CHAPTER IV
The Strange Bravery of Miss Blank
Telescope, rifles, and shields were tumbled into the projectilepell-mell, and without stopping to close the port-hole, we steeredtowards the city as we mounted rapidly. When the soldiers, weary ofrunning, saw us start, they were stricken with a new fear, and made allpossible haste for shelter. When they perceived that we were rising intothe red haze, they took a little courage, but still hastened.
"Perhaps they think we are mounting to the sky for more thunder andlightning," I suggested. "Little do they know the destruction we coulddo them with the handful of ammunition we have, if we really meant waras much as they at first desired it and now fear it!"
By this time we were almost above the thickest crowd of the fleeingarmy, while the most energetic runners and the Terror-bird that hadturned back had reached the heart of the city; and we could see thealarm spreading like wild-fire to all its inhabitants. I was busyloading the rifles with the cartridges which the doctor had robbed oftheir bullets for the pickle-bottle experiment soon after our start.
"We will execute a little _coup_, to show them the difficulties ofretreat when the enemy is armed with gravity projectiles," said thedoctor. "Do you see that great gate of the city they are all making for?We will drop down there, just in front of them, and prevent theirentrance. It will be better to keep the whole army outside the walls, ifpossible, for its absence and disorganization will make the rulers allthe more tractable when we are ready to drop down into their city andmake peace with them on our own terms."
"I must say you are a good general, Doctor!" I exclaimed. "You plan thecampaign, and I will do the fighting."
The blank dismay of the soldiers when they saw us descending again, andtheir abject desperation when they perceived that we should land infront of them and cut off their entrance to the city, was pitiful tosee.
"Doctor, do you remember the grand display and the proud strength withwhich these soldiers marched forth? Look at the difference now!"
"Oh, war! war!" he exclaimed. "The glory of its beginning! The terror ofits prosecution! The misery of its end! Would that it could always becarried on by terrorizing the mind instead of by slaying the body!"
As we were about to come to land in front of the straggling multitude ofsoldiers, I fired a dozen blank cartridges as rapidly as I could workthe rifle. This was at very near range, and although the explosionssounded weak to me, the excessive flaming of the powder added a newterror. The disorganized army stopped in dread; the stragglers pushingup from behind, and the frightened turning of those in front, crushedthe multitude together and increased the confusion. Throngs of people,whose curiosity was still stronger than their fear, were coming out fromthe city. As they saw us float down and land, and then heard the firing,they turned and rushed within the gates again, ready to believe farworse stories than they had yet heard.
"We must scatter this rabble army and put it wholly to rout," insistedthe doctor. "I will swing amongst them and over their heads, while youburn powder for them. If they won't scatter, use your revolver and woundone or two of them."
"No, I will not harm another man," I answered. "They are too weak anddefenceless a foe, and are no match for us. Hereafter I will fight onlywith the birds."
We rose and sailed slantingly toward them, but they had already startedto disperse. Those who had jumping-staves disentangled themselves fromthe crowd and scattered into the bushy wastes. I continued firing untilmy blank cartridges were gone, and then we landed just outside theentrance and emerged from the projectile to examine the gates and see ifwe could close and fasten them.
Within the wall those who had gained entrance during our last movementswere rapidly retreating toward the centre of the city, warning all whomthey passed. One single stately figure showed no fear, and paid no heedto the exclamations of the runners. The ampler dress and flowing flaxenhair indicated that it was a woman, and to our surprise, though she waswell clothed, she seemed to be demanding alms of every one as sheapproached us. No one gave her anything, and occasionally a runnerseized her arm and tried to persuade her to return. But she caught noneof their excitement, and composedly pursued her course.
"Egad! This beautiful girl is braver than the whole Martian army!" Iexclaimed in amazement, as she calmly approached where I was standing bythe gate and extended her fair, plump hand. If she was asking alms, Ihad nothing to give her; but here, at least, was one pacific, composed,and reasonable person. Perhaps it was the queen, or a diplomatic envoyof the ruler!
"Now is the time to demonstrate our friendliness," I exclaimed, andreaching forth my hand I grasped hers in a warm clasp of welcome.
