A Columbus of Space

  CHAPTER XX

  THE CORYBANTIA OF THE SUN

  I have several times mentioned Edmund's half-formed impression that therewas some very remarkable ceremony connected with the cyclical apparitionof the sun before the eyes of its worshipers. He had said, you mayrecall, that it seemed probable that the religious rites on these rareoccasions bore some resemblance to the _bacchanalia_, or _dionysia_, ofancient Greece. How he had derived that idea I do not know, but it provedto have been but too well founded---only he had not guessed the fulltruth. The followers of Dionysus made themselves drunken with the wine oftheir god and then indulged in the wildest excesses. Here, as we were nowto learn, the worshipers of the sun were seized with another kind ofmadness, leading to scenes that I believe, and hope, have never had theirparallel upon the earth.

  With our hearts sore for Juba, we had completed our preparations fordeparture within six hours after his tragic death. Ala had been informedof the tragedy, and had visited the car and looked upon the dead form,which I thought greatly affected her. Edmund held little communicationwith her, but it was evidently with her cooperation that he was able toprocure a kind of coffin, in which we placed Juba's body. I do not knowwhether Edmund informed her of his purpose to quit the planet, but shemust have known that we were going to convey our friend somewhere forinterment.

  We were actually on the point of casting loose the car, Ala and a crowdof attendants watching our movements, when there came the second greatsound of united voices which we had heard in this speechless world. Itrose like a sudden wail from the whole city. There was a rushing to andfro, Ala's face grew as pale as death, and her attendants fell upon theirknees and began to lift their hands heavenward, with an expression ofterror and wild appeal.

  At the same time we noticed a sudden brightening about us, and Edmundstepping out on the platform, immediately beckoned, with the first signsof uncontrollable excitement that I had ever seen him display. I wasinstantly at his side, and a single glance told the story.

  High in the heavens, the sun had burst forth in all its marveloussplendor!

  A vast rift was open in the cloud dome, through which the gigantic god ofday poured down his rays with a fierceness that was inconceivable. Theheat was like the blast of a furnace, and I felt my head beginning toswim.

  "Quick!" cried Edmund, grasping my sleeve and pulling me into the car."These rays are fatal! My God, what a sight!"

  As by magic the atmosphere had become crowded with air ships, and throngsof thousands were pouring from them upon the great platform and the otherstages, as well as upon the surrounding towers. Every available space wasfilling up with people hastening from below. As fast as they arrived theythrew themselves into the most extraordinary postures of adoration,lifting hands and eyes to the sun. I remember thinking, in a flash, thatthe intense glare of light must burn to the very sockets of theireyes--but they did not flinch. It was evident, however, that those wholooked directly in the sun's face were blinded.

  I looked round for Ala, and noticed with a thrill that her beautiful eyeswere wide open and glancing with an expression that I cannot describe,over her kneeling people. Beside her was the towering form of the greatpriest, who was staring straight at the sun--and yet, although his eyeswere open, it was evident that they were not rendered altogethersightless even by that awful light. They burned like coals. He was makingstrange gestures with his long arms, and in unison with his everymovement a low, heart-thrilling sound came from the throats of themultitude.

  Edmund, at my shoulder, muttered under his breath:

  "Shall I try to save her from this?--But to what good?"

  For a moment he seemed to hesitate, and I thought that he was about torush out upon the platform and seize Ala in order to rescue her from somedanger that he foresaw; when, all at once, the multitude rose to itsfeet, staggering, and began to rush to and fro, colliding with oneanother, falling, rising again, grappling, struggling, uttering terriblecries--and then I saw the flash of knives.

  "Good heavens!" shouted Edmund. "It is the ultraviolet rays! They havegone mad!"

  In the meantime the gigantic high priest whirled upon his heel, swinginghis arms abroad and uttering a kind of chant which was audible above thedreadful clamor of the rabid multitude. Though he had no weapon, heseemed the inspirer of this Aceldama, and around him its fury raged.Presently he drew close to Ala, who still stood motionless, as ifpetrified by the awful scene. I felt Edmund give a violent start, andbefore I comprehended his intention, he had dashed from the car, and wasforcing his way through the struggling throng toward the queen.

  "Edmund!" I shouted. "For God's sake, come back!"

  Jack started to follow him, but I held him back with all my strength.

  "Let me go!" he yelled. "Edmund will be killed!"

  "And you, too!" I answered. "Break open the locker and get the guns!"

  Jack threw himself upon the door of the locker, and strove to wrench itopen. Meanwhile, half paralyzed with excitement, I remained standing atthe door. I saw Edmund hurl aside those who attacked him, and push ontoward his goal. But a minute later a knife reached him, and he fell.

  "Quick, Jack, quick!" I shouted; "Edmund is down!"

