_ I write this from day to day, but I trust that before I come to
the end of it, I may be able to say that the light shines, at
last, through our clouds. We are held here with no clear means
of making our escape, and bitterly we chafe against it. Yet, I
can well imagine that the day may come when we may be glad that
we were kept, against our will, to see something more of the
wonders of this singular place, and of the creatures who inhabit it.
The victory of the Indians and the annihilation of the ape-men,
marked the turning point of our fortunes. From then onwards, we
were in truth masters of the plateau, for the natives looked upon us
with a mixture of fear and gratitude, since by our strange powers
we had aided them to destroy their hereditary foe. For their own
sakes they would, perhaps, be glad to see the departure of such
formidable and incalculable people, but they have not themselves
suggested any way by which we may reach the plains below.
There had been, so far as we could follow their signs, a
tunnel by which the place could be approached, the lower exit of
which we had seen from below. By this, no doubt, both ape-men
and Indians had at different epochs reached the top, and Maple
White with his companion had taken the same way. Only the year
before, however, there had been a terrific earthquake, and the
upper end of the tunnel had fallen in and completely disappeared.
The Indians now could only shake their heads and shrug their
shoulders when we expressed by signs our desire to descend.
It may be that they cannot, but it may also be that they will
not, help us to get away.
At the end of the victorious campaign the surviving ape-folk were
driven across the plateau (their wailings were horrible) and
established in the neighborhood of the Indian caves, where they
would, from now onwards, be a servile race under the eyes of
their masters. It was a rude, raw, primeval version of the Jews
in Babylon or the Israelites in Egypt. At night we could hear
from amid the trees the long-drawn cry, as some primitive Ezekiel
mourned for fallen greatness and recalled the departed glories of
Ape Town. Hewers of wood and drawers of water, such were they
from now onwards.
We had returned across the plateau with our allies two days after
the battle, and made our camp at the foot of their cliffs. They would
have had us share their caves with them, but Lord John would by
no means consent to it considering that to do so would put us in
their power if they were treacherously disposed. We kept our
independence, therefore, and had our weapons ready for any
emergency, while preserving the most friendly relations. We also
continually visited their caves, which were most remarkable
places, though whether made by man or by Nature we have never
been able to determine. They were all on the one stratum,
hollowed out of some soft rock which lay between the volcanic
basalt forming the ruddy cliffs above them, and the hard granite
which formed their base.
The openings were about eighty feet above the ground, and were
led up to by long stone stairs, so narrow and steep that no large
animal could mount them. Inside they were warm and dry, running
in straight passages of varying length into the side of the hill,
with smooth gray walls decorated with many excellent pictures
done with charred sticks and representing the various animals of
the plateau. If every living thing were swept from the country
the future explorer would find upon the walls of these caves
ample evidence of the strange fauna--the dinosaurs, iguanodons,
and fish lizards--which had lived so recently upon earth.
Since we had learned that the huge iguanodons were kept as tame
herds by their owners, and were simply walking meat-stores, we had
conceived that man, even with his primitive weapons, had established
his ascendancy upon the plateau. We were soon to discover that it
was not so, and that he was still there upon tolerance.
It was on the third day after our forming our camp near the
Indian caves that the tragedy occurred. Challenger and Summerlee
had gone off together that day to the lake where some of the
natives, under their direction, were engaged in harpooning
specimens of the great lizards. Lord John and I had remained in
our camp, while a number of the Indians were scattered about upon
the grassy slope in front of the caves engaged in different ways.
Suddenly there was a shrill cry of alarm, with the word "Stoa"
resounding from a hundred tongues. From every side men, women,
and children were rushing wildly for shelter, swarming up the
staircases and into the caves in a mad stampede.
Looking up, we could see them waving their arms from the rocks
above and beckoning to us to join them in their refuge. We had
both seized our magazine rifles and ran out to see what the
danger could be. Suddenly from the near belt of trees there
broke forth a group of twelve or fifteen Indians, running for
their lives, and at their very heels two of those frightful
monsters which had disturbed our camp and pursued me upon my
solitary journey. In shape they were like horrible toads, and
moved in a succession of springs, but in size they were of an
incredible bulk, larger than the largest elephant. We had never
before seen them save at night, and indeed they are nocturnal
animals save when disturbed in their lairs, as these had been.
We now stood amazed at the sight, for their blotched and warty
skins were of a curious fish-like iridescence, and the sunlight
struck them with an ever-varying rainbow bloom as they moved.
