PENCROFF DOUBTS NO MORE—THE OLD OUTLET OF THE LAKE—A SUBTERRANEAN DESCENT—THE WAY THROUGH THE GRANITE—TOP HAS DISAPPEARED—THE CENTRAL CAVERN—THE LOWER WELL—MYSTERY—THE BLOWS WITH THE PICK—THE RETURN.
Smith’s project had succeeded; but, as was his manner, he stood motionless, absorbed, his lips closed, giving no sign of satisfaction. Herbert was all enthusiasm; Neb jumped with joy; Pencroff, shaking his head, murmured:—
“Indeed, our engineer does wonders!”
The nitro-glycerine had worked powerfully. The opening was so great that at least a three times greater volume of water escaped by it than by the former outlet. In a little while, therefore, the level of the lake would be lowered two feet or more.
The colonists returned to the Chimneys, and collecting some picks, spears, ropes, a steel and tinder, returned to the plateau. Top went with them.
On the way the sailor could not resist saying to the engineer:—
“But do you really think, Mr. Smith, that one could blow up the whole island with this beautiful liquid of yours?”
“Doubtless,” replied the other, “island, continents, the world itself. It is only a question of quantity.”
“Couldn’t you use this nitro-glycerine to load firearms.”
“No, Pencroff, because it is too shattering. But it would be easy to make gun-cotton, or even common powder, as we have the material. Unfortunately, the guns themselves are wanting.”
“But with a little ingenuity!—”
Pencroff had erased “impossible” from his vocabulary.
The colonists having reached Prospect Plateau, hastened at once to the old outlet of the lake, which ought now to be uncovered. And when the water no longer poured through it, it would, doubtless, be easy to explore its interior arrangement.
In a few moments they reached the lower angle of the lake, and saw at a glance what the result was.
There, in the granite wall of the lake, above the water-level, appeared the long-looked for opening. A narrow ledge, left bare, by the subsidence of the water, gave them access to it. The opening was twenty feet wide, though only two feet high. It was like the gutter-mouth in a pavement. It was not open enough for the party to get in, but Neb and Pencroff, with their picks, in less than an hour had given it a sufficient height.
The engineer looked in and saw that the walls of the opening in its upper part showed a slope of from 30° to 35°. And, therefore, unless they became much steeper it would be easy to descend, perhaps, to the level of the sea. And if, as was probable, some vast cavern existed in the interior of the massive granite, it was possible that they could make use of it.
“What are we waiting for, Mr. Smith,” cried the sailor, all impatience to begin the exploration, “Top, you see, has gone ahead!”
“We must have some light,” said the engineer. “Go, Neb, and cut some resinous branches.”
The negro and Herbert ran to some pine and evergreens growing upon the bank, and soon returned with branches which were made into torches. Having lit them, the colonists, with Smith leading, entered the dark passage, but recently filled with water.
Contrary to their expectation, the passage grew higher as they advanced, until soon they were able to walk upright. The granite walls, worn, by the water, were very slippery, and the party had to look out for falls. They, therefore, fastened themselves together with a cord, like mountain climbers. Fortunately, some granite steps made the descent less perilous. Drops of water, still clinging to the rocks, glistened like stalactites in the torchlight. The engineer looked carefully at this black granite. He could not see a stratum or a flaw. The mass was compact and of fine grain, and the passage must have been coeval with the island. It had not been worn little by little by the constant action of water. Pluto, and not Neptune, had shaped it; and the traces of igneous action were still visible upon its surface.
The colonists descended but slowly. They experienced some emotion in thus adventuring into the depths of the earth, in being its first human visitants. No one spoke, but each was busied with his own reflections and the thought occurred to more than one, that perhaps some pulp or other gigantic cephalopod might inhabit the interior cavities which communicated with the sea. It was, therefore, necessary to advance cautiously.
