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diff --git a/604-h/604-h.htm b/604-h/604-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0c75da --- /dev/null +++ b/604-h/604-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9373 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Gulliver of Mars, by Edwin L. Arnold +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +PRE.poem { font-size: small ; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.finis { text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gulliver of Mars, by Edwin L. Arnold + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Gulliver of Mars + +Author: Edwin L. Arnold + +Posting Date: August 16, 2008 [EBook #604] +Release Date: July, 1996 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GULLIVER OF MARS *** + + + + +Produced by Judith Boss and Len Budney. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +Gulliver of Mars +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Edwin L. Arnold +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Original Title: Lieut. Gulliver Jones +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<P> +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="100%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="25%"> +<A HREF="#chap01">CHAPTER I</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="25%"> +<A HREF="#chap02">CHAPTER II</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="25%"> +<A HREF="#chap03">CHAPTER III</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="25%"> +<A HREF="#chap04">CHAPTER IV</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">CHAPTER V</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">CHAPTER VI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">CHAPTER VII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">CHAPTER IX</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">CHAPTER X</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">CHAPTER XI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">CHAPTER XII</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">CHAPTER XV</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">CHAPTER XX</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<P> +Dare I say it? Dare I say that I, a plain, prosaic lieutenant in the +republican service have done the incredible things here set out for the +love of a woman—for a chimera in female shape; for a pale, vapid ghost +of woman-loveliness? At times I tell myself I dare not: that you will +laugh, and cast me aside as a fabricator; and then again I pick up my +pen and collect the scattered pages, for I MUST write it—the pallid +splendour of that thing I loved, and won, and lost is ever before me, +and will not be forgotten. The tumult of the struggle into which that +vision led me still throbs in my mind, the soft, lisping voices of the +planet I ransacked for its sake and the roar of the destruction which +followed me back from the quest drowns all other sounds in my ears! I +must and will write—it relieves me; read and believe as you list. +</P> + +<P> +At the moment this story commences I was thinking of grilled steak and +tomatoes—steak crisp and brown on both sides, and tomatoes red as a +setting sun! +</P> + +<P> +Much else though I have forgotten, THAT fact remains as clear as the +last sight of a well-remembered shore in the mind of some wave-tossed +traveller. And the occasion which produced that prosaic thought was a +night well calculated to make one think of supper and fireside, though +the one might be frugal and the other lonely, and as I, Gulliver Jones, +the poor foresaid Navy lieutenant, with the honoured stars of our +Republic on my collar, and an undeserved snub from those in authority +rankling in my heart, picked my way homeward by a short cut through the +dismalness of a New York slum I longed for steak and stout, slippers +and a pipe, with all the pathetic keenness of a troubled soul. +</P> + +<P> +It was a wild, black kind of night, and the weirdness of it showed up +as I passed from light to light or crossed the mouths of dim alleys +leading Heaven knows to what infernal dens of mystery and crime even in +this latter-day city of ours. The moon was up as far as the church +steeples; large vapoury clouds scudding across the sky between us and +her, and a strong, gusty wind, laden with big raindrops snarled angrily +round corners and sighed in the parapets like strange voices talking +about things not of human interest. +</P> + +<P> +It made no difference to me, of course. New York in this year of grace +is not the place for the supernatural be the time never so fit for +witch-riding and the night wind in the chimney-stacks sound never so +much like the last gurgling cries of throttled men. No! the world was +very matter-of-fact, and particularly so to me, a poor younger son with +five dollars in my purse by way of fortune, a packet of unpaid bills in +my breastpocket, and round my neck a locket with a portrait therein of +that dear buxom, freckled, stub-nosed girl away in a little southern +seaport town whom I thought I loved with a magnificent affection. +Gods! I had not even touched the fringe of that affliction. +</P> + +<P> +Thus sauntering along moodily, my chin on my chest and much too +absorbed in reflection to have any nice appreciation of what was +happening about me, I was crossing in front of a dilapidated block of +houses, dating back nearly to the time of the Pilgrim Fathers, when I +had a vague consciousness of something dark suddenly sweeping by me—a +thing like a huge bat, or a solid shadow, if such a thing could be, and +the next instant there was a thud and a bump, a bump again, a +half-stifled cry, and then a hurried vision of some black carpeting +that flapped and shook as though all the winds of Eblis were in its +folds, and then apparently disgorged from its inmost recesses a little +man. +</P> + +<P> +Before my first start of half-amused surprise was over I saw him by the +flickering lamp-light clutch at space as he tried to steady himself, +stumble on the slippery curb, and the next moment go down on the back +of his head with a most ugly thud. +</P> + +<P> +Now I was not destitute of feeling, though it had been my lot to see +men die in many ways, and I ran over to that motionless form without an +idea that anything but an ordinary accident had occurred. There he +lay, silent and, as it turned out afterwards, dead as a door-nail, the +strangest old fellow ever eyes looked upon, dressed in shabby +sorrel-coloured clothes of antique cut, with a long grey beard upon his +chin, pent-roof eyebrows, and a wizened complexion so puckered and +tanned by exposure to Heaven only knew what weathers that it was +impossible to guess his nationality. +</P> + +<P> +I lifted him up out of the puddle of black blood in which he was lying, +and his head dropped back over my arm as though it had been fixed to +his body with string alone. There was neither heart-beat nor breath in +him, and the last flicker of life faded out of that gaunt face even as +I watched. It was not altogether a pleasant situation, and the only +thing to do appeared to be to get the dead man into proper care (though +little good it could do him now!) as speedily as possible. So, +sending a chance passer-by into the main street for a cab, I placed him +into it as soon as it came, and there being nobody else to go, got in +with him myself, telling the driver at the same time to take us to the +nearest hospital. +</P> + +<P> +"Is this your rug, captain?" asked a bystander just as we were driving +off. +</P> + +<P> +"Not mine," I answered somewhat roughly. "You don't suppose I go about +at this time of night with Turkey carpets under my arm, do you? It +belongs to this old chap here who has just dropped out of the skies on +to his head; chuck it on top and shut the door!" And that rug, the +very mainspring of the startling things which followed, was thus +carelessly thrown on to the carriage, and off we went. +</P> + +<P> +Well, to be brief, I handed in that stark old traveller from nowhere at +the hospital, and as a matter of curiosity sat in the waiting-room +while they examined him. In five minutes the house-surgeon on duty +came in to see me, and with a shake of his head said briefly— +</P> + +<P> +"Gone, sir—clean gone! Broke his neck like a pipe-stem. Most +strange-looking man, and none of us can even guess at his age. Not a +friend of yours, I suppose?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing whatever to do with me, sir. He slipped on the pavement and +fell in front of me just now, and as a matter of common charity I +brought him in here. Were there any means of identification on him?" +</P> + +<P> +"None whatever," answered the doctor, taking out his notebook and, as a +matter of form, writing down my name and address and a few brief +particulars, "nothing whatever except this curious-looking bead hung +round his neck by a blackened thong of leather," and he handed me a +thing about as big as a filbert nut with a loop for suspension and +apparently of rock crystal, though so begrimed and dull its nature was +difficult to speak of with certainty. The bead was of no seeming value +and slipped unintentionally into my waistcoat pocket as I chatted for a +few minutes more with the doctor, and then, shaking hands, I said +goodbye, and went back to the cab which was still waiting outside. +</P> + +<P> +It was only on reaching home I noticed the hospital porters had omitted +to take the dead man's carpet from the roof of the cab when they +carried him in, and as the cabman did not care about driving back to +the hospital with it, and it could not well be left in the street, I +somewhat reluctantly carried it indoors with me. +</P> + +<P> +Once in the shine of my own lamp and a cigar in my mouth I had a closer +look at that ancient piece of art work from heaven, or the other place, +only knows what ancient loom. +</P> + +<P> +A big, strong rug of faded Oriental colouring, it covered half the +floor of my sitting-room, the substance being of a material more like +camel's hair than anything else, and running across, when examined +closely, were some dark fibres so long and fine that surely they must +have come from the tail of Solomon's favourite black stallion itself. +But the strangest thing about that carpet was its pattern. It was +threadbare enough to all conscience in places, yet the design still +lived in solemn, age-wasted hues, and, as I dragged it to my +stove-front and spread it out, it seemed to me that it was as much like +a star map done by a scribe who had lately recovered from delirium +tremens as anything else. In the centre appeared a round such as might +be taken for the sun, while here and there, "in the field," as heralds +say, were lesser orbs which from their size and position could +represent smaller worlds circling about it. Between these orbs were +dotted lines and arrow-heads of the oldest form pointing in all +directions, while all the intervening spaces were filled up with woven +characters half-way in appearance between Runes and Cryptic-Sanskrit. +Round the borders these characters ran into a wild maze, a perfect +jungle of an alphabet through which none but a wizard could have forced +a way in search of meaning. +</P> + +<P> +Altogether, I thought as I kicked it out straight upon my floor, it was +a strange and not unhandsome article of furniture—it would do nicely +for the mess-room on the Carolina, and if any representatives of yonder +poor old fellow turned up tomorrow, why, I would give them a couple of +dollars for it. Little did I guess how dear it would be at any price! +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile that steak was late, and now that the temporary excitement of +the evening was wearing off I fell dull again. What a dark, sodden +world it was that frowned in on me as I moved over to the window and +opened it for the benefit of the cool air, and how the wind howled +about the roof tops. How lonely I was! What a fool I had been to ask +for long leave and come ashore like this, to curry favour with a set of +stubborn dunderheads who cared nothing for me—or Polly, and could not +or would not understand how important it was to the best interests of +the Service that I should get that promotion which alone would send me +back to her an eligible wooer! What a fool I was not to have +volunteered for some desperate service instead of wasting time like +this! Then at least life would have been interesting; now it was dull +as ditch-water, with wretched vistas of stagnant waiting between now +and that joyful day when I could claim that dear, rosy-checked girl for +my own. What a fool I had been! +</P> + +<P> +"I wish, I wish," I exclaimed, walking round the little room, "I wish I +were—" +</P> + +<P> +While these unfinished exclamations were actually passing my lips I +chanced to cross that infernal mat, and it is no more startling than +true, but at my word a quiver of expectation ran through that gaunt +web—a rustle of anticipation filled its ancient fabric, and one frayed +corner surged up, and as I passed off its surface in my stride, the +sentence still unfinished on my lips, wrapped itself about my left leg +with extraordinary swiftness and so effectively that I nearly fell into +the arms of my landlady, who opened the door at the moment and came in +with a tray and the steak and tomatoes mentioned more than once already. +</P> + +<P> +It was the draught caused by the opening door, of course, that had made +the dead man's rug lift so strangely—what else could it have been? I +made this apology to the good woman, and when she had set the table and +closed the door took another turn or two about my den, continuing as I +did so my angry thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes," I said at last, returning to the stove and taking my stand, +hands in pockets, in front of it, "anything were better than this, any +enterprise however wild, any adventure however desperate. Oh, I wish I +were anywhere but here, anywhere out of this redtape-ridden world of +ours! I WISH I WERE IN THE PLANET MARS!" +</P> + +<P> +How can I describe what followed those luckless words? Even as I spoke +the magic carpet quivered responsively under my feet, and an undulation +went all round the fringe as though a sudden wind were shaking it. It +humped up in the middle so abruptly that I came down sitting with a +shock that numbed me for the moment. It threw me on my back and +billowed up round me as though I were in the trough of a stormy sea. +Quicker than I can write it lapped a corner over and rolled me in its +folds like a chrysalis in a cocoon. I gave a wild yell and made one +frantic struggle, but it was too late. With the leathery strength of a +giant and the swiftness of an accomplished cigar-roller covering a +"core" with leaf, it swamped my efforts, straightened my limbs, rolled +me over, lapped me in fold after fold till head and feet and everything +were gone—crushed life and breath back into my innermost being, and +then, with the last particle of consciousness, I felt myself lifted +from the floor, pass once round the room, and finally shoot out, point +foremost, into space through the open window, and go up and up and up +with a sound of rending atmospheres that seemed to tear like riven silk +in one prolonged shriek under my head, and to close up in thunder +astern until my reeling senses could stand it no longer, and time and +space and circumstances all lost their meaning to me. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<P> +How long that wild rush lasted I have no means of judging. It may have +been an hour, a day, or many days, for I was throughout in a state of +suspended animation, but presently my senses began to return and with +them a sensation of lessening speed, a grateful relief to a heavy +pressure which had held my life crushed in its grasp, without +destroying it completely. It was just that sort of sensation though +more keen which, drowsy in his bunk, a traveller feels when he is +aware, without special perception, harbour is reached and a voyage +comes to an end. But in my case the slowing down was for a long time +comparative. Yet the sensation served to revive my scattered senses, +and just as I was awakening to a lively sense of amazement, an +incredible doubt of my own emotions, and an eager desire to know what +had happened, my strange conveyance oscillated once or twice, undulated +lightly up and down, like a woodpecker flying from tree to tree, and +then grounded, bows first, rolled over several times, then steadied +again, and, coming at last to rest, the next minute the infernal rug +opened, quivering along all its borders in its peculiar way, and +humping up in the middle shot me five feet into the air like a cat +tossed from a schoolboy's blanket. +</P> + +<P> +As I turned over I had a dim vision of a clear light like the shine of +dawn, and solid ground sloping away below me. Upon that slope was +ranged a crowd of squatting people, and a staid-looking individual with +his back turned stood nearer by. Afterwards I found he was lecturing +all those sitters on the ethics of gravity and the inherent properties +of falling bodies; at the moment I only knew he was directly in my line +as I descended, and him round the waist I seized, giddy with the light +and fresh air, waltzed him down the slope with the force of my impetus, +and, tripping at the bottom, rolled over and over recklessly with him +sheer into the arms of the gaping crowd below. Over and over we went +into the thickest mass of bodies, making a way through the people, +until at last we came to a stop in a perfect mound of writhing forms +and waving legs and arms. When we had done the mass disentangled +itself and I was able to raise my head from the shoulder of someone on +whom I had fallen, lifting him, or her—which was it?—into a sitting +posture alongside of me at the same time, while the others rose about +us like wheat-stalks after a storm, and edged shyly off, as well as +they might. +</P> + +<P> +Such a sleek, slim youth it was who sat up facing me, with a flush of +gentle surprise on his face, and dapper hands that felt cautiously +about his anatomy for injured places. He looked so quaintly rueful yet +withal so good-tempered that I could not help bursting into laughter in +spite of my own amazement. Then he laughed too, a sedate, musical +chuckle, and said something incomprehensible, pointing at the same time +to a cut upon my finger that was bleeding a little. I shook my head, +meaning thereby that it was nothing, but the stranger with graceful +solicitude took my hand, and, after examining the hurt, deliberately +tore a strip of cloth from a bright yellow toga-like garment he was +wearing and bound the place up with a woman's tenderness. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, as he ministered, there was time to look about me. Where +was I? It was not the Broadway; it was not Staten Island on a Saturday +afternoon. The night was just over, and the sun on the point of +rising. Yet it was still shadowy all about, the air being marvellously +tepid and pleasant to the senses. Quaint, soft aromas like the breath +of a new world—the fragrance of unknown flowers, and the dewy scent of +never-trodden fields drifted to my nostrils; and to my ears came a +sound of laughter scarcely more human than the murmur of the wind in +the trees, and a pretty undulating whisper as though a great concourse +of people were talking softly in their sleep. I gazed about scarcely +knowing how much of my senses or surroundings were real and how much +fanciful, until I presently became aware the rosy twilight was +broadening into day, and under the increasing shine a strange scene was +fashioning itself. +</P> + +<P> +At first it was an opal sea I looked on of mist, shot along its upper +surface with the rosy gold and pinks of dawn. Then, as that soft, +translucent lake ebbed, jutting hills came through it, black and +crimson, and as they seemed to mount into the air other lower hills +showed through the veil with rounded forest knobs till at last the +brightening day dispelled the mist, and as the rosy-coloured gauzy +fragments went slowly floating away a wonderfully fair country lay at +my feet, with a broad sea glimmering in many arms and bays in the +distance beyond. It was all dim and unreal at first, the mountains +shadowy, the ocean unreal, the flowery fields between it and me vacant +and shadowy. +</P> + +<P> +Yet were they vacant? As my eyes cleared and day brightened still +more, and I turned my head this way and that, it presently dawned upon +me all the meadow coppices and terraces northwards of where I lay, all +that blue and spacious ground I had thought to be bare and vacant, were +alive with a teeming city of booths and tents; now I came to look more +closely there was a whole town upon the slope, built as might be in a +night of boughs and branches still unwithered, the streets and ways of +that city in the shadows thronged with expectant people moving in +groups and shifting to and fro in lively streams—chatting at the +stalls and clustering round the tent doors in soft, gauzy, +parti-coloured crowds in a way both fascinating and perplexing. +</P> + +<P> +I stared about me like a child at its first pantomime, dimly +understanding all I saw was novel, but more allured to the colour and +life of the picture than concerned with its exact meaning; and while I +stared and turned my finger was bandaged, and my new friend had been +lisping away to me without getting anything in turn but a shake of the +head. This made him thoughtful, and thereon followed a curious incident +which I cannot explain. I doubt even whether you will believe it; but +what am I to do in that case? You have already accepted the episode of +my coming, or you would have shut the covers before arriving at this +page of my modest narrative, and this emboldens me. I may strengthen +my claim on your credulity by pointing out the extraordinary marvels +which science is teaching you even on our own little world. To quote a +single instance: If any one had declared ten years ago that it would +shortly be practicable and easy for two persons to converse from shore +to shore across the Atlantic without any intervening medium, he would +have been laughed at as a possibly amusing but certainly extravagant +romancer. Yet that picturesque lie of yesterday is amongst the +accomplished facts of today! Therefore I am encouraged to ask your +indulgence, in the name of your previous errors, for the following and +any other instances in which I may appear to trifle with strict +veracity. There is no such thing as the impossible in our universe! +</P> + +<P> +When my friendly companion found I could not understand him, he looked +serious for a minute or two, then shortened his brilliant yellow toga, +as though he had arrived at some resolve, and knelt down directly in +front of me. He next took my face between his hands, and putting his +nose within an inch of mine, stared into my eyes with all his might. +At first I was inclined to laugh, but before long the most curious +sensations took hold of me. They commenced with a thrill which passed +all up my body, and next all feeling save the consciousness of the loud +beating of my heart ceased. Then it seemed that boy's eyes were inside +my head and not outside, while along with them an intangible something +pervaded my brain. The sensation at first was like the application of +ether to the skin—a cool, numbing emotion. It was followed by a +curious tingling feeling, as some dormant cells in my mind answered to +the thought-transfer, and were filled and fertilised! My other +brain-cells most distinctly felt the vitalising of their companions, +and for about a minute I experienced extreme nausea and a headache such +as comes from over-study, though both passed swiftly off. I presume +that in the future we shall all obtain knowledge in this way. The +Professors of a later day will perhaps keep shops for the sale of +miscellaneous information, and we shall drop in and be inflated with +learning just as the bicyclist gets his tire pumped up, or the motorist +is recharged with electricity at so much per unit. Examinations will +then become matters of capacity in the real meaning of that word, and +we shall be tempted to invest our pocket-money by advertisements of "A +cheap line in Astrology," "Try our double-strength, two-minute course +of Classics," "This is remnant day for Trigonometry and Metaphysics," +and so on. +</P> + +<P> +My friend did not get as far as that. With him the process did not +take more than a minute, but it was startling in its results, and +reduced me to an extraordinary state of hypnotic receptibility. When +it was over my instructor tapped with a finger on my lips, uttering +aloud as he did so the words— +</P> + +<P> +"Know none; know some; know little; know morel" again and again; and +the strangest part of it is that as he spoke I did know at first a +little, then more, and still more, by swift accumulation, of his speech +and meaning. In fact, when presently he suddenly laid a hand over my +eyes and then let go of my head with a pleasantly put question as to +how I felt, I had no difficulty whatever in answering him in his own +tongue, and rose from the ground as one gets from a hair-dresser's +chair, with a vague idea of looking round for my hat and offering him +his fee. +</P> + +<P> +"My word, sir!" I said, in lisping Martian, as I pulled down my cuffs +and put my cravat straight, "that was a quick process. I once heard of +a man who learnt a language in the moments he gave each day to having +his boots blacked; but this beats all. I trust I was a docile pupil?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, fairly, sir," answered the soft, musical voice of the strange +being by me; "but your head is thick and your brain tough. I could +have taught another in half the time." +</P> + +<P> +"Curiously enough," was my response, "those are almost the very words +with which my dear old tutor dismissed me the morning I left college. +Never mind, the thing is done. Shall I pay you anything?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do not understand." +</P> + +<P> +"Any honorarium, then? Some people understand one word and not the +other." But the boy only shook his head in answer. +</P> + +<P> +Strangely enough, I was not greatly surprised all this time either at +the novelty of my whereabouts or at the hypnotic instruction in a new +language just received. Perhaps it was because my head still spun too +giddily with that flight in the old rug for much thought; perhaps +because I did not yet fully realise the thing that had happened. But, +anyhow, there is the fact, which, like so many others in my narrative, +must, alas! remain unexplained for the moment. The rug, by the way, +had completely disappeared, my friend comforting me on this score, +however, by saying he had seen it rolled up and taken away by one whom +he knew. +</P> + +<P> +"We are very tidy people here, stranger," he said, "and everything +found Lying about goes back to the Palace store-rooms. You will laugh +to see the lumber there, for few of us ever take the trouble to reclaim +our property." +</P> + +<P> +Heaven knows I was in no laughing mood when I saw that enchanted web +again! +</P> + +<P> +When I had lain and watched the brightening scene for a time, I got up, +and having stretched and shaken my clothes into some sort of order, we +strolled down the hill and joined the light-hearted crowds that twined +across the plain and through the streets of their city of booths. They +were the prettiest, daintiest folk ever eyes looked upon, well-formed +and like to us as could be in the main, but slender and willowy, so +dainty and light, both the men and the women, so pretty of cheek and +hair, so mild of aspect, I felt, as I strode amongst them, I could have +plucked them like flowers and bound them up in bunches with my belt. +And yet somehow I liked them from the first minute; such a happy, +careless, light-hearted race, again I say, never was seen before. There +was not a stain of thought or care on a single one of those white +foreheads that eddied round me under their peaked, blossom-like caps, +the perpetual smile their faces wore never suffered rebuke anywhere; +their very movements were graceful and slow, their laughter was low and +musical, there was an odour of friendly, slothful happiness about them +that made me admire whether I would or no. +</P> + +<P> +Unfortunately I was not able to live on laughter, as they appeared to +be, so presently turning to my acquaintance, who had told me his name +was the plain monosyllabic An, and clapping my hand on his shoulder as +he stood lost in sleepy reflection, said, in a good, hearty way, +"Hullo, friend Yellow-jerkin! If a stranger might set himself athwart +the cheerful current of your meditations, may such a one ask how far +'tis to the nearest wine-shop or a booth where a thirsty man may get a +mug of ale at a moderate reckoning?" +</P> + +<P> +That gilded youth staggered under my friendly blow as though the hammer +of Thor himself had suddenly lit upon his shoulder, and ruefully +rubbing his tender skin, he turned on me mild, handsome eyes, answering +after a moment, during which his native mildness struggled with the +pain I had unwittingly given him— +</P> + +<P> +"If your thirst be as emphatic as your greeting, friend Heavy-fist, it +will certainly be a kindly deed to lead you to the drinking-place. My +shoulder tingles with your good-fellowship," he added, keeping two +arms'-lengths clear of me. "Do you wish," he said, "merely to cleanse +a dusty throat, or for blue or pink oblivion?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why," I answered laughingly, "I have come a longish journey since +yesterday night—a journey out of count of all reasonable mileage—and +I might fairly plead a dusty throat as excuse for a beginning; but as +to the other things mentioned, those tinted forgetfulnesses, I do not +even know what you mean." +</P> + +<P> +"Undoubtedly you are a stranger," said the friendly youth, eyeing me +from top to toe with renewed wonder, "and by your unknown garb one from +afar." +</P> + +<P> +"From how far no man can say—not even I—but from very far, in truth. +Let that stay your curiosity for the time. And now to bench and +ale-mug, on good fellow!—the shortest way. I was never so thirsty as +this since our water-butts went overboard when I sailed the southern +seas as a tramp apprentice, and for three days we had to damp our black +tongues with the puddles the night-dews left in the lift of our +mainsail." +</P> + +<P> +Without more words, being a little awed of me, I thought, the boy led +me through the good-humoured crowd to where, facing the main road to +the town, but a little sheltered by a thicket of trees covered with +gigantic pink blossoms, stood a drinking-place—a cluster of tables set +round an open grass-plot. Here he brought me a platter of some light +inefficient cakes which merely served to make hunger more +self-conscious, and some fine aromatic wine contained in a +triple-bodied flask, each division containing vintage of a separate +hue. We broke our biscuits, sipped that mysterious wine, and talked of +many things until at last something set us on the subject of astronomy, +a study I found my dapper gallant had some knowledge of—which was not +to be wondered at seeing he dwelt under skies each night set thick +above his curly head with tawny planets, and glittering constellations +sprinkled through space like flowers in May meadows. He knew what +worlds went round the sun, larger or lesser, and seeing this I began to +question him, for I was uneasy in my innermost mind and, you will +remember, so far had no certain knowledge of where I was, only a dim, +restless suspicion that I had come beyond the ken of all men's +knowledge. +</P> + +<P> +Therefore, sweeping clear the board with my sleeve, and breaking the +wafer cake I was eating, I set down one central piece for the sun, and, +"See here!" I said, "good fellow! This morsel shall stand for that sun +you have just been welcoming back with quaint ritual. Now stretch your +starry knowledge to the utmost, and put down that tankard for a moment. +If this be yonder sun and this lesser crumb be the outermost one of our +revolving system, and this the next within, and this the next, and so +on; now if this be so tell me which of these fragmentary orbs is +ours—which of all these crumbs from the hand of the primordial would +be that we stand upon?" And I waited with an anxiety a light manner +thinly hid, to hear his answer. +</P> + +<P> +It came at once. Laughing as though the question were too trivial, and +more to humour my wayward fancy than aught else, that boy circled his +rosy thumb about a minute and brought it down on the planet Mars! +</P> + +<P> +I started and stared at him; then all of a tremble cried, "You trifle +with me! Choose again—there, see, I will set the symbols and name +them to you anew. There now, on your soul tell me truly which this +planet is, the one here at our feet?" And again the boy shook his +head, wondering at my eagerness, and pointed to Mars, saying gently as +he did so the fact was certain as the day above us, nothing was +marvellous but my questioning. +</P> + +<P> +Mars! oh, dreadful, tremendous, unexpected! With a cry of affright, +and bringing my fist down on the table till all the cups upon it leapt, +I told him he lied—lied like a simpleton whose astronomy was as rotten +as his wit—smote the table and scowled at him for a spell, then turned +away and let my chin fall upon my breast and my hands upon my lap. +</P> + +<P> +And yet, and yet, it might be so! Everything about me was new and +strange, the crisp, thin air I breathed was new; the lukewarm sunshine +new; the sleek, long, ivory faces of the people new! Yesterday—was it +yesterday?—I was back there—away in a world that pines to know of +other worlds, and one fantastic wish of mine, backed by a hideous, +infernal chance, had swung back the doors of space and shot me—if that +boy spoke true—into the outer void where never living man had been +before: all my wits about me, all the horrible bathos of my earthly +clothing on me, all my terrestrial hungers in my veins! +</P> + +<P> +I sprang to my feet and swept my hands across my eyes. Was that a +dream, or this? No, no, both were too real. The hum of my faraway +city still rang in my ears: a swift vision of the girl I had loved; of +the men I had hated; of the things I had hoped for rose before me, +still dazing my inner eye. And these about me were real people, too; +it was real earth; real skies, trees, and rocks—had the infernal gods +indeed heard, I asked myself, the foolish wish that started from my +lips in a moment of fierce discontent, and swept me into another +sphere, another existence? I looked at the boy as though he could +answer that question, but there was nothing in his face but vacuous +wonder; I clapped my hands together and beat my breast; it was true; my +soul within me said it was true; the boy had not lied; the djins had +heard; I was just in the flesh I had; my common human hungers still +unsatisfied where never mortal man had hungered before; and scarcely +knowing whether I feared or not, whether to laugh or cry, but with all +the wonder and terror of that great remove sweeping suddenly upon me I +staggered back to my seat, and dropping my arms upon the table, leant +my head heavily upon them and strove to choke back the passion which +beset me. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<P> +It was the light touch of the boy An upon my shoulder which roused me. +He was bending down, his pretty face full of concernful sympathy, and +in a minute said—knowing nothing of my thoughts, of course. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the wine, stranger, the pink oblivion, it sometimes makes one +feel like that until enough is taken; you stopped just short of what +you should have had, and the next cup would have been delight—I should +have told you." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay," I answered, glad he should think so, "it was the wine, no doubt; +your quaint drink, sir, tangled up my senses for the moment, but they +are clearer now, and I am eager past expression to learn a little more +of this strange country I have wandered into." +</P> + +<P> +"I would rather," said the boy, relapsing again into his state of +kindly lethargy, "that you learnt things as you went, for talking is +work, and work we hate, but today we are all new and fresh, and if ever +you are to ask questions now is certainly the time. Come with me to +the city yonder, and as we go I will answer the things you wish to +know;" and I went with him, for I was humble and amazed, and, in truth, +at that moment, had not a word to say for myself. +</P> + +<P> +All the way from the plain where I had awoke to the walls of the city +stood booths, drinking-places, and gardens divided by labyrinths of +canals, and embowered in shrubberies that seemed coming into leaf and +flower as we looked, so swift was the process of their growth. These +waterways were covered with skiffs being pushed and rowed in every +direction; the cheerful rowers calling to each other through the leafy +screens separating one lane from another till the place was full of +their happy chirruping. Every booth and way-side halting-place was +thronged with these delicate and sprightly people, so friendly, so +gracious, and withal so purposeless. +</P> + +<P> +I began to think we should never reach the town itself, for first my +guide would sit down on a green stream-bank, his feet a-dangle in the +clear water, and bandy wit with a passing boat as though there were +nothing else in the world to think of. And when I dragged him out of +that, whispering in his ear, "The town, my dear boy! the town! I am +all agape to see it," he would saunter reluctantly to a booth a hundred +yards further on and fall to eating strange confections or sipping +coloured wines with chance acquaintances, till again I plucked him by +the sleeve and said: "Seth, good comrade—was it not so you called your +city just now?—take me to the gates, and I will be grateful to you," +then on again down a flowery lane, aimless and happy, wasting my time +and his, with placid civility I was led by that simple guide. +</P> + +<P> +Wherever we went the people stared at me, as well they might, as I +walked through them overtopping the tallest by a head or more. The +drinking-cups paused half-way to their mouths; the jests died away upon +their lips; and the blinking eyes of the drinkers shone with a +momentary sparkle of wonder as their minds reeled down those +many-tinted floods to the realms of oblivion they loved. +</P> + +<P> +I heard men whisper one to another, "Who is he?"; "Whence does he +come?"; "Is he a tribute-taker?" as I strolled amongst them, my mind +still so thrilled with doubt and wonder that to me they seemed hardly +more than painted puppets, the vistas of their lovely glades and the +ivory town beyond only the fancy of a dream, and their talk as +incontinent as the babble of a stream. +</P> + +<P> +Then happily, as I walked along with bent head brooding over the +incredible thing that had happened, my companion's shapely legs gave +out, and with a sigh of fatigue he suggested we should take a skiff +amongst the many lying about upon the margins and sail towards the +town, "For," said he, "the breeze blows thitherward, and 'tis a shame +to use one's limbs when Nature will carry us for nothing!" +</P> + +<P> +"But have you a boat of your own hereabouts?" I queried; "for to tell +the truth I came from home myself somewhat poorly provided with means +to buy or barter, and if your purse be not heavier than mine we must +still do as poor men do." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said An, "there is no need to think of that, no one here to hire +or hire of; we will just take the first skiff we see that suits us." +</P> + +<P> +"And what if the owner should come along and find his boat gone?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what should he do but take the next along the bank, and the +master of that the next again—how else could it be?" said the Martian, +and shrugging my shoulders, for I was in no great mood to argue, we +went down to the waterway, through a thicket of budding trees underlaid +with a carpet of small red flowers filling the air with a scent of +honey, and soon found a diminutive craft pulled up on the bank. There +were some dainty cloaks and wraps in it which An took out and laid +under a tree. But first he felt in the pouch of one for a sweetmeat +which his fine nostrils, acute as a squirrel's, told him was there, and +taking the lump out bit a piece from it, afterwards replacing it in the +owner's pocket with the frankest simplicity. +</P> + +<P> +Then we pushed off, hoisted the slender mast, set the smallest lug-sail +that ever a sailor smiled at, and, myself at the helm, and that golden +youth amidships, away we drifted under thickets of drooping canes +tasselled with yellow catkin-flowers, up the blue alley of the water +into the broader open river beyond with its rapid flow and crowding +boats, the white city front now towering clear before us. +</P> + +<P> +The air was full of sunshine and merry voices; birds were singing, +trees were budding; only my heart was heavy, my mind confused. Yet why +should I be sad, I said to myself presently? Life beat in my pulses; +what had I to fear? This world I had tumbled into was new and strange, +no doubt, but tomorrow it would be old and familiar; it discredited my +manhood to sit brow-bent like that, so with an effort I roused myself. +</P> + +<P> +"Old chap!" I said to my companion, as he sat astride of a thwart +slowly chewing something sticky and eyeing me out of the corner of his +eyes with vapid wonder, "tell me something of this land of yours, or +something about yourself—which reminds me I have a question to ask. It +is a bit delicate, but you look a sensible sort of fellow, and will +take no offence. The fact is, I have noticed as we came along half +your population dresses in all the colours of the rainbow—'fancy +suitings' our tailors could call it at home—and this half of the +census are undoubtedly men and women. The rub is that the other half, +to which you belong, all dress alike in YELLOW, and I will be fired +from the biggest gun on the Carolina's main deck if I can tell what sex +you belong to! I took you for a boy in the beginning, and the way you +closed with the idea of having a drink with me seemed to show I was +dead on the right course. Then a little later on I heard you and a +friend abusing our sex from an outside point of view in a way which was +very disconcerting. This, and some other things, have set me all abroad +again, and as fate seems determined to make us chums for this +voyage—why—well, frankly, I should be glad to know if you be boy or +girl? If you are as I am, no more nor less then—for I like +you—there's my hand in comradeship. If you are otherwise, as those +sleek outlines seem to promise—why, here's my hand again! But man or +woman you must be—come, which is it?" +</P> + +<P> +If I had been perplexed before, to watch that boy now was more curious +than ever. He drew back from me with a show of wounded dignity, then +bit his lips, and sighed, and stared, and frowned. "Come," I said +laughingly, "speak! it engenders ambiguity to be so ambiguous of +gender! 'Tis no great matter, yes or no, a plain answer will set us +fairly in our friendship; if it is comrade, then comrade let it be; if +maid, why, I shall not quarrel with that, though it cost me a likely +messmate." +</P> + +<P> +"You mock me." +</P> + +<P> +"Not I, I never mocked any one." +</P> + +<P> +"And does my robe tell you nothing?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing so much; a yellow tunic and becoming enough, but nothing about +it to hang a deduction on. Come! Are you a girl, after all?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do not count myself a girl." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, then, you are the most blooming boy that ever eyes were set upon; +and though 'tis with some tinge of regret, yet cheerfully I welcome you +into the ranks of manhood." +</P> + +<P> +"I hate your manhood, send it after the maidhood; it fits me just as +badly." +</P> + +<P> +"But An, be reasonable; man or maid you must be." +</P> + +<P> +"Must be; why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" Was ever such a question put to a sane mortal before? I stared +at that ambiguous thing before me, and then, a little wroth to be +played with, growled out something about Martians being all drunk or +mad. +</P> + +<P> +"'Tis you yourself are one or other," said that individual, by this +time pink with anger, "and if you think because I am what I am you can +safely taunt me, you are wrong. See! I have a sting," and like a +thwarted child my companion half drew from the folds of the yellow +tunic-dress the daintiest, most harmless-looking little dagger that was +ever seen. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, if it comes to that," I answered, touching the Navy scabbard still +at my hip, and regaining my temper at the sight of hers, "why, I have a +sting also—and twice as long as yours! But in truth, An, let us not +talk of these things; if something in what I have said has offended +nice Martian scruples I am sorry, and will question no more, leaving my +wonder for time to settle." +</P> + +<P> +"No," said the other, "it was my fault to be hasty of offence; I am not +so angered once a year. But in truth your question moves us yellow +robes deeply. Did you not really know that we who wear this saffron +tunic are slaves,—a race apart, despised by all." +</P> + +<P> +"'Slaves,' no; how should I know it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you must understand a thing so fundamental, and it was that +thought which made your questions seem unkind. But if indeed you have +come so far as not to understand even this, then let me tell you once +we of this garb were women—priestesses of the immaculate conceptions +of humanity; guardians of those great hopes and longings which die so +easily. And because we forgot our high station and took to aping +another sex the gods deserted and men despised us, giving us, in the +fierceness of their contempt, what we asked for. We are the slave ants +of the nest, the work-bees of the hive, come, in truth, of those here +who still be men and women of a sort, but toilers only; unknown in +love, unregretted in death—those who dangle all children but their +own—slaves cursed with the accomplishment of their own ambition." +</P> + +<P> +There was no doubt poor An believed what she said, for her attitude was +one of extreme dejection while she spoke, and to cheer her I laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! come, it can't be as bad as that. Surely sometimes some of you +win back to womanhood? You yourself do not look so far gone but what +some deed of abnegation, some strong love if you could but conceive it +would set you right again. Surely you of the primrose robes can +sometimes love?" +</P> + +<P> +Whereat unwittingly I troubled the waters in the placid soul of that +outcast Martian! I cannot exactly describe how it was, but she bent +her head silently for a moment or two, and then, with a sigh, lifting +her eyes suddenly to mine, said quietly, "Yes, sometimes; +sometimes—but very seldom," while for an instant across her face there +flashed the summer lightning of a new hope, a single transient glance +of wistful, timid entreaty; of wonder and delight that dared not even +yet acknowledge itself. +</P> + +<P> +Then it was my turn to sit silent, and the pause was so awkward that in +a minute, to break it, I exclaimed— +</P> + +<P> +"Let's drop personalities, old chap—I mean my dear Miss An. Tell me +something about your people, and let us begin properly at the top: have +you got a king, for instance?" +</P> + +<P> +To this the girl, pulling herself out of the pleasant slough of her +listlessness, and falling into my vein, answered— +</P> + +<P> +"Both yes and no, sir traveller from afar—no chiefly, and yet perhaps +yes. If it were no then it were so, and if yes then Hath were our +king." +</P> + +<P> +"A mild king I should judge by your uncertainty. In the place where I +came from kings press their individualities somewhat more clearly on +their subjects' minds. Is Hath here in the city? Does he come to your +feasts today?" +</P> + +<P> +An nodded. Hath was on the river, he had been to see the sunrise; even +now she thought the laughter and singing down behind the bend might be +the king's barge coming up citywards. "He will not be late," said my +companion, "because the marriage-feast is set for tomorrow in the +palace." +</P> + +<P> +I became interested. Kings, palaces, marriage-feasts—why, here was +something substantial to go upon; after all these gauzy folk might turn +out good fellows, jolly comrades to sojourn amongst—and +marriage-feasts reminded me again I was hungry. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is it," I asked, with more interest in my tone, "who gets +married?—is it your ambiguous king himself?" +</P> + +<P> +Whereat An's purple eyes broadened with wonder: then as though she +would not be uncivil she checked herself, and answered with smothered +pity for my ignorance, "Not only Hath himself, but every one, stranger, +they are all married tomorrow; you would not have them married one at a +time, would you?"