We had little time to watch them, however, for in an instant they
had overtaken the fugitives and were making a dire slaughter
among them. Their method was to fall forward with their full
weight upon each in turn, leaving him crushed and mangled, to
bound on after the others. The wretched Indians screamed with
terror, but were helpless, run as they would, before the
relentless purpose and horrible activity of these monstrous creatures.
One after another they went down, and there were not half-a-dozen
surviving by the time my companion and I could come to their help.
But our aid was of little avail and only involved us in the same peril.
At the range of a couple of hundred yards we emptied our magazines,
firing bullet after bullet into the beasts, but with no more effect
than if we were pelting them with pellets of paper. Their slow
reptilian natures cared nothing for wounds, and the springs of
their lives, with no special brain center but scattered throughout
their spinal cords, could not be tapped by any modern weapons.
The most that we could do was to check their progress by
distracting their attention with the flash and roar of our guns,
and so to give both the natives and ourselves time to reach the
steps which led to safety. But where the conical explosive
bullets of the twentieth century were of no avail, the poisoned
arrows of the natives, dipped in the juice of strophanthus and
steeped afterwards in decayed carrion, could succeed. Such arrows
were of little avail to the hunter who attacked the beast, because
their action in that torpid circulation was slow, and before its
powers failed it could certainly overtake and slay its assailant.
But now, as the two monsters hounded us to the very foot of the
stairs, a drift of darts came whistling from every chink in the
cliff above them. In a minute they were feathered with them,
and yet with no sign of pain they clawed and slobbered with
impotent rage at the steps which would lead them to their victims,
mounting clumsily up for a few yards and then sliding down again
to the ground. But at last the poison worked. One of them gave
a deep rumbling groan and dropped his huge squat head on to the earth.
The other bounded round in an eccentric circle with shrill, wailing
cries, and then lying down writhed in agony for some minutes before
it also stiffened and lay still. With yells of triumph the Indians
came flocking down from their caves and danced a frenzied dance
of victory round the dead bodies, in mad joy that two more of the
most dangerous of all their enemies had been slain. That night
they cut up and removed the bodies, not to eat--for the poison
was still active--but lest they should breed a pestilence.
The great reptilian hearts, however, each as large as a cushion,
still lay there, beating slowly and steadily, with a gentle rise
and fall, in horrible independent life. It was only upon the third
day that the ganglia ran down and the dreadful things were still.
Some day, when I have a better desk than a meat-tin and more
helpful tools than a worn stub of pencil and a last, tattered
note-book, I will write some fuller account of the Accala
Indians--of our life amongst them, and of the glimpses which we
had of the strange conditions of wondrous Maple White Land.
Memory, at least, will never fail me, for so long as the breath
of life is in me, every hour and every action of that period will
stand out as hard and clear as do the first strange happenings of
our childhood. No new impressions could efface those which are
so deeply cut. When the time comes I will describe that wondrous
moonlit night upon the great lake when a young ichthyosaurus--a
strange creature, half seal, half fish, to look at, with
bone-covered eyes on each side of his snout, and a third eye
fixed upon the top of his head--was entangled in an Indian net,
and nearly upset our canoe before we towed it ashore; the same
night that a green water-snake shot out from the rushes and
carried off in its coils the steersman of Challenger's canoe.
I will tell, too, of the great nocturnal white thing--to this day
we do not know whether it was beast or reptile--which lived in a
vile swamp to the east of the lake, and flitted about with a
faint phosphorescent glimmer in the darkness. The Indians were
so terrified at it that they would not go near the place, and,
though we twice made expeditions and saw it each time, we could
not make our way through the deep marsh in which it lived. I can
only say that it seemed to be larger than a cow and had the
strangest musky odor. I will tell also of the huge bird which
chased Challenger to the shelter of the rocks one day--a great
running bird, far taller than an ostrich, with a vulture-like
neck and cruel head which made it a walking death. As Challenger
climbed to safety one dart of that savage curving beak shore off the
heel of his boot as if it had been cut with a chisel. This time
at least modern weapons prevailed and the great creature, twelve
feet from head to foot--phororachus its name, according to our
panting but exultant Professor--went down before Lord Roxton's
rifle in a flurry of waving feathers and kicking limbs, with two
remorseless yellow eyes glaring up from the midst of it. May I
live to see that flattened vicious skull in its own niche amid
the trophies of the Albany. Finally, I will assuredly give some
account of the toxodon, the giant ten-foot guinea pig, with
projecting chisel teeth, which we killed as it drank in the gray
of the morning by the side of the lake.
