"I am not sure, Beloved," she answered in a sweet and gentle voice, "who do not know all Oro's secrets, but as I think, great things.We are now deep in the bowels of the world, and presently, perhaps, you will see some of its mighty forces whereof your ignorant races have no knowledge, doing their everlasting work.""Then how is it that we can breathe here?" I asked."Because this road that we are following connects with the upper air or used to do so, since once I followed it.It is a long road and the climb is steep, but at last it leads to the light of the blessed sun, nor are there any pitfalls in the path.Would that we might tread it together, Humphrey," she added with passion, "and be rid of mysteries and the gloom, or that light which is worse than gloom.""Why not?" I asked eagerly."Why should we not turn and flee?""Who can flee from my father, the Lord Oro?" she replied."He would snare us before we had gone a mile.Moreover, if we fled, by tomorrow half the world must perish.""And how can we save it by not flying, Yva?""I do not know, Humphrey, yet I think it will be saved, perchance by sacrifice.That is the keystone of your faith, is it not? Therefore if it is asked of you to save the world, you will not shrink from it, will you, Humphrey?""I hope not," I replied, without enthusiasm, I admit.Indeed it struck me that a business of this sort was better fitted to Bastin than to myself, or at any rate to his profession.I think she guessed my thoughts, for by the light of the lamp I saw her smile in her dazzling way.Then after a swift glance behind her, she turned and suddenly kissed me, as she did so calling down everlasting blessings on my head and on my spirit.There was something very wonderful about this benediction of Yva's and it thrilled me through and through, so that to it I could make no answer.
Next moment it was too late to retreat, for our narrowing passage turned and we found ourselves in a wondrous place.I call it wondrous because of it we could see neither the beginning nor the end, nor the roof, nor aught else save the rock on which we walked, and the side or wall that our hands touched.Nor was this because of darkness, since although it was not illuminated like the upper caverns, light of a sort was present.It was a very strange light, consisting of brilliant and intermittent flashes, or globes of blue and lambent flame which seemed to leap from nowhere into nowhere, or sometimes to hang poised in mid air.
"How odd they are," said the voice of Bastin behind me."They remind me of those blue sparks which jump up from the wires of the tramways in London on a dark night.You know, don't you, Bickley? I mean when the conductor pulls round that long stick with an iron wheel on the top of it.""Nobody but you could have thought of such a comparison, Bastin," answered Bickley."Still, multiplied a thousandfold they are not unlike."Nor indeed were they, except that each blue flash was as big as the full moon and in one place or another they were so continuous that one could have read a letter by their light.Also the effect of them was ghastly and most unnatural, terrifying, too, since even their brilliance could not reveal the extent of that gigantic hollow in the bowels of the world wherein they leapt to and fro like lightnings, or hung like huge, uncanny lanterns.