—this with inexpressible derision. +</P> + +<P> +I said, with humility, something like that happened in the place I came +from, asking her how it chanced the convenience of so many came to one +climax at the same moment. "Surely, An, this is a marvel of +arrangement. Where I dwelt wooings would sometimes be long or sometimes +short, and all maids were not complacent by such universal agreement." +</P> + +<P> +The girl was clearly perplexed. She stared at me a space, then said, +"What have wooings long or short to do with weddings? You talk as if +you did your wooing first and then came to marriage—we get married +first and woo afterwards!" +</P> + +<P> +"'Tis not a bad idea, and I can see it might lend an ease and certainty +to the pastime which our method lacks. But if the woman is got first +and sued subsequently, who brings you together? Who sees to the +essential preliminaries of assortment?" +</P> + +<P> +An, looking at my shoes as though she speculated on the remoteness of +the journey I had come if it were measured by my ignorance, replied, +"The urn, stranger, the urn does that—what else? How it may be in +that out-fashioned region you have come from I cannot tell, but +here—'tis so commonplace I should have thought you must have known +it—we put each new year the names of all womenkind into an urn and the +men draw for them, each town, each village by itself, and those they +draw are theirs; is it conceivable your race has other methods?" +</P> + +<P> +I told her it was so—we picked and chose for ourselves, beseeching the +damsels, fighting for them, and holding the sun of romance was at its +setting just where the Martians held it to rise. Whereat An burst out +laughing—a clear, ringing laugh that set all the light-hearted folk in +the nearest boats laughing in sympathy. But when the grotesqueness of +the idea had somewhat worn off, she turned grave and asked me if such a +fancy did not lead to spite, envy, and bickerings. "Why, it seems to +me," she said, shaking her curly head, "such a plan might fire cities, +desolate plains, and empty palaces—" +</P> + +<P> +"Such things have been." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! our way is much the better. See!" quoth that gentle philosopher. +"'Here,' one of our women would say, 'am I to-day, unwed, as free of +thought as yonder bird chasing the catkin down; tomorrow I shall be +married, with a whole summer to make love in, relieved at one bound of +all those uncertainties you acknowledge to, with nothing to do but lie +about on sunny banks with him whom chance sends me, come to the goal of +love without any travelling to get there.' Why, you must acknowledge +this is the perfection of ease." +</P> + +<P> +"But supposing," I said, "chance dealt unkindly to you from your +nuptial urn, supposing the man was not to your liking, or another +coveted him?" To which An answered, with some shrewdness— +</P> + +<P> +"In the first case we should do what we might, being no worse off than +those in your land who had played ill providence to themselves. In the +second, no maid would covet him whom fate had given to another, it were +too fatiguing, or if such a thing DID happen, then one of them would +waive his claims, for no man or woman ever born was worth a wrangle, +and it is allowed us to barter and change a little." +</P> + +<P> +All this was strange enough. I could not but laugh, while An laughed +at the lightest invitation, and thus chatting and deriding each other's +social arrangements we floated idly townwards and presently came out +into the main waterway perhaps a mile wide and flowing rapidly, as +streams will on the threshold of the spring, with brash or waste of +distant beaches riding down it, and every now and then a broken branch +or tree-stem glancing through waves whose crests a fresh wind lifted +and sowed in golden showers in the intervening furrows. The Martians +seemed expert upon the water, steering nimbly between these floating +dangers when they met them, but for the most part hugging the shore +where a more placid stream better suited their fancies, and for a time +all went well. +</P> + +<P> +An, as we went along, was telling me more of her strange country, +pointing out birds or flowers and naming them to me. "Now that," she +said, pointing to a small grey owl who sat reflective on a floating log +we were approaching—"that is a bird of omen; cover your face and look +away, for it is not well to watch it." +</P> + +<P> +Whereat I laughed. "Oh!" I answered, "so those ancient follies have +come as far as this, have they? But it is no bird grey or black or +white that can frighten folk where I come from; see, I will ruffle his +philosophy for him," and suiting the action to the words I lifted a +pebble that happened to lie at the bottom of the boat and flung it at +that creature with the melancholy eyes. Away went the owl, dipping his +wings into the water at every stroke, and as he went wailing out a +ghostly cry, which even amongst sunshine and glitter made one's flesh +creep. +</P> + +<P> +An shook her head. "You should not have done that," she said; "our +dead whom we send down over the falls come back in the body of yonder +little bird. But he has gone now," she added, with relief; "see, he +settles far up stream upon the point of yonder rotten bough; I would +not disturb him again if I were you—" +</P> + +<P> +Whatever more An would have said was lost, for amidst a sound of flutes +and singing round the bend of the river below came a crowd of boats +decked with flowers and garlands, all clustering round a barge barely +able to move, so thick those lesser skiffs pressed upon it. So close +those wherries hung about that the garlanded rowers who sat at the oars +could scarcely pull, but, here as everywhere, it was the same good +temper, the same carelessness of order, as like a flowery island in the +dancing blue water the motley fleet came up. +</P> + +<P> +I steered our skiff a space out from the bank to get a better view, +while An clapped her hands together and laughed. "It is Hath—he +himself and those of the palace with him. Steer a little nearer still, +friend—so! between yon floating rubbish flats, for those with Hath are +good to look at." +</P> + +<P> +Nothing loth I made out into mid-stream to see that strange prince go +by, little thinking in a few minutes I should be shaking hands with +him, a wet and dripping hero. The crowd came up, and having the +advantage of the wind, it did not take me long to get a front place in +the ruck, whence I set to work, with republican interest in royalty, to +stare at the man who An said was the head of Martian society. He did +not make me desire to renounce my democratic principles. The royal +fellow was sitting in the centre of the barge under a canopy and on a +throne which was a mass of flowers, not bunched together as they would +have been with us, but so cunningly arranged that they rose from the +footstool to the pinnacle in a rhythm of colour, a poem in bud and +petals the like of which for harmonious beauty I could not have +imagined possible. And in this fairy den was a thin, gaunt young man, +dressed in some sort of black stuff so nondescript that it amounted to +little more than a shadow. I took it for granted that a substance of +bone and muscle was covered by that gloomy suit, but it was the face +above that alone riveted my gaze and made me return the stare he gave +me as we came up with redoubled interest. It was not an unhandsome +face, but ashy grey in colour and amongst the insipid countenances of +the Martians about him marvellously thoughtful. I do not know whether +those who had killed themselves by learning ever leave ghosts behind, +but if so this was the very ideal for such a one. At his feet I +noticed, when I unhooked my eyes from his at last, sat a girl in a +loose coral pink gown who was his very antipode. Princess Heru, for so +she was called, was resting one arm upon his knee at our approach and +pulling a blue convolvulus bud to pieces—a charming picture of dainty +idleness. Anything so soft, so silken as that little lady was never +seen before. Who am I, a poor quarter-deck loafer, that I should +attempt to describe what poet and painter alike would have failed to +realise? I know, of course, your stock descriptives: the melting eye, +the coral lip, the peachy cheek, the raven tress; but these were coined +for mortal woman—and this was not one of them. I will not attempt to +describe the glorious tenderness of those eyes she turned upon me +presently; the glowing radiance of her skin; the infinite grace of +every action; the incredible soul-searching harmony of her voice, when +later on I heard it—you must gather something of these things as I +go—suffice it to say that when I saw her there for the first time in +the plenitude of her beauty I fell desperately, wildly in love with her. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, even the most infatuated of mortals cannot stare for ever +without saying something. The grating of our prow against the +garlanded side of the royal barge roused me from my reverie, and +nodding to An, to imply I would be back presently, I lightly jumped on +to Hath's vessel, and, with the assurance of a free and independent +American voter, approached that individual, holding out my palm, and +saying as I did so, +</P> + +<P> +"Shake hands, Mr. President!" +</P> + +<P> +The prince came forward at my bidding and extending his hand for mine. +He bowed slow and sedately, in that peculiar way the Martians have, a +ripple of gratified civility passing up his flesh; lower and lower he +bowed, until his face was over our clasped hands, and then, with simple +courtesy, he kissed my finger-tips! This was somewhat embarrassing. It +was not like the procedure followed in Courts nearer to Washington than +this one, as far as my reading went, and, withdrawing my fingers +hastily, I turned to the princess, who had risen, and was eyeing her +somewhat awkwardly, the while wondering what kind of salutation would +be suitable in her case when a startling incident happened. The river, +as said, was full of floating rubbish brought down from some far-away +uplands by a spring freshet while the royal convoy was making slow +progress upstream and thus met it all bow on. Some of this stuff was +heavy timber, and when a sudden warning cry went up from the leading +boats it did not take my sailor instinct long to guess what was amiss. +Those in front shot side to side, those behind tried to drop back as, +bearing straight down on the royal barge, there came a log of black +wood twenty feet long and as thick as the mainmast of an old +three-decker. +</P> + +<P> +Hath's boat could no more escape than if it had been planted on a rocky +pedestal, garlands and curtains trailing in the water hung so heavy on +it. The gilded paddles of the slender rowers were so feeble—they had +but made a half-turn from that great javelin's road when down it came +upon them, knocking the first few pretty oarsmen head over heels and +crackling through their oars like a bull through dry maize stalks. I +sprang forward, and snatching a pole from a half-hearted slave, jammed +the end into the head of the log and bore with all my weight upon it, +diverting it a little, and thereby perhaps saving the ship herself, but +not enough. As it flashed by a branch caught upon the trailing +tapestry, hurling me to the deck, and tearing away with it all that +finery. Then the great spar, tossing half its dripping length into the +air, went plunging downstream with shreds of silk and flowers trailing +from it, and white water bubbling in its rear. +</P> + +<P> +When I scrambled to my feet all was ludicrous confusion on board. Hath +still stood by his throne—an island in a sea of disorder—staring at +me; all else was chaos. The rowers and courtiers were kicking and +wallowing in the "waist" of the ship like fish newly shot out of a +trawl net, but the princess was gone. Where was she? I brushed the +spray from my eyes, and stared overboard. She was not in the bubbling +blue water alongside. Then I glanced aft to where the log, now fifteen +yards away, was splashing through the sunshine, and, as I looked, a +fair arm came up from underneath and white fingers clutched +convulsively at the sky. What man could need more? Down the barge I +rushed, and dropping only my swordbelt, leapt in to her rescue. The +gentle Martians were too numb to raise a hand in help; but it was not +necessary. I had the tide with me, and gained at every stroke. +Meanwhile that accursed tree, with poor Heru's skirts caught on a +branch, was drowning her at its leisure; lifting her up as it rose upon +the crests, a fair, helpless bundle, and then sousing her in its fall +into the nether water, where I could see her gleam now and again like +pink coral. +</P> + +<P> +I redoubled my efforts and got alongside, clutching the rind of that +old stump, and swimming and scrambling, at last was within reach of the +princess. Thereon the log lifted her playfully to my arms, and when I +had laid hold came down, a crushing weight, and forced us far into the +clammy bosom of Martian sea. Again we came up, coughing and choking—I +tugging furiously at that tangled raiment, and the lady, a mere lump of +sweetness in my other arm—then down again with that log upon me and +all the noises of Eblis in my ears. Up and down we went, over and +over, till strength was spent and my ribs seemed breaking; then, with a +last desperate effort, I got a knee against the stem, and by sheer +strength freed my princess—the spiteful timber made a last ugly thrust +at us as it rolled away—and we were free! +</P> + +<P> +I turned upon my back, and, sure of rescue now, took the lady's head +upon my chest, holding her sweet, white fists in mine the while, and, +floating, waited for help. +</P> + +<P> +It came only too quickly. The gallant Martians, when they saw the +princess saved, came swiftly down upon us. Over the lapping of the +water in my ears I heard their sigh—like cries of admiration and +surprise, the rattle of spray on the canoe sides mingled with the +splash of oars, the flitting shadows of their prows were all about us, +and in less time than it takes to write we were hauled aboard, revived, +and taken to Hath's barge. Again the prince's lips were on my +fingertips; again the flutes and music struck up; and as I squeezed the +water out of my hair, and tried to keep my eyes off the outline of +Heru, whose loveliness shone through her damp, clinging, pink robe, as +if that robe were but a gauzy fancy, I vaguely heard Hath saying +wondrous things of my gallantry, and, what was more to the purpose, +asking me to come with him and stay that night at the palace. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<P> +They lodged me like a prince in a tributary country that first night. I +was tired. 'Twas a stiff stage I had come the day before, and they +gave me a couch whose ethereal softness seemed to close like the wings +of a bird as I plunged at its touch into fathomless slumbers. But the +next day had hardly broken when I was awake, and, stretching my limbs +upon the piled silk of a legless bed upon the floor, found myself in a +great chamber with a purple tapestry across the entrance, and a square +arch leading to a flat terrace outside. +</P> + +<P> +It was a glorious daybreak, making my heart light within me, the air +like new milk, and the colours of the sunrise lay purple and yellow in +bars across my room. I yawned and stretched, then rising, wrapped a +silken quilt about me and went out into the flat terrace top, wherefrom +all the city could be seen stretched in an ivory and emerald patchwork, +with open, blue water on one side, and the Martian plain trending away +in illimitable distance upon the other. +</P> + +<P> +Directly underneath in the great square at the bottom of Hath's palace +steps were gathered a concourse of people, brilliant in many-coloured +dresses. They were sitting or lying about just as they might for all I +knew have done through the warm night, without much order, save that +where the black streaks of inlaid stone marked a carriageway across the +square none were stationed. While I wondered what would bring so many +together thus early, there came a sound of flutes—for these people can +do nothing without piping like finches in a thicket in May—and from +the storehouses half-way over to the harbour there streamed a line of +carts piled high with provender. Down came the teams attended by their +slaves, circling and wheeling into the open place, and as they passed +each group those lazy, lolling beggars crowded round and took the dole +they were too thriftless to earn themselves. It was strange to see how +listless they were about the meal, even though Providence itself put it +into their hands; to note how the yellow-girted slaves scudded amongst +them, serving out the loaves, themselves had grown, harvested, and +baked; slipping from group to group, rousing, exhorting, administering +to a helpless throng that took their efforts without thought or thanks. +</P> + +<P> +I stood there a long time, one foot upon the coping and my chin upon my +hand, noting the beauty of the ruined town and wondering how such a +feeble race as that which lay about, breakfasting in the limpid +sunshine, could have come by a city like this, or kept even the ruins +of its walls and buildings from the covetousness of others, until +presently there was a rustle of primrose garments and my friend of the +day before stood by me. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you rested, traveller?" she questioned in that pretty voice of +hers. +</P> + +<P> +"Rested ambrosially, An." +</P> + +<P> +"It is well; I will tell the Government and it will come up to wash and +dress you, afterwards giving you breakfast." +</P> + +<P> +"For the breakfast, damsel, I shall be grateful, but as for the washing +and dressing I will defend myself to the last gasp sooner than submit +to such administration." +</P> + +<P> +"How strange! Do you never wash in your country?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but it is a matter left largely to our own discretion; so, my +dear girl, if you will leave me for a minute or two in quest of that +meal you have mentioned, I will guarantee to be ready when it comes." +</P> + +<P> +Away she slipped, with a shrug of her rosy shoulders, to return +presently, carrying a tray covered with a white cloth, whereon were +half a dozen glittering covers whence came most fragrant odours of +cooked things. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, comrade," I said, sitting down and lifting lid by lid, for the +cold, sweet air outside had made me hungry, "this is better than was +hoped for; I thought from what I saw down yonder I should have to trot +behind a tumbril for my breakfast, and eat it on my heels amongst your +sleepy friends below." +</P> + +<P> +An replied, "The stranger is a prince, we take it, in his own country, +and princes fare not quite like common people, even here." +</P> + +<P> +"So," I said, my mouth full of a strange, unknown fish, and a cake soft +as milk and white as cotton in the pod. "Now that makes me feel at +home!" +</P> + +<P> +"Would you have had it otherwise with us?" +</P> + +<P> +"No! now I come to think of it, it is most natural things should be +much alike in all the corners of the universe; the splendid simplicity +that rules the spheres, works much the same, no doubt, upon one side of +the sun as upon the other. Yet, somehow—you can hardly wonder at +it—yesterday I looked to find your world, when I realised where I had +tumbled to, a world of djin and giants; of mad possibilities over +realised, and here I see you dwellers by the utterly remote little more +marvellous than if I had come amongst you on the introduction of a +cheap tourist ticket, and round some neglected corner of my own distant +world!" +</P> + +<P> +"I hardly follow your meaning, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no, of course you cannot. I was forgetting you did not know! +There, pass me the stuff on yonder platter that looks like caked mud +from an anchor fluke, and swells like breath of paradise, and let me +question you;" and while I sat and drank with that yellow servitor +sitting in front of me, I plied her with questions, just as a baby +might who had come into the world with a full-blown gift of speech. +But though she was ready and willing enough to answer, and laughed +gaily at my quaint ignorance of simple things, yet there was little +water in the well. +</P> + +<P> +"Had they any kind of crafts or science; any cult of stars or figures?" +But again she shook her head, and said, "Hath might know, Hath +understood most things, but herself knew little of either." "Armies or +navies?" and again the Martian shrugged her shoulders, questioning in +turn— +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" +</P> + +<P> +"What for!" I cried, a little angry with her engaging dulness, "Why, to +keep that which the strong hand got, and to get more for those who come +next; navies to sweep yonder blue seas, and armies to ward what they +should bring home, or guard the city walls against all enemies,—for I +suppose, An," I said, putting down my knife as the cheering thought +came on me,—"I suppose, An, you have some enemies? It is not like +Providence to give such riches as you possess, such lands, such cities, +and not to supply the antidote in some one poor enough to covet them." +</P> + +<P> +At once the girl's face clouded over, and it was obvious a tender +subject had been chanced upon. She waved her hand impatiently as +though to change the subject, but I would not be put off. +</P> + +<P> +"Come," I said, "this is better than breakfast. It was the one +thing—this unknown enemy of yours—wanting to lever the dull mass of +your too peacefulness. What is he like? How strong? How stands the +quarrel between you? I was a soldier myself before the sea allured me, +and love horse and sword best of all things." +</P> + +<P> +"You would not jest if you knew our enemy!" +</P> + +<P> +"That is as it may be. I have laughed in the face of many a stronger +foe than yours is like to prove; but anyhow, give me a chance to judge. +Come, who is it that frightens all the blood out of your cheeks by a +bare mention and may not be laughed at even behind these substantial +walls?" +</P> + +<P> +"First, then, you know, of course, that long ago this land of ours was +harried from the West." +</P> + +<P> +"Not I." +</P> + +<P> +"No!" said An, with a little warmth. "If it comes to that, you know +nothing." +</P> + +<P> +Whereat I laughed, and, saying the reply was just, vowed I would not +interrupt again; so she wont on saying how Hath—that interminable +Hath!—would know it all better than she did, but long ago the land was +overrun by a people from beyond the broad, blue waters outside; a +people huge of person, hairy and savage, uncouth, unlettered, and poor +An's voice trembled even to describe them; a people without mercy or +compunction, dwellers in woods, eaters of flesh, who burnt, plundered, +and destroyed all before them, and had toppled over this city along +with many others in an ancient foray, the horrors of which, still burnt +lurid in her people's minds. +</P> + +<P> +"Ever since then," went on the girl, "these odious terrors of the outer +land have been a nightmare to us, making hectic our pleasures, and +filling our peace with horrid thoughts of what might be, should they +chance to come again." +</P> + +<P> +"'Tis unfortunate, no doubt, lady," I answered. "Yet it was long ago, +and the plunderers are far away. Why not rise and raid them in turn? +To live under such a nightmare is miserable, and a poet on my side of +the ether has said— +</P> + +<PRE CLASS="poem"> + "'He either fears his fate too much, + Or his deserts are small, + Who will not put it to the touch, + To win or lose it all.' +</PRE> + +<P> +It seems to me you must either bustle and fight again, or sit tamely +down, and by paying the coward's fee for peace, buy at heavy price, +indulgence from the victor." +</P> + +<P> +"We," said An simply, and with no show of shame, "would rather die than +fight, and so we take the easier way, though a heavy one it is. Look!" +she said, drawing me to the broad window whence we could get a glimpse +of the westward town and the harbour out beyond the walls. "Look! see +yonder long row of boats with brown sails hanging loose reefed from +every yard ranged all along the quay. Even from here you can make out +the thin stream of porter slaves passing to and fro between them and +the granaries like ants on a sunny path. Those are our tax-men's +ships, they came yesterday from far out across the sea, as punctual as +fate with the first day of spring, and two or three nights hence we +trust will go again: and glad shall we be to see them start, although +they leave scupper deep with our cloth, our corn, and gold." +</P> + +<P> +"Is that what they take for tribute?" +</P> + +<P> +"That and one girl—the fairest they can find." +</P> + +<P> +"One—only one! 'Tis very moderate, all things considered." +</P> + +<P> +"She is for the thither king, Ar-hap, and though only one as you say, +stranger, yet he who loses her is apt sometimes to think her one too +many lost." +</P> + +<P> +"By Jupiter himself it is well said! If I were that man I would stir +up heaven and hell until I got her back; neither man, nor beast, nor +devil should stay me in my quest!" As I spoke I thought for a minute +An's fingers trembled a little as she fixed a flower upon my coat, +while there was something like a sigh in her voice as she said— +</P> + +<P> +"The maids of this country are not accustomed, sir, to be so strongly +loved." +</P> + +<P> +By this time, breakfasted and rehabilitated, I was ready to go forth. +The girl swung back the heavy curtain that served in place of door +across the entrance of my chamber, and leading the way by a corridor +and marble steps while I followed, and whether it was the Martian air +or the meal I know not, but thinking mighty well of myself until we +came presently onto the main palace stairs, which led by stately +flights from the upper galleries to the wide square below. +</P> + +<P> +As we passed into the full sunshine—and no sunshine is so crisply +golden as the Martian—amongst twined flowers and shrubs and gay, +quaint birds building in the cornices, a sleek youth rose slowly from +where he had spread his cloak as couch upon a step and approaching +asked— +</P> + +<P> +"You are the stranger of yesterday?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I bring a message from Prince Hath, saying it would pleasure him +greatly if you would eat the morning meal with him." +</P> + +<P> +"Why," I answered, "it is very civil indeed, but I have breakfasted +already." +</P> + +<P> +"And so has Hath," said the boy, gently yawning. "You see I came here +early this morning, but knowing you would pass sooner or later I +thought it would save me the trouble if I lay down till you came—those +quaint people who built these places were so prodigal of steps," and +smiling apologetically he sank back on his couch and began toying with +a leaf. +</P> + +<P> +"Sweet fellow," I said, and you will note how I was getting into their +style of conversation, "get back to Hath when you have rested, give him +my most gracious thanks for the intended courtesy, but tell him the +invitation should have started a week earlier; tell him from me, you +nimble-footed messenger, that I will post-date his kindness and come +tomorrow; say that meanwhile I pray him to send any ill news he has for +me by you. Is the message too bulky for your slender shoulders?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said the boy, rousing himself slowly, "I will take it," and then +he prepared to go. He turned again and said, without a trace of +incivility, "But indeed, stranger, I wish you would take the message +yourself. This is the third flight of stairs I have been up today." +</P> + +<P> +Everywhere it was the same friendly indolence. Half the breakfasters +were lying on coloured shawls in groups about the square; the other +half were strolling off—all in one direction, I noticed—as slowly as +could be towards the open fields beyond; no one was active or had +anything to do save the yellow folk who flitted to and fro fostering +the others, and doing the city work as though it were their only +thought in life. There were no shops in that strange city, for there +were no needs; some booths I saw indeed, and temple-like places, but +hollow, and used for birds and beasts—things these lazy Martians love. +There was no tramp of busy feet, for no one was busy; no clank of +swords or armour in those peaceful streets, for no one was warlike; no +hustle, for no one hurried; no wide-packed asses nodding down the +lanes, for there was nothing to fill their packs with, and though a +cart sometimes came by with a load of lolling men and maids, or a small +horse, for horses they had, paced along, itself nearly as lazy as the +master he bore, with trappings sewed over bits of coloured shell and +coral, yet somehow it was all extraordinarily unreal. It was a city +full of the ghosts of the life which once pulsed through its ways. The +streets were peopled, the chatter of voices everywhere, the singing +boys and laughing girls wandering, arms linked together, down the ways +filled every echo with their merriment, yet somehow it was all so +shallow that again and again I rubbed my eyes, wondering if I were +indeed awake, or whether it were not a prolonged sleep of which the +tomorrow were still to come. +</P> + +<P> +"What strikes me as strangest of all, good comrade," I observed +pleasantly to the tripping presence at my elbow, "is that these +countrymen of yours who shirk to climb a flight of steps, and have +palms as soft as rose petals, these wide ways paved with stones as hard +as a usurer's heart." +</P> + +<P> +An laughed. "The stones were still in their native quarries had it +been left to us to seek them; we are like the conies in the ruins, sir, +the inheritors of what other hands have done." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, and undone, I think, as well, for coming along I have noted axe +chippings upon the walls, smudges of ancient fire and smoke upon the +cornices." +</P> + +<P> +An winced a little and stared uneasily at the walls, muttering below +her breath something about trying to hide with flower garlands the +marks they could not banish, but it was plain the conversation was not +pleasing to her. So unpleasant was talk or sight of woodmen +(Thither-folk, as she called them, in contradiction to the Hither +people about us here), that the girl was clearly relieved when we were +free of the town and out into the open playground of the people. The +whole place down there was a gay, shifting crowd. The booths of +yesterday, the arcades, the archways, were still standing, and during +the night unknown hands had redecked them with flowers, while another +day's sunshine had opened the coppice buds so that the whole place was +brilliant past expression. And here the Hither folk were varying their +idleness by a general holiday. They were standing about in groups, or +lying ranked like new-plucked flowers on the banks, piping to each +other through reeds as soft and melodious as running water. They were +playing inconsequent games and breaking off in the middle of them like +children looking for new pleasures. They were idling about the +drinking booths, delicately stupid with quaint, thin wines, dealt out +to all who asked; the maids were ready to chevy or be chevied through +the blossoming thickets by anyone who chanced upon them, the men +slipped their arms round slender waists and wandered down the paths, +scarce seeming to care even whose waist it was they circled or into +whose ear they whispered the remainder of the love-tale they had begun +to some one else. And everywhere it was "Hi," and "Ha," and "So," and +"See," as these quaint people called to one another, knowing each other +as familiarly as ants of a nest, and by the same magic it seemed to me. +</P> + +<P> +"An," I said presently, when we had wandered an hour or so through the +drifting throng, "have these good countrymen of yours no other names +but monosyllabic, nothing to designate them but these chirruping +syllables?" +</P> + +<P> +"Is it not enough?" answered my companion. "Once indeed I think we had +longer names, but," she added, smiling, "how much trouble it saves to +limit each one to a single sound. It is uncivil to one's neighbours to +burden their tongues with double duty when half would do." +</P> + +<P> +"But have you no patronymics—nothing to show the child comes of the +same source as his father came?" +</P> + +<P> +"We have no fathers." +</P> + +<P> +"What! no fathers?" I said, starting and staring at her. +</P> + +<P> +"No, nor mothers either, or at least none that we remember, for again, +why should we? Mayhap in that strange district you come from you keep +count of these things, but what have we to do with either when their +initial duty is done. Look at that painted butterfly swinging on the +honey-laden catkin there. What knows she of the mother who shed her +life into a flowercup and forgot which flower it was the minute +afterwards. We, too, are insects, stranger." +</P> + +<P> +"And do you mean to say of this great concourse here, that every atom +is solitary, individual, and can claim no kindred with another save the +loose bonds of a general fraternity—a specious idea, horrible, +impracticable!" +</P> + +<P> +Whereat An laughed. "Ask the grasshoppers if it is impracticable; ask +the little buzzing things of grass and leaves who drift hither and +thither upon each breath of wind, finding kinsmen never but comrades +everywhere—ask them if it is horrible." +</P> + +<P> +This made me melancholy, and somehow set me thinking of the friends +immeasurably distant I had left but yesterday. +</P> + +<P> +What were they doing? Did they miss me? I was to have called for my +pay this afternoon, and tomorrow was to have run down South to see that +freckled lady of mine. What would she think of my absence? What would +she think if she knew where I was? Gods, it was too mad, too absurd! I +thrust my hands into my pockets in fierce desperation, and there they +clutched an old dance programme and an out-of-date check for a New York +ferry-boat. I scowled about on that sunny, helpless people, and laying +my hand bitterly upon my heart felt in the breast-pocket beneath a +packet of unpaid Boston tailors' bills and a note from my landlady +asking if I would let her aunt do my washing while I was on shore. Oh! +what would they all think of me? Would they brand me as a deserter, a +poltroon, and a thief, letting my name presently sink down in shame and +mystery in the shadowy realm of the forgotten? Dreadful thoughts! I +would think no more. +</P> + +<P> +Maybe An had marked my melancholy, for presently she led me to a stall +where in fantastic vases wines of sorts I have described before were +put out for all who came to try them. There was medicine here for +every kind of dulness—not the gross cure which earthly wine effects, +but so nicely proportioned to each specific need that one could +regulate one's debauch to a hairbreadth, rising through all the gamut +of satisfaction, from the staid contentment coming of that flask there +to the wild extravagances of the furthermost vase. So my stripling +told me, running her finger down the line of beakers carved with +strange figures and cased in silver, each in its cluster of little +attendant drinking-cups, like-coloured, and waiting round on the white +napkins as the shore boats wait to unload a cargo round the sides of a +merchant vessel. +</P> + +<P> +"And what," I said, after curiously examining each liquor in turn, +"what is that which stands alone there in the humble earthen jar, as +though unworthy of the company of the others." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that," said my friend, "is the most essential of them all—that is +the wine of recovery, without which all the others were deadly poisons." +</P> + +<P> +"The which, lady, looks as if it had a moral attaching to it." +</P> + +<P> +"It may have; indeed I think it has, but I have forgotten. Prince Hath +would know! Meanwhile let me give you to drink, great stranger, let me +get you something." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then," I laughed, "reach me down an antidote to fate, a specific +for an absent mistress, and forgetful friends." +</P> + +<P> +"What was she like?" said An, hesitating a little and frowning. +</P> + +<P> +"Nay, good friend," was my answer, "what can that matter to you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, nothing, of course," answered that Martian, and while she took +from the table a cup and filled it with fluid I felt in the pouch of my +sword-belt to see if by chance a bit of money was lying there, but +there was none, only the pips of an orange poor Polly had sucked and +laughingly thrown at me. +</P> + +<P> +However, it did not matter. The girl handed me the cup, and I put my +lips to it. The first taste was bitter and acrid, like the liquor of +long-steeped wood. At the second taste a shiver of pleasure ran +through me, and I opened my eyes and stared hard. The third taste +grossness and heaviness and chagrin dropped from my heart; all the +complexion of Providence altered in a flash, and a stupid irresistible +joy, unreasoning, uncontrollable took possession of my fibre. I sank +upon a mossy bank and, lolling my head, beamed idiotically on the +lolling Martians all about me. How long I was like that I cannot say. +The heavy minutes of sodden contentment slipped by unnoticed, +unnumbered, till presently I felt the touch of a wine-cup at my lips +again, and drinking of another liquor dulness vanished from my mind, my +eyes cleared, my heart throbbed; a fantastic gaiety seized upon my +limbs; I bounded to my feet, and seizing An's two hands in mine, swung +that damsel round in a giddy dance, capering as never dancer danced +before, till spent and weary I sank down again from sheer lack of +breath, and only knew thereafter that An was sitting by me saying, +"Drink! drink stranger, drink and forget!" and as a third time a cup +was pressed to my lips, aches and pleasures, stupidness and joy, life +itself, seemed slipping away into a splendid golden vacuity, a hazy +episode of unconscious Elysium, indefinite, and unfathomable. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<P> +When I woke, feeling as refreshed as though I had been dreaming through +a long night, An, seeing me open-eyed, helped me to my feet, and when I +had recovered my senses a little, asked if we should go on. I was +myself again by this time, so willingly took her hand, and soon came +out of the tangle into the open spaces. I must have been under the +spell of the Martian wines longer than it seemed, for already it was +late in the afternoon, the shadows of trees were lying deep and +far-reaching over the motley crowds of people. Out here as the day +waned they had developed some sort of method in their sports. In front +of us was a broad, grassy course marked off with garlanded +finger-posts, and in this space rallies of workfolk were taking part in +all manner of games under the eyes of a great concourse of spectators, +doing the Martians' pleasures for them as they did their labours. An +led me gently on, leaning on my arm heavier, I thought, than she had +done in the morning, and ever and anon turning her gazelle-like eyes +upon me with a look I could not understand. As we sauntered forward I +noticed all about lesser circles where the yellow-girted ones were +drawing delighted laughter from good-tempered crowds by tricks of +sleight-of-hand, and posturing, or tossing gilded cups and balls as +though they were catering, as indeed they were, for outgrown children. +Others fluted or sang songs in chorus to the slow clapping of hands, +while others were doing I knew not what, sitting silent amongst silent +spectators who every now and then burst out laughing for no cause that +I could see. But An would not let me stop, and so we pushed on through +the crowd till we came to the main enclosures where a dozen slaves had +run a race for the amusement of those too lazy to race themselves, and +were sitting panting on the grass. +</P> + +<P> +To give them time to get their breath, perhaps, a man stepped out of +the crowd dressed in a dark blue tunic, a strange vacuous-looking +fellow, and throwing down a sheaf of javelins marched off a dozen +paces, then, facing round, called out loudly he would give sixteen +suits of "summer cloth" to any one who could prick him with a javelin +from the heap. +</P> + +<P> +"Why," I said in amazement, "this is the best of fools—no one could +miss from such a distance." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay but," replied my guide, "he is a gifted one, versed in mystics." +</P> + +<P> +I was just going to say a good javelin, shod with iron, was a stronger +argument than any mystic I had ever heard of could stand, when out of +the crowd stepped a youth, and amid the derisive cheers of his friends +chose a reed from the bundle. He poised it in his hand a minute to get +the middle, then turned on the living target. Whatever else they might +be, these Martians were certainly beautiful as the daytime. Never had +I seen such a perfect embodiment of grace and elegance as that boy as +he stood there for a moment poised to the throw; the afternoon sunshine +warm and strong on his bunched brown hair, a girlish flush of shyness +on his handsome face, and the sleek perfection of his limbs, clear cut +against the dusky background beyond. And now the javelin was going. +Surely the mystic would think better of it at the last moment! No! the +initiate held his ground with tight-shut lips and retrospective eyes, +and even as I looked the weapon flew upon its errand. +</P> + +<P> +"There goes the soul of a fool!" I exclaimed, and as the words were +uttered the spear struck, or seemed to, between the neck and shoulder, +but instead of piercing rose high into the air, quivering and flashing, +and presently turning over, fell back, and plunged deep into the turf, +while a low murmur of indifferent pleasure went round amongst the +onlookers. +</P> + +<P> +Thereat An, yawning gently, looked to me and said, "A strong-willed +fellow, isn't he, friend?" +</P> + +<P> +I hesitated a minute and then asked, "Was it WILL which turned that +shaft?" +</P> + +<P> +She answered with simplicity, "Why, of course—what else?" +</P> + +<P> +By this time another boy had stepped out, and having chosen a javelin, +tested it with hand and foot, then retiring a pace or two rushed up to +the throwing mark and flung it straight and true into the bared bosom +of the man. And as though it had struck a wall of brass, the shaft +leapt back falling quivering at the thrower's feet. Another and +another tried unsuccessfully, until at last, vexed at their futility, I +said, "I have a somewhat scanty wardrobe that would be all the better +for that fellow's summer suiting, by your leave I will venture a throw +against him." +</P> + +<P> +"It is useless," answered An; "none but one who knows more magic than +he, or is especially befriended by the Fates can touch him through the +envelope he has put on." +</P> + +<P> +"Still, I think I will try." +</P> + +<P> +"It is hopeless, I would not willingly see you fail," whispered the +girl, with a sudden show of friendship. +</P> + +<P> +"And what," I said, bending down, "would you give me if I succeeded?" +Whereat An laughed a little uneasily, and, withdrawing her hand from +mine, half turned away. So I pushed through the spectators and stepped +into the ring. I went straight up to the pile of weapons, and having +chosen one went over to the mystic. "Good fellow," I cried out +ostentatiously, trying the sharpness of the javelin-point with my +finger, "where are all of those sixteen summer suits of yours lying +hid?" +</P> + +<P> +"It matters nothing," said the man, as if he were asleep. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, but by the stars it does, for it will vex the quiet repose of your +soul tomorrow if your heirs should swear they could not find them." +</P> + +<P> +"It matters nothing," muttered the will-wrapped visionary. +</P> + +<P> +"It will matter something if I take you at your word. Come, friend +Purple-jerkin, will you take the council with your legs and run while +there is yet time, or stand up to be thrown at?" +</P> + +<P> +"I stand here immoveable in the confidence of my initiation." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, by thunder, I will initiate you into the mysteries of a +javelin-end, and your blood be on your head." +</P> + +<P> +The Martians were all craning their necks in hushed eagerness as I +turned to the casting-place, and, poising the javelin, faced the +magician. Would he run at the last moment? I half hoped so; for a +minute I gave him the chance, then, as he showed no sign of wavering, I +drew my hand back, shook the javelin back till it bent like a reed, and +hurled it at him. +</P> + +<P> +The Martians' heads turned as though all on one pivot as the spear sped +through the air, expecting no doubt to see it recoil as others had +done. But it took him full in the centre of his chest, and with a wild +wave of arms and a flutter of purple raiment sent him backwards, and +down, and over and over in a shapeless heap of limbs and flying +raiment, while a low murmur of awed surprise rose from the spectators. +They crowded round him in a dense ring, as An came flitting to me with +a startled face. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, stranger," she burst out, "you have surely killed him!" but more +astounded I had broken down his guard than grieved at his injury. +</P> + +<P> +"No," I answered smilingly; "a sore chest he may have tomorrow, but +dead he is not, for I turned the lance-point back as I spun it, and it +was the butt-end I threw at him!" +</P> + +<P> +"It was none the less wonderful; I thought you were a common man, a +prince mayhap, come but from over the hills, but now something tells me +you are more than that," and she lapsed into thoughtful silence for a +time. +</P> + +<P> +Neither of us were wishful to go back amongst those who were raising +the bruised magician to his legs, but wandered away instead through the +deepening twilight towards the city over meadows whose damp, soft +fragrance loaded the air with sleepy pleasure, neither of us saying a +word till the dusk deepened and the quick night descended, while we +came amongst the gardened houses, the thousand lights of an unreal city +rising like a jewelled bank before us, and there An said she would +leave me for a time, meeting me again in the palace square later on, +"To see Princess Heru read the destinies of the year." +</P> + +<P> +"What!" I exclaimed, "more magic? I have been brought up on more +substantial mental stuff than this." +</P> + +<P> +"Nevertheless, I would advise you to come to the square," persisted my +companion. "It affects us all, and—who knows?—may affect you more +than any." +</P> + +<P> +Therein poor An was unconsciously wearing the cloak of prophesy +herself, and, shrugging my shoulders good-humouredly, I kissed her +chin, little realising, as I let her fingers slip from mine, that I +should see her no more. +</P> + +<P> +Turning back alone, through the city, through ways twinkling with +myriad lights as little lamps began to blink out amongst garlands and +flower-decked booths on every hand, I walked on, lost in varying +thoughts, until, fairly tired and hungry, I found myself outside a +stall where many Martians stood eating and drinking to their hearts' +content. I was known to none of them, and, forgetting past experience, +was looking on rather enviously, when there came a touch upon my arm, +and— +</P> + +<P> +"Are you hungry, sir?" asked a bystander. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay," I said, "hungry, good friend, and with all the zest which an +empty purse lends to that condition." +</P> + +<P> +"Then here is what you need, sir, even from here the wine smells good, +and the fried fruit would make a mouse's eye twinkle. Why do you wait?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why wait? Why, because though the rich man's dinner goes in at his +mouth, the poor man must often be content to dine through his nose. I +tell you I have nothing to get me a meal with." +</P> + +<P> +The stranger seemed to speculate on this for a time, and then he said, +"I cannot fathom your meaning, sir. Buying and selling, gold and +money, all these have no meaning to me. Surely the twin blessings of +an appetite and food abundant ready and free before you are enough." +</P> + +<P> +"What! free is it—free like the breakfast served out this morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, of course," said the youth, with mild depreciation; "everything +here is free. Everything is his who will take it, without exception. +What else is the good of a coherent society and a Government if it +cannot provide you with so rudimentary a thing as a meal?" +</P> + +<P> +Whereat joyfully I undid my belt, and, without nicely examining the +argument, marched into the booth, and there put Martian hospitality to +the test, eating and drinking, but this time with growing wisdom, till +I was a new man, and then, paying my leaving with a wave of the hand to +the yellow-girted one who dispensed the common provender, I sauntered +on again, caring little or nothing which way the road went, and soon +across the current of my meditations a peal of laughter broke, +accompanied by the piping of a flute somewhere close at hand, and the +next minute I found myself amid a ring of light-hearted roisterers who +were linking hands for a dance to the music a curly-headed fellow was +making close by. +</P> + +<P> +They made me join them! One rosey-faced damsel at the hither end of +the chain drew up to me, and, without a word, slipped her soft, baby +fingers into my hand; on the other side another came with melting eyes, +breath like a bed of violets, and banked-up fun puckering her dainty +mouth. What could I do but give her a hand as well? The flute began +to gurgle anew, like a drinking spout in spring-time, and away we went, +faster and faster each minute, the boys and girls swinging themselves +in time to the tune, and capering presently till their tender feet were +twinkling over the ground in gay confusion. Faster and faster till, as +the infection of the dance spread even to the outside groups, I capered +too. My word! if they could have seen me that night from the deck of +the old Carolina, how they would have laughed—sword swinging, +coat-tails flying—faster and faster, round and round we went, till +limbs could stand no more; the gasping piper blew himself quite out, +and the dance ended as abruptly as it commenced, the dancers melting +away to join others or casting themselves panting on the turf. +</P> + +<P> +Certainly these Martian girls were blessed with an ingratiating +simplicity. My new friend of the violet-scented breath hung back a +little, then after looking at me demurely for a minute or two, like a +child that chooses a new playmate, came softly up, and, standing on +tiptoe, kissed me on the cheek. It was not unpleasant, so I turned the +other, whereon, guessing my meaning, without the smallest hesitation, +she reached up again, and pressed her pretty mouth to my bronzed skin a +second time. Then, with a little sigh of satisfaction, she ran an arm +through mine, saying, "Comrade, from what country have you come? I +never saw one quite like you before." +</P> + +<P> +"From what country had I come?" Again the frown dropped down upon my +forehead. Was I dreaming—was I mad? Where indeed had I come from? I +stared back over my shoulder, and there, as if in answer to my +thought—there, where the black tracery of flowering shrubs waved in +the soft night wind, over a gap in the crumbling ivory ramparts, the +sky was brightening. As I looked into the centre of that glow, a +planet, magnified by the wonderful air, came swinging up, pale but +splendid, and mapped by soft colours—green, violet, and red. I knew +it on the minute, Heaven only knows how, but I knew it, and a desperate +thrill of loneliness swept over me, a spasm of comprehension of the +horrible void dividing us. Never did yearning babe stretch arms more +wistfully to an unattainable mother than I at that moment to my mother +earth. All her meanness and prosaicness was forgotten, all her +imperfections and shortcomings; it was home, the one tangible thing in +the glittering emptiness of the spheres. All my soul went into my eyes, +and then I sneezed violently, and turning round, found that sweet +damsel whose silky head nestled so friendly on my shoulder was tickling +my nose with a feather she had picked up. +</P> + +<P> +Womanlike, she had forgotten all about her first question, and now +asked another, "Will you come to supper with me, stranger? 