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CHAPTER 16

THE PIT OF DARKNESS

At the suggestion of the Very Young Man they located without much difficulty a sort of cave amid the rocks, which offered shelter for their rest. Taking turns watching, they passed eight hours in fair comfort, and by noon next day, after another frugal meal they felt thoroughly refreshed and eager to continue the journey.

“We sure are doing this classy,” observed the Very Young Man. “Think of Rogers—all he could do was fall asleep when he couldn’t stay awake any more. Gosh, what chances he took!”

“We’re playing it safe,” agreed the Big Business Man.

“But we mustn’t take it too easy,” added the Doctor.

The Very Young Man stretched himself luxuriously and buckled his belt on tighter. “Well, I’m ready for anything,” he announced. “What’s next?”

The Doctor consulted his papers. “We find the circular pit Rogers made in the scratch and we descend into it. We take twelve more pills at the edge of the pit,” he said.

The Very Young Man leaped to the top of a rock and looked out over the desolate waste helplessly. “How are we going to find the pit?” he asked dubiously. “It’s not in sight, that’s sure.”

“It’s down there—about five miles,” said the Doctor. “I saw it yesterday as we came down.”

“That’s easy,” said the Very Young Man, and he started off enthusiastically, followed by the others.

In less than two hours they found themselves at the edge of the pit. It appeared almost circular in form, apparently about five miles across, and its smooth, shining walls extended almost perpendicularly down into blackness. Somewhat awed by the task confronting them in getting down into this abyss, the three friends sat down near its brink to discuss their plan of action.

“We take twelve pills here,” said the Doctor. “That ought to make us small enough to climb down into that.”

“Do you think we need so many?” asked the Big Business Man thoughtfully. “You know, Frank, we’re making an awful lot of work for ourselves, playing this thing so absolutely safe. Think of what a distance down that will be after we have got as small as twelve pills will make us. It might take us days to get to the bottom.”

“How did Rogers get down?” the Very Young Man wanted to know.

“He took the twelve pills here,” the Doctor answered.

“But as I understand it, he fell most of the way down while he was still big, and then got small afterwards at the bottom.” This from the Big Business Man.

“I don’t know how about you,” said the Very Young Man drily, “but I’d much rather take three days to walk down than fall down in one day.”

The Doctor smiled. “I still think,” he said, “that we had better stick to the directions Rogers left us. Then at least there is no danger of our getting lost in size. But I agree with you, Jack. I’d rather not fall down, even if it takes longer to walk.”

“I wonder—” began the Big Business Man. “You know I’ve been thinking—it does seem an awful waste of energy for us to let ourselves get smaller than absolutely necessary in climbing down these places. Maybe you don’t realize it.”

“I do,” said the Very Young Man, looking sorrowfully at the ragged shoes on his feet and the cuts and bruises on his legs.

“What I mean is—” persisted the Big Business Man.

“How far do you suppose we have actually traveled since we started last night?”

“That’s pretty hard to estimate,” said the doctor. “We have walked perhaps fifteen miles altogether, besides the climb down. I suppose we actually came down five or six thousand feet.”

“And at the size we are now it would have been twelve thousand feet down, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes,” answered the Doctor, “it would.”

“And just think,” went on the Big Business Man, “right now, based on the size we were when we began, we’ve only gone some six feet altogether from the place we started.”

“And a sixteenth of an inch or less since we left the surface of the ring,” said the Doctor smiling.

“Gee, that’s a weird thought,” the Very Young Man said, as he gazed in awe at the lofty heights about them.

“I’ve been thinking,” continued the Big Business Man. “You say we must be careful not to get lost in size. Well, suppose instead of taking twelve pills here, we only take six. That should be enough to get us started—possibly enough to get us all the way down. Then before we moved at all we could take the other six. That would keep it straight, wouldn’t it?”

“Great idea,” said the Very Young Man. “I’m in favor of that.”

“It sounds feasible—certainly if we can get all the way down with six pills we will save a lot of climbing.”

“If six aren’t enough, we can easily take more,” added the Big Business Man.

And so they decided to take only six pills of the drug and to get down to the bottom of the pit, if possible, without taking more. The pit, as they stood looking down into it now, seemed quite impossible of descent, for its almost perpendicular wall was smooth and shining as polished brass.

They took the drug, standing close together at the edge of the pit. Immediately began again the same crawling sensation underfoot, much more rapid this time, while all around them the rocks began very rapidly increasing in size.

The pit now seemed widening out at an astounding rate. In a few minutes it had broadened so that its opposite side could not be seen. The wall at the brink of which they stood had before curved in a great sweeping arc to enclose the circular hole; now it stretched in a nearly straight, unbroken line to the right and left as far as they could see. Beneath them lay only blackness; it was as though they were at the edge of the world.

“Good God, what a place to go down into,” gasped the Big Business Man, after they had been standing nearly half an hour in silence, appalled at the tremendous changes taking place around them.

