Chapter XII
Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Years!
"You seem to have made the best of your time, old fellow," said
Bickley in rather a sour voice.
"I never knew people begin to call each other by their
Christian names so soon," added Bastin, looking at me with a
suspicious eye.
"I know no other," I said.
"Perhaps not, but at any rate you have another, though you
don't seem to have told it to her. Anyway, I am glad they are
gone, for I was getting tired of being ordered by everybody to
carry about wood and water for them. Also I am terribly hungry as
I can't eat before it is light. They have taken most of the best
fruit to which I was looking forward, but thank goodness they do
not seem to care for pork."
"So am I," said Bickley, who really looked exhausted. "Get the
food, there's a good fellow. We'll talk afterwards."
When we had eaten, somewhat silently, I asked Bickley what he
made of the business; also whither he thought the sleepers had
gone.
"I think I can answer the last question," interrupted Bastin.
"I expect it is to a place well known to students of the Bible
which even Bickley mentions sometimes when he is angry. At any
rate, they seem to be very fond of heat, for they wouldn't part
from it even in their coffins, and you will admit that they are
not quite natural, although that Glittering Lady is so attractive
as regards her exterior."
Bickley waved these remarks aside and addressed himself to me.
"I don't know what to think of it," he said; "but as the
experience is not natural and everything in the Universe, so far
as we know it, has a natural explanation, I am inclined to the
belief that we are suffering from hallucinations, which in their
way are also quite natural. It does not seem possible that two
people can really have been asleep for an unknown length of time
enclosed in vessels of glass or crystal, kept warm by radium or
some such substance, and then emerge from them comparatively
strong and well. It is contrary to natural law."
"How about microbes?" I asked. "They are said to last
practically for ever, and they are living things. So in their
case your natural law breaks down."
"That is true," he answered. "Some microbes in a sealed tube
and under certain conditions do appear to possess indefinite
powers of life. Also radium has an indefinite life, but that is a
mineral. Only these people are not microbes nor are they
minerals. Also, experience tells us that they could not have
lived for more than a few months at the outside in such
circumstances as we seemed to find them."
"Then what do you suggest?"
"I suggest that we did not really find them at all; that we
have all been dreaming. You know that there are certain gases
which produce illusions, laughing gas is one of them, and that
these gases are sometimes met with in caves. Now there were very
peculiar odours in that place under the statue, which may have
worked upon our imaginations in some such way. Otherwise we are
up against a miracle, and, as you know, I do not believe in
miracles."
"I do," said Bastin calmly. "You'll find all about it in the
Bible if you will only take the trouble to read. Why do you talk
such rubbish about gases?"
"Because only gas, or something of the sort, could have made us
imagine them."
"Nonsense, Bickley! Those people were here right enough. Didn't
they eat our fruit and drink the water I brought them without
ever saying thank you? Only, they are not human. They are evil
spirits, and for my part I don't want to see any more of them,
though I have no doubt Arbuthnot does, as that Glittering Lady
threw her arms round his neck when she woke up, and already he is
calling her by her Christian name, if the word Christian can be
used in connection with her. The old fellow had the impudence to
tell us that he was a god, and it is remarkable that he should
have called himself Oro, seeing that the devil they worship on
the island is also called Oro and the place itself is named
Orofena."
"As to where they have gone," continued Bickley, taking no
notice of Bastin, "I really don't know. My expectation is,
however, that when we go to look tomorrow morning--and I suggest
that we should not do so before then in order that we may give
our minds time to clear--we shall find that sepulchre place quite
empty, even perhaps without the crystal coffins we have imagined
to stand there."
"Perhaps we shall find that there isn't a cave at all and that
we are not sitting on a flat rock outside of it," suggested
Bastin with heavy sarcasm, adding, "You are clever in your way,
Bickley, but you can talk more rubbish than any man I ever knew."
"They told us they would come back tonight or tomorrow," I
said. "If they do, what will you say then, Bickley?"
"I will wait till they come to answer that question. Now let us
go for a walk and try to change our thoughts. We are all
over-strained and scarcely know what we are saying."
"One more question," I said as we rose to start. "Did Tommy
suffer from hallucinations as well as ourselves?"