She looked up at me blankly. Her beautiful face carried no expression ofsatisfaction or surprise. Her transparent complexion was neither paledby fear nor flushed by pleasure. Her great dreamy eyes, of a deep liquidblue, wandered unfixedly in their languid gaze. Still holding her softhand, which was far warmer than my own, I opened her fingers with myother hand and pointed at her pink extended palm as if to inquire whatshe wished. I watched her closely, but she made no sign, said nothing,looked nothing.
"Since I do not know you, I can think of no more fitting name to callyou by than Miss Blank," I said, more to express my thought inarticulate sounds than anything else, for I had no idea she wouldunderstand me. From her expression I could not judge whether she hadeven heard me, to say nothing of comprehending. She was looking beyondme, through the gate, as if searching others from whom she might askalms. Seeing none, she wheeled slowly about to return. Unwillingly Ireleased her hand, and stood unspeakably puzzled by the whole matter.She was commanding in appearance, being taller than I by a few inches,not slim, but well proportioned. She had the stately serenity of adreaming queen, but the blank, unresponsive soul of one who dwelt withinherself; and though she saw, she did not realize the existence ormeaning of anything outside.
"Doctor, will all your learning solve this riddle for me!" I exclaimed."Can all the Martian women be like this? She is beautiful of body andstrangely warm and winning to the touch, but as cold of heart as thedrifting snow that suffocates a poor lost lamb. She has had a strangeinfluence over me; a puzzling, baffling attraction. A suggestion ofsomething delicate and subtlely charming, which, when one seeks to seizeand to define, retires icily behind the drawn curtain of her soul."
"I hope you won't play the lost lamb to her snowdrift!" he sneered, in away that I resented. "One would think she had hypnotized you on thespot! And she must be in a trance herself, for she had not sense enoughto fear us."
"Those who have the most sense fear us the least!" I retorted.
"But fear is our sharp weapon now," he answered; "and some of thestragglers, looking back, saw you stand there holding her hand in amanner far from warlike. They will report this to the rulers unless weforestall them. Come, fasten the gates tightly upon the inside to keepthe soldiers out, and I will sail over the wall to pick you up."
"Doctor, we make our peace at once, and fight no more with the brothersof this girl," I said with decision.
The massive gates were of hewn stone, turning in sockets at their outercorners above and below. They swung as easily as if hung upon hinges,and when closed a slab of stone came down to bar them. I made themfast, and then called out to the doctor,--
"Don't come for me. I have found a jumping-staff, and I think I can leapto the top of the wall."
It was a sheer fifteen feet of solid masonry, but my chief delight sincelanding on Martian soil was the inordinate springiness of my leg musclesagainst the feeble gravity. I ran and sprang lustily with the aid of thecross-bow, and I remember the doctor's surprised look when he saw meclear the entire wall without touching the top and land safely with avery mild jolt on his side.
A short oblique ascent of the projectile brought us over the city, andrevealed to us the condition of desperate panic into which the wildreports of the soldiers and the bird-rider had thrown the franticpopulace. The soldiers still within the walls could not restr
ain thepeople, or did not try. If there was any government, it lacked a head orcould not command attention. The stubborn instinct of self-preservationwas king. Distracted throngs surged out at one gate, to separate andwaver and hesitate, and finally to fight for a speedy entrance atanother. On one side soldiers were apparently ordering people down fromthe wall, while on another the excited populace was hauling sentinelsoldiers from the same elevation, lest our attention should beattracted. Within, strong men were weeping and wailing; without, nervousmen were haranguing the vacillating multitude; but more were stolidlypushing with the rabble or being hustled by it.
Only one sign of order and forethought was apparent. Evidently forbetter safety and for an easier defence, the women and children had beentaken to a central park or pleasure ground, and left there with a smallguard of soldiers. The men to whom they belonged had apparently all goneelsewhere.
"Doctor, we must put an end to this fear and frenzy at the earliestpossible moment. If we are not destroying those people, we are excitingthem to destroy each other, which is equally blameworthy. We must godown at once, but we had best avoid the frantic men. The women seem farmore reposeful. Let us drop quietly into that open field in the park,and I will make friendly signs to the women, pat the children on thehead, and give them all to understand that we mean no harm."
