章节正文
those of ghosts and why is the little black beast so large-eyed
and so thin? Over the lake we know you did not come, for we have
watched day and night; moreover there is no canoe upon the shore.
Also it would not have been possible."
"Why not?" I asked idly.
"Come and see," he answered.
Rising stiffly we emerged from beneath the tree and perceived
that we were at the foot of the cliff against which the remains
of the yacht had been borne by the great tempest. Indeed there it
was within a couple of hundred yards of us.
Following Marama we climbed the sloping path which ran up the
cliff and ascended a knoll whence we could see the lake and the
cone of the volcano in its centre. At least we used to be able to
see this cone, but now, at any rate with the naked eye, we could
make out nothing, except a small brown spot in the midst of the
waters of the lake.
"The mountain which rose up many feet in that storm which
brought you to Orofena, Friend-from-the-Sea, has now sunk till
only the very top of it is to be seen," said Marama solemnly.
"Even the Rock of Offerings has vanished beneath the water, and
with it the house that we built for you."
"Yes," I said, affecting no surprise. "But when did that
happen?"
"Five nights ago the world shook, Friend-from-the-Sea, and when
the sun rose we saw that the mouth of the cave which appeared on
the day of your coming, had vanished, and that the holy mountain
itself had sunk deep, so that now only the crest of it is left
above the water."
"Such things happen," I replied carelessly.
"Yes, Friend-from-the-Sea. Like many other marvels they happen
where you and your companions are. Therefore we beg you who can
arise out of the earth like spirits, to leave us at once before
our island and all of us who dwell thereon are drowned beneath
the ocean. Leave us before we kill you, if indeed you be men, or
die at your hands if, as we think, you be evil spirits who can
throw up mountains and drag them down, and create gods that slay,
and move about in the bowels of the world."
"That is our intention, for our business here is done," I
answered calmly. "Come now and help us to depart. But first bring
us food. Bring it in plenty, for we must victual our boat."
Marama bowed and issued the necessary orders. Indeed food
sufficient for our immediate needs was already there as an
offering, and of it we ate with thankfulness.
Then we boarded the ship and examined the lifeboat. Thanks to
our precautions it was still in very fair order and only needed
some little caulking which we did with grass fibre and pitch from
the stores. After this with the help of the Orofenans who worked
hard in their desperate desire to be rid of us, we drew the boat
into the sea, and provisioned her with stores from the ship, and
with an ample supply of water. Everything being ready at last, we
waited for the evening wind which always blew off shore, to
start. As it was not due for half an hour or more, I walked back
to the tree under which we had slept and tried to find the hole
whence we had emerged from the tunnel on to the face of the
cliff.
My hurried search proved useless. The declivity of the cliff
was covered with tropical growth, and the heavy rain had washed
away every trace of our descent, and very likely filled the hole
itself with earth. At any rate, of it I could discover nothing.
Then as the breeze began to blow I returned to the boat and here
bade adieu to Marama, who gave me his feather cloak as a farewell
gift.
"Good-bye, Friend-from-the-Sea," he said to me. "We are glad to
have seen you and thank you for many things. But we do not wish
to see you any more."
"Good-bye, Marama," I answered. "What you say, we echo. At
least you have now no great lump upon your neck and we have rid
you of your wizards. But beware of the god Oro who dwells in the
mountain, for if you anger him he will sink your island beneath
the sea."
"And remember all that I have taught you," shouted Bastin.
Marama shivered, though whether at the mention of the god Oro,
of whose powers the Orofenans had so painful a recollection, or
at the result of Bastin's teachings, I do not know. And that was
the last we shall ever see of each other in this world.
The island faded behind us and, sore at heart because of all
that we had found and lost again, for three days we sailed
northward with a fair and steady wind. On the fourth evening by
an extraordinary stroke of fortune, we fell in with an American
tramp steamer, trading from the South Sea Islands to San
Francisco. To the captain, who treated us very kindly, we said
simply that we were a party of Englishmen whose yacht had been
wrecked on a small island several hundreds of miles away, of
which we knew neither the name, if it had one, nor the position.
