ON THE CREST OF THE TIDAL WAVE.
TIME dragged heavily for those left aboard the _Seal._ There seemed
little to do; their preparations for the journey they thought to take
ere long, were complete. Ammunition, provisions--consisting for the
most part of tinned goods--personal belongings, were alike packed and
ready. Nothing at all superfluous was allowed in the packages, for
they would only have Muswani to carry their baggage as far as the cliff
stairway; for the rest of the journey they would have to bear their own
burdens.
Their plans for the future seemed perfect. They were only waiting
for Haverly to get a little stronger, ere commencing their march
through the jungle to the upper world and daylight. They had yet to
learn that “the best laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft agley.”
“I hope they will not get into danger,” Mervyn remarked, after a
long silence; “it’s rather risky, yet we cannot blame Chenobi for
wishing to secure the jewels.”
“He would be in a rather peculiar position above ground without
money,” returned Garth, “and I fear he would be too proud to accept
help from one of us. Anyway, he and Seymour should be safe enough.
They are well armed, and----”
Out of the distance came a sullen muttering, as of far-distant
thunder, and at the sound Garth’s sentence died on his lips.
“Whatever’s that?” Wilson asked.
Striding out on deck, Mervyn leaned over the rail, and stood
listening for a repetition of the sound. Again it came, low as before,
reverberating amid the hills like the roll of many drums.
“I don’t like it,” the scientist muttered, as Garth and the
engineer joined him; “have you noticed how remarkably still the water
has grown during the last few hours? See how gently the waves come in;
there is scarcely more motion than on a mill-pond.”
“What do you infer from that?” asked Garth.
“That we are about to witness some phenomenon peculiar to this
underworld,” replied Mervyn. “What form it will take I do not know,
but I heartily wish Seymour and the king were back.”
“They should not be long now in any case,” rejoined the engineer;
“they have been gone over three hours. I say, we must get the
_Seal_ off again. _The water’s receding!”_
It was true. Although the flood-tide had not yet reached its
height, the water was rapidly running out from shore, and the
_Seal_ was fast being left high and dry.
“Full speed astern, Tom!” Garth cried, as he and Wilson darted
into the wheelhouse. Down the steps the engineer bounded, two at a
time, and hurled himself along the corridor of the engine-room.
Clank! The levers went over with all his force behind them. The
gleaming cranks flew round in a halo of dazzling light, but the vessel
moved not an inch. Her propellers shrieked on the air, for the water
had entirely receded, and she was hard and fast ashore.
With a muttered exclamation the lad left the engine-room.
“No use?” he said, as he re-entered the turret.
“Not a bit,” returned Garth. “It’s the queerest thing I ever
knew. Mervyn can’t account for it either. The water simply ran out as
though a hole had opened in the sea-bed. See, there is no water in
sight anywhere; nothing but sand.”
“It’s a licker!”
The two men turned at the words. Haverly had entered the
turret.
“My word, Silas,” exclaimed Wilson, “you’ll get it hot if the
professor sees you! You ought not to be up yet.”
“I guess I’m the best judge of that,” retorted the American with
a feeble smile. “I calculated as a constitutional ’ud set me up some,
so here I am. But what in the name of blazes has come to the water?
Have yer plumped the old boat down in the middle of a desert, or
what?”
Quickly Garth explained the extraordinary phenomenon they had
witnessed.
“And Mervyn can’t figure it out either?” questioned Haverly.
“No,” returned the inventor, “he’s as much in the dark as we are.
But here he comes; you can question him yourself.”
“Say, Mervyn, can’t you enlighten us some?” Silas asked, as the
scientist came in from the deck.
“Whatever are you doing here, Silas?” he asked sternly. “You
should not have ventured up so soon.”
“I guess I’ll improve considerable more rapid up here than down
below,” returned the Yankee.
“Perhaps so,” was the reply, “if you only take care. But you must
not abuse your returning strength.”
“No, I cannot explain the phenomenon,” he went on, shaking his
head, “though I fear it must be due to volcanic agency. Hark!”
Again that thunder-like muttering rolled out of the distance, but
the attention of the comrades was distracted from the ominous sound by
a faint cry from Haverly.
“Jupiter! Another fire-message!”
Away over a spur of the distant hills an arch of fire flamed into
view, and silhouetted against its golden splendour were eight
grotesque figures.
“Can you translate, professor?” cried Haverly; “these signs mean
something or other, you can bet your boots.”
Garth and Wilson waited eagerly for the scientist’s answer. It
came at length.
“Nordhu, son of Nordhu, will avenge his sire!”
“And that’s the message?” the engineer asked, as the blazing bow
waned and died.
“That’s the translation,” returned Mervyn, abstractedly.
