diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/69925-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/69925-0.txt | 12227 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 12227 deletions
diff --git a/old/69925-0.txt b/old/69925-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 0f18dcf..0000000 --- a/old/69925-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12227 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The new northland, by Louis Pope -Gratacap - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The new northland - -Author: Louis Pope Gratacap - -Illustrator: Albert Operti - -Release Date: February 1, 2023 [eBook #69925] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Peter Becker, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The - Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW NORTHLAND *** - - - - - -[Illustration: - - THE POLICE FOLLOW RIDDLE’S CUE -] - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - THE NEW - NORTHLAND - - - - BY - L. P. GRATACAP - - - WITH 16 DESIGNS - BY - ALBERT OPERTI - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - - NEW YORK - THOMAS BENTON - 1915 - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - COPYRIGHT 1915 - BY - L. P. GRATACAP - - - - - PRINTED BY - THE EDDY PRESS CORPORATION, CUMBERLAND, MD. - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - KROCKER LAND - - - - A ROMANCE OF - DISCOVERY - - - - BY - ALFRED ERICKSON - PROF. HLMATH BJORNSEN - ANTOINE GORITZ - SPRUCE HOPKINS - - - - THE NARRATIVE BY - ALFRED ERICKSON - - - - - - - EDITED BY - AZAZIEL LINK - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CONTENTS - - - _Page_ - - Preface (Editorial Note) 7 - - Chapter I The Fiord 39 - - Chapter II Point Barrow 63 - - Chapter III On the Ice Pack 89 - - Chapter IV Krocker Land Rim 116 - - Chapter V The Perpetual Nimbus 141 - - Chapter VI The Crocodilo-Python 162 - - Chapter VII The Deer Fels 184 - - Chapter VIII The Pine Tree Gredin 203 - - Chapter IX The Valley of Rasselas 228 - - Chapter X Radiumopolis 246 - - Chapter XI The Crater of 271 - Everlasting Light - - Chapter XII The Pool of Oblation 288 - - Chapter XIII Love and Liberty 308 - - Chapter XIV Goritz’s Death and the 332 - Gold Makers - - Chapter XV My Escape 348 - - Chapter XVI The Sequel 376 - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - _Page_ - - The Police Follow Riddles’ Cue 28 - (Frontispiece) - - The Fiord 39 - - The Professor and the Pribylof 69 - Seals - - On the Ice Pack 98 - - Krocker Land Rim 131 - - The Perpetual Nimbus 158 - - The Crocodilo-Python and the Wild 180 - Pig - - The Deer Fels 190 - - The Pine Tree Gredin 215 - - Meeting the Radiumopolites 226 - - The Valley of Rasselas 239 - - Ziliah and Her Father 292 - - The Pool of Oblation 300 - - Goritz’s Death 334 - - Erickson’s Escape 375 - - Erickson’s Rescue 382 - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - EDITORIAL NOTE - - -This remarkable narrative of Arctic exploration is itself a remarkable -confirmation of the wisdom of that tireless hunt for NEWS which has -become second nature to the newspaper man, and while distinctively a -mark of his calling, has attached to his profession the opprobrium of -“yellowness.” The appropriation of this color—so intimately associated -in nature with the golden illumination of the noon, the royal charm of -lilies, and the enduring lure of gold—to designate an irresponsible and -shameless sensationalism has never been adequately explained. The -“yellowness” of the live journalist, turning with an instinctive scent -to follow to its end every new trail of incident, sniffing in each -passing rumor the presence of hidden and serviceable scandal, and -ruthlessly breaking through the sham obstruction of modesty to snatch -the culprit or to free the victim, cannot certainly be referred to the -torpor marked by the _jaundice_ of the invalid, nor to the weakness of -the last stages of an emaciating fever. Perhaps if the reproach is to be -made, or can be made, intelligible, the yellow color finds its subtle -analogue in a mustard plaster. - -That popular cataplasm has a dignified and ancient history, and is -gratefully recorded in literature for nearly two thousand years as a -_contrarient_ of value, allaying hidden aches through the excoriation of -the uninjured and painless surfaces. The process seems to involve an -injustice in principle, but it is, in spite of abstractions, a -beneficent practice. The “yellowness” of newspapers may amaze modesty, -startle discretion, and afflict innocence, but it cures interior -disorders, and the unpleasantness of an ulcerated or inflamed skin -should be condoned or forgotten for the benefit of a regulated stomach -or a renovated joint. - -However, this all _en passant_, as only remotely, and yet diffidently, -related to the manner of my obtaining the circumstances and facts of the -following adventure. I have attributed my success to the pertinacity of -instinct and the olfactory sense of mischief. It is true. Without one or -the other—though the combination of both rendered failure impossible—I -might not now be in the enviable position of proclaiming a “beat” on my -professional rivals which no amount of editorial venom, aspersion, -contempt and innuendo will ever obliterate from the annals of -journalism, as unprecedented. - -I am indeed afflicted at moments with a sort of discomfiture over my own -modesty in not having ransacked to better advantage the commercial -possibilities of my tenacity and acumen. Incredible and hypnotizing as -is this story of Mr. Alfred Erickson, as a foil to its romantic daring -and its transcendent interest, the brief relation of the episode—and its -development—that led to its publication, has a delightful thrill of -excitement, and an up-to-date volubility, so to speak, of incident, that -frames the story in the most exhilarating contrasts. - -An office boy, a temporary expedient for a messenger and page, Jack -Riddles, mercurial, vagarious, and quick-witted, a sandy haired, -long-limbed, peaked-nosed and weazel-eyed creation, with flattened -cheeks, whose jackets were always short, and whose trousers despised any -intimacy with the tops of his shoes, got me the story. - -Jack is destined for great things in our metropolitan annals. In the -mission of the Progressive party, with its millennial attachments, Jack -and his sort would be progressively eliminated. Crime exists for -detection, and detection is Life at its _n_th power for such as he. Jack -is endowed with a rare intuition of ways and means when the center of a -reportorial mystery is to be perforated, and the process of “getting -there” to _him_ is as inevitable as the first half of the alphabet. -Riddle’s only counterpart was Octavius Guy, alias Gooseberry, Lawyer -Bruff’s boy in Wilkie Collin’s story of the Moonstone. - -He began his exploit on the top of a Fifth Avenue ’bus, and it was about -the middle of September, 1912. Jack has a Hogarthian sense for the -multitudinous, the psychological, the junction of circumstance and -expression in revealing a plot or betraying a criminal. To hang over the -railing of a Fifth Avenue ’bus and watch the crowds, the motor cars, -each vibratory shock, as the behemoth shivers and plunges, bringing your -interpretative eye unexpectedly into a new relation with the faces of -that ceremonious throng, was intoxication for Jack. It evoked -exuberantly the passion of espionage. There was indeed concealment here, -in the packed and methodical progression of people and people, and yet -more people. Yet with an average dumbness or dullness, or just the -homogeneous stare of business, or the vapid contentment of contiguity to -riches and fashion, Jack caught glimpses, direct, profound, of dismay or -discontent; of the pallid, revolting grimace of suffering, the snarl of -envy, or the deeper placidity of crime. - -They were rare, but Jack watched for them; his precocity ran that way -and he was rewarded. It used up his dimes, it widened the solutions of -continuity in his nether garments and brought his feet more familiarly -in contact with the hard flagging. Some supersensual instinct urged him. -The succeeding story attests the splendor of the revelation he -uncovered. Jack may have been about eighteen years of age. - -It was opposite the Public Library, just below Forty-second Street on -Fifth Avenue and on the west side of that thoroughfare that Jack’s eyes, -after a long stop which held up an endless phalanx of automobiles, fell -upon a man and woman who conveyed to his thought a hint of crime. The -woman was beautiful too, a Spanish siren, full in form, with developed -curves that yielded so slightly to the sway of her tight fitting mauve -dress as to start the conjecture that she did not belong to the more -rarified types of Venuses. A light feather boa, deliciously pearly gray -in tone, heightened the carnation of her cheeks. These in turn yielded -to the orbed splendor of her eyes, and that to the wealth of black hair -darkly globed underneath a maroon velvet turban-like cap, in whose folds -twinkled a firmament of greenish stars. Jack literally devoured her -radiance, so near was he to her as she descended with her companion the -last terrace to the sidewalk between the amorphous lions of the Public -Library. - -The man with her was inordinately, insolently handsome, dark and tall, -dressed a little beyond the form of reticence, as was the woman. Herein -perhaps lurked the confession of their mutual depravity to Jack, an -untutored psychologist; to all besides it appealed as a momentary -sensation, to some as barely an infringement of good taste. - -The man wore a light fedora hat that suited the bravado of his curled -and graceful moustache, the ovate outlines of his face, his liquid, -voluptuous eyes, the sensuous thickness of his lips. Observation stopped -short at his face where he intended it should. Its arrest was made -imperative by a blue and ormolu tie, relieved against a softly-tinted -yellow shirt, carrying a horseshoe of demantoid garnets in a wreath of -little diamonds. His feet were encased in tan gaiters, a permissible -distraction. For an instant only the spectator was rewarded with an -appreciation of their admirable _tournure_. Otherwise he was in black, -relieved by the white lining at the lapels of his coat, and he carried a -cane in his gloved hand. - -It was a few instants after Jack’s ravished eyes had fastened on this -entrancing couple, that the cane was raised sharply in the air to -descend abruptly on the woman’s head. The attack involved the man’s -slight retreat—a backward gesture—and his turning aside, whereby his -profile cut keenly across the sunlit stone behind him, and Jack was -shocked into a delighted recognition of the same profile in a print in -the show window of Krauschaar’s gallery. He remembered the title; it was -“Mephistopheles, A Modern Guise of an Old Offender”; a smiling, swarthy -beau at the feet of a remonstrating and beautiful _ingenue_. - -The explosion was evidently the climax of an altercation. Jack recalled -the previous animated demeanor of the couple. Explanatory reflections -were cut short by the velocity of the woman’s defense. She flung herself -on the man, caught his arms with her outstretched hands, and kicked him -viciously. Infuriated, he tore himself away, raised the cane and the -next moment would have inflicted a harsher insult on the defiant Amazon, -into whose face, so Jack thought, had sprung a tigerish fury, when, from -the stupified and expectant crowd before them, half shrinking and half -jubilant, shot a tall figure, whose interposition transfixed both -contestants. - -This meteoric stranger was remarkable for his broad shoulders, and a -peculiar taper in his frame downward to his feet, that made him -figuratively a human top, the impression of any actual deformity arising -from his immense chest, on which, by a connection scarcely deserving -consideration as a neck, sat his squat, contracted head. Prodigious -whiskers covered his face, invading his high cheeks almost to the outer -limits of his sunken eyes. - -This hirsute prodigality contrasted with his cropped cranium and his -closely shaven lips. The latter were long and thin-compressed, they -seemed to separate his chin from the rest of his face by a red seam. His -forehead was low and his head was covered with a steamer-tourist’s cap. -His clothes were of plaid. - -As he rushed between the wranglers he caught each by the shoulder, and -he pushed them apart. He had turned toward the avenue, facing the -wondering throng, and Jack heard him speak quickly and sharply, but in a -guttural, obscured way that suggested something that was not English or, -if it was, it was hopelessly incoherent to Jack’s ears from its -imperfect articulation. - -The man and woman seemed stunned into immobility, and then obeying his -gesture, followed him on the sidewalk, jostled and pressed by the crowd -which at first, inquisitive but timorous, had recoiled a little from the -enigmatical encounter and then, almost obstreperous and decidedly -interested engulfed the trio, who however pushed their way through, -energetically piloted by the stranger. How quickly a drama evolves! - -All three had almost simultaneously stepped into the little _scenario_, -and yet by the illusion of an assumed sequence the last actor seemed a -novelty, related as unexpected, to the other two, as more familiar and -apparent. None of the three spoke, nor did they heed the interruption of -the spectators who tardily parted to let them pass. The moment -Forty-second Street was reached the leader turned toward Sixth Avenue. -Jack standing on the roof of the ’bus, which slowly swung off into the -restored movement northward as the obstruction somewhere ahead -disappeared, saw them enter an automobile opposite the northern entrance -to the library and dash westward. - -Jack did not argue the matter with himself. He had no compunctions. He -jumped straight for the to him (as perhaps to anyone) tangible certainty -that he had struck a trail of iniquity. But how to follow it? His -ruminations were cut short by the loud honk of an automobile and there, -returning to Fifth Avenue at Fiftieth Street, he saw the yellow -limousine which contained the suspects wheeling into the procession and, -forced by the unrelieved pressure to relax its impatience, moving with -the limping concourse at the same pace. - -Jack watched it eagerly. His eyes never left it. It swayed a little to -the right and to the left as the driver, probably under threats or -persuasion, endeavored to insert his vehicle into the chance spaces that -opened before him. This irregular and tentative progress brought the -automobile at length directly alongside of the ’bus which had on it the -Nemesis of its (the automobile’s) occupants. It was underneath Jack’s -very eyes; he could have dropped on its roof almost unnoticed. Jack’s -heart beat with trip-hammer throbs, and his mind rehearsed the -possibilities of murder, arson, burglary, brigandage, kidnapping, etc., -gathering headway in that uncanny conference going on there below under -that burnished but impenetrable roof. But he was exulting too with the -steel-clad certainty of having a “case,” and that a little intensive use -of his wits would promote him from the office floor to a reserved seat -in the Reporters’ Sanctum. - -A jolt, a lurching swing, the vituperative shriek of an ungreased axle, -and the ’bus followed a meandering lane that brought it into an -unimpeded headway. Jack sprang to his feet and watched behind him the -still imprisoned limousine—it too shot ahead; noiselessly as a speeding -bird it overtook the ’bus and then with a graceful curve, almost as if -in mockery of his impotence, it vanished into east Fifty-eighth Street. - -Jack had a message for the Director of the Metropolitan Art Museum. It -was from myself in response to an inquiry as to what space we could -afford for a description of a new Morgan exhibit. Jack was a safe -messenger, unmistakably accurate, but we always discounted his celerity, -because of his preferences for a ride on a Fifth avenue ’bus and the -little delinquencies of delay his observational powers tempted him to -perpetrate. He was an hour later than the most generous allowance of -time would justify. Jack was to bring back “copy” for the next day’s -issue. I lectured him. He was sullenly respectful, indifferently -contrite, and showed a taciturn preoccupation that impressed my -reportorial instinct as significant. - -As a matter of fact the missing hour was used in traversing Fifty-eighth -Street. The fruit of Jack’s search was diminutive but it was conclusive. -On the pavement in front of No. — east Fifty-eighth Street, Jack picked -up a microscopic green glass star. He knew where it belonged—the -spangled turban on top of the massed hair of that afternoon’s -_debutante_; _debutante_ to Jack’s official criticism. - -This minute betrayal had dropped from her hat, from nowhere else, and -the belligerent cane of her escort had dislodged it. It had lain -somewhere in the folds and creases of the soft velvet, to fall just -there, unsuspectedly at the entrance of her retreat—a frail enamel bead -releasing to the world a marvelous secret. For Jack Riddles intended to -watch that house; he would enter it; if it concealed some half -consummated plot of SIN, if indeed the plot was over, its victims -disposed of, and the conspirators were there enjoying the harvest of -their guilt, he would know it, and—the eventuality of failure never -entered his head. He felt, in every fibre, a certainty of wrong-doing, -something shadowy, perhaps darkly cruel in these people. His prescience -was involuntary; he never explained it, he never himself understood it. - -Jack lived in Brooklyn, with his wifeless father. That night as he left -the office he dropped a postal at a lamp post and took a car north. He -was following the trail. A little transposed I submit Jack’s story as he -gave it to me the next morning. - -He came to the office a little late, and knocked at my door. On entering -I saw instantly that he was in an advanced stage of nervous excitement. -He was pale, and a fluttering involuntary movement of his hands, one -over the other, as he stood before me, with a glitter in his peculiarly -shaped and small eyes betrayed his mental agitation. He was quite wet, -had probably been drenched, and the first symptoms of a chill showed -that precautions were necessary to avert a possible collapse. I told him -to sit down, opened a cellarette, which had its professional and -commercial uses, and poured out a rather stiff jorum of the best whisky -I owned. - -As he swallowed in a gulping manner the proffered contents of the glass, -he was rather a ludicrous and yet pitiful and heart-moving object. His -disordered hair, shabby clothes and a certain forlorn wistfulness in his -glance upward to me, combined with his lean and disjointed anatomy gave -him an expression that was at once tender and laughable. Only a -Cruikshank could have done it justice. His spirits revived, animal heat -reasserted itself, and back with it, as if it had stood somewhere aside -until invited to return, came boastingly his invincible pugnacity and -confidence. - -“Mr. Link,” his speech was customarily hesitating with a deprecatory -manner as if forestalling interruption or correction, and impeded by a -slight stutter, but now, in the tide and torrent of his thoughts, under -the sway of the elation over his first bit of detective work, it was -rapid but coherent, and oddly picturesque. “Mr. Link, I’ve nipped a -pretty piece of mischief in the bud—seems so to me. Of course I’m just -on the trail, and fetching up to the big game that I think is in sight, -barring the trees—may take more work than I think. But the proposition -is as clear as glass that there’s a crooked game being pulled off at — -east Fifty-eighth Street, and I’m convinced that ‘the deceits of the -world, the flesh and the devil,’ as it goes in the prayer book, are -behind it. Now here’s the evidence—not much you may say, but I’ll hang -up my reputation on it—you know, Mr. Link, I have a little hereabouts at -finding out things, and I’m just convinced _it_—won’t drop. - -“I was on the ’bus, stalled just below Forty-second Street, opposite the -Library. I saw a couple of people, a man and a woman, coming down the -steps to the street. The woman—Well, I couldn’t begin to tell you how -stunning she was. Beauty was just all over her, thick too, from her feet -to her head. I remember now the thought struck me as I looked at her -that she’d make a brass man turn round to see her when she’d passed. And -the goods on her were as sweet and gay as herself—a picture, Mr. Link, a -real picture, if ever a woman made one. The man was with her, -good-looking and cruel; neat, too, and Hell painted on him so plain it -would make an angel throw a fit—if an angel could, supposin’. - -“Now Mr. Link I hadn’t looked that long,” Jack snapped his fingers, -“before I felt, sir, that they were _rotten_, not four flushers, but the -_real bad_, like those the Sunday School man told us of, who ‘build a -town with blood, and establish a city by iniquity.’” The pause Jack -interpolated here was as oracular as the quotation. I did him a great -injustice to seem indifferent and impatient. Really I felt the thrill of -an inevitable sensation approaching, and—I saw beyond it hypnotizing -_copy_. Jack desiderated encouragement, approval—I looked at the clock -over my desk and yawned. Surely it was deliberate malice. - -“Like that, sir!” Jack clapped his hands loudly; the ruse broke through -my affectation, and startled me into attention that he was keen enough -to see was as intense as he wished it to be. - -“Like that, sir, they hit out at each other, and there was a fight on! -Then a husky— Well, a—white-hope you might have called him—bounced in; -they knew him, he knew them, and the three chased off in an automobile. -I lost ’em, found ’em, and tracked ’em down east Fifty-eighth Street. -She had green stars in her hat—things you could hardly see—but they -_shone_! I found one on a doorstep—and last night _I watched the -house_!” - -The typical story teller who at such a juncture lights a cigar, finishes -an unsmoked pipe, empties a glass of grog, or rises with unconcealed -surprise over his neglect to fulfill an engagement _elsewhere_, could -not have surpassed the self-control with which Jack, for the same -purpose, intimated his own retirement. He rose, crushing in his thin -fingers his poor bleached blue cap, his small sparkling eyes raised to -the clock, which a moment before I had invoked so heartlessly to aid the -hypocrisy of my assumed exemption from common weaknesses. - -“I think, Mr. Link, it’s time for me to see Mr. Force.” Mr. Force was an -assistant in the press-room. - -The rebellious spirit of honesty which I had shamelessly essayed to -crush, got decidedly the best of the situation now; behind it was the -pressure of my own exorbitant curiosity. - -“I think Jack, you’ll sit down and finish your story.” - -Jack sat down. - -“There was a vacant or closed house opposite. I perched on the top step -of the porch and glued my eyes on No. —. I think, sir, that if any man -or woman inside had winked an eye at me from across the street, I’d have -seen it. But it wasn’t light enough for long to watch trifles, and I -just kept looking at the front door and the windows. It was right funny -how the lights changed. They broke out first on the second floor, then -they dropped to the basement, then they climbed to the third story, down -again to the first, but they ended in the attic windows and they stayed -there. Everything else was as black as the tomb. - -“The wind hustled about a little, splashes of rain hurried along with -it, and it grew dark in the street. Once or twice the shades lifted and, -Mr. Link”—Jack was a picture of poignant eagerness—“I saw the big peach -and her man, the two of the Library steps, just the same as I see you. -They’d open the window too and look out together down into the street. I -knew why, sir. They expected that limousine—and it came.” - -The constraint of any position more repressive than sitting to Jack, now -on the edge of his exposure could not be imagined. He stood up, moved -towards me, the color mounting in his pale cheeks, his body bent a -little forward, and his eyes lighting up with an interior brilliancy -that suddenly made me realize Jack might become a good-looking man. - -“After that they’d go away from the window farther back; I think they -carried a lamp with them for the light would fade away, or else they -turned the gas off. At eleven o’clock—I could hear the clock bells from -the steeples—the wind was racing and it began to rain hard. I got some -shelter under the doorway; the light never left the attic across the -street. I felt it all over me, sir, that IT was coming. I’m not sure, I -may have fallen asleep, but I came to with a bounce. Lightning was -chasing through the sky and the thunder was booming and—the door of No. -— was open; the light from the hall flickered over the wet sidewalk, but -the shower had passed. The man and the woman both stood there for an -instant, then they went in and the door shut with a slam. I thought, -sir, I had lost the trail. I never felt worse. I hated them, Mr. Link. -Good reason, too.” His hands suddenly searched his vest, they were -unrewarded; his face grew blank and he dropped his hands helplessly, -while a piteous look of consternation and utter despondency shot from -his eyes to mine, by this time fully sympathetic and as lustrous as his -own. - -His glance fell on his hat that lay at his feet on the floor, a flood of -revived remembrances followed; he snatched it up, fumbled in its lining -and pulled out a scrap of wrinkled paper. The returning sunshine of -confidence renewed again the handsome look I had noticed before. He -certainly was working up his effects with a remarkable melodramatic -insight that was captivating. - -“I ran down the steps into the street, I had heard a distant croak of an -auto-horn, and on top of it came the toll of one o’clock from a tower. I -had been asleep over an hour. There was no light in No. — except -upstairs, as before, in the attic. Then the croak seemed to come from -towards the East River, and I saw two balls of light rushing at me. IT -WAS THE LIMOUSINE. I started back, and stumbled over a small cobble -stone. It looked like an intervention—a message, Mr. Link—who knows? I -picked it up, and I pulled out a jack knife I had in my pants. Why? I -didn’t know, but, sir, they both came in handy. - -“The auto sneaked up quiet enough, wheeled round facing East River, and -crept in a little to one side of No. —. Mine wasn’t the only pair of -eyes watching for it. It had hardly grazed the curb when the front door -opened and there stood Mephistopheles, behind the beautiful woman, both -in the half dark. I knew them, alright. The man came down the steps -bareheaded, he carried a short something in his right hand. The sprinkle -started again, and a smash of thunder roared overhead, and a clot-like -gloom came out of it. Under that cover I dashed over the street like a -hare, and crept tight up to the back of the car. In it sat Husky—the -peg-top fellow that met ’em in Fifth Avenue—and another man, smaller, -and sort of muffled up. The chauffeur in front never stirred from first -to last. - -“Meph. opened the door; Husky stepped out; he shook the little man. I -heard him mutter ‘Come out here. Be fly, but quiet, or by God, I’ll -stick yer through and no compunctions, mind yer.’ The bundle inside -stirred; I peeped in from behind, a little higher; he was in a black bag -or something like it, and as he stooped under the door and stumbled out, -the two caught him, lifted him and started up the steps, where the woman -leaned forward—it seemed to me she kept clapping her hands together -softly as if she couldn’t hold in for delight. Then, sir—” - -Jack straightened himself, bent back, relaxed, pitched forward with one -outstretched arm, projected like a catapult, in front of him, “then, -sir, I let fly—not at them—I didn’t know who I might hit and anyhow, hit -or miss, they’d slipped off through that door quicker’n snakes. That was -no use. The cobble stone slammed through the glass side of the -limousine, it went through that and split the window opposite. I haven’t -pitched for the Bogotas for nothing, sir. Before they had time to think, -I jabbed my jack knife through the tire and off it went like a mortar. -Everything was quiet then up above and the crash and the explosion had -the center of the stage, as you people say. I guess it made their hearts -jump. They looked around, the woman screamed, and—I screamed—and that -chauffeur didn’t even turn about. For nerve or sheer fright he had the -record. Perhaps at such times, sir, you can’t distinguish. Eh? - -“Well, they lost their grip on the bundle, for it was a pretty uneasy -load to carry now; the interruption perhaps gave the fellow inside some -hope. He rolled down the steps onto the pavement like a bag of beans, -moving slightly like a strangled dog. I heard Husky’s voice, ‘Inside, -inside with him! Don’t stop, swat him,’ and then the black scoundrel -raised his cudgel and beat the poor creature insensible. I heard him -groan where I stood. I was crazy with rage; I felt myself suffocating. I -had been shouting, ‘Help! Help!’ but my voice left me; I discovered that -I was very wet, and then a strange vertigo came over me, a pain crossed -my chest, and a fire seemed to rage in my throat. I was sick, sir. I -am—” - -Jack tottered. I caught him, poor fellow; exposure and overstrained -emotions had prostrated him. And he was still damp; perhaps -breakfast-less. I had been thoughtless, but no time was to be lost. -There was an emergency room in the building, and there Jack was hurried. -Strengthened with nourishment, and warmed again into animation with -stimulants, revived by sleep—he hardly stirred for sixteen hours, so -deathlike was his slumber—he just escaped a serious illness. -Recuperation was instantaneous; his own mental energy worked wonders and -when two days later he returned to the theme of his story hardly a trace -of his weakness was betrayed. He was keen to engage in the solution of -the midnight mystery and he implored me not to share his discovery with -anyone else except the police to whom indeed I had already related -Jack’s experience. Jack realized that their co-operation was -indispensable. It was then he showed me the wrinkled scrap of paper -which he had secreted in the lining of his cap, and afterwards stuck in -his trousers’ pocket, and which I had forgotten. - -There was printed on it in pencil, “I am a prisoner. My life is in -danger. A. E.” - -The paper was of the thin and excellent quality used in engineers’ -pocket tables and handbooks. - -It appeared that Jack upon feeling the sudden desertion of his strength -had stolen again to the doorway of the empty house opposite No. — and -must have drowsed away there the rest of the night, urged apparently by -his ineradicable hope of further disclosures. His persistency was -rewarded by finding this puzzling and startling bit of evidence. He -found it, most remarkably, on the floor of the abandoned limousine. - -The car had remained undisturbed all night in the street, and this -strange neglect on the part of its previous users could only be -explained by the supposition that they feared some unpleasant -complications, involving disagreeable explanations with its actual -owners, unless they were the owners of it themselves. Jack crawled over -to the car in the earliest hour of the morning before the dawn had yet -grown strong enough to make its outlines visible, while night -practically covered the street. No. — was dark from basement to attic, -not a light shone in it anywhere. He remembered that very distinctly. - -He had had an indefinite premonition or fancy that something left behind -in the car might be found; clues like that figured in all the romances -of detection. He explored with his hands the corners, the cushions, and -the floor, when, passing his hand along the edge of the carpet mat -covering the floor, it encountered a bit of paper rolled up into a -pellet. After the discovery of the writing he went to an owl wagon -restaurant, and then hastened to the newspaper office. - -But two hours later, when the daylight swept through the city, he -returned to Fifty-eighth Street, from a restless feeling of suspicion, -and agonized too with the thought of the abused and helpless prisoner. -_The auto was gone_, and the mysterious house revealed nothing, with its -shades drawn down and its immobile identity with the other sandstone -fronts hopelessly complete. If murder dwelt behind its expressionless -stories, or some dastardly drama of persecution, extortion, torture, -effrontery and crime had been enacted there, no telltale signal betrayed -it. And yet to Jack’s inflamed imagination it confessed its guilt; -somehow to his obsessed eye he saw the meanness of its degradation, as -if it shrank away from its orderly and decent neighbors; as if indeed -its neighbors frowned upon it. He returned to the office and told me his -story. - -A newspaper man has the keenest sort of scent for sensation—especially -the _yellow_ newspaper man, and I fail to recoil from making the -confession of my personal _yellowness_ in that respect. He is seldom -bewildered by scruples, seldom daunted by danger; he doesn’t think of -them. He starts the engines of exposure and arrest, and records the -result. Half an hour after Jack’s story was told Captain B— of the — -precinct was closeted with me, and I repeated Jack’s adventure. - -Jack’s description of the three principals in this suspicious criminal -alliance was insufficient or inadequate to enable Captain B. to -recognize them among the notables of both the under and the upper worlds -with whom he was acquainted. I had not then seen the paper Jack found. - -“Mr. Link,” Captain B. finally said, after a short silence following my -communication, “you feel pretty sure of this young fellow, Jack Riddles? -The name suggests an equivocal character.” - -“I feel a good deal surer of him, perhaps, than I do of myself—if you -can understand.” - -“Oh I catch that. Well No. — will be watched night and day for a short -time. Your young friend’s rather violent exploit may have scared its -tenants off. The auto went. Perhaps they went with it. It won’t do to -break in at once. We must have some evidence of occupation and a line on -the occupants that runs straight with Riddles’ description.” - -“But that wretched man? Suppose they kill him. A little less -carefulness, Captain, might save him and, under the circumstances, I -don’t think I’d be squeamish over precedents.” - -“Oh, that team isn’t ready for murder yet—they’re not thinking of it. -They’ve kidnapped someone for one reason or another. Bagging him that -way showed they wanted something out of him. I’ll place them in twelve -hours or so, and if they cover the same size Riddles gave I’ll take the -risk and search the house.” - -“Of course you’ll let us in, Captain, on the ground floor so to speak?” - -“Sure! I’ll tip you on the first peep we hear. But get that boy on his -legs; we’ll need him.” - -It was just a day and a half later that a policeman brought me a sealed -envelope. Of course I knew who had sent it. There was no answer the -policeman said, and left. I opened the missive expectantly. I was not -disappointed. Its contents were more rapturously thrilling to my -journalistic hunger for marvels and mysteries, and those labyrinthine -prodigies of subterranean deviltry that Cobb, or Ainsworth, or George -Sand revelled in, than any mess of crime I had tumbled on _or in_, since -Joe Horner, our chief city reporter, went through a hatchway in the -Bronx and dropped into a hogshead of claret (Zinfandel) with two dead -bodies in it! - -Captain B.’s note ran: “Riddles corroborated. They’re there; three of -them and a squeegee. Up to mischief—perhaps forgery—something like it. -Pounce on them tomorrow. We’ve moved like mice, and the trap has been -set quietly. Nothing more simple. Guess you might like to be in at the -death. Bring Riddles. We break cover at 11 p.m. Meet at the police -station * * *” - -Riddles was then on the mend, and when I told him how matters stood, the -boy smiled grimly, caught my hand and exclaimed: “Good medicine for me, -Mr. Link. I feel it to the end of my toes. That’s the tonic I need. -Trust me, I’ll be with you, strong and hearty.” He was. - -Captain B. had arranged the affair tactfully. He had conveyed his -suspicions to the householder on the west side of No. — and had secured -his permission to admit three plain-clothes men through his backyard to -the backyard of No. —; also his own party of six, with Riddles and -myself as press agents, onto the roof, whence we expected to effect an -entrance through the roof door or skylight, while a few men on the -street would intercept flight in that direction. Riddles was radiant; it -was a beautiful tribute to his sagacity; all this had come about through -his quick insight, his instantaneous sense of obliquity, alias -crookedness, when he saw the quarreling pair on the Public Library -steps. As we cautiously climbed over the low parapet separating the two -roofs, with only the light of the stars to guide us, not altogether -appropriately I recalled Jonathan Wild’s chase of Thomas Dauell over the -housetops, and also the burglary at Dollis Hill in Jack Shepard. There -were more apposite occurrences in fiction to compare our maneuvers with, -but I thought of these. - -I had shown to the Captain the pathetic call for rescue scrawled on the -paper scrap. It was palpably written by a foreigner, perhaps a German, -certainly someone of Teutonic origin, and the paper had been torn from a -book, some such technical guide for engineers as I had suggested. It did -not interest Captain B. greatly. He told me, before we started out, that -the “peg-top” man—a Hercules—the beautiful woman and “Mephistopheles” -had all been seen, and no one else, but that dark ruby glass, identical -he thought with that used by photographers, had been inserted in the -front attic windows, where he suspected the imprisoned man was kept at -work in some nefarious trade, from which the trio derived support or -profit. As to the criminal character of “the bunch” he had no doubts. -The two men almost invariably carried bundles into the house, but none -out. - -We were at the doorway of a little triangular erection which covered the -stairway leading from the roof to the attic and our approach, in -rubbers, had been almost noiseless. The door was shut, but only locked; -the precautions against invasion had been forgotten or overlooked. It -was not even bolted. Evidently the conspirators or counterfeiters, or -whatever they were, apprehended nothing; we might catch them red handed. -A stout chisel enabled us to force the door inward, and a dark lantern -revealed a dilapidated stairway below, ending in a kind of storage room, -cluttered up with the refuse of successive occupancies, a dangerously -inflammable chaos of rubbish, in which a feebly sputtering match could -create a conflagration before it was suspected. It required some -discrimination to cross this _debris_ without starting some crumbling -avalanche of fragments in the boxes, baby carriages, stoves, chairs, -trunks, picture frames, racks and easels. As it was, with our best -efforts slides occurred, and the mastodon-like tread of the detectives -sank noisily through an occasional bandbox. We paused anxiously—I did, -at least—at such moments, but the crash, so it sounded to me, brought no -response. I reasoned the house must be vacant, and that our quarry had -escaped. - -We found that a closed door opened upon a narrow hallway, and as we -softly drew it back loud voices most unexpectedly became audible, -certainly proceeding from the front rooms of that very floor; from that -front room wherein Jack had noticed the light, and where the detectives -reported the insertion of the ruby panes. A hoarse dominant swelled up -in the excited conversation. Jack leaned towards me and whispered -“That’s Husky”; Captain raised a warning finger, and we filed out, one -by one, gingerly tiptoeing toward the room which now unquestionably -contained the objects of our search. The familiar scare or thrill which -submerges all lesser emotions, as the danger point in an encounter is -approached, decidedly manifested itself somewhere in my anatomy, or -probably all over it. - -Any mental analysis of my feelings was abruptly halted by the threats or -altercation now heard very clearly in the room before us. - -We had reached the door, beneath which a streak of light gave a -penumbral illumination to the end of the little hallway. Below, in the -house itself, absolute silence reigned, and apparently as complete -darkness. Our approach was unnoticed. The excitement or rage that -overpowered the speaker, breaking out in threats that now became -intelligible and startled us into a fierce impatience to interfere, had -certainly stopped his ears. The suffocation of anger had made him deaf. - -“Damn you—you’ll show us the trick, or else your starved and scorched -body will take the consequences. We know well enough you can do it. -You’ve led us on with blind promises, but now we’ve got you where we -want you. You can’t get out of this, remember, until we get what we -want. Can you understand?” - -“And then you’ll kill, I suppose?” The voice was strained, thick, -foreign in accent, and low. - -Riddles stretched himself up to my ear again and whispered “A. E.?” I -nodded assent. - -“No! No! Oh, no; but—you must not stay here.” The voice was a woman’s. -“We’ll take care of you. Nicely too, Diaz, I guess. We’ll keep you where -you won’t tell tales.” A mean, cynical laugh followed, a muttered -corroboration from a third person, who had evidently crossed the room. -It was this last voice that continued the harangue of the prisoner in a -smooth, polished, plausible manner that thinly veiled its heartlessness; -its crafty insinuation betrayed a designing selfishness, but it seemed -welcome after the barking hoarseness and ferocity of its predecessor, -and the cruelty of that feminine sneer. Its climax came at the close -with a threat of fiendish wickedness that broke the tension of our -restraint. - -“Alfred Erickson, perhaps you can understand your predicament a little -better, if you will stop to think it over. You are a stranger here, and -you are in our power. That, you probably realize pretty well by this -time. There is something else you may not so clearly comprehend, and -that is, we are not afraid of consequences, because in your case, so far -as we are concerned, there will be no consequences! You can extricate -yourself easily enough if you will be sensible. Obstinacy has its merits -under some circumstances; your perseverance in your Arctic experiences -was rewarded—and we know exactly how—but obstinacy is of no avail just -now, and no rescuing party from Norway, or even from the New York police -will save you from, perhaps, an unfortunate calamity.” - -This allusion appealed facetiously to the others, and there arose a -musical outburst of laughter from the lady, with an accompaniment of -harsh bass grunts from the first speaker. The voice continued: - -“You possess a secret that the whole world has been hunting for, and we -propose that the world will go on hunting for it before you will ever be -able to tell it. Share with us and, under reservations, you will be well -cared for. Refuse and, as we have gone so far, we will find—and you -too—the rest of the way very simple. You’re not at this moment likely to -be able to help yourself. That little incident outside,” Riddles nudged -me again, “meant nothing. You’re as much buried alive in this attic in -the first city of the world, as if you occupied a tomb of the Pharaohs. -We’re not as self-controlled as you seem to be. We may get restless. -Then, sir”—we heard him step forward; I imagined him leaning close to -his victim, for it was evident the man was in some way confined—“then, -sir, up you go—you and your secret—in smoke.” - -His smothered rage broke out then, and we heard him strike the man and -curse him. There was the remonstrance of a cry—that was all. The next -instant we would have forced our way through a stone wall had we been -against it, but Captain B. raised his hand. His trained endurance amazed -me. The voice resumed: - -“Now what do you propose to do?” - -“Yes, what?” from the first ruffian. - -We held our breaths and listened with all our ears. - -“Let me get up. Let me talk this over with you. You are driving me -crazy! I can’t think. I will forget what you say I know. You—” - -“Hell with your parleying. I’ll untie your tongue. I guess your memory -will work quick enough after this”; it was Husky threatening. - -Then succeeded the jeering encouragement of the woman and, strange -paradox, the voice was rich, enticing, but mocking. - -“Oh, yes; just a little stimulation will hurry up matters. Diaz we can’t -wait much longer and,” the menad fury broke loose, “if this miserable -creature holds out much longer we shall be ruined. Burn him—burn -him—scald it out of him, Huerta; the dolt, simpleton, idiot—” - -There was a shuffling movement inside, the sudden bristling, rushing -sound of an airblast (Could it be a naphtha lamp?) and then a raving, -rending, terrifying cry, something that meant fear and rage and madness, -the awful, marrow-chilling shriek of insanity. - -Quicker than thought a man behind me shoved us aside. He raised an iron -mallet; it struck the door with a splintering crash—another and -another—the door burst inwards, torn from its lock, torn from its -hinges, and we all rushed forward. I heard a shot, then another; the -group in front of me parted and an extraordinary scene was revealed, one -I can never forget. A huge broad-shouldered man was crumpled upon the -floor. There had fallen from his hand a thick, long soldering iron; it -had been red or white hot; fallen on the floor it was burning into the -boards, and little swinging flames encircled it. Near at hand was the -large form of a plumber’s furnace with the blue whistling flame still -shooting from it. Huddled in a corner, cowering behind a menacing -man—quickly subdued, however, by a pointed revolver—was the beautiful -woman, a half dishevelled creature in a deep yellow wrap, fastened a -little distance below her peerless throat by a big turquoise brooch. Her -abundant hair had become loosened, and it poured over her shoulders in a -raven tide. - -The man in front of her was Riddles’ Mephistopheles. He was pale, and -the pallor hardly became him. Although strikingly handsome it gave a -peculiar expression to his face, of craven hate and sinister fear, if -that can be understood. In both his and the woman’s eyes shone a -horrible surprise. But the overpowering object in the room was the -half-naked figure of a man with extended arms and divergent legs, -strapped to a narrow table by iron bands. These latter passed over his -wrists and ankles, and were actually screwed to the table. His face was -not readily deciphered; whiskers covered his chin, a high forehead -beneath overhanging light hair and a large mouth formed together the -suggestion of a very dignified and intelligent face. His condition was -heart-rending; bruises covered his body, one eye seemed swollen and -shut, and scars—I shuddered at the thought of their having been caused -by the iron in the hands of the prostrate fiend—marked the white but -defaced skin of his shoulders and arms. - -There was little furniture in the room—the tortured man had probably -been kept on the table at night—a few chairs, a second table, and -towards the front of the room a long table covered with a confusion of -physical apparatus. It was the work of a minute to search the criminals, -and to handcuff them; though the woman cried bitterly at the degradation -Captain B. was taking no chances, and then the liberation of the -pitiable victim of these inhuman miscreants was effected. The stiffness -of his limbs almost forbade movement, and he cried with pain—and for -that matter I am sure with joy too—as we tenderly raised him, lifted him -into a chair, and tried to relax the rigid muscles. His agony, crucified -so on his back, must have been incalculable; evidently his resolute -refusal had driven his tormentors furious, and made them incarnate -demons. But what was it—the SECRET? Reader, you are not to know, except -as you find it out yourself, by reading this almost incredible story. - -With our prisoners—the Hercules was carried out; his femur had been -split by the Captain’s bullet and he was in desperate pain—we made our -way down through the house. There seemed to be only two rooms showing -any signs of habitation, two rooms on the second floor used as bedrooms, -and their furnishment was a droll mixture of bareness and luxury. -Shreddy and hanging wallpaper, a superb rug or so, a sumptuous easy -chair, and then wooden kitchen chairs, plain bedsteads, but a bureau or -toilet table covered with jewel boxes, and in a corner odds and ends of -silver utensils, heaped up into quite a noticeable hillock. Was it these -that the men had been seen carrying so constantly into the house? Our -prying about uncovered some decanters of wine incongruously stowed away -in a pantry below a washbasin. Their contents helped Erickson, and some -of the rest helped themselves. - -Riddles had been gloating over the capture of his game; his eyes never -left the sullen, downcast face of Mephistopheles, distorted too at -moments with angry scowls, nor the disturbed shadowed splendor of the -woman’s countenance. At an unguarded instant Mephistopheles sprang out -of the hold of his captors, and brought his clenched, handcuffed wrists -down on the head of Jack, who promptly dropped. - -“You dirty little fox, you did this. I know now. I’ve seen you hanging -about here. I’ll mark you! I’ll mark you! I’ll tear your liver and heart -out yet. Oh, I don’t forget. Diaz never forgets.” - -He was jerked back into decorum and silence, and somewhat injuriously -rebuked as well, but a little scar, bare of hair, was to remain as a -memento of his regard for Jack Riddles for many a long year afterwards. - -I bargained successfully with Captain B. for the possession of Erickson, -and I took him home in a taxi, greatly to my journalistic bliss. He was -pretty dangerously ill for days; the nervous breakdown was dreadful. He -raved and shouted and was almost maniacal in his outbreaks. It was the -natural reaction of a powerful mind and nature against the circumstances -of his degradation and insult. But he finally came round all right, the -glow of health covered his cheeks, and his earnest eyes welcomed me with -sanity and gratitude. Then he told me his story, in two parts. The first -part explained the predicament in which we found him here in New York, -the second— Well, the reader has it before him in this volume, exactly -as it appeared in the daily issue of the _New York Truth Getter_. - -A few words more to explain Mr. Erickson’s equivocal, abject position in -New York, as we found him, and this Editorial Note will no longer -restrain the puzzled and vexed subscriber. These words will be very few -indeed, and may indeed prove very unsatisfactory. Yet they will -conveniently make a skeleton framework or outline for deductions, with -which the reader may fill its expressionless and yawning blanks, after -the gift of his imagination or the bias of his temperament, upon reading -the ensuing narrative. - -Alfred Erickson reached San Francisco from the Arctic Exploration, -herein circumstantially described. In San Francisco he formed, rather -rapidly, the acquaintance of Angelica Sigurda Tabasco, and Diaz Ilario -Aguadiente. There were mutual prepossessions. Mr. Erickson also -fascinated his new friends by certain wonderful claims, which were -however partially supported by ocular demonstration. They all came to -New York. In New York Mr. Erickson came to grief. He had come too far -from the base of his operations, and he suffered from a complicated -treatment. We rescued him from its worst effects. I think that is all. I -will not trust myself to say more for fear of my own remorse over -misleading statements. Angelica and Diaz were never prosecuted. Erickson -was afraid to tell his story before he wrote his book (this book), and -we all agreed he acted wisely from a commercial standpoint, and the -police so impressed Angelica and Diaz with their—the police’s—contiguity -under any and all circumstances, in this country anywhere, anyhow, that -they left it. And Jack’s “Husky” turned out to be a hardened -photographed and historic criminal, who had played the heavy villain in -the little mystery under the same impelling motive that animated the -minds and tongues of Angelica and Diaz. He had also captivated this -captivating pair by blandishments less peculiar than beauty, and he had -wound up Alfred Erickson into the tightest kind of a knot of physical -embarrassments, from whose Gordian embrace Erickson had been delivered -through the intervention of the very humble instrument of Fate, Jack -Riddles. - -“Husky’s” name eluded determination for a while, but was revived through -his own inadvertence in talking in his sleep, wherein the confession -transpired of his having “done up” Blue Brigsy at a time when he himself -carried the soubriquet of “Monitor Dick.” The clue was slight; it proved -sufficient, and landed him in Sing Sing for a quarter of a century. - -Jack Riddles was “lifted.” He was taken out of the proletariat, the -pages, office boys and messengers, and placed among the police -reporters, where he was duly taken in hand under instruction to acquire -the current cursorial gait and speed of the slam-bang reportorial style. -He will get it. This relieves the situation created by Riddles’ -opportune circumspection from the top of the Fifth Avenue ’bus. - -The reader, albeit he may demur at the jejune skipping around the -explanation of the mystery at No. — east Fifty-eighth Street, has hereby -had the situation sufficiently cleared to feel himself ready to enjoy -Erickson’s story, and I assure him, he may look forward with expectancy -to find the residue, or the heart, of that mystery resolved at, let me -say, page 400 or thereabouts, assuming that by that time he cares any -more about it. So that, pleasantly impelled by the spur of curiosity, as -regards a secret yet undivulged, let him accept our editorial -invitation— Does he not see our obeisance, and the sweep of our hand -pointing to a door opening upon unimaginable wonders?—to peruse the -history of a voyage more marvelous than that of Marco Polo, of Father -Huc, of Mandeville, of Munchausen, of Sinbad, the Aethiopics of -Heliodorus, of Ariosto, of Gulliver, of Ulysses, of Peter Wilkins, of -Camoens, of Pomponius Mela. - - _Sive per Syrtes iter aestuosas, - Sive facturus per inhospitalem - Caucasum, vel quae loca fabulosa - Lambit Hydaspes_ - -His unappeased wonder over a bit of unraveled criminality will vanish in -the excitement of discovery, of adventure, of revelation, but at the -other end, as the book drops from his hand, finished and admired, he -will approve our reticence at this end, for then he will know HOW -Erickson got into his difficulty, and WHY. - -Erickson’s story was published in the _New York Truth Getter_—of course -the reader never saw it there—prepared from his verbal narrative, his -notes, and memoranda, and so expressed in English as to retain the glow, -enthusiasm, amazement, and graphic delineation of the original. It was -told to me in my library overlooking the sunlit tides around Throg’s -Neck; in the short winter afternoons at times, at times through the long -winter evenings, with Erickson hanging over the hearth where, as Max -Beerbohm puts it, “gradually the red-gold caverns are revealed, -gorgeous, mysterious, with inmost recesses of white heat.” Past all -dreams of wizardry, more remote from thought than any visions of magic, -stranger than the hallucinations of invention, was this picture of the -unreal and terraced world descending in titanic steps to the heated -regions of the earth’s mass, peopled with an impossible people, alive -with animal abundance and clothed in the vestal glory of innumerable -plants. In it were enacted those transmutations which Science predicts -as the last triumph of human knowledge, and in it a wealth transcending -the maddest hopes of Avarice had accumulated in an Acropolis of SOLID -GOLD! - -There in the frozen north, walled in by ice, hidden in fogs, almost -impenetrably concealed or protected by storm, lay this incredible -continent of wonders, unsuspected by the world of one thousand million -people around it, the goal of whose ambition it had already reached, the -course of whose evolution it illustrates, and who had, in these latest -years, begun to grope blindly for its guessed at shores. - - AZAZIEL LINK. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - -[Illustration: - - THE FIORD -] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER I - - THE FIORD - - -How well I remember it! The solemn, beautiful fiord, framed within the -pine tressed walls, flecked with patches of sunlight, where its waters -glistened with beryl hues. Shaded in the recesses of the cliffs where -the lustreless flood softly murmured with the faintest rhythmic cadence -against the rocky rims, immobile and caressed as they had been for -hundreds of thousands of years, and in a few places yielding slowly to -decay in shingled beaches. And the music of nature united with the -appeal to the eyes of color and form, to entrance the visitor. - -A rushing brook singing like a girl hurrying to some holiday joy, broke -from the highlands, a silvery thread, then a braid of pearls, then a -sloping cataract of splintered and rainbowed waves, then in silence for -a while, catching its breath, as the girl might catch it, for a new -descent, and then the renewed song, through a tiny gorge, its jubilation -softened to a murmur, and then the flash and chorus of its outspread -ripples as it leaped into the fiord. And that was the light soprano of -the music around us, and under it rolled the bass notes, muted and -_sfuggendo_, of the distant waterfall—_foss_—at the inland head of the -fiord, and towards which were even then starting the pleasure boats, -launches and steam yachts of the tourists. - -The sense of smell contributed its intoxication to the charmed surrender -of eye and ear, for there was flung down from the tree-crowned cliffs -the scent of wild flowers and the clean, resinous odors of the spruce. -The wind singing, too, like a chord accompaniment to the cheerful ballad -of the brook, and the heavy recitative of the waterfall, brought this -fragrance to us, even as it swept in capricious rushes outward over the -fiord to its gateway, through which the distant sea lay motionless like -a blazoned shield, beyond the _Skargaard_. - -A shelf of land, dropping off in a slope to the waters of the fiord and -pierced by a roadway whose climbing curves led at last to the summit of -the cliffs, and which ended on the shore in a dock, then gay with the -summer glories of young girls and men, held the picturesque red houses -of a few farmers, and the wandering walls of the comfortable hotel. The -brilliant green of the cut lawn, like an enameled sheath, covered the -little tableland, and venturesome tongues and ribbons ran flame-wise up -crannies, ledges and narrow glades, to be lost in the shadows of the -firs and the sprayed and silken birches high above. - -Round a table on the broad piazza of the hotel, in an angle where we -looked straight through the eyelet of the rocks to the sleeping ocean, a -gold-backed monster like a leviathan covering the earth, slumberously -heaving in the sun, I was sitting with three companions. - -There was my best friend, Antoine Goritz, a man thickly bearded, with a -broad, unwrinkled brow sparingly topped by light wisps of straggling -hair, with a straight Teutonic nose, deep-set blue eyes under carven -ivory lids, beneath eyebrows deeper tinted than his hair, and with a -physical frame, strong, massive, large, effective, perhaps a trifle -overdrawn in its suggestion of muscular power. - -It was a titan mould, but the face above it was humorously still and -observant. I often compared him to Sverdrup, Nansen’s captain, but he -was a bigger man. Like him he possessed the docility of a child, the -energy of a giant. Slow of speech ordinarily, as he was slow of -movement, but in stress and excitement convulsed with his rapid, -headlong utterance, and rising to a momentum of action that was -irresistible and swift. He sat upright in a thick brown plaid with a -blue sailor’s scarf around his broad neck and a straw hat like a coracle -on his head. - -Next to him sat Professor Hlmath Bjornsen, a very tidy man of ordinary -build and stature, but oddly distinguishable by his abundant red hair, -the crab-like protuberance of his eyes (he wore no glasses), his -indented lips, which looked as if stitched up in sections, also -undisguised by any covering of hair, his patulous, projecting ears. His -homeliness was saved by the merit of cheerfulness at least, by a pug -nose, a rosy complexion and a demure, winning sort of smile that was -generally _a propos_ of nothing, but was retained habitually as nature’s -protective grace against the premature prejudices of first -acquaintances. Professor Bjornsen was a man learned in rocks, minerals, -mines, geology, the hard and motionless properties of the earth. He was -scrupulously neat, and his frequent inspection of himself, especially -his hands, was equally disconcerting and amusing. - -Spruce Hopkins was the next man, alongside of myself, and probably he -would have been the first man whom an approaching stranger would have -looked at the longest, and concerned himself with knowing the most. He -was a Yankee, an American of Americans, but of that Grecian phase which -rejects _toto-coelo_, the newspaper type, the Brother Jonathan -caricature, the cheap idiosyncracies of the paragraph writer, -unassimilable even with the more credible picture, - - of one who wisely schemed - And hostage from the future took, - In trained thought and lore of book. - Large-brained, clear-eyed—of such as he - Shall Freedom’s young apostles be. - -Spruce Hopkins boasted no particular thrills. His thoughts followed -really a rather narrow gauge, and he could weigh with premature or -precocious carefulness the two sides of a practical question when his -decision would have halted perhaps at alternatives involving the -emotions. - -He had a superb figure, graceful, plastic, and eloquent of strength. His -face leaned, so to speak, a little to the Brahmin type, but any -introspection it might have accompanied or suggested was lost in the -radiance of the eyes, the tempting sweetness of his smile, the -full-blown glory of his infectious laughter, the spiced offerings of his -genial tongue, the crisp charm of his wavy, glossy, chestnut-tinted -hair, and that slight but irreducible _soupcon_ of swagger which gave -him distinction. - -And then there was myself; you see me, a hardy man (a blush rose to -Erickson’s cheeks; he could not overcome some apprehension of my -recalling his recent humiliation), a sailor man with a little land -schooling, loving yarns, telling yarns, and—believing ’em. - -“Why, yes, Erickson,” I interrupted, “I suppose you have been quite -willing to believe some gilded tales that those friends, your late -companions here in New York, told you, but even a captivating -gullibility hardly explains how a young giant like you were found on -your back, strapped to a table, and about to be skewered like a spitted -pig.” - -“Ah, sir, patience. You shall know all, but—at the end, at the end; even -if I could resist a plausible story, I could not always resist what goes -with a good story.” - -“SCHNAPPS?” I interjected. - -“Please, sir, patience. It is worth while. I have seen what no living -man— Perhaps I shall never see again my fellow travelers, the three who -sat with me on the hotel porch three years ago.” He bent his head, his -bruised, rough hand was passed over his face, and I thought a flare of -flame, shot from a cleaving coal, showed on it the glistening trail of -moisture. “—what no living man has ever seen, a country more wonderful -than dreams or legends or fairy stories have described or painted. Oh, -sir, in that new world in the north, something of the imagery of the -mythology of my forefathers seems repeated; very vaguely indeed. There I -have seen Nilfheim, I have seen Hwergelmer and Muspelheim, the world of -fire and light, but different, yes very different, and perhaps— Well, -no, not Valhalla, but something like Yggdrasill, and if it was not -Gladsheim, what was it?” - -He resumed. - -It was Professor Bjornsen speaking, with his big hands clutching his -head on either side, buried indeed in the luxuriant wealth of his ruddy -hair, with his staring eyes fixed on the table as if he saw through it, -looking at the land of his prophecies, while we all listened, with our -eyes measuring the cliffs up to the green fringes that ran, a dark zone -against the sky, on their sun-blazed peaks. - -“Signs, signals, came to the explorers of Europe long before Columbus -set his face westward; long before, standing at the peak of his little -caravel, he dared the perils and the powers of the bewitched western -ocean, the woods and weeds of Cipango floated to the shores of Europe. -There are signs and signals now, gentlemen”; the Professor brought his -long fingers down with a smart, startling slap on the table that brought -our own hands nervously to the sides of the unsupported glasses, lest -they capsize in his assault of enthusiasm, while his disordered hair -flamed aureole-like over his bulging forehead, beneath which smiled -exultantly his piercing green eyes. - -“Signs that an untouched continent is hidden in the uncharted wastes of -the western Arctic Sea. A vast area of waters, a blank space on the map -lies there, but that is simply the refuge, for cartographic lucidity, of -our ignorance. What really lies there is reciprocal on the west of -Greenland on the east, of the Franz Josef Archipelago and Spitzbergen -north of us. There is there another large fragment of that original -circumpolar continent that Science, in a moment of intuitional -certainty, points to as the source of the world’s animal and vegetable -life. And the signs? You ask me, your faces do, what they are. They are -negative indeed but they are convincing. Payer reached 82°5´ North -Latitude, on an island, Crown Prince Rudolf’s Land, and still further -north he thought he could see an extensive tract of land in 83°. He -called it Petermann’s Land. Driftwood on the east of Greenland comes -from Siberia, circuitously perhaps around the pole, not across it, since -the ‘Fram’ drifted from the north of Cape Chelyuskin in 1893 to north of -Spitzbergen in 1896. The wood is Siberian larch and alder and poplar. -Articles from the American ship ‘Jeannette,’ which foundered near -Bennett Island, had taken the same course, being picked up on the east -coast of Greenland. Professor Mohr held that they drifted over the pole. -Why did not the ‘Fram’ drift over the pole? The set of the waters that -way is obstructed, and that obstruction is a continental mass. Nothing -surer. - -“Dr. Rink has reported a throwing stick, used by the Eskimos in hurling -their bird darts, not like those used by the Eskimos of Greenland, and -attributed by him to the natives of Alaska. The path traversed by this -erratic could not have been directly eastward from Alaska, threading an -impenetrable and devious outlet in the Canadian archipelago, neither was -it over the pole, as any pathway there would, constructively, have -reached northern and not eastern Greenland. Again that invisible -obstruction, as patent, as real, as the influence of the undiscovered -Neptune in the perturbations of Uranus, which led Leverrier and Adams to -make their prophetic directions for its detection. - -“Sir Allen Young, appreciating the nucleal density of the land towards -the pole, and speaking of Nansen’s promised attempt to drift over it, -said, ‘I think the great danger to contend with will be the land in -nearly every direction near the pole. Most previous navigators seem to -have continued to see land, again and again farther and farther north.’ - -“Peary has seen Krocker Land. Over the western verge of the horizon its -peaks rose temptingly to invite him to new conquests. That was a -segment, a tiny fraction, a mere hint of the unknown vastnesses beyond. -But the most convincing symptoms—Ah, a feeble word to designate a -fact—of this continent are the observations of the United States’ -meteorologists. Dr. R. A. Harris, a competent authority, has shown that -the tides, mute but eloquent witnesses, testify to its existence. The -diurnal tides along the Asiatic and North American coasts are not what -they would be if an uninterrupted sweep over the Arctic Sea prevailed. -Their progress is delayed and along narrow channels is accelerated or -heightened, as past the shores of Grant Land. Why? Again that -undiscovered country.” - -“Harris, a clever fellow. Met him in Washington just two years ago this -autumn—a crackerjack at mathematical guessing. The way he can figure and -run off a reel of equations on anything from the rate sawdust makes in a -wood mill to a mensuration of the average dimensions of turnips is -surprising. If he says Krocker Land is there—why, then I guess IT IS,” -was Spruce Hopkins’ comment, while we all turned our eyes from the -cliffs to catch the Professor’s rejoinder, and Goritz leaned towards -him, fixing him with those luminous orbs of his that betrayed his -suppressed excitement. - -“What does this man Harris say?” asked Goritz. - -“He says,” answered Bjornsen, thrusting his hands in his pockets after -he had looked them over in his habitual manner of inspection, “he says -this. The diurnal tide occurs earlier at Point Barrow than at Flaxman -Island; the diurnal tide or wave does not have approximately its -theoretical value; at Bennett Island, north of Siberia, and at Teplitz -Bay, Franz Josef Land, the range of the diurnal wave has about one-half -of the magnitude which the tidal forces acting over an uninterrupted -Arctic basin would produce; the average rise and fall at Bennett Island -is 2.5 feet, but the rise and fall of the semi-daily tide is 0.4 at -Point Barrow, and 0.5 feet at Flaxman Island. And he makes this point.” -The Professor drew a red chalk from his vest pocket, stood up, and -pushing our glasses aside, drew a squarish outline, broader on one side, -with a tail standing out at its lower right-hand corner. He drew a -circle a little above its long side, and scribbled Pole within it, then -a jagged scrawl to either side, representing the coasts of Asia and -America, with an indentation like a funnel for Behring Straits. - -“He points out that the ‘Jeannette’, an American ship sent out by the -proprietors of the _New York Herald_, stuck in the ice here”, he jabbed -his crayon, which crumbled into grains under his pressure, to one side -of a projecting point of the outline, “and that the ice drift carried -her eastward”; he made a flourish under the fascinating trapezoid that -we now understood embodied the suggested continent; “while the ‘Fram’ -stuck here,” again a red splotch above the diagram, “and was carried -westward toward Greenland. Again why? Because at a critical point -between their two positions the ice current is divided by the influence -of a terminal promontory of Krocker Land. It splits, so to speak, the -trend over the pole of the ice drift, turning one arm of it eastward, -the other westward. His creative vision goes farther. A point of this -new land lies just north of Point Barrow in Alaska, that causes the -westward tide at the point; and he thinks it is distant from Point -Barrow five or six degrees of latitude, 350 to 420 miles. Harris claims -the ice in Beaufort Sea, north of Canada, here—” Another flaming signal -was scrawled on the white tablecloth below the right-hand corner of the -fascinating outline that now, assuming a magical premonition of some -great geographical reality, kept our eyes fastened on it almost as if it -might sprout before us with mimic mountains and ice fields. - -“Harris says that the ice in Beaufort Sea does not drift freely -northward, and is remarkable for its thickness and its age. He says the -ice does not move eastward, for you see,” the Professor flung his hands -over the cryptogram on the tablecloth like an exorcising magician, “you -see Beaufort Sea is a sea, land-locked by Krocker Land, that here -approaches Banks Island. Are you convinced?” - -We looked at each other a trifle slyly and disconcertedly, and Goritz -laughed, but it was Spruce Hopkins who suddenly turned to the Professor, -caught his arm and held him for a moment without speaking but with his -face yielding slowly to some growing impression of wonder within him -until he became quite grave. - -“You see, Professor, I feel about this thing this way. I guess you’re -not far wrong about this new land; it’s exciting enough to think of it. -I calculated there was room up there for a little more glory after I -heard your lecture before the Philosophical Society at Christiania last -November; glory for some of us, such as Peary and Amundsen, Scott, -Shackleton, Nansen, Stefansson, have won, and I thought it over. I fell -in with Erickson and Goritz at Stockholm and we canvassed the matter, -sort o’ stuck our heads together and thought it out; then we sent for -you, and the demonstration seems straight enough. Some rigmarole! Don’t -get angry Professor, that’s my way and, anyhow, I’m not going back on -you, not so much as the thickness of a flea’s ear, and I think you’ll -allow that can’t count; but the more I looked at the matter the more I -wondered if there was anything about it the least bit more substantial -than glory. - -“And that wasn’t all, either. I think I’d like to get back again.” - -“Yes, Professor,” it was Goritz speaking, with his head tilted back, as -he followed the scurrying flight of sparrows amid the tasseled larches -of the opposite _gaard_, “dead bodies are rather indifferent to glory. -If we are great enough to get there, we must be great enough to get -back. It would be no consolation for us to have our relatives and -friends sing; - - ‘_Sa vandra vara stora man - Fran ljuset ned til skuggan._’”[1] - -Footnote 1: - - Thus our great men wander from the light down into the shades. - -Hopkins smiled; he was neither hurt nor confused. He shook his head -assentingly, and his faint drawl prolonged itself somewhat in his -mocking rejoinder: - -“That’s all right, Goritz. As a corpse you probably would attract a -little more notice than either Erickson or myself, but buried fathoms -deep in an Arctic sea, or just rolled over by a nameless glacier in this -nameless land, your own chances for a newspaper obituary might shrink to -very small proportions. You might not even have your dimensions -mentioned.” - -Goritz looked approvingly at the American, and benignantly raised his -hat and bowed. - -But the impatient Professor was in his chair, his hands spread out -before him; his smile had vanished, his encroaching eyes had retreated, -his serrated lips were puckered, his eyebrows frowned, and altogether he -assumed such a sudden portentousness of suppressed eagerness and -concealed thought that we rocked with delight and the momentary -restraint was forgotten. And with our laughter there stole back into the -Professor’s face its usual smile, but it had enigmatically deepened into -a sort of mute expostulation. - -“Listen,” he said, and he waved his hands, inviting us to a closer -attention; his voice fell; I thought his peering eyes glanced to either -side to avert the proximity of eavesdroppers. “There is good reason to -believe that this new world of the north is neither inclement nor -barren. I believe it is a place of wonders; in it rest secrets, -REVELATIONS.” There was now a sorcery in the Professor’s voice that made -us lean toward him, drawing the circle a little closer, like -conspirators over an incantation. “What they are no once can tell. You -ask, Why? I believe this. I can hardly explain; my faith in this is a -growth, a coalescence of many strands of feeling and many lines of -study. My conviction is complete. I admit that extrinsically, as I may -say, it is unreasonable; intrinsically it is now as inexpugnable as a -theorem from Euclid, or the evidence of my own senses. - -“That there is a new world south of the pole is maintained by Science; -it is the unalterable belief of the explorers, the hydrographers, the -geographers. But what may that world be like? What was it like? Long -millions and millions of years before our time the Arctic north was the -procreant cradle of ALL LIFE! From it streamed the currents of animal -and vegetable creation; it was warm; forests of palms flourished along -river and lake-side, and within them roamed the creatures of tropical or -semi-tropical climates. Paleontologists from Saporta to Wieland, from -Keerl to Heer have pointed this out, with an emphasis that has varied -with temperament or knowledge, from conviction to surmise. G. Hilton -Scribner, a clever American _litterateur_ says”—the Professor -ludicrously grasped for something in an inner coat pocket and revealed a -little book, exquisitely bound, of scraps and extracts, and read from a -page whose smoothness he had marred by folding a leaf—“he says, ‘thus -the Arctic zone, which was earliest in cooling down to the first and -highest heat degree in the great life-gamut was also the first to become -fertile, first to bear life, and first to send forth her progeny over -the earth.’ - -“And Wieland, a remarkable Yale scholar, an authority on fossil cycads -and Chelonia, the latest to speculate authoritatively along this line, -writes”—another creased page was turned to—“‘in a word, that the great -evolutionary _Schauplatz_ was boreal is possible from the astronomical -relations, probable from physical facts, and rendered an established -certainty by the unheralded synchronous appearance of the main groups of -animals and plants on both sides of the great oceans throughout -post-Paleozoic time.’” - -“But Professor,” it was my remonstrance that now interrupted him, “that -was millions of years ago. It’s a dead world up there. Surely you don’t -think—” - -The Professor broke in with a deprecatory gesture of regret at his own -impatience. “I know. True, true, for the most part, but perhaps not for -all—not for all. It’s a deep matter.” - -Professor Bjornsen’s eyes were glistening with enthusiasm; his manner -became extravagantly mysterious, and his words boiled out feverishly -from his scarred lips. “The north, to whose enchantment the whole world -bows; a strange, magical region, lit by the supernal splendors of -heavenly lights, and wrapped in eternal snows, was the Eden of our race. -It was that _navel_ of the world related in all mythologies from India -to Greece, from Japan to Scandinavia; it was the Paradisaic earth -center, the fecund source of every manner of life, endowed by the -Creator with original unrestrained powers of exuberance. Here man -originated; here was his primal home, here his first estate, dressed as -he was in every faculty of mind, and enriched by all the gifts of -nature. As President Warren, another American, eloquently wrote -twenty-six years ago—” - -Again the Professor dove into his pocket, produced his amazing little -scrapbook, while we all gazed at the excited gentleman with a new -fascination and astonishment. Here was the man of crystals and -mensuration, of ores, adits, drifts and strata, riding the high horse of -mystical and religious analogy, and somehow we felt ourselves drawn into -the vortex of his cerebral excitement! We were quite dazed in a way, and -yet felt an elation that kept us spellbound. - -“Ah, here it is. He wrote, President Warren, ‘the pole symbolizes Cardo, -Atlas, Meru, Hara-berezaiti, Kharsak-Kurra, every fabulous mountain on -whose top the sky pivots itself, and around which all the heavenly -bodies ceaselessly revolve.’ - -“Assume this; assume that here the finger of God first impressed this -insensate whirling globe of unconscious matter with the touch and -promise of life and Mind. Is it likely that all vestiges, all signs, all -remainders of that consecrated first endowment should have quite -disappeared, succumbed ingloriously to the stiffening embrace of cold, -congealed in an eternal sleep beneath the glaciers and the snows? I -think not, my friends, _I think not_.” - -“But,” it was the protesting voice of Goritz who now voiced our -incredulity, “haven’t the expeditionists, the geographers, the -explorers—hasn’t everything we have been told, everything we have read, -all we know about it, and that’s a good deal, from Franklin to Peary -made it clear that at the pole there is nothing but death, desolation, -and ice?” - -“Antoine!” Here the Professor turned abruptly to the big Dane, thrusting -his umbrageous crown of red hair almost into the thin locks of his -friend, and whispered hoarsely, “Ah! Antoine, the secrets are hidden in -that uncharted land beyond the ice packs north of Point Barrow. The -reservations of life are there. You have all heard,” the rufous glory -now moved towards Hopkins and myself, “of Symmes Hole? Of course you -shrug your shoulders; it was preternatural simplicity you say, the mad -dream of a fool, uproariously derided. Yes! Symmes was not a fool; he -was a brave man, a soldier, chasing a reality through the distortions of -an hallucination. There is _no_ hole; the earth is not hollow, but—there -is a depression; there must be. The depression is at the North Pole -somewhere. It has not been found, and the Arctic seas have been -_parcourired_ by explorers, as you notice, Goritz. The depression is -Krocker Land. If profound its climate is temperate. Life, the remnants -of its first evolutionary phases, may be there—but mark me!” The -Professor positively dilated, everything in him enlarged as if his -bounding heart sent fuller currents of blood to all its outposts; his -eyes were refulgent; I thought they were an emerald green; his hair rose -in the thrill of his vaticination and his mouth opened into a vast -exclamatory _rictus_, in which flashed his big white incisors like -diminutive tusks. “Mark me, there too will be found the last -evolutionary phases of the human race!” - -Here was a climax, and the mental stupefaction of the Professor’s -audience was exactly reflected in the prolonged silence that ensued. It -was entertaining, however, to watch Spruce Hopkins’ fixed, -expressionless perusal of the Professor’s face, and the immobile glory -in the Professor’s answering stare. Hopkins spoke first: - -“Well! I like your certainty about that depression, Prof. Can’t see it -noway. You’re making things interesting enough, but surely that -depression isn’t the gospel truth. Is it?” - -The Professor relaxed; he laughed, and his laugh was the most curious -blend of a chuckle and a whistle, utterly impossible to describe except -by reproduction. It always affected Hopkins hilariously; he said the two -elements in the Professor’s laugh were satisfaction and astonishment; -the chuckle meant the first, the whistle the second, and the state of -the Professor’s mind could be well gauged from the predominance of one -or the other. Just then the chuckle had the best of it. - -“Mr. Hopkins,” he said, “you are a very intelligent man. Don’t you see -that a rotating and solidifying viscosity cannot become solid without -forming a pitted polar extremity?” - -Hopkins withstood this assault with admirable stolidity; he even looked -injured. - -“My dear Professor; really your statement is too simply put to appeal to -the complicated convolutions of my gray matter. Your manner is juvenile. -Such a subject should be treated in a becoming obscurity of terms.” - -After our amusement had subsided, Bjornsen explained his view. It was -easily understood. The earth had cooled down from some initial gaseous -or lava-like stage, and, if the congelation had not progressed far or -fast enough at the poles, centrifugal force at the equator would have -withdrawn enough matter to effect a depletion at one pole or the other, -with the consequent result (I recall how particular the Professor was -over this point) of forming a graduated, evenly rounded and smoothish -concavity, if the polar areas were not too rigidly fixed; or a broken, -step-like succession of terraces if they were. Later we were -triumphantly reminded by the Professor of this prediction. Then too he -involved his theory with demonstrations of the vertical effect of -rotation, producing inverted cones or funnels in liquids, as is -familiarly seen in the discharging contents of a washbasin. We were not -convinced, and our evident apathy or dissidence chilled the Professor -into a taciturnity from which he was scarcely aroused when cries from -the water’s edge of the fiord announced the return of a fishing fleet, a -phalanx of _jaegts_, the single masted, square sailed, sturdy boats -familiar to tourists in sea journeys along the fair Norwegian shores. It -was welcomed with shouts and salutations, and the waving of flags and -handkerchiefs, in which we joined. - -But the hidden springs of wonderment, the latent impulse in young, -strong men for adventure, discovery, perhaps some marvelous realization -of the unknown, had been stirred within us. The Professor would have -been gratified if he had known how restlessly Goritz and myself rolled -about in our beds that night, or how with sleepless eyes, flat on our -backs, we rehearsed his strange statements, or in dreams encountered -polar bears, threading our way through devious leads to the wintry -coasts of a NEW CONTINENT. The imagery of the north was familiar to us. -We had both visited Spitzbergen and the Franz Josef Archipelago. As -Hopkins had said, we had met him at Stockholm and discussed together the -sensation of the hour, Bjornsen’s lecture at Christiania. We were all -three of us idlers—I by compulsion—but firm in body, ambitious in -spirit, and half exasperated at our uselessness in the world’s affairs. -Goritz was a rich man, an only son, heir to the fortune of a successful -fish merchant in Stockholm; I had a bare competency, and Spruce Hopkins, -a vagabond American, seeing the world but yearning for sterner work, had -already gained in Europe an unenviable reputation for reckless -extravagance. It was at Hopkins’ suggestion that we had invited the -Professor to meet us at the fiord, and we were all wondering how far we -might go in this strange experiment of finding Krocker Land. Should we -go at all? - -Whatever satisfaction the Professor might have felt over Goritz’s and my -own agitation, his most sanguine hopes of producing an impression would -have been inflamed to exultation had he known that the Yankee had not -slept a wink, had not taken off his clothes, but had just, as he -characterized it, “stalled on everything,” until he got his bearings on -this “new stunt.” - -The Professor’s equanimity was restored when we met him in the -diningroom at breakfast the following morning, and he most -good-naturedly accepted professions of contrition at our mental -obduracy. But it was the American who confounded him by his sudden -determination and a precipitant proposition to “_get away on the first -tide_.” - -“Prof.,” he exclaimed clapping the smaller man on the shoulder with a -cordial gaiety that shocked Goritz, “I’m willing to take the chance. -It’s a big stake to win, though,” his whimsical smile propitiated the -Professor completely. “I’m not buffaloed on all your talk about the -tropical climate we’re likely to meet. Of course, I’ve looked into the -matter a little, on my own hook, and just now the plan of action is -something like this. These two good friends,” he waved his hands -genially toward Goritz and myself, “know a good deal about zero -temperatures, polar bears, walrus, starvation and ice floes; you have -surveyed Spitzbergen, and as for myself—Well, honestly, I’m a tenderfoot -but young, hardy, sound as a steel rail, a good shot, a prize rower, and -once Prof., take it from me, I strangled a mad dog with these hands.” - -Hopkins never looked handsomer than at that moment, his face burning -with an expectant eagerness, the color rising to his temples beneath the -waves of chestnut hair, his frame and figure like an Achilles. - -The Professor nodded his approval and assent. - -“We’ll make a strong quartette; quite enough for the jaunt. These big -outfits are a blunder. I’ve always thought that was the mistake the -English made. Plenty of dogs, rations and a few mouths go farther, with -less strain and less risk. And another thing, friends,” he wheeled round -from the Professor, and addressed us, “no big ship, no ‘Fram’, no -‘Roosevelt.’ We’ll get the stiffest and most flexible and biggest wooden -naphtha launch that can be made; stock her; carry her up on a hired -whaler from San Francisco, bunk at Point Barrow, pick our best chance -through the leads in the open weather, and then with dogs, sleds, and -kayaks, take to the main ice and scoot for the happy land of—Krocker! -Eh?” - -Goritz and I heard the extraordinary daredevil plan with consternation. -It seemed the limit of foolishness, and absurdly ignorant. We waited for -the inevitable crushing denunciation of such folly from the informed -lips of the Professor. To our amazement the Professor grew radiant, -seized Hopkins’ hands, shaking them vigorously, his pop-eyes starting -out with the most amiable encouragement, while his beaming smile -endorsed Hopkins’ lunacy with mad enthusiasm. - -“Right, Mr. Hopkins! Right—the very thing. No reserve, no retreat, no -store ship is necessary. I had convinced myself of the absolute -propriety of just such a course of action, but I expected to find it a -hopeless task to persuade anyone to believe me. Krocker Land will supply -us with everything, and the ice course will be far more simple and easy -than Nansen’s trip from 86° to Franz Josef Land, or Peary’s over North -Greenland; a straight-away run with a few water breaks. No great -hardships. At least,” and the Professor in a burst of audacious -nonchalance knocked over a few glasses and a water carafe in his -swinging ambulations, “none greater than the ordinary experiences of an -Arctic traveler. I congratulate you, Mr. Hopkins, on your -perspicacity—American shrewdness. Ah! American—what you call GAMENESS. -Eh? Let me assure you that had you been a hardened, experienced North -Pole explorer you would never have hit on this; NEVER. You’d have stuck -to the old plans. And the only reason you are right now is that Krocker -Land is an exceptional proposition, to be negotiated by exceptional -methods. I promise you exceptional results.” - -For a few moments Goritz and I were dumb with astonishment, and I think -Goritz was almost choking with indignation. Somehow he suppressed his -threatening outbreak and only muttered, “I suppose we will never want to -come back—never need to?” - -A ripple of comic commiseration crossed Hopkins’ face: - -“Come now, Goritz. WHERE I COME BACK is just _here_, - - ‘_Sa vandra vara stora man - Fran ljuset ned til skuggan._’” - -The situation was so funny, with that tantalizingly humorous face of the -Professor looking on in perplexity, that Goritz burst into laughter, in -which I joined, and his evanescent rage was swept away. - -But the Professor answered his implied sarcasm quite literally. - -“Antoine,” he said, both hands raised imploringly, “trust me; we shall -find food in Krocker Land, an abundance; the launch can return to Point -Barrow with a small crew, and when we want it on our return—why—” - -His indecision or uncertainty or the blankness of his mind about it was -quickly relieved by Goritz. - -“We’ll send a telegram ordering it over, and _wait_—for it?” - -“Oh it’s no joke Goritz”—Goritz admitted _sotto voce_ that it certainly -was not. “We can get back without it, our kayaks will answer. And you -forget the People of Krocker Land.” - -“Why Professor,” I protested, “we haven’t heard of them before.” - -The Professor assumed a surprised air, became portentously solemn, and -then—I never felt quite certain whether he actually winked at Hopkins or -not—gravely answered. - -“The people of Krocker Land, Erickson, are an assured certainty. An -unpeopled continent is as much a _lusus naturae_ as an unfilled vacuum.” - -“Certainly, Erickson. Didn’t you know that? Somebody must be provided to -pocket the revenues from whale blubber and walrus ivory, not to mention -the conservation bureau for glaciers, the output of icebergs, and the -meteorological corps for the standardization of blizzards,” and Hopkins -hid his face in his hands to stifle his screaming mirth. - -But the Professor was neither ruffled nor amused; he went on oracularly: - -“Erickson, the expectation is a little discouraging. Well I’ll say from -your point of view it is almost impossible of belief that an unknown -people exists in an unknown land near the North Pole. Now Stefansson’s -discovery of the so-called Blond Eskimos has nothing to do with my -confidence in this matter. It rests upon a broad deduction, an _a -priori_ necessary assumption. If the original Eden, the primitive center -of dispersion, on the basis of the unity of the human race—if—” - -Behind the Professor, whose labyrinthine locution, sounding higher and -higher, was attracting some general attention among the guests of the -hotel, stood Hopkins with two tumblers of water in his hands. He raised -them suddenly above his head and dropped them. The crash was startling, -and it was followed by an equally unexpected yell of pain from Hopkins, -who apparently slipped, fell, seized the tablecloth and dragged to the -floor a varied array of glassware and cutlery in a clatter that was -deafening. - -Confusion, explanations, reparation and a tumult of amusement followed, -and in it disappeared the Professor’s voluminous harangue. It was never -resumed. - -Hopkins recovered his seriousness, and we attacked the novel project he -had suggested, critically. All that next day we argued over it, -thrashing it out with the illuminative references Goritz, the Professor -and myself could make to our own experiences, Hopkins listening and -pertinaciously sticking to his original suggestions. His plan grew more -and more attractive; its reasonableness developed more and more under -examination. Of course all four of us were now thoroughly excited; the -lure of discovery almost maddened us, and the necromantic charm of the -Professor’s amazing predictions, which we actually were unwilling to -resist, instilled in us the wayward and fantastic hope that we were on -the verge of a world-convulsing disclosure. We have not been -disappointed. - -The project finally took this shape: Hopkins and Goritz volunteered to -bear all the expenses connected with the expedition; Hopkins would go to -America, consult naval architects, and have a naphtha-propelled launch -devised, combining, as to its hull, features of the “Fram” and -“Roosevelt” in a diminutive way. Goritz would follow and buy the -supplies, clothing and equipment. Then would come the Professor with -instruments and books, and finally myself with three chosen men—Hopkins -demanded they should be selected in America—who would be the captain, -engineer and crew of the launch on its return to Point Barrow, and who -would look for us the next summer. How preposterously sure we were that -we would find land and game! But how ineffectually paltry after all were -our expectations compared to the reality. - -When everything was ready—the end of a year’s time was fixed for the -date of our departure—we would have the launch set amidships on a -whaler, and sail for Point Barrow, our prospective headquarters on the -North American continent. - -The last question Hopkins put to the Professor before we parted was -about the mineral wealth of the new land, which had now incorporated its -actuality with every sleeping and waking moment, seeming as certain as -any other unvisited realm of Earth which we had seen on maps, but never -visited. - -Of course the Professor was quite equal to this demand upon his -imagination. - -“Mineral wealth? Probably immense. The mother lodes of the gold of -Alaska have never been found. They lie north of Alaska; the geological -extension of the mineral deposits of Alaska is naturally in that -direction, and the enrichment of the primary crystallines with the -precious metals can be reasonably asserted to surpass the mythical -values of Golconda or California.” - -“That suits _me_,” was Hopkins’ laconic comment. - -At last the whole scheme was pretty thoroughly worked out, down to its -details. Correspondence would be maintained during the summer. The -Professor left for Christiania, Goritz and myself for Stockholm, and -Hopkins steamed away to Hull on the English ship “North Cape.” Our -conference had lasted just a week. - -How wonderfully lovely was the day and scene when he left us that June -morning three years ago. If portents of our success could be discerned -in its delicious, enveloping glory of light and beauty, then surely we -might be hopeful. The great gulls were sweeping with deep undulations -through the upper sky, exulting in their splendid power, the summer wind -faintly stirred the dark spruces, whose gentle expostulation at its -intrusion reached us with a sound like the washing of waves on a faraway -shore. The granite rocks of peak and cliff flashed back the unchecked -sunlight; the road, like a white ribbon, spun its loops to and fro over -the hillside, through meads where the glistening red farm houses stood, -that seemed like rubies set in an emerald shield while the waters of the -fiord slumbered at our feet, a liquid mass of beryl. - -It now seems to me as if a quarter of a century had passed since then. -And, if events are the measure of duration to the subjective sense, it -might seem even farther away. I recall Spruce Hopkins, radiant and -handsome, amid a throng of new acquaintances—he gathered friends about -him as frankly and quickly as roses attract bees—among whom not a few -young women offered him their mute but eloquent admiration; I remember -him leaning over the rail of the steamer’s deck and reciting in a -rollicking drawl: - - “When the sea rolled its fathomless billows - Across the broad plains of Nebraska; - When around the North Pole grew bananas and willows, - And mastodons fought with the great armadillos, - For the pine-apples grown in Alaska.” - -(Editorial Apology. The foregoing chapter in its diction and in certain -studied phases of construction will disturb the reader’s sense of -congruity, perhaps. He will be inclined to doubt its authenticity as the -exact narrative of Alfred Erickson. The suspicion is partly creditable -to his literary acumen. The editor admits substantial emendations useful -for the purpose of imparting a literary atmosphere.) - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - POINT BARROW - - -We were all aboard the steam whaler “Astrum” in the spring of the next -year, and with us a marvel of compact maritime construction, our naphtha -launch “_Pluto_”. Hopkins suggested the name on the satisfactory ground -that we were likely to have “a hell of a time.” We had worked ourselves -up to the most supreme height of confidence and enthusiasm. The -Professor was in a sort of demented state of expectation; Hopkins -furiously asserted the name of Christopher Columbus would now be -forgotten in the new fame to be allotted to us, “the Arctic Argonauts,” -and finally Goritz and myself succumbed to a peculiar feeling of -predestination. - -Captain Coogan of the “Astrum” knew nothing of our proposed destination. -It was a stipulation made by Hopkins that nothing on that point was to -be discussed, until we reached Point Barrow—if we were to reach it—and -the services of Captain Coogan and his selected crew—not the usual -polyglot assemblage of ethnic odds and ends—were unconditionally ours up -to that moment. The temptations of whaling were to be absolutely -eschewed until we had vanished into the fogs and wilderness of the ice -pack, beyond whose trackless waste lay Krocker Land. Of course a sea dog -like Captain Coogan, a clever and hardy mate like Isaac Stanwix, a -pertinacious thinker like the engineer Bell Phillips, and such an -experienced and avaricious reader as the carpenter Jack Spent (he had -made ten trips to Point Barrow) could make pretty shrewd guesses as to -our intentions. The stores and supplies, the sledges and kayaks, -splendid vehicles of travel made under Goritz’s supervision, were -informing enough, had it not been for the disconcerting secrecy of the -actors in this strange new ice-drama. I think we were regarded as a -“parcel of wild devils or fools,” though I think too, with the exception -of perhaps the Professor, our physical constants were impressive. - -Our departure did not escape public notice. We were besieged by -reporters, but we were impenetrable, and yet we were genially -communicative too. It was the Arctic or bowhead whale we were interested -in; we were naturalists, the Professor was hoping to introduce the -bowhead whale into European waters; just now a preliminary study of its -habits, habitat, food, breeding grounds, and commercial availability was -indispensable. That fiction sufficed. The remarkable launch prepared for -us was made into a skillful adjunct to our investigations. We were -honored by several columns of interviews in the dailies, and the splash -of our adventure spread its circle of disturbance even to Washington, -whence official offers of assistance and participation were received -which—were never answered. Among our visitors, for we did not escape the -invasion of sightseers, was that Goliah, Carlos Huerta, from whose -branding iron you saved me. - -(Erickson spoke this measuredly and calmly to be sure, but his hands -covered his face, and I saw his body sway, convulsed by his emotion.) - -“This man somehow appealed to me; perhaps it was his herculean -dimensions. He was familiar with launches and machinery, and was very -intelligent; forceful, too. His suavity disarmed suspicion, and his -robust, seemingly ingenuous interest pleased me. Almost his last words, -before we sailed, invited me to come to see him—he handed me his -card—and to tell him “all about it.” It was a curious, inexplicable -divination on his part that I should have much to tell. That man, Mr. -Link, was the most ruthless scoundrel I ever met; he was my first -scoundrel; because I had never met a scoundrel before I fell into his -net. - -(Again a pause. It lasted so long that I feared some complication of -feeling had robbed him of his memory. I said “And Mr. Erickson, you left -San Francisco?” His consciousness returned, and he turned to me -smiling.) - -Yes, we left San Francisco about the end of April, a dull day with fog -banks lifting and falling over the Golden Gate, while a rising storm -outside was turning the ocean into water alps, smiting the clouds. Our -course was almost a direct line to Behring Straits; we were to pass -through the channel between Unalaska and Uninak Islands, then coast the -Pribylof Islands for the benefit of the Professor, reach Indian Point, -on the Siberian side of the strait where some of the natives, Masinkers -(_Tchouktchis_), could be seen, then cross to Port Clarence on the -Alaskan shore for an inspection of the Nakooruks (_Innuits_); then two -stops for the benefit of Hopkins and Goritz. We also intended to secure -at the latter place dogs for our dash over the ice to the Krocker Land -shore from Point Barrow. Captain Coogan recommended a stop at Cape -Prince of Wales where further ethnological notes might be gathered, but -this was overruled as both the Professor and Hopkins expected to visit -the coal beds beyond Point Hope, and Cape Lisburne in the Arctic Ocean. - -We came abreast of Pribylof about May sixth, stalled off St. Paul’s -Island in a still sea, light southwest winds and rising tide. The -Professor was pulled off to the island in the morning; his eagerness to -visit these famous fur-seal rookeries being irrepressible. He had talked -of little else, in the intervals when we were not discussing our -momentous enterprise, but the marvelous stories which old navigators, -Captain Scammon and Captain Bryant had told, and the fascinating studies -of Elliot. He told us that formerly, in the middle of the nineteenth -century and later, these pelagic mammals had swarmed in millions up to -these islands, rising from the ocean like a veritable mammal inundation. -He told us about the bull seals, how they fought, their tenacity, their -endurance, how a bull will fight fifty or sixty battles for the -possession of his ample harem of twelve or fifteen cows, and last out to -the end of the season, three months perhaps without food, living on his -own fat, covered with scars, eyes gouged out, striped with blood; and -how the jovial bachelors, not so disconsolate as might be imagined, the -“hollus-chickies,” congregate to one side. He said the noise from these -monstrous breeding grounds, where thousands of seals are roaring, -bleating, calling—mothers, fathers and pups—could be heard, with the -wind right, five or six miles to sea. He didn’t expect to see the -households developed then—it was too early—but he might have an -opportunity to find a few advance bulls on their stations. He found the -bulls, and he found an adventure, and _we found him_. - -It was almost four or five hours after the Professor had left the ship -in a yawl rowed by two sailors, that Hopkins, Goritz, and myself -followed him in another boat. We saw the yawl on a short beach of sand, -with the men sunning themselves and asleep on the black rocks which -hemmed in the little cove. We ran our boat on the sands, the men came -strolling toward us, rubbing their eyes and recovering from the inertia -of what had been an uninterrupted snooze. When we asked for the -Professor they told us he had disappeared, and had ordered them to stay -where they were while he pursued his investigations. He certainly was -nowhere in sight and a little anxious over his long absence we moved up -to the broken rim of rocks which probably separated this retreat from -some similar beach on either side. - -The elevated cones and ridges of the island could be seen towering up -toward the interior in gaunt gray surfaces, on which rested extensive -patches of snow. We surmounted the inconsiderable elevation and found it -was a broader barrier than we had anticipated, a platform of jagged -projecting crests with intervening rocky basins or tables, the whole an -extended spur from a black wall of rock, on whose summit were the -clustering huts of a native village. On the edges of the rocks hung a -few large cakes of ice, and the receding tide had left broken, hummocky -masses tilted at various angles over the inclined faces of stone. The -scene was chilly and desolate and to add to its lugubrious desolation a -fog had slowly drifted in from the sea and was now tortuously rolling -down from the highland on the opposite shore to the island. Our search -for the missing Professor would have to be hastened. - -“The Professor must be found,” said Hopkins. “We shan’t know how to deal -with the native Krockerans when we meet ’em, without the Professor. At -present he is the only man alive who understands their peculiarities, -and as an interpreter he’s bound to prove useful.” - -“Of course,” said Goritz, “you don’t think the seals can eat him?” - -“They might,” answered Hopkins, “but they could never digest him. It -would certainly be a death potion to the venturesome bull who mistook -him for food. Likely as not he is now engaged in explaining to an -interesting family his plans for the preservation and increase of them -and their kindred.” - -During this irrelevant badinage I had crossed the rocky flat and reached -another cove or gully, headed towards the land by a slope of broken -boulders, and floored with sand. We had as yet encountered no seals. -Looking beyond this bay I saw on a promontory bounding the distant edge -of the beach what seemed like a human figure, or indeed like a group of -figures. Watching the objects for a short time I could more clearly -distinguish them, and to my astonishment determined that one was a man -and the rest some erect animal forms, doubtless seals. The group was at -an extreme point on the rocks, and, if the solitary human was the -Professor, his only possible retreat from the beleaguering seals would -be the water. - -I hallooed to my companions, pointing to the distant objects, and -hastened forward onto the rock-strewn beach. Goritz and Hopkins -struggled over the rough patch of rocks and overtook me. - -“Yes, by the lives of all the saints!” cried Hopkins, who had stopped a -moment and with shaded eyes was studying the enigmatical figures -silhouetted against sea and sky. “It’s the Professor and three -_beachmasters_ apparently bent on his capture, or else drinking in -wisdom from his lips. It might just be they’re competing for his -services in teaching their prospective families.” - -“I can see him waving his hands, it seems to me, and now he’s shooing -them with his hat,” exclaimed Goritz. “He’s in something of a fix. -Hurry.” - -[Illustration: - - THE PROFESSOR AND THE PRIBYLOF SEALS -] - -We bounded forward, and over the beaten sand raced together, taking -quick glances ahead at the now certain embarrassment of our friend. It -was indeed the Professor, and his predicament was unmistakable. -Amusement however mingled with our anxiety, for as we drew near we could -plainly make out that he had taken his hat between his teeth and was -violently wagging his head, the absurd appendage of his cap flying up -and down producing a very ludicrous effect. It was a serviceable device, -however, for the amazed seals had stopped their approaches; their -barking or snarling, at first quite audible, had ceased, and they were -now attentively regarding the Professor with almost immobile heads. - -“Guess,” called out Hopkins between breaths, “they think the Professor -is a little dippy, and are reconsidering his engagement as a domestic -instructor.” - -We were now near enough to attract the Professor’s sight; he hailed us -with swinging arms but did not venture to desist from his mandarin-like -wig-wagging. The approach to his position was a little difficult, and we -suffered some falls. Our advent had attracted the notice of the bulls -and they swerved about to receive us, humping their backs, leaping -forward on their flippers, and renewing their truculent miauling or -barking. We attacked them with stones but their defiance was unchanged, -and they lunged and rushed, quite unappalled by our onset. They would -retreat almost immediately to their former positions, holding the poor -Professor in chancery with an apparent unanimity that kept Goritz -laughing, for with every retreat, the Professor would renew his violent -gesticulations. - -At length Goritz and Hopkins armed with an armful of stones drove in on -the biggest of the bulls, and assailed him with such a shower of -missiles that his reserve was overcome, and he plunged forward, -following them for twenty feet or more. I ran to the Professor and -caught his arm, and we got out of the zone of danger, while the -momentarily allied _beachmasters_, frustrated from their imprisonment of -him, suddenly resented each other’s proximity and after a miscellaneous -“mix-up,” as Hopkins called it, shuffled and loped away to their former -stations, the chosen spots for their future _seraglios_. - -With the liberated Professor we sat down on some stool-like fragments -inserted in the sand of the beach and heard his story. It was laughable -enough and added an unusual trait to the recorded conduct of the big -bull seals, usually indifferent to the approach of men. These three -indolent, unoccupied forerunners of the great herds that might soon be -expected, had actually chased the Professor and, having cornered him on -the promontory, had hopelessly besieged him. The Professor had been too -much interested or too imprudent. His amiability perhaps had brought him -into this unexpected dilemma, for he had gathered up seaweed from the -rocks at the edge of the water, and attempted to feed the bulls. They -followed him, and their disappointed expectations developed later into -the pugnacity that had made him a prisoner. - -While he was talking a few more seals emerged from the ocean, lazily -hauling themselves on the rocks with that ill-assured clumsiness of -motion so strikingly replaced in the water by the greatest grace, -agility and speed. - -“But Professor,” interrupted Goritz, “what were you doing with your -hat?” - -The Professor, who had been much ruffled and excited over his encounter, -welcomed this inquiry with a restored equanimity. - -“Ah! Goritz, that is a contribution to science. On our return I shall -call the attention of Lloyd Morgan and other animal psychologists to -this novel observation. Antoine, it has long been known that the -rhythmical oscillation of a flexible substance, a rag, hat, towel, -banner, exercises a peculiar influence on animals. It will allay the -ferocity of a mad dog or alarm him. Color has something to do with it, -as instance the red rag which irritates the bull. Now—” here the -Professor looked critically at his steamer cap, and may have mentally -noted that it was a green and brown Scotch plaid. “Now this influence -seems curiously reinforced if the substance or garment is taken in the -mouth and shaken.” - -The incorrigible Hopkins had again buried his face in his cupped palms. - -“No reason that is incontrovertible has been assigned for this, but I -assume that it is an appeal to a latent _demonism_ in animals, which in -its later evolution appears as _devil-worship_ in aboriginal people. I -most fortunately recalled this, and at a critical moment, when I was -threatened with the necessity of retreating into the sea—” The poorly -repressed vibrations in Hopkins’ body might have been referred to -sympathy or—something else. “A quite unnecessary ablution, let us say,” -and the Professor smiled benignantly at me, as perhaps the one most -gravely interested in his narrative. “I thought of this remarkable -device, which I believe has something of the nature of an incantation. -The effect was miraculous. This simple gesture held the seals at bay; I -think it is quite demonstrable also that there is a physiological basis -for their evident stupefaction—the optic nerve. These animals you know -have very poor sight—the optic nerve is disturbed and a cerebral vertigo -is induced which, like—” - -“That settles it,” cried Hopkins, stumbling to his feet with a very red -face and hurrying across the sands. “Professor, there’s something worse -than seals on this island; there are the U. S. officials, and—I guess -they are charmproof.” - -“Exactly,” assented the Professor in an absent-minded way, “exactly, but -had you gentlemen restrained yourselves a little, I believe I could have -advanced an interesting corroboration to a hitherto dimly—” - -A gun shot was heard. It evidently came from our men in the adjoining -cove and we smothered the Professor’s scientific homily with a shout, -and accelerated our departure. - -When we reached the boat we found some natives and two resident -officials surrounding our men, the former somewhat excited and -demonstrative. The officials questioned us and were informed of our -purely accidental visit, and with that explanation, as the fog had -increased and there were threatening symptoms of a blow, we manned our -boats and got away. - -Captain Coogan resumed our course, making northwest for Indian Point, -amid heavy ice, whose leads were carefully followed until they liberated -us in open water, and the immediate danger of being nipped was past. The -next morning I was awakened—my room adjoined Hopkins’—by hearing the -American reciting in a voice loud enough to justify forcible -remonstrance: - - “_I met my mates in the morning (and Oh, but I am old), - Where roaring on the ledges the summer groundswell rolled, - I heard them lift the chorus that dropped the breakers’ song, - The beaches of Lucannon—two million voices strong, - The song of pleasant stations beside the salt lagoons,_ - _The song of blowing squadrons that shuffled down the dunes - The song of midnight dances that charmed the sea to flame - The beaches of Lucannon—before the sealers came!_” - -We made Indian Point, or Chaplin, as the settlement is called, in five -days, held back by floes and fogs, narrowly escaping a collision with an -adventuresome and premature whaler making its way to the same -destination. These sailors often get caught in the ice, when they are -helpless, and if the pack tightens on them, they are likely to come to -grief with a cut stem or a stoved side. We assisted one poor fellow out -of such a plight. His vessel was shipping water fast, and we helped -shift his load, giving the boat a stern list that lifted its broken nose -and allowed him to make repairs. - -Chaplin is a small settlement of natives on the Siberian coast, the -largest along the line to Behring Straits. There may be some forty huts -there, and the whale men find it a convenient place to do a stroke of -trade. Indeed, if it were not for their visits the unfortunate Masinkers -might resign the job of trying to live at all, as the whales are more -scarce than formerly, or more cautious, and walrus and seal scarcely -turn in closer than St. Lawrence Island. The village is on a projecting -tooth of land—a mere sandpit—and back from the village along the -foothills is the curious, disconsolate looking graveyard where the dead -are buried in rudely excavated holes and covered with stones and earth, -some with deer antlers stuck about as gravestones. - -The natives were not slow in coming aboard, and as we had outrun the -whalers who are annually expected, their reception of us was, so to -speak, enthusiastically hearty. I thought it was a trifle overdone. The -entire population tried to get aboard, and assumed possession of -everything with such unsophisticated satisfaction that it strained the -limits of our hospitality and tired our patience somewhat. They were a -jocular, spontaneous and chattering crowd, of all ages, many hues, and -some diversity of dress. Each canoe had received from Captain Coogan a -bucket of bread, but their appetite for tobacco would have made a -tremendous contribution to the income of the United Cigar Company. -Everyone wanted it—men, women and children, and it stood first in the -commercial schedule of trade. We rejected their whalebone ivory and -foxskins, but boots, skin shirts and coats were acceptable. - -Our very generous demeanor towards their needs elicited the stormiest -approval, but we regretfully learned that it prolonged their occupation -of the ship which, so far as fragrance was considered, had seriously -declined from its former estate of habitability. Articles of all sorts -come handy to these people, but as we were not prepared for their -omnivorous demands, tobacco formed the staple of our barter. - -Now in our little library, whose usefulness the sustained succession of -long days of suspense or idleness had fully demonstrated, we had read in -a small light blue book by Herbert L. Aldrich, called “Arctic Alaska and -Siberia,” of the author’s visit to this very place. In the book a man, -Gohara by name, was designated as “_the Masinker of the Masinkers_,” a -man forty years of age, tall, commanding, and “by far the best specimen -mentally and physically of his people.” - -We discovered him. He was yet vigorous, though approaching seventy and -his remarkable spouse—his third wife then—_Siwurka_, maintained a -supreme position in his household, which the advent, since Aldrich’s -visit, of two younger women had not disturbed. One of these later -accessions to Gohara’s domestic felicity was a person of becoming -rotundity, with a distracting tousle of hair that almost covered her -eyes. The inexpugnable scientific curiosity of the Professor led him -into his second predicament with this young person, which, for a moment, -promised to be more serious than his inquisitional visit to the fur -seals. - -It was the last day of our stay at Indian Point which had been prolonged -by the viewless stretches of ice moving out of the Arctic into Behring -Sea, and we were all ashore. As usual the Professor deserted us, -following out some preconcerted scheme of observation or experiment in -which our participation was unnecessary or even resented. It was some -hours after we had missed him, and our inspection of the _tupicks_, the -dogs, the children, and the industrial products of the Masinkers was -completed, that a large boy, prodigiously magnified by his big boots, -rushed upon our trailing group crying: - -“Doghter! Doghter! He out of head. Hoopla!” - -The fellow was excited and out of breath with running, and his -excitement became reflected in the faces of the natives around us, who -were helplessly bewildered and looked so. - -“It’s the Professor—another row. Hold back the crowd. I’ll go with this -screaming lunatic and extricate our distinguished friend. Some -scientific escapade, you can bet your hat on it,” whispered Hopkins. - -To inquiries of his acquaintances the boy kept up an unintelligible -jabber and pointed to the farther side of the village. Apparently the -assemblage were on the point of bolting for the spot, in deference to -the boy’s ejaculations. Hopkins handed us a package which he had been -reserving for some sort of a valedictory to Chaplin and its unsavory -population. It was a liberal assortment of quids, smoking tobacco, -cigars and snuff, and its exhibition and immediate distribution quelled -the flight of the rabble around us, whose inclination to stay where they -were instantly hardened like adamant. - -Hopkins seized the boy, turned him around, and the two vanished in the -direction the boy had indicated. In about half an hour, or less, they -returned with the Professor between them, much upset but calm, and -apparently indifferent to the objurgations and imprecations, delivered -in unvarnished and vigorous _Tchoukchi_, hurled at him by no less a man -than Gohara, followed by his five wives, whose voices querulously -mingled and reinforced their master’s denunciations. The situation was -unquestionably very amusing, very curious, and, except for the fortunate -intervention of Hopkins’ miscellaneous propitiations, might have become -very annoying. We hurried the Professor to the beach, got into our -boats, Hopkins making a stern-wise address to the multitude on the -shore, a most grotesque and tumultuous bunch of long, short, thin, fat, -smiling, frowning, dark and light figures in skins and fur, and reached -the “Astrum,” which that very evening left the offing, and, over a -clear, moon-lit sea was directed toward Port Clarence in Alaska. A hard -blow was on, and the ice packs had been scattered or driven eastward. - -Hopkins’ story that night, after the Professor had retired, which he did -unusually early and with a complete resumption of his smile and his good -humor, entertained us until after midnight. I abbreviate its windings -and prolixity, interspersed with Hopkins’ incommunicable reflexions. - -The boy, conveniently named Oolah, led Hopkins some way back of the -settlement to a _tupick_ of considerable size, and covered with canvas -(usually walrus hide or skins form these roofings) which was, it so -happened, Gohara’s storehouse, stocked with trading material. Hopkins -restrained his guide’s impatience, and finding a convenient aperture for -the inspection of the interior peered within. To his delighted -astonishment there was the Professor, with notebook and pencil, and near -him in placid wonderment, which occasionally broke in smiles or deepened -into terror, was the last and, with reservations for taste, most -attractive wife of the head trader of Indian Point, _Ting-wah_ by name. -The Professor’s performances were immoderately extravagant. Seen in -their incongruous environment, combined with their novelty, they -compelled Hopkins to retire at intervals and roll on the ground, in -order to control the violence of his merriment, another proceeding which -strengthened Oolah’s conviction in the immanence of the devil among -these strangers. - -When Hopkins first descried the Professor, he was standing erect with -his arms raised high above his head, close together, the hands in -contact, flapping and clapping them in an indescribably funny way, while -at intervals he shrank and cowered over as if seized with the -insupportable pains of colic. To these antics the woman returned a -perplexed stare, as the Professor resumed his normal manner, took up his -pad and pencil, and waited apparently for her response, while she, -equally expectant, stood stock still and waited for more explicit -communications. - -Then the Professor suddenly extended his arms in front of him, and -wheeled round on his heels, with such commendable agility, that as he -spun, his expansive ears seemed almost obliterated. It was then that -Hopkins resorted to the refuge of the ground to conceal his feelings. -Still the woman was mute, but her face showed a rising fear, and her -hands rose to her neck as if to seize something from the skin pouch made -in her upper garment. - -The Professor left off his physical maneuvers and began a series of -grimaces which, as Hopkins expressed it, “would have dimmed the luster -of the best vaudeville star he had ever seen.” They expressed almost -everything, beginning with something that might be called suffering, to -a terrible excruciation of joy, when the Professor exerted his features -to a degree that Hopkins called “the limit of facial agony.” And yet the -girl was silent, but her eyes never left the Professor, and Hopkins, and -Oolah too, saw her quietly draw a knife from her “bread basket.” Hopkins -might not have observed this if Oolah had not grunted, “_Stick ’im_.” - -He felt then it was time to intervene, but his interest and -curiosity—“better’n a show” he repeated over and over again—had up to -this point prevented him. - -Suddenly the Professor desisted from his rapid play of expression, and -began to moan diabolically, rolling towards the woman with supplicating -arms. The knife flashed, it was upraised, and the girl crouched, her -face darkening with either rage or terror. The next moment she had -sprung at the now observant and terror-stricken Professor, who executed -a flank movement—“side-stepped” Hopkins put it—and was out of the door -and—into the protecting embrace of Hopkins’ arms, while Oolah with -precocious intelligence intercepted Ting-wah. The girl’s pent-up -emotions spent themselves in screams and fervent but barbarous -complaints that brought Gohara and his other spouses to her rescue. -Hopkins, utterly mystified by the Professor’s exhibition, resorted to -the very plausible explanation, suggested by Oolah in the first place, -that the Professor had gone crazy, which indeed he most apostolically -believed himself. This answered the purpose, though it did not repress -Gohara and his family from uttering a string of uncomplimentary epithets -which might have provoked a serious disturbance had it not been for -Hopkins’ tact and the celerity of our retreat. Gohara’s rage followed -our boat with stridulous recriminations. - -The Professor was noticeably crestfallen and almost sullenly indifferent -to our questions as to what had happened. It was only a few days later, -when his spirits had become thoroughly restored, that he spoke about it, -with a sudden assumption of confidence that delighted us. - -“My friends,” the Professor began one cold, radiant afternoon as we were -ranged round the naphtha launch admiring its adaptation, strength, the -happy conception of structural ice runners let into her keel, the easily -unshipped tiller and screw; “My friends, the theories of the origin of -language have been various; there are the views of Geiger as to its -inception in movement and action, those of Noire as to the importance of -sound, onomatopoetic or imitative, and the value of expression, as with -Darwin.” - -“You see,” he continued with a fine indirection of reference, which we -appreciated, “I was before an untutored child of nature. I attempted, -along these various lines of non-verbal intercourse to secure an -illuminative response that might throw some light upon theory. Under the -circumstances, the subject, vitiated I think by contact with European -culture—Ah—” - -“_Shied_” suggested Hopkins. - -“Well,” the Professor smilingly concluded, “there was certainly -an _hiatus_. Her aboriginal powers of interpretation were -dulled—dulled—perhaps extinguished.” - -“But Professor, you woke up a good deal of oratory. In fact, Professor, -you’re nervy and—if I may be permitted the vulgarity of quotation— - - ‘You would joke with hyenas, returning their stare - With an impudent wag of your head, - And you went to walk, paw-in-paw, with a bear, - “Just to keep up its spirits,” you said. - Without rest or pause—while those frumious jaws - Went savagely snapping around— - You skipped and you hopped and you floundered and flopped - Till fainting you fell to the ground.’” - -The Professor passed his hand approvingly over the side of the launch, -ignoring the jibe. We dropped the subject, indeed forgot it, listening -to Goritz’s animated and assuring praise of the little craft that would -introduce us to a new continent, and the incident was never again heard -of. - -Our next haven was Port Clarence in Alaska, and we had a lot of trouble -making it. The ice streaming out of Behring Straits was thick, and, as -the Yankee put it, “_numerous_.” The captain and mates were keen to -watch their chances, and we often found ourselves surrounded by blocks -that the wind threatened to pack together to our imminent peril. It was -very early, and whereas the whalers make Port Clarence about midsummer -we expected or hoped to get to Point Barrow about that time. A northwest -wind came up and scattered the ice and gave us an open sea, though we -were compelled to make some long detours around white meadows of -snow-covered ice, that slipped off into the recesses of low, cold fogs -and suggested illimitable barriers ahead of us. - -The distant rattling or caking sound of grinding ice was sometimes -constantly heard for hours, and again vast fields, looking almost -motionless, loomed up with the sun shimmering their surfaces into an -endless complexity of mirrors. Along the indented or hummocky edges of -these little continents we would steam serenely and exult courageously -in the thought of crossing just such white ways to the hidden wonders of -a hidden world. We often fell into fits of dreaming, buoyed up by the -calm and glowing vaticinations of the Professor. - -We finally brought up at the port and received a tumultuous reception, -having outrun the whaling fleet. The natives, _Nakooruks_, crowded -aboard, and were intently watched but quite passively shunned by the -Professor. Water and wood were taken on here, and about one hundred -selected dogs, whose points were minutely inspected or determined by -Goritz and myself. It was June, and already flowers spun their colored -webs over the inhospitable shores, compensating for their brief life -here in the north by a marvelous abundance. Yellow, white and blue, the -bewitching patches of moss-blue flowering hepatica, forget-me-not, -anemone, phlox and daisy charmed us, and for a moment brought back such -a flood of memories that a surge of homesickness swept over us, the last -tug of the pleasant world we had turned our backs on before the portals -of a stranger world opened and closed on us, perhaps forever. - -We bought fish and furs from the natives who had traveled hither with -their pelts and offerings from Norton Sound, Cape Prince of Wales, and -King’s Island. There was confusion and bustle on shore, and on board the -barking of dogs, guttural controversies among the Eskimos, wailing of -babies, orders, the shriek of the donkey engine hauling on cargo, -produced a pleasant excitement which attained its climax on the arrival -of the United States revenue cutter. Visiting of the captains, exchange -of news followed, and we were told that the season was unprecedented; -the ice in the Arctic had broken up early, there was a clear passage in -the straits and an audacious whaler had attempted the passage and -“skinned” through to Point Hope. We were sanguine of reaching Point -Barrow early in July. - -On the fourth of July we were under Cape Lisburne, encountering the rush -of the wind that seems harbored by that lofty cliff, and which like a -physical avalanche pushed us over until the water rippled over the lee -rail. Along the shores everywhere there was a broad avenue of open -water, stretching from the skirt of shore ice to the heavy packs, -sheeted with fogs and murmurously moaning, inimitably flooring that -mysterious ocean whose furthest waters beat on the shores of Krocker -Land. - -From Cape Lisburne the shore line strikes at a right angle to the Corwin -coal fields, the low shores, except for a few occasional interruptions, -as with Cape Lisburne itself, marking the margins of the higher uplands -in the interior. Salt lagoons, crescent shaped beaches, sandpits, shoal -basins, furnish a monotonous succession of flattened, uninteresting -features, which practically reaches to Point Barrow. At the Corwin coal -beds slate, sandstone and conglomerate overlie each other, and the -Mesozoic age of the beds themselves is established. Here the Professor -emerged from the mental coma which had suspended his pedagogic -enthusiasms since we left Indian Point, and a few fern leaf fossils -unlocked again the storehouse of his learning and loosened his tongue -with eloquent predictions. - -Standing up at our mess table with a beautifully preserved fern leaf, -sketched in black interlacings, reticulations and frondy leaflets on an -ashen-colored slate, the Professor spoke to us, and indeed we ourselves -felt the thrill of a reconstructed world in this bleak land, as we saw -this silent token of former warmth. - -“My friends,” he held up the fossil leaf, “here is a vestige of the -past, a leaf of a fern. It tells us of hot, moist, heat-oppressed cycles -of years, when marshes densely thicketed with tree fern, swollen with -hot rains, drenched in a perspiration of mists, covered these now arid -snow-blanketed flats; when a reptilian life, the consonant faunal -response to these climatic conditions flourished here also, when, -dropping into the bayous and ponds, leaf upon leaf, branches, spores and -trunks of an expanded filicine flora built up the masses of vegetable -debris in later ages, to become consolidated and transformed into coal -and—” the Professor’s eyes started, his inherent smile became a -portentous stare, and the wide ears seemed almost to converge to catch -his own words of promise; “and—_we shall rediscover a warm or temperate -climate here at the North Pole. WHY?_” - -His voice spoke this interrogation in something like a squeal, so that -the answer, in its unaffected profundity, produced a really dramatic -climax. - -“_Because we shall be nearer the center of the earth._” - -We took on coal at the Corwin mines and resumed our progress northward -in the still unimpeded lane of open water, with porridge ice forming -fast along the outer pack but the shore rim intact, and bucking against -a strong northeast current setting along shore. We passed Point Lay and -Icy Cape the second day, and reached Point Barrow on the tenth of July. - -How well I recall our landing on the low beach of this tip-top point of -the continent, and wondering, in a dreary dream of coming hardships and -dangers, at its desolation, a low barren sandbank forty to one hundred -yards across. At Cape Smythe a small promontory raises a faint -remonstrance against the encroachments of the sea in a bluff of about -thirty feet elevation, and here we found the village of Uglaamie, a -cluster of twenty or more huts, inhabited by a boreal tribe, the -_Nuwukmeun_. Life however, in the plants and animals revived our -feelings, and the Professor’s exultation over the traces of old beach -lines inspirited us. Here on the land, in propitious spots, sprang up -buttercups, dandelions and a peculiar poppy; over our heads flew flocks -of eider ducks, a butterfly danced gayly in its wavering flight by our -side, and Captain Coogan reported a school of whale running to the -northeast, “_in a hurry_.” - -We found some standing portions of the United States meteorological -station placed here in 1902, and Goritz stumbled upon a dismantled -graveyard where saint and sinner, rich and poor had promiscuously -suffered from the inroads of the Eskimo dog. It offered a mournful -commentary upon the transitoriness of human greatness. - -But reflections were out of place; we had reached the point of -departure, and the Great Unknown sternly invited us to begin our quest. -Under such circumstances the long subdued instincts of the primal man -reassert themselves, and an augury of good fortune befell us that was -droll enough, unrelieved by the nervous solemnity of our feelings, but -which so connected itself with these as to give it an absurd stateliness -of meaning. - -An angora goat was the queer and unexpected waif we found here, left by -an unlucky whaler the previous year; a long haired, pugnacious billy -goat, whose property or power as a mascot had failed to save the “Siren” -from being “nipped, pooped and swamped,” and lost in the remorseless -ice. The resident Eskimos in Uglaamie had imbibed respect for the goat -(which had been somewhat summarily abandoned by its former devotees) and -its influence with the unseen agencies that control destiny. But they -were logical enough to conclude that its intimacy was with -bad—_tuna_—rather than with good spirits. This omnivorous beast -furnished us with a favorable omen, all the more auspicious because he -embodied the very genius of destruction. - -Now this expatriated goat rejected the prostrations and worship of the -Nuwukmeun, like a capricious deity, and perversely clung to us with -embarrassing insistence. The launch had been put in the water; it seemed -almost ideal in its qualities, it shot through the water, it turned at a -suggestion; its mobility, its steadiness, its comfortable size, its -ample deck room, the large capacity of its storage tanks, its strength -and sinewy stiffness delighted us. With this, and with propitious -chances, we could follow leads, narrow and crooked, mount the ice, and -make of it a giant sled, to resume at an instant’s notice its natural -home and so circumvent all treacheries of ice or water, with protean -ease sailing on each. - -Lost in his admiration of his creation, as it rose and rocked in a low -swell at the side of the whaler, Goritz stood on the shore and forgot -his priceless chronometer which, wrapped in a red flannel rag, he had -for a moment placed on the sand. The rest of us were not far from him, -but might have failed to detect the imminent danger, when suddenly the -Professor clapping his hands together in vigorous whacks, shouted, - -“Antoine! Antoine! The goat, the goat; the chronom—” - -The sentence remained incomplete. Like a flash Goritz had wheeled about, -to see his hircine holiness, with insufferable assurance, pick up in his -tremulous lips the precious watch. If Goritz turned like lightning, his -attack on the offender was even a trifle quicker. He caught the beast by -the throat, determined to intercept the descent of the timekeeper into -the intricate passages of the god’s intestines. There was a struggle, -the goat falling over on its back and kicking with might and main, while -Goritz inexorably tightened his constricting grip on the animal’s -wind-pipe. There could be but one of two results—a dead goat or the -recovered chronometer, and, of course, it was the latter. - -The choking mascot, with an expiring effort, gagged, and shot the -uninjured instrument, still swathed in its red envelope, from his mouth. -The fallen god’s subjects were at hand also, a little bewildered over -their deity’s predicament. When the reparation, on the part of the goat, -was made, Goritz released him, kicked him, and the humiliated tuna -turned tail and incontinently bolted for the nearest igloo, and—tell it -not in Gath—the affair was construed as a “_good sign_.” - -It was the eve of the day appointed for our northward advance. Captain -Coogan invited the officers of another recently arrived whaler aboard, -and spread a generous banquet for us, which involved the last resources -of his larder and pantry, and really seemed sumptuous. I think we all -felt a little overawed, or indeed a good deal so, by the tremendous -exploit we were embarking on. That night the midnight sun shone -strangely along the horizon upon the waste of northern ice, illimitable, -roseate, inscrutable, the white cerement of a dead continent, and that -dead continent the one we hoped to reach alive! Would we? - -There were speeches, toasts, stories, impromptu songs (Goritz played -well on a mandolin and sang some courage-inspiring ballads of -Scandinavia, and Hopkins could “warble” as he called it, quite -pleasingly) and we were wished “good luck” a thousand times. Still we -felt the restraint of an overhanging mysterious fate, and all that -Coogan or Isaac Stanwix, or Bell Phillips, or Jack Spent, or the newly -arrived friends from Alaska, could contrive to express of cheer and -encouragement—and the verbal part of the contrivance was rather limited -and monotonous—failed to dispel our solemnity or the inner sense of -serious misgiving. We laughed indeed when Hopkins told the story of the -goat, the chronometer and the goat’s abrupt contrition under Goritz’s -forcible persuasion. Hopkins concluded that it reminded him of an -incident “at home” narrated as follows in verse: - - “There was a man named Joseph Cable - Who bought a goat just for his stable, - One day the goat, prone to dine, - Ate a red shirt right off the line. - - “Then Cable to the goat did say: - ‘Your time has come; you’ll die this day’ - And took him to the railroad track, - And bound him there upon his back. - - “The train then came; the whistle blew, - And the goat knew well his time was due; - But with a mighty shriek of pain - Coughed up the shirt and flagged the train.” - -When all was over, and everyone had gone to bed or bunk, and dreams, I -stole out alone on the deck of the “Astrum” and “thought it over.” The -Arctic silence weighed upon me like an ominous portent; the dusky sun -rolling its flaming orb along the western horizon (it was two o’clock -past midnight) sent shafts of bronzy light over the rubbled ice fields -that returned a twilight glow, and along the horizon on either side of -the sun, low down, burned a spectral conflagration. It was clear, the -wind blew, and chafing sounds, that may have been roars from where they -emanated, but came to me as hoarse whispers, rose northward, as if -spirits spoke. - -I remembered how Oolah, the Eskimo, explained Peary’s success in -reaching the pole; he said “_the devil is asleep or having trouble with -his wife, or we should never have come back so easily_.” I devoutly -prayed that domestic turmoil in the household of his satanic majesty -might again prove distracting. - -But to penetrate that vast icy solidity with a naphtha launch! It seemed -like trying to break one’s way through a glacier with an ice pick. I -recalled the fable of the Pied Piper when at the “mighty top” of -Koppelberg Hill: - - “A wondrous portal opened wide - As if a cavern were suddenly hollowed,” - -and I remembered too, to a more practical purpose, that Amundsen -navigated the tiny “_Gjea_,” a sailing sloop with a gasoline engine, -from the Atlantic to the Pacific. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - ON THE ICE PACK - - -Our task was before us and it was to be entered upon at once. Perhaps -you are thinking that we were hopelessly amateurish, inconsiderate, -improvident and foolish. BUT WE SUCCEEDED. Nor were we forgetful or -ignorant. Everything had been read. The elaborate preparations for polar -exploration in the great expeditions had been studied. Two of us had -been in the north before. The apparent simplicity of our outfit arose -from a peculiar circumstance, and that was an imbedded conviction, -perhaps only in me shaken by recurrent fits of alarm, that Krocker Land -was a reality, and that it was habitable. And that meant life and -living. - -Then too we had fallen under a spell of imagination, we had become -hopelessly enthralled in the visions of a new order of things. It was as -if we had drunk draughts of some Medean drug that had stolen away our -common sense and immersed us in a flood of fantasies. I don’t think we -confessed anything concretely to one another; we talked together about -Krocker Land just as men might talk about some portion of the earth that -they had never seen, but which as a geographical certainty was on the -maps and was known to possess an unusual interest. Perhaps, after all, -the Professor was responsible for the orientation of thought that made -us clairvoyant and credulous. - -Still our plans had been fixed with a dry precision, as those of other -explorers had been, and our supplies comprised just the things that -stock the most prosaic and methodically arranged scientific expeditions. -We had our tins of pemmican, of biscuit, of sugar, of coffee, condensed -milk, our oil and our oil stoves. We were each provided with a rifle, a -shotgun and ammunition. There were matches, hatchets, can openers, salt, -needles and thread, bandages, quinine, astringents, liniments, sledges -and kayaks, dogs and harness, tents, furs, alcohol, rugs, snowshoes, -pickaxes, saw-knives, _kamiks_, certainly more things than Nansen and -Johannsen had had when they left the “Fram” and scooted for the pole -over the paleocrystic sea; and we were not looking for the pole, we were -engaged in a trip to a continent, most certainly impingeable, because it -stretched over 90 or 100 degrees of longitude, and 20 or 30 degrees of -latitude. - -And then—Ah, here our minds, _irised_, so to speak, like cracked -crystals, furnished us a journey into fairy land—once there, we were to -be entertained by wonders and comforts, then more wonders and comforts! -Had we ever said that to each other consciously in our waking moments, -we would have forlornly concluded that _piblokto_, the Eskimo hysteria, -had carried us into the seventh heaven of affectation and madness. No; -it was not fairy land indeed, but something more marvelous, a miracle of -realities that to recall even now makes my head spin with the vertigo of -a confessed self-delusion. LISTEN! - -We had staked everything on the naphtha launch. As an invention it was -ideal. We expected to drive it over the ice floes, and to sail it across -the leads. It would hold all we needed, and our team of dogs, forty or -fifty in number, would be able to pull it over the ice. If it was too -heavy in the snows it could be lightened of its load on the sledges, or -on the sledge teams which we expected would accompany it. The project -appeared a little cumbersome but safe. We had noticed the striking -absence from the western polar sea of icebergs, and we concluded that -the sea north of Point Barrow, like the sea generally north of Cape -Columbia or Cape Sheridan was a frozen water, smooth or interrupted only -by the pressure ridges which scarred its surface with cyclopean walls of -massed ice. We had indeed gone further in our inferences, and assumed -that no mountainous elevations, with their chasms, intervening valleys -and gorges made up the coasts of Krocker Land, for if they had, as in -Greenland or Grant Land or as usually in the eastern archipelago, the -discharge of the ice streams that filled them would have produced -icebergs. Or was the annual snowfall inadequate? - -Certainly the spectacular processions of the icebergs every spring and -summer in the east were absent in the west. The conditions presented -seemed to be a convincing assurance that our naphtha launch and ice -boat, in its composite adaptation to land or water, would successfully -traverse the flat ice sheet. Not indeed that it would actually be a -plane table, but the obstacles of hummocks, piled up ice floes, ridges, -mounds and walls could be circumvented, avoided, and the launch bodily -driven over the pack. Such maneuvers might add much to the distance, but -the resources were sufficient for a long journey, and, were we made to -feel that the launch offered insurmountable difficulties, we would -abandon it, increase the loads of our sledges with its distributed -freight, and go on. - -The naphtha launch was a simple and interesting vessel. It was a long, -narrow, strong wooden raft with curving sides, and a broad, smooth -sloping bow, reinforced by steel binders, bolts and rivets, set on -runners, with a short tiller, easily unshipped, and a peculiar slanting -propeller which was simply one rotating blade of alternating plates of -wood and steel, allowing a shifting attachment to the engine, so that -its stem could be shortened or lengthened, or withdrawn altogether, and -the propeller disk sheathed in a pocket in the body of the vessel. - -The upper works were a watertight box and nothing more, about six feet -in height, made up of two skins, between which was packed asbestos, -built strongly, with no doors or windows. A few covered eyelets allowed -a poor sort of ventilation which could be improved by opening the -manhole on top, through which entrance to the inside was to be made. -Through this manhole everything we carried was introduced; the sledges -and kayaks were placed on its roof. This box-cabin covered three-fourths -of the length of the boat. The bow admitted the socket and step for a -mast and a small sail. It had no beauty, no speed, but we believed it -was adaptable to the vicissitudes of travel before us, because of its -amphibious properties. If fairly caught in an ice jam it would be -crushed like a peanut shell, but it was intended to rise on the ice, and -we expected to save it from the contingency of any ice chancery by -keeping it on open fields of ice. - -The conditions before us welcomed this treatment, or at least we thought -so. We could give it a load of two tons, which affords an equivalent of -one ton in traction force to haul, so that forty dogs, pulling fifty -pounds each, would draw it, and this was a very lenient exaction. -Circumstances vary, and the phases of Arctic mutability are almost -incalculable, but once on the ice we anticipated success. The weak -feature of our plan was the late start. If nothing could be negotiated, -in the slang parlance of exploration, we would return to Point Barrow -and wait until later. - -The long days invited us and the calculable chance of escaping the awful -winter storms. What we probably could not cross were the large pressure -ridges which are perhaps twenty feet high, a fourth of a mile in width, -and which contain individual masses of ice as big as a small house, all -in a _gallimaufry_ of confusion. But we would flank them somehow; that -was our purpose. The summer might give us good leads, winding, -penetrating lanes of water drifting through labyrinthine courses to the -“promised land.” _It_ was there, and it grew in our thoughts every day -as more and more desirable. We did not care at what point we hit it. -Four hundred miles ahead of us somewhere lay _terra firma_, and the -conception grew in magnitude, not as another Greenland buried under -thousands of feet of snow, a monstrous, appalling desert of ice scoured -by hurricanes and chilled in death with a temperature half a hundred -below zero. No! By an incomprehensible infatuation (the Professor had -warped our judgments by his indefatigable promises) we were convinced -that Krocker Land contained the resources of life. - -Had not Peary at Independence Bay, on the very northern edge of -Greenland, found flowers, grass and musk oxen? Had he not, when driving -for the pole, “repeatedly passed fresh tracks of bear and hare together -with numerous fox tracks”? And then those uncovered veins of gold -seaming the primal rocks, how they swam before our eyes in yellow -reticulations over square miles of quartz! We had become decidedly crazy -about it all, for, unexpressed, but cherished in our deepest hearts were -fantastic hopes of some indescribable faunal, floral, _human_ remnant, -like Conan Doyle’s “Lost World” or the Kosekin in De Mille’s “Strange -_MS_ in a Copper Cylinder” in the Antarctic, and that romantic and -sufficing Paradise that Paine depicted in “The Great White Way,” or even -the nightmare trances and inventions, the megalithic splendors and -horrific glories of Atvatabar, or the mythic creatures in Etidorhpa. And -yet our extravagancies of imagination were all finally obliterated, even -to memory, in the grandeur and miracle of Reality. - -In one respect we altered our first plan. Hopkins had wished to have -three Americans selected to bring back our launch, and to pick us up -again the next summer. We changed that. We would never come back, or if -there were disappointments (“Inconceivable,” said the Professor) we -would get back our own way unaided, and— - -(Erickson looked at me solemnly, and his voice struck a sepulchral tone -that would have done credit to Paris at the tomb of the Capulets.) - -“And Mr. Link, I am the only one that _did_ come back. The Professor and -Hopkins are in Krocker Land today; Goritz is dead.” - -(He resumed his narration.) - -Captain Coogan steamed over to the ice pack which lay beyond the shore -channels of open water, towing our launch, which certainly now seemed to -dwindle into an inconsiderable implement of insertion in that trackless -ocean of ice. He pushed his way through the “slob” ice, and jammed the -nose of the “Astrum” upon the bulwarks of a great floe, whose uneven, -rumpled and snow encumbered surface receded into a measureless distance, -veiled, gray, dismal. We disembarked with the dogs, the launch came -alongside, Goritz started the engine and she bucked the ice hopelessly. -Then we windlassed her _onto_ the pack, harnessed the dogs to her in -five teams, one pack from the bow, two amidships and two at the stern, -and started. Goritz and I were good teamsters, and Hopkins made a fair -try at it, with promiscuous difficulties. The rudder and tiller were -unshipped. It looked as if she would “go.” We did not make fifty feet in -our trial, but the dogs certainly could pull her easily on her bone -runners. Then came the unloading of our supplies from the steamer. - -The day was most favorable, clear, cold and still. The wind with its -usual aptitude for mischief in these northern asylums of meteorological -chaos, was waiting to catch us later. We packed the supplies, sledges, -two kayaks, guns, ammunition, stoves, oil, pemmican, and the assorted -constituents of the regular provisioning of an Arctic expedition, into -and on the launch, which made a very original and unique picture. The -Eskimos who came offshore with the steamer and the dogs themselves -seemed quite thoroughly perplexed, and doubtless entertained unspoken -and unfavorable opinions as to our final success, and the dogs were -perhaps dubious as to their own fate. - -The closing hour of the day, scarcely separable now from the night, with -the sun always above the horizon, found us ready. The dogs were an -anxiety. We hoped to feed them on fresh meat in a large measure. Seals, -the flipper, the bearded, and the hooded, were common. Goritz and I were -good hunters, and a better shot than Hopkins never lived. Our formal -relations and duties were pretty quickly arranged. Goritz was commander, -with especial charge of the dogs, Hopkins was engineer, I was steward, -and the Professor combined, very happily, the services of cook and -scientific observer. We started with one hundred dogs, double perhaps -our actual needs, but the sometimes sudden and unaccountable mortality -among these animals justified our precaution. - -Then came the leave taking and, for the first time, an explicit avowal -of our intentions, with Krocker Land pictured as our destination, and -also with the renewed stipulation, enforced by a signed agreement and -the additional security of prepayment, that Coogan should return the -following year and look for us. I have said we did not intend to return. -We did not, but then that reservation was a hidden, peculiarly communal -feeling, unspoken and realized between ourselves, as a psychological -dithyramb which we didn’t confess or particularize, but which coerced us -insensibly, as a mission does a prophet, an ambition a conqueror, or a -dream a poet. Externally our demeanor was of the ordinary rational type. -Coogan should come back for us—OF COURSE. - -It was picturesque and unprecedented, that leave taking. The Arctic -scene, the outlandish and piled up “Pluto,” the waiting, serviceable -dogs, alert and incredulous, the swarthy, grimy, wrinkled, heterogeneous -natives, ourselves on one side of the pictorial composition, Coogan, -Stanwix, Phillips, Spent on the other, with the crew in an amazement of -disgust hanging over the steamer’s taffrail, perched in the rigging, or -sauntering near us, and that illimitable ice-packed sea, imperturbably -plotting our destruction. Hopkins delivered the valedictory. - -“My friends,” he said with a profound sweep of his cap, and a big -obeisance that made the Eskimos shout with glee, “we’re off for parts -unknown. You probably entertain a rather hopeful feeling that we’ll -never come back. May be. You never can tell. At this end of the earth -the unusual usually happens. However, we’re not worrying. Not in the -least. To miss the resumption of your acquaintance would distress us, -and might hurt your feelings, but it’s a case of taking what comes, and -kicking don’t go _up here_. You’re all aware of that. No, you mustn’t -put us in a class by ourselves. We are just part of the bunch, that for -the last one hundred years or more has been leaving cards at the door of -Our Lady of Snows, with an occasional intimation on the part of her -ladyship that the visitors were welcome, but generally with a bolted and -barred entrance, and an upset of snow, ice, wind and zeros from the -upper stories of her palatial residence, that compelled an inglorious -departure, or left the gentlemen in question dead on the doorstep. Well, -we’re ready to join the previous company. - -“Only I don’t think so. I’m not in the least nutty—I hope you catch -me—and there are scientific reasons—” Hopkins patted the back of the -Professor—“scientific reasons for banking on a safe return, with the -goods, for all of us. When that happens, my friends, you’ll be very glad -to see us. Nothing will be too good for us, nothing too handsome. The -ordinary brand of explorer won’t be in it with us, for if that kind gets -back with his clothes on, and the breath in his body, he gets in the -picture supplements, is put up for sale to the highest bidder for -receptions, cornerstone laying, and memorial exercises; he can put the -whole country to sleep listening to his talk at one hundred -per—minute!—and is never known to disappear from the public eye until he -crosses the Styx on another kind of expedition from which there -certainly is no ‘come back.’ - -“That won’t be our way. When next we reach New York, and the land of the -free and the home of the brave, our suit cases will be so full of boodle -that you won’t be able to shut them with a steam compressor, and we can -give you cross references to all the original sources of all the gold -that the world ever had or can have. The trusts won’t be in it, John -Rockefeller will dwindle into invisibility, and the bunko lords and -potentates on the other side of the big pond, always fishing for _big_ -money will just scramble to get in first to sell their junk crowns to -us. JUST WAIT. If there’s an income tax on our return, we’ll undertake -single handed to run the government and, what’s more expensive, buy up -the politicians. Fact, Captain Coogan; fact, Mate Stanwix; fact, -Engineer Phillips; fact, Jack Spent; fact, all of you!” And Hopkins -executed another inclusive gyration, “And now, Good-bye.” - -I don’t think his audience took him in, or else their previous -convictions were only somewhat strengthened by this nondescript -allocution. The Professor smiled benignly. Goritz grunted approval, I -felt queerly elated. Coogan came forward, hoped it would all turn out -right, promised to look for us next summer, told us to stack up all the -spare meat we could when the winter set in and shook hands. There was no -more speech making; the rest came forward and shook hands too, as did -all the Eskimos. Jack Spent, the carpenter, with his spectacles on his -nose, and his brushy whiskers stiffened out like a privet hedge, tried -to sing a song, which by reason of its quavering falsetto brought howls -from the Nuwukmeun. Its import ran: - - “Good Luck to you my trusty mates, - Good Luck and Fortune brave, - May God and all the kindly Fates - Your souls and bodies save.” - -The groups turned back, the grave Eskimos climbing in last, over the -“Astrum’s” rail. The steamer backed out of the “porridge,” and we, -impatient to be off, trimmed up the dogs, tightened the ropes over the -pyramidal freight, and cheering as we heard the parting whistles from -the “Astrum,” soon hazily obscured in a rising evening dusk, went -northward over the great ice field before us. - -[Illustration: - - ON THE ICE PACK -] - -The dogs were alert, the yacht-sledge went along well, the ice was -sloppy but fairly smooth, and the floe had apparently escaped the -contusions, bumps and collisions, which heap up these Arctic rafts with -mounds, faults and pressure ridges, over which our unusual equipage -never could have made its way. As it was, we at times traveled slowly -enough, avoiding inequalities and dodging obstreperous humps. Towards -evening of that first day the thermometer fell, an easterly wind came -out of the sullen eastern sky, the snow flakes floated thickly in the -air, and the sun glared like a gigantic ruby in the west, across which -scurried veils from snow banks, eclipsing and revealing it at inconstant -intervals—an augury of a storm. - -We camped; that is we unharnessed the dogs, who proceeded, accordingly -to the conventional style, immemorially recorded, to tie themselves up -into yelping snarls of fur and harness; we lit our stove, partook of tea -and pemmican, biscuit and marmalade (Yes, Mr. Link, _marmalade_) and -slipped into protected nooks, amid the boxes on our diminutive ark. As -the wind was rising we turned her lengthwise to the wind to prevent a -capsize, wedged her forward and, under warning to jump to the ice if -anything happened—a generalized warning for almost every sort of -disturbance—tried to sleep. - -It was a long time before dreams came to me, and when they did come they -were unwelcome, for I seemed to be helplessly struggling up an inclined -plain of ice over which flowed a sheet of icy water. I woke with a -start. A roaring sound, almost stunning in its loudness, came through -the snowladen air. The snowfall had increased and might have deadened -the distant report had it not been for the hissing wind which brought -the sound sharply to our ears, mingling it menacingly with its own -sibilant fury. Another and another! We all tumbled out on the ice. The -floe shook. We distinctly felt its tremors under our feet, and, as it -were, subterranean cracking and splitting noises developed underneath -us, as if the floe might break. It was an anxious moment. But the floe -was some eight feet thick, a resistant mass that might easily, however, -succumb to cleavage surfaces. The booming sound ceased, but a prolonged -crushing and rattling followed. Goritz clapped his hands. It seemed an -unaccountable exhibition of spirits. - -“Well,” exclaimed Hopkins, “what do you make of it?” - -“The best thing for us. We’ve got another length laid out for us on the -straight track to Krocker Land. This floe probably ended off there -somewhere,” he pointed northeast, “and now another has struck it, -crumpling the edges. We’re not making such progress as we thought. The -whole sea is in motion, but pretty nearly due east, so that as long as -we go forward the easting does not hold us back on the northing, or very -little.” - -“What do you say to breaking up camp now. Let’s see what’s happened,” -suggested Hopkins. - -“Certainly,” chimed in the Professor, “Krocker Land has a long coast of -course. The nearer we get to it the greater likelihood of eddies, -conflicting currents, flood tides and even favoring winds driving us -ashore. I’m for the advance.” - -“And I,” I concurred. We dug out the dogs, who were not very deeply -covered, fed them, had tea and biscuit and some potted beef stew, and -were off. Goritz calculated we had covered eight miles in northing, -though our speculative way around obstacles had made the actual stretch -spanned much longer. - -Curiosity and suspense conflictingly urged us to make haste. The snow -died away with the wind, and the sun, running its cartwheel course along -the horizon, again watched us from the east in a clear sky. It was a -“gorgeous Arctic day.” The summer heat had not yet too strongly -prevailed, and the air almost sparkled over the dazzling splendor of the -ice, undulating where it was seen in spaces somewhat cleared of snow, or -spread with the deep ermine of the snow itself, which again, in rifts, -drifts or circular heaps, reflected the sun like a firmament of pinpoint -stars. The snow, melting, became compressed, and at length a duller -lustre relieved our eyes of the strain of the almost insupportable -brilliancy of the morning hours. - -We had made sluggish headway, the wet snow clogging and detaining us; -indeed we lightened the load on the yacht-sledge, and used the sledges -and extra dogs to improve our progress. About noon we saw the results of -the night’s collision. A toppling but not very high pressure ridge had -soared upward between our floe and another, presumably larger, for it -had overtaken the one we were on. On that floe we must ourselves -continue our advance, for already to the north and west we saw the broad -leads of open water, indicated to Goritz’s experienced eyes by the dark -“water blink” seen, as he told us, the day before. - -But how to surmount the barrier of ice blocks? Goritz and Hopkins went -forward to investigate, the Professor and myself watching the dogs whose -sudden alternations of obedience and mutiny kept us perpetually active. -Hopkins found a less prominent section of the ridge, where the slanting -and unevenly disposed blocks might be flattened to aid our progress, or -be shattered into fragments, with dynamite. We adopted Peary’s expedient -in shaking the “Roosevelt” free of ice at Lincoln Bay. Dynamite sticks -attached to poles were stuck among the blocks, and connected by wires to -our battery. Then we turned on the current. The explosion seemed to stop -our hearts and breath, but if it did we were conscious enough to wonder -at the fountain of splintered ice that rose like a geyser in the air, -shimmering too with ten thousand irises against the sun, as it subsided -with clatter and tinkling to the floe. - -We had cleared our way and to our exultation the avenue opened showed us -a wonderfully level and unencumbered field of ice. This obstruction -might have been circumvented by taking to the water, but too late we -realized the danger of being crushed in the battling floes that swirled -together with the current or were driven by the winds. It was a prudent -measure to keep to the ice at present. Our launch was flat, rounded and -intended, like the “Fram,” to rise over the squeezing ice blocks. But -would it? It seemed a trifle top-heavy, with its varied load. An upset -would have been fatal; the dogs would be lost. - -And now joy ruled, hope rose, the promise seemed granted. Oh, the -incurable madness of human dreams. A gleam of light betokens the full -day; it may be only a ray from a lantern, or the quiet before the storm -gives assurance of eternal peace; it may be but the presage of the -tempest. - -We drove in triumph through the dismantled gateway, pierced by the -convulsion of those yellow sticks of doom. Out on the white field, on -which perhaps only the wind had left its imprint, which no eye but that -all-seeing orb of day had ever scanned, whose silence only the winds, -the waves, the storming ice had ever broken, and which now, the first -time since Eternity began its reign there, was rudely assailed—we -imagined it as an astonished deity—by yelping dogs and four hurrahing -mortals! - -The snow was deep and melting, but our dogs (Goritz had harnessed all -the dogs and they were still in good condition) dragged the strange bulk -of our ice-yacht with its rocking cargo at a topping speed. Exhilaration -reigned, we were hilarious with confidence. It was not long before -Hopkins, in spite of the heavy trudging, indulged in some characteristic -musical levity, and his baritone notes finely contrasted with the -silence of that void, in which we alone seemed sentient and animated. - -It was a college reminder, and I just recall that the refrain had a most -freakish incongruity: - - “‘’Twas on the Arctic polar pack - I smoked my last cigar.’” - -Well, the merriment did not last long. In about an hour we saw before us -a rising hillside, the snow sloping up to an elevation of twenty feet or -more and having drifted in thick mounds above and below it. We halted. -Goritz plunged forward and struggled to the top of the eminence. We -noticed him turning from side to side, leaning forward, looking backward -too over our heads, tramping up and down like a dog on a lost scent. -Then he waved his arms. We understood his summons. I watched the dogs, -and Hopkins and the Professor ran on, tumbling into the white heaps, -apparently hitting slippery surfaces below, which sent them sprawling in -a splutter of white dust. The three men at length stood together and -their gesticulations made black strokes against a white-gray sky. There -was rain coming. I knew we had struck a break; there was a bad hole -ahead with a poor chance of getting over it. Slowly the three returned, -and it was Hopkins who gave the first intimation of the difficulty. - -“Mr. Erickson, we’ve been a little ‘previous’ in our expectations. I -think perhaps that psalm of joy was a mistaken indulgence on my part, or -else I unconsciously hit the nail on the head and—our last cigar _will_ -be smoked here and a few other last things may happen along with it. Go -up and look at the scenery.” - -He motioned to the snowhill. I did not need the invitation, I was -already on my way, noticing Goritz’s gravity and the absence of the -Professor’s static grin. And in the interval that may be allowed between -my first step and my surmounting the snow bank covering the topsy-turvy -_abattis_ of ice blocks, a paragraph of explanation may be wisely -inserted. - -Anyone familiar with experiences of Arctic voyagers in this western -Arctic sea, as for instance the thrilling pages of DeLong’s diary in the -disastrous “Jeannette” expedition, will recall the fact of the broken -condition of the polar pack in the summer, and its hitherto almost -invariably pictured confusion of peaks, ridges and pits. Such a person -would question the truthfulness of the few previous pages and note -incredulously the absence of any remonstrance on the part of the -“Astrum’s” officers at our foolhardy undertaking. There was remonstrance -enough however. We were told we could not live in the broken, smashing, -surging ice; that there was no even ice floor; that everything was -uneasy, perilous, shifting, open; that we should wait until winter had -solidified the mass, and then “just hike it north.” - -And we knew pretty well ourselves just what everyone else had seen and -recorded. But we took the chance, and by a perfect miracle of -opportunity found there was, outside of Point Barrow a marvelous field -of ice suited for our _progress_. (The real word turned out to be -_occupancy_.) - -Well, I got to the top of the snow pile, and my heart beat a rapid -retreat to my boots at the sight before me. Ice, ice, ice, but -everywhere in blocks smiting each other, rolling, rocking, jamming, and -all together crying aloud in a jargon of groans, shivers, reports, -grumbles, growls, like packs of quarreling dogs or wolves. It was a -disconcerting, discouraging spectacle, and it stretched endlessly away -on every side. And in the middle distance, looming larger each instant, -rose a floeberg that came on, shoving to the right and left the ice -shards about it, resistlessly, as the steel prow of a cruiser or -battleship might sweep a flotilla of boats and barges from the path of -its imperious progress. - -Its pinnacle blazed in the sun; its prow, a pointed ice foot, pierced -the obstacles before it with a rattling discharge of rending and -splitting; then came an ominous silence and the powerful ice ram rushed -down upon us through softer or smaller particles that brushed to each -side in parting waves. A few minutes more and its collision with our -floe would follow, and then—? I saw too quickly we could make no headway -in that hurly-burly of disorder, and then the thought flashed on me that -in the pathway of this rushing dreadnought of the north lay death and -destruction. - -I leaped down the pressure ridge and regaining my feet at its base ran -on shouting to the others, who were arrested by my sudden return, “Back! -Back! Back!” waving to them to get away. Goritz understood, the rest -followed him. The dogs were wheeled round, the crack of the long whips -sounded in their ears, and the sting of the lash tingled on their backs. -The lumbering “Pluto” swept in a half circle, and was shot along the -trail we had just made towards the south. Perhaps we had gained a -hundred yards, when the jolt came. It threw us on our faces and upset -the dogs. It came with a queer, smothered roar that sharpened into a -long, rending shriek; the ice beneath shook with the blow, and -then—parted! A seam opened below the “Pluto,” and water spouting from -underneath covered the rearward dogs. The Professor and Hopkins were on -the separated section. They sprang forward, while Goritz jumped to his -feet in a flash, and played his whip like a demon on the dogs who -seemed, to my eyes, tied up in its rapid convolutions. - -The yacht-sledge crossed the chasm, and I, a short distance behind, on -the “calf” made by the impact, pitched into the gap. I came up like a -cork and instantly felt Hopkins’ hand in the neck of my coat. He dragged -me out and for the moment we were safe. - -But behind us ploughed on the _devastator_. A closer view revealed a -great hulk of ice blocks heaped up, up-ended pieces of the floeberg, -perhaps forty feet high. It would strike us again, the shock of its -first blow had allowed the strong current to turn its extension -northward, and it was slowly revolving on a water pivot, and another -face was about to deliver a second disrupting blow further along. There -were no councils held just then. We scampered out of danger at our best -speed, leaping to the sides of the “Pluto” and helping to pull with the -dogs, all together, with a simultaneous inspiration. It worked well. We -were slipping along fast, thanks to the level surface, when BANG, and -then _bang_ again, and then a fierce ripping sound. - -“A wallop on the slats, and a jolt under the chin. _That rocks us_,” -exclaimed Hopkins spasmodically. - -Goritz was keeping the air over the dogs blue with imprecations and hot -with the winnowing lashes of his whip. We were too late. Twenty or more -feet ahead a black jagged line suddenly ran over the ice, a million -unseen hands seemed to have seized the farther edge of the seam and -pushed it open with frightful speed. Deliberation was impossible, but -there must be a decision of some sort, “_right off the bat_,” as Hopkins -would say. It came. - -Goritz called back, “Shoot it! Loosen the dogs! All aboard!” - -We cast off the loops from the cleats, always intended for quick -release, and prepared for embarkation. The word “prepared” does not fit, -for it was preparation wound to the top-notch of precipitancy. Goritz -turned the forward teams of dogs and slowed the momentum of the -boat-sledge. She slid on, however, and almost dumped into the lead that -had been formed; a fortunate hump of ice blocked her and made her cargo -of boxes and tins rattle absurdly. It had a silly effect like the wail -of a baby in a storm. I long remembered it. Getting the dogs stowed was -troublesome. We had seventy (thirty had been discarded and sent back -with Coogan) but pemmican pitched on the boat hurried them aboard and -kept them there. Then we pushed the boat overboard, holding her back -with boathooks. In another instant we were on her, too, and the little -voyage towards the receding ice began—towards the larger mass, which we -believed to be still connected with the ice field we had first -traversed. That was a trifle, but it was another matter lifting her to -the surface of the pack. We sloped the edge with picks, anchored a -capstan on the ice, and by main strength hauled her on, putting in the -dogs at the final pull. We fed the dogs, fed ourselves, and took time to -think. As Goritz remarked, “there was some room for thought.” - -Our dilemma was this: Should we try to regain the first floe cake, -through the gateway we had made in the pressure ridge, or stay where we -were? In any case the complete breakup of our platform involved sticking -to the boat, trusting that she would not be crushed and waiting for the -colder days when the cementation of the floes would begin, when we could -push northward somehow over the ice. A reconnaissance settled the -question. Our first floe had parted, the pressure ridge had disappeared; -south of us, as all around us, was the treacherous, shifting, pulverized -ice pack (the particles of the pulverization were often small rafts). We -drilled the ice and found it from four to six feet thick, and took our -position in the center. We were beleaguered; as with Marshal Bazaine it -was _J’y suis, j’y reste_, for each of us. A storm was brewing, the wind -rose and, as Mikkelsen has described it, the ice floes “ducked and -dipped and hacked at each other, crushing and being crushed.” - -“As long as our island holds out we’re safe enough, and if some good -leads develop we might strike the water, and make off for another,” said -Goritz. - -“There’s no place like home,” said Hopkins. “Stick here. We’re drifting -in the right direction. When we sight the metropolis of Krocker Land we -can hoist our colors and, if there are proper harbor facilities, come up -the bay under full steam. I guess the Professor understands the -formalities of these upper regions. He can introduce us to the mayor and -the aldermen and get us the freedom of the city, and perhaps we can -negotiate a commercial treaty that will give the United States of -America the monopoly of the ice crop. If we could get an attachment on -these rory-borealises for the movies, it would be a mint.” - -The Professor ignored these pleasantries. He also believed our safest -plan was to stay on the floe and drift at present. Game would turn up -for the dogs—seal, walrus—and when we touched Krocker Land (persistent -iteration had banished all doubts now of its reality) we would find -bear. - -“And really,” the Professor continued, “nothing could be more favorable -than our prospects at present. We are drifting northwest; wind and tide -are pushing us along on the right course. Krocker Land, my friends, is -not one hundred miles away. This coming storm will help amazingly, and I -see no reason why we shouldn’t raise sail.” - -The suggestion was overruled by Goritz. The danger of collisions was too -great, and the headway might be faster than we could overcome if we were -threatened with one. The ice was getting softer; pools of water -glistened all around us, and a bad blow might break us up. - -Watches were kept, and as the light lasted the full twenty-four hours, -we were not likely to be surprised by unsuspected invasions. The higher -floebergs were to be feared. Their bases, prolonged far below, furnished -push surfaces to the tide for perhaps hundreds of feet, and their mass -supplied momentum. They were dangerous neighbors. And now the storm rose -furiously around us. Except for our peril it was a spectacle we might -have enjoyed. The Professor alone was absolutely unconcerned, and his -nonchalance calmed our own apprehensions. - -The clouds in strips and bulging banners were carried high above us. -Streamers they seemed, from the eastern sky where the high lying cirrus -flakes, slowly expanding into shapeless patches, had already delivered -their usual warning. These again were soon blotted out in the onrushing -scud all around us. A dull yellow light at first spread its sickly tint -over the ice field, and the sun, darkened and blurred, was soon utterly -cloaked from view. The wind rose quickly, brushing close to the surface -of the ice, ushering in interminable strife among the pitching blocks. -They ground together, and the swell, started below them, kept their -edges pounding, while a tumult of groans and creaking noises like the -smashing of heavy glass raised an unceasing din, a din indeed that -possessed some of the elements of a wild, fascinating rhythm. The rain -came in pelting downpours, whipped into horizontal sheets by the blast, -and then with a sudden drop of temperature changed to blinding snow -flurries, that buried everything in white dust, and sometimes smote us -with the sharpness of myriad-edged microscopic needles. - -The water washed in long flows over the sides of the berg, and the berg -itself rocked and shook, threatening to start our ice-yacht into motion, -and to carry her and her precious cargo into the whirling, fighting ice -about us. Fortunately it continued to grow colder, and the snow, besides -offering us means of banking the yacht, stem, stern, and prow, and -ramming her bowl-shaped sides with a stiff embrace from which a jolt -would hardly free her, provided a bed for the poor dogs, who were -frantic with misery, howling and whining in disgust. - -Our berg had shrunk considerably; it was only a remnant, an angle of the -big field we had entered with such rejoicing, and we knew it was getting -smaller. When the dogs had quieted, and we felt that the launch was -immovable, we crept into the box-cabin and gratefully partook of hot -tea, warmed pemmican, and biscuit, with cups of soup to “wash it down.” -It was a parnassian feast, and though we were anxious, the snug refuge -and the soul-stimulating grub brought us to the verge of exultation. -Even the hard knocks that the pack received attested to our progress, -and if it held together, and the blizzard lasted, we would win some -miles of our journey, almost without effort, and, as Goritz said, “it -was just the sort of a blow to clear the track.” - -I certainly had fallen asleep. Pictures had risen like projections on a -screen, one after the other, in my mind, one melting deliciously into -its predecessors, and all linked together by the memories of home. My -mother, my sister and her two boys under the pine tree by the side of -the dreaming pond, holding in its reflexions the cloud-flecked bosom of -the blue sky, and the slanting cliff, the hillside graveyard, and the -reversed boats moored to the little dock, and then the dash of the -phaeton down the road, the group waving their kerchiefs at me, and my -own answering salute, the turn of the road, the dark passage through the -spruce forest, the cleared farmsides with the red houses, and the -clustering friends along the filled fences, cheering, and then—a -terrific bump—the phaeton had smashed against a stone, and—! - -“Wake up, Erickson, all hands busy.” - -It was Goritz’s voice bellowing in my ear, it was his hand, shaking me -like a giant by the shoulder. I leaped to my feet, dazed and, leaping to -conclusions as quickly, thought the ice had split our keel and we were -sinking. Everything was dark around me. I heard Hopkins swearing over -the oil lamps which had fallen to the floor and the Professor mumbling -further away. And then came a curiously stifled boom. - -“Well, what’s up?” I stuttered. - -“The ice cake is breaking up. There—it goes again,” groaned Goritz. - -Another report, louder, keener, like a gun shot, was heard above the -babel of noises that the wind, the waters now and the straining boat, -not to speak of the cargo on the deck, rustled and scraped throughout -its many joints and the crevices between the boxes, promiscuously -raised. There was a pause, then came another report that made us all -jump to the door; it seemed almost as if the launch were cracking -beneath our feet. It was a detonation directly below us. Outside the -wailing, demoniacal storm was raging. Our cargo, thanks to its -unbreakable anchorage to the deck, seemed safe, but on all sides of us -was water, laden with ice blocks that beat trip-hammer blows against the -sides of the launch. OUR DOGS WERE LOST! - -No, not all. Ten had struggled from their confinement in the snow and -had taken refuge on the boat. The rest, swallowed up in the sundering of -the raft, had perished in the foaming sea. The boat was tossing, and the -waves would have swamped us had not the watertight door of the cabin -house been shut. She was drifting helplessly amid the ice-strewn -billows, whose retreating slopes were sheeted white with a lather of -foam. We were holding onto anything convenient, and were drenched, but -finally Goritz and Hopkins found their way somehow with the agility and -tenacity of cats to the stern, and shipped the rudder, and in a few -moments—they seemed hours—we were in line with the wind, and racing -before it, lifted and shot onward by the waves that, luckily for us, -were not dangerously crested, but were peaked hills of water, whose -ebullitions were somewhat suppressed by the masses of ice distributed -over them. We seemed like playthings, and like playthings the giant of -the deep tossed us on, thus humorously willing to aid us to our -destination if we could stand the treatment. - -The storm would half subside and then, as if maddened at its clemency, -would renew its violence. As Hopkins put it, “She certainly can come -back good and hearty, gets her second wind and takes a right hook, just -as if nothing had happened. But after all it’s no raw deal. We’re -covering ground fine, and not turning a hair to pay for it, provided we -can hold together. The insides of the weather man are hard to fathom, -and he has never been credited with too big a supply of the milk of -human kindness, but if he isn’t putting it over us hard with a -goldbrick, it looks to me as if we might soon expect to run up against -the revenue cutter of the Krocker port. I suppose we can declare these -goods as essential to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and -beat the duty.” - -It grew lighter on the third day, and the awful tumult lapsed suddenly -into a peacefulness amazing and ideal. The temperature rose and the -skies cleared, the sun was unclouded and intensely brilliant for these -latitudes, and, most glorious of all, the ocean was clear of ice, only -the green rolling waves sweeping over the limitless distances, -flattening out against that magic circle where sky and water meet, and -where we half expected to see the emergent peaks of mountains. - -And the next days were wonder days. The air was even balmy; the sea, -cleared of its litter of ice, invited us with green gleaming undulations -to tempt its mercies still farther. Our engine was started, and the -“Pluto,” albeit a little slowly, forged on, and later, aided by a sail -that drew every wind that stirred, advanced over the ocean, with even a -flattering pretence to speed; her safeness had been assumed at the -start. - -Except for the destruction of our dogs whom we had already begun to -admire and to cherish, nothing seemed wanting for our perfect peace of -mind except a little more confidence that this unknown world, now -rapidly approaching, would offer us a decent foothold; that it would not -be an ice-buried continent, the asylum of all the terrors of the north, -awful in its solitude, remorseless in its scorn, brutal in its revenge. -Well, the Professor undertook to calm our doubts, and while he exerted -his culinary skill in the infinite variety of combinations of soups, -canned fruits, preserves, bread, cake, biscuits, candy, pemmican, wine, -custards, pie and macaroni, he expended a more valuable art in -convincing us that we were indeed to discover a pleasant country, and -was not averse to beguiling us into raptures over his fabulous pictures -of its possibilities—“spinning yarns” and “pipe dreams,” Hopkins -contemptuously styled them. - -“My friends,” said the Professor, sprinkling dried raisins into the -yellow dough which would later be transformed into a delectable cake, -“this Krocker Land has been the dream of ages. It is the ancient Eden, -and it is preserved to us in the records of prehistoric men who have -retained the childhood stories of still more ancient peoples. Relatively -it is a legend because no one has seen it. In reality it will establish -the unity of tradition, as it ought,” and so on and on, with some new -notions of the oblateness of the earth’s form, and the fact that at the -north we were some thirteen miles nearer the earth’s center, and then -some more about the unequal distribution of the interior fluid masses of -rock, and the great probability that such unsolidified magmas, radiating -great heat, might occur in the boreal regions of the earth’s crust to -produce local warmth. But of course his great point was the depression -idea. He harped incessantly on that. - -“It looks to me,” said Hopkins as we sat round our little mess table in -the cabin, “that if the going stays good, and the food lasts, we surely -will get there. Holes are, however, dangerous things, and Americans -don’t relish getting into them too deep. The grub question is important. -We’ve stacks of it just now, but this invincible habit of eating is -getting the best of it, and starvation is a most inglorious death. Do -you think, Professor, that this Krocker Land has got any live stock on -it?” - -The pained expression, of having been wounded in the house of a friend, -that came over the Professor’s face, as he wiped his mouth and -reluctantly paused in his consumption of a ham sandwich was very -delightful. - -“In Krocker Land, Mr. Hopkins” this ceremonial gravity was met by a -severe, deferential attention on Hopkins’ part that was perfect—“we may -expect to meet a concentrated reflexion of the palearctic and the -neoarctic faunas. Along the coast there will be whales, walrus, seal, -bear, the shores will be tenanted by the eider duck; and snipe, geese, -ducks, ptarmigans, plover, will be found inland, with the reindeer, the -fox, hare, and the musk ox, and—” here the Professor paused with a -deliberation intended to impress us—“and I should not be surprised to -meet with the American bald headed eagle.” - -We all shouted, and the Professor hid his face and his satisfaction in -his sandwich. But Hopkins accepted the challenge unflinchingly: - -“Good, Professor. If the American eagle is up there, it certainly is -God’s country, and a white man can live in it!” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - KROCKER LAND RIM - - -On the fourth day came another change, for in these haunts of the snow -gods and the ice gods the shadow of storm darkens quickly, and if these -deities descend to earth they wrap themselves thickly in shades and -mists and white trailing togas, or else they just blow upon the earth -their coldest breath, killing all human life, lest they be seen of men. -That strange Arctic hush, the misty light over everything, that grayish -white light caused by the reflexion from the ice being cast high into -the air against masses of vapor, that Nansen has described, encompassed -us. A mist, a fog, rose later, or else descended, and Goritz said we -were near land, in which I concurred. Our excitement was intense. Was -the great revelation to be vouchsafed? - -The fog of fogs grew, advancing upon us from the four points of the -compass, rising around us from the water like spectres, descending from -the skies in soft, insensible folds, buried in the thickening nebula, -until, we could hardly see an arm’s length in front of the boat. Then a -chill came with it, light breezes from the northwest (“From land,” said -Goritz) and then as if some resistance from the east was roused into -action, another tempest gathered there, rushing ravenously upon us with -a blind rage, with wrack and cloud, with rain and snow, the last -interference of the elements to destroy us, before the secret of the -north was revealed—a senseless protest, for their madness only flung us -swiftly forward to the forbidden coasts. - -The “Pluto” plunged and rolled; her rounded, swollen bottom made her an -easy prey to the balloting waves, and unless she could be kept in the -wind her overturn seemed certain with ourselves spilled into the -distracted waters. It was hard to do this, hard to stick to her deck at -all, when every now and then some vicious poke sent her across, and we -would cling like barnacles to rope or rail or stanchion. The tiller was -jerked from Goritz’s hand and its arm dealt him a blow that almost -disabled him. I was pitched headlong on the forward deck and narrowly -escaped rolling overboard; some of the cargo aboveships slipped its -fastenings and was lost, threatening the dislocation of everything. This -danger was too serious, and Hopkins and I did our best to avert it, but -do what we could or might, the load was crumbling away before our eyes, -loosened from its fastenings by the fierce storm. Box after box -disappeared in the gloom. The dogs were hustled into the cabin, whence -their howls and terrified whines issued like the cries of lost souls. We -were now pretty well alarmed, and our predicament strongly resembled the -prelude to complete annihilation. - -Suddenly the Professor shouted, “The ice—the ice again!” and the next -instant we were pinned in a pack of formidable blocks that thundered -around us, lodged on our deck, and beat into ruins, as the waves lurched -or hurled them over us, the frail battlement of boxes which contained -our supplies. My heart sank within me. EVERYTHING GONE! Not quite. There -was something left in the cabin, but on that raging waste of waters—? -The question stuck in my throat. In that instant I seemed separated, -sundered from all the others, the concentrated agony of my terror—for -terror black and paralyzing it was—robbed me almost of consciousness. -Almost as in a trance I heard Hopkins cry, “Look! Look!” - -Something happened. Actually it was a meteorological phenomenon brought -about by the proximity of mountain masses perhaps; to my mind it seemed -like the visible extension of the hand of God to pluck us from -destruction. Above us appeared a bright spot that was widening rapidly; -the motion within it was apparent, and the velocity of the atmospheric -rotations within it must have been almost incalculable. It was becoming -a monstrous orifice into which poured the abominable chaos that was -overwhelming us; its enormous vortex swallowed up the storm, transferred -in its outrageous coursing from earth to heaven. The deity of Krocker -Land favored our approach. He had rebuked, repelled, dissipated the -tempest. - -The scenic shock was really tremendous. The dramatic intensity of the -change, the startling evolution from storm and darkness, blistering -winds, soaked with snow and rain, the earth-driven rolling clouds, black -and gray, tossed over us and engulfing us in blankets of cold wetness -that sent shivering thrills of dread through our bodies, as the waves -mounted and pounced on us like beasts of ravin! And then this -magnificent uplift! Oh, the calm, superhuman glory of it! The shattered -_debris_ of the broken tornado vanishing above us, and—as its myriad -shaped or distorted curtains rose—the sunlit dark mountain peaks, the -bare rocky crags, jeweled with snow, the ice-strewn beaches of Krocker -Land, evolving superbly before our eyes, as if created then, at that -very moment, by the transfiguring finger of the Almighty. Mr. Link, it -was the most sublime spectacle imaginable; for me it was the climax of -my life. I shall never forget its wonder, its power, its amazing -enforcement of the idea of creation. - -I don’t think there was much difference between any of us in our -feelings at that moment; its immensity appalled us in a way, and then it -thrilled us. Temperamental details were submerged in the overpowering -sensation. At first perhaps we thought it an apparition, a mirage. It -was unreal. And then when the realization was acknowledged, to put it -bluntly, we gazed in stupid astonishment. We were about four miles away, -when the vision broke, standing on our deck, from which every vestige of -our supplies had been carried off by the ruthless wind and water. I -believe we stood that way for a quarter of an hour, before we quite came -to our senses, with the waves and wind still driving us headlong on that -apocryphal beach. Then we began to take notice and to take precautions. - -The shore was partially encumbered with shore ice, and the lashing waves -were throwing upon it other small and large fragments. The coast was -low, sandy, shelving, cut up by a few projecting and sand buried ridges -of rock, which, like spurs, passed back into the interior, and may have -been the outspread roots of the looming ranges beyond and behind them. -Goritz managed to direct the launch upon a flat expanse of sand on which -we landed with a thud that made the timbers creak. I think the Professor -was the first to leap ashore, then Hopkins and myself, and at the last -Goritz, with the painter. The next wave drove the boat further up the -beach. Nothing now could budge her. Somehow we looked then to Goritz for -orders. - -“Better get everything out, and take an account of stock. This is good -enough camping ground, until we get our bearings and perhaps a little -better hold on our wits. I hope the Professor’s faunas are expecting -us.” - -This oblique hint to the loss of our provisions dampened any ardor we -might have succumbed to, in our enthusiasm over the discovery. We set to -work with a will, and almost without a word. There were some welcome -surprises. The dogs were safe, sound asleep in the cabin, exhausted by -their fright. They became a solicitude, however, because of the -additional mouths to fill, though, in a state of idleness, half rations -would keep them well. But would we need them? Our ammunition and guns -were safe, our oil and stove, alcohol, medical outfit, and six boxes of -canned vegetables, pemmican, biscuit, tea, coffee, chocolate, in all -perhaps three hundred pounds; and our spare clothing, for which we -offered fervent thanks. One sledge was saved from the wreck, and one -bruised and broken kayak. The portable tent was uninjured, and there -remained a serviceable equipment of cans and pots, though for that -matter one can for the preparation of our tea and coffee or chocolate, -and one pot for miscellaneous stews, soups, and what Hopkins called -“_hari-kari_,” were all we needed. The watertight cabin had saved much. - -When the review was finished, and we felt cheered over the immediate -prospect, we drew up the “Pluto” on the beach, anchored her, as well as -we could, and converted her into our camp. We were clamorously hungry -and the dogs were raging. The Professor wasted no time, though just now -the allowances were rigorously measured. It might be better when we -caught sight of the Professor’s “concentrated reflexion of the -palearctic and neoarctic faunas.” At the moment a sublime solitude -surrounded us. Yet I had noticed high up on the shoulders of the rock -and in the slight subsidences that like saucers lay at their bases, the -growth of plants, and the quick eye of the Professor had noted it too. -Surely that meant game. I guess we both understood that, for the -Professor worked over his fires and vessels with a boyish profusion of -activity, and was inclined to be lavish in his ingredients (Goritz, -watchful and prudent, stopped him), while something like elation sprang -up within me and an utterly inappropriate yearning to sing and laugh and -dance. - -I remembered Mikkelsen’s and Iversen’s joy when they descended from the -cold monotony and whiteness and treachery of the inland ice of Greenland -to the habitable earth with its flowers, and life, and warmth. With -Mikkelsen too vegetation had meant animal life. They seemed inseparable -correlates. In Greenland it had been pygmy willow trees, six inches -high, with trunks an inch thick, and blades of grass, and thick moss, -and beautiful heather, and then—musk ox! - -What it was here would be disclosed as soon as the evening meal was -finished. We had all been curiously dumb since we had been thrown -ashore, that is, there had been no reference made to our wonderful -landfall. Perhaps we were speechless from sheer amazement, or some -haunting dread that our return was impossible, or that we were on the -margin, as it were, of bigger marvels. I think the latter feeling made -us almost mute. Our fancies before we left Point Barrow had been -high-strung and the visions wrought in our minds were almost mystical—I -have explained that—but these had very completely vanished during the -last days of turmoil and disaster, when the wonders we expected to -encounter were more likely to have been found in another world than in -this one. Yet you see they really had not vanished, they had shrunk -somewhat, retreating into invisibility in the crevices and holes of the -mind, and now when the stupendous reality confronted us they rushed out -from hiding, huger than ever, smothering us into silence with their -immensity! A new World, what might not be in it? It was Hopkins who -broke the trance that imprisoned us. - -“That transformation took the gilt off any lightning-change stunt I ever -have seen and—Of course, Professor, there isn’t any guess coming that -we’ve ARRIVED, that this is Krocker Land?” he said suddenly. - -“Not the slightest,” answered the Professor, filling our cups with -chocolate, and in a matter of fact way that was final. - -“We have absolutely reached a New Continent. Everything confirms that: -Latitude, longitude, direction from Point Barrow, and the topography. It -isn’t Wrangel or Herschel or Harold or Bennett, or any part of the Franz -Josef Archipelago. That splendid fringe of peaks hides inner valleys -that decline into a central area of warmth, light and Life!” - -I really think that we believed him. The glorious extravagance of the -prediction, its superb audacity, its anomalous improbability subjugated -us totally, because our startled expectations would be satisfied with -little else. That was the psychology of it. And Mr. Link, the Professor -was right. LISTEN! - -Our position was on a flat, shelving coast, slowly rising to foothills, -beyond which gaunt bare precipices towered apparently to uplands, from -which soared the sharp serrations of a continuous cordillera. It made a -noble picture. Snow covered the higher elevations, it lay in drifts in -the lower chasms, it formed a light covering on the tableland but failed -to approach nearer to the shore, which was a series of sand or rubble -flats, embedding low backs, pointed mounds, and dikes of diabase. Only -at one point was a glacier visible. To the north, almost at the limit of -vision we could see the glittering ribbon high up in the mountains. The -days were shortening, and although the sun remained for most of the time -above the horizon, nightfall was marked by its declination, when a -peculiar tawny golden glow filled the air. The mountains were striped -with light and shade, half roseate, half black as ink; the highlands -were also in gloom, and between both the foothills made a beaded girdle -of whiteness like a necklace of gigantic pearls on the dusky neck of an -Ethiopian. - -There was no question of turning back. An unappeasable hunger for -discovery filled us. What lay beyond those pearly pinnacles? WHAT? Our -plans were quickly laid. There was call for expedition, for the Arctic -night was coming, and while sincerely, with three of us, some -inexplicable provision seemed imminent for its replacement, Antoine -Goritz resisted our madness at that point, and told us that if this was -a dead world, nothing but the _dogs_ would save us from death; our -_retreat would have to be over the frozen polar sea_. - -The first step was to find game: Seal, walrus, bear, ox, hare, anything. -We divided into two skirmishing parties, Hopkins and I going to the -right, Goritz and the Professor to the left. The dogs were tethered, and -fastened to the launch. The Professor and myself had already collected -some of the plants. How radiant and beautiful they seemed in that still -untrodden asylum, the little green-leaved willows, a saxifrage, the -yellow mountain poppy of Siberia (_Papaver nudicaule_), forget-me-nots, -cloud berry, and in the boggy hollows cottongrass, spreading its wavy -down carpet, while here and there tiny forests of bluebells swung their -campanulate corollas! The cold pure waters of the snows fed these alpine -gardens, and we even detected the hum of insects amid the variegated -patches of delicious bloom. Game? “Well I should smile,” shouted -Hopkins. - -Hopkins and I, in splendid spirits, made our way to the upland, a -distance of some five miles, and then through the snow, watching the -slopes of the foothills that made ideal pasturages for the musk ox, if -these “artiodactyls,” as the Professor rather pompously spoke of them, -were here at all. We had not gone far when up a ravine, where narrow -meadows and boulder strewn intervals conducted, between two steep hills, -a cascading stream, breaking from the craggy cliffs beyond, Hopkins -espied a little herd of four cows, two calves, and a bull. Were they -musk oxen? The horns looked different. - -Hopkins skipped in glee, and, with his usual recourse to verse -(preferably Lewis Carroll’s), he hoarsely whispered: - - “‘What’s this? I pondered. Have I slept - Or can I have been drinking? - But soon a gentler feeling crept - Upon me, and I sat and wept - An hour or so like winking.’ - -“Erickson, my pop first. I’ll forego the tears. Stalk them up to -windward.” - -The animals had not noticed our vicinity, although grazing and leisurely -approaching us. We finally squatted behind a rock, and just a half hour -later, as they reached the edge of the mimic field we fired. Hopkins -stretched out the bull; it sank majestically to its knees, its head -drooped, something like a groan escaped its throat, and it fell -sideways. I was not so fortunate, nor skillful. I wounded one of the -cows, but there was no attempt at escape. The herd pressed together, -stamping a little but almost motionless, as if paralyzed with terror, or -robbed of volition by curiosity. Hopkins let fly again and my wounded -cow glided to the ground. My second shot was fatal, and another helpless -brute succumbed. Then as if stricken with a sudden consciousness of -their danger, the rest of the herd trotted off, spared further -decimation. Our larder would be well replenished, and we both knew now, -with an unshaken conviction, that we were in a land of plenty. - -“We should worry!” sniffed Hopkins sententiously. When we reached our -quarry I was amazed to note the peculiar narrowness and elevation of the -horns of the bull, and the dirty gray maculations on the black hair of -the pelage. - -“A new species, Spruce,” I exclaimed. - -“Well then,” he replied, “here’s where the Professor rings up the -curtain on the textbooks, and—Say Alfred!