Charge! Part 51

Almost before the exclamation had died away I was within reach of the fallen lamp; but just then I dislodged another loose stone, which went rolling down and plunged into the water below.

The match had burned out.

"All right," I shouted. "I'll get another."

The same business had to be gone through again. Untaught by experience, I moistened the top of the first match I took out, my fingers trembling the while with nervous dread that I would drop the box or spill the matches, when the result might be death to one, if not to both. I tried the damp match three times before throwing it away; then, taking out two together and striking them, my spirits rose as I got a light, which was pa.s.sed into my left hand, and with the other I secured the lamp, which lay bottom up.

"The tallow and wick will have fallen out," I thought. No; the hard fat was in its place. Again I took out a match, s.h.i.+vering as I saw how rapidly it burned away. The very next moment I had laid it against the bent-down wick, which had been flattened by the fall; and it sputtered and refused to burn. All I could do till my fingers began to burn was to melt out some of the tallow and partially dry the wick. Then all was darkness again.

"Cheer up!" I cried hoa.r.s.ely; "third time never fails." There was no response. I turned cold as I fumbled at the box once more; my fingers needed no moisture from the slippery stones now to make them wet, for the perspiration seemed to be oozing out of every pore.

I was again successful when I struck a match, and it burned up brightly. My heart now beat more hopefully, as one tiny strand of the cotton caught and ceased sputtering, giving forth a feeble blue flame, which I was able to coax by letting the fat it melted drain away till more and more of the wick caught and began to burn.

I dared not wait to light the second wick, but looked for a safe place to set the lamp; this I found directly, within reach of my hand. My hurried glance showed that we were in a rough tunnel or shoot, sloping down rapidly into darkness-a darkness too horrible to contemplate; and, to my despair, I could not see Denham. Then, as the sight of the light revived him, I could hear his s.h.i.+vering sigh.

"Where are you?" I said, trying to speak firmly.

"Just below you," came faintly.

I felt my teeth were clenched together as I asked the next question, knowing only too well what must be the answer:

"Can you see to climb up to me?"

"No," came back after a pause of a moment or two. "I'm hurt and sick. I feel as if I shall faint."

"Can you hold on till I get down to you?"

"I-I think so, old fellow," he said faintly. "I'm on a sort of shelf. But don't try-you can't do it-you'll send the loose stones down upon me. That last one grazed my head."

"But I must," I said harshly, and I remember fancying that my voice sounded savage and brutal. "I can't leave you like this."

"Climb up out of this horrible hole yourself, old fellow, and leave me."

"I won't," I shouted, so that my voice went echoing away; but as I looked up past the light it seemed to me that I could not, even if willing.

"You must," said Denham more firmly. "Climb up and call for help."

At that moment, sounding faint and distant, there was the report of a rifle; then another, and another, followed by four or five in a volley.

"The Boers are attacking," I cried. My heart sank as something seemed to say to me, "Well, if they are, what does it matter to you?"

The firing went on, and just then the wick of the lamp, of which a good deal must have been loosened by the fall, began to blaze up famously. I looked around to ascertain if I could get down to help Denham; but it seemed impossible. I saw, however, that I might lower myself a couple of feet farther, and get my heels in a transverse crack in the rock, where I could check myself and perhaps afford some help to a climber.

"Look here, Denham," I shouted out as if I had been running, "I can help you if you can climb up here. You must pluck up and try."

He muttered, with a low groan:

"Don't talk like that, old chap. I've got the pluck, but feel as if I haven't got the power. If I stir I shall go down into that awful pool, and then- Oh dear, it's very horrible to die like a rat in a flooded hole!"

"Hold your tongue, you idiot!" I shouted, in a rage. "Who's going to die? Look here; I can't get down to you, so I must climb out and fetch help. I'll go if you'll swear you'll sit fast and be patient, even if the light goes out."

There was no answer.

"Denham, old fellow, do you hear me?" I cried, with a thrill of horror running through me as I imagined he had fainted, and that the next moment I should hear a sullen splash.

"Yes, I hear you," he said. "I'll try. It's all right. But why don't you shout?"

