With a tremendous heave, Mortimer slowly pulls up his companion. Blake is able to find footholds in the rock. He is finally hauled clear of the well and rests on the edge, shivering.
Professor Mortimer, his belt still attached to his left wrist by the loop, puts his right hand on his friend's shoulder. "You OK, old fellow?"
The captain throws a fearful glance behind him towards the abyss that nearly swallowed him. "Yes, " he says, hesitatingly.* He hardly feel his arms anymore and his legs seem boneless, but he is whole. He shudders, remembering the pillagers' remains he saw at the bottom of the trap. "Now I know what that death's head signifies..."
In turn, Mortimer shudders. He closes his eyes and represses a wave of nausea, banishing from his mind the instant he saw the earth swallow his friend and the split second he thought it was forever.
Slowly, his fingers still a little numb - and the blood flow in his left hand almost completely cut off - he frees his arm from the belt clinging around it. He gets up to leave Blake space on the gallery's floor, but he still feels his knees sagging from shock and emotion.
"Francis, if you do know now, please, be more careful!" He suppresses a new heave and tries to oust the horrible memory of the last ten days. "It has not been three hours since I've known you were alive! I could not stand to lose you again!" Hands trembling slightly, he tries to pass his belt back through his belt loops.
His movements still slightly faltering, Blake rises. "You love me, then, a little?" he jokes, trying to alleviate the situation, but Mortimer is of no mind to laugh.
"Yes, Francis. More than it is sensible to." Attaching his belt, Mortimer's hands are steady again; it is for a whole new reason that he trembles now. "Please don't laugh."
"Oh." Blake is flabbergasted. "Oh." He did not expect that his unspoken affection would be requited, or even that Philip would admit to it. "Philip, I have the same affection for you."
"Oh." It is Mortimer's turn to remain speechless.
Their eyes meet in the glimmer of the remaining torch. But this is neither the place nor the time to explore this conversation.
"I'll be careful," Blake whispers. The professor moves closer and for a moment, grabs the captain's outstretched hand and gives a short, meaningful squeeze.
"We'll talk outside," Mortimer murmurs before pulling away. He bends to pick up the torch. "Let's be careful, but we need to get going all the same!"
"Let's go."
Blake nods and follows Mortimer, who leads the way this time around. Yes, as long as they have light they must walk on. They will have every opportunity to resume this conversation once they are out of this maze of dangerous galleries.
"Let's keep our eyes open! ..." The professor says as the two men continue their journey...
* It is interesting that Blake does not say "Yes" in the English version, but he does in the French one.
Arrgghhhhhhhh! No, they will not talk about it because they will have forgotten everything ! So either they will have to wait for more than forty years if you want to believe the "Aventure immobile" ... or just for four to five years - until Blake puts himself in danger again- in the universe of Between bubbles ...
Beta-read and edited by Blackpenny