—as I had first blood, and -bagged the bull, why not hand it out as _Bos hopkinsi_?” - -“By all means,” I assented. When we got back, and we did not return -empty handed we found Goritz and the Professor. They looked a little -dispirited but our report put such a pleasant aspect on things that they -quickly recovered. They had found nothing, but that was due to the -pertinacity of the Professor in carrying Goritz off on a tour of -investigation. They had crossed the tableland and had threaded their way -half across the foothills, until they met the frowning crags skirting -the mountain terrain. These were seamed with waterfalls pouring into -some encircling canon below them, which again formed a channel for the -escape of the gathered floods, but whither they went was undetermined. -It was evident that the water of the streams came from the melting -snowbanks lingering higher up on the mountains, and that the region was -one of very heavy precipitation. - -Goritz insisted on bringing in the meat, and indeed our mouths watered -for a juicy steak. The dogs were fed, and these insatiable beasts -ravenously devoured the pieces we threw to them, until Goritz, fearing -their consequent lethargy, drove them off half frantic, harnessed them, -and accompanied by me took the sledge to our depot; returned with the -carcasses and skins and ushered in a memorable night, lit by the futile -rivalry of sun and moon. - -There was first our supper when the Captain permitted a relaxation of -his restriction, and the Professor plunged into the resources of our -slender commissariat with a most reprehensible _abandon_. I believe we -washed down our steak with _Eulenthaler_, a few bottles of which had -still survived our perils. Then there was the Professor’s ecstasy over -the new species of _Bos_, for such it was, and his delighted acceptance -of Hopkins’ patronymic for its technical name. And then—our Council of -War; war on the Unknown, the Mysteries of this new land, the perils -before us, and those that might await us beyond those slumbering -virginal crests, from whose pinnacles even now the clustering genii of -the realm watched our intrusion with scorn and hatred! - -Our debate was a little disputatious. Goritz was quite immovably for -returning that winter, executing as much of a littoral survey as we -could, to return another season with an equipped expedition, trusting to -get back to Barrow, with the dogs, sledge, kayak and launch, and with -meat stores from the _Bos hopkinsi_. The Professor vehemently and -feverishly protested. Here we were on the brink of world-convulsing -wonders. To decline the invitation so miraculously extended to us was -flying in the face of all recorded traditions of exploration. It was an -ignominious flight from insignificant dangers. He knew that beyond that -portentous circle of peaks lay an inverted cone holding within it warmth -and civilization. - -I think Goritz felt the appeal, but he was sagacious, a prudent man, and -had no vainglorious desire to appropriate the forthcoming discoveries, -which the Professor gloated over, for himself. He shook his head -energetically. Then Spruce Hopkins, who with myself had only interjected -questions and inquiring comments, and who with me was fascinated by the -Professor’s predictions and promises, suggested a compromise. - -“My friends, I’m sort o’ on the outside of this argument, though I guess -my skin will get as much punishment, either way, as any one of you. -Can’t you come to terms on this easy ground? Get up there,” and he waved -his hand towards the serene splendid domes in their terrible beauty far -above us, “and if the land goes _down_, as we might say _hole-wise_, -we’ll stick, but if it goes straight, level, or _up_, why we’ll beat it -home again. That’s sense Goritz, and I guess, Professor, it’s philosophy -too.” - -This jocularity relieved the tension superbly, and whether Goritz and -the Professor were quite clear as to how the provision should be -interpreted, Goritz consented to make the attempt to reach “the rim,” as -the Professor called it. - -The next days were days of anxious preparation. It was no child’s play -scaling that natural fortress, and within its labyrinth of parapets, -bastions, moats, and demi-lunes, ramparts and ditches what unforeseen -dangers lurked! Our chief concern was our stores; the inroads made upon -them by the storm was serious, and the inconvenience of starving on the -“rim,” in sight of the _promised land_ was disturbing. Our campaign -would consist of making _caches_ of meat on the uplands, taking our -condensed food, tea and coffee on our backs, making forced marches to -the summit, reconnoitering and plunging on ahead, _if unanimous in -that_, or else tumbling back, and setting our faces homeward. -_Homeward_—the word seemed a mockery in that strange and hidden corner -of the earth. - -Another thing happened, though not quite unexpected. The wind had -shifted to the west, bringing loose drifting ice and some hulking -floebergs, and the squally twists, the livid streaks in the sky, and the -sun’s sepulchral pallor had indicated some rising uneasiness skyward. -The change came good and plenty later. The wind rose almost to a -tornado, though there was no snow or rain, just a bitter cold searching -wind. It smote the mountains. We could see the sky-rocketing volley of -snow on their sides, and noted too that towards their tops there was no -disturbance, indicating a semi-icy condition of the snow there, perhaps -better, perhaps worse for going. And now in the turning of a hand the -crowding ice packs were back. As far as we could see their humps and -fields spread everlastingly, and the chorus of groans, wheezes, and -queer _hushing_ sounds that they all sent up was astonishing. - -Hopkins shot a bear, before the storm attained its top-notch of fury, -which brought much cheerfulness to the camp. I never shall forget it. It -was funny too; it might have been just as tragic. He and I were off to -the west, reconnoitering for a possible easier entrance to the “rim,” -when Hopkins caught my arm nervously, and pointed out over the groaning -packs, and said he saw something moving. I could not see it. We ventured -out a little way on some near shore ice and were behind a slight -pressure ridge, when a shockingly coarse growl issued from the other -side and a moment later a big polar bear surmounted the pile, and laying -both its front paws on the blocks, over which its face rose, most -whimsically recalled the emergence of a preacher in high pulpit. We were -pretty well taken aback, but Hopkins slipped off his usual doggerel, -_sotto voce_ however—while the bear watched us critically— - - “My only son was big and fine - And I was proud that he was mine, - He looked through eyes that were divine— - Indeed he was a BEAR.” - -And then he raised his rifle and—Bruin wasn’t there. We jumped up on the -ridge, clambered to the top and almost fell into his ursine majesty’s -arms. He had ducked down on seeing the rifle but hadn’t budged from his -position. It looked as if he had met hunters before. Hopkins blazed -away, and I followed. The splendid beast gurgled and fell backward dead. - -We had reached the foothills, crossed the uplands, made our caches of -meat, stuffed the dogs and turned them loose—Goritz called it “burning -our ships behind us”—and were creeping along the edge of the narrow deep -chasm or canon which caught the waters from the cliffs, gathering them -in an awful, tempestuous, writhing torrent, that became almost maniacal -in its agony where hidden rocks stopped its course, or where it dropped -into black abysses. We must cross that chasm, climb the cliffs, before -we could begin the ascent of the mountains. The chasm was twenty or -thirty feet wide, the cliffs rose above it, from our level, about one -hundred feet, and below us they descended to the water trough, one -hundred feet more. The problem was to reach the bottom of the chasm, -bridge the raging brace, and then work up the cliffs. It looked like a -fly’s job. And what disclosures the roofs of the cliffs and the -mountains beyond had we could only guess. These difficulties had been -anticipated, in one way; we had strong wire rope, a flexible cable made -of copper wire and skin. - -Crawling on hands and knees we were studying the sides of the chasm, and -not infrequently Goritz would suspend himself, held by the rest of us, -over the frightful gulf, to determine where we might safely enter this -_inferno_, with a prospect of spanning the seething, spouting, -vociferous river, and of scaling the black and jagged wall on the other -side. Our search was unavailing. We had explored the bank for more than -a mile. The delay was maddening. Suddenly the Professor, who had been -silent, and had been studying the black and red walls opposite, with -occasional long examinations eastward with the glass, exclaimed: - -“We are making a mistake. Our course is up and to the back of the -glacier. These cliffs are sedimentary; they lie on the eruptive -crystallines of the mountains; the river runs west; the glacier has -dammed its course eastward, where it should flow, following the dip of -the slates and sandstones. It cuts the dip, and the glacier has crossed -its path and filled up this singular crevice, which is a fault rift.” - -He looked triumphant; Goritz seized the suggestion. - -“That’s right,” he shouted, “up the glacier and then—we can use the -dogs!” - -We were soon back to the abandoned sledge; some of the dogs had followed -us, the rest were sleeping off their debauch of raw bear’s meat. We -loaded the sledge with meat, from one of our caches, leaving the other -intact, and with awakened hope started at a lively pace over the snow -covered uplands for the distant ice-river. The going was not good for -the snow had drifted somewhat, and was soft and mushy, but the dogs were -in excellent condition, and they really seemed to understand that they -had escaped desertion. - -[Illustration: - - KROCKER LAND RIM -] - -In three hours the glacier was reached. It was a more significant -feature than we had supposed. Where it emerged from the mountain hollow -it was almost obliterated from view by an immense morainal accumulation -which had choked up the river, as the Professor guessed, forming a small -lake, fed also, we discovered, by the underground waters flowing from -the glacier itself. Over this moraine we made our way in a helter -skelter manner because of its unevenness, the scattered rocks bulging up -and intercepting our path with a perverse frequency that drove Hopkins -to improvisation: - - “If I had a little dynamite - To put these pebbles out of sight, - I think I’d skip from pure delight - And say my prayers with all my might - As well I know is surely right. - But as it is they make me cuss - And put my temper in a fuss, - So if perdition is my share, - I owe it to this rocky lair.” - -There was plenty of snow in places where the sun had as yet failed to -evict it, but everywhere melting and warmth were encountered. The summer -was reigning, and the verdurous garb of green and colored things was -drawn like a veil over the rugged grounds, soothing them into a -transient loveliness. We could see the rivulets from the snowbanks -coursing everywhere, and could hear from the glacier the gurgle, rush, -and tinkle too of hidden rivers, while towards the coast, in the -daytime, the sun revealed a shield of wide-spread waters where the -floods from the melting ice poured over the shore, and cut long, wide -lanes in the rapidly vanishing shore ice. - -When we had struggled to the glacier wall we found it an almost -imperceptible rise to its surface, and once there, our faces turned -toward the ice-river to gauge its character. It was badly crevassed, and -although the snow sheeting it over had been heavy, much had disappeared. -Along the sides where the lateral moraine somewhat shielded it the snow -still remained, but the depressions traversing it, sometimes in -herringbone fashion, showed the position of the masked depths, in whose -icy jaws our whole party, sledge and dogs might readily be entombed. - -Goritz went first with the dog leader, then came myself at the head of -the team, with Hopkins and the Professor on either side of the -forebraces of the sledge. We were roped together, and the sledge—the -only survivor of its kind from the storm—was heavily loaded. We each -carried about twenty pounds of condensed food, ingeniously harnessed on -our backs. It was an inconsiderable load and might prove serviceable if -the sledge vanished. - -At first we advanced gingerly, bridging crevasse after crevasse, but our -confidence increased as the snow flooring, although yielding, repeatedly -proved itself adequate for our support. At one point the sledge smashed -the weakened crust and threatened to drag the dogs backward with it, as -it hung almost vertically into a wide slit, forty or fifty feet deep, -wherein the ice, to our eyes, was an aquamarine mass of jewels. Hopkins -lashed the dogs and they hauled the sledge back again on the snow. - -We had reached a turn in the glacier’s track, and a patch of outrageous -confusion. The whole surface seemed shattered, and serac-like monuments, -poised all over, threatened us. We were constantly startled by crashes, -and we moved with alarmed caution, for not only were the holes deep but -they opened into sluiceways of hurrying water quite capable of sucking -any unwary intruder into subterranean tunnels of ice. The dull plangor -of the beating currents arose to us with an ominous warning. The dogs -here became nervous and unmanageable. Again and again we bridged the -chasms with the sledge, and crept one by one over the improvised -crossings, coaxing the dogs to follow. We now did not have the -protection of the friendly banks. Goritz had concluded to ascend the -mountainous ridge before us on the opposite side of the glacier, where -the glacier itself, like a small “_jokull_” terminated, or began, in a -neve loaded cirque. - -To do this we were compelled to cross the glacier. After a good deal of -dangerous work, with one or two nearly fatal mishaps, we attained the -central dome of the ice and found here an ideally fashioned space for -resting and feeding. The dogs were restless or sullen from hunger, and -we needed the encouragement of food ourselves. The worst limb of our -trip remained. - -But it was a beautiful picture on every side. The day was clear and -warm, and, as we gazed far below at the ice-flecked ocean over the -glacier’s marge, or upward into the rugged bowl, walled with bold -precipices, streaked ever and anon with spouting waterfalls, or higher -still to those mute, imperishable peaks, guarding the secrets of the -wonder-land towards which we were slowly, so slowly, moving, or lastly -at the nearer edges of land on either side, the constricted throat of -the glacier serpent, bountifully sprinkled with a vermeil of audacious -blossoms and tender grass, we felt the thrill of our strange adventure -keenly, and rejoiced in it. But a few minutes later our spirits were -harshly dashed, and despair almost broke our hearts. - -It was about two in the afternoon; everything was repacked and we had -resumed our snail-like progress. The path, if it had been marked by a -line, would have been revealed as a maze of loops, necessitating -countermarches and criss-crossings, but its widest indirection, after -hours of work, showed that we were nearing our goal. The flowers on the -cliff beyond us were now almost individually visible. They seemed like a -lure to invite us to hasten to their side, when a jolt and tug, that -nearly knocked my legs from under me, and then a recoil that sent me -sprawling among the dogs. - -The rope had parted; I saw its end fly upward, even as I saw the tall -form of Goritz with tossing arms sink from sight. My God! Goritz had -fallen into a crevasse and—how the thought lacerated me!—they were -deepest, widest, on this side! Hopkins and the Professor knew it almost -as quickly as myself. We recovered ourselves, and ran forward. Lying -flat, on the rim of what had been a snow bridged crevasse, and held in -position by the other two, I leaned out. Never shall I forget the horror -of my feelings at that moment. Below me caught on an ice arm, which held -him above the seething ice water, still deeper down on the floor of the -gash, was Goritz, those splendid eyes imploringly lifted to mine: - -“Quick, Alfred—the rope!” I tore the rope from around me, noosed it, -shouting all the time in a sort of delirium I think, “Hold on Antoine, -you’re safe! Hold on! On! On!” And then, with a glance at Hopkins and -the Professor, whose faces were almost whiter than the snow at our feet, -was on my stomach again, the rope in my hand, and the noose lowered -carefully to my friend. He lay on his side on a shelf of ice; a movement -and he would slip into the tide below him. It was a critical moment, and -yet only with the utmost precautionary slowness and delicacy of -adjustment could the rescue be effected. Goritz knew that, though it -seemed incongruous to watch a man, prostrate, literally on the brink of -destruction, approach the measures of salvation with the deliberation -with which one might crack the shell of his breakfast egg. Slowly—the -seconds seemed ages—he drew the loop to himself, caught one arm in it, -thrust his head through it, and was endeavoring to extricate his other -arm from its chancery beneath him, to engage it too in the friendly -loop, when—I heard the snap—the shelf broke away! I slammed backward, -called to the others to pull, jabbed my spiked shoes into the ice, and -held on. Goritz’s voice came thickly from his imprisonment: - -“Haul, Alfred!” - -And haul it was; the weight seemed trebled. I knew—the water was hauling -too, but, before Goritz went, it might, for all I cared, drag me to the -same doom. I guess Hopkins and the Professor felt that way, too. It -seemed nip and tuck. Were we all to be pulled into the frigid maelstrom, -to be finally ejected into the Arctic sea in the rush of the sub-glacial -river? Somehow thinking this way put steel into our muscles and defiance -in my heart, and—we pulled Antoine Goritz back to life at least, and his -reception on the top of that glacier was as fervent, if a little less -boisterous and showy, as if he had been met by the king in an audience -room at Copenhagen. He was drenched and cold, had a wrenched shoulder -but I took his place ahead now, and he dried off with exercise, after -the fashion of Arctic navigators. And a bowl of tea that the Professor -bewitched with a little of our last bottle of whisky helped matters. - -We had left the glacier; that icy track was far below us, and distance -contracting and closing all its wicked seams revealed it as a blazing -white ribbon, negligently thrown over the shoulders of the still, black -rocks. It looked well. The aneroid registered 6000 feet. The snow was -awful in spots, and we rolled into holes unsuspectedly saturated with -water. Our snowshoes were indispensable, but the dogs were almost -useless, floundering and helpless in the drifts. Our dog meat was -rapidly diminishing, and, if the cruel dilemma must come, rather than to -exhaust our supplies on them we would be compelled to kill them. - -We were pushing along what bore the appearance of a _col_ or pass -between two majestic peaks, wrapped in ermine to their highest points, -ermine that in the day glittered magnificently, rayed and starred with -innumerable irises, and that in the lesser illumination of the night was -immobile and dead, a monstrous winding sheet over a dead world. - -A terrifying snow storm held us up for two days. The air was so dense -with the falling crystals that we felt encased. It was a singular -sensation. The Professor, who had been incubating some ideas (we always -looked forward with expectancy to his first utterance after a spell of -prolonged silence), launched the amazing paradox, during this storm, and -while we, in the most detached manner awaited its conclusion in our snug -tent, that we were approaching a warmer, snowless, and rainy zone. It -was Hopkins who first recovered his powers of utterance after this -promulgation. - -“Professor, as a sedative to the distracted mind, you’ve got everything -else winded. And for novelty, well, Barnum and Bailey’s best advertiser -couldn’t begin to get the collocation of superlatives necessary to give -a hint of your surprising guesses.” - -“It is not difficult to understand,” resumed the Professor urbanely, -with that calm manner of shelving the unconventional Yankee which always -enraptured Hopkins; “the wind has been westerly, the excessive -precipitation shows it was a moist wind, a wind heavily laden with -suspended water, that moisture was dropped out as snow _here_, but west -of us it must have escaped expulsion. Why? Because it was not cold -enough to condense it as snow. I think, though, it fell _as rain_. We -shall see.” - -“And,” he added a moment later, “on my theory of a polar depression that -would be so.” - -We went to sleep on that, and the depth of our slumbers had some -complimentary significance for the Professor’s prediction. - -After the storm, the sky failed to clear, and a wind sprang up from the -north that rapidly increased in violence, hurling the snow in torrents, -blinding, cutting us and foundering the wretched dogs, who lay down in -their tracks repeatedly, or snarled up together in vicious fights. But -Goritz was inexorable. He insisted on pushing ahead. His reason was -just. We were now near the turning point; we had surmounted KROCKER LAND -RIM. Should we go on or turn back? If it was to be back we had many -things to think of, and not much time to waste, with our larder growing -smaller each day and the prospect of half-rations ahead. Goritz had a -tender heart and I know he wanted to get the dogs back, too. - -Luckily the snow furnished better going, the wind ceased, our hearts -leaped again, and the stern solemnity of that alpine land strangely -elated us. At night now, the sun almost sank below the horizon, but its -decline was the signal for the noiseless evocation of half lights and -shadows, spectral tints, pale ghosts of mist curling over the endless -desert of snow, a retinue of chiaroscuros that glided hither, thither, -never quiet, yet never restless. And far south we thought we saw the -crystal light of half eclipsed auroras. It all entranced me. I often -stole outside our tent to watch the voiceless drama of the night, and -often Goritz stood beside me. And now—poor fellow—” - -(The speaker paused in his story, a sob choked his voice; then it was -over and he continued.) - -The Professor was right; the snowdrifts thinned away to bare ground. It -was warmer, at first some ten degrees, then more, and the land -descended. Had not Goritz lost? Should we not, according to the protocol -of our agreement, search the new land? Goritz was unconvinced and -inclined to temporize. Yes, the land was lower, perhaps; it was warmer, -but how did we know it would keep so; a small decline here might change -into an ascent further away; we were on a tableland, but another axis of -elevation might arise from it, and remember in these solitudes there was -not much life, no game, and our stores would in ten days be exhausted, -not counting the dogs, some of whom must now be sacrificed for the -others. - -This had the appearance of tergiversation. The Professor was vehement, I -and Hopkins leaned in his favor, but I think all of us would have -succumbed to Goritz’s wish and certainly to his command—the sweetest, -bravest, most generous soul I have ever known! At length, at Hopkins’ -suggestion, we compromised again on a reconnaissance. - -It was a pivotal point. We were in a sandy plain, with much bare rock, -and soily places now greenish with moss or lichen. The surprising -feature was the sudden onsets of rain with the east winds. It was rather -misty all the time, and the fogs made it abysmally cheerless. It was -easy to see that this excessive moisture formed the fathomless snows -among the mountains we had ploughed over. - -On the day of the reconnaissance we all separated. Goritz went north, -the Professor, pertinacious in his convictions, went due west, with the -aneroid, Hopkins and myself southward. Our reports were to be made at -the conference at night. We reassembled, all except Goritz turning up at -the tent at almost the same time. Hopkins said that for stone breaking, -the country he had walked over was the most promising he had ever -encountered. He couldn’t imagine a better place for a penal -establishment. A reservation like it alongside of New York City would -raise the moral standard of that city almost as high as anyone would -like to go. He thought perhaps we’d better turn back. - -The Professor disheartedly admitted that the land after sinking rose -abruptly, and that there might be another _axis of elevation_—the -Professor pronounced the technical observation with evident disgust. The -fogs grew so dense it was impossible to determine. He concluded -dolefully that, as much had been accomplished, it might be well for self -preservation to return. - -I corroborated Hopkins, and also suggested a return. We had been talking -informally, sharing our observations, but their detailed presentation -awaited Goritz’s presence. And where was he? We had been back an hour, -and our hunger remonstrated bitterly against his tardiness. Still -another hour passed, and nature refused to tolerate a further deference -to custom or respect. We ate our evening rations—already they were being -shortened—concluding to go out on a search for Goritz, if he did not -soon come in. Another hour hurried by, and yet no Goritz. We began to be -alarmed, and yet that seemed absurd. What harm could come to a man in -that flat land? And to a man of Goritz’s strength and resources? Hardly -had we thus reassured ourselves when the tent flap was pushed aside, and -there stood Antoine Goritz, with one hand behind his back. - -His melodious voice was raised, his eyes shone, his frame seemed -expanded with excitement, his face was flushed, and the disengaged hand -opened and shut convulsively. - -“Gentlemen,” he said, “_we shall go on_. _Krocker Land is inhabited_, -and—it is a LAND OF GOLD!” - -He paused, stepped forward, and laid on our soap-box table a broad belt -of gold plates, engraved, and united by a gold buckle, beautifully -embossed. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - THE PERPETUAL NIMBUS - - -You probably might recall, Mr. Link, that wonderful chapter in “Robinson -Crusoe,” where Defoe describes the feelings of his hero after he found -the footprints in the sand. I mention it here because I am amused at the -memory of how different were our emotions as Goritz showed us the gold -belt. I turned last night to the pages of Defoe’s masterpiece and jotted -down this appropriate quotation; it illustrates completely what I mean. - - “I slept none that night: the farther I was from the occasion of - my fright, the greater my apprehensions were: which is something - contrary to the nature of such things, and especially to the - usual practice of all creatures in fear: but I was so - embarrassed with my own frightful ideas of the thing, that I - formed nothing but dismal imaginations to myself, even though I - was not a great way off from it. Sometimes I fancied it must be - the Devil, and reason joined in with me upon this supposition; - for how should any other thing in human shape come into the - place?” - -That gold belt to us we knew meant human occupation of this New -Continent, and it was almost impossible for us to control our violent -joy over the discovery. We were not worrying as to whether it was the -Devil or savages, and we felt sure we were not the victims of illusion. -Perhaps a little trepidation crept in later, but for that moment we were -beside ourselves with happiness and wonder. And yet we were at first -silent, dumbfounded, bending over the strange find in dazed delight, -eager yet incredulous, lost in a bewilderment of anticipation. - -The Professor had produced a small pocket glass and was nervously -inspecting the plates, very much to our annoyance, his ears and head -seeming constantly to be pushing our faces away. A look of profound -vindication appeared on his features, and I think we sympathized with -his feelings and applauded them. Goritz beamed benignantly, and I knew -Hopkins was on the verge of a metrical quotation. But the Professor had -the floor. - -“Gentlemen,” he began, “this belt has no possible relation to any know -human culture. The fabricators of this _chef d’oeuvre_—it’s such in -every sense—have probably never existed outside of the eccentric -depression—the size of a small continent—into which we shall be -privileged to descend.” The Professor bowed to Goritz, who was radiant -from his approbation. - -He continued: “The figures engraved on these plates, the relievos on -this buckle, are autochthonous”—Hopkins emitted a low whistle. “They -are, however, distinctly colubrine, reptilian, crotaline, lacertilian, -poly-catabolic-arbori-animalistic. They indicate a serpent worship and a -tree worship, and are reminiscent of the Fall; I may call it the -recapitulative survival of myth.” - -Hopkins’ whistle had been attempting some shriller ejaculations of -surprise, but the verbal avalanche smothered it. It was a suffocating -moment for all of us, and when Hopkins said, “Professor, with a cocktail -on top of this I believe our cerebral intoxication would be complete,” -the interior danger of explosion increased almost beyond control. But -the Professor kept on, and a little “plain stuff,” as Hopkins called it -helped us out of our embarrassment. - -“An animal like a crocodile or an alligator, in a peculiar stage of -evolution, approaching that of a serpent, is depicted here,” his finger -touched the buckle, “and everywhere else are variations of one theme, -the Serpent and the Tree. The people of this _Navel of the World_ retain -the traditions of our religion.” - -After that we all became intensely interested in the belt or girdle, but -we withheld our comments. Our pretense was sincere enough. We were -interested, so interested that it would have been impossible for any of -us—the Professor alone was capable of such sublime detachment—to have -slept a wink if we had tried to, but then our interest, in which mingled -the elixir of a fabulous Hope, succeeding days and weeks of danger and -uncertainty, was satisfied at a lower stage of realization. With us it -was MEN and GOLD, and, scintillating back of these noble facts, was the -speechless marveling of the world of letters, of science, at our -recital, if ever we got back to those things. - -I asked Goritz all about it when we were together outside of the tent. -It seems he had walked about three miles from the camp, and was watching -a flurry of wind tear up the water of a little pool, literally boring it -all out in spray, when, as the action was accomplished, he saw the glint -of the gold. Another look and the belt was in his hand. He sat down to -catch his breath, and to quiet the beating of his heart, and then when -he had recovered his composure, he had gone on, believing that other -trinkets might turn up, or that he might encounter its makers, or -anything in fact that might explain the treasure trove—but the search -had been unavailing. - -“Well,” I said as he finished, “what do you think? The Professor has -some wild notions about it, but it looks to me as if the Professor has -all along sailed pretty close to the wind.” - -“Yes, Alfred,” he answered, “there’s a kernel of truth in his talk. Of -course I always thought so or I wouldn’t have come at all—And Alfred,” -his splendid eyes searched my own in that great way he had, “I have had -curious premonitions just now, as I walked back to the camp. We are -coming upon incomprehensible things. We must go on, though we may cross -starvation before we reach food, and—the _marvels beyond_. The rations I -know are low, and I know too we’ve a bad way ahead—_Mais, esperons_.” - -I would have said more but before us stood Hopkins. He was actually -smoking—“to keep from going bug-house,” he explained, and then he -muttered: - - “Send me to the Arctic regions, or illimitable azure. - On a scientific goosechase, with my Coxwell or my Glaisher.” - -Camp was broken up the next morning. We were wild to get away. Before we -started the dogs were fed the last of the bear meat, and we were all put -on half rations; the demands on our strength for the work immediately -before us would not be great. - -I also got a chance to see the belt better. It was very short and made -up of plates hooked together with a larger buckle. There was absolutely -no metal but gold in it. The buckle was decorated with an impossible -serpentine monster with legs and a snout-bearing head, indeed a thing -very well described by the Professor as a cross or mixture of a huge -snake and an alligator, and the plates were engraved with hieratic -markings that looked like poles encircled by spiral lines. - -“So,” I said to myself, “these are the reminiscent Tree and the -Serpent.” - -“Look to me like bean poles,” remarked Hopkins, who was looking over my -shoulder. - -On we went west. It seemed as if the abominable rocks and sand would -never come to an end, the former sharp and knife-like, cutting our -shoes, the latter whirling in blinding sheets against our faces, in -spite of the almost constant fog, and even the occasional rain. The -sledge was lightened and moved as carefully as possible, but the -obstacles could not be avoided in the mist, and before the day was half -over it was a wreck, so that its load had to be distributed among us. -There was made at once a concentration of everything indispensable, and -the rest was abandoned. Our heavy packs did not help our progress. The -wind kept westerly. It was strong. We were astonished at the absence of -snow and at the moderate temperature. The thermometer denoted 0° and 2°, -Centigrade. These conditions seemed to bear out the Professor’s claims, -and the altitude was decreasing too. Then came a desperately stony -hollow, and the land rose steadily until we were even higher than we had -been at the start. But there were no mountains about us, just a broad -back of sloping rock, “a gigantic, intrusive, basaltic dike,” said the -Professor, between gasps, as fog smote us with almost the solidity of -water. - -We had made thirty miles, and nature and the day were united in protest -against a longer drive. A yelp ahead, a shout from Goritz to “fall -back,” showed some danger line in our vicinity. We had not stopped one -instant too soon. One of the dogs had plunged over a precipice, and we -were then standing on its crumbling edge. By one of those sudden changes -in nature which call to mind a _divertissement_ in a scenic theatrical -display, the fogbanks now drifted off and in the light of the low -western sun we looked out over a strange land. - -The barren and roughened ridge at last ended in this inner line of the -Krocker Land Rim. It abruptly, like a palisade escarpment, fell off into -declivities or occasional slopes made up of the talus of its -decomposition or dilapidation. We gazed now on a singular barrenness of -steeply slanting land, ribbed with asperities like hogs’ backs, of -parallel hills. Over this land, in the channels that they had made for -themselves, some entrenched in precipitous valleys, rushed streams fed -by that continual precipitation which toward the sea became snow, and -inland away from a colder atmosphere fell in torrents of rain. - -The scene was indescribable, not by reason of variety but of monotony of -detail, and because beyond it, far along a horizon that may have been -fifty or more miles distant the most perplexing vaporous effects -prevailed. What it might be it was impossible to determine. There were -constant motions there, motions explosive and gradual, for we could -almost be sure that the cloudy masses were processioning now measuredly -in huge volume and then disordered by internal rupture. We thought we -caught the flashes of electric storms. - -The scene below us was most repellent. The vicissitudes of cold and -storm had ejected all semblance of charm from those black, denuded -rocks. Their asperities, which were pinnacles hundreds of feet high, -were united by valleys bare to the eye, from our point of view, of all -vegetation, the whole combination slanting inward, and composing a -broad, melanic sterility perhaps only paralleled on the lifeless and -crater-pitted plains of the moon. The violent tossing streams, many of -them hidden in defiles of erosion, alone imparted the sense of -animation, and even this animation seemed ruthless and destructive. It -was utterly sullen, and when it was not sullen, it was savage and -threatening. It was all so overwhelming that we simply stared at it, -voiceless and despairing. - -Hopkins broke the spell of our dismay: “Well, Professor, this certainly -is not Paradise, but I’m willing to believe that it’s the shell, the -outside of it, and a pretty hard kind of a nut it makes. _Can we crack -it?_” - -That indeed was the question we all silently asked. Where would this -wilderness of rocks and waters lead us? Could we expect to find game or -any sort of food in this tableland of sheer, stark, desolation? Our -supplies were daily shrinking, and we had been a little wasteful too, -deluded by the false hope of soon securing succor. It was a long way -back to the cache on the tableland, and a longer one to the anchored -launch on the sands of the coast, but how far was it ahead of us to -life? At least behind there were bears and musk oxen, and seal and duck; -did anything replace them before us? It made us pause; the risk of going -on was considerable. - -Our council convened under rather straightened circumstances of -confidence and hope. The dogs would be of no use in the marches before -us, unless indeed we threw them into the larder, and their upkeep was an -equivocal handicap, which might more than offset their value as an aid -to the commissariat. Goritz said we had forty pounds of provisions, -about a pound a day for each man for ten days; and there were the guns -and ammunition to be carried too, the instruments and the stoves and -oil. The tent outfit could be left behind; at a pinch we might battle -through without it. Battle, though, to WHAT? Ah! That was the question. -Were we in a dead land? Was the gold belt a prehistoric relic, having no -relation to any living race, a token of past occupancy by a people who -had fled from the fast contracting opportunities of life in this Arctic -inferno? It was a good illustration of the caprice of human feelings, -our total rejection of the considerations that a few days before had -made us jubilant, boastful, careless; so quickly does the average man -reflect the color of his surroundings. - -Our position was dismal indeed. The inexplicable fogs settled around us, -or, if the west wind blew—and only for that brief interval when we -caught sight of the bewildering landscape below us, had it ceased to -blow—drifted over us in endless cloud-like masses. A precipice was -before us, how many more were beyond that? And then the return. The -longer we thought over it, and turned the angles of possibility to -inspection the more hopeless the prospect grew. But again the Gold Belt? -A shining lure of the Demon of Death to tempt us to a horrible doom. As -Goritz ostentatiously showed it to us it became loathsome, sinister, a -delusive snare! - -And this led to our great surprise. Goritz wished to go on. He said so. -This quiet, reserved, strong man handed back to the Professor his -predictions, subscribed to with his own enthusiastic acceptance, and the -Professor, pirouette-fashion, had wheeled around in a rather dogged -scepticism. I think Hopkins and myself, out of pure dread, favored the -return. Goritz had always resisted the quest. The gold bauble was -“getting in its fatal work,” whispered Hopkins. - -Goritz put it this way: We couldn’t get back. The return trip would be -far harder than to progress in our present course. We had no sledge. -Everything pointed to success if we could keep on. The land beyond us -indicated a great depression, the fogs rolling over us showed an -approaching warmer area; the glimpse that had been permitted us was -conclusive; once beyond that cloud zone and the realities, the living -realities, would begin. This gold belt (he held up the glittering charm -that had turned his head) was no relic, its engraving was too fresh, its -outlines too sharp; it had been brought where he had found it, it must -have come from the west, and the way, practicable for its former -wearers, was practicable for us. - -“How about a balloon, an aeroplane, anything that flies?” suggested -Hopkins. Antoine Goritz became scornful, his French blood often came to -the surface. He looked straight at Hopkins, and a frown clouded his -face; it did not become him. - - “_Parbleu vous etes fou, mon frère, que Je crois, - Avec de tels discours vous moquez-vous de moi?_” - -Hopkins didn’t wince; it wasn’t his fashion. - -“Well, Goritz, I’m game for the deal. You can’t put it over me with your -_parlez-vous_. But listen, we’ll never agree on this stake. It’s up to -the little Goddess on the Wheel. What do you say?” He tossed something -in the air and shouted: - -“Fair or Foul?” - -“Fair,” called Goritz. - -The shining object rattled among the stones; it had a silvery lustre, -and as the Yankee stooped and picked it up, there was something -strangely grave in his face. - -“You win, Goritz,” he calmly said, as he pocketed the trinket, “and I’ll -follow you till the curtain drops.” - -He rose and extended his hand; it was grasped cordially by the big Dane, -the two men facing each other at almost the same level, both beautiful -types of manhood. - -“Mr. Link, the object that Spruce Hopkins flung upwards, and cast as the -die of our destiny that day is in my hand.” (He laid a flat silver medal -on the table between us. I picked it up; on one side was a masterly -execution of the face of a lovely woman; on the other was a sort of -Satan.) - -“Mr. Link,” resumed Erickson, “that woman is Angelica Sigurda Tabasco, -and that man Diaz Ilario Aguadiente, the two interesting occupants of -No. — east Fifty-eighth Street, from whose unpleasant society you freed -me. Hopkins gave me that the last time I saw him alive. What he told me -then had something to do with the predicament you found me in.” - -(Mr. Erickson again retired into his obviously gloomy thoughts, which I -did not attempt to disturb, and, on his emergence, continued his story.) - -This impromptu solution won the day, and we prepared for the unknown -transit over that unknown territory of which we had had one fleeting -glimpse, and which lay somewhere before us, in a vast milkness of mist. - -We concluded to take with us two dogs; the rest—now three, one had gone -mad (_piblocto_) and had been shot—were killed, and a cannibalistic -feast offered to the survivors. The oil and stoves were left behind; -there might be enough fibre or wood for fire, at least we hoped so. Our -packs were made as light as possible. We were in a race, like -Mikkelsen’s last lap, _a Race against Hunger_. The sleeping-bags were -discarded, the tent we carried a short distance only. No grimmer or -braver determination ever animated explorers; we were not running for -safety, we were running _away_ from it. The step taken, our spirits -rose, the former fancies swarmed upon us, and perhaps the gold belt -again floated before our vision, an omen and a guide. This imaginative -sway of anticipation was needed, or else we could never have plucked up -courage to make the fateful start. - -The beginning was symptomatic enough of our coming dangers. To get over -and down the precipice on whose edge we stood was impossible without a -clearance of the besetting fogs, and fortunately, as if by invitation -for us to retain our resolution, the fog lifted on the morning we -started. We were on the brink of a high columnar black wall, rising from -200 feet or less to 600 feet or more, from the rocky floor of the -country beyond. We searched for some pathway for descent. Innumerable -shelves and footholds diversified the precipitous faces but they were -far apart, and often offered little more than space for a bird or a -goat. Once down the first vertical cliffs the gigantic heaps of talus -leaning against their bases would afford us a practicable though rough -way to the bottom. And now we saw with astonishment the obvious -inclination of the farther land. It seemed an almost unbroken hillside, -coursed by streams and stream beds, furrowed by dry, stony valleys, cut -by the low, serrated backs of steep hills, the whole landscape -terminating in that distant medley of rolling clouds, streaming vapor -banks barely discernible, except as, so it seemed, they were lit by -flashes of light. Were we on the outer flanks of a continental lava bed, -and was that cloud space beyond the lip of a vast volcanic confusion? -The question was not asked aloud, but its staggering terror made us -tremble. Never, Mr. Link, did men more heroically walk into the shadows -of the Valley of Death than did we. - -The morning sun sent long shadows westward; the day was actually warm; a -sudden brightness encouraged us. If the food lasted! That was the terror -that haunted us. Could it? At last Goritz discovered far northward a -gorge or ravine reaching almost to the top of the palisade. Down this we -scrambled and found ourselves in the bed of a low stream, which a day -later became a swollen torrent, so quickly did precipitation feed the -rivers, and so enormous was its volume. This made our daily progress -more dangerous. We were soaked and miserable ourselves, but the -protection to our food was imperfect, and that gave rise to serious -doubts as to whether it would last us ten days, the calculated limit -before its exhaustion. The biscuit half turned to dough and the drenched -tea exuded in tawny drops from our packs. This led to a readjustment and -each man carried his rations of tea and biscuit and chocolate underneath -his coat. The pemmican, force meat, cabbage and beans are safe enough on -our backs. - -It soon became necessary to desert the watery defile which we had first -entered; it became more and more confined, the banks were literally -stone heaps, and after one or two perilous slips which might have -accelerated our progress by dumping us into the chasing flood we -painfully climbed out over a high rocky ridge on the summit of which our -sight was cheered to find low, herbaceous growths. Here we managed to -extort a niggardly flame which was assisted by oil Goritz alone had had -the prudence to add to his load, and our evening meal was eaten in some -gratitude. - -The rains, distressing as they were at intervals, when the downpour -became most vehement, were on the whole preferable to the fogs. They -cleared the air, and we could see our way, calculate interruptions and -avoid disaster. As we went on the vegetation increased in quantity, and -often smiling—they seemed smiling to our tired eyes although lit by no -sunlight—patches around us in sheltered corners afforded welcome though -damp camping grounds. Our clothes were torn by frequent falls, and our -shoes are turning into tangled shreds. The Professor had sprained his -wrist badly—he narrowly escaped rolling down an embankment which might -have put him out of the running altogether—and Goritz is in pain. I know -it by his limping gait, and the twitches of suffering that cross his -face. Something is the matter with me too, fatigue and the insufficient -or canned food is telling on me. My muscles are stiff and aching, the -joints of my limbs red and swollen, and dark blue spots were showing on -my skin. Is it scurvy? - -It is the sixth day, and we believe we have made seventy miles. The -cloud zone is approaching; our prospect every day grows more -extraordinary, more terrifying; we encamp behind a shoulder of rock, on -a low upland which separated two roaring rivers. The rain had stopped -and a colder atmosphere reveals the scene. The temperature is just above -2° Centigrade, the aneroid shows we had fallen two thousand feet since -we had left the Krocker Land Rim. We are immobile, in a sort of stupor, -yet fascinated by the spectacle. Hopkins alone remains cheerful and -garrulous. - -“Professor,” he chatters, “the Rocky Road to Dublin had nothing on this -boulevard. The gentleman who, by reason of a congenital failing, which -was assisted by circumstances outside of his control, complained of the -narrowness rather than the length of the street would be inclined to -make some severe reflections on this thoroughfare also. But we can be -pretty sure the transformation takes place the other side of the -proscenium-show yonder.” - -Poor Spruce Hopkins, he kept up his joviality for our benefit, but we -didn’t care much and I don’t think he did. We were starving; it was half -a pound now a day. But Goritz never wavered a hair, he urged us on, he -promised food, rest, recreation even, if we would persevere through the -cloud curtain. - -And now we were under it, cowering in dread before the awfulness and -magnitude of it. It rose in towering gushes of stream, belched forth -from a huge crack in the crust of the earth in which poured the full -rivers that had accompanied our march. Those rivers entered recesses of -the heated earth, and were returned in steam with detonations and -earthquakes, so that - - _The frame and huge foundation of the earth - Shak’d like a coward._ - -Reviewing it now, as it was revealed to us later upon examination and -study, the physiography of the stupendous phenomenon we had reached was -this. Some strain had cracked the crust of the earth in a long arcuate -rift; it suggested the crevice and it was irregular in the same way, -which is seen in the Almannaja in Iceland, but it was profoundly deep, -and the area communicated with the igneous interior. The water that was -continually condensed from the steam that poured upward from the huge -fissure, as continually was returned, and, except for interruptions in -the reciprocal exchange produced by meteorological conditions, such as -cold, heat and varying winds, this curious equilibration was unbroken, -had been for ages. The emergence of the steam was irregular, though it -was always coming up at some points, and there was a synchrony between -points. We discovered later that at very distant places from our -position on the great circular break there was no steam. The rock -beneath had become thoroughly cooled and congealed, or the inner fires -were absent, and the water entering the chasm was lost within the crust, -or else, deviously percolating laterally may have subsequently -contributed its supply to the active steam geysers when it touched the -heated surfaces which formed the sources of the latter’s energy. - -Therefore you may place this picture before your mind, of a steam wall -projected from a raggedly edged, very broad earth rift, absorbed by the -atmosphere, or condensed in clouds, and intermittently returned to the -earth in rain or if transferred by westerly winds, falling outside of -the Krocker Land Rim in snow. - -The explosions that rent and shattered this steam veil, or shattered the -cloud masses above us, were at first difficult to explain. It was after -we had penetrated and crossed the abyss that the Professor suggested -that they were due to a partial decomposition of some part—a very, very -small part—of the steam into the gases hydrogen and carbonic oxide, -where coal or carbonaceous deposits existed at rare or higher heats, and -that these explosive mixtures, retained somehow in the steam, -undiffused, were fired by electric-lightning sparks. This theory never -seemed scientific to me. But the fact of such disturbances remained, and -it was owing to the momentary glimpse a terrific shock of this kind -permitted us across the void, that we picked up daring enough to make -the attempt to cross the horrid gap. - -We were within perhaps five hundred feet of the spouting cauldron, where -rain was constantly falling, crawling over rocks wet and slippery, -astonished and half delighted at the luxuriant development of moss on -the lips of pools or saucers of water, and noting a great rise in -temperature, with that peculiar buried tumult of hissing, issuing from -the earth, when this happened. There was a flash, a roar, and, as if a -gigantic hand had parted the dense curtain before us, our eyes crossed -the gulf, and we saw a land of greenness and of light! - -Stunned, half sick, hungry, with a gnawing wretchedness of desire, it -almost seemed that we had been duped by some illusion born of our -weakness and the deceptive play of the illuminated mist. Huddled -together in a niche of the rocks that were in places dissected by -cracks, that also discharged tenuous lines of steam, we talked in -whispers over the marvelous apparition. Yes, we had all seen it. There -could be no mistake, but Goritz had seen more. Across the black, -vomiting pit was a bridge of rock! It might have been some remaining -partition, holding its place against disintegration, spared in some way -for our salvation from the destructive agencies that had here ripped the -crust asunder, or indeed it might have been built up from some later -solidified eruption. _Had_ he seen it? - -Goritz was madly certain about that. Well, and if he had, could we use -it? There are desperate stages in desperation that breed, Ajax-like, -defiance of danger. The sudden realization of a world of beauty, a world -of food, on the other side of the steaming pit, nerved our poor flagging -bodies, and summoned an audacity of will to our minds! It was our last -chance. Myths of the past in that delirious moment flocked back to my -mind, which pictured guarded paradises, defended gardens of delight, -treasures watched by dragons, elysiums hedged with terrors, and always, -always courage won the prize, and passed the dangers. And yet there must -be caution; the old refrain sounded in my ears, _Be not too bold!_ - -Goritz and Hopkins, the least impaired, reconnoitered the pass. They -moved down some stepped ledges and were lost to sight. In an hour or so -they returned. Their faces were lighted with hopefulness. They both -believed the path was negotiable, and they both agreed that there were -periodic cessations of the fiercer ebullitions from below. It was also -discovered that we could not make our way to the right or left for any -considerable distance. We had trailed our way to an isthmus of land, -enclosed by two impassable streams, shooting in rugged wild channels. To -think of crossing them was sheer madness. Goritz and Hopkins had -actually advanced a little way on the bridge, straining their eyes to -catch some further intimations of the delectable country we now believed -would be attained were we once over this inscrutable fissure. The -daylight, when the sun was highest and easterly, was now short, and in -the mist-encumbered land, in the cloud-swept skies, that light was -almost eclipsed. Everything contributed to our uncertainty and danger. - -We made ready for the start. We consumed every scrap of food, divested -ourselves of unnecessary outer clothing, which had already become -insufferably warm—_kamiks_, _nanookis_, _kooletah_—packed our ammunition -on our breasts, reversed and strapped our guns on our backs (the -Professor added to his burden a pot and a fryingpan), tucked away our -matches, chewed the last tea leaves our canister afforded, and with a -few chocolate cakes in our pockets went down the steps, - - “*** _with a heart for any fate._” - -I was indeed sick; exertion pained me, and a nauseating weariness -threatened at moments to rob me of consciousness. The two poor dogs -which had escaped the extremity of our needs, less through mercy than -through revulsion, were turned loose. Yet as we went down the ledges to -the brink, I saw them chasing us. Goritz roped us together again, gave a -few orders as to signals, and ordered the descent. - -We went _a tatons_, literally on all fours; Goritz first, then the -Professor, then myself, then Hopkins. As we drew near to the ominous -edge, and felt our way over the first steps of the stony crossing it -required all my strength of will to draw my legs after my groping hands. -At first it presented a tolerable pathway, flat, narrow, but sloping -dangerously to either side, slippery from the constant rain that fell -from the saturated air. We silently pushed on, Goritz by agreement -stopping every thirty counts (seconds), and resting five. Gradually the -path contracted and, in about thirty feet, became a sharp backbone over -whose sides our legs dangled in the constantly steaming vault. It was -warm and almost stifling at intervals and then came relief in the shape -of whirling gusts of wind, which however were disconcerting, and made -our precarious balance still more uncertain. - -We had probably proceeded fifty feet in all, when a blackness shot -through with red darts came before my eyes; I reeled slightly and -dropped forward, instinctively clutching the wet rock and jerking the -rope that bound me to the Professor. The Professor in turn pulled on -Goritz, and our thin line halted. It was arduous work for the Professor, -whose wrist was still aching. - -A detonation thundered far away below us. The spasm passed; I pulled the -rope, the Professor passed the signal, and we resumed our insect-like -progress. Singular that, as I moved again, the thought of Dante and -Virgil crossing the bridge over the tenth circle, as illustrated by -Dore, rose distinctly, clear, indubitable, in front of me. It even -seemed possible for me to define the pagination of the leaf I actually -saw. This strange resuscitated impression kept me conscious. - -[Illustration: - - THE PERPETUAL NIMBUS -] - -On, on; the arete remained unchanged; our progress was encouraging; I -seemed cognizant of a deeper gloom; it was the opposite wall. We had -reached it. Alas! It rose above our heads and _must_ be scaled! Goritz -pulled the rope, the signal ran through the file and we halted again. -The path broadened now, as at its eastern end, and our legs were -relieved from the irksome straddle they had been subjected to. It was a -welcome pause to me. I knew that the last scrap of effort I was capable -of was needed now, if some vertical wet wall was to be surmounted in -that almost impenetrable blackness. - -In about fifteen minutes the tug came again, and we knew Goritz had -solved some problem of the ascent confronting us. I heard him calling -back, and the Professor answering. Then I found myself in this -situation; on a fairly wide platform against a broken wall and up it I -heard the scratching exertion of the Professor as he seemed to be bodily -pulled up the ragged face. The constantly falling rain had ceased. But -as the Professor rose, I felt he was no longer attached to me. I drew in -the rope before me and came to its loose end. We were separated! Aghast, -I was unable to speak, but my outstretched arms encountered Hopkins. - -“Hopkins, Hopkins,” I hoarsely whispered, “the rope has parted. We are -alone!” - -“Don’t worry,” replied that extraordinary man, “we couldn’t be lonelier -than we have been. This solitude is the most unbroken bit of isolation I -ever walked into. Of course we’re separated. This interesting masonry -we’ve struck isn’t very well constructed. It isn’t plumb. It hangs out a -_leetle_ above. Goritz found it out, uncoiled himself, got to the top, -told the Professor to drop you and me, and is now engaged in hoisting -that scientific encyclopedia up to bliss and safety. We won’t stay -dropped long. We’re to go the same way, and really, admirably adapted -for concealment of an escaped felon as is this retreat, honest men could -afford to dispense with its protection.” - -I sometimes thought that when Hopkins talked this way on the verge of -destruction he was a little demented from fear. Perhaps I wronged him. - -“But say, Erickson, you’re not well, old fellow.” - -I had fallen against him; another surge of giddiness and harsh pains -lacerating my joints had overcome me. Then I was struck by a rope end; -it had descended from above. Understanding it all now, and clutching at -the hope of deliverance from the terrors around us, I roused myself. - -I heard the voice of Goritz shouting, “Tie up.” And then Hopkins -replying, “All right! Alfred is a little out of sorts. He can’t help you -much. When I _say_, pull together.” - -Hopkins unloosed our connection, firmly fastened me to the rope and, -indicating my upward course, telling me to “brace up,” and that it was -the last lap, pushed me up a declivity bristling with sharp projections. -For the first time I saw a dim light filtering from above. I did not -attempt to look upward. The pull came, and I scrambled weakly forward. -Again the dark, red-riven cloud overwhelmed me, my limbs seemed -disjointed; a picture of home, I thought, filled my eyes; a blow on my -head, then a vast detachment as if I were falling through space -succeeded, and I lost consciousness. - -And when I awoke! Ah! Mr. Link I have since often believed that our -first glimpse of heaven may be like the vision of loveliness that -surrounded me when slowly my eyes took on their functions, and my head -cleared, and rational observation again began. My pains, too, had for -the instant subsided. I felt almost disembodied, as if indeed in some -spiritual trance I had reached the other side of death. - -I was lying in deep grass on a hillside, bathed in light; my friends -around me—No, Hopkins was not there. I noted that. Backward the steaming -wall of vapor was lit with a soft radiance, and resembled an -ever-changing cloud land. Above, the sky was clear and blue; the -distance was a revelation of beauty, ponds and lakes separated by low -hills, whose summits held coppices of trees and shrubs, sparkled and -shone in far flung chains and groups, and below, in a softly radiant -vale, the slim, long outline of a little lakelet, embosomed in tall, -waving reeds or grasses, like some titanic jewel, gleamed, crystalline -and keen. - -Ducks were swimming on its surface, and skimming with beating wings its -tiny waves. Herons or cranes were wading in the sedges on its shores, -and a stirring and noisy aquatic bird life everywhere about it, made it -vocal and animated. Far away a strange, soft light burned in the heaven, -and for a moment it seemed as if another sun had replaced the diurnal -traveler of the skies. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - THE CROCODILO-PYTHON - - -But nature reasserted its importunities, and hunger gnawed my vitals. In -a chapter of Admiral Peary’s book, “Over the Great Ice,” is a thrilling -episode which describes his own and Astrum’s, hunger before they slew -the musk ox near Independence Bay, Greenland, and the ferocity, almost, -with which they feasted on the raw meat. I once thought that the story -had been given a half theatrical exaggeration. Now I know it was -truthful enough. My companions were also weak and prostrated. I now saw -clearly their thin, pinched features, the natureless stare of their -eyes, the flaccid, hopeless flutter of their hands. I had not realized -how near we had been to dropping dead in our tracks. - -There was a shot—another, then—another. “God be thanked,” muttered -Goritz, and the Professor mechanically rose to his unsteady feet, and -shaded his eyes, looking down the hillside. - -“He’s coming, and his hands are full,” at length he said, and sank to -the ground. - -It seemed an eternity before the tall figure of the Yankee brushed -through the grass, and flung the dead bodies of three wild geese among -us. - -Few or none who have not known the extremity of hunger can understand -how, as Mikkelsen expresses it, “one’s whole consciousness becomes -concentrated into one importunate demand for food—food—food.” And do you -remember, if you read it, how Mikkelsen and Iversen set up the tins of -the cache at Schnauder’s Island in a row, to feast their eyes on them, -and then, after all, came that “feverish race with death—the grim death -of hunger”? - -Our state was not as desperate, but perhaps we were not such hardened -and strong men. It was not long before a fire made of branches and twigs -and grass was burning merrily, and though there was nothing but water to -drink, and there were no condiments—no salt or pepper, no bread or -biscuits, we devoured the fried duck with a rapture no words can -properly do justice to. It was not enough. Hopkins must go again and -again. But the larder furnished us in these new, hospitable surroundings -was inexhaustible. We wondered whether the sound of a gunshot had ever -been heard here; the birds were simply curious, not frightened, and only -interrupted their play or avocation with a momentary and short flight. - -We moved forward from our first resting place and encamped under the -leafy covering of a beautiful, narrow, silver-leaved tree, that the -Professor told us was a relative of that ornament of parks and pleasure -grounds in Europe and America, the _Anastatica syriachum_. We called our -camp _Restoration_. Hopkins suggested _Emptiness_ as a name, for several -reasons, because of our unappeasable appetites and because in it, -besides ourselves, our guns, a few cooking vessels (to be exact, just a -pot and a fryingpan) the rope we carried, and our few instruments, our -ammunition and our matches, there were none of the appurtenances that -are associated with the name of camp. But the name Restoration pleased -us better, for here were we filled with a wonderful animation of -expectancy, here our strength had been fully restored, here we had -become joyful beyond estimation, the Professor had resumed his alacrity -of mind, and once more we all embarked on the sea of fabulous imagining. -It was altogether wonderful. Where were we? What was the meaning of this -temperate charm of climate? Whence came this broad illumination when the -sun had set? - -The first moments of our mere animal restoration passed, then a -delicious weariness overcame us as we surrendered to the mirthful spirit -of surprise and admiration, and to the curative properties of fried or -boiled duck. Around us stretched a magnificent country, which bore the -aspect of the sylvan loneliness of the lakeland of Minnesota and -Wisconsin and Canada, though more undulating or hilly. The wall of steam -and cloud behind us, occasionally glowing dully with the flame of its -intermittent explosions, extended north and south, or was lost in the -pearly exhalations of the distance. - -It formed an inexhaustible source of rain, for, as the east winds -prevailed, the mists swept over this aquitanian land in showers, or, if -the west wind, it was rolled away in thunderous glory to deluge that -steep, barren zone we had descended, from Krocker Land Rim, and, beyond -the Rim, it fell again in snow. The Professor, boastful now, and Goritz -calmly exultant, arranged the fortunes we were about to meet in pleasing -colors. To listen to them as Hopkins and I lay on our backs in the -fragrant grass, starred with white and blue blossoms, was like the -recital of a fairy story, a legend of miracles and marvels. - -The Professor took up the strain in this wise: - -“Here is the most wonderful illustration of Perpetual Motion. The -precipitation of the Arctic Sea falls on this land in rain, outside of -it in snow. The rain flows down the rivers of the arid slope under -Krocker Land Rim, is emptied into the heated or inflamed bowels of the -earth, uncovered by the huge meridional crevice, and returned as steam -to be again thrown down, evaporated and reprecipitated in an endless -chain of supreme magnitude. - -“And, gentlemen, we have entered the polar depression of which you were -so scornfully incredulous. We have already fallen two thousand feet -below the mean level of the earth. This is a temperate region, with -symptoms of subtropical or even perhaps tropical life I believe we shall -discover a series of successive gigantic steps, each a recession within -the crust of the earth, like continental amphitheatrical terraces, and -at the Center—” - -“What?” gurgled Hopkins. - -“Ah! Mr. Hopkins, what indeed.” - -But before the Professor could frame his answer to the question, Goritz, -whose reticence had now succumbed to the wonders of our experience had -seized the thread of the lecture. He would outdo the Professor in -prophecies, with a merry fling or soaring of imagination that made that -cheerful scientist dubious or irritated. I think he rather resented this -unexpected, half satirical participation in the monopoly of his -professional vaticinations. - -“I’ll tell you what, Hopkins,” would continue Goritz smilingly, with a -musical intonation that accorded with the serenity of our surroundings, -“it will be a City of Gold—houses of gold, golden chariots, golden -furniture. We can break off the legs and arms of the chairs and tables, -knock down the doors, rip up the flagging, and put up a stack of gold -bric-a-brac that will keep us forever. We’ll go back, bring in the -engineers, bridge that gulf, and railroad the metropolis to the shore, -ship the whole thing to America and then—(by this time Hopkins would be -pummeling me “_to sit up and take notice_”) we’ll come back, seize the -mines and fetch the Millenium back to the world; no more poor, no -begging, no charities, just universal peace and happiness!” - -“May be,” Hopkins would grunt as he knocked me flat again, and fell -himself face forward to the ground, “may be, but Pujo and the Democratic -Congress will catch you, if you don’t watch out. Why my dear, -unsophisticated friend, if you gave it away, and let people know you had -a claim on the original, inexhaustible goldbrick of the Universe, the -crowd up here would tilt the earth over, and set it rolling the wrong -way. And then—WHAT?” - -So we often joked and laughed together in the halcyon days that restored -our strength and health. But the fit of mere whimsical jubilation soon -came to an end. Our exploits were only begun, and already two serious -wonders attracted our attention and brought us in contact with an -amazing phenomenon. The first was the unbroken illumination, the -measureless day! The sun itself hardly raised its red disk above the -horizon now. We knew that the six months’ night was fast approaching, -outside of this enchanted bowl, and yet within its magic circle the -light remained, and there were no alternations of day and night. A -varying light indeed, as there were clear or cloudy skies, but still the -sensible, broad day. What did this mean? What anomaly of natural -philosophy, of physics, of astronomy, could be invoked to explain this -aberration? - -And the second was the Sleep of Vegetation. The trees went to sleep, the -flowers too. The leaves of the trees turned upward, and clasped the -twigs and branches, exposing their dull brown under surfaces only, and -the sepals and petals of the flowers did the same. Shielded behind the -impervious dark film of the thickened integument, the green upper -surfaces remained as it were closed; a voluntary recuperation that was -novel enough. The Professor was enraptured, and he discovered that the -breathing pores (_stomata_), usually in plants on the under side of the -leaf, were here above, that too there was no prevalent custom, so to -speak, among the plants, in their “going to sleep.” One plant would be -thus sleeping alongside of a wide-awake neighbor. But he did note a kind -of periodicity, in opening and closing, as Pfeffer has done in plants -kept constantly in the dark. And it seemed to all of us that the colors -were both paler and deeper; deeper in the reds and purples, paler in the -greens and yellows. - -But that artificial sun that towards the west illumined the zenith, an -endless fixed lamp set in the sky, immovable above the earth? What was -that? Towards it we hastened, now almost free of loads, and free of -cares, immersed in a reckless curiosity, feeling the wantonness of a -luxurious and marvel-bringing pastime. - -It grew colder, showing that the outside changes affected the depressed -area, but the phantom light in the west was also a source of heat, and -if we were to drop down further within lower craters, the “static heat -of the earth,” the Professor averred, would “increasingly raise the -temperature.” - -Our meals of bird became monotonous, but though we saw fish in the -lakes, we could not catch them. Our instruments, matches, ammunition, -guns, and the indispensable pot and fryingpan, a few odds and ends in -our pockets and some vestiges of other commodities in our packs made up -our possessions. A change of under clothing we had vouchsafed ourselves, -before we abandoned the sledge, and an under dress too of serge, so -that, though our skins and furs were thrown aside, “we might be able,” -as Hopkins said, “to meet the ladies of El Dorado without a blush.” - -The scenes around us, as we pushed westward, repeated themselves with -inconspicuous changes, but we would often enter into pictorial -compositions that exhaled an artistic beauty quite incomparable. It was -after a ten hour tramp over the interminable savannahs, that the -Professor, noting a cliffside, a unique feature, towards the north, we -directed our steps thither. Then we encountered a picture that swayed us -by its loveliness, and we ran into a zoological revelation also, that -made our hair stand on end, so that the emotional antipodes thus -experienced supplied us with some exciting themes for conversation. - -We first stood at the beginning of a valley sloping from us with wide, -graceful reaches. It lay between two series of hills, separated by minor -valleys, whose contributions of water, in tree or bush-lined brooks, -were added to the meandering river that subjugated all other impressions -in its stately movement towards a far distant lake. This latter formed a -great mirror of light on the horizon. The hills were much more deeply -wooded than any we had passed, indeed the country assumed a new phase, -and the languid inclines and faintly expostulating elevations here were -replaced by more boulders and a piedmont-like picturesqueness. - -And yet there dwelt in the picture a gentleness, an inviting softness of -contour that was ingratiating, while the banked trees, the occasional -escarpments of glistening rock, and that luminous, distant haze over the -faraway lake tended to add strength and mystery. It was almost, by our -chronometers, mid-day when we entered this delightful vale. Dark -evergreens added a tonic charm to the coloring, and above us, scoring -the blue, were ranged radiating white ribs of compacted cumulus. - -We had clambered up on the ledges of a rock exposure, encumbered at its -base by huge, confused fragments, and edged at its summit by the bushy -fortress of a white flowered low tree like a wild cherry. The -_Anastatica_(?), so abundant in the country we had passed over, had -disappeared, and with it, we surmised, that mirific population of -cranes, herons, geese, and ducks that made the enchained lakes vocal -with pipings, screams, haloos, and bugle calls. - -“Looks good to me,” exclaimed Hopkins. “Yes,” I said, “if we could take -that picture with us back to New York on a canvas or a film, or a plate, -we’d have ’em guessing. It’s a marvel. Pretty hard to believe we’re at -north latitude 84°. That’s about it, Professor?” - -“84°, 50’, 5”,” replied the Professor sententiously, as he applied his -lens and his eyes to a scrap of stone. - -“New York?” snorted Goritz. “You surely don’t ask for anything better -than this. This is Eden.” It certainly seemed so, and while Hopkins -contented himself with the comment that he hadn’t noticed any snakes -about, we turned attentive ears to the Professor, who by this time had -completed his enthralled study of the glittering schist in his hand. - -“Azoic rocks,” he cried, his becoming smile mantling his face, his red, -prominent ears and his flaring hair making a droll combination. “Very -early rocks; the Grenville Series beyond doubt, as named by the Canadian -geologists; the first solidifications of the earth’s crust, perhaps -schists, granites and limestones, though _here_ schists with pegmatite -veins. An ancient circular axis surrounding a circular depression that -has never been covered by the later oceans. Gentlemen, we are probably -now situated on the one point of the earth wherein the processes of -evolution have never played any role, because marine life has never -existed within it, and the processes of derivation which have supplied -the dry land with their mammalian fauna from the animals of the sea have -been totally excluded, unless—unless—,” the judicial introspection and -litigation which the Professor assumed at such critical points in his -scientific homilies were always diverting, “unless the barrier had been -broken at some point and the surrounding ocean admitted, just as Walcott -has surmised may have been the case with the western protaxes of North -America, when the pre-Cambrian seas introduced their life into the -interior basin of the continent. We shall see, however; the sedimentary -rocks of the inner circles (It was quite reassuring to observe the -Professor’s stalwart certainty about everything) will reveal that. Even -had no such invasion been permitted, life would have reached this -isolated nucleus through the flight and migration of birds who might -readily enough, as pointed out by Darwin, Wallace, Lancaster, Leidy and -others, have carried the embryos of fish, the shells of molluscs and the -larvae and bodies of insects hither, and the winds themselves may have -assisted in this involuntary transit. The injection of seeds might have -taken place in all sorts of ways. So far, you will observe that the -faunal features, as might be expected, are very scanty, and true mammals -are absent. The zoological peculiarities of this paleolithic bowl are -absolutely unique. As a contribution to biological science our results -promise to assume important proportions.” - -Under the stimulus of this flattering encouragement we resumed our way, -following the banks of the beautiful river to that remote splendor, the -lake on the horizon, which seemed a fairy sea, where indeed might float -argosies of an indigenous people which had been imprisoned in this -inverted earth cone since human occupation of our earth began. - -And it soon became apparent that we were again rapidly descending, a -transition indicated by increasing warmth and the changed gradient of -the river which was flowing rapidly, more rapidly, between thickset, -outstretched arms of alder-like trees. Our interest was intense. The -utter, incalculable strangeness of it all kept our nerves strung to an -extreme tension. Sometimes we were simultaneously arrested by an -overpowering mental revolt against it, as though we felt we had lost our -senses, or as though some _trauma_ had been inflicted on our brain, and -then we stood staring, in absolute stupefaction. For all this was not -simply new, it was superbly beautiful. - -“Every way we’re to the good,” cried Hopkins. “We’re walking right into -a Safe Deposit that would make Rockefeller or Rothschild coil up in a -colic of undisguised despair. That, in the first place. Then, we’re -mighty comfortable, well fed, careless and improving. That counts in the -second place. And thirdly, if we get back to sanitary plumbing, carved -food, and flats, we’ll be able to put up a story that will keep the -people—I mean everybody—gasping, and there won’t be enough presses to -print it, enough woodpulp to print it on, and I assume it’s more than -likely that we’ll precipitate, as they say, the worst panic ever known, -because nobody will be able to work until they’ve finished the story, -and from appearances I think we could a tale unfold that might cover a -thousand or more pages. Our copyright will be worth a king’s ransom.” - -“But they won’t read it because they won’t believe it,” I said. “We’ll -be classed with Munchausen and old Doc. Cook, Symmes and Sinbad.” - -“Won’t believe it?” exploded Hopkins. “Won’t we show em? The Professor -will rattle off the new species, and how about our buying out the -government at Washington, and running the country just free of expense a -few days, say for a week, to prove it? That will be convincing, I -undertake to say. And then the pictures. The camera’s working yet, and -there are a dozen or so of film rolls. But don’t worry. We’ll be the -biggest thing on the foot-stool, and then—some. Christopher has had a -fair show, in fact he’s been rather spoilt, but he’ll have every reason -to be glad he’s out of sight when we get there. Why really it’s hard to -understand what won’t happen.” - -At that we all laughed, and that relief made us serious again, and with -eyes open, pencils scribbling, and an occasional click of the camera -(Hopkins was our photographer) we hastened down the now somewhat -contracting valley. An elbow of land pushed out and diverted the stream -and on this point, where the river turned, swerving back into its first -course, and where an expanse of yellow sand and pebbles furnished an -open space from which the lake, the receding valley behind us, a gorge -before us, the open sky, and the encroaching flanks of higher hills were -all visible, we halted. - -Hopkins seized the opportunity for a new flight of speculation. - -“Do you know,” and the shadow of a real embarrassment on his face fixed -our attention, “I’ve been wondering who is to own this bailiwick. Of -course we’ll meet the native residents sooner or later—their shyness is -a little unaccountable as it is—but you don’t imagine for a moment that -the first class national hogs of Europe would let a promising domain -like this go unappropriated? Not much. Those disinterested potentates -would be up here before you could say Jack Robinson to prove how -necessary it was for the peace of the world to cut it up at once. -Gentlemen, this is an international question, and we’re the only men who -have a right to settle it. What do you say?” - -“Oh, my portion goes to Denmark,” chuckled Goritz. - -“Mine too,” I added. - -“I owe allegiance to Norway,” reminded the Professor. - -“Funny—how clannish you are,” continued Hopkins. “You’re all as good as -Americans, and you speak English. You’ve lived in the United States, and -you know, way down in your boots, that she’s the Hope of the whole -earth; the only thing just now visible in the shape of government that -cares two coppers for the under dog. Ain’t that so? Well I’ll tell yer,” -and Hopkins squinted, drawled, and put his long index on the side of his -very presentable nose, “I’ll tell yer. We’ll give the Edenites a square -deal, and let them decide. You see we can each take the stump for our -own country, and then give them the choice at a general Primary -Election.” - -“Will you let the ladies vote?” I asked innocently. - -“Why not? Certainly. Ladies first,” smiled back the gallant Yankee. - -“Well then,” I triumphantly concluded, “as they can’t understand us, -they’ll of course, after the manner of their sex, be guided by LOOKS, -and—America wins.” - -We shouted at Hopkins’ discomfiture. He certainly looked nonplussed and -aggrieved. He was shaping a retort, and his mouth had already formed the -words “See here, Erickson; don’t you fool yourself—” when there was a -movement on the opposite bank. Almost instantly Hopkins’ quick eye was -diverted, and his arm shot forward, indicating the intrusion, while he -whispered in the stage-struck style, “_Look, look!