A Columbus of Space
CHAPTER IV
THE CAVERNS OF VENUS
For two or three minutes the creature continued to stare at us,motionless; and we stared at him. It was so dramatic that it makes mynerves tingle now when I think of it. His eyes alone were enough toharrow up your soul. Huge beyond belief, round and luminous as fullmoons, they were filled with the phosphorescent greenish-yellow glarethat sometimes appears in the expanded pupils of a cat or a wild beast.The great hairy head was black, but the stocky body was as white as apolar bear. The arms were apelike and very long and muscular, and theentire aspect of the creature betokened immense strength and activity.
Edmund was the first to recover from the stupor of surprise, andinstantly he did a thing so apparently absurd but so marvelous in itscalculated effect that no brain but his could have conceived it. Itshakes me at once with laughter and recollected terror when I recall it.
"WELL, HELLO YOU!" he called out in a voice of such stentorian power thatwe jumped as at a thunderclap. The effect on the strange brute waselectric. A film shot across the big eyes, he leaped into the air,uttering a squeak that was ridiculous, coming from an animal of such sizeand strength, and instantly disappeared, tumbling down the steps.
But we were as much frightened as the ugly monster himself. We stared atEdmund, speechless in our amazement. Never could I have believed itpossible for such a voice to issue from the human throat. It was not thevoice of our friend, nor the voice of a man at all, but an indescribableclangor; and the words I have quoted had been scarcely distinguishable,so shattered were they by the crash of sound that whirled them into ourastonished ears. Edmund, seeing us gaping in speechless wonder, laughedwith such an appearance of hearty enjoyment as I had never known him toexhibit--and his merriment produced another thunderous explosion thatshook the air.
Then the truth burst upon me, and I exclaimed:
"It's the atmosphere!"
I had not spoken very loudly, but the words seemed to reverberate in mymouth, as if to testify to the correctness of my explanation.
"Yes," said Edmund, taking pains to moderate his voice, "you've hit it,it's the atmosphere. I had calculated on an effect of the kind, but thereality exceeds all that I had anticipated. Spectroscopic analysis aswell as telescopic appearances demonstrated long ago that the atmosphereof Venus was extraordinarily extensive and dense, from which fact Iinferred that we should encounter some wonderful acoustic phenomena here,and this was in my mind when, on stepping out of the car, I addressed youin a whisper. The reaction even of the whisper on my organs of speechtold me that I was right, and showed me what to expect if the full powerof the voice were used. When we caught sight of the creature at the topof the pit I had no desire to shoot him, and I saw that he was toopowerful to be captured alive. In a second I had decided what to do. Itran through my mind that, in a world where the density, and probablysomething also in the peculiar constitution of the air, had the effect ofvastly magnifying sound, the phonetic and acoustic organs of theinhabitants would be modified, and that the sounds uttered by them wouldbe much fainter than those that we are accustomed to hear from livingcreatures on the earth. That being so, I argued that a very great andheavy sound coming from a strange animal would produce in the creaturebefore us a paralyzing terror. You have seen that it did so. I expectthat this will give us an immense advantage to begin with. We havealready inspired so great a fear that I believe that we can now safelyfollow the creature into its habitation, and encounter without danger anyof its congeners that may be there. Nevertheless, I shall not ask you torun any risks, and I will alone descend into the pit."
"If you do, may I be hanged for sheep stealing!"
You will guess at once that it was Jack who had spoken thus.
"No, sir," he continued, "if you go, we all go. Isn't that so, boys?"
In answer to an appeal thus put, neither Henry nor myself could have hungback even if we had had the disposition to do so. But I believe that weall instinctively felt that our place was by Edmund's side, wherever hemight choose to go.
"Go ahead, then, Edmund," Jack added, seeing that we consented, "we'rewith you." And then his enthusiasm taking fire, as usual, he exclaimed:"Hurrah! Columbus forever! We've conquered a hemisphere with a blankshot."
And so we began our descent into the mysterious pit. The strange lightthat came from it, and formed a shaft in the dense atmosphere above likesunlight in a haymow, was accompanied by a considerable degree of heat,which was very grateful to our lungs after the frigid plunge that we hadtaken from the comfortable car. As we descended, the temperaturecontinually rose until we were glad to throw off our Arctic togs, andleave them on a shelf of rock to await our return. But, fortunately, wedid not forget to take the pistols from the pockets before leaving thegarments. I am very uncertain what would have been the future course ofour history if we had neglected this precaution.
