CHAPTER XV.
RIVALS MEET AGAIN.
For three days we stayed with Kios and enjoyed his hospitality. Heliterally nursed us back to health and strength; making us savoury,nourishing dishes with a hunter's cunning, and giving us a preparationof medicinal herbs, which acted as a powerful tonic on our nerves,and braced us exceedingly. He gave up his bed to the Doctor, and incountless ways covered us with kindness. The day before we left hiscamp, we prevailed upon him to leave us, and go down the hills intoPamax to gain tidings of the soldiers who were in search of us. Whilsthe was away we cleaned our firearms, repacked our knapsacks, and madeall ready for starting at dawn on the following day.
Kios returned towards sunset; but eager as we were to learn histidings, we would not question him until he had eaten; nor did heevince any desire to communicate them before.
"Now, good Kios, we would hear your news," said the Doctor, as we drewround the camp fire and lit our cigars.
"It is not altogether good, as I had hoped," he began. "The people cantalk of nothing else but the men of Ramos, meaning yourselves. Theirexcitement hath increased; for some traders, who had journeyed to thelake of Kimeth, near which ye have told me ye camped, returned to Pamaxyesternight, bringing with them scraps of strange food and other refuseye must have left behind. The troops have started thither at dawn thismorning; and what is worse, that villain Perodii is at their head. Hewill never rest until ye are all once more in his power, for he bearsye strange and deadly hatred."
"But, Kios,----" began the Doctor.
"Nay, hear me out, men of Ramos, for I have but few more words to say.It is fortunate for ye that the troops have gone on this fool's errand;for they may search far and wide up there, and the time they waste yewill profit by. Yet, when they return to Pamax, as return they surelywill, Perodii's mood will not be pleasant; and ye may be assured thatthe journey to the borders of Chados will not tend to cool his wrathagainst ye. Men of Ramos, ye must not linger here; I cannot answer foryour safety longer. These woods will be searched, and it may be atdaybreak. Ye must start for Helmath to-night--nay, at once."
"But we are in ignorance of the way thither, and may lose ourselves inthe darkness," said Temple.
"Trouble not yourselves; for I will guide ye a few hours' journeyhence, and put ye in the path that leads thereto."
"I am afraid, worthy Kios, we shall never be able to repay you," saidthe Doctor.
"Ye saved my life; it is but well that I should seek to save yours inreturn. Besides, I aim Perodii a blow, through ye--and it is alwayssweet to strike one's enemies. Know ye, I was rich and noble once,with rank and dignity almost as high as he. Through his knavery andwickedness, I am degraded to the calling of a hunter to the palace,banished from my home in Edos, and owe what little I now possess--evenmy life itself--to the clemency of the King. Some day the truth mayprevail, and I be restored to my rights. Had Perodii honour enough leftto speak, he could accomplish this in few words; yet he remains silent;and I suffer, because I resented the great wrong he did me. But wewaste time in needless words. Get ye ready, and let us hasten hence;for the path is heavy, and the way is long."
We reluctantly left our comfortable quarters, and started off with Kiosthrough the darkness. The night was calm and beautifully fine--just oneof those delicious evenings that make the tropics of Earth so sweet,when the broiling heat of the day is spent. Kios led us by a circuitousroute down the wooded hillside; and we passed so near to Pamax, thatthe roar of its machinery sounded clearly in the night, and the glowfrom its thousands of furnaces shone against the sky like a mightyconflagration.
"The men of Pamax work late," remarked Temple, with a manufacturer'sinstinct, and thinking of his own noisy looms at home on Earth.
"The wheels of their machinery are never still," answered Kios. "Theworker's lot is hard, but they are a cheerful community, if their greedof gain is great."
