Gulliver of Mars

  CHAPTER XV

  The dark forest seemed to shut behind as I entered the gateway of thedeserted Hither town, against which my wood-cutter friend had warnedme, while inside the soft mist hung in the starlight like grey draperyover endless vistas of ruins. What was I to do? Without all was blackand cheerless, inside there was at least shelter. Wet and cold, mycourage was not to be put down by the stories of a silly savage; Iwould go on whatever happened. Besides, the soft sound of crying, nowapparently all about, seemed companionable, and I had heard so much ofghosts of late, the sharp edge of fear at their presence was wearingoff.

  So in I went: up a broad, decayed street, its flagstones heavedeverywhere by the roots of gnarled trees, and finding nothing saveruin, tried to rest under a wall. But the night air was chilly and theshelter poor, so out I came again, with the wailing in the shadows soclose about now that I stopped, and mustering up courage called aloud:

  "Hullo, you who weep there in the dark, are you living or dead?" Andafter a minute from the hollows of the empty hearths around came thesad little responsive echo:

  "Are you living or dead?" It was very delusive and unsatisfactory, andI was wondering what to do next when a slant of warmer wind came upbehind me under the mist, and immediately little tongues of blue flameblossomed without visible cause in every darksome crevice; paleflickers of miasmic light rising pallid from every lurking nook andcorner in the black desolation as though a thousand lamps were lit byunseen fingers, and, knee high, floated out into the thoroughfare wherethey oscillated gently in airy grace, and then, forming intoprocession, began drifting before the tepid air towards the citycentre. At once I thought of what the woodcutter had seen, but was toowet and sulky by this time to care. The fascination of the place was onme, and dropping into rear of the march, I went forward with it. Bythis time the wailing had stopped, though now and then it seemed a darkform moved in the empty doorways on either hand, while the mist,parting into gossamers before the wind, took marvellously human formsin every alley and lane we passed.

  Thus I, a sodden giant, led by those elfin torches, paced through thecity until we came to an open square with a great lumber of ruins inthe centre all marred and spoiled by vegetation; and here the lightswavered, and went out by scores and hundreds, just as the petals dropfrom spent flowers, while it seemed, though it may have been only windin the rank grass, that the air was full of most plaintive sighs aseach little lamp slipped into oblivion.

  The big pile was a mass of fallen masonry, which, from the brokenpillars all about, might have been a palace or temple once. I pushedin, but it was as dark as Hades here, so, after struggling for a timein a labyrinth of chambers, chose a sandy recess, with some dry herbageby way of bedding in a corner, and there, thankful at least forshelter, my night's wanderings came to an end and I coiled myself down,ate a last handful of dry fruit, and, strange as it may seem, was soonsleeping peacefully.

  I dreamed that night that a woman, with a face as white as ivory, cameand bent over me. She led a babe by either hand, while behind her werescores of other ones, with lovely faces, but all as pale as the starsthemselves, who looked and sighed, but said nothing, and when they hadstared their fill, dropped out one by one, leaving a wonderful blank inthe monotony where they had been; but beyond that dream nothinghappened.

  It was a fine morning when I woke again, and obviously broad dayoutside, the sunshine coming down through cracks in the old palaceroof, and lying in golden pools on the floor with dazzling effect.

  Rubbing my eyes and sitting up, it took me some time to get my sensestogether, and at first an uneasy feeling possessed me that I wassomehow dematerialised and in an unreal world. But a twinge of crampin my left arm, and a healthy sneeze, which frightened a score of batsoverhead nearly out of their senses, was reassuring on this point, andrubbing away the cramp and staggering to my feet, I looked about at thestrange surroundings. It was cavernous chaos on every side:magnificent architecture reduced to the confusion of a debris-heap,only the hollow chambers being here and there preserved by massivecolumns meeting overhead. Into these the yellow light filteredwherever a rent in a cupola or side-wall admitted it, and allured bythe vision of corridors one beyond the other, I presently set off on atour of discovery.