It was an awful hole for depth. The steps, rudely cut, wound round andround the sides like those in a cathedral tower, but the pit was notperfectly circular. It looked like a natural formation, such as thevertical entrance to a limestone cavern, or the throat of a sleepingvolcano. But whatever the nature of the pit might be, I was convincedthat the steps were of artificial origin. They were reasonably regular inheight and broad enough for two, or even three, persons to go abreast.
When we had descended perhaps as much as two hundred feet, we suddenlyfound ourselves in a broad cavern with a surprisingly level floor. Thetemperature had been steadily rising all the time, and here it was aswarm as in an ordinary living room. The cavern appeared to be abouttwenty yards broad and eight or ten feet in height, with a flat roof ofrock. It was dimly illuminated by a small heap of what seemed to be hardcoal, burning in a very roughly constructed brazier, which, as far aslooks went, one would have said was constructed of iron.
You will imagine our surprise upon seeing these things. The appearance ofthe gorilla-like beast with the awful eyes had certainly not led us toanticipate the finding in his lair of any such evidences of humanintelligence, and we stood fast in our tracks for a minute or two, nobodyspeaking a word. Then Edmund said:
"This is far better than I hoped. I had not thought about caverns, thoughI ought to have foreseen the probability of something of the kind. It ishard to drive out life as long as a world has solid foundations, and airfor breathing. I shall be greatly surprised now if these creatures do notturn out to be at least as intelligent as our African or Australiansavages."
"But," said I, "the fellow that we saw surely cannot have moreintelligence than a beast. There must be some more highly developedcreatures living here."
"I'm not so sure of that," Edmund responded. "Looks go for nothing insuch a case. He had arms and hands, and his brain may be well organized."
"If his brain is as big as his eyes," Jack put in, "he ought to be ableto give odds to old Solomon and beat him easy. My, but I'd like to seetheir spectacles--if they ever wear any!"
Jack's humor recalled us from our meditation, and we began to look aboutmore carefully. There was not a living creature in sight, but over in acorner I detected a broad hole, down which the steps continued todescend.
"Here's the way," said Edmund, discovering the steps at the same moment."Down we go."
He again led the way, and we resumed the descent. As we stumbled alongdownward we began to talk of a strange but agreeable odor which we hadnoticed in the cavern. Edmund said that it was due, perhaps, to somepeculiar quality of the atmosphere.
"I think," he continued, "that it is heavily charged with oxygen. Youhave noticed that none of us feels the slightest fatigue, notwithstandingthe precipitancy of our long descent."
I reflected that this might also be the cause of our rising courage, forI was sure that not one of us felt the slightest fear in thus pushing ontoward dangers of whose nature we could form no idea. The steps,precisely like those above, wound round and round and led us down Ishould say as much as three hundred feet before we entered anothercavern, larger and loftier than the first.
And there we found them!
There was never another such sight! It made our blood run cold once more,rather with surprise than fear, though the latter quickly followed.
Ranged along the farther side of the cavern, and visible in the light ofanother glowing heap in the center, were as many as thirty of those hugehairy creatures, standing shoulder to shoulder, their great eyes glaringlike bull's-eye lanterns. But the thing that filled us with terror wastheir motions.
You have read, with thrilling nerves, how a huge cobra, reared on hiscoils, sways his terrible head from side to side before striking. Well,all those black heads before us were swaying in unison, but with asickening circular movement, which was regularly reversed in direction.Three times by the right and then three times by the left those headscircled, in rhythmic cadence, while the luminous eyes seemed to leavephosphorescent rings in the air, intersecting one another in consequenceof the rapidity of the motion.
It was such a spectacle as I had never beheld in the wildest dream. Itwas baleful. It was the charm of the serpent fascinating his terrifiedprey. In an instant I felt my brain turning, and I staggered in spite ofmy utmost efforts. A kind of paralysis stiffened my limbs.
Presently, all moving together, and uttering a hissing, whistling sound,they began slowly to approach us, keeping in line, each shaggy leg liftedat the same moment, like so many soldiers on parade, while the headscontinued to swing, and the glowing eyes to cut linked circles in theair. But for Edmund we should certainly have been lost. Standing a littleto the fore, he spoke to us over his shoulder, in a low voice:
"Take out your pistols, but don't shoot unless they make a rush. Thenkill as many as you can. I'll knock over the leader in the center, and Ithink that will be enough."
