Descendants of the Scythians - Страница 14

The archeologist realized though, that it was much too early to jump to conclusions, but nevertheless, he couldn’t help remarking grudgingly:

“Imagine: it looks like no one has walked here since ancient times. Surely we’ll find something, won’t we?”

Ivan Semenovich was somewhat disappointed at the fact that no ore veins could be seen in the walls. In spite of this, he tried to remain cheerful. “We’ll see what lies further ahead,” he kept telling himself. “So far, we’ve been going steadily downward. We must be at least a hundred and fifty meters below the surface.” Ivan Semenovich made another note in his book.

The third and fourth horses were a short distance away, and as before the horses indicated right turns, and the head, a left one. The expedition continued deeper and deeper into the bowels of the mount. Now they were two hundred meters underground.

“Which way had the water been flowing?” said Lida, who was evidently thinking something over. “If it was downward, maybe we’ll find ourselves on the shore of an underground lake in the end. Right, Ivan Semenovich?”

The geologist did not reply straight away. He scrutinized the walls, the ceiling, and the ground of the underground passage. Artem was eagerly awaiting his reply. It would be great to discover an underground lake!

“Nothing can be said with certainty at the moment,” Ivan Semenovich replied at last. “At first, to tell the truth, I also thought that the underground river flowed downward. But now I’m not so sure.”

“Why?”

“Don’t you understand? Shame on you — a future geologist who should have observed and analyzed all the evidence concerning the rock bedding and layers. If you’re going to blush, Lida, don’t, because it was what I thought myself at first. Let’s look more closely into the matter. If the water was indeed flowing downward, where was its source? Remember, the entrance to the cave is rather high up on the slope of the mount. One could assume that the water first ran down the slope and then entered the mouth of the cave. But in that case, it couldn’t possibly have cut such a deep track in the rocks.”

“In other words you want to say that the water was flowing upward?” asked Lida in surprise.

“That’s not impossible. Let’s assume there was a large underground lake inside the mount into which water trickled down from the upper layers and got trapped there. At the point of overflowing, the water would begin finding a way out through the cracks. Don’t forget about the atmospheric pressure: that’s quite a significant factor. The water would begin eroding the cracks, making them wider and turning some of them into veritable river beds — similar to the one we’re walking on — in the course of thousands upon thousands of years. Oil or water geysers provide us with a similar phenomenon, after all.”

“Now I understand,” Lida said in a low voice.

“In the process I’ve described, at some point in time, the inflow of water could have been reduced for some reason, and the underground lake then would run dry, leaving a large empty space, polished inside with water — what we call a cave. Yes, I’m of the opinion that the water was in fact flowing upward.”

But neither Artem nor Lida had time to comment the geologist’s hypothesis. Dmitro Borisovich cried out something unintelligible, overwhelmed with surprise. The rest uttered inarticulate cries of amazement simultaneously.

The passage came to an abrupt end as though it dissolved into nothing. Like a river emptying into the sea, the underground passage emptied into a huge cave, pitch-black dark and menacing. The bright light from their miner’s lamps was not powerful enough to win from the darkness even a small part of this immense cave. The light reached only the parts of the walls closest to them, and against the overwhelming blackness, the lamps seemed to have been reduced to feeble candlelights. The thick unbroken darkness hung before them like a coarse black carpet. Everyone stood in silence, overcome by the new discovery.

“Aha,” Ivan Semenovich uttered at last, and slowly continued: “That’s really rather a big cave… I never thought there could be such things in this area… What do you say to that, Dmitro Borisovich?”

“What can I say? This is not exactly my cup of tea, Ivan Semenovich. This cave comes as a great surprise, but remains a fact. And there’s something over there that baffles me… Look over there at those shadows — they’re columns but a bit too thick for columns as far as I’m concerned. Artem, let’s go and have a better look.”

Artem could make out the outline of the first column about ten meters away. It rose high into the air and disappeared into the impenetrable darkness above. The column seemed to get thinner the higher it went. But in the tricky light and enveloping darkness, it was impossible to tell for sure. There were dozens of columns around, so Dmitro Borisovich and Artem examined the bases of several ones in the light of their lamps, and Artem tried unsuccessfully to climb one of them.

