And presently, I turned, and the Maid slipt her hand into mine, and the
tears did go silent down her face, because of all that did be prest upon
her heart; but yet not to be all of sorrow, for there to be both sorrow
and happiness, and also there did be somewhat of vague emotion that she
never more to look upon that dear island where she had nurst her man
again unto life and well-being; and she to be in mind of all those
places where she to know that in after-life her memory to wander; and
she to have oft-told tales, mayhap, unto her children, of that Country
that they never to see; but only to be for a wonder to them for ever. And we past then round the Mighty Corner-place of the Gorge, and went
forward, somewhat stumbling, into the gloom. Now we went sixteen hours very steady, and with naught save the great
darkness to trouble us; and we by this to have been twenty and six hours
since last that we had sleep; and surely this did be a foolishness,
because that I to need that I come into my full strength, ere we reach
the Night Land; and it to be a folly that I should over-tire myself; and
the Maid to have said so much. And, indeed, then, we came to a safe place for our slumber, and whilst
that we eat and drunk, we made count from my notings of the outward way,
and so did decide that we go no more than sixteen hours' journey each
day through the Gorge, and to sleep alway for eight good hours. And this
we to do, both then, and until that we did be come out of the Great
Gorge, which did take us in all, so much as five days thiswise. And surely, when that we were come into the light places of the Gorge,
we to be more cheered, as you shall suppose; yet oft did we be half
smothered with the horrid gases that came upward in this part and that,
as you do mind. And my strength did grow constant, as we journeyed; yet would the Maid
never suffer that I carry her; but went alway very light and clever, and
was grown, in truth, set unto this constant wander. And at this place and that, I to make pause that I show Mine Own those
places where I did slumber, and she alway to need that she come unto the
very part, and that she stand for a little moment where I did lie so
lonesome, as I went outward unto that despairful searching. And alway
she then to be utter tender with me, and to be something lacking of
speech, because of the calling of her heart. And surely, Mine Own did be alway now to ask me when that we should be
come unto the Night Land; and to require how far it should be, and to be
taken with a growing of excitement, very dear and natural; and, in
verity, I to be almost so much so as she; and to wonder what she to
think of the Mighty Redoubt, and of all that strange and monstrous Land. And, above all these, I to be shaken unto my very heart, that I have the
Maid speedy unto safety; lest, after all, even though we to have come so
far, there somewhat to happen of woe. And all this did make it a hard
thing that we not to begin to race, and to exceed the hours that we did
set; but truly we had wisdom in this matter, and slumbered alway after
the sixteenth hour. And we never to see aught of life in all that great and desolate Gorge;
for there did be only the gas-burnings, and the boulders and the stark
rocks, and oft the rank smellings of the gases. And alway an utter and
everlasting quiet; save when some lonesome gas-fire did oddly to moan
or to whistle, and the whistling to sound very dree across the great
waste of the Gorge, and likewise the moaning to be but a thing to make
the loneliness to be felt in the heart; and the Maid to feel thus with
me. And alway, as I did know, she to think in her heart that I did come
through that place alone to make a searching for her into the unknown
lands of the world; and surely, I did be but a natural man if that I was
something happy in my heart that Mine Own so to ponder and to remember;
for thereby did her love seem ever to grow. And likewise, a man doth be
glad in his spirit and natural pride, that his Maid to know that he hath
done wholesomely of his best for her need. And you but to think upon the
love-days, and to hear the echoes of those dear proud thoughts that did
so to swell in you; and doth not all to go so strangely with familiar
pain in the old way? Now it was upon the fifth day, in about the seventh hour, that I heard
oddwhiles a sound in this place and that of the Gorge, as that the rocks
made husht and strange sounds at us. And I to have the Maid instant very
nigh to me, and the Diskos to my hand, and we then to go onward with a
great caution. And thrice we did pass places where gas-fires did burn and dance, and
made oft a low moaning, and somewhiles a little whistling; and the other
sounds yet to come oddly from the rocks, in this place and that, very
strange and unthought of, yet to be something familiar. And sudden, it did come to me that there to be a far-away noise in these
sounds; though they to seem to come from this place and that almost to
mine elbow, as you should say. And lo! I knew then that I harked unto
little echoings, that did be caught by the near rocks, and to come from
some far and mighty sound. And this should be surely the monstrous
piping of the Great Gas Fountain, that you do well mind. And, in verity,
I told Mine Own in a moment; and she to be all eager with me, because
that this did be both a wondrous thing, and to be also a landmark to
show that we did be nigh to come out of the Gorge, and our journey to
come the more near unto an ending. And surely we lookt ahead very earnest; and there to be so many strange
and leaping fires to our front, that we not to be very sure which did be
the far and monstrous dance of the Great Gas Fountain; for truly it to
be yet so distant that the near gas-fires did make more upon the eye up
all of a weary length of the Gorge, than did the great dance of the
far-off fire, that was now so small, by the distance. And presently, when that we were gone onward something more, we to see
that there went a lightening and a darkening afar along the Gorge, so
that the background of the night was made to lose somewhat of the
intensity of its darkness, as with constant shudders of light; and this
to be surely the far away dance of the flame of the Great Gas Fountain. And we then to watch alway as we journeyed, and to see how that the
vague shudderings of light did grow in the distance of the night, and
did merge and become known presently in a strange uplifting and falling
of a far away blue flame. And the sound now to come more steady, and to grow in a long while into a
monstrous piping, very great and wonderful, and having a constant change
in the note. And we to come past the last of the lesser fires, and to be in that part
of the Gorge which did be fireless, save for the great upward dance of
the Gas Fountain, which did now to be grown huge and plain-seen, and did
make a quaking light over all the Gorge.