Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (32 page)

"Little
Weena
ran
with
me.
She
danced
beside
me
to
the
well, but
when
she
saw
me
lean
over
the
mouth
and
look
downward,
she seemed
strangely
disconcerted.
'Good-bye,
little
Weena,'
I
said,
kissing licr;
and
then,
putting
her
down,
I
began
to
feel
over
the
parapet for
the
climbing
hooks.
Rather
hastily,
I
may
as
well
confess,
for
I feared
my
courage
might
leak
away!
At
first
she
watched
me
in
amazement.
Then
she
gave
a
most
piteous
cry,
and,
running
to
me,
she began
to
pull
at
me
with
her
little
hands.
I
think
her
opposition nerved
me
rather
to
proceed.
I
shook
her
off,
perhaps
a
little
roughly, and
in
another
moment
I
was
in
the
throat
of
the
well.
I
saw
her agonised
face
over
the
parapet,
and
smiled
to
reassure
her.
Then
I had
to
look
down
at
the
unstable
hooks
to
which
I
clung.

"I
had
to
clamber
down
a
shaft
of
perhaps
two
hundred
yards. The
descent
was
effected
by
means
of
metallic
bars
projecting
from
I
lie
sides
of
the
well,
and
these
being
adapted
to
the
needs
of
a creature
much
smaller
and
lighter
than
myself,
I
was
speedily
cramped and
fatigued
by
the
descent.
And
not
simply
fatigued!
One
of
the liars
bent
suddenly
under
my
weight,
and
almost
swung
me
off
into
Ihc
blackness
beneath.
For
a
moment
I
hung
by
one
hand,
and
after
I
hat
experience
I
did
not
dare
to
rest
again.
Though
my
arms
and
back were
presently
acutely
painful,
I
went
on
clambering
down
the
sheer descent
with
as
quick
a
motion
as
possible.
Glancing
upward,
I
saw the
aperture,
a
small
blue
disk,
in
which
a
star
was
visible,
while little
Weena's
head
showed
as
a
round
black
projection.
The
thudding
sound
of
a
machine
below
grew
louder
and
more
oppressive. Everything
save
that
little
disk
above
was
profoundly
dark,
and
when I
looked
up
again
Weena
had
disappeared.

"I
was
in
an
agony
of
discomfort.
I
had
some
thought
of
trying to
go
up
the
shaft
again,
and
leave
the
Under-world
alone.
But
even while
I
turned
this
over
in
my
mind
I
continued
to
descend.
At
last, with
intense
relief,
I
saw
dimly
coming
up,
a
foot
to
the
right
of
me, a
slender
loophole
in
the
wall.
Swinging
myself
in,
I
found
it
was
the aperture
of
a
narrow
horizontal
tunnel
in
which
I
could
lie
down
and rest.
It
was
not
too
soon.
My
arms
ached,
my
back
was
cramped,
and I
was
trembling
with
the
prolonged
terror
of
a
fall.
Besides
this,
the unbroken
darkness
had
had
a
distressing
effect
upon
my
eyes.
The air
was
full
of
the
throb
and
hum
of
machinery
pumping
air
down the
shaft.