  Twenty minutes' scrambling brought me to a place where the fallen jambsof a fine doorway lay so close together that there was barely room topass between them. However, seeing light beyond, I squeezed through,and I found myself in the best-preserved chamber of all--a wide, roomyhall with a domed roof, a haze of mural paintings on the walls, and amarble floor nearly hidden in a century of fallen dust. I stumbled oversomething at the threshold, and picking it up, found it was a baby'sskull! And there were more of them now that my eyes became accustomedto the light. The whole floor was mottled with them--scores andhundreds of bones and those poor little relics of humanity jutting outof the sand everywhere. In the hush of that great dead nursery thelittle white trophies seemed inexpressibly pathetic, and I should haveturned back reverently from that chamber of forgotten sorrows but thatsomething caught my eye in the centre of it.

  It was an oblong pile of white stone, very ill-used and chipped,wrist-deep in dust, yet when a slant of light came in from above andfell straight upon it, the marble against the black gloom beyond blazedlike living pearl. It was dazzling; and shading my eyes and goingtenderly over through the poor dead babes, I looked, and there, full inthe shine, lay a woman's skeleton, still wrapped in a robe of whichlittle was left save the hard gold embroidery. Her brown hair,wonderful to say, still lay like lank, dead seaweed about her, andamongst it was a fillet crown of plain iron set with gems such as eyenever looked upon before. There were not many, but enough to make theproud simplicity of that circlet glisten like a little band of fire--agleaming halo on her dead forehead infinitely fascinating. At hersides were two other little bleached human flowers, and I stood beforethem for a long time in silent sympathy.

  Could this be Queen Yang, of whom the woodcutter had told me? It mustbe--who else? And if it were, what strange chance had brought mehere--a stranger, yet the first to come, since her sorrow, from herdistant kindred? And if it were, then that fillet belonged of right toHeru, the last representative of her kind. Ought I not to take it toher rather than leave it as spoil to the first idle thief with pluckenough to deride the mysteries of the haunted city? Long time I thoughtover it in the faint, heavy atmosphere of that hall, and then verygently unwound the hair, lifted the circlet, and, scarcely knowing whatI did, put it in my shoulder-bag.

  After that I went more cheerfully into the outside sunshine, andsetting my clothes to dry on a stone, took stock of the situation. Theplace was, perhaps, not quite so romantic by day as by night, and thescattered trees, matted by creepers, with which the whole wereovergrown, prevented anything like an extensive view of the ruined citybeing obtained. But what gave me great satisfaction was to note overthese trees to the eastward a two-humped mountain, not more than six orseven miles distant--the very one I had mislaid the day before. Herewas reality and a chance of getting back to civilisation. I was asglad as if home were in sight, and not, perhaps, the less so becausethe hill meant villages and food; and you who have doubtless lunchedwell and lately will please bear in mind I had had nothing sincebreakfast the day before; and though this may look picturesque onpaper, in practice it is a painful item in one's programme.

  Well, I gave my damp clothes but a turn or two more in the sun, andthen, arguing that from the bare ground where the forest ended half-wayup the hill, a wide view would be obtained, hurried into my garmentsand set off thither right gleefully. A turn or two down the blankstreets, now prosaic enough, an easy scramble through a gap in thecrumbling battlements, and there was the open forest again, with afriendly path well marked by the passage of those wild animals who madethe city their lair trending towards my landmark.

  A light breakfast of soft green nuts, plucked on the way, and then theground began to bend upwards and the woods to thin a little. With
infinite ardour, just before midday, I scrambled on to a bare knoll onthe very hillside, and fell exhausted before the top could be reached.

  But what were hunger or fatigue to the satisfaction of that moment?There was the sea before me, the clear, strong, gracious sea, blueleagues of it, furrowed by the white ridges of some distant storm. Icould smell the scent of it even here, and my sailor heart rose inpride at the companionship of that alien ocean. Lovely and blessedthing! how often have I turned from the shallow trivialities of theland and found consolation in the strength of your stately solitudes!How often have I turned from the tinselled presence of the shore, theinfinite pretensions of dry land that make life a sorry, hectic sham,and found in the black bosom of the Great Mother solace and comfort!Dear, lovely sea, man--half of every sphere, as far removed in thesequence of your strong emotions from the painted fripperies of thewoman-land as pole from pole--the grateful blessing of the humblest ofyour followers on you!

  The mere sight of salt water did me good. Heaven knows our separationhad not been long, and many an unkind slap has the Mother given me inthe bygone; yet the mere sight of her was tonic, a lethe of troubles, asedative for tired nerves; and I gazed that morning at the illimitableblue, the great, unfettered road to everywhere, the ever-varied, theimmutable, the thing which was before everything and shall be last ofall, in an ecstasy of affection.

