FAREWELL TO GOD'S SUNSHINE.--THE ECHO OF THE CRY.
Thus speaking, my quiet leader, who had so long been as a shepherd to my
wandering feet, on the upper earth, grasped my hands tightly, and placed
them in those of my new companion, whose clammy fingers closed over them
as with a grip of iron. The mysterious being, now my custodian, turned
towards the creek, drawing me after him, and together we silently and
solemnly waded beneath the stone archway. As I passed under the shadow
of that dismal, yawning cliff, I turned my head to take one last glimpse
of the world I had known--that "warm precinct of the cheerful day,"--and
tears sprang to my eyes. I thought of life, family, friends,--of all for
which men live--and a melancholy vision arose, that of my lost, lost
home. My dear companion of the journey that had just ended stood in the
sunlight on the banks of the rippling stream, gazing at us intently, and
waved an affectionate farewell. My uncouth new associate (guide or
master, whichever he might be), of the journey to come, clasped me
firmly by the arms, and waded slowly onward, thrusting me steadily
against the cold current, and with irresistible force pressed me into
the thickening darkness. The daylight disappeared, the pathway
contracted, the water deepened and became more chilly. We were
constrained to bow our heads in order to avoid the overhanging vault of
stone; the water reached to my chin, and now the down-jutting roof
touched the crown of my head; then I shuddered convulsively as the last
ray of daylight disappeared.
Had it not been for my companion, I know that I should have sunk in
despair, and drowned; but with a firm hand he held my head above the
water, and steadily pushed me onward. I had reached the extreme of
despondency: I neither feared nor cared for life nor death, and I
realized that, powerless to control my own acts, my fate, the future, my
existence depended on the strange being beside me. I was mysteriously
sustained, however, by a sense of bodily security, such as comes over us
as when in the hands of an experienced guide we journey through a
wilderness, for I felt that my pilot of the underworld did not purpose
to destroy me. We halted a moment, and then, as a faint light overspread
us, my eyeless guide directed me to look upward.
"We now stand beneath the crevice which you were told by your former
guide would admit the last ray of sunlight on your path. I also say to
you, this struggling ray of sunlight is to be your last for years."
I gazed above me, feeling all the wretchedness of a dying man who, with
faculties intact, might stand on the dark edge of the hillside of
eternity, glancing back into the bright world; and that small opening
far, far overhead, seemed as the gate to Paradise Lost. Many a person,
assured of ascending at will, has stood at the bottom of a deep well or
shaft to a mine, and even then felt the undescribable sensation of
dread, often terror, that is produced by such a situation. Awe, mystery,
uncertainty of life and future superadded, may express my sensation. I
trembled, shrinking in horror from my captor and struggled violently.
"Hold, hold," I begged, as one involuntarily prays a surgeon to delay
the incision of the amputating knife, "just one moment." My companion,
unheeding, moved on, the light vanished instantly, and we were
surrounded by total darkness. God's sunshine was blotted out.
[Illustration: "THIS STRUGGLING RAY OF SUNLIGHT IS TO BE YOUR LAST FOR
YEARS."]
Then I again became unconcerned; I was not now responsible for my own
existence, and the feeling that I experienced when a prisoner in the
closed carriage returned. I grew careless as to my fate, and with stolid
indifference struggled onward as we progressed slowly against the
current of water. I began to interest myself in speculations regarding
our surroundings, and the object or outcome of our journey. In places
the water was shallow, scarce reaching to our ankles; again it was so
deep that we could wade only with exertion, and at times the passage up
which we toiled was so narrow, that it would scarcely admit us. After a
long, laborious stemming of the unseen brook, my companion directed me
to close my mouth, hold my nostrils with my fingers, and stoop; almost
diving with me beneath the water, he drew me through the submerged
crevice, and we ascended into an open chamber, and left the creek behind
us. I fancied that we were in a large room, and as I shouted aloud to
test my hypothesis, echo after echo answered, until at last the cry
reverberated and died away in distant murmurs. We were evidently in a
great pocket or cavern, through which my guide now walked rapidly;
indeed, he passed along with unerring footsteps, as certain of his
course as I might be on familiar ground in full daylight. I perceived
that he systematically evaded inequalities that I could not anticipate
nor see. He would tell me to step up or down, as the surroundings
required, and we ascended or descended accordingly. Our path turned to
the right or the left from time to time, but my eyeless guide passed
through what were evidently the most tortuous windings without a mishap.
I wondered much at this gift of knowledge, and at last overcame my
reserve sufficiently to ask how we could thus unerringly proceed in
utter darkness. The reply was:
"The path is plainly visible to me; I see as clearly in pitch darkness
as you can in sunshine."
"Explain yourself further," I requested.
He replied, "Not yet;" and continued, "you are weary, we will rest."
He conducted me to a seat on a ledge, and left me for a time. Returning
soon, he placed in my hands food which I ate with novel relish. The
pabulum seemed to be of vegetable origin, though varieties of it had a
peculiar flesh-like flavor. Several separate and distinct substances
were contained in the queer viands, some portions savoring of wholesome
flesh, while others possessed the delicate flavors of various fruits,
such as the strawberry and the pineapple. The strange edibles were of a
pulpy texture, homogeneous in consistence, parts being juicy and acid
like grateful fruits. Some portions were in slices or films that I could
hold in my hand like sections of a velvet melon, and yet were in many
respects unlike any other food that I had ever tasted. There was neither
rind nor seed; it seemed as though I were eating the gills of a fish,
and in answer to my question the guide remarked:
"Yes; it is the gill, but not the gill of a fish. You will be instructed
in due time." I will add that after this, whenever necessary, we were
supplied with food, but both thirst and hunger disappeared altogether
before our underground journey was finished.
After a while we again began our journey, which we continued in what was
to me absolute darkness. My strength seemed to endure the fatigue to a
wonderful degree, notwithstanding that we must have been walking hour
after hour, and I expressed a curiosity about the fact. My guide replied
that the atmosphere of the cavern possessed an intrinsic vitalizing
power that neutralized fatigue, "or," he said, "there is here an
inherent constitutional energy derived from an active gaseous substance
that belongs to cavern air at this depth, and sustains the life force by
contributing directly to its conservation, taking the place of food and
drink."
"I do not understand," I said.
"No; and you do not comprehend how ordinary air supports mind and
vitalizes muscle, and at the same time wears out both muscle and all
other tissues. These are facts which are not satisfactorily explained by
scientific statements concerning oxygenation of the blood. As we descend
into the earth we find an increase in the life force of the cavern air."
This reference to surface earth recalled my former life, and led me to
contrast my present situation with that I had forfeited. I was seized
with an uncontrollable longing for home, and a painful craving for the
past took possession of my heart, but with a strong effort I shook off
the sensations. We traveled on and on in silence and in darkness, and I
thought again of the strange remark of my former guide who had said:
"You are destined to go deeper into the unknown; yes, into and beyond
the Beyond."