Then this ill-eyed man tried to work upon my
fears; saying that the well is deep and the bucket small, I shall get
giddy and be overbalanced. I do not say that these forebodings were
without effect on me, but I had made up my mind that, bad as it might be
to go down, it was yet worse to have Master Elzevir prisoned in the well,
and I remain above. Thus the turnkey perceived at last that he was
speaking to deaf ears, and turned to the business.
Yet there was one fear that still held me, for thinking of what I had
heard of the quarry shafts in Purbeck, how men had gone down to explore,
and there been taken with a sudden giddiness, and never lived to tell
what they had seen; and so I said to Master Elzevir, 'Art sure the well
is clean, and that no deadly gases lurk below?'
'Thou mayst be sure I knew the well was sweet before I let thee talk of
going down,' he answered. 'For yesterday we lowered a candle to the
water, and the flame burned bright and steady; and where the candle
lives, there man lives too. But thou art right: these gases change from
day to day, and we will try the thing again. So bring the candle,
Master Jailer.'
The jailer brought a candle fixed on a wooden triangle, which he was wont
to show strangers who came to see the well, and lowered it on a string.
It was not till then I knew what a task I had before me, for looking over
the parapet, and taking care not to lose my balance, because the parapet
was low, and the floor round it green and slippery with water-splashings,
I watched the candle sink into that cavernous depth, and from a bright
flame turn into a little twinkling star, and then to a mere point of
light.
Pages:
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218