_” - -We turned as one man. Opposite, thrusting their heads out of the foliage -of the bank, and revealing too the front quarters of their bodies were -four wild pigs, a hog, a sow and two youngsters. The adult animals were -of great size, with portentous mouths and snouts, flat cheek -protrusions, hairy, pointed ears, and the animals bore two upturned -involuted tooth horns or tusks on each side of their upper and lower -jaws. The animals were black, their bodies covered with coarse, spiny -short hair, bristling into a mane at the neck and their small, fiery -eyes snapped viciously. They were large brutes, stout, muscular, -possessed of a strange hollow grunt that rumbled ominously inside their -heads for a while, and then became suddenly audible as a terrifying, -snorting squeal. It was the oddest, most unaccountable animal noise any -of us had ever heard. But the Professor complacently informed us that -the creatures were undoubtedly related to the Forest Pig—_Hylochoerus -meinertz hageni_—of British East Africa, and that their study would add -a new chapter to natural history, while the skins of the monsters would -be eagerly competed for by the museums of the world. - -Hopkins dismissed this with a wave of his hand, urging the antecedent -considerations of pork chops, fresh ham, and sausage. The subjects of -this colloquy remained, however, undisturbed. Had we shot them there was -no discoverable way in our position at the time to secure their bodies, -and from the gastronomic point of view the Professor questioned their -importance. - -The pigs watched us nervously for a short time, then they grunted -reflectively; their whitish-green eyes were almost distended in -excitement and shone with a blue light. But with a raised arm, a thrown -pebble, and a shout from Goritz they flew off, crashing among the -undergrowth and easily traceable in their flight down the hillside by -the wake of violently agitated shrubbery and herbs. - -“An interesting encounter,” remarked the Professor. “Its congener is -found today over the slopes of Mt. Kenia at a high altitude, where the -jungle and the forest meet, supposed by Akely to follow the trail of the -elephant, and addicted to an inexplicable habit of scraping together -leaves and grasses which it forms into diminutive mounds. We are coming -into a warmer region, the increasing prevalence of acacia and -eucalyptus-like trees, the occasional pitch pine, and something like an -evergreen oak indicate that, though this floral association may be -uncommon. I really believe that along the edges of that great lake ahead -of us are—_palms_!” - -It was only a short way from this delightful spot, with its sweeping -view, that we heard the rush and roar of falling water, as we now fought -our way through a tangled maze of branches, emerging at intervals on -grassy glades which bore evidence of the past presence of the wild pigs. -An hour later we almost tumbled over the brink of a rocky gulf, into -which the gathered waters of the river obviously fell. We could not see -the falls, but the spouting spray, rising in spiral puffs, the moisture -showering through the trees, and the dull bass resonation from the -tormented pool that caught the plunging torrent, announced its nearness. - -It was a matter of some difficulty, making our descent, and the ropes -again did good service in helping us down the vertical walls. It was -pretty clear that we were about to meet a picture of some grandeur, for -our climb continued, and when we finally broke through to the river -again, we had descended over three hundred feet. Fortunately we were not -required to increase our exertions to reach a favorable position for -enjoyment of the scenic wonder we had circumvented. It was before us. - -Above us in a narrow sheet, in a setting of the wildest beauty, the -river poured its flood, tense, glossy, when it first slipped over the -rim, as with that _convulsive_ firmness of the young swimmer at the -first plunge over his head. Then it began unraveling its woven strands, -and became plicated in silken ridges that unwound still more, or flew -apart in diamond dust, so volatile that it rose upward in shimmers and -rainbows, while at our feet, discharged from the overburdened pool, -rushed a torrent of mobile beryl. It was transcendently lovely in the -frame of trees; and how amazing to have repeated here, at the pole of -the earth, the familiar charms of the woodlands and streams, the sylvan -solitudes of the world in temperate and tropical climes where the sun -rose and set each day throughout the year! - -What was climate? “Climate,” retorted the Professor, “is an atmospheric -condition fundamentally dependent upon the heat received from the sun, -but if there is light, that heat can come from the interior level of the -earth itself quite as well.” - -“Yes,” we exclaimed, “if there is light, but the light that, as with the -sun, insures the processes of growth in plants, should not be here, for -the sun has already run its course for the functions of vegetation at -the North. What is the meaning of this continuous light that bathes this -marvelous new world we have entered? Does it, like the sunlight, build -up leaves, decorate flowers, strengthen twig and trunk?” - -“Ah! Does it?” soliloquized the Professor. “_Solvitur ambulando_; look -around us. What do you see?” - -We did look around us, we were looking even then, and the scene was -indeed rich in color, in greenness, in luxuriance perhaps of floral -charm. This everlasting illumination, with the strange accommodation of -the plants to an enforced sleep, almost maddened us with wonder. To be -sure we found out later that the greenness changed, and, if we had -studied the matter more closely we would have been made aware of a -paleness in the grass (this condition had been evident for some days, -while a peculiar effect within ourselves seemed referable to this -inexplicable light). I will return to this when it has formed the topic -of a later conference, held during those divine hours passed on the -hills of the Deer Fels. - -We now had satisfied our eyes with the picture show, and we hastened on, -for our supplies of duck were almost exhausted, and, although the -Professor had added to this a salutary and delicious spinach-like mess, -made from the boiled shoots and tender leaves of a plant like our poke -or pigeon berry, which grew abundantly in the valleys, yet we had become -impatient for some change of food. The pigs suggested a new and -appetizing novelty in our cuisine. This indication of game in the -country we were approaching whetted our desire to begin a more stirring -life, and to penetrate now rapidly towards the veritable center and -solution of all this mystery. - -It was not long before we had threaded the precipitous ravine, which -from the foot of the falls extended into the park-like expanses about -the great lake. A great lake it was, dotted with distant islands and -embosomed in a subdued white land almost impossible to describe. The -borders of the lake were marshy and flat, the water was fresh, and the -vegetation in its neighborhood green. It was a physiographic anomaly to -find this freshness enclosed in a land on whose face were written most -legibly the characters of sterility and dryness. The soil of the low -hills was parched, and a cactus or euphorbia growth replaced the broad -leaved plants which had pertinaciously clung to our steps up to this -point, and had indeed pushed out into the plain, but with an evident -aversion, as they became smaller, sparser, and at some remove -disappeared altogether. The spiky stiffness of something like the -Spanish Bayonet gradually assumed predominance, and the ashen tokens of -sage bush (?) multiplied. - -We concluded that in our hand-to-mouth method of subsistence it might be -unsafe to venture forward on this trackless waste, and, still expectant -of finally terminating our exploration with the finding of human beings, -agreed to follow the margin of the lake. This would keep us supplied -with food, would carry us on, apparently a little north of east, and as -its waters were fresh, would doubtless offer some outlet of escape -without compelling us to traverse the inhospitable barrens. - -It was here that we shot some quail-like birds, which furnished a new -element to our larder, and some acid and fruity berries proved edible, -after our ludicrously careful experiments had tested their qualities. -Then Hopkins ran against a formidable wild hog and laid him low, and -while he did not prove exactly delectable, there was a noticeable -difference from previous entries on our menus which made that addition -welcome also. The Professor extracted some lard which helped as fuel and -served to quicken into a blaze our sluggish fires. - -The palms noted by the Professor were fully realized, and they made the -most curious and extraordinary foregrounds, in conspicuous groups, -against the dull lengthiness and vapid immensity of the chlorinated -desert beyond them. It was at this time that we hit the zoological -phenomenon hinted at before, which completed our nervous prostration, if -mental suspense and amazement represent that state. We were encamped -about three days’ journey from the deep glade from which we emerged on -the plain, and were still following the marginal fertile tracts -bordering the lake. The lake furnished some surprises. - -Strips of muddy banks forming islands covered with a profusion of -plants, among which might tower a palm, banks of marl wherein the -Professor picked out cretaceous fossils, occasional warm springs, the -condensed vapors of which floated lazily upward, and which, where they -spouted from the ground, had erected basins of calcareous sinter, or -their waters trickled to the lake between banks red and white like -painted boards. - -Our camp—a fire, our knapsacks, our multi-serviceable pot and fryingpan, -and our outstretched figures, with the instruments, always including our -camera outfit, a few implements and guns—was at the foot of a thicket of -high ferns, under a group of palms, and we were at the base of an -inconsiderable hill or rise, whose top these ferns and palms concealed. -Hopkins had just returned from stalking some of the wild pigs, but he -was empty handed; Goritz was very busy devising a stretcher or hurdle -for our various belongings, to be carried between two of us, by turns, -and the Professor was ruminating, with head in his hands, his wing-like -ears protruding. I think I was asleep. Our supper had been made -memorable by _tea_; a hidden package in one of our packs contained this -precious leaf, and it was quite noteworthy how it revived and cheered -us. - -Well, I felt a sharp jolt, and a cavernous abyss yawned under my feet, -and with a monstrous effort I snatched a providential branch and saved -myself from falling. _My eyes opened_; I had seized Hopkins’ leg, and it -was he whose energetic shaking had broken my slumbers with this -nightmare. - -“Get a move on, Alfred. The scrap of the centuries is going on up -there.” He pointed to the grove and hilltop. “If we had a motion-picture -camera, we’d have everything in that line knocked into junk. Get up. The -White Hope is having it out with the sable champion.” - -Utterly bewildered by these incomprehensible words I struggled to my -feet, and we both scrambled _pele-mele_ to the top, and there joined -Goritz and the Professor, who hardly noticed our approach, so absorbed -were they in watching the strangest spectacle that ever human eyes -beheld. - -Out on the level on a thin carpet of herbs and grass was reared the -violent and horrible shape of a writhing, bending, gracefully -oscillating, whitish-green monster, and before him the infuriated figure -of a black pig. The pig’s bristling mane was erected, his small tail, -like a bit of black rope, beat upon his muscular buttocks, his eyes -gleamed viciously, his muzzle with its expanded nostrils was upturned, -and his challenge sounded like a cornet, and again like a rolling drum. - -But the creature before it mastered all attention. The elongated head of -a saurian armed along its jaws with sword-like teeth, a long curved -neck, a thorax but slightly enlarged over the width of the rest of the -body, provided with a short pair of front legs, terminated by claws -perceptibly webbed, and opening and shutting with a nervous rapidity, -noticeable dull-colored scales striping its sides, a pair of much longer -hind legs on whose skin-enwrapped, stilt-like support it had raised -itself, and then a prodigious tail, heavy and fat at its protrusion, but -lengthening out into a thin python-like body whose involuntary movements -swayed it to and fro in serpentine motions through the flattened weeds. - -[Illustration: - - THE CROCODILO-PYTHON AND THE WILD PIG -] - -The color of the beast was most loathsome; a sickly yellow white it -seemed at first; a closer study showed it to be a nauseating green, like -a frog scum, and yet through it all, as if summoned to the surface at -the will of the creature, coursed reddish blotches, whose inflamed -contrasts gave the whole skin the aspect of inflammation, of purulent -disease. This coloring prevailed over the neck, the faintly swelling -belly, the sides, and over the hind rump and thighs and anal region. The -monster awakened an awestruck repulsion. But at the moment its source, -home, meaning, were swallowed up in the thrilling, tremendous combat -between these strange litigants, a wild boar of today, a saurian—a -_tyrannosaurus_ or something like it—of the Cretaceous! - -The huge lizard was skillful, wavering, crafty and sinuous. It swung -from side to side, and when it attempted to descend on its antagonist -its mouth opened, almost absurdly, as if waiting for the appetizing bite -its hunger or its ferocity anticipated. A wicked mouth, shining with -yellow teeth and slobbering with saliva! Any disposition to laugh at its -floundering indecision was soon, or at once, overcome by hatred of its -hideousness. - -It was interesting to watch the hog. He was irresolute and then -aggressive; he lunged outward and then tumbled backward. As the giant -lizard reeled upward and then _poured_ forward, the bristling pig would -run in, and then “sidestep,” as Hopkins said. The ultimate object of -both combatants became increasingly clear; the saurian aimed at crashing -down on the pig, and the pig relying on its sharp incisors intended to -rip open the defenceless abdomen of its foe. Again and again with -shifting success they attempted their invariable _coups_, and again and -again recoiled, frustrated in their design. - -The fight passed through one episode of some novelty. The saurian in -flinging itself forward lost its balance, and, as it were, stumbled to -the ground. We saw its eyes then, queer turgid, opal masses, lit -internally with fire. In a trice the pig leaped upon its back, stamping -and tearing, but, in another trice, the effort seemed incalculable, the -huge tail of the snake lizard swept around and bowled the discomfited -porker sideways with a swishing blow that knocked it down. Then for a -moment it seemed as if the coiling ribbon would enclose the pig, when, -held in its crushing vise, the lizard might dissect its victim at -leisure. But the pig squirmed out of the trap, and, nothing daunted, -resumed its defence with less obvious pugnacity. Except for its -monstrous spectacular features the conflict grew monotonous. And here -came the end. - -Nature was exhausted; an unguarded moment of inattention and, like the -black pounce of the eagle, the ponderous head of the lizard fell on the -pig, the scimitar teeth cut into hide and bone. A snarling roar, an -infuriated lacerating drive by the boar, and, though he sank sideways in -a death agony, his tusks had torn open the belly of his conqueror. The -viscera emptied from their enclosure, an abominable odor assailed us, -and the great bulk of the amphibian lapsed to the ground, its inverted -head, caught in the chancery of its body, broke its neck, and with a -husky frightening exhalation, like a magnified hiss, it fell in -convulsions. The pig was already dead. - -Just then none of us were inclined to pursue any investigations. We were -all absolutely silent, and all went back to our little camp in a state -of mental consternation. The Professor had no theories to propose, nor -had Hopkins any comments. As for Goritz, he mechanically brought out the -gold belt, and as I bent over him and noticed its _relievos_, I felt -convinced that its designer and artificer had seen the saurian. - -But something more awful occurred about three hours afterwards, when, as -we observed, the smell from the battlefield became more and more -intolerable. The waters of the lake were furrowed with approaching -objects, exposed heads rose upon the shore, shuffling and waddling and -scrambling creatures proceeded up the bank, and the entangled bodies of -the great lizard and the pig were soon being torn to pieces, in the -clapping jaws of the former’s brethren, as they rustled and scraped -against each other in their envious greed in what, by our reckoning, was -their nocturnal banquet. - -Soon, however, I fell asleep again; a feverish sleep it was and I -welcomed my awakening. It must have been hours later, the lake was calm -and beautiful to see in the mysterious light, and it was the cheerful, -heart-inspiring voice of Hopkins that half restored my normal gaiety. He -was helping the Professor at what in its serial position was our -breakfast, and he prattled to his benignant comrade: - - “‘We were amphibians, scaled and tailed, - And drab as a dead man’s hand; - We coiled at ease ’neath the dripping trees - Or trailed through the mud and sand. - Croaking and blind, with our three clawed feet - Writing a language dumb, - With never a spark in the empty dark, - To hint at a life to come.’” - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - THE DEER FELS - - -I must hasten my story; so much remains to be told, more wondrous, -strange and unnatural, though that last word is not to be interpreted in -any of its senses as abhorrent. Far from it. - -We hurried away from the scene of the peculiar combat and the -fratricidal feast. I do not think we feared these hideous saurians. We -looked for them, and the Professor exulted in their evident marks of an -evolutionary history (philogeny, he called it) quite isolated or diverse -from those established by Barnum Brown, Williston, Lowe and others for -the _sauropsida_ of the—Mr. Link I was actually going to say EARTH, in a -foreign sense, for somehow in this Krocker Land we felt detached from -all we had ever known or ever been. Had we been transferred to Mars or -the Moon or any other inconceivably contrasted sphere, we could not have -felt more inimitably separated from what we had called the Earth. - -No more of the Crocodilo-Pythons, so Goritz called them, were seen. We -believed that their habitats were in the half submerged broad flatlands -that rose in archipelagos out in vast expanses of this inland sea. -Perhaps we traversed a distance of one hundred miles before the mingled -expression of sage desert and semi-tropical lake began to change. The -opposite boundary of the lake (Goritz as our geographer has named it the -_Saurian Sea_) became visible. We were approaching a constriction or -closing of its banks, and in a few days we perceived that it emptied -into a wild, deeply sunken ravine or canon, an enormous, terrifying -gorge of sandstones and limestones, where we could just dimly discern -the foaming cataracts, the eye-like preparatory pools, and then the -sweltering froth of raging rapids. - -The water of the Saurian Sea enters this canon (the Canon of Promise -Goritz called it, for a reason yet a long way ahead in my narrative) -over an incline, and a series of waterfalls, which were invisible to us. -It was hopeless to follow the canon, nor could we continue northward for -we were powerless to cross the river. There remained the alternative of -turning to the left, penetrating the sage plain and attaining the slopes -of a hill country eastward, at whose feet doubtless the desert -terminated. It promised to be an easy day’s journey and it was. The -quail had supplied us with food. They now replaced the ducks. Indeed the -Saurian Sea became almost devoid of aquatic bird life as we advanced, an -eloquent testimony we thought to the fear of the omnivorous brutes who -lived there. - -We crossed the desert and were delighted to observe its gradual -surrender to the encroaching features of a pleasanter land, a hill -country sloping away into painted domes; not a land of heavy rainfall -nor deeply forested. Its undulating skyline presented rounded and -densely shrubby ground which to our eyes seemed luminous with a pink -haze. The flanks of these hills were clothed in a coarse grass unevenly -distributed, and even absent from bare spaces of the limestone rock, -where a gray half succulent moss flourished. We noted too with some -astonishment that these aspects of the hills facing us seemed in shadow, -contrasting effectively with the singular pinkish aureole along their -high outlines. - -Goritz discovered with our glass the presence of moving or browsing -groups of animals and a moment later exclaimed: - -“They’re deer, small deer. No worry now about the commissariat.” - -“You see,” murmured the Professor, “the sedimentary rocks here prove -that at some time this boreal basin has been invaded by the sea, a -former deeper cavity has been filled up by these strata of limestone, -slate, sandstone and marl. The molluscan remains, such as I have picked -up, whether in the Saurian Sea area, in the Canon of Promise, or on -these moors, are generically similar to those of the cretaceous, -tertiary, and paleozoic rocks of Europe or America. About that there can -be no doubt,” and he approvingly exhibited the small collection he -retained from his examination. “The outermost rocks of the Krocker Land -Rim are the earliest crystallines and eruptives. Their solidification -belongs to the very first primary conditions, and I think there can be -no doubt that we can say that this stupendous cavity, continental in -extent, either represents that physical polar pitting I alluded to when -we discussed this expedition in Norway, made when the Earth was assuming -its spheroidal shape and was a mass of swiftly revolving mobile magma, -or—” the Professor’s succeeding statement impressed him so solemnly, -that his administrative and reportorial manner became almost gloomy in -its earnestness. We watched him with dilated eyes—“or—that it represents -the wound, cicatrix, and HOLE from which was ejected the earth’s -satellite—the MOON.” - -Comment was in order, but we had become rather plastic under the -Professor’s instructions, or, shall I say, gelatinized, and incapable of -a natural remonstrance against his dictations. But Goritz demurred. -Hopkins and I listened with admiration. - -“Professor, the moon came out of the side of the earth, centrifugally -separated at the equator by fastest motion, surely not out of the pole. -Darwin has suggested, you know, that the Pacific Ocean—” - -“True, Antoine. True, true. I know all of George Darwin’s speculations. -True, but suppose the axis of the earth’s rotation has changed; suppose -this very area here at 85° north latitude had formerly been equatorial -in position. That is a view of commendable authority. It has been urged -to explain the Ice Age, though I admit, Goritz, it has not, today, the -most respectable authorization. - -“_Mais, passons._” This theoretical retreat and deflection of the -Professor before Goritz’s criticism sensibly flattered my friend. “You -see gentlemen, that these startling surfaces before us seem, as you have -noticed, to be in shadow. I think that throws some light on the -character of the singular continuous illumination of this region. Up to -this point we have generally been descending, since we left the vapor -shroud of the Perpetual Nimbus; we have been climbing down the walls of -a bowl whose central sun is of sufficient intensity to illuminate it -throughout its extent, but, having an inconsiderable volume or size as -compared with the size of the bowl itself, and also—mark me—a fixed -position, can only throw shadows when intervening objects occur, as a -lamp in the middle of a room illuminates the whole room, but throws -shadows toward the walls of the room, where there are obstructions. But -the higher the position of the lamp in the room, with reference to the -floor, the shorter the shadows. Here is an exact parallel, and I take it -that as the shadow of these hills, which may be three thousand feet -high, hardly extends into the plain, the fixed, subsidiary SUN we are -approaching may be towards the limits of our atmosphere, or say -twenty-five miles over the mean level of the earth.” - -We grasped this quickly enough, and the image remained, as you will see -in the sequel, substantially correct, though greatly corrected as to -altitude. - -The deer were easily trapped; they hardly noticed our approach, and, -though startled by the discharge of our guns, would only scamper off for -a short distance, herd in compact bunches, and watch us. They were small -animals, perhaps half the size of the Virginia deer, but their flesh was -delicious, and our first meal, graced with the coldest spring water and -by a small toothsome red berry like a strawberry, imparted to us the -liveliest spirits. We felt eager and excited, an almost irritable -curiosity had developed within us; forgetful of all we had left, -oblivious, through an inscrutable exaltation of wonder, of the things, -objects and endearments of home, we hungered for adventure. It was not -many hours later that a new sensation eclipsed everything we had so far -experienced, and threw us into an excitement that stirred the depths of -our beings. - -[Illustration: - - THE DEER FELS -] - -Less than a day was consumed in making the ascent of the hills, which -resembled steeply inclined moors, and on their summits we entered on a -sunny (?) expanse, captivating in its loveliness of color, and -ingratiatingly varied in topography. The tantalizing pinkish haze was -explained. It was an endless billowy ocean of pale heather, with clumps -of yellowness like gorse. As we looked over the entrancing picture in a -golden light, in a freshening and tonic atmosphere, with a reverberant -sense of being travelers in fairy land, a poem taught me long ago by an -English friend came almost unbidden to my lips: - - “‘What, you are stepping westward? Yea - ’Twould be a wildish destiny - If we who thus together roam, - In a strange land and far from home, - Were in this place the guests of chance: - Yet who would stop, or fear to advance, - Though home or shelter he had none - With such a sky to lead him on?’” - -_And westward we too went on._ - -Marshes, wet concealed bottoms, lakes and boggy tracts diversified these -uplands; and down gulches in the bold profiled bays streams poured in -cascades, all rushing westward. Coming over a lower neck between the -domes we came in view of a dark blue lake of water far down in a narrow -amphitheater; just above it on a higher shelf was a second smaller lake. -What appeared to be white gulls were sailing in circles over them. The -picture was a lovely one. We clambered up its eastern wall, and, in the -midst of low balsams that here interrupted the heather, and so thickly -crowded together that you could walk on top of them, we looked straight -into the pocket. We lay down on the short balsam trees, in a soft -perfumed bed of green needles, and gazed and gazed. A strong wind blew. -Far, far eastward rose that portentous bulwark of clouds and misty -confusion which the Professor had called the “_Perpetual Nimbus_,” and -which was the cosmic screen of this wonderland. Hopkins was on his back, -and it was he whose cry shot a new thrill of—How shall I name -it?—laughing consternation through us. - -“My God,” he cried in a sort of stifled shout, “there’s a gang of the -fellows we’re looking for, straight above us, in a cluster, like so many -soap bubbles.” - -Again his summons brought us to a concentrated attention, and sure -enough, dimly separable from the air in which it floated, was a minute -cloud of small balloons, and dependent from each group of three the -outline of a small human figure—and all gently drifting in an upper -current of air, certainly less strong than the brisk gale about us. - -“Get under the trees,” whispered Goritz, “they’re coming down.” - -We were quickly concealed, burrowing our way with the alertness of moles -below the thatched branches, and each eagerly hunting for a spying place -whence we might watch this strange argosy. Yes! They were rapidly -approaching; the dangling legs, the fluttering blue and yellow tunics, -_confined by golden belts_ (!!!) were visible, curious unproportionate -heads, hanging forward as if from heaviness, legs in loose trousers, and -sandaled feet. Then the wind blowing about us touched them and, like a -gyrating swarm of mosquitoes dispersed by a breeze, they were flung -away, dancing, bobbing, hither and thither, and from them issued squealy -shouts and squeaky laughter. They came together again, directed by means -undiscoverable to us, though the Professor detected some waving objects -in their hands, and then the crowd, perhaps twenty, as if suddenly -apprized of their desired position, dropped like so many unsupported -bodies straight into the deep pocket of the little lake we had just been -admiring. - -The wind did not drift them, the balloons seemed collapsible, but, to -our amazement, they expanded again, checking the fall. In fact, unless -our eyes deceived us, and we all agreed as to the main point, the -balloons inflated and shrank, somehow at the will of these extraordinary -beings, producing an effect not dissimilar to the opening and shutting -of a bird’s wing, the alternations of which carry it up and down. - -As they slid past us, perhaps not more than a good stone’s throw from -our place of concealment we were permitted to catch a glimpse of them, -and it was hard to restrain the impulse of leaping to our feet to obtain -a longer inspection. Another moment and they disappeared below the brow -of the hill. We emerged cautiously. Goritz spoke first, though he, like -the rest of us, seemed a little stunned by the weirdness, the wizardry -of it all. - -“If they’ve gone down, they must come up. But what are they?” - -“Well,” answered Hopkins, “search me! This is nearer to fairy land than -I ever thought a human could get, and—I don’t believe I like it. Rather -goblin-like I thought, though not Gilbert’s notion either; - - ‘The goblin-imp, a lithe young ape, - A fine low-comedy bogy?’” - -“Certainly the genus _homo_,” said the Professor reflectively, and -looking more startled than pleased. “They offer a field of unusual -research. They might be,” he lifted his eyes upward, almost as if -imploring light on the subject, “they might be preadamites. They were -not simian, not in the least. Gentlemen,” sudden thought lit up his face -with the customary smile, while his lips retreated, displaying his -imperfect teeth, his eyes grew larger or they issued farther from their -orbits, and his red hair, now inordinately long, draped his face in a -rufous tapestry that made him look still more strangely excited. -“Gentlemen, I have it (“Thank God,” _sotto voce_ from Hopkins), I have -it. We have here an isolated group of mentalities that have been -subjected to a restrictive and intensive process of development. Of -course they had initially the prerogatives of reason. They have attained -a peculiar culture, it may be a very one-sided one, but at least their -methods of aeronautics leave little to be desired, and they understand -and practice metal working, textile arts; they have a language. Personal -beauty they do not boast (“That’s putting it mild; they looked like -blueprints,” again _sotto voce_ from Hopkins) and their physiques seem -dwarfed and impoverished. How did they strike you, Erickson? What did -you see? Your linguistic knowledge may help us, and—I think you had our -glass.” - -Parenthetically I may tell you, Mr. Link, that I have been a poor sort -of a journalist, and a teacher of languages, and a traveler, a mixture -of vocations not conducive, you will say, to signal distinction in any -line. - -“This is what I saw,” I began, with an assertiveness that brought me -wrapt attention. It was true that I had seen a good deal; my monopoly of -our field glass had been complete. I spoke with rather crisp acerbity -because I had already taken a strong prejudice against these jaundiced -objects, and neither as associates nor as subjects of study was I -willing to seek their acquaintance. - -“They are diaphanous yellow anthropological _insects_, with big beetle -heads dropping forward, scrappy hair or none at all, are anemic, short -bodied, long legged, short armed, and absurdly pervaded by a -saffron-blueness—I can describe it in no other words. You saw their -dress; the tunic clothing them like a nightshirt or a butcher’s blouse, -is cinctured by a _gold belt_! They are scarcely more than three feet -high.” - -“Alfred,” asked Goritz, “are you sure about the gold belt? I thought I -saw yellow links around their bodies too.” - -“Oh, yes,” I replied indifferently, “the gold belts were plain enough, -but Antoine, I tell you you had better leave these microbes alone.” - -The intensity of my repugnance amused them. I think it was shared by -Hopkins. He said, “They’ve rather got my goat, but the risk of seeing -the thing out is worth taking. They certainly have the goods and, as for -scrapping— Well, say, we could blow ’em away.” - -“Could you,” I indignantly flared up. “Not so fast, Spruce. Did you see -those tubes in their white fingers?” - -“Yes, I saw them?” Hopkins rejoined interrogatively. “Looked like lead -pipe.” - -“Well, I’m sure there’s devilment enough in them. They raised them this -way and that, and guided their flight by them.” - -“What’s the harm?” Hopkins continued. “Perhaps they’ve a thing or two -worth patenting in ballooning; very likely. They’re funny enough, -but—Pshaw!—we can run ’em in any time with these guns.” - -“How many balloons were attached to each person?” asked the Professor. - -“Three,” we all said together. - -“I thought so,” he continued, “one from each armpit, and one from the -belt. They spoke distinguishable words. Could you make anything out of -them Erickson?” - -“Why,” I muttered laconically, quite as a matter of course, “It sounded -like corrupted or archaic Hebrew.” - -“By the Great Horn Spoon,” shouted Hopkins, “_pawnbrokers_. Levitation -would be worth while to some I’ve known.” - -After this explosion we were silent for a few moments. Our thoughts were -running wild over the inscrutable occurrence which portended strange -developments ahead of us. Hopkins was elated at the prospect of -adventure, Goritz, I really believe, was consumed with a passionate -curiosity to see more of the _gold_, the Professor was burning up with -scientific wonder and excitement, and I alone was overcome by a -repulsion which I could not explain, and which, on the face of it, was -unreasonable. - -Communing thus with our thoughts and quite indescribably stirred, -Hopkins cried out, “Beat it. Here they are again,” and there, rising -gently from the depth below our elevation came the little flotilla of -bobbing manikins, announced even before they were seen, by a shrill -chatter, and squealy laughter, which consorted naturally with their -queer, aged, wrinkled faces, the fluttering tunics entangling their -pipe-stem legs, and the odd diaphaneity of their bodies. - -I am not a naturalist, Mr. Link, and there are some things in nature I -cannot reconcile myself to: snakes, caterpillars and BUGS. - -We were under our coverts in a jiffy; the celerity of our movement was -something like the noiseless tail-up concealment in the ground of -prairie dogs. And our eyes became as active as our legs; not an optic -nerve but was strained to the full extent of its reportorial powers. One -feature of their machinery, I had not noticed before. Flexible tubes -tied the balloons to their bodies, and these again were connected under -the sleeves of their tunics with the lengths of pipe they carried in -their hands. The swelling and deflation of these balloons seemed most -delicately under their control, and at times they would, like a swarm of -flies, rise and fall, in a perfect mimicry of a fly’s uneven and dancing -undulations. It was most curious and utterly inexplicable, and then too -when they moved to and fro or advanced, the tubes were held behind them, -and some propulsion ensued which carried them on their flight, though it -was quite evident that any volition on their part was quite overcome by -the prevalent currents of air. The latter they avoided by rising above -or sinking below it, and at the moment, as we gazed, they surrendered -themselves to the wind blowing about us at our elevation, and were -tossed along it, in shrill enjoyment, and vanished westward. They were -absorbed in misty veils that were drawn between us. - -Once more we came out of our hiding with a ludicrous astonishment -painted on our faces. Hopkins looked the least bit scared. Almost -instantly he expressed his feelings. - -“They certainly have me guessing. Old guys, all of ’em. Perhaps they’re -terribly old, and perhaps that’s the way up here—everything very old -shrinks, wrinkles and wears glasses.” - -“Glasses,” called out Goritz. “Yes! I saw that, and do you know for more -than a week my eyes have ached. It’s something to do with this strange -light.” - -Then came the confession from all of us, that we had each been bothered -with our eyes. Shooting pains, blurry outlines, whizzing sensations in -our heads, and a sense of dryness of the eyelids, as though they had -been overheated by a mild exzema of the skin. It was surprising, the -moment we attended to the matter, how urgent our complaints became, and -how communicative we were about it. - -“I feel sure,” said Goritz, “that we are bewitched by this light. These -odd creatures have become crinkled and gnarled by it. They’re a race of -dwarfs, prematurely aged and megalocephalic.” - -This last daring incursion into the Professor’s domain of reserved -scientific language rather startled us. “’Peaching on the Professor’s -preserves,” whispered Hopkins. But the Professor did not resent it. It -was some minutes later, after an expectant silence, that he very -demurely suggested that we all put on our snow goggles. And we did. It -seemed to help. - -Of course, considerably flustered over the unexpected appearance in this -utterly unexpected manner of the aboriginals of this enigmatical region, -we undertook to examine the narrow and deep little valley into which our -visitors had descended. It was a rough scramble, as the sides of the pit -proved not only very steep but unreasonably rocky, sharp and -precipitous. When we finally reached the bottom, and the Professor -exultantly told us the rock was a dolomite, that it contained coral -remains and brachiopodous shells that were Devonian, we found ourselves -in a peculiar place. - -It was a kind of gigantic well, on the floor of which and to one side -were situated the two little lakes we had seen from above. Considerable -water flowed into them from crevices in the walls, and the place was -overshadowed at one point by a projecting ledge that formed a portico to -a cavernous recess. Leaden colored fish rose and sank in the water of -the lakes, and we thought the gulls, who must have penetrated to this -remote asylum from Beaufort Sea, had been attracted by them. It proved -to be a dreary, bare hole and instilled in us a feeling half despairing -and melancholy. - -“This isn’t the gayest place in the world,” said Hopkins. “Our insect -friends certainly didn’t come here for recreation. Looks like a -smuggler’s retreat, or a den of crime. Perhaps we may find here some -enchanted troubadour, a chained damsel, a lurking dragon, or the -fountain of eternal youth, which those cadaverous anchorites we saw -upstairs visit occasionally to keep the life in their shivering shells. -Or—” - -“What’s this?” exclaimed Goritz, his muffled voice proceeding from the -recess into which he had penetrated, entering its prolongation, which -became a sort of cave. - -We rushed forward, all keyed now to an excited limit of curiosity, so -that, as Hopkins expressed it afterwards, “an invitation from the angel -Gabriel to step into Paradise, wouldn’t have phased us much, in fact -would have been an ordinary incident in our investigations.” - -“What is it, Antoine?” I cried as I reached him and found him gazing in -bewilderment at a shining nodule of something ahead of him, in the -deeper gloom within. I asked no more questions, but stood still with -him, wondering. The others came up and we all gazed awhile, transfixed -by a common astonishment. - -The glowing mass, perhaps about the size of a baby’s closed hand, shed a -mellow radiance about the cave; its light draped our own figures, and it -was reflected from innumerable bright points which spangled here and -there on the floor and walls like minute lamps. - -“Diamonds,” murmured Goritz, awestruck. - -The place was heated, and the light made us shade our eyes. The -Professor had moved alertly forward in an impulse of almost desperate -joy. He stood in wrapt contemplation of the luminiferous chunk, then he -struck one of the scintillating projections, a piece detached itself, -and showered some splinters through the air to the ground. The splinters -shimmered like microscopic mirrors. - -“_Sphalerite_,” he cried. “Zinc sulphide! This is literally a chamber of -Sphalerite, a huge pocket enclosed in the limestone. It has been worked -somewhat; its extension in the rock is probably very deep; and, -gentlemen,” this apostrophe accompanied by upraised hands, palms -supplicatingly held towards us, always denoted some especially -disturbing or exhilarating announcement, “this light proceeds from some -natural _phosphori_. It may be,” he paused to allow our minds to adjust -themselves to a new attitude of marveling, “it may be RADIUM. We are in -a world of transmutations, the home of the Stone of the Philosopher. In -the world we have left—” the language was positive, convincing, for now -the feeling of translation from all the familiarities of the world of -Europe and America grew persistently, even though plants and animals -expressed a similar life—“in that world, the combined product of all its -mines, of all its laboratories, scarcely exceeds Two Grammes. Here is -perhaps four ounces, or the Quarter of a Pound, and—” - -It was then that a black clot, shaping itself in irregular fingers with -blue and yellow fringes revolving raggedly around it closed my eyes. But -before vision departed, I saw the Professor clutch his breast, stagger -forward, and I heard him cry, “Out, out!” and then I felt my knees stung -by the pointed stones and, blindly groping, I crawled away. - -It was later, I do not know how long, that I recovered my sight and -around me, languid and prostrate; though reviving as I was, were my -comrades. - -“Transmutation?” said Hopkins, feebly smiling. “It was pretty nearly a -transference _over the river_, and no return trip-slip either.” - -“Heaven! How my head aches,” groaned Goritz. - -“Gentlemen,” the Professor gurgled, flat on his back and sicker than any -of us, but with his scientific apparatus under control and working -smoothly, “we are on the eve of great discoveries. The papers which I -can prepare for the Royal Academy of Sciences will throw a flood of -light on a subject hitherto only darkly approached. I am confident that -we were in the presence of a monstrous—monstrous comparatively, you -observe—mass of radium. Further, I feel sure that the Stationary Sun -that maintains a perpetual day in this remarkable land has something to -do with radium emanations from the Interior of the Earth!” - -The poor gentleman stopped abruptly, some peculiar evidences of his own -interior activity just then making him roll over and refrain from -speech, because he was _otherwise engaged_. - -“Do you suppose,” asked Hopkins, “that those aeronautical hairpins left -that gold brick inside there?” - -“Certainly,” answered the dilapidated Goritz. “And they were up to -something curious perhaps. Why, somehow I can only think of Aladdin and -the lamp in the Arabian Nights. You remember it?” - -“Of course, Antoine, but you see there are devilments here that are not -so very beguiling or so very profitable. At any rate let us get out of -here. The wind has risen; a storm is coming on. The darkness above looks -interesting; in this hole it will be just stupidly pitch black. I feel -half suffocated in this pit. There isn’t a very promising chance for our -survival if we go on into this radium land, with a sun made of radium, -when a handful turns us into puppets and pretty nearly into corpses. I -say leave it, leave it all. It’s madness to go farther.” - -“You are mistaken—mistaken,” interrupted the Professor, who had -regained his composure. “The proximity—the reflections—our own -unadaptability—fatigue—the closeness of the confined space and -the—the—unmitigated monotony of our food made us ill. No—no—We must -see it all. It will be the miracle of the century.” - -He gasped out his remonstrance and explanations in dissected sentences -that measurably restored my good humor, so funny were they. A little -later and we had set about getting back to the balsams on the cliff top, -and to the small shelter we had so far managed to construct, and whose -protection in a storm seemed very attractive. The storm itself in these -strange quarters promised new scenic effects, and its meteorological -features might exceed all possible anticipation. Three of us had become -ecstatically anxious to see everything, one of us (myself) shrank from -his own baleful premonition of the future. - -But we had reached the height, and the freshness of the air restored our -equanimity, and made our strength whole again, and before us, with slow -divulgements of unusual grandeur, spread the black skirts of a storm. -But it was not over us, though patches of cloud were streaming from the -west in hurrying phalanxes, dun, disordered, driven, as if under orders. -And far off, beneath, it almost seemed, that strange stationary sun now -half eclipsed, the hurlyburly of an inordinate atmospheric disturbance -was visibly in operation. - -The impression almost instantly made was that of a cyclonic movement—a -suction of the air into the maelstrom center of a revolution that was -gathering from the four quarters reinforcements of cloud and wind. A -dull yellow light shone through occasional gaps in the aerial concourse -of vapors, fish-gray chasms opened out at moments as if torn apart by -uprushing or irrepressible volumes of wind, and, lit up by sharper -flashes, they would suddenly evert, pouring out in boiling currents -torrential black clouds. Then a cap of darkness seemed to descend, and -yet in the remnants of light that stuck here and there to the flanks of -this mountainous obscuration, we could see the multitudinous scurryings, -windings and collisions of the smoking flails and banks and missiles of -cloud. - -Below this indivisible commotion, between it and what seemed the earth, -stole or lay a stratum of light, and into this, slowly evolving like a -gigantic corkscrew from the storm above, grew downwards, streaked with -black, pillars of condensation, that were nothing else than -water-spouts, terrible tornadoes in traveling helices, erect, inclined, -and stalking towards and away from each other like watery titans. - -We thought we even saw their conjunction and dispersal, but what was -visibly secure in the picture was the ascent heavenward of an -intolerably wild dust avalanche. The whiteness, for such it seemed, -smote and penetrated the clouds; it swerved and was beaten into straight -ribbons of livid light, or, mingling universally, adulterated the inky -burden with a spurious ghastly filminess. Flashes of lightning (a rare -phenomenon in the north) that must have been terrific in intensity and -portentous in size bit through the darkness, and rumblings reached us -from the remote conflict. Then agglomeration and colossal curdlings and -it all was swallowed up in night! - -We talked long that night upon the excitements of the last ten hours, -and it was plain to each one of us that we were again approaching -descents to parts still farther below the levels already passed; that -the storm was over a distant depression; that in the last day or two the -actinic power of that strange radiance that lurked somewhere in the -skies over this depression was becoming stronger and more intolerable; -that we might expect to find the incredible influences of Radium in all -this; that perhaps in some way that Sun we saw, we felt, which was the -photal center, provocation and cause of the plant life around us, and -through which we had passed, was now limiting or suppressing it; the -unmistakable dust or sand tornado showed a desert region before us. -Then, too, we discussed the poverty of the faunal life, now growing -thinner, smaller, more depressed as we advanced, the sallowness of the -grass, the blueness of leafage, the anemic pinkiness of the heather, our -own tortured feelings of alternate hope and apathy, of well being and of -sickishness. - -The bleaching, killing effect of this radium light (so we called It) was -partially overcome by the rainfall which operated favorably for the -plants. In hunting the small deer, and even they became more infrequent, -we noticed that they occupied the shadowed sides of the hills and, in -this stationary light, these shadowed sides remained almost unchanged. I -say _almost_, because it became more and more apparent that the -stationary Sun stirred. It rose or fell or approached or receded. There -was some fluctuation too in its light. It was not a lamp hung in the sky -but an _aura_ that floated inconstantly over or around some central -pivotal, causal spot, that varied also in its emanations. - -Should we go on? I was silent. Overwhelming as might seem the -inducements to break through the veil of the mystery before us I -hesitated—No, I recoiled. But this was flagrant treachery to the spirit -and ambition of exploration. So I was silent. Goritz dreaming of his -Ophir and Golconda, was impatient to hurry on. Hopkins felt that there -was nothing else to do; his doggerel helped him out: - - “‘What matters it how far we go?’ his scaly friend replied, - There is another shore, you know, upon the other side.” - -But the Professor was resolute. Here were all his predictions -fulfilled—the vortical polar pit, the warmth, the aborigines, Eden -reminiscences (he referred to the Crocodilo-Python) and now, what, so he -modestly admitted, he had never dreamed of, the— - - METROPOLIS OF RADIUM. - -Go on? Of course. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - THE PINE TREE GREDIN - - -After we had jerked some of the deer meat, fearing that the diminishing -chances for game would leave us unsupplied, and as yet quite mystified -as to where or when we would engage the pygmy people, we took up our -loads and went on. The storm whose gyrating fury had absorbed our -attention had raged itself away, though it was some thirty-six hours -before it cleared, and, slowly liberated from the thickly wrapt curtains -of gloom, the now more and more obvious sun shone again. The upland we -were crossing caused us many perplexities. The numerous broad troughs -and depressions, the tracts of tangled dead bushes and the hedges, -resembling “pressure ridges” of ice, which had been somehow shaped by -prevalent winds into long fences of scraggly, prostrate trees, were -increasingly interspersed with sandy expanses, which we interpreted as -the melancholy presages of a desert area beyond. - -The average elevation was level, with a tendency to fall as we advanced. -We expected daily to reach some abrupt drop which would announce our -descent into the “last hole of the Golf Links,” to quote Hopkins. The -scheme of Krocker Land grew daily more and more convincingly simple. -Whatever limital lines embraced it, it was a sort of amphitheater, with -the serial displacements up or down which we had already traversed -succeeding each other concentrically; it was temperate in climate; it -might become torrid because of its inclusion in the deeper parts of the -earth’s crust, or because, even more probably, it was situated over some -residual uncooled igneous magma. It was encircled, we assumed, by the -profound crevice we had bridged below the Rim, and its extraordinary sun -which gave light and heat was practically concealed from external -detection by the gigantic vaporous wall of the “Perpetual Nimbus,” -endlessly created by steaming and evaporation from the crevice itself, -reinforced, too, by the turbulence of the general atmosphere, which for -days and days had presented a turmoil, or else a dead waste, of -cloud-filled skies. - -We thought of that outer world now slowly—nay, rapidly—succumbing to the -tightening grip of frost and snow and ice, now again dark or visible -only in that strange sepulchral glow of aurora and stars; of that vast -Arctic desolation, the shrouded corpse of a world, and of the gathering -legions of snowflakes endlessly dropping or whirling from the blue-black -empyrean; of the ice pack formed like a vise around the empty, -tenantless shores, and groaning under the lash of the winds or the -tyrannous push of the tides; of the distant eastern Arctic lands, pale -with ghost lights over glacier and mountain, inland ice, trackless -coasts, black rock-bound capes and the blue domed igloo of the Eskimo; a -land hallowed to thought by heroism; on whose barren plains the -monuments to the dead rise in the wastes feebly to tell of devotion, -courage past knowledge to measure, faithfulness; where the polar bear -and the walrus alone maintain nature’s plea against utter death. - -How those thoughts contrasted with all this around us, an undulating -oasis in the polar desert, where now indeed the antipodes drew near in -some strange new development of sand and aridity. Somehow this latter -notion clung persistently. It was partly due, no doubt, to a natural -ascription of deadly power in the inexplicable Sun, whose strength each -mile was revealed in a more deadly manner; in part also to the -decrescence of life, now noticeable in many ways. There was a paling and -bleaching of the herbage, and for miles and miles the movements of -insects were almost absent, while the deer vanished, and only moles or -shrews were occasionally detected in the crookedly ridged ground. - -It was after five days’ continuous struggle over the back of this lumpy -and semi-mountainous region, whose charm for us had long before -disappeared, and when the sharpest scrutiny no longer disclosed the -little deer whose succulent steaks and chops had kept us happy and well, -eked out with water, and the still persistent berry I have mentioned, -that we reached the edge of a new descent. Shielding ourselves in a low -coppice of bushes from the peculiar light, which was sensibly increasing -in strength and which seemed less softened by the interposition of veils -of mist and cloud, we could just see, like a black ribbon painted along -the horizon, a zone of tree tops. - -“TREES,” we shouted joyously. - -“Yes, they are trees,” after a while came the affirmative assurance. The -Professor was studying them with our field glass. - -“They are trees, of some narrow leaved or coniferous genus. They are so -densely, darkly gathered together. A wood now would indeed be welcome, -but we are fated for a rather trying march over another desert. I can -see a sand plain stretching away ahead of us, terminating perhaps in -this new region beyond. I have a strong presentiment that this wood -forms the last screen to the grand revelation we are certain to be -vouchsafed. It surrounds the home of the RADIUMITES.” - -“That’s a cheerful view of it, Professor, and not a bad name. And if we -are getting as warm as all that don’t you think we might conjure up some -plan of operation before we meet these—these—_electrons_? How’s that, -Erickson? You see I have a talking acquaintance with Science after all, -even if I haven’t got so far as to call her by her first name. Electrons -and Radiumites are rather related terms. Eh?” - -“Well,” I said, “Hopkins’ suggestion is surely a wise one. These -remarkable creatures have obtained some curious insight into chemical -laws. They are our masters if we meet them. Before we can do a thing -they will transfix us with chemical ions, or something like them, and -decompose us into our original elements. I’ve been thinking about those -little lead pipes they carried. I saw them press them and wave them, and -whenever they did either, something happened; they went up and down, or -any way else, as they wished. The balloons were not so very small; they -appeared, I think, smaller than they really were, and they did look too -small to lift their loads, little and light as they seemed, even if they -contained our lightest gas-hydrogen. I tell you they’ve refined methods -in radio-chemistry perhaps, that enable them to generate an even lighter -gas, and its buoyancy is out of all proportion to the gas volumes -represented in these small balloons. These little men are formidable -savants, who may get rid of us, if they want to, like that,” and I -snapped my fingers. - -This harangue stirred the Professor. I meant it should. His hair, which -now seemed almost redder than when we started, and had grown so that it -enveloped his head in a penumbral glory, like a sunset fire, rose, as it -were, to the occasion. - -“Erickson,” he retorted, “put away your fears. The very fact of the -intellectual promotion of these people would make it certain that they -have abandoned savage ways, and that they would recognize in us, to say -the least,” it may be the Professor blushed slightly, though the -rufescent splendor of his hair disguised it, “representatives of a -culture that will excite their curiosity, their—Ahem—_envy_. Personally -I feel confident that—Ahem—once some sort of communication is -established between us, I can interest them. I should feel honored even -to present their contributions to science before the Royal Academy of -Sciences at Stockholm. In the hierarchy of scientific authors their -names would arrest the attention of the whole earth.” - -After this flight there was a respectful pause, until Hopkins resumed: - -“Say Professor, the particular culture that would impress them most now -would be a wash, a clean shirt, a shave and a haircut. Eh?” - -The Professor contemptuously ignored the interruption, though a -furtively repressed approach of laughter on his face showed his -appreciation of its justice. We were indeed frights. - -“And, Alfred, as to your suggestion of a gas lighter than hydrogen in -the balloons, perhaps you are aware that so far as the apparent -transmutation of the elements permits any conclusions in the matter, -hydrogen has hitherto yielded only helium, neon, carbon and sulphur, all -heavier bodies. I don’t say you are not right. It’s tremendously -interesting. However, you may have underestimated the size of the -balloons and over-estimated the weight of the little men. They had a -very _papery_ look to me, and of course,” the Professor always had this -pragmatic style of insisting _you knew_, when he was inwardly crowing -over his chance of illuminating your ignorance, “you know that the -levitation of hydrogen equals seventy pounds to one thousand cubic feet -of gas—at ordinary pressures. Those balloons were larger than they -seemed; some reflexion in the air diminished them, and really those aged -infants, I believe, scarcely exceeded thirty pounds in weight. Do you -know,” he became excitedly radiant, “perhaps their tenuity has some -relation to their intellectual development—they represent some final -stage of human evolution, when the body shrinks, and the mind enlarges, -and—” - -“The teeth drop out,” suggested Hopkins. - -“True, Mr. Hopkins. Professor Wurtz has pointed out the probable -absorption of the teeth or their disappearance under the debilitating -influence of mental growth. These people may live solely on saps, -juices, milks, liquids, extracts.” - -This tickled Hopkins boundlessly, and he rattled away—I don’t know -whether it was quotation or improvisation: - - “Really I hesitate to say, - What they promise now some day, - When learning and brain - Are fit for the strain, - Of telling the Truth to a hair. - - “For the _Docs_ have puzzled it out, - And there isn’t a reason to doubt, - That we’ll lose all our grinders, - All our gold-plugged reminders, - Of the toothache that taught us to swear. - - “It’s a case of gray matter and such, - Though for that we need not care much, - For—cocktails and chowder for lunch, - Soft drinks, sangaree, and rum punch - Will surely be living for fair.” - -“Come,” growled Goritz, “this sort of nonsense isn’t getting us -anywhere. Strap up your packs and get out of this. The chances for grub -ahead are not the best in the world. The country is already as bare as a -cleared table, and what are we going to do for water?” - -That was a disagreeable predicament. Hitherto the springs, little tarns -or water holes, though decreasing in number as we advanced, had fully -met our requirements, but if we were to cross any considerable dry tract -we might be seriously imperiled. To be sure, the limestone country if -prolonged would almost certainly feed us, but that desert land which our -closest inspection of the distance only made more unquestionable—How -about that? - -The conclusion we came to was to husband all the resources we could -command. It sounded grandiloquent—_our resources_! What were they? Some -patches of jerked deer’s meat, our fryingpan and pot, the remnant of our -improvised tent and our knapsacks, almost empty except for the -instruments, a few necessary implements, the ammunition, still -sufficient, and our guns. Our clothing was desperately worn. Literally, -we were in rags, but a primitive kind of treatment in water, from time -to time, had freed this dejected apparel of at least a large -percentage—I really think a preponderant percentage—of its dirt. The -question of water remained urgent. - -In about a day or so we came upon the outlines of the desert -plain—scrappy expanses of sand and pebbles—mostly angular, and we noted -the dust occasionally sweeping heavenward in yellow clouds but still we -thought we also saw the dark farther zone of trees. Our horizon was now -more limited; we had descended some fifteen hundred feet, and the -advantage of an elevated circumspection was denied us. The professor -determined the sand to be a pulverulent shattered and crumbling -limestone, and although absorbent and apparently deeply bedded he -believed we could, almost anywhere, upon digging find water. This was -encouraging, and the trip over this tawny and sometimes dazzling waste -seemed less formidable. The light became peculiarly tantalizing and -objectionable, and we were thankful enough for the goggles. After -deliberation we made up the canvas of our little tent, which we still -retained, into bags (we had pack thread and sailors’ needles) and -expected to use them as water carriers. Then we trapped a few moles, -though recourse to this unpalatable flesh would only be