All this I shall some day write at fuller length, and amidst
these more stirring days I would tenderly sketch in these lovely
summer evenings, when with the deep blue sky above us we lay in
good comradeship among the long grasses by the wood and marveled
at the strange fowl that swept over us and the quaint new
creatures which crept from their burrows to watch us, while above
us the boughs of the bushes were heavy with luscious fruit, and
below us strange and lovely flowers peeped at us from among the
herbage; or those long moonlit nights when we lay out upon the
shimmering surface of the great lake and watched with wonder and
awe the huge circles rippling out from the sudden splash of some
fantastic monster; or the greenish gleam, far down in the deep
water, of some strange creature upon the confines of darkness.
These are the scenes which my mind and my pen will dwell upon in
every detail at some future day.
But, you will ask, why these experiences and why this delay, when
you and your comrades should have been occupied day and night in the
devising of some means by which you could return to the outer world?
My answer is, that there was not one of us who was not working for
this end, but that our work had been in vain. One fact we had
very speedily discovered: The Indians would do nothing to help us.
In every other way they were our friends--one might almost say our
devoted slaves--but when it was suggested that they should help us
to make and carry a plank which would bridge the chasm, or when we
wished to get from them thongs of leather or liana to weave ropes
which might help us, we were met by a good-humored, but an
invincible, refusal. They would smile, twinkle their eyes, shake
their heads, and there was the end of it. Even the old chief met
us with the same obstinate denial, and it was only Maretas, the
youngster whom we had saved, who looked wistfully at us and told
us by his gestures that he was grieved for our thwarted wishes.
Ever since their crowning triumph with the ape-men they looked
upon us as supermen, who bore victory in the tubes of strange
weapons, and they believed that so long as we remained with them
good fortune would be theirs. A little red-skinned wife and a
cave of our own were freely offered to each of us if we would but
forget our own people and dwell forever upon the plateau. So far
all had been kindly, however far apart our desires might be; but
we felt well assured that our actual plans of a descent must be
kept secret, for we had reason to fear that at the last they might
try to hold us by force.
In spite of the danger from dinosaurs (which is not great save at
night, for, as I may have said before, they are mostly nocturnal
in their habits) I have twice in the last three weeks been over
to our old camp in order to see our negro who still kept watch
and ward below the cliff. My eyes strained eagerly across the
great plain in the hope of seeing afar off the help for which we
had prayed. But the long cactus-strewn levels still stretched
away, empty and bare, to the distant line of the cane-brake.
"They will soon come now, Massa Malone. Before another week pass
Indian come back and bring rope and fetch you down." Such was the
cheery cry of our excellent Zambo.
I had one strange experience as I came from this second visit
which had involved my being away for a night from my companions.
I was returning along the well-remembered route, and had reached
a spot within a mile or so of the marsh of the pterodactyls, when
I saw an extraordinary object approaching me. It was a man who
walked inside a framework made of bent canes so that he was
enclosed on all sides in a bell-shaped cage. As I drew nearer I
was more amazed still to see that it was Lord John Roxton. When he
saw me he slipped from under his curious protection and came towards
me laughing, and yet, as I thought, with some confusion in his manner.
"Well, young fellah," said he, "who would have thought of meetin'
you up here?"
"What in the world are you doing?" I asked.
"Visitin' my friends, the pterodactyls," said he.
"But why?"
"Interestin' beasts, don't you think? But unsociable!
Nasty rude ways with strangers, as you may remember. So I
rigged this framework which keeps them from bein' too pressin'
in their attentions."
"But what do you want in the swamp?"
He looked at me with a very questioning eye, and I read
hesitation in his face.
"Don't you think other people besides Professors can want to
know things?" he said at last. "I'm studyin' the pretty dears.
That's enough for you."
"No offense," said I.
His good-humor returned and he laughed.
"No offense, young fellah. I'm goin' to get a young devil
chick for Challenger. That's one of my jobs. No, I don't want
your company. I'm safe in this cage, and you are not. So long,
and I'll be back in camp by night-fall."
He turned away and I left him wandering on through the wood with
his extraordinary cage around him.