We soon passed Pamax, with its noise and fire, and reached the calm,quiet country again. At last the forest was left behind us, and wewalked for an hour across a wide prairie, on which grew herbs ofsingular odour. Then we followed the banks of a wide river, and afterpassing through a dark and dangerous swampy jungle--something like theforest of reeds in which we first descended--Kios stopped and said:
"Men of Ramos, here I must leave ye. The night will be nearly spentere I get back to the woods of Theloth, and there are those who mustnot see me return. Look ye at yonder group of stars," pointing, as hespoke, to a constellation something like Ursa Major, the Great Bear,in our own heavens. "Mark ye them well; keep them straight before ye;and in two hours' march ye will reach the sea. Strike north along thecoast a short day's journey, until ye come to a rocky creek. Follow thestream that falls therein, skirting the base of a spent volcano; and inthree days' more easy travelling, ye will sight the great observatoryof Helmath, standing on a high hill on your right hand. Behind thathill is the city itself. Advance ye with caution; and hold no conversewith the men of Gathma until ye reach Helmath; or swift and certainruin will overtake ye. Now haste away, and fare ye well."
Without waiting to hear our words of thanks for all his kindness, Kioswaved his hand to us in farewell, and walked away into the gloom. Wetravelled slower without his guidance, for the way was rough; andsometimes clouds obscured the stars, which were our beacon light, andwe had oft to wait until they had drifted by. Instead, therefore, ofreaching the coast in two hours, we were nearly six; and the day wasbreaking as the grey waters of the Gathma sea spread far and widebefore us. We were both tired and hungry; and so amongst the rocks onthe beach we made a fire, and had our breakfast. Then we sat and restedfor two hours before beginning our march along the coast.
After crossing some four miles of level sand, we reached a denseforest, which extended from the margin of the water inland beyond therange of our vision. Here the curious vegetation was so dense that thesun failed to penetrate the canopy of foliage; but the ground was bareof brushwood, and walking was easy and pleasant. Some curious trees,shaped like a mighty fungus, or an open umbrella, excited our wonder.They bore no leaves, but threw out a thick, unbroken canopy, of thecolour and texture of an aloe plant, which curved downwards nearly tothe ground; and above this, from the centre of the stem, shot a spikeof crimson flowers, a yard or more in length. Each tree formed anadmirable tent; and many of them seemed to be of vast age; the canopybeing furrowed as with the growth of centuries, the edges torn intodry and withered ribbons, and the stems of enormous girth. At first wereally took them to be the habitations of human beings or beasts; andit was not until we had examined them closely that we ascertained theywere really trees.
As we went farther into the forest these curious trees increased innumber and in size; indeed, in some places they covered the ground sothickly, that it was difficult to walk amongst them; and we found itbest and quickest to make a detour. In passing one of these groves ofvegetable umbrellas, we were startled by a perfect tumult of chatteringcries, and scores of strange beings hurried out from under them andsurrounded us, skipping and hopping about, running to and fro likefiends in the dusky light of the forest. Had we not seen these singularbeings with our own eyes, we should never have believed in theirexistence. They were fashioned much like ourselves from the feet to theshoulders, the arms, however, being proportionately much shorter--butthere all outward resemblance ceased. Neck they had none, the shouldersgradually tapering away to the head, which was free from hair, and theface was intermediate in expression between that of a man, and thehigher or Simian race of beasts. Their bodies were entirely naked,and of a chalky-brown colour, and they averaged perhaps five feet inheight. So fierce and threatening did these curious creatures becomethat we fired our rifles off to frighten them, which had the desiredeffect, and they fled in chattering terror, grinning and grimacinginto the trees, and we saw them no more. Whether they were gifted withgreater than brute intelligence we know not; we were too startled andalarmed to make a closer acquaintance with them. Dr. Hermann himselfwas visibly disconcerted
; and the rest of us were glad when theyvanished from our sight, Sandy especially so---perhaps he dreaded theDoctor sending him in quest of one of these curious creatures. Even ourdog refused to go near them, and lay down trembling with fright.
SCORES OF STRANGE BEASTS HURRIED OUT FROM UNDER THEM.]
It seemed incredible that such a race of animals could exist, so nearto so mighty and populous a town as Pamax; but we were in a world ofsurprises, and things that appeared unnatural to us, were rationalenough, no doubt, to the dwellers on the land of Mars.
