CHAPTER XVI
THE PIT OF DARKNESS
At the suggestion of the Very Young Man they located without muchdifficulty a sort of cave amid the rocks, which offered shelter fortheir rest. Taking turns watching, they passed eight hours in faircomfort, and by noon next day, after another frugal meal they feltthoroughly refreshed and eager to continue the journey.
"We sure are doing this classy," observed the Very Young Man. "Think ofRogers--all he could do was fall asleep when he couldn't stay awake anymore. Gosh, what chances he took!"
"We're playing it safe," agreed the Big Business Man.
"But we mustn't take it too easy," added the Doctor.
The Very Young Man stretched himself luxuriously and buckled his belt ontighter. "Well, I'm ready for anything," he announced. "What's next?"
The Doctor consulted his papers. "We find the circular pit Rogers madein the scratch and we descend into it. We take twelve more pills at theedge of the pit," he said.
The Very Young Man leaped to the top of a rock and looked out over thedesolate waste helplessly. "How are we going to find the pit?" he askeddubiously. "It's not in sight, that's sure."
"It's down there--about five miles," said the Doctor. "I saw ityesterday as we came down."
"That's easy," said the Very Young Man, and he started offenthusiastically, followed by the others.
In less than two hours they found themselves at the edge of the pit. Itappeared almost circular in form, apparently about five miles across,and its smooth, shining walls extended almost perpendicularly down intoblackness. Somewhat awed by the task confronting them in getting downinto this abyss, the three friends sat down near its brink to discusstheir plan of action.
"We take twelve pills here," said the Doctor. "That ought to make ussmall enough to climb down into that."
"Do you think we need so many?" asked the Big Business Man thoughtfully."You know, Frank, we're making an awful lot of work for ourselves,playing this thing so absolutely safe. Think of what a distance downthat will be after we have got as small as twelve pills will make us. Itmight take us days to get to the bottom."
"How did Rogers get down?" the Very Young Man wanted to know.
"He took the twelve pills here," the Doctor answered.
"But as I understand it, he fell most of the way down while he was stillbig, and then got small afterwards at the bottom." This from the BigBusiness Man.
"I don't know how about you," said the Very Young Man drily, "but I'dmuch rather take three days to walk down than fall down in one day."
The Doctor smiled. "I still think," he said, "that we had better stickto the directions Rogers left us. Then at least there is no danger ofour getting lost in size. But I agree with you, Jack. I'd rather notfall down, even if it takes longer to walk."
"I wonder----" began the Big Business Man. "You know I've beenthinking--it does seem an awful waste of energy for us to let ourselvesget smaller than absolutely necessary in climbing down these places.Maybe you don't realize it."
"I do," said the Very Young Man, looking sorrowfully at the ragged shoeson his feet and the cuts and bruises on his legs.
"What I mean is----" persisted the Big Business Man.
"How far do you suppose we have actually traveled since we started lastnight?"
"That's pretty hard to estimate," said the doctor. "We have walkedperhaps fifteen miles altogether, besides the climb down. I suppose weactually came down five or six thousand feet."
"And at the size we are now it would have been twelve thousand feetdown, wouldn't it?"
"Yes," answered the Doctor, "it would."
"And just think," went on the Big Business Man, "right now, based on thesize we were when we began, we've only gone some six feet altogetherfrom the place we started."
"And a sixteenth of an inch or less since we left the surface of thering," said the Doctor smiling.
"Gee, that's a weird thought," the Very Young Man said, as he gazed inawe at the lofty heights about them.
"I've been thinking," continued the Big Business Man. "You say we mustbe careful not to get lost in size. Well, suppose instead of takingtwelve pills here, we only take six. That should be enough to get usstarted--possibly enough to get us all the way down. Then before wemoved at all we could take the other six. That would keep it straight,wouldn't it?"
"Great idea," said the Very Young Man. "I'm in favor of that."
"It sounds feasible--certainly if we can get all the way down with sixpills we will save a lot of climbing."
"If six aren't enough, we can easily take more," added the Big BusinessMan.
And so they decided to take only six pills of the drug and to get downto the bottom of the pit, if possible, without taking more. The pit, asthey stood looking down into it now, seemed quite impossible of descent,for its almost perpendicular wall was smooth and shining as polishedbrass.
They took the drug, standing close together at the edge of the pit.Immediately began again the same crawling sensation underfoot, much morerapid this time, while all around them the rocks began very rapidlyincreasing in size.
The pit now seemed widening out at an astounding rate. In a few minutesit had broadened so that its opposite side could not be seen. The wallat the brink of which they stood had before curved in a great sweepingarc to enclose the circular hole; now it stretched in a nearly straight,unbroken line to the right and left as far as they could see. Beneaththem lay only blackness; it was as though they were at the edge of theworld.
"Good God, what a place to go down into," gasped the Big Business Man,after they had been standing nearly half an hour in silence, appalled atthe tremendous changes taking place around them.
