And surely, it did seem to me as I went downward of the great Rock, how
that the flying-ship had been there for an hundred thousand years; and
that mayhaps the sea did live all about the Rock in that Age; and truly
this was no improper thing to think, for it was like that the sea had
been monstrous high and great in those days; so that the Rock was but a
little island in the midst of the sea; and now was the sea gone small
from a great sea to lesser seas, and this through an eternity of years. And always, as it doth seem to me, had the ship lain upon the Rock, and
lookt quiet and silent over the change and wonder and the lonesomeness
of all that Country of Fire and water, for ever. But how the air-ship did come upon the rock, how shall I know; save,
maybe, it doth seem as that she might have flown low over the sea in
that olden age, and come hard upon the Rock, because, maybe, there was
one to the helm that did steer unwittingly. And again, it shall well be
otherwise, and I do but set down mine odd thoughts; and such as they be,
they have no especial use, save that they do show to you the different
workings of my mind at that time, as I did go downward. And so to set
you the more in possession of all that I did have knowledge of. And presently, I was come again to the earth, and did go forward with a
great speed, so that I should waste no more of that day. Yet, oft did I
think upon that ship hid there upon the mighty Rock, under the wondrous
quiet ashes of eternity. And I went eighteen hours walking, and in all that time I did see no
more of the Humped Men; yet three times was I put in a sudden danger,
for there went past me thrice, between the fourteenth and the
seventeenth hours, great flying monsters, that were winged very ugly,
and did go, as I thought, in a great bounding, rather than that they did
fly proper as doth a bird. Yet I suffered no hurt from these; for I was
swift to hide between the great boulders that were very plenty in that
part; but no trees. For I was gone now past the forests of trees; there
being none since that I had gone through a very shallow river, that I
came to about the thirteenth hour. And this had I waded, and sounded my
path with the staff of the Diskos; but I had kept mine armour upon me,
lest there be things, even in water so shallow, that might bite and work
harm upon me. But I gat through pretty quick, and had no hurt done me. Now I had eat, as ever, at the sixth and the twelfth hours; and by that
the eighteenth hour was come, I was nigh again unto a forest, that came
down to the shore that went alway upon my right; and I to be very sore
and wearied, as you shall know; for I had fought very desperate after my
waking, and afterward climbed the great Rock, and then again to journey,
so that it was, by this, nigh to one and twenty hours since that I did
sleep. And surely, I lookt this way and that way, constant, and did see no
place proper to my slumber. But afterward, I considered I did be a fool,
to lack such; for truly the trees were plentiful, and I could climb a
great one, and strap my body safe, and so have a sure bed for my rest. And I did this thing, and went upward into a great tree, and did tie my
body to the tree, with my belts; yet I eat and drank before that I went
up the tree. Now when I was fast upward in the tree, and had made a bed upon a
monstrous branch, and had the Diskos ready upon my hip, so that it
should not fall but be nigh to my hand, I lay a little while thinking
upon Naani; and I went not over to sleep immediately, which was strange;
yet mayhaps because that my bed was so uncertain. And I considered very gravely how that it was a monstrous long while
since that I did hear the Master-Word from the dear Maid; and truly I
was come a dreadful way from mine home, which was the Mighty Pyramid;
for I had gone onward for ever through five and twenty great days of
travel, and was not yet come to any place that did appear like to be
that place where the Maid did abide. And it did seem that I might even wander onward in that great Country of
Fire and Water for a time beyond all that I had before gone; and this
thought did put a great weight of trouble and weariness upon my heart;
for the Maid had been in sore need of me, and I did feel sudden to be
all adrift in the wilderness. But before this time, it had seemed as
that I surely went aright. And mayhaps your sympathy shall tell you just
how I to feel in the heart. And after that I had lain there very awkward, and thought upon all
matters, I minded me that I would try the compass again upon the morrow;
but had no great hopes of the machine; yet did be willing to try aught
to see where I had gotten to. And truly, as it did come to my mind, if
that the compass did point a little as I did wot it was used to point in
the Lesser Redoubt, then, in verity, I was surely come something more
anigh to that unknown place of the world than I did dare to believe. And
this to be plain to you. Then a little time did pass in which I did wake and sleep, and wake and
sleep, a little; but with no surety of sleep; but as that I was very
tired of the heart, and did but lie too wearied to come properly to
sleep. And odd whiles I did lie with mine eyes half to open, and did look very
dreamful upward among the dark branches of the tree, as they did show
black and pretty against the redness of the shining that came from the
sea; for there was stood a great and bright-burning fire-hill in that
part of the sea that lay off the shore from me. And above the glaring of
the fire-hill, there was the deep night that did brood for ever above in
a monstrous black gloom of eternity, and did make the red smoke of the
volcano to show deep and mighty and thunderous-seeming, afar up in the
great dark. And the red and shining smoke did but show the utter
hugeness of the night, that had been upon the world through the great
ages. And, in verity, as I did lie there so dreamful, it did come to me afresh
how wondrous strange was mine adventure; and how that I did lie warm and
alive in a Country of red light and smoking seas. And, truly, as I did
remember and consider, there was a great and lost world above me, upward
through the dark ... maybe an hundred and fifty great miles up in the
grim night. And this thing did strike me very solemn, as I did lie; and I do trust
that you conceive how that there was, in truth, afar above in the
eternal and unknown night, the stupendous desolation of the dead world,
and the eternal snow and starless dark. And, as I do think, a cold so
bitter that it held death to all living that should come anigh to it.