UPSIDONIA

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

UPSIDONIA

BY

ARCHIBALD MARSHALL

Author of "Exton Manor," "The Honour of the Clintons,"

"Watermeads," etc.

NEW YORK

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

1919

To the Three

Comic Characters,

K, M, & N.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

UPSIDONIA

CHAPTER I

I had been walking for many days, carrying my pack, enjoying myself hugely and spending next to nothing. I had got into a wild hilly country, where habitation was very sparse, and had walked for hours that morning along a rough road without meeting a single human being.

In the middle of the day I came to a moor-side hamlet, where I got something of a meal, and set out again almost immediately, meaning to find some place where I could enjoy an hour's sleep. For it was very hot, and I had already walked over twenty miles.

But as I left the village, I was joined by a gentleman of obliging manners but somewhat unkempt appearance, who invited me to turn aside and visit the old jet caves, which had once been famous in this locality, though long since disused.

For anything but a cave, I should have done my best to shake him off, but I have a great love of caves, especially of those which go mysteriously back into the bowels of the earth, and no one knows their ending. They are full of romance, and call up all sorts of delightful visions. From Eastern tales of magic and treasure to brisk tales of smugglers, the entrance to a cave has always been the entrance to regions of mystery, in which anything may happen. So I immediately accepted the invitation to visit these caves, which were only a few hundred yards away from the main road.

At first sight they were a trifle disappointing. There were three of them, at the foot of a high bank of shale, almost hidden by trees and shrubs. The shale had nearly closed the entrances, and one looked over a bank of it, which left a hole hardly more than big enough to creep through. Still, they were undoubtedly caves, and not mere holes in the hillside. The largest one was full of water, and little ferns grew luxuriantly on the sides and roof, which dripped continuously. One of the others was choked by a fall of earth a little way from the entrance, and my guide told me that this had happened quite recently, after a very wet spell. The third was comparatively dry, and he said that he had himself penetrated more than a mile into it, with no signs of its ending.

Whether this was true or not, I could not resist trying it. I had an electric torch, fully charged, in my pack, and it was a great chance to have a cave to explore with it. My friend demurred a little at accompanying me. He said that if the other cave had fallen in, after so many years, this one was not unlikely to fall in now at any time, and we should find ourselves in an awkward fix if it should fall in while we were exploring, and cut off our retreat. I had no wish for his company, and did not press him; but when I got out the torch, and flashed it, he thought he would come after all. I think he had at heart the same sort of feeling about caves and electric torches that I had.

We got over the mound on to the muddy floor of the cave. The roof was high enough to enable us to walk upright, and we went forward singly, straight ahead into the darkness.

We had got in perhaps thirty or forty yards, and I had just switched on the torch, when a stone or something fell in front of us with a noisy plump. My companion clutched me by the arm. "I believe there's going to be a fall," he said.

I shook him off and continued, and again something fell, that made still more noise. "Come back!" he shouted. "Come back!"

I turned round to see him running towards the patch of sunlight, and then there was a load roar in my ears, which, however, instantly became dead silence.

For a moment I was confused, but went on, forgetting all about my late companion. When I turned round again he had disappeared, and the patch of sunlight also. So I continued on my way, and seemed to be always mounting upwards, with the ground quite dry, and the roof of the cave still some way above my head.

I had certainly now walked a mile when, to my surprise, I saw a point of light in front of me, which increased as I approached it, and presently showed itself as a wide opening.

I came out into a place much like that at which I had entered, except that it was still more masked by shrubs, and found myself in the clearing of a wood. It seemed to me that I had come quite straight along the underground passage, so that I must be on the way in which I intended to go. The cave, as a cave, had been disappointing, and there was nothing to be gained by going back. I would take my nap, and then find the road again.

I looked about for a place to lie down in, and as I did so saw a very ragged dirty man coming towards me.