Page:The Great Secret.djvu/99

Rh also blazing up with the excitement of the hunt, as the hunted betrayed themselves in their fear. What a constant and merciless hunt for life there was here as well as on the earth above! All this added to my hopelessness.

"Yet I had no fear. The sharks had robbed me of that feeling, although many of the sights I witnessed would have appalled me formerly. For although they emitted flashes, there was no sound to apprise me of their coming. A weird-like and horrid monster burst upon my sight, and, after seeming to glare at me, passed away like a phantom. Gigantic things like spiders crawled along sluggishly, clutching at the sides of the cabin as they went, seemingly unconscious of my presence. Great eels or serpents trailed fathoms of slimy length over the floor, now and again filling the place with a blue radiance, and then leaving it in darkness doubly intense. Still I waited and watched, while I prayed to be delivered.

"At last, what I waited for came. A faint illumination, like to that thrown out by the fishy monsters, grew softly in front of me, and, as I looked, from that radiance stepped a little child, a girl-child, who all noiselessly placed her small shining hand in mine, and, as she did so, the weight which had held me down dropped from me, and we began to rise.

"Up, up, through the dark waters into the lightened fluid, past prowling sharks and darting fish we floated, until we came to the free and beautiful sunlight and the balmy air.

"The child still led me, without speaking, over miles of atmosphere, until once more I saw the Rockhampton in front of me. Then, when she had placed me once more safely here in this cabin, and I turned to thank