the floor again and looked at the water. Itexercised a mesmeric influence on me, soothing all care. I was quitehappy to wait for death, for death had no meaning to me. My hate andfury were both lulled into a trance, since the passive is the nextstage to the overwrought.
It must have been full day outside now, for the funnel was bright withsunshine, and even the dim cave caught a reflected radiance. As Iwatched the river I saw a bird flash downward, skimming the water. Itturned into the cave and fluttered among its dark recesses. I heardits wings beating the roof as it sought wildly for an outlet. Itdashed into the spray of the cataract and escaped again into the cave.For maybe twenty minutes it fluttered, till at last it found the way ithad entered by. With a dart it sped up the funnel of rock into lightand freedom.
I had begun to watch the bird in idle lassitude, I ended in keenexcitement. The sight of it seemed to take a film from my eyes. Irealized the zest of liberty, the passion of life again. I felt thatbeyond this dim underworld there was the great joyous earth, and Ilonged for it. I wanted to live now. My memory cleared, and Iremembered all that had befallen me during the last few days. I hadplayed the chief part in the whole business, and I had won. Laputa wasdead and the treasure was mine, while Arcoll was crushing the Rising athis ease. I had only to be free again to be famous and rich. My hopeshad returned, but with them came my fears. What if I could not escape?I must perish miserably by degrees, shut in the heart of a hill, thoughmy friends were out for rescue. In place of my former lethargy I wasnow in a fever of unrest.
My first care was to explore the way I had come. I ran down thepassage to the chasm which the slab of stone had spanned. I had beenright in my guess, for the thing was gone. Laputa was in truth aTitan, who in the article of death could break down a bridge whichwould have taken any three men an hour to shift. The gorge was aboutseven yards wide, too far to risk a jump, and the cliff fell sheer andsmooth to the imprisoned waters two hundred feet below. There was nochance of circuiting it, for the wall was as smooth as if it had beenchiselled. The hand of man had been at work to make the sanctuaryinviolable.
It occurred to me that sooner or later Arcoll would track Laputa tothis place. He would find the bloodstains in the gully, but theturnstile would be shut and he would never find the trick of it. Norcould he have any kaffirs with him who knew the secret of the Place ofthe Snake. Still if Arcoll knew I was inside he would find some way toget to me even though he had to dynamite the curtain of rock. Ishouted, but my voice seemed to be drowned in the roar of the water.It made but a fresh chord in the wild orchestra, and I gave up hopes inthat direction.
Very dolefully I returned to the cave. I was about to share theexperience of all treasure-hunters--to be left with jewels galore andnot a bite to sustain life. The thing was too commonplace to beendured. I grew angry, and declined so obvious a fate. 'Ek sal 'nplan maak,' I told myself in the old Dutchman's words. I had comethrough worse dangers, and a way I should find. To starve in the cavewas no ending for David Crawfurd. Far better to join Laputa in thedepths in a manly hazard for liberty.
My obstinacy and irritation cheered me. What had become of thelack-lustre young fool who had mooned here a few minutes back. Now Iwas as tense and strung for effort as the day I had ridden fromBlaauwildebeestefontein to Umvelos'. I felt like a runner in the lastlap of a race. For four days I had lived in the midst of terror anddarkness. Daylight was only a few steps ahead, daylight and youthrestored and a new world.
There were only two outlets from that cave--the way I had come, and theway the river came. The first was closed, the second a sheer staringimpossibility. I had been into every niche and cranny, and there wasno sign of a passage. I sat down on the floor and looked at the wallof water. It fell, as I have already explained, in a solid sheet,which made up the whole of the wall of the cave. Higher than the roofof the cave I could not see what happened, except that it must be theopen air, for the sun was shining on it. The water was about threeyards distant from the edge of the cave's floor, but it seemed to methat high up, level with the roof, this distance decreased to littlemore than a foot.
I could not see what the walls of the cave were like, but they lookedsmooth and difficult. Supposing I managed to climb up to the level ofthe roof close to the water, how on earth was I to get outside on tothe wall of the ravine? I knew from my old days of rock-climbing whata complete obstacle the overhang of a cave is.
While I looked, however, I saw a thing which I had not noticed before.On the left side of the fall the water sluiced down in a sheet to theextreme edge of the cave, almost sprinkling the floor with water. Buton the right side the force of water was obviously weaker, and a littleshort of the level of the cave roof there was a spike of rock whichslightly broke the fall. The spike was covered, but the covering wasshallow, for the current flowed from it in a rose-shaped spray. If aman could get to that spike and could get a foot on it without beingswept down, it might be possible--just possible--to do something withthe wall of the chasm above the cave. Of course I knew nothing aboutthe nature of that wall. It might be as smooth as a polished pillar.