"No one could hear me, even if that firing was not going on," I said. Looking upwards, I felt that the only chance was to try; but I was almost certain that I should slip, fall, and most likely carry my poor friend with me. The flickering light made the rocks above appear as if in motion; and, as I stared up wildly, the various projections looked as if a touch would send them rus.h.i.+ng down. Then I uttered a gasp and tried to shout, but my voice failed. Was I deceiving myself? Almost within reach was a rope hanging down, close to the wall of the shaft on my right. Then I could speak again.

"Hurrah!" I shouted. "Here's help, Denham. Hold on; some one's letting down a rope. Ahoy, there! swing it more into the middle."

Echoes were the only answer. Almost in despair, I crept sideways, and made a frantic dash just as I felt I was slipping, and a stone gave way beneath my feet. There I hung, flat upon the rock, listening to a couple of heavy splashes, but with the rope tight in my grasp as if my fingers had suddenly become of steel. I could not speak again for a few minutes; but at last, as the echoes of the splashes died out, the words came:

"All right, Denham?" A horrible pause followed; then, with a gasp:

"Yes-all right-yes-I thought it was all over then."

Chapter Thirty Six.

The Use of Muscles.

Some one wrote, "Circ.u.mstances alter cases." Everybody knows how true that is, and how often we have ill.u.s.trations in our own lives. Here is one: to catch hold of a rope after jumping to it is wonderfully easy, and in our young days the sensation of swinging to and fro in a sort of bird-like flight through the air is delightful-that is to say, if the ground is so near that we can drop on our feet at any moment; there is no thought of danger as we feel perfect confidence in our power to hold on. It is a gymnastic exercise. But change the scene: be hanging at the end of the same rope, with the knowledge that a friend and comrade is in deadly peril, and that, though resting against a rocky slope which gives you foothold and relieves the strain on your muscles, there is beneath you a horrible chasm full of black water, hidden by the darkness, but lapping and whispering as if waiting to receive the unfortunate. It is then that the nerves weaken and begin to communicate with and paralyse the muscles, unless there is sufficient strength of mind to counteract the horror, setting fear at defiance.

The best thing under these circ.u.mstances is to get the body to work, and make brain take the second place. In other words, act and don't think.

I must confess that my endeavours during those perilous moments were quite involuntary; for it was in a kind of desperation that I got my toes upon a solid piece of the slippery rock and pressed myself against the steep slope for a few moments, listening to the firing, some of which sounded close, some more distant. Then, shouting to Denham to hold on, I glanced at the lamp, which was flaring bravely and giving a good light, but only at the expense of the rapidly melting fat. The next minute I was climbing as quickly as I could by the rope, and shuddering as I heard stone after stone go down, any one of which I knew might crash full upon Denham.

There was no time to think-I was too hard at work; and, to my surprise, I found myself just beneath the long bridge-like piece of stone which had been laid across the opening to the shaft; while, by holding on to the rope with one hand and, reaching up the other to grasp the stone, I could see by the light which rose from below-reflected from the glistening wall, for the lamp was out of sight-that the rope was one of the strong tethering-reins, fastened round the stone as if for the purpose of lowering a bucket.

The next minute I was seated on the stone, with my feet resting on the side of the shaft-hole, and drawing up the raw-hide rope hand over hand. After pulling up some feet of it I came upon a knot which felt secure, and I then hauled again till I came upon another, also well made. With the rope gathering in rings about my knees and behind me, I kept hauling till I came to knot after knot, all quite firm. I found that the rope was dripping with water, and knew that it had been just drawn out of the pool below. The end of the rope came to hand directly; and, with trembling fingers, my first act was to tie a knot a few inches up before doubling the strong raw-hide plait and tying it again in a loop, which I tested, and found I could easily slip it over my head and pa.s.s my arras through so as to get it beneath the armpits.

I had the rope off again in a few seconds, held it ready, and shouted down to Denham, who had been perfectly still.

"Now then," I cried; "can you hear what I say?"

"Yes," came in a strange, hollow tone.

"Look out! I'm going to lower you a rope with a loop all ready tied. Slip it over your head and under your arms."

"Ah!" he said softly; and, as I rapidly lowered down the rope, though the tone seemed only like an expiration of the breath, it yet sounded firmer than that "Yes" of a few moments before.

"I can't see, old fellow," I cried, when I had paid out what I thought must be enough; "but this ought to be near you now. Can you see it?"

"Yes; but it is a dozen feet too high," he replied. "It won't reach me."