  There was also other satisfaction at hand. Not a mile away lay awell-defined road--doubtless the one spoken of by the wood-cutter--andwhere the track pointed to the seashore the low roofs and circlingsmoke of a Thither township showed.

  There I went hot-footed, and, much too hungry to be nice in formality,swung up to the largest building on the waterside quay and demandedbreakfast of the man who was lounging by its doorway chewing a honeyreed. He looked me up and down without emotion, then, falling into thecommon mistake, said,

  "This is not a hostel for ghosts, sir. We do not board and lodgephantoms here; this is a dry fish shop."

  "Thrice blessed trade!" I answered. "Give me some dried fish, goodfellow, or, for the matter of that, dried horse or dog, or anythingmortal teeth can bite through, and I will show you my tastes arealtogether mundane."

  But he shook his head. "This is no place for the likes of you, whocome, mayhap, from the city of Yang or some other abode of disembodiedspirits--you, who come for mischief and pay harbourage withmischance--is it likely you could eat wholesome food?"

  "Indeed I could, and plenty of it, seeing I have dined and breakfastedalong the hedges with the blackbirds this two days. Look here, I willpay in advance. Will that get me a meal?" and, whipping out my knife,cut off another of my fast-receding coat buttons.

  The man took it with great interest, as I hoped he would, the yellowmetal being apparently a very scarce commodity in his part of theplanet.

  "Gold?" he asked.

  "Well--ahem! I forgot to ask the man who sewed them on for me whatthey were exactly, but it looks like gold, doesn't it?"

  "Yes," he answered, turning it to and fro admiringly in his hand, "youare the first ghost I ever knew to pay in advance, and plenty of themgo to and fro through here. Such a pretty thing is well worth ameal--if, indeed, you can stomach our rough fare. Here, you womanwithin," he called to the lady whom I presume was his wife, "here is agentleman from the nether regions who wants some breakfast and has paidin advance. Give him some of your best, for he has paid well."

  "And what," said a female voice from inside, "what if I refused toserve another of these plaguy wanderers you are always foisting uponme?"

  "Don't mind her tongue, sir. It's the worst part of her, though she ismighty proud of it. Go in and she will see you do not come outhungry," and the Thither man returned calmly to his honey stick.

  "Come on, you Soul-with-a-man's-stomach," growled the woman, and toohungry to be particular about the tone of invitation, I strode into theparlour of that strange refreshment place. The woman was the first Ihad seen of the outer race, and better than might have been expected inappearance. Big, strong, and ruddy, she was a mental shock after theslender slips of girlhood on the far side of the water, half a dozen ofwhom she could have carried off without effort in her long arms. Yetthere was about her the credential of rough health, the dignity ofmuscle, an upright carriage, an animal grace of movement, and withal acomely though strongly featured face, which pleased me at once, andlater on I had great cause to remember her with gratitude. She eyed mesulkily for a minute, then her frown gradually softened, and theinstinctive love of the woman for the supernatural mastered her otherfeelings.

  "Is that how you looked in another world?" she asked.

  "Yes, exactly, cap to boots. What do you think of the attire, ma'am?"

  "Not much," replied the good woman frankly. "It could not have beenbecoming even when new, and you appear as though you had taken a muddyroad since then. What did you die of?"

  "I will tell you so much as this, madam--that what I am like to die ofnow is hunger, plain, unvarnished hunger, so, in Heaven's name, get outwhat you have and let me fall-to, for my last meal was yesterdaymorning."

  Whereat, with a shrug of her shoulders at the eccentricities of netherfolk, the woman went to the rear of the house, and presently came backwith a meal which showed her husband had done scant justice to theestablishment by calling it a dry fish shop. It is true, fish suppliedthe staple of the repast, as was inevitable in a seaport, but, like allMartian fish, it was of ambrosial kind, with a savour about it of wineand sunshine such as no fish on our side of space can boast of. Thenthere were cakes, steaming and hot, vegetables which fitted into theprevious course with exquisite nicety, and, lastly, a wooden tankard ofthe invariable Thither beer to finish off. Such a meal as a hungry manmight consider himself fortunate to meet with any day.