The result of these cogitations was that I decided to prospect theright wall of the cave close to the waterfall. But first I wentrummaging in the back part to see if I could find anything to assistme. In one corner there was a rude cupboard with some stone and metalvessels. Here, too, were the few domestic utensils of the dead Keeper.In another were several locked coffers on which I could make noimpression. There were the treasure-chests too, but they held nothingsave treasure, and gold and diamonds were no manner of use to me.Other odds and ends I found--spears, a few skins, and a broken andnotched axe. I took the axe in case there might be cutting to do.
Then at the back of a bin my hand struck something which brought theblood to my face. It was a rope, an old one, but still in faircondition and forty or fifty feet long. I dragged it out into thelight and straightened its kinks. With this something could be done,assuming I could cut my way to the level of the roof.
I began the climb in my bare feet, and at the beginning it was verybad. Except on the very edge of the abyss there was scarcely ahandhold. Possibly in floods the waters may have swept the wall in acurve, smoothing down the inner part and leaving the outer to itsnat
ural roughness. There was one place where I had to hang on by avery narrow crack while I scraped with the axe a hollow for my rightfoot. And then about twelve feet from the ground I struck the first ofthe iron pegs.
To this day I cannot think what these pegs were for. They were oldsquare-headed things which had seen the wear of centuries. They cannothave been meant to assist a climber, for the dwellers of the cave hadclearly never contemplated this means of egress. Perhaps they had beenused for some kind of ceremonial curtain in a dim past. They wererusty and frail, and one of them came away in my hand, but for all thatthey marvellously assisted my ascent.
I had been climbing slowly, doggedly and carefully, my mind whollyoccupied with the task; and almost before I knew I found my head closeunder the roof of the cave. It was necessary now to move towards theriver, and the task seemed impossible. I could see no footholds, savetwo frail pegs, and in the corner between the wall and the roof was arough arch too wide for my body to jam itself in. Just below the levelof the roof--say two feet--I saw the submerged spike of rock. Thewaters raged around it, and could not have been more than an inch deepon the top. If I could only get my foot on that I believed I couldavoid being swept down, and stand up and reach for the wall above thecave.
But how to get to it? It was no good delaying, for my frail holdsmight give at any moment. In any case I would have the moral securityof the rope, so I passed it through a fairly staunch pin close to theroof, which had an upward tilt that almost made a ring of it. One endof the rope was round my body, the other was loose in my hand, and Ipaid it out as I moved. Moral support is something. Very gingerly Icrawled like a fly along the wall, my fingers now clutching at a tinyknob, now clawing at a crack which did little more than hold my nails.It was all hopeless insanity, and yet somehow I did it. The rope andthe nearness of the roof gave me confidence and balance. Then the holdsceased altogether a couple of yards from the water. I saw my spike ofrock a trifle below me. There was nothing for it but to risk all on ajump. I drew the rope out of the hitch, twined the slack round mywaist, and leaped for the spike.
It was like throwing oneself on a line of spears. The solid wall ofwater hurled me back and down, but as I fell my arms closed on thespike. There I hung while my feet were towed outwards by the volume ofthe stream as if they had been dead leaves. I was half-stunned by theshock of the drip on my head, but I kept my wits, and presently got myface outside the falling sheet and breathed.
To get to my feet and stand on the spike while all the fury of waterwas plucking at me was the hardest physical effort I have ever made.It had to be done very circumspectly, for a slip would send me into theabyss. If I moved an arm or leg an inch too near the terrible droppingwall I knew I should be plucked from my hold. I got my knees on theouter face of the spike, so that all my body was removed as far aspossible from the impact of the water. Then I began to pull myselfslowly up.
I could not do it. If I got my feet on the rock the effort would bringme too far into the water, and that meant destruction. I saw thisclearly in a second while my wrists were cracking with the strain. Butif I had a wall behind me I could reach back with one hand and get whatwe call in Scotland a 'stelf.' I knew there was a wall, but how far Icould not judge. The perpetual hammering of the stream had confused mywits.
It was a horrible moment, but I had to risk it. I knew that if thewall was too far back I should fall, for I had to let my weight go tillmy hand fell on it. Delay would do no good, so with a prayer I flungmy right hand back, while my left hand clutched the spike.
I found the wall--it was only a foot or two beyond my reach. With aheave I had my foot on the spike, and turning, had both hands on theopposite wall. There I stood, straddling like a Colossus over a wasteof white waters, with the cave floor far below me in the gloom, and mydiscarded axe lying close to a splash of Laputa's blood.
