The Goddess of Atvatabar
CHAPTER XIII.
MARCHING IN TRIUMPH.
There was a blaze of excitement in the streets of Kioram when ourprocession appeared on the grand boulevard leading from the harbor tothe fortress, some four miles in length. We presented a strangeappearance not only to the people of the city, but to ourselves aswell.
Prior to our appearance before the people we were obliged to adjustourselves to the motion of an immense walking machine, the product ofthe inventive skill of Atvatabar.
Governor Ladalmir explained that the cavalry of Atvatabar were mountedon such locomotive machines, built on the plan of immense ostriches,called bockhockids. They were forty feet in height from toe to head,the saddle being thirty feet from the ground. The iron muscles of legsand body, moved by a powerful magnic motor inside the body of themonster, acted on bones of hollow steel. Each machine was operated bythe dynamo in the body, which was adjusted to act or remain inert, asrequired, when riding the structure. A switch in front of the saddleset the bockhockid in motion or brought it to rest again. It wassimply a gigantic velocipede without wheels. "We'll ride the bastes,"said Flathootly, with suppressed excitement.
"Do you think you can accommodate yourselves to ride such a machine?"said the governor. "You will find it, after a little practice, animposing method of travel."
We were assembled in a spacious court that surrounded the private dockof the king. Into this dock the _Polar King_ had been brought forgreater safety and also to facilitate popular inspection. I determinedthat both officers and sailors should equally take part in the honorsof our reception, and I informed the governor that we would like tosee first how the machines were worked.
At a signal from the governor, Captains Pra and Nototherbocdisappeared and presently returned to the court-yard mounted on twogigantic bockhockids, on which they curvetted and swept around ingallant style.
We were both astonished and delighted at the performance. It wasmarvellous to see such agility and obedience to the wish of the rideron such ungainly monsters. The sailors were only too anxious to mountsuch helter-skelters as the machine ostriches of Atvatabar. The stridemade by each bird was over forty feet, and nothing on earth couldovertake such coursers in full flight.
The governor, proud of his two-legged horses, as he called them, greweloquent in their behalf.
"Consider an army of men," said he, "mounted on such machines. Howswift! How formidable! What a terrible combat when two such armiesmeet, armed with their magnic spears! What display of prodigiousagility! What breathless swerving to and fro! What fearful fleetnessof pursuer and pursued! Aided as we are by the almost total absence ofgravity, our inventors have produced a means of locomotion forindividual men second only to the flying motor. We possess, also,flying bockhockids who are our cavalry in aerial warfare."
The enraptured sailors were only too anxious to mount the enormousbirds and sally forth to electrify the city. Ninety-eight bockhockidswere required to mount the entire company. This number was broughtinto the court-yard by a detachment of soldiers who nimbly unseatedthemselves and slid down the smooth legs of the birds to the ground.
"I say, yer honor," said Flathootly to the governor, "have you anyinsurance companies in this counthry?"
"Why, certainly," replied the governor.
"Then I want to inshure my loife if I have to mount a baste loikethat."
"Oh, I'll see that you are amply compensated for any injuries you maysustain by falling off the machine," said the governor.
"Sorr, is yer word as good as yer bond?" inquired Flathootly.
"Certainly," replied the governor.
"Well thin, sorr, gimme yer bond," said Flathootly.
The governor duly put his signature to a statement that Flathootlyshould be compensated for any injuries received in consequence of hisriding the bockhockid. Flathootly carefully deposited the document ina little satchel he carried in his breast, and thereupon, sailorfashion, climbed up the leg of the machine and seated himself on thegold-embroidered saddle-cloth.
In like manner the sailors got seated on their machines, the entirecompany forming an imposing phalanx. I found it quite easy to balancemyself on the two-legged monsters in consequence of the large basegiven each leg by the outspreading toes.
While the sailors were getting seated a military band, composed offifty musicians, each mounted on a bockhockid, played the March ofAtvatabar in soul-stirring strains.
The word of command being given, the great doors of the court-yardwere flung open and forth issued the musicians with banners flying.Then followed the seamen of the _Polar King_, led by the governor,Koshnili and myself.
The excited populace cheered a hearty welcome. A brigade of fivethousand bockhockids fell into line as an escort of honor. Theever-shining sun lent a brilliant effect to the pageant. Ourcomplexions were lighter than those of the Atvatabarese, who wereuniversally of a golden-yellow tint, and it was surprising to see howfair the people appeared, considering that they lived in a land wherethe sun never sets. None had a complexion darker than a richchocolate-brown color. This was accounted for by the fact that thelight of Swang was not half as intense as that of the outer sun in thetropics. The diminutive size of the luminary counterbalanced itsproximity to the surrounding planet. The light that fell uponAtvatabar was warm, genial, glowing, and rosy, imparting to life adelightful sensation. As the procession advanced we saw splendidemporiums of trade chiselled of white marble, crowded roof and windowwith dense masses of people. On either side of the fine boulevardleading to the palace the people were jammed into an immovable massand were wild with enthusiasm. The roadway was lined with trees thatseemed like magnolias, oranges, and oleanders.
