A Columbus of Space
CHAPTER V
OFF FOR THE SUN LANDS
Dreadful as the moment was, I did not lose my senses. On the contrary, mymind was fearfully clear and active. There was not a horror that Imissed. The strength and agility of my captor were astounding. I could nomore have struggled with him than with a lion. Only one thing flashedupon me to do; I yelled with all the strength of my lungs. But they hadbecome accustomed to our voices now, and the maddened creature was sointent upon his fell purpose that a cannon-shot would not have divertedhim from it.
He got me to the altar, where the preceding victim already lay with hisheart torn out, and, pressing me against it with all his bestial force,raised the pointed staff to transfix me. With dying eyes I saw the earthgleaming, magnificent, directly over my head, and my heart bounded withunreasoning hope at the sight. It was my mother planet, powerful to save!
All this passed in a second, while the dreadful spear was poised for itswork. Even in that fraction of time I noticed the bunching muscles of themurderer's hairy arm, and then I pressed my eyes shut.
_Bang!_
Something touched me, and I felt the warm blood gushing. Then I knew nomore.
* * * * *
In the midst of a dream of boyhood scenes a murmur of familiar voicesawoke me. I opened my eyes, but as I could not make out where I was,closed them again.
Then I heard Edmund saying:
"He's coming out all right."
Thereupon, I reopened my eyes, but still the scene puzzled me. I sawEdmund's face, and behind those of Jack and Henry, wearing anxious looks.But this was not my room! It seemed to be a cave, with faint firelightreflections on the walls.
"Where am I?" I asked.
"Back in the cavern, and coming along all right," said Edmund.
Back in the cavern! What did he mean? Then, suddenly, memory returned.
"So he didn't sacrifice me!" I cried.
"Not on your life!" Jack's hearty voice responded. "Edmund was too quickfor that."
"But only by a fraction of a second!" said Edmund, smiling.
"What happened, then?" I asked, my recollections coming back stronger andstronger.
"A mighty good shot happened," said Jack. "The best I ever saw."
I looked inquiringly at Edmund. He saw that I could bear it, and hebegan:
"When that fellow snatched you up and leaped inside the circle I had myfurs wrapped so closely around me, not anticipating any danger, that forquite ten seconds I was unable to get out my pistol. I tore the garmentopen just in time, for already he was pressing you against the accursedaltar with his spear poised. I didn't waste any time finding my aim, buteven as it was the iron point had touched you when the bullet crashedthrough his brain. The shock swerved the weapon a little and you wereonly wounded in the shoulder. You got a scratch which might have beenserious but for your Arctic coat. The fellow fell dead beside you, andunder the circumstances I felt compelled to shoot the other one also, forhe was insane with the delirium of their bloody rite, and I knew that ourlives would never be safe if he remained ready for mischief.
"I'm sorry to have had to begin killing right and left again, but I guessthat's the lot of all invaders, wherever they may go. It's the secondlesson for these savages, and I believe it will prove final. When theirpriests were dead and the others had no fight in them, even if they hadintended any harm to us. Nobody knows to what those chaps might have ledthem, and my conscience is easy this time."
"How long have I been here?" I asked.
"Two days by the calendar clock?" replied Jack.
"Yes, two days," Edmund assented. "I never saw a man so knocked out by ashock, for the wound wasn't much; I fixed that up in five minutes. But Idon't blame you. In your place I should have been scared to the bottom ofmy soul also. But look at yourself."
He held a pocket mirror before me, and then I saw that my hair wasstreaked with gray!
"But we haven't been idle in the meanwhile," Edmund went on. "I've gottwo sleds nearly completed, and to-morrow at midnight--earth time--I meanto set out for the sunny lands of Venus."
"How in the world could you have worked so fast?" I asked in surprise.
"Because I had certain tools in the car which vastly facilitated theoperation; but I must admit that the savage blacksmiths worked well, too,and showed surprising intelligence in comprehending my directions.Perhaps that was because I had learned their language."
"Learned their language!" I exclaimed, staring in amazement.
"Well, perhaps that's putting it a little too strong; but I have learnedenough to establish a pretty good understanding with them. There'snothing like working together to make intelligent creatures comprehendone another."
