Part 33 (2/2)
”I try earthly power first,” I returned testily ”So lay to it, and ill have you out”
I braced th I possessed There followed a series ofcloth, and the disgruntled Puritan came forth with a suddenness of exit which landed us both in a heap on the floor
”May all the spawn of hell be your player
”By the bones of Moses! you have scraped every bit of skin off me, and half my coat is ripped loose and left behind Thou art an unGodly, blaspheasped wildly for breath as I throttled hirip of ed like a bear preparing for Winter, or you would have passed through even as I did,” I muttered, heedless of his effort to release my clutch ”Lie still now, or, by all the devils in the pit, I 'll shut down harder on your throat Ah, so you can keep quiet, friend? Then I will let you go, for I would be free to explore this passage”
I could perceive, by , that he was busily engaged in rubbing his sorely lacerated sides, and I noted his brown jerkin had been fairly wrenched off his shoulders
”Where did you leave your coat?”
”Yonder in that accursed hole! It has store of provisions in its pockets Lord saveanxiously about in the scene of his late adventure until he finally brought forth thethe pockets to see their contents re it across his shoulders, like a pair of well-filled saddle-bags I reached in also, lowered the drapery, and then led down the dark tunnel as rapidly as the grie proved long and tedious; at least so it seeh the darkness However, it ran straight and upon a level, although the nuave us occasional foul blows, and proved so confusing ere considerable ti its distance All I have already pictured as occurring since I departed froed blindly into the underground labyrinths, had required several hours, and it looe traversed so long ter forth between two huge rocks To all appearances, it ended at the high bank of a noisy strea cliff The latter, devoid of path or chased suht the way ended here, but Cairnes pointed silently toward the right, and then I perceived where a path led upward, along thewater, yet ever rising higher above it, until, as s fro the possibilities of so mad a climb
”I suppose it must be tried,” I ade Doubtless it leads straight to the top of the cliff”
”Ay,” with more of indifference than I had expected, ”and it will be no easy trick in the night”
”The night?”
”Surely, yes; when else could we expect to compass the path? Is it not plain, friend, that before we rose fifty feet we should be in full view of every eye in the valley with the sun bright upon us? I tell you we ht shadows, or else it will be safer to lie hidden here”
I perceived the truth of his words and I confess to a sinking of the heart, as I conte, it addles my head; and, bad as it appeared by day, surely doubly bad would it prove by night Yet there was little help for it, and I e by more cheerful speech
”Odds, but that is no such trip as I would seek after, yet needs must if the devil drives,” I said ”So, now, brother Cairnes, if you wilt consent to divide your store of food, we shall both front our night's ith stronger bodies”
”Saints' rest! and if we go over the edge,” he replied, cheerfully e pockets on the rock, ”it will be a coainstas possible over our e each other and indulging in frequent draughts fro occurred to disturb us, and, finally, both yielded to the soothing influence of the drowsy evening, and, resting back upon the rocks, dropped asleep I know not the hour of reeted by the sight of a nearly full ht flooded the rocks, revealing the winding path leading upward To arouse Cairnes was no easy task, but at last we advanced on our path The huge rocks overhead appeared to arch us in, while, with ute, which at times was level, and anon rose abruptly like the steps of a stair; occasionally it wound about projecting rocks and over vast, unknown depths, until ed the sht, and felt cautiously forward for solid foothold
I iressed thus for upwards of three or four hundred yards, and were elevated so far above the stream that scarcely an echo of its noise assailed our ears even in the silence of the night, when suddenly we came to the end of our path The rocky shelf was so narrow the very conception of turning about s to the very edge, stretched a solid wall of rock My eyes sank to the shelf on which I stood Lying close against the sheer cliff was the root of a tree, its trunk, perhaps a foot orover the abyss, whose depth I durst not guess I stooped cautiously,the bark
”Oak,” I announced soberly, ”and feels solid and strong No doubt those Indians e to rack the nerves”
”Will you adventure the passage?” questioned Cairnes, striving to peer across my shoulder ”As for me I would rather atteiven 'T is either turn and go back, or foot the tree; of the two the atte would addle e as far as I dared, clinging desperately to the root, and gazed down It was like peering into the reat well Then I nerved myself for the ordeal, and the next ri as if with drunkenness Yet I kept , and soon felt solid rock oncefeet With prayer on lips I crouched, sick and dizzy, close in against the wall, watching Cairnes where he followed along the same perilous path
CHAPTER xxxII
CHIEF PRIEST OF THE SUN
The rock shelf we followed becareater freedo the precipitous face of the cliff, until we hty bluff But the overhanging crest rendered it iuess the situation We were but ants clinging to a wall and unable to see more than a few yards ahead Finally we attained a point where the cliff bulged outward in a wide curve, not unlike the rounded bow of a shi+p, and were co the narrowed shelf, which was see fearfully forward on hands and knees around the sharp corner I foundentrance to a cavern I realized that here was the ending of our toilso a precipitous wall of stone If the path had continuation, it h the cave