CHAPTER IV
The First Vanishings
"WE CARRIED Thora back, down to where Edith was waiting.
We told her what had happened and what we had found.
She listened gravely, and as we finished Thora sighed and
opened her eyes.
"'I would like to see the stone,' she said. 'Charles, you stay
here with Thora.' We passed through the outer court silently
- and stood before the rock. She touched it, drew back her
hand as I had; thrust it forward again resolutely and held it
there. She seemed to be listening. Then she turned to me.
"'David,' said my wife, and the wistfulness in her voice
hurt me - 'David, would you be very, very disappointed if we
went from here - without trying to find out any more about
it - would you?'
"Walter, I never wanted anything so much in my life as I
wanted to learn what that rock concealed. Nevertheless, I
tried to master my desire, and I answered - 'Edith, not a bit
if you want us to do it.'
"She read my struggle in my eyes. She turned back toward
the grey rock. I saw a shiver pass through her. I felt a tinge
of remorse and pity!
"'Edith,' I exclaimed, 'we'll go!'
"She looked at me again. 'Science is a jealous mistress,' she
quoted. 'No, after all it may be just fancy. At any rate, you
can't run away. No! But, Dave, I'm going to stay too!'
"And there was no changing her decision. As we neared
the others she laid a hand on my arm.
"'Dave,' she said, 'if there should be something - well -
inexplicable tonight - something that seems - too dangerous
- will you promise to go back to our own islet tomorrow, if
we can - and wait until the natives return?'
"I promised eagerly - the desire to stay and see what came
with the night was like a fire within me.
"We picked a place about five hundred feet away from the
steps leading into the outer court.
"The spot we had selected was well hidden. We could not
be seen, and yet we had a clear view of the stairs and the
gateway. We settled down just before dusk to wait for whatever might come. I was nearest the giant steps; next me
Edith; then Thora, and last Stanton.
"Night fell. After a time the eastern sky began to lighten,
and we knew that the moon was rising; grew lighter still, and
the orb peeped over the sea; swam into full sight. I glanced
at Edith and then at Thora. My wife was intently listening.
Thora sat, as she had since we had placed ourselves, elbows
on knees, her hands covering her face.
"And then from the moonlight flooding us there dripped
down on me a great drowsiness. Sleep seemed to seep from
the rays and fall upon my eyes, closing them - closing them
inexorably. Edith's hand in mine relaxed. Stanton's head fell
upon his breast and his body swayed drunkenly. I tried to
rise - to fight against the profound desire for slumber that
pressed on me.
"And as I fought, Thora raised her head as though listening; and turned toward the gateway. There was infinite despair in her face - and expectancy. I tried again to rise - and a
surge of sleep rushed over me. Dimly, as I sank within it, I
heard a crystalline chiming; raised my lids once more with a
supreme effort.
"Thora, bathed in light, was standing at the top of the
stairs.
"Sleep took me for its very own - swept me into the heart
of oblivion!
"Dawn was breaking when I wakened. Recollection rushed
back; I thrust a panic-stricken hand out toward Edith;
touched her and my heart gave a great leap of thankfulness.
She stirred, sat up, rubbing dazed eyes. Stanton lay on his
side, back toward us, head in arms.
"Edith looked at me laughingly. 'Heavens! What sleep!'
she said. Memory came to her.
"'What happened?' she whispered. 'What made us sleep
like that?'
"Stanton awoke.
"'What's the matter!' he exclaimed. 'You look as though
you've been seeing ghosts.'
"Edith caught my hands.
"'Where's Thora?' she cried. Before I could answer she
had run out into the open, calling.
"'Thora was taken,' was all I could say to Stanton, 'together we went to my wife, now standing beside the great
stone steps, looking up fearfully at the gateway into the terraces. There I told them what I had seen before sleep had
drowned me. And together then we ran up the stairs, through
the court and to the grey rock.
"The slab was closed as it had been the day before, nor was
there trace of its having opened. No trace? Even as I thought
this Edith dropped to her knees before it and reached toward
something lying at its foot. It was a little piece of gay silk. I
knew it for part of the kerchief Thora wore about her hair.
She lifted the fragment. It had been cut from the kerchief as
though by a razor-edge; a few threads ran from it - down toward the base of the slab; ran on to the base of the grey rock
and - under it!