considered in an -extremity, and then, not without foreboding, we started over the pallid -desert. - -We soon came upon traces of the great storm which we had watched from -the Deer Fels. These were unmistakable. Deep gouges had been made in the -sand by the volleying and cutting winds, but the most extraordinary -vestiges of its violence were the conical hills of sand, raised over the -surface in huge mammilary erections. These were distributed with a very -striking evenness, except at spots, where it would seem the moving hills -in their translation had closed upon one another, and, demolished in the -collisions, left formless congeries of tossed and sprawling heaps, which -might have a length of a mile or more, and were from half to three -quarters of a mile in width. They were disagreeable obstacles, and -ploughing through them was the hardest kind of work, for the surfaces -were composed of a deep deposit of minute grains and dust and our feet -sank into them as quickly as though we were engaged in a plunge through -a colossal flour bin or a wheat pit. - -But our complaints and discouragements were providentially rebuked. -Fighting our way up and down these dry quagmires of dust, stumbling, -falling and not infrequently assisting to extricate one another from the -floury embrace, we had come to the crest of a ridge which crossed -diagonally one of these shapeless, tortuous mounds. This ridge, over the -mean level of the plain, was almost twenty feet high, a good measure of -the strength of the wind suction which had built it up. We were dusty, -almost exhausted, and the water we had carefully conserved, as best we -might (for the bags were not watertight) in our canvas receptacles, was -approaching a dangerous depletion. It was absolutely necessary, fight -against it as we might, to wash our mouths and throats, clogged and -asperate as they were with the grains and dust, quite often, or, it -seems to me, we would have been suffocated. What gratitude we felt you -may imagine, when, on surmounting the ridge, our eyes fell upon a small -pool of water entrapped upon some impervious bottom, in a natural bowl, -enclosed by the ridge on which we halted and a lower ridge beyond us. -The familiar thought of how it transcended in value any imaginable -wealth of gold and diamonds at that moment flashed, I guess, through all -of our minds. We camped there. The water was clear and cool, for, I -should have mentioned it, the weather had been colder, and, when our -“fixed Sun,” as Goritz called it was hidden, we suffered somewhat from -imperfect protection. - -“Queer we don’t hit any more of those weird phantoms that own this -place, isn’t it?” said Hopkins. - -“Oh,” I replied, “they may be watching us now, listening to us. You -can’t tell. I think they’re a sort of supernatural people that can do -almost anything. Perhaps they wear magic cloaks, hats, shoes, that make -them invisible. Speak easy when you meet ’em Spruce, and don’t abuse -them behind their backs, for—it may be—_to their faces_.” - -“Look here, Alfred, I really believe you’ve loosened a nut in that tight -little head of yours. To hear you talk gets on my nerves. Don’t do it. -Hasn’t the Professor explained it all as Evolution, and how exceedingly -friendly these fine folk will be to us when they get a bead on our own -families. As for speaking easy, I shan’t speak at all. With me it’s the -case of Pat once again, and I couldn’t get even as far as he did with -the Frenchman with his “_Parlez-vous français, and—give me the loan of -your gridiron._” - -“Alfred,” asked the Professor, “could you talk with them, if it turns -out that their language is Hebrew?” - -“Certainly,” I answered, “I am a Jew, and my earliest training has never -been forgotten. I have been hugging the thought that I can understand -them or make them understand me. I grant, along traditional lines there -was something Hebraic in their looks.” - -“Yes Alfred—this,” said Hopkins, touching his nose. - -We laughed, but the Professor stared at me thoughtfully. - -“Alfred,” at length he solemnly began, “the Vestiges of Creation—Who -knows but—” - -The sentence was never finished and to this day I only dimly suspect the -lurking and indefinable thought that those world-dreams of the past, -with Eden placed at the North Pole, and a still more irreclaimable -theory of a residual population descending from some God-made primal -ancestor, confusedly rose in the Professor’s mind, and that he was -groping his way to express this cryptic and impossible illusion. - -No! the Professor was probably utterly stunned into dumbness, as we were -made half wild with wonder by a cry from Goritz: - -“SEE! Over there are the head and arm of a dead man sticking out through -the sand.” - -We jumped to our feet, followed with our eyes his stiffened, -outstretched arm and rigid finger, and saw the chubby face of a corpse, -with closed eyes, streaming black hair, pushed out from a blanket of -sand, while an arm with a clenched hand was protruding from the same -covering. For a moment—perhaps for several—we remained motionless, -perusing the face which was so astonishingly contrasted with the -lineaments of the diminutive aeronautical philosophers, and noting too -the convexity of the earth covering the body, which indicated a man or -woman, of an average size or a little undersized. What struck each one -of us at once was the unmistakable Eskimo type, the narrow eyes, small -_joufflu_ nose, wide mouth, puffed cheeks, low forehead and coarse, -straggling and profuse hair. - -A little later and we had dug out of his grave the astounding figure. -When it was uncovered it corroborated all our first impressions as to -its Eskimo relationship, but we then detected that its construction was -more slender and generally better proportioned, and the beardless face -was more refinedly cut. Its dress was a yellow gown or tunic over very -loose bluish trousers, and its feet were encased in roughly made loose -slippers, fastened by laces or strings over the instep. The material of -the dress was a woven wool. The tunic was clasped by a broad belt of the -same substance, fastened by a leaden buckle; the trousers were held in -at the bottom by a kind of anklet of bone and skin, and the sleeves of -the tunic were similarly confined. - -But perhaps it was the buckle that excited our curiosity the most, for -there was engraved—not embossed—on it the same serpent and -crocodile-like figure that had been seen on the gold buckle Goritz -found, and over it too were the singular conventions of a branched tree -encircled by a snake. Goritz compared his belt and buckle with it and -was convinced of their identical interpretation. Nothing else was found. -We detected no pockets of any sort in the clothing—Yes, there was -something else, from under the body we dug up spectacle-like yellow -glasses. - -It was clear that the creature had been overwhelmed in a sandstorm, but -it was not clear why he should have been alone and apparently wandering -a long way from his home and companions. The incident incited us to -greater haste, and when we had replenished our water skins, we resumed -the exhausting tramp. The tree line became increasingly plainer to view, -and it offered a goal and prize now that dissipated our fatigue and -roused our ambition. We had not discussed the Eskimo waif but I guess -through all of our minds slowly or quickly filtered the conviction that -he represented a lower slave or working group; that we were soon to -break into a world of industry and achievement, founded on social -distinctions; that indeed up here in Krocker Land flourished perhaps an -oldtime class regime with knowledge and power confined to a priestly or -imperial class, like Egypt, like Mexico, like Peru. - -[Illustration: - - THE PINE TREE GREDIN -] - -Some of my first trepidation over the adventure had vanished, but much -remained. I felt no confidence in those uncanny air travelers. Goritz -became impatient and almost retaliatory; he was maddened by the vision -of wealth, for he dreamed we were coming close to some dazzling, -incalculable phenomenon of riches. Hopkins was good-naturedly suspicious -and apprehensive, but confessed to an overpowering desire to see the -thing out, and “_have it over_.” The Professor lived in the seventh -heaven of delectation over the prospect of preparing a batch of papers, -to be read before the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, that would -place his name high on the walls of the Temple of Knowledge. All of us -were thus anxious to get on, and we made rapid progress. Need there was, -for our provisions were again nearing exhaustion. - -It was almost a hundred and twenty hours, or five days, since we had -left the Deer Fels before we dragged ourselves into the first grateful -shadows of the great _Pine Tree Gredin_. So Professor Bjornsen termed -it. Such it was. A vast, plunging hillside or scarp, covering miles and -miles, and appareled from top to bottom with this wonderful vesture of -tall pines. And it sang with the refreshing music of innumerable brooks. -The exhaustless reservoirs of water emptied upon the vast desert zone -which, almost without leaving a trace of greenness behind them, entered -that profoundly weathered and comminuted soil, engulfed completely, as -are the rivers of California or Colorado or Persia, and reissued -unsullied, purified and cold, over this pine tree steppe. - -The exhausted pilgrim through Purgatory who sees the gates of Paradise -open to him, would, for Christians, furnish a description of our -feelings as, ragged, choked with dust, almost crazed with thirst and -speechless from fatigue, we threw ourselves at the foot of the first -towering grove, and sank our heads into its moss lined bowls of living -water. As a Jew I myself recalled the pretty fable of “_The Slave Who -Became a King_” and all that the shipwrecked wretch had felt when the -new people he had reached made him their king and fed and clothed him; -for indeed to us, as Nefesh was to Adam, this new stage was the Island -of Life. I had reason to remember the story more literally afterwards. - -And the marvelous stateliness of this blue-green ocean of straight -trees, the entrancing vistas between the majestic columns, with a life -of pheasant and hare and squirrel, the bubbling cadences of springs, and -the rambling mirthfulness and riot of the brooks, the deep-browed -silence in places, and the needle-thatched ground, inviting us to sleep -and dreams, had a fabulous expression, as if the prelude to some -unearthly—See how the whole unreality of it haunts me—experience. But, -besides its picturesqueness, we rejoiced in the dusk-like protection -from the light; in the effect and feeling of a dark submarine immersion, -the light became so beryl-like, that we again, and now as it were _en -masse_, encountered fresh reminders of the still invisible people we -must soon see face to face. - -There were clearings which had been made in the forest. They were dotted -with stumps and crossed by fallen trunks, and made outlooks from which -we saw the interminable distances of serried ranks of trees. Far to the -right, far to the left, far before us with as yet no determinable limit -in any direction, the gigantic flood of pines flowed ceaselessly down -the sides of a continental amphitheater. - -These cleared rings were suggestive enough. There was no evidence that -less toilsome methods had been used than those adopted by prehistoric -man. The trees had been hacked and cut by stone axes, they had been -trimmed by stone axes, and we found traces of fire around them, which -had been made to hasten their fall. But it was not long before we came -upon well-made roads threading the forest, to which the clearings -themselves were tributary, and over which the great logs had been -transported. - -Besides we found dishes and cups, vessels of various sizes, which were -well advanced in fictile skill, being watertight, with glazed bodies of -white and yellow or terracotta tints. And over them, as on the buckles, -were rudely painted and reburned that now familiar symbol of the tree -and serpent. These interested us greatly, but our sharpest hunt for some -gold relics was unrewarded. - -“No lost property worth advertising for ’round here,” said Hopkins. - -“Well it’s still westward,” said Goritz. “We must run them down soon. -But see how endless the prospect,” and he pointed to that unique -multitude of motionless trees, falling away and ever downwards into some -gigantic central subsidence. - -It was remarkable that we encountered no temporary abodes, no camps, no -settlements and no laggard or outpost of the elusive people. - -The Professor, invincible in theorizing and pertinacious in assertion, -animadverted on our discoveries in this way: - -“Well, these Radiumites show a sort of frustrated culture. They have -some specialized knowledge, and then again they are in other respects -primitive. It’s a very interesting ethnological problem. It’s a well -known circumstance that civilizations decline or even degenerate. The -modern Indian of Mexico or Peru offers a sad contrast to his ancestors, -but in the useful arts, as Tylor remarks, a skill once acquired is -seldom or never abandoned or forgotten. If these people could smelt iron -they certainly would not resort to stone for felling trees. Races like -the New Zealanders have never learned to reduce iron from its ore, -though iron ore abounds in their country.” - -The trails and roads proved to be labyrinthine, and led us over long and -useless journeys, frequently back to our starting point. It was Goritz -who solved their apparent confusion and proved that they were parts of -intersecting loops or circles, and that each series of circles connected -with a succeeding one by roads leading always from the westernmost (or -lowest) edge of each circle. These latter roads seemed radial and -continuous. The plan was like this (Erickson showed me a drawing) with -the circles a mile or half a mile in diameter. - -But it was the Professor who detected a remarkable feature which plunged -us all into renewed speculations and wondering surmises. In following -one of these circular roads he observed that the area enclosed by it was -a depression, and this fact, together with a less crowded growth and -some previous clearing permitted him to note that an unusually large -tree towered among the others, apparently exceeding them greatly in -height and, rudely at least, it was at the center of the circular space. - -As, at times yielding to a lotos-like influence, we now moved more -deliberately, and would remain at one camping spot (this was before -Goritz pointed out the more direct line of advance over the radiating -roads) twenty or more hours, the Professor would direct his steps to -this tree as a landmark. Some abstruse stirrings of suggestion urged -him. But it seemed almost a miracle of second sight, for it uncovered an -astounding system of combined surveying or charting, associated -intricately with religious motives. He diverted our attention indeed to -a search which enriched us with some valuable objects, though we were -likely to have lost them all later. But it thus led to the _denouement_ -of an utterly unparalleled adventure by forcing us sharply upon the -mysterious people who lived here, and opening up a chapter of incidents -and episodes never otherwise related, except in tales of invention or in -the dreams of disturbed and romancing minds. - -He found his tree in a small, open, carefully cleared space, and on it -were not only carvings of the ubiquitous serpent sign, but with this -evidently scripts, which he interpreted as prayers, or sacred utterances -and adjurations, and, more astonishingly, conventionalized GOLD images -(hardly exceeding three or four inches in height) laid at the bottom of -the tree. These images rudely symbolized a human figure enrolled in the -coils of a serpent. - -When he brought one of these images into our camp—he timidly refrained -from disturbing the others—you may imagine our excitement. Goritz gazed -and gazed at it in a trance of amazement and gloating. He wanted to set -out on an excursion of discovery at once. But we overruled that. The -Professor had our attention completely. His exploit gave a real -authority to his entertaining disquisition. We were thoroughly -interested. - -“Yes, here is a stupendous theme—Serpent and Tree worship—developed on -an unusual scale and in an unprecedented manner. You see this enormous -forest is arranged in a chart-like manner into a series—I might say a -_Halysites_, as it were—of encircling roadways, producing the effect of -a garland of wreathed snakes, while in each fold or embrace, some tree, -conspicuous for size or height, or some physical perfection, has been -selected, about or around which again the serpentine coils are -enwrapped, a splendid combination of tree and serpent worship -ideographically presented in a park plan. Again the votive objects -attached to the trees form a group of subordinated ornamental -commemorative or religious symbols, and the whole display is ancestral, -archaic, _turanian_, for Fergusson holds that no Aryan people succumbed -to this peculiar cult, dimly shadowed forth in myth, fable and history -at the first emergence of racial life. - -“Think of the legendary lore connected with the strange prepossessions -of early peoples, the myth of Adam and Eve and the Serpent; the brazen -serpent lifted up in the wilderness by Moses, the Serpent of Epidaurus -in the temple of Aesculapius, the dragon of the Argonauts, the serpent -of the oracle at Delphi, in the grove of laurel trees; the serpent -inhabiting a cave at Lanuvium, and wrought into religious practices; the -ascription to serpents of healing powers and powers of divination; the -snake in Indian, Egyptian, Phoenician, Assyrian religions. Think, Goritz -and Erickson, of the tree worship of the Scandinavians, culminating in -the _Yggdrasill_, the ash, whose branches spread over the whole world, -and even reach up to heaven, the extended and dreadful homage paid to -great snakes in America, still existing among the desert Indians of -Arizona and New Mexico! - -“But as a contribution to the ophitic lore I believe we have found in -this new polar continent the central arcana of the mystery referable, -for aught we know, to the Adam legend. Gentlemen, we are stepping on the -skirts of a great mystery.” - -The solemnity of this conclusion which was becomingly indicated by the -Professor’s outstretched hands and by the smile of benignant invitation -for us to assume his own gravity, was somewhat abridged or spoiled by -Hopkins’ interjection. - -“I’m afraid, Professor, that we’ll be stepping into trouble if we pinch -too many of these joints. I say leave the contraptions alone.” This was -meant as a rebuke to Goritz who was for rifling everything. I half -believe he would now have been willing to abandon our further march, -hunt for the wood temples, despoil them, and retreat, recover our yacht -and hike it over the ice for Point Barrow. The gold had strangely turned -his head. - -“Yes,” I interrupted, for I was really anxious too, though I was willing -to join the laugh that followed Hopkins’ remonstrance, “we must be -careful. There’s mystery enough here and there may be power behind the -mystery, enough also to send us each about our business to Eternity.” - -However, from this time we watched for the trees that accentuated the -great rings of woods, marked off by the circular and intersecting roads. -We detected numbers of them, though for days none would be found. -Cleared spaces surrounded them, but not always, nor indeed generally, -were there votive offerings of gold images, but bits of apparel, -pottery, glass beads (we wondered much over these last), leaden, rudely -shaped figures, stone implements and carved wooden masks. We wasted time -in this pursuit, urged to it by Goritz’s insatiable delight over the -gold finds (we resisted his intentions of taking everything away, though -he despoiled many of the trees), and I think the Professor was -responsible for much of our wandering, for in his note taking he was -indefatigable. - -The ground continued to descend, and though the decline was interrupted -by hillocks, protuberant mounds and long, rising slopes, these -exceptions were accidental, and we realized that since entering the -forest we had descended nearly three thousand feet. We were actually -over five thousand feet below the mean level of the earth. From some of -the elevations our view still measured the endless stretch of sombre -green (really a blue-green), though we felt certain that a still lower -valley bounded its marge and that beyond the latter limit there were hot -springs or geysers, the gushing upward of steam clouds was so incessant. -And then more wondrously, we were made aware of a shaft of light, a -luminous prism shooting upward from the earth, which we began to suspect -was related to the stationary sun from which this puzzling and utterly -unrelated nook of the earth received light and heat, when outside of its -charmed and storm-beleaguered rim the polar seas and lands lay bound in -the iron grip of winter and were dark beneath a sunless sky. -Bewildering, maddening paradox! We were often thunderstruck and -speechless, dimly doubting whether we had not indeed “shuffled off the -coil” of life, and had become reincarnate in another sphere. - -I guess that I alone had that feeling often, for Hopkins’ imperturbable -realism, Goritz’s avarice and the Professor’s splendid vaulting ambition -to convulse the scientific world kept them mortally conscious and human. - -And now an amazing thing happened. It began the rush of events that for -three or four months tossed us along a course of excitement that made -our heads spin and terminated in episodes for all of us too fabulous to -be believed and yet—Mr. Link they are the sober, unvarnished truth. You -may doubt your ears, you may be tempted—you will be—to put me in a class -outside even of the biggest assassins of truth—and as a journalist you -have known a good many, but in the end perhaps I can re-establish my -reputation by an appeal to your eyes! That sort of evidence cannot be -gainsaid. - -Well, it turned out that we had nearly crossed the interminable forest, -and were tramping silently along one of the radial roads, just after it -had cut (“bisected” the Professor insisted) the arc of one of the great -circles, when Goritz quickly raised his hand: - -“Listen! Music—drums!” - -We halted, breathless with wonder. Softly, in a low, monotonous hum came -the itinerant beating. Yes, we all heard it, and with it, as we waited, -was mingled the metallic clangor of cymbals or something like them. - -“‘Regardless of grammar they all said “That’s them,’” whispered Hopkins, -quoting his Ingoldsby. - -“_Up the tree._ They’re coming nearer,” said Goritz. - -“Decidedly,” coincided the Professor. “As an exhibition of the -prehistoric musical art this will be unique.” - -We were not long in clambering among the outspread boughs of a big pine, -leaving our instruments and packs at its foot (the species in growth and -cyclical arrangement of its limbs resembled the white pine), helping -each other until we were finally asylumed among the topmost needles, -peering out over the receding road for the approaching procession, if -procession it was. - -We were not to wait long. The music, disentangled now from the -interference and dampening effect of the trees, rose assailingly from -the distance, and the thumping drums and the dulcet swish and clatter of -the cymbals seemed almost beneath us. We were straining our eyes, and, -in our impatience and curiosity, became careless of our position, all -half standing on the same bough, clasping the trunk and leaning outward. - -There was a glittering, swarming effect in the vista, and we saw the -advancing ranks of the strangers. Instantly we recognized the Eskimo, or -his modified image, in the first companies. They were lurching -ponderously forward, their legs and shoulders advancing together to the -irresistible rhythm swelling behind them. They wore short yellow tunics -or sacks engirdled by cloth belts with leaden buckles; blue trousers -caught at the ankles by leaden anklets and sandals completed their -dress, except that on their heads they wore broad, white, hive-shaped -straw sombreros not unlike the head covering of the peons in Mexico. -Each man swung a short bludgeon comically suggestive of a New York City -policeman’s club. - -“Cheese it—the Cop,” chuckled Hopkins. - -The ranks came on in goodly number and they formed a stalwart, if clumsy -and shuffling phalanx. The band, as a proper misappropriation of the -word would describe it, succeeded. These, too, were all of the Eskimo -type, but men and women mingled together; the men plied the small, -stiff, vociferous wooden drums and the women rather gracefully, and with -inerrant precision, smashed the cymbals together. - -“Gold—by God,” croaked Goritz, and he almost lost his balance in his -admiration. - -Gold they were indeed, and the metal delivered a note less rasping and -shattering than the ordinary brass. The men and women of the band were -dressed in closer fitting garments, their legs were naked, but over each -of the women’s knees was strapped a glittering gold cap and their hair -was braided with sinuous gold serpents. They burnished the dark outline -of the marchers like gleams of light or fireflies in a summer gloaming. -It was really very pretty, and Hopkins nearly lost his self control by -starting our applause. The impulse was momentary, for in a trice our -eyes were ensnared in the sight of the astonishing crowd of little -people that followed them. - -They were perhaps larger than the strange little men we had met on the -Deer Fels, and their heads did not fall forward with that irksome sense -of heaviness which afflicted those diminutive philosophers. But they -formed a diverting and animated picture. They were in all sorts of -order, and rather prevalently without any order at all. In threes and -fours, in strings and lines, in gravely marching little bands, and then -in dancing disorder, all wearing tunics and trousers of various colors -or plaids, but with the belt and the hieroglyphic buckle. Every now and -then as they surged along they sang, a midget song, quavering and odd, -musical in a way, but a rather poor way, and, like the shrilling cymbals -and the tom-tom drums, sing-songy and monotonous. We became spell-bound -at the weird spectacle. They also wore broad brimmed straw hats, but -pushed back on their heads, as if to offset that ludicrous tilt of their -funny big heads. - -And then came a host of the Eskimo girls beating the cymbals again, but -there were no drums or men. - -“Well, I must say,” softly spoke Hopkins, “the popular chorus girl -hasn’t anything on these peacherinas, has she?” - -But what was this amazing company that followed—bizarre, fascinating, -crudely savage, and yet enigmatically enthralling? A chariot or a flat -platform car on low, solid wooden wheels, drawn by goats whose horns -were tipped with gold snails, bore a group of diminutive figures which -we all recognized as being the very little men whose aeronautics had so -astonished us. They and more like them sat back to back on this equipage -of gold, as in an Irish jaunting car, and one chariot succeeded another, -all loaded down with the _Areopagus_ of councilors and governors, for -such they certainly seemed to be. But they were sumptuously dressed in -violet cassocks, girt with gold; gold chains encircled their necks, and -pendent to these was the serpent symbol. On their heads they wore the -flat broad brimmed hat bedizened with gold trappings. These hats now lay -in their laps, their long-fingered, waxy hands folded over them, and -their eyes were protected by the absurd goggles. - -They too were singing or praying, the chant rising to us with the -undulatory emphasis of a Hebrew cantor, and—so it seemed to me—the words -were indeed a Hebrew jargon. But around them, before them, behind them, -stalked an ordered regiment of the slimmer, taller Eskimos; all men, and -they each raised on their left shoulders, held stationary by the bent -left arm and the right arm extended across the breast, a pole of gold, -on which was entrained a living snake. The creatures were imprisoned, -for their necks were caught in locks at the apexes of the poles. These -snakes were black, a glossy black, and on the glossy, glittering poles -they formed a strange _caduceus_. It was in a way a horrible assemblage, -and then again, against the background of all of our incredible -experiences, it assumed a bewildering charm, as if it were a dream half -turned into a nightmare, or a nightmare checked in its course by a -remembered dream. On, on, they swayed and moved, and amid these ophidian -pages, groups of drummers kept up a ceaseless dull, stupid drubbing. - -Then something stranger followed. An empty chair on a gold wagon, a -chair itself of gold, but shaped like the stump of a tree with two -branches sprouting from it, and between these as they were projected -above the stump, the spread figure—in heraldry _displayed_—of the -_Crocodilo-Python_, also in gold. The hideous animal enormity was all -there, its anaconda-like tail winding about the tree stump, its stilted -hind feet grasping the lower ends of the branches, its shorter webbed -forefeet dragging their curved ends towards its twisted neck, and the -saurian jaws in a horrid rictus, imminent above that empty throne whose -occupant perchance might be some aboriginal Apollo or a grinning and -revolting savage sibyl. - -[Illustration: - - MEETING THE RADIUMOPOLITES -] - -Well, Mr. Link, the spectacle, with this climax, made us dizzy; some -reminiscent weakness from my swooning attacked me, but I would have been -safe enough. I stuck fast to the trunk of the tree, when Goritz turning -backward stepped on my support. It cracked, it broke. Hopkins seized -Goritz’s arm, the Professor Hopkins’ coat tail—what there was of it—and -ingloriously, with crash and whisking flight from branch to branch, we -four hopeless Argonauts slumped from the top of the lofty pine, with -arresting scramblings and maniacal clutchings, to the bottom, and were -spilled to the roadway; four voiceless, bedraggled, ragged, -bushy-haired, wild eyed, grimy men, more savage in our destitution than -the savages we had fallen amongst. As we banged to the ground, a jolt -stopped the empty throne, with its golden splendors of the distended -image of the saurian, directly opposite our jumbled, prostrate bodies. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - THE VALLEY OF RASSELAS - - -It was an incongruous position, and a mind responsive only to the -ludicrous would have been delighted with mirth over it. But it was -really no joke, and if Hopkins, whose risibilities were the least easily -subdued, had ventured upon one of his whirlwinds of laughter, instead of -sedately rising (enjoining us to imitate him) and bowing profoundly, it -might have had a tragic termination. - -As it was, Hopkins himself actually prescribed our solemn behavior. It -somehow appealed just then to his freakish sense of humor to appear -portentously grave and decorous, and as he kept up his salaaming we fell -in with the trick, and were bobbing away with the gravity of mandarins. - -The crowd, as we slammed into the road, were pretty well upset. There -was a queer gurgling groan, and then a shout, and a few of the men -rushed forward with leveled poles, from which the black squirming -ribbons uncannily unrolled, as if to strike us. Our appealing gestures -for forbearance disarmed them, and then curiously some of them began to -smile. Hopkins’ later reflection that we would probably have “made a -meal sack split open with diversion,” was about correct, and it must -have been the preposterous absurdity of it all, conjoined with our -indefatigable rolling up and down, and some improvised gesture of the -Yankee, expressive of submission and subjection, that gradually -increased their merriment, until we had in front of us a friendly -audience, simmering with amusement. - -The commotion and noise of the bending, breaking branches had been seen -and heard much further along the cortege, and it had caught the eye of -the dignitaries on the wheeled platform. In a few minutes a number of -these ambling, beetle-like worthies arrived and, withdrawing cautiously -into the protecting circle of the Eskimo youth, gazed at us with -unaffected astonishment. We now had the best opportunity to see them at -short range, and this was so desirable that we brought our antics to a -close, reciprocating their scrutiny with as keen an inspection on our -part. The impression made on me, on all of us, was favorable. - -The faces of these short men were remarkable for an unmistakable -gravity; their eyes, from which they had removed the goggles, were -penetrating and bright, sunken beneath arched and conspicuous eyebrows, -and set alongside of prominent aquiline noses. The lower parts of their -faces were weak, narrowed, and clothed with a scanty pointed beard. -Their brows were broad, high and of alabaster whiteness. This -colorlessness pervaded their whole anatomy, related at it were, to the -thinness of their legs, their slim long arms and pendulous fingers, -their flat and insufficient feet. We noticed then that they carried in -their belts tubes of metal similar or identical to the wand-like ones -that had seemed to aid their flight with the balloons. - -Their study of us was emphasized by considerable stroking of the beards, -shrugging of the shoulders, and an occasional despairing waving of the -hands. Everyone, everything, remained motionless while these wiseacres -made up their minds as to the meaning of our intrusion, or endeavored to -meet the broader problem of what do to with us. And so the whole mass -slowly gathered, the first ranks of the muscular Eskimo older men, the -drummers and the cymbalists, the fluttering, diversified groups of the -little people; they crushed into the woods, blocked the road, climbed up -into the trees; many pressed near to us, their hands resting on their -hips, regarding us with a tense and silent absorption that made me -nervous. - -Hopkins nudged the Professor. “Prof., give ’em a lecture, anything, only -hand it over highly flavored—_paprika-like_. Slam a few dictionaries at -’em. What we need just now is a little intellectual standing, I take it. -These highbrows think we’re no better than we look.” - -Oddly they had said nothing to us until they noticed Hopkins talking; -then one of them, a rather benignant and especially reflective looking -individual, who had been arguing vehemently the moment before with one -of his colleagues, advanced and said what sounded like “_do bau_” or, -had it been in such Hebrew as I myself understood, “_dobare_”; namely -“speak,” “talk.” - -The Professor probably did not understand the word, but he understood -perfectly their wishes, and under Hopkins’ admonition stepped forward, -and started a harangue. Nothing that had preceded was so likely to ruin -our discretion as the scene made by this overture of the Professor’s. -Hopkins was compelled to grovel on the ground to suppress his merriment, -but this ruse was interpreted fortunately as an expression of reverence -for the words or voice of our leader, and his explosions reduced by this -means to a subterranean titter were further alleviatingly considered as -a phase of weeping. - -The Professor was a sight. Not any part of his attire was whole, and his -boots were devoid of toes and rent along the soles. He was dirtier, I -think, than any one of us, as his ablutions had been less regular, so -far as regularity was the appropriation of an opportunity once a month, -and he had been torn and bruised and scratched, and had a most -despondent expression of hoodlumism. His hands alone were presentable; I -have referred to his sensitiveness over his hands. And his hair! It was -a bright red, and it had grown profusely, and, exulting in some untamed -inclination to revert to savagery, had grown outward in a stiff jungle -that now flamed around his ingratiating physiognomy like some angry -halo. Under the stress of his nervousness and—his periods, he flourished -his hands and shook his head, and this immensely increased the gap -between his grandiloquence and his humiliating appearance. It was side -splitting. - -And then increasing the ludicrousness of it all almost insufferably, was -the close attention of the people, and the absurdly critical demeanor -and deliberation of the philosophers. Certainly nobody understood a word -of what the Professor said and yet they listened with bent heads, -devouring eyes, and a mute satisfaction impossible to describe. And the -Professor, flattered or deceived by the thrilling effect he was -producing, fired off his lingo at a greater speed, with a screaming -voice (he probably thought that if he yelled he would be better -understood), and more tumultuous gestures. The combination was more -unutterably funny than our predicament was possibly grave. Hopkins was -unable to raise his head. I heard him groaning, “Such a bizness. Choke -him off.” I was compelled to hide my head in my hands and allow my -convulsions to go for what they were worth as emotional signals of -despair. Goritz, a grave man, lately a fiercely obsessed man, -deliberately turned his back and stuck his fingers in his ears. - -And this was some of the Professor’s sonorous patter: - -“My friends you are amazed to see us, but we have come from the great -(hands pressed together) world beyond your continent to find YOU -(emphasized by two pointing index fingers). We knew you were here (an -ascending shout), and we knew you lived in a world of wonders -(miscellaneous flourishes of both hands over his head), and -enchantments, scientific miracles (a prolonged _crescendo_) of which we -wish to know more. Do not feel astonished at our appearance (an -inclusive sweep of the right arm); we have traveled over the polar sea, -over mountain ranges, through a desert; we have crossed the steaming -chasm that encircles your country (hands and arms in descriptive -attitudes, and constantly moving). We have essayed the impossible -(another shout), and we have accomplished it (sudden drop into a -growling bass); we have,” etc., etc., etc., for at least ten minutes, -with the people positively hypnotized, so it seemed, by his clamorous -chatter. - -The absurdity of this address was to us evident enough, and yet it was -just the kind of demonstration on our part which impressed them. The -Professor’s style was valorous and friendly and noisy, and the effect of -his rattling appeal was propitious. There would have been real danger -for us, I believe now, had they discovered how we had rifled the tree -temples. That might have roused their worst hatred and made our position -perilous. - -Suddenly the benignant looking leader clapped his hands together, and -then put one over his mouth, and the Professor wisely took the hint and -subsided. There was an animated colloquy begun among the other chiefs -and legislators, and we all listened intently, I especially, for it -became a stronger and stronger conviction that these dignitaries spoke a -strain of Hebrew, to me not at all understandable, and yet approaching -my own Hebrew vocabulary, but masked or distorted by their peculiar -nasality and squeakiness. - -The discussion grew vehement, and the little doctors attained a degree -of excitement that threw them into violent gesticulations, their heads -dancing with their vigorous utterances, their beards wagging, and their -arms and hands flung around in elucidations that seemed never to -convince anyone. Well, the upshot of it all was that an order was given -to take us in custody, which we were made to comprehend by very -expressive signs, and the order was accompanied by a lot of gracious -grimace, deprecatory bowing and apologetic shrugs, whose burden of -significance we understood to be that an escort would take us to the -conveniences we needed—a bath, renewed clothing, food, rest, shelter, -etc.—while the procession would pursue its ceremonial transit, which we -very well saw was a state occasion connected with their religion and -involving perhaps a long journey consuming weeks for its completion. I -wondered whether they would discover our thievery, and felt convinced -that if they did our sojourn amongst them would be less pleasant. - -After some confusion and distracting running to and fro, all of which -had quite a civilized aspect from the self-importance of the little -actors, and the typical uncertainty and contradiction of orders, we were -finally dispatched with an escort or guard of Eskimo men, led by a chief -or captain who had received from the council a budget of directions and -injunctions, and who, as Hopkins put it, “had rather _soured on the -job_” which would deprive him of the emotional reflexes of the religious -revival—surely a sort of vast national picnic. - -By this time the spaces around us were jammed tight with people, the -little folk and the bulky Eskimos crowding together and picturesquely -intermingled; multitudes were leaping into the trees and climbing out on -the branches, so that we were literally in a defile of the strangers, -whose drums and cymbals were now silent, and who, passive and almost -motionless, gazed at us with a fixed wonder that robbed their faces of -all expression. - -An incident reminded us forcefully of the strange power of the little -rulers over their bulky dependents or subjects, and revived our -astonishment at the contents of the metal tubes they carried. These -tubes were in the possession of only the “_faculty_,” the big headed, -diminutive and rather venerable looking persons who evidently ruled the -community and whose disproportionate power probably sprang from the -magical qualities of these same tubes. - -A tall, morose looking Eskimo had approached us in a threatening manner -after having been ordered into the group who were to take charge of us -for the mission determined upon by the little chiefs. Something in the -half amused inspection Spruce Hopkins made of him, or his own -disappointment irritated him, and with a sudden angry cry he sprang out -of the ranks, his face distorted with savage fury, and raised the pole -or spear he carried to strike Hopkins, when the latter “side-stepped,” -and the big stick thumped harmlessly on the ground. - -Before anyone had time to intervene or calculate the creature’s next -move, the amiable disputant who had taken so much interest in us nimbly -jumped before the man, snatched the tube from his belt, directed it at -Hopkins’ assailant, pressed its end and sent the fellow sprawling on his -back in apparent agony. There was no sign of any discharge, there -certainly was no sound, perhaps there was a momentary gleam of light; we -learned afterwards that there must have been. But the moaning ruffian -was effectually quailed, and the hush, followed by a low quaver of -satisfied subjection from everyone, indicated the supreme power of these -physically impotent magicians over their muscular companions. - -“If we could hand over a few of those pepper guns to the New York police -the gang, thug, and crook fraternities would go out of business pretty -quick. Eh?” said Hopkins. “That’s slicker than chain lightning.” - -“A powerful, suddenly produced and concentrated X-ray effect,” commented -the Professor. - -“Goritz,” I asked, “where have you put the gold images and trophies? It -will probably be best for us to keep them pretty well out of sight.” - -“Yes I know,” returned Goritz. “I’ve thought of that. They’re in my -pack, and that won’t get out of my hands. Don’t worry.” - -The main mass moved forward. There was a scurrying to and fro, and a -downpour of acrobats from the trees. Long after all were out of sight we -heard the hum of the drums and dying whir of the cymbals, reaching us -through the forest. Then we collided with another detachment, the -commissariat, a promiscuous mixture of figures, and with them small -flocks of goats. First came platform cars drawn by strong big rams, -piled up with what looked like loaves of bread; these were succeeded by -the rambling goats and kids leashed in fours and fives, and driven by -goatherds of the little people, all wearing the universal tunic and -loose trousers; then more cars heaped high with baskets or hampers, and -more and more, till Hopkins exultingly declared: - -“Well, we shan’t starve. I guess we’ve dropped into a highly developed -culture, as you say Prof., among a people who realize the foundation -principle of enlightened living, a full and diversified bread basket.” - -Just at the moment I turned and looked up the slope behind us. I caught -through a straight vista, almost as if made for my view, the shifting -lines of the Eskimos with the gold poles and the black serpents. Somehow -the light struck them and they seemed to glitter menacingly. - -“Yes! Mr. Hopkins, we have dropped down on a civilization that perhaps -is the most ancient on the earth. This segregation of Adamites has -developed in this strangely protected seclusion a peculiar knowledge, a -knowledge, I am beginning to suspect, only dimly anticipated by the -Curies, Ramsays, Rutherfords, Sollys. - -“They have hit upon some of the properties of matter by which, Mr. -Hopkins, one kind of matter becomes another kind, through -radio-activity. The prevalence of gold amongst them may be attributable -to a mother lode of which I have spoken before, but these mysterious -tubes, the radium-like mass in the zinc-blende cave in the Deer Fels, -this utterly inexplicable light, hints at deeper secrets. And yet, sir, -with this last triumph of scientific power in their grasp they unite an -elemental savage worship of snakes and trees, a vestigial trace, sir, of -the very first ages. Then it is clear there is a peculiar industrial or -politico-economic phase of society conducted on a division principle of -fighters, workers and thinkers, a sort of analogue to the formicary and -the apiary—the ant and the bees. Yes sir!” - -This last word was in recognition of Hopkins’ enthusiastic denotement -(with extended arms and a loud “_Hurray_” which gathered the Eskimo -guard around us in a hurry and in some perplexity; they were relieved -when some speaking signs indicated Hopkins’ appreciation of “_grape -juice_,” pure or fermented), of the last wagons closing the food supply -for the peripatetic religious carnival. These were also platform cars on -the rudely rounded solid wheels, burnt and charred, of pine tree -sections, but on them were huge earthenware casks like the immense -vessels found in Peru, and like them ornamented with colored designs; in -this case manifold variations, conventionalized and realistic of the -Serpent and the Tree. Their contents were unmistakable, for a mere water -supply was almost too abundantly found in the innumerable brooks, -springs, and deep pools of the Pine Tree forest. - -“We’re certainly approaching civilization now. As an ultimate evidence -of man’s enlightenment, quantity and quality of _booze_ are complete. -The reign of reason and the Dominion of John Barleycorn are -simultaneous. - - “‘John Barleycorn was a hero bold - Of noble enterprise; - For if you do but taste his blood, - ’Twill make your courage rise. - ’Twill make a man forget his woes - ’Twill brighten all his joy - ’Twill make the widow’s heart to sing - Tho the tear were in her eye. - Then let us toast John Barleycorn, - Each man a glass in hand; - And may his great posterity - Ne’er fail in Krocker Land.’” - -To let the provision annex pass as it lumbered by, while tall drivers of -the Eskimo plied long whips whose lashes stung the air with rapid -reports, and the straining rams tugged and bolted, we had been compelled -to huddle to one side of the road. This outbreak of Hopkins and the -Professor’s soliloquy were amazing to our guard at first, but as soon as -they half comprehended Hopkins’ pleasure and his musical voice sang -Burns’ apostrophe they became mightily amused, and they beamed on the -American with unstinted confidence. - -Goritz, who knew some Eskimo from his experience in Greenland, attempted -to talk to them, but their answers were unintelligible; neither, I think -did they understand him, and it is also certain that they did not -converse among themselves in the Semitic phrase peculiar to the little -men. There was very little talk of any kind amongst them or us, and -after the ebullition when we ran into the wine cart, we relapsed into a -resigned silence, enjoying most a study of our guard. Nothing had been -taken from us, no search made of our packs, and our guns still remained -apparently unnoticed in our hands. The “little doctors” as Hopkins -called them had indeed looked at them curiously, and I felt certain they -would on their return find out their uses as also the uses of our -instruments, the aneroid, thermometers, chronometers, clinometer, -artificial horizon, all of which we had regained from their hiding place -below the pine tree from whose crown we had so unexpectedly descended. - -On, on, on, we tramped; the trees became smaller, more distant, and an -open ground appeared before us. In another instant it was succeeded by -an even denser growth of younger and greener pine trees; the road turned -sharply; it crossed the thick screen; another turn and, like a vision, -the central valley of Krocker Land unrolled before us, an endless park, -seamed by silver rivers, clothed in emerald meads, tenanted by -incalculable flocks, and marbled in its lighting, by an incessant drift -of clouds that threw over it a penumbral shade. - -[Illustration: - - THE VALLEY OF RASSELAS -] - -That was a marvelous moment, Mr. Link. We were dumb with admiration, and -we stood still, rooted to the spot, immobile in a transport of -amazement. Nothing was said until the Professor half audibly murmured, -“The Valley of Rasselas,” and the captain of our guard pointing to the -glorious picture muttered to himself. Familiar as they were with the -scene these unemotional men appreciated our astonishment, and allowed us -to measure with our eyes the grand prospect. There was a wayside house -near at hand, an adobe structure of red and yellow; beyond it the road -dipped, suddenly passing through a hewn gateway in the cliffside which -we had reached and which, with varying heights and undulating limits, -enclosed like a mammoth parapet the scene of peace and loveliness before -us. - -To this house we repaired. It was evidently located there as a -proscenium box for the contemplation of the ravishing picture. On its -porch, most fitly placed, we sat on low benches and attempted to record -the details of the view, by our eyes hardly recorded before, so lost had -they been in the enveloping, slumbering beauty. The cordiality of our -hosts was perfect; we munched spiced _tortillas_ and drank from absurd -spherical mugs a pleasant, ruby colored wine, a sort of _Tokay_. And -this, sir, is what we saw. - -It was a flat land over which wandered three separate rivers, fed by the -spouting falls that rushed over the cliffside from many points, the -gathered waters of all that tracery of streams in the pine forest. -Between these rivers spread vast meadows or fields, thickly patched by -motionless—so they seemed—herds of sheep and goats. Braiding lines or -hedges of trees and shrubs parceled the green plains into checkers and, -as the eye passed outward, these hedges, massing themselves in -perspective, banked the horizon with a continuous wood. And there was a -floating colorfulness in the picture besides, a roseate-blueness, that -we later discovered came from an abundant wild flower like our iris -which nestled over acres of land in the wetter spots. And far, far away -with a spectral splendor rose into heaven shafts, or one monstrous -shaft, of light. It glowed and pulsated, changing from an opalescent -pearliness to the hardened glint of steel, anon streaked with bluish -ribbons like a spectrum. Nothing could be more wonderful. - -Playing against it rose what seemed a volley from steaming cauldrons, -folded, unfolded, and drifting. Following this magnificent radiation -into the sky it was lost in a wide halo or pond or lake of strangely -scintillating light; an overspread roof of light it seemed, forming that -stationary sun, that from end to end, from side to side of this polar -bowl lit its manifold circumferential areas. Thither our fascinated eyes -rose, and then it became manifest that the overflowing permeating glory -of this scene resided in the play of this light, apparently forever -veiled by nets and skeins and shifting aureoles of clouds, that somehow -formed a floor beneath it, so that its emergent rays, as in our sunsets -or sun risings, shot outward, coronal-like, and as they encountered the -perpetual play of clouds and vapors as perpetually painted them in -colors. A superb and marvelous meteorology, for this Valley of Rasselas -thus remained, for long periods perhaps, bathed in the beauty of a royal -sunrise or a royal sunset. - -This screening from the downpour of the light of the stationary sun was -certainly a beneficent provision, for while there might elapse periods -when its unchecked blaze smote the valley, the harsh ordeal of enduring -it was constantly intermitted. It was clear too that the rainfall was -excessive, both here and in the pine forest we had traversed; that this -navel of the world was a watery kingdom. - -Even as we gazed the pageant of the sky mysteriously changed, and with -its changes the complexion of the picture earthward underwent delicate -transmutations too. From gay to sombre, from a wide refulgence to a -twilight grayness, from a flecked radiance to the transient darkness of -clotted clouds, from a burning splendor of illumination, by which things -lost their definition, and the dazzling excess of light blotted out -details, to half light, whereby a clearness of outlines developed, -allowing us to measure the distance, and to pick out house and tree, -bush, stream and rolling mead. We were enraptured by reason of this -protean aspect, and watched and, still lingering, gazed, unsatisfied. - -The Eskimo men understood our delight and it brought on their rather -apathetic faces a smiling approval. They chattered and gesticulated and -surrendered themselves to a renewed appreciation of this age-old cradle, -in which they had grown and lived, strangely associated with the older -race, perhaps of some Semitic stock, strangely altered from their rude -forebears and separated more strangely still with their associates from -the thronging world of men outside of this entrancing cell of earth, and -yet bearing the impress of traditions which that outer world had -created. How could it be explained? Here was the new and crowning marvel -of the centuries—Krocker Land! - -A floating tree trunk had indicated to Columbus the vast unknown of the -western continent and the scattered prognostications of geographers had -led his scientific thought steadily forward to its prediction and—it was -found. A mountain’s darkness brushing the horizon had crossed his vision -as Admiral Peary looked westward through his glass, and betokened yet -untrod tracts of earth; the vagaries of the tides submitted to -scientific computation had proven to Harris their positive existence, -and now to us, four froward, unknown men, it was vouchsafed to establish -in facts these symptomatic guesses. - -But our discovery was enriched by unsuspected marvels; this immense -polar depression, like a dent in the crust of the earth, the peculiar -succession of dropping zones, their physiographic contrasts, the -stupendous circular—so we supposed—rift which framed them, its igneous -depths, that incessant up-pouring of steam devising a curtain of cloud -around this screened continent, the perpetual chain of changes in the -precipitation of the condensed vapors renewed again by evaporation, the -survival of saurian life, the meteorological perplexities introduced, -the bewildering fact of an ethnic evolution in these small people, their -peculiar association with a dependent Eskimo race, the suggestion of -Adamic traces, the apparent control over advanced chemical agencies, -this indigenous tree and serpent worship hinting at ancestral influences -lost in the shadows of the very beginning, and then, more incredible -than the wildest dreams of fiction, this impossible stationary sun, -sustaining this little segregated world, feeding it with light and heat, -an unimaginable oasis in the incalculable desert of Arctic snows and -ice. WHAT WAS IT? Upon what miracle of matter were we advancing? - -I was lost in such reflexions when an exclamation from the -Eskimo—sounding like _ibbley_—and a hand clapped on my shoulder -straightened me into attention. The pool of clouds over the valley whose -inconstant movement alternately veiled and revealed the light beyond -them, had parted, as though a sudden wind had pierced it and driven its -parts in rapid and eccentric flight to all sides, as a stone dropped in -a pond sends the waves shoreward, and, past the rift, we saw through the -rising vapors, beyond the rigid, fan shaped prism yet involved in it, an -incandescent surface like a mammoth shield, a shield covering acres of -space, and over it again, and yet perhaps miles and miles further away, -the solemn grandeur of an ice capped lofty mountain. - -It was a glimpse only; an instant later the refluent clouds had flung -themselves together again, in the ceaseless to and fro, and, as I -thought, rotary motion, that conveyed such a changeable expression to -that peaceful hidden vale. - -That glimpse, Mr. Link, is the memory of a lifetime, it was a picture so -inwrought with the occasion and my own feelings as to remain with me a -deathless vision. - -“I suppose this extraordinary _pseudo-sun_,” said the Professor after -some moments’ silence “is the most astounding thing we have seen. It is -certainly unaccountable. Its power to illuminate, warm and enliven this -little continent within the circle of the Perpetual Nimbus surpasses -comprehension. On what theory of physics—for of course it is not an -extra-terrestrial phenomenon—can it be accounted for?” - -“How about this Radium. There’s light and heat in that isn’t there?” -asked Hopkins. - -“Of course, as we know it in its bromide salt. But the radium couldn’t -be a fixed object in the sky, and, if on the earth, what fixes its rays -or converges them on one spot, and what is the radiant material of that -spot itself?” - -“I have been thinking,” said Goritz, standing up, while our Eskimo -escort gathered around us, and listened with a gravity that half -persuaded me they understood us, “I have been thinking that there is a -vortex of dust up there in that nebulous mass, that heat and light reach -it from some terrestrial source and are again reflected earthward. Would -that meet the problem?” - -“Perhaps,” assented the Professor, and even as he spoke the light -everywhere about us diminished, so that the valley became hidden in a -most dismal half light, and then that feeble illumination vanished, and -we were literally plunged in darkness. Waning of the light, amounting -sometimes almost to extinction, and lasting for some hours, had been -constantly observed by us on our journey from the coast, but nothing so -complete as this. We were pretty well astonished, and remained silent, -expecting some novel demonstration, for now we had become so convinced -of our immersion in a sea of Sinbad-like adventure, that we were not -only prepared but almost impatient for still newer and newer and -stranger happenings. - -The Eskimos were as silent as ourselves, but when in perhaps half an -hour the light revealed itself again in the sky, as spluttering -radiations, somewhat like the splattering of sparks about a slowly -reconstructed arc light, and then became continuous, and then gradually -swelled to its original intensity, and the valley once more glowed under -our eyes, they began singing. It seemed to be some hymn or religious -chant and we connected it at once with superstitious feeling over the -removal and renewal of the light. - -It was a wearisome iterative sing-song drone, rising and falling in -pitch, and sometimes deriving a rhythmical accent from the clapping of -their hands. The voices were not unmusical, and there was enough -vocality in the words to even elicit an approach to charm. When later we -heard this same song sung by thousands, its reinforced effectiveness -produced a positive spell. - -It was time to proceed; our guard evidently thought so. The captain -shook us each by the arm, pointed down the road, and we tramped away, -watched eagerly by the few inmates of this roadside house—a man, his -wife, and three rabbit-eyed, almost naked kids. The road passed through -a gateway of stone, hewn in the cliffs, and with a moderate grade -conducted us some ten hundred feet in vertical descent, into the Valley -of Rasselas. - -It was the last step on our long journey, the goal of dreams had been -reached, Krocker Land was discovered, and now the revelation was to be -crowned by a closing and incalculable drama. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER X - - RADIUMOPOLIS - - -There had been noticeable for some time a change in temperature. It grew -colder and the recurrent periods of darkness were more frequent. It -almost seemed as if the stationary sun responded to the secular changes -produced by the apparent motion of the firmamental sun, and that, while -light remained, a reduced form of winter might still be expected in this -oddly conditioned corner of the earth. - -Already in some way the rumor of our approach had spread far and wide. -The fields were at first crossed by solitary figures trooping to the -roadside to see the strangers. These were shepherds of the great flocks -of goats and sheep, whose slowly shifting masses drifted over the meadow -in irregular blotches of white and brown and black. At times, where we -crossed marshy exposures on either side of us, the gurgle of chattering -water fowl reached us, and then when we attained a higher ground hosts -of red and blue iris-like plants clothed the edges of the fields, from -whose corollas rose, like a visible incense, innumerable white and -yellow moths or butterflies. It all was transcendently novel and -interesting, and though occasionally we shivered when some chilliness -entered the air, from passing breezes flung into the valley from the -vast cold outside, we almost forgot our discomfort in our excitement and -enthrallment. - -The spectators along the route became more numerous, a wide-eyed, open -mouthed throng, at first scarcely vocal, just an amused, staring -audience. They were made up of the larger serving, working class—those I -have designated as Eskimos—and they hung over each other’s shoulders in -mute astonishment, their black eyes sharply scrutinizing us, and very -often their fingers pushed out in expressive glee at the Professor, -whose superb shabbiness and challenging splendor of hair always evoked -the liveliest pleasure. - -But as we advanced, mile upon mile, over a road of perfect -construction—evenly arched and well ditched on both sides—we observed a -changing character in our audience. The little people were thronging in. -They came from distant low villages and they imparted a contrasted -demeanor to the wayside. They were mildly clamorous and critical. They -broke into ejaculations, hallooed salutations, and extended comments -which kept them amused and vibrating with curiosity. A few sombre older -people remained silent or grunted a few monosyllables to each other, but -the younger element was quite irrepressible. At one place where the road -crossed a village community, the guards had to become rigorous in -maintaining an open path for us, and into large trees—a tree that here -resembled the top-heavy Pawlonia of Asia—urchins nimble as monkeys had -climbed in clusters, and dropped on us nuts and grain and leaves. - -“Well the kids have the right spirit. I feel more at home now when the -_enfant terrible_ shows up. Where the youngsters have a sense of fun it -seems to me the fathers won’t have gotten so far beyond it, as to serve -us up in an imperial banquet, cut off our heads as intruders, or feed us -to the Crocodilo-Python,” said Hopkins to me who was just alongside of -him. “I’m half afraid they’ve taken a shine to us, and will have us up -in some municipal museum for the education of the public. I feel anxious -about the Professor. They surely think he’s a most attractive wild -beast.” - -And now we were trudging through a farm land; agricultural acres -expanded before and around us; the bean, wheat, rye; the grape, apple, -cherry; clover fields and honey hives were in evidence, though the -harvesting—far later than in the south, a singular inversion again -proceeding from the influence of the stationary sun—had been completed. -The red and yellow houses of adobe tile or brick were gathered in small -clusters and when, over long distances they sprinkled the tawny or sear -landscape with patches of bright color, like bits of new cloth on a worn -gown, the effect was delightful. - -Our spirits rose; although prisoners over whom no doubt some national -parley or pow-wow would be seriously held, and although distrustful of -the obsequious gestures (most decidedly so in my case) with which the -“little doctors” had invited us to return with the guard to the -_somewhere_ we must be now approaching, still the winning charm of the -land, the agreeable manners of the little people, and the stolid -unconcern of the larger race half convinced me that our fate wouldn’t be -a tragic one. Our most ominous thoughts were connected with those -dreadful metal tubes! - -I took occasion to study the people. The larger serving or inferior -class were Mongolian in type; they resembled a taller, more slender and -less intelligent Eskimo norm, but the little people presented a -surprising range of individual variation. The tallest of these latter -were almost four feet in height, the smallest scarcely exceeded three. -Literally they were a boreal pygmy race. The dominating peculiarity -among them was a tendency to macrocephalism which in the “little -doctors” became exaggerated, and made them overbalanced and grotesque. -In many the heads did not too obviously exceed a normal size, and the -lower limbs were almost normally developed, giving them shapeliness. The -women were very strikingly less afflicted with “big-headedness,” and in -them too the nose, attaining among the men a preponderant magnitude was -much more moderate in size. Many of the young women were very pretty, a -few almost beautiful, and the becoming attire of the tunic, the loose -trousers bound, in many instances, with gold anklets, the abundant black -hair coiled up in coronal chignons, and sinuously decorated with the -gold serpent-shaped pins, administered a piquant loveliness. Generally -the men were not so attractive; an unpleasant lankiness of limb, and -(because of a deficient dental development) sunken cheeks, with narrow -chests, and their unusual heads, on which too in a great number of cases -an extreme scantiness of hair was observable, robbed them of physical -rhythm and proportion. But again among them were also striking -exceptions, and these gained immensely in comeliness from the average -homeliness of their associates. The older men universally affected -beards, which some compensatory whim in nature made abundant. All were -dark. - -My greatest achievement in observation on this long march was the -certain identification of the language with a Semitic tongue, and the -detection among the taller people of an Eskimo dialect. This last -discovery was made by the help of Goritz, whose knowledge of the eastern -Eskimo dialects was extensive, although he at first questioned my -conclusions. The reasons are philological and I pass over them. I hope -to discuss the matter before the congress of Americanists, to be held in -Philadelphia next year. It is enough for the following chapters of my -narrative to say that I became proficient (reasonably so) through my -intimate acquaintance with Hebrew, with the speech of the “little -doctors,” and Goritz acquired a less facile mastery of the Eskimo -tongue. The recognition of corruption in sound of a few consonants and a -peculiar ellipsis of some vowels, in the first case, accomplished the -feat for myself. When I told Hopkins of my success he was overjoyed. - -“Alfred, that is dandy. If we can tell what they’re talking about, and -get a line on their plans we’ll skin through all right. When the proper -moment comes let ’em know you’re wise to their gibberish, and they’ll -take water quick enough. Why, we might start a revolution, if they try -to put it over us. The big fellows could sweep them like chaff—and then -our GUNS.” - -“Yes,” I curtly interjected. “And their tubes?” Spruce was silent. - -We had now been five days on our march and our progress had been -alternately hastened and retarded by the curiosity of the people. -Hastened when messages from nearby villages along the road came to our -captain urging speed, that the citizens of these country communities -might inspect us a little longer; retarded by reason of this same -importunity to allow the gathering countryside the gratification of the -show. For literally we had become that, and had there been an -enterprising manager to exploit our novelty his receipts would have been -enviable. The crowds increased, the rumor of our approach spread on -every side, and to meet their unappeasable wonder over our appearance we -were stuck up on platforms in the squares or open places in the villages -and watched, studied and applauded by the insatiable throngs. It was -indeed a stupefying experience. Certainly it was abundantly ludicrous -and amusing as well. Hopkins of course enjoyed it. Goritz was patient -and obscurely piqued by it, the Professor regarded it as ethnologically -delightful, and I took advantage of the display to note the people and -their speech. - -“I have served a good many purposes in my life,” said Hopkins, “but I -never supposed I’d make a drawing card in a traveling circus. Our united -effect is really gorgeous. I should think they might improve the show by -some fresh clothes. But say—the Professor is immense. And he TAKES. The -way they shout and rubberneck to get nearer to him will start something -doing. If the Professor only had a little political ambition and an -ounce of sense he’d organize a campaign that would land him in the -presidential chair. And then! Well then we’d all be prime ministers, and -hand out the dope to these babies in a manner so impressive that we’d -hold the job down tight, until we could get away with the loot. We’d -make Goritz treasurer and he’d come the Tammany act on ’em so strong -that maybe we could leave with all the goods worth having in the -country, in our jeans. Eh? - -“Look at ’em, now, surveying the Professor. I feel an artistic jealousy -of that red hair of his. It certainly has ’em guessing. Perhaps they -think it’s a kind of halo, always on fire. He certainly must keep it on -his head. It’s our salvation. Let the local barbers touch that, and find -out it’s just plain scissorable wool, and we’re in the soup—and the -Professor? Well, they won’t do a thing to him.” - -This fifth day turned out to be the last one of our march. A memorable -day it was. Larger and larger grew the crowds; they met us, streaming -along evidently from some near point of population, and, as now the -captain of our guard would allow no delay or halt, we assumed that our -destination was almost at hand. Attaining it formed a new thrill. - -We had come to a marked irregularity in the topographic monotony of the -valley, a high, evenly sloped ridge curving away on either side, which -might be the arc of a continuous or completed circle, or just a natural -accident. The broad road ascended this hill. We had just stepped out on -the summit, when one of the intermittent light flashes or sunbursts -blazed on the strange scene before our eyes. We were looking into a -dish-like area, for such it seemed, as we could trace north and south -the circumvallation of the ridge, and it was filled with settlements -which became denser in the distance, and in that distance (later we -discovered it was about the center of the circular enclosure) rose the -dazzling pediments, stories and wings, of a GOLD HOUSE. - -Nothing could be more astonishing. Instinctively we came to a full stop -and gazed. And our companions, familiar with the spectacle, were -arrested by the sudden apocalyptic flashing of light from the burnished -building, as “of summer lightning on a dark night suddenly exposing -unsuspected realms of fantastic and poetical suggestion.” (A line, Mr. -Link, I found last night in a book by George Saintsbury.) But the -suggestions here were overwhelmingly fantastic. - -Imagine a swelling mound tapering to a narrow platform, itself created -by the leveling art of the engineers, surmounted by a curiously heaped -up succession of stories, which were buttressed below by extensions and -porticoes, and frescoed or incrusted throughout by rude and hieratic -ornamentation—an ornamentation that certainly had more lucidity than the -confused medley of symbol and ideograph at Copán, but which had not yet -freed itself from a mixture of extravagance and realism. Then finally -imagine this executed in what seemed to be pure gold, and all glittering -in a quick concentration of light. It was refulgent and it was -unearthly. Below it spread the dull tawniness of an outreaching -terracotta city. - -“What have we come to?” faltered Goritz, who was transfixed by this new -wonder. - -“It might be called,” said Hopkins, “the Desire of All Nations; at least -it would look that way to a thoroughbred anywhere inside of Christendom. -I wonder how long that pile would stand on the principal street of the -capitals of the world! The army, with fixed bayonets, shot guns, and -dynamite bombs, couldn’t keep the gentlemen of America or the -spend-thrifts of Europe from getting their hooks in somewhere. I think -it must be the Casino; nothing short of Policy or Poker could keep up an -establishment like that. Gold must be very cheap hereabouts, or else the -people need a little free schooling as to the particular and pleasant -uses it can be put to. Looks that way.” - -“Ah,” spoke up the Professor. “Barter, primal conditions, prevail here, -where a medium of exchange is hardly needed. Gold to these people is a -color, an ornament. With it they have no more than without it, for every -desire is satisfied, and the pride of possession or the sentiment of -avarice is unknown. All are equally happy, and all are equally rich or -poor. Gold has an interest to them because it pleases the eye, and it is -here dedicated to personal or religious distinctions, but as _wealth_, -in our sense, it has no value. These flocks, these acres of grain and -fruits, mean subsistence, but GOLD is something to look at—simply. Its -name here has probably no meaning of commercial utility.” - -“Pretty good for the eyes though, Professor,” was Hopkins’ rejoinder, -“and as for the name I don’t recall anything - - Which acts so direct, and with so much effect - On the human sensorium, or makes one erect - One’s ears so, as soon as the sound we detect, - -unless perhaps—it might be—BEER—in a drought.” - -“Well,” in an undertone from Goritz, “if Gold has no practical uses in -this outlandish nook of the world, we can take enough of it away with us -to a place where it’s more useful than ornamental.” - -“Have a care,” warned Hopkins. “Our heads had better be kept on our -shoulders, too. Remember, Goritz, you’ve considerable loot in your pack -now. If they give us the third degree, and start in on a customs house -search, we may get to another place where—where Gold wouldn’t be worth -the handling, because of the heat, or otherwise, or because our -immediate necessities were otherwise provided for.” - -All this while we were again rapidly moving on, and with each step, -while the marvel before us grew larger, plainer, some of its first -surprising effectiveness changed. It began to be seen that it was little -more than a piled up structure of the communal dwellings which dotted -the plain beneath it, but on it a queer aboriginal fancy had stuck -plates of gold,—or what seemed to be gold—and that its corners were -decorated with upraised standards of gold delineating the patron god, or -demon, of the establishment, the Crocodilo-Python. Over it too in whirls -and corkscrew spirals spread innumerable folded scrolls and winding -figures whose lumpy extremities betokened the heads of snakes. It was -not long before we had gained the heart of the city. Everywhere it had -been a monotonous series of the tile huts, stuck in tiers, one series -over another, such as description and photographs have made so familiar -from the Arizona and New Mexico region. There was now a much smaller -admixture of the taller people, and the little men and women appeared to -be almost the only occupants of the city. - -We had come almost underneath the pimple-like excrescence on which the -golden habitation sat, like a yellow corolla on the green bulb of a -thistle, and we found a space surrounding it of about a thousand feet in -width, filled with enclosures holding, to our amazement, large black -snakes, the congeners exactly of those held aloft, in the procession we -had met, on golden rods. The walls of these enclosures were of tile or -rudely baked bricks; some were screened with an open wicker work, which -in many instances had become dilapidated or were quite worthless as -fences to prevent the egress of the snakes. In the enclosure bushes and -weedy herbs flourished, and their occupants hung from the branches of -these or torpidly lay in the grass beneath, in repulsive bunches. I -admit my unreasonable aversion to snakes, and these extraordinary -protected nurseries overcame me with disgust. Hopkins was hardly less -disturbed. To the Professor and to Goritz they were manifestly -attractive. - -“St. Patrick can’t be the patron saint here,” said Hopkins, “and -whatever language they speak it pretty certainly is not Irish. I think -no one could mistake their brogue for anything heard in Cork or Dublin. -As for the snakes, I guess what Bobbie Burns said to the louse will fit -them, - - ‘Ye ugly creepin, blastit wonners, - Detested, shunn’d by saunt and sinners.’” - -“Every step we take,” solemnly rejoined the Professor, “discloses new -wonders. To me it is quite evident that the trail of the ethnic origins -of Tree and Serpent worship crosses the pole!” - -“Yes,” shouted Hopkins, “and to me, it’s quite evident that the trail of -these reptiles crosses ours. Look out there!” - -He pointed ahead and over the road stretched the wriggling bodies of -twenty or thirty faintly spotted black snakes, sleek and graceful, their -heads raised indifferently in a cool inspection of our approach, and -their tongues quivering in defiance. - -As soon as they were perceived by our guard, the leader raised his hand, -and we waited for their ophidian majesties to satisfy their curiosity, -and pass on, which they did, swaying the cropped grass on the wayside -and vanishing into one of the neighboring pounds over its loosened -dejected blocks. It was quite clear that the city of Radiumopolis—so we -came to distinguish it later—might prove unpleasantly full of these -creatures, for whom the citizens maintained a most disagreeably pious -regard. It reminded the Professor of the great center of Serpent Worship -at Epidaurus, where stood the famous temple to Aesculapius and the grove -attached to it in which serpents were kept and fed, down to the time of -Pausanius. - -Once over the peripheral plain we began the ascent of the mound at its -center. There was a simple stateliness about this terraced rise of -steps, formed of a red tile or brick, from its very gradual recession -and its extreme width. Here our eyes measured and studied the -astonishing house, or temple, or Capitol, which was to be for us -doubtless a “house of detention” also. - -It was a square composite, with openings on three sides—those we could -see—and pierced by window embrasures, sensibly regular in their spacing. -Porches extended outward from the openings and on these a little rather -unsuccessful decorative construction had been expended. Over each porch -entrance was the literal reproduction in gold and in stucco of the local -deity, in addition to the upraised images—careening and expanded like -hippogriffs—at the four corners of the building. These latter were made -entirely of gold, and represented thousands and thousands of dollars. It -was indeed stupifying to estimate their probable value. - -The gold surface of the Capitol proved to be a plastering of gold -plates, not so well or so carefully executed as to preclude the constant -exposure of the underlying adobe. But this prodigious prodigality of -gold was again most incredible. - -We were conducted at once into the _Acropolis_ so the Professor styled -it—noting before we entered a serviceable courtyard around it, which -secured a little dignity from a wall of bricks interrupted by higher -pillars, and also rimmed with gold. Entering a broad hallway we were -overcome by the pervasive softly emitted radiance from lamps of mineral -on clumsy stands, and held on round gold saucers or servers. - -“Radium,” said the Professor. “It is exactly as I have been suspecting. -These people have gained access to some vast deposit of this -miracle-working element. It not unreasonably may be supposed that it is -exposed in some chasm in the crust of the earth, entering to great -depths, and perhaps impinging on such central masses as have been -interpolated in some recent physical speculations, as giving rise to the -_static_ heat of the earth. Here we probably have an explanation of the -abundance of gold—_transmutation_! And here too some adequate -explanation of the stationary sun rays converted by reflection into -light and heat—Astounding! Astounding!! Astounding!!!” - -To me the fascination, in a way, of all this mixture of wonders and -horrors (the snake and later discoveries and episodes) and primal -simplicity, was just that incalculable oddness or mystery of the -conjunction of some almost superhuman power with the weird religion and -the archaic habits. I cannot describe how perversely it affected me, -sometimes raising my interest to a fever heat, and again filling me with -a tormenting fury of desire to make my escape. - -We passed through the hall, our guard, at some gesture from the captain, -closing around, and as we emerged at its further end, again upon the -outside court, I, looking back, saw attendants cover the radium masses -with opaque caps. We were now in a somewhat contrasted entourage. On -this side of the Capitol the city seemed excluded, and a rather thick -wood and an untamed undergrowth, through which however stretched a broad -highway, monopolized the ground westward. We had entered both the city -and the Capitol from the east. In an adjoining yard at the foot of -another symmetrically disposed terrace of steps was a closed tenement, -and into this we were led. - -Imagine our delight to find it occupied by an immense basin or pool, -into which two conduits poured hot and cold water. The immense bath was -even then gently steaming; the outer air had grown increasingly colder. -Rough masonry couches, covered with rugs, had been built against the -walls, and on the edge of the huge tank were scattered white chunks -which, at first conceived to be soap, turned out to be an indifferent -substitute, in the shape of an unctuous and gritty clay. - -This delightful prospect almost brought shouts to our lips, and Hopkins -raising his hands in mock homage and gratitude, exclaimed: - - “But this day of water, cleanliness, and soap, - I shall carry to the Catacombs of Hope, - Photographically lined - On the tablets of my mind, - When a yesterday seems to me remote.” - -And to crown all we were given the tunic and trousers of Radiumopolis -with the belt and enigmatically engraved buckle—of lead, to Goritz’s -ill-suppressed mortification. And then we were taken back into the -Capitol, and alloted four rooms facing the east, each provided with a -window, from which we would now surely be able to watch the pageant of -the returning worshippers, priests or celebrants. These rooms deserve a -passing consideration. They were low ceilinged, moderate spaced, their -floors carpeted with a rude figured matting (again the conventional -Crocodilo-Python) their walls hung with rugs far less artistic than the -Navajo blanket, low couches upholstered with matting and rugs or -carpets, and across the doorway a surprisingly artistic tapestry of gold -threads, figuring the Crocodilo-Python in a maze of interlacing and -sinuous outlines, something like the convoluted sea dragon on the jade -screens of China. One of these curtains hung at the entrance of almost -every room in the Capitol, and they were very numerous and capable of -accommodating a remarkable number of people. - -There were on the ground floor—where our own rooms had auspiciously been -reserved—large assembly rooms, or audience and council chambers, and, as -the sequel shows, one of these was the Throne Room. There was no glass -covering to the windows; perhaps in a few instance screens of leather, -which were inserted in the openings of the rooms, helped to exclude the -cold, such as it was. Rain was kept out by board frames. We found out -that there was seldom a cold exceeding 0° Centigrade, and that radium -stoves or our clothing itself, mitigated any severity of weather the -denizens of these houses experienced. Everything reinforced our first -impressions, that the culture of the Radiumopolites was simple, -unostentatious, a little grotesque and savage, but that their proximity -to some source of radium had evolved a mysterious power among their wise -men, which had overlaid the _supellex_ of their culture with this -resplendent glory of GOLD. Was it, as the Professor more and more -confidently believed—was it _transmutation_? - -In our rooms we were supplied with the radium lamps and were made to -understand that too long exposure to their influence was dangerous. Once -in possession of this marvel we surrendered almost all curiosity to the -inspection of the transcendent material. Facts connected with its -properties and its power are considered in another place; our immediate -history in our new surroundings claims precedence now. We were permitted -the liberty of the courtyard around the Capitol, but were not allowed to -descend the hill, nor to investigate the surrounding city. Of course we -saw the occupants of the Capitol, who evidently formed a restricted and -semi-imperial class, and the many messengers, tradespeople or -supplicants who every day came out of the city. - -The small people were immensely the more interesting of the two types. -They varied much among themselves, and exhibited individualities of -temperament, behavior and feature, that were most absorbing. One defect -amongst them was the imperfect and incomplete teeth, especially in the -men, the apparently thin-shanked (_platynemic_) legs, and the somewhat -constricted chests, indications, taken in connection with their large -heads, that the Professor interpreted as evidence of great racial age. -The women were often sharply contrasted with the men, being larger, more -shapely, and often boasting really extraordinary beauty. This was most -marked in the residents in the Capitol, and one of these ladies of the -Capitol whom we later encountered promenading the courtyard quite -enthralled us. Her own appreciation of the Yankee was on her side -equally enthusiastic. - -We had our meals served to us in a separate room, attended by servants -of the larger race. We sat at a table covered with a yellow cloth, with -designs woven upon it of the ubiquitous Crocodilo-Python, and we ate -from square dishes of pottery, also yellow and bordered by blue -traceries of interwoven serpents, which revolted both Hopkins and -myself. Our cuisine was not much varied, and the most pleasing element -was the delicious wine. The flat meal cakes, nuts, fruit and dishes of -goat and sheep meat, with some vegetables, were offered relentlessly day -after day, and it occurred to Hopkins that if he could have had an -assorted shipment from Park and Tilford’s, and been allowed to make a -few simple experiments in the kitchen he could easily have raised the -standard of living immensely. - -But I was making remarkable progress in acquiring the tongue of the -upper classes. My excellent knowledge of Hebrew made this practicable, -and in a short time, before the return of the Councilors, Priests or -Governors from their peripatetic religious pilgrimage made it supremely -helpful, I could actually converse intelligibly, and from carefully -enunciated addresses understand my interlocutor. I was most lucky in -hitting on a very sympathetic teacher. It was no less a one than Ziliah, -the daughter of Javan, the president of the Council and Ruler of the -Capitol. He was the benignant and expostulating little gentleman we had -encountered when our mishap precipitated us from the pine tree top. She, -his daughter, was certainly the fairest of the children of Radiumopolis, -and her wandering and liquid eyes had never been more satisfied than -they were now with the sweet boyish beauty of Spruce Hopkins, the -Yankee. - -Ziliah Lamech—if I may adopt the Gentile practices of nomenclature—was -one of the larger women, and exhibited a different and piquant skill in -dress. Her trousers were rather baggy, her skirts looped on the sides, -so that her pretty feet in embroidered goatskin sandals were -delightfully visible. The belt of gold plates and the wonderful buckle -of gold clasped her waist, constricting the blowsy upper tunic, which -was a delicate blue, and enriched by interwoven threads of gold. It was -loosened at her neck and the dark, smooth skin bared at her finely -shaped neck, was decorated by a series of delicate gold chains in a -composite flat necklace. Her abundant hair, as with the women we had met -in the pine forest, was made up in compact rolls, that were held in -place by the gold serpent pins, and from her small ears hung tiny bells -of gold. - -Her face, as I carefully studied it, was distinctly Jewish. The features -were really perfect, and the mingled softness and intelligence of her -expression, the half denoted charm of extreme sensibility in her eyes, -the mobility and loveliness of her mouth, a swaying grace in her -motions, an indefinable distinction too in the carriage of her head, and -the enticing fullness of her bared arms—the sleeves of her upper garment -were caught up to her shoulders by broad loops of ornamented -gold—combined to make of her a captivating and most novel picture. She -it was, whose heart the errant little god Cupid had now sadly transfixed -with his stinging arrows, and her heart was beating wildly under the -loosened folds of her jacket with love for the blond American. - -It was my opportunity. Love is a quick teacher, and makes quick -confidences, especially with naive and unsophisticated natures, as now, -in this little princess of the north. She met us frequently in the -courtyard surrounding the huge glittering Capitol where we were -constantly strolling, and I recall the extraordinary picture she made, -when one of the black lustrous snakes rose from the parapet on the edge -of the hill as she was passing. She bowed to us, seized the reptile, -wound it around her body, and lifted, above her own, its big -wedge-shaped head, with one hand, holding with the other its scaly loops -at her waist. The effort brought color to her cheeks, excitement to her -eyes, and though neither Hopkins nor myself admired the combination, her -beauty won from the fantastic, or repellent, contrast a most singular -thrall. - -There was a maidenly coquetry with her, as became her degree, for she -retired after disengaging the creature, throwing it back down the -hillside, whence it sped to the immense preserve below reserved for -these unpleasing guests. The ophidian impress everywhere was to me -almost unbearable. These snakes traveled from their enclosures, more or -less frequently, in all directions; they were numerous in the city, -though, and, after their secretive habits, were discovered most -unalluringly in corners, eaves, holes, roofs, hanging from trees, or -nestled on clothes. In the Capitol or Palace they were not so common, -and probably were never found above the first floor. - -Hopkins of course realized his conquest, but Hopkins decidedly abhorred -snakes. When the beautiful Ziliah vanished, he said with a most comical -grimace: - -“A married life with a snake lady wouldn’t be much better than a -lifelong companionship with a gin mill,” an ungallant commentary which I -denounced. - -Ziliah and I loitered long together until under her adroit tutelage I -became almost proficient in this unquestionably deteriorated Hebrew -tongue. And then, when we fairly understood each other—how the questions -flew! She exulted in telling me all she knew about her people, and the -exchange on my part, in telling her of our origin and home, with welcome -dilations on the talent and prowess of the adorable Spruce, only too -well repaid her efforts. I told all these things to my friends, and for -long hours we would discuss and rehearse them with increasing amazement. -In conjunction with all that I learned later, the picture to be -presented of Radiumopolis, the Radiumopolites, and their country—KROCKER -LAND—is mainly as follows: - -The Valley of Rasselas lies to the southwest of the Krocker Land -terrain, and the city of Radiumopolis to the southwestern corner of the -valley itself. They are eccentrically related to the vast domain of -encircling mountains, and to the stupendous gorge of the Perpetual -Nimbus, which seems throughout its extent to penetrate to uncooled or -igneous wombs of the earth. But at one point westward there is a -superimposed gorge that actually cuts the first encircling monstrous -crack, and through this secondary gorge, cutting the first to immense -depths, pours the deluge of the waters of the river that empties the -Saurian Sea into the Canon of Promise. (See Chapter VI.) This great -river enters the Valley of Rasselas towards the northwest, and after a -short, peaceful transit, as a brimming flood through wide savannahs, it -turns abruptly westward in an entrenched conduit and resumes its -terrible course through the canon I named the Canon of Escape. Through -this awful defile and on the surging flood of that river I made my own -exit from Krocker Land, reached Beaufort Sea, Behring Straits, and -finally San Francisco. Goritz’s appellation for the gorge beyond the -Saurian Sea is, however, justified because of the river’s final, though -brief, passage across one extremity of the blissful Valley of Rasselas. - -Immediately southward, west of Radiumopolis, are hot springs, a sort of -geyser basin, whence hot waters are constantly derived for the baths of -the city—and we found the latter to be numerous. Beyond these again, in -the same direction, the continental rift of the Perpetual Nimbus almost -closes, and the horrible crack becomes a crevice easily crossed. But -beyond it again, in a crustal split that defies computation to measure, -or science to explain, or experience to equal, lies, probably a radium -(?) mass fifty or more miles in linear extent, with a width of three or -four miles, and from which constantly pours an almost cosmic immensity -of heat and light—_emanation-niton_. Its environs are withered, blasted -deserts of rock. No one has ever approached it. Its emanation strikes a -bare mountain face beyond it—a part of the Krocker Land Rim—and the -incalculable volume of rays (Cathode Rays) reflected into the upper -atmosphere over Krocker Land and immediately superior to the Valley of -Rasselas, are somehow arrested in a nebulous ganglion which forms the -Stationary Sun of this utterly fabulous region. This sun is really not -stationary, nor is it in any sense equable, as hints in my narrative -have already indicated. It moves, drifts north and south, east and west, -undergoes perturbations, dies out, flares up, and would, to a properly -equipped meteorological corps, stationed at Radiumopolis, furnish, I -believe, an object of study absolutely unrivaled in terrestrial science. - -But from time immemorial in the radium land fragments, nodules of a -grayish or brownish mineral, were picked up and their _nuclei_ were -later revealed to be pure radium (they called it _Luxto_), and from -these by an accident—still retained in the tradition of the people as a -heavenly bestowed revelation or miracle—the power of transmutation was -learned. - -Mr. Link, we had already suspected this, as you know, but when I -actually learned it from the lips of Ziliah—the love-dazed Ziliah—I -verily doubted my existence for a moment. In connection with the whole -complex, so to speak, of wonders, it produced a half vertiginous feeling -hard to describe. Ziliah’s story was in this wise: - -“A long, long, long, time ago, after a long darkness in the Stationary -Sun, a terrible storm broke over Radiumopolis. The thunder, the -lightning flashes, had never before been heard or seen, and there roared -through the air an awful, destructive wind. It upset houses, blew over -part of the Capitol, razed the trees; and then amid the thunder and the -lightning, in a downrush of air, came a stranger, a little man strangely -dressed in white with a black cap, and he had a dark face. He stayed -with the people and taught them many things, but only to the _rulers_, -the older men, the men of the council, would he teach the secret of -making gold. He took them away with him on a journey westward to the -radium country. They were absent many days and when they returned they -were in rags, and their faces were pale, and haggard, but their hands -and their pockets were filled with lumps of gold. The little stranger -left as he had come in another awful storm. He went upward in a -whirlwind and rode like a ghost through fearful gusts and disappeared in -a roar of thunder and blaze of light, and a circle of flame descended -from his feet and burnt a deep hole in the ground, as anyone can see to -this day, below the hill in the snake pasture. But that wasn’t all. He -carried away with him the beautiful daughter of the Head Man and she -never was seen again.” - -“Why,” exclaimed Hopkins, when I repeated the legend, “it’s a clear case -again of Alice Hatton and the Devil, though in that case Old Nick left -nothing behind him but a bad smell: - - “Now high, now low, now fast and now slow, - In terrible circumgyration they go— - The flame colored belle and her coffee faced beau! - Up they go once and up they go twice! - Round the hall! Round the hall! And now up they go thrice. - Now one grand pirouette the performance to crown, - Now again they go up, and they NEVER COME DOWN!” - -Whatever the legend meant it intimated that someone had discovered this -peculiar power in the radium mineral, and the knowledge had been -carefully guarded, though, as Goritz said, “Of what use was the -knowledge when gold was needed by no one?” - -But the power itself, its physical or chemical postulates, the method, -the material! Later we learned something, but not much, and I trust it -may be reserved for Science, _with the material at my command_ (which -exerts this miraculous power) to solve the problem of the ages. - -Ziliah told me something of the origins of her people and this curious -civilization of theirs, but it was vague and inconclusive. The small -people were an intensive people, whose unresisted control of a -physically stronger and bolder race resembles some of the ethnic -phenomena of Asia and Africa. Their literature was practically little -else than long genealogies, the traditions transmitted by word of mouth -of former rulers, councils, the doings of a few notables, and a -cosmology which very singularly resembled the story recently deciphered -on a Sumerian relic by Professor Arno Poebel of the University of -Pennsylvania. - -In fact these Radiumopolites had lived uneventful lives and the -incidents of history were controlled exclusively by the incidents of -weather, the atmospheric and terrestrial perturbations involved in their -unique environment. When had they reached this extraordinary polar -depression? Were they autochthonous? Was it not more likely that the -Eskimo people had assimilated with them, and had been absorbed rather -than, as in Ziliah’s account, the reverse? These were unanswered -questions. To propose them only covered Ziliah’s face with the shroud of -an unhappy perplexity. - -Their social economic life was very simple. As far as Ziliah could tell -me they had always been governed by a patrician class, constituted of -two orders, one the Eminences of the Capitol, to which Javan, Ziliah’s -father, belonged, and who numbered some twenty-four, presided over by a -President, and all of whose families, retainers, etc., were for the most -part domiciled in the great Capitol building; and the Magistrates of the -city, who ruled over wards or bailiwicks, living in superior structures, -whose roofs were also distinguished by gold plates, and which throughout -the city blazed picturesquely among the lowlier red buildings. - -The religion in primitive communities, always a controlling and -oftentimes the most distinctive feature of their culture, was in the -Krocker Land people a monotheistic faith which, however, secured the -satisfaction of visualization in a deeply rooted and superstitious Tree -and Serpent worship. Yet THERE WERE NO PRIESTS. And this anomalous -condition was explained partially by Ziliah, who told me that it had -years before been instituted as a Law of the People that only a King -could be their Priest. Whether they had ever had Kings she did not know -but there was some prophecy made by one of the wise old men of the -Council, a hundred or more years ago that a King would fall out of the -clouds to them, that he would look like a poor man, that he would not -know their language, that he would bring them a new wisdom. It was some -time before I could make out the meaning of this. It dawned on me at -last. Its full meaning received a startling explanation later. The -services of the religion were controlled by the Council (the Areopagus, -as the Professor styled it) of little Wise Men, and one prominent -feature was this periodic peregrination through the great Pine Forest -when the selected shrines were visited, the votive tablets nailed to the -sacred trees, and the black snakes left to protect them. When I told -Hopkins about all this he shook his head gloomily; - -“Yes, and how about Goritz’s loot? I guess the God of Krocker Land won’t -stand for that. Erickson we’ll get it in the neck yet. The Professor is -our trump card.” - -“Oh, yes,” I replied. “How about yourself? The fair Ziliah pulls well -with her father, I guess, and you _pull_ well with her!” - -Hopkins gave me a derisive glance. “Oh of course. We’ll do the Captain -Reece stunt—you remember? - - “The captain saw the dame that day - Addressed her in his playful way— - ‘And did it want a wedding ring? - It was a tempting ickle sing! - - “‘Well, well the chaplain I will seek, - We’ll all be married this day week, - At yonder church upon the hill; - It is my duty, and I will!’ - - “The sisters, cousins, aunts and shape - Of every black enlivening snake - Attended there as they were bid; - It was their duty and they did.” - -Of course in exchange for all these confidences, if they could be called -that, Ziliah exacted some confidences in return, and I confess I had to -resort somewhat to invention, where I did not have Hopkins’ precise -directions in the matter, in meeting her exorbitant curiosity over -everything concerning America. This disquisitional curiosity was -singular in an unsophisticated maiden of a semi-civilized people who, it -might have been supposed, would have contented herself with the -indulgence of her affections and felt no interest in her hero’s history. - -But so it was. Spruce Hopkins understood her admiration, but was -extremely puzzled, certainly at first, as to his own legitimate behavior -in the affair. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - THE CRATER OF EVERLASTING LIGHT - - -The return of the Ophidian Pilgrims, as the Professor termed them, -seemed unreasonably slow. The wardens, Ziliah, and the servants of the -Capitol were all equally mystified over this unusual slowness. Cold, dry -weather supervened, for indeed the stationary sun seemed sensibly to -respond to the secular influences of the seasons, as we know them. We -had all been too sufficingly engaged in studying our new surroundings, -to regret or miss the absent Government, for a larger liberty had been -vouchsafed us, though one thing was forbidden. We could not enter the -precincts of the forest to the west of the Capitol. - -We walked through the city, we explored the Capitol, we increased our -acquaintance with the domestic habits of the populace, and the Professor -and myself had accumulated notes on all of these things, to be -incorporated in the work on Krocker Land which we fervently hoped to -write, and which now—Alas!—may never see the light, for—the Professor is -today a fixed official fact in that almost mythical land in the Arctic -Sea. But I hasten. - -Goritz had restrained with difficulty his almost uncontrollable impulse -to perpetrate some outrage on the Capitol itself in his determination to -accumulate a fortune of gold. We had averted this danger by very -emphatic protests. We pointed out to him its danger and the folly of -jeopardizing our safety when the means of getting back—I had almost said -to the Earth, as if we had actually left it—were now almost null, or -were at least desperate. We told him that the plunder in his room, if -found—and I began to fear that the depredations on the tree shrines had -already been detected and were, in some way, a cause for the delayed -return of the pilgrims—would involve us all in grave difficulties. To -our entreaties or threats he became deaf or obstinate, and I had -followed him, in the sleeping hours, when he expected to achieve his -robberies without molestation, only to intercept him chiseling at the -gold plates that encrusted the Capitol. - -In the meanwhile the Professor, whose popularity increased with -everyone, had become attracted to a young Eskimo whose first -astonishment over the Professor’s poll of red hair had been succeeded by -a sort of personal adoration. He followed the Professor with an -attachment and fascination that might have proved irksome. I made some -inquiries of my informant, the acquiescent Ziliah, about him, and -learned from her that he was a guide and the gatherer of radium. He -alone apparently was able to penetrate the strange and ghastly country -where the radium masses were collected, in that zone of the Unreal where -lay the CRATER OF EVERLASTING LIGHT. His peculiar ability arose from his -immunity to the influence of the radium itself, which invariably -prostrated those who touched it, while the region itself forbade -approach, by reason of those indeterminable emanations which destroyed -the adventurers who entered it. For some reason, or, in some way, -Oogalah Ikimya, the young Eskimo, enjoyed a unique invulnerability, and -on his efforts Radiumopolis depended for its supply of radium. This -distinction had given him a particular arrogance. He alone now dared the -inexplicable dangers, or even knew the devious route that threaded the -labyrinths leading to this unutterable place. - -When I told my friends about this, we all felt a mad desire to see, even -at a distance, this intolerable land, a mineral Gehenna. I knew of the -man’s devotion to the Professor, and I felt certain we could gain his -consent for us to accompany him. No one of us felt a keener impatience -for the trip than Antoine Goritz. I told Ziliah of our wish. She grew -pale with horror at the suggestion; her beautiful eyes pleaded with me -to abandon the suicidal project; she pointed to Spruce Hopkins in -piteous despair, she indeed flung herself at his feet, and invoked his -commiseration of her should he be lost. Then she became tempestuous with -scorn and indignation. - -We could not go. The guards would prevent us. She would summon the -magistrates of the city. Was she not Ziliah, daughter of the President, -head man of the Council? We should not stir. NOT HE. - -And that feminine transport over, she again importuned us, with terrible -threats of our fate, not to consider it; so many had perished in the -same outrageous pursuit; dead bodies marked the way; it was forbidden; -the curse of the Crocodilo-Python followed those who went there; it -meant madness, hysteria, death. - -Finally it was made clear to us that whatever Oogalah Ikimya might say -this influential and enamored young woman would prove hopelessly -obstinate. Physical force would be invoked to restrain us. Oogalah -himself rather welcomed this opportunity to show off his skill, his -exceptional prowess, but his volubility and transports availed nothing. -Hopkins executed what the French might call a _coup d’amour_ and -liberated us. His overture to the despairing or incensed Ziliah through -me was rather compromising and risky, but its effect was instantaneous -and certain. Opposition vanished when Hopkins explained that the lovely -woman _might get herself disliked_, and that any conceivable state of -future happiness for both of them depended on _his having his way_. - -So it eventually ended, as the mountainous objections seemed to melt -away like dew before the sun, that we found ourselves on the road that -led westward from Radiumopolis, under the guidance of Oogalah Ikimya, -who strode before us with rapid swinging of legs and arms, his face -radiant with pride. We had cautiously promised to be careful, not to go -farther than was prudent, to satisfy ourselves with a distant view of -the blasted land, and to return as quickly as we went, for it was -insisted that we should hold ourselves ready for the disposition of the -Council, when the long delayed pilgrims returned, to settle our fate. - -The noisy rumor of our departure for the Radium Country, and the -haggling and delays that preceded it, Ziliah’s outbursts and excitement, -the consultations over the permission to let us go at all, Oogalah’s -gossiping activity about it, led to the population’s—which besieged us -and surrounded us almost daily—outpouring on the day of our departure, -so that for miles we were accompanied by a crowd watching us with -increased wonder, and, among the older, with much ominous head shaking, -and, with the younger, many sneering comments, a little cheering and -some obstreperous farewells. The Professor evoked much enthusiasm—he -always did. I do not know the _rationale_ or the etiquette of love -matters in Krocker Land, but I remember that Hopkins took the profusely -smiling and opulently lovely, young and small Ziliah aside, and tried to -make her understand—without my help—that their public parting should be -very formal, no matter how ecstatic their private one might be. On top -of that, considerably to his disappointment or chagrin perhaps, Ziliah -hugged him pretty tightly when they stood on the terrace stairs as we -left the palace, and the very observing public gathered about were -neither amused nor interested. - -It was rather funny I thought, but I admitted, I am sure, that as a -display of superb manners it would be unmatched anywhere else in the -world of so-called culture today. Atala came into my mind, though Spruce -Hopkins was a good deal of a contrast to the sentimental Rene, and there -was a certain _aplomb_, directness, vivacity and insistence in Ziliah -that hardly suggested the Natchez maiden. And there certainly was no -Outogamiz. - -Well, at length we were on our journey. At first the highway, for, -though seldom used, this western road was in a state of fine -preservation, traversed a thick but low wood entangled with undergrowth. -We had never entered this wood before and had been especially prohibited -from entering it. Of course we tried to see all we could, but there was -absolutely nothing remarkable about it. The land to the left sloped off -into a marshy tract. The people were numerous also at this point, which -interfered with our inspection, and I know now that Oogalah, obedient to -instructions, hurried us along this section of the route—he first, the -Professor second, then Goritz, then myself, then Hopkins—until we -reached a spare, meagre country, beyond which rose the western ranges of -the Pine Tree Gredin. - -The land rose steeply, but it was almost bare, the parched soil -supported a ragged growth, and in this appeared a few stunted pine -trees. Apparently, for many miles north and south, this condition -prevailed, an unhappy and strong contrast to the pine tree zone to the -east of the amphitheater, where the land bubbled with springs, was -murmurous with brooks, and where the lofty, splendid trees spread a -temple-like shade over the vast decline. - -Beyond us already rose the faint shimmer of the _Perpetual Nimbus_, that -wall-like screen of vapor that enclosed Krocker Land within the -mountainous Rim that lies outside of this veil of cloud, though here, as -I have already noted, the Nimbus was wavering, inconstant, and in -patches of the distance absent. The Deer Fels country and the aquatic -and marshy plateaux were from here scarcely distinguishable. A level -tract of stony wastes was this, varied by occasional rugged hills, -depressions that glistened balefully, dead ravines barely supporting the -niggardly growth of sapless yellow plants that lurked here and there -below boulders, or sought the moisture of a few sullen pools whose -replenishment depended upon the infrequent but, we were told, furious -storms. - -And the Nimbus—a paltry reproduction of the incalculable vaporous -discharges that encircle at every other point this hidden paradise. The -chasm here was indeed deep, but imperfectly continuous, and huge -horsebacks of stone piled within it formed practicable though most -broken and uneven bridges across it. The steam rising from the heated -rocks below was not visibly referable to any water supply, as on the -east, where the plunging rivers so abundantly furnished the means of -raising this colossal stage curtain, and there was absent from here that -tumultuous rolling ocean of clouds in the sky. Probably underground -courses supplied the water, for, after we had surmounted one of the -least precipitous and angular of the bridges and had gotten into the -rising territory beyond, we encountered a puzzling intricacy of profound -cracks or fissures, and we could not only hear but could see the patchy -lustres of running water in them. - -From this point our guide turned abruptly northward, taking us through a -terrible desolation of rocks, with the high snow-clad peaks of the -Krocker Land Rim gloriously looming skyward on the left. I shall not -forget that strange transit. It was hard work. We carried our own -supplies, the water and a few instruments, and their weight was almost -insupportably increased by the discomforts of the harsh, inhospitable -land we traveled through, and, by some dizzying influence which began to -strain our heads with headaches, to parch our throats, and to produce a -most uncomfortable and absurd illusion of treading on air cushions. This -last hallucination made us unsteady, and after a while it pestered us so -much that we were compelled to stop at short intervals to rest. - -Oogalah kept on well ahead, looking back at us every few minutes and -distrustfully shaking his head, with incessant gestures for increased -speed. We were not over anxious to hurry. The region was extraordinary -and its geologic features, as connected with this unparalleled deposit, -or vein, or lode, or whatever it was, of radium, were certainly worth -noting. And then our heads! Hopkins diverted us by his misery. - -“I’d like to look inside of my cranium just now. I couldn’t begin to -tell how it feels; something, I should say, like what gunpowder men call -_deflagration_ is taking place there, popguns going off every few -minutes, with a hurdy-gurdy accompaniment in my ears and a bad taste in -my mouth. - -“The Professor really ought to be very careful and avoid any extra -exertion. In a bean as full as his, there probably isn’t much room for -expansion, and I guess the right word for describing our condition is -expansion—almost unlimited. My head may seem no bigger than usual, but I -should say it had already grown large enough for distribution to a dozen -headless gentlemen, enough to give each of them a head piece of ordinary -dimensions. Whew—but this is fierce.” - -The poor fellow had clapped both hands to his head as if to actually -hold it together. And with all of us the inscrutable sensations were -becoming insufferable. Goritz insisted on keeping on but we overruled -that. It was just possible that our resting a while might accustom us to -the strange influence of atmosphere, and enable us to proceed without -this torturing plague of heat and noise and dilation in our poor heads. -We sat down. Oogalah quickly discovered our reluctance, and was back -with us in a trice, gesticulating and vociferating as well, absolutely -unaffected, which brought to the suffering Yankee’s face the most -comical expression of disgust and surprise. - -“I say, Erickson, this has me guessing. What do you suppose that -fellow’s made of? Rubber? Cork? Do you know I believe he’d put -electrocution on the fritz. You’d be compelled to pulverize him if you -ever expected to drive the life out of his body. One hundred yards more -of this and I’ll either join the choir invisible _ipse motu_, as they -say in the books, or just get one of you to pass me over with a wallop -on the cocoa, or a fine slit along the carotid. I believe I could go so -far as to commit _hari-kari_, and not know it. It can’t be possible that -you fellows don’t notice it.” - -“Notice it!” I answered. “My head feels like a balloon. I almost wonder -I don’t float off with it. We can’t last this way. It would be a sorry -ending to this famous exploit, if we were all to burst like soap -bubbles.” - -Oogalah by means of elaborate pantomime to the Professor, and a few -intelligible words to Goritz acquainted us with his assurance that a -hill about one hundred yards away would bring us relief. We struggled to -it, sick and staggering. To our amazement upon ascending it a little way -relief came, and our tormented heads sensibly shrank—so it felt—to -something like their usual volume. Then we noticed, guided by the -Professor’s acumen in such matters, that while the region was -unmistakably an igneous complex, the rocks we had passed over were -entirely granitic, and the elevation on which we now stood was a basic -olivine-peridotite, dense and black, and in some way exempt from the -radiumistic occlusions which perhaps saturated the granitic batholith -around it. I will not stop to discuss this, sir, but later we indeed -established the fact that the enormous outflow of granite lava had -brought to the surface innumerable radium bodies, distributed through it -in molecular aggregates of considerable size, and that the unseen but -voluminous discharge of the emanation so affected us, while the gabbro -dikes, containing none, afforded an impermeable flooring for our -passage. - -Then, too, we were now approaching the splendid prism of light that shot -upward, yet obliquely, in a vast pulsating diffusion of a delicate -radiance that grew, as we advanced, more and more intolerable. Our -progress consisted now in crossing, as quickly as our stumbling -movements would allow, the granitic intervals that separated the ranges -of low basic hills. On these latter we regained our strength and -composure, and prepared for the succeeding dashes that carried us over -the perilous interludes. It was amazing to watch the _insouciance_ and -activity of our guide. He did not even protect his eyes. It seemed as if -some physiological peculiarity rendered him immune to the terrifying -disorders that signalized to us, instantly, the presence of these -puissant particles of radium, or else he had become so from his long -continued exposures, a theory quite incomprehensible to us. - -But even to this dogged and halting march there was a limit. Oogalah -himself had enough rectitude of purpose to realize that, and perhaps too -he felt vainglorious of his superiority. He indicated almost sternly a -final towering hill, a continuation of the broken cordillera we had been -following, which should be the terminus of our exploration. We—at least -Hopkins and myself—would not have cared to overpass it. We were deadly -faint and exhausted when we reached it, and but for the magnanimous help -of the Eskimo, who carried our packs, I think we would have swooned and -fallen by the way. The Professor seemed the least susceptible to the -mysterious influence, and this amusingly vexed and confounded Hopkins. -Brute willpower and his insatiable fever of desire to obtain the -transmuting substance which raised before him the vision of boundless -wealth, kept Goritz on his feet. With the Professor it was the -energizing power of scientific curiosity. The paralyzing effect of -suffocation was really noticeable. - -Well, after a few minutes’ rest, with Goritz impatient and the Professor -aflame with wonder, we started up a portentously narrow hill, and a high -one too. Oogalah pointed out its pinnacle as our destination, and then -turned westward into that dizzying and unearthly country wherein lay the -trough of radium. Around us fell the radiance of its wonderful emission, -but we found that the climbing path—it had been worn well into the rock -by previous pilgrims—clung to the eastward scarp of the hill, and was -therefore actually in shadow—a welcome relief. Perhaps five hours were -consumed in this toilsome ascent, but when we reached the last winding -trail, and had clambered to a small shelf immediately under the ragged -apex, we looked over a scene of unparalleled terribleness. - -The pen of Dante or the pencil of Dore alone could have done justice to -its weird and frightful desolation, not entirely expressed in -lifelessness, but in the awful grimace in it of tortured and disfigured -matter. The blacks, purples and reds, smeared over it wrote in it a sort -of agony of disgrace and unseemliness and pain. I wonder if the -landscapes of the Moon resemble it. - -For a long way in the foreground, where we saw with astonishment the -running figure of Oogalah, stretched a broken platform of white -quartzite, and through this sprang the strangest confusion of lines, -skeins, dashes and drippings of black, purple, brown, and traceable here -and there, as of the tracks of a bleeding animal or man, chained drops -of red. It was not beautiful certainly, it had no ornamental or -decorative features; it was, rather, scoriaceous and blasting. - -Beyond this rugose platform rose two mounds, one ashen and white—the -Professor said it was a bleached, corroded and kaolinized granite—the -other a purplish, livid mass streaked with threads or blotches of yellow -(sulphur, the Professor thought), and these hills ran north and south, -becoming reduced to sprawling and unwholesome heaps of slaggy -consistency which ever and anon encroached on the quartzite zone and -even encumbered it, as if tossed upon it in drifts of scattered nodules. - -Through the gateway, between the two first mounds, we saw even now the -form of Oogalah passing, but he was no longer erect. He was crawling on -hands and knees, and over his head hung a towel. Hopkins and myself -shuddered for him. His venturesome undertaking seemed to us _simply_ -suicide. He intended to bring us each a mass of the mineral—a small -piece. When he gathered this miracle-working substance for Radiumopolis, -we were told, he first camped behind one of the peridotite hills, then -issued upon his dangerous mission, collected what he could, returned to -his camp, and for weeks kept at it until his supply was sufficient. The -store made, he removed it in the same laborious way, stage by stage, -until he came to the safer country, where he was met by numerous -assistants who transported the radium homeward. - -But we could see from our elevation beyond these dead heaps, beyond, -into the vale of Acheron, as it were, - - _Quam super haud ullae poterant impune volantes - Tendere iter pennis_; - -a further dead valley declining into the deeper chasm from which sprang -the auroral light. This chasm was evidently indefinitely prolonged -northward; from it rose the coronation or rays which seemed converged -upon a marvelous blazing precipice on the further boundary of this -irregular, narrow, longitudinal canon. Into the canon itself it was -impossible to look. It was enclosed in the upper valley which we could -see, and which presented a spectacle of stony desolation. Its sides were -evidently precipitous on the east, and pretty generally hidden from us, -but on the west it presented to us a long, receding slope of rock palely -illuminated beneath the light streaming in a broad and thick flood over -it. These rock exposures were curiously discolored, and also curiously -spotted with glow-spots, from included radium perhaps. - -Clefts or rents tore down their sides, and ragged, serpentine embrasures -interrupted the cliffs that bordered it. Black recesses contrasted with -the bright surfaces, and sharp crests (_arete_) bristled here and there -in jagged series, where the cliffs attained elevations of probably -thousands of feet. It was a vast abyss and was split more deeply by a -secondary and later fissure which had uncovered the central masses of -radium. Nowhere could we discern any evidences of aqueo-thermal -activity, no steam spirals anywhere. The vapor line was eastward along -the crack where the Perpetual Nimbus appeared. Beyond, far beyond, rose -the snowy tops, the glacier ridden summits of the Krocker Land Rim. - -It was enthralling. Remember, Mr. Link, it was the night time of the -polar world, and here all was bathed in light or silhouetted in shadow, -while that Stationary Sun which filled the immense valley land with -light, imparted to it warmth; it shone in its peculiar zenith, deriving -in some way (by reflection from the crystalline walls to the west) its -replenishment of light and heat from this stupendous source of both. We -watched in a trance of amazement for hours. There were perceptible -pulsations in the emanation, and it was altogether remarkable to observe -that these were recorded in the variable sun, obviously susceptible to -these changes. Its reference (the sun’s) to the radium masses, here -uncovered, was now indisputable. - -It had now in the advanced season become apparent that the earth’s -secular changes were not quite dissipated in the Krocker Land basin by -its unique feature of the Stationary Sun. For weeks it had been growing -colder, and now—to our astonishment a spectacle of dazzling beauty -relieved the singular weird terror of this lifeless scene. We saw a -gathering gloom from far away darken the peaks of the Krocker Land Rim; -it spread and became revealed as a snowstorm. A wind brushed over -us—another instant and the wide zone of delicate radiation was -transformed into an indescribably glorious firmament of stars, shifting, -dying out and renewed, and around us from the sky fell a shower of icy -particles, a flurry from the tempest that was sweeping over the distant -ranges. - -Hardly had we recovered from the shock of this unexpected display when -we heard the voice and saw the form of Oogalah approaching our position, -from the opposite side of the hill. He had executed his errand and was -returning, and the expanded bag in his hands showed that he had -accomplished his purpose. We had seen him disappear in the defiles -beyond the crumbling hills. He showed the strain of his work and the -effect of the unnatural influence of that exposure, but in a short time, -after resting, his strength and composure returned, and he was ready for -the home journey. He afterwards told me he had never looked into the -chasm, or chasms, whence the radium emissions or radiations proceeded. -He had not cared to. Once on the field of his dangerous occupation, -groveling to the ground, he moved cautiously over the rocky flooring, -and extracted the mineral masses from the veins wherein they seemed to -be segregated, _hammering them out_. Formerly he had been able to pick -the nodules up loose from the granite ledges. That was no longer -possible. He had exhausted the supply of free lumps, and now he was -compelled to practice this superficial mining. He knew that the surface -finds were abundant further down the slopes of the defile, but he -dreaded the experiment of entering further into the disorganizing -influences of the lethal chamber. He had once been rash in that way and -had swooned, and only the brush of some cavorting wind current from -above, such as we had ourselves felt, had sufficiently revived him to -enable him to regain his feet and to escape. - -On our return Goritz monopolized Oogalah. He plied him with questions, -and evinced the most excited interest in his work. Poor fellow—the -poison of the lust for gold, _sacri fames auri_, had entered his mind -and heart. A magnificent man, Mr. Link, sturdy, resourceful, -remorselessly self forgetful, and most simple in tastes, a lovable -brother, if ever there was one, but sir, never the same after that -unlucky find of the gold belt, when we crossed the first barrier of the -Krocker Land Rim. - -He became secretive, avaricious, moody, impatient, a delirious dreamer, -and then most unaccountably suspicious. It was a revolution in character -that would have puzzled an expert in psychology or nerves to explain. To -me it was a pretty bad shock, and when at last the unhappy man—but let -that wait. It displays a measure of the pernicious power of the -temptation of money to corrupt (the word in Goritz’s case is -misapplied), to alter nature and temperament, and all because he -expected to enjoy its pleasures in the world we had left; for gold in -Krocker Land for any of ordinary uses, like ours, was literally not much -more desirable than so much earth. To the Radiumopolite it administered, -it is true, a mild esthetic pleasure. There was some recondite -recognition in his ingenuous nature of its beauty at least, and its -unchangeableness. To the rulers, the doctors, the chiefs, it may have -seemed more; at any rate they devoted it to the purposes of distinction -and religion. - -Goritz on our way back was most impatient to examine the strange mineral -Oogalah had brought us, but the man refused to let him, intimating, -quite fiercely, that it should be distributed among us when we got back -to the Capitol, and not before. This refusal really arose from his -intention of giving the Professor the largest piece. As Hopkins averred, -the Professor had Oogalah “_buffaloed_” an epitomized substitute, -certainly not intelligible, for a lengthier explanation of the -Professor’s extraordinary influence over the man. - -I remember we were all silent on our way back; we were dazed, and the -journey had been rapid and arduous. The Professor himself had indeed, -for weeks past, neglected to speculate on the wonders about us, and we -now seldom received from him those lectures with which he had first -instructed us. Perhaps he was overwhelmed by the incredible realization -of the prophecies he had made to us on the sylvan banks (how far away -and distant they seemed) of the beautiful fiord in Norway, under a -summer sky. - -Once again within the charmed borders of the Valley of Rasselas we found -the highway deserted. It was a contrast to the eager multitudes that had -escorted us when we left. Past the mysterious swamps on the right from -which, at one moment, I thought I heard a queer sucking wail or bark, as -of some big animal, and on into the city, and yet no encounters! Past -the bathhouses, over the wide serpent pasture with its populous cribs, -up the wide western terrace of steps of the Golden Capitol, and not one -welcoming face—only the listless snakes sluggishly gliding or coiled in -varnished mats. - -To these omnipresent, pervading inhabitants we had become, in a manner -of speaking, accustomed; we found them in the streets of the city, and -through the courtyard of the Palace, over the parapets, ensconced in -niches in the walls, rising hideously from the pavement of the inner -halls, or unexpectedly and unwholesomely slipping over the mats of our -rooms, or dripping like dark thongs from their cornices. Hopkins -detested them. - -“I tell you, Erickson,” he would exclaim, “an externalized _delirium -tremens_ of this sort is worse than drink. Beats me how people ever came -to think well of these critters. They’re the most painfully unpleasant -denizens of this earth that I have ever encountered—_to me_. Tastes -differ of course, but I can’t help feeling that nobody really likes ’em, -and pretences to the contrary are just plain lies, or the deponents have -never enjoyed the advantages of a public school education, a hot bath, -towels, soap, the morning newspaper, pure food, clean shirts, and the -white things that generally go to make up white civilization—in other -words, Alfred, they’re just savages like these big and little demons all -around us.” - -“How about Ziliah?” I might ask mischievously. - -The handsome fellow would smile bewitchingly. “Say Erickson, if Ziliah -and I ever go to housekeeping we’ll cut out the snakes—_I will_—and I’ll -start up Anti-Snake missions, until we get the people converted into -regular Christians—the real Irish sort. Then I’ll come the St. Patrick -act on them, and exterminate the varmints, and coming generations, -hereabouts, will call me blessed.” - -We were somewhat more astonished to enter the western doorway of the -Capitol and still find no one, but we could see darkly through its dingy -length—the radium lamps were covered—and noted a crowd outside of its -eastern entrance. At the same time something like beating cymbals and -tanging drums came to our ears, and then unmistakably the shouts of -people. - -“They’ve come back,” shouted Oogalah in his lingo, and he rushed past -us, mad with expectation. - -We followed him with almost equal precipitancy, and the bag of radium -mineral that had cost us all this effort was forgotten. Oogalah dropped -it, we neglected it in the sudden excitement, and—_it was never again -found_. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - THE POOL OF OBLATION - - -Oogalah was right. It was the return of the pilgrims, and the delighted -city, plunged for days in wondering doubt over their safety had rushed -bodily out to meet them. Our momentary importance was hopelessly -eclipsed. I dreaded lest it might undergo an inverted resurrection, and -that these potent little men, incensed over our discovered depredations, -might turn angrily upon us and destroy us. For the moment I forgot these -apprehensions in pure admiration at the novel exhibition. - -When we emerged on the courtyard at the eastern entrance of the Capitol -we found the broad mound on which the gold house was erected crowded. -Immediately in front of it was a jostling mass of women, and prominent -among them, by reason of stature and position, was standing the pretty -Ziliah, arrayed in certainly her best and most becoming costume, at the -head of the broad stairway, a view down which led the eye straight -eastward over the wide thoroughfare, now fenced in by enthusiastic -multitudes. Literary reminders constantly recur to me, and just then I -was amused to find myself picturing Rome when Pompey entered it and -recalling Marullus’ proud words, in Julius Caesar: - - “And when you saw his chariot but appear, - Have you not made a universal shout, - That Tiber trembled underneath her banks - To hear the replication of your sounds - Made in her concave shores?” - -There was no Tiber, to be sure, but there were the people, and the -shout, albeit rather more shrill and piercing than thunderous. The air -seemed at moments and in places thick with the rising hats that were -tossed with splendid nerve, in acclamation of the advancing procession. - -On it came, hardly visible at first, save as an oscillating shimmer and -movement, and accompanying the incessant rumpus of the shattering -cymbals and the thumping drums. The musicians evinced a pardonable pride -and extracted as much noise as vigor and appreciation could extort from -their very willing instruments. It was exciting enough. As the first -companies of the Eskimos approached and the cataract of sound poured -over us we sought some higher outlook. A narrow ledge like a water-table -separated the second from the first story of rooms in the communal -palace. We could, by boosting and climbing on each other, reach this, -and once there the _coup d’oeil_ would be complete. Goritz bent forward. -With the lightness of a deer Hopkins sprang up, straightened himself, -and touched the coping. He swung onto it, and—I half dreaded it would -give way—it held. Then we maneuvered the Professor up. I followed and -with a long pull we jerked Goritz off his feet and hauled him to us, and -thus rather absurdly and flagrantly placed, we awaited the event. Our -feet dangled over the crowd below and, as we were in full view of the -terrace of steps and the road, the first thing the returning “doctors” -would behold, would be our desecrating presence on the walls of the -palace. But we were oblivious to consequences just then. - -Gazing down immediately underneath our perch we saw the ladies of the -Capitol bunched in a many colored knot at the head of the steps. -Crushing upon them were the servants, attendants, guards, and an -indiscriminate crowd of citizens, and down these steps, kept inviolately -clean, on either side, was a line of the taller Eskimos, a man to every -step, with a black snake coiled round his waist, but with its neck and -head held outward in an inclined position, so that a view from our seat -crossed a profile of extended snakes’ heads and necks, somewhat -symmetrically displayed in two series. It was a most peculiar bizarre -picture. - -Already the first regiment of men in the procession had halted, fallen -irregularly backward along the side of the road, and then massed beyond -these was the tireless band, men and women in their tight bodices and -sacks, their naked legs, and the picturesque gold knee-caps. Almost -instantly appeared the bright gold poles, around which, when we met them -in the pine forest, had been coiled the imprisoned snakes. The snakes -were no longer on them. The companies holding these advanced, strode up -the steps, and stalwartly, with a martial erectness absent from everyone -else, lined themselves with the snake holders. The diversified and -variegated cohorts of the little people which we had noticed in the -forest, had evidently dispersed, lost here and there along the route, -for they doubtless were adventitious accretions, followers from custom -or for amusement, and with them too had vanished the very considerable -commissariat. - -There remained only the jaunting cars, with their odd but impressive -little occupants, and that jolting, shivering, monstrous gold throne, -bearing the shocking effigy of the Crocodilo-Python. Yes, and here they -were! The tugging rams with snail tipped horns, and the council in -violet gowns bedizened with gold braid and chains, utterly insignificant -lilliputian creatures, with their beetle heads. True, but the deadly -power lurking in those metal tubes—What was that?