Prisoners of Chance

Thus questioning, I groped slowly forward. To one accustomed to living in the open there is something peculiarly oppressive in being cooped within the confines of such narrow entries, and being compelled to reflect upon the immense mass of rock and earth resting above, and prevented from crushing him down into everlasting silence only by insignificant props of wood, whose melancholy groaning in the darkness bore evidence of the vast weight they upheld. There was nothing for me but to struggle onward, although I do not claim that it was without quaking heart, or many a start at odd noises echoing and re-echoing along that grim gallery. It is comparatively easy to be courageous where the peril is of a nature to which we have long accustomed ourselves, but many a trained nerve gives way before little ventures amid the unknown. I am told that soldiers coming to these colonies--veterans who had faced unflinchingly the flames of battle--will tremble and shrink like frightened girls at the slightest sign of a storm at sea; and there was once a famous war-chief of the Shawnees, who had fought fiercely with tomahawk and knife, yet who fell dead at the first crash of a field gun, although the piece was uncharged with ball. So I conceive that physical courage is not so high a virtue after all, and am not greatly ashamed to acknowledge I went timidly forward down that black slope, and with a wild inclination to fly backward at every sound. Nor do I boast of keeping on, for it was largely because I knew well what reception would await me; the look of scorn with which Madame would discover that a faint heart had made me afraid of the dark. So it was love, or pride, I scarce know which, that kept my reluctant feet moving; and, possibly, both of these are the true sponsors for most of the courage in the world, except that engendered by excitement.

Finally, when, with many a quaking of the heart I thought there must be above me a full hundred feet of earth, I perceived a flickering ray of light stealing along the floor. It grew more pronounced with each advancing step and soon crimsoned the upper walls. I dropped cautiously upon hands and knees, and crept slowly forward, beside the dancing shadows, taking concealment behind every irregularity. Thus approaching, I discovered the flaring beacon to be a huge pine knot stuck into the earth wall, blazing right merrily. Lying at full length, with head outstretched from behind the tree trunk that concealed my body, I gazed forward into a small room, possibly a dozen feet in width, the walls concealed by grotesquely pictured bark, its floor covered with a rude matting, dyed in fanciful colors. Somewhat to the left of where I lay uprose a huge, grim figure, roughly shapen from wood, having two uplifted wings pressing the roof, while directly in front reposed numerous dishes of untasted food. This idol, for such I conceived it to be, was a most hideous, repulsive object, colored lavishly with strange pigments, the face and head decorated in crimson, while the huge right hand, grasping a club, was uplifted as if about to strike down an approaching enemy. The flaring light of the pine knot glittered on great staring eyes which appeared to sparkle as if composed of precious stones; while about neck, zone, and ankles shone the duller gleam of gold, with the shimmer of some brighter metal.