The Coming Race | Page 4

by some
absorbing thought. He was unusually taciturn, and there was a scared,
bewildered look in his eyes, as that of a man who has seen a ghost. At
night, as we two were sitting alone in the lodging we shared together
near the mouth of the mine, I said to my friend,-
"Tell me frankly what you saw in that chasm: I am sure it was
something strange and terrible. Whatever it be, it has left your mind in
a state of doubt. In such a case two heads are better than one. Confide
in me."
The engineer long endeavoured to evade my inquiries; but as, while he
spoke, he helped himself unconsciously out of the brandy-flask to a
degree to which he was wholly unaccustomed, 7for he was a very
temperate man, his reserve gradually melted away. He who would keep
himself to himself should imitate the dumb animals, and drink water.
At last he said, "I will tell you all. When the cage stopped, I found
myself on a ridge of rock; and below me, the chasm, taking a slanting
direction, shot down to a considerable depth, the darkness of which my

lamp could not have penetrated. But through it, to my infinite surprise,
streamed upward a steady brilliant light. Could it be any volcanic fire?
In that case, surely I should have felt the heat. Still, if on this there was
doubt, it was of the utmost importance to our common safety to clear it
up. I examined the sides of the descent, and found that I could venture
to trust myself to the irregular projection of ledges, at least for some
way. I left the cage and clambered down. As I drew nearer and nearer
to the light, the chasm became wider, and at last I saw, to my
unspeakable amaze, a broad level road at the bottom of the abyss,
illumined as far as the eye could reach by what seemed artificial
gas-lamps placed at regular intervals, as in the thoroughfare of a great
city; and I heard confusedly at a distance a hum as of human voices. I
know, of course, that no rival miners are at work in this district. Whose
could be those voices? What human hands could have levelled that road
and marshalled those lamps?
"The superstitious belief, common to miners, that gnomes or fiends
dwell within the bowels of the earth, began to seize me. I shuddered at
the thought of descending further and braving the inhabitants of this
nether valley. Nor indeed could I have done so without ropes, as from
the spot I had reached to the bottom of the chasm the sides of the rock
sank down abrupt, smooth, and sheer. I retraced my steps with some
difficulty. Now I have told you all."
"You will descend again?"
"I ought, yet I feel as if I durst not."
"A trusty companion halves the journey and doubles the courage. 8I
will go with you. We will provide ourselves with ropes of suitable
length and strength- and- pardon me- you must not drink more to-night.
our hands and feet must be steady and firm tomorrow."
Chapter II.
With the morning my friend's nerves were rebraced, and he was not
less excited by curiosity than myself. Perhaps more; for he evidently
believed in his own story, and I felt considerable doubt of it; not that he

would have wilfully told an untruth, but that I thought he must have
been under one of those hallucinations which seize on our fancy or our
nerves in solitary, unaccustomed places, and in which we give shape to
the formless and sound to the dumb.
We selected six veteran miners to watch our descent; and as the cage
held only one at a time, the engineer descended first; and when he had
gained the ledge at which he had before halted, the cage rearose for me.
I soon gained his side. We had provided ourselves with a strong coil of
rope.
The light struck on my sight as it had done the day before on my
friend's. The hollow through which it came sloped diagonally: it
seemed to me a diffused atmospheric light, not like that from fire, but
soft and silvery, as from a northern star. Quitting the cage, we
descended, one after the other, easily enough, owing to the juts in the
side, till we reached the place at which my friend had previously halted,
and which was a projection just spacious enough to allow us to stand
abreast. From this spot the chasm widened rapidly like the lower end of
a vast funnel, and I saw distinctly the valley, the road, the lamps which
my companion had described. He had exaggerated nothing. I heard the
sounds he had heard- a mingled indescribable