  The woman watched me eat with much satisfaction, and when I hadanswered a score of artless questions about my previous state, orpresent condition and prospects, more or less to her satisfaction, shesupplied me in turn with some information which was really valuable tome just then.

  First I learned that Ar-hap's men, with the abducted Heru, had passedthrough this very port two days before, and by this time were probablyin the main town, which, it appeared, was only about twelve hours'rowing up the salt-water estuary outside. Here was news! Heru, theprize and object of my wild adventure, close at hand and well. Itbrought a whole new train of thoughts, for the last few days had beenso full of the stress of travel, the bare, hard necessity of gettingforward, that the object of my quest, illogical as it may seem, hadgone into the background before these things. And here again, as Ifinished the last cake and drank down to the bottom of the ale tankard,the extreme folly of the venture came upon me, the madness of venturingsingle-handed into the den of the Wood King. What had I to hope for?What chance, however remote, was there of successfully wresting thatblooming prize from the arms of her captor? Force was out of thequestion; stealth was utterly impractical; as for cajolery, apparentlythe sole remaining means of winning back the Princess--why, one mightas well try the persuasion of a penny flute upon a hungry eagle as seekto rouse Ar-hap's sympathies for bereaved Hath in that way. Surely togo forward would mean my own certain destruction, with no advantage, nohelp to Heru; and if I was ever to turn back or stop in the idle quest,here was the place and time. My Hither friends were behind the sea; tothem I could return before it was too late, and here were the rough buthonest Thither folk, who would doubtless let me live amongst them ifthat was to be my fate. One or other alternative were better than goingto torture and death.

  "You seem to take the fate of that Hither girl of yours mightily toheart, stranger," quoth my hostess, with a touch of feminine jealousy,as she watched my hesitation. "Do you know anything of her?"

  "Yes," I answered gloomily. "I have seen her once or twice away inSeth."

  "Ah, that reminds me! When they brought her up here from the boats todry her wet clothes, she cried and called in her grief for just such aone as you, saying he a
lone who struck down our men at her feast couldrescue her--"

  "What! Heru here in this room but yesterday! How did she look? Wasshe hurt? How had they treated her?"

  My eagerness gave me away. The woman looked at me through herhalf-shut eyes a space, and then said, "Oh! sits the wind in THATquarter? So you can love as well as eat. I must say you arewell-conditioned for a spirit."

  I got up and walked about the room a space, then, feeling veryfriendless, and knowing no woman was ever born who was not interestedin another woman's loves, I boldly drew my hostess aside and told herabout Heru, and that I was in pursuit of her, dwelling on the girl'sgentle helplessness, my own hare-brained adventure, and frankly askingwhat sort of a sovereign Ar-hap was, what the customs of his courtmight be, and whether she could suggest any means, temporal orspiritual, by which he might be moved to give back Heru to her kindred.

  Nor was my confidence misplaced. The woman, as I guessed, was touchedsomewhere back in her female heart by my melting love-tale, by myanxiety and Heru's peril. Besides, a ghost in search of a fairylady--and such the slender folk of Seth were still considered to be bythe race which had supplanted them--this was romance indeed. To bebrief, that good woman proved invaluable.

  She told me, firstly, that Ar-hap was believed to be away at war,"weekending" as was his custom, amongst rebellious tribes, and bystarting at once up the water, I should very probably get to the townbefore he did. Secondly, she thought if I kept clear of private brawlsthere was little chance of my receiving injury, from the people at allevents, as they were accustomed to strange visitors, and civil enoughuntil they were fired by war. "Sickle cold, sword hot," was one oftheir proverbs, meaning thereby that in peaceful times they were lambs,however lionlike they might be in contest.

  This was reassuring, but as to recovering the lady, that was anothermatter over which the good woman shook her head. It was ill comingbetween Ar-hap and his tribute, she said; still, if I wanted to seeHeru once again, this was my opportunity, and, for the rest, thatchance, which often favours the enamoured, must be my help.

  Briefly, though I should probably have gone forward in any case out ofsheer obstinacy, had it been to certain destruction, this better aspectof the situation hastened my resolution. I thanked the woman for help,and then the man outside was called in to advise as to the best andspeediest way of getting within earshot of his hairy sovereignty, themonarch of Thitherland.