_ Margaret was put into the charge of her faithful house-keeper,
and Roland did not see her again until the evening. As she met
him she began immediately to talk upon some unimportant subject,
and there was that in her face which told him that it was her
desire that the great thought which filled both their minds
should not be the subject of their conversation. She told him
she was going to the sea-shore for a short time; she needed a
change, and she would go the next day. He understood her
perfectly, and they discussed various matters of business
connected with the Works. She said nothing about the time of her
return, and he did not allude to it.
On the day that Margaret left Sardis, Roland began his
preparations for descending the shaft. He had so thoroughly
considered the machinery and appliances necessary for the
undertaking, and had worked out all his plans in such detail, in
his mind and upon paper, that he knew exactly what he wanted to
do. His orders for the great length of chain exhausted the stock
of several manufactories, and the engines he obtained were even
more powerful than he had intended them to be; but these he could
procure immediately, and for smaller ones he would have been
obliged to wait.
The circular car which was intended to move up and down the
shaft, and the peculiar machinery connected with it, with the
hoisting apparatus, were all made in his Works. His skilled
artisans labored steadily day and night.
It was ten days before he was ready to make his descent.
Margaret was still at the sea-shore. They had written to each
other frequently, but neither had made mention of the great
shaft. Even when he was ready to go down he said nothing to any
one of any immediate intention of descending. There was a
massive door which covered the mouth of the pit; this he ordered
locked and went away.
The next morning he walked into the building a little earlier
than was his custom, called for the engineers, and for Mr. Bryce,
who was to take charge of everything connected with the descent,
and announced that he was going down as soon as preparations
could be made.
Mr. Bryce and the men who were to assist him were very serious.
They said nothing that was not necessary. If their employer had
been any other man than Roland Clewe it is possible they might
have remonstrated with him. But they knew him, and they said and
did nothing more than was their duty.
The door of the shaft was removed, the car which had hung high
above it was lowered to the mouth of the opening, and Roland
stepped within it and seated himself. Above him and around him
were placed geological tools and instruments of many kinds; a
lantern, food and drink; everything, in fact, which he could
possibly be presumed to need upon this extraordinary journey. A
telephone was at his side by which he could communicate at any
time with the surface of the earth. There were electric bells;
there was everything to make his expedition safe and profitable.
When he gave the word to start the engines, there were no
ceremonies, and nothing was said out of the common.
When the conical top of the car had descended below the surface,
a steel grating, with orifices for the passage of the chains, was
let down over the mouth of the shaft, and the downward journey
was begun. In the floor of the car were grated openings, through
which Clewe could look downward; but although the shaft below him
was brilliantly illuminated by electric lights placed under the
car, it did not frighten him or make him dizzy to look down, for
the aperture did not appear to be very far below him. The upper
part of the car was partially open, and bright lights shone upon
the sides of the shaft.
As he slowly descended, he could see the various strata appearing
and disappearing in the order in which he knew them. Not far
below the surface he passed cavities which he believed held
water; but there was no water in them now. He had expected
these, and had feared that upon their edges there might be
loosened patches of rock or soil, but everything seemed tightly
packed and hard. If anything had been loosened it had gone down
already.
Down, down he went until he came to the eternal rocks, where the
inside of the shaft was polished as if it had been made of glass.
It became warmer and warmer, but he knew that the heat would soon
decrease. The character of the rocks changed, and he studied
them as he went down, and continually made notes.
After a time the polished rocky sides of the shaft grew to be of
a solemn sameness. Clewe ceased to take notes; he lighted a
cigar and smoked. He tried to quietly imagine what he would come
to when he got to the bottom; it would be some sort of a cave
into which his shell had made an opening. He wondered what sort
of a cave it would be, and how high the roof of it was from the
bottom. He wondered if his gardener had remembered what he had
told him about the flower-beds in front of his house; he wanted
certain changes made which Margaret had suggested. He tried to
keep his mind on the flower-beds, but it drifted away to the cave
below. He began to wonder if he would come to some underground
body of water where he would be drowned; but he knew that was a
silly thought. If the shaft had gone through subterranean
reservoirs, the water of these would have run out, and before
they reached the bottom of the shaft would have dissipated into
mist.
Down, down he went. He looked at his watch; he had been in that
car only an hour and a half. Was that possible? He had supposed
he was almost at the bottom. Suddenly he thought of the people
above, and of the telephone. Why had not some of them spoken to
him? It was shameful! He instantly called Bryce, and his heart
leaped with joy when he heard the familiar voice in his ear. Now
he talked steadily on for more than an hour. He had his gardener
called, and he told him all that he wanted done in the flower-beds.
He gave many directions in regard to the various operations of
the Works. Things had been put back a great deal of late. He
hoped soon to have everything going on in the ordinary way.
There were two or three inventions in which he took particular
interest, and of these he talked at great length with Mr. Bryce.
Suddenly, in the midst of some talk about hollow steel rods, he
told Bryce to let the engines move faster; there was no reason
why the car should go so slowly.