We could as easily have stirred our arms if we had been marble statues,but he promptly raised his pistol, and the explosion followed on theinstant. The report was like an earthquake. It shocked us into our sensesand almost out of them again. The weight of the air and the confinementof the cavern magnified and concentrated the sound so that it was awfulbeyond belief. The fellow in the center was hurled back as if shot from acatapult, and the others fell at flat as he, and lay there groveling,their big eyes filming and swaying, but no longer in unison.
The charm was broken, and as we saw our fearful enemies prostrate, ourcourage returned at a bound.
"I thought as much," said Edmund coolly. "But I'm sorry now that I aimedat that fellow; the sound alone would have sufficed. It was not necessaryto take life. However, we should probably have had to come to iteventually, and now we have them thoroughly cowed. Our safety consists inkeeping them terrified."
Thus speaking, Edmund boldly approached the groveling row, and pushedwith his foot the furry body of the one he had shot. The bullet had gonethrough his head. At Edmund's approach the creatures sank lower on therocky floor, and those nearest him turned up their moon eyes with anexpression of submission and supplication that was grotesque. He motionedus to join him and, imitating him, we began to pat and smooth theshrinking bodies until, understanding that we would not hurt them, theygradually acquired confidence.
In the meantime the crowd in the cavern increased, others coming inthrough side passages, and exhibiting the utmost astonishment at thespectacle which greeted them. It was clear that those who had taken partin the opening scene imparted to the newcomers a knowledge of thesituation of affairs, and we could see that our prestige was thoroughlyestablished. It remained to utilize our advantage, and we looked toEdmund to show how it should be done. He was equal to the undertaking,but I shall not trouble you with the details of his diplomacy. Let itsuffice to say that by a combination of gentleness and firmness hequickly reduced almost the entire population of the caverns (for, as weafterwards discovered, there were a dozen or more of these undergrounddwellings connected by horizontal passages through the rocks) intosubjection to his will. I say "almost," because, as you will see in alittle while, there were certain members of this extraordinary communitywho possessed a spirit of independence too strong to be so easilysubdued.
As we became better acquainted with the cave dwellers we found that theywere by no means as savage as they looked. Their appearance was certainlygrotesque, and even unaccountable. Why, for instance, should their headshave been covered with coarse black disordered hair while their bodies,from the neck down, were almost beautiful with a natural raiment ofgolden white, as soft as silk and as brilliant as floss? I never couldexplain it, and Edmund was no less puzzled by this peculiarity. Theimmense size of their eyes did not seem astonishing after we began toreflect upon the consequences of the relative lack of light in theirworld. It was but a natural adjustment to their environment; with sucheyes they could see in the dark better than cats. Their feet were bareand covered on the soles with thick soft skin, while the insides of theirlong hands were almost as white and delicate as those of a human being.
Their intelligence was sufficiently demonstrated by the construction ofthe hundreds of rocky steps leading from the caverns to the surface ofthe ground, and by their employment of fire, and manufacture of themetallic braziers which contained it. But this was not all. We found thatin some of the winding passages connecting the caverns they cultivatedfood. It consisted entirely of vegetables of various kinds, and allunlike any that I ever saw on the earth. Water dripped from the roofs ofthese particular passages, and the almost colorless vegetation thrivedthere with astonishing luxuriance. They had many simple ways of cookingtheir food, and it was evident that they possessed some form of salt,though we did not discover the deposit from which they must have drawnit. They collected water in cisterns hollowed in the rock.
Although we still had abundance of food in the car, Edmund insisted ontrying theirs, and it proved to be very palatable.
"This is fortunate, though hardly surprising," said Edmund. "If we hadfound the food on Venus uneatable, we should indeed have been in a finefix. While we remain here we will eat as the natives eat, and save ourown supplies for future need."
The only brute animals that we saw in the caverns were some doglikecreatures, about as large as terriers, but very furry, which showed theutmost terror whenever we appeared.
One of the first things that we discovered outside the main cavern wherewe had made our debut was the burial ground of the community. Thishappened when they came to dispose of the fellow that Edmund had shot.They formed a regular procession, which greatly impressed us, and wefollowed them as they bore the body through several winding ways into alarge cavern, at a considerable distance from any of the others. Herethey had dug a grave, and, to our astonishment, there appeared to besomething resembling a religious ceremony connected with the interment.And then, for the first time, we distinguished the females from theothers. But a still greater surprise awaited us. It was no less thanplain evidence of regular family relationship.
As the body was lowered into the grave one of the females approached withevery sign of distress and sorrow. Jack declared that he saw tearsrunning down her hairy cheeks. She held two little ones by the hand, andthis spectacle produced an astonishing effect upon Edmund, revealing anentirely new side of his character. I have told you that he expressedregret for having killed the fellow in the cavern, but now, at the sightbefore him, he seemed filled with remorse.