  He had not got the locker open, but he darted to my side, and together werushed out into the press. Shall I ever forget that moment! We werepushed, hustled, struck, hurled to and fro; but we had only a few stepsto go, and we reached our leader where he lay. Seizing him, we succeededsomehow in carrying him into the car. Our clothes were torn, our handsand faces were bleeding, and there was blood on Jack's shoulder. Edmundwas alive. We placed him on a bench, and then the fascination of thespectacle without again enchained us.

  Suddenly my eyes fell upon Ingra, who had not previously made hisappearance. He was as insane as the others, and like many of them had aknife in his hand. In a moment he pushed his way toward Ala, and my heartrose in my throat, for I did not know what mad thought might be in hismind. If I had had a weapon, I believe I should have shot him, but beforehe had arrived within three yards of the queen there came an explosion offlame--I do not know how else to describe it, for it was so sudden--andthe great platform was instantly wrapped in licking tongues of fire.

  The wickerwork caught like tinder, and the gauzy screws threw off streamsof sparks like so many Fourth of July pinwheels. The gush of heat fromthe conflagration was terrible, and I turned my eyes in horror from thestricken multitude which seemed to have been shocked back into sanity bythe sudden universal danger only to find itself a helpless prey to theflames.

  "It's all over with them!" cried Jack.

  His words awoke me to our own danger. We must get away instantly. Knowingthe proper button to touch to throw the mechanism into action, I pushedit forcibly and pulled out a knob which I had often seen Edmundmanipulate in starting the car. It responded immediately, and in a secondwe were afloat, and clear of the tower. Seeing that the direction whichthe car was taking would remove us from the reach of the flames, and thatthere was nothing ahead to obstruct its progress, and knowing that Edmundoften left it to run of itself when the speed was slow, and there was nooccasion to change its course, I now hurried with Jack to Edmund's side.Henry all this time had been lying on a bench like one in a trance.

  Jack and I stripped off Edmund's coat, and at once saw the nature of hiswound. A knife had penetrated his side, and there was considerableeffusion of blood, but I was surgeon enough to feel sure that the woundwas not mortal. He roused up as he felt us working over him, and openinghis eyes, said faintly:

  "You will find bandages under the locker. What has happened? We aremoving."

  "The tower is all in flames!" exclaimed Jack, before I could interrupthim, for I should have preferred not to tell Edmund the real situationjust at that moment.

  Jack's words roused him like an electric shock. He pushed us aside, andstruggled to his feet. Then he sprang to a knob, and brought the car torest.

  We had been moving slowly, and had not gone more than a quarter of a milefrom
the tower. The car had swung round so that the fire was not visiblefrom the open door, but now, as Edmund arrested its progress, it swayedback again and the spectacle burst into view. The heat smote us in theface even at this distance. In the few minutes since I had last seen thetower the flames had made incredible progress. The whole of the immensestructure was blazing. Spires of flame leaped and swayed from its summit,partitions were falling, platforms giving way, and hundreds of air shipscaught by the sheets of fire were crumpling and falling in swoopingcurves like birds whose wings had been seared. I was thankful that wecould not see the unfortunates who were perishing in that furnace. It wasbut too evident that not a soul on the tower could have escaped.

  I glanced at Edmund's face. It was pale and set--the face of a man gazingupon an awful tragedy with which he is absolutely powerless to interfere.His breath came quick, but he did not utter a word. Then came thereaction, and, staggering, he leaned on my shoulder, and I led him to thebench from which he had risen. For a moment I thought he had fainted, butwhen I put a flask to his lips he swallowed a mouthful and immediatelyrecovered sufficient strength to sit up, resting his head on his hand.

  "Had we not better go on?" I asked.

  "Ye-es," he replied, after a moment's hesitation. "We can do nothing.They are all gone; the queen has perished with the rest! Pull out thatknob on the right, but gently, and then push this button. We must circleround the outskirts until we see whether the fire will seize upon theother towers and extend to the city below."

  I followed his directions, and, as we started our circuit, the vast towersuddenly swayed aside, and then, tumbling in upon itself, it went down ina whirl of smoke and eddying sparks.

  As far as we could see none of the other aerial structures had caughtfire. The entire absence of wind was no doubt the favorable circumstancethat saved them. But all the towers were swaying under the impulseimparted to them by the excited multitudes that crowded their platforms.Although the light of the conflagration faded as soon as the principaltower fell, the others continued to shine brilliantly in the solar rays,but suddenly, as we watched, the splendor failed, and the subduedillumination characteristic of the endless daylight under the great dometook its place. The rift in the clouds above had closed as unexpectedlyas it had recently opened, and the sun was no longer visible. It had beenin view less than an hour, but in that brief space what scenes had beenenacted!

  Presently Edmund, shaking his head sadly, said:

  "It is useless to stay longer. Even if the conflagration should spread wecould do nothing to help the unfortunates. They must depend uponthemselves."

