CHAPTER XVIII.
A NAVY OF THE FUTURE.
Arnold's instructions from the Council had been to remain in Aeria,and make a thorough exploration of the wonderful region described inLouis Holt's manuscript, until the time came for him to meet the_Avondale_, the steamer which was to bring out the materials forconstructing the Terrorists' aerial navy.
Louis Holt and his faithful retainer, during the three years and ahalf that they had been shut up in it from the rest of the world, hadmade themselves so fully acquainted with its geography that verylittle of its surface was represented by blanks on the map which theformer had spent several months in constructing, and so no better ormore willing guides could have been placed at their service than theywere.
Holt was an enthusiastic naturalist, and he descanted at great lengthon the strangeness of the flora and fauna that it had been hisprivilege to discover and classify in this isolated and hithertounvisited region. It appeared that neither its animals nor its plantswere quite like those of the rest of the continent, but seemed ratherto belong to an anterior geological age.
From this fact he had come to the conclusion that at some very remoteperiod, while the greater portion of Northern Africa was yetsubmerged by the waters of that ocean of which what is now the Saharawas probably the deepest part, Aeria was one of the many islands thathad risen above its surface; and that, as the land rose and thewaters subsided, its peculiar shape had prevented the forms of lifewhich it contained from migrating or becoming modified in thestruggle for existence with other forms, just as the flora and faunaof Australia have been shut off from those of the rest of the world.
There were no traces of human inhabitants to be found; but there wereapparently two or three families of anthropoid apes, that seemed, sofar as Holt had been able to judge--for they were extremely shy andcunning, and therefore difficult of approach--to be several degreesnearer to man, both in structure and intelligence, than any othermembers of the Simian family that had been discovered in other partsof the world.
As may well be imagined, a month passed rapidly and pleasantly away,what with exploring excursions by land and air, in the latter ofwhich by no means the least diverting element was the keen andquaintly-expressed delight of Louis Holt at the new method of travel.Two or three times Arnold had, for his satisfaction, sent the _Ariel_flying over the ridge across which she had entered Aeria, but he hadalways been content with a glimpse of the outside world, and wasalways glad to get back again to the "happy valley," as he invariablycalled his isolated paradise.
The brief sojourn in this delightful land had brought back all theroses to Natasha's lovely cheeks, and had completely restored bothher and the Princess to the perfect health that they had lost duringtheir short but terrible experience of Russian convict life; buttowards the end of the month they both began to get restless andanxious to get away to the rendezvous with the steamer that wasbringing their friends and comrades out from England.
So it came about that an hour or so after sunrise on Friday, the 20thof May, the company of the _Ariel_ bade farewell for a time to LouisHolt and his companion, leaving with them a good supply of thecreature comforts of civilisation which alone were lacking in Aeria,rose into the air, and disappeared over the ridge to the north-west.
They had rather more than 2500 miles of plain and mountain and desertto cross, before they reached the sea-coast on which they expected tomeet the steamer, and Arnold regulated the speed of the _Ariel_ sothat they would reach it about daybreak on the following morning.
The voyage was quite uneventful, and the course that they pursued ledthem westward through the Zegzeb and Nyti countries, thennorth-westward along the valley of the Niger, and then westwardacross the desert to the desolate sandy shores of the Western Sahara,which they crossed at sunrise on the Sunday morning, in the latitudeof the island which was to form their rendezvous with the steamer.
They sighted the island about an hour later, but there was no sign ofany vessel for fifty miles round it. The ocean appeared totallydeserted, as, indeed, it usually is, for there is no trade with thisbarren and savage coast, and ships going to and from the southwardportions of the continent give its treacherous sandbanks as wide aberth as possible. This, in fact, was the principal reason why thisrocky islet, some sixty miles from the coast, had been chosen by theTerrorists for their temporary dockyard.
According to their calculations, the steamer would not be due foranother twenty-four hours at the least, and at that moment would beabout three hundred miles to the northward. The _Ariel_ was thereforeheaded in that direction, at a hundred miles an hour, with a view tomeeting her and convoying her for the rest of her voyage, andobviating such a disaster as Natasha's apprehensions pointed to.
The air-ship was kept at a height of two thousand feet above thewater, and a man was stationed in the forward conning tower to keep abright look-out ahead. For more than three hours she sped on her waywithout interruption, and then, a few minutes before twelve, the manin the conning tower signalled to the wheel-house--"Steamer insight."
The signal was at once transmitted to the saloon, where Arnold wassitting with the rest of the party; he immediately signalled"half-speed" in reply to it, and went to the conning tower to see thesteamer for himself.
She was then about twelve miles to the northward. At the speed atwhich the _Ariel_ was travelling a very few minutes sufficed to bringher within view of the ocean voyagers. A red flag flying from thestern of the air-ship was answered by a similar one from the mainmastof the steamer. The _Ariel's_ engines were at once slowed down, thefan-wheels went aloft, and she sank gently down to within twenty feetof the water, and swung round the steamer's stern.