This story was accepted without question, for such things often
happen in those latitudes, and in due course we were landed at
San Francisco, where we made certain depositions before the
British Consul as to the loss of the yacht Star of the South.
Then we crossed America, having obtained funds by cable, and
sailed for England in a steamer flying the flag of the United
States.
Of the great war which made this desirable I do not speak since
it has nothing, or rather little, to do with this history. In the
end we arrived safely at Liverpool, and thence travelled to our
homes in Devonshire.
Thus ended the history of our dealings with Oro, the super-man
who began his life more than two hundred and fifty thousand years
ago, and with his daughter, Yva, whom Bastin still often calls
the Glittering Lady.
Chapter XXVII
Bastin Discovers a Resemblance
There is little more to tell.
Shortly after our return Bickley, like a patriotic Englishman,
volunteered for service at the front and departed in the uniform
of the R.A.M.C. Before he left he took the opportunity of
explaining to Bastin how much better it was in such a national
emergency as existed, to belong to a profession in which a man
could do something to help the bodies of his countrymen that had
been broken in the common cause, than to one like his in which it
was only possible to pelt them with vain words.
"You think that, do you, Bickley?" answered Bastin. "Well, I
hold that it is better to heal souls than bodies, because, as
even you will have learned out there in Orofena, they last so
much longer."
"I am not certain that I learned anything of the sort," said
Bickley, "or even that Oro was more than an ordinary old man. He
said that he had lived a thousand years, but what was there to
prove this except his word, which is worth nothing?"
"There was the Lady Yva's word also, which is worth a great
deal, Bickley."
"Yes, but she may have meant a thousand moons. Further, as
according to her own showing she was still quite young, how could
she know her father's age?"
"Quite so, Bickley. But all she actually said was that she was
of the same age as one of our women of twenty-seven, which may
have meant two hundred and seventy for all I know. However,
putting that aside you will admit that they had both slept for
two hundred and fifty thousand years."
"I admit that they slept, Bastin, because I helped to awaken
them, but for how long there is nothing to show, except those
star maps which are probably quite inaccurate."
"They are not inaccurate," I broke in, "for I have had them
checked by leading astronomers who say that they show a
marvelous" target="_blank" title="(=marvellous) a.奇异的">marvelous knowledge of the heavens as these were two hundred and
fifty thousand years ago, and are today."
Here I should state that those two metal maps and the ring
which I gave to Yva and found again after the catastrophe, were
absolutely the only things connected with her or with Oro that we
brought away with us. The former I would never part with, feeling
their value as evidence. Therefore, when we descended to the city
Nyo and the depths beneath, I took them with me wrapped in cloth
in my pocket. Thus they were preserved. Everything else went when
the Rock of Offerings and the cave mouth sank beneath the waters
of the lake.
This may have happened either in the earth tremor, which no
doubt was caused by the advance of the terrific world-balance, or
when the electric power, though diffused and turned by Yva's
insulated body, struck the great gyroscope's travelling foot with
sufficient strength, not to shift it indeed on to the right-hand
path as Oro had designed, but still to cause it to stagger and
even perhaps to halt for the fraction of a second. Even this
pause may have been enough to cause convulsions of the earth
above; indeed, I gathered from Marama and other Orofenans that
such convulsions had occurred on and around the island at what
must have corresponded with that moment of the loosing of the
force.
This loss of our belongings in the house of the Rock of
Offerings was the more grievous because among them were some
Kodak photographs which I had taken, including portraits of Oro
and one of Yva that was really excellent, to say nothing of
pictures of the mouth of the cave and of the ruins and crater
lake above. How bitterly I regret that I did not keep these
photographs in my pocket with the map-plates.
"Even if the star-maps are correct, still it proves nothing,"
said Bickley, "since possibly Oro's astronomical skill might have
enabled him to draw that of the sky at any period, though I allow
this is impossible."