'Tis nearly +ready, I think." +</P> + +<P> +"To be able to say no to such an invitation, lady, is the first thing a +young man should learn," I answered lightly; but then, seeing there was +nothing save the most innocent friendliness in those hazel eyes, I went +on, "but that stern rule may admit of variance. Only, as it chances, I +have just supped at the public expense. If, instead, you would be a +sailor's sweetheart for an hour, and take me to this show of +yours—your princess's benefit, or whatever it is—I shall be obliged; +my previous guide is hull down over the horizon, and I am clean out of +my reckoning in this crowd." +</P> + +<P> +By way of reply, the little lady, light as an elf, took me by the +fingertips, and, gleefully skipping forward, piloted me through the +mazes of her city until we came out into the great square fronting on +the palace, which rose beyond it like a white chalk cliff in the dull +light. Not a taper showed anywhere round its circumference, but a +mysterious kind of radiance like sea phosphorescence beamed from the +palace porch. All was in such deathlike silence that the nails in my +"ammunition" boots made an unpleasant clanking as they struck on the +marble pavement; yet, by the uncertain starlight, I saw, to my +surprise, the whole square was thronged with Martians, all facing +towards the porch, as still, graven images, and as voiceless, for once, +as though they had indeed been marble. It was strange to see them +sitting there in the twilight, waiting for I knew not what, and my +friend's voice at my elbow almost startled me as she said, in a +whisper, "The princess knows you are in the crowd, and desires you to +go up upon the steps near where she will be." +</P> + +<P> +"Who brought her message?" I asked, gazing vaguely round, for none had +spoken to us for an hour or more. +</P> + +<P> +"No one," said my companion, gently pushing me up an open way towards +the palace steps left clear by the sitting Martians. "It came direct +from her to me this minute." +</P> + +<P> +"But how?" I persisted. +</P> + +<P> +"Nay," said the girl, "if we stop to talk like this we shall not be +placed before she comes, and thus throw a whole year's knowledge out." +</P> + +<P> +So, bottling my speculations, I allowed myself to be led up the first +flight of worn, white steps to where, on the terrace between them and +the next flight leading directly to the palace portico, was a flat, +having a circle about twenty feet across, inlaid upon the marble with +darker coloured blocks. Inside that circle, as I sat down close by it +in the twilight, showed another circle, and then a final one in whose +inmost middle stood a tall iron tripod and something atop of it covered +by a cloth. And all round the outer circle were magic symbols—I +started as I recognised the meaning of some of them—within these again +the inner circle held what looked like the representations of planets, +ending, as I have said, in that dished hollow made by countless +dancers' feet, and its solitary tripod. Back again, I glanced towards +the square where the great concourse—ten thousand of them, +perhaps—were sitting mute and silent in the deepening shadows, then +back to the magic circles, till the silence and expectancy of a strange +scene began to possess me. +</P> + +<P> +Shadow down below, star-dusted heaven above, and not a figure moving; +when suddenly something like a long-drawn sigh came from the lips of +the expectant multitude, and I was aware every eye had suddenly turned +back to the palace porch, where, as we looked, a figure, wrapped in +pale blue robes, appeared and stood for a minute, then stole down the +steps with an eagerness in every movement holding us spellbound. I +have seen many splendid pageants and many sights, each of which might +be the talk of a lifetime, but somehow nothing ever so engrossing, so +thrilling, as that ghostly figure in flowing robes stealing across the +piazza in starlight and silence—the princess of a broken kingdom, the +priestess of a forgotten faith coming to her station to perform a +jugglery of which she knew not even the meaning. It was my versatile +friend Heru, and with quick, incisive steps, her whole frame ambent for +the time with the fervour of her mission, she came swiftly down to +within a dozen yards of where I stood. Heru, indeed, but not the same +princess as in the morning; an inspired priestess rather, her slim body +wrapped in blue and quivering with emotion, her face ashine with +Delphic fire, her hair loose, her feet bare, until at last when, as she +stood within the limit of the magic circle, her white hands upon her +breast, her eyes flashing like planets themselves in the starshine she +looked so ghostly and unreal I felt for a minute I was dreaming. +</P> + +<P> +Then began a strange, weird dance amongst the imagery of the rings, +over which my earth planet was beginning to throw a haze of light. At +first it was hardly more than a walk, a slow procession round the twin +circumferences of the centred tripod. But soon it increased to an +extraordinary graceful measure, a cadenced step without music or sound +that riveted my eyes to the dancer. Presently I saw those mystic, +twinkling feet of hers—as the dance became swifter—were performing a +measured round amongst the planet signs—spelling out something, I knew +not what, with quick, light touch amongst the zodiac figures, dancing +out a soundless invocation of some kind as a dumb man might spell a +message by touching letters. Quicker and quicker, for minute after +minute, grew the dance, swifter and swifter the swing of the light blue +drapery as the priestess, with eager face and staring eyes, swung +panting round upon her orbit, and redder and redder over the city tops +rose the circumference of the earth. It seemed to me all the silent +multitude were breathing heavily as we watched that giddy dance, and +whatever THEY felt, all my own senses seemed to be winding up upon that +revolving figure as thread winds on a spindle. +</P> + +<P> +"When will she stop?" I whispered to my friend under my breath. +</P> + +<P> +"When the earth-star rests in the roof-niche of the temple it is +climbing," she answered back. +</P> + +<P> +"And then?" +</P> + +<P> +"On the tripod is a globe of water. In it she will see the destiny of +the year, and will tell us. The whiter the water stays, the better for +us; it never varies from white. But we must not talk; see! she is +stopping." +</P> + +<P> +And as I looked back, the dance was certainly ebbing now with such +smoothly decreasing undulations, that every heart began to beat calmer +in response. There was a minute or two of such slow cessation, and +then to say she stopped were too gross a description. Motion rather +died away from her, and the priestess grounded as smoothly as a ship +grounds in fine weather on a sandy bank. There she was at last, +crouched behind the tripod, one corner of the cloth covering it grasped +in her hand, and her eyes fixed on the shining round just poised upon +the distant run. +</P> + +<P> +Keenly the girl watched it slide into zenith, then the cloth was +snatched from the tripod-top. As it fell it uncovered a beautiful and +perfect globe of clear white glass, a foot or so in diameter, and +obviously filled with the thinnest, most limpid water imaginable. At +first it seemed to me, who stood near to the priestess of Mars, with +that beaming sphere directly between us, and the newly risen world, +that its smooth and flawless face was absolutely devoid of sign or +colouring. Then, as the distant planet became stronger in the +magnifying Martian air, or my eyes better accustomed to that sudden +nucleus of brilliancy, a delicate and infinitely lovely network of +colours came upon it. They were like the radiant prisms that sometimes +flush the surface of a bubble more than aught else for a time. But as +I watched that mosaic of yellow and purple creep softly to and fro upon +the globe it seemed they slowly took form and meaning. Another minute +or two and they had certainly congealed into a settled plan, and then, +as I stared and wondered, it burst upon me in a minute that I was +looking upon a picture, faithful in every detail, of the world I stood +on; all its ruddy forests, its sapphire sea, both broad and narrow +ones, its white peaked mountains, and unnumbered islands being mapped +out with startling clearness for a spell upon that beaming orb. +</P> + +<P> +Then a strange thing happened. Heru, who had been crouching in a +tremulous heap by the tripod, rose stealthily and passed her hands a +few times across the sphere. Colour and picture vanished at her touch +like breath from a mirror. Again all was clear and pellucid. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," said my companion, "now listen! For Heru reads the destiny; the +whiter the globe stays the better for us—" and then I felt her hand +tighten on mine with a startled grasp as the words died away upon her +lips. +</P> + +<P> +Even as the girl spoke, the sphere, which had been beaming in the +centre of the silent square like a mighty white jewel, began to flush +with angry red. Redder and redder grew the gleam—a fiery glow which +seemed curdling in the interior of the round as though it were filled +with flame; redder and redder, until the princess, staring into it, +seemed turned against the jet-black night behind, into a form of molten +metal. A spasm of terror passed across her as she stared; her limbs +stiffened; her frightened hands were clutched in front, and she stood +cowering under that great crimson nucleus like one bereft of power and +life, and lost to every sense but that of agony. Not a syllable came +from her lips, not a movement stirred her body, only that dumb, stupid +stare of horror, at the something she saw in the globe. What could I +do? I could not sit and see her soul come out at her frightened eyes, +and not a Martian moved a finger to her rescue; the red shine gleamed +on empty faces, tier above tier, and flung its broad flush over the +endless rank of open-mouthed spectators, then back I looked to +Heru—that winsome little lady for whom, you will remember, I had +already more than a passing fancy—and saw with a thrill of emotion +that while she still kept her eyes on the flaming globe like one in a +horrible dream her hands were slowly, very slowly, rising in +supplication to ME! It was not vanity. There was no mistaking the +direction of that silent, imploring appeal. +</P> + +<P> +Not a man of her countrymen moved, not even black Hath! There was not +a sound in the world, it seemed, but the noisy clatter of my own +shoenails on the marble flags. In the great red eye of that unholy +globe the Martians glimmered like a picture multitude under the red +cliff of their ruined palace. I glared round at them with contempt for +a minute, then sprang forward and snatched the princess up. It was +like pulling a flower up by the roots. She was stiff and stark when I +lay hold of her, but when I tore her from the magic ground she suddenly +gave a piercing shriek, and fainted in my arms. +</P> + +<P> +Then as I turned upon my heels with her upon my breast my foot caught +upon the cloths still wound about the tripod of the sphere. Over went +that implement of a thousand years of sorcery, and out went the red +fire. But little I cared—the princess was safe! And up the palace +steps, amidst a low, wailing hum of consternation from the recovering +Martians, I bore that bundle of limp and senseless loveliness up into +the pale shine of her own porch, and there, laying her down upon a +couch, watched her recover presently amongst her women with a varied +assortment of emotions tingling in my veins. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<P> +Beyond the first flutter of surprise, the Martians had shown no +interest in the abrupt termination of the year's divinations. They +melted away, a trifle more silently perhaps than usual, when I +shattered the magic globe, but with their invariable indifference, and +having handed the reviving Heru over to some women who led her away, +apparently already half forgetful of the things that had just happened, +I was left alone on the palace steps, not even An beside me, and only +the shadow of a passerby now and then to break the solitude. Whereon a +great loneliness took hold upon me, and, pacing to and fro along the +ancient terrace with bent head and folded arms, I bewailed my fate. To +and fro I walked, heedless and melancholy, thinking of the old world, +that was so far and this near world so distant from me in everything +making life worth living, thinking, as I strode gloomily here and +there, how gladly I would exchange these poor puppets and the mockery +of a town they dwelt in, for a sight of my comrades and a corner in the +poorest wine-shop salon in New York or 'Frisco; idly speculating why, +and how, I came here, as I sauntered down amongst the glistening, +shell-like fragments of the shattered globe, and finding no answer. +How could I? It was too fair, I thought, standing there in the open; +there was a fatal sweetness in the air, a deadly sufficiency in the +beauty of everything around falling on the lax senses like some sleepy +draught of pleasure. Not a leaf stirred, the wide purple roof of the +sky was unbroken by the healthy promise of a cloud from rim to rim, the +splendid country, teeming with its spring-time richness, lay in rank +perfection everywhere; and just as rank and sleek and passionless were +those who owned it. +</P> + +<P> +Why, even I, who yesterday was strong, began to come under the spell of +it. But yesterday the spirit of the old world was still strong within +me, yet how much things were now changing. The well-strung muscles +loosening, the heart beating a slower measure, the busy mind drowsing +off to listlessness. Was I, too, destined to become like these? Was +the red stuff in my veins to be watered down to pallid Martian sap? Was +ambition and hope to desert me, and idleness itself become laborious, +while life ran to seed in gilded uselessness? Little did I guess how +unnecessary my fears were, or of the incredible fairy tale of adventure +into which fate was going to plunge me. +</P> + +<P> +Still engrossed the next morning by these thoughts, I decided I would +go to Hath. Hath was a man—at least they said so—he might sympathise +even though he could not help, and so, dressing finished, I went down +towards the innermost palace whence for an hour or two had come sounds +of unwonted bustle. Asking for the way occasionally from sleepy folk +lolling about the corridors, waiting as it seemed for their breakfasts +to come to them, and embarrassed by the new daylight, I wandered to and +fro in the labyrinths of that stony ant-heap until I chanced upon a +curtained doorway which admitted to a long chamber, high-roofed, ample +in proportions, with colonnades on either side separated from the main +aisle by rows of flowery figures and emblematic scroll-work, meaning I +knew not what. Above those pillars ran a gallery with many windows +looking out over the ruined city. While at the further end of the +chamber stood three broad steps leading to a dais. As I entered, the +whole place was full of bustling girls, their yellow garments like a +bed of flowers in the sunlight trickling through the casements, and all +intent on the spreading of a feast on long tables ranged up and down +the hall. The morning light streamed in on the white cloths. It +glittered on the glass and the gold they were putting on the trestles, +and gave resplendent depths of colour to the ribbon bands round the +pillars. All were so busy no one noticed me standing in the twilight +by the door, but presently, laying a hand on a worker's shoulder, I +asked who they banqueted for, and why such unwonted preparation? +</P> + +<P> +"It is the marriage-feast tonight, stranger, and a marvel you did not +know it. You, too, are to be wed." +</P> + +<P> +"I had not heard of it, damsel; a paternal forethought of your +Government, I suppose? Have you any idea who the lady is?" +</P> + +<P> +"How should I know?" she answered laughingly. "That is the secret of +the urn. Meanwhile, we have set you a place at the table-head near +Princess Heru, and tonight you dip and have your chance like all of +them; may luck send you a rosy bride, and save her from Ar-hap." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, now I remember; An told me of this before; Ar-hap is the sovereign +with whom your people have a little difference, and shares unbidden in +the free distribution of brides to-night. This promises to be +interesting; depend on it I will come; if you will keep me a place +where I can hear the speeches, and not forget me when the turtle soup +goes round, I shall be more than grateful. Now to another matter. I +want to get a few minutes with your President, Prince Hath. He +concentrates the fluid intelligence of this sphere, I am told. Where +can I find him?" +</P> + +<P> +"He is drunk, in the library, sir!" +</P> + +<P> +"My word! It is early in the day for that, and a singular conjunction +of place and circumstance." +</P> + +<P> +"Where," said the girl, "could he safer be? We can always fetch him if +we want him, and sunk in blue oblivion he will not come to harm." +</P> + +<P> +"A cheerful view, Miss, which is worthy of the attention of our +reformers. Nevertheless, I will go to him. I have known men tell more +truth in that state than in any other." +</P> + +<P> +The servitor directed me to the library, and after desolate wanderings +up crumbling steps and down mouldering corridors, sunny and lovely in +decay, I came to the immense lumber-shed of knowledge they had told me +of, a city of dead books, a place of dusty cathedral aisles stored with +forgotten learning. At a table sat Hath the purposeless, enthroned in +leather and vellum, snoring in divine content amongst all that wasted +labour, and nothing I could do was sufficient to shake him into +semblance of intelligence. So perforce I turned away till he should +have come to himself, and wandering round the splendid litter of a +noble library, presently amongst the ruck of volumes on the floor, +amongst those lordly tomes in tattered green and gold, and ivory, my +eye lit upon a volume propped up curiously on end, and going to it +through the confusion I saw by the dried fruit rind upon the sticks +supporting it, that the grave and reverend tome was set to catch a +mouse! It was a splendid book when I looked more closely, bound as a +king might bind his choicest treasure, the sweet-scented leather on it +was no doubt frayed; the golden arabesques upon the covers had long +since shed their eyes of inset gems, the jewelled clasp locking its +learning up from vulgar gaze was bent and open. Yet it was a lordly +tome with an odour of sanctity about it, and lifting it with +difficulty, I noticed on its cover a red stain of mouse's blood. Those +who put it to this quaint use of mouse-trap had already had some sport, +but surely never was a mouse crushed before under so much learning. And +while I stood guessing at what the book might hold within, Heru, the +princess, came tripping in to me, and with the abrupt familiarity of +her kind, laid a velvet hand upon my wrist, conned the title over to +herself. +</P> + +<P> +"What does it say, sweet girl?" I asked. "The matter is learned, by +its feel," and that maid, pursing up her pretty lips, read the title to +me—"The Secret of the Gods." +</P> + +<P> +"The Secret of the Gods," I murmured. "Was it possible other worlds +had struggled hopelessly to come within the barest ken of that great +knowledge, while here the same was set to catch a mouse with?" +</P> + +<P> +I said, "Silver-footed, sit down and read me a passage or two," and +propping the mighty volume upon a table drew a bench before it and +pulled her down beside me. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! a horrid, dry old book for certain," cried that lady, her pink +fingertips falling as lightly on the musty leaves as almond petals on +March dust. "Where shall I begin? It is all equally dull." +</P> + +<P> +"Dip in," was my answer. "'Tis no great matter where, but near the +beginning. What says the writer of his intention? What sets he out to +prove?" +</P> + +<P> +"He says that is the Secret of the First Great Truth, descended +straight to him—" +</P> + +<P> +"Many have said so much, yet have lied." +</P> + +<P> +"He says that which is written in his book is through him but not of +him, past criticism and beyond cavil. 'Tis all in ancient and crabbed +characters going back to the threshold of my learning, but here upon +this passage-top where they are writ large I make them out to say, +'ONLY THE MAN WHO HAS DIED MANY TIMES BEGINS TO LIVE.'" +</P> + +<P> +"A pregnant passage! Turn another page, and try again; I have an +inkling of the book already." +</P> + +<P> +"'Tis poor, silly stuff," said the girl, slipping a hand covertly into +my own. "Why will you make me read it? I have a book on pomatums +worth twice as much as this." +</P> + +<P> +"Nevertheless, dip in again, dear lady. What says the next heading?" +And with a little sigh at the heaviness of her task, Heru read out: +"SOMETIMES THE GODS THEMSELVES FORGET THE ANSWERS TO THEIR OWN RIDDLES." +</P> + +<P> +"Lady, I knew it! +</P> + +<P> +"All this is still preliminary to the great matter of the book, but the +mutterings of the priest who draws back the curtains of the shrine—and +here, after the scribe has left these two yellow pages blank as though +to set a space of reverence between himself and what comes next—here +speaks the truth, the voice, the fact of all life." But "Oh! Jones," +she said, turning from the dusty pages and clasping her young, +milk-warm hands over mine and leaning towards me until her blushing +cheek was near to my shoulder and the incense of her breath upon me. +"Oh! Gulliver Jones," she said. "Make me read no more; my soul +revolts from the task, the crazy brown letters swim before my eyes. Is +there no learning near at hand that would be pleasanter reading than +this silly book of yours? What, after all," she said, growing bolder at +the sound of her own voice, "what, after all, is the musty reticence of +gods to the whispered secret of a maid? Jones, splendid stranger for +whom all men stand aside and women look over shoulders, oh, let me be +your book!" she whispered, slipping on to my knee and winding her arms +round my neck till, through the white glimmer of her single vest, I +could feel her heart beating against mine. "Newest and dearest of +friends, put by this dreary learning and look in my eyes; is there +nothing to be spelt out there?" +</P> + +<P> +And I was constrained to do as she bid me, for she was as fresh as an +almond blossom touched by the sun, and looking down into two swimming +blue lakes where shyness and passion were contending—books easy +enough, in truth, to be read, I saw that she loved me, with the +unconventional ardour of her nature. +</P> + +<P> +It was a pleasant discovery, if its abruptness was embarrassing, for +she was a maid in a thousand; and half ashamed and half laughing I let +her escalade me, throwing now and then a rueful look at the Secret of +the Gods, and all that priceless knowledge treated so unworthily. +</P> + +<P> +What else could I do? Besides, I loved her myself! And if there was a +momentary chagrin at having yonder golden knowledge put off by this +lovely interruption, yet I was flesh and blood, the gods could +wait—they had to wait long and often before, and when this sweet +interpreter was comforted we would have another try. So it happened I +took her into my heart and gave her the answer she asked for. +</P> + +<P> +For a long time we sat in the dusky grandeur of the royal library, my +mind revolving between wonder and admiration of the neglected knowledge +all about, and the stirrings of a new love, while Heru herself, lapsed +again into Martian calm, lay half sleeping on my shoulder, but +presently, unwinding her arms, I put her down. +</P> + +<P> +"There, sweetheart," I whispered, "enough of this for the moment; +tonight, perhaps, some more, but while we are here amongst all this +lordly litter, I can think of nothing else." Again I bid her turn the +pages, noting as she did so how each chapter was headed by the coloured +configuration of a world. Page by page we turned of crackling +parchment, until by chance, at the top of one, my eye caught a coloured +round I could not fail to recognise—'twas the spinning button on the +blue breast of the immeasurable that yesterday I inhabited. "Read +here," I cried, clapping my finger upon the page midway down, where +there were some signs looking like Egyptian writing. "Says this quaint +dabbler in all knowledge anything of Isis, anything of Phra, of Ammon, +of Ammon Top?" +</P> + +<P> +"And who was Isis? who Ammon Top?" asked the lady. +</P> + +<P> +"Nay, read," I answered, and down the page her slender fingers went +awandering till at a spot of knotted signs they stopped. "Why, here is +something about thy Isis," exclaimed Heru, as though amused at my +perspicuity. "Here, halfway down this chapter of earth-history, it +says," and putting one pink knee across the other to better prop the +book she read: +</P> + +<P> +"And the priests of Thebes were gone; the sand stood untrampled on the +temple steps a thousand years; the wild bees sang the song of +desolation in the ears of Isis; the wild cats littered in the stony lap +of Ammon; ay, another thousand years went by, and earth was tilled of +unseen hands and sown with yellow grain from Paradise, and the thin +veil that separates the known from the unknown was rent, and men walked +to and fro." +</P> + +<P> +"Go on," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Nay," laughed the other, "the little mice in their eagerness have been +before you—see, all this corner is gnawed away." +</P> + +<P> +"Read on again," I said, "where the page is whole; those sips of +knowledge you have given make me thirsty for more. There, begin where +this blazonry of initialed red and gold looks so like the carpet spread +by the scribe for the feet of a sovereign truth—what says he here?" +And she, half pouting to be set back once more to that task, half +wondering as she gazed on those magic letters, let her eyes run down +the page, then began: +</P> + +<P> +"And it was the Beginning, and in the centre void presently there came +a nucleus of light: and the light brightened in the grey primeval +morning and became definite and articulate. And from the midst of that +natal splendour, behind which was the Unknowable, the life came +hitherward; from the midst of that nucleus undescribed, undescribable, +there issued presently the primeval sigh that breathed the breath of +life into all things. And that sigh thrilled through the empty spaces +of the illimitable: it breathed the breath of promise over the frozen +hills of the outside planets where the night-frost had lasted without +beginning: and the waters of ten thousand nameless oceans, girding +nameless planets, were stirred, trembling into their depth. It crossed +the illimitable spaces where the herding aerolites swirl forever +through space in the wake of careering world, and all their whistling +wings answered to it. It reverberated through the grey wastes of +vacuity, and crossed the dark oceans of the Outside, even to the black +shores of the eternal night beyond. +</P> + +<P> +"And hardly had echo of that breath died away in the hollow of the +heavens and the empty wombs of a million barren worlds, when the light +brightened again, and drawing in upon itself became definite and took +form, and therefrom, at the moment of primitive conception, there +came—" +</P> + +<P> +And just then, as she had read so far as that, when all my faculties +were aching to know what came next—whether this were but the idle +scribbling of a vacuous fool, or something else—there rose the sound +of soft flutes and tinkling bells in the corridors, as seneschals +wandered piping round the palace to call folk to meals, a smell of +roast meat and grilling fish as that procession lifted the curtains +between the halls, and— +</P> + +<P> +"Dinner!" shouted my sweet Martian, slapping the covers of The Secret +of the Gods together and pushing the stately tome headlong from the +table. "Dinner! 'Tis worth a hundred thousand planets to the hungry!" +</P> + +<P> +Nothing I could say would keep her, and, scarcely knowing whether to +laugh or to be angry at so unseemly an interruption, but both being +purposeless I dug my hands into my pockets, and somewhat sulkily +refusing Heru's invitation to luncheon in the corridor (Navy rations +had not fitted my stomach for these constant debauches of gossamer +food), strolled into the town again in no very pleasant frame of mind. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<P> +It was only at moments like these I had any time to reflect on my +circumstances or that giddy chance which had shot me into space in this +fashion, and, frankly, the opportunities, when they did come, brought +such an extraordinary depressing train of thought, I by no means +invited them. Even with the time available the occasion was always +awry for such reflection. These dainty triflers made sulking as +impossible amongst them as philosophy in a ballroom. When I stalked +out like that from the library in fine mood to moralise and +apostrophise heaven in a way that would no doubt have looked fine upon +these pages, one sprightly damsel, just as the gloomy rhetoric was +bursting from my lips, thrust a flower under my nose whose scent +brought on a violent attack of sneezing, her companions joining hands +and dancing round me while they imitated my agony. Then, when I burst +away from them and rushed down a narrow arcade of crumbling mansions, +another stopped me in mid-career, and taking the honey-stick she was +sucking from her lips, put it to mine, like a pretty, playful child. +Another asked me to dance, another to drink pink oblivion with her, and +so on. How could one lament amongst all this irritating cheerfulness? +</P> + +<P> +An might have helped me, for poor An was intelligent for a Martian, but +she had disappeared, and the terrible vacuity of life in the planet was +forced upon me when I realised that possessing no cognomen, no fixed +address, or rating, it would be the merest chance if I ever came across +her again. +</P> + +<P> +Looking for my friendly guide and getting more and more at sea amongst +a maze of comely but similar faces, I made chance acquaintance with +another of her kind who cheerfully drank my health at the Government's +expense, and chatted on things Martian. She took me to see a funeral +by way of amusement, and I found these people floated their dead off on +flower-decked rafts instead of burying them, the send-offs all taking +place upon a certain swift-flowing stream, which carried the dead away +into the vast region of northern ice, but more exactly whither my +informant seemed to have no idea. The voyager on this occasion was +old, and this brought to my mind the curious fact that I had observed +few children in the city, and no elders, all, except perhaps Hath, +being in a state of sleek youthfulness. My new friend explained the +peculiarity by declaring Martians ripened with extraordinary rapidity +from infancy to the equivalent of about twenty-five years of age, with +us, and then remained at that period however long they might live; Only +when they died did their accumulated seasons come upon them; the girl +turning pale, and wringing her pretty hands in sympathetic concern when +I told her there was a land where decrepitude was not so happily +postponed. The Martians, she said, arranged their calendar by the +varying colours of the seasons, and loved blue as an antidote to the +generally red and rusty character of their soil. +</P> + +<P> +Discussing such things as these we lightly squandered the day away, and +I know of nothing more to note until the evening was come again: that +wonderful purple evening which creeps over the outer worlds at sunset, +a seductive darkness gemmed with ten thousand stars riding so low in +the heaven they seem scarcely more than mast high. When that hour was +come my friend tiptoed again to my cheek, and then, pointing to the +palace and laughingly hoping fate would send me a bride "as soft as +catkin and as sweet as honey," slipped away into the darkness. +</P> + +<P> +Then I remembered all on a sudden this was the connubial evening of my +sprightly friends—the occasion when, as An had told me, the Government +constituted itself into a gigantic matrimonial agency, and, with the +cheerful carelessness of the place, shuffled the matrimonial pack anew, +and dealt a fresh hand to all the players. Now I had no wish to avail +myself of a sailor's privilege of a bride in every port, but surely +this game would be interesting enough to see, even if I were but a +disinterested spectator. As a matter of fact I was something more than +that, and had been thinking a good deal of Heru during the day. I do +not know whether I actually aspired to her hand—that were a large +order, even if there had been no suspicion in my mind she was already +bespoke in some vague way by the invisible Hath, most abortive of +princes. But she was undeniably a lovely girl; the more one thought of +her the more she grew upon the fancy, and then the preference she had +shown myself was very gratifying. Yes, I would certainly see this +quaint ceremonial, even if I took no leading part in it. +</P> + +<P> +The great centre hall of the palace was full of a radiant light +bringing up its ruined columns and intruding creepers to the best +effect when I entered. Dinner also was just being served, as they +would say in another, and alas! very distant place, and the whole +building thronged with folk. Down the centre low tables with room for +four hundred people were ranged, but they looked quaint enough since +but two hundred were sitting there, all brand-new bachelors about to be +turned into brand new Benedicts, and taking it mightily calmly it +seemed. Across the hall-top was a raised table similarly arranged and +ornamented; and entering into the spirit of the thing, and little +guessing how stern a reality was to come from the evening, I sat down +in a vacant place near to the dais, and only a few paces from where the +pale, ghost-eyed Hath was already seated. +</P> + +<P> +Almost immediately afterwards music began to buzz all about the +hall—music of the kind the people loved which always seemed to me as +though it were exuding from the tables and benches, so disembodied and +difficult it was to locate; all the sleepy gallants raised their +flower-encircled heads at the same time, seizing their wine-cups, +already filled to the brim, and the door at the bottom of the hall +opening, the ladies, preceded by one carrying a mysterious vase covered +with a glittering cloth, came in. +</P> + +<P> +Now, being somewhat thirsty, I had already drunk half the wine in my +beaker, and whether it was that draught, drugged as all Martian wines +are, or the sheer loveliness of the maids themselves, I cannot say, but +as the procession entered, and, dividing, circled round under the +colonnades of the hall, a sensation of extraordinary felicity came over +me—an emotion of divine contentment purged of all grossness—and I +stared and stared at the circling loveliness, gossamer-clad, +flower-girdled, tripping by me with vapid delight. Either the wine was +budding in my head, or there was little to choose from amongst them, +for had any of those ladies sat down in the vacant place beside me, I +should certainly have accepted her as a gift from heaven, without +question or cavil. But one after another they slipped by, modestly +taking their places in the shadows until at last came Princess Heru, +and at the sight of her my soul was stirred. +</P> + +<P> +She came undulating over the white marble, the loveliness of her fairy +person dimmed but scarcely hidden by a robe of softest lawn in colour +like rose-petals, her eyes aglitter with excitement and a charming +blush upon her face. +</P> + +<P> +She came straight up to me, and, resting a dainty hand upon my +shoulder, whispered, "Are you come as a spectator only, dear Mr. Jones, +or do you join in our custom tonight?" +</P> + +<P> +"I came only as a bystander, lady, but the fascination of the +opportunity is deadly—" +</P> + +<P> +"And have you any preference?"—this in the softest little voice from +somewhere in the nape of my neck. "Strangers sometimes say there are +fair women in Seth." +</P> + +<P> +"None—till you came; and now, as was said a long time ago, 'All is +dross that is not Helen.' Dearest lady," I ran on, detaining her by +the fingertips and gazing up into those shy and star-like eyes, "must I +indeed put all the hopes your kindness has roused in me these last few +days to a shuffle in yonder urn, taking my chance with all these lazy +fellows? In that land whereof I was, we would not have had it so, we +loaded our dice in these matters, a strong man there might have a +willing maid though all heaven were set against him! But give me +leave, sweet lady, and I will ruffle with these fellows; give me a +glance and I will barter my life for your billet when it is drawn, but +to stand idly by and see you won by a cold chance, I cannot do it." +</P> + +<P> +That lady laughed a little and said, "Men make laws, dear Jones, for +women to keep. It is the rule, and we must not break it." Then, +gently tugging at her imprisoned fingers and gathering up her skirts to +go, she added, "But it might happen that wit here were better than +sword." Then she hesitated, and freeing herself at last slipped from my +side, yet before she was quite gone half turned again and whispered so +low that no one but I could hear it, "A golden pool, and a silver fish, +and a line no thicker than a hair!" and before I could beg a meaning of +her, had passed down the hall and taken a place with the other +expectant damsels. +</P> + +<P> +"A golden pool," I said to myself, "a silver fish, and a line of hair." +What could she mean? Yet that she meant something, and something +clearly of importance, I could not doubt. "A golden pool, and a silver +fish—" I buried my chin in my chest and thought deeply but without +effect while the preparations were made and the fateful urn, each maid +having slipped her name tablet within, was brought down to us, covered +in a beautiful web of rose-coloured tissue, and commenced its round, +passing slowly from hand to hand as each of those handsome, impassive, +fawn-eyed gallants lifted a corner of the web in turn and helped +themselves to fate. +</P> + +<P> +"A golden pool," I muttered, "and a silver fish"—so absorbed in my own +thoughts I hardly noticed the great cup begin its journey, but when it +had gone three or four places the glitter of the lights upon it caught +my eye. It was of pure gold, round-brimmed, and circled about with a +string of the blue convolvulus, which implies delight to these people. +Ay! and each man was plunging his hand into the dark and taking in his +turn a small notch-edged mother-of-pearl billet from it that flashed +soft and silvery as he turned it in his hand to read the name engraved +in unknown characters thereon. "Why," I said, with a start, "surely +THIS might be the golden pool and these the silver fish—but the +hair-fine line?" And again I meditated deeply, with all my senses on +the watch. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly the urn crept round, and as each man took a ticket from it, and +passed it, smiling, to the seneschal behind him, that official read out +the name upon it, and a blushing damsel slipped from the crowd above, +crossing over to the side of the man with whom chance had thus lightly +linked her for the brief Martian year, and putting her hands in his +they kissed before all the company, and sat down to their places at the +table as calmly as country folk might choose partners at a village fair +in hay-time. +</P> + +<P> +But not so with me. Each time a name was called I started and stared +at the drawer in a way which should have filled him with alarm had +alarm been possible to the peace-soaked triflers, then turned to glance +to where, amongst the women, my tender little princess was leaning +against a pillar, with drooping head, slowly pulling a convolvulus bud +to pieces. None drew, though all were thinking of her, as I could tell +in my fingertips. Keener and keener grew the suspense as name after +name was told and each slim white damsel skipped to the place allotted +her. And all the time I kept muttering to myself about that "golden +pool," wondering and wondering until the urn had passed half round the +tables and was only some three men up from me—and then an idea flashed +across my mind. I dipped my fingers in the scented water-basin on the +table, drying them carefully on a napkin, and waiting, outwardly as +calm as any, yet inwardly wrung by those tremors which beset all male +creation in such circumstances. +</P> + +<P> +And now at last it was my turn. The great urn, blazing golden, through +its rosy covering, was in front, and all eyes on me. I clapped a +sunburnt hand upon its top as though I would take all remaining in it +to myself and stared round at that company—only her herself I durst +not look at! Then, with a beating heart, I lifted a corner of the web +and slipped my hand into the dark inside, muttering to myself as I did +so, "A golden pool, and a silver fish, and a line no thicker than a +hair." I touched in turn twenty perplexing tablets and was no whit the +wiser, and felt about the sides yet came to nothing, groping here and +there with a rising despair, until as my fingers, still damp and fine +of touch, went round the sides a second time, yes! there was something, +something in the hollow of the fluting, a thought, a thread, and yet +enough. I took it unseen, lifting it with infinite forbearance, and +the end was weighted, the other tablets slipped and rattled as from +their midst, hanging to that one fine virgin hair, up came a pearly +billet. I doubted no longer, but snapped the thread, and showed the +tablet, heard Heru's name, read from it amongst the soft applause of +that luxurious company with all the unconcern I could muster. +</P> + +<P> +There she was in a moment, lip to lip with me, before them all, her +eyes more than ever like planets from her native skies, and only the +quick heave of her bosom, slowly subsiding like a ground swell after a +storm, remaining to tell that even Martian blood could sometimes beat +quicker than usual! She sat down in her place by me in the simplest +way, and soon everything was as merry as could be. The main meal came +on now, and as far as I could see those Martian gallants had extremely +good appetites, though they drank at first but little, wisely +remembering the strength of their wines. As for me, I ate of fishes +that never swam in earthly seas, and of strange fowl that never flapped +a way through thick terrestrial air, ate and drank as happy as a king, +and falling each moment more and more in love with the wonderfully +beautiful girl at my side who was a real woman of flesh and blood I +knew, yet somehow so dainty, so pink and white, so unlike other girls +in the smoothness of her outlines, in the subtle grace of each +unthinking attitude, that again and again I looked at her over the rim +of my tankard half fearing she might dissolve into nothing, being the +half-fairy which she was. +</P> + +<P> +Presently she asked, "Did that deed of mine, the hair in the urn, +offend you, stranger?" +</P> + +<P> +"Offend me, lady!" I laughed. "Why, had it been the blackest crime +that ever came out of a perverse imagination it would have brought its +own pardon with it; I, least of all in this room, have least cause to +be offended." +</P> + +<P> +"I risked much for you and broke our rules." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, no doubt that was so, but 'tis the privilege of your kind to have +some say in this little matter of giving and taking in marriage. I only +marvel that your countrywomen submit so tamely to the quaintest game of +chance I ever played at. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, and it is women's nature no doubt to keep the laws which others +make, as you have said yourself. Yet this rule, lady, is one broken +with more credit than kept, and if you have offended no one more than +me, your penance is easily done." +</P> + +<P> +"But I have offended some one," she said, laying her hand on mine with +gentle nervousness in its touch, "one who has the power to hurt, and +enough energy to resent. Hath, up there at the cross-table, have I +offended deeply tonight, for he hoped to have me, and would have +compelled any other man to barter me for the maid chance assigned to +him; but of you, somehow, he is afraid—I have seen him staring at you, +and changing colour as though he knew something no one else knows—" +</P> + +<P> +"Briefly, charming girl," I said, for the wine was beginning to sing in +my head, and my eyes were blinking stupidly—"briefly, Hath hath thee +not, and there's an end of it. I would spit a score of Haths, as these +figs are spit on this golden skewer, before I would relinquish a hair +of your head to him, or to any man," and as everything about the great +hall began to look gauzy and unreal through the gathering fumes of my +confusion, I smiled on that gracious lady, and began to whisper I know +not what to her, and whisper and doze, and doze— +</P> + +<P> +I know not how long afterwards it was, whether a minute or an hour, but +when I lifted my head suddenly from the lady's shoulder all the place +was in confusion, every one upon their feet, the talk and the drinking +ceased, and all eyes turned to the far doorway where the curtains were +just dropping again as I looked, while in front of them were standing +three men. +</P> + +<P> +These newcomers were utterly unlike any others—a frightful vision of +ugly strength amidst the lolling loveliness all about. Low of stature, +broad of shoulder, hairy, deep-chested, with sharp, twinkling eyes, set +far back under bushy eyebrows, retreating foreheads, and flat noses in +faces tanned to a dusky copper hue by exposure to every kind of weather +that racks the extreme Martian climate they were so opposite to all +about me, so quaint and grim amongst those mild, fair-skinned folk, +that at first I thought they were but a disordered creation of my fancy. +</P> + +<P> +I rubbed my eyes and stared and blinked, but no! they were real men, of +flesh and blood, and now they had come down with as much stateliness as +their bandy legs would admit of, into the full glare of the lights to +the centre table where Hath sat. I saw their splendid apparel, the +great strings of rudely polished gems hung round their hairy necks and +wrists, the cunningly dyed skins of soft-furred animals, green and red +and black, wherewith their limbs were swathed, and then I heard some +one by me whisper in a frightened tone, "The envoys from over seas." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," I thought sleepily to myself, "so these are the ape-men of the +western woods, are they? Those who long ago vanquished my +white-skinned friends and yearly come to claim their tribute. Jove, +what hay they must have made of them! How those peach-skinned girls +must have screamed and the downy striplings by them felt their dimpled +knees knock together, as the mad flood of barbarians came pouring over +from the forest, and long ago stormed their citadels like a stream of +red lava, as deadly, as irresistible, as remorseless!" And I lay +asprawl upon my arms on the table watching them with the stupid +indifference I thought I could so well afford. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile Hath was on foot, pale and obsequious like others in the +presence of those dread ambassadors, but more collected, I thought. +With the deepest bows he welcomed them, handing them drink in a golden +State cup, and when they had drunk (I heard the liquor running down +their great throats, in the frightened hush, like water in a runnel on +a wet day), they wiped their fierce lips upon their furry sleeves, and +the leader began reciting the tribute for the year. So much corn, so +much wine—and very much it was—so many thousands ells of cloth and +webbing, and so much hammered gold, and sinah and lar, precious metal +of which I knew nothing as yet; and ever as he went growling through +the list in his harsh animal voice, he refreshed his memory with a +coloured stick whereon a notch was made for every item, the woodmen not +having come as yet, apparently, to the gentler art of written signs and +symbols. Longer and longer that caravan of unearned wealth stretched +out before my fancy, but at last it was done, or all but done, and the +head envoy, passing the painted stick to a man behind, folded his bare, +sinewy arms, upon which the red fell bristles as it does upon a +gorilla's, across his ample chest, and, including us all in one general +scowl, turned to Hath as he said— +</P> + +<P> +"All this for Ar-hap, the wood-king, my master and yours; all this, and +the most beautiful woman here tonight at your tables!" +</P> + +<P> +"An item," I smiled stupidly to myself, for indeed I was very sleepy +and had no nice perception of things, "which shows his majesty with the +two-pronged name is a jolly fellow after all, and knows wealth is +incomplete without the crown and priming of all riches. I wonder how +the Martian boys will like this postscript," and chin on hand, and eyes +that would hardly stay open, I watched to see what would happen next. +There was a little conversation between the prince and the ape-man; +then I saw Hath the traitor point in my direction and say— +</P> + +<P> +"Since you ask and will be advised, then, mighty sir, there can be no +doubt of it, the most beautiful woman here tonight is undoubtedly she +who sits yonder by him in blue." +</P> + +<P> +"A very pretty compliment!" I thought, too dull to see what was coming +quickly, "and handsome of Hath, all things considered." +</P> + +<P> +And so I dozed and dozed, and then started, and stared! Was I in my +senses? Was I mad, or dreaming? The drunkenness dropped from me like +a mantle; with a single, smothered cry I came to myself and saw that it +was all too true. The savage envoy had come down the hall at Hath's +vindictive prompting, had lifted my fair girl to her feet, and there, +even as I looked, had drawn her, white as death, into the red circle of +his arm, and with one hand under her chin had raised her sweet face to +within an inch of his, and was staring at her with small, ugly eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said the enjoy, more interestedly than he had spoken yet, "it +will do; the tribute is accepted—for Ar-hap, my master!" And taking +shrinking Heru by the wrist, and laying a heavy hand upon her shoulder, +he was about to lead her up the hall. +</P> + +<P> +I was sober enough then. I was on foot in an instant, and before all +the glittering company, before those simpering girls and pale Martian +youths, who sat mumbling their fingers, too frightened to lift their +eyes from off their half-finished dinners, I sprang at the envoy. I +struck him with my clenched fist on the side of his bullet head, and he +let go of Heru, who slipped insensible from his hairy chest like a +white cloud slipping down the slopes of a hill at sunrise, and turned +on me with a snort of rage. We stared at each other for a minute, and +then I felt the wine fumes roaring in my head; I rushed at him and +closed. It was like embracing a mountain bull, and he responded with a +hug that made my ribs crackle. For a minute we were locked together +like that, swinging here and there, and then getting a hand loose, I +belaboured him so unmercifully that he put his head down, and that was +what I wanted. I got a new hold of him as we staggered and plunged, +roaring the while like the wild beasts we were, the teeth chattering in +the Martian heads as they watched us, and then, exerting all my +strength, lifted him fairly from his feet and with supreme effort swung +him up, shoulder high, and with a mighty heave hurled him across the +tables, flung that ambassador, whom no Martian dared look upon, +crashing and sprawling through the gold and silver of the feast, +whirled him round with such a splendid send that bench and trestle, +tankards and flagons, chairs and cloths and candelabras all went down +into thundering chaos with him, and the envoy only stayed when his +sacred person came to harbour amongst the westral odds and ends, the +soiled linen, and dirty platters of our wedding feast. +</P> + +<P> +I remember seeing him there on hands and knees, and then the liquor I +had had would not be denied. In vain I drew my hands across my +drooping eyelids, in vain I tried to master my knees that knocked +together. The spell of the love-drink that Heru, blushing, had held to +my lips was on me. Its soft, overwhelming influence rose like a +prismatic fog between me and my enemy, everything again became hazy and +dreamlike, and feebly calling on Heru, my chin dropped upon my chest, +my limbs relaxed, and I slipped down in drowsy oblivion before my rival. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<P> +They must have carried me, still under the influence of wine fumes, to +the chamber where I slept that night, for when I woke the following +morning my surroundings were familiar enough, though a glorious maze of +uncertainties rocked to and fro in my mind. +</P> + +<P> +Was it a real feast we had shared in overnight, or only a quaint dream? +Was Heru real or only a lovely fancy? And those hairy ruffians of whom +a horrible vision danced before my waking eyes, were they fancy too? +No, my wrists still ached with the strain of the tussle, the quaint, +sad wine taste was still on my lips—it was all real enough, I decided, +starting up in bed; and if it was real where was the little princess? +What had they done with her? Surely they had not given her to the +ape-men—cowards though they were they could not have been cowards +enough for that. And as I wondered a keen, bright picture of the +hapless maid as I saw her last blossomed before my mind's eye, the +ambassadors on either side holding her wrists, and she shrinking from +them in horror while her poor, white face turned to me for rescue in +desperate pleading—oh! I must find her at all costs; and leaping from +bed I snatched up those trousers without which the best of heroes is +nothing, and had hardly got into them when there came the patter of +light feet without and a Martian, in a hurry for once, with half a +dozen others behind him, swept aside the curtains of my doorway. +</P> + +<P> +They peeped and peered all about the room, then one said, "Is Princess +Heru with you, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," I answered roughly. "Saints alive, man, do you think I would +have you tumbling in here over each other's heels if she were?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then it must indeed have been Heru," he said, speaking in an awed +voice to his fellows, "whom we saw carried down to the harbour at +daybreak by yonder woodmen," and the pink upon their pretty cheeks +faded to nothing at the suggestion. +</P> + +<P> +"What!" I roared, "Heru taken from the palace by a handful of men and +none of you infernal rascals—none of you white-livered abortions +lifted a hand to save her—curse on you a thousand times. Out of my +way, you churls!" And snatching up coat and hat and sword I rushed +furiously down the long, marble stairs just as the short Martian night +was giving place to lavender-coloured light of morning. I found my way +somehow down the deserted corridors where the air was heavy with +aromatic vapours; I flew by curtained niches and chambers where amongst +mounds of half-withered flowers the Martian lovers were slowly waking. +Down into the banquethall I sped, and there in the twilight was the +litter of the feast still about—gold cups and silver, broken bread and +meat, the convolvulus flowers all turning their pallid faces to the +rosy daylight, making pools of brightness between the shadows. Amongst +the litter little sapphire-coloured finches were feeding, twittering +merrily to themselves as they hopped about, and here and there down the +long tables lay asprawl a belated reveller, his empty oblivion-phial +before him, his curly head upon his arms, dreaming perhaps of last +night's feast and a neglected bride dozing dispassionate in some +distant chamber. But Heru was not there and little I cared for +twittering finches or sighing damsels. With hasty feet I rushed down +the hall out into the cool, sweet air of the planet morning. +</P> + +<P> +There I met one whom I knew, and he told me he had been among the crowd +and had heard the woodmen had gone no farther than the river gate, that +Heru was with them beyond a doubt. I would not listen to more. "Good!" +I shouted. "Get me a horse and just a handful of your sleek kindred +and we will pull the prize from the bear's paw even yet! Surely," I +said, turning to a knot of Martian youths who stood listening a few +steps away, "surely some of you will come with me at this pinch? The +big bullies are very few; the sea runs behind them; the maid in their +clutch is worth fighting for; it needs but one good onset, five +minutes' gallantry, and she is ours again. Think how fine it will look +to bring her back before yon sleepy fellows have found their weapons. +You, there, with the blue tunic! you look a proper fellow, and +something of a heart should beat under such gay wrappings, will you +come with me?" +</P> + +<P> +But blue-mantle, biting his thumbs, murmured he had not breakfasted yet +and edged away behind his companions. Wherever I looked eyes dropped +and timid hands fidgeted as their owners backed off from my dangerous +enthusiasm. There was obviously no help to be had from them, and +meantime the precious moments were flying, so with a disdainful glance +I turned on my heels and set off alone as hard as I could go for the +harbour. +</P> + +<P> +But it was too late. I rushed through the marketplace where all was +silent and deserted; I ran on to the wharves beyond and they were empty +save for the litter and embers of the fires Ar-hap's men had made +during their stay; I dashed out to the landing-place, and there at the +hythe the last boat-loads of the villains were just embarking, two +boatloads of them twenty yards from shore, and another still upon the +beach. This latter was careening over as a dusky group of men lifted +aboard to a heap of tumbled silks and stuffs in the stern such a sweet +piece of insensible merchandise as no man, I at least of all, could +mistake. It was Heru herself, and the rogues were ladling her on board +like so much sandal-wood or cotton sheeting. I did not wait for more, +but out came my sword, and yielding to a reckless impulse, for which +perhaps last night's wine was as much to blame as anything, I sprang +down the steps and leapt aboard of the boat just as it was pushed off +upon the swift tide. Full of Bersark rage, I cut one brawny +copper-coloured thief down, and struck another with my fist between the +eyes so that he went headlong into the water, sinking like lead, and +deep into the great target of his neighbour's chest I drove my blade. +Had there been a man beside me, had there been but two or three of all +those silken triflers, too late come on the terraces above to watch, we +might have won. But all alone what could I do? That last red beast +turned on my blade, and as he fell dragged me half down with him. I +staggered up, and tugging the metal from him turned on the next. +</P> + +<P> +At that moment the cause of all the turmoil, roused by the fighting, +came to herself, and sitting up on the piled plunder in the boat stared +round for a moment with a childish horror at the barbarians whose prize +she was, then at me, then at the dead man at my feet whose blood was +welling in a red tide from the wound in his breast. As the full +meaning of the scene dawned upon her she started to her feet, looking +wonderfully beautiful amongst those dusky forms, and extending her +hands to me began to cry in the most piteous way. I sprang forward, +and as I did so saw an ape-man clap his hairy paw over her mouth and +face—it was like an eclipse of the moon by a red earth-shadow, I +thought at the moment—and drag her roughly back, but that was about +the last I remembered. As I turned to hit him standing on the slippery +thwart, another rogue crept up behind and let drive with a club he had +in hand. The cudgel caught me sideways on the head, a glancing shot. +I can recall a blaze of light, a strange medley of sounds in my ears, +and then, clutching at a pile of stuffs as I fell, a tall bower of +spray rising on either hand, and the cool shock of the blue sea as I +plunged headlong in—but nothing after that! +</P> + +<P> +How long after I know not, but presently a tissue of daylight crept +into my eyes, and I awoke again. It was better than nothing perhaps, +yet it was a poor awakening. The big sun lay low down, and the day was +all but done; so much I guessed as I rocked in that light with an +undulating movement, and then as my senses returned more fully, +recognised with a start of wonder that I was still in the water, +floating on a swift current into the unknown on an air-filled pile of +silken stuffs which had been pulled down with me from the boat when I +got my ganging from yonder rascal's mace. It was a wet couch, sodden +and chilly, but as the freshening evening wind blew on my face and the +darkening water lapped against my forehead I revived more fully. +</P> + +<P> +Where had we come to? I turned an aching neck, and all along on both +sides seemed to stretch steep, straight coasts about a mile or so +apart, in the shadow of the setting sun black as ebony. Between the +two the hampered water ran quickly, with, away on the right, some +shallow sandy spits and islands covered with dwarf bushes—chilly, +inhospitable-looking places they seemed as I turned my eyes upon them; +but he who rides helpless down an evening tide stands out for no great +niceties of landing-place; could I but reach them they would make at +least a drier bed than this of mine, and at that thought, turning over, +I found all my muscles as stiff as iron, the sinews of my neck and +forearms a mass of agonies and no more fit to swim me to those reedy +swamps, which now, as pain and hunger began to tell, seemed to wear the +aspects of paradise. +</P> + +<P> +With a groan I dropped back upon my raft and watched the islands +slipping by, while over my feet the southern sky darkened to purple. +There was no help there, but glancing round away on the left and a few +furlongs from me, I noticed on the surface of the water two converging +strands of brightness, an angle the point of which seemed to be coming +towards me. Nearer it came and nearer, right across my road, until I +could see a black dot at the point, a head presently developed, then as +we approached the ears and antlers of a swimming stag. It was a huge +beast as it loomed up against the glow, bigger than any mortal stag +ever was—the kind of fellow-traveller no one would willingly accost, +but even if I had wished to get out of its path I had no power to do so. +</P> + +<P> +Closer and closer we came, one of us drifting helplessly, and the other +swimming strongly for the islands. When we were about a furlong apart +the great beast seemed to change its course, mayhap it took the +wreckage on which I floated for an outlying shoal, something on which +it could rest a space in that long swim. Be this as it may, the beast +came hurtling down on me lip deep in the waves, a mighty brown head +with pricked ears that flicked the water from them now and then, small +bright eyes set far back, and wide palmated antlers on a mighty +forehead, like the dead branches of a tree. What that Martian mountain +elk had hoped for can only be guessed, what he met with was a tangle of +floating finery carrying a numbed traveller on it, and with a snort of +disappointment he turned again. +</P> + +<P> +It was a poor chance, but better than nothing, and as he turned I tried +to throw a strand of silk I had unwound from the sodden mass over his +branching tines. Quick as thought the beast twisted his head aside and +tossed his antlers so that the try was fruitless. But was I to lose my +only chance of shore? With all my strength I hurled myself upon him, +missing my clutch again by a hair's-breadth and going headlong into the +salt furrow his chest was turning up. Happily I kept hold of the web, +for the great elk then turned back, passing between me and the ruck of +stuff and getting thereby the silk under his chin, and as I came +gasping to the top once more round came that dainty wreckage over his +back, and I clutched it, and sooner than it takes to tell I was towing +to the shore as perhaps no one was ever towed before. +</P> + +<P> +The big beast dragged the ruck like withered weed behind him, bellowing +all the time with a voice which made the hills echo all round; and +then, when he got his feet upon the shallows, rose dripping and +mountainous, a very cliff of black hide and limb against the night +shine, and with a single sweep of his antlers tore the webbing from me, +who lay prone and breathless in the mud, and, thinking it was his +enemy, hurled the limp bundle on the beach, and then, having pounded it +with his cloven feet into formless shreds, bellowed again victoriously +and went off into the darkness of the forests. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<P> +I landed, stiff enough as you will guess, but pleased to be on shore +again. It was a melancholy neighbourhood of low islands, overgrown +with rank grass and bushes, salt water encircling them, and inside +sandy dunes and hummocks with shallow pools, gleaming ghostly in the +retreating daylight, while beyond these rose the black bosses of what +looked like a forest. Thither I made my way, plunging uncomfortably +through shallows, and tripping over blackened branches which, lying +just below the surface, quivered like snakes as the evening breeze +ruffled each surface, until the ground hardened under foot, and +presently I was standing, hungry and faint but safe, on dry land again. +</P> + +<P> +The forest was so close to the sea, one could not advance without +entering it, and once within its dark arcades every way looked equally +gloomy and hopeless. I struggled through tangles night made more and +more impenetrable each minute, until presently I could go no further, +and where a dense canopy of trees overhead gave out for a minute on the +edge of a swampy hollow, I determined to wait for daylight. +</P> + +<P> +Never was there a more wet or weary traveller, or one more desperately +lonely than he who wrapped himself up in the miserable insufficiency of +his wet rags, and without fire or supper crept amongst the exposed +roots of a tree growing out of a bank, and prepared to hope grimly for +morning. +</P> + +<P> +Round and round meanwhile was drawn the close screen of night, till the +clearing in front was blotted out, and only the tree-tops, black as +rugged hills one behind the other, stood out against the heavy purple +of the circlet of sky above. As the evening deepened the quaintest +noises began on every hand—noises so strange and bewildering that as I +cowered down with my teeth chattering, and stared hard into the +impenetrable, they could be likened to nothing but the crying of all +the souls of dead things since the beginning. Never was there such an +infernal chorus as that which played up the Martian stars. Down there +in front, where hummock grass was growing, some beast squeaked +continuously, till I shouted at him, then he stopped a minute, and +began again in entirely another note. Away on the hills two rival +monsters were calling to each other in tones so hollow they seemed as I +listened to penetrate through me, and echo out of my heart again. Far +overhead, gigantic bats were flitting, the shadow of their wings +dimming a dozen universes at once, and crying to each other in shrill +tones that rent the air like tearing silk. +</P> + +<P> +As I listened to those vampires discussing their infernal loves under +the stars, from a branch right overhead broke such a deathly howl from +the throat of a wandering forest cat that everything else was hushed +for a moment. All about a myriad insects were making night giddy with +their ghostly fires, while underground and from the labyrinths of +matted roots came quaint sounds of rustling snakes and forest pigs, and +all the lesser things that dig and scratch and growl. +</P> + +<P> +Yet I was desperately sleepy, my sword hung heavy as lead at my side, +my eyelids drooped, and so at last I dozed uneasily for an hour or two. +Then, all on a sudden, I came wide awake with a shock. The night was +quieter now; away in the forest depth strange noises still arose, but +close at hand was a strange hush, like the hush of expectation, and, +listening wonderingly, I was aware of slow, heavy footsteps coming up +from the river, now two or three steps together, then a pause, then +another step or two, and as I bent towards the approaching thing, +staring into the darkness, my strained senses were conscious of another +approach, as like as could be, coming from behind me. On they came, +making the very ground quake with their weight, till I judged that both +were about on the edge of the clearing, two vast rat-like shadows, but +as big as elephants, and bringing a most intolerable smell of sour +slime with them. There, on the edge of the amphitheatre, each for the +first time appeared to become aware of the other's presence—the +footsteps stopped dead. I could hear the water dripping from the fur of +those giant brutes amongst the shadows and the deep breathing of the +one nearest me, a scanty ten paces off, but not another sound in the +stillness. +</P> + +<P> +Minute after minute passed, yet neither moved. A half-hour grew to a +full hour, and that hour lengthened amid the keenest tension till my +ears ached with listening, and my eyes were sore with straining into +the blackness. At last I began to wonder whether those earth-shaking +beasts had not been an evil dream, and was just venturing to stretch +out a cramped leg, and rally myself upon my cowardice, when, without +warning, at my elbow rose the most ear-piercing scream of rage that +ever came from a living throat. There was a sweeping rush in the +darkness which I could feel but not see, and with a shock the two +gladiators met in the midst of the arena. Over and over they went +screaming and struggling, and slipping and plunging. I could hear them +tearing at each other, and the sharp cries of pain, first one and then +another gave as claw or tooth got home, and all the time, though the +ground was quaking under their struggles and the air full of horrible +uproar, not a thing was to be seen. I did not even know what manner of +beasts they were who rocked and rolled and tore at each other's +throats, but I heard their teeth snapping, and their fierce breath in +the pauses of the struggle, and could but wait in a huddle amongst the +roots until it was over. To and fro they went, now at the far side of +the dark clearing, now so close that hot drops of blood from their jaws +fell on my face like rain in the darkness. It seemed as though the +fight would never end, but presently there was more of worrying in it +and less of snapping; it was clear one or the other had had enough and +as I marked this those black shadows came gasping and struggling +towards me. There was a sudden sharp cry, a desperate final +tussle—before which strong trees snapped and bushes were flattened out +like grass, not twenty yards away—and then for a minute all was silent. +</P> + +<P> +One of them had killed, and as I sat rooted to the spot I was forced to +listen while his enemy tore him up and ate him. Many a banquet have I +been at, but never an uglier one than that. I sat in the darkness +while the unknown thing at my feet ripped the flesh from his half-dead +rival in strips, and across the damp night wind came the reek of that +abominable feast—the reek of blood and spilt entrails—until I turned +away my face in loathing, and was nearly starting to my feet to venture +a rush into the forest shadows. But I was spellbound, and remained +listening to the heavy munch of blood-stained jaws until presently I +was aware other and lesser feasters were coming. There was a twinkle +of hungry eyes all about the limits of the area, the shine of green +points of envious fire that circled round in decreasing orbits, as the +little foxes and jackals came crowding in. One fellow took me for a +rock, so still I sat, putting his hot, soft paws upon my knee for a +space, and others passed me so near I could all but touch them. +</P> + +<P> +The big beast had taken himself off by this time, and there must have +been several hundreds of these newcomers. A merry time they had of it; +the whole place was full of the green, hurrying eyes, and amidst the +snap of teeth and yapping and quarrelling I could hear the flesh being +torn from the red bones in every direction. One wolf-like individual +brought a mass of hot liver to eat between my feet, but I gave him a +kick, and sent him away much to his surprise. Gradually, however, the +sound of this unholy feast died away, and, though you may hardly +believe it, I fell off into a doze. It was not sleep, but it served +the purpose, and when in an hour or two a draught of cool air roused +me, I awoke, feeling more myself again. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly morning came, and the black wall of forest around became full of +purple interstices as the east brightened. Those glimmers of light +between bough and trunk turned to yellow and red, the day-shine +presently stretched like a canopy from point to point of the treetops +on either side of my sleeping-place, and I arose. +</P> + +<P> +All my limbs were stiff with cold, my veins emptied by hunger and +wounds, and for a space I had not even strength to move. But a little +rubbing softened my cramped muscles presently and limping painfully +down to the place of combat, I surveyed the traces of that midnight +fight. I will not dwell upon it. It was ugly and grim; the trampled +grass, the giant footmarks, each enringing its pool of curdled blood; +the broken bushes, the grooved mud-slides where the unknown brutes had +slid in deadly embrace; the hollows, the splintered boughs, their +ragged points tufted with skin and hair—all was sickening to me. Yet +so hungry was I that when I turned towards the odious remnants of the +vanquished—a shapeless mass of abomination—my thoughts flew at once +to breakfasting! I went down and inspected the victim cautiously—a +huge rat-like beast as far as might be judged from the bare uprising +ribs—all that was left of him looking like the framework of a schooner +yacht. His heart lay amongst the offal, and my knife came out to cut a +meal from it, but I could not do it. Three times I essayed the task, +hunger and disgust contending for mastery; three times turned back in +loathing. At last I could stand the sight no more, and, slamming the +knife up again, turned on my heels, and fairly ran for fresh air and +the shore, where the sea was beginning to glimmer in the light a few +score yards through the forest stems. There, once more out on the +open, on a pebbly beach, I stripped, spreading my things out to dry on +the stones, and laying myself down with the lapping of the waves in my +ears, and the first yellow sunshine thawing my limbs, tried to piece +together the hurrying events of the last few days. +</P> + +<P> +What were my gay Martians doing? Lazy dogs to let me, a stranger, be +the only one to draw sword in defence of their own princess! Where was +poor Heru, that sweet maiden wife? The thought of her in the hands of +the ape-men was odious. And yet was I not mad to try to rescue, or +even to follow her alone? If by any chance I could get off this +beast-haunted place and catch up with the ravishers, what had I to look +for from them except speedy extinction, and that likely enough by the +most painful process they were acquainted with? +</P> + +<P> +The other alternative of going back empty handed was terribly +ignominious. I had lectured the amiable young manhood of Seth so +soundly on the subject of gallantry, and set them such a good example +on two occasions, that it would be bathos to saunter back, hands in +pockets, and confess I knew nothing of the lady's fate and had been +daunted by the first night alone in the forest. Besides, how dull it +would be in that beautiful, tumble-down old city without Heru, with no +expectation day by day of seeing her sylph-like form and hearing the +merry tinkle of her fairy laughter as she scoffed at the unknown +learning collected by her ancestors in a thousand laborious years. No! +I would go on for certain. I was young, in love, and angry, and before +those qualifications difficulties became light. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, the first essential was breakfast of some kind. I arose, +stretched, put on my half-dried clothes, and mounting a low hummock on +the forest edge looked around. The sun was riding up finely into the +sky, and the sea to the eastward shone for leagues and leagues in the +loveliest azure. Where it rippled on my own beach and those of the low +islands noted over night, a wonderful fire of blue and red played on +the sands as though the broken water were full of living gems. The sky +was full of strange gulls with long, forked tails, and a lovely little +flying lizard with transparent wings of the palest green—like those of +a grasshopper—was flitting about picking up insect stragglers. +</P> + +<P> +All this was very charming, but what I kept saying to myself was +"Streaky rashers and hot coffee: rashers and coffee and rolls," and, +indeed, had the gates of Paradise themselves opened at that moment I +fear my first look down the celestial streets within would have been +for a restaurant. They did not, and I was just turning away +disconsolate when my eye caught, ascending from behind the next bluff +down the beach, a thin strand of smoke rising into the morning air. +</P> + +<P> +It was nothing so much in itself—a thin spiral creeping upwards +mast-high, then flattening out into a mushroom head—but it meant +everything to me. Where there was fire there must be humanity, and +where there was humanity—ay, to the very outlayers of the +universe—there must be breakfast. It was a splendid thought; I rushed +down the hillock and went gaily for that blue thread amongst the reeds. +It was not two hundred yards away, and soon below me was a tiny bay +with bluest water frilling a silver beach, and in the midst of it a +fire on a hearth dancing round a pot that simmered gloriously. But of +an owner there was nothing to be seen. I peered here and there on the +shore, but nothing moved, while out to sea the water was shining like +molten metal with not a dot upon it!—what did it matter? I laughed +as, pleased and hungry, I slipped down the bank and strode across the +sands; it pleased Fate to play bandy with me, and if it sent me +supperless to bed, why, here was restitution in the way of breakfast. +I took up a morsel of the stuff in the kettle on a handy stick and +found it good—indeed, I knew it at once as a very dainty mess made +from the roots of a herb the Martians greatly liked; An had piled my +platter with it when we supped that night in the market-place of Seth, +and the sweet white stuff had melted into my corporal essence, it +seemed, without any gross intermediate process of digestion. And here +I was again, hungry, sniffing the fragrant breath of a full meal and +not a soul in sight—I should have been a fool not to have eaten. So +thinking, down I sat, taking the pot from its place, and when it was a +little cool plunging my hands into it and feasting with as good an +appetite as ever a man had before. +</P> + +<P> +It was gloriously ambrosial, and deeper and deeper I went, with the +tall stalk of the smoke in front growing from the hearth-stones like +some strange new plant, the pleasant sunshine on my back, and never a +thought for anything but the task in hand. Deeper and deeper, +oblivious of all else, until to get the very last drops I lifted the +pipkin up and putting back my head drank in that fashion. +</P> + +<P> +It was only when with a sigh of pleasure I lowered it slowly again that +over the rim as it sank there dawned upon me the vision of a Martian +standing by an empty canoe on the edge of the water and regarding me +with calm amazement. I was, in fact, so astonished that for a minute +the empty pot stood still before my face, and over its edge we stared +at each other in mute surprise, then with all the dignity that might be +I laid the vessel down between my feet and waited for the newcomer to +speak. She was a girl by her yellow garb, a fisherwoman, it seemed, +for in the prow of her craft was piled a net upon which the scales of +fishes were twinkling—a Martian, obviously, but something more robust +than most of them, a savour of honest work about her sunburnt face +which my pallid friends away yonder were lacking in, and when we had +stared at each other for a few moments in silence she came forward a +step or two and said without a trace of fear or shyness, "Are you a +spirit, sir? +</P> + +<P> +"Why," I answered, "about as much, no more and no less, than most of +us." +</P> + +<P> +"Aye," she said. "I thought you were, for none but spirits live here +upon this island; are you for good or evil?" +</P> + +<P> +"Far better for the breakfast of which I fear I have robbed you, but +wandering along the shore and finding this pot boiling with no owner, I +ventured to sample it, and it was so good my appetite got the better of +manners." +</P> + +<P> +The girl bowed, and standing at a respectful distance asked if I would +like some fish as well; she had some, but not many, and if I would eat +she would cook them for me in a minute—it was not often, she added +lightly, she had met one of my kind before. In fact, it was obvious +that simple person did actually take me for a being of another world, +and was it for me to say she was wrong? So adopting a dignity worthy +of my reputation I nodded gravely to her offer. She fetched from the +boat four little fishes of the daintiest kind imaginable. They were +each about as big as a hand and pale blue when you looked down upon +them, but so clear against the light that every bone and vein in their +bodies could be traced. These were wrapped just as they were in a +broad, green leaf and then the Martian, taking a pointed stick, made a +hollow in the white ashes, laid them in side by side, and drew the hot +dust over again. +</P> + +<P> +While they cooked we chatted as though the acquaintance were the most +casual thing in the world, and I found it was indeed an island we were +on and not the mainland, as I had hoped at first. Seth, she told me, +was far away to the eastward, and if the woodmen had gone by in their +ships they would have passed round to the north-west of where we were. +</P> + +<P> +I spent an hour or two with that amiable individual, and, it is to be +hoped, sustained the character of a spiritual visitant with +considerable dignity. In one particular at least, that, namely, of +appetite, I did honour to my supposed source, and as my entertainer +would not hear of payment in material kind, all I could do was to show +her some conjuring tricks, which greatly increased her belief in my +supernatural origin, and to teach her some new hitches and knots, using +her fishing-line as a means of illustration, a demonstration which +called from her the natural observation that we must be good sailors +"up aloft" since we knew so much about cordage, then we parted. +</P> + +<P> +She had seen nothing of the woodmen, though she had heard they had been +to Seth and thought, from some niceties of geographical calculation +which I could not follow, they would have crossed to the north, as just +stated, of her island. There she told me, with much surprise at my +desire for the information, how I might, by following the forest track +to the westward coast, make my way to a fishing village, where they +would give me a canoe and direct me, since such was my extraordinary +wish, to the place where, if anywhere, the wild men had touched on +their way home. +</P> + +<P> +She filled my wallet with dried honey-cakes and my mouth with sugar +plums from her little store, then down on her knees went that poor waif +of a worn-out civilisation and kissed my hands in humble farewell, and +I, blushing to be so saluted, and after all but a sailor, got her by +the rosy fingers and lifted her up shoulder high, and getting one hand +under her chin and the other behind her head kissed her twice upon her +pretty cheeks; and so, I say, we parted. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<P> +Off into the forest I went, feeling a boyish elation to be so free nor +taking heed or count of the reckless adventure before me. The Martian +weather for the moment was lovely and the many-coloured grass lush and +soft under foot. Mile after mile I went, heeding the distance lightly, +the air was so elastic. Now pressing forward as the main interest of +my errand took the upper hand, and remembrance of poor Heru like a +crushed white flower in the red grip of those cruel ravishers came upon +me, and then pausing to sigh with pleasure or stand agape—forgetful +even of her—in wonder of the unknown loveliness about me. +</P> + +<P> +And well might I stare! Everything in that forest was wonderful! +There were plants which turned from colour to colour with the varying +hours of the day. While others had a growth so swift it was dangerous +to sit in their neighbourhood since the long, succulent tendrils +clambering from the parent stem would weave you into a helpless tangle +while you gazed, fascinated, upon them. There were plants that climbed +and walked; sighing plants who called the winged things of the air to +them with a noise so like to a girl sobbing that again and again I +stopped in the tangled path to listen. There were green bladder-mosses +which swam about the surface of the still pools like gigantic +frog-broods. There were on the ridges warrior trees burning in the +vindictiveness of a long forgotten cause—a blaze of crimson scimitar +thorns from root to topmost twig; and down again in the cool hollows +were lady-bushes making twilight of the green gloom with their cloudy +ivory blossoms and filling the shadows with such a heavy scent that +head and heart reeled with fatal pleasure as one pushed aside their +branches. Every river-bed was full of mighty reeds, whose stems +clattered together when the wind blew like swords on shields, and every +now and then a bit of forest was woven together with the ropey stems of +giant creepers till no man or beast could have passed save for the +paths which constant use had kept open through the mazes. +</P> + +<P> +All day long I wandered on through those wonderful woodlands, and in +fact loitered so much over their infinite marvels that when sundown +came all too soon there was still undulating forest everywhere, vistas +of fairy glades on every hand, peopled with incredible things and +echoing with sounds that excited the ears as much as other things +fascinated the eyes, but no sign of the sea or my fishing village +anywhere. +</P> + +<P> +It did not matter; a little of the Martian leisureliness was getting +into my blood: "If not today, why then tomorrow," as An would have +said; and with this for comfort I selected a warm, sandy hollow under +the roots of a big tree, made my brief arrangements for the night, ate +some honey cakes, and was soon sleeping blissfully. +</P> + +<P> +I woke early next morning, after many hours of interrupted dreams, and +having nothing to do till the white haze had lifted and made it +possible to start again, rested idly a time on my elbow and watched the +sunshine filter into the recesses. +</P> + +<P> +Very pretty it was to see the thick canopy overhead, by star-light so +impenetrable, open its chinks and fissures as the searching sun came +upon it; to see the pin-hole gaps shine like spangles presently, the +spaces broaden into lesser suns, and even the thick leafage brighten +and shine down on me with a soft sea-green radiance. The sunward sides +of the tree-stems took a glow, and the dew that ran dripping down their +mossy sides trickled blood-red to earth. Elsewhere the shadows were +still black, and strange things began to move in them—things we in our +middle-aged world have never seen the likeness of: beasts half birds, +birds half creeping things, and creeping things which it seemed to me +passed through lesser creations down to the basest life that crawls +without interruption or division. +</P> + +<P> +It was not for me, a sailor, to know much of such things, yet some I +could not fail to notice. On one grey branch overhead, jutting from a +tree-stem where a patch of velvet moss made in the morning glint a +fairy bed, a wonderful flower unfolded. It was a splendid bud, ivory +white, cushioned in leaves, and secured to its place by naked white +roots that clipped the branch like fingers of a lady's hand. Even as I +looked it opened, a pale white star, and hung pensive and inviting on +its mossy cushion. From it came such a ravishing odour that even I, at +the further end of the great scale of life, felt my pulses quicken and +my eyes brighten with cupidity. I was in the very act of climbing the +tree, but before I could move hand or foot two things happened, whether +you take my word for them or no. +</P> + +<P> +Firstly, up through a glade in the underwood, attracted by the odour, +came an ugly brown bird with a capacious beak and shining claws. He +perched near by, and peeped and peered until he made out the flower +pining on her virgin stem, whereat off he hopped to her branch and +there, with a cynical chuckle, strutted to and fro between her and the +main stem like an ill genius guarding a fairy princess. +</P> + +<P> +Surely Heaven would not allow him to tamper with so chaste a bud! My +hand reached for a stone to throw at him when happened the second +thing. There came a gentle pat upon the woodland floor, and from a +tree overhead dropped down another living plant like to the one above +yet not exactly similar, a male, my instincts told me, in full solitary +blossom like her above, cinctured with leaves, and supported by half a +score of thick white roots that worked, as I looked, like the limbs of +a crab. In a twinkling that parti-coloured gentleman vegetable near me +was off to the stem upon which grew his lady love; running and +scrambling, dragging the finery of his tasselled petals behind, it was +laughable to watch his eagerness. He got a grip of the tree and up he +went, "hand over hand," root over root. I had just time to note others +of his species had dropped here and there upon the ground, and were +hurrying with frantic haste to the same destination when he reached the +fatal branch, and was straddling victoriously down it, blind to all but +love and longing. That ill-omened bird who stood above the +maiden-flower let him come within a stalk's length, so near that the +white splendour of his sleeping lady gleamed within arms' reach, then +the great beak was opened, the great claws made a clutch, the gallant's +head was yanked from his neck, and as it went tumbling down the maw of +the feathered thing his white legs fell spinning through space, and lay +knotting themselves in agony upon the ground for a minute or two before +they relaxed and became flaccid in the repose of death. Another and +another vegetable suitor made for that fatal tryst, and as each came up +the snap of the brown bird's beak was all their obsequies. At last no +more came, and then that Nemesis of claws and quills walked over to the +girl-flower, his stomach feathers ruffled with repletion, the green +blood of her lovers dripping from his claws, and pulled her golden +heart out, tore her white limbs one from the other, and swallowed her +piecemeal before my very eyes! Then up in wrath I jumped and yelled at +him till the woods echoed, but too late to stay his sacrilege. +</P> + +<P> +By this time the sun was bathing everything in splendour, and turning +away from the wonders about me, I set off at best pace along the +well-trodden path which led without turning to the west coast village +where the canoes were. +</P> + +<P> +It proved far closer than expected. As a matter of fact the forest in +this direction grew right down to the water's edge; the salt-loving +trees actually overhanging the waves—one of the pleasantest sights in +nature—and thus I came right out on top of the hamlet before there had +been an indication of its presence. It occupied two sides of a pretty +little bay, the third side being flat land given over to the +cultivation of an enormous species of gourd whose characteristic yellow +flowers and green, succulent leaves were discernible even at this +distance. +</P> + +<P> +I branched off along the edge of the surf and down a dainty little +flowery path, noticing meanwhile how the whole bay was filled by +hundreds of empty canoes, while scores of others were drawn up on the +strand, and then the first thing I chanced upon was a group of +people—youthful, of course, with the eternal Martian bloom—and in the +splendid simplicity of almost complete nakedness. My first idea was +that they were bathing, and fixing my eyes on the tree-tops with great +propriety, I gave a warning cough. At that sound instead of getting to +cover, or clothes, all started up and stood staring for a time like a +herd of startled cattle. It was highly embarrassing; they were right +in the path, a round dozen of them, naked and so little ashamed that +when I edged away modestly they began to run after me. And the farther +they came forward the more I retired, till we were playing a kind of +game of hide-and-seek round the tree-stems. In the middle of it my heel +caught in a root and down I went very hard and very ignominiously, +whereon those laughing, light-hearted folk rushed in, and with smiles +and jests helped me to my feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Was I the traveller who had come from Seth?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, then that was well. They had heard such a traveller was on the +road, and had come a little way down the path, as far as might be +without fatigue, to meet him." +</P> + +<P> +"Would I eat with them?" these amiable strangers asked, pushing their +soft warm fingers into mine and ringing me round with a circle. "But +firstly might they help me out of my clothes? It was hot, and these +things were cumbersome." As to the eating, I was agreeable enough +seeing how casual meals had been with me lately, but my clothes, though +Heaven knows they were getting horribly ragged and travel-stained, I +clung to desperately. +</P> + +<P> +My new friends shrugged their dimpled shoulders and, arguments being +tedious, at once squatted round me in the dappled shade of a big tree +and produced their stores of never failing provisions. After a +pleasant little meal taken thus in the open and with all the simplicity +Martians delight in, we got to talking about those yellow canoes which +were bobbing about on the blue waters of the bay. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you like to see where they are grown?" asked an individual +basking by my side. +</P> + +<P> +"Grown!" I answered with incredulity. "Built, you mean. Never in my +life did I hear of growing boats." +</P> + +<P> +"But then, sir," observed the girl as she sucked the honey out of the +stalk of an azure convolvulus flower and threw the remains at a +butterfly that sailed across the sunshine, "you know so little! You +have come from afar, from some barbarous and barren district. Here we +undoubtedly grow our boats, and though we know the Thither folk and +such uncultivated races make their craft by cumbrous methods of flat +planks, yet we prefer our own way, for one thing because it saves +trouble," and as she murmured that all-sufficient reason the gentle +damsel nodded reflectively. +</P> + +<P> +But one of her companions, more lively for the moment, tickled her with +a straw until she roused, and then said, "Let us take the stranger to +the boat garden now. The current will drift us round the bay, and we +can come back when it turns. If we wait we shall have to row in both +directions, or even walk," and again planetary slothfulness carried the +day. +</P> + +<P> +So down to the beach we strolled and launched one of the golden-hued +skiffs upon the pretty dancing wavelets just where they ran, lipped +with jewelled spray, on the shore, and then only had I a chance to +scrutinise their material. I patted that one we were upon inside and +out. I noted with a seaman's admiration its lightness, elasticity, and +supreme sleekness, its marvellous buoyancy and fairy-like "lines," and +after some minutes' consideration it suddenly flashed across me that it +was all of gourd rind. And as if to supply confirmation, the flat land +we were approaching on the opposite side of the bay was covered by the +characteristic verdure of these plants with a touch here and there of +splendid yellow blossoms, but all of gigantic proportions. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay," said a Martian damsel lying on the bottom, and taking and kissing +my hand as she spoke, in the simple-hearted way of her people, "I see +you have guessed how we make our boats. Is it the same in your distant +country?