The Fire People

  CHAPTER XII.

  THE LANDING ON MERCURY.

  _(Narrative continued by Alan Newland.)_

  With hardly more than a perceptible tremor our strange vehicle came torest upon the surface of Mercury. For a moment Miela and I stood regardingeach other silently. Then she left her station at the levers of themechanism and placed her hands gently on my shoulders. "You are welcome,my husband, here to my world."

  I kissed her glowing, earnest face. We had reached our journey's end. Mywork was about to begin--upon my own efforts now depended the salvation ofthat great world I had left behind. What difficulties, what dangers, wouldI have to face, here among the people of this strange planet? I thrilledwith awe at the thought of it; and I prayed God then to hold me firm andsteadfast to my purpose.

  Miela must have divined my thoughts, for she said simply: "You will havegreat power here, Alan; and it is in my heart that you will succeed."

  We slid back one of the heavy metallic curtains and looked out through thethick glass of the window. It was daylight--a diffused daylight like thatof a cloudy midday on my own earth. An utterly barren waste met my gaze.We seemed to have landed in a narrow valley. Huge cliffs rose on bothsides to a height of a thousand feet or more.

  These cliffs, as well as the floor of the valley itself, shone with abrilliant glare, even in the half light of the sunless day. They were notcovered with soil, but seemed rather to be almost entirely metallic,copper in color. The whole visible landscape was devoid of any sign ofvegetation, nor was there a single living thing in sight.

  I shuddered at the inhospitable bleakness of it.

  "Where are we, Miela?"

  She smiled at my tone. It was my first sight of Mercury except vague,distant glimpses of its surface through the mist coming down.

  "You do not like my world?"

  She was standing close beside me, and at her smiling words raised one ofher glorious red wings and spread it behind me as though for protection.Then, becoming serious once more, she answered my question.

  "We are fortunate, Alan. It is the Valley of the Sun, in the LightCountry. I know it well. We are very close to the Great City."

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  "I'll leave it all to you, little wife. Shall we start at once?"

  Her hand pressed mine.

  "I shall lead you now," she said. "But afterward--_you_ it will be wholeads _me_--who leads us all."

  She crossed to the door fastenings. As she loosed them I remember I hearda slight hissing sound. Before I could reach her she slid back the door. Agreat wave of air rushed in upon us, sweeping us back against the wall. Iclutched at something for support, but the sweep of wind stopped almost atonce.

  I had stumbled to my knees. "Miela!" I cried in terror.

  She was beside me in an instant, wide-eyed with fear, which even then Icould see was fear only for me.

  I struggled to my feet. My head was roaring. All the blood in my bodyseemed rushing to my face.

  After a moment I felt better. Miela pulled me to a seat.

  "I did not think, Alan. The pressure of the air is different here fromyour world. It was so wrong of me, for I knew. It was so when I landedthere on your earth."

  I had never thought to ask her that, nor had she ever spoken of it to me.She went on now to tell me how, when first she had opened the door on thatlittle Florida island, all the air about her seemed rushing away. She hadfelt then as one feels transported quickly to the rarified atmosphere of agreat height.

  Here the reverse had occurred. We had brought with us, and maintained, anair density such as that near sea level on earth. But here on Mercury theair was far denser, and its pressure had rushed in upon us instantly thedoor was opened. Miela had been affected to a much less extent than I, andin consequence recovered far more quickly.

  The feeling, after the first nausea, the pressure and pain in my ears andthe roaring in my head, had passed away. A sense of heaviness, aninability to breathe with accustomed freedom, remained with me for days.

  We sat quiet for some minutes, and then left the vehicle. Miela wasdressed now as I had first seen her on the Florida bayou. As we steppedupon the ground she suddenly tore the veil from her breast, spread herwings, and, with a laugh of sheer delight, flew rapidly up into the air. Istood watching her, my heart beating fast. Up--up she went into the grayhaze of the sky. Then I could see her spread her great wings, motionless,a giant bird soaring over the valley.

  A few moments more, and she was again beside me, alighting on the tip ofone toe with perfect poise and grace almost within reach of my hand.

  I do not quite know what feelings possessed me at that moment. Perhaps itwas a sense of loss as I saw this woman I loved fly away into the airwhile I remained chained to the ground. I cannot tell. But when she cameback, dropping gently down beside me, ethereal and beautiful as an angelfrom heaven itself, a sudden rush of love swept over me.

  I crushed her to me, glorying in the strength of my arms and the frailnessof her tender little body.

  When I released her she looked up into my eyes archly.

