<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. <br/><span class="cheaderfont">THE WHITE SPIRIT.</span></SPAN></h2>
<p>It was not a pleasant sensation to find themselves
alone, shut up in a cave, only a faint glimmer of
light being visible, and from which there appeared to
be no means of escape. There was a peculiar clammy
dampness about the atmosphere, and a strange vault-like
smell. It might have been an old tomb, so weird
was everything surrounding them.</p>
<p>‘The stone must have swung back into its place,’
said Edgar. ‘Yacka will open it when he returns.’</p>
<p>‘All the same, I don’t like it,’ said Will. ‘Suppose
he could not move the stone again. If anything
happened to him, we have very little chance of getting
out.’</p>
<p>‘There is no occasion for alarm at present,’ said
Edgar. ‘I trust Yacka, and he will soon return. To
pass away the time we may as well examine the cave.<span class="pagenum">[168]</span>
It is evidently only one of many. The whole of
these rocks and hills are honeycombed.’</p>
<p>They stepped cautiously, and felt the sides of the
cave, finding them smooth and even.</p>
<p>‘Here is another of these peculiar formations like
a bunch of grapes,’ said Edgar. ‘Perhaps there is
another stone that swings round. We can try at any
rate.’</p>
<p>He pushed the hard knob, as he had seen Yacka do,
and cried out excitedly:</p>
<p>‘It moves, Will; come and help me! Push hard!
I can feel it giving way.’</p>
<p>Slowly the huge stone moved, and there was an
opening wide enough for them to pass through.</p>
<p>Edgar went through first, but came back quickly
when Will called out the opening was closing up
again and the stone swinging back into its place.
Edgar had just time to step back into the cave when
the stone swung to.</p>
<p>‘That is the way the other must have closed up,’
said Edgar. ‘It made no noise. Let us have
another try, the cave on the other side is much
larger than this.’</p>
<p>‘If we get through,’ said Will, ‘the stone will
swing back, and we shall be worse off than before.
Yacka will not be able to find us when he returns.’</p>
<p>‘He will follow us,’ said Edgar. ‘He must know
of this cave and the way to enter it.’</p>
<p>‘If you mean going on, I will follow you,’ said
Will.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[169]</span></p>
<p>They moved the stone again, and this time they
both stepped quickly through before it swung
back.</p>
<p>The cave they entered was, as Edgar said, much
larger than the one they had just left. It was lighted
by the same dim light, but they could not see from
whence it came.</p>
<p>‘Here is another knob,’ said Will. ‘They must
have been made by the blacks. Perhaps we are on
the way to the cave of Enooma. I wonder what
Yacka will think if we reach it before him.’</p>
<p>‘He will think we have been guided there by the
White Spirit,’ said Edgar, ‘and will regard us with
superstitious awe. It would be a good thing if we
could come across the cave he spoke of without his
help.’</p>
<p>The stone turned in a similar way to the others,
but this time they found themselves in a long passage,
like an old mining tunnel in a rock.</p>
<p>They walked cautiously along, but there was more
light here than in the cave they had left. Edgar
kicked a loose stone and it rolled some distance in
front and then vanished, and they heard a splash.
The stone had fallen into a deep hole, and as they
peered down they saw the water rolling slowly along
at a considerable depth.</p>
<p>‘It must be an underground river,’ said Edgar.
‘We have had a narrow escape.’</p>
<p>They shuddered to think what would have befallen
them had they not been warned by the stone.<span class="pagenum">[170]</span>
Round one side of the opening was a narrow pathway,
and along this they passed safely to the opposite
side, looking well ahead in case there should be more
of these death traps.</p>
<p>The passage wound through the rock in a tortuous
manner, and after they had gone a considerable distance,
they sat down to rest and wonder where it
would lead them. Will wished they had remained in
the cave and waited for Yacka’s return, and Edgar
began to think he had ventured upon a foolhardy
journey.</p>
<p>‘We are in for it now,’ he said, ‘and shall have to
go on, for we cannot find our way back, and even if
we did, we could not push the stones round from this
side. It looks very much like the workings of an old
mine, but there can have been no mining done here,
because the blacks know nothing of such work.
