CHAPTER NINE.
THE HORRORS OF A SCHLUCHT.
Saxe stood now paralysed with horror, and it was not until Dale hadshaken him twice that his fixed, wild manner began to pass off.
"Stop here," cried Dale: "you are too much unnerved to come."
"Where--where are you going?" cried the lad; and before an answer couldbe given, he cried: "Yes; yes, go on: I'm ready."
"I tell you that you are too much unnerved to venture!" cried Daleangrily. "Am I to lose you both?"
He turned and hurried out of sight; but he had not gone fifty yardsalong the narrow ledge into the gloomy crack before he heard a hoarsesound, and turning sharply back, there was Saxe close behind.
"Don't send me back," cried the lad: "I can't stand here doing nothing.I must come and help."
"Come, then!" shouted Dale, his voice sounding smothered and weak in theechoing rush of the waters, which glided in at the funnel-like openingsmooth and glassy, now leaped forward and roared as they careered madlyalong, leaping up and licking at the rugged but smoothly polished walls,charging into cracks and crevices, and falling back broken up into foam,and ever forced onward at a tremendous rate by the mass of water behind.
The place itself would in bright sunshine have made the stoutest-heartedpause and draw breath before adventuring its passage; but seen in theweird subdued light which came down filtered through the trees whichoverhung the chasm a thousand feet above, it seemed terrible. For onlyat intervals could a glimpse of the sky be seen, while as theypenetrated farther, the walls, which almost exactly matched in curve,angle and depression, came nearer together, and the place darkened.
"Take care--take care!" Dale cried from time to time, as he foundportions of the ledge narrower and more difficult; but Saxe did notspeak, only crept on, with his left hand grasping every inequality ofthe rock, and, like his leader, glancing down into the mad race offoaming water, in the hope of catching sight of Melchior's upturned faceand outstretched hands.
It never occurred to him that they could render no help, even if theydid catch sight of their unfortunate companion; for they were never lessthan twenty feet above the narrow hissing and roaring stream, and therewas not a spot where a rock could be grasped: everything was worn toosmooth by the constant passage of the water, which doubtless carriedwith it stones from the lake as well as those ever loosened by frost andcrumbling down from above, to aid in grinding the walls quite smooth.
But there was the possibility of the unfortunate man being thrown intoone of the vast pot-holes or cauldrons formed cavern-like in bends ofthe chasm, where as it rushed along past the zigzag of the broken rockthe water glanced from one side, and shot almost at right angles acrossto the other, to whirl round and round, ever enlarging a great well-likehole, the centre of which looked like a funnel-like whirlpool, with thewater screwing its way apparently into the bowels of the earth, and downwhose watery throat great balls of foam were constantly being sucked.
From time to time, as Dale rested for a few moments to peer into one ofthese, he raised his eyes to look back hopelessly at Saxe, who couldonly shake his head in his utter despair, knowing only too well that itwas hopeless.
Then on and on again, with the horror of the terrible place seeming tocrush them down, while to Saxe it was as if the waters were trying toleap at him to wash him from the narrow ledge and bear him away. Andthe farther they went on the more fearful the place seemed to grow. Thewalls dripped with moisture, as a result of the spray which rose fromthe hurrying race, and shut them in back and front with a gloomy mist,which struck cold and dank as it moistened their faces and seemedchoking to breathe.
Again Dale paused, to peer down at one of the great whirling poolsbeneath the rock, which was being undermined in this place more thanever; and as Saxe clung by him and gazed down too, there was theperfectly round pool of water, with its central pipe, which, by theoptical illusion caused by the gloom and mist, looked reversed--that is,as if the concavity were convex, and he were gazing at the eye of somesubterranean monster, the effect being made more realistic by the rockoverhanging it like a huge brow.
"Come on," cried Dale. But Saxe was fascinated, and did not hear hisvoice in the hollow, echoing, pipe-like roar.
"Come on, boy--quick!" he shouted again. But Saxe still bent down overthe racing waters, to stare at that awful similitude of an eye, whichmoved strangely and bemused and fascinated him so that he looked as ifhe would be drawn down into it and be a victim to the awful place.
"Saxe! Saxe!" shouted Dale, seizing him by the arm; and the boy startedand gazed at him wildly. "Can you see him!"
"No, no," cried the boy.
