Sacrifice "The air in this place must be charged with some form of electricity, but the odd thing is that it does not seem to harm us," said Bickley in a matter-of-fact fashion as though he were determined not to be astonished.
"To me it looks more like marsh fires or St.Elmo lights, though how these can be where there is no vapour, I do not know,"I answered.
As I spoke a particularly large ball of flame fell from above.
It resembled a shooting star or a meteor more than anything else that I had ever seen, and made me wonder whether we were not perhaps standing beneath some inky, unseen sky.
Next moment I forgot such speculations, for in its blue light, which made him terrible and ghastly, I perceived Oro standing in front of us clad in a long cloak.
"Dear me!" said Bastin, "he looks just like the devil, doesn't he, and now I come to think of it, this isn't at all a bad imitation of hell.""How do you know it is an imitation?" asked Bickley.
"Because whatever might be the case with you, Bickley, if it were, the Lady Yva and I should not be here."Even then I could not help smiling at this repartee, but the argument went no further for Oro held up his hand and Yva bent the knee in greeting to him.
"So you have come, all of you," he said."I thought that perhaps there were one or two who would not find courage to ride the flying stone.I am glad that it is not so, since otherwise he who had shown himself a coward should have had no share in the rule of that new world which is to be.Therefore I chose yonder road that it might test you.""Then if you will be so good as to choose another for us to return by, I shall be much obliged to you, Oro," said Bastin.
"How do you know that if I did it would not be more terrible, Preacher? How do you know indeed that this is not your last journey from which there is no return?""Of course I can't be sure of anything, Oro, but I think the question is one which you might more appropriately put to yourself.According to your own showing you are now extremely old and therefore your end is likely to come at any moment.Of course, however, if it did you would have one more journey to make, but it wouldn't be polite for me to say in what direction."Oro heard, and his splendid, icy face was twisted with sudden rage.Remembering the scene in the temple where he had grovelled before his god, uttering agonised, unanswered prayers for added days, I understood the reason of his wrath.It was so great that I feared lest he should kill Bastin (who only a few hours before, be it remembered, had tried to kill him) then and there, as doubtless he could have done if he wished.Fortunately, if he felt it; the impulse passed.
"Miserable fool!" he said."I warn you to keep a watch upon your words.Yesterday you would have slain me with your toy.
Today you stab me with your ill-omened tongue.Be fearful lest Isilence it for ever."
"I am not in the least fearful, Oro, since I am sure that you can't hurt me at all any more than I could hurt you last night because, you see, it wasn't permitted.When the time comes for me to die, I shall go, but you will have nothing to do with that.To tell the truth, I am very sorry for you, as with all your greatness, your soul is of the earth, earthy, also sensual and devilish, as the Apostle said, and, I am afraid, very malignant, and you will have a great deal to answer for shortly.Yours won't be a happy deathbed, Oro, because, you see, you glory in your sins and don't know what repentance means."I must add that when I heard these words I was filled with the most unbounded admiration for Bastin's fearless courage which enabled him thus to beard this super-tyrant in his den.So indeed were we all, for I read it in Yva's face and heard Bickley mutter:
"Bravo! Splendid! After all there is something in faith!"Even Oro appreciated it with his intellect, if not with his heart, for he stared at the man and made no answer.In the language of the ring, he was quite "knocked out" and, almost humbly, changed the subject.
"We have yet a little while," he said, "before that happens which I have decreed.Come, Humphrey, that I may show you some of the marvels of this bubble blown in the bowels of the world," and he motioned to us to pick up the lanterns.
Then he led us away from the wall of the cavern, if such it was, for a distance of perhaps six or seven hundred paces.Here suddenly we came to a great groove in the rocky floor, as broad as a very wide roadway, and mayhap four feet in depth.The bottom of this groove was polished and glittered; indeed it gave us the impression of being iron, or other ore which had been welded together beneath the grinding of some immeasurable weight.Just at the spot where we struck the groove, it divided into two, for this reason.
In its centre the floor of iron, or whatever it may have been, rose, the fraction of an inch at first, but afterwards more sharply, and this at a spot where the groove had a somewhat steep downward dip which appeared to extend onwards I know not how far.
Following along this central rise for a great way, nearly a mile, I should think, we observed that it became ever more pronounced, till at length it ended in a razor-edge cliff which stretched up higher than we could see, even by the light of the electrical discharges.Standing against the edge of this cliff, we perceived that at a distance from it there were now two grooves of about equal width.One of these ran away into the darkness on our right as we faced the sharp edge, and at an ever-widening angle, while the other, at a similar angle, ran into the darkness to the left of the knife of cliff.That was all.
No, there were two more notable things.Neither of the grooves now lay within hundreds of yards of the cliff, perhaps a quarter of a mile, for be it remembered we had followed the rising rock between them.To put it quite clearly, it was exactly as though one line of rails had separated into two lines of rails, as often enough they do, and an observer standing on high ground between could see them both vanishing into tunnels to the right and left, but far apart.