As soon as they were within hailing distance, those on board theair-ship recognised Nicholas Roburoff and his wife, Radna Michaelis,and several other members of the Inner Circle, standing on the bridgeof the steamer. Handkerchiefs were waved, and cries of welcome andgreeting passed and re-passed from the air to the sea, until Arnoldraised his hand for silence, and, hailing Roburoff, said--
"Are you all well on board?"
"Yes, all well," was the reply, "though we have had rather a riskytime of it, for war was generally declared a fortnight ago, and wehave had to run the blockade for a good part of the way. That is whywe are a little before our time. Can you come nearer? We have someletters for you."
"Yes," replied Arnold. "I'll come alongside. You go ahead, I'll dothe rest."
So saying, he ran the _Ariel_ up close to the quarter of the_Avondale_ as easily as though she had been lying at anchor insteadof going twenty miles an hour through the water, and went forward andshook hands with Roburoff over the rail, taking a packet of lettersfrom him at the same time. Meanwhile Colston, who had grasped thesituation at a glance, had swung himself on to the steamer's deck,and was already engaged in an animated conversation with Radna.
The first advantage that Arnold took of the leisure that was now athis disposal, was to read the letter directed to himself that wasamong those for Natasha, the Princess, and Colston, which had beenbrought out by the _Avondale_. He recognised the writing asTremayne's, and when he opened the envelope he found that itcontained a somewhat lengthy letter from him, and an enclosure in anunfamiliar hand, which consisted of only a few lines, and was signed"Natas."
He started as his eye fell on the terrible name, which now meant somuch to him, and he naturally read the note to which it was appendedfirst. There was neither date nor formal address, and it ran asfollows:--
You have done well, and fulfilled your promises as a true man should. For the personal service that you have rendered to me I will not thank you in words, for the time may come when I shall be able to do so in deeds. What you have done for the Cause was your duty, and for that I know that you desire no thanks. You have proved that you hold in your hands such power as no single man ever wielded before. Use it well, and in the ages to come men shall remember your name with blessings, and you, if the Master of Destiny perm
its, shall attain to your heart's desire.
NATAS.
Arnold laid the little slip of paper down almost reverently, for, fewas the words were, they were those of a man who was not only Natas,the Master of the Terror, but also the father of the woman whoselove, in spite of his oath, was the object to the attainment of whichhe held all things else as secondary, and who therefore had the powerto crown his life-work with the supreme blessing without which itwould be worthless, however glorious, for he knew full well that,though he might win Natasha's heart, she herself could never be hisunless Natas gave her to him.
The other letter was from Tremayne, dated more than a fortnightpreviously, and gave him a brief _resume_ of the course of events inEurope since his voyage of exploration had begun. It also urged himto push on the construction of the aerial navy as fast as possible,as there was now no telling where or how soon its presence might berequired to determine the issue of the world-war, the firstskirmishes of which had already taken place in Eastern Europe. Natasand the Chief were both in London, making the final arrangements forthe direction of the various diplomatic and military agents of theBrotherhood throughout Europe. From London they were to go toAlanmere, where they would remain until all arrangements werecompleted. As soon as the fleet was built and the crews andcommanders of the air-ships had thoroughly learned their duties, theflagship was to go to Plymouth, where the _Lurline_ would be lying.The news of her arrival would be telegraphed to Alanmere, and Natasand Tremayne would at once come south and put to sea in her. Theair-ship was to wait for them at a point two hundred miles duesouth-west of the Land's End, and pick them up. The yacht was then tobe sunk, and the Executive of the Terrorists would for the time beingvanish from the sight of men.
It is unnecessary to say that Arnold carried out the plans laid downin this letter in every detail, and with the utmost possibleexpedition. The _Avondale_ arrived the next day at the island whichhad been chosen as a dockyard, and the ship-building was at oncecommenced.
All the material for constructing the air-ships had been brought outcompletely finished as far as each individual part was concerned, andso there was nothing to do but to put them together. The crew andpassengers of the steamer included the members of the Executive ofthe Inner Circle, and sixty picked members of the Outer Circle,chiefly mechanics and sailors, destined to be first the builders andthen the crews of the new vessels.
These, under Arnold's direction, worked almost day and night at thetask before them. Three of the air-ships were put together at a time,twenty men working at each, and within a month from the time that the_Avondale_ discharged her cargo, the twelve new vessels were ready totake the air.
They were all built on the same plan as the _Ariel_, and eleven ofthem were practically identical with her as regards size and speed;but the twelfth, the flagship of the aerial fleet, had been designedby Arnold on a more ambitious scale.
