Adventure, June 1911 — page 119: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Prester John “Unarm!” he cried. “The long day’s task is done!” With the strange power of a dying man he tore off his leopard-skin and belt till he stood stark as on the night when he had been crowned. From his pouch he took the Prester’s Collar. Then he stag- gered tothe brink of the chasm where the wall of green water dropped into the dark depth below. I watched, fascinated, as with the weak hands of a child he twined the rubies round his neck and joined the clasp. Then with a last effort he stood straight up on the brink, his eyes raised to the belt of daylight from which the water fell. The light caught the great gems and called fires from them, the flames of the funeral pyre of a king. Once more his voice, restored for a mo- ment to its old vigor, rang out through the cave above the din of the cascade. His words were those the Keeper had used three nights before. With his hands held high and the Collar burning on his neck he cried, “The Snake returns to the House of its Birth!” “Come!” he cried-‘to me. “The Heir of John is going home!” | Then he leaped into the gulf. There was no sound of falling, so great was the rush of water. He must have been whirled into the open, below where the bridge used to be, and then swept into the underground deeps, where the Labonga drowses for fifty miles. Far from human quest he sleeps his last sleep, and perchance on a fragment of bone washed into a crevice of rock there may hang the jewels that once gleamed in Sheba’s hair. CHAPTER XXIX I CLIMB THE CRAGS A SECOND TIME REMEMBER that I looked over the brink into the yeasty abyss with a mind hovering between perplexity and tears. I wanted to sit down and cry—why, I did not know, except that some great thing had happened. My brain was quite clear as to my own posi- tion. J was shut in in this place with no chance of escape and with no food. In a little while I must die of starvation or go mad and throw myself after Laputa. And yet I did not carea rush. My nerves had been tried too greatly in the past week. Now I was comatose, and beyond hoping or fearing. water. 395 I sat for a long time watching the light play on the fretted sheet of water and won- dering where Laputa’s body had gone. I shivered and wished he had not left me alone, for the darkness would come in time and I had no matches. After a little I got tired of doing nothing and went feel- ing among the treasure-chests. One or two were full of ¢oin—British sovereigns, Kruger sovereigns, Napoleons, Spanish and Portuguese gold-pieces, and many older coins ranging back to the Middle Ages and even to the ancients. In one handful there was a splendid gold stater and in another ‘a piece of Antoninus. Pius. The treasure had been collected for many years in many places, contributions of chiefs from ancient hoards as well as the cash received from Lor 3. I untied one or two of the little bags of stones and poured the contents into my hands. Most of the diamonds were small, such as a laborer might secrete on his per- son. The larger ones—and some were very large—were as a rule discolored, looking more like big cairngorms. But one or two bags had big stones which even my inex- perienced eye told me were of the purest There must be some new pipe, I thought, for these could not have been stolen from any known mine: After that I sat on the floor again and looked at the water. meric influence on me, soothing all care. I was quite happy to wait for death, for death had no meaning to me. My hate and fury were both lulled into a trance, since the passive is the next stage to the overwrought. It must have been full day outside now, for the funnel was bright with sunshine, and even the dim cave caught a reflected radi- ance. As I watched the river I saw a bird flash downward, skimming the water. It turned into the cave and fluttered among its dark recesses. I heard its wings beating the roof as it sought wildly for an outlet. It dashed into the spray of the cataract and escaped again into the cave. For maybe twenty minutes it fluttered, till at last it found the way it had entered by. With a dart it sped up the funnel of rock into light and freedom. I had begun to watch the bird in idle las- situde; I ended in keen excitement. The sight of it seemed to take a film from my eyes. I realized the zest of liberty, the pas- GCOmiGcdoo <SEGO It exercised a mes- -