"I doubt his taking so much trouble merely to deceive three
wanderers who lacked the knowledge even to check them," I said.
"But all this misses the point, Bickley. However long they had
slept, that man and woman did arise from seeming death. They did
dwell in those marvelous" target="_blank" title="(=marvellous) a.奇异的">marvelous caves with their evidences of departed
civilisations, and they did show us that fearful, world-wandering
gyroscope. These things we saw."
"I admit that we saw them, Arbuthnot, and I admit that they are
one and all beyond human comprehension. To that extent I am
converted, and, I may add, humbled," said Bickley.
"So you ought to be," exclaimed Bastin, "seeing that you always
swore that there was nothing in the world that is not capable of
a perfectly natural explanation."
"Of which all these things may be capable, Bastin, if only we
held the key."
"Very well, Bickley, but how do you explain what the Lady Yva
did? I may tell you now what she commanded me to conceal at the
time, namely, that she became a Christian; so much so that by her
own will, I baptised and confirmed her on the very morning of her
sacrifice. Doubtless it was this that changed her heart so much
that she became willing, of course without my knowledge, to leave
everything she cared for," here he looked hard at me, "and lay
down her life to save the world, half of which she believed was
about to be drowned by Oro. Now, considering her history and
upbringing, I call this a spiritualmarvel, much greater than any
you now admit, and one you can't explain, Bickley."
"No, I cannot explain, or, at any rate, I will not try," he
answered, also staring hard at me. "Whatever she believed, or did
not believe, and whatever would or would not have happened, she
was a great and wonderful woman whose memory I worship."
"Quite so, Bickley, and now perhaps you see my point, that what
you describe as mere vain words may also be helpful to mankind;
more so, indeed, than your surgical instruments and pills."
"You couldn't convert Oro, anyway," exclaimed Bickley, with
and so thin? Over the lake we know you did not come, for we have
watched day and night; moreover there is no canoe upon the shore.
Also it would not have been possible."
"Why not?" I asked idly.
"Come and see," he answered.
Rising stiffly we emerged from beneath the tree and perceived
that we were at the foot of the cliff against which the remains
of the yacht had been borne by the great tempest. Indeed there it
was within a couple of hundred yards of us.
Following Marama we climbed the sloping path which ran up the
cliff and ascended a knoll whence we could see the lake and the
cone of the volcano in its centre. At least we used to be able to
see this cone, but now, at any rate with the naked eye, we could
make out nothing, except a small brown spot in the midst of the
waters of the lake.
"The mountain which rose up many feet in that storm which
brought you to Orofena, Friend-from-the-Sea, has now sunk till
only the very top of it is to be seen," said Marama solemnly.
"Even the Rock of Offerings has vanished beneath the water, and
with it the house that we built for you."
"Yes," I said, affecting no surprise. "But when did that
happen?"
"Five nights ago the world shook, Friend-from-the-Sea, and when
the sun rose we saw that the mouth of the cave which appeared on
the day of your coming, had vanished, and that the holy mountain
itself had sunk deep, so that now only the crest of it is left
above the water."
"Such things happen," I replied carelessly.
"Yes, Friend-from-the-Sea. Like many other marvels they happen
where you and your companions are. Therefore we beg you who can
arise out of the earth like spirits, to leave us at once before
our island and all of us who dwell thereon are drowned beneath
the ocean. Leave us before we kill you, if indeed you be men, or
die at your hands if, as we think, you be evil spirits who can
throw up mountains and drag them down, and create gods that slay,
and move about in the bowels of the world."
"That is our intention, for our business here is done," I
answered calmly. "Come now and help us to depart. But first bring
us food. Bring it in plenty, for we must victual our boat."
Marama bowed and issued the necessary orders. Indeed food
sufficient for our immediate needs was already there as an
offering, and of it we ate with thankfulness.