"Now this is something loike a recipshon," said Flathootly. "I'm wellplazed wid it."
"I am delighted to know that your honor thinks so highly of ourefforts to please you," said the governor.
Flathootly turned round and shouted to the sailors, "Remimber, mebhoys, we will hev a grand feast at the ind of the performance." As hespoke, he unfortunately touched the switch starting the bockhockidinto a gallop, and in a moment the machine dashed furiously forward,running into the musicians, knocking down some of the otherbockhockids, scattering others in all directions, and then flyingahead amid the roars of the people. Flathootly was thrown off hisseat, but in falling to the ground managed to get hold of thebockhockid's leg at the knee-joint, to which he clung with the energyof despair. A squad of police, who also rode bockhockids, dashed afterthe flying Flathootly, and one of them got hold of the switch on theback of the machine and so brought it to a standstill.
Flathootly was terrified, but uninjured. His first concern was to seeif his "insurance" was safe. He found the document still in hisbreast, and this being so, was induced to remount his steed. "I hopeyour honor has met with no accident?" said the governor, riding up.
"As long as I've yer honor's handwritin' I'm all right," saidFlathootly. "If I break me leg what odds, so long as I'm insured?"
The scattered musicians were assembled in order again and theprocession continued its way toward the palace. There were on allsides evidences of wealth, culture, and refinement. Every building wasconstructed of chiselled marble.
The fortress and palace of Kioram stood in a large square, occupyingthe most commanding position in the city. From the fort could be seenthe white shores and surrounding sea of Atvatabar. The harbor wassurrounded with white stone piers lined with the commerce of thekingdom. The charm of the scene was largely lost on Flathootly and thesailors, who cared more for the material benefit of their receptionthan for its ideal beauty.
ONE OF THE MOUNTED POLICE GOT HOLD OF THE SWITCH ON THEBACK OF THE BOCKHOCKID, AND BROUGHT IT TO A STANDSTILL.]
The procession arrived at a pillared archway leading underneath thesolid walls of the fortress. These walls were fully one hundred feetin height and fifty feet in thickness. The top of the walls consistedof a level circular roadway, whereon a guard of bockhockids constantlyswept around with amazing swiftness.
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It was a sight grotesque in the extreme. The flying wayleals lookedlike a race between enormous ostriches with a wild confusion of legson the lofty ramparts.
"Flying divils let loose," was the subdued remark of Flathootly.
There was a gay time in the banqueting hall of the palace. We wereroyally feasted, and for wine we drank squang, the choicest wine ofAtvatabar.
The governor informed us that our appearance in the interior world hadbeen heralded all over the country, and strange speculations had beenmade as to what world or country we belonged to. "We know, of course,"said he, "that you do not belong to any race of men in our sphere, andthis makes public curiosity all the greater concerning you. Whatcountry do you come from?" said he, addressing Flathootly.
"Oi'm from the United States, the foinest counthry on the outside ofthe world; but I was born in Tipperary," said Flathootly.
"Ah," said the governor, "I should be delighted to visit yourcountry."
"You might be gettin' frightened, sorr, at the dark ivery noight,"said Flathootly.
"What is the night?" said the governor.
"Och, and have ye lived to be a gray-haired man and don't know thatit's dark at noight whin the sun jumps round to the other soide of thewurrld?"
"But it's never dark here," said the governor.
"Thrue for you, but it ought to be. How can a Christian slape wid thesun shinin' all the toime?" rejoined the Irishman.
"Oh, you can sleep here in the sunshine," said the governor, "as wellas inside the house."
"Does it iver rain here?" said Flathootly.
"But little," replied the governor; "not more than six inches of rainfalls in a year."
"Bedad, you ought to be in Oireland to see it rain. There you'd gitsoaked to your heart's content. An' tell me how do you grow yourcabbages without rain?" he continued.
"Well," said the governor, "rain is produced by firing into the airballs of solid gas so intensely cold that in turning to the gaseousform they condense in rain the invisible vapor in the air."
"Bedad, that's what they do in our country," said Flathootly, "onlythey explode shells of dynamite in the air. Can you tell me," headded, "have you got tides in the say here?"
"We have never been able to discover what force it is that lifts thesea so regularly," said the governor. "We call it the breathing of theocean."
"Shure any schoolboy knows it's the moon that does it," repliedFlathootly.
"The moon?" queried the governor.
"Why, of coorse it's the moon on the other side of the wurrld thatlifts up the wather both inside and out. Ye're wake in geography notto know that," said Flathootly.
The governor looked at me for verification of this astonishing story."Where is that wonderful moon," he inquired, "that I hear of? Where isthe surface of the earth that slopes away out of sight?" Just then thebell sounded its message that called the people to rest, and thebanqueting came to an end. We were forthwith shown to the privateapartments allotted to us in the palace.