THE CAULDRON OF GOLD
Throughout the mass of Links in the cavern, the news of the unforeseen
calamity spread with great rapidity. Some of the females set up a
wailing; the “men” all chattered at once; baby Links caught the
infection of fear and began to cry. A more demoralised collection of
beings it would be hard to conceive.
The tremendous advantage gained by the Blacks was readily comprehended
by all the older males. They knew, as well as I, that did they attempt
to dig out, the Links in waiting on top of the heap could kill them as
fast as a head appeared; they also seemed to know that their enemies
would wait outside, long enough to be sure that all of us had starved to
death, before they finally decamped.
So desperate seemed the prospect that I got in a fever myself. We should
all have been in absolute darkness had not the torches been lifted up,
and these cast so feeble an illumination that the crowded-in mass of
Links appeared like a great serpent, along the body of which weird
muscular contractions were flitting. The place was stifling, for the day
was hot, and here we appeared to get no air. I began to think we should
never live long enough to starve.
To all my attempted questions, by signs and otherwise, concerning the
further end of the cave, the chief and others gave answers which were
decidedly in the negative. They seemed even fearful of the chamber, now
that we were trapped and unable longer to go out into the light and air.
Nevertheless I did not propose to remain there motionless till death
should bring me to a finish. I therefore made my way through the moving
crowd, toward the torches. Fatty followed closely. His face was
positively ludicrous in its solemnity, which was oddly mocked by the
skull he wore on his head, for this ghastly thing had slipped rakishly
down on one side.
So helpless and dependent had the Links become, in the face of our
danger, that it seemed as if they could not bear to let me out of their
sight. In consequence of this all tried to follow where I went, but so
densely were we packed very soon that this became impossible. The chief,
however, thrust himself along in our wake, apparently bidding the others
be still and remain where they were. Taking one of the torches I worked
my way past the last of the females and youngsters—the latter like
frightened little monkeys, unable to escape me and dreading to be
touched—when I soon came to what seemed to be the wall at the end of the
cavern.
The light was so poor that for a moment I failed to discover a small
hole to the right. Into this I thrust the lighted brand. To my great
delight it cast a glow on the walls of a cavern beyond, quite as wide as
the one we were in and the end of which was not in view. Believing that
anything was better than stagnation in such a tomb as ours, I attempted
to kick off the edges of the hole, to render it large enough for a man
to pass. I succeeded in breaking away one small fragment only. My knife
came out and I should have sacrificed its point and edge to widen the
aperture, had not the chief pushed me gently aside. With his magnificent
club he smote the rock a score of giant blows, knocking chunk after
chunk into the gloom beyond.
“That’s good—that’s enough!” I cried finally, and climbing through with
Fatty almost on my back, I beckoned to the chief to follow with all his
people. I reasoned that nothing could be worse than to remain where we
were, no matter where this passage might lead—or end.
Misgivings were rife, but the chief was evidently in undisputed command.
Some of the Links followed eagerly, others with moans of doubt and fear.
Nothing so much resembles the sound they made as the uneasy whining of a
dog that is driven or dragged to a place of which it has a terror, but
this sound was magnified till it filled the place.
“Ouch,” I said to them, pointing to the torch, “ouch.”
They understood and lighted more of the brands from the one just behind.
The added light gave them added courage. The tunnel we were now in was
spacious, and cooler. The floor was rough with rocks, yet I think we
made excellent time. The passage wound and its grade was uneven, up for
a space, then down, then level.
In half an hour I came to a halt, for the rock hall-way divided; a
branch led off to the right and another went off to the left. In order
to save time, should the wrong one be selected first—if there was a
wrong one,—I determined to go up the left-hand passage alone. If I came
to an exit I could hurry back and bid the Links to follow. If, on the
contrary, I discovered any barrier which compelled retreat, it would
certainly be better for one only to be obliged to return, instead of
all, and then we could make a trial of the second tunnel. Enough of this
I was able to convey to the chief to make him content to wait. He
instructed the Links to sit down on the floor, setting the good example
of patience himself.
Fatty felt privileged to dog my heels. As a matter of fact I was glad
enough to have him go along, for the place was none too cheerful at the
best. We came upon difficult walking presently, and also the corridor
narrowed down. I believed it would end in a mere fissure, yet I could
not afford to condemn it, nor to decide where it went, without a
thorough trial.
After plodding a mile in this stuffy place, we climbed a jagged heap of
fragments and paused abruptly, for the sound of a roaring and rumbling
came from the darkness in a manner most disagreeably impressive. It
continued a brief time only and then the ringing silence of a sepulchre
ensued. We resumed the onward march. Passing down an incline, where the
rocks slid under foot, I fell heavily and rolled toward the bottom.
