THE SPIRIT OF LIFE.
I DID as I was bid, and in fear and trembling felt myself guided over the edge of the stone.I sprawled my legs out, but could touch nothing.
"I am going to fall!" I gasped.
"Nay, let thyself go, and trust to me," answered Ayesha.
Now, if the position is considered, it will be easily understood that this was a greater demand upon my confidence than was justified by my knowledge of Ayesha's character.For all I knew she might be in the very act of consigning me to a horrible doom.But in life we sometimes have to lay our faith upon strange altars, and so it was now.
"Let thyself got" she cried, and, having no choice, I did.
I felt myself slide a pace or two down the sloping surface of the rock, and then pass into the air, and the thought flashed through my brain that I was lost.
But no! In another instant my feet struck against a rocky floor, and I felt that I was standing on something solid, and out of reach of the wind, which Icould hear singing away overhead.As I stood there thanking Heaven for these small mercies, there was a slip and a scuffle, and down came Leo alongside of me.
"Hullo, old fellow!" he called out, "are you there?
This is getting interesting, is it not?"
Just then, with a terrific yell, Job arrived right on the top of us, knocking us both down.By the time that we had struggled to our feet again Ayesha was standing among us, and bidding us light the lamps, which fortunately remained uninjured, as also did the spare jar of oil.
I got out my box of Bryant and May's wax matches, and they struck as merrily there, in that awful place, as they could have done in a London drawing-room.
In a couple of minutes both the lamps were alight; and a curious scene they revealed.We were huddled together in a rocky chamber, some ten feet square, and scared enough we looked; that is, except Ayesha, who was standing calmly with her arms folded, and waiting for the lamps to burn up.The chamber appeared to be partly natural, and partly hollowed out of the top of the cone.The roof of the natural part was formed of the swinging stone, and that of the back part of the chamber, which sloped downward, was hewn from the live rock.For the rest, the place was warm and drya perfect haven of rest compared to the giddy pinnacle above, and the quivering spur that shot out to meet it in mid-air.
"So!" said _i_ She _i_ , "safely have we come, though once I feared that the rocking stone would fall with you, and precipitate you into the bottomless depths beneath, for I do believe that the cleft goeth down to the very womb of the world.The rock whereon the stone resteth hath crumbled beneath the swinging weight.And now that he," nodding towards Job, who was sitting on the floor, feebly wiping his forehead with a red cotton pocket-handkerchief, "whom they rightly call the 'Pig' for as a pig is he stupid, hath let fall the plank, it will not be easy to return across the gulf, and to that end must I make a plan.But now rest awhile, and look upon this place.What think ye that it is?""We know not," I answered.
"Wouldst thou believe, O Holly, that once a man did choose this airy nest for a daily habitation, and did here endure for many years; leaving it only but one day in every twelve to seek food and water and oil that the people brought, more than he could carry, and laid as an offering in the mouth of the tunnel through which we passed hither?"We looked up wonderingly.and she continued"Yet so it was.There was a manNoot, he named himselfwho, though he lived in the latter days, had of the wisdom of the sons of Ko^r.A hermit was he, and a philosopher, and skilled in the secrets of Nature, and he it was who discovered the Fire that Ishall show you, which is Nature's blood and life, and also that he who bathed therein, and breathed thereof, should live while Nature lives.But like unto thee, OHolly, this man, Noot, would not turn his knowledge to account.'Ill,' he said, 'was it for man to live, for man was born to die.' Therefore did he tell his secret to none, and therefore did he come and live here, where the seeker after Life must pass, and was revered of the Amahagger of the day as holy, and a hermit.And when first I came to this countryknowest thou how Icame, Kallikrates? Another time will I tell thee, it is a strange taleI heard of this philosopher, and waited for him when he came to fetch his food, and returned with him hither, though greatly did I fear to tread the gulf.Then did I beguile him with my beauty and my wit, and flatter him with my tongue, so that he led me down and showed me the Fire, and told me the secrets of the Fire, but he would not suffer me to step therein, and, fearing lest he should slay me, Irefrained, knowing that the man was very old, and soon would die.And I returned, having learned from him all that he knew of the wonderful Spirit of the World, and that was much, the man was wise and very ancient, and by purity and abstinence, and the contemplations of his innocent mind, had worn thin the veil between that which we see and the great invisible truths, the whisper of whose wings at times we hear as they sweep through the gross air of the world.Thenit was but a very few days after, I met thee, my Kallikrates, who hadst wandered hither with the beautiful Egyptian Amenartas, and I learned to love for the first and last time, once and forever, so that it entered into my mind to come hither with thee, and receive the gift of Life for thee and me.Therefore came we, with that Egyptian who would not be left behind, and, behold, we found the old man Noot lying but newly dead.There he lay, and his white beard covered him like a garment,"and she pointed to a spot near where I was sitting;"but surely he hath long since crumbled into dust, and the wind hath borne his ashes hence."Here I put out my hand and felt in the dust, and presently my fingers touched something.It was a human tooth, very yellow, but sound.I held it up and showed it to Ayesha, who laughed.