"I wish I had never come here!" he said bitterly. "The first thing I havedone is to kill an inoffensive and intelligent creature."
"Intelligent, perhaps," said Jack, "but inoffensive--not by a long shot!Where'd we have been if you hadn't killed him? They'd have made mincemeatof us."
"No," replied Edmund, sorrowfully shaking his head, "it wasn't necessary.The noise would have sufficed; and I ought to have known it."
"Why didn't you shout, then? That scared the first one," put in Henry,whose soul, it must be said, was not overflowing with sympathy.
"I did what I thought was best at the moment," Edmund replied, with abroken voice. "They were so many and so threatening that I imagined myvoice
alone might not be effective. But I'm sorry, sorry!"
"Henry, you're a fool!" cried the sympathetic Jack. "Come now, Edmund,"he continued, kindly laying a hand on his shoulder, "what you did was theonly thing under heaven that could have been done. You're wrong to blameyourself. By Jo, if you hadn't done it I would!"
But Edmund only shook his head, as if refusing to be comforted. It wasthe first sign of weakness that we had seen in our incomparable leader,but I am sure it only increased our respect for him--at least that's trueof Jack and me. After that I noticed that Edmund was far more gentle thanbefore in his relations with the people of the caverns.
Not long after this painful incident we made a discovery of extremeinterest. It was nothing less than a big smithy! Edmund had foretold thatwe should find something of the kind.
"Those braziers and cooking pots," he had said, "and the tools that musthave been needed to build the steps and to dig their graves, prove thatthey know how to work in iron. If it is not done in these caverns, thenthey get it from some other similar community. But I think it likely thatwe shall come upon some signs of the work hereabouts."
"Maybe they import it from Pittsburg," was the remark that fun-lovingJack could not refrain from making.
"Well, you'll see," said Edmund.
And, as I have already told you, he was right. We did find the smithy,with several stout fellows pounding out rude tools with equally rudehammers of iron. Of course we could ask them no questions, for theirlanguage was only a kind of squeak, and they seemed to converse mostly bymeans of expressive signs. But Edmund was not long in drawing hisconclusions.
"This," he said, after closely examining the metal, "is native iron.There's nothing remarkable in the fact that it should be here. All thesolid planets, as you know" (turning to me), "are very largely composedof iron, and Venus, being nearer the center of the system, may haveproportionally more of it than the earth. And these fellows have foundout its usefulness, and how to work it. There's nothing surprising inthat, either, for some of our savages have done as much on the earth. NowI'll make another prediction--we are going to find coal here. That isinevitable, since we know that they burn it in the caverns. I shouldn'twonder if it were close at hand, from the look of these rocks."
He approached the wall of the cavern containing the smithy, andimmediately exclaimed:
"Look here! Here it is!"
And sure enough, on joining him we saw a seam of as fine anthracite asPennsylvania ever produced.
"A Carboniferous Age on Venus!" Edmund continued. "What do you think ofthat? But, of course, it was sure to be so; all the planets that are oldenough have been through practically the same stages. Think of it! Theplants that gave origin to this coal must have flourished here when Venusstill rotated on her axis rapidly enough to have day and night succeedingone another on all sides of her, for now no vegetation except theinsignificant plants that grow in these caverns can live on thishemisphere. And think, too, of the countless ages that must have beenconsumed in slowing down her rotation by the friction of her oceantides."
"Has Venus got any oceans?" asked Jack.
"I haven't a doubt of it; but we shall find none on this side, althoughthey must once have been here."
We all mused for a time on the subject that Edmund had started, whensuddenly his face lighted up with the greatest animation, and heexclaimed, but as if speaking to himself rather than to us:
"Capital! It couldn't have happened better!"
"What's capital?" drawled Jack.
"Why, this smithy, and these Tubal Cains here. Unconsciously they havesolved for me a problem that has given me considerable trouble. Almost assoon as we got acquainted with the people of the caverns the ideaoccurred to me that I should like to take some of them with us when wevisit the other hemisphere. There are many interesting observations thattheir presence on that side of Venus would give rise to, and, besides,they might be of great use to us. Of course I meant to bring them back totheir home. But the puzzling question has been how to transport them. Thecar has a full load already."
"They've got good legs; make 'em walk," said Jack.
Edmund burst into a laugh.
"Why, Jack," he asked, "how far do you think it is to the other side ofVenus?"