If Lord John's behavior at this time was strange, that of
Challenger was more so. I may say that he seemed to possess an
extraordinary fascination for the Indian women, and that he
always carried a large spreading palm branch with which he beat
them off as if they were flies, when their attentions became
too pressing. To see him walking like a comic opera Sultan, with
this badge of authority in his hand, his black beard bristling
in front of him, his toes pointing at each step, and a train of
wide-eyed Indian girls behind him, clad in their slender drapery
of bark cloth, is one of the most grotesque of all the pictures
which I will carry back with me. As to Summerlee, he was
absorbed in the insect and bird life of the plateau, and spent
his whole time (save that considerable portion which was devoted
to abusing Challenger for not getting us out of our difficulties)
in cleaning and mounting his specimens.
Challenger had been in the habit of walking off by himself every
morning and returning from time to time with looks of portentous
solemnity, as one who bears the full weight of a great enterprise
upon his shoulders. One day, palm branch in hand, and his crowd
of adoring devotees behind him, he led us down to his hidden
work-shop and took us into the secret of his plans.
The place was a small clearing in the center of a palm grove.
In this was one of those boiling mud geysers which I have
already described. Around its edge were scattered a number of
leathern thongs cut from iguanodon hide, and a large collapsed
membrane which proved to be the dried and scraped stomach of one
of the great fish lizards from the lake. This huge sack had been
sewn up at one end and only a small orifice left at the other.
Into this opening several bamboo canes had been inserted and the
other ends of these canes were in contact with conical clay
funnels which collected the gas bubbling up through the mud of
the geyser. Soon the flaccid organ began to slowly expand and
show such a tendency to upward movements that Challenger fastened
the cords which held it to the trunks of the surrounding trees.
In half an hour a good-sized gas-bag had been formed, and the
jerking and straining upon the thongs showed that it was capable
of considerable lift. Challenger, like a glad father in the
presence of his first-born, stood smiling and stroking his beard,
in silent, self-satisfied content as he gazed at the creation of
his brain. It was Summerlee who first broke the silence.
"You don't mean us to go up in that thing, Challenger?" said he,
in an acid voice.
"I mean, my dear Summerlee, to give you such a demonstration of
its powers that after seeing it you will, I am sure, have no
hesitation in trusting yourself to it."
"You can put it right out of your head now, at once," said
Summerlee with decision, "nothing on earth would induce me to
commit such a folly. Lord John, I trust that you will not
countenance such madness?"
"Dooced ingenious, I call it," said our peer. "I'd like to see
how it works."
"So you shall," said Challenger. "For some days I have exerted
my whole brain force upon the problem of how we shall descend
from these cliffs. We have satisfied ourselves that we cannot
climb down and that there is no tunnel. We are also unable to
construct any kind of bridge which may take us back to the
pinnacle from which we came. How then shall I find a means to
convey us? Some little time ago I had remarked to our young
friend here that free hydrogen was evolved from the geyser.
The idea of a balloon naturally followed. I was, I will admit,
somewhat baffled by the difficulty of discovering an envelope to
contain the gas, but the contemplation of the immense entrails of
these reptiles supplied me with a solution to the problem.
Behold the result!"
He put one hand in the front of his ragged jacket and pointed
proudly with the other.
By this time the gas-bag had swollen to a goodly rotundity and
was jerking strongly upon its lashings.
"Midsummer madness!" snorted Summerlee.
Lord John was delighted with the whole idea. "Clever old dear,
ain't he?" he whispered to me, and then louder to Challenger.
"What about a car?"
"The car will be my next care. I have already planned how it is
to be made and attached. Meanwhile I will simply show you how
capable my apparatus is of supporting the weight of each of us."
"All of us, surely?"
"No, it is part of my plan that each in turn shall descend as in
a parachute, and the balloon be drawn back by means which I shall
have no difficulty in perfecting. If it will support the weight
of one and let him gently down, it will have done all that is
required of it. I will now show you its capacity in that direction."
He brought out a lump of basalt of a considerable size,
constructed in the middle so that a cord could be easily attached
to it. This cord was the one which we had brought with us on to
the plateau after we had used it for climbing the pinnacle.
It was over a hundred feet long, and though it was thin it was
very strong. He had prepared a sort of collar of leather with many
straps depending from it. This collar was placed over the dome
of the balloon, and the hanging thongs were gathered together
below, so that the pressure of any weight would be diffused over
a considerable surface. Then the lump of basalt was fastened to
the thongs, and the rope was allowed to hang from the end of it,
being passed three times round the Professor's arm.
"I will now," said Challenger, with a smile of pleased
anticipation, "demonstrate the carrying power of my balloon." As
he said so he cut with a knife the various lashings that held it.
