EUREKA
Ivan's fears as to the safety of his own colliery were growing day by
day. One morning he found that the amount of hydrogen was scarcely
perceptible; still there was water in the pit. This discovery made him
thoughtful; he could not understand it. He descended into the cavern
where the pond was. Not one drop of water!
Ivan remained for three hours, watching anxiously to see would the
water rise; but none came.
At the end of three hours he was relieved by the men, and it was then
arranged that during the night they would take turns in watching the
tank. As soon as the water began to rise they were to call him. Ivan
went home, lay down, and fell into a deep sleep, from which he did not
awake until the sun was high in the heavens. He wondered that no one
had called him, as had been agreed.
It might be that the men had also been overcome by sleep. Poor
wretches, they also were exhausted. He hastened to the pit. The men
told him they had watched all night, but there had been no sign of
water in the tank. He waited patiently for twenty-four hours. Not a
sign of water!
Ivan thought he could explain the absence of the water by the theory
of the periodic springs--a theory too complicated to enter upon here.
It is sufficient to say that the water-supply of the mine was worked
by the pressure of the air upon these springs. If the water did not
now return, it would be attributable to one of two causes: either the
pipe which conducted the water from the larger basin had suddenly
closed, and was no longer subject to atmospherical pressure, on which
it depended to keep open; or some split or crevice had come in the
stone masonry which protected the basins, and the force of the air had
driven the water down farther into the bowels of the earth, where, no
doubt, another basin was ready for its reception. We will remember
that from the first Ivan had the idea that some such reservoir
existed. But where?--that was the problem; and if the reservoirs were
not found, what then?
The cavern where Ivan stood was empty. The black portals which guarded
the subterranean kingdom of death stood open to him. He could enter
the labyrinth; he could discover what he had long sought, the
communication between the upper and the lower water basins. One
difficulty lay in his way. He should take a workman with him. He
called the old miner, Paul.
"Paul, how old are you?"
"Sixty-nine."
"You would like, no doubt, to complete your seventieth year."
"I should like to see the gold wedding of this pit. Next year it will
be just fifty years since it was opened."
"And if you die before then?"
"I should say, 'The name of the Lord be blessed.'"
"Are your sons grown to man's estate?"
"My grandson is able to keep himself."
"Would you be ready to accompany me on a dangerous expedition--one
where the chances are we might never return?"
"I think I have run that chance before now."
"You must understand, Paul, the whole risk before you agree. We are
going to look for the water that has left the tank. It is a matter of
life and death to every one of us, and, therefore, I think God will
help us; but it may not be so. The Almighty may say, 'Why should you
mere worms of the earth dare to interfere between me and the sentence
I have passed against you and yours? I did not listen to the
entreaties of Lot, and now the Dead Sea covers the ruins of the city.
You men of Bondathal are not better than the men of Gomorrah.' Do you
understand me? I have often sought for the source of the spring
through the narrow winding paths of this cavern. These windings are so
narrow that one must sometimes press through them by mere force, at
other times creep along upon one's stomach. Great abysses yawn under
the feet; a fall down one of these would be fatal; we will have to
cling to the wall as we creep along. Again, we will pass through
stinking sewers, up to our elbows in putrid filth. All these clefts
and fissures have been made some time--God knows when--by an
earthquake which has caused the uprooting of the coal stratum. Now it
is quite possible that this last explosion has closed again many of
these clefts and opened others. If it has happened, as I surmise, that
the aperture has been shut which communicated between the pit beneath
us and the one above--if this has taken place, then we have a tank
full of water over our heads. If we, in our search through the bowels
of the earth, come upon this aperture, and accidentally break the
smallest hole, not the size of a pin's point, the water in the basin
over our heads will burst through and annihilate us; if we hear it
roaring we are already lost. But, on the other hand, it may be that
the explosion caused a rent in the upper cleft, and if so the water
has rushed through it to the lower basin under our feet. What we have
to do, whether we die in the search or not, is to find out where the
water is."
"I have no idea what you mean; all I know is that I am ready to go
with you."
"Then go home and take leave of your family, as if you were going a
long journey. Go to your priest and make your peace with God. Then
come back, and tell no one where we are going."
Ivan now made his own preparations. From this adventure he might never
return. He made his will. He bequeathed his mine to his workmen, his
money to Paul's family. This was an act of justice. If the old man
were killed, it was in a measure his, Ivan's, doing.
When this was all done he went out and took his leave of light and air
before going into the blackness of everlasting night. It was well
under the free air of heaven. The sky might be bluer elsewhere, the
grass greener; still, it was not eternal darkness.
The post brought him a letter. It was from Arpad Belenyi. It told him
all that we already know--the fall of Kaulmann, the disappearance of
Eveline, whom every one thought had drowned herself. Ivan's heart was
stirred by deep sorrow. The sky lost its brightness; the meadow was no
longer green; the blackness of the pit would be welcome to him. This
news acted upon him as a tonic; he felt braced; his fears vanished.