Then we boarded the ship and examined the lifeboat. Thanks to
our precautions it was still in very fair order and only needed
some little caulking which we did with grass fibre and pitch from
the stores. After this with the help of the Orofenans who worked
hard in their desperate desire to be rid of us, we drew the boat
into the sea, and provisioned her with stores from the ship, and
with an ample supply of water. Everything being ready at last, we
waited for the evening wind which always blew off shore, to
start. As it was not due for half an hour or more, I walked back
to the tree under which we had slept and tried to find the hole
whence we had emerged from the tunnel on to the face of the
cliff.
My hurried search proved useless. The declivity of the cliff
was covered with tropical growth, and the heavy rain had washed
away every trace of our descent, and very likely filled the hole
itself with earth. At any rate, of it I could discover nothing.
Then as the breeze began to blow I returned to the boat and here
bade adieu to Marama, who gave me his feather cloak as a farewell
gift.
"Good-bye, Friend-from-the-Sea," he said to me. "We are glad to
have seen you and thank you for many things. But we do not wish
to see you any more."
"Good-bye, Marama," I answered. "What you say, we echo. At
least you have now no great lump upon your neck and we have rid
you of your wizards. But beware of the god Oro who dwells in the
mountain, for if you anger him he will sink your island beneath
the sea."
"And remember all that I have taught you," shouted Bastin.
Marama shivered, though whether at the mention of the god Oro,
of whose powers the Orofenans had so painful a recollection, or
at the result of Bastin's teachings, I do not know. And that was
the last we shall ever see of each other in this world.
The island faded behind us and, sore at heart because of all
that we had found and lost again, for three days we sailed
northward with a fair and steady wind. On the fourth evening by
an extraordinary stroke of fortune, we fell in with an American
tramp steamer, trading from the South Sea Islands to San
Francisco. To the captain, who treated us very kindly, we said
simply that we were a party of Englishmen whose yacht had been
wrecked on a small island several hundreds of miles away, of
which we knew neither the name, if it had one, nor the position.
This story was accepted without question, for such things often
happen in those latitudes, and in due course we were landed at
San Francisco, where we made certain depositions before the
British Consul as to the loss of the yacht Star of the South.
Then we crossed America, having obtained funds by cable, and
sailed for England in a steamer flying the flag of the United
States.
Of the great war which made this desirable I do not speak since
it has nothing, or rather little, to do with this history. In the
end we arrived safely at Liverpool, and thence travelled to our
homes in Devonshire.
Thus ended the history of our dealings with Oro, the super-man
who began his life more than two hundred and fifty thousand years
ago, and with his daughter, Yva, whom Bastin still often calls
the Glittering Lady.
Chapter XXVII
Bastin Discovers a Resemblance
There is little more to tell.
Shortly after our return Bickley, like a patriotic Englishman,
volunteered for service at the front and departed in the uniform
of the R.A.M.C. Before he left he took the opportunity of
explaining to Bastin how much better it was in such a national
emergency as existed, to belong to a profession in which a man
could do something to help the bodies of his countrymen that had
been broken in the common cause, than to one like his in which it
was only possible to pelt them with vain words.
"You think that, do you, Bickley?" answered Bastin. "Well, I
hold that it is better to heal souls than bodies, because, as
even you will have learned out there in Orofena, they last so
much longer."
"I am not certain that I learned anything of the sort," said
Bickley, "or even that Oro was more than an ordinary old man. He
said that he had lived a thousand years, but what was there to
prove this except his word, which is worth nothing?"
"There was the Lady Yva's word also, which is worth a great
deal, Bickley."
"Yes, but she may have meant a thousand moons. Further, as
according to her own showing she was still quite young, how could
she know her father's age?"
"Quite so, Bickley. But all she actually said was that she was
of the same age as one of our women of twenty-seven, which may
have meant two hundred and seventy for all I know. However,
putting that aside you will admit that they had both slept for
two hundred and fifty thousand years."
"I admit that they slept, Bastin, because I helped to awaken
them, but for how long there is nothing to show, except those
star maps which are probably quite inaccurate."
