INTO THE VALLEY OF ECHOES
Holman and I had sat up late discussing the Vermilion-lined crater on
the night we halted upon its brink, and it was Leith's voice that roused
us in the morning. He showed no signs of resentment over the difference
with Holman on the preceding afternoon, and he attempted to joke with
Barbara Herndon as we made a hasty breakfast.
"I hope you slept well?" he grinned.
"I didn't," she replied. "I had dreams of that place, and they were
perfectly horrid dreams."
"Well, dreams don't amount to much," he replied, "and this sunshine will
soon make you forget them."
The sunshine, or probably the night's rest, had a wonderful effect upon
the nerves of the younger girl, and she viewed the crater with much more
composure than on the previous afternoon. Soma had the rope in
readiness when we approached the edge, and together with another carrier
he slipped down upon the slippery pathway, and, with head above the rim,
grinned an invitation to the party to follow his example.
"Now who goes first?" asked Leith.
I had settled that matter with Holman as we sat smoking the night
before, and I stepped forward while the youngster gripped the rope with
Kaipi and the other four carriers. We had decided that I should go down
to the ledge to assist the two girls to the cavern, while he should stay
above ground to make certain that no hitch would occur while they were
being lowered.
That place wasn't so bad when you turned your back upon it. After the
rope had been adjusted I crawled back carefully till my toes hung over
the edge, then thrusting my hands into the two small crevices in the
rock I slipped over, feeling at the same time that peculiar sensation in
the pit of the stomach that one gets when an elevator drops about six
floors at a fast gait. I was perfectly satisfied that a critical
examiner, reasoning on Soma's theory of courage, would not have marked
me down as a great fighter by witnessing the careful manner in which I
made the descent.
I didn't attempt to look at the gulf beneath me either. Not that one
could be ignorant of its existence. Every inch of skin seemed to be
yelling out the information to my brain, but I kept my chin up, and
tried to ignore the black depths which chilled me whenever I allowed the
mental photographs of the place to rise up before my vision.
The Professor followed me over the edge, and was guided by Soma to the
opening in the cavern. Leith came next, and when he landed upon the
smooth path he stood directly underneath the slipping off spot with the
evident intention of remaining there to assist the two girls when they
were lowered down. The post was one that Holman had assigned to me as we
talked the matter over on the previous evening, and the moment Leith
showed no inclination to leave the spot, I started toward him from the
mouth of the cavern, where I had stepped to allow the Professor to pass
me by.
The big bully immediately noticed my movement, and he waved his hand as
a signal for me to go back.
"But I'm coming," I snapped.
"What for?"
"For the fun of the thing," I shouted, and at that moment I forgot the
pit in my anxiety to reach the spot before Edith Herndon was lowered
over.
"Go back at once!" roared Leith. "I will see to the safety of the
ladies."
I was close to him at that moment, and I returned his angry glare. "I'm
going to do that," I cried, "if the devil himself ordered me out of the
way."
Leith looked like the devil at that moment. His sallow face seemed to
heave as if a disturbed emotional centre was immediately beneath the
flabby cheeks, and he cursed in an undertone as Edith Herndon slipped
from the edge and swung for a moment above the ledge before she managed
to get her footing.
Leith attempted to take her arm as her feet touched the unprotected
path, but the girl, though unnerved by the ordeal, shook off his big
claw, and with her hands clasping mine I led her across the short but
dangerous ledge of rock that led to the opening in the wall. I felt
strong enough to fight a dozen devils like Leith at that moment. The
trusting manner in which the dear girl had given her hands into mine
conferred upon me a strength which the crusader of old felt surging
through his body when his consecrated sword blade was delivered into his
hands.
I returned in time to render the same help to Miss Barbara Herndon,
while Leith still remained upon the path, his manner suggesting that he
had discovered something humorous in the situation. Holman followed Miss
Barbara, and then came the islanders, who scrambled over the ledge with
that utter disregard for safety noticeable in the actions of the
unimaginative savage. Holman's face seemed to have altered during the
preceding thirty minutes. The ready smile, which I had first noticed
when he awakened me on the wharf at Levuka, was gone, and a set, defiant
look had taken its place. The happenings of the day before, or the
possible forebodings concerning the immediate future, had changed him
from a boy to a man.