Never was our expedition in more imminent danger of complete
annihilation. The inflated membrane shot up with frightful
velocity into the air. In an instant Challenger was pulled off
his feet and dragged after it. I had just time to throw my arms
round his ascending waist when I was myself whipped up into the air.
Lord John had me with a rat-trap grip round the legs, but I felt
that he also was coming off the ground. For a moment I had a
vision of four adventurers floating like a string of sausages
over the land that they had explored. But, happily, there were
limits to the strain which the rope would stand, though none
apparently to the lifting powers of this infernal machine. There was
a sharp crack, and we were in a heap upon the ground with coils of
rope all over us. When we were able to stagger to our feet we saw
far off in the deep blue sky one dark spot where the lump of
basalt was speeding upon its way.
"Splendid!" cried the undaunted Challenger, rubbing his injured arm.
"A most thorough and satisfactory demonstration! I could not have
anticipated such a success. Within a week, gentlemen, I promise
that a second balloon will be prepared, and that you can count upon
taking in safety and comfort the first stage of our homeward journey."
So far I have written each of the foregoing events as it occurred.
Now I am rounding off my narrative from the old camp, where Zambo
has waited so long, with all our difficulties and dangers left like
a dream behind us upon the summit of those vast ruddy crags which
tower above our heads. We have descended in safety, though in a
most unexpected fashion, and all is well with us. In six weeks
or two months we shall be in London, and it is possible that this
letter may not reach you much earlier than we do ourselves.
Already our hearts yearn and our spirits fly towards the great
mother city which holds so much that is dear to us.
It was on the very evening of our perilous adventure with
Challenger's home-made balloon that the change came in our fortunes.
I have said that the one person from whom we had had some sign of
sympathy in our attempts to get away was the young chief whom we
had rescued. He alone had no desire to hold us against our will
in a strange land. He had told us as much by his expressive
language of signs. That evening, after dusk, he came down to our
little camp, handed me (for some reason he had always shown his
attentions to me, perhaps because I was the one who was nearest
his age) a small roll of the bark of a tree, and then pointing
solemnly up at the row of caves above him, he had put his finger
to his lips as a sign of secrecy and had stolen back again to
his people.
I took the slip of bark to the firelight and we examined it together.
It was about a foot square, and on the inner side there was a
singular arrangement of lines, which I here reproduce:
They were neatly done in charcoal upon the white surface, and
looked to me at first sight like some sort of rough musical score.
"Whatever it is, I can swear that it is of importance to us,"
said I. "I could read that on his face as he gave it."
"Unless we have come upon a primitive practical joker," Summerlee
suggested, "which I should think would be one of the most
elementary developments of man."
"It is clearly some sort of script," said Challenger.
"Looks like a guinea puzzle competition," remarked Lord John,
craning his neck to have a look at it. Then suddenly he
stretched out his hand and seized the puzzle.
"By George!" he cried, "I believe I've got it. The boy guessed
right the very first time. See here! How many marks are on that
paper? Eighteen. Well, if you come to think of it there are
eighteen cave openings on the hill-side above us."
"He pointed up to the caves when he gave it to me," said I.
"Well, that settles it. This is a chart of the caves. What!
Eighteen of them all in a row, some short, some deep, some
branching, same as we saw them. It's a map, and here's a cross
on it. What's the cross for? It is placed to mark one that is
much deeper than the others."
"One that goes through," I cried.
"I believe our young friend has read the riddle," said Challenger.
"If the cave does not go through I do not understand why this
person, who has every reason to mean us well, should have drawn
our attention to it. But if it does go through and comes out at
the corresponding point on the other side, we should not have more
than a hundred feet to descend."
"A hundred feet!" grumbled Summerlee.
"Well, our rope is still more than a hundred feet long," I cried.
"Surely we could get down."
"How about the Indians in the cave?" Summerlee objected.
"There are no Indians in any of the caves above our heads," said I.
"They are all used as barns and store-houses. Why should we not
go up now at once and spy out the land?"
There is a dry bituminous wood upon the plateau--a species of
araucaria, according to our botanist--which is always used by the
Indians for torches. Each of us picked up a faggot of this, and
we made our way up weed-covered steps to the particular cave
which was marked in the drawing. It was, as I had said, empty,
save for a great number of enormous bats, which flapped round our
heads as we advanced into it. As we had no desire to draw the
attention of the Indians to our proceedings, we stumbled along in
the dark until we had gone round several curves and penetrated a
considerable distance into the cavern. Then, at last, we lit
our torches. It was a beautiful dry tunnel with smooth gray walls
covered with native symbols, a curved roof which arched over our
heads, and white glistening sand beneath our feet. We hurried
eagerly along it until, with a deep groan of bitter
disappointment, we were brought to a halt. A sheer wall of rock
had appeared before us, with no chink through which a mouse could
have slipped. There was no escape for us there.
