With trembling hands I lit a match.I had only three left,and we saw that we were in the angle of the far corner of the chamber,a fact that accounted for our not having noticed the hollow ring of the place during our former exhaustive examination.As the match burned we scrutinized the spot.There was a join in the solid rock floor,and,great heavens!
there,let in level with the rock,was a stone ring.We said no word;we were too excited,and our hearts beat too wildly with hope to allow us to speak.Good had a knife,at the back of which was one of those hooks that are made to extract stones from horses'hoofs.He opened it,and scratched away at the ring with it.Finally he got it under,and levered away gently for fear of breaking the hook.The ring began to move.Being of stone,it had not got set fast in all the centuries it had lain there,as would have been the case had it been of iron.
Presently it was upright.Then he got his hands into it and tugged with all his force,but nothing budged.
"Let me try,"I said,impatiently,for the situation of the stone,right in the angle of the corner,was such that it was impossible for two to pull at once.I got hold and strained away,but with no results.
Then Sir Henry tried and failed.Taking the hook again,Good scratched all round the crack where we felt the air coming up.
"Now,Curtis,"he said,"tackle on,and put your back into it;you are as strong as two.Stop,"and he took off a stout black silk handkerchief,which,true to his habits of neatness,he still wore,and ran it through the ring."Quatermain,get Curtis round the middle and pull for dear life when I give the word.Now!
Sir Henry put out all his enormous strength,and Good and I did the same,with such power as nature had given us.
"Heave!heave!it's giving,"gasped Sir Henry;and I heard the muscles of his great back cracking.Suddenly there came a parting sound,then a rush of air,and we were all on our backs on the floor with a great flag-stone on the top of us.Sir Henry's strength had done it,and never did muscular power stand a man in better stead.
"Light a match,Quatermain,"he said,as soon as we had picked ourselves up and got one breath;"carefully now."I did so,and there before us was,God be praised!the first step of a stone stair .
"Now what is to be done?"asked Good.
"Follow the stair,of course,and trust to Providence.""Stop!"said Sir Henry;"Quatermain,get the bit of biltong and the water that is left;we may want them."I went creeping back to our place by the chests for that purpose,and as I was coming away an idea struck me.We had not thought much of the diamonds for the last twenty-four hours or so;indeed,the idea of diamonds was nauseous,seeing what they had entailed upon us;but,thought I,I may as well pocket a few in case we ever should get out of this ghastly hole.So I just stuck my fist into the first chest and filled all the available pockets of my shooting coat,tapping up -this was a happy thought -with a couple of handfuls of big ones out of the third chest.
"I say,you fellows,"I sung out,"won't you take some diamonds with you?I've filled my pockets.""Oh!hang the diamonds!"said Sir Henry."I hope that I may never see another."As for Good,he made no answer.He was,I think,taking a last farewell of all that was left of the poor girl who loved him so well.And,curious as it may seem to you,my reader,sitting at home at ease and reflecting on the vast,indeed,the immeasurable,wealth which we were thus abandoning,I can assure you that if you had passed some twenty-eight hours with next to nothing to eat and drink in that place,you would not have cared to cumber yourself with diamonds while plunging down into the unknown bowels of the earth,in the wild hope of escape from an agonizing death.If it had not,from the habits of a lifetime,become a sort of second nature with me never to leave anything worth having behind if there was the slightest chance of my being able to carry it away,I am sure I should not have bothered to fill my pockets.
"Come on,Quatermain,"said Sir Henry,who was already standing on the first step of the stone stair."Steady,I will go first.""Mind where you put your feet;there may be some awful hole underneath,"said I.
"Much more likely to be another room,"said Sir Henry,as he slowly descended,counting the steps as he went.
When he got to "fifteen"he stopped."Here's the bottom,"he said.
"Thank goodness!I think it's a passage.Come on down!"Good descended next,and I followed last,and on reaching the bottom lit one of the two remaining matches.By its light we could just see that we were standing in a narrow tunnel,which ran right and left at right angles to the staircase we had descended.Before we could make out any more the match burned my fingers and went out.Then arose the delicate question of which way to turn.Of course it was impossible to know what the tunnel was or where it ran to,and yet to turn one way might lead us to safety,and the other to destruction.We were utterly perplexed,till suddenly it struck Good that when I had lit the match the draught of the passage blew the flame to the left.
"Let us go against the draught,"he said;"air draws inward,not.
outward."