"Why not?" answered Bickley. "He is an animal just as we are,
or perhaps we thought we saw Tommy do the things he did."
"When you found that basket of fruit, Bastin, which the natives
brought over in the canoe, was there a bough covered with red
flowers lying on the top of it?"
"Yes, Arbuthnot, one bough only; I threw it down on the rock as
it got in the way when I was carrying the basket."
"Which flowering bough we all thought we saw the Sleeper Oro
carry away after Tommy had brought it to him."
"Yes; he made me pick it up and give it to him," said Bastin.
"Well, if we did not see this it should still be lying on the
rock, as there has been no wind and there are no animals here to
carry it away. You will admit that, Bickley?"
He nodded.
"Then if it has gone you will admit also that the presumption
is that we saw what we thought we did see?"
"I do not know how that conclusion can be avoided, at any rate
so far as the incident of the bough is concerned," replied
Bickley with caution.
Then, without more words, we started to look. At the spot where
the bough should have been, there was no bough, but on the rock
lay several of the red flowers, bitten off, I suppose, by Tommy
while he was carrying it. Nor was this all. I think I have
mentioned that the Glittering Lady wore sandals which were
fastened with red studs that looked like rubies or carbuncles. On
the rock lay one of these studs. I picked it up and we examined
it. It had been sewn to the sandal-strap with golden thread or
silk. Some of this substance hung from the hole drilled in the
stone which served for an eye. It was as rotten as tinder,
apparently with extreme age. Moreover, the hard gem itself was
pitted as though the passage of time had taken effect upon it,
though this may have been caused by other agencies, such as the
action of the radium rays. I smiled at Bickley who looked
disconcerted and even sad. In a way it is painful to see the
effect upon an able and earnest man of the upsetting of his
lifelong theories.
We went for our walk, keeping to the flat lands at the foot of
the volcano cone, for we seemed to have had enough of wonders and
to desire to reassure ourselves, as it were, by the study of
natural and familiar things. As it chanced, too, we were rewarded
by sundry useful discoveries. Thus we found a place where the
bread-tree and other fruits, most of them now ripe, grew in
abundance, as did the yam. Also, we came to an inlet that we
noticed was crowded with large and beautiful fish from the lake,
which seemed to find it a favourite spot. Perhaps this was
because a little stream of excellent water ran in here,
overflowing from the great pool or mere which filled the crater
above.
At these finds we rejoiced greatly, for now we knew that we
need not fear starvation even should our supply of food from the
main island be cut off. Indeed, by help of some palm-leaf stalks
which we wove together roughly, Bastin, who was rather clever at
this kind of thing, managed to trap four fish weighing two or
three pounds apiece, wading into the water to do so. It was
curious to observe with what ease he adapted himself to the
manners and customs of primeval man, so much so, indeed, that
Bickley remarked that if he could believe in re-incarnation, he
would be absolutely certain that Bastin was a troglodyte in his
last sojourn on the earth.
However this might be, Bastin's primeval instincts and
abilities were of the utmost service to us. Before we had been
many days on that island he had built us a kind of native hut or
house roofed with palm leaves in which, until provided with a
better, as happened afterwards, we ate and he and Bickley slept,
leaving the tent to me. Moreover, he wove a net of palm fibre
with which he caught abundance of fish, and made fishing-lines of
the same material (fortunately we had some hooks) which he baited
with freshwater mussels and the insides of fish. By means of
these he secured some veritable monsters of the carp species that
proved most excellent eating. His greatest triumph, however, was
a decoy which he constructed of boughs, wherein he trapped a
number of waterfowl. So that soon we kept a very good table of a
sort, especially after he had learned how to cook our food upon
the native plan by means of hot stones. This suited us admirably,
as it enabled Bickley and myself to devote all our time to
archaeological and other studies which did not greatly interest
Bastin.
By the time that we got back to camp it was drawing towards
evening, so we cooked our food and ate, and then, thoroughly
exhausted, made ourselves as comfortable as we could and went to
sleep. Even our marvelous experiences could not keep Bickley and
myself from sleeping, and on Bastin such things had no effect. He
accepted them and that was all, much more readily than we did,
indeed. Triple-armed as he was in the mail of a child-like faith,
he snapped his fingers at evil spirits which he supposed the
Sleepers to be, and at everything else that other men might
dread.