The spectacle made me giddy, and I had to move on or fall. The wall wasnot quite perpendicular, but as far as I could see a slope of aboutsixty degrees. It was ribbed and terraced pretty fully, but I couldsee no ledge within reach which offered standing room. Once more Itried the moral support of the rope, and as well as I could dropped anoose on the spike which might hold me if I fell. Then I boldlyembarked on a hand traverse, pulling myself along a little ledge till Iwas right in the angle of the fall. Here, happily, the water wasshallower and less violent, and with my legs up to the knees in foam Imanaged to scramble into a kind of corner. Now at last I was on thewall of the gully, and above the cave. I had achieved by amazing luckone of the most difficult of all mountaineering operations. I had gotout of a cave to the wall above.
My troubles were by no means over, for I found the cliff most difficultto climb. The great rush of the stream dizzied my brain, the spraymade the rock damp, and the slope steepened as I advanced. At oneoverhang my shoulder was almost in the water again. All this time Iwas climbing doggedly, with terror somewhere in my soul, and hopelighting but a feeble lamp. I was very distrustful of my body, for Iknew that at any moment my weakness might return. The fever of threedays of peril and stress is not allayed by one night's rest.
By this time I was high enough to see that the river came out of theground about fifty feet short of the lip of the gully, and some tenfeet beyond where I stood. Above the hole whence the waters issued wasa loose slope of slabs and screes. It looked an ugly place, but there Imust go, for the rock-wall I was on was getting unclimbable.
I turned the corner a foot or two above the water, and stood on a slopeof about fifty degrees, running from the parapet of stone to a linebeyond which blue sky appeared. The first step I took the place beganto move. A boulder crashed into the fall, and tore down into the abysswith a shattering thunder. I lay flat and clutched desperately atevery hold, but I had loosened an avalanche of earth, and not till myfeet were sprayed by the water did I get a grip of firm rock and checkmy descent. All this frightened me horribly, with the kind ofdespairing angry fear which I had suffered at Bruderstroom, when Idreamed that the treasure was lost. I could not bear the notion ofdeath when I had won so far.
After that I advanced, not by steps, but by inches. I felt more poisedand pinnacled in the void than when I had stood on the spike of rock,for I had a substantial hold neither for foot nor hand. It seemedweeks before I made any progress away from the lip of the waterhole. Idared not look down, but kept my eyes on the slope before me, searchingfor any patch of ground which promised stability. Once I found a scrogof juniper with firm roots, and this gave me a great lift. A littlefurther, however, I lit on a bank of screes which slipped with me tothe right, and I lost most of the ground the bush had gained me. Mywhole being, I remember, was filled with a devouring passion to be quitof this gully and all that was in it.
Then, not suddenly as in romances, but after hard striving and hopelong deferred, I found myself on a firm outcrop of weathered stone. Inthree strides I was on the edge of the plateau. Then I began to run,and at the same time to lose the power of running. I cast one lookbehind me, and saw a deep cleft of darkness out of which I had climbed.Down in the cave it had seemed light enough, but in the clear sunshineof the top the gorge looked a very pit of shade. For the first andlast time in my life I had vertigo. Fear of falling back, and a madcraze to do it, made me acutely sick. I managed to stumble a few stepsforward on the mountain turf, and then flung myself on my face.
When I raised my head I was amazed to find it still early morning. Thedew was yet on the grass, and the sun was not far up the sky. I hadthought that my entry into the cave, my time in it, and my escape hadtaken many hours, whereas at the most they had occupied two. It waslittle more than dawn, such a dawn as walks only on the hilltops.Before me was the shallow vale with its bracken and sweet grass, andfarther on the shining links of the stream, and the loch still grey inthe shadow of the beleaguering hills. Here was a fresh, clean land, aland for homesteads and orchards and children. All of a sudden Irealized that at last I had come out of savagery. Th
e burden of thepast days slipped from my shoulders. I felt young again, and cheerfuland brave. Behind me was the black night, and the horrid secrets ofdarkness. Before me was my own country, for that loch and that brackenmight have been on a Scotch moor. The fresh scent of the air and thewhole morning mystery put song into my blood. I remembered that I wasnot yet twenty. My first care was to kneel there among the bracken andgive thanks to my Maker, who in very truth had shown me 'His goodnessin the land of the living.'
After a little I went back to the edge of the cliff. There where theroad came out of the bush was the body of Henriques, lying sprawled onthe sand, with two dismounted riders looking hard at it. I gave agreat shout, for in the men I recognized Aitken and the schoolmasterWardlaw.