It seemed to be bottomless.Moreover, a great wind rushed up it with a roaring sound like to that of an angry sea.Or rather there were two winds, perhaps draughts would be a better term, if I may apply it to an air movement of so fierce and terrible a nature.One of these rushed up the pit, and one rushed down.Or it may have been that the up rush alternated with the down rush.
Really it is impossible to say.
"What is this place?" I asked, clinging to the others and shrinking back in alarm from its sheer edge and bottomless depth, for that this was enormous we could see by the shaft of light which flowed downwards farther than the eye could follow.
"It is a vent up and down which air passes from and to the central hollows of the earth," Yva answered."Doubtless in the beginning through it travelled that mighty force which blew out these caves in the heated rocks, as the craftsman blows out glass.""I understand," said Bastin."Just like one blows out a bubble on a pipe, only on a larger scale.Well, it is very interesting, but I have seen enough of it.Also I am afraid of being blown away.""I fear that you must see more," answered Yva with a smile, "since we are about to descend this pit.""Do you mean that we are to go down that hole, and if so, how?
I don't see any lift, or moving staircase, or anything of that sort.""Easily and safely enough, Bastin.See."
As she spoke a great flat rock of the size of a small room appeared, borne upwards, as I suppose, by the terrific draught which roared past us on its upward course.When it reached the lip of the shaft, it hung a little while, then moved across and began to descend with such incredible swiftness that in a few seconds it had vanished from view.
"Oh!" said Bastin, with his eyes almost starting out of his head, "that's the lift, is it? Well, I tell you at once I don't like the look of the thing.It gives me the creeps.Suppose it tilted.""It does not tilt," answered Yva, still smiling."I tell you, Bastin, that there is naught to fear.Only yesterday, I rode this rock and returned unharmed.""That is all very well, Lady Yva, but you may know how to balance it; also when to get on and off.""If you are afraid, Bastin, remain here until your companions return.They, I think, will make the journey."Bickley and I intimated that we would, though to tell the truth, if less frank we were quite as alarmed as Bastin.
"No, I'll come too.I suppose one may as well die this way as any other, and if anything were to happen to them and I were left alone, it would be worse still.""Then be prepared," said Yva, "for presently this air-chariot of ours will return.When it appears and hangs upon the edge, step on to it and throw yourselves upon your faces and all will be well.At the foot of the shaft the motion lessens till it almost stops, and it is easy to spring, or even crawl to the firm earth."Then she stooped down and lifted Tommy who was sniffing suspiciously at the edge of the pit, his long ears blown straight above his head, holding him beneath her left arm and under her cloak, that he might not see and be frightened.
We waited a while in silence, perhaps for five or six minutes, among the most disagreeable, I think, that I ever passed.Then far down in the brightness below appeared a black speck that seemed to grow in size as it rushed upwards.
"It comes," said Yva."Prepare and do as I do.Do not spring, or run, lest you should go too far.Step gently on to the rock and to its centre, and there lie down.Trust in me, all of you.""There's nothing else to do," groaned Bastin.
The great stone appeared and, as before, hung at the edge of the pit.Yva stepped on to it quietly, as she did so, catching hold of my wrist with her disengaged hand.I followed her feeling very sick, and promptly sat down.Then came Bickley with the air of the virtuous hero of a romance walking a pirate's plank, and also sat down.Only Bastin hesitated until the stone began to move away.Then with an ejaculation of "Here goes!" he jumped over the intervening crack of space and landed in the middle of us like a sack of coal.Had I not been seated really I think he would have knocked me off the rock.As it was, with one hand he gripped me by the beard and with the other grasped Yva's robe, of neither of which would he leave go for quite a long time, although we forced him on to his face.The lantern which he held flew from his grasp and descended the shaft on its own account.
"You silly fool!" exclaimed Bickley whose perturbation showed itself in anger."There goes one of our lamps.""Hang the lamp!" muttered the prostrate Bastin."We shan't want it in Heaven, or the other place either."Now the stone which had quivered a little beneath the impact of Bastin, steadied itself again and with a slow and majestic movement sailed to the other side of the gulf.There it felt the force of gravity, or perhaps the weight of the returning air pressed on it, which I do not know.At any rate it began to fall, slowly at first, then more swiftly, and afterwards at an incredible pace, so that in a few seconds the mouth of the pit above us grew small and presently vanished quite away.I looked up at Yva who was standing composedly in the midst of our prostrate shapes.She bent down and called in my ear:
"All is well.The heat begins, but it will not endure for long."I nodded and glanced over the edge of the stone at Bastin's lantern which was sailing alongside of us, till presently we passed it.Bastin had lit it before we started, I think in a moment of aberration, and it burned for quite a long while, showing like a star when the shaft grew darker as it did by degrees, a circumstance that testifies to the excellence of the make, which is one advertised not to go out in any wind.Not that we felt wind, or even draught, perhaps because we were travelling with it.
Then we entered the heat zone.About this there was no doubt, for the perspiration burst out all over me and the burning air scorched my lungs.Also Tommy thrust his head from beneath the cloak with his tongue hanging out and his mouth wide open.