Unable to stop, I dropped the torch and underwent an instantaneous
sensation of fear, as I continued downward toward the abyss of night.
Then Fatty clutched me by the ankle; we slid together a second longer,
and stopped. He lifted the torch. I was on the brink of a yawning
precipice.
A chill flashed down my spine. Most cautiously I arose and took the
light. There appeared to be no bottom to the pit.
“Gee whizz!” I muttered.
“Gee wizz!” said Fatty, with remarkable distinctness.
I looked at the creature in a sort of wonder. Animal or man, my heart
sent a great gush of feeling all through my being toward him, as I saw
him smiling fondly in my face. He should always have my friendship after
this. I could almost fancy the old fellow was wagging a tail all to
pieces, such a light was in his restless eyes; and yet his face was
almost that of a fat, good-natured Negro.
Being careful where I stepped, I moved along the edge of a great well,
came to a place where the shelf widened, and found myself facing a short
hall, at the end of which there was light, dim and diffused. We were
soon at the limit of our journey in this direction, for here also the
precipice terminated the passage.
As I looked below I saw that vapour was rising, as if from heated rocks.
Then I made out fissures in the floor, fifty feet below us; and this
floor was covered with peculiar excrescences, half-hidden by the steam.
When revealed, these resembled stalagmites, melted and slumped down like
great nodules, “double-chinned,” I am tempted to write, but “double”
would not express the multiplicity of “chins.” These nodules appeared to
be of the brightest yellow colour, but so often were they veiled in the
mist that I could not be sure of anything concerning their appearance
and formation.
Presently, while I was trying to study the odd features of the place, as
well as to determine the source of the light, the rumbling and roaring
we had heard before recommenced. It was louder, more awe-compelling, for
it came from the fissures directly beneath us. It seemed to go booming
upward and through the cavern as if the god of the under world were
grumbling out a huge complaint. This noise increased, in wave-like
volumes; the rock gave a tremor, and then with a seething and hissing,
with a tumble of sound which issued from the depths of the
earth-creature, as if it were growling at having to work, a great geyser
of boiling water and steam shot upward and toppled back to its bed. I
reeled away, with an involuntary movement. Below, the water swashed
about and foamed in mighty agitation. The cauldron heaved up swirling
tides and the drowned murmur burst forth through bubbles. The giant
below gathered anew a mighty strength and blew up a fountain as high as
where I was standing.
I saw a falling blob of the water strike on a small projection near my
foot. Then the demonstration ceased, the roar became subdued, as if the
grumbler withdrew to his realm of molten substance, and only great
clouds of the vapour arose as before. The projection where the water had
struck caught my glance, for assuredly it possessed a remarkable gleam.
Stooping I looked at it closely. It was a nodule of something metallic,
shaped somewhat like a small pear. I touched it, finding it barely warm;
then I grasped it firmly and gave it a wrench. It came away from the
rock in my hand.
By its remarkable weight, its colour and its lustre, I knew it instantly
for gold. It was solid gold, Nature’s own deposit—a nugget most
peculiarly constructed. I knew in that moment that all those massive
nodules below had a right to gleam with yellow colour, for all were
gold—the purest gold, from the great inscrutable laboratory of earth
itself!
I recalled what I had read and learned of the waters and acids mingled
with the molten interior of the planet; how they dissolve the precious
metals, hold them in solution and come with them bubbling to the
surface, spouting through the fissures in the crust; how through the
centuries they deposit atom by atom of their rich freightage on the
rocks, permeating the very tissue of stones and porous substances, to
leave them at last all streaked and flaked with gleaming yellow; and
then how the fluids retire, the earth cools down, and man—ages
after—comes wandering by and delves day and night to rob the fissures of
their hoardings.
I knew that below us a monster treasure-house was being filled by this
wonderful process, slowly, surely, regularly, hour after hour, while
generation after generation of men came and strove and went to their
graves, willing to bargain off souls to know where to get but a little
of this cold, glinting metal of the earth. We had come upon the hoary
alchemist and caught him at his work.
But the pit might as well have been a mile in depth, as far as reaching
the wealth, or the outside world with which I believe it connected, was
concerned, for we had no means of getting down in the place and its heat
would have made this impossible, even if we had possessed the best of
ladders or ropes. All the gold in the world, moreover, was worth no more
than so much dross to me; the dream of emerging again to the light was
vastly more to be coveted. Reluctantly acknowledging that the diffused
light which was here probably came from the outside world through a cave
which I could not by any possibility reach, I placed the small nugget in
my pocket, and making sure that the passage through which we had come
was of no value to me or to the party of Links, I retraced my steps,
with Fatty following noiselessly behind.