Soma stood at the mouth of the cavern as we passed through, and he
grinned at the Professor. The Kanaka had discovered that the Professor
placed a monetary value upon his information regarding the long-dead
past, and he was ready to contribute to the contents of the fat notebook
whenever the opportunity occurred.
"All good people in this party," he cried. "That's mighty plain."
The Professor dived for his lead pencil. He had a scent for copy that a
New York reporter would have envied.
"How is that, Soma?" he spluttered.
"Wizard men say so," grinned the Kanaka. "Wizard men tell much truth."
"But what did the wizard men say?"
"They say that only the bad boys can slip," answered Soma. "No good men
either. Big hole just for bad people. That what witch doctors say long,
long time ago. They call it Ledge of Death."
The Professor's pencil raced madly across the paper, and Holman looked
back at the black depths with a grim smile upon his clean-cut features.
"I suppose there have been exceptions," he remarked quietly. "There are
exceptions to every rule, and I suppose an occasional bad egg escaped a
fall into this abyss in spite of the wizard men's prophecy."
Leith looked up quickly, and he flushed angrily when he found that the
young fellow's eyes were upon him. Barbara Herndon gave a little
hysterical laugh, and the Professor stopped writing and looked around
inquiringly as if he was in doubt whether he had missed something of
importance.
"What is it?" he inquired. "I didn't hear."
"It was nothing," replied Leith, in his slow, drawling voice. "Holman
suggested that the word of the wizard men might not be infallible, and
lest we have some one who ran the gauntlet under false colours we had
better move on so as to keep the exception out of danger."
The cavern, into which we passed from the slippery ledge, did not lead
into the interior of the mountain as one would be inclined to think
after viewing it from the top of the crater. We had hardly traversed it
for more than sixty yards when we were once again in the bright
sunlight, in what appeared to be a deep, wide valley in the centre of
the island. The basalt cliffs surrounded the place on every side, and
although we had great doubts regarding Leith's veracity, we felt
inclined to accept his word that the path by which we had come was the
only one by which we could reach the spot where we stood. The circles of
black rocks above the tops of the highest trees, though indescribably
beautiful, were strangely repellent in their weird conformation. They
struck us as the walls of a prison from which the only way to liberty
lay across the path in the crater.
The trees--ebony, chatak, dakua, and sandalwood--grew here in greater
numbers than we had met them on the first day, while the lawyer-vines
and thorny creepers rivalled the devilish meshes that had held us back
as we climbed the slope to the Vermilion Pit. Like green serpents they
covered the treetops, and as we struck forward in the same order as we
had marched on the first day the solemnity of the place was more
apparent than ever. It appeared that Nature, for some reason of her own,
had made the place difficult of access, and that our invasion was
something that the trees and vines protested against.
But in spite of the strange melancholy of the place, the two girls were
in much better spirits than they had been on the previous day. The
successful passage over the ledge had brought about a reaction, and a
remark of Holman's caused Barbara Herndon to laugh with all the
spontaneity that was noticeable upon _The Waif_. The effect of that
ripple of laughter was startling. The sound rebounded from the rocky
cliffs, cannoned against the barriers opposite, and then bounced
backward and forward till the whole atmosphere of the valley seemed
alive with the laughter of sprites. For quite five minutes we stood
listening, then the silence chased the last faint echoes out across the
cliffs, and we breathed again.
"It is the Valley of Echoes," said Leith. "The cliffs throw back the
sound in a marvellous manner."
"I'll not laugh again, not in this spot," murmured Barbara Herndon.
"Those noises chilled my blood."
In spite of a blazing sun we found the air unpleasantly cool in the
shaded spots as we struggled slowly through the undergrowth. The moist
flabbiness of uncommon tropical plants startled us whenever the leaves
brushed against our faces and hands, while the constant popping of the
green pods of the nupu, the sounds resembling nothing so much as the
groans of a person in extreme pain, did not have a cheering effect upon
the party. The Professor was the only one who seemed to be actually
enjoying himself, and even his joy was tempered by a malignant Fate.
While endeavouring to dot down some information tendered him by Soma, he
had tripped upon a vine that was in wait for such an opportunity, and
he skinned his nose badly upon a projecting rock.