All day we passed through this wonderful forest, now catching aglimpse of broad daylight as the trees grew less closely together,then entering a world of shadows and steamy gloom as the canopy becamedenser once more. We saw trees that were nothing but bare poles,tapering to a point far up in the sky, without branch or leaf, except alittle green cup at the summit; others were draped in curiously-curledfoliage; others, yet again, decked in noble, fan-shaped leaves a dozenfeet across. Some put us in mind of the earthly tropics; but the greatmajority were entirely new, both in growth and form. The vegetablewonders around us made us forget our fatigue, and even our hunger. Wenever once thought to halt and rest throughout the livelong day; andwe continued walking on and on through the forest until we reached thecreek which Kios had told us we should find at the end of our day'sjourney.
It was a wild, lonely spot, enclosed with tall cliffs on either side,and perhaps half a mile across. The forest continued on the other sideat the top of the rocks, as it ceased on this. We had little troublein finding a suitable camping-place by the side of a tiny stream whichtumbled over the cliffs in a shower of spray into the creek below, andfurnished us with fresh water, that of the sea being salt and bitterto the taste. Here we formed a rude hut of branches, made our fire,and cooked some of the dried meat that Kios had insisted we shouldtake when we left his forest-home the previous evening. To-night wedecided that one of us should keep watch while the others slept, incase of our retreat being discovered by enemies. But the night passeduneventfully away, nothing occurring to disturb our slumbers or tobreak our peace.
We were moving early, and off on our way by sunrise. For the first houror so we followed the creek through the depths of the forest; but whenwe reached the river the aspect of the country changed considerably. Itwas now an undulating park-like land, with groves of scarlet-foliagedtrees.
Far away on the horizon loomed the towering heights of the exhaustedvolcano, round whose base was the path we had to follow. The scenerywas very beautiful, but somehow we had not the heart to admire it,for we felt like fugitives flying to a castle of refuge, through aland teeming with unknown perils and hidden enemies. We left theriver, as the banks were too steep and uneven to follow, and graduallyascended the lower spurs of the mountain, that being by far theeasiest route. By noon we halted under the towering crest of the deadvolcano. The sides were steep and rocky, though covered with manykinds of vegetation, notably a large tree with leaves and flowerslike a rhododendron. Here a deep hollow had become a small lake,fringed with curious rushes, over whose placid waters a large troop ofwhite, legless birds, similar to those we saw before, were disportingthemselves.
Here we made a fire, and cooked some food. As we were quietly eatingour meal, we were startled by an exclamation from Graham.
"Look! look!" he cried in an excited tone. "The troops! the troopsfrom Edos! We are discovered, surrounded!"
The peril of our position was only too true. Stealthily our pursuershad spread themselves in a wide semicircle from the river, extendingtheir flanks round either side of the mountain; and, though stillnearly a mile away, they were closing upon us with frightful haste.
"Leave all but the firearms and ammunition, and follow me," shouted theDoctor, leading the way up the hillside amongst the dense brushwood.Our movement was noticed at once by the approaching soldiers, and witha lusty shout they came on in hot pursuit. But the way was rough andsteep, and we had the advantage of being much higher up the mountainslope than they. For quite two miles we struggled on, without losingground or gaining it, until we reached a part of the mountain-sidewhich was strewn with huge boulders of pumice. Here we lost sight ofour pursuers, although we could hear their shouts and trumpet-callsbelow us, and sank down to rest a moment and get our breath. We had nottarried here for more than half a minute, when Sandy's practised eyecaught sight of a hole in the ground, twenty paces lower down the hill.We went to examine it, and found that it was a crevice in the side ofthe volcano, just large enough at the entrance to squeeze our bodiesthrough, but soon becoming much larger inside.
"Quick!" said the Doctor, "help me to roll this block of pumice to theentrance. We can hide in this hole; at any rate, it is a chance--ouronly chance. We will place the stone so that, once inside, we can rollit over the opening, and by this means conceal the hole from view,should the soldiers happen to pass over the spot."
The huge mass of pumice was exceedingly light, and we found nodifficulty in doing what the Doctor had suggested. One after the otherwe scrambled into the hillside crevice, and then Graham, he being thestrongest, managed to pull the stone over us, and we were immediatelyin darkness. Now, for the first time, we missed poor Rover; in ouranxiety and excitement we had not noticed him near us for some time;nor did we ever see the faithful old dog again!