  He then gave me directions for changing our course to a direct line awayfrom the city, at the same time increasing the speed. In the meantime hehimself aided in binding up his wound.

  "If there were the slightest chance that Ala could have escaped," hesaid, after a few minutes, "I would remain here, and search for her, butit is only too clear what her fate has been. She was really our onlyfriend, and now that she is gone, we must get away from the sight andmemory of these things as quickly as possible."

  Seeing that his strength was gradually coming back to him, and secretlyrejoicing that he bore this terrible blow so stoically, I felt that wemight now converse about the catastrophe which we had witnessed.

  "What do you think was the cause of the sudden outburst of fire?" Iasked.

  "It could hardly have been the direct action of the sunlight," hereplied. "It must have resulted from some accidental concentration of thesolar rays upon an inflammable substance by a mirror."

  "I recall seeing a large concave glass on the principal platform in whichthey were fond of looking at their magnified images," I said.

  "Yes, and no doubt that was the instrument chosen by fate to bring aboutthis terrible end. The power of the sunbeams is twice as great here asupon the earth, and the heat in the focus of a mirror a couple of feet indiameter would suffice to set fire to the flimsy materials which aboundedon the tower. Once started in such a place it ran like sparks in a trainof gunpowder."

  "But the madness that seized the multitude before the catastrophe--whatdid you mean by saying that it was the ultraviolet rays?"

  "I used the term," Edmund replied slowly, "without attaching a very clearmeaning to it. It simply expressed the general thought that was in mymind. It may be some other form of solar radiation to which we are notaccustomed on the earth, but which is specially effective here when thesun is uncovered because of the greater nearness of Venus. Thisatmosphere, notwithstanding its density, may well be diaphanous to theultraviolet rays, owing to some peculiarity in its composition which Ihave not had time to study. At any rate, it is evident, from what we haveseen, that the rays of the unclouded sun almost instantly affect thebrain. I, myself, felt them as if a thousand needles had been thrustthrough my skull; and I believe that they are responsible, rather thanthe shock of the wound in my side, for my present weakness."

  "And did you foresee the consequences of the uncovering of the sun?"

  "Not altogether. I had been led to think that something extraordinarymust accompany the periodical appearances of the great orb, and if Icould have known that an apparition was at hand I might have madepreparations for it and we might have been able to save Ala. When I sawwhat was going on, I tried to reach her, and you know the result."

  "But is it not incredible that a people of so peaceable a dispositionshould be seized with such murderous instincts when driven out of theirsenses by the effect of the rays?"

  "No, it does not seem so to me. You know the general tendency of suddenmadness, which usually produces a complete reversal of the ordinaryinstincts of the demented persons, making them dangerous to their dearestfriends. But why talk longer of this? It is too painful--toooverwhelming. What can man do against the great forces of Nature? At thismoment I solemnly declare to you that I regret that I ever entered uponthis expedition."

  While we had been talking, the car had receded to a great distance fromthe city, and now all but the tops of a few of the airy pinnacles werelost to our sight forever. But as we gazed, straining our sight for alast look, we perceived a familiar flickering of prismatic lightning onthe horizon. We glanced at each other meaningly. It was the color speechagain. But, oh, what must be the burden of their communications now!Suddenly, Edmund, whose eyes were fixed with intensity upon the scene,remarked, half shuddering:

  "It is the great Paean."

  Seized with curiosity, I pressed the magic box to my ear, and faintlythere echoed in my brain a few disconnected strains of that solemn music.But now, more than ever, it was insufferable to me, and I dropped the boxwith a crash.

  As Edmund recovered his strength he once more took charge of the car, andin a little while he had risen to a great height in order to takeadvantage of the easier going in the lighter atmosphere above. Thus weran on for several hours until we began to catch sight of the sea, whichwas soon beneath us, while far ahead we saw the tumbling clouds markingthe location of the belt of tempests behind which we knew lay the rangeof the crystal mountains. At length we issued from beneath the clouddome, and then we saw the sun again, and the storms whipping the waters,whose waves occasionally flashed up at us through rifts in the streamingclouds beneath. And at last the icy peaks began to glitter on thehorizon, and we knew that we were nearing the world of eternal night andfrost. It was with strange feelings that we once more beheld the crystalmountains, for our minds were filled with the recollection of the scenesthat had occurred among them when we were helpless in the grasp of theirtempests. But now there was a certain exhilaration in the thought thatthis time we could safely sail over their summits. As we passed over themwe looked eagerly for landmarks that might show where our former passagehad occurred, and as Edmund purposely dropped as close to their summitsas it was safe to go, I at last believed that I recognized the mightypeak of rainbows that had so nearly wrecked us.

  When we had left the mountains behind and entered into the region ofnight, I asked Edmund how he would proce
ed in order to find the locationof the caverns.

  "I shall go by the stars," he said. "I noted the bearing of the place,and I have no doubt that I can find it again."