"What were you looking at!"
"That! that!" gasped Saxe.
"Ah! yes. Like some terrible eye. Come along. I can't think thatanything would stay here. It would be swept along at a tremendous rate.That water is going almost at the rate of a great fall. They must havebeen borne right through long ago."
"Think so?" Saxe tried to say. Certainly his lips moved; and rousednow from the strange fascination, he crept on after his leader, theirprogress being very slow in spite of their anxiety, for all was new andstrange, and the next step, for aught they knew, might plunge them downto a fall like their guide's.
Then the way was dangerously narrow at times, one dripping place forcingthem to stoop--so heavily overhung the rock above.
At last, just in front of them, the gorge seemed to end, for the placewas blocked by a wall that ran across the narrow rift at right angles,and against this the whole body of water was propelled, to strikestraight upon it, and rise up like a billow of the sea and fall backwith a furious roar. Here the foam formed so dense a mist that Dale hadcrept right into it before he realised that, as the water fell back, itshot away through the gloom to his left, forming a fresh billow againsta perpendicular wall before it again darted onward.
"Has this awful place no end!" he said, as he grasped the meaning ofthis fresh disturbance of its course; and he peered forward again forthe path, it being absolute madness to think of seeing anything in thewatery chaos below. Then, looking back, it was as if some icy hand hadclutched his heart, for he was alone.
For the moment he felt that Saxe must have slipped and fallen, and inthe agony he suffered he fancied himself back again in England facingthe boy's father and trying to plead some excuse for the want of care.Saxe was entrusted to him for a few months' visit to the Alps--a visitto combine pleasure and instruction, as well as to gain more robusthealth.
As he thought this he was already on his way back to the sharp angle hehad passed round, and as he reached it his horror and despair becamealmost unbearable.
But this part of his suffering had its termination; and he fully graspedthat, like as in a dream, all this had occupied but a few moments oftime, for a hand was thrust round the stony angle and searched for aprojection, and as Dale eagerly grasped the humid palm, Saxe glidedround and then followed him into the corner, beneath which the waterroared and churned itself into foam, passed this in safety, and oncemore they crept on, thinking now only of getting out into the daylightand following the stream in the hope of finding poor Melchior's remains.
The same thoughts occurred to both of them: suppose the poor fellow wasbeyond their reach, swept right away into the depths of some lake milesaway--what were they to do? Retrace their steps to the mouth of thegorge, where their provision was left, or try to find their way somehowover the mountains? It would be a fearful task, ignorant of their way,faint from want of food, weak from exhaustion. It was now for the firsttime that Saxe realised how terrible the mountains were, and how easilya person might be lost, or meet with a mishap that would mean laming,perhaps death.
Then their thoughts of self gave place again to those relating to theirpoor guide.
"We must find him!" Saxe cried involuntarily, and so loudly that Daleturned and looked back at him wildly, for the thoughts had been exactlyhis own.
"Yes," he said, his voice muffled by t
he roar of the waters; "we mustfind him. The place is not so very large, after all. Wait till we getout: I can't talk here."
For the roar had seemed to increase and the darkness to grow deeper forthe next few yards. The water, too, was nearer, the path having a steepincline downward, with the natural result that the ledge was drippingwith moisture, and from time to time some wave would strike the oppositewall with a heavy slap, and the spray fly in quite a gust, as of rain,full in their faces.
"It can't be much farther," thought Saxe, as he went cautiously down theincline, to see that the rock on his right now bent right over, and hadcaused the darkness. Then the path bent to the left, struck off to theright again, and was now down within three or four feet of the water,after which there was a fresh corner to be turned, where the wave thatrose up seemed somehow illuminated; but they were quite close up, withthe water almost running over the path, before they fully grasped thatthe light came from the side, bringing with it some hope, even if itwere little; and at the same time Saxe felt the possibility of goingback the same way now that the full extent of the danger could begrasped.
"Poor Melchior!" he muttered--"it must have been impossible for him tohave led the mule through here;" and as he thought, this, the full lightof day came streaming in, making Dale, a few yards before him, stand outlike a silhouette clearly cut in black, while for a hundred yards thewater now ran, rapidly widening and growing less like a torrent, tillright away he could see it flowing smoothly between the towering rocksthat were piled-up on either side of its bed.