Here for half an hour we remained motionless, huddled together, andnot daring to speak in voices higher than a whisper. We heard shoutafter shout from the troopers, and signal after signal from theirloud-mouthed trumpets, and we knew our enemies were baffled, forwe whom they sought so eagerly had utterly vanished! We heard themclambering over the boulders and dislodging the smaller stones as theywandered hither and thither round the place where we were concealed:and once a big warrior, panting for breath, actually came and leanedagainst the block of pumice that concealed our hiding-place, and thenwent his way! At last, all became still near at hand; we could hearour enemies in the distance, but the sound they made grew fainterand fainter, and then ceased altogether. They were gone, and for thepresent, at least, we were saved!
Meantime we had not been idle. As soon as we dared move without thepossibility of the soldiers hearing us, we began to explore ourrefuge. The rift extended downwards and inwards towards the centre ofthe mountain, but the jagged rocks and the darkness made our progressmost perilous, and at last we had to give up in despair. We strucka few wax-vestas Graham chanced to have in one of his pockets, buttheir feeble flame only served to render the surrounding darknessmore hideous and profound. There was nothing for it but to return tothe entrance, and there we waited and waited all the afternoon untilsunset, fearful to go out until the night should cloak our movementsfrom the view of any enemies still lurking near. As the short twilightwas coming to an end, the Doctor said in a low tone:
"One of us must go back to the camp by the lake, for our knapsacks. Wemust have food, if by any possible good fortune these troops have leftour things undisturbed. The rest must stay here; for I think we couldnot find safer quarters for a day or so, until our enemies have grownweary of the search, and depart to try elsewhere. I am ready----"
"No, Doctor," broke in Graham. "I will not hear of what you were aboutto propose. I volunteer the task of going back myself. You are far fromstrong yet, and the fatigue is too much for you."
"But I am willing to go," said Temple.
"Let me go, Doctor! I can be back in no time, I am more used to thehills than any o' ye," pleaded Sandy.
"Enough, comrades; the task, after all, is a trivial one. You remainhere; I will go," Graham answered; and pushing the block aside ashe spoke, he scrambled out into the evening gloom, and we heard hiscautious footsteps sounding fainter and fainter as he went his way.
He picked a path down the steep hillside, and struggled through thethickets, every now and then stopping to listen. In half an hour hereached the lake; but, owing to the darkness, he had mistaken the pathand gone nearly a mile to the east of the spot where our camp had been.Perhaps it was fortunate t
hat he did so; for across the water he sawthe blazing fires of a great encampment, and dusky figures passingto and fro before them. So the troops of Edos had not given up thesearch so readily; and Perodii, evidently, was determined on revenge.Cautiously Graham made a detour, and reached the big rock where we hadeaten our last meal; and there to his joy he found our knapsacks by theside of the blackened ashes of the fire. Strong man as he was, he didnot feel able to carry the four heavy packages. He therefore hid twounder a heap of pumice stones, and trudged off back up the hill withthe rest. He experienced great difficulty in getting back again, andeven more in finding the block of stone that concealed our retreat.Indeed, it is doubtful if he ever would have found it at all, had wenot heard him stumbling about the stones, and guided him to the cave byour signal whistles.
We were glad Graham had got back safely, and to see that he had broughtso much of our belongings; but the news that he had seen the camp-firesof our enemies sank like cold despair into our hearts. We had abitterly relentless foe to deal with, and our situation seemed growingmore and more hopeless.
"I am very glad you brought my knapsack, Graham," said the Doctor, "asit contains my electric lamp. We will now go further into the cave, asit is important that we should know the extent of our resources whenthe hour of need comes."