"They are not inaccurate," I broke in, "for I have had them
checked by leading astronomers who say that they show a
marvelous" target="_blank" title="(=marvellous) a.奇异的">marvelous knowledge of the heavens as these were two hundred and
fifty thousand years ago, and are today."
Here I should state that those two metal maps and the ring
which I gave to Yva and found again after the catastrophe, were
absolutely the only things connected with her or with Oro that we
brought away with us. The former I would never part with, feeling
their value as evidence. Therefore, when we descended to the city
Nyo and the depths beneath, I took them with me wrapped in cloth
in my pocket. Thus they were preserved. Everything else went when
the Rock of Offerings and the cave mouth sank beneath the waters
of the lake.
This may have happened either in the earth tremor, which no
doubt was caused by the advance of the terrific world-balance, or
when the electric power, though diffused and turned by Yva's
insulated body, struck the great gyroscope's travelling foot with
sufficient strength, not to shift it indeed on to the right-hand
path as Oro had designed, but still to cause it to stagger and
even perhaps to halt for the fraction of a second. Even this
pause may have been enough to cause convulsions of the earth
above; indeed, I gathered from Marama and other Orofenans that
such convulsions had occurred on and around the island at what
must have corresponded with that moment of the loosing of the
force.
This loss of our belongings in the house of the Rock of
Offerings was the more grievous because among them were some
Kodak photographs which I had taken, including portraits of Oro
and one of Yva that was really excellent, to say nothing of
pictures of the mouth of the cave and of the ruins and crater
lake above. How bitterly I regret that I did not keep these
photographs in my pocket with the map-plates.
"Even if the star-maps are correct, still it proves nothing,"
said Bickley, "since possibly Oro's astronomical skill might have
enabled him to draw that of the sky at any period, though I allow
this is impossible."
"I doubt his taking so much trouble merely to deceive three
wanderers who lacked the knowledge even to check them," I said.
"But all this misses the point, Bickley. However long they had
slept, that man and woman did arise from seeming death. They did
dwell in those marvelous" target="_blank" title="(=marvellous) a.奇异的">marvelous caves with their evidences of departed
civilisations, and they did show us that fearful, world-wandering
gyroscope. These things we saw."
"I admit that we saw them, Arbuthnot, and I admit that they are
one and all beyond human comprehension. To that extent I am
converted, and, I may add, humbled," said Bickley.
"So you ought to be," exclaimed Bastin, "seeing that you always
swore that there was nothing in the world that is not capable of
a perfectly natural explanation."
"Of which all these things may be capable, Bastin, if only we
held the key."
"Very well, Bickley, but how do you explain what the Lady Yva
did? I may tell you now what she commanded me to conceal at the
time, namely, that she became a Christian; so much so that by her
own will, I baptised and confirmed her on the very morning of her
sacrifice. Doubtless it was this that changed her heart so much
that she became willing, of course without my knowledge, to leave
everything she cared for," here he looked hard at me, "and lay
down her life to save the world, half of which she believed was
about to be drowned by Oro. Now, considering her history and
upbringing, I call this a spiritualmarvel, much greater than any
you now admit, and one you can't explain, Bickley."
"No, I cannot explain, or, at any rate, I will not try," he
answered, also staring hard at me. "Whatever she believed, or did
not believe, and whatever would or would not have happened, she
was a great and wonderful woman whose memory I worship."
"Quite so, Bickley, and now perhaps you see my point, that what
you describe as mere vain words may also be helpful to mankind;
more so, indeed, than your surgical instruments and pills."