"I don't know," said Jack, "but I suppose it's not very far round her.How far is it?"
"Five thousand miles, at least, to the edge of the sunlit hemisphere."
Jack whistled.
"By Jo! I wouldn't have believed it."
"Well, it's a fact," said Edmund, "and of course I don't propose to takeseveral months to make the journey. Now the sight of these fellows atwork has shown me just how it can be done in short order. It's this way:I'll have iron sleds made, put the natives that I propose to take alongupon them, hitch them by wire cables, which luckily I've got, to the car,and away we'll spin. The power of the car is practically unlimited, and,as you have observed, the ground is as flat and smooth as a prairie, and,moreover, is coated with an icy covering."
Jack glowed with enthusiasm over this project, and was about to indulgein one of his characteristic outbreaks, when there came an interruptionwhich ended in a drama that put silver streaks among my coal-black locks!Some one came in where we were and called off the workmen, who went outwith the others in great haste. Of course we followed at their heels. Onreaching the principal cavern, we found a singular scene. Two natives,whom we had never seen before, were evidently in charge of some kind of aceremony. They wore tall, conical hats made of polished metal and coveredwith hieroglyphics, and carried staves of iron in their hands.
"Priests," Edmund immediately whispered. "Now we'll see somethinginteresting."
The "priests" marshaled all the others, numbering several hundreds, intoa long column, and then began a slow, solemn march up the steps. Theleaders produced a squeaking music by blowing into the ends of theirstaves. Women were mingled with men, and even the children were there,too. We followed at the tail of the procession, our curiosity at thehighest pitch. At the rate we went it must have taken nearly an hour tomount the steps, but at last all emerged in the open air, where the coldstruck to our marrow. The natives didn't seem to mind it, but we ran backand donned our furs. Then we re-ascended and stepped out into the Arcticnight, finding the crowd assembled not far from the entrance to thecavern. The frosty sky was ablaze with stars, and directly overhead shonea planet of amazing size and splendor with a little one beside it.
"The earth and the moon!" exclaimed Edmund.
I cannot describe the flood of feeling that went over me at that sight!But in a moment Edmund interrupted my meditation by saying, in a quick,nervous way:
"_Look at that!_"
The natives had formed themselves in a circle with the two priestsstanding alone in the center. All but these two had dropped on theirknees, while the leaders, elevating their long arms toward the zenith,gazed upward, uttering a kind of chant in their queer, squeaking voices.
"Don't you see what they're about?" demanded Edmund, twitching meirritably by the sleeve. "They're worshipping the earth!"
It was the truth--the amazing truth! They were worshipping our planet inthe sky! And, indeed, she looked worth worshipping. Never have I seen sosplendid a star. She was twenty times as bright as the most brilliantplanet that any terrestrial astronomer ever beheld; and the moon, glowingbeside her like an attendant, redoubled the beauty of the sight.
"It's just the moment of the conjunction," said Edmund. "This is theirreligion; the earth is their goddess, and when she is nearest andbrightest they perform this ceremony in her honor. I wouldn't have missedthis for a world."
Suddenly the two priests began to pirouette, and as they whirled more andmore rapidly, their huge glowing eyes made phosphorescent circles in thegloom like those that had so alarmed and fascinated us in the cavern.They gyrated round the ring of worshipers with accelerated speed, and allthose poor creatures fell under the fascination and drooped with heads tothe ground. Now for the first time I caught sight of an o
blong objectrising a couple of feet above the ground in the center of the circle. Iwas wondering what it might be when the spinning priests, who hadgradually drawn closer to the ring of worshipers, dived into the circle,and, catching each a native in his arms, ran with their captives to thecurious object that I have just described.
"It's a sacrificial stone!" exclaimed Edmund. "They're going to kill themas an offering to the earth and her child the moon."
I was frozen with horror at the sight, but just as the second priestreached the altar, where the first victim had already been pinned withthe sharp point of the sacrificial staff, his captive, suddenlyrecovering his senses, and terrified by the awful fate confronting him,uttered a cry, wrenched himself loose, and, running like the wind, leapedover the circle and disappeared in the darkness. The fugitive passedclose by us, and Jack shouted as he darted past:
"Good boy!"
The enraged priest was after him like lightning, and as he came near ushis awful eyes seemed to emit actual flames. But the runner had vanished.Without an instant's hesitation the priest shot out his great arm andcaught _me_ by the throat! In another second I felt myself carried in abound, as if a tiger had seized me, over the drooping heads of theworshipers and toward the horrible altar.