Now, as I have mentioned, after our talk with Marama, although
we did not think it wise to adventure ourselves among them again
at present, we had lost all fear of the Orofenans. In this
attitude, so far as Marama himself and the majority of his people
were concerned, we were quite justified, for they were our warm
friends. But in the case of the sorcerers, the priests and all
their rascally and superstitious brotherhood, we were by no means
justified. They had not forgiven Bastin his sacrilege or for his
undermining of their authority by the preaching of new doctrines
which, if adopted, would destroy them as a hierarchy. Nor had
they forgiven Bickley for shooting one of their number, or any of
us for our escape from the vengeance of their god.
So it came about that they made a plot to seize us all and hale
us off to be sacrificed to a substituted image of Oro, which by
now they had set up. They knew exactly where we slept upon the
rock; indeed, our fire showed it to them and so far they were not
afraid to venture, since here they had been accustomed for
generations to lay their offerings to the god of the Mountain.
Secretly on the previous night, without the knowledge of Marama,
they had carried two more canoes to the borders of the lake. Now
on this night, just as the moon was setting about three in the
morning, they made their attack, twenty-one men in all, for the
three canoes were large, relying on the following darkness to get
us away and convey us to the place of sacrifice to be offered up
at dawn and before Marama could interfere.
The first we knew of the matter, for most foolishly we had
neglected to keep a watch, was the unpleasant sensation of brawny
savages kneeling on us and trussing us up with palm-fibre ropes.
Also they thrust handfuls of dry grass into our mouths to prevent
us from calling out, although as air came through the interstices
of the grass, we did not suffocate. The thing was so well done
that we never struck a blow in self-defence, and although we had
our pistols at hand, much less could we fire a shot. Of course,
we struggled as well as we were able, but it was quite useless;
in three minutes we were as helpless as calves in a net and like
calves were being conveyed to the butcher. Bastin managed to get
the gag out of his mouth for a few seconds, and I heard him say
in his slow, heavy voice:
"This, Bickley, is what comes of trafficking with evil spirits
in museum cases--" There his speech stopped, for the grass wad
was jammed down his throat again, but distinctly I heard the
inarticulate Bickley snort as he conceived the repartee he was
unable to utter. As for myself, I reflected that the business
served us right for not keeping a watch, and abandoned the issue
to fate.
Still, to confess the truth, I was infinitely more sorry to die
than I should have been forty-eight hours earlier. This is a dull
and in most ways a dreadful world, one, if we could only summon
the courage, that some of us would be glad to leave in search of
new adventures. But here a great and unprecedented adventure had
begun to befall me, and before its mystery was solved, before
even I could formulate a theory concerning it, my body must be
destroyed, and my intelligence that was caged therein, sent far
afield; or, if Bickley were right, eclipsed. It seemed so sad
just when the impossible, like an unguessed wandering moon, had
risen over the grey flats of the ascertained and made them shine
with hope and wonder.
They carried us off to the canoes, not too gently; indeed, I
heard the bony frame of Bastin bump into the bottom of one of
them and reflected, not without venom, that it served him right
as he was the fount and origin of our woes. Two stinking
magicians, wearing on their heads undress editions of their court
cages, since these were too cumbersome for active work of the
sort, and painted all over with various pigments, were just about
to swing me after him into the same, or another canoe, when
something happened. I did not know what it was, but as a result,
my captors left hold of me so that I fell to the rock, lying upon
my back.
Then, within my line of vision, which, it must be remembered,
was limited because I could not lift my head, appeared the upper
part of the tall person of the Ancient who said that he was named
Oro. I could only see him down to his middle, but I noted vaguely
that he seemed to be much changed. For instance, he wore a
different coloured dress, or rather robe; this time it was dark
blue, which caused me to wonder where on earth it came from.
Also, his tremendous beard had been trimmed and dressed, and on
his head there was a simple black cap, strangely quilted, which
looked as though it were made of velvet. Moreover, his face had
plumped out. He still looked ancient, it is true, and unutterably
wise, but now he resembled an antique youth, so great were his
energy and vigour. Also, his dark and glowing eyes shone with a
fearful intensity. In short, he seemed impressive and terrible
almost beyond imagining.
