Down, down, down the long slope before us, to where four miles away
Hades Hills lifted an uncompromising barrier across the way,
stretched the lake and river, black as ink now under leaden sky and
shadowing hills. The lake, which was three-quarters of a mile
wide, dipped not only with the course of the river but appeared to
dip also from one side to the other. Not a ripple or touch of
white could be seen anywhere. All seemed motionless as if an
unseen hand had touched and stilled it. A death-like quiet reigned
and as we glided smoothly down with the tide we could see all about
us a soft, boiling motion at the surface of this black flood, which
gave the sense of treachery as well as mystery. As I looked down
the long slope to where the river appeared to lose itself into the
side of the mountain it seemed to me that there, if anywhere, the
prophecy of Job's dream must be fulfilled. Cerberus might easily
be waiting for us there. He would have scarcely time to fawn upon
us till we should go shooting past him into the Pit.
But after all the river was not shallow up in the mountain. It
only turned to the west and swifter than ever, we flew down with
its current, no longer smooth and dark, but broken into white water
over a broader bed of smooth-worn boulders, till three miles below
we passed out into a quiet expansion, where the tension relaxed and
with minds at ease we could draw in long, satisfying breaths.
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