Life was now more worthless than before.
He set about the necessary preparations with calmness. He collected
the instruments which would be needed for this strange search--the
levelling instrument, the circumferentor, the plumb-line. He put them
in a bag, which he tied round his neck. Paul carried the pick, the
iron rod, and a strong cord.
With this equipment they descended into the cavern, and vanished
through the windings of the water-course. After six hours they
reappeared. This went on day after day.
Ivan took the measurements of all the windings of the labyrinth, and
when he was at home compared them carefully. It took him hours. At
night he retired into his laboratory, heated deadly gases in his
retorts, and forced the mysterious elements to surrender their
long-concealed secrets. He fought with demons who refused to obey him.
"Which of you is the spirit that can extinguish fire? Appear! appear!
Not with Alpha and Omega, not with Solomon's Seal, not in the name of
Abraxas and Mithras do I conjure you, but by the force of all-powerful
science I order you appear!"
But no spirit appeared.
This double battle, the one under the earth, the one in the air above
it, this fight with the two great demons of the world's creation, went
on day by day, in daylight and darkness. Ivan had no rest.
One morning he was told that the water in the castle well was hot, and
it had a decided taste of sulphur. He began now to despair. The
subterranean conflagration was closing round him sooner than he had
looked for it. The situation was lost; one year, and the whole place
would be consumed.
Rauné, when this fact became known, threw up his appointment and
openly took service with Prince Waldemar. He was commissioned by his
employer to write--as an authentic witness--the accounts of the
catastrophe, which appeared constantly in the Vienna papers.
Ivan threw himself with the energy of despair into the search; he
penetrated farther into the subterranean labyrinth. Paul was like a
ghost; his very soul was steeped in terror, but he held bravely to his
master.
One day, amidst the confusion of the different winding passages in the
rock, they came to a place out of which there seemed to be no exit.
They struck the wall. It returned a hollow sound, so that they drew
the conclusion that on the other side there was a large cavern, or
space of some sort. The tumbled masses of slate-stratum fallen over
one another was a proof that the blockade had been recently made.
"We must clear a passage here," said Ivan, taking the pick in his
hand.
Paul cowered down, clinging to the wall. He trembled at every blow of
the pick given by the vigorous arm of Ivan, who worked with terrible
earnestness. So might a despairing soul beat against the gates of hell
and summon the devil to single combat.
At last the pick made a small hole, through which Ivan passed the iron
rod, and raised a whole mass of slates.
"Now, if the water is overhead the crack of doom has come."
The old man crossed himself, and recommended his soul to God.
Ivan, however, shouted with all the joy of a discoverer: "Do you hear?
The rubbish as it falls makes a splash. The lower basin I am in search
of _is here_, underneath us!"
But what if the one above is full? They had still to wait while they
counted a hundred beats of the pulse.
Never was a pulse felt under such terrible circumstances, not even
when Ivan had gone down into the burning mine. Not a sound was heard.
In the bosom of the earth all is quiet. Ivan was trembling with joyful
excitement.
"Found at last!" he cried. "Now bind the cord round me, and lower me
into the well cavern."
It was done. The old miner, as he held the rope, prayed fervently to
the Blessed Mother that she would forgive this heretic, who did not
know what he was doing. Meantime the lamp sank deeper and deeper.
Suddenly Ivan cried out, "Pull me up!"
His old comrade drew him slowly out of the depths of the earth. As he
held out his hand to help him, Ivan suddenly threw his arms round him
and embraced him.
"We have reached our goal," he said. "The plumb-line shows a monstrous
depth of water."
Paul's brain began to clear. For the first time he had a dim idea of
the aims of their labors.
"Now let us get into daylight."
As soon as Ivan got out of the pit he ran home as fast as he could. He
compared his measurements, and was well content with the result. At
night he shut himself in his laboratory. He was flushed with triumph;
another victory would be his. He would also conquer the demon that had
hitherto resisted his will. He had the proud feeling of a victorious
general who demands the last stronghold to surrender.
"I have already conquered," he said. "You are the next to submit. God
sometimes lends to his creature immortal gifts, moments of creative
power, when the infinite takes, as it were, shape, and the finite
cries to the infinite, 'Eureka!'"
Ivan poured out ten drops of the water he had brought from the well.
There was not more than would be held in the point of a pen. The
laboratory became suddenly dark. The strong heat of the burning coal
in the oven went out as if by magic. All was dark; black as night.
This darkness was the light for which Ivan had been seeking.
"I have found it!" he cried aloud. "I have found it!" he cried to his
workmen, among whom he rushed, half undressed, with his hat off, like
a lunatic.
They did not know what he had found, but they felt certain the
discovery which was considered so important by their guide and master
must be a matter of rejoicing, in proof of which the miners cheered
lustily.