<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. <br/><span class="cheaderfont">THE FORCES OF NATURE.</span></SPAN></h2>
<p>As Yacka stood on the height above them, his black
figure seemed to grow and expand until he looked a
giant in stature. His rage was terrible, and his
whole frame shook with wrath. Shock followed
quickly upon shock, but Yacka maintained his foothold,
despite the violent concussions that rocked the
cave.</p>
<p>A huge piece of rock crashed down at Edgar’s
feet, the broken portions flying in all directions.
They at once looked round for some place to hide
in, and some protection from the falling stones.
Crawling along on their hands and knees, they crept<span class="pagenum">[177]</span>
under a portion of the slab upon which the white
figure had rested, and which had fallen upon two
large rocks that upheld it. Under this they had a
safe shelter, providing the ground held firm. Above
the roar and din of falling rocks they could now
hear the peals of thunder, which sounded like salvos
of artillery. A crack in the roof of the cavern
admitted the lightning, which darted in and out
incessantly.</p>
<p>From where they were hidden they could see
Yacka, who still stood a solitary black figure amidst
this chaos. The black was lost to all sense of danger,
even to the nature of the surroundings. One thought
alone absorbed him—the sudden vanishing of the
white figure of Enooma. He peered into the depths
below him, but could see nothing; he waved his
hands wildly, and uttered loud cries.</p>
<p>Watching him intently, Edgar and Will were
afraid every moment he would jump into the fissure,
or be hurled into it by a sudden shock. After a few
moments’ pause in this battle of the forces of Nature,
another shock was felt. They heard the same dull,
rumbling sound, and felt the vibration of the earth
beneath them. The movement increased in force,
until they were rocked to and fro, and had to cling
to the edge of the slab for support. Another rush
of fallen rocks and stones took place, and after a
terrific and prolonged peal of thunder a dead silence
reigned. After the deafening noise the sudden silence
could almost be felt; the change was marvellous.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[178]</span></p>
<p>‘It is all over,’ said Edgar. ‘Thank God, we are
alive!’</p>
<p>They crept out of their hiding-place and looked
for Yacka, but he was nowhere to be seen. Hastily
they scrambled on to the fallen slabs, and looked
down into the dark hole where the figure of Enooma
had fallen.</p>
<p>‘Yacka, Yacka!’ shouted Edgar.</p>
<p>There was no answer, except a loud echo of his
voice. Again Edgar shouted, and this time there
was a faint response.</p>
<p>‘He has fallen down,’ said Will. ‘How are we to
reach him? He may be fatally injured.’</p>
<p>They looked round for some means of descending
in safety, and after peering down the hole for some
time Edgar said:</p>
<p>‘There is a light at the bottom, and now I can
see better; the rocks seem to be piled up in heaps.
We may be able to descend by slipping from one to
the other. It is our only chance, and we must
try it.’</p>
<p>They prepared for their perilous descent; they
had no rope, and nothing out of which a support of
any kind could be made.</p>
<p>Edgar knelt down, and Will caught hold of one
hand as he glided over the edge.</p>
<p>‘All right,’ said Edgar, ‘I have a foothold here.’</p>
<p>Will followed, and the same operation was repeated,
and Edgar again found a firm footing lower down.
