“That is all very well, Lady Yva, but you may know how to balance it; also when to get on and off.”

“If you are afraid, Bastin, remain here until your companions return.  They, I think, will make the journey.”

Bickley and I intimated that we would, though to tell the truth, if less frank we were quite as alarmed as Bastin.

“No, I’ll come too.  I suppose one may as well die this way as any other, and if anything were to happen to them and I were left alone, it would be worse still.”

“Then be prepared,” said Yva, “for presently this air-chariot of ours will return.  When it appears and hangs upon the edge, step on to it and throw yourselves upon your faces and all will be well.  At the foot of the shaft the motion lessens till it almost stops, and it is easy to spring, or even crawl to the firm earth.”

Then she stooped down and lifted Tommy who was sniffing suspiciously at the edge of the pit, his long ears blown straight above his head, holding him beneath her left arm and under her cloak, that he might not see and be frightened.

We waited a while in silence, perhaps for five or six minutes, among the most disagreeable, I think, that I ever passed.  Then far down in the brightness below appeared a black speck that seemed to grow in size as it rushed upwards.

“It comes,” said Yva.  “Prepare and do as I do.  Do not spring, or run, lest you should go too far.  Step gently on to the rock and to its centre, and there lie down.  Trust in me, all of you.”

“There’s nothing else to do,” groaned Bastin.

The great stone appeared and, as before, hung at the edge of the pit.  Yva stepped on to it quietly, as she did so, catching hold of my wrist with her disengaged hand.  I followed her feeling very sick, and promptly sat down.  Then came Bickley with the air of the virtuous hero of a romance walking a pirate’s plank, and also sat down.  Only Bastin hesitated until the stone began to move away.  Then with an ejaculation of “Here goes!” he jumped over the intervening crack of space and landed in the middle of us like a sack of coal.  Had I not been seated really I think he would have knocked me off the rock.  As it was, with one hand he gripped me by the beard and with the other grasped Yva’s robe, of neither of which would he leave go for quite a long time, although we forced him on to his face.  The lantern which he held flew from his grasp and descended the shaft on its own account.

“You silly fool!” exclaimed Bickley whose perturbation showed itself in anger.  “There goes one of our lamps.”

“Hang the lamp!” muttered the prostrate Bastin.  “We shan’t want it in Heaven, or the other place either.”

Now the stone which had quivered a little beneath the impact of Bastin, steadied itself again and with a slow and majestic movement sailed to the other side of the gulf.  There it felt the force of gravity, or perhaps the weight of the returning air pressed on it, which I do not know.  At any rate it began to fall, slowly at first, then more swiftly, and afterwards at an incredible pace, so that in a few seconds the mouth of the pit above us grew small and presently vanished quite away.  I looked up at Yva who was standing composedly in the midst of our prostrate shapes.  She bent down and called in my ear: