Chapter 15

A ZONE OF LIGHT DEEP WITHIN THE EARTH.

“Oh! for one glimpse of light, a ray of sunshine!”

In reply to this my mental ejaculation, my guide said: “Can not you perceive that the darkness is becoming less intense?”

“No,” I answered, “I can not; night is absolute.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. “Cover your eyes with your hands, then uncover and open them.” I did so and fancied that by contrast a faint gray hue was apparent.

“This must be imagination.”

“No; we now approach a zone of earth light; let us hasten on.”

“A zone of light deep in the earth! Incomprehensible! Incredible!” I muttered, and yet as we went onward and time passed the darkness was less intense. The barely perceptible hue became gray and somber, and then of a pearly translucence, and although I could not distinguish the outline of objects, yet I unquestionably perceived light.

“I am amazed! What can be the cause of this phenomenon? What is the nature of this mysterious halo that surrounds us?” I held my open hand before my eyes, and perceived the darkness of my spread fingers.

“It is light, it is light,” I shouted, “it is really light!” and from near and from far the echoes of that subterranean cavern answered back joyfully, “It is light, it is light!”

I wept in joy, and threw my arms about my guide, forgetting in the ecstasy his clammy cuticle, and danced in hysterical glee and alternately laughed and cried. How vividly I realized then that the imprisoned miner would give a world of gold, his former god, for a ray of light.

“Compose yourself; this emotional exhibition is an evidence of weakness; an investigator should neither become depressed over a reverse, nor unduly enthusiastic over a fortunate discovery.”

“But we approach the earth’s surface? Soon I will be back in the sunshine again.”

“Upon the contrary, we have been continually descending into the earth, and we are now ten miles or more beneath the level of the ocean.”

[Illustration: “WE APPROACH DAYLIGHT, I CAN SEE YOUR FORM.”]

I shrank back, hesitated, and in despondency gazed at his hazy outline, then, as if palsied, sank upon the stony floor; but as I saw the light before me, I leaped up and shouted:

“What you say is not true; we approach daylight, I can see your form.”

“Listen to me,” he said. “Can not you understand that I have led you continually down a steep descent, and that for hours there has been no step upward? With but little exertion you have walked this distance without becoming wearied, and you could not, without great fatigue, have ascended for so long a period. You are entering a zone of inner earth light; we are in the surface, the upper edge of it. Let us hasten on, for when this cavern darkness is at an end--and I will say we have nearly passed that limit--your courage will return, and then we will rest.”

“You surely do not speak the truth; science and philosophy, and I am somewhat versed in both, have never told me of such a light.”