He stood still, and helped Will to follow him. It<span class="pagenum">[179]</span>
was slow work, but by degrees they neared the
bottom.</p>
<p>Edgar looked down from the ledge upon which
he was standing, and saw Yacka lying near the foot
of the rock.</p>
<p>‘Are you badly hurt?’ he called out.</p>
<p>‘Not much hurt,’ replied Yacka. ‘My leg pains,
but is not broken.’</p>
<p>‘It is a big drop from here,’ said Edgar, ‘but it
does not look a dangerous place to fall on. I’ll
chance it.’</p>
<p>He let himself down to his full length, and then
dropped.</p>
<p>‘It is quite safe,’ he shouted to Will.</p>
<p>Will followed, and they found they were on a
bed of moss and ferns that had flourished in the
darkness, and had been kept green by the dampness.</p>
<p>Yacka was not much hurt. He had slipped, and
fallen a considerable distance, and his descent had
been checked by a projection in the rock. From
this he had gradually descended, much in the same
way as Will and Edgar.</p>
<p>‘Where are we?’ said Edgar. ‘This cavern must
have been in its present state a long time.’</p>
<p>‘It has,’ said Yacka. ‘This is the place I was to
show you. The White Spirit of Enooma guarded the
entrance. The place where she rested formed the
opening. She fell down here, and is gone; Enooma
will be seen no more. When her treasure is gone<span class="pagenum">[180]</span>
there will be no need for her to guard it. Her task
is ended, and she will watch no more.’</p>
<p>‘If the figure fell on the moss and ferns it would
not be much injured,’ said Edgar; ‘we will search
for Enooma while you rest here.’</p>
<p>‘It is not good for Yacka to remain; he will search
with you,’ said the black.</p>
<p>‘She must be near here,’ said Will. ‘See, there is
the opening down which she fell.’</p>
<p>They searched in every direction, but could find
no trace of the figure. Edgar felt they were treading
on some soft substance like sand, and, stooping
down, felt it with his hands. It was like powder,
quite white and fine.</p>
<p>‘The figure must have crumbled away,’ said
Edgar. ‘Look at this powder’; and he handed
some to Will.</p>
<p>Yacka looked at it curiously, and said:</p>
<p>‘Enooma has gone; the White Spirit has left her
cave, and has shown no sign.’</p>
<p>‘This is a sign,’ said Edgar. ‘Your white lady
has crumbled to dust. The figure must have been
one of Nature’s freaks, and having become decayed
and rotten with age, has been ground to powder by
the fall.’</p>
<p>‘I should like to know how the figure came where
we found it,’ said Will.</p>
<p>‘It was placed there by the Enooma years and
years ago,’ said Yacka. ‘It was a pure block of
white stone then, and no figure on it. The White<span class="pagenum">[181]</span>
Spirit formed the figure, and Yacka is the son of
Enooma.’</p>
<p>‘Was Enooma, your mother, a white woman?’
said Edgar.</p>
<p>‘I knew no mother,’ said Yacka. ‘She left me
before I could speak. The tribe knew she was white,
and her spirit lived in these caves. Now the spirit
is gone, and the Enooma will seek a new country.
It is good; we have lived here too long. We
shall go north, and be near the sea; that will give
strength to the Enooma, and make them strong big
men.’</p>
<p>‘How are we to get out of this place,’ said Will.</p>
<p>‘Easy way out,’ said Yacka; ‘but hard way in.’</p>
<p>Edgar thought this strange, but waited to see what
Yacka meant.</p>
<p>‘Come,’ said Yacka, limping along. ‘I will show
you the riches of Enooma.’</p>
<p>He led them along a dark passage into another
cave, and here the light streamed in from a cleft in
the rock. Gold glittered in heaps on the floor. There
were nuggets of gold almost solid, and some as large
as a goose egg. They were scattered about in
reckless profusion. There were diamonds of small
size, uncut, and great rubies of pigeon-blood colour.
It was a cave of riches, and Edgar and Will feasted
their eyes on it in amazement. They held the rubies
in their hands, and gloated over their wondrous
colour. They handled the gold and felt its weight,
and were bewildered with the nature of the discovery.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[182]</span></p>
<p>‘How did all this come here?’ said Edgar. ‘To
whom does it belong?’</p>
<p>‘It is mine,’ said Yacka. ‘I am the son of
Enooma, and the tribe collected it. None of them
know its value. They do not wish for gold or stones.
All they wish for is to live a savage life, and to have
a country of their own. They cannot be taught what
such things as these mean. Yacka has been in great
cities and knows. He has seen the white man kill
for love of gold; he has seen the women of the white
men sell themselves for these,’ and he held up some
rubies and diamonds. ‘It is better for the Enooma
to remain as they are. Gold would make them fight
amongst themselves, now they fight their enemies.’</p>
<p>‘You may be right,’ said Edgar. ‘All the same, I
should like a few samples of your wealth, Yacka.’</p>
<p>‘Take what you will,’ said Yacka. ‘It is far to
carry it. Do not take too much, or you will not
reach Yanda again. Water is more precious than
gold sometimes.’</p>
<p>‘May we return and take away more?’ asked
Will.</p>
<p>‘If you can find the place,’ said the black; ‘but
Yacka will show you no more.’</p>
<p>‘Then I am afraid we shall not have much chance,’
said Will. ‘It is a pity all this wealth should be
wasted.’</p>
<p>‘Others may find it, and take their share,’ said
Yacka. ‘It is not good for one man to have too
much.’</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[183]</span></p>
<p>‘We can carry enough away with us,’ said Edgar,
‘to give us a start in life, anyhow. Perhaps Yacka is
right. It is not good for a man to have too much.