We stood with bitter hearts staring at this unexpected obstacle.
It was not the result of any convulsion, as in the case of the
ascending tunnel. The end wall was exactly like the side ones.
It was, and had always been, a cul-de-sac.
"Never mind, my friends," said the indomitable Challenger.
"You have still my firm promise of a balloon."
Summerlee groaned.
"Can we be in the wrong cave?" I suggested.
"No use, young fellah," said Lord John, with his finger on the chart.
"Seventeen from the right and second from the left. This is the
cave sure enough."
I looked at the mark to which his finger pointed, and I gave a
sudden cry of joy.
"I believe I have it! Follow me! Follow me!"
I hurried back along the way we had come, my torch in my hand.
"Here," said I, pointing to some matches upon the ground, "is
where we lit up."
"Exactly."
"Well, it is marked as a forked cave, and in the darkness we
passed the fork before the torches were lit. On the right side
as we go out we should find the longer arm."
It was as I had said. We had not gone thirty yards before a
great black opening loomed in the wall. We turned into it to
find that we were in a much larger passage than before. Along it
we hurried in breathless impatience for many hundreds of yards.
Then, suddenly, in the black darkness of the arch in front of us
we saw a gleam of dark red light. We stared in amazement.
A sheet of steady flame seemed to cross the passage and to bar
our way. We hastened towards it. No sound, no heat, no movement
came from it, but still the great luminous curtain glowed before us,
silvering all the cave and turning the sand to powdered jewels,
until as we drew closer it discovered a circular edge.
"The moon, by George!" cried Lord John. "We are through, boys!
We are through!"
It was indeed the full moon which shone straight down the
aperture which opened upon the cliffs. It was a small rift, not
larger than a window, but it was enough for all our purposes.
As we craned our necks through it we could see that the descent was
not a very difficult one, and that the level ground was no very
great way below us. It was no wonder that from below we had not
observed the place, as the cliffs curved overhead and an ascent
at the spot would have seemed so impossible as to discourage
close inspection. We satisfied ourselves that with the help of
our rope we could find our way down, and then returned, rejoicing,
to our camp to make our preparations for the next evening.
What we did we had to do quickly and secretly, since even at this
last hour the Indians might hold us back. Our stores we would
leave behind us, save only our guns and cartridges. But Challenger
had some unwieldy stuff which he ardently desired to take with him,
and one particular package, of which I may not speak, which gave
us more labor than any. Slowly the day passed, but when the
darkness fell we were ready for our departure. With much labor
we got our things up the steps, and then, looking back, took one
last long survey of that strange land, soon I fear to be vulgarized,
the prey of hunter and prospector, but to each of us a dreamland
of glamour and romance, a land where we had dared much, suffered
much, and learned much--OUR land, as we shall ever fondly call it.
Along upon our left the neighboring caves each threw out its ruddy
cheery firelight into the gloom. From the slope below us rose the
voices of the Indians as they laughed and sang. Beyond was the
long sweep of the woods, and in the center, shimmering vaguely
through the gloom, was the great lake, the mother of strange monsters.
Even as we looked a high whickering cry, the call of some weird
animal, rang clear out of the darkness. It was the very voice of
Maple White Land bidding us good-bye. We turned and plunged into
the cave which led to home.
Two hours later, we, our packages, and all we owned, were at the
foot of the cliff. Save for Challenger's luggage we had never
a difficulty. Leaving it all where we descended, we started at
once for Zambo's camp. In the early morning we approached it,
but only to find, to our amazement, not one fire but a dozen upon
the plain. The rescue party had arrived. There were twenty
Indians from the river, with stakes, ropes, and all that could be
useful for bridging the chasm. At least we shall have no
difficulty now in carrying our packages, when to-morrow we begin
to make our way back to the Amazon.
And so, in humble and thankful mood, I close this account.
Our eyes have seen great wonders and our souls are chastened
by what we have endured. Each is in his own way a better and
deeper man. It may be that when we reach Para we shall stop
to refit. If we do, this letter will be a mail ahead. If not,
it will reach London on the very day that I do. In either case,
my dear Mr. McArdle, I hope very soon to shake you by the hand. _