  "You do not like me to fly? Your wife is free--and, oh, Alan, it is sogood--so good to be back here again where I _can_ fly."

  She laughed at my expression.

  "You are a man, too--like all the men of my world. That is the feeling youcame here to conquer, Alan--so that the women here may all keep theirwings--and be free."

  I think I was just a little ashamed of myself for a moment. But I knew myfeeling had been only human. I _did_ want her to fly, to keep thosebeautiful wings. And in that moment they came to represent not only herfreedom, but my trust in her, my very love itself.

  I stroked their sleek red feathers gently with my hand.

  "I shall never feel that way again, Miela," I said earnestly.

  She laughed once more and kissed me, and the look in her eyes told me sheunderstood.

  The landscape, from this wider viewpoint, seemed even more bleak anddesolate than before. The valley was perhaps half a mile broad, and woundaway upward into a bald range of mountains in the distance.

  The ground under my feet was like a richly metallic ore. In places it waswholly metal, smooth and shining like burnished copper. Below us thevalley broadened slightly, falling into what I judged must be open countrywhere lay the city of our destination.

  For some minutes I stood appalled at the scene. I had often been in thedeserts of America, but never have I felt so great a sense of desolation.Always before it had been the lack of water that made the land so arid;and always the scene seemed to hold promise of latent fertility, as thoughonly moisture were needed to make it spring into fruition.

  Nothing of the kind was evident here. There was, indeed, no lack of water.I could see a storm cloud gathering in the distance. The air I wasbreathing seemed unwarrantably moist; and all about me on the groundlittle pools remained from the last rainfall. But here there was no soil,not so much even as a grain of sand seemed to exist. The air was warm, aswarm as a midsummer's day in my own land, a peculiarly oppressive, moistheat.

  I had been prepared for this by Miela. I was bareheaded, since there neverwas to be direct sunlight. My feet were clad in low shoes with rubbersoles. I wore socks. For the rest, I had on simply one of my old pairs ofshort, white running pants and a sleeveless running shirt. With theexception of the shoes it was exactly the costume I had worn in the racesat college.

  I had been standing motionless, hardly more than a step from the car inwhich we had landed. Suddenly, in the midst of my meditations on thestrange scene about me, Miela said: "Go there, Alan."

  She was smiling and pointing to a little rise of ground near by. I lookedat her blankly.

  "Jump, Alan," she added.

  The spot to which she pointed was perhaps forty feet away. I knew what shemeant, and, stepping back a few paces, came running forward and leapedinto the air. I cleared the intervening space with no more effort than Icould have jumped less than half that distance on earth.

/>   Miela flew over beside me.

  "You see, Alan, my husband, it is not so bad, perhaps, that I can fly."

  She was smiling whimsically, but I could see her eyes were full of pride.

  "There is no other man on Mercury who could do that, Alan," she added.

  I tried successive leaps then, always with the same result. I calculatedthat here the pull of gravity must be something less than one-half that onthe earth. It was far more than father had believed.

  Miela watched my antics, laughing and clapping her hands with delight. Ifound I tired very quickly--that is, I was winded. This I attributed tothe greater density of the air I was breathing.

  In five minutes I was back at Miela's side, panting heavily.

  "If I can--ever get so I breathe right--" I said.

  She nodded. "A very little time, I think."

  I sat down for a moment to recover my breath. Miela explained then that wewere some ten miles from the fertile country surrounding the city in whichher mother lived, and about fifteen miles from the outskirts of the cityitself. I give these distances as they would be measured on earth. Wedecided to start at once. We took nothing with us. The journey would be ashort one, and we could easily return at some future time for what we hadleft behind. We needed no food for so short a trip, and plenty of waterwas at hand.

  Only one thing Miela would not part with--the single memento she hadbrought from earth to her mother. She refused to let me touch it, butinsisted on carrying it herself, guarding it jealously.

  It was Beth's little ivory hand mirror!

  We started off. Miela had wound the filmy scarf about her shoulders againwith a pretty little gesture.

  "I need not use wings, Alan, when I am with you. We shall go together, youand I--on the ground."

  And then, as I started off vigorously, she added plaintively from behindme: "If--if you will go slow, my husband, or will wait for me."

  I altered my pace to suit hers. I had quite recovered my breath now, andfor the moment felt that I could carry her much faster than she couldwalk. I did gather her into my arms once, and ran forward briskly, whileshe laughed and struggled with me to be put down. She seemed no more thana little child in my arms; but, as before, the heavy air so oppressed methat in a few moments I was glad enough to set her again upon her feet.