Will you help us, Yacka?’</p>
<p>‘To carry gold for you?’ said the black.</p>
<p>‘Yes,’ said Edgar.</p>
<p>‘I will carry some, and stones for you, but I will
not use any,’ Yacka said.</p>
<p>‘You’re a strange being,’ said Edgar; ‘but the
black man lives not as the white man.’</p>
<p>‘No,’ said Yacka; ‘he does not slay his friend for
gold.’</p>
<p>Edgar dropped the subject. Whatever the cruel,
cowardly conduct of the blacks might be, he knew
enough about the pursuit of wealth to refrain from
arguing with Yacka.</p>
<p>‘The tribe will be waiting for us,’ said Yacka. ‘We
must return.’</p>
<p>‘Perhaps the earthquake has frightened them
away,’ said Will.</p>
<p>‘They would not feel it so much as we did, being
underground,’ said Edgar.</p>
<p>‘It was no earthquake,’ said Yacka. ‘It was the
White Spirit welcoming you.’</p>
<p>‘A strange welcome,’ said Edgar.</p>
<p>‘Had it been an earthquake you would have been
killed,’ said Yacka. ‘I have seen what an earthquake
does. It swallows up mountains and trees,
and heaves up other mountains in their place. All
the plains of Australia were formed by earthquakes,<span class="pagenum">[184]</span>
and the mountains were thrown up to make that part
smooth.’</p>
<p>‘How long will it take us to return to the tribe?’
said Edgar.</p>
<p>‘Not long,’ replied Yacka. ‘We will go now. We
can return for the gold.’</p>
<p>‘We had better take some now,’ said practical Will.</p>
<p>Edgar was nothing loath, and they filled what
pockets they had left in their torn clothes with gold,
rubies, and diamonds.</p>
<p>Yacka watched them and said:</p>
<p>‘I will return for more. You need not come again.’</p>
<p>‘You mean you do not wish us to return,’ said
Edgar.</p>
<p>‘That is it,’ said Yacka. ‘I will return alone.’</p>
<p>To this they agreed, acknowledging that Yacka
had the right to do as he pleased, as it was undoubtedly
his find. They were not long in getting
out of this strange labyrinth of caves and passages,
and Edgar wondered why they had not come in this
way. Before they reached the exit Yacka said they
must be blindfolded. To this at first they protested,
but as Yacka was firm, and they were in his power,
they consented.</p>
<p>Yacka led Will by the hand, Edgar holding Will’s
other hand. They tramped in this way for a considerable
time, and then Yacka removed the covering
from their eyes.</p>
<p>They were on the grassy plain once more, but the
whole scene had been changed by the wondrous<span class="pagenum">[185]</span>
forces of Nature. Huge masses of rock were strewn
about, and trees were felled and torn up by the roots.
Where they had entered the mountains there was no
other means of passing through. The blacks had
retreated before the terrible storm, and were encamped
a long way off. They could just see the
camp fires in the distance. Several dead blacks lay
around, evidently killed by falling rocks, but Yacka
took very little notice of them. Death ended all for
these men, and, being dead, Yacka thought no more
of them.</p>
<p>When Edgar looked round to see where they had
come out of the caves, there was no opening anywhere.
Yacka smiled as he said:</p>
<p>‘You will never find the entrance. It is known
only to me, and once I lost it and never found it
again.’</p>
<p>‘Then that is the reason we went in the other
way,’ said Edgar.</p>
<p>‘Yes,’ said Yacka. ‘Now I have the way out, I
can find the way in again.’</p>
<p>They marched towards the camp, and the Enooma
rushed to meet them, uttering loud cries of delight.
They had never expected to see them return alive
after such a terrific earthquake. These blacks were
strange people. Terrified as they had recently been,
they had in a very few hours forgotten their experiences.
The sudden changes in this climate had
made them familiar with the working of the forces of
Nature, which are truly marvellous.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[186]</span></p>
<p>In the stillness of the night, as Edgar and Will sat
side by side, they returned thanks for their merciful
escape. It was an experience they would never
forget, and now that it was over both felt untold
gold would not tempt them to brave it again.</p>
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