"But what kind of a language is it, then?" I asked.
"A language to make your hair stand on end," put in Jack. "The languagethat ghosts speak, I reckon! Not that I understand the least little bitof it, but I judge from what Edmund says."
With increasing bewilderment I looked at our leader. He smiled, and thenlooked thoughtful for a moment before again speaking. At last he said:
"It's a subject that I may be better able to discuss after I have learnedmore about it. All I can say at present is that it appears to be a kindof telepathy. You know that their voices seem hardly more cultivated, orcapable of regular articulation, than those of mere brutes; and, besides,they have a certain horror of sound. These smiths wear coverings overtheir ears to minify the noise of their hammering. Yet they are able toconverse, partly by physical signs, but more, I am sure, by some meanswhich they possess of transferring thought without the mediation of anysenses familiar to us. Sometimes I imagine that their extraordinary eyesplay a large part in the phenomenon. But, however that may be, theycertainly are able to read some of my thoughts, when we are in closerelations and working together. One of them is especially gifted in thisway, and what do you think? I have discovered his name!"
"Now, Edmund--" I began incredulously.
"Yes," he persisted, "it's a fact. You are to remember that they dointerchange some of their ideas by means of sounds, and they have certainwords, among which I am disposed to think are their individualdesignations. One of these words particularly attracted my attentionbecause I observed that it was always addressed to the person I have justspoken of, and I finally concluded that it was his name. As near as I canimitate it, it sounds something like 'Juba.' So that's what I call him,and he's going to be the chief of the party that I propose to take withus. His services may be invaluable to us."
A great deal more was said on this curious subject, but since we did notarrive at a complete understanding of it until after we had reached theother side of the planet, I shall postpone any further explanation to thechapters which will be devoted to our astonishing adventures on that partof Venus.
My wound, as Edmund had said, was very slight, and the effects of theshock having passed off during the period of my unconsciousness, I wassoon busy with the others in making the final preparations for ourdeparture. The sleds were, of course, very rude affairs, but they werealso very strong. Among the innumerable stores which Edmund's foresighthad led him to put into the car were a number of exceedingly strong butlight metallic cables. With these the two sleds were hitched, one behindthe other, and a line about a hundred feet long connected them with thecar. The latter could thus rise to a considerable height without liftingthe sleds from the ground.
The sleds were provisioned from the stores of the natives, and we alsotook some of their food in the car, not only to eke out our own butbecause we had come to like it.
Edmund had already chosen the fellows who were to accompany us, and amongthem were two of the smiths besides Juba. In all they were eight. How hesucceeded in persuading them I do not know, but not the slightestobjection was apparent on their part, or on the part of their compatriotsin the caverns. We were all ready at the predetermined time, and thescene at our departure was a strange one.
At least five hundred natives had
assembled in a furry crowd around theentrance to the caverns to see us off. When we started, the fellows onthe sleds, being unused to the motion, clung together like so manyawkward white bears taking a ride in the circus. Their friends stoodabout the ill-omened sacrificial altar, waving their long arms, whiletheir huge eyes goggled in the starlight.
Jack, in a burst of enthusiasm, fired four or five parting shots from hispistol. As the reports crashed through the heavy air, you should haveseen the crowd vanish down the hole! The sight made me wince, for theymust have gone down like a cataract, all heaped together. But they weretough, and I trust no heads were broken. The effect on the eight fellowson the sleds came near being disastrous. I expected to see them leap offand run, which no doubt they would have done if Edmund had not taken, forother reasons, the precaution to tie them fast. But they strained attheir bonds, and squealed in terror.
"Give me your pistol!" commanded Edmund, in a voice of thunder, and withblazing eyes.
Jack was almost twice his size, but he handed over the pistol with theair of a rebuked schoolboy.
"When you learn how to use it, I'll give it back to you," said Edmundsternly, and that closed the incident.
Then we began gradually to put on speed, and as the ground was icy smoothand entirely unobstructed, we were soon traveling at the rate of sixtymiles an hour. The plan of the sleds worked like magic, and after theirfirst terror had passed away it was plain to be seen that the nativesenjoyed the new sensation immensely. And, indeed, it was a glorious spin!