By the light from wax tapers, burnt one after the other, we got thepackage undone, and soon had the lamp in working order. Its brilliantrays lit-up the cavity so well that we could see many yards before us.The Doctor led the way, lamp in hand, and following him, we climbeddown deeper and deeper, and further and further, into the very bowelsof the dead volcano. The cavern now began to reach an enormous size,and our light was powerless to pierce the great blackness around us,comparatively speaking, for any distance. At first the lamp illuminatedthe rugged walls of this ancient furnace, and the rocks, in everyconceivable fantastic shape, looked grim and ghostly in the blueelectric light; but as we went on and on these jagged cliffs, mouldedby the molten fires of long-passed ages, gradually receded from thepenetrating light, until at last the rough ground beneath us was allthat was visible, and the vast immeasurable dome of the extinct craterloomed in dark weird mystery around us, our lamp but as a feeble starwithin its profound unknown depths. We must have travelled nearlya mile into the mountain, when we were surprised beyond measure tosee the starry vault of heaven through a vast rent in the top of thecavern, thousands of feet above our heads. The crater, the entiremountain, was hollow, and the hole in the shell above us had been thevent for its now long-ago burnt-out fire! We were actually in thevery core of a volcano. We proceeded but a few more steps, when therays from our lamp revealed a vast yawning chasm before us, the lightreflecting on a gulf of blackness, and not being powerful enough toillumine the furthermost edge of the pit. We shuddered as we lookedat the awful abyss, and pictured to ourselves our ghastly fate if wehad by some fatality walked over its terrible edge. An immense blockof stone, that Graham and Sandy rolled down the steep declivity whichled to the actual chasm, pitched into the blackness, and we heard itthundering down into the dizzy depths, first striking on one side,and then on the other, as it rebounded in its awful leaps like a merepebble, the sounds echoing and re-echoing through the hollow domearound us. Then the blows sounded fainter and fainter to our ears, andfinally died completely away, as if the boulder had leaped into anothervaulted cavern still lower down, or been ground to dust by the force ofits fall, and we heard no more!
Here under the very crest of the mountain, amongst the very roots ofthis rugged volcano, we lay down to rest; but not one of us couldsleep. The grandeur of the surroundings kept us awake, even though wehad put out our lamp, and the only ray of light in the pitchy darknesswas the opening above us to the sky. All night we lay here watching thescintillating stars, like fiery gems, until one by one they became wanand indistinct with the coming dawn, and gradually the space around uswas illumined as with a twilight brightness. The sun had risen, andthe outer world was bathed in warmth; yet only a sickly reflection ofthe day penetrated into our magnificently grand, if cold and dismalrefuge!
Anon the sun in his course across the sky shone down the mouth of thecrater, and the light became stronger. We seated ourselves in thecircle of his rays, and here we ate our cheerless meal--the remainderof the flesh we had had from Kios, and a few biscuits. Fortunately, ourwater supply was ample; the precious liquid dropped incessantly fromfar up in the rugged heights of the hollow mountain's roof; it trickledalong the ground, and accumulated in little pools among the pumicestones at our feet. As we ate our meal, and tried to warm our chilledbodies in the faint sunshine, a great mass of rock came hurtling downfrom the very summit, and leaped with an awful rushing sound into thechasm, and for long we heard its terrific progress into the uttermostdepths of the volcano. We looked up in terror and sprang to our feet,expecting each moment to be our last, and that the mountain itself wasgoing to collapse and bury us like moles beneath its tottering ruins!
But even a worse fate than that threatened us, for boldly outlinedagainst the sky, with helmets glinting in the sun, peering down intothe gloomy depths were several of the troops from Edos, in the very actof hurling another piece of rock upon us. We started back in horror,and hurried out of the focus of that death-dealing aperture, buryingourselves from sight in the surrounding gloom.
"So our hiding-place is discovered, and we may expect no mercy from thebloodhounds," said Graham.
"We will fight for liberty this time," rejoined the Doctor, in a cooland resolute voice. "Fight, and die fighting," he continued, "ratherthan fall into the power of those merciless, cold-blooded people ofEdos again."
Temple and Sandy were equally determined to fight to the last, and webegan to prepare ourselves for the coming fray. We again turned on ourelectric lamp, and retreated into the darkest depths of the cavern insearch of some spot where we might advantageously fight our foes. Wediscovered a small mound of broken rocks on the floor of the mountain,and on the summit of this we built up a rough rampart, behind which wemight find some shelter when firing. Then, by the light of the lamp,we carefully examined our rifles and revolvers, and made ready ourammunition. We agreed that Graham and Sandy should fire, they being thebest shots, and that the Doctor and Temple should load and hand theweapons. If we came to close quarters, each was to use his own revolveras best he could.