He looked about him slowly, then asked in a deep, cold voice,
speaking in the Orofenan tongue:
"What do you, slaves?"
No one seemed able to answer, they were too horror-stricken at
this sudden vision of their fabled god, whose fierce features of
wood had become flesh; they only turned to fly. He waved his thin
hand and they came to a standstill, like animals which have
reached the end of their tether and are checked by the chains
that bind them. There they stood in all sorts of postures,
immovable and looking extremely ridiculous in their paint and
feathers, with dread unutterable stamped upon their evil faces.
The Sleeper spoke again:
"You would murder as did your forefathers, O children of snakes
and hogs fashioned in the shape of men. You would sacrifice those
who dwell in my shadow to satisfy your hate because they are
wiser than you. Come hither thou," and he beckoned with a bony
finger to the chief magician.
The man advanced towards him in short jumps, as a mechanical
toy might do, and stood before him, his miniature crate and
feathers all awry and the sweat of terror melting the paint in
streaks upon his face.
"Look into the eyes of Oro, O worshipper of Oro," said the
Sleeper, and he obeyed, his own eyes starting out of his head.
"Receive the curse of Oro," said the Ancient again. Then
followed a terrible spectacle. The man went raving mad. He
bounded into the air to a height inconceivable. He threw himself
upon the ground and rolled upon the rock. He rose again and
staggered round and round, tearing pieces out of his arms with
his teeth. He yelled hideously like one possessed. He grovelled,
beating his forehead against the rock. Then he sat up, slowly
choked and--died.
His companions seemed to catch the infection of death as
terrified savages often do. They too performed dreadful antics,
all except three of them who stood paralysed. They rushed about
battering each other with their fists and wooden weapons, looking
like devils from hell in their hideous painted attire. They
grappled and fought furiously. They separated and plunged into
the lake, where with a last grimace they sank like stones.
It seemed to last a long while, but I think that as a matter of
fact within five minutes it was over; they were all dead. Only
the three paralysed ones remained standing and rolling their
eyes.
The Sleeper beckoned to them with his thin finger, and they
walked forward in step like soldiers.
"Lift that man from the boat," he said, pointing to Bastin,
"cut his bonds and those of the others."
They obeyed with a Wonderful alacrity. In a minute we stood at
liberty and were pulling the grass gags from our mouths. The
Ancient pointed to the head magician who lay dead upon the rock,
his hideous, contorted countenance staring open-eyed at heaven.
"Take that sorcerer and show him to the other sorcerers yonder,"
he said, "and tell them where your fellows are if they would find
them. Know by these signs that the Oro, god of the Mountain, who
has slept a while, is awake, and ill will it go with them who
question his power or dare to try to harm those who dwell in his
house. Bring food day by day and await commands. Begone!"
The dreadful-looking body was bundled into one of the canoes,
that out of which Bastin had emerged. A rower sprang into each of
them and presently was paddling as he had never done before. As
the setting moon vanished, they vanished with it, and once more
there was a great silence.
"I am going to find my boots," said Bastin. "This rock is hard
and I hurt my feet kicking at those poor fellows who appear to
have come to a bad end, how, I do not exactly understand.
Personally, I think that more allowances should have been made
for them, as I hope will be the case elsewhere, since after all
they only acted according to their lights."
"Curse their lights!" ejaculated Bickley, feeling his throat
which was bruised. "I'm glad they are out."
Bastin limped away in search of his boots, but Bickley and I
stood where we were contemplating the awakened Sleeper. All
recollection of the recent tumultuous scene seemed to have passed
from his mind, for he was engaged in a study of the heavens. They
were wonderfully brilliant now that the moon was down, brilliant
as they only can be in the tropics when the sky is clear.
Something caused me to look round, and there, coming towards
us, was she who said her name was Yva. Evidently all her weakness
had departed also, for now she needed no support, but walked with
a peculiar gliding motion that reminded me of a swan floating
forward on the water. Well had we named her the Glittering Lady,
for in the starlight literally she seemed to glitter. I suppose
the effect came from her golden raiment, which, however, I
noticed, as in her father's case, was not the same that she had
worn in the coffin; also from her hair that seemed to give out a
light of its own. At least, she shimmered as she came, her tall
shape swaying at every step like a willow in the wind. She drew
near, and I saw that her face, too, had filled out and now was
that of one in perfect health and vigour, while her eyes shone
softly and seemed wondrous large.