“Then I guess we must look out for trouble, and that right soon,”
remarked Silas. “If this new Nordhu’s anything like the old man, he’ll
be on our trail in less than no time.”
“We’re in a nice lively position to receive an attack of
savages,” said Garth, “with the old _Seal_ as helpless as a
log.”
“I reckon we’ve come out of tighter corners than this yer,”
retorted Silas, “though I allow I’d feel kinder easier if William and
the Ayuti ’ud show up. You say they’ve gone to the city?”
“Yes,” returned Wilson, shortly.
“If they ain’t along presently,” pursued the Yankee, “they’ll
find some of the wolfies laying for ’em. Them priests are real
hustlers when it comes to a scrap. I’d advise as you loose a gun or
two off. They might hear the reports.”
“A good idea,” Garth cried, and snatching up a magazine rifle,
discharged it to the last cartridge.
“That ought to fetch ’em,” remarked Haverly cheerfully.
Boom! Once more that muffled explosion shook the underworld,
succeeded this time by a continuous roar as of a mighty cataract.
Thoroughly alarmed, the explorers gazed in the direction whence came
the sound. Far away down the coast, its towering crest gleaming
through the twilight, appeared a wall of water. With fearful rapidity
it roared down upon the helpless vessel.
“Great Heaven!” Mervyn burst out, “a tidal wave! We are lost!”
Even while the words trembled on his lips, a shout rang high above the
boom of the approaching wave, and down the beach at a furious gallop
came Muswani. The Ayuti evidently fully realised the peril of the
situation. Straight for the motionless _Seal_ he steered his
magnificent steed. A few yards from the rail a word of command pealed
from his lips, and at that the mighty elk hurled himself into the air.
Clearing the rail by a couple of feet, he landed with a crash upon the
deck, the hounds following like shadows at his heels.
Quick as thought the two men leaped from his back, and raced for
the turret. Then, as the door crashed to behind them and the hounds,
and before ever Muswani could leap ashore, the watery wall struck the
_Seal._
For one brief instant it seemed as though the ill-fated craft
would be overwhelmed. The water foamed and surged, boiled and eddied
around her; but by some fortunate chance she was lifted high upon the
crest of the giant wave, and was swept forward like a feather.
“Try your engines,” Garth bawled to his friend, and instantly
Wilson darted below again. But the engines with all their power were
as toys in the grip of the waters. No power on earth could have forced
the vessel forward against that foaming torrent. Lucky, indeed, had
Seymour and the Ayuti been to arrive at the moment they did. A few
seconds later, and they had been left ashore, separated by many miles
of raging water from the vessel and their friends. Their position they
knew was perilous in the extreme. At any instant the submarine might
be hurled against some iron cliff and shattered like matchwood; yet
dangers faced together lost half their terror. United the little band
felt equal to anything; so keeping a cheerful courage, they awaited
with what patience they could muster the time when the force of the
wave should expend itself.
But the time sped by, and still the waters roared onward; still
the _Seal_ danced and whirled amid the foam-capped waves.
Outside, motionless as a statue, keeping his balance upon the
slippery deck with wonderful skill, stood Muswani. Not all the violent
lurches of the submarine could shake the great elk from his footing.
He was immovable as though he were part of the vessel itself.
Chenobi gazed with pride upon his giant steed. It would mean no
slight wrench when the time came for him to part with the magnificent
brute; but that had not to be considered yet. Time enough to think of
that when they got out of the grip of the tidal wave, which foamed
forward relentless as ever.
The shore had long since faded from view. Nought was visible on
either hand but a waste of waters, tumbling and foaming in mad
confusion. And ever and anon a thunderous explosion would burst out,
echoing across the water like the firing of great guns.
Once, close alongside, the mighty body of an ichthyosaurus was
flung up, rent and torn in ghastly fashion by some giant natural
force.
Suddenly a cry came from Seymour.
“Great Scott! Look there!”
The others turned quickly. To starboard a beetling line of cliffs
loomed into view, threatening and terrible. Next moment an exclamation
from the American announced the appearance of a similar barrier upon
the port side. Through the canyon or gorge thus formed, the waters
swept in a maddened torrent, the _Seal_ lurching and rolling in a
fashion which bade fair to capsize her. A hundred times--ay,
more--she seemed likely to be dashed against one or other of the
rocky walls, but by a miracle she escaped destruction in this
manner.
So for perhaps an hour she was swept forward; then a terrible
fact became apparent to the adventurers. Silas was the first to notice
it.
“Say!” he remarked, “I guess these yer cliffs are closing in on
us.”
“What do you mean?” asked the scientist; “how closing in?”
“Just cast your eye to the top of this starboard wall,” was the
reply; “if the hull outfit ain’t leaning outward, call me a darn
nigger.”
An instant’s scrutiny showed Mervyn that the thing was true.