Before we had finished all our preparations, the great mountain vaultbegan to echo with the steps of advancing troops. Clearly they knewof this wondrous cavern, and must have been aware of other and easierways of entrance than the one we had chanced to discover. They weresearching every nook and corner of the mountain as they came, and wecould now form some idea of the vastness of the cavern by the lengthof the advancing line of troops. What astonished us most was theirmethod of illuminating their path through the darkness. As seen fromthe distance of a mile, the movements of the coming troops were markedby a line of little fire-balls, irregularly dancing and bobbing to andfro; and as the soldiers came nearer we saw that each one had whatappeared to be an incandescent lamp attached to his left ankle, whichlit up the ground before him for a few yards! We held our breath in ourgreat excitement, and curiously watched the foe. Then Sandy and Grahameach took their trusty rifles and knelt behind the rough rampart, readyto fire the moment a good opportunity occurred. It was no use waitinguntil the troops advanced, because discovery was certain; their lineof coming searchers were bound to cross the hill on which we wereentrenched!
Our hiding-place was still undiscovered, and the troops were not morethan two hundred yards away. We watched the line of lights break intotwo and circle round the yawning gulf; we saw a few troopers advanceinto the subdued light below the crater's mouth, and then disappearagain into the darkness. Then Graham covered one of the dusky forms,and after taking careful aim, pulled the trigger and missed! Theline was unbroken. A second afterwards, Sandy's piece went off withno better luck, the light being too uncertain for accurate aim. Theawful echoes that our exploding rifles raised are
beyond the powersof language to describe them. The vast vault seemed to be cracking intwain, and the reverberations appeared never going to subside. For amoment the troops were filled with panic; but we heard voices as ofcommanders cheering and encouraging their faltering men, and a momentafter we were literally blinded by a vivid flood of brilliant lightwhich gleamed out from behind us. Dazzled and blinded though we were,we saw at once that we were surrounded by enemies, another detachmenthaving surprised us from the rear. We were now as exposed to view asif we had been in the open air, under the blazing sun of noonday, andbefore one of us could recover from his astonishment and fire a shot indefence, our position was stormed, our rifles and revolvers wrenchedfrom our hands, and we were helpless as babes in the power of ourenemies.
What the light really was, whence it came, or how it was produced, weknew not, but it continued burning until we and our captors reached theopen air. The wild, savage scene of grandeur, revealed when the hollowmountain was made to disclose its hidden splendour by the penetratinglight, can never fade from our memory. Though captives, and bowed downwith hopeless despair, we were compelled to look, nay, even to admire!The misery of our position was forgotten in the glory of that cave,whose appearance bore eloquent and silent testimony to the stupendousforces of volcanic action. The brilliant light lit up even the veryhighest parts of the lofty mountain dome, showing hollows, and jaggedpoints, and enormous icicle-shaped masses of gold and silver, and otherrichly-coloured but, to us, unknown metals, which had formed there asthe molten interior of the volcano had suddenly cooled in rest. Some ofthe half-burnt rocks scintillated with unconsumable crystals; otherswere ground smooth as marble by the troubled action of a seethingsea; and great masses formed of a dozen different metals were to beseen here and there, wedged in between the ruin of rocks. So ruggedand loose was the roof in some places, that it looked as if the veryechoes of our footsteps would dislodge acres of boulders and send themtumbling down in mad confusion. But we were marched as quickly aspossible out of the mountain, and, in spite of our cruel fate, in ourhearts we were thankful to leave this terrible chasm behind us, andonce more to find ourselves under the canopy of heaven, in the full andblessed light of day.
We were immediately manacled, and conducted to the camp by the lake,where, in a spacious tent, Perodii sat in state. A gleam of intensehatred passed over his dark and savagely handsome face as we weremarshalled into his presence. All Graham's courageous spirit seemedto return as he looked once more upon his rival and his enemy, and hereturned Perodii's glances with a look of withering and defiant scorn.