In her hands she carried those two plates of metal which I had
seen lying in the coffin of the Sleeper Oro. These she gave to
him, then fell back out of his hearing--if it were ever possible
to do this, a point on which I am not sure--and began to talk to
me. I noted at once that in the few hours during which she was
absent, her knowledge of the Orofenan tongue seemed to have
improved greatly as though she had drunk deeply from some hidden
fount of memory. Now she spoke it with readiness, as Oro had done
when he addressed the sorcerers, although many of the words she
used were not known to me, and the general form of her language
appeared archaic, as for instance that of Spenser is compared
with modern English. When she saw I did not comprehend her,
however, she would stop and cast her sentences in a different
shape, till at length I caught her meaning. Now I give the
substance of what she said.
"You are safe," she began, glancing first at the palm ropes
that lay upon the rock and then at my wrists, one of which was
cut.
"Yes, Lady Yva, thanks to your father."
"You should say thanks to me. My father was thinking of other
things, but I was thinking of you strangers, and from where I was
I saw those wicked ones coming to kill you."
"Oh! from the top of the mountain, I suppose."
She shook her head and smiled but vouchsafed no further
explanation, unless her following words can be so called. These
were:
"I can see otherwise than with my eyes, if I choose." A
statement that caused Bickley, who was listening, to mutter:
"Impossible! What the deuce can she mean? Telepathy, perhaps."
"I saw," she continued, "and told the Lord, my father. He came
forth. Did he kill them? I did not look to learn."
"Yes. They lie in the lake, all except three whom he
sent away as messengers."
"I thought so. Death is terrible, O Humphrey, but it is a sword
which those, who rule must use to smite the wicked and the
savage.
Not wishing to pursue this subject, I asked her what her father
was doing with the metal plates.
"He reads the stars," she answered, "to learn how long we have
been asleep. Before we went to sleep he made two pictures of
them, as they were then and as they should be at the time he had
set for our awakening."
"We set that time," interrupted Bickley.
"Not so. O Bickley," she answered, smiling again. "In the
divine Oro's head was the time set. You were the hand that
executed his decree."
When Bickley heard this I really thought he would have burst.
However, he controlled himself nobly, being anxious to hear the
end of this mysterious fib.
"How long was the time that the lord Oro set apart for sleep?"
I asked.
She paused as though puzzled to find words to express her
meaning, then held up her hands and said:
"Ten," nodding at her fingers. By second thoughts she took
Bickley's hands, not mine, and counted his ten fingers.
"Ten years," said Bickley. "Well, of course, it is impossible,
but perhaps--" and he paused.
"Ten tens," she went on with a deepening smile, "one hundred."
"O!" said Bickley.
"Ten hundreds, one thousand."
"I say!" said Bickley.
"Ten times ten thousand, one hundred thousand."
Bickley became silent.
"Twice one hundred thousand and half a hundred thousand, two
hundred and fifty thousand years. That was the space of time
which the lord Oro, my father, set for our sleep. Whether it has
been fulfilled he will know presently when he has read the book
of the stars and made comparison of it with what he wrote before
we laid us down to rest," and she pointed to the metal plates
which the Ancient was studying.
Bickley walked away, making sounds as though he were going to
be ill and looking so absurd in his indignation that I nearly
laughed. The Lady Yva actually did laugh, and very musical was
that laugh.
"He does not believe," she said. "He is so clever he knows
everything. But two hundred and fifty thousand years ago we
should have thought him quite stupid. Then we could read the
stars and calculate their movements for ever."
"So can we," I answered, rather nettled.
"I am glad, O Humphrey, since you will be able to show my
father if in one of them he is wrong."
Secretly I hoped that this task would not be laid on me.
Indeed, I thought it well to change the subject for the
edification of Bickley who had recovered and was drawn back by
his eager curiosity. Just then, too, Bastin joined us, happy in
his regained boots.
"You tell us, Lady Yva," I said, "that you slept, or should
have slept for two hundred and fifty thousand years." Here Bastin
opened his eyes. "If that was so, where was your mind all this
time?"