Shaken to its foundations by the force of the explosions, which
moment by moment were becoming more frequent, the whole cliff was
tottering to its fall. How long it would be ere it thundered down upon
the hapless submarine none could tell.
“Full speed ahead!” Silas snapped, his voice recovering its
strength under the excitement of the moment; “we must get out of this
or we’re done.”
All saw the force of his words, and within two minutes the
_Seal_ was leaping forward like a flash of light, her whole hull
quivering with the throb of the engines. Her pace was tremendous. The
cliffs dashed past in a dazzling line on either side, and still the
tottering mass to starboard hung poised, as though loth to crush the
gallant vessel and her crew.
The moments seemed to crawl by, and each was laden with the
suspense of a century. How long till this gorge shall end? was the cry
of each of the comrades. How long till these rocky walls shall
cease?
Then suddenly, a sheet of open water appeared ahead, and at the
sight a simultaneous cry of relief went up. Another moment and the
vessel would have been out of the gorge, and safe from the perils of
the crumbling cliff; but in the very instant of her escape, like the
crack of doom, a thunderous explosion volleyed through the canyon.
With the sound, the tottering wall of rock bent and swayed, then
crashed downward with a deafening roar. Almost, the _Seal_ was
clear of the falling _debris_--almost, but not quite. A
colossal boulder caught her stern, ripping the whirling propellers
from their sockets, and smashing her steering gear to a mass of
scrap-iron.
“Done!” Garth gasped, staggering under the shock; “the beastly
thing’s snapped the propellers, and they were the only ones I
had.”
The others did not take in the significance of this remark for
some moments. They were too occupied in a scrutiny of the curious
place the _Seal_ had entered. It was a great circular basin or
funnel, enclosed on every side by towering cliffs, and around it the
water was sweeping in a giant eddy. Into this the vessel was instantly
drawn, being helpless as any log in the whirling water.
Turning, the adventurers gazed towards the gorge through which
they had come. It had ceased to be. The fall of the cliff had
completely choked the passage, _and the basin was now without
outlet!_
“I guess the old _Seal’s_ fairly trapped,” remarked Silas
gloomily; “it would ha’ been better if the plaguey cliff had buried us
all, ’stead of shuttin’ us up in this hole.”
As he spoke, Wilson came upstairs.
“You’d better come down, Garth,” the engineer said; “there’s a
bad smash astern, and I can’t manage it myself.”
Glad of aught to relieve the awful depression which had succeeded
the excitement of the race through the gorge, the inventor followed
his friend below, to do what he could towards patching up the
damage.
“It’s a terrible outlook,” Mervyn muttered, “to be fastened up
here until our provisions give out, and then--death by
starvation.”
“A terrible outlook indeed,” granted Seymour. “It’s maddening to
think that we have escaped all the perils of the underworld, only to
be hopelessly imprisoned in this rocky basin.”
“Say, what’s this steam mean?” asked Haverly, who stood with face
pressed to the glass. A mist-like vapour had commenced to rise from
the surface of the gyrating water, growing denser in volume each
moment, until the walls of the basin were almost hidden.
“Trouble again, I reckon,” the American continued; “I guess we’ve
struck little else this trip, so far.”
“Some volcanic disturbance,” exclaimed Mervyn. “I----”
The words died on his lips in a gasp, as a fresh development forced
itself upon his notice. The water in the basin was rising!
“Wal, that licks all!” cried Silas, as he too became aware of
this new movement; “not content with pluggin’ us up here, it’s goin’
to jam us up against the roof.”
“It will merely shorten the period of our imprisonment,” returned
the baronet, and then silence fell between the watchers.
An hour dragged by, and still the waters rose; still the
submarine was borne upwards. Anxiously the comrades peered out into
the misty atmosphere, wondering how this strange adventure would end.
Even the iron-nerved Ayuti grew uneasy as time went by, a feeling
shared by his hounds, who, scared by the repeated explosions, whined
pitifully at intervals.
Muswani--motionless as ever--still kept his position
upon the deck, being the only member of the party who seemed not at
all dismayed by the strangeness of the situation.
Time crawled on. Many thousands of feet the _Seal_ must have
risen, when a sharp cry came from Haverly:
“_The roof!_”
Close upon his words came a report like a thunderclap, and a
dazzling shaft of flame leapt from the surface of the water,
illuminating the rocky walls of the basin and--scarce ten feet
above--the roof.
“We must sink her,” Mervyn cried, and darted to the stairs for
the purpose of calling Garth. Ere he could reach them, however, a
second report burst out. The dark mass of the roof above seemed to
bend downwards. There was a roaring as of a thousand Niagaras; the
swirl of many waters; a thunderous crash as though the earth itself
were splitting asunder; then darkness!