He evidently saw that we had quite overdone the scare, and was as muchimpressed by the terrible picture below as I was. We turned down withoutdelay, and landed quietly behind a clump of trees. I took a tin of sweetbiscuits under my arm, and the doctor following me, with a generoushandful of his trinkets and tinsel toys, we left the projectile, androunding the grove of dwarfed trees we approached the romping childrenfirst. I patted their flaxen curls, lightly pinched their cheeks, andhanded each of them a sweet biscuit. Then, while the doctor distributedstrange toys amongst them, I put on my most courtly ways and addressedmyself to the women. Their first impulses of fear had been somewhatallayed by our attentions to the children, and I bowed profusely andmade bold to kiss the hands of a few of the youngest of them. Each ofthese looked to see if I had left anything visible or harmful on herhand, from which I judged the custom was wholly strange to them. Theothers looked on askance and whispered excitedly among themselves.
One of the soldiers who had seen us approach, but offered no resistance,had now started to run, as fast as his jumping-staff would carry him,toward the palace. I knew at once that this meant some new development,and I hoped it meant a report of our friendly actions and a truce allaround. But the doctor reminded me that we must be prepared forsurprises and treachery. Therefore we re-entered the projectile, and outof the sight of all the Martians I re-loaded the rifles, and then wewaited a long time.
Our patience was finally rewarded, for we saw the soldier returning,slowly leading a woman. In her left arm, which the soldier held, shecarried something white which wriggled occasionally. All this weconsidered so favourable a development that we went out again, bowing tothe women about us, petting the children, and looking as peaceable andamiable as the politest of Earth's people. But it may have passed forimbecility, or worse, on Mars.
When I looked toward the soldier again, my heart began a queer thumping,for he was leading no other than the woman who had met us at the gate,and she was carrying our white rabbit, which we had released early thatmorning a long way from this spot.
"By all that is wonderful!" I exclaimed to the doctor, "if we have notfallen upon a country which is ruled by yon dumb queen, and she bringsto us as a peace offering the only thing that we have lost!"
"Since when have potentates learned to beg, and forgotten to command andto exact?" he answered with half a sneer. "See, she still extends herhand to every one she passes."
And as the soldier, trained to revere a beard, led the woman directly upto the doctor, she stretched forth her pretty palm again; but if he hadpresumed to take it I could have struck him! To my cordial grasp I addeda kiss this time, and then I raised my eyes slowly to her face, fearingto see that blank look again. There _was_ no look in her eyes; they didnot look, they only wandered!
The soldier, who still held her other arm, waved his cross-bow towardthe palace meaningly, and a hush fell upon the murmuring crowd. Iignored him and spoke to her,--
"If thou art the queen, command me but by a look or sign, and I obey.And if thou art not the queen, then they should make thee one. Dost thouwish us to follow thee to yon palace?" said I; but the only mind thatunderstood scoffed at my rapturous declamation.
The woman merely drew her hand from my warm clasp and stretched it outto the people, who crowded about and paid her no attention. Then thesoldier, as if suddenly remembering, took the rabbit from her arm andhanded it to me. She looked about at this, as if missing the snugglinganimal, and I stared hard at the meddling soldier to reprove him forinterfering with his queen, and gently restored the rabbit to her arm.
"The soldier wishes us to go to the palace," put in the doctor. "But wemust not go unarmed. He may be leading us into an ambush. Let us takeall of our arms and follow him."
Accordingly, we buckled on the swords, and took the rifles on ourshoulders. As we dragged out the heavy shields, the soldier pointed to agroup of donkeys laden with bags of something like grain. I wavedassent, and the muleteer unburdened one of them and loaded the shieldsupon him.
"Why not take the telescope?" I suggested; "it is big and bright, andperhaps they may fear it too. Or we may wish to show its wondrous use."As I drew it out the crowd started back, but the soldier and themuleteer gingerly loaded it upon another donkey. Then the soldier tookthe woman's arm again, and pushed her extended palm around toward me, asif I would be unwilling to go unless I had it. My right hand held myrifle, but I was secretly glad that my left was free to clasp thewoman's hand. The doctor walked behind to watch the muleteer, and thuswe marched to the palace.