"So, man of Ramos, with all thy cunning and with all thy magic artsthou hast fallen once more into my power," said Perodii in a sarcasticvoice, addressing Graham alone, and seeming not to notice the restof us at all. 'We shall meet again,' thou saidst at Remagaloth, andwe have done so. And now thou shalt bitterly repent thy insolentbehaviour, and to ME shalt thou cry aloud in thy woe for mercy. Thoushalt beg for death, yet shalt not die; thou shalt crave a speedy doom,yet shalt linger on and on in burning pain; but I will laugh at thyagony and scoff at thy prayers, thou low-born knave, thou seed ofevil, who hath sought to steal the favours of the woman I desired."
"You speak the words of a coward! Strike off these cursed chains, Isay, you lying scoundrel, and let fair combat decide between us. I fearno braggart such as you, who can only heap insults upon a fettered anda helpless man. Strike off these chains, I say, and then----"
"Hold thy peace! or I will have thy noisy tongue cut out," Perodiianswered, stung by Graham's bitter words. "Back to Edos shalt thou go;and the lake of Melag shall be a couch of flowers compared with thebed of thorny agony on which thou now shalt slowly die. Perodii hatesthee: and--take heed of what thou sayest--hates thee for thy cursedinterference with the woman he would have favoured, and might have wed!"
"Wife! Wife! Volin? your wife! Know that she despises you as much asshe loves and favours me, and long has she known your designs of evilupon at least one maiden's innocence. You, a scoundrel such as you,whose name is but another word for villainy throughout all Edos, takeVolin? to wife!----"
"Take heed of what thou sayest, or thy death shall be made moreterrible than the one I have already planned for thee," said Perodii,starting to his feet in rage, and half drawing the heavy knife whichhung sheathed from his girdle.
"My words are true, as you will know," continued Graham, his voicegetting louder as he went on. "Volin? is mine! Coward, do you hearme?--is MINE! Behold this ring--her ring--upon my finger, a pledge andtoken of her love, and a talisman to preserve its wearer from a violentdeath!"--and as he spoke he held out his fettered hand, in triumph, toshow his treasured gift.
"Then, when she weds thee, she shall have a corpse for her groom. Ha!Ha! Methinks Volin?, much as thou sayest she loves thee, will shun theein death! Death is but a sorry mate upon a bridal couch!"
"Your threats are but empty words. My comrades' lives and my own are inthe King's keeping. He speaks, and we may die; he says the word, and wego free. Already Echri's displeasure has been shown by our miraculousescape from Remagaloth. The King--yea, even the King--will not tempthis holy wrath a second time!"
"For little I would strip this ring from off thy hand."
"You dare not! Know you not that he who seeks to take it by force, orby stealth, is cursed? And braver men than you would hesitate beforerisking their souls' damnation!" said Graham calmly.
"Faugh! I want not thy paltry bauble. Old Echri is but a woman'scomforter, and turns their pretty heads with his ghostly nonsense."
"So long as I wear it, Perodii, it is beyond your power to harm me, tryas you will----"
"Enough! I forget myself in holding argument with such as thee,"retorted Perodii, who then, addressing the guards standing round us,said:
"Take this boasting fool from my presence, or by my eternal soul I mayrepent me my hatred, and by slaying him at once, cheat myself of thepleasure of witnessing his lingering agony."
"Perodii, the boasting is all with you----"
Graham's sentence was never finished, for he was hurried from the tentat once, and we quickly followed, surrounded by guards. Graham wasmanacled heavier than the rest of us, stooping under the weight of hisbrazen fetters, and was confined by himself in the watchful keeping ofa double guard. That night we were taken some distance across country,perhaps thirty miles, until we reached a large building standing byitself on an open plain. In this was a deep shaft which we descendedby a winding stair; and there at the bottom we found waiting for us acurious carriage which passed through a tunnel or tube, fitting tightlyas a piston-rod in a cylinder. This was worked either by some systemof pneumatics or by electric currents, we could not say which, as ourdeparture was so hurried. In two hours, as near as we could judge,travelling through this tube at a speed which put us in mind of the_Sirius_, we reached another and similar building, and, ascending aspiral stair, came to the surface. To our utter astonishment we hadreached Edos, and were marched through the silent, deserted streetsin the dead of night, back to our old prison in the King of Gathma'sPalace!