For some time past the wall before them had become sufficiently indented and broken to make possible their descent. It was the Doctor who first realized the time—or perhaps it should be said, the size—they were losing by their inactivity; and when with a few crisp words he brought them to themselves, they immediately started downward.

For another six hours they traveled downward steadily, stopping only once to eat. The descent during this time was not unlike that down the side of the valley, although towards the last it began rapidly to grow less precipitous.

They now found themselves confronted frequently with gentle slopes downward, half a mile or more in extent, and sometimes by almost level places, succeeded by another sharp descent.

During this part of the trip they made more rapid progress than at any time since starting, the Very Young Man in his enthusiasm at times running forward and then sitting down to wait for the others to overtake him.

The light overhead gradually faded into the characteristic luminous blackness the Chemist had described. As it did so, the phosphorescent quality of the rocks greatly increased, or at least became more noticeable, so that the light illuminating the landscape became hardly less in volume, although totally different in quality.

The ground underfoot and the rocks themselves had been steadily changing. They had lost now almost entirely the yellowishness, metal look, and seemed to have more the quality of a gray opaque glass, or marble. They appeared rather smoother, too, than before, although the huge bowlders and loosely strewn rocks and pebbles still remained the characteristic feature of the landscape.

The three men were still diminishing in size; in fact, at this time the last dose of the drug seemed to have attained its maximum power, for objects around them appeared to be growing larger at a dizzying rate. They were getting used to this effect, however, to a great extent, and were no longer confused by the change as they had been before.

It was the Big Business Man who first showed signs of weakening, and at the end of six hours or more of steady—and, towards the end, extremely rapid—traveling he finally threw himself down and declared he could go no farther. At this point they rested again several hours, taking turns at watch, and each of them getting some measure of sleep. Of the three, the Very Young Man appeared in the best condition, although possibly it was his enthusiasm that kept him from admitting even to himself any serious physical distress.

It was perhaps ten or twelve hours after they had taken the six pills that they were again ready to start downward. Before starting the three adventurers discussed earnestly the advisability of taking the other six pills. The action of the drug had ceased some time before. They decided not to, since apparently there was no difficulty facing them at this part of the journey, and decreasing their stature would only immeasurably lengthen the distance they had to go.

They had been traveling downward, through a barren land that now showed little change of aspect, for hardly more than another hour, when suddenly, without warning, they came upon the tremendous glossy incline that they had been expecting to reach for some time. The rocks and bowlders stopped abruptly, and they found at their feet, sloping downward at an angle of nearly forty-five degrees, a great, smooth plane. It extended as far as they could see both to the right and left and downward, at a slightly lessening angle, into the luminous darkness that now bounded their entire range of vision in every direction.

This plane seemed distinctly of a different substance than anything they had hitherto encountered. It was, as the Chemist had described it, apparently like a smooth black marble. Yet it was not so smooth to them now as he had pictured it, for its surface was sufficiently indented and ridged to afford foothold.

They started down this plane gingerly, yet with an assumed boldness they were all of them far from feeling. It was slow work at first, and occasionally one or the other of them would slide headlong a score of feet, until a break in the smoothness brought him to a stop. Their rubber-soled shoes stood them in good stead here, for without the aid given by them this part of the journey would have been impossible.

For several hours they continued this form of descent. The incline grew constantly less steep, until finally they were able to walk down it quite comfortably. They stopped again to eat, and after traveling what seemed to them some fifteen miles from the top of the incline they finally reached its bottom.

They seemed now to be upon a level floor—a ground of somewhat metallic quality such as they had become familiar with above. Only now there were no rocks or bowlders, and the ground was smoother and with a peculiar corrugation. On one side lay the incline down which they had come. There was nothing but darkness to be seen in any other direction. Here they stopped again to rest and recuperate, and then they discussed earnestly their next movements.

The Doctor, seated wearily upon the ground, consulted his memoranda earnestly. The Very Young Man sat close beside him. As usual the Big Business Man lay prone upon his back nearby, waiting for their decision.

“Rogers wasn’t far from a forest when he got here,” said the Very Young Man, looking sidewise at the papers in the Doctor’s hand. “And he speaks of a tiny range of hills; but we can’t see anything from here.”

“We may not be within many miles of where Rogers landed,” answered the Doctor.

“No reason why we should be, at that, is there? Do you think we’ll ever find Arite?”

“Don’t overlook the fact we’ve got six more pills to take here,” called the Big Business Man.

“That’s just what I was considering,” said the Doctor thoughtfully. “There’s no use our doing anything until we have attained the right size. Those hills and the forest and river we are looking for might be here right at our feet and we couldn’t see them while we are as big as this.”

“We’d better take the pills and stay right here until their action wears off. I’m going to take a sleep,” said the Big Business Man.

“I think we might as well all sleep,” said the Doctor. “There could not possibly be anything here to harm us.”

They each took the six additional pills without further words. Physically exhausted as they were, and with the artificial drowsiness produced by the drug, they were all three in a few moments fast asleep.