Top was ahead of the little troop and they could rely on the dog’s sagacity to give the alarm on occasion. After having descended 100 feet, Smith halted, and the others came up with him. They were standing in a cavern of moderate size. Drops of water fell from the roof, but they did not ooze through the rocks, they were simply the last traces of the torrent which had so long roared through this place, and the air, though humid, emitted no mephitic vapor.
“Well, Cyrus,” said Spilett, “here is a retreat sufficiently unknown and hidden in the depths, but it is uninhabitable.”
“How, uninhabitable?” asked the sailor.
“Why, it is too small and too dark.”
“Cannot we make it bigger, blast it out, and make openings for the light and air?” answered Pencroff, who now thought nothing impracticable.
“Let us push on,” said Smith. “Perhaps lower down, nature will have spared us this work.”
“We are only a third of the way down,” observed Herbert.
“But 100 feet,” responded Cyrus; “and it is possible that 100 feet lower—.”
“Where is Top?” asked Neb, interrupting his master.
They looked about the cavern. The dog was not there.
“Let us overtake him,” said Smith, resuming the march. The engineer noted carefully all the deviations of the route, and easily kept a general idea of their direction, which was towards the sea. The party had not descended more than fifty feet further, when their attention was arrested by distant sounds coming from the depths of the rock. They stopped and listened. These sounds, borne along the passage, as the voice through an acoustic tube, were distinctly heard.
“Its Top’s barking!” cried Herbert.
“Yes, and the brave dog is barking furiously,” added Pencroff.
“We have our spears,” said Smith. “Come on, and be ready.”
“It is becoming more and more interesting,” whispered Spilett to the sailor, who nodded assent.
They hurried to the rescue of the dog. His barks grew more distinct. They could hear that he was in a strange rage. Had he been captured by some animal whom he had disturbed? Without thinking of the danger, the colonists felt themselves drawn on by an irresistible curiosity, and slipped rather than ran down the passage. Sixteen feet lower they came up with the dog.
There, the corridor opened out into a vast and magnificent cavern. Top, rushing about, was barking furiously. Pencroff and Neb, shaking their torches, lit up all the inequalities of the granite, and the others, with their spears ready, held themselves prepared for any emergency.
But the enormous cavern was empty. The colonists searched everywhere; they could find no living thing. Nevertheless, Top continued barking, and neither threats nor caresses could stop him.
“There must be some place where the water escaped to the sea,” said the engineer.
“Yes, and look out for a hole,” answered Pencroff.
“On, Top, on,” cried Smith, and the dog, encouraged by his master, ran towards the end of the cavern, and redoubled his barking.
Following him, they saw by the light of the torches the opening of what looked like a well in the granite. Here, undoubtedly, was the place where the water had found its way out of the cavern, but this time, instead of being a corridor sloping and accessible, it was a perpendicular well, impossible to descend.
The torches were waved above the opening. They saw nothing. Smith broke off a burning branch and dropped it into the abyss. The resin, fanned by the wind of its fall, burned brightly and illuminated the interior of the pit, but showed nothing else. Then the flame was extinguished with a slight hiss, which indicated that it had reached the water, which must be the sea level.
The engineer calculated, from the time taken in the fall, that the depth was about ninety feet. The floor of the cavern was therefore that distance above the sea.
“Here is our house,” said Smith.
“But it was preoccupied,” said Spilett, whose curiosity was unsatisfied.
“Well, the thing that had it, whether amphibious or not, has fled by this outlet and vacated in our favor,” replied the engineer.
“Any how, I should like to have been Top a quarter of an hour ago,” said the sailor, “for he does not bark at nothing.”
Smith looked at his dog, and those who were near him heard him murmur:—
“Yes, I am convinced that Top knows more than we do about many things!”
However, the wishes of the colonists had been in a great measure realized. Chance, aided by the marvelous acuteness of their chief, had done them good service. Here they had at their disposal a vast cavern, whose extent could not be estimated In the insufficient light of the torches, but which could certainly be easily partitioned off with bricks into chambers, and arranged, if not as a house, at least as a spacious suite of rooms. The water having left it, could not return. The place was free.