"If by my mind you mean spirit, O Humphrey, I have to answer
that at present I do not know for certain. I think, however, that
it dwelt elsewhere, perhaps in other bodies on the earth, or some
different earth. At least, I know that my heart is very full of
memories which as yet I cannot unroll and read."
"Great heavens, this is madness!" said Bickley.
"In the great heavens," she answered slowly, "there are many
things which you, poor man, would think to be madness, but yet
are truth and perfect wisdom. These things, or some of them, soon
I shall hope to show you."
"Do if you can," said Bickley.
"Why not?" interrupted Bastin. "I think the lady's remarks
quite reasonable. It seems to me highly improbable if really she
has slept for two hundred and fifty thousand years, which, of
course, I can't decide, that an immortal spirit would be allowed
to remain idle for so long. That would be wallowing in a bed of
idleness and shirking its duty which is to do its work. Also, as
she tells you, Bickley, you are not half so clever as you think
you are in your silly scepticism, and I have no doubt that there
are many things in other worlds which would expose your
ignorance, if only you could see them."
At this moment Oro turned and called his daughter. She went at
once, saying:
"Come, strangers, and you shall learn."
So we followed her.
"Daughter," he said, speaking in Orofenan, I think that we
might understand, "ask these strangers to bring one of those
lamps of theirs that by the light of it I may study these
writings."
"Perhaps this may serve," said Bickley, suddenly producing an
electric torch from his pocket and flashing it into his face. It
was his form of repartee for all he had suffered at the hands of
this incomprehensible pair. Let me say at once that it was
singularly successful. Perhaps the wisdom of the ages in which
Oro flourished had overlooked so small a matter as electric
torches, or perhaps he did not expect to meet with them in these
degenerate days. At any rate for the first and last time in my
intercourse with him I saw the god, or lord--the native word
bears either meaning--Oro genuinely astonished. He started and
stepped back, and for a moment or two seemed a little frightened.
Then muttering something as to the cleverness of this
light-producing instrument, he motioned to his daughter to take
it from Bickley and hold it in a certain position. She obeyed,
and in its illumination he began to study the engraved plates,
holding one of them in either hand.
After a while he gave me one of the plates to hold, and with
his disengaged hand pointed successively to the constellation of
Orion, to the stars Castor, Pollux, Aldebaran, Rigel, the
Pleiades, Sirius and others which with my very limited knowledge
I could not recognise offhand. Then on the plate which I held, he
showed us those same stars and constellations, checking them one
by one.
Then he remarked very quietly that all was in order, and
handing the plate he held to Yva, said:
"The calculations made so long ago are correct, nor have the
stars varied in their proper motions during what is after all but
an hour of time. If you, Stranger, who, I understand, are named
Humphrey, should be, as I gather, a heaven-master, naturally you
will ask me how I could fix an exact date by the stars without an
error of, let us say, from five to ten thousand years. I answer
you that by the proper motion of the stars alone it would have
been difficult. Therefore I remember that in order to be exact, I
calculated the future conjunctions of those two planets," and he
pointed to Saturn and Jupiter. "Finding that one of these
occurred near yonder star," and he indicated the bright orb,
Spica, "at a certain time, I determined that then I would awake.
Behold! There are the stars as I engraved them from my
foreknowledge, upon this chart, and there those two great planets
hang in conjunction. Daughter Yva, my wisdom has not failed me.
This world of ours has travelled round the sun neither less nor
more than two hundred and fifty thousand times since we laid
ourselves down to sleep. It is written here, and yonder," and he
pointed, first to the engraved plates and then to the vast
expanse of the starlit heavens.
Awe fell on me; I think that even Bickley and Bastin were awed,
at any rate for the moment. It was a terrible thing to look on a
being, to all appearance more or less human, who alleged that he
had been asleep for two hundred and fifty thousand years, and
proceeded to prove it by certain ancient star charts. Of course
at the time I could not check those charts, lacking the necessary
knowledge, but I have done so since and found that they are quite
accurate. However this made no difference, since the
circumstances and something in his manner convinced me that he
spoke the absolute truth.
He and his daughter had been asleep for two hundred and fifty
thousand years. Oh! Heavens, for two hundred and fifty thousand
years!
