“The lamp is a safeguard against possible gas explosions. Lighting it, I once more uncovered the hole, and once more the rush of cold air began. I waited until the air-currents had balanced themselves as nearly as they were likely to do and then proceeded to a further examination of the hole. The orifice was about thirty inches in diameter and after piercing the rock for about two feet it opened into a cavity of unknown size and depth. I could, of course, have dropped a stone into the cavity and timed its fall, gaining at least some idea of the depth. But I wanted to take no chance of breaking anything of antiquarian interest which might be there. Instead, I fastened the lantern to the end of the steel tape and slowly lowered it into the hole, but the thickness of the two-foot wall between me and the perpendicular descent prevented me from seeing what was discovered by the lantern as it went down. So I had the two boys hold tight to my legs while I squirmed through the orifice until, head down, I could sway freely above the pit. The convulsive hold on my legs assured me that I should not drop down the hole suddenly if the boys could prevent it, so I turned my entire attention to the void beneath me.
“By feeling the tape nicks as the lantern rested on the bottom of the pit I found the depth was almost exactly fifty feet. By swinging my body and the tape with the lantern at the end like a pendulum I ascertained that the cavity was bottle-shaped and about twenty feet wide at the bottom. I also ascertained that it was quite dry, the air pure in it and the ventilation perfect. This seemed to be all of the data necessary for the moment, so I had the boys pull me back to terra firma and then cautioned them to say nothing whatever about our latest discovery. And so we returned to the upper air and the scent of orchids and to a hearty supper.
“That night, when I knew the men were resting and chatting before taking to their guitars and their hammocks, I sent for Manuel—wise, level-headed, dependable, my trusted companion through long years of this sort of work. I said to him, ‘Manuel, to-morrow is going to be a very interesting day even for old-timers like you and me and we shall not often see and handle that which I hope we shall discover to-morrow. Now, I want you to see Juan Cancio, Mathildé Uh, and José Uh. I will see Pedro and his brother. Tell Juan, Mathildé, and José to meet us here at five o’clock in the morning with their machetes, with their water-gourds filled and with dinner in the sabucan. And, Manuel, tell each of them that a shut mouth catches no flies. We may find something and we may find nothing but piled earth, and if the latter we do not want the other men laughing at us behind our backs.’
“Early the next morning we hastened toward the mound and with us went stout ropes, block and tackle, shovels, and all the necessary tools for six men. We slid down the rope into the shaft and then made our way down the stairway into the funnel-shaped chamber. Here we fixed a strong post and attached to it a double block and tackle, with the several necessary ropes, so that all of us could safely descend and ascend the fifty-foot bottle beyond the small, dark orifice. With a lighted miner’s lamp on my head and my Davy lamp preceding me by ten feet, I placed my foot in a noose in one of the ropes, swung myself through the orifice, and hung over the pit. Between my teeth was my sharp hunting knife which I always carry in this fashion in entering a subterranean reservoir.
“My plans were well made and it was my intention to be lowered slowly that I might study these grim walls as I descended. I had gone down less than half the distance when I began to turn and whirl in the air like a dancing dervish, with the difference that the dervish whirls on solid ground, to the prayerful cries of his brethren, and he can stop when he wishes, while I whirled in mid-air in darkness and silence, like some dead celestial sphere and as powerless to stop. In our haste we had forgotten to take the kinks out of the new ropes we were using and my rope was avenging itself by beginning to unkink as my weight was felt on its twisted strands. For a few seconds I could do nothing but hang on dizzily. Meanwhile the rapidly twisting rope had caught and jammed in the block, serving as a brake and had entirely checked my downward progress.
“Suddenly a coil of rope from above fell loosely on my shoulders and aroused me to my danger. The men above, not knowing what was going on below in the darkness, were steadily paying out the rope and if the choked block became suddenly free, there was nothing to prevent my falling headlong through that terrible blackness to whatever was below. Hurriedly looping the rope as best I could, to insure my present safety, I yelled to the men above, and a voice came down to me, sounding thick and flat in that black space.
“‘What is it, Master?’ the voice said.
“‘Listen,’ I replied, as steadily as I could. ‘Do exactly as I tell you, for my life is at stake!’
“‘We will do it, Master,’ answered the voice.
“‘Haul up the slack of the rope until I tell you to stop.’