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, my girl, and what's more, I am a bit uneasy as to what the fellows +on the Carolina will say if they ever hear I went to sea in a +hollowed-out pumpkin, and with a young lady—well, dressed as you +are—for crew. Even now I cannot imagine how you get your ships so +trim and shapely—there is not a seam or a patch anywhere, it looks as +if you had run them into a mould." +</P> + +<P> +"That's just what we have done, sir, and now you will witness the +moulds at work, for here we are," and the little skiff was pulled +ashore and the Martians and I jumped out on the shelving beach, hauled +our boat up high and dry, and there right over us, like great green +umbrellas, spread the fronds of the outmost garden of this strangest of +all ship-building yards. Briefly, and not to make this part of my story +too long, those gilded boys and girls took me ashore, and chattering +like finches in the evening, showed how they planted their gourd seed, +nourished the gigantic plants as they grew with brackish water and the +burnt ashes; then, when they flowered, mated the male and female +blossoms, glorious funnels of golden hue big enough for one to live in; +and when the young fruit was of the bigness of an ordinary bolster, how +they slipped it into a double mould of open reed-work something like +the two halves of a walnut-shell; and how, growing day by day in this, +it soon took every curve and line they chose to give it, even the +hanging keel below, the strengthened bulwarks, and tall prow-piece. It +was so ingenious, yet simple; and I confess I laughed over my first +skiff "on the stalk," and fell to bantering the Martians, asking +whether it was a good season for navies, whether their Cunarders were +spreading nicely, if they could give me a pinch of barge seed, or a +yacht in bud to show to my friends at home. +</P> + +<P> +But those lazy people took the matter seriously enough. They led me +down green alleys arched over with huge melon-like leaves; they led me +along innumerable byways, making me peep and peer through the chequered +sunlight at ocean-growing craft, that had budded twelve months before, +already filling their moulds to the last inch of space. They told me +that when the growing process was sufficiently advanced, they loosened +the casing, and cutting a hole into the interior of each giant fruit, +scooped out all its seed, thereby checking more advance, and throwing +into the rind strength that would otherwise have gone to +reproductiveness. They said each fruit made two vessels, but the upper +half was always best and used for long salt-water journeys, the lower +piece being but for punting or fishing on their lakes. They cut them +in half while still green, scraped out the light remaining pulp when +dry, and dragged them down with the minimum of trouble, light as +feathers, tenacious as steel plate, and already in the form and fashion +of dainty craft from five to twenty feet in length, when the process +was completed. +</P> + +<P> +By the time we had explored this strangest of ship-building yards, and +I had seen last year's crop on the stocks being polished and fitted +with seats and gear, the sun was going down; and the Martian twilight, +owing to the comparative steepness of the little planet's sides, being +brief, we strolled back to the village, and there they gave me +harbourage for the night, ambrosial supper, and a deep draught of the +wine of Forgetfulness, under the gauzy spell of which the real and +unreal melted into the vistas of rosy oblivion, and I slept. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<P> +With the new morning came fresh energy and a spasm of conscience as I +thought of poor Heru and the shabby sort of rescuer I was to lie about +with these pretty triflers while she remained in peril. +</P> + +<P> +So I had a bath and a swim, a breakfast, and, to my shame be it +acknowledged, a sort of farewell merry-go-round dance on the yellow +sands with a dozen young persons all light-hearted as the morning, +beautiful as the flowers that bound their hair, and in the extremity of +statuesque attire. +</P> + +<P> +Then at last I got them to give me a sea-going canoe, a stock of cakes +and fresh water; and with many parting injunctions how to find the +Woodman trail, since I would not listen to reason and lie all the rest +of my life with them in the sunshine, they pushed me off on my lonely +voyage. +</P> + +<P> +"Over the blue waters!" they shouted in chorus as I dipped my paddle +into the diamond-crested wavelets. "Six hours, adventurous stranger, +with the sun behind you! Then into the broad river behind the yellow +sand-bar. But not the black northward river! Not the strong, black +river, above all things, stranger! For that is the River of the Dead, +by which many go but none come back. Goodbye!" And waving them adieu, +I sternly turned my eyes from delights behind and faced the fascination +of perils in front. +</P> + +<P> +In four hours (for the Martians had forgotten in their calculations +that my muscles were something better than theirs) I "rose" the further +shore, and then the question was, Where ran that westward river of +theirs? +</P> + +<P> +It turned out afterwards that, knowing nothing of their tides, I had +drifted much too far to northward, and consequently the coast had +closed up the estuary mouth I should have entered. Not a sign of an +opening showed anywhere, and having nothing whatever for guidance I +turned northward, eagerly scanning an endless line of low cliffs, as +the day lessened, for the promised sand-bar or inlet. +</P> + +<P> +About dusk my canoe, flying swiftly forward at its own sweet will, +brought me into a bight, a bare, desolate-looking country with no +vegetation save grass and sedge on the near marshes and stony hills +rising up beyond, with others beyond them mounting step by step to a +long line of ridges and peaks still covered in winter snow. +</P> + +<P> +The outlook was anything but cheering. Not a trace of habitation had +been seen for a long time, not a single living being in whose +neighbourhood I could land and ask the way; nothing living anywhere but +a monstrous kind of sea-slug, as big as a dog, battening on the +waterside garbage, and gaunt birds like vultures who croaked on the +mud-flats, and half-spread wings of funereal blackness as they +gambolled here and there. Where was poor Heru? Where pink-shouldered +An? Where those wild men who had taken the princess from us? Lastly, +but not least, where was I? +</P> + +<P> +All the first stars of the Martian sky were strange to me, and my boat +whirling round and round on the current confused what little geography +I might otherwise have retained. It was a cheerless look out, and +again and again I cursed my folly for coming on such a fool's errand as +I sat, chin in hand, staring at a landscape that grew more and more +depressing every mile. To go on looked like destruction, to go back +was almost impossible without a guide; and while I was still wondering +which of the two might be the lesser evil, the stream I was on turned a +corner, and in a moment we were upon water which ran with swift, oily +smoothness straight for the snow-ranges now beginning to loom +unpleasantly close ahead. +</P> + +<P> +By this time the night was coming on apace, the last of the +evil-looking birds had winged its way across the red sunset glare, and +though it was clear enough in mid-river under the banks, now steep and +unclimbable, it was already evening. +</P> + +<P> +And with the darkness came a wondrous cold breath from off the +ice-fields, blowing through my lowland wrappings as though they were +but tissue. I munched a bit of honey-cake, took a cautious sip of wine, +and though I will not own I was frightened, yet no one will deny that +the circumstances were discouraging. +</P> + +<P> +Standing up in the frail canoe and looking around, at the second glance +an object caught my eye coming with the stream, and rapidly overtaking +me on a strong sluice of water. It was a raft of some sort, and +something extra-ordinarily like a sitting Martian on it! Nearer and +nearer it came, bobbing to the rise and fall of each wavelet with the +last icy sunlight touching it up with reds and golds, nearer and nearer +in the deadly hush of that forsaken region, and then at last so near it +showed quite plainly on the purple water, a raft with some one sitting +under a canopy. +</P> + +<P> +With a thrill of delight I waved my cap aloft and shouted— +</P> + +<P> +"Ship-ahoy! Hullo, messmate, where are we bound to?" +</P> + +<P> +But never an answer came from that swiftly-passing stranger, so again I +hailed— +</P> + +<P> +"Put up your helm, Mr. Skipper; I have lost my bearings, and the +chronometer has run down," but without a pause or sound that strange +craft went slipping by. +</P> + +<P> +That silence was more than I could stand. It was against all sea +courtesies, and the last chance of learning where I was passing away. +So, angrily the paddle was snatched from the canoe bottom, and roaring +out again— +</P> + +<P> +"Stop, I say, you d—— lubber, stop, or by all the gods I will make +you!" I plunged the paddle into the water and shot my little craft +slantingly across the stream to intercept the newcomer. A single +stroke sent me into mid-stream, a second brought me within touch of +that strange craft. It was a flat raft, undoubtedly, though so +disguised by flowers and silk trailers that its shape was difficult to +make out. In the centre was a chair of ceremony bedecked with greenery +and great pale buds, hardly yet withered—oh, where had I seen such a +chair and such a raft before? +</P> + +<P> +And the riddle did not long remain unanswered. Upon that seat, as I +swept up alongside and laid a sunburnt hand upon its edge, was a girl, +and another look told me she was dead! +</P> + +<P> +Such a sweet, pallid, Martian maid, her fair head lolling back against +the rear of the chair and gently moving to and fro with the rise and +fall of her craft. Her face in the pale light of the evening like +carved ivory, and not less passionless and still; her arms bare, and +her poor fingers still closed in her lap upon the beautiful buds they +had put into them. I fairly gasped with amazement at the dreadful +sweetness of that solitary lady, and could hardly believe she was +really a corpse! But, alas! there was no doubt of it, and I stared at +her, half in admiration and half in fear; noting how the last sunset +flush lent a hectic beauty to her face for a moment, and then how fair +and ghostly she stood out against the purpling sky; how her light +drapery lifted to the icy wind, and how dreadfully strange all those +soft-scented flowers and trappings seemed as we sped along side by side +into the country of night and snow. +</P> + +<P> +Then all of a sudden the true meaning of her being there burst upon me, +and with a start and a cry I looked around. WE WERE FLYING SWIFTLY +DOWN THAT RIVER OF THE DEAD THEY HAD TOLD ME OF THAT HAS NO OUTLET AND +NO RETURNING! +</P> + +<P> +With frantic haste I snatched up a paddle again and tried to paddle +against the great black current sweeping us forward. I worked until +the perspiration stood in beads on my forehead, and all the time I +worked the river, like some black snake, hissed and twined, and that +pretty lady rode cheerily along at my side. Overhead stars of +unearthly brilliancy were coming out in the frosty sky, while on either +hand the banks were high and the shadows under them black as ink. In +those shadows now and then I noticed with a horrible indifference other +rafts were travelling, and presently, as the stream narrowed, they came +out and joined us, dead Martians, budding boys and girls; older +voyagers with their age quickening upon them in the Martian manner, +just as some fruit only ripens after it falls; yellow-girt slaves +staring into the night in front, quite a merry crew all clustered about +I and that gentle lady, and more far ahead and more behind, all bobbing +and jostling forward as we hurried to the dreadful graveyard in the +Martian regions of eternal winter none had ever seen and no one came +to! I cried aloud in my desolation and fear and hid my face in my +hands, while the icy cliffs mocked my cry and the dead maid, tripping +alongside, rolled her head over, and stared at me with stony, unseeing +eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Well, I am no fine writer. I sat down to tell a plain, unvarnished +tale, and I will not let the weird horror of that ride get into my pen. +We careened forward, I and those lost Martians, until pretty near on +midnight, by which time the great light-giving planets were up, and +never a chance did Fate give me all that time of parting company with +them. About midnight we were right into the region of snow and ice, not +the actual polar region of the planet, as I afterwards guessed, but one +of those long outliers which follow the course of the broad waterways +almost into fertile regions, and the cold, though intense, was somewhat +modified by the complete stillness of the air. +</P> + +<P> +It was just then that I began to be aware of a low, rumbling sound +ahead, increasing steadily until there could not be any doubt the +journey was nearly over and we were approaching those great falls An +had told me of, over which the dead tumble to perpetual oblivion. +There was no opportunity for action, and, luckily, little time for +thought. I remember clapping my hand to my heart as I muttered an +imperfect prayer, and laughing a little as I felt in my pocket, between +it and that organ, an envelope containing some corn-plaster and a +packet of unpaid tailors' bills. Then I pulled out that locket with +poor forgotten Polly's photograph, and while I was still kissing it +fervently, and the dead girl on my right was jealously nudging my canoe +with the corner of her raft, we plunged into a narrow gully as black as +hell, shot round a sharp corner at a tremendous pace, and the moment +afterwards entered a lake in the midst of an unbroken amphitheatre of +cliffs gleaming in soft light all round. +</P> + +<P> +Even to this moment I can recall the blue shine of those terrible ice +crags framing the weird picture in on every hand, and the strange +effect upon my mind as we passed out of the darkness of the gully down +which we had come into the sepulchral radiance of that place. But +though it fixed with one instantaneous flash its impression on my mind +forever, there was no time to admire it. As we swept on to the lake's +surface, and a glance of light coming over a dip in the ice walls to +the left lit up the dead faces and half-withered flowers of my +fellow-travellers with startling distinctness, I noticed with a new +terror at the lower end of the lake towards which we were hurrying the +water suddenly disappeared in a cloud of frosty spray, and it was from +thence came the low, ominous rumble which had sounded up the ravine as +we approached. It was the fall, and beyond the stream dropped down +glassy step after step, in wild pools and rapids, through which no boat +could live for a moment, to a black cavern entrance, where it was +swallowed up in eternal night. +</P> + +<P> +I WOULD not go that way! With a yell such as those solitudes had +probably never heard since the planet was fashioned out of the void, I +seized the paddle again and struck out furiously from the main current, +with the result of postponing the crisis for a time, and finding myself +bobbing round towards the northern amphitheatre, where the light fell +clearest from planets overhead. It was like a great ballroom with +those constellations for tapers, and a ghastly crowd of Martians were +doing cotillions and waltzes all about me on their rafts as the +troubled water, icy cold and clear as glass, eddied us here and there +in solemn confusion. On the narrow beaches at the cliff foot were +hundreds of wrecked voyagers—the wall-flowers of that ghostly +assembly-room—and I went jostling and twirling round the circle as +though looking for a likely partner, until my brain spun and my heart +was sick. +</P> + +<P> +For twenty minutes Fate played with me, and then the deadly suck of the +stream got me down again close to where the water began to race for the +falls. I vowed savagely I would not go over them if it could be +helped, and struggled furiously. +</P> + +<P> +On the left, in shadow, a narrow beach seemed to lie between the water +and the cliff foot; towards it I fought. At the very first stroke I +fouled a raft; the occupant thereof came tumbling aboard and nearly +swamped me. But now it was a fight for life, so him I seized without +ceremony by clammy neck and leg and threw back into the water. Then +another playful Martian butted the behind part of my canoe and set it +spinning, so that all the stars seemed to be dancing giddily in the +sky. With a yell I shoved him off, but only to find his comrades were +closing round me in a solid ring as we sucked down to the abyss at +ever-increasing speed. +</P> + +<P> +Then I fought like a fury, hacking, pushing, and paddling shorewards, +crying out in my excitement, and spinning and bumping and twisting ever +downwards. For every foot I gained they pushed me on a yard, as though +determined their fate should be mine also. +</P> + +<P> +They crowded round me in a compact circle, their poor flower-girt heads +nodding as the swift current curtsied their crafts. They hemmed me in +with desperate persistency as we spun through the ghostly starlight in +a swirling mass down to destruction! And in a minute we were so close +to the edge of the fall I could see the water break into ridges as it +felt the solid bottom give way under it. We were so close that already +the foremost rafts, ten yards ahead, were tipping and their occupants +one by one waving their arms about and tumbling from their funeral +chairs as they shot into the spray veil and went out of sight under a +faint rainbow that was arched over there, the symbol of peace and the +only lovely thing in that gruesome region. Another minute and I must +have gone with them. It was too late to think of getting out of the +tangle then; the water behind was heavy with trailing silks and +flowers. We were jammed together almost like one huge float and in +that latter fact lay my one chance. +</P> + +<P> +On the left was a low ledge of rocks leading back to the narrow beach +already mentioned, and the ledge came out to within a few feet of where +the outmost boat on that side would pass it. It was the only chance +and a poor one, but already the first rank of my fleet was trembling on +the brink, and without stopping to weigh matters I bounded off my own +canoe on to the raft alongside, which rocked with my weight like a +tea-tray. From that I leapt, with such hearty good-will as I had never +had before, on to a second and third. I jumped from the footstool of +one Martian to the knee of another, steadying myself by a free use of +their nodding heads as I passed. And every time I jumped a ship +collapsed behind me. As I staggered with my spring into the last and +outermost boat the ledge was still six feet away, half hidden in a +smother of foam, and the rim of the great fall just under it. Then I +drew all my sailor agility together and just as the little vessel was +going bow up over the edge I leapt from her—came down blinded with +spray on the ledge, rolled over and over, clutched frantically at the +frozen soil, and was safe for the moment, but only a few inches from +the vortex below! +</P> + +<P> +As soon as I picked myself up and got breath, I walked shorewards and +found, with great satisfaction, that the ledge joined the shelving +beach, and so walked on in the blue obscurity of the cliff shadow back +from the falls in the bare hope that the beach might lead by some way +into the gully through which we had come and open country beyond. But +after a couple of hundred yards this hope ended as abruptly as the spit +itself in deep water, and there I was, as far as the darkness would +allow me to ascertain, as utterly trapped as any mortal could be. +</P> + +<P> +I will not dwell on the next few minutes, for no one likes to +acknowledge that he has been unmanned even for a space. When those +minutes were over calmness and consideration returned, and I was able +to look about. +</P> + +<P> +All the opposite cliffs, rising sheer from the water, were in light, +their cold blue and white surfaces rising far up into the black +starfields overhead. Looking at them intently from this vantage-point +I saw without at first understanding that along them horizontally, tier +above tier, were rows of objects, like—like—why, good Heavens, they +were like men and women in all sorts of strange postures and positions! +Rubbing my eyes and looking again I perceived with a start and a +strange creepy feeling down my back that they WERE men and +women!—hundreds of them, thousands, all in rows as cormorants stand +upon sea-side cliffs, myriads and myriads now I looked about, in every +conceivable pose and attitude but never a sound, never a movement +amongst the vast concourse. +</P> + +<P> +Then I turned back to the cliffs behind me. Yes! they ere there too, +dimmer by reason of the shadows, but there for certain, from the +snowfields far above down, down—good Heavens! to the very level where +I stood. There was one of them not ten yards away half in and half out +of the ice wall, and setting my teeth I walked over and examined him. +And there was another further in behind as I peered into the clear blue +depth, another behind that one, another behind him—just like cherries +in a jelly. +</P> + +<P> +It was startling and almost incredible, yet so many wonderful things +had happened of late that wonders were losing their sharpness, and I +was soon examining the cliff almost as coolly as though it were only +some trivial geological "section," some new kind of petrified +sea-urchins which had caught my attention and not a whole nation in +ice, a huge amphitheatre of fossilised humanity which stared down on me. +</P> + +<P> +The matter was simple enough when you came to look at it with +philosophy. The Martians had sent their dead down here for many +thousand years and as they came they were frozen in, the bands and +zones in which they sat indicating perhaps alternating seasons. Then +after Nature had been storing them like that for long ages some +upheaval happened, and this cleft and lake opened through the heart of +the preserve. Probably the river once ran far up there where the +starlight was crowning the blue cliffs with a silver diadem of light, +only when this hollow opened did it slowly deepen a lower course, +spreading out in a lake, and eventually tumbling down those icy steps +lose itself in the dark roots of the hills. It was very simple, no +doubt, but incredibly weird and wonderful to me who stood, the sole +living thing in that immense concourse of dead humanity. +</P> + +<P> +Look where I would it was the same everywhere. Those endless rows of +frozen bodies lying, sitting, or standing stared at me from every niche +and cornice. It almost seemed, as the light veered slowly round, as +though they smiled and frowned at times, but never a word was there +amongst those millions; the silence itself was audible, and save the +dull low thunder of the fall, so monotonous the ear became accustomed +to and soon disregarded it, there was not a sound anywhere, not a +rustle, not a whisper broke the eternal calm of that great caravansary +of the dead. +</P> + +<P> +The very rattle of the shingle under my feet and the jingle of my navy +scabbard seemed offensive in the perfect hush, and, too awed to be +frightened, I presently turned away from the dreadful shine of those +cliffs and felt my way along the base of the wall on my own side. There +was no means of escape that way, and presently the shingle beach itself +gave out as stated, where the cliff wall rose straight from the surface +of the lake, so I turned back, and finding a grotto in the ice +determined to make myself as comfortable as might be until daylight +came. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<P> +Fortunately there was a good deal of broken timber thrown up at +"high-water" mark, and with a stack of this at the mouth of the little +cave a pleasant fire was soon made by help of a flint pebble and the +steel back of my sword. It was a hearty blaze and lit up all the near +cliffs with a ruddy jumping glow which gave their occupants a +marvellous appearance of life. The heat also brought off the dull rime +upon the side of my recess, leaving it clear as polished glass, and I +was a little startled to see, only an inch or so back in the ice and +standing as erect as ever he had been in life, the figure of an +imposing grey clad man. His arms were folded, his chin dropped upon his +chest, his robes of the finest stuff, the very flowers they had decked +his head with frozen with immortality, and under them, round his crisp +and iron-grey hair, a simple band of gold with strange runes and +figures engraved upon it. +</P> + +<P> +There was something very simple yet stately about him, though his face +was hidden and as I gazed long and intently the idea got hold of me +that he had been a king over an undegenerate Martian race, and had +stood waiting for the Dawn a very, very long time. +</P> + +<P> +I wished a little that he had not been quite so near the glassy surface +of the ice down which the warmth was bringing quick moisture drops. Had +he been back there in the blue depths where others were sitting and +crouching it would have been much more comfortable. But I was a +sailor, and misfortune makes strange companions, so I piled up the fire +again, and lying down presently on the dry shingle with my back to him +stared moodily at the blaze till slowly the fatigues of the day told, +my eyelids dropped and, with many a fitful start and turn, at length I +slept. +</P> + +<P> +It was an hour before dawn, the fire had burnt low and I was dreaming +of an angry discussion with my tailor in New York as to the sit of my +last new trousers when a faint sound of moving shingle caught my quick +seaman ear, and before I could raise my head or lift a hand, a man's +weight was on me—a heavy, strong man who bore me down with +irresistible force. I felt the slap of his ice-cold hand upon my throat +and his teeth in the back of my neck! In an instant, though but half +awake, with a yell of surprise and anger I grappled with the enemy, and +exerting all my strength rolled him over. Over and over we went +struggling towards the fire, and when I got him within a foot or so of +it I came out on top, and, digging my knuckles into his throttle, +banged his head upon the stony floor in reckless rage, until all of a +sudden it seemed to me he was done for. I relaxed my grip, but the +other man never moved. I shook him again, like a terrier with a rat, +but he never resented it. Had I killed him? How limp and cold he was! +And then all of a sudden an uneasy feeling came upon me. I reached +out, and throwing a handful of dried stuff upon the embers the fire +danced gaily up into the air, and the blaze showed me I was savagely +holding down to the gravel and kneeling on the chest of that long-dead +king from my grotto wall! +</P> + +<P> +It was the man out of the ice without a doubt. There was the very +niche he had fallen from under the influence of the fire heat, the very +recess, exactly in his shape in every detail, whence he had stood +gazing into vacuity all those years. I left go my hold, and after the +flutter in my heart had gone down, apologetically set him up against +the wall of the cavern whence he had fallen; then built up the fire +until twirling flames danced to the very roof in the blue light of +dawn, and hobgoblin shadows leapt and capered about us. Then once more +I sat down on the opposite side of the blaze, resting my chin upon my +hands, and stared into the frozen eyes of that grim stranger, who, with +his chin upon his knees, stared back at me with irresistible, +remorseless steadfastness. +</P> + +<P> +He was as fresh as if he had died but yesterday, yet by his clothing +and something in his appearance, which was not that of the Martian of +to-day, I knew he might be many thousand years old. What things he had +seen, what wonders he knew! What a story might be put into his mouth +if I were a capable writer gifted with time and imagination instead of +a poor outcast, ill-paid lieutenant whose literary wit is often taxed +hardly to fill even a log-book entry! I stared at him so long and +hard, and he at me through the blinking flames, that again I dozed—and +dozed—and dozed again until at last when I woke in good earnest it was +daylight. +</P> + +<P> +By this time hunger was very aggressive. The fire was naught but a +circlet of grey ashes; the dead king, still sitting against the +cave-side, looked very blue and cold, and with an uncomfortable +realisation of my position I shook myself together, picked up and +pocketed without much thought the queer gold circlet that had dropped +from his forehead, and went outside to see what prospect of escape the +new day had brought. +</P> + +<P> +It was not much. Upriver there was not the remotest chance. Not even +a Niagara steamer could have forged back against the sluice coming down +from the gulch there. Looking round, the sides of the icy +amphitheatre—just lighting up now with glorious gold and crimson +glimmers of morning—were as steep as a wall face; only back towards +the falls was there a possibility of getting out of the dreadful trap, +so thither I went, after a last look at the poor old king, along my +narrow beach with all the eagerness begotten of a final chance. Up to +the very brink it looked hopeless enough, but, looking downwards when +that was reached, instead of a sheer drop the slope seemed to be a wild +"staircase" of rocks and icy ledges with here and there a little patch +of sand on a cornice, and far below, five hundred feet or so, a good +big spread of gravel an acre or two in extent close by where the river +plunged out of sight into the nethermost cavern mouth. +</P> + +<P> +It was so hopeless up above it, it could not possibly be worse further +down, and there was the ugly black flood running into the hole to trust +myself to as a last resource; so slipping and sliding I began the +descent. +</P> + +<P> +Had I been a schoolboy with a good breakfast ahead the incident might +have been amusing enough. The travelling was mostly done on the seat +of my trousers, which consequently became caked with mud and glacial +loam. Some was accomplished on hands and knees, with now and then a bit +down a snow slope, in good, honest head-over-heels fashion. The result +was a fine appetite for the next meal when it should please providence +to send it, and an abrupt arrival on the bottom beach about five +minutes after leaving the upper circles. +</P> + +<P> +I came to behind a cluster of breast-high rocks, and before moving took +a look round. Judge then of my astonishment and delight at the second +glance to perceive about a hundred yards away a brown object, looking +like an ape in the half light, meandering slowly up the margin of the +water towards me. Every now and then it stopped, stooping down to pick +up something or other from the scum along the torrent, and it was the +fact that these trifles, whatever they were, were put into a wallet by +the vision's side—not into his mouth—which first made me understand +with a joyful thrill that it was a MAN before me—a real, living man in +this huge chamber of dead horrors! Then again it flashed across my +mind in a luminous moment that where one man could come, or go, or +live, another could do likewise, and never did cat watch mouse with +more concentrated eagerness than I that quaint, bent-shouldered thing +hobbling about in the blue morning shadows where all else was silence. +</P> + +<P> +Nearer and nearer he came, till so close face and garb were +discernible, and then there could no longer be any doubt, it was a +woodman, an old man, with grizzled monkey-face, stooping gait, and a +shaggy fur cloak, utterly unlike the airy garments of my Hither folk, +who now stood before me. It gave me quite a start to recognise him +there, for it showed I was in a new land, and since he was going so +cheerfully about his business, whatever it might chance to be, there +must be some way out of this accursed pit in which I had fallen. So +very cautiously I edged out, taking advantage of all the cover possible +until we were only twenty yards apart, and then suddenly standing up, +and putting on the most affable smile, I called out— +</P> + +<P> +"Hullo, mess-mate!" +</P> + +<P> +The effect was electrical. That quaint old fellow sprang a yard into +air as though a spring had shot him up. Then, coming down, he stood +transfixed at his full height as stiff as a ramrod, staring at me with +incredible wonder. He looked so funny that in spite of hunger and +loneliness I burst out laughing, whereat the woodman, suddenly +recovering his senses, turned on his heels and set off at his best pace +in the opposite direction. This would never do! I wanted him to be my +guide, philosopher, and friend. He was my sole visible link with the +outside world, so after him I went at tip-top speed, and catching him +up in fifty yards along the shingle laid hold of his nether garments. +Whereat the old fellow stopping suddenly I shot clean over his back, +coming down on my shoulder in the gravel. +</P> + +<P> +But I was much younger than he, and in a minute was in chase again. +This time I laid hold of his cloak, and the moment he felt my grip he +slipped the neck-thongs and left me with only the mangy garment in my +hands. Again we set off, dodging and scampering with all our might +upon that frozen bit of beach. The activity of that old fellow was +marvellous, but I could not and would not lose him. I made a rush and +grappled him, but he tossed his head round and slipped away once more +under my arm, as though he had been brought up by a Chinese wrestler. +Then he got on one side of a flat rock, I the other, and for three or +four minutes we waltzed round that slab in the most insane manner. +</P> + +<P> +But by this time we were both pretty well spent—he with age and I with +faintness from my long fast, and we came presently to a standstill. +</P> + +<P> +After glaring at me for a time, the woodman gasped out as he struggled +for breath— +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, mighty and dreadful spirit! Oh, dweller in primordial ice, say +from which niche of the cliffs has the breath of chance thawed you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Never a niche at all, Mr. Hunter-for-Haddocks'-Eyes," I answered as +soon as I could speak. "I am just a castaway wrecked last night on +this shore of yours, and very grateful indeed will I be if you can show +me the way to some breakfast first, and afterwards to the outside +world." +</P> + +<P> +But the old fellow would not believe. "Spirits such as you," he said +sullenly, "need no food, and go whither they will by wish alone." +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you I am not a spirit, and as hungry as I don't particularly +want to be again. Here, look at the back of my trousers, caked three +inches deep in mud. If I were a spirit, do you think I would slide +about on my coat-tails like that? Do you think that if I could travel +by volition I would slip down these infernal cliffs on my pants' seat +as I have just done? And as for materialism—look at this fist; it +punched you just now! Surely there was nothing spiritual in that +knock?'' +</P> + +<P> +"No," said the savage, rubbing his head, "it was a good, honest rap, so +I must take you at your word. If you are indeed man, and hungry, it +will be a charity to feed you; if you are a spirit, it will at least be +interesting to watch you eat; so sit down, and let's see what I have in +my wallet." +</P> + +<P> +So cross-legged we squatted opposite each other on the table rock, and, +feeling like another Sindbad the Sailor, I watched my new friend fumble +in his bag and lay out at his side all sorts of odds and ends of +string, fish-hooks, chewing-gum, material for making a fire, and so on, +until at last he came to a package (done up, I noted with delight, in a +broad, green leaf which had certainly been growing that morning), and +unrolling it, displayed a lump of dried meat, a few biscuits, much +thicker and heavier than the honey-cakes of the Hither folk, and +something that looked and smelt like strong, white cheese. +</P> + +<P> +He signed to me to eat, and you may depend upon it I was not slow in +accepting the invitation. That tough biltong tasted to me like the +tenderest steak that ever came from a grill; the biscuits were +ambrosial; the cheese melted in my mouth as butter melts in that of the +virtuous; but when the old man finished the quaint picnic by inviting +me to accompany him down to the waterside for a drink, I shook my head. +I had a great respect for dead queens and kings, I said, but there were +too many of them up above to make me thirsty this morning; my respect +did not go to making me desire to imbibe them in solution! +</P> + +<P> +Afterwards I chanced to ask him what he had been picking up just now +along the margin, and after looking at me suspiciously for a minute he +asked— +</P> + +<P> +"You are not a thief?" On being reassured on that point he continued: +"And you will not attempt to rob me of the harvest for which I venture +into this ghost-haunted glen, which you and I alone of living men have +seen?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." Whatever they were, I said, I would respect his earnings. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, then," said the old man, "look here! I come hither to pick +up those pretty trifles which yonder lords and ladies have done with," +and plunging his hand into another bag he brought out a perfect fistful +of splendid gems and jewels, some set and some unset. "They wash from +the hands and wrists of those who have lodgings in the crevices of the +falls above," he explained. "After a time the beach here will be thick +with them. Could I get up whence you came down, they might be gathered +by the sackful. Come! there is an eddy still unsearched, and I will +show you how they lie." +</P> + +<P> +It was very fascinating, and I and that old man set to work amongst the +gravels, and, to be brief, in half an hour found enough glittering +stuff to set up a Fifth Avenue jeweller's shop. But to tell the truth, +now that I had breakfasted, and felt manhood in my veins again, I was +eager to be off, and out of the close, death-tainted atmosphere of that +valley. Consequently I presently stood up and said— +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, old man, this is fine sport no doubt, but just at present I +have a big job on hand—one which will not wait, and I must be going. +See, luck and young eyes have favoured me; here is twice as much gold +and stones as you have got together—it is all yours without a question +if you will show me the way out of this den and afterwards put me on +the road to your big city, for thither I am bound with an errand to +your king, Ar-hap." +</P> + +<P> +The sight of my gems, backed, perhaps, with the mention of Ar-hap's +name, appealed to the old fellow; and after a grunt or two about +"losing a tide" just when spoil was so abundant, he accepted the +bargain, shouldered his belongings, and led me towards the far corner +of the beach. +</P> + +<P> +It looked as if we were walking right against the towering ice wall, +but when we were within a yard or two of it a narrow cleft, only +eighteen inches wide, and wonderfully masked by an ice column, showed +to the left, and into this we squeezed ourselves, the entrance by which +we had come appearing to close up instantly we had gone a pace or two, +so perfectly did the ice walls match each other. +</P> + +<P> +It was the most uncanny thoroughfare conceivable—a sheer, sharp crack +in the blue ice cliffs extending from where the sunlight shone in a +dazzling golden band five hundred feet overhead to where bottom was +touched in blue obscurity of the ice-foot. It was so narrow we had to +travel sideways for the most part, a fact which brought my face close +against the clear blue glass walls, and enabled me from time to time to +see, far back in those translucent depths, more and more and evermore +frozen Martians waiting in stony silence for their release. +</P> + +<P> +But the fact of facts was that slowly the floor of the cleft trended +upwards, whilst the sky strip appeared to come downwards to meet it. A +mile, perhaps, we growled and squeezed up that wonderful gully; then +with a feeling of incredible joy I felt the clear, outer air smiting +upon me. +</P> + +<P> +In my hurry and delight I put my head into the small of the back of the +puffing old man who blocked the way in front and forced him forward, +until at last—before we expected it—the cleft suddenly ended, and he +and I tumbled headlong over each other on to a glittering, frozen +snowslope; the sky azure overhead, the sunshine warm as a tepid bath, +and a wide prospect of mountain and plain extending all around. +</P> + +<P> +So delightful was the sudden change of circumstances that I became +quite boyish, and seizing the old man in my exuberance by the hands, +dragged him to his feet, and danced him round and round in a circle, +while his ancient hair flapped about his head, his skin cloak waved +from his shoulders like a pair of dusky wings and half-eaten cakes, +dried flesh, glittering jewels, broken diadems, and golden finger-rings +were flung in an arc about us. We capered till fairly out of breath, +and then, slapping him on the back shoulder, I asked whose land all +this was about us. +</P> + +<P> +He replied that it was no one's, all waste from verge to verge. +</P> + +<P> +"What!" was my exclamation. "All ownerless, and with so much treasure +hidden hereabout! Why, I shall annex it to my country, and you and I +will peg out original settlers' claims!" And, still excited by the +mountain air, I whipped out my sword, and in default of a star-spangled +banner to plant on the newly-acquired territory, traced in gigantic +letters on the snow-crust—U.S.A. +</P> + +<P> +"And now," I added, wiping the rime off my blade with the lappet of my +coat, "let us stop capering about here and get to business. You have +promised to put me on the way to your big city." +</P> + +<P> +"Come on then," said the little man, gathering up his property. "This +white hillside leads to nowhere; we must get into the valley first, and +then you shall see your road." And right well that quaint barbarian +kept his promise. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<P> +It was half a day's march from those glittering snow-fields into the +low country, and when that was reached I found myself amongst quite +another people. +</P> + +<P> +The land was no longer fat and flowery, giving every kind of produce +for the asking, but stony for the most part, and, where we first came +on vegetation, overgrown by firs, with a pine which looked to me like a +species which went to make the coal measures in my dear but distant +planet. More than this I cannot say, for there are no places in the +world like mess-room and quarter-deck for forgetting school learning. +Instead of the glorious wealth of parti-coloured vegetation my eyes had +been accustomed to lately, here they rested on infertile stretches of +marshland intersected by moss-covered gravel shoots, looking as though +they had been pushed into the plains in front of extinct glaciers +coming down from the region behind us. On the low hills away from the +sea those sombre evergreen forests with an undergrowth of moss and red +lichens were more variegated with light foliage, and indeed the pines +proved to be but a fringe to the Arctic ice, giving way rapidly to more +typical Martian vegetation each mile we marched to the southward. +</P> + +<P> +As for the inhabitants, they seemed, like my guide, rough, uncouth +fellows, but honest enough when you came to know them. An +introduction, however, was highly desirable. I chanced upon the first +native as he was gathering reindeer-moss. My companion was some little +way behind at the moment, and when the gentle aborigine saw the +stranger he stared hard for a moment, then, turning on his heels, with +extraordinary swiftness flung at me half a pound of hard flint stone. +Had his aim been a little more careful this humble narrative had never +appeared on the Broadway bookstalls. As it was, the pebble, missing my +head by an inch or two, splintered into a hundred fragments on a rock +behind, and while I was debating whether a revengeful rush at the +slinger or a strategic advance to the rear were more advisable, my +guide called out to his countryman— +</P> + +<P> +"Ho! you base prowler in the morasses; you eater of unclean vegetation, +do you not see this is a ghost I am conducting, a dweller in the ice +cliffs, a spirit ten thousand years old? Put by your sling lest he +wither you with a glance." And, very reasonably, surprised, the +aborigine did as he was bid and cautiously advanced to inspect me. +</P> + +<P> +The news soon spread over the countryside that my jewel-hunter was +bringing a live "spook" along with him, considerable curiosity mixed +with an awe all to my advantage characterising the people we met +thereafter. Yet the wonder was not so great as might have been +expected, for these people were accustomed to meeting the tags of lost +races, and though they stared hard, their interest was chiefly in +hearing how, when, and where I had been found, whether I bit or kicked, +or had any other vices, and if I possessed any commercial value. +</P> + +<P> +My guide's throat must have ached with the repetition of the narrative, +but as he made the story redound greatly to his own glory, he put up +cheerfully with the hoarseness. In this way, walking and talking +alternately, we travelled during daylight through a country which +slowly lost its rugged features and became more and more inhabited, the +hardy people living in scattered villages in contradiction to the +debased city-loving Hither folk. +</P> + +<P> +About nightfall we came to a sea-fishers' hamlet, where, after the old +man had explained my exalted nature and venerable antiquity, I was +offered shelter for the night. +</P> + +<P> +My host was the headman, and I must say his bearing towards the +supernatural was most unaffected. If it had been an Avenue hotel I +could not have found more handsome treatment than in that reed-thatched +hut. They made me wash and rest, and then were all agog for my history; +but that I postponed, contenting myself with telling them I had been +lately in Seth, and had come thence to see them via the ice valley—to +all of which they listened with the simplicity of children. Afterwards +I turned on them, and openly marvelled that so small a geographical +distance as there was between that land and this could make so vast a +human difference. "The truth, O dweller in blue shadows of primordial +ice, is," said the most intelligent of the Thither folk as we sat over +fried deer-steak in his hut that evening, "we who are MEN, not +Peri-zad, not overstayed fairies like those you have been amongst, are +newcomers here on this shore. We came but a few generations ago from +where the gold curtains of the sun lie behind the westward pine-trees, +and as we came we drove, year by year, those fays, those spent +triflers, back before us. All this land was theirs once, and more and +more towards our old home. You may still see traces of harbours dug +and cities built thousands of years ago, when the Hither folk were +living men and women—not their shadows. The big water outside stops us +for a space, but," he added, laughing gruffly and taking a draught of a +strong beer he had been heating by the fire, "King Ar-hap has their +pretty noses between his fingers; he takes tribute and girls while he +gets ready—they say he is nearly ready this summer, and if he is, it +will not be much of an excuse he will need to lick up the last of those +triflers, those pretences of manhood." +</P> + +<P> +Then we fell to talking of Ar-hap, his subjects and town, and I learned +the tides had swept me a long way to the northward of the proper route +between the capitals of the two races, that day they carried me into +the Dead-Men's Ice, as these entertainers of mine called the northern +snows. To get back to the place previously aimed at, where the woodmen +road came out on the seashore, it was necessary to go either by boat, a +roundabout way through a maze of channels, "as tangled as the grass +roots in autumn"; or, secondly, by a couple of days' marching due +southward across the base of the great peninsula we were on, and so +strike blue water again at the long-sought-for harbour. +</P> + +<P> +As I lay dozing and dreaming on a pile of strange furs in the corner of +the hut that evening I made up my mind for the land journey tomorrow, +having had enough for the moment of nautical Martian adventures; and +this point settled, fell again to wondering what made me follow so +reckless a quest in the way I was doing; asking myself again and again +what was gazelle-eyed Heru to me after all, and why should it matter +even as much as the value of a brass waist-coat button whether Hath had +her or Ar-hap? What a fool I was to risk myself day by day in quaint +and dangerous adventures, wearing out good Government shoe-leather in +other men's quarrels, all for a silly slip of royal girlhood who, by +this time, was probably making herself comfortable and forgetting both +Hath and me in the arms of her rough new lord. +</P> + +<P> +And from Heru my mind drifted back dreamily to poor An, and Seth, the +city of fallen magnificence, where the spent masters of a strange +planet now lived on sufferance—the ghosts of their former selves. +Where was An, where the revellers on the morning—so long ago it +seemed!—when first that infernal rug of mine translated a chance wish +into a horrible reality and shot me down here, a stranger and an +outcast? Where was the magic rug itself? Where my steak and tomato +supper? Who had eaten it? Who was drawing my pay? If I could but find +the rug when I got back to Seth, gods! but I would try if it would not +return whence I had come, and as swiftly, out of all these silly coils +and adventuring. +</P> + +<P> +So musing, presently the firelight died down, and bulky forms of +hide-wrapped woodmen sleeping on the floor slowly disappeared in +obscurity like ranges of mountains disappearing in the darkness of +night. All those uncouth forms, and the throb of the sea outside, +presently faded upon my senses, and I slept the heavy sleep of one +whose wakefulness gives way before an imperious physical demand. All +through the long hours of the night, while the waves outside champed +upon the gravels, and the woodmen snored and grunted uneasily as they +simultaneously dreamt of the day's hunting and digested its proceeds, I +slept; and then when dawn began to break I passed from that heavy +stupor into another and lighter realm, wherein fancy again rose +superior to bodily fatigue, and events of the last few days passed in +procession through my mind. +</P> + +<P> +I dreamt I was lunching at a fashionable seaside resort with Polly at +my side, and An kept bringing us melons, which grew so monstrous every +time a knife was put into them that poor Polly screamed aloud. I dreamt +I was afloat on a raft, hotly pursued by my tailor, whose bare and +shiny head—may Providence be good to him!