"The grey rock was a door! And it had opened and Thora
had passed through it!
"I think that for the next few minutes we all were a little
insane. We beat upon that portal with our hands, with stones
and sticks. At last reason came back to us.
"Goodwin, during the next two hours we tried every way
in our power to force entrance through the slab. The rock resisted our drills. We tried explosions at the base with charges
covered by rock. They made not the slightest impression on
the surface, expending their force, of course, upon the
slighter resistance of their coverings.
"Afternoon found us hopeless. Night was coming on and
we would have to decide our course of action. I wanted to go
to Ponape for help. But Edith objected that this would take
hours and after we had reached there it would be impossible
to persuade our men to return with us that night, if at all.
What then was left? Clearly only one of two choices: to go
back to our camp, wait for our men, and on their return try
to persuade them to go with us to Nan-Tauach. But this
would mean the abandonment of Thora for at least two days.
We could not do it; it would have been too cowardly.
"The other choice was to wait where we were for night to
come; to wait for the rock to open as it had the night before,
and to make a sortie through it for Thora before it could
close again.
"Our path lay clear before us. We had to spend that night
on Nan-Tauach!
"We had, of course, discussed the sleep phenomena very
fully. If our theory that lights, sounds, and Thora's disappearance were linked with secret religious rites of the natives, the logical inference was that the slumber had been
produced by them, perhaps by vapours - you know as well as
I, what extraordinary knowledge these Pacific peoples have
of such things. Or the sleep might have been simply a coincidence and produced by emanations either gaseous or from
plants, natural causes which had happened to coincide in
their effects with the other manifestations. We made some
rough and ready but effective respirators.
"As dusk fell we looked over our weapons. Edith was an
excellent shot with both rifle and pistol. We had decided that
my wife was to remain in the hiding-place. Stanton would
take up a station on the far side of the stairway and I would
place myself opposite him on the side near Edith. The place
I picked out was less than two hundred feet from her, and I
could reassure myself now and then as to her safety as it
looked down upon the hollow wherein she crouched. From
our respective stations Stanton and I could command the
gateway entrance. His position gave him also a glimpse of
the outer courtyard.
"A faint glow in the sky heralded the moon. Stanton and I
took our places. The moon dawn increased rapidly; the disk
swam up, and in a moment it was shining in full radiance
upon ruins and sea.
"As it rose there came a curious little sighing sound from
the inner terrace. Stanton straightened up and stared intently through the gateway, rifle ready.
"'Stanton, what do you see?' I called cautiously. He waved
a silencing hand. I turned my head to look at Edith. A shock
ran through me. She lay upon her side. Her face, grotesque
with its nose and mouth covered by the respirator, was
turned full toward the moon. She was again in deepest sleep!
"As I turned again to call to Stanton, my eyes swept the
head of the steps and stopped, fascinated. For the moonlight had thickened. It seemed to be - curdled - there; and
through it ran little gleams and veins of shimmering white
fire. A languor passed through me. It was not the ineffable
drowsiness of the preceding night. It was a sapping of all will
to move. I tried to cry out to Stanton. I had not even the will
to move my lips. Goodwin - I could not even move my eyes!
"Stanton was in the range of my fixed vision. I watched
him leap up the steps and move toward the gateway. The
curdled radiance seemed to await him. He stepped into it -
and was lost to my sight.
"For a dozen heart beats there was silence. Then a rain of
tinklings that set the pulses racing with joy and at once
checked them with tiny fingers of ice - and ringing through
them Stanton's voice from the courtyard - a great cry - a
scream - filled with ecstasy insupportable and horror unimaginable! And once more there was silence. I strove to
burst the bonds that held me. I could not. Even my eyelids
were fixed. Within them my eyes, dry and aching, burned.
"Then Goodwin - I first saw the - inexplicable! The crystalline music swelled. Where I sat I could take in the gateway and its basalt portals, rough and broken, rising to the
top of the wall forty feet above, shattered, ruined portals -
unclimbable. From this gateway an intenser light began to
flow. It grew, it gushed, and out of it walked Stanton.
"Stanton! But - God! What a vision!"
A deep tremor shook him. I waited - waited.
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