A camping-place was selected on a plot of grass but a short distance from the basin of the Great Geyser, the tents were pitched, and Nimbus, with his spirits somewhat restored by reaching the journey’s end, began to cook dinner. He had no need to make a fire, and there was nothing to make it with if he had wanted one. He simply followed Haik Gierssen’s directions, and made coffee, tea, and a delicious soup in a boiling caldron of beautifully clear water that hissed and steamed on a rocky ledge a few yards back of the tents. Nimbus would not believe it was hot enough to cook meat, until he had made a test by thrusting a finger into it. Then the howl of pain with which he snatched back his hand convinced the others that he was fully satisfied with his experiment.
While he was preparing dinner the others busied themselves in cutting sods with which to make the Strokhr “sick,” as Haik Gierssen said.
Breeze did not understand what he meant; but he was one of those rare boys who would rather wait a little for information that he was sure would come to him, than to try and force it by useless questions; so he held his tongue, and busily cut sods with the others.
The Strokhr is a funnel-shaped hole in the rock, about six feet across at the top, in which, some twenty feet below the surface, water boils and tumbles uneasily. In its depths are heard groans and rumblings, while occasional jets of hissing steam and upward rushes of water indicate its great uneasiness and desire to burst from its rocky prison.
After a huge pile of sods had been cut and stacked on its edge, Haik Gierssen said there was enough to make him very sick, and pushed them all into the steaming opening.
A terrible commotion followed, and peering over the edge, they could see the sods swirling and dashing about in the angry waters, while the rumblings and roarings were louder than ever. Suddenly, almost without warning, a vast column of ink-black water, flecked with foam and dotted with sods, was belched forth and shot up nearly a hundred feet into the air. It was a magnificent sight, and looked like a hundred fountains joined in one, and surrounded by clouds of steam and hissing spray.
The spectators sprang back, and running for dear life, were barely beyond reach of the boiling torrents as they fell back, drenching the ground for fifty feet about the mouth of this terrible churn. Again and again did the vast column of water shoot upward, as though the Strokhr had been made deadly sick by the sod pills administered to it and was determined to get rid of them. It was a fearful yet fascinating exhibition of the hidden forces of nature, and Lord Seabright said that if he saw nothing more of the geysers he should feel fully repaid for all the hardships of the trip by this one display.
To Breeze it was so marvellous that he could find no words to express his awe and delight at the wonderful phenomenon.
The effect of the eruption upon poor Nimbus was such, that after one glance at it he threw himself, face downward, flat upon the ground, where he lay kicking and screaming with fright long after it had subsided.
The eruptions were continued at intervals through the night, and the sleep of the tired travellers was sadly broken by the heavings and groanings of the monster whom they had made so sick. Towards morning, in the midst of these, a heavy booming sound, apparently far down in the depths of the earth, was added to the other weird noises of this uncanny place, and a shout from the guide warned them that something important was about to happen. As they sprang from their tent there was a tremendous report, as of a park of artillery, and before them, sparkling in the red light of the newly risen sun, towered the vast watery mass of the Great Geyser. It was snowy white, in striking contrast to the blackness of the Strokhr, and sprang upward in a series of great domes. For ten minutes they stood fascinated by the superb exhibition, then, with a few gurgling gasps, the waters sank back into their underground boilers, and the show was over.