What’s that?’</p>
<p>They listened intently and heard a faint sound in
the distance like someone in pain and wailing aloud.</p>
<p>‘Come along,’ said Edgar, ‘there is someone ahead
of us.’</p>
<p>They walked on as fast as they were able, and
presently came to the end of the passage. Here they
found another stone blocking the exit, but it had
been partly pushed aside as though someone had just
entered, and it had not swung back into its place.
Edgar passed through, and as he did so held up his
hand to caution Will not to make a noise.</p>
<p>It was a strange, weird sight they saw. They had<span class="pagenum">[171]</span>
entered another large cave, but it was of a totally
different formation to those they had seen. At the
far end of the cave was a beautiful crystal wall nearly
thirty feet high. The stalagmites were short and
thick, and the stalactitic formations extremely long,
many being over a hundred feet in length. Massive
deposits could be seen on all sides heaped up in the
most curious manner. Many of them were of a
wondrous salmon colour, others were deep red, and
brown, and several glittered with a dull blood-red
glow.</p>
<p>They were awed by this grand, majestic freak of
Nature. To the left was another passage, full of
magnificent columns of stalactites and stalagmites,
all pure white and diamond-like in brilliance; they
seemed to be coated with sparkling and lustrous
gems. These columns rose from floor to roof like
huge pillars in some vast cathedral. They were of
different formations, but all about the same height.
All the colours of the rainbow sparkled in the various
pillars, and the effect was dazzling.</p>
<p>Passing down this magnificent column passage, untouched
by the art of man, and marvelling at its
strange beauty, they came to a beautiful shawl-like
formation of the purest white, which hung suspended
from the roof between two massive pillars until it
reached within a yard of the floor. This curtain was
of the most delicate pattern, the tracery being very
fine, in some places almost as fine as a spider’s web.
There were designs on it of flowers and leaves unlike<span class="pagenum">[172]</span>
any they had ever seen in reality. It was evident
this curtain shut off some chamber beyond from the
passage of columns they had just passed through.</p>
<p>Edgar was about to speak, when they again heard
the wail that had before startled them.</p>
<p>This time it sounded nearer, on the other side of
the curtain, and Edgar stooped down in order to pass
underneath. Will followed him, and both clutched
their revolvers.</p>
<p>They were now in a richly-stocked chamber of
large size, the colours on the rock and the roof being
of a dazzling white, like alabaster. In a recess at
the end was a white recumbent figure, resting on a
huge salmon-coloured slab, from which hung down
like drapery a yellow-tinted curtain of stone, with
red-veined tracery running through it in all manner
of intricate shapes and ways.</p>
<p>Before this stone figure, resting upon its hard bed,
knelt the black figure of Yacka, standing out with
extraordinary distinctness from his white surroundings.
Yacka prostrated himself before the white
figure, and from time to time gave a low, yet piercing,
wailing cry.</p>
<p>They stood looking upon the strange scene in
silence, and neither felt inclined to break it.</p>
<p>Yacka suddenly seemed to be aware that someone
was present, for he rose to his feet and, turning round,
faced them.</p>
<p>He did not seem at all surprised to see them, and
beckoned to them to advance.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[173]</span></p>
<p>When they reached the stone upon which Yacka
stood, the black said:</p>
<p>‘Kneel, kneel. This is the White Spirit of the
Enooma. This is Enooma, and this is her cave.
She dwells here. She has lived here from the beginning,
and Yacka is her son. Kneel before the White
Spirit.’</p>
<p>To humour him they knelt. There was something
solemn about the proceedings—something it was
difficult to understand. As they knelt, Yacka wailed
again, and the peculiar cry echoed through the white,
vaulted chamber.</p>
<p>‘I knew you would come,’ said Yacka. ‘Enooma
told me you would find your way. She whispered to
me that you were of her race, and her people.’ The
black’s voice had a sad tone in it. ‘She has found
her white sons, and the poor black must know her no
more; Yacka is no longer the only son of Enooma.
