The Gilded Man: A Romance of the AndesSmyth, Clifford
Science
The Gilded Man: A Romance of the Andes
Smyth, Clifford
Andes Region -- Fiction; El Dorado -- Fiction; Science fiction
Having passed through the great portal that separated them from Anitoo
and his men, they were soon following a narrow path that ran between two
high walls of rock. This path was at first scarcely discernible. As they
turned a sharp corner, however, the darkness gradually lifted and they
found it possible, for the first time, to distinguish certain objects
a considerable distance ahead of them--and judging by the direction
in which the shadows from these objects were thrown, it was evident
that the light was not a reflection cast by torches carried by warring
cavemen.
This discovery was hailed as a momentous one, open to two
interpretations. Since, as every one knows, caves are never lighted from
sources contained in themselves, they must now be nearing another party
of cavemen, who were carrying lanterns, or else, through some twist in
subterranean topography, they had stumbled upon an unexpected passageway
to the outer world. No sooner was the latter possibility suggested,
however, than its improbability was recognized. No rays from sun or
moon were ever like these--blue, flickering, ghostly--illuminating the
grotesque forms around them. This light had a tingling quality, as of
sparks that snap and glitter when they are thrown off from an electric
battery. It was certainly not sunlight, or moonlight either, as the
explorers quickly realized. There remained the idea that it came from
lights carried by an approaching band of cavemen.
"It is like the torches of Anitoo's musicians!" exclaimed Una; "it's not
from the sun."
"It begins to be too bright, and at the same time too far off, for
that," objected Leighton.
"It is one big fire----" said Miranda.
"A bonfire," interjected Andrew.
"----and when we come there we will see."
Pressing on along this path, the light steadily increased, although
revealing to the explorers nothing of its origin. They could walk now
at a fairly round pace, and as their range of vision extended their
attention was completely taken up in a study of the strange objects to
be seen in the unknown world about them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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