Chapter Twenty Nine.. An Alarming Discovery
You will naturally suppose that this successful termination of the chase gave great satisfaction to the hunters. It might have done so under other circumstances, but just then their minds became occupied by thoughts of a far different nature.
As they came up to the spot where the stag had fallen, and were preparing to drag it from the pool, their eyes rested upon an object which caused them to turn toward one another with looks of strange significance. This object was no other than the hot spring – the place where the chase had begun. Within less than a hundred yards of the spot where the stag had received his first wound was he now lying dead! The pool in fact was in the little rivulet that ran from the spring to the lake.
I have said that the hunters on observing this exchanged significant glances. One fact was evident to all of them – that they had got back to the spot whence they started. A very little reasoning taught them another fact – that in the pursuit of the stag they must have made the full circuit of the valley. They had not turned back anywhere – they had not crossed the valley – they had not even been in sight of the lake during the whole chase. On the contrary, Karl with Ossaroo had kept continually along the bottom of the cliffs, sometimes in the timber, and at intervals passing across stretches of open ground.
What was there remarkable about all this? It only proved that the valley was small, and of roundish form; and that in about an hour’s time any one might make the circuit of it. What was there in this discovery that should cause the hunters to stand gazing upon one another with troubled looks? Was it surprise at the stag having returned to die where he had received his wound? Certainly there was something a little singular about that, but so trifling a circumstance could not have clouded the brows of the hunters. It was not surprise that was pictured in their looks – more serious feelings were stirring within them. Their glances were those of apprehension – the fear of some danger not fully defined or certain. What danger?
The three stood, Ossaroo lightly grasping his bow, but not thinking of the weapon; Karl holding his rifle with its butt resting on the ground, and Caspar gazing interrogatively in the face of his brother.
For some moments not one of them spoke. Each guessed what the other was thinking of. The stag lay untouched in the pool, his huge antlers alone appearing above the surface of the water, while the dog stood baying on the bank.
Karl at length broke silence. He spoke half in soliloquy, as if his thoughts were busy with the subject.
“Yes, a precipice the whole way round. I saw no break – no signs of one. Ravines there were, it is true, but all seemed to end in the same high cliffs. You observed no outlet, Ossaroo?”
“No, Sahib; me fearee de valley shut up, no clear o’ dis trap yet Sahib.”
Caspar offered no opinion. He had kept farther out from the cliffs, and at times had been quite out of sight of them – the trees hiding their tops from his view. He fully comprehended, however, the meaning of his brother’s observations.
“Then you think the precipice runs all around the valley?” he asked, addressing the latter.
“I fear so, Caspar. I observed no outlet – neither has Ossaroo; and although not specially looking for such a thing, I had my eyes open for it; I had not forgotten our perilous situation of yesterday, and I wished to assure myself. I looked up several gorges that ran out of the valley, but the sides of all seemed to be precipitous. The chase, it is true, kept me from examining them very closely; but it is now time to do so. If there be no pass out of this valley, then are we indeed in trouble. These cliffs are five hundred feet in height – they are perfectly impassable by human foot. Come on! let us know the worst.”
“Shall we not draw out the stag?” inquired Caspar, pointing to the game that still lay under the water.
“No, leave him there; it will get no harm till our return: should my fears prove just, we shall have time enough for that, and much else beside. Come on!”
So saying Karl led the way toward the foot of the precipice, the others following silently after.
Foot by foot, and yard by yard, did they examine the beetling front of those high cliffs. They viewed them from their base, and then passing outward scanned them to the very tops. There was no gorge or ravine which they did not enter and fully reconnoitre. Many of these there were, all of them resembling little bays of the ocean, their bottoms being on the same level with the valley itself, and their sides formed by the vertical wall of granite.
At some places the cliffs actually hung over. Now and then they came upon piles of rock and scattered boulders – some of them of enormous dimensions. There were single blocks full fifty feet in length, breadth, and height; and there were also cairns, or collections of rocks, piled up to four times that elevation, and standing at such a distance from the base of the cliff, that it was evident they could not have fallen from it into their present position. Ice, perhaps, was the agent that had placed them where they lay.
None of the three were in any mood to speculate upon geological phenomena at that moment. They passed on, continuing their examination. They saw that the cliff was not all of equal height. It varied in this respect, but its lowest escarpment was too high to be ascended. At the lowest point it could not have been less than three hundred feet sheer, while there were portions of it that rose to the stupendous height of one thousand from the valley!
On went they along its base, carefully examining every yard. They had gone over the same path with lighter feet and lighter hearts. This time they were three hours in making the circuit; and at the end of these three hours they stood in the gap by which they had entered, with the full and painful conviction that that gap was the only outlet to this mysterious valley – the only one that could be traversed by human foot! The valley itself resembled the crater of some extinct volcano, whose lava lake had burst through this gate-like gorge, leaving an empty basin behind.
They did not go back through the glacier ravine. They had no hope of escaping in that direction. That they knew already.
From the gap they saw the white vapour curling up over the spring. They saw the remaining portion of the precipice that lay beyond. It was the highest and most inaccessible of all.
All three sat down upon the rocks; and remained for some minutes silent and in a state of mind bordering upon despair.