"You couldn't convert Oro, anyway," exclaimed Bickley, with
- moreover [mɔ:´rəuvə]
ad.再者，此外，而且 (初中英语单词) - therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
- intention [in´tenʃən] n.意图；打算；意义 (初中英语单词)
- calmly [´kɑ:mli] ad.平静地；无风浪地 (初中英语单词)
- desperate [´despərit] a.拼死的；绝望的 (初中英语单词)
- tunnel [´tʌnl] n.隧道 v.挖隧道 (初中英语单词)
- useless [´ju:sləs] a.无用的，无价值的 (初中英语单词)
- breeze [bri:z] n.微风；不费力的事 (初中英语单词)
- feather [´feðə] n.羽毛 (初中英语单词)
- extraordinary [ik´strɔ:dinəri] a.非常的；额外的 (初中英语单词)
- steamer [´sti:mə] n.汽船；轮船；蒸笼 (初中英语单词)
- desirable [di´zaiərəbəl] a.向往的；极好的 (初中英语单词)
- safely [´seifli] ad.安全地；平安地 (初中英语单词)
- thence [ðens] ad.从那里；因此 (初中英语单词)
- profession [prə´feʃən] n.职业；声明；表白 (初中英语单词)
- actually [´æktʃuəli] ad.事实上；实际上 (初中英语单词)
- stagger [´stægə] v.&n.(使)蹒跚(震惊) (初中英语单词)
- bitterly [´bitəli] ad.悲痛地；憎恨地 (初中英语单词)
- deceive [di´si:v] vt.欺骗，欺诈 (初中英语单词)
- marvelous [´mɑ:viləs] (=marvellous) a.奇异的 (初中英语单词)
- fearful [´fiəfəl] a.可怕的；担心的 (初中英语单词)
- extent [ik´stent] n.长度；程度；范围 (初中英语单词)
- capable [´keipəbəl] a.有能力；能干的 (初中英语单词)
- conceal [kən´si:l] vt.藏；隐瞒 (初中英语单词)
- doubtless [´dautlis] ad.无疑地；大概，多半 (初中英语单词)
- willing [´wiliŋ] a.情愿的，乐意的 (初中英语单词)
- spiritual [´spiritʃuəl] a.精神(上)的；神圣的 (初中英语单词)
- marvel [´mɑ:vəl] n.令人惊异的事；奇迹 (初中英语单词)
- whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
- convert [kən´və:t, ´kɔnvə:t] v.转变 n.改变信仰者 (初中英语单词)
- stiffly [´stifli] ad.硬；顽固地 (高中英语单词)
- tempest [´tempist] n.暴风雨 (高中英语单词)
- volcano [vɔl´keinəu] n.火山 (高中英语单词)
- hurried [´hʌrid] a.仓促的，慌忙的 (高中英语单词)
- tropical [´trɔpikəl] a.热带地区的 (高中英语单词)
- descent [di´sent] n.出身，家世 (高中英语单词)
- beware [bi´weə] v.(用于祈使句)谨防 (高中英语单词)
- painful [´peinfəl] a.痛(苦)的；费力的 (高中英语单词)
- recollection [,rekə´lekʃən] n.回忆；追想；记忆力 (高中英语单词)
- consul [´kɔnsəl] n.领事；执政官 (高中英语单词)
- patriotic [,pætri´ɔtik] a.爱国的 (高中英语单词)
- learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
- terrific [tə´rifik] a.可怕的；极大的 (高中英语单词)
- fraction [´frækʃən] n.小部分；一点儿 (高中英语单词)
- comprehension [,kɔmpri´henʃən] n.理解；领悟 (高中英语单词)
- perfectly [´pə:fiktli] ad.理想地；完美地 (高中英语单词)
- namely [´neimli] ad.即，也就是 (高中英语单词)
- whence [wens] ad.从何处；从那里 (英语四级单词)
- liverpool [´livəpu:l] n.利物浦 (英语四级单词)
- catastrophe [kə´tæstrəfi] n.大灾难；(悲剧)结局 (英语四级单词)
- belongings [bi´lɔŋiŋz] n.所有物；行李 (英语四级单词)
- grievous [´gri:vəs] a.痛苦的；严重的 (英语四级单词)
- seeming [´si:miŋ] a.表面上的 n.外观 (英语四级单词)
- considering [kən´sidəriŋ] prep.就...而论 (英语四级单词)
- victual [´vitl] n.食物 v.供应食物 (英语六级单词)
- departed [di´pɑ:tid] a.已往的；已故的 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
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