For some time past the wall before them had become sufficiently indentedand broken to make possible their descent. It was the Doctor who firstrealized the time--or perhaps it should be said, the size--they werelosing by their inactivity; and when with a few crisp words he broughtthem to themselves, they immediately started downward.
For another six hours they traveled downward steadily, stopping onlyonce to eat. The descent during this time was not unlike that down theside of the valley, although towards the last it began rapidly to growless precipitous.
They now found themselves confronted frequently with gentle slopesdownward, half a mile or more in extent, and sometimes by almost levelplaces, succeeded by another sharp descent.
During this part of the trip they made more rapid progress than at anytime since starting, the Very Young Man in his enthusiasm at timesrunning forward and then sitting down to wait for the others to overtakehim.
The light overhead gradually faded into the characteristic luminousblackness the Chemist had described. As it did so, the phosphorescentquality of the rocks greatly increased, or at least became morenoticeable, so that the light illuminating the landscape became hardlyless in volume, although totally different in quality.
The ground underfoot and the rocks themselves had been steadilychanging. They had lost now almost entirely the yellowishness, metallook, and seemed to have more the quality of a gray opaque glass, ormarble. They appeared rather smoother, too, than before, although thehuge bowlders and loosely strewn rocks and pebbles still remained thecharacteristic feature of the landscape.
The three men were still diminishing in size; in fact, at this time thelast dose of the drug seemed to have attained its maximum power, forobjects around them appeared to be growing larger at a dizzying rate.They were getting used to this effect, however, to a great extent, andwere no longer confused by the change as they had been before.
It was the Big Business Man who first showed signs of weakening, and atthe end of six hours or more of steady--and, towards the end, extremelyrapid--traveling he finally threw himself down and declared he could gono farther. At this point they rested again several hours, taking turnsat watch, and each of them getting some measure of sleep. Of the three,the Very Young Man appeared in the best condition, although possibly itwas his enthusiasm that kept him
from admitting even to himself anyserious physical distress.
It was perhaps ten or twelve hours after they had taken the six pillsthat they were again ready to start downward. Before starting the threeadventurers discussed earnestly the advisability of taking the other sixpills. The action of the drug had ceased some time before. They decidednot to, since apparently there was no difficulty facing them at thispart of the journey, and decreasing their stature would onlyimmeasurably lengthen the distance they had to go.
They had been traveling downward, through a barren land that now showedlittle change of aspect, for hardly more than another hour, whensuddenly, without warning, they came upon the tremendous glossy inclinethat they had been expecting to reach for some time. The rocks andbowlders stopped abruptly, and they found at their feet, slopingdownward at an angle of nearly forty-five degrees, a great, smoothplane. It extended as far as they could see both to the right and leftand downward, at a slightly lessening angle, into the luminous darknessthat now bounded their entire range of vision in every direction.
This plane seemed distinctly of a different substance than anything theyhad hitherto encountered. It was, as the Chemist had described it,apparently like a smooth black marble. Yet it was not so smooth to themnow as he had pictured it, for its surface was sufficiently indented andridged to afford foothold.
They started down this plane gingerly, yet with an assumed boldness theywere all of them far from feeling. It was slow work at first, andoccasionally one or the other of them would slide headlong a score offeet, until a break in the smoothness brought him to a stop. Theirrubber-soled shoes stood them in good stead here, for without the aidgiven by them this part of the journey would have been impossible.
For several hours they continued this form of descent. The incline grewconstantly less steep, until finally they were able to walk down itquite comfortably. They stopped again to eat, and after traveling whatseemed to them some fifteen miles from the top of the incline theyfinally reached its bottom.
They seemed now to be upon a level floor--a ground of somewhat metallicquality such as they had become familiar with above. Only now there wereno rocks or bowlders, and the ground was smoother and with a peculiarcorrugation. On one side lay the incline down which they had come. Therewas nothing but darkness to be seen in any other direction. Here theystopped again to rest and recuperate, and then they discussed earnestlytheir next movements.
The Doctor, seated wearily upon the ground, consulted his memorandaearnestly. The Very Young Man sat close beside him. As usual the BigBusiness Man lay prone upon his back nearby, waiting for their decision.
"Rogers wasn't far from a forest when he got here," said the Very YoungMan, looking sidewise at the papers in the Doctor's hand. "And he speaksof a tiny range of hills; but we can't see anything from here."
"We may not be within many miles of where Rogers landed," answered theDoctor.
"No reason why we should be, at that, is there? Do you think we'll everfind Arite?"
"Don't overlook the fact we've got six more pills to take here," calledthe Big Business Man.
"That's just what I was considering," said the Doctor thoughtfully."There's no use our doing anything until we have attained the rightsize. Those hills and the forest and river we are looking for might behere right at our feet and we couldn't see them while we are as big asthis."
"We'd better take the pills and stay right here until their action wearsoff. I'm going to take a sleep," said the Big Business Man.
"I think we might as well all sleep," said the Doctor. "There could notpossibly be anything here to harm us."
They each took the six additional pills without further words.Physically exhausted as they were, and with the artificial drowsinessproduced by the drug, they were all three in a few moments fast asleep.