As Ivan Semenovich and Lida joined the two men, the combined glare of the lamps increased the illuminating power, but not enough. Dmitro Borisovich suddenly called out, pointing upwards:

“Look up there! There’s something over there, too!”

The columns were situated a short distance from one another. They shone in the light of the lamps, their surface uneven but glossy. And high above them, apparently on the ceiling of the cave, something glittered, too. But what was it?

“It’s not the continuation of this column that’s glittering up there,” Ivan Semenovich said, peering into the darkness. “It’s something to the side… Aha, my good friends! The enigma is solved. As a matter of fact, it also solves the last riddle in Pronis’s text. Now everything’s clear!”

The rest were looking at him in bewilderment. What was Ivan Semenovich driving at? The archeologist asked then:

“What ‘last riddle’ do you have in mind?”

Without answering, Ivan Semenovich pointed to the nearest column with a broad gesture of his hand:

“Do you see these layers of deposits? Aren’t they fairly typical? Lida, you surely can tell us what natural formations are made of layers of limestone.”

Lida replied immediately:

“Stalagmites! Of course! What a shame I didn’t guess earlier! It’s so obvious!”

“And in this case, what’s glittering up there?” the geologist went on, breaking into an open grin.

Now it was Artem who responded:

“It must be the stalactites, nothing else. It’s amazing we didn’t guess right off.”

“Nothing so surprising in it, my dear friend. No one expected to see stalactites and stalagmites inside the mount. It doesn’t look like a geological formation that might have them. And secondly, this darkness could mislead anyone. So, there’s no reason whatsoever to be ashamed. And now — who can tell me what ‘last riddle’ of Pronis I had in mind?”

Nobody ventured an answer.

“My good friends, it is so easy to guess. Don’t you remember what the text says? ‘Beyond the torches pointing upwards and torches pointing downwards he will find…’ Here you have torches pointing upwards,” and he pointed to the stalagmites, “and torches pointing downwards, stalactites.

Isn’t this what Pronis wrote about? Ah, Dmitro Borisovich, you should have figured this one out!”

“Didn’t you speak of the obscuring effect of this darkness just a short while ago, Ivan Semenovich? Besides, these things are not at all my field of study. It is geology that deals with them, not archeology.”

“All right, all right, don’t start arguing; it won’t help you anyway. Let’s not waste time on idle talk. And this is not the proper place for debates. Artem, what does the map say now? Does it indicate a further route?”

Artem was crouching by the lamp reading the map at the moment. There were so many turns one could take indeed, wandering among the stalagmites that choosing the right one seemed quite impossible. The situation was further aggravated by the darkness! But Pronis’s map once again proved very reliable: the way through the stalagmite cave was indicated as perpendicular to the wall where the passage that had led them to it opened. The map also showed clearly that after a turn to the right at some point ahead of them, they should arrive at the end of the cave.

“Let’s get moving then,” Ivan Semenovich ordered after consulting the map. “It seems we’re on the right track. Time’s pressing!”

It was an exciting trip. The chimeric shapes rose high on all sides. They seemed to be growing from the ground, rising higher and higher, tapering and dissolving in the darkness. At some stretches, the ceiling of the cave seemed lower, or perhaps the ground rose; but which of the two things was extremely difficult to say. Anyway, at such places the light of the lamps reached the stalactites as well. These long glossy, uneven cones of fantastic variety were hanging from the ceiling with their tips almost meeting those of the stalagmites.

Artem was drinking in this phantasmagorical display put together by nature, so generous in its ingenious creations. Elongated snow-white cones gave way to glittering greenish formations like icicles that seemed liberally studded with shining precious stones; they in turn were replaced by large and thin sheets of limestone that seemed to be fluttering in a strong wind. These limestone sheets were so thin it made one wonder how they had come into being — one gentle touch seemed enough to shatter them into bits.