—was garlanded with roses, +while in his fist was a bunch of unpaid bills, the which he waved +aloft, shouting to me to stop. And thus we danced down an ink-black +river until he had chiveyed me into the vast hall of the Admiralty, +where a fearsome Secretary, whose golden teeth rattled and dropped from +his head with mingled cold and anger, towered above me as he asked why +I was absent from my ship without leave. And I was just mumbling out +excuses while stooping to pick up his golden dentistry, when some one +stirring in the hut aroused me. I started up on my elbow and looked +around. Where was I? For a minute all was confused and dark. The +heavy mound-like forms of sleeping men, the dim outlines of their +hunting gear upon the walls, the pale sea beyond, half seen through the +open doorway, just turning livid in the morning light; and then as my +eyes grew more accustomed to the obscurity, and my stupid senses +returned, I recognised the surroundings, and, with a sigh, remembered +yesterday's adventures. +</P> + +<P> +However, it would never do to mope; so, rising silently and picking a +way through human lumber on the floor, I went out and down to the +water's edge, where "shore-going" clothes, as we sailors call them, +were slipped off, and I plunged into the sea for a swim. +</P> + +<P> +It was a welcome dip, for I needed the plunge physically and +intellectually, but it came to an abrupt conclusion. The Thither folk +apparently had never heard of this form of enjoyment; to them water +stood for drinking or drowning, nothing else, and since one could not +drink the sea, to be in it meant, even for a ghost, to drown. +Consequently, when the word went round the just rousing villages that +"He-on-foot-from-afar" was adrift in the waves, rescue parties were +hurriedly organised, a boat launched, and, in spite of all my kicking +and shouting (which they took to be evidence of my semi-moribund +condition), I was speedily hauled out by hairy and powerful hands, +pungent herbs burnt under my nose, and my heels held high in the air in +order that the water might run out of me. It was only with the greatest +difficulty those rough but honest fellows were eventually got to +believe me saved. +</P> + +<P> +The breakfast I made of grilled deer flesh and a fish not unlike +salmon, however, convinced them of my recovery, and afterward we parted +very good friends; for there was something in the nature of those +rugged barbarians just coming into the dawn of civilisation that won my +liking far more than the effete gentleness of others across the water. +</P> + +<P> +When the time of parting came they showed no curiosity as to my errand, +but just gave me some food in a fish-skin bag, thrust a heavy +stone-headed axe into my hand, "in case I had to talk to a thief on the +road," and pointed out on the southern horizon a forked mountain, under +which, they said, was the harbour and high-road to King Ar-hap's +capital. Then they hugged me to their hairy chests in turn, and let me +go with a traveller's blessing. +</P> + +<P> +There I was again, all alone, none but my thoughts for companions, and +nothing but youth to excuse the folly in thus venturing on a reckless +quest! +</P> + +<P> +However, who can gainsay that same youth? The very spice of danger made +my steps light and the way pleasant. For a mile or two the track was +plain enough, through an undulating country gradually becoming more and +more wooded with vegetation, changing rapidly from Alpine to +sub-tropical. The air also grew warmer, and when the dividing ridge was +crossed and a thick forest entered, the snows and dreadful region of +Deadmen's Ice already seemed leagues and leagues away. +</P> + +<P> +Probably a warm ocean current played on one side of the peninsula, +while a cold one swept the other, but for scientific aspects of the +question I cared little in my joy at being anew in a soft climate, +amongst beautiful flowers and vivid life again. Mile after mile +slipped quickly by as I strode along, whistling "Yankee Doodle" to +myself and revelling in the change. At one place I met a rough-looking +Martian woodcutter, who wanted to fight until he found I also wanted +to, when he turned very civil and as talkative as a solitary liver +often is when his tongue gets started. He particularly desired to know +where I came from, and, as in the case with so many other of his +countrymen, took it for granted, and with very little surprise, that I +was either a spirit or an inhabitant of another world. With this idea +in his mind he gave me a curious piece of information, which, +unfortunately, I was never able to follow up. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think you can be a spirit," he said, critically eyeing my +clothes, which were now getting ragged and dirty beyond description. +"They are finer-looking things than you, and I doubt if their toes come +through their shoes like yours do. If you are a wanderer from the +stars, you are not like that other one we have down yonder," and he +pointed to the southward. +</P> + +<P> +"What!" I asked, pricking my ears in amazement, "another wanderer from +the outside world! Does he come from the earth?"—using the word An +had given me to signify my own planet. +</P> + +<P> +"No, not from there; from the one that burns blue in evening between +sun and sea. Men say he worked as a stoker or something of the kind +when he was at home, and got trifling with a volcano tap, and was +lapped in hot mud, and blown out here. My brother saw him about a week +ago." +</P> + +<P> +"Now what you say is down right curious. I thought I had a monopoly of +that kind of business in this sphere of yours. I should be +tremendously interested to see him." +</P> + +<P> +"No you wouldn't," briefly answered the woodman. "He is the stupidest +fool ever blown from one world to another—more stupid to look at than +you are. He is a gaseous, wavey thing, so glum you can't get two words +a week out of him, and so unstable that you never know when you are +with him and when the breeze has drifted him somewhere else." +</P> + +<P> +I could but laugh and insist, with all respect to the woodcutter, such +an individual were worth the knowing however unstable his constitution; +at which the man shrugged his shoulders and changed the conversation, +as though the subject were too trivial to be worth much consideration. +</P> + +<P> +This individual gave me the pleasure of his company until nearly +sundown, and finding I took an interest in things of the forest, +pointed out more curious plants and trees than I have space to mention. +Two of them, however, cling to my memory very tenaciously. One was a +very Circe amongst plants, the horrible charm of which can never be +forgotten. We were going down a glade when a most ravishing odour fell +upon my nostrils. It was heavenly sweet yet withal there lurked an +incredibly, unexpressibly tempting spice of wickedness in it. The +moment he caught that ambrosial invitation in the air my woodman spit +fiercely on the ground, and taking a plug of wool from his pouch +stuffed his nostrils up. Then he beckoned me to come away. But the +odour was too ravishing, I was bound to see whence it arose, and +finding me deaf to all warnings, the man reluctantly turned aside down +the enticing trail. We pushed about a hundred yards through bushes +until we came to a little arena full in sunshine where there were +neither birds nor butterflies, but a death-like hush upon everything. +Indeed, the place seemed shunned in spite of the sodden loveliness of +that scent which monopolised and mounted to my brain until I was +beginning to be drunk with the sheer pleasure of it. And there in the +centre of the space stood a plant not unlike a tree fern, about six +feet high, and crowned by one huge and lovely blossom. It resembled a +vast passion-flower of incredible splendour. There were four petals, +with points resting on the ground, each six feet long, ivory-white +inside, exquisitely patterned with glittering silver veins. From the +base of these rose upright a gauzy veil of azure filaments of the same +length as the petals, wirelike, yet soft as silk, and inside them again +rested a chalice of silver holding a tiny pool of limpid golden honey. +Circe, indeed! It was from that cup the scent arose, and my throat +grew dry with longing as I looked at it; my eyes strained through the +blue tendrils towards that liquid nectar, and my giddy senses felt they +must drink or die! I glanced at the woodman with a smile of drunken +happiness, then turned tottering legs towards the blossom. A stride up +the smooth causeway of white petals, a push through the azure haze, and +the wine of the wood enchantress would be mine—molten amber wine, +hotter and more golden than the sunshine; the fire of it was in my +veins, the recklessness of intoxication was on me, life itself as +nothing compared to a sip from that chalice, my lips must taste or my +soul would die, and with trembling hand and strained face I began to +climb. +</P> + +<P> +But the woodman pulled me back. +</P> + +<P> +"Back, stranger!" he cried. "Those who drink there never live again." +</P> + +<P> +"Blessed oblivion! If I had a thousand lives the price were still too +cheap," and once more I essayed to scramble up. +</P> + +<P> +But the man was a big fellow, and with nostrils plugged, and eyes +averted from the deadly glamour, he seized me by the collar and threw +me back. Three times I tried, three times he hurled me down, far too +faint and absorbed to heed the personal violence. Then standing +between us, "Look," he said, "look and learn." +</P> + +<P> +He had killed a small ape that morning, meaning later on to take its +fur for clothing, and this he now unslung from his shoulder, and +hitching the handle of his axe into the loose skin at the back of its +neck, cautiously advanced to the witch plant, and gently hoisted the +monkey over the blue palings. The moment its limp, dead feet touched +the golden pool a shudder passed through the plant, and a bird +somewhere far back in the forest cried out in horror. Quick as +thought, a spasm of life shot up the tendrils, and like tongues of blue +flame they closed round the victim, lapping his miserable body in their +embrace. At the same time the petals began to rise, showing as they +did so hard, leathery, unlovely outer rinds, and by the time the +woodman was back at my side the flower was closed. +</P> + +<P> +Closer and closer wound the blue tendrils; tighter and tighter closed +the cruel petals with their iron grip, until at last we heard the ape's +bones crackling like dry firewood; then next his head burst, his brains +came oozing through the crevices, while blood and entrails followed +them through every cranny, and the horrible mess with the overflow of +the chalice curled down the stem in a hundred steaming rills, till at +last the petals locked with an ugly snap upon their ghastly meal, and I +turned away from the sight in dread and loathing. +</P> + +<P> +That was plant Number One. +</P> + +<P> +Plant Number Two was of milder disposition, and won a hearty laugh for +my friendly woodman. In fact, being of a childlike nature, his success +as a professor of botany quite pleased him, and not content with +answering my questions, he set to work to find new vegetable surprises, +greatly enjoying my wonder and the sense of importance it gave him. +</P> + +<P> +In this way we came, later on in the day, to a spot where herbage was +somewhat scantier, the grass coarse, and soil shallow. Here I espied a +tree of small size, apparently withered, but still bearing a few +parched leaves on its uppermost twigs. +</P> + +<P> +"Now that," quoth the professor, "is a highly curious tree, and I +should like you to make a close acquaintance with it. It grows from a +seed in the course of a single springtime, perishes in the summer; but +a few specimens stand throughout the winter, provided the situation is +sheltered, as this one has done. If you will kindly go down and shake +its stem I believe you will learn something interesting." +</P> + +<P> +So, very willing to humour him, away I went to the tree, which was +perfect in every detail, but apparently very dry, clasped it with both +hands, and, pulling myself together, gave it a mighty shake. The +result was instantaneous. The whole thing was nothing but a skin of +dust, whence all fibre and sap had gone, and at my touch it dissolved +into a cloud of powder, a huge puff of white dust which descended on me +as though a couple of flour-bags had been inverted over my head; and as +I staggered out sneezing and blinking, white as a miller from face to +foot, the Martian burst into a wild, joyous peal of laughter that made +the woods ring again. His merriment was so sincere I had not the heart +to be angry, and soon laughed as loud as he did; though, for the +future, I took his botanical essays with a little more caution. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<P> +That woodman friend of mine proved so engaging it was difficult to get +away, and thus when, dusk upon us, and my object still a long distance +off, he asked me to spend the night at his hut, I gladly assented. +</P> + +<P> +We soon reached the cabin where the man lived by himself whilst working +in the forest. It was a picturesque little place on a tree-overhung +lagoon, thatched, wattled, and all about were piles of a +pleasant-scented bark, collected for the purpose of tanning hides, and +I could not but marvel that such a familiar process should be practised +identically on two sides of the universal ether. But as a matter of +fact the similarity of many details of existence here and there was the +most striking of the things I learned whilst in the red planet. +</P> + +<P> +Within the hut stood a hearth in the centre of the floor, whereon a +comfortable blaze soon sparkled, and upon the walls hung various +implements, hides, and a store of dried fruits of various novel kinds. +My host, when he had somewhat disdainfully watched me wash in a rill of +water close by, suggested supper, and I agreed with heartiest good will. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing wonderful! Oh, Mr. Blue-coat!" he said, prancing about as he +made his hospitable arrangements. "No fine meat or scented wine to +unlock, one by one, all the doors of paradise, such as I have heard +they have in lands beyond the sea; but fare good enough for plain men +who eat but to live. So! reach me down yonder bunch of yellow aru +fruit, and don't upset that calabash, for all my funniest stories lurk +at the bottom of it." +</P> + +<P> +I did as he bid, and soon we were squatting by the fire toasting arus +on pointed sticks, the doorway closed with a wattle hurdle, and the +black and gold firelight filling the hut with fantastic shadows. Then +when the banana-like fruit was ready, the man fetched from a recess a +loaf of bread savoured with the dust of dried and pounded fish, put the +foresaid calabash of strong ale to warm, and down we sat to supper with +real woodman appetites. Seldom have I enjoyed a meal so much, and when +we had finished the fruit and the wheat cake my guide snatched up the +great gourd of ale, and putting it to his lips called out: +</P> + +<P> +"Here's to you, stranger; here's to your country; here's to your girl, +if you have one, and death to your enemies!" Then he drank deep and +long, and, passed the stuff to me. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's to you, bully host, and the missus, and the children, if there +are any, and more power to your elbow!"—the which gratified him +greatly, though probably he had small idea of my meaning. +</P> + +<P> +And right merry we were that evening. The host was a jolly good +fellow, and his ale, with a pleasant savour of mint in it, was the +heartiest drink I ever set lips to. We talked and laughed till the +very jackals yapped in sympathy outside. And when he had told a score +of wonderful wood stories as pungent of the life of these fairy forests +as the aromatic scent of his bark-heaps outside, as iridescent with the +colours of another world as the rainbow bubbles riding down his starlit +rill, I took a turn, and told him of the commonplaces of my world so +far away, whereat he laughed gloriously again. The greater the +commonplace the larger his joy. The humblest story, hardly calculated +to impress a griffin between watches on the main-deck, was a +masterpiece of wit to that gentle savage; and when I "took off" the +tricks and foibles of some of my superiors—Heaven forgive me for such +treason!—he listened with the exquisite open-mouthed delight of one +who wanders in a brand-new world of mirth. +</P> + +<P> +We drank and laughed over that strong beer till the little owls outside +raised their voice in combined accord, and then the woodman, shaking +the last remnant of his sleepy wits together, and giving a reproachful +look at me for finally passing him the gourd empty to the last drop, +rose, threw a fur on a pile of dead grass at one side of the hut, and +bid me sleep, "for his brain was giddy with the wonders of the +incredible and ludicrous sphere which I had lately inhabited." +</P> + +<P> +Slowly the fire died away; slowly the quivering gold and black +arabesques on the walls merged in a red haze as the sticks dropped into +tinder, and the great black outline of the hairy monster who had thrown +himself down by the embers rose up the walls against that flush like +the outline of a range of hills against a sunset glow. I listened +drowsily for a space to his snoring and the laughing answer of the +brook outside, and then that ambrosial sleep which is the gentle +attendant of hardship and danger touched my tired eyelids, and I, too, +slept. +</P> + +<P> +My friend was glum the next morning, as they who stay over-long at the +supper flagon are apt to be. He had been at work an hour on his +bark-heaps when I came out into the open, and it was only by a good +deal of diplomacy and some material help in sorting his faggots that he +was got into a better frame of mind. I could not, however, trust his +mood completely, and as I did not want to end so jovial a friendship +with a quarrel, I hurried through our breakfast of dry bread, with +hard-boiled lizard eggs, and then settling my reckoning with one of the +brass buttons from my coat, which he immediately threaded, with every +evidence of extreme gratification, on a string of trinkets hanging +round his neck, asked him the way to Ar-hap's capital. +</P> + +<P> +"Your way is easy, friend, as long as you keep to the straight path and +have yonder two-humped mountain in front. To the left is the sea, and +behind the hill runs the canal and road by which all traffic comes or +goes to Ar-hap. But above all things pass not to the hills right, for +no man goes there; there away the forests are thick as night, and in +their perpetual shadows are the ruins of a Hither city, a haunted fairy +town to which some travellers have been, but whence none ever returned +alive." +</P> + +<P> +"By the great Jove, that sounds promising! I would like to see that +town if my errand were not so urgent." +</P> + +<P> +But the old fellow shook his shaggy head and turned a shade yellower. +"It is no place for decent folk," he growled. "I myself once passed +within a mile of its outskirts at dusk, and saw the unholy little +people's lanterned processions starting for the shrine of Queen Yang, +who, tradition says, killed herself and a thousand babies with her when +we took this land." +</P> + +<P> +"My word, that was a holocaust! Couldn't I drop in there to lunch? It +would make a fine paper for an antiquarian society." +</P> + +<P> +Again the woodman frowned. "Do as I bid you, son. You are too young +and green to go on ventures by yourself. Keep to the straight road: +shun the swamps and the fairy forest, else will you never see Ar-hap." +</P> + +<P> +"And as I have very urgent and very important business with him, +comrade, no doubt your advice is good. I will call on Princess Yang +some other day. And now goodbye! Rougher but friendlier shelter than +you have given me no man could ask for. I am downright sorry to part +with you in this lonely land. If ever we meet again—" but we never +did! The honest old churl clasped me into his hairy bosom three times, +stuffed my wallet with dry fruit and bread, and once more repeating his +directions, sent me on my lonely way. +</P> + +<P> +I confess I sighed while turning into the forest, and looked back more +than once at his retreating form. The loneliness of my position, the +hopelessness of my venture, welled up in my heart after that good +comradeship, and when the hut was out of sight I went forward down the +green grass road, chin on chest, for twenty minutes in the deepest +dejection. But, thank Heaven, I was born with a tough spirit, and +possess a mind which has learned in many fights to give brave counsel +to my spirit, and thus presently I shook myself together, setting my +face boldly to the quest and the day's work. +</P> + +<P> +It was not so clear a morning as the previous one, and a steamy wind on +what at sea I should have called the starboard bow, as I pressed +forward to the distant hill, had a curiously subduing effect on my +thoughts, and filled the forest glades with a tremulous unreality like +to nothing on our earth, and distinctly embarrassing to a stranger in a +strange land. Small birds in that quaint atmospheric haze looked like +condors, butterflies like giant fowl, and the simplest objects of the +forest like the imaginations of a disordered dream. Behind that gauzy +hallucination a fine white mist came up, and the sun spread out flat +and red in the sky, while the pent-in heat became almost unendurable. +</P> + +<P> +Still I plodded on, growling to myself that in Christian latitudes all +the evidences would have been held to betoken a storm before night, +whatever they might do here, but for the most part lost in my own +gloomy speculations. That was the more pity since, in thinking the +walk over now, it seems to me that I passed many marvels, saw many +glorious vistas in those nameless forests, many spreads of colour, many +incidents that, could I but remember them more distinctly, would supply +material for making my fortune as a descriptive traveller. But what +would you? I have forgotten, and am too virtuous to draw on my +imagination, as it is sometimes said other travellers have done when +picturesque facts were deficient. Yes, I have forgotten all about that +day, save that it was sultry hot, that I took off my coat and waistcoat +to be cooler, carrying them, like the tramp I was, across my arm, and +thus dishevelled passed some time in the afternoon an encampment of +forest folk, wherefrom almost all the men were gone, and the women shy +and surly. +</P> + +<P> +In no very social humour myself, I walked round their woodland village, +and on the outskirts, by a brook, just as I was wishing there were some +one to eat my solitary lunch with, chanced upon a fellow busily engaged +in hammering stones into weapons upon a flint anvil. +</P> + +<P> +He was an ugly-looking individual at best, yet I was hard up for +company, so I put my coat down, and, seating myself on a log opposite, +proceeded to open my wallet, and take out the frugal stores the woodman +had given me that morning. +</P> + +<P> +The man was seated upon the ground holding a stone anvil between his +feet, while with his hands he turned and chipped with great skill a +spear-head he was making out of flint. It was about the only pastime +he had, and his little yellow eyes gleamed with a craftsman's pleasure, +his shaggy round shoulders were bent over the task, the chips flew in +quick particles, and the wood echoed musically as the artificer watched +the thing under his hands take form and fashion. Presently I spoke, +and the worker looked up, not too pleased at being thus interrupted. +But he was easy of propitiation, and over a handful of dried raisins +communicative. +</P> + +<P> +How, I asked, knowing a craftsman's craft is often nearest to his +heart, how was it such things as that he chipped came to be thought of +by him and his? Whereon the woodman, having spit out the raisin-stones +and wiped his fingers on his fur, said in substance that the first +weapon was fashioned when the earliest ape hurled the first stone in +wrath. +</P> + +<P> +"But, chum," I said, taking up his half-finished spear and touching the +razor-fine edge with admiring caution, "from hurling the crude pebble +to fashioning such as this is a long stride. Who first edged and +pointed the primitive malice? What man with the soul of a thousand +unborn fighters in him notched and sharpened your natural rock?" +</P> + +<P> +Whereon the chipper grinned, and answered that, when the woodmen had +found stones that would crack skulls, it came upon them presently that +they would crack nuts as well. And cracking nuts between two stones +one day a flint shattered, and there on the grass was the golden secret +of the edge—the thing that has made man what he is. +</P> + +<P> +"Yet again, good fellow," I queried, "even this happy chance only gives +us a weapon, sharp, no doubt, and calculated to do a hundred services +for any ten the original pebble could have done, but still unhandled, +small in force, imperfect—now tell me, which of your amiable ancestors +first put a handle to the fashioned flint, and how he thought of it?" +</P> + +<P> +The workman had done his flake by now, and wrapping it in a bit of +skin, put it carefully in his belt before turning to answer my question. +</P> + +<P> +"Who made the first handle for the first flint, you of the many +questions? She did—she, the Mother," he suddenly cried, patting the +earth with his brown hand, and working himself up as he spoke, "made it +in her heart for us her first-born. See, here is such as the first +handled weapon that ever came out of darkness," and he snatched from +the ground, where it had lain hidden under his fox-skin cloak, a heavy +club. I saw in an instant how it was. The club had been a sapling, and +the sapling's roots had grown about and circled with a splendid grip a +lump of native flint. A woodman had pulled the sapling, found the +flint, and fashioned the two in a moment of happy inspiration, the one +to an axe-head and the other to a handle, as they lay Nature-welded! +</P> + +<P> +"This, I say, is the first—the first!" screamed the old fellow as +though I were contradicting him, thumping the ground with his weapon, +and working himself up to a fury as its black magic entered his being. +"This is the first: with this I slew Hetter and Gur, and those who +plundered my hiding-places in the woods; with this I have killed a +score of others, bursting their heads, and cracking their bones like +dry sticks. With this—with this—" but here his rage rendered him +inarticulate; he stammered and stuttered for a minute, and then as the +killing fury settled on him his yellow teeth shut with a sudden snap, +while through them his breath rattled like wind through dead pine +branches in December, the sinews sat up on his hands as his fingers +tightened upon the axe-heft like the roots of the same pines from the +ground when winter rain has washed the soil from beneath them; his +small eyes gleamed like baleful planets; every hair upon his shaggy +back grew stiff and erect—another minute and my span were ended. +</P> + +<P> +With a leap from where I sat I flew at that hairy beast, and sinking my +fists deep in his throttle, shook him till his eyes blazed with +delirious fires. We waltzed across the short greensward, and in and +about the tree-trunks, shaking, pulling, and hitting as we went, till +at last I felt the man's vigour dying within him; a little more +shaking, a sudden twist, and he was lying on the ground before me, +senseless and civil! That is the worst of some orators, I thought to +myself, as I gloomily gathered up the scattered fragments of my lunch; +they never know when they have said enough, and are too apt to be +carried away by their own arguments. +</P> + +<P> +That inhospitable village was left behind in full belief the mountain +looming in the south could be reached before nightfall, while the road +to its left would serve as a sure guide to food and shelter for the +evening. But, as it turned out, the morning's haze developed a strong +mist ere the afternoon was half gone, through which it was impossible +to see more than twenty yards. My hill loomed gigantic for a time with +a tantalising appearance of being only a mile or two ahead, then +wavered, became visionary, and finally disappeared as completely as +though the forest mist had drunk it up bodily. +</P> + +<P> +There was still the road to guide me, a fairly well-beaten track +twining through the glades; but even the best of highways are difficult +in fog, and this one was complicated by various side paths, made +probably by hunters or bark-cutters, and without compass or guide marks +it was necessary to advance with extreme caution, or get helplessly +mazed. +</P> + +<P> +An hour's steady tramping brought me nowhere in particular, and +stopping for a minute to consider, I picked a few wild fruit, such as +my wood-cutter friend had eaten, from an overhanging bush, and in so +doing slipped, the soil having now become damp, and in falling broke a +branch off. The incident was only important from what follows. Picking +myself up, perhaps a little shaken by the jolt, I set off again upon +what seemed the plain road, and being by this time displeased by my +surroundings, determined to make a push for "civilization" before the +rapidly gathering darkness settled down. +</P> + +<P> +Hands in pockets and collar up, I marched forward at a good round pace +for an hour, constantly straining eyes for a sight of the hill and ears +for some indications of living beings in the deathly hush of the +shrouded woods, and at the end of that time, feeling sure habitations +must now be near, arrived at what looked like a little open space, +somehow seeming rather familiar in its vague outlines. +</P> + +<P> +Where had I seen such a place before? Sauntering round the margin, a +bush with a broken branch suddenly attracted my attention—a broken +bush with a long slide in the mud below it, and the stamp of Navy boots +in the soft turf! I glared at those signs for a moment, then with an +exclamation of chagrin recognised them only too well—it was the bush +whence I had picked the fruit, and the mark of my fall. An hour's hard +walking round some accursed woodland track had brought me exactly back +to the point I had started from—I was lost! +</P> + +<P> +It really seemed to get twenty per cent darker as I made that +abominable discovery, and the position dawned in all its uncomfortable +intensity. There was nothing for it but to start off again, this time +judging my direction only by a light breath of air drifting the mist +tangles before it; and therein I made a great mistake, for the breeze +had shifted several points from the quarter whence it blew in the +morning. +</P> + +<P> +Knowing nothing of this, I went forward with as much lightheartedness +as could be managed, humming a song to myself, and carefully putting +aside thoughts of warmth and supper, while the dusk increased and the +great forest vegetation seemed to grow ranker and closer at every step. +</P> + +<P> +Another disconcerting thing was that the ground sloped gradually +downwards, not upwards as it should have done, till it seemed the path +lay across the flats of a forest-covered plain, which did not conform +to my wish of striking a road on the foot-hills of the mountain. +However, I plodded on, drawing some small comfort from the fact that as +darkness came the mist rose from the ground and appeared to condense in +a ghostly curtain twenty feet overhead, where it hung between me and a +clear night sky, presently illumined by starlight with the strangest +effect. +</P> + +<P> +Tired, footsore, and dejected, I struggled on a little further. Oh for +a cab, I laughed bitterly to myself. Oh for even the humble necessary +omnibus of civilisation. Oh for the humblest tuck-shop where a mug of +hot coffee and a snack could be had by a homeless wanderer; and as I +thought and plodded savagely on, collar up, hands in pockets, through +the black tangles of that endless wood, suddenly the sound of wailing +children caught my ear! +</P> + +<P> +It was the softest, saddest music ever mortal listened to. It was as +though scores of babes in pain were dropping to sleep on their mothers' +breasts, and all hushing their sorrows with one accord in a common +melancholy chorus. I stood spell-bound at that elfin wailing, the +first sound to break the deathly stillness of the road for an hour or +more, and my blood tingled as I listened to it. Nevertheless, here was +what I was looking for; where there were weeping children there must be +habitations, and shelter, and—splendid thought!—supper. Poor little +babes! their crying was the deadliest, sweetest thing in sorrows I ever +listened to. If it was cholic—why, I knew a little of medicine, and in +gratitude for that prospective supper, I had a soul big enough to cure +a thousand; and if they were in disgrace, and by some quaint Martian +fashion had suffered simultaneous punishment for baby offences, I would +plead for them. +</P> + +<P> +In fact, I fairly set off at the run towards the sobbing, in the black, +wet, night air ahead, and, tripping as I ran, looked down and saw in +the filtering starlight that the forest grass had given place to an +ancient roadway, paved with moss-grown flag-stones, such as they still +used in Seth. +</P> + +<P> +Without stopping to think what that might mean I hurried on, the +wailing now right ahead, a tremulous tumult of gentle grief rising and +falling on the night air like the sound of a sea after a storm; and so, +presently, in a minute or two, came upon a ruined archway spanning the +lonely road, held together by great masses of black-fingered creepers, +gaunt and ghostly in the shadows, an extraordinary and unexpected +vision; and as I stopped with a jerk under that forbidding gateway and +glared at its tumbled masonry and great portals hanging rotten at their +hinges, suddenly the truth flashed upon me. I had taken the forbidden +road after all. I was in the ancient, ghost-haunted city of Queen Yang! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<P> +The dark forest seemed to shut behind as I entered the gateway of the +deserted Hither town, against which my wood-cutter friend had warned +me, while inside the soft mist hung in the starlight like grey drapery +over endless vistas of ruins. What was I to do? Without all was black +and cheerless, inside there was at least shelter. Wet and cold, my +courage was not to be put down by the stories of a silly savage; I +would go on whatever happened. Besides, the soft sound of crying, now +apparently all about, seemed companionable, and I had heard so much of +ghosts of late, the sharp edge of fear at their presence was wearing +off. +</P> + +<P> +So in I went: up a broad, decayed street, its flagstones heaved +everywhere by the roots of gnarled trees, and finding nothing save +ruin, tried to rest under a wall. But the night air was chilly and the +shelter poor, so out I came again, with the wailing in the shadows so +close about now that I stopped, and mustering up courage called aloud: +</P> + +<P> +"Hullo, you who weep there in the dark, are you living or dead?" And +after a minute from the hollows of the empty hearths around came the +sad little responsive echo: +</P> + +<P> +"Are you living or dead?" It was very delusive and unsatisfactory, and +I was wondering what to do next when a slant of warmer wind came up +behind me under the mist, and immediately little tongues of blue flame +blossomed without visible cause in every darksome crevice; pale +flickers of miasmic light rising pallid from every lurking nook and +corner in the black desolation as though a thousand lamps were lit by +unseen fingers, and, knee high, floated out into the thoroughfare where +they oscillated gently in airy grace, and then, forming into +procession, began drifting before the tepid air towards the city +centre. At once I thought of what the woodcutter had seen, but was too +wet and sulky by this time to care. The fascination of the place was on +me, and dropping into rear of the march, I went forward with it. By +this time the wailing had stopped, though now and then it seemed a dark +form moved in the empty doorways on either hand, while the mist, +parting into gossamers before the wind, took marvellously human forms +in every alley and lane we passed. +</P> + +<P> +Thus I, a sodden giant, led by those elfin torches, paced through the +city until we came to an open square with a great lumber of ruins in +the centre all marred and spoiled by vegetation; and here the lights +wavered, and went out by scores and hundreds, just as the petals drop +from spent flowers, while it seemed, though it may have been only wind +in the rank grass, that the air was full of most plaintive sighs as +each little lamp slipped into oblivion. +</P> + +<P> +The big pile was a mass of fallen masonry, which, from the broken +pillars all about, might have been a palace or temple once. I pushed +in, but it was as dark as Hades here, so, after struggling for a time +in a labyrinth of chambers, chose a sandy recess, with some dry herbage +by way of bedding in a corner, and there, thankful at least for +shelter, 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 soon +sleeping peacefully. +</P> + +<P> +I dreamed that night that a woman, with a face as white as ivory, came +and bent over me. She led a babe by either hand, while behind her were +scores of other ones, with lovely faces, but all as pale as the stars +themselves, who looked and sighed, but said nothing, and when they had +stared their fill, dropped out one by one, leaving a wonderful blank in +the monotony where they had been; but beyond that dream nothing +happened. +</P> + +<P> +It was a fine morning when I woke again, and obviously broad day +outside, the sunshine coming down through cracks in the old palace +roof, and lying in golden pools on the floor with dazzling effect. +</P> + +<P> +Rubbing my eyes and sitting up, it took me some time to get my senses +together, and at first an uneasy feeling possessed me that I was +somehow dematerialised and in an unreal world. But a twinge of cramp +in my left arm, and a healthy sneeze, which frightened a score of bats +overhead nearly out of their senses, was reassuring on this point, and +rubbing away the cramp and staggering to my feet, I looked about at the +strange 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 massive +columns meeting overhead. Into these the yellow light filtered +wherever a rent in a cupola or side-wall admitted it, and allured by +the vision of corridors one beyond the other, I presently set off on a +tour of discovery. +</P> + +<P> +Twenty minutes' scrambling brought me to a place where the fallen jambs +of a fine doorway lay so close together that there was barely room to +pass between them. However, seeing light beyond, I squeezed through, +and I found myself in the best-preserved chamber of all—a wide, roomy +hall with a domed roof, a haze of mural paintings on the walls, and a +marble floor nearly hidden in a century of fallen dust. I stumbled over +something at the threshold, and picking it up, found it was a baby's +skull! And there were more of them now that my eyes became accustomed +to the light. The whole floor was mottled with them—scores and +hundreds of bones and those poor little relics of humanity jutting out +of the sand everywhere. In the hush of that great dead nursery the +little white trophies seemed inexpressibly pathetic, and I should have +turned back reverently from that chamber of forgotten sorrows but that +something caught my eye in the centre of it. +</P> + +<P> +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 and +fell straight upon it, the marble against the black gloom beyond blazed +like living pearl. It was dazzling; and shading my eyes and going +tenderly over through the poor dead babes, I looked, and there, full in +the shine, lay a woman's skeleton, still wrapped in a robe of which +little was left save the hard gold embroidery. Her brown hair, +wonderful to say, still lay like lank, dead seaweed about her, and +amongst it was a fillet crown of plain iron set with gems such as eye +never looked upon before. There were not many, but enough to make the +proud simplicity of that circlet glisten like a little band of fire—a +gleaming halo on her dead forehead infinitely fascinating. At her +sides were two other little bleached human flowers, and I stood before +them for a long time in silent sympathy. +</P> + +<P> +Could this be Queen Yang, of whom the woodcutter had told me? It must +be—who else? And if it were, what strange chance had brought me +here—a stranger, yet the first to come, since her sorrow, from her +distant kindred? And if it were, then that fillet belonged of right to +Heru, the last representative of her kind. Ought I not to take it to +her rather than leave it as spoil to the first idle thief with pluck +enough to deride the mysteries of the haunted city? Long time I thought +over it in the faint, heavy atmosphere of that hall, and then very +gently unwound the hair, lifted the circlet, and, scarcely knowing what +I did, put it in my shoulder-bag. +</P> + +<P> +After that I went more cheerfully into the outside sunshine, and +setting my clothes to dry on a stone, took stock of the situation. The +place was, perhaps, not quite so romantic by day as by night, and the +scattered trees, matted by creepers, with which the whole were +overgrown, prevented anything like an extensive view of the ruined city +being obtained. But what gave me great satisfaction was to note over +these trees to the eastward a two-humped mountain, not more than six or +seven miles distant—the very one I had mislaid the day before. Here +was reality and a chance of getting back to civilisation. I was as +glad as if home were in sight, and not, perhaps, the less so because +the hill meant villages and food; and you who have doubtless lunched +well and lately will please bear in mind I had had nothing since +breakfast the day before; and though this may look picturesque on +paper, in practice it is a painful item in one's programme. +</P> + +<P> +Well, I gave my damp clothes but a turn or two more in the sun, and +then, arguing that from the bare ground where the forest ended half-way +up the hill, a wide view would be obtained, hurried into my garments +and set off thither right gleefully. A turn or two down the blank +streets, now prosaic enough, an easy scramble through a gap in the +crumbling battlements, and there was the open forest again, with a +friendly path well marked by the passage of those wild animals who made +the city their lair trending towards my landmark. +</P> + +<P> +A light breakfast of soft green nuts, plucked on the way, and then the +ground began to bend upwards and the woods to thin a little. With +infinite ardour, just before midday, I scrambled on to a bare knoll on +the very hillside, and fell exhausted before the top could be reached. +</P> + +<P> +But what were hunger or fatigue to the satisfaction of that moment? +There was the sea before me, the clear, strong, gracious sea, blue +leagues of it, furrowed by the white ridges of some distant storm. I +could smell the scent of it even here, and my sailor heart rose in +pride at the companionship of that alien ocean. Lovely and blessed +thing! how often have I turned from the shallow trivialities of the +land and found consolation in the strength of your stately solitudes! +How often have I turned from the tinselled presence of the shore, the +infinite 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 the +sequence of your strong emotions from the painted fripperies of the +woman-land as pole from pole—the grateful blessing of the humblest of +your followers on you! +</P> + +<P> +The mere sight of salt water did me good. Heaven knows our separation +had not been long, and many an unkind slap has the Mother given me in +the bygone; yet the mere sight of her was tonic, a lethe of troubles, a +sedative for tired nerves; and I gazed that morning at the illimitable +blue, the great, unfettered road to everywhere, the ever-varied, the +immutable, the thing which was before everything and shall be last of +all, in an ecstasy of affection. +</P> + +<P> +There was also other satisfaction at hand. Not a mile away lay a +well-defined road—doubtless the one spoken of by the wood-cutter—and +where the track pointed to the seashore the low roofs and circling +smoke of a Thither township showed. +</P> + +<P> +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 demanded +breakfast of the man who was lounging by its doorway chewing a honey +reed. He looked me up and down without emotion, then, falling into the +common mistake, said, +</P> + +<P> +"This is not a hostel for ghosts, sir. We do not board and lodge +phantoms here; this is a dry fish shop." +</P> + +<P> +"Thrice blessed trade!" I answered. "Give me some dried fish, good +fellow, or, for the matter of that, dried horse or dog, or anything +mortal teeth can bite through, and I will show you my tastes are +altogether mundane." +</P> + +<P> +But he shook his head. "This is no place for the likes of you, who +come, mayhap, from the city of Yang or some other abode of disembodied +spirits—you, who come for mischief and pay harbourage with +mischance—is it likely you could eat wholesome food?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I could, and plenty of it, seeing I have dined and breakfasted +along the hedges with the blackbirds this two days. Look here, I will +pay in advance. Will that get me a meal?" and, whipping out my knife, +cut off another of my fast-receding coat buttons. +</P> + +<P> +The man took it with great interest, as I hoped he would, the yellow +metal being apparently a very scarce commodity in his part of the +planet. +</P> + +<P> +"Gold?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Well—ahem! I forgot to ask the man who sewed them on for me what +they were exactly, but it looks like gold, doesn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he answered, turning it to and fro admiringly in his hand, "you +are the first ghost I ever knew to pay in advance, and plenty of them +go to and fro through here. Such a pretty thing is well worth a +meal—if, indeed, you can stomach our rough fare. Here, you woman +within," he called to the lady whom I presume was his wife, "here is a +gentleman from the nether regions who wants some breakfast and has paid +in advance. Give him some of your best, for he has paid well." +</P> + +<P> +"And what," said a female voice from inside, "what if I refused to +serve another of these plaguy wanderers you are always foisting upon +me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't mind her tongue, sir. It's the worst part of her, though she is +mighty proud of it. Go in and she will see you do not come out +hungry," and the Thither man returned calmly to his honey stick. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, you Soul-with-a-man's-stomach," growled the woman, and too +hungry to be particular about the tone of invitation, I strode into the +parlour of that strange refreshment place. The woman was the first I +had seen of the outer race, and better than might have been expected in +appearance. Big, strong, and ruddy, she was a mental shock after the +slender slips of girlhood on the far side of the water, half a dozen of +whom she could have carried off without effort in her long arms. Yet +there was about her the credential of rough health, the dignity of +muscle, an upright carriage, an animal grace of movement, and withal a +comely though strongly featured face, which pleased me at once, and +later on I had great cause to remember her with gratitude. She eyed me +sulkily for a minute, then her frown gradually softened, and the +instinctive love of the woman for the supernatural mastered her other +feelings. +</P> + +<P> +"Is that how you looked in another world?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, exactly, cap to boots. What do you think of the attire, ma'am?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not much," replied the good woman frankly. "It could not have been +becoming even when new, and you appear as though you had taken a muddy +road since then. What did you die of?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will tell you so much as this, madam—that what I am like to die of +now is hunger, plain, unvarnished hunger, so, in Heaven's name, get out +what you have and let me fall-to, for my last meal was yesterday +morning." +</P> + +<P> +Whereat, with a shrug of her shoulders at the eccentricities of nether +folk, the woman went to the rear of the house, and presently came back +with a meal which showed her husband had done scant justice to the +establishment by calling it a dry fish shop. It is true, fish supplied +the staple of the repast, as was inevitable in a seaport, but, like all +Martian fish, it was of ambrosial kind, with a savour about it of wine +and sunshine such as no fish on our side of space can boast of. Then +there were cakes, steaming and hot, vegetables which fitted into the +previous course with exquisite nicety, and, lastly, a wooden tankard of +the invariable Thither beer to finish off. Such a meal as a hungry man +might consider himself fortunate to meet with any day. +</P> + +<P> +The woman watched me eat with much satisfaction, and when I had +answered a score of artless questions about my previous state, or +present condition and prospects, more or less to her satisfaction, she +supplied me in turn with some information which was really valuable to +me just then. +</P> + +<P> +First I learned that Ar-hap's men, with the abducted Heru, had passed +through this very port two days before, and by this time were probably +in the main town, which, it appeared, was only about twelve hours' +rowing up the salt-water estuary outside. Here was news! Heru, the +prize and object of my wild adventure, close at hand and well. It +brought a whole new train of thoughts, for the last few days had been +so full of the stress of travel, the bare, hard necessity of getting +forward, that the object of my quest, illogical as it may seem, had +gone into the background before these things. And here again, as I +finished 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 venturing +single-handed into the den of the Wood King. What had I to hope for? +What chance, however remote, was there of successfully wresting that +blooming prize from the arms of her captor? Force was out of the +question; stealth was utterly impractical; as for cajolery, apparently +the sole remaining means of winning back the Princess—why, one might +as well try the persuasion of a penny flute upon a hungry eagle as seek +to rouse Ar-hap's sympathies for bereaved Hath in that way. Surely to +go forward would mean my own certain destruction, with no advantage, no +help 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; to +them I could return before it was too late, and here were the rough but +honest Thither folk, who would doubtless let me live amongst them if +that was to be my fate. One or other alternative were better than going +to torture and death. +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to take the fate of that Hither girl of yours mightily to +heart, stranger," quoth my hostess, with a touch of feminine jealousy, +as she watched my hesitation. "Do you know anything of her?