The windlasses moved with a little more rapidity, and Clewe now
turned and looked at an indicator which was placed on the side of
the car, a little over his head. This instrument showed the
depth to which he had descended, but he had not looked at it
before, for if there should be anything which would make him
nervous it would be the continual consideration of the depth to
which he had descended.
The indicator showed that he had gone down fourteen and one
eighth miles. Clewe turned and sat stiffly in his seat. He
glanced down and saw beneath him only an illuminated hole, fading
away at the bottom. Then he turned to speak to Bryce, but to his
surprise he could think of nothing to say. After that he lighted
another cigar and sat quietly.
Some minutes passed--he did not know how many--and he looked down
through the gratings at the floor of the car. The electric light
streamed downward through a deep orifice, which did not fade away
and end in nothing; it ended in something dark and glittering.
Then, as he came nearer and nearer to this glittering thing, he
saw that it was his automatic shell, lying on its side, but he
could see only a part of it through the opening of the bottom of
the shaft which he was descending. In an instant, as it seemed
to him, the car emerged from the narrow shaft, and he seemed to
be hanging in the air-at least there was nothing he could see
except that great shell, lying some forty feet below him. But it
was impossible that the shell should be lying on the air! He
rang to stop the car.
"Anything the matter?" cried Bryce, almost at the same instant.
"Nothing at all," Clewe replied. "It's all right, I am near the
bottom."
In a state of the highest nervous excitement, Clewe gazed about
him. He was no longer in a shaft; but where was he? Look out on
what side he would, he saw nothing but the light going out from
his lamps, but which seemed to extend indefinitely all about him.
There seemed to be no limit to his vision in any direction. Then
he leaned over the side of his car and looked downward. There
was the great shell directly under him, but under it and around
it, extending as far beneath it as it extended in every other
direction, was the light from his own lamps, and yet that great
shell, weighing many tons, lay as if it rested upon the solid
ground!
After a few moments Clewe shut his eyes; they pained him.
Something seemed to be coming into them like a fine frost in a
winter wind. Then he called to Bryce to let the car descend very
slowly. It went down, down, gradually approaching the great
shell. When the bottom of the car was within two feet of it,
Clewe rang to stop. He looked down at the complicated machine he
had worked upon so long, with something like a feeling of
affection. This he knew, it was his own. Looking upon its
familiar form, he felt that he had a companion in this region of
unreality.
Pushing back the sliding door of the car, Clewe sat upon the
bottom and cautiously put out his feet and legs, lowering them
until they touched the shell. It was firm and solid. Although
he knew it must be so, the immovability of the great mass of iron
gave him a sudden shock of mysterious fear. How could it be
immovable when there was nothing under it?
But he must get out of that car, he must explore, he must find
out. There certainly could be no danger so long as he could
cling to his shell.
He now cautiously got out of the car and let himself down upon
the shell. It was not a pleasant surface to stand upon, being
uneven, with great spiral ribs, and Clewe sat down upon it,
clinging to it with his hands. Then he leaned over to one side
and looked beneath him. The shadows of that shell went down,
down, down, until it made him sick to look at it. He drew back
quickly, clutched the shell with his arms, and shut his eyes. He
felt as if he were about to drop with it into a measureless depth
of atmosphere.
But he soon raised himself. He had not come down here to be
frightened, to let his nerves run away with him. He had come to
find out things. What was it that this shell rested upon?
Seizing two of the ribs with a strong clutch, he let himself hang
over the sides of the shell until his feet were level with its
lower side. They touched something hard. He pressed them
downward; it was very hard. He raised himself and stood upon the
substance which supported the shell. It was as solid as any
rock. He looked down and saw his shadow stretching far beneath
him. It seemed as if he were standing upon petrified air. He
put out one foot and he moved a little, still holding on to the
shell. He walked, as if upon solid air, to the foremost end of
the long projectile. It relieved him to turn his thoughts from
what was around him to this familiar object. He found its
conical end shattered and broken.
After a little he slowly made his way back to the other end of
the shell, and now his eyes became somewhat accustomed to the
great radiance about him. He thought he could perceive here and
there faint indications of long, nearly horizontal lines--lines
of different shades of light. Above him, as if it hung in the
air, was the round, dark hole through which he had descended.
He rose, took his hands from the shell, and made a few steps. He
trod upon a horizontal surface, but in putting one foot forward,
he felt a slight incline. It seemed to him that he was about to
slip downward! Instantly he retreated to the shell and clutched
it in a sudden frenzy of fear.
Standing thus, with his eyes still wandering, he heard the bell
of the telephone ring. Without hesitation he mounted the shell
and got into the car. Bryce was calling him.
"Come up," he said. "You have been down there long enough. No
matter what you have found, it is time for you to come up."
Roland Clewe was not accustomed to receive commands, but he
instantly closed the sliding door of the car, seated himself, and
put his mouth to the telephone.
"All right," he said. "You can haul me up, but go very slowly at
first."
The car rose. When it reached the orifice in the top of the cave
of light, Clewe heard the conical steel top grate slightly as it
touched its edge, for it was still swinging a little from the
motion given to it by his entrance; but it soon hung perfectly
vertical and went silently up the shaft. _