But in a little while a danger developed which we had not thought of. Itarose from the existence of other caverns whose mouths opened upon theplain. To have precipitated the sleds into these would have been fatal.Luckily, shafts of light issued from all of them, and warned by these, wemanaged to avoid the danger. But it was not entirely passed before we hadtraveled at least a hundred miles. It was like an immense city of prairiedogs without mounds. The cavern that we had discovered on our arrival wasevidently situated on the outskirts of the group, and now we were passingthrough the center of it. Occasionally we saw a huge white form disappearin one of the holes as we swiftly approached, but that was all we beheldof the inhabitants. But the spectacle of the shafts of light rising allaround us was amazing. When we were in the midst of it Edmund hesitatedfor a moment, muttering that we had been too hasty and should haveremained longer to study the peculiarities of this wonderful world ofnight; but finally he decided to keep on, and soon afterwards we saw thelast of the caverns. Then, as there appeared to be no obstructions of anykind, the speed was worked up to a hundred miles an hour. Going straightahead as we did, there was no danger of the sleds being overturned.
Having, as Edmund had calculated, about five thousand miles to go beforereaching the edge of the sun-illuminated hemisphere, it was evident that,at our present rate of progress, we should arrive there in a little overtwo days by the calendar clock. We guided our course by the stars, andfor me one of the most interesting things was to see the earth sinkingtoward the horizon, accompanied by the stars, as if the heavens wererevolving in a direction opposed to our line of travel. We smoked andtalked and ate and slept in the old way, while the marvelous mouths inthe wall resumed their strange deglutition. Thus the time passed, withoutennui, until, unexpectedly, a new phenomenon captured our attention.
Ahead, through the peephole, Edmund had descried again the flaming spireswhich had so astonished us on our approach to Venus. But now theirappearance was splendid and imposing beyond words. Above them rose an arcof pearly light which grew higher every hour. And with the arc of lightrose the flames also. At the same time they seemed to spread to the rightand the left, until they were simultaneously visible from both of theside windows of the car. Their colors were wonderful--red, green, purple,orange--all the hues of the prism.
"There is the old mystery again," exclaimed Edmund, "and I can no moreexplain it now than I could when we first saw it on nearing the planet.The arc of light above is natural enough; it's simply the dawn. The sunnever rises on this side of Venus, but it will rise for us because we areapproaching it, and the light is the first indication that we are gettingnear enough to the border between day and night for some of the sun'srays to be bent over the horizon by refraction. But those flames! See howsteady they are as a whole, and yet how they change color like a slowlyturning prism."
"Don't, for God's sake, run us into a conflagration," said Jack. "I'mready to believe anything of this topsy-turvy old planet, and I shouldn'tbe surprised if the other side is all fire as this one is all frost. Ican stand these hairy beasts, but I'll be hanged if I want to beintroduced among salamanders."
"That's not real fire," said Edmund. "When we get a little nearer we cansee what it is. In the meantime I'll try to think it out."
The result of Edmund's meditations, when he announced it to us, an hourlater, awoke as much amazement in our minds as anything that had yetoccurred. He had been sitting silent in his corner, occasionally taking aglimpse through the peephole, or one of the windows, when suddenly heslapped his thigh, and springing to his feet, exclaimed:
"They're mountains of crystal!"
"Mountains of crystal!" we echoed.
"Nothing else in the world, and I am ashamed not to have foreseen thething. It's plain enough when you come to think about it. Remember thatVenus being a world lying half in the daylight and half in the night, isnecessarily as hot on one side as it is cold on the other. All of theclouds and floating vapors are on the day side, where the sunbeams act.The heated air charged with moisture rises over the sunward hemisphere,and flows off above, on all sides, toward the night side, while from thelatter cold air flows in beneath to take its place. Along the junction ofthe two hemispheres the clouds and moisture are condensed by the intensecold, and fall in ceaseless snowstorms. This snow descending for ages haspiled up in mountainous masses whose height may be increased in someplaces by real mountain ranges buried beneath. The atmospheric moisturecannot pass very far into the night hemisphere without being condensed,and so it is all arrested within a ring, or band, extending completelyaround the planet, and marking the division between perpetual day andperpetual night. The appearance of gigantic flames is produced by thesunbeams striking these mountains of ice and snow from behind andbreaking into prismatic fire."
