I was thoughtful, turning it around many times. ‘I see, that explains the markings denoting east, south and west. No matter which way you turn it, the needle always points to the north and in this way one may know in which direction one is travelling.’
‘Very good!’ I believe he was proud of me.
‘Then it is a marvel!’ I cried, elated at this interesting discovery.
‘It may help us. It seems to work this far below the ground. Do not lose it now!’ he admonished.
Presently, Eisik held the lamps high above us and my master pushed the door to our left. We were surprised to find that it opened easily onto what looked like more steps, and to my great relief revealed no terrible creature. My master moved forward, preparing to descend ahead of us, when something stopped him abruptly. He shone his lamp into the void.
‘Mon Dieu! ‘ he exclaimed in a whisper, ‘there are three steps and then . . . nothing!’
‘By the blood of all the tribes!’ Eisik murmured.
‘Where does it go, master?’
‘Down, and so would you or I or Eisik, had we descended those steps in haste.’ He pulled the door closed and moved to the other. It too opened in the same way, but this time led down some steps to solid ground. My master went through first, then Eisik, mumbling prayers, with me going down last. I held the little stone the abbot had given me in one hand – for it was fast becoming a kind of amulet – and the compass and articles in the other as I proceeded down the perilously steep steps. Before I let go of the door, I was assailed by a terrible rank odour, and I sneezed. This, in turn, caused me to lose my footing and I let go of the stone, dropping it behind me as I fell the entire length of the stairs. Luckily, the bones of the young are supple and strong, and I did not fracture any part of me. I did, however, have a graze on both my hands, though somehow I had managed to hold on to the compass. Eisik helped me to my feet, at the same time inspecting me for any sign of injury. My master, now at the top of the stairs, called to us in a relieved voice, ‘Thank the armies of God and all His angelic hosts! Mon ami, your sneeze has saved us!’
I collected the parchment and charcoal and made my way painfully up to where my master stood, and there I saw the meaning of his words. The little gemstone had landed between the door and the stone frame, wedging itself there and effectively preventing it from closing. My master pointed to a spot on the edge of the door. ‘Look here, Christian, this is the mechanism.’ He showed me a metal device attached to the frame where it met the wall, pointing then to a hole in the wall in which this device resided when the door was closed. ‘You see? Because of this apparatus one is able to push the door open from the other side with ease. On our side, however, there are no handles, and one is unable to pull the door open because it is perfectly aligned with the wall. Had you walked through, allowing it to close behind you, we would not have been able to open it again! Now what Daniel told us about these tunnels becomes clear: there are many entrances, and only one exit.’
‘But master,’ I said, now thoroughly afraid, ‘these tunnels may continue infinitely, and we are bound to come across a trap that we shall not be able to anticipate.’
‘Infinite qua infinite,’ my master said because at that moment he chose to despise generalities. ‘This is impossible. This labyrinth cannot be indefinitely long, for what is infinite in multitude or size is unknowable in quantity, and what is infinite in variety of kind is unknowable in quality, and so on and so on . . . The earth itself is not infinite, on this all men of learning agree. And if the earth is finite, one of its components cannot be infinite, but must also, following this rule, be finite. It is a simple matter of logic . . . as is the fact that a thing cannot be knowable in all its parts and at the same time be unknowable in its whole.’
Eisik had been muttering prayers, but not one for ignoring a chance to refute my master, he responded, ‘The sages (men who have been known to hold infinity in their hands, and who create being from nonbeing) tell us that we may see the tail of a lion beneath some bushes and mistake it for a snake, Andre, or a snake mistaking it for a lion’s tail. Knowing a small part does not always lead to knowledge of the whole. To know a half circle we must know the circle.’
‘Yes, yes, but firstly, to hold infinity in one’s hand,’ my master said annoyed, ‘is to know its quality and its quantity, in which case it is no longer infinite, but finite. Moreover, dear Eisik, Aristotle tells us, everything that is manifest must arise either from what is, and as it is impossible for a thing to arise from what is not (on this all physicists agree),’ he said, ‘things must then come into being out of things that exist, that is out of things already present, but perhaps imperceptible to our senses.’