But two difficulties remained, the possibility of lighting the cavern and the necessity of rendering it easier of access. The first could not be done from above as the enormous mass of granite was over them; but, perhaps, they would be able to pierce the outer wall which faced the sea. Smith, who during the descent had kept account of the slope, and therefore of the length of the passage, believed that this part of the wall could not be very thick. If light could be thus obtained, so could entrance, as it was as easy to pierce a door as windows, and to fix a ladder on the outside.
Smith communicated his ideas to his companions.
“Then let us set to work!” answered Pencroff; “I have my pick and will I soon make daylight in the granite! Where shall I begin?”
“Here,” answered the engineer, showing the strong sailor a considerable hollow in the wall, which greatly diminished its thickness.
Pencroff attacked the granite, and for half an hour, by the light of the torches, made the splinters fly about him. Then Neb took his place, and Spilett after Neb. The work continued, two hours longer, and, when it seemed as if the wall could not be thicker than the length of the pick, at the last stroke of Spilett the implement, passing through, fell on the outside.
“Hurrah forever!” cried Pencroff.
The wall was but three feet thick.
Smith looked through the opening, which was eighty feet above the ground. Before him extended the coast, the islet, and, beyond, the boundless sea.
Through the hole the light entered in floods, inundating the splendid cavern and producing a magical effect. While on the left hand it measured only thirty feet in height and one hundred in length, to the right it was enormous, and its vault rose to a height of more than eighty feet. In some places, granite pillars, irregularly disposed, supported the arches as in the nave of a cathedral. Resting upon a sort of lateral piers, here, sinking into elliptic arches, there, rising in ogive mouldings, losing itself in the dark bays, half seen in the shadow through the fantastic arches, ornamented by a profusion of projections which seemed like pendants, this vaulted roof afforded a picturesque blending of all the architectures—Byzantine, Roman, Gothic—that the hand of man has produced. And this was the work of nature! She alone had constructed this magic Alhambra in a granite rock!
The colonists were overcome with admiration. Expecting to find but a narrow cavern, they found themselves in a sort of marvellous palace, and Neb had taken off his hat as if he had been transported into a temple!
Exclamations of pleasure escaped from their lips, and the hurrahs echoed and reechoed from the depths of the dark nave.
“My friends,” cried Smith, “when we shall have lighted the interior of this place, when we shall have arranged our chambers, our store-rooms, our offices in the left-hand portion, we will still have this splendid cavern, which shall be our study and our museum!
“And we will call it—” asked Herbert.
“Granite House,” answered Smith; and his companions saluted the name with their cheers.
By this time the torches were nearly consumed, and as, in order to return, it was necessary to regain the summit of the plateau and to remount the corridor, it was decided to postpone until the morrow the work of arranging their new home.
Before leaving, Smith leaned over the dark pit once more and listened attentively. But there was no sound from these depths save that of the water agitated by the undulations of the surge. A resinous torch was again thrown in, lighting up anew for an instant the walls of the well, but nothing suspicions was revealed. If any marine monster had been inopportunely surprised by the retreat of the waters, he had already regained the open sea by the subterranean passage which extended under the shore.
Nevertheless the engineer stood motionless, listening attentively, his gaze plunged in the abyss, without speaking.
Then the sailor approached him, and, touching his arm:—
“Mr. Smith,” he said.
“What is it, my friend,” responded the engineer, like one returning from the land of dreams.
“The torches are nearly out.”
“Forward!” said Smith; and the little troop left the cavern and began the ascent through the dark weir. Top walked behind, still growling in an odd way. The ascension was sufficiently laborious, and the colonists stopped for a few minutes at the upper grotto, which formed a sort of landing half way up the long granite stairway. Then they began again to mount, and pretty soon they felt the fresh air. The drops, already evaporated, no longer shone on the walls. The light of the torches diminished; Neb’s went out, and they had to hasten in order to avoid having to grope their way through, the profound darkness. A little before 4 o’clock, just as the torch of the sailor was burnt out, Smith and his companions emerged from the mouth of the passage.
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