We listened to this explanation, so simple and yet so wonderful, withmingled feelings of astonishment and admiration. And then we turned againto regard the phenomenon, which now, with our nearer approach, had becomesplendid and awful beyond description.
In a few minutes Edmund addressed us again. "I foresee now," he said,"considerable trouble for us. There has been a warning of that, too, if Ihad but heeded it. I've noticed for some time that a wind, gettinggradually stronger, has been following us, sometimes dying out and thencoming on again stronger than before. It is likely that this wind gets tobe a perfect hurricane in the neighborhood of those strange mountains. Itis the back suction, caused, as I have already told you, by the rising ofthe heated air on the sunny side of the planet. It may play the deucewith us when we get into the midst of it. I shall have to be cautious."
He immediately reduced the speed to not more than ten miles an hour, andat once we noticed the wind of which he had spoken. It came now in greatgusts from behind, rapidly increasing in frequency and fury. Soon it wasstrong enough to drive the sleds without any pull upon the cable, andsometimes they were forced directly under the car, and even ahead of it,the natives clinging to one another in the utmost terror. Edmund managedto govern the motions of the car for a time, holding it back against thestorm, but as he confessed, this was a contingency he had made noprovision for, and eventually we became almost as helpless as a ship in atyphoon.
"Of course I could cut loose from the sleds and run right out of this,"said Edmund, "but that would never do. I've taken them into my serviceand I'm bound to look out for them. If there was room for them in the carit would be all right. Let's see. Yes! I've got it. I'll fetch up thesleds and fasten them under
neath the car, like baskets to a balloon, andso carry the whole thing. There's plenty of power; it's only room that'swanting."
No sooner said than done with Edmund. By this time we were getting intothe ice, huge hills of which surrounded us. Edmund dropped the car in thelee of one of these strange hummocks. Here the force of the wind wasbroken, and the sky directly over us was free from clouds, but a shortdistance ahead we could see them whirling and tumbling in mighty massesof tumultuous vapor. Lashing the two sleds together we attached themabout ten feet below the bottom of the car. Then the natives, who hadbeen unbound, and had stood looking on in utter bewilderment, weresecurely fastened on the sleds. We entered the car and the power wasturned on.
"We'll rise straight up," said Edmund, "and as soon as we are out of thewind current we will sail over the mountains and come down on the otherside as nice as you please. Strange that I didn't think of carrying thesleds in this way to begin with."
It was a beautiful program that Edmund had outlined, and we had completeconfidence in our leader's ability to carry it through; but it didn'twork as expected. Even his genius had met its match this time.
No sooner had we risen out of the protection of the hill of ice than thehurricane caught us. It was a blast of such power and ferocity that in aninstant it had the car spinning like a teetotum, and then it shot usahead, banging the sleds against the car as if they had been tassels. Itis a wonder of wonders that the poor creatures on them were not flungoff, but fortunately we had taken particular pains with their lashings,and as for knocks, they could stand them like so many bears.
In the course of twenty minutes we must have traveled twice as manymiles, perfectly helpless to arrest our mad rush because, Edmund said,the atomic reaction partly refused to work, and he could not rise as hehad expected to do. We were pitched hither and thither, and weresprawling on the floor more than half the time. The noise was awful, andnobody tried to speak after Edmund had shouted his single communicationabout the power, which would have filled us with dismay if we had hadleisure to think.
The shutters were open, and suddenly I saw through one of the windows asight which I thought must surely be my last. The car had been sweepingthrough a dense cloud of boiling vapors, and these had without warningsplit open before my eyes--and there, almost in contact with the car, wasa glittering precipice of solid ice, gleaming with wicked blue flashes,and we were rushing upon it as if shot out of a cannon!
The next instant came a terrific shock, which I thought must have crushedthe car like an eggshell, and down we fell--down and down!