This vessel was larger and much more powerful than any of the others.She was a hundred feet long, with a beam of fifteen feet amidships.On her five masts she carried five fan-wheels, capable of raising hervertically to a height of ten thousand feet without the assistance ofher air-planes, and her three propellers, each worked by duplexengines, were able to drive her through the air at a speed of twohundred miles an hour in a calm atmosphere.
She was armed with two pneumatic guns forward and two aft, eachtwenty-five feet long and with a range of twelve miles at an altitudeof four thousand feet; and in addition to these she carried twoshorter ones on each broadside, with a range of six miles at the sameelevation. She also carried a sufficient supply of power-cylinders togive her an effective range of operations of twenty thousand mileswithout replenishing them.
In addition to the building materials and the necessary tools andappliances for putting them together, the cargo of the _Avondale_ hadincluded an ample supply of stores of all kinds, not the leastimportant part of which consisted of a quantity of power-cylinderssufficient to provide the whole fleet three times over.
The necessary chemicals and apparatus for charging them were also onboard, and the last use that Arnold made of the engines of thesteamer, which he had disconnected from the propeller and turned toall kinds of uses during the building operations, was to connect themwith his storage pumps and charge every available cylinder to itsutmost capacity.
At length, when everything that could be carried in the air-ships hadbeen taken out of the steamer, she was towed out into deep water, andthen a shot from one of the flagship's broadside guns sent her to thebottom of the sea, so severing the last link which had connected thenow isolated band of revolutionists with the world on which they wereere long to declare war.
The naming of the fleet was by common consent left to Natasha, andher half-oriental genius naturally led her to appropriately name theair-ships after the winged angels and air-spirits of Moslem and otherEastern mythologies. The flagship she named the _Ithuriel_, after theangel who was sent to seek out and confound the Powers of Darkness inthat terrific conflict between the upper and nether worlds, which wasa fitting antetype to the colossal struggle which was now to be wagedfor the empire of the earth.
Arnold's first task, as soon as the fleet finally took the air, wasto put the captains and crews of the vessels through a thoroughdrilling in management and evolution. A regular code of signals hadbeen arranged, by means of which orders as to formation, speed,altitude, and direction could be at once transmitted from theflagship. During the day flags were used, and at night flashes fromelectric reflectors.
The scene of these evolutions was practically the course taken by the_Ariel_ from Aeria to the island; and as the captains and lieutenantsof the different vessels were all men of high intelligence, andcarefully selected for the work, and as the mechanism of theair-ships was extremely simple, the whole fleet was well in hand bythe time the mountain mass of Aeria was sighted a week after leavingthe island.
Arnold in the _Ithuriel_ led the way to a narrow defile on thesouth-western side, which had been discovered during his first visit,and which admitted of entrance to the valley at an elevation of about3000 feet. Through this the fleet passed in single file soon aftersunrise one lovely morning in the middle of June, and within an hourthe thirteen vessels had come to rest on the shores of the lake.
Then for the first time, probably, since the beginning of the world,the beautiful valley became the scene of a busy activity, in themidst of which the lean wiry figure of Louis Holt seemed to be here,there, and everywhere at once, doing the honours of Aeria as thoughit were a private estate to which the Terrorists had come by hisspecial invitation.
He was more than ever delighted with the air-ships, and especiallywith the splendid proportions of the _Ithuriel_, and the brilliantlustre of her polished hull, which had been left unpainted, and shoneas though her plates had been of burnished silver. Altogether he waswell pleased with this invasion of a solitude which, in spite of itsgreat beauty and his professed contempt for the world in general, hadfor the last few months been getting a good deal more tedious than hewould have cared to admit.
In the absence of Natas and the Chief, the command of the new colonydevolved, in accordance with the latter's directions, upon NicholasRoburoff, who was a man of great administrative powers, and who setto work without an hour's delay to set his new kingdom in order,marking out sites for houses and gardens, and preparing materials forbuilding them and the factories for which the water-power of thevalley was to be utilised.
Arnold, as admiral of the fleet, had transferred the command of the_Ariel_ to Colston, but he retained him as his lieutenant in the_Ithuriel_ for the next voyage, partly because he wanted to have himwith him on what might prove to be a momentous expedition, and partlybecause Natasha, who was naturally anxious to rejoin her father assoon as possible, wished to have Radna for a companion in place ofthe Princess, who had elected to remain in the valley. As anotherseparation of the lovers, who, according to the laws of theBrotherhood, now only waited for the formal consent of Natas to th
eirmarriage, was not to be thought of, this arrangement gave everybodythe most perfect satisfaction.
Three days sufficed to get everything into working order in the newcolony, and on the morning of the fourth the _Ithuriel_, having onboard the original crew of the _Ariel_, reinforced by two engineersand a couple of sailors, rose into the air amidst the cheers of theassembled colonists, crossed the northern ridge, and vanished like asilver arrow into space.