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," I answered gloomily. "I have seen her once or twice away in +Seth." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, that reminds me! When they brought her up here from the boats to +dry her wet clothes, she cried and called in her grief for just such a +one as you, saying he alone who struck down our men at her feast could +rescue her—" +</P> + +<P> +"What! Heru here in this room but yesterday! How did she look? Was +she hurt? How had they treated her?" +</P> + +<P> +My eagerness gave me away. The woman looked at me through her +half-shut eyes a space, and then said, "Oh! sits the wind in THAT +quarter? So you can love as well as eat. I must say you are +well-conditioned for a spirit." +</P> + +<P> +I got up and walked about the room a space, then, feeling very +friendless, and knowing no woman was ever born who was not interested +in another woman's loves, I boldly drew my hostess aside and told her +about Heru, and that I was in pursuit of her, dwelling on the girl's +gentle helplessness, my own hare-brained adventure, and frankly asking +what sort of a sovereign Ar-hap was, what the customs of his court +might be, and whether she could suggest any means, temporal or +spiritual, by which he might be moved to give back Heru to her kindred. +</P> + +<P> +Nor was my confidence misplaced. The woman, as I guessed, was touched +somewhere back in her female heart by my melting love-tale, by my +anxiety and Heru's peril. Besides, a ghost in search of a fairy +lady—and such the slender folk of Seth were still considered to be by +the race which had supplanted them—this was romance indeed. To be +brief, that good woman proved invaluable. +</P> + +<P> +She told me, firstly, that Ar-hap was believed to be away at war, +"weekending" as was his custom, amongst rebellious tribes, and by +starting at once up the water, I should very probably get to the town +before he did. Secondly, she thought if I kept clear of private brawls +there was little chance of my receiving injury, from the people at all +events, as they were accustomed to strange visitors, and civil enough +until they were fired by war. "Sickle cold, sword hot," was one of +their proverbs, meaning thereby that in peaceful times they were lambs, +however lionlike they might be in contest. +</P> + +<P> +This was reassuring, but as to recovering the lady, that was another +matter over which the good woman shook her head. It was ill coming +between Ar-hap and his tribute, she said; still, if I wanted to see +Heru once again, this was my opportunity, and, for the rest, that +chance, which often favours the enamoured, must be my help. +</P> + +<P> +Briefly, though I should probably have gone forward in any case out of +sheer obstinacy, had it been to certain destruction, this better aspect +of 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 and +speediest way of getting within earshot of his hairy sovereignty, the +monarch of Thitherland. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<P> +The Martian told me of a merchant boat with ten rowers which was going +up to the capital in a couple of hours, and as the skipper was a friend +of his they would no doubt take me as supercargo, thereby saving the +necessity of passenger fees, which was obviously a consideration with +me. It was not altogether a romantic approach to the dungeon of an +imprisoned beauty, but it was practical, which is often better if not +so pleasant. So the offer was gladly closed with, and curling myself in +a rug of foxskins, for I was tired with much walking, sailors never +being good foot-gangers, I slept soundly fill they came to tell me it +was time to go on board. +</P> + +<P> +The vessel was more like a canal barge than anything else, lean and +long, with the cargo piled in a ridge down the centre as farmers store +their winter turnips, the rowers sitting on either side of this plying +oars like dessert-spoons with long handles, while they chanted a +monotonous cadence of monosyllables: +</P> + +<PRE CLASS="poem"> + Oh, ho, oh, + Oh, ho, oh, + How high, how high. +</PRE> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +and then again after a pause— +</P> + +<PRE CLASS="poem"> + How high, how high + Oh, ho, oh, + Oh, ho, oh. +</PRE> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +the which was infinitely sleep-provoking if not a refrain of a high +intellectual order. +</P> + +<P> +I shut my eyes as we pulled away from the wharfs of that nameless +emporium and picked a passage through a crowd of quaint shipping, +wondering where I was, and asking myself whether I was mentally rising +equal to my extraordinary surroundings, whether I adequately +appreciated the immensity of my remove from those other seas on which I +had last travelled, tiller-ropes in hand, piloting a captain's galley +from a wharf. Good heavens, what would my comrades on my ship say if +they could see me now steering a load of hairy savages up one of those +waterways which our biggest telescopes magnify but to the thickness of +an indication? No, I was not rising equal to the occasion, and could +not. The human mind is of but limited capacity after all, and such +freaks of fortune are beyond its conception. I knew I was where I was, +but I knew I should probably never get the chance of telling of it, and +that no one would ever believe me if I did, and I resigned myself to +the inevitable with sullen acquiescence, smothering the wonder that +might have been overwhelming in passing interests of the moment. +</P> + +<P> +There is little to record of that voyage. We passed through a fleet of +Ar-hap's warships, empty and at anchor in double line, serviceable +half-decked cutters, built of solid timber, not pumpkin rind it was +pleasant to notice, and then the town dropped away as we proceeded up a +stream about as broad as the Hudson at its widest, and profusely +studded with islands. This water was bitterly salt and joined another +sea on the other side of the Martian continent. Yet it had a +pronounced flow against us eastward, this tide running for three spring +months and being followed, I learned, as ocean temperatures varied, by +a flow in the opposite direction throughout the summer. +</P> + +<P> +Just at present the current was so strong eastwards, the moisture +beaded upon my rowers' tawny hides as they struggled against it, and +their melancholy song dawdled in "linked sweetness long drawn out," +while the swing of their oars grew longer and longer. Truly it was +very hot, far hotter than was usual for the season, these men declared, +and possibly this robbed me of my wonted energy, and you, gentle +reader, of a description of all the strange things we passed upon that +highway. +</P> + +<P> +Suffice it to say we spent a scorching afternoon, the greater part of a +stifling night moored under a mud-bank with a grove of trees on top +from which gigantic fire-flies hung as though the place were +illuminated for a garden fete, and then, rowing on again in the +comparatively cool hours before dawn, turned into a backwater at +cock-crow. +</P> + +<P> +The skipper of our cargo boat roused me just as we turned, putting +under my sleepy nostrils a handful of toasted beans on a leaf, and a +small cup full of something that was not coffee, but smelt as good as +that matutinal beverage always does to the tired traveller. +</P> + +<P> +Over our prow was an immense arch of foliage, and underneath a long +arcade of cool black shadows, sheltering still water, till water and +shadow suddenly ended a quarter of a mile down in a patch of brilliant +colour. It was as peaceful as could be in the first morning light, and +to me over all there was the inexpressible attraction of the unknown. +</P> + +<P> +As our boat slipped silently forward up this leafy lane, a thin white +"feather" in her mouth alone breaking the steely surface of the stream, +the men rested from their work and began, as sailors will, to put on +their shore-going clothes, the while they chatted in low tones over the +profits of the voyage. Overhead flying squirrels were flitting to and +fro like bats, or shelling fruit whereof the husks fell with a pleasant +splash about us, and on one bank a couple of early mothers were washing +their babies, whose smothered protests were almost the only sound in +this morning world. +</P> + +<P> +Another silent dip or two of the oars and the colour ahead crystallised +into a town. If I said it was like an African village on a large +scale, I should probably give you the best description in the fewest +words. From the very water's edge up to the crown of a low hill inland, +extended a mass of huts and wooden buildings, embowered and partly +hidden in bright green foliage, with here and there patches of millet, +or some such food plant, and the flowers that grow everywhere so +abundantly in this country. It was all Arcadian and peaceful enough at +the moment, and as we drew near the men were just coming out to the +quays along the harbour front, the streets filling and the town waking +to busy life. +</P> + +<P> +A turn to the left through a watergate defended by towers of wood and +mud, and we were in the city harbour itself; boats of many kinds moored +on every side; quaint craft from the gulfs and bays of Nowhere, full of +unheard-of merchandise, and manned by strange-faced crews, every vessel +a romance of nameless seas, an epitome of an undiscovered world, and +every moment the scene grew busier as the breakfast smoke arose, and +wharf and gangway set to work upon the day's labours. +</P> + +<P> +Our boat—loaded, as it turned out, with spoil from Seth—was run to a +place of honour at the bottom of the town square, and was an object of +much curiosity to a small crowd which speedily collected and lent a +hand with the mooring ropes, the while chatting excitedly with the crew +about further tribute and the latest news from overseas. At the same +time a swarthy barbarian, whose trappings showed him to be some sort of +functionary, came down to our "captain," much wagging of heads and +counting of notched sticks taking place between them. +</P> + +<P> +I, indeed, was apparently the least interesting item of the cargo, and +this was embarrassing. No hero likes to be neglected, it is fatal to +his part. I had said my prayers and steeled myself to all sorts of +fine endurance on the way up, and here, when it came to the crisis, no +one was anxious to play the necessary villain. They just helped me +ashore civilly enough, the captain nodded his head at me, muttering +something in an indifferent tone to the functionary about a ghost who +had wandered overseas and begged a passage up the canal; the group +about the quay stared a little, but that was all. +</P> + +<P> +Once I remember seeing a squatting, life-size heathen idol hoisted from +a vessel's hold and deposited on a sugar-box on a New York quay. Some +ribald passer-by put a battered felt hat upon Vishnu's sacred curls, +and there the poor image sat, an alien in an indifferent land, a sack +across its shoulders, a "billycock" upon its head, and honoured at most +with a passing stare. I thought of that lonely image as almost as +lonely I stood on the Thither men's quay, without the support of +friends or heroics, wondering what to do next. +</P> + +<P> +However, a cheerful disposition is sometimes better than a banking +account, and not having the one I cultivated the other, sunning myself +amongst the bales for a time, and then, since none seemed interested in +me, wandered off into the town, partly to satisfy my curiosity, and +partly in the vague hope of ascertaining if my princess was really +here, and, if possible, getting sight of her. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile it turned hot with a supernatural, heavy sort of heat +altogether, I overheard passersby exclaiming, out of the common, and +after wandering for an hour through gardens and endless streets of +thatched huts, I was glad enough to throw myself down in the shadow of +some trees on the outskirts of the great central pile of buildings, a +whole village in itself of beam-built towers and dwelling-place, +suggesting by its superior size that it might actually be Ar-hap's +palace. +</P> + +<P> +Hotter and hotter it grew, while a curious secondary sunrise in the +west, the like of which I never saw before seemed to add to the heat, +and heavier and heavier my eyelids, till I dozed at last, and finally +slept uncomfortably for a time. +</P> + +<P> +Rousing up suddenly, imagine my surprise to see sitting, chin on knees, +about a yard away, a slender girlish figure, infinitely out of place in +that world of rough barbarians. Was it possible? Was I dreaming? No, +there was no doubt about it, she was a girl of the Hither folk, slim +and pretty, but with a wonderfully sad look in her gazelle eyes, and +scarcely a sign of the indolent happiness of Seth in the pale little +face regarding me so fixedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Good gracious, miss," I said, still rubbing my eyes and doubting my +senses, "have you dropped from the skies? You are the very last person +I expected to see in this barbarian place." +</P> + +<P> +"And you too, sir. Oh, it is lovely to see one so newly from home, and +free-seeming—not a slave." +</P> + +<P> +"How did you know I was from Seth?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that was easy enough," and with a little laugh she pointed to a +pebble lying between us, on which was a piece of battered sweetmeat in +a perforated bamboo box. Poor An had given me something just like that +in a playful mood, and I had kept it in my pocket for her sake, being, +as you will have doubtless observed, a sentimental young man, and now I +clapped my hand where it should have been, but it was gone. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said my new friend, "that is yours. I smelt the sweetmeat +coming up the hill, and crossed the grass until I found you here +asleep. Oh, it was lovely! I took it from your pocket, and white Seth +rose up before my swimming eyes, even at the scent of it. I am Si, +well named, for that in our land means sadness, Si, the daughter of +Prince Hath's chief sweetmeat-maker, so I should know something of such +stuff. May I, please, nibble a little piece?" +</P> + +<P> +"Eat it all, my lass, and welcome. How came you here? But I can +guess. Do not answer if you would rather not." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, but I will. It is not every day I can speak to ears so friendly +as yours. I am a slave, chosen for my luckless beauty as last year's +tribute to Ar-hap." +</P> + +<P> +"And now?" +</P> + +<P> +"And now the slave of Ar-hap's horse-keeper, set aside to make room for +a fresher face." +</P> + +<P> +"And do you know whose face that is?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not I, a hapless maid sent into this land of horrors, to bear ignominy +and stripes, to eat coarse food and do coarse work, the miserable +plaything of some brute in semi-human form, with but the one +consolation of dying early as we tribute-women always die. Poor +comrade in exile, I only know her as yet by sympathy." +</P> + +<P> +"What if I said it was Heru, the princess?" +</P> + +<P> +The Martian girl sprang to her feet, and clasping her hands exclaimed, +</P> + +<P> +"Heru, the Slender! Then the end comes, for it is written in our books +that the last tribute is paid when the best is paid. Oh, how splendid +if she gave herself of free will to this slavery to end it once for +all. Was it so?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think, Si, your princess could not have known of that tradition; she +did not come willingly. Besides, I am come to fetch her back, if it +may be, and that spoils the look of sacrifice." +</P> + +<P> +"You to fetch her back, and from Ar-hap's arms? My word, Sir Spirit, +you must know some potent charms; or, what is less likely, my +countrymen must have amazingly improved in pluck since I left them. +Have you a great army at hand?" +</P> + +<P> +But I only shook my head, and, touching my sword, said that here was +the only army coming to rescue Heru. Whereon the lady replied that she +thought my valour did me more honour than my discretion. How did I +propose to take the princess from her captors? +</P> + +<P> +"To tell the truth, damsel, that is a matter which will have to be left +to your invention, or the kindness of such as you. I am here on a +hare-brained errand, playing knight-errant in a way that shocks my +common sense. But since the matter has gone so far I will see it +through, or die in the attempt. Your bully lord shall either give me +Heru, stock, lock, and block, or hang me from a yard-arm. But I would +rather have the lady. Come, you will help me; and, as a beginning, if +she is in yonder shanty get me speech with her." +</P> + +<P> +Poor Si's eyes dilated at the peril of the suggestion, and I saw the +sluggish Martian nature at war against her better feelings. But +presently the latter conquered. "I will try," she said. "What matter +a few stripes more or less?" pointing to her rosy shoulders where red +scars crisscross upon one another showed how the Martian girls fared in +Ar-hap's palace when their novelty wore off. "I will try to help you; +and if they kill me for it—why, that will not matter much." And +forthwith in that blazing forenoon under the flickering shadow of the +trees we put our heads together to see what we might do for Heru. +</P> + +<P> +It was not much for the moment. Try what we would that afternoon, I +could not persuade those who had charge of the princess to let me even +approach her place of imprisonment, but Si, as a woman, was more +successful, actually seeing her for a few moments, and managed to +whisper in her ear that I had come, the +Spirit-with-the-gold-buttons-down-his front, afterwards describing to +me in flowing Martian imagery—but doubtless not more highly coloured +than poor Heru's emotion warranted—how delightedly that lady had +received the news. +</P> + +<P> +Si also did me another service, presenting me to the porter's wife, who +kept a kind of boarding-house at the gates of Ar-hap's palace for +gentlemen and ladies with grievances. I had heard of lobbying before, +and the presentation of petitions, though I had never indulged myself +in the pastime; but the crowd of petitioners here, with petitions as +wild and picturesque as their own motley appearances, was surely the +strangest that ever gathered round a seat of supreme authority. +</P> + +<P> +Si whispered in the ear of that good woman the nature of my errand, +with doubtless some blandishment of her own; and my errand being one so +much above the vulgar and so nearly touching the sovereign, I was at +once accorded a separate room in the gate-house, whence I could look +down in comparative peace on the common herd of suitors, and listen to +the buzz of their invective as they practised speeches which I +calculated it would take Ar-hap all the rest of his reign to listen to, +without allowing him any time for pronouncing verdicts on them. +</P> + +<P> +Here I made myself comfortable, and awaited the return of the sovereign +as placidly as might be. Meanwhile fate was playing into my feeble +hands. +</P> + +<P> +I have said it was hot weather. At first this seemed but an outcome of +the Martian climate, but as the hours went by the heat developed to an +incredible extent. Also that red glare previously noted in the west +grew in intensity, till, as the hours slipped by, all the town was +staring at it in panting horror. I have seen a prairie on fire, +luckily from the far side of a comfortably broad river, and have ridden +through a pine-forest when every tree for miles was an uplifted torch, +and pungent yellow smoke rolled down each corrie side in grey rivers +crested with dancing flame. But that Martian glare was more sombre and +terrible than either. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" I asked of poor Si, who came out gasping to speak to me +by the gate-house. +</P> + +<P> +"None of us know, and unless the gods these Thither folk believe in are +angry, and intend to destroy the world with yonder red sword in the +sky, I cannot guess. Perhaps," she added, with a sudden flash of +inspiration, "it comes by your machinations for Heru's help." +</P> + +<P> +"No!" +</P> + +<P> +"If not by your wish, then, in the name of all you love, set your wish +against it. If you know any incantations suitable for the occasion, +oh, practise them now at once, for look, even the very grass is +withering; birds are dropping from trees; fishes, horribly bloated, are +beginning to float down the steaming rills; and I, with all others, +have a nameless dread upon me." +</P> + +<P> +Hotter and hotter it grew, until about sunset the red blaze upon the +sky slowly opened, and showed us for about half an hour, through the +opening a lurid, flame-coloured meteor far out in space beyond; then +the cleft closed again, and through that abominable red curtain came +the very breath of Hades. +</P> + +<P> +What was really happening I am not astronomer enough to say, though on +cooler consideration I have come to the conclusion that our planet, in +going out to its summer pastures in the remoter fields of space, had +somehow come across a wandering lesser world and got pretty well singed +in passing. This is purely my own opinion, and I have not yet +submitted it to the kindly authorities of the Lick Observatory for +verification. All I can say for certain is that in an incredibly short +space of time the face of the country changed from green to sear, +flowers drooped; streams (there were not many in the neighbourhood +apparently) dried up; fishes died; a mighty thirst there was nothing to +quench settled down on man and beast, and we all felt that unless +Providence listened to the prayers and imprecations which the whole +town set to work with frantic zeal to hurl at it, or that abominable +comet in the sky sheered off on another tack with the least possible +delay, we should all be reduced to cinders in a very brief space of +time. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + +<P> +The evening of the second day had already come, when Ar-hap arrived +home after weekending amongst a tribe of rebellious subjects. But any +imposing State entry which might have been intended was rendered +impossible by the heat and the threat of that baleful world in the +western sky. +</P> + +<P> +It was a lurid but disordered spectacle which I witnessed from my room +in the gate-house just after nightfall. The returning army had +apparently fallen away exhausted on its march through the town; only +some three hundred of the bodyguard straggled up the hill, limp and +sweating, behind a group of pennons, in the midst of which rode a +horseman whose commanding presence and splendid war harness impressed +me, though I could not make out his features; a wild, impressionist +scene of black outlines, tossing headgear, and spears glittering and +vanishing in front of the red glare in the sky, but nothing more. Even +the dry throats of the suitors in the courtyard hardly mustered a husky +cry of welcome as the cavalcade trooped into the enclosure, and then +the shadows enfolded them up in silence, and, too hot and listless to +care much what the morrow brought forth, I threw myself on the bare +floor, tossing and turning in a vain endeavour to sleep until dawn came +once more. +</P> + +<P> +A thin mist which fell with daybreak drew a veil over the horrible +glare in the west for an hour or two, and taking advantage of the +slight alleviation of heat, I rose and went into the gardens to enjoy a +dip in a pool, making, with its surrounding jungle of flowers, one of +the pleasantest things about the wood-king's forest citadel. The very +earth seemed scorched and baking underfoot—and the pool was gone! It +had run as dry as a limekiln; nothing remained of the pretty fall which +had fed it but a miserable trickle of drops from the cascade above. +Down beyond the town shone a gleam of water where the bitter canal +steamed and simmered in the first grey of the morning, but up here six +months of scorching drought could not have worked more havoc. The very +leaves were dropping from the trees, and the luxuriant growths of the +day before looked as though a simoon had played upon them. +</P> + +<P> +I staggered back in disgust, and found some show of official activity +about the palace. It was the king's custom, it appeared, to hear +petitions and redress wrongs as soon after his return as possible, but +today the ceremony was to be cut short as his majesty was going out +with all his court to a neighbouring mountain to "pray away the comet," +which by this time was causing dire alarm all through the city. +</P> + +<P> +"Heaven's own particular blessing on his prayers, my friend," I said to +the man who told me this. "Unless his majesty's orisons are fruitful, +we shall all be cooked like baked potatoes before nightfall, and though +I have faced many kinds of death, that is not the one I would choose by +preference. Is there a chance of myself being heard at the throne? +Your peculiar climate tempts me to hurry up with my business and begone +if I may." +</P> + +<P> +"Not only may you be heard, sir, but you are summoned. The king has +heard of you somehow, and sent me to find and bring you into his +presence at once." +</P> + +<P> +"So be it," I said, too hot to care what happened. "I have no levee +dress with me. I lost my luggage check some time ago, but if you will +wait outside I will be with you in a moment." +</P> + +<P> +Hastily tidying myself up, and giving my hair a comb, as though just +off to see Mr. Secretary for the Navy, or on the way to get a senator +to push a new patent medicine for me, I rejoined my guide outside, and +together we crossed the wide courtyard, entered the great log-built +portals of Ar-hap's house, and immediately afterwards found ourselves +in a vast hall dimly lit by rays coming in through square spaces under +the eaves, and crowded on both sides with guards, courtiers, and +supplicants. The heat was tremendous, the odour of Thither men and the +ill-dressed hides they wore almost overpowering. Yet little I recked +for either, for there at the top of the room, seated on a dais made of +rough-hewn wood inlet with gold and covered with splendid furs, was +Ar-hap himself. +</P> + +<P> +A fine fellow, swarthy, huge, and hairy, at any other time or place I +could have given him due admiration as an admirable example of the +savage on the borderland of grace and culture, but now I only glanced +at him, and then to where at his side a girl was crouching, a gem of +human loveliness against that dusky setting. It was Heru, my ravished +princess, and, still clad in her diaphanous Hither robes, her face +white with anxiety, her eyes bright as stars, the embodiment of +helpless, flowery beauty, my heart turned over at sight of her. +</P> + +<P> +Poor girl! When she saw me stride into the hall she rose swiftly from +Ar-hap's side, clasped her pretty hands, and giving a cry of joy would +have rushed towards me, but the king laid a mighty paw upon her, under +which she subsided with a shiver as though the touch had blanched all +the life within. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning, your majesty," I said, walking boldly up to the lower +step of the dais. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning, most singular-looking vagrant from the Unknown," +answered the monarch. "In what way can I be of service to you?'' +</P> + +<P> +"I have come about that girl," I said, nodding to where Heru lay +blossoming in the hot gloom like some night-flowering bud. "I do not +know whether your majesty is aware how she came here, but it is a +highly discreditable incident in what is doubtless your otherwise +blameless reign. Some rough scullions intrusted with the duty of +collecting your majesty's customs asked Prince Hath of the Hither +people to point out the most attractive young person at his wedding +feast, and the prince indicated that lady there at your side. It was a +dirty trick, and all the worse because it was inspired by malice, which +is the meanest of all weaknesses. I had the pleasure of knocking down +some of your majesty's representatives, but they stole the girl away +while I slept, and, briefly, I have come to fetch her back." +</P> + +<P> +The monarch had followed my speech, the longest ever made in my life, +with fierce, blinking eyes, and when it stopped looked at poor +shrinking Heru as though for explanation, then round the circle of his +awestruck courtiers, and reading dismay at my boldness in their faces, +burst into a guttural laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you have the great and puissant Hither nation behind you in +this request, Mr. Spirit?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I came alone, hoping to find justice here, and, if not, then +prepared to do all I could to make your majesty curse the day your +servants maltreated my friends." +</P> + +<P> +"Tall words, stranger! May I ask what you propose to do if Ar-hap, in +his own palace, amongst his people and soldiers, refuses to disgorge a +pretty prize at the bidding of one shabby interloper—muddy and +friendless?" +</P> + +<P> +"What should I do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said the king, with a haughty frown. "What would you do?" +</P> + +<P> +I do not know what prompted the reply. For a moment I was completely +at a loss what to say to this very obvious question, and then all on a +sudden, remembering they held me to be some kind of disembodied spirit, +by a happy inspiration, fixing my eyes grimly on the king, I answered, +</P> + +<P> +"What would I do? Why, I WOULD HAUNT YOU!" +</P> + +<P> +It may not seem a great stroke of genius here, but the effect on the +Martian was instantaneous. He sat straight up, his hands tightened, +his eyes dilated, and then fidgeting uneasily, after a minute he +beckoned to an over-dressed individual, whom Heru afterwards told me +was the Court necromancer, and began whispering in his ear. +</P> + +<P> +After a minute's consultation he turned again, a rather frightened +civility struggling in his face with anger, and said, "We have no wish, +of course, stranger, to offend you or those who had the honour of your +patronage. Perhaps the princess here was a little roughly handled, +and, I confess, if she were altogether as reluctant as she seems, a +lesser maid would have done as well. I could have wooed this one in +Seth, where I may shortly come, and our espousals would possibly have +lent, in the eyes of your friends, quite a cheerful aspect to my +arrival. But my ambassadors have had no great schooling in diplomacy; +they have brought Princess Heru here, and how can I hand her over to +one I know nothing of? How do I know you are a ghost, after all? How +do I know you have anything but a rusty sword and much impertinence to +back your astounding claim?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, let it be just as you like," I said, calmly shelling and eating a +nut I had picked up. "Only if you do not give the maid back, why, +then—" And I stopped as though the sequel were too painful to put into +words. +</P> + +<P> +Again that superstitious monarch of a land thronged with malicious +spirits called up his magician, and, after they had consulted a moment, +turned more cheerfully to me. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, Mister-from-Nowhere, if you are really a spirit, and have +the power to hurt as you say, you will have the power also to go and +come between the living and the dead, between the present and the past. +Now I will set you an errand, and give you five minutes to do it in." +</P> + +<P> +"Five minutes!" I exclaimed in incautious alarm. +</P> + +<P> +"Five minutes," said the monarch savagely. "And if in that time the +errand is not done, I shall hold you to be an impostor, an impudent +thief from some scoundrel tribe of this world of mine, and will make of +you an example which shall keep men's ears tingling for a century or +two." +</P> + +<P> +Poor Heru dropped in a limp and lovely heap at that dire threat, while +I am bound to say I felt somewhat uncomfortable, not unnaturally when +all the circumstances are considered, but contented myself with +remarking, with as much bravado as could be managed, +</P> + +<P> +"And now to the errand, Ar-hap. What can I do for your majesty?" +</P> + +<P> +The king consulted with the rogue at his elbow, and then nodding and +chuckling in expectancy of his triumph, addressed me. +</P> + +<P> +"Listen," he cried, smiting a huge hairy hand upon his knee, "listen, +and do or die. My magician tells me it is recorded in his books that +once, some five thousand years ago, when this land belonged to the +Hither people, there lived here a king. It is a pity he died, for he +seems to have been a jovial old fellow; but he did die, and, according +to their custom, they floated him down the stream that flows to the +regions of eternal ice, where doubtless he is at this present moment, +caked up with ten million of his subjects. Now just go and find that +sovereign for me, oh you bold-tongued dweller in other worlds!" +</P> + +<P> +"And if I go how am I to know your ancient king, as you say, amongst +ten million others?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is easy enough," quoth Ar-hap lightly. "You have only to pass to +and fro through the ice mountains, opening the mouths of the dead men +and women you meet, and when you come to a middle-sized man with a +fillet on his head and a jaw mended with gold, that will be he whom you +look for. Bring me that fillet here within five minutes and the maid is +yours." +</P> + +<P> +I started, and stared hard in amazement. Was this a dream? Was the +royal savage in front playing with me? By what incredible chance had +he hit upon the very errand I could answer to best, the very trophy I +had brought away from the grim valley of ice and death, and had still +in my shoulder-bag? No, he was not playing; he was staring hard in +turn, joying in my apparent confusion, and clearly thinking he had +cornered me beyond hope of redemption. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely your mightiness is not daunted by so simple a task," scowled +the sovereign, playing with the hilt of his huge hunting-knife, "and +all amongst your friends' kindred too. On a hot day like this it ought +to be a pleasant saunter for a spirit such as yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"Not daunted," I answered coldly, turning on my heels towards the door, +"only marvelling that your majesty's skull and your necromancer's could +not between them have devised a harder task." +</P> + +<P> +Out into the courtyard I went, with my heart beating finely in spite of +my assumed indifference; got the bag from a peg in my sleeping-room, +and was back before the log throne ere four minutes were gone. +</P> + +<P> +"The old Hither king's compliments to your majesty," I said, bowing, +while a deathly hush fell on all the assembly, "and he says though your +ancestors little liked to hear his voice while alive, he says he has no +objection to giving you some jaw now he is dead," and I threw down on +the floor the golden circlet of the frozen king. +</P> + +<P> +Ar-hap's eyes almost started from his head as, with his courtiers, he +glared in silent amazement at that shining thing while the great drops +of fear and perspiration trickled down his forehead. As for poor Heru, +she rose like a spirit behind them, gazed at the jaw-bone of her +mythical ancestor, and then suddenly realising my errand was done and +she apparently free, held out her hands, and, with a tremulous cry, +would have come to me. +</P> + +<P> +But Ar-hap was too quick for her. All the black savage blood swelled +into his veins as he swept her away with one great arm, and then with +his foot gave the luckless jaw a kick that sent it glittering and +spinning through the far doorway out into the sunshine. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down," he roared, "you brazen wench, who are so eager to leave a +king's side for a nameless vagrant's care! And you, sir," turning to +me, and fairly trembling with rage and dread, "I will not gainsay that +you have done the errand set you, but it might this once be chance that +got you that cursed token, some one happy turn of luck. I will not +yield my prize on one throw of the dice. Another task you must do. +Once might be chance, but such chance comes not twice." +</P> + +<P> +"You swore to give me the maid this time." +</P> + +<P> +"And why should I keep my word to a half-proved spirit such as you?" +</P> + +<P> +"There are some particularly good reasons why you should," I said, +striking an attitude which I had once seen a music-hall dramatist take +when he was going to blast somebody's future—a stick with a star on +top of it in his hand and forty lines of blank verse in his mouth. +</P> + +<P> +The king writhed, and begged me with a sign to desist. +</P> + +<P> +"We have no wish to anger you. Do us this other task and none will +doubt that you are a potent spirit, and even I, Ar-hap, will listen to +you." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then," I answered sulkily, "what is it to be this time?" +</P> + +<P> +After a minute's consultation, and speaking slowly as though conscious +of how much hung on his words, the king said, +</P> + +<P> +"Listen! My soothsayer tells me that somewhere there is a city lost in +a forest, and a temple lost in the city, and a tomb lost in the temple; +a city of ghosts and djins given over to bad spirits, wherefore all +human men shun it by day and night. And on the tomb is she who was +once queen there, and by her lies her crown. Quick! oh you to whom all +distances are nothing, and who see, by your finer essence, into all +times and places. Away to that city! Jostle the memories of the +unclean things that hide in its shadows; ask which amongst them knows +where dead Queen Yang still lies in dusty state. Get guides amongst +your comrade ghosts. Find Queen Yang, and bring me here in five +minutes the bloody circlet from her hair." +</P> + +<P> +Then, and then for the first time, I believed the planet was haunted +indeed, and I myself unknowingly under some strange and watchful +influence. Spirits, demons! Oh! what but some incomprehensible power, +some unseen influence shaping my efforts to its ends, could have moved +that hairy barbarian to play a second time into my hands like this, to +choose from the endless records of his world the second of the two +incidents I had touched in hasty travel through it? I was almost +overcome for a minute; then, pulling myself together, strode forward +fiercely, and, speaking so that all could hear me, cried, "Base king, +who neither knows the capacities of a spirit nor has learned as yet to +dread its anger, see! your commission is executed in a thought, just as +your punishment might be. Heru, come here." And when the girl, +speechless with amazement, had risen and slipped over to me, I +straightened her pretty hair from her forehead, and then, in a way +which would make my fortune if I could repeat it at a conjuror's table, +whipped poor Yang's gemmy crown from my pocket, flashed its baleful +splendour in the eyes of the courtiers, and placed it on the tresses of +the first royal lady who had worn it since its rightful owner died a +hundred years before. +</P> + +<P> +A heavy silence fell on the hall as I finished, and nothing was heard +for a time save Heru sobbing on my breast and a thirsty baby somewhere +outside calling to its mother for the water that was not to be had. But +presently on those sounds came the fall of anxious feet, and a +messenger, entering the doorway, approached the throne, laid himself +out flat twice, after which obeisance he proceeded to remind the king +of the morning's ceremonial on a distant hill to "pray away the comet," +telling his majesty that all was ready and the procession anxiously +awaiting him. +</P> + +<P> +Whereon Ar-hap, obviously very well content to change the subject, +rose, and, coming down from the dais, gave me his hand. He was a fine +fellow, as I have said, strong and bold, and had not behaved badly for +an autocrat, so that I gripped his mighty fist with great pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot deny, stranger," he said, "that you have done all that has +been asked of you, and the maid is fairly yours. Yet before you take +away the prize I must have some assurance of what you yourself will do +with her. Therefore, for the moment, until this horrible thing in the +sky which threatens my people with destruction has gone, let it be +truce between us—you to your lodgings, and the princess back, +unharmed, amongst my women till we meet again." +</P> + +<P> +"But—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," said the king, waving his hand. "Be content with your +advantage. And now to business more important than ten thousand silly +wenches," and gathering up his robes over his splendid war-gear the +wood king stalked haughtily from the hall. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<P> +Hotter and hotter grew that stifling spell, more and more languid man +and beast, drier and drier the parching earth. +</P> + +<P> +All the water gave out on the morning after I had bearded Ar-hap in his +den, and our strength went with it. No earthly heat was ever like it, +and it drank our vitality up from every pore. Water there was down +below in the bitter, streaming gulf, but so noisome that we dared not +even bathe there; here there was none but the faintest trickle. All +discipline was at an end; all desire save such as was born of thirst. +Heru I saw as often as I wished as she lay gasping, with poor Si at her +feet, in the women's verandah; but the heat was so tremendous that I +gazed at her with lack-lustre eyes, staggering to and fro amongst the +courtyard shadows, without nerve to plot her rescue or strength to +carry out anything my mind might have conceived. +</P> + +<P> +We prayed for rain and respite. Ar-hap had prayed with a wealth of +picturesque ceremonial. We had all prayed and cursed by turns, but +still the heavens would not relent, and the rain came not. +</P> + +<P> +At last the stifling heat and vapour reached an almost intolerable +pitch. The earth reeked with unwholesome humours no common summer could +draw from it, the air was sulphurous and heavy, while overhead the sky +seemed a tawny dome, from edge to edge of angry clouds, parting now and +then to let us see the red disc threatening us. +</P> + +<P> +Hour after hour slipped by until, when evening was upon us, the clouds +drew together, and thunder, with a continuous low rumble, began to rock +from sky to sky. Fitful showers of rain, odorous and heavy, but +unsatisfying, fell, and birds and beasts of the woodlands came slinking +in to our streets and courtyards. Ever since the sky first darkened +our own animals had become strangely familiar, and now here were these +wild things of the woods slinking in for companionship, sagheaded and +frightened. To me especially they came, until that last evening as I +staggered dying about the streets or sat staring into the remorseless +sky from the steps of Heru's prison house, all sorts of beasts drew +softly in and crowded about, whether I sat or moved, all asking for the +hope I had not to give them. +</P> + +<P> +At another time this might have been embarrassing; then it seemed pure +commonplace. It was a sight to see them slink in between the useless +showers, which fell like hot tears upon us—sleek panthers with lolling +tongues; russet-red wood dogs; bears and sloths from the dark arcades +of the remote forests, all casting themselves down gasping in the +palace shadows; strange deer, who staggered to the garden plots and lay +there heaving their lives out; mighty boars, who came from the river +marshes and silently nozzled a place amongst their enemies to die in! +Even the wolves came off the hills, and, with bloodshot eyes and +tongues that dripped foam, flung themselves down in my shadow. +</P> + +<P> +All along the tall stockades apes sat sad and listless, and on the +roof-ridges storks were dying. Over the branches of the trees, whose +leaves were as thin as though we had had a six months' drought, the +toucans and Martian parrots hung limp and fashionless like gaudy rags, +and in the courtyard ground the corn-rats came up from their tunnels in +the scorching earth to die, squeaking in scores along under the walls. +</P> + +<P> +Our common sorrow made us as sociable as though I were Noah, and +Ar-hap's palace mound another Ararat. Hour after hour I sat amongst +all these lesser beasts in the hot darkness, waiting for the end. +Every now and then the heavy clouds parted, changing the gloom to +sudden fiery daylight as the great red eye in the west looked upon us +through the crevice, and, taking advantage of those gleams, I would +reel across to where, under a spout leading from a dried rivulet, I had +placed a cup to collect the slow and tepid drops that were all now +coming down the reed for Heru. And as I went back each time with that +sickly spoonful at the bottom of the vessel all the dying beasts lifted +their heads and watched—the thirsty wolves shambling after me; the +boars half sat up and grunted plaintively; the panthers, too weak to +rise, beat the dusty ground with their tails; and from the portico the +blue storks, with trailing wings, croaked husky greeting. +</P> + +<P> +But slower and slower came the dripping water, more and more +intolerable the heat. At last I could stand it no longer. What +purpose did it serve to lay gasping like this, dying cruelly without a +hope of rescue, when a shorter way was at my side? I had not drank for +a day and a half. I was past active reviling; my head swam; my reason +was clouded. No! I would not stand it any longer. Once more I would +take Heru and poor Si the cup that was but a mockery after all, then +fix my sword into the ground and try what next the Fates had in store +for me. +</P> + +<P> +So once again the leathern mug was fetched and carried through the +prostrate guards to where the Martian girl lay, like a withered flower, +upon her couch. Once again I moistened those fair lips, while my own +tongue was black and swollen in my throat, then told Si, who had had +none all the afternoon, to drink half and leave half for Heru. Poor Si +put her aching lips to the cup and tilted it a little, then passed it +to her mistress. And Heru drank it all, and Si cried a few hot tears +behind her hands, FOR SHE HAD TAKEN NONE, and she knew it was her life! +</P> + +<P> +Again picking a way through the courtyard, scarce noticing how the +beasts lifted their heads as I passed, I went instinctively, cup in +hand, to the well, and then hesitated. Was I a coward to leave Heru +so? Ought I not to stay and see it out to the bitter end? Well, I +would compound with Fate. I would give the malicious gods one more +chance. I would put the cup down again, and until seven drops had +fallen into it I would wait. That there might be no mistake about it, +no sooner was the mug in place under the nozzle wherefrom the moisture +beads collected and fell with infinite slowness, than my sword, on +which I meant to throw myself, was bared and the hilt forced into a +gaping crack in the ground, and sullenly contented to leave my fate so, +I sat down beside it. +</P> + +<P> +I turned grimly to the spout and saw the first drop fall, then another, +and another later on, but still no help came. There was a long rift in +the clouds now, and a glare like that from an open furnace door was +upon me. I had noticed when I came to the spring how the comet which +was killing us hung poised exactly upon the point of a distant hill. If +he had passed his horrible meridian, if he was going from us, if he +sunk but a hair's breadth before that seventh drop should fall, I could +tell it would mean salvation. +</P> + +<P> +But the fourth drop fell, and he was big as ever. The fifth drop fell, +and a hot, pleasing nose was thrust into my hand, and looking down I +saw a grey wolf had dragged herself across the court and was asking +with eloquent eyes for the help I could not give. The sixth drop +gathered, and fell; already the seventh was like a seedling pearl in +its place. The dying wolf yanked affectionately at my hand, but I put +her by and undid my tunic. Big and bright that drop hung to the spout +lip; another minute and it would fall. A beautiful drop, I laughed, +peering closely at it, many-coloured, prismatic, flushing red and pink, +a tiny living ruby, hanging by a touch to the green rim above; enough! +enough! The quiver of an eyelash would unhinge it now; and angry with +the life I already felt was behind me, and turning in defiant +expectation to the new to come, I rose, saw the red gleam of my sword +jutting like a fiery spear from the cracking soil where I had planted +it, then looked once more at the drop and glanced for the last time at +the sullen red terror on the hill. +</P> + +<P> +Were my eyes dazed, my senses reeling? I said a space ago that the +meteor stood exactly on the mountain-top and if it sunk a hair's +breadth I should note it; and now, why, there WAS a flaw in its lower +margin, a flattening of the great red foot that before had been round +and perfect. I turned my smarting eyes away a minute,—saw the seventh +drop fall with a melodious tingle into the cup, then back again,—there +was no mistake—the truant fire was a fraction less, it had shrunk a +fraction behind the hill even since I looked, and thereon all my life +ran back into its channels, the world danced before me, and "Heru!" I +shouted hoarsely, reeling back towards the palace, "Heru, 'tis well; +the worst is past!" +</P> + +<P> +But the little princess was unconscious, and at her feet was poor Si, +quite dead, still reclining with her head in her hands just as I had +left her. Then my own senses gave out, and dropping down by them I +remembered no more. +</P> + +<P> +I must have lain there an hour or two, for when consciousness came +again it was night—black, cool, profound night, with