But rocks or vines would not dampen the Professor's ardour. He saw
himself upon a pedestal that he would build out of the Polynesian lore
and the relics which he would collect. With Spartan fortitude he would
not allow the expedition to halt for one moment while the injured nose
was being attended to, and he took up the interrupted matter with Soma
before the blood had been staunched.
Kaipi worked himself close to me just before midday, and, with one eye
upon Soma and the other five carriers, whispered a message.
"Soma much friend of big man."
"How do you know?" I questioned.
"Talk to him out back of camp last night," he murmured. "Me make believe
sleep, me watch. I think I kill him to-day."
"Kaipi," I whispered, "if you wait a little while I promise you that
you'll have your revenge for Toni's death. You watch Soma and the
others, and when the time comes you can give him all he deserves. If you
stuck a knife into him here Leith would shoot you."
Kaipi nodded his head and trudged forward as Soma came sidling toward
us. The Fijian's desire to get revenge for his "all same brother's
death" was something that might be to our advantage later on, and I
looked upon Kaipi as a staunch ally in the event of trouble.
We ate our midday meal in the sombre silence and again plunged forward.
The appearance of gayety which Barbara Herndon had tried to assume after
we had left the Vermilion Pit had passed away, and once again there was
the look of pathetic helplessness upon the faces of the two girls.
During the luncheon Holman and I endeavoured to make conversation, but
the thoughts of both were upon their surroundings, and they answered
questions with an effort. The prison-like appearance of the valley, and
the utter absence of sound, both of bird and insect life, had a
depressing effect upon their nerves.
Holman's face showed that the mental sufferings of the two sisters had
worked him into a decidedly unfriendly state of mind toward the
Professor and the big brute who was leading the old scientist on the mad
hunt, and another quarrel was barely averted during the early afternoon.
Leith suggested that Edith Herndon should walk beside him so that he
might assist her over the rough parts of the way, and in the
conversation that ensued the youngster asserted that the girl was in
better company when she was walking with her sister and himself. Leith's
voice rose to a roar as he made another threat regarding what he would
do if the youngster did not hold his tongue, but Holman was defiant, and
an immediate conflict was only averted by the tact of Edith Herndon.
The afternoon closed in with us still tramping on. The blood-red sun
slipped hurriedly toward the basalt barriers that encircled the valley,
and as I glanced at the cliffs the picture of the creepy ledge, that was
our only way back to the outer world, was continually in my mind. The
knowledge that the velvety polish upon the block of porphyry was brought
there by the hands of thousands who had once peopled the island or
visited it from the adjacent groups was not provocative of mirth, and I
knew that the feeling that they were journeying in a place that had been
of special veneration in long past centuries was producing a depressing
effect upon the two girls.
As the tropical twilight fell upon the valley we came to one of the
strange stone structures that are to be found in the Tongan and Cook
groups, and which have puzzled explorers who have sought in vain to find
a reason for their construction or an explanation of the methods by
which a savage people lifted the huge blocks of rock into position.
The one that suddenly appeared before us was situated on a small slope
that was free from trees and creepers, and as it stood there, black and
massive, one could fancy it part of the ruins of Karnak instead of a
relic left by a people that were much below the intelligence of those
who raised the wonders in the land of the Nile. The four supporting
piers of stone were about four feet square and fully fifteen feet in
height, while the immense flat rock that was laid upon them was more
than twelve feet in length and breadth, with a six-foot thickness. It
was moss-grown and gray, but the supporting pillars had not deviated one
inch from the perpendicular, although the weight upon them was
tremendous. The bed of coral rock on which they rested had proved a
reliable foundation, and the singular structure had scoffed at time.
The Professor started a lengthy discourse on sacrificial altars the
moment we halted, ranging from Stonehenge to Toluca in search of
comparisons, but we were too tired to give it much attention. Holman
remarked in a whisper that Soma could probably outpoint the Professor if
it came to an array of facts concerning the probable uses of the
gigantic table, and when I glanced at the Kanaka, as he stopped to
listen to the scientist's discourse, I felt inclined to agree with the
scoffer. Soma had an intelligence that lifted him above his class, and I
was convinced that many of the Professor's surmises caused him secret
merriment.
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