He has brought you to her, and she claims you as
her own. You are of her race and her people.
Rise and look upon the face of Enooma, the White
Spirit, and say did Yacka speak false when he brought
you here.’</p>
<p>Edgar and Will rose to their feet, and, standing on
a large slab which Yacka pointed out to them, they
looked down upon the figure before them.</p>
<p>To Edgar it looked like the figure of a very beautiful
woman carved in alabaster. She lay on her back,
with her hands hidden beneath the folds of a fine
piece of stone lacework. The lower part of the<span class="pagenum">[174]</span>
figure had a similar covering, so that the actual part
of a woman visible to them was the face only. But
the lace covering of the body was of such fine work
that the figure could almost be seen underneath.</p>
<p>The face of Enooma wore a calm and peaceful
expression, such as is invariably found upon the
carved monuments of the dead, and bearing but
little sign of the mind that worked within before
death.</p>
<p>‘Can this be the image of a being that once lived
here?’ said Edgar to Will.</p>
<p>Yacka stood some distance away, and could not
hear them.</p>
<p>‘Impossible,’ said Will. ‘No white woman has
ever been here.’</p>
<p>‘It may not have been a white woman,’ said Edgar.
‘Carved as this is, one could not tell whether the
original was black or white. It is an alabaster figure,
or looks like it.’ He touched the figure on the face with
his hand, and drew it back suddenly. ‘It feels quite
hot,’ he said.</p>
<p>‘Probably so intensely cold that you imagined for
the moment it burned you,’ said Will.</p>
<p>Edgar touched the face again, but, strange to say,
could not keep his hand upon it.</p>
<p>‘You try,’ he said; and Will put his hand out.</p>
<p>Yacka saw the motion, and called out:</p>
<p>‘Touch her not! Only one must touch her.’</p>
<p>Will smiled as he said:</p>
<p>‘I will do her no harm, Yacka.’</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[175]</span></p>
<p>‘At your own risk,’ said the black, ‘touch her,
but do not blame me; I warned you.’</p>
<p>Will put out his hand again, and then a strange
thing happened. Before he touched the face his feet
slipped, and he fell off the slab with such force that,
his head coming into violent contact with the stone,
he was stunned.</p>
<p>Edgar jumped down and held up his head, and in
a few moments Will recovered his senses.</p>
<p>‘I warned you,’ said Yacka.</p>
<p>‘It was a pure accident,’ said Will.</p>
<p>Edgar made no remark, but he thought it a strange
coincidence.</p>
<p>A peculiar rumbling sound was heard, and Yacka
listened intently. In a moment there was a terrific
crash. The rock upon which they stood shook, and
the sides of the cave seemed to rock.</p>
<p>The slab upon which rested the White Spirit of
Enooma rocked to and fro, and the figure seemed to
move.</p>
<p>Crash followed crash, and roar upon roar. The
forces of Nature seemed to have suddenly burst
loose, and a general upheaval was taking place. So
violent became the oscillation, that they were compelled
to lie down on the floor of the cave.</p>
<p>‘It is Enooma’s welcome to her own people,’ said
Yacka, who was not in the least afraid.</p>
<p>‘It is an earthquake,’ said Edgar in an awestruck
voice.</p>
<p>‘What is an earthquake?’ said Yacka.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[176]</span></p>
<p>Edgar made no reply. He could not. For the
first time he felt a strange fear creep over him. With
a trembling hand he pointed to the white figure of
Enooma.</p>
<p>They looked with wondering eyes, and on Yacka’s
face was an expression of absolute terror. The slab on
which Enooma rested cracked and split, and the white
figure disappeared from view.</p>
<p>With a terrible cry of rage Yacka sprang to his
feet, and looked down the opening into which the
White Spirit of Enooma had disappeared.</p>
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