an inky sky low +down upon the tree-tops, and out of it such a glorious deluge of rain +descending swiftly and silently as filled my veins even to listen to. +Eagerly I shuffled away to the porch steps, down them into the swimming +courtyard, and ankle-deep in the glorious flood, set to work lapping +furiously at the first puddle, drinking with gasps of pleasure, gasping +and drinking again, feeling my body filling out like the thirsty +steaming earth below me. Then, as I still drank insatiably, there came +a gleam of lightning out of the gloom overhead, a brilliant yellow +blaze, and by it I saw a few yards away a panther drinking at the same +pool as myself, his gleaming eyes low down like mine upon the water, +and by his side two apes, the black water running in at their gaping +mouths, while out beyond were more pools, more drinking animals. +Everything was drinking. I saw their outlined forms, the gleam shining +on wet skins as though they were cut out in silver against the +darkness, each beast steaming like a volcano as the Heaven-sent rain +smoked from his fevered hide, all drinking for their lives, heedless of +aught else—and then came the thunder. +</P> + +<P> +It ran across the cloudy vault as though the very sky were being ripped +apart, rolling in mighty echoes here and there before it died away. As +it stopped, the rain also fell less heavily for a minute, and as I lay +with my face low down I heard the low, contented lapping of numberless +tongues unceasing, insatiable. Then came the lightning again, lighting +up everything as though it were daytime. The twin black apes were +still drinking, but the panther across the puddle had had enough; I saw +him lift his grateful head up to the flare; saw the limp red tongue +licking the black nose, the green eyes shining like opals, the water +dripping in threads of diamonds from the hairy tag under his chin and +every tuft upon his chest—then darkness again. +</P> + +<P> +To and fro the green blaze rocked between the thunder crashes. It +struck a house a hundred yards away, stripping every shingle from the +roof better than a master builder could in a week. It fell a minute +after on a tall tree by the courtyard gate, and as the trunk burst into +white splinters I saw every leaf upon the feathery top turn light side +up against the violet reflection in the sky beyond, and then the whole +mass came down to earth with a thud that crushed the courtyard palings +into nothing for twenty yards and shook me even across the square. +</P> + +<P> +Another time I might have stopped to marvel or to watch, as I have +often watched with sympathetic pleasure, the gods thus at play; but +tonight there were other things on hand. When I had drunk, I picked up +an earthen crock, filled it, and went to Heru. It was a rough +drinking-vessel for those dainty lips, and an indifferent draught, +being as much mud as aught else, but its effect was wonderful. At the +first touch of that turgid stuff a shiver of delight passed through the +drowsy lady. At the second she gave a sigh, and her hand tightened on +my arm. I fetched another crockful, and by the flickering light +rocking to and fro in the sky, took her head upon my shoulder, like a +prodigal new come into riches, squandering the stuff, giving her to +drink and bathing face and neck till presently, to my delight, the +princess's eyes opened. Then she sat up, and taking the basin from me +drank as never lady drank before, and soon was almost herself again. +</P> + +<P> +I went out into the portico, there snuffing the deep, strong breath of +the fragrant black earth receiving back into its gaping self what the +last few days had taken from it, while quick succeeding thoughts of +escape and flight passed across my brain. All through the fiery time +we had just had the chance of escaping with the fair booty yonder had +been present. Without her, flight would have been easy enough, but that +was not worth considering for a moment. With her it was more +difficult, yet, as I had watched the woodmen, accustomed to cool forest +shades, faint under the fiery glare of the world above, to make a dash +for liberty seemed each hour more easy. I had seen the men in the +streets drop one by one, and the spears fall from the hands of guards +about the pallisades; I had seen messengers who came to and fro +collapse before their errands were accomplished, and the forest women, +who were Heru's gaolers, groan and drop across the thresholds of her +prison, until at length the way was clear—a babe might have taken what +he would from that half-scorched town and asked no man's leave. Yet +what did it avail me? Heru was helpless, my own spirit burnt in a +nerveless frame, and so we stayed. +</P> + +<P> +But with rain strength came back to both of us. The guards, lying +about like black logs, were only slowly returning to consciousness; the +town still slept, and darkness favoured; before they missed us in the +morning light we might be far on the way back to Seth—a dangerous way +truly, but we were like to tread a rougher one if we stayed. In fact, +directly my strength returned with the cooler air, I made up my mind to +the venture and went to Heru, who by this time was much recovered. To +her I whispered my plot, and that gentle lady, as was only natural, +trembled at its dangers. But I put it to her that no time could be +better than the present: the storm was going over; morning would "line +the black mantle of the night with a pink dawn of promise"; before any +one stirred we might be far off, shaping a course by our luck and the +stars for her kindred, at whose name she sighed. If we stayed, I +argued, and the king changed his mind, then death for me, and for Heru +the arms of that surly monarch, and all the rest of her life caged in +these pallisades amongst the uncouth forms about us. +</P> + +<P> +The lady gave a frightened little shiver at the picture, but after a +moment, laying her head upon my shoulder, answered, "Oh, my guardian +spirit and helper in adversity, I too have thought of tomorrow, and +doubt whether that horror, that great swine who has me, will not invent +an excuse for keeping me. Therefore, though the forest roads are +dreadful, and Seth very far away, I will come; I give myself into your +hands. Do what you will with me." +</P> + +<P> +"Then the sooner the better, princess. How soon can you be prepared?" +</P> + +<P> +She smiled, and stooping picked up her slippers, saying as she did so, +"I am ready!" +</P> + +<P> +There were no arrangements to be made. Every instant was of value. So, +to be brief, I threw a dark cloak over the damsel's shoulders, for +indeed she was clad in little more than her loveliness and the gauziest +filaments of a Hither girl's underwear, and hand in hand led her down +the log steps, over the splashing, ankle-deep courtyard, and into the +shadows of the gateway beyond. +</P> + +<P> +Down the slope we went; along towards the harbour, through a score of +deserted lanes where nothing was to be heard but the roar of rain and +the lapping of men and beasts, drinking in the shadows as though they +never would stop, and so we came at last unmolested to the wharf. +There I hid royal Seth between two piles of merchandise, and went to +look for a boat suitable to our needs. There were plenty of small +craft moored to rings along the quay, and selecting a canoe—it was no +time to stand on niceties of property—easily managed by a single +paddle, I brought it round to the steps, put in a fresh water-pot, and +went for the princess. +</P> + +<P> +With her safely stowed in the prow, a helpless, sodden little morsel of +feminine loveliness, things began to appear more hopeful and an escape +down to blue water, my only idea, for the first time possible. Yet I +must needs go and well nigh spoil everything by over-solicitude for my +charge. +</P> + +<P> +Had we pushed off at once there can be no doubt my credit as a spirit +would have been established for all time in the Thither capital, and +the belief universally held that Heru had been wafted away by my +enchantment to the regions of the unknown. The idea would have +gradually grown into a tradition, receiving embellishments in +succeeding generations, until little wood children at their mother's +knees came to listen in awe to the story of how, once upon a time, the +Sun-god loved a beautiful maiden, and drove his fiery chariot across +the black night-fields to her prison door, scorching to death all who +strove to gainsay him. How she flew into his arms and drove away +before all men's eyes, in his red car, into the west, and was never +seen again—the foresaid Sun-god being I, Gulliver Jones, a much +under-paid lieutenant in the glorious United States navy, with a packet +of overdue tailors' bills in my pocket, and nothing lovable about me +save a partiality for meddling with other people's affairs. +</P> + +<P> +This is how it might have been, but I spoiled a pretty fairy story and +changed the whole course of Martian history by going back at that +moment in search of a wrap for my prize. Right on top of the steps was +a man with a lantern, and half a glance showed me it was the harbour +master met with on my first landing. +</P> + +<P> +"Good evening," he said suspiciously. "May I ask what you are doing on +the quay at such an hour as this?" +</P> + +<P> +"Doing? Oh, nothing in particular, just going out for a little +fishing." +</P> + +<P> +"And your companion the lady—is she too fond of fishing?" +</P> + +<P> +I swore between my teeth, but could not prevent the fellow walking to +the quay edge and casting his light full upon the figure of the girl +below. I hate people who interfere with other people's business! +</P> + +<P> +"Unless I am very much mistaken your fishing friend is the Hither woman +brought here a few days ago as tribute to Ar-hap." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," I answered, getting into a nice temper, for I had been very +much harrassed of late, "put it at that. What would you do if it were +so?" +</P> + +<P> +"Call up my rain-drunk guards, and give you in charge as a thief caught +meddling with the king's property." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks, but as my interviews with Ar-hap have already begun to grow +tedious, we will settle this little matter here between ourselves at +once." And without more to-do I closed with him. There was a brief +scuffle and then I got in a blow upon his jaw which sent the harbour +master flying back head over heels amongst the sugar bales and potatoes. +</P> + +<P> +Without waiting to see how he fared I ran down the steps, jumped on +board, loosened the rope, and pushed out into the river. But my heart +was angry and sore, for I knew, as turned out to be the case, that our +secret was one no more; in a short time we should have the savage king +in pursuit, and now there was nothing for it but headlong flight with +only a small chance of getting away to distant Seth. +</P> + +<P> +Luckily the harbour master lay insensible until he was found at dawn, +so that we had a good start, and the moment the canoe passed from the +arcade-like approach to the town the current swung her head +automatically seaward, and away we went down stream at a pace once more +filling me with hope. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H3> + +<P> +All went well and we fled down the bitter stream of the Martian gulf at +a pace leaving me little to do but guide our course just clear of snags +and promontories on the port shore. Just before dawn, however, with a +thin mist on the water and flocks of a flamingo-like bird croaking as +they flew southward overhead, we were nearly captured again. +</P> + +<P> +Drifting silently down on a rocky island, I was having a drink at the +water-pitcher at the moment, while Heru, her hair beaded with prismatic +moisture and looking more ethereal than ever, sat in the bows +timorously inhaling the breath of freedom, when all on a sudden voices +invisible in the mist, came round a corner. It was one of Ar-hap's +war-canoes toiling up-stream. Heru and I ducked down into the haze +like dab-chicks and held our breath. +</P> + +<P> +Straight on towards us came the toiling ship, the dip of oars resonant +in the hollow fog and a ripple babbling on her cutwater plainly +discernible. +</P> + +<BR> + +<PRE CLASS="poem"> + Oh, oh! + Hoo, hoo! + How high, how high!" +</PRE> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +sounded the sleepy song of the rowers till they were looming right +abreast and we could smell their damp hides in the morning air. Then +they stopped suddenly and some one asked, +</P> + +<P> +"Is there not something like a boat away on the right?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is nothing," said another, "but the lees of last night's beer +curdling in your stupid brain." +</P> + +<P> +"But I saw it move." +</P> + +<P> +"That must have been in dreams." +</P> + +<P> +"What is all that talking about?" growled a sleepy voice of authority +from the stern. +</P> + +<P> +"Bow man, sir, says he can see a boat." +</P> + +<P> +"And what does it matter if he can? Are we to delay every time that +lazy ruffian spying a shadow makes it an excuse to stop to yawn and +scratch? Go on, you plankful of lubbers, or I'll give you something +worth thinking about!" And joyfully, oh, so joyfully, we heard the +sullen dip of oars commence again. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing more happened after that till the sun at length shone on the +little harbour town at the estuary mouth, making the masts of fishing +craft clustering there like a golden reed-bed against the cool, clean +blue of the sea beyond. +</P> + +<P> +Right glad we were to see it, and keeping now in shadow of the banks, +made all haste while light was faint and mist hung about to reach the +town, finally pushing through the boats and gaining a safe hiding-place +without hostile notice before it was clear daylight. +</P> + +<P> +Covering Heru up and knowing well all our chances of escape lay in +expedition, I went at once, in pursuance of a plan made during the +night, to the good dame at what, for lack of a better name, must still +continue to be called the fish-shop, and finding her alone, frankly +told her the salient points of my story. When she learned I had +"robbed the lion of his prey" and taken his new wife singlehanded from +the dreaded Ar-hap her astonishment was unbounded. Nothing would do +but she must look upon the princess, so back we went to the +hiding-place, and when Heru knew that on this woman depended our lives +she stepped ashore, taking the rugged Martian hand in her dainty +fingers and begging her help so sweetly that my own heart was moved, +and, thrusting hands in pocket, I went aside, leaving those two to +settle it in their own female way. +</P> + +<P> +And when I looked back in five minutes, royal Seth had her arms round +the woman's neck, kissing the homely cheeks with more than imperial +fervour, so I knew all was well thus far, and stopped expectorating at +the little fishes in the water below and went over to them. It was +time! We had hardly spoken together a minute when a couple of +war-canoes filled with men appeared round the nearest promontory, +coming down the swift water with arrow-like rapidity. +</P> + +<P> +"Quick!" said the fishwife, "or we are all lost. Into your canoe and +paddle up this creek. It runs out to the sea behind the town, and at +the bar is my man's fishing-boat amongst many others. Lie hidden there +till he comes if you value your lives." So in we got, and while that +good Samaritan went back to her house we cautiously paddled through a +deserted backwater to where it presently turned through low sandbanks +to the gulf. There were the boats, and we hid the canoe and lay down +amongst them till, soon after, a man, easily recognised as the husband +of our friend, came sauntering down from the village. +</P> + +<P> +At first he was sullen, not unreasonably alarmed at the danger into +which his good woman was running him. But when he set eyes on Heru he +softened immediately. Probably that thick-bodied fellow had never seen +so much female loveliness in so small a bulk in all his life, and, +being a man, he surrendered at discretion. +</P> + +<P> +"In with you, then," he growled, "since I must needs risk my neck for a +pair of runaways who better deserve to be hung than I do. In with you +both into this fishing-cobble of mine, and I will cover you with nets +while I go for a mast and sail, and mind you lie as still as logs. The +town is already full of soldiers looking for you, and it will be short +shrift for us all if you are seen." +</P> + +<P> +Well aware of the fact and now in the hands of destiny, the princess +and I lay down as bidden in the prow, and the man covered us lightly +over with one of those fine meshed seines used by these people to catch +the little fish I had breakfasted on more than once. +</P> + +<P> +Materially I could have enjoyed the half-hour which followed, since +such rest after exertion was welcome, the sun warm, the lapping of sea +on shingle infinitely soothing, and, above all, Heru was in my arms! +How sweet and childlike she was! I could feel her little heart beating +through her scanty clothing, while every now and then she turned her +gazelle eyes to mine with a trust and admiration infinitely alluring. +Yes! as far as that went I could have lain there with that slip of +maiden royalty for ever, but the fascination of the moment was marred +by the thought of our danger. What was to prevent these new friends +giving us away? They knew we had no money to recompense them for the +risk they were running. They were poor, and a splendid reward, wealth +itself to them, would doubtless be theirs if they betrayed us even by a +look. Yet somehow I trusted them as I have trusted the poor before +with the happiest results, and telling myself this and comforting Heru, +I listened and waited. +</P> + +<P> +Minute by minute went by. It seemed an age since the fisherman had +gone, but presently the sound of voices interrupted the sea's murmur. +Cautiously stealing a glance through a chink imagine my feelings on +perceiving half a dozen of Ar-hap's soldiers coming down the beach +straight towards us! Then my heart was bitter within me, and I tasted +of defeat, even with Heru in my arms. Luckily even in that moment of +agony I kept still, and another peep showed the men were now wandering +about rather aimlessly. Perhaps after all they did not know of our +nearness? Then they took to horseplay, as idle soldiers will even in +Mars, pelting each other with bits of wood and dead fish, and thereon I +breathed again. +</P> + +<P> +Nearer they came and nearer, my heart beating fast as they strolled +amongst the boats until they were actually "larking" round the one next +to ours. A minute or two of this, and another footstep crunched on the +pebbles, a quick, nervous one, which my instinct told me was that of +our returning friend. +</P> + +<P> +"Hullo old sprat-catcher! Going for a sail?" called out a soldier, and +I knew that the group were all round our boat, Heru trembling so +violently in my breast that I thought she would make the vessel shake. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said the man gruffly. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's go with him," cried several voices. "Here, old dried haddock, +will you take us if we help haul your nets for you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I won't. Your ugly faces would frighten all the fish out of the +sea." +</P> + +<P> +"And yours, you old chunk of dried mahogany, is meant to attract them +no doubt." +</P> + +<P> +"Let's tie him to a post and go fishing in his boat ourselves," some +one suggested. Meanwhile two of them began rocking the cobble +violently from side to side. This was awful, and every moment I +expected the net and the sail which our friend had thrown down +unceremoniously upon us would roll off. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, stop that," said the Martian, who was no doubt quite as well aware +of the danger as we were. "The tide's full, the shoals are in the +bay—stop your nonsense, and help me launch like good fellows." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, take two of us, then. We will sit on this heap of nets as quiet +as mice, and stand you a drink when we get back." +</P> + +<P> +"No, not one of you," quoth the plucky fellow, "and here's my staff in +my hand, and if you don't leave my gear alone I will crack some of your +ugly heads." +</P> + +<P> +"That's a pity," I thought to myself, "for if they take to fighting it +will be six to one—long odds against our chances." There was indeed a +scuffle, and then a yell of pain, as though a soldier had been hit +across the knuckles; but in a minute the best disposed called out, "Oh, +cease your fun, boys, and let the fellow get off if he wants to. You +know the fleet will be down directly, and Ar-hap has promised something +worth having to the man who can find that lost bit of crackling of his. +It's my opinion she's in the town, and I for one would rather look for +her than go haddock fishing any day." +</P> + +<P> +"Right you are, mates," said our friend with visible relief. "And, +what's more, if you help me launch this boat and then go to my missus +and tell her what you've done, she'll understand, and give you the +biggest pumpkinful of beer in the place. Ah, she will understand, and +bless your soft hearts and heads while you drink it—she's a cute one +is my missus." +</P> + +<P> +"And aren't you afraid to leave her with us?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not I, my daisy, unless it were that a sight of your pretty face might +give her hysterics. Now lend a hand, your accursed chatter has already +cost me half an hour of the best fishing time." +</P> + +<P> +"In with you, old buck!" shouted the soldiers; I felt the fisherman +step in, as a matter of fact he stepped in on to my toes; a dozen hands +were on the gunwales: six soldier yells resounded, it seemed, in my +very ears: there was the grit and rush of pebbles under the keel: a +sudden lurch up of the bows, which brought the fairy lady's +honey-scented lips to mine, and then the gentle lapping of deep blue +waters underneath us! +</P> + +<P> +There is little more to be said of that voyage. We pulled until out of +sight of the town, then hoisted sail, and, with a fair wind, held upon +one tack until we made an island where there was a small colony of +Hither folk. +</P> + +<P> +Here our friend turned back. I gave him another gold button from my +coat, and the princess a kiss upon either cheek, which he seemed to +like even more than the button. It was small payment, but the best we +had. Doubtless he got safely home, and I can but hope that Providence +somehow or other paid him and his wife for a good deed bravely done. +</P> + +<P> +Those islanders in turn lent us another boat, with a guide, who had +business in the Hither capital, and on the evening of the second day, +the direct route being very short in comparison, we were under the +crumbling marble walls of Seth. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H3> + +<P> +It was like turning into a hothouse from a keen winter walk, our +arrival at the beautiful but nerveless city after my life amongst the +woodmen. +</P> + +<P> +As for the people, they were delighted to have their princess back, but +with the delight of children, fawning about her, singing, clapping +hands, yet asking no questions as to where she had been, showing no +appreciation of our adventures—a serious offence in my eyes—and, +perhaps most important of all, no understanding of what I may call the +political bearings of Heru's restoration, and how far their arch +enemies beyond the sea might be inclined to attempt her recovery. +</P> + +<P> +They were just delighted to have the princess back, and that was the +end of it. Theirs was the joy of a vast nursery let loose. Flower +processions were organised, garlands woven by the mile, a general order +issued that the nation might stay up for an hour after bedtime, and in +the vortex of that gentle rejoicing Heru was taken from me, and I saw +her no more, till there happened the wildest scene of all you have +shared with me so patiently. +</P> + +<P> +Overlooked, unthanked, I turned sulky, and when this mood, one I can +never maintain for long, wore off, I threw myself into the dissipation +about me with angry zeal. I am frankly ashamed of the confession, but +I was "a sailor ashore," and can only claim the indulgences proper to +the situation. I laughed, danced, drank, through the night; I drank +deep of a dozen rosy ways to forgetfulness, till my mind was a great +confusion, full of flitting pictures of loveliness, till life itself +was an illusive pantomime, and my will but thistle-down on the folly of +the moment. I drank with those gentle roisterers all through their +starlit night, and if we stopped when morning came it was more from +weariness than virtue. Then the yellow-robed slaves gave us the wine +of recovery—alas! my faithful An was not amongst them—and all through +the day we lay about in sodden happiness. +</P> + +<P> +Towards nightfall I was myself again, not unfortunately with the +headache well earned, but sufficiently remorseful to be in a vein to +make good resolutions for the future. +</P> + +<P> +In this mood I mingled with a happy crowd, all purposeless and cheerful +as usual, but before long began to feel the influence of one of those +drifts, a universal turning in one direction, as seaweed turns when the +tide changes, so characteristic of Martian society. It was dusk, a +lovely soft velvet dusk, but not dark yet, and I said to a yellow-robed +fairy at my side: +</P> + +<P> +"Whither away, comrade? It is not eight bells yet. Surely we are not +going to be put to bed so early as this?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said that smiling individual, "it is the princess. We are going +to listen to Princess Heru in the palace square. She reads the globe +on the terrace again tonight, to see if omens are propitious for her +marriage. She MUST marry, and you know the ceremony has been +unavoidably postponed so far." +</P> + +<P> +"Unavoidably postponed?" Yes, Heaven wotted I was aware of the fact. +And was Heru going to marry black Hath in such a hurry? And after all +I had done for her? It was scarcely decent, and I tried to rouse +myself to rage over it, but somehow the seductive Martian contentment +with any fate was getting into my veins. I was not yet altogether sunk +in their slothful acceptance of the inevitable, but there was not the +slightest doubt the hot red blood in me was turning to vapid stuff such +as did duty for the article in their veins. I mustered up a +half-hearted frown at this unwelcome intelligence, turning with it on +my face towards the slave girl; but she had slipped away into the +throng, so the frown evaporated, and shrugging my shoulders I said to +myself, "What does it matter? There are twenty others will do as well +for me. If not one, why then obviously another, 'tis the only rational +way to think, and at all events there is the magic globe. That may +tell us something." And slipping my arm round the waist of the first +disengaged girl—we were not then, mind you, in Atlantic City—I kissed +her dimpling cheek unreproached, and gaily followed in the drift of +humanity, trending with a low hum of pleasure towards the great white +terraces under the palace porch. +</P> + +<P> +How well I knew them! It was just such an evening Heru had consulted +Fate in the same place once before; how much had happened since then! +But there was little time or inclination to think of those things now. +The whole phantom city's population had drifted to one common centre. +The crumbling seaward ramparts were all deserted; no soldier watch was +kept to note if angry woodmen came from over seas; a soft wind blew in +from off the brine, but told no tales; the streets were empty, and, +when as we waited far away in the southern sky the earth planet +presently got up, by its light Heru, herself again, came tripping down +the steps to read her fate. +</P> + +<P> +They had placed another magic globe under a shroud on a tripod for her. +It stood within the charmed circle upon the terrace, and I was close +by, although the princess did not see me. +</P> + +<P> +Again that weird, fantastic dance commenced, the princess working +herself up from the drowsiest undulations to a hurricane of emotion. +Then she stopped close by the orb, and seized the corner of the web +covering it. We saw the globe begin to beam with veiled magnificence at +her touch. +</P> + +<P> +Not an eye wavered, not a thought wandered from her in all that silent +multitude. It was a moment of the keenest suspense, and just when it +was at its height there came a strange sound of hurrying feet behind +the outermost crowd, a murmur such as a great pack of wolves might make +rushing through snow, while a soft long wail went up from the darkness. +</P> + +<P> +Whether Heru understood it or not I cannot say, but she hesitated a +moment, then swept the cloth from the orb of her fate. +</P> + +<P> +And as its ghostly, self-emitting light beamed up in the darkness with +weird brilliancy, there by it, in gold and furs and war panoply, huge, +fierce, and lowering, stood—AR-HAP HIMSELF! +</P> + +<P> +Ay, and behind him, towering over the crouching Martians, blocking +every outlet and street, were scores and hundreds of his men. Never +was surprise so utter, ambush more complete. Even I was transfixed +with astonishment, staring with open-mouthed horror at the splendid +figure of the barbarian king as he stood aglitter in the ruddy light, +scowling defiance at the throng around him. So silently had he come on +his errand of vengeance it was difficult to believe he was a reality, +and not some clever piece of stageplay, some vision conjured up by +Martian necromancy. +</P> + +<P> +But he was good reality. In a minute comedy turned to tragedy. Ar-hap +gave a sign with his hand, whereon all his men set up a terrible +warcry, the like of which Seth had not heard for very long, and as far +as I could make out in the half light began hacking and hewing my +luckless friends with all their might. Meanwhile the king made at +Heru, feeling sure of her this time, and doubtless intending to make +her taste his vengeance to the dregs; and seeing her handled like that, +and hearing her plaintive cries, wrath took the place of stupid +surprise in me. I was on my feet in a second, across the intervening +space, and with all my force gave the king a blow upon the jaw which +sent even him staggering backwards. Before I could close again, so +swift was the sequence of events in those flying minutes, a wild mob of +people, victims and executioners in one disordered throng, was between +us. How the king fared I know not, nor stopped to ask, but half +dragging, half carrying Heru through the shrieking mob, got her up the +palace steps and in at the great doors, which a couple of yellow-clad +slaves, more frightened of the barbarians than thoughtful of the crowd +without, promptly clapped to, and shot the bolts. Thus we were safe +for a moment, and putting the princess on a couch, I ran up a short +flight of stairs and looked out of a front window to see if there were +a chance of succouring those in the palace square. But it was all +hopeless chaos with the town already beginning to burn and not a show +of fight anywhere which I could join. +</P> + +<P> +I glared out on that infernal tumult for a moment or two in an agony of +impotent rage, then turned towards the harbour and saw in the shine of +the burning town below the ancient battlements and towers of Seth begin +to gleam out, like a splendid frost work of living metal clear-cut +against the smooth, black night behind, and never a show of resistance +there either. Ay, and by this time Ar-hap's men were battering in our +gates with a big beam, and somehow, I do not know how it happened, the +palace itself away on the right, where the dry-as-dust library lay, was +also beginning to burn. +</P> + +<P> +It was hopeless outside, and nothing to be done but to save Heru, so +down I went, and, with the slaves, carried her away from the hall +through a vestibule or two, and into an anteroom, where some +yellow-girt individuals were already engaged in the suggestive work of +tying up palace plate in bundles, amongst other things, alas! the great +gold love-bowl from which—oh! so long ago—I had drawn Heru's marriage +billet. These individuals told me in tremulous accents they had got a +boat on a secret waterway behind the palace whence flight to the main +river and so, far away inland, to another smaller but more peaceful +city of their race would be quite practical; and joyfully hearing this +news, I handed over to them the princess while I went to look for Hath. +</P> + +<P> +And the search was not long. Dashing into the banquet-hall, still +littered with the remains of a feast, and looking down its deserted +vistas, there at the farther end, on his throne, clad in the sombre +garments he affected, chin on hand, sedate in royal melancholy, +listening unmoved to the sack of his town outside, sat the prince +himself. Strange, gloomy man, the great dead intelligence of his race +shining in his face as weird and out of place as a lonely sea beacon +fading to nothing before the glow of sunrise, never had he appeared so +mysterious as at that moment. Even in the heat of excitement I stared +at him in amazement, wishing in a hasty thought the confusion of the +past few weeks had given me opportunity to penetrate the recesses of +his mind, and therefrom retell you things better worth listening to +than all the incident of my adventures. But now there was no time to +think, scarce time to act. +</P> + +<P> +"Hath!" I cried, rushing over to him, "wake up, your majesty. The +Thither men are outside, killing and burning!" +</P> + +<P> +"I know it." +</P> + +<P> +"And the palace is on fire. You can smell the reek even here." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Then what are you going to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"My word, that is a fine proposition for a prince! If you care nothing +for town or palace perhaps you will bestir yourself for Princess Heru." +</P> + +<P> +A faint glimmer of interest rose upon the alabaster calm of his face at +that name, but it faded instantly, and he said quietly, +</P> + +<P> +"The slaves will save her. She will live. I looked into the book of +her fate yesterday. She will escape, and forget, and sit at another +marriage feast, and be a mother, and give the people yet one more +prince to keep the faint glimmer of our ancestry alive. I am content." +</P> + +<P> +"But, d—- it, man, I am not! I take a deal more interest in the young +lady than you seem to, and have scoured half this precious planet of +yours on her account, and will be hanged if I sit idly twiddling my +thumbs while her pretty skin is in danger." But Hath was lost in +contemplation of his shoe-strings. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, sir," I said, shaking his majesty by the shoulder, "don't be +down on your luck. There has been some rivalry between us, but never +mind about that just now. The princess wants you. I am going to save +both her and you, you must come with her." +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"But you SHALL come." +</P> + +<P> +"No!" +</P> + +<P> +By this time the palace was blazing like a bonfire and the uproar +outside was terrible. What was I to do? As I hesitated the arras at +the further end of the hall was swept aside, a disordered mob of slaves +bearing bundles and dragging Heru with them rushing down to the door +near us. As Heru was carried swiftly by she stretched her milk-white +arms towards the prince and turned her face, lovely as a convolvulus +flower even in its pallor, upon him. +</P> + +<P> +It was a heart-moving appeal from a woman with the heart of a child, +and Hath rose to his feet while for a moment there shone a look of +responsible manhood in his eyes. But it faded quickly; he bowed slowly +as though he had received an address of condolence on the condition of +his empire, and the next moment the frightened slaves, stumbling under +their burdens, had swept poor Heru through the doorway. +</P> + +<P> +I glanced savagely round at the curling smoke overhead, the red +tendrils of fire climbing up a distant wall, and there on a table by us +was a half-finished flask of the lovely tinted wine of forgetfulness. +If Hath would not come sober perhaps he might come drunk. +</P> + +<P> +"Here," I cried, "drink to tomorrow, your majesty, a sovereign toast in +all ages, and better luck next time with these hairy gentlemen +battering at your majesty's doors," and splashing out a goblet full of +the stuff I handed it to him. +</P> + +<P> +He took it and looked rather lovingly into the limpid pool, then +deliberately poured it on the step in front of him, and throwing the +cup away said pleasantly, +</P> + +<P> +"Not tonight, good comrade; tonight I drink a deeper draught of +oblivion than that,—and here come my cup-bearers." +</P> + +<P> +Even while he spoke the palace gates had given way; there was a +horrible medley of shrieks and cries, a quick sound of running feet; +then again the arras lifted and in poured a horde of Ar-hap's +men-at-arms. The moment they caught sight of us about a dozen of them, +armed with bows, drew the thick hide strings to their ears and down the +hall came a ravening flight of shafts. One went through my cap, two +stuck quivering in the throne, and one, winged with owl feather, caught +black Hath full in the bosom. +</P> + +<P> +He had stood out boldly at the first coming of that onset, arms crossed +on breast, chin up, and looking more of a gentleman than I had ever +seen him look before; and now, stricken, he smiled gravely, then +without flinching, and still eyeing his enemies with gentle calm, his +knees unlocked, his frame trembled, then down he went headlong, his red +blood running forth in rivulets amongst the wine of oblivion he had +just poured out. +</P> + +<P> +There was no time for sentiment. I shrugged my shoulders, and turning +on my heels, with the woodmen close after me, sprang through the near +doorway. Where was Heru? I flew down the corridor by which it seemed +she had retreated, and then, hesitating a moment where it divided in +two, took the left one. This to my chagrin presently began to trend +upwards, whereas I knew Heru was making for the river down below. +</P> + +<P> +But it was impossible to go back, and whenever I stopped in those +deserted passages I could hear the wolflike patter of men's feet upon +my trail. On again into the stony labyrinths of the old palace, ever +upwards, in spite of my desire to go down, until at last, the pursuers +off the track for a moment, I came to a north window in the palace +wall, and, hot and breathless, stayed to look out. +</P> + +<P> +All was peace here; the sky a lovely lavender, a promise of coming +morning in it, and a gold-spangled curtain of stars out yonder on the +horizon. Not a soul moved. Below appeared a sheer drop of a hundred +feet into a moat winding through thickets of heavy-scented convolvulus +flowers to the waterways beyond. And as I looked a skiff with half a +dozen rowers came swiftly out of the darkness of the wall and passed +like a shadow amongst the thickets. In the prow was all Hath's wedding +plate, and in the stern, a faint vision of unconscious loveliness, lay +Heru! +</P> + +<P> +Before I could lift a finger or call out, even if I had had a mind to +do so, the shadow had gone round a bend, and a shout within the palace +told me I was sighted again. +</P> + +<P> +On once more, hotly pursued, until the last corridor ended in two doors +leading into a half-lit gallery with open windows at the further end. +There was a wilderness of lumber down the sides of the great garret, +and now I come to think of it more calmly I imagine it was Hath's Lost +Property Office, the vast receptacle where his slaves deposited +everything lazy Martians forgot or left about in their daily life. At +that moment it only represented a last refuge, and into it I dashed, +swung the doors to and fastened them just as the foremost of Ar-hap's +men hurled themselves upon the barrier from outside. +</P> + +<P> +There I was like a rat in a trap, and like a rat I made up my mind to +fight savagely to the end, without for a moment deceiving myself as to +what that end must be. Even up there the horrible roar of destruction +was plainly audible as the barbarians sacked and burned the ancient +town, and I was glad from the bottom of my heart my poor little +princess was safely out of it. Nor did I bear her or hers the least +resentment for making off while there was yet time and leaving me to my +fate—anything else would have been contrary to Martian nature. +Doubtless she would get away, as Hath had said, and elsewhere drop a +few pearly tears and then over her sugar-candy and lotus-eating forget +with happy completeness—most blessed gift! And meanwhile the foresaid +barbarians were battering on my doors, while over their heads choking +smoke was pouring in in ever-increasing volumes. +</P> + +<P> +In burst the first panel, then another, and I could see through the +gaps a medley of tossing weapons and wild faces without. Short shrift +for me if they came through, so in the obstinacy of desperation I set +to work to pile old furniture and dry goods against the barricade. And +as they yelled and hammered outside I screamed back defiance from +within, sweating, tugging, and hauling with the strength of ten men, +piling up the old Martian lumber against the opening till, so fierce +was the attack outside, little was left of the original doorway and +nothing between me and the besiegers but a rampart of broken woodwork +half seen in a smother of smoke and flames. +</P> + +<P> +Still they came on, thrusting spears and javelins through every crevice +and my strength began to go. I threw two tables into a gap, and +brained a besieger with a sweetmeat-seller's block and smothered +another, and overturned a great chest against my barricade; but what +was the purpose of it all? They were fifty to one and my rampart +quaked before them. The smoke was stifling, and the pains of +dissolution in my heart. They burst in and clambered up the rampart +like black ants. I looked round for still one more thing to hurl into +the breach. My eyes lit on a roll of carpet: I seized it by one corner +meaning to drag it to the doorway, and it came undone at a touch. +</P> + +<P> +That strange, that incredible pattern! Where in all the vicissitudes +of a chequered career had I seen such a one before? I stared at it in +amazement under the very spears of the woodmen in the red glare of +Hath's burning palace. Then all on a sudden it burst upon me that IT +WAS THE ACCURSED RUG, the very one which in response to a careless wish +had swept me out of my own dear world, and forced me to take as wild a +journey into space as ever fell to a man's lot since the universe was +made! +</P> + +<P> +And in another second it occurred to me that if it had brought me +hither it might take me hence. It was but a chance, yet worth trying +when all other chances were against me. As Ar-hap's men came shouting +over the barricade I threw myself down upon that incredible carpet and +cried from the bottom of my heart, +</P> + +<P> +"I wish—I wish I were in New York!" +</P> + +<P> +Yes! +</P> + +<P> +A moment of thrilling suspense and then the corners lifted as though a +strong breeze were playing upon them. Another moment and they had +curled over like an incoming surge. One swift glance I got at the +smoke and flames, the glittering spears and angry faces, and then fold +upon fold, a stifling, all-enveloping embrace, a lift, a sense of +super-human speed—and then forgetfulness. +</P> + +<P> +When I came to, as reporters say, I was aware the rug had ejected me on +solid ground and disappeared, forever. Where was I! It was cool, +damp, and muddy. There were some iron railings close at hand and a +street lamp overhead. These things showed clearly to me, sitting on a +doorstep under that light, head in hand, amazed and giddy—so amazed +that when slowly the recognition came of the incredible fact my wish +was gratified and I was home again, the stupendous incident scarcely +appealed to my tingling senses more than one of the many others I had +lately undergone. +</P> + +<P> +Very slowly I rose to my feet, and as like a discreditable reveller as +could be, climbed the steps. The front door was open, and entering the +oh, so familiar hall a sound of voices in my sitting-room on the right +caught my ear. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no, Mrs. Brown," said one, which I recognised at once as my +Polly's, "he is dead for certain, and my heart is breaking. He would +never, never have left me so long without writing if he had been +alive," and then came a great sound of sobbing. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless your kind heart, miss," said the voice of my landlady in reply, +"but you don't know as much about young gentlemen as I do. It is not +likely, if he has gone off on the razzle-dazzle, as I am sure he has, +he is going to write every post and tell you about it. Now you go off +to your ma at the hotel like a dear, and forget all about him till he +comes back—that's MY advice." +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot, I cannot, Mrs. Brown. I cannot rest by day or sleep by +night for thinking of him; for wondering why he went away so suddenly, +and for hungering for news of him. Oh, I am miserable. Gully! Gully! +Come to me," and then there were sounds of troubled footsteps pacing to +and fro and of a woman's grief. +</P> + +<P> +That was more than I could stand. I flung the door open, and, dirty, +dishevelled, with unsteady steps, advanced into the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Ahem!" coughed Mrs. Brown, "just as I expected!" +</P> + +<P> +But I had no eyes for her. "Polly! Polly!" I cried, and that dear +girl, after a startled scream and a glance to make sure it was indeed +the recovered prodigal, rushed over and threw all her weight of dear, +warm, comfortable womanhood into my arms, and the moment after burst +into a passion of happy tears down my collar. +</P> + +<P> +"Humph!" quoth the landlady, "that is not what BROWN gets when he +forgets his self. No, not by any means." +</P> + +<P> +But she was a good old soul at heart, and, seeing how matters stood, +with a parting glance of scorn in my direction and a toss of her head, +went out of the room, and closed the door behind her. +</P> + +<P> +Need I tell in detail what followed? Polly behaved like an angel, and +when in answer to her gentle reproaches I told her the outlines of my +marvellous story she almost believed me! Over there on the +writing-desk lay a whole row of the unopened letters she had showered +upon me during my absence, and amongst them an official one. We went +and opened it together, and it was an intimation of my promotion, a +much better "step" than I had ever dared to hope for. +</P> + +<P> +Holding that missive in my hand a thought suddenly occurred to me. +</P> + +<P> +"Polly dear, this letter makes me able to maintain you as you ought to +be maintained, and there is still a fortnight of vacation for me. +Polly, will you marry me tomorrow?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, certainly not, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Then will you marry me on Monday?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you truly, truly want me to?" +</P> + +<P> +"Truly, truly." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, yes," and the dear girl again came blushing into my arms. +</P> + +<P> +While we were thus the door opened, and in came her parents who were +staying at a neighbouring hotel while inquiries were made as to my +mysterious absence. Not unnaturally my appearance went a long way to +confirm suspicions such as Mrs. Brown had confessed to, and, after they +had given me cold salutations, Polly's mother, fixing gold glasses on +the bridge of her nose and eyeing me haughtily therefrom, observed, +</P> + +<P> +"And now that you ARE safely at home again, Lieutenant Gulliver Jones, +I think I will take my daughter away with me. Tomorrow her father will +ascertain the true state of her feelings after this unpleasant +experience, and subsequently he will no doubt communicate with you on +the subject." This very icily. +</P> + +<P> +But I was too happy to be lightly put down. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear madam," I replied, "I am happy to be able to save her father +that trouble. I have already communicated with this young lady as to +the state of her feelings, and as an outcome I am delighted to be able +to tell you we are to be married on Monday." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes, Mother, it is true, and if you do not want to make me the most +miserable of girls again you will not be unkind to us." +</P> + +<P> +In brief, that sweet champion spoke so prettily and smoothed things so +cleverly that I was "forgiven," and later on in the evening allowed to +escort Polly back to her hotel. +</P> + +<P> +"And oh!" she said, in her charmingly enthusiastic way when we were +saying goodnight, "you shall write a book about that extraordinary +story you told me just now. Only you must promise me one thing." +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"To leave out all about Heru—I don't like that part at all." This +with the prettiest little pout. +</P> + +<P> +"But, Polly dear, see how important she was to the narrative. I cannot +quite do that." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you will say as little as you can about her?" +</P> + +<P> +"No more than the story compels me to." +</P> + +<P> +"And you are quite sure you like me much the best, and will not go +after her again?" +</P> + +<P> +"Quite sure." +</P> + +<P> +The compact was sealed in the most approved fashion; and here, +indulgent reader, is the artless narrative that resulted—an incident +so incredible in this prosaic latter-day world that I dare not ask you +to believe, and must humbly content myself with hoping that if I fail +to convince yet I may at least claim the consolation of having amused +you. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gulliver of Mars, by Edwin L. 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