  The valley broadened steadily as we advanced. For several miles the lookof the ground remained unchanged. I wondered what curious sort of metalthis might be--so like copper in appearance. I doubted if it were copper,since even in this hot, moist air it seemed to have no property ofoxidation.

  I asked Miela about it, and she gave me its Mercutian name at once; but ofcourse that helped me not a bit. She added that outcroppings of it, almostin the pure state, like the great deposits of native copper I had seen onearth, occurred in many parts of Mercury.

  I remembered then Bob Trevor's mention of it as the metal of the apparatusused by the invaders of Wyoming.

  We went on three or four miles without encountering a single sign of life.No insects stirred underfoot; no birds flew overhead. We might havebeen--by the look of it--alone on a dead planet.

  "Is none of your mountain country inhabited, Miela?" I asked.

  She shook her head.

  "Only on the plains do people live. There is very little of good land inthe Light Country, and so many people. That it is which has caused muchtrouble in the past. It is for that, many times, the Twilight People havemade war upon us."

  I found myself constantly able to breathe more easily. Our progress downthe valley seemed now irritatingly slow, for I felt I could walk or runthree times faster than Miela. Finally I suggested to her that she fly,keeping near me; and that I would make the best speed forward I could. Shestared at me quizzically. Then, seeing I was quite sincere, she flung herlittle arms up about my neck and pulled me down to kiss her.

  "Oh, Alan--the very best husband in all the universe, you are. None othercould there be--like you."

  She had just taken off her scarf again when suddenly I noticed a littlespeck in the sky ahead. It might have been a tiny bird, flying toward usfrom the plains below.

  "Miela--look!"

  She followed the direction of my hand. The speck grew rapidly larger.

  "A girl, Alan," she said after a moment. "Let us wait."

  We stood silent, watching. It was indeed a girl, flying over the valleysome two or three hundred feet above the ground. As she came closer I sawher wings were blue, not red like Miela's. She came directly toward us.

  Suddenly Miela gave a little cry.

  "Anina! Anina!"

  Without a word to me she spread her wings and flew up to meet the oncominggirl.

  I stood in awe as I watched them. They met almost above me, and I couldsee them hovering with clasped hands while they touched cheeks inaffectionate greeting. Then, releasing each other, they flew rapidly awaytogether--smaller and smaller, until a turn in the valley hid thementirely from my sight.

  I sat down abruptly. A lump was in my throat, a dismal lonesomeness in myheart. I knew Miela would return in a moment--that she had met some friendor relative--yet I could not suppress the vague feeling of sorrow and theknowledge of my own incapacity that swept over me.

  For the first time then I wanted wings--wanted them myself--that I mightjoin this wife I loved in her glorious freedom of the air. And I realized,too, for the first time, how that condition Miela so deplored on Mercuryhad come to pass. I could understand now very easily how it was thatmarried women were deprived by their husbands of these wings which theythemselves were denied by the Creator.

  Hardly more than ten minutes had passed before I saw the two girls againflying toward me. They alighted a short distance away, and approached me,hand in hand.

  The girl with Miela, I could see now, was somewhat shorter, even slighterof build, and two or three years younger. Her face held the same delicate,wistful beauty. The two girls strongly resembled one another in feature.The newcomer was dressed in similar fashion to Miela--sandals on her feet,and silken trousers of a silvery white, fastened at the ankles with goldencords.

  Her wings, as I have said, were blue--a delight light blue that, as Iafterward noticed, matched her eyes. Her hair was the color of spun gold;she wore it in two long, thick braids over her shoulders and fastened atthe waist and knee. She was, in very truth, the most ethereal human beingI had ever beheld. And--next to Miela--the most beautiful.

  Miela pulled her forward, and she came on, blushing with the sweet shynessof a child. She was winding her silken silver scarf about her breasthastily, as best she could with her free hand.

  "My sister, Anina--Alan," said Miela simply.

  The girl stood undecided; then, evidently obeying Miela's swift words ofinstruction, she stood up on tiptoe, put her arms about my neck, andkissed me full on the lips.

  Miela laughed gayly.

  "You must love her very much, Alan. And she--your little sister--will loveyou, too. She is very sweet."

  Then her face sobered suddenly.

  "Tao has returned, Alan. And he has sent messengers to our city. They areappealing to our people to join Tao in his great conquest. They say Taohas here with him, on Mercury, a captive earthman, with wonderful strengthof body, who will help in the destruction of his own world!"