—not to be gainsaid, -not to be denied. The thought of it gave me a shuddering sense of -impotence, before these caricatures of men. - -Of course the wagons could not ascend the steps, and the governors -softly alighted—it was quite delightful to see their noiseless flitting -to and fro—purring into each other’s ears as they came together, and -then separating with mimic gestures of expostulation or disgust or -approval. They looked, so we thought, almost as they had when we first -met them, and I began to wonder whether they did not harbor in their -light, frameless and bobbing little anatomies, extraordinary powers of -resistance, abnormal energies perhaps. - -There was a little decorous shifting to and fro, and ceremonious bowing -and scraping, which had the most incalculably ludicrous appearance, as -if, after all, they were nothing but vaudeville puppets. Hopkins of -course appreciated all that uproariously. Finally they started up the -stairs, led by the benignant little gentleman who had told the Professor -to “speak,” and afterwards most effectively had gone through the dumb -show of telling him to “shut up,” and who, by the way, was Ziliah’s -father. They rose towards us with a mincing dignity that was really -pleasing. We noticed again their whiteness, their thinness, their long -arms, their thin fingers, their senile-like agitation, their pointed -beards, and the singular splendor of their eyes. The latter were now -uncovered, the disfiguring goggles hung from their necks by the most -delicate filaments of gold. - -There were quite a number of them, perhaps thirty in all, and as they -slowly drew near to us we realized that while they belonged to the -racial configuration of the little people, they were probably immensely -removed from them, too, by an intellectual gap that bore some reference -to training or descent. The Semitic character of these little people was -irrefragable. - -Hardly had the President—it turned out that such an appellation might -describe him—reached the middle of the ascent than we were treated to a -charming show of filial affection. Ziliah, ravishingly fixed up in close -fitting attire, and distinguished by some gold trinkets that became her -extremely well, ran down the steps and—fell into her father’s arms? -No—not that—exactly. There were some insurmountable difficulties, -related to the comparative sizes of the principals, that made that -commonplace impossible. Ziliah took her father _up_, hugged him, kissed -and—_set him down again_. - -I heard Hopkins groan, and the query came in an undertone: “Where’s my -mother-in-law?” - -[Illustration: - - ZILIAH AND HER FATHER -] - -After that there was a great deal of confusion. Mothers and daughters, -wives and sons, the magistrates from the city and innumerable friends -poured over the steps to meet the dignitaries, and, for all the world, -it just then resembled, allowing for the difference in latitude and -other things, the homecoming of a western deputation to your congress; -their arrival at the town hall, and their admiring reception by the -neighbors. And the democratic expression of things increased. The snake -sharps on the steps, so Hopkins designated them, disappeared with their -charges, depositing them in the enclosures in the “snake pasture,” the -gold-polemen scrambled up the steps and entered the Capitol, the rams, -jaunting cars, and the grinning throne-horror left too, but where I -could not see. We encountered the latter again under pretty startling -circumstances. Then when all this had happened the crowds from the city -jammed everything, with a shrilling of voices ascending to us that -sounded like a magnification, a megaphoning, of countless crickets. The -bigger people, the Eskimos, were scarcely visible. We felt relieved—_I -did_. We had been quite forgotten, and that spoke volumes for our -safety. We discussed the situation. - -Hopkins: “Suppose we get down and join the house warming. It’s just -possible that they have something better to eat than usual on occasions -like this. I’d welcome a change of diet.” - -I: “As this was a huge snake picnic, it may be they wind it up by eating -snakes.” - -Hopkins: “Bah!” - -The Professor: “My friends, now that the Faculty has returned Erickson -must interview them, explain our mission, establish scientific relations -with them if possible, get the records, assure them of the astonishment -which will be felt over their existence when we report it before the -scientific bodies of the world, solicit from them some demonstration of -their knowledge of transmutation, aeronautics, the X-ray; those powerful -tubes they manipulate; and then really we should be thinking of _getting -home_.” - -I: “Professor, I don’t think we’ll find the Faculty, as you call them, -very communicative (“Tight wads?” interjected Spruce.) I’ve learned some -things from Ziliah, and judging from her communications I believe these -people know very little about themselves and what’s more I believe they -exercise their occult powers without knowing the _rationale_ of them -either. At any rate while I can get along with their speech I know I -should be floored in any intricate matter. As to—getting home. I agree -with you, but—HOW?” - -The Professor: “But Alfred, be reasonable. Learn what you can. Try them. -I do admit our return presents difficulties.” - -Goritz: “There can’t be much of the naphtha launch left now.” - -Hopkins: “But Antoine, you are not thinking of getting out! I believe -you intended to apply for naturalization papers.” - -The Professor: “There are the—Balloons? Perhaps—” - -Hopkins: “Dear Professor, cut it out. There is some difference in size -and weight between these midgets and us. Really, if you’re solicitous on -the subject of the posthumous notices you are destined to receive in the -learned journals of the world, try the balloons. None in mine. Rocking -the cradle and watching Ziliah cook snakes is preferable. And seriously -I could make a hunch at getting on here if somehow we could improve the -brand of the religion—but this snake business has me going. I guess, -too, a little eugenics might help the people. Interbreeding, I should -say, with the huskies would add something to the linear dimensions of -the inhabitants, for really the girls have some class.” - -I: “It seems likely to me that one might reach Beaufort Sea by a short -overland route to the west. It’s pretty clear that Radiumopolis is far -towards the western border of the Valley of Rasselas, and the Rim, and -the sea beyond that, are not far off. Our trip to the radium country -showed that.” - -The Professor: “The importance of this discovery outranks anything that -has happened in the world since the discovery of America. It’s too -astounding to be even indicated in a few words. The radium deposit alone -is the most tremendous fact in nature today. For one, I should deplore -the destruction of this most curious aboriginal culture with the ethnic -problems displayed in it, but it is our indefeasible right to proclaim -to the world the presence here of the radium. The whole aspect, -industry, economics, finance, _health_ of the world will be profoundly -modified by its exploitation.” - -Goritz: “Well I should say nothing about it. Let it be. We can use what -we learn about its powers for ourselves. That seems right enough to me. -What can be the use of turning the whole world topsy-turvy, and of -course as a consequence exterminating these innocent people. Do you -suppose you could hold back for one hour the rampaging hordes that would -pour into this little valley and inundate it with hungry, riotous -savages? Put a mining town with its rum and its demons in the place of -this contented realm with its picturesque life, its peaceful ceremonies, -its long inherited customs that for centuries upon centuries have never -changed; erase or debauch a community that on the very edge of the -roaring world, since time began, has kept on its quiet hidden way in -this unassailable nook, and do you think you will ever forgive -yourselves for the ruin, the devastation? It would curse you to your -death.” - -We all looked at Goritz with surprise. He did not often turn on the -oratory like this. It was a touch, I said to myself, of his old nature. -The plea was well made and it kept us silent for some time, and I think -the longer we measured its meaning the more it affected us. Suddenly -Hopkins broke the silence. - -“Say, where’s everybody? There isn’t a soul in sight.” It was true; the -mound hill, the courtyards, the road, the steps, the doorway, the snake -pasture, the parapets, which it seemed but a few moments before had been -crammed with the chattering multitude, were deserted. In our absorption, -seated above the heads of the crowd on the comfortable ledge, we had -forgotten to note its disappearance. Always anxious over some possible -new development which would endanger our safety, and never confident of -the good intentions of the little wiseacres with their preternatural -powers, their minute crooked devices, and their probable deceit and -malevolence, I now felt some alarm at this silence and desertion. Was it -some new turn in affairs, a new stage in their ceremonial procedure that -portended any harm to us? I had wondered over the apparent forgetfulness -of our presence, and our absolute neglect. Was it part of some -preconcerted design, an ostentatious indifference, concealing some -mischievous plot for our undoing? For it was quite easy, indeed -unavoidable to conceive, that these little rulers, impregnable hitherto -in their power, would view suspiciously our advent among them. A -secluded bred-in civilization like this, is jealous of intrusion, -resents the foreigner, and spurns novelty. It has always been so and the -Faculty—the word the Professor complimented them with—would readily -descry in us the forerunners of a more dangerous invasion. It would be -well to watch them and—where they were? - -I leaped to the ground and the rest at once followed. We ran around the -corner of the building, first to the north—in which direction the city -was far less expanded than southward and eastward—and the same emptiness -confronted us. But to the south and at the west the contrast was -startling. The areas were packed with streaming throngs; crowds from -streets were discharging into the broad highway leading westward, that -one on which we had just returned from the radium hunt, and, as we -hastened to the west side of the Capitol, we saw that the concourse was -passing out on the same boulevard towards the swamp land just outside -the ranges of the city. Our elevation enabled us to trace the variegated -ribbon of people, made up of the little folk for the most part, and -occasionally a towering figure, moving _silently_ outward in an enormous -evacuation of the city. What had preceded them or what they followed we -could not undertake to determine. - -Fragments and sections of the formal parade, as it had returned from the -ceremonial circuit, were embedded in the stream, and we guessed the -Council led the procession. Glancing into the broad central hall of the -Capitol—where the radium lamps were—nothing was seen. The big communal -house of government was bare and abandoned. Goritz’s hand passed -enviously over the broad encrusting plates of gold which now any -ruthless pillager could have torn away, but he did not attempt to remove -one. We certainly would have interposed had he tried it. It required no -deliberation on our part to conclude to mingle in the crowds. It might -be that if their destination was the swamps we now might learn something -of the uses of that mystery-shrouded depression and reservoir. - -Running down the western terrace of steps we were soon immersed in the -multitude, though by reason of our physical proportions we rose above -them like tall saplings among bushes. Some familiarization with us had -been gained by the Radiumopolites, and although we never stirred abroad -without awakening interest, they no longer regarded us with the first -unsubdued wonder and curiosity. And on this occasion we were less likely -to excite attention, as a more dreadful expectation filled their minds. - -Slowly we made our way for a mile or so until the sombre thickets and -enshrouding vegetation of the swamps came into view. And then a rapid -dispersal began. Down innumerable paths and trails, all more or less -artificially finished, the people vanished. Files of them entered these -forest alleyways and the quickly thinning throngs left us comparatively -free. We passed a broad road leading to the left, down which in the -distance we discerned a line of vans pulled by Eskimos, and on them -prostrate and bandaged or chained figures, some moving, we thought! For -the moment we were rooted with horror. What could they be? What was -this? A public execution, a sacrifice, a holocaust? Good God—could it be -a cannibalistic feast? Great as were our suspicion and terror, the -constraining power of a savage curiosity drove us on. Down the very next -lane we met, we rushed _pele-mele_, with something like rage, something -like disgust, something like a sickening fear, a blend hard to analyze. - -Perhaps we had run a half a mile, when we burst through the last -encircling hedge of bushes and found ourselves on the shore of a turbid, -muddy, malodorous pool, confined by a low wall of clay, paved with tile, -and then surrounded by the outstretched cordons of the adult -population—not a child was visible—of Radiumopolis! And immediately -above us, at the side, so that we could inspect the actions of its -occupants, was a low platform, also of clay, perhaps twenty feet high. -On this platform, ranged in a circle, were those detestable worthies (?) -and behind them stood the vans, and on the vans—motionless bodies in -small low heaps, like fagoted wood! Yes! They were dead—all dead—_quite -dead_. God be praised for that! - -From somewhere back of the platform the cymbals began their clamorous -cries, but whether it was due to an augmented band or an exasperated -effort, the noise seemed redoubled, rising into a screeching tumult -quite indescribable. And then the people shouted. It sounded like -_Lam-bo-o, Lam-bo-oo_. - -It was a curious vocality and perhaps as nearly as anything might be -likened to the querulous squeal of monkeys, with just a faint -amelioration of disapproval on the assumption that it was singing. -That—the combined discord of the cymbals and the singing—continued for -perhaps fifteen minutes, with intervals of a minute or so. It was -altogether unearthly. Now we began to see that the pond or pool or swamp -connected by a narrow neck of water with more remote basins, that may -have had interminable connections in all directions, forming a web of -waterways. - -From these distant bayous and lagoons now issued three or four or five -sinuous monsters, rushing forward upon the waves of their own -disturbance, their saurian heads raised slightly, and the huge -convolutions of their tails discerned in the wash of their wakes, as -they hastened, as if with some anticipatory avidity for their meal, -towards us, towards the platform, from where the immolation awaited -them. They were the _Crocodilo-Pythons_. We recognized at once the -white-green beasts we had seen in the Saurian Sea. Yes, the same -obscene, unspeakable beasts. - -They only revealed their terrifying bulk as they approached the platform -and finally came to rest before it. Then inserting their muscular -posteriors in the mud, beyond which lazily rolled the python-like tails -in portentous folds, their heads and fore-quarters slowly rose into the -air. This exposure made us quail and yet exult, with an excitement no -language can convey. The same repulsive coloring masked them, the -greenish-yellow skin, the agitated and red blotches. Higher and higher, -mounted the snapping jaws, and at moments the mucus covered eyes emerged -with a baleful glitter; the long neck swayed and the short front legs -beat the air, as if in expostulation at delay. The fascinating thrill of -horror which such a sight causes can be understood; only the painter can -justify it. - -And, sir, they were fed—_fed_ with corpses, while the infernal cymbals -banged on, and the insignificant people wailed their “_Lam-bo-oo, -Lam-bo-oo!_” - -The bodies were naked and they were the dead of both races; the gaping -jaws caught them as the sea lion catches with inerrant skill the tossed -fish, that no sooner reaches the expectant jaws than it vanishes with a -hollow-sounding gulp. So for the most part did these small bodies go, -the dilating necks of the animals marking their descent to the cavernous -abdomens. A few vicious twirls maybe, a shivering hammering together of -the jaws, accompanied at times with a dip beneath the water, sending -muddy waves to the banks, indicated the less easy negotiation of the -larger bodies. - -Revolted and overcome by the pervading half-sickening stench—in part the -exhalations from the vile saurians—we turned away. As we went back I -caught a full view of the little dignitaries in their violet gowns, -their glittering chains and their beehive hats, and what an incongruous -contrast it made. In their frailness, their whiteness, their chirping -volubility, with their overmade heads, their tenuous shanks and their -globed eyes they took on, to me, the whimsical likeness to delicately -cut and animated _netsukes_ in ivory, dressed like toys; and I thought -too their enlarged heads might keep company with their compressed -hearts, though certainly we could not say yet, and religious habits -often accompany many horrors, much bad taste, and a lot of antiquated -humbug. - -[Illustration: - - THE POOL OF OBLATION -] - -We got away, the Professor reluctantly. He said the “mandibular action” -merited longer observation, and Hopkins inquired, “I wonder how the -undertakers of Radiumopolis relish this sort of burial? It certainly -saves the mourner considerable in flowers and gravestones, but I don’t -believe I would cotton to finding my ancestors in the bones of an -alligator. It’s decidedly composite you know, like as in “The Yarn of -the Nancy Bell,” when the man who had eaten a good deal of everybody, -sang: - - “‘Oh, I am the cook and a captain bold, - And the mate of the Nancy brig, - And a bo’s’n tight, and a midshipmite, - And the crew of the captain’s gig.’” - -Long after we had regained the highway, and were on our solitary way to -the city we could hear the smashing cymbals, the thudding drums, and the -dolorous salutation of the—Well WHAT? Worshippers. Ugh! But we did meet -Oogalah and he was in dreadfully low spirits, with a face full of -misery, wringing his hands in distress. When he saw the Professor he ran -up to him and stood before him in a woe-begone way, quite incapable of -explaining his grief. Goritz could make him out fairly well and he asked -him “What is the matter? Sick?” - -“No! No! Oogalah not sick, but the Big Men have thrown his dead mother -to the Serpent!” - -Of course we were interested, and Goritz extorted from our friend an -astonishing story. Briefly, it was this. Every year at the winter -solstice (for later we found that these people possessed a calendar) a -ceremony of sacrifice was celebrated at the Pool of Oblation—so I named -it. Formerly, many, many decades before this, live men and women had -been thrown to the carnivorous saurians, but that had been altered (“by -the Progressives,” Hopkins suggested), and now the dead only, and not -more than a dozen or so, were thrown to them; a reduction in numbers -because the beasts sometimes refused some of them, and the bodies -corrupted the pool. - -Every five years the great lustration of the Forest Temples took place. -That was the festival whose beginning and termination we had seen. At -these times the whole woodland where the chosen trees are cleared—the -Tree Temples—would be traversed, and at each Tree Temple chants would be -sung, a black snake left, and some gold offering attached to the tree -itself. Shorter pilgrimages occurred four times each year. The snake -pasture was kept up as a nursery for the supply of the wood temples, for -the snakes did not long survive in the pine forest. This year the Great -Lustration had been unaccountably delayed—Oogalah did not know why, but -he had heard that the “Big Men” (“A decided catachresis,” said the -Professor, “for they literally are pygmies”), were very angry about -something (my heart jumped with a sudden fear when Goritz told us this). - -Oogalah’s mother died while we were away with him in the radium country, -and the Magistrates of the city, who saw to the gathering of the yearly -hecatomb, had _attached_ her. Deaths were not numerous, it appeared; the -supply of corpses—adequate, that is, for a satisfactory oblation—was not -always secured, and a few sheep or goats made up the deficiency, their -saurian majesties being at the same time importuned not to resent the -substitution. “A Radiumopolite,” commented Hopkins, “may be a sweet -morsel, but, under the circumstances, I surely would prefer mutton.”) - -Oogalah could not tell us much about the “Serpent” (our -Crocodilo-Python), or his worship. He said it had always been so, and -that the “big ponds” toward the south were full of them. He had -traversed these once on a raft, and apparently had got the scare of his -life, for the beasts wobbled about him and, except for an inconvenient -satiety at the moment, might have picked him and his companions off like -crumbs from a plate. He said too that it was in the savannahs, morasses -and meadows of the “southland” that the food for the black snakes in the -“serpent pasture” was foraged. “A typical surviving remnant, doubtless,” -said the Professor, “of _Cretaceo-Juro-Triassic_ scenery.”) - -Oogalah’s communications quite restored his peace of mind, and the gift -of a pocket knife from Goritz put him into such blissful acceptance of -his domestic bereavement, that the theft of two or three dead mothers -would have been thankfully condoned for a similar exchange in the case -of each. - -We had again reached the city but in darkness. The clouds had thickened -in an impenetrable curtain over the Stationary Sun, and the deepest -gloom had settled over everything. Forebodings filled my mind. -Superstitiously watching every symptom of nature I dreaded the effect of -this eclipse on the people, and their cunning little governors, who -might at any moment change their deferential behavior into a ruthless -malignancy. After their rite of propitiation this darkening of the sun -might indicate to them a yet unappeased deity, for, as the Professor had -put it, the “Serpent and the Sun had a consentaneous meaning in many old -mythologies.” Why then was he unappeased? _The Strangers and their -profanation of the Shrines._ I always returned to this suspicion with -dread. A few moments later my worst fears were confirmed. - -We had ascended the western terrace of steps and were immediately -beneath the western facade of the Capitol, still to all appearances -empty, when a flying figure met us, and in another instant the arms of -Ziliah were about Spruce Hopkins’ neck, and—my conclusion on the matter -can scarcely be questioned—his were probably about hers. It certainly -was a bad case of nerves. Ziliah was in a sort of hysteria, moaning and -gasping with (so Hopkins called it) a “_strangle hold_” on his -“wind-pipe,” that also quite robbed her lover of the power of utterance. -I intervened. The incident might have terminated in their mutual -suffocation—so it seemed to me. - -The fair and stricken Ziliah told her story. - -She had not gone to the Oblation. No; she did not like it. But then -there was something else. “Spooce” was in danger, her own “Spooce”—and -all of us, _all_. The governors did not like us; they were afraid of us, -afraid we might bring more—her father was as bad as the rest of them. -And they had found out something, she did not know what, something we -had done. We were enemies of the _Serpent_, and—Ziliah’s agitation at -this juncture quite robbed her narrative of coherency, but in a lucid -interval I understood her—we were to be sacrificed; we would be fed to -the Serpent!!! - -“Zerubbabel and Heliopolis,” shouted Hopkins. “You don’t mean it? Does -she say so? Well so help me—if we don’t blow the pack into kingdom -come—and twice as far. How much powder have we got left?” - -“_The tubes_,” I remonstrated. - -Hopkins was silent; he remembered their power, and it was not so many -hours since something of the same inscrutable influence had nearly -brought us all to the verge of extinction. - -Never, to the last day of my life, Mr. Link, will I comprehend what -happened then. Was it the hand of God—or was it telepathy. WHAT? Ziliah -repeated the words I had uttered—exactly. She loosened Hopkins’ embrace, -she moved stealthily towards me, I saw her deep, sweet eyes raised to -mine, her hands closed on my cheeks; the boreal dusk light that comes -from the firmament even when clouded, made her whole face visible. In it -shone a strange divination; she repeated the words, “_the tubes_,” and -then sighed; seized with a sudden inspiration, I forced my mind upon -hers; my brain contracted (it felt so), as with a fierce concentration -of will I projected the sense of my words and all they implied upon, in, -through, the spirit before me—the spirit that itself leaped to their -comprehension. - -She crouched slightly, moved away, but her soft fingers closed around my -hand, and she drew me towards her. - -We entered the broad hall of the Capitol, Ziliah holding me tightly and -leading me. We turned into a passage-way. At its dark end we stumbled on -a half raised arched tile. Ziliah raised it, and seemed sinking below -me, as I felt her pull me down. I stooped and felt the edges of an -opening. My wary foot detected a stairway. Together we descended and in -a dozen or more steps reached the floor of a chamber whose walls seemed -only a few feet off on every side of us. Ziliah led me to the corner of -this room, pushed upon a wooden door and we entered what proved to be a -much larger room. Then telling me to wait, my guide left me. Another -instant and a soft radiance filled the place. It came from a radium lamp -which Ziliah had uncovered. She pointed to a table in the center of this -apartment. On it lay a metal box—a leaden trunk. Ziliah raised its lid. -I leaped forward. I already knew what to expect. - -In the bottom of the box lay, neatly aligned in rows, thirty leaden -tubes, one probably for each of the governors. Here at last in our -power, our possession, were the murderous little vials. But were they -charged with their life-arresting power? And how to use them? I stood -perplexed, and Ziliah remained motionless by me gazing at me with a mute -happiness, as she realized she had attained my wishes. But it was plain -that the dear creature knew nothing about them. No—the clever little -doctors were not such fools as to popularize their peculiar knowledge, -and the dark beauty, tears yet bepearling her long lashes, was just a -child before them, _as I was_. But why had they left them here at all? -They must have been deposited after the return, for the doctors -indubitably had worn them in their girdles when we so inauspiciously -dropped onto the road in the pine forest. Did they have a duplicate set? -The thought unnerved me. - -Now not the least remarkable circumstance in this startling episode was -that I had not talked to Ziliah at all, though we understood each other. -Telepathy, or sympathy, or suggestion, had done its perfect work so far; -not a word had passed between us, but at this obstructive ignorance -staring me, so to speak, in the face I opened my mouth. - -“Ziliah are these all?” - -“ALL,” came the answer very quietly, but with a frankness and certainty -that assured me. - -“Do you know anything about them Ziliah? How they work?” - -Ziliah knew nothing. “The—,” I understood her to mean the doctors, -including her precious father, “will kill you all—Ah! Spooce, too. No! -No! Take them away,” pointing to the chest, “AWAY—AWAY.” - -The girl’s nerves were reasserting themselves; time was running away -too, my friends were deserted, and detection was imminent at any moment. -Another glance at the desperate little instruments, and then—_nolens, -volens_—I picked them up and pushed them under my tunic, so that I felt -their cold surfaces chilling my skin. - -Then I shook Ziliah and pointed to the door, closing the lid of the -chest. She understood. Our way back was as noiseless as our entrance had -been. Unless our footprints remained as silent betrayers of our robbery, -there was no reason for suspicion, no proof of our misdeeds. Misdeed -indeed; it was our SALVATION. - -In five minutes I was back with my friends, and Ziliah, reaching the -limit of her endurance comfortably fled to her familiar refuge—Hopkins’ -arms. - -Now you may ask incredulously—Why did you not in the first place ask -Ziliah where were _the tubes_; why impair the credibility of your story -by injecting this transcendental nonsense about—_telepathy_. - -I don’t know, sir; the facts are just as I have related them. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - - LOVE AND LIBERTY - - -We soon heard the swarming crowds returning, and before long saw the -flat wagons, with the straining goats drawing them, and softly luminous -from the radium bulbs held in wickerwork cages, and on them the -governors, much agitated and confused. It was really a rout. Panic had -seized the people, the guards were in disorder, and they failed to repel -the surging masses that rolled up against the rocking chariots. It was a -straggling, in some sections a struggling, cortege, and the dominant -purpose was to get under cover, for the blackness deepened, the very -last glimpses of light had vanished, and a night of storm and wind with -a cold rain had blotted out the smiling peacefulness of Radiumopolis. - -Fortunately, the construction of the houses was excellent and, except as -the wind drove rain through or past the crevices of the board or -leathern insertions, their interiors were probably quite dry in storms. -The rooms at the Capitol were completely so. - -And now the running groups, the populace, the guards, officials -hastening variously on their many ways could be heard tramping and -surging along, with only occasional ejaculations of impatience or alarm, -but all in an evident race and retreat. - -I did not wait long with my friends. I knew Ziliah was with them—_with -one_. I clutched my intolerable load closer, I sprang to the eastern -terrace, now deserted, and rushed down, suddenly seized with the thought -of destroying the infernal machines I carried. It was a _great loss to -science_ no doubt, but at the moment I felt convinced that once these -preposterous weapons were lost to the little doctors, we were safe. I -cried in my heart, “Our guns against everything.” - -So on I flew, and straight out into the serpent pasture, now and again -slipping on some coiled or gliding snake to where I knew that well hole -lay which marked the departing kick of the celestial visitor who had -taught Radiumopolis the trick of making _gold_. It was a deep hole and -it was full of water. I reached it. I opened my tunic and from it the -bundle of pestiferous little arsenals of magic tumbled, and splashed in -the water—and were gone. The pack that fell off Christian’s back and -rolled backward into the sepulchre could not have been gotten rid of -with more satisfaction to that tired pilgrim than I freed myself of -those hateful little tubes. Of course afterwards the Professor was -dreadfully upset about it. He deplored the “_loss to science_.” -“Perhaps,” retorted Hopkins, “but—we count too.” - -I soon returned to the others and found them—minus Ziliah, who had been -persuaded to retire to her boudoir—nestling against the corner of the -Capitol where there was less wind and rain, enjoying the home gathering -of the Sanhedrin, its wives and children, relatives, attendants, and the -police. - -“My!” gurgled Hopkins under his breath, “such a coop of hens! And the -cackling! What’s hard to understand is how such poultry govern this -land, and how they have the nerve to keep up this detestable religion -with its snakes and its crocodiles; and yet—blame—me—they certainly are -on the inside of a good many things, and they surely are on a _Gold -Basis_, and some of our best people wouldn’t mind swapping all they -know, for just that one particular bit of information which will turn a -leaden pot into a gold one.” - -“We must know how, too,” grumbled Goritz. - -“Well,” continued Hopkins, “say the word and we’ll revolutionize this -country, get into the government, and run the mint.” - -I was getting impatient with this nonsense, and I said, “Now see here my -friends, we are four men against thousands—why talk such rubbish? We’re -all in danger because of our imprudence but I think we can steer away -safely though our difficulties, get the confidence of everyone—perhaps -more, and come out, as you might say Spruce, on the Top of the Heap. -Ziliah knows what she is talking about and she says we’re to be put out -of the way. But that perhaps won’t be so easy now. I’ve stolen the tubes -and buried them out of sight _forever_.” - -The three men sprang around me and seized me with one exclamation: “No!” - -“Yes I have—they’re gone. Come to our rooms and I’ll tell you -everything. We must use diplomacy, but if they push us to the wall there -are our _guns_. The people are accustomed to us and are indifferent. -Those little doctors never will let us get out alive if they can help -it. There’s more than our lives at stake; there’s the revelation we -shall give to the great world outside of this polar hole—about these -strange people, their achievements, their knowledge, above all about -that radium mass which may change all the civilization we are acquainted -with into something quite different. I do not agree with Goritz, though -I can sympathize with his appeal. Science _must know_ of this place, and -what is here. Science, I say, MUST KNOW.” - -In a few words I explained what had happened, when we had gotten to our -rooms, which still remained undisturbed. I told them of the curious -suggestive influence on Ziliah (Hopkins said he “didn’t like it”), how -we penetrated the subterranean room, how I found and seized those -menacing little vials, and how I despatched every one of them into the -fathomless mud and water (the Professor compared it with “the crime of -the Caliph Omar who burned the Alexandrian Library”), and how now, with -Ziliah as an ally, and with our guns, we might turn the tables on the -discomfited doctors. “Guess you’ve taken the sting out of their -tails—the little wasps,” exclaimed Hopkins. - -We did not have to wait long for developments. The storm passed, the -light returned and it was much colder. Warmer clothing was given us, and -our meals were even more liberal. This excessive hospitality made me -suspicious and I insisted that the bearers of the cakes and bread, the -wine and milk, the meat and vegetables should partake of a little of -each, before us, and this I ingeniously explained to them was the custom -of our native countries. They never hesitated, and the courtesy, as they -understood it, quite delighted and propitiated them. This too was a part -of my rule. I intended to conciliate them so thoroughly that I might be -able to make them spies on our enemies—“_pump ’em_,” said Hopkins. -Ziliah watched diligently; the beloved Spooce was an invaluable hostage. - -Our liberty was not interfered with, it seemed extended, and the -Professor kept up his unremitting labors in making notes for the -voluminous papers he was contemplating, and which he idolatrously -regarded as his possible monument in the files of time. Goritz became a -confirmed pilferer, and his stock of gold objects, whittlings and -fragments grew dangerously. I remonstrated, but he kept at it. I could -not get the wizened little doctors to talk. I addressed them as I met -them in the palace in the Hebrew patois I had acquired, and which I was -convinced they understood. But no—not a word; a bow, those wrinkling -smiles, that deferential obeisance, and the palms of their hands rubbed -together meditatively, while the prodigious eyes watched me, I thought, -with an unmistakable malice, and—with FEAR. - -We seldom saw the ladies of their households which, as Hopkins expressed -it, “considering our extreme manly beauty, as compared with the _ALL IN_ -look of their own matrimonial boobs, is a reflection on their good -taste, a proof of their imperfect education. Everybody else likes us,” -he said. And that was true. We met with the most amiable reception, and -Goritz’s skill in talking with the Eskimos, and my astounding success -with the Hebrew lingo was giving us a vogue that it seemed unreasonable -the little rulers did not see was ruinous to their prestige. Could it be -possible that they were afraid of us—afraid of our popularity? I thought -that they would avail themselves of the discovered thefts of the tree -shrines and of the unpropitious storm, on the day of the Oblation, to -turn the populace against us as _personae non gratae_ to their deity. - -But they had not, and the storm was forgotten. It was bewildering, for I -felt sure Ziliah was not deceiving me, and that our lives somehow were -at stake. Perhaps—perhaps—in that curious complicated psychology of -their dwarfed natures, cowardice, deceit, sharpness, superstition, -ferocity even, were so mixed up with an enervating feebleness of mind, -in spite of their astuteness, that it made them, as Lady Macbeth puts -it, “infirm of purpose.” - -At any rate we would watch our guns, in all senses, and we literally did -watch those we owned, carrying them with us, always strapped to our -backs, our cartridge belts at our waists, and a part of our dress. I -think this alarmed our spies a little. - -But now the _crux_ of the whole situation came to light. Two things had -happened and both of these were known to Ziliah. Ziliah was splendid—the -“best ever” said Spruce—“true down to her little toe bone; she turned -down her own dad and turned ag’in the Government rather than see us -licked. Tell you what, Alfred, I’ll take my chances with her, and—it’s -good-bye to the States.” - -It was this way. And to begin with, Ziliah’s father’s first name was -Javan, and, because the coincidence is so extraordinary, the names of -those little governors, and there were thirty of them, are worth -repeating, because again—as the Professor was the first to observe—they -can all be found in the first Chapter of the Book of Chronicles, in our -Bible. This is the list: Riphath, Kittim, Put, Cush, Pathrusim, Lud, -Hul, Joktan, Peleg, Hadad, Naphish, Jeush, Jaalam, Shammah, Shobal, -Homan, Uz, Samlah, Bela, Zephi, Zyrah, Ebal, Manahath, Anah, Amram, -Mibsam, Gomer, Magog, Anamim, Ludim. - -I took these down carefully from Ziliah, by word of mouth, and they -confirmed all we had inferred of Semitic relations but when later—much -later sir, on my return to America—I made the comparison, as the -Professor suggested, I was dumbfounded. But I will not stop now to -elaborate reflections. My story has already lengthened beyond my -expectations, and there is much to recount. - -Two things had happened, I have said. Oh, by the way, Mr. Link, I might -insert this here—Javan, Ziliah’s father, encouraged his daughter’s -intimacy with Hopkins; he thought it would lead to something. It did. As -Hopkins put it, “it was the Guy who put the _eat_ in _Beat_ it.” - -The two things were—the theft of the tubes had been discovered, and -there had been a Council held—a “_pow-wow_” according to Spruce, in -which Javan threw a bomb into the deliberations for our destruction -because he connected what he had to say at the “pow-wow” with the -disappearance of the little wizard wands. A wonderful denouement was at -hand. It all came about as follows: - -The excursion through the pine tree shrines showed a considerable -damage, and the inspectors were sure the mischief had been perpetrated -by us. Our tracks were unmistakable; they found our camps, and they -noted that the pillaging had been done, as it were, yesterday. Their -indignation was great, but, as the detection of the outrage was actually -unnoticed by the multitude, and had only come to the knowledge of the -little doctors—the Sanhedrin as we had called them—and had not then been -seriously considered at first, except by a few leaders—apparently the -older and shrewder men, Put and Hul, Peleg, Hadad and Javan, himself, -the President—it was concluded to keep still about it, and that nothing -should be done until they had returned. But the outrage, as they -considered it, made them rather anxious as to the state of mind of the -insulted serpent and tree deities—the _numina_ of their unseen world. -Propitiation was in order, and they had taken pains to visit all the -shrines, repair the mischief, attach new offerings, sing and dance and -pray, and go through a snake ceremonial with the doctors as masters of -the ceremony, as indeed these odd creatures were really priests to the -nation. - -They talked a great deal about it among themselves, but they were -dreadfully bothered by Javan’s scruples as to touching us, and all -because he recalled an ancient prophecy of a fall from the clouds of a -beggar-like man, who would not know their language, and who would bring -them a new wisdom, and who would be their King. - -Now it seems this ancient prophecy was in their archives, as you might -say, and action in our case was to be delayed until its exact portents -or contents were ascertained. There were queer coincidences in the -matter. Our descent from the top of the pine tree, albeit awkward and a -little unseemly, was a good deal like a drop from the clouds. _It seemed -so to them._ Our beggarly condition was really shamefully clear. Then we -did not speak their language, and as to the new wisdom, the Professor’s -harangue rather filled the bill there, and, in spite of themselves, his -red hair had impressed them, _as it did everybody else_. - -Certainly there were or might be discrepancies. There were four of us -for instance; we had been in the wood some time—desecrating it too, a -profanation inconceivable in a future King—a heaven-sent King! These -considerations cheered them greatly, for really the little fellows did -not wish to abdicate. So they mulled these things over and fixed their -plans very craftily. They’d get back, ignore us, seem to forget all -about us, hunt up the precious document, and, if they came to the -conclusion to “_do us_,” as Hopkins said, the affair would be kept very -secret, and—their white fingers clasped the ominous tubes as they raised -them significantly over their big heads—_they wouldn’t be long about it -either_. - -At the return to Radiumopolis Javan heard from Ziliah’s own lips—very -soon, I suppose, after she lifted him up in her arms on the terrace -steps—what a dreadful state her heart was in over Spooce, and Javan -(“perfidious dad,” Hopkins called him) simpered, sniggered, and -encouraged her attachment. But Ziliah possessed some feminine -acuteness—“No piker, _she_,” declared Hopkins—and she was not many -minutes in finding out the true position of affairs; viz., the enmity of -the Directorate, the existing government, for us. She was in an agony of -fear, and, aflame with her love, she had met us and told me of our -danger. Then, sir, as you may incredulously recall, I did that -telepathic act, and cleared away the most formidable obstacle in our -way. - -From that moment Ziliah was ours, every heart beat, every brain pulse -was for us. She certainly _played_ her father, but we had no intentions -against his life, and it was just simply immolation for us all in his -case, as the coterie would have sent us on the long road in a hurry, and -then all this strange tale would never have entranced your ears. Ziliah, -as the verdict of the world will pronounce, chose the better part. Her -devotion led us into the light of deliverance. - -The old record of the prophecy was brought to light. It actually was -engraved on a gold tablet. That showed, sir, that the knowledge of -transmutation was over a hundred years old in Krocker Land, for, as you -will learn, there is no mining for gold in Krocker Land; that mother -lode which the Professor predicted, as far as we know is a dream only. -All the gold in Krocker Land comes from Radium Transmutation. - -Ziliah saw the tablet, she heard it read; for that matter she read it -herself (“A twentieth century woman and no mistake,” was Hopkins’ -tribute to her sagacity), and now what I tell you, sir, will hardly be -believed. It has such a fabulous fairy-like sound. - -The prophecy read thus: The future King would fall from the sky, in the -shape of a man dressed in rags, with hair red like blood, with a strange -language on his tongue, and “he KILLS with THUNDER.” - -That, sir, brought our guns and the Professor into the drama, and swept -the stakes into our hands. You shall see. - -The prophecy did mightily disturb the council. They convened in their -state chamber, and argued it out circumstantially, and Ziliah, -conveniently disposed for the revelations to be expected, listened. The -upshot of their deliberations was that there was much difference of -opinion, with a preponderant feeling that the Professor was a dangerous -probability. Had we fallen from the sky, or just dropped out of the -branches of the tree, and, if that was our first appearance how about -the thefts? Yes—yes—the thefts, and the traces of our previous camps, -and then the _killing with thunder_? There was some ill-natured derisive -and weak giggling over this. Thunder indeed! - -The upshot of it all was that Javan was deputed to keep an eye on us, -and probably the best thing to do, taking a strictly conservative view -of the matter was to— Ziliah didn’t catch this, but when I told her -Hopkins, he winked assertively and drew the forefinger of his ring hand -across his throat, and said nothing. - -Anyhow the little elders came out from the conference, looking greatly -satisfied, very benignant, and were happily garrulous. But the second -event was the discovery of the disappearance of the tubes. It seemed -that some recuperative effect was sought for in thus storing them in the -metallic box in the subterranean chamber, but—WHAT? And whether other -agents were present in the box will never be known, as indeed the -mystery of those tubes is itself a closed chapter, unless forsooth the -Professor elicits the information as to their fabrication, by reason of -his present control of the scientific resources— But pardon me, I -anticipate. - -The tubes had been placed in the chest almost instantly after the -re-entrance of the cortege into the Capitol. A literal translation of -Ziliah’s remark as to the need of this would be that they were “_dying -out_.” - -You can imagine Javan’s despair, consternation, and amazement. -Apparently there were no more of these stupefying inventions handy, and -the Sanhedrin were really at their wits’ end. At this juncture Ziliah -became a perfect demon of suggestion. Hopkins’ enthusiastic submission -to her charms inflamed her with a sprightliness of mind that kept us -busy too, and won our case. Ziliah knew that the citizens of -Radiumopolis, which practically was Krocker Land, the outlying -agricultural sections being little else than a _diaspora_ of -Radiumopolis itself, were not so loyally disposed towards the exclusive -Areopagus on Capitol Hill, and that some shock of wonderment that might -establish our supernatural origin would solve the _impasse_, and give us -the upper hand, for literally there was now no way out of the dilemma -but for us to RULE. - -Ziliah conceived the idea of our subverting the reigning government as -quickly as we had reached the same conclusion, and Hopkins was not slow -to sharpen her perceptions. But _she_ formed the plan of our _coup -d’etat_. We had thought (and the Professor was as deeply implicated as -any of us, he realized our plight and for once worldly aims gripped and -diverted his mind) to make a public appeal to the people or else -insidiously foment discontent, lead an attack on the now defenceless -governors, seize the throne, as it were, and establish the dynasty of -Hlmath Bjornsen the First. - -At first blush the Professor seemed greatly puzzled and unwilling, and -his bulging eyes stared at us with blank misgivings. But when the rigor -of our situation was forced upon him, with the compelling _suadente -potestas_ of his red hair, and its felicitous conjunction with -aboriginal prophecy, he worked himself into a real glee over it that was -delightful. To Hopkins there was something so macaronic and -side-splitting about this role of the Professor’s, that he could -scarcely look at his half rueful, absorbed expression, his odd mouth, -the prodigious ears, and the coronal splendor of his hair, without being -overcome with a badly concealed merriment that might have turned our -plans awry with anyone less essentially good-natured than the Professor. - -Of course we improved our popularity, and we put the Professor through -ambulatory excursions that must have tired his legs. From the first the -people had “cottoned” to him (_fide_ Hopkins), and we wanted them to -become intimate with their future KING. Certainly it seemed like a huge -joke. - -Everything was coming our way. The governors had actually become afraid -of us. We were no longer confined to the Capitol. We fascinated our -guards by giving them all the trinkets we could find about us, and -Goritz and I talked constantly with the people. The Sanhedrin might have -turned the people against us by revealing our thefts, but somehow they -did not try it. They did not even enter our rooms for proof. I think we -began to despise them. They had a secretive, feeble way that too plainly -advertised their impotence. It was evident indeed that some fatal -collapse in their authority was imminent, and they did not have the -miraculous tubes to reinstate themselves. Nothing could have withstood -them then. Between the prophecy and the loss of the tubes they were -desperate. Our sedition prospered in the meanwhile. - -Suddenly it occurred to me that their apathy and shrinking avoidance of -a collision meant mischief. It might be ominous. Were they—the thought -transfixed me with horror—were they secretly at work repairing their -loss, MAKING OTHER TUBES? Of course they were; in the light of this -suggestion their apparent timidity was explained. It was not timidity. -Nay, it was just a delicate, artful duplicity that was fooling us. -Ziliah must find out and then one way or another we must test the -situation. Of course the prophecy that Ziliah had recounted to us was -constantly the keynote of our plans. To lose our chance now would be -madness. - -And Ziliah? She wheedled Javan and Put, and Cush, and Hul, and the rest -successfully. They thought she was keeping us quiet, and they thought -too their own inoffensiveness was blinding us. Ah ha! _It was_—while -they contrived their devilish weapons anew. They had made no outcry when -they found them gone. That might have liberated the people of their fear -for themselves. But was Ziliah possibly playing us false? There was or -certainly had been a countermine at work and she had failed to detect -it. These foxy patriarchs were fooling our own spy in their camp, or -again—_was Ziliah false_? - -Well sir, Ziliah was “straight as a string and true as gold,” to quote -Hopkins. She knew nothing about the making of the new tubes, but she -would find out. Her terror over this new turn in the affair was greater -than our own, her surprise too. Ah, sir, she knew what those tubes -meant, what they could do! - -She soon returned to me—it was easy enough, and it was easy to do it -unnoticed. Javan trusted her implicitly, and indeed she and I had been -somewhat hoodwinked by him. Ziliah confirmed my suspicions. The new -tubes were indeed under way. The _eukairia_, the “nick of time,” had -come. We must strike. Then it was that Ziliah told us HOW. - -We were to take on the grand air, assert our provenance from Heaven, -repeat the prophecy from the tablet, call the Professor _Shamlah_, and -threaten destruction if the Sanhedrin did not receive us at once, see -that our thunder bolts were ready, and use them. The message, to be -taken by Ziliah, would admit that our manners had been humble and that -Shamlah had concealed his mission. But delay would be cut short. The -time for his royal assumption was at hand. We would come to them with -our thunder tubes and talk with them; and if our overture was rejected -we would go to the people and show our power. - -That was our ultimatum; batteries on both sides were now unmasked and -the issue defined. What we needed just then were theatrical properties, -some chromatic detonating explosions, fireworks, skyrockets, roman -candles, flower-pots, fire-fizzes of any sort that would give us a -supernatural flavor. As Hopkins said, just one night’s Coney Island -Payne’s Fireworks outfit, and what wasn’t ours in the joint, wouldn’t be -worth having. But—_we had only our guns_. That however was a good deal. - -Ziliah returned the answer of the Conventicle. They would not see us -just now, _later_, perhaps in fourteen _settas_, which meant, in our -time, about a week. Oh ho! That was the limit of our sufferance. In a -week they would meet us _on their own terms_. The crisis had come. - -It was not half an hour later that Goritz, Hopkins, the Professor and -myself, as faultlessly attired as our wardrobe and toilet facilities -permitted, marched from our abode in the city, down the great highway. -Our guns were in our arms, clasped tightly to our chests, and all the -ammunition we possessed was loaded in our cartridge belts and pockets. -We were instantly noticed and numerously attended. We entered the -serpent pasture, at the eastern end, and walked to the eastern terrace -of steps, and up these to the courtyard above. We were seen. Men and -women, girls and boys, in a desultory manner at first, then in hastening -groups, emerged from the Capitol and, among them a few of the little -rulers. The rumor of attack spread. - -From the houses of the city, its looms and barns, the workshops and -bakeries, its gardens, the cloth manufactories, the metal shops, the -curious small people gathered, and with them the larger race from near -and far, while the idle and loafing contingent, always large and -drifting instinctively towards every new incident, hastened in mirthful -or expectant groups, pouring along behind us. Each fresh accession -stimulated a wider circle of attention, until it almost seemed as if the -populace were following us _en masse_. They overflowed the road, they -dispersed over the meadow land appropriated to snakes, they clambered up -on the dilapidated cutches, where the snakes congregated and clustered, -in gaping crews, on the steps of the terrace. Their humor seemed -propitious. The peculiar gaiety that characterized them when we were -brought to Radiumopolis, dampened or made a little grave by wonder, -again affected them that day, but it was freer and more hospitable, and -I think they already appreciated the situation. Goritz and I had been -rather industrious disseminators of mischief—“_Semeurs d’emeute_” -Antoine said. - -When we came to the last step of the terrace we separated. The Professor -took a central position, and the light luckily turned his splendid -coiffure into a garnet glory that must have transported the audience -around us. Goritz and Hopkins flanked him, I stood somewhat to one side. -We all held our guns—magazine rifles—but the Professor, it was agreed, -should remain statuesque and motionless, only succoring us at any -critical juncture. I have a splendid voice, I proposed to use it. - -By this time the throng in the doorway of the Capitol almost blocked it. -The dignitaries were coming out quickly and the magistrates from the -wards of the city were arriving, but all somewhat _en deshabille_. Their -court robes were forgotten, or too hastily deserted, and their -appearance assumed an absurdly shrunken manner and tenuity. We very -certainly outclassed them. The Professor, _par excellence_, was -magnificent. The people measured the spectacular effect and, I guess, -shrewdly preferred our “make-up.” - -I began my demand. I spoke for the SON of THUNDER, and I spoke of the -prophecy which described his coming to rule his people, and then, it was -a master stroke which almost unnerved my friends, knocked the Directory -plumb off its feet, and thunderstruck the people, _I showed the golden -tablet_ (Ziliah’s stroke), and read it. By this time I had acquired -fairly well the Hebrew dialect of these people, and they understood me. -I pointed to the Professor who, responding to some histrionic impulse, -which none of us had even suspected in him, raised his hands as if -invoking the heavens, and then bowed to me, to Goritz, to Hopkins, and -in unimpeachable—English, said in a loud domineering tone, - -“REVEAL MY POWER—FIRE!” - -Now this was absolutely an improvisation. We had not planned the -affair exactly in that way, but we were on the _qui vive_ -(Johnnies-on-the-spot, averred Hopkins), and off went the whole -magazine of guns in a glorious unison. It was really immense, coming -as it did upon the heels of the prediction, that—_he kills with his -thunder_. Only we hadn’t killed anything. And then the Professor by -another sublime intuition filled the required bill. It was nearing -spring time and the reinforcement of the light and heat from the -diurnal sun was beginning to be felt. Some straggling Arctic gulls -crossed the sky. The Professor was a fair shot. The accentuation of a -supreme moment nerved his arm, brightened his eye, and put the force -of precision in his aim. He fired—a gull fluttered to the ground -almost at our feet—another shot, and a second bird flopped actually -upon the heads of the dismayed councillors, who were now in a fine -frenzy of agitation. - -The mercurial disposition of semi-civilized people and that contagion of -admiration which, as Le Bon has shown, infects a mob, as with the sharp -upward rush of a fire fanned by high winds, had an invincible -illustration then and there. At first there was a silence; as if shocked -into dumbness by the inexplicable occurrence, or bewildered by a -confusion of responses they could not define, they for a moment awaited -direction. _It came._ Oogalah, in the very first rank of the attendant -crowds, shouted with hoarse exultation: - -“_PEEUK—PEEUK—PEEUK._” - -Then came the reaction of release from incertitude, and the assemblage -caught the sound— Nay, the word, and from side to side, to and fro, -hither, thither, the cry doubled and redoubled, until it almost seemed -as if the convulsed nation would start some riotous stampede in favor of -that darling, red-headed, heaven-sent, death-dealing sovereign. And the -Professor, animated by I know not what elan of conquest, seized his -rifle in both hands, and holding it horizontally before him, stepped -forward against the heterogeneous throng of courtiers, officials, and -Areopagites that crammed every inch of space in front of the Capitol, as -if he were the _Demiurge of Destruction_. In a fright they gave way, and -in the path thus made we followed. There was nothing else to do, -although this demonstration to me seemed unaccountable and dangerous, as -it might lead to some unexpected disaster and an anticlimax of ridicule -and repulsion. With the Professor it was just an involuntary spasm of -stage play, with no clear purpose outlined or even seen in it. Behind us -in the regurgitant host I could hear the stentorian roars of Oogalah. -This unexpected and vociferous ally after all had a grudge to gratify; -he had not altogether forgotten his inviscerated mother. His appeals -were quite in favor of the new allegiance. You see, sir, it was an -orgulous moment for the Professor, and I don’t think he knew exactly -what he was about. - -But Luck, which after all favors a good many more people than fools, -intervened. We had gotten rather tightly entrapped in the brigades about -the Capitol, when we were met by a huddle of the patriarchs, themselves -somewhat violently jostled by the pushing citizens. Here were Javan, and -Put, and Hul, Peleg, Hadad, the head men, and they presented a very -sorry and despoiled appearance. Their nervous white hands ran over their -straggling beards in piteous perplexity, and, lacking the surplusage of -their state regalia, they appeared even more contemptible than -depressed. - -Knowing me best and perhaps too dismayed by the flaming presence of the -_Pretender_ himself, Javan literally flew to my arms and urged clemency. -It was complete _capitulation_. I knew it. But the victory must be more -crushing. The last struggle of the victim must be squelched. It had -occurred to me before that an epic seriousness, if not majesty, might be -given to our high-handed pretensions by shooting down the -Crocodilo-Python effigies at the corners of the palace. The risk might -be considerable, and then again it might be very little, with tremendous -compensating benefits if the dice fell the right way. How would the -people take it? I did not know. This moment of irresolution permitted -something to happen which gave us the upper hand most beautifully, -eliminated violence, and struck the keynote of a perfect CONCILIATION. - -Ziliah, ardent, arrayed superbly, with her copious dark hair bound up, -as was the fashion of the upper-class women, with the little gold -serpents, wearing the gold caps on her knees, her ankles encased in gold -filagree that rose half way up the naked leg, her feet in golden -sandals, and swathed somehow in a soft delicate blue tunic covering her -thighs and body, but falling away from the pillar-like neck and firmly -moulded breasts, a vision of picturesque loveliness, sprang amongst us. -Her face was flushed by excitement but radiant in smiles. And of course -she wore the golden belt with its serpent buckle. - -She flung her arms around the Professor, kissed him on both cheeks, -salaamed, bending her knees to the ground with a wonderful, unstudied -grace. Then she took her astonished father’s hand and led that little -gentleman forward, and then Put, and Hul, Peleg and Hadad—the remaining -elders, arrived, but had shrunk from the presentation. Then Ziliah -spoke. Her voice was high keyed, but musical, and had a soaring quality -in it that carried far. Silence fell and the intensity of the -psychological moment made me wonder at the girl’s prescience. - -“Father, make peace with these men. They bring us a New Wisdom. We shall -be happy with them. Let the Son of Thunder (my eyes at that instant fell -on Hopkins; he was visibly squirming in an agony of suppressed mirth at -the designation, but the Professor retained a most noble immobility) be -your guide, your companion. These men will all be brothers to us, and -this man (she knelt again at the feet of Hopkins, who seized her in his -arms, and lifted her to his face) will be my husband.” Javan’s -astonishment then was a study. - -I was transported, and I rushed in to the _rapprochement_, as she ended, -with fresh promises of friendship. - -Nothing would be disturbed, nothing changed. We came to them strangers -from the clouds, we would bless them with new powers. The Great Serpent -still should reign. - -At all this there was a great shouting, a tempest of approving comment, -and the landslide of public endorsement overwhelmed the council. The -retreating or abashed or cowardly members of “the Syndicate of Old -Toddlers,” as Hopkins said, issued from their niches in the crowd, and -Javan, caught in an _enjambment_ from which he could not extricate his -party, surrendered. He came forward, and after him came Put, Hul, Peleg, -Hadad; and the Professor, with a fine urbanity that capped the climax -and swept away all traces of resentment or repugnance, fell on their -necks, so to speak, though the act had to be rather sedately done for he -would incontinently have knocked them down. It had a delightfully funny -and _picaresque_ effect and I again felt, as I had felt hundreds of -times before, that it all was a dream and unreal. The string as it -lengthened embraced the whole Areopagus, and this fraternal ceremony -evidently, as Hopkins noted, “tickled the little old fellow to death.” - -They were all there: Riphath, Kittim, Cush, Pathrusim, Lud, Hul, Joktan, -Naphish, Jeush, Jaalam, Shammah, Shobal, Homan, Uz, Samlah, Bela, Zephi, -Zerah, Ebal, Manahath, Anah, Amram Mibsam, Gomer, Magog, Anamim, Ludim. -I am sure I did not know their identity; I counted them, thirty in all. -That consummated matters and set Professor Hlmath Bjornsen of -Christiania on the throne of Radiumopolis in KROCKER LAND. - -Javan and the other doctors softened beautifully, and actually expanded -into a self-satisfied body of patronage and allegiance. The Professor -was “shown through” the Capitol, and he threaded its maze of -compartments, saw its Council Chamber, enriched with gold, hung with -gaudy rugs, and found there the as yet unoccupied clumsy and -incalculably valuable gold throne which we had seen shaking and rattling -in the procession, itself a relic of some old time, when this isolated -kingdom had had a king, but was young compared to that still more remote -time when “the stranger” taught that king’s progenitor the miracle of -making gold. - -From it now, under the aegis of its hideous device, the rearing -Crocodilo-Python, our dear Professor was to dispense justice to the -Radiumopolites. Of a truth it was an almost inconceivable _denouement_. -What would, what could, the Professor’s colleagues at the University -say, and by what insupportable hypothesis could they explain this -transmutation? - -And there was to be a Coronation! Oh yes. Javan and the rest of the -Fathers had conspired successfully there; indeed the fuss of its -preparation and the importance of their parts in its conduct had now -really made them inanely jubilant over the whole revolution in state -affairs. - -Hopkins and I walking eastward along the broad highway over which we had -entered Radiumopolis, out into that fair Valley of Rasselas which was -again stirring with the field life of the advancing spring, talked -rather earnestly of our predicament, for, after all, predicament it was. -How were we to get home and tell our story? We were to be made a good -deal of here but—could we escape? Goritz had become eager to return with -his gold “souvenirs” (never inquired for), with his radium, with the -secret of making gold, if he could learn it. That was yet concealed and, -much more important, so were the tubes. Those balloons, the radium-lit -cave in the Deer Fels. And there was the great ethnic wonder of the -people themselves, the marvel of the Stationary Sun, the radium country! -It was impossible to reconcile ourselves to a lifelong immurement in -this monotony. Science must break through into this chrysalis of -wonders. It was our bounden duty to bring _her_ here. But literally we -were captives; the hocus-pocus of our descent from the sky would not let -us demean ourselves in ordinary ways (in spite of past precedents of the -vulgarity on the part of heaven-descended kings) and we began to see we -had prepared a dilemma for ourselves which might end more fatally than -the enmity of the little doctors had threatened. - -Now all was changed, and like flies in honey were we hopelessly -entangled. Perhaps the most fortunate of us all was Spruce Hopkins -himself, who frankly loved Ziliah; but even he wanted to “vamoose” and -take his bride with him, for he thought she would “take the edge off the -jolliest swell ladies anywhere.” The Professor, now the joke was over -and our necks safe, was sick to death of his role, and only extracted a -comforting morsel of pleasure from it in its possibility of opening to -him the few but very peculiar secrets of physics and chemistry which the -Faculty of Radiumopolis monopolized—monopolized too, we learned, by a -rigid system of verbal transmission. And then our thunder! It wouldn’t -last for ever; and our celestial powers would fail conclusively in -creating cartridges on demand, owing to the unscrupulous fondness on the -part of the Radiumopolites, which was having easily foreseen and -disastrous consequences. Our supply was shrinking fast. We adopted the -expedient of delegating the role of _Thunderer_ to the Professor, which -saved shot, or at least extended the usefulness of our arsenal. The -peaceful nature of the Professor was, however, so far exasperated by the -improvident urgency of his subjects that he confessed to a murderous -inclination to shoot them at the same time. If any one of us got away he -would need his gun and ammunition and much more—a stock of provisions -too, and transportation. We both felt pretty blue. - -Hopkins: “One of us must make a break soon.” - -I: “Well you certainly can’t. Your family’s here now.” - -Hopkins: “Ziliah’s a sport. She might just prove to be the guy to put -_light_ in flight. Besides I could tell her some things about the way we -live in New York that might increase her desire to travel.” - -I: “But we came from Heaven!” - -Hopkins: “Yes, I know—we’re the angelic sort. Say, if I wanted to desert -Ziliah—and I don’t—I could play up the Lohengrin gag. Get her to ask -questions, get mad about it—and _quit_.” - -I: “Easier said than done.” - -Hopkins: “There’s no chance to skip out up here in this everlasting -daylight.” - -I: “Pshaw! That isn’t it. Think of the journey back; think of the ice -pack.” - -Hopkins: “If we could only wireless back for a relief expedition.” - -I: “_If._” - -We turned back, gloomy and dispirited. When we reached Radiumopolis we -found King Hlmath Bjornsen thundering from the Capitol and Goritz—gone. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - - GORITZ’S DEATH AND THE GOLD MAKERS - - -I skip the coronation and enthronement of King Hlmath Bjornsen of -Krocker Land in Radiumopolis, because the King asked me to do so in my -last interview with him. He wishes to reserve its features for his great -book. He thinks that the ceremonies, taken in connection with many other -considerations prove that the Krocker Land culture ties together a -number of ancestral ethnic cults, and that there is good reason to -believe that the mixture of semi-savage practices, the archaic or -nepionic status of society, the advanced language, the peculiar -acquisitions of the patrician class, their specialized though limited -knowledge, the vitality of the serpent-monster worship taken in -connection with the biological fact of a partial, at any rate, survival -of Mesozoic conditions in limited topographic basins, as seen in the -Saurian Sea, in the chain of swamps beyond the Pool of Oblation, and -especially in the undeniable and formidable fact of the existence of the -Crocodilo-Python, an animal quite unlike any known saurian, indicate -what he terms the concatenated debris of a series of overlaid -civilizations and that its complete interpretation will carry us back to -the probable origin of _Homo sapiens_ and the Garden of Eden, restricted -of course to a purely naturalistic conception. (Erickson took a long -breath, and then—he was off again.) - -The geological features of this polar pit, its stepped or terraced -conformation, the extraordinary igneous activity revealed beneath it and -the disclosure herein of immense endomorphic radium deposits, combined -with unparalleled meteorological phenomena are also reserved by the -Professor, the King, for personal and elaborate treatment. With the -especial opportunities now available the Prof—the King (It’s difficult -for me to be consistent in alluding to my old friend) will prosecute -inquiry, so far as his official duties permit, but through me, Mr. Link, -he most fervently implores scientific recognition of the facts so far -recorded in this narrative, and immediate scientific interposition in -his behalf and cooperation for his assistance. (Erickson again paused -and allowed the full meaning of his elongated statements to penetrate my -purely secular mind.) - -However, this in passing, Mr. Link. I will recur to it. Let me resume my -story, omitting under the foregoing stipulations any description of the -Professor’s enthronement. I am indeed approaching the moment of my own -hazardous dash from Krocker Land for the outer world. - -Goritz, I said, had disappeared. It seems he had not been seen for many -_settas_—setta is equivalent to about twelve hours. Hopkins and I had -been away scouring the countryside, and knew nothing of Goritz’s -whereabouts. I have already hinted at his restlessness, moodiness, and -his unceasing hunt for gold. Latterly this had become changed into an -intense eagerness to revisit the radium country with Oolagah to collect -radium. - -We had not yet seen the process of transmutation, certain as we were as -to its accomplishment and knowledge of the same among the -Radiumopolites, a knowledge probably limited to the doctors. Goritz had -a theory as to the illimitable power of radium to effect this -conversion. He was mistaken. He was dissatisfied with the pieces we had -been given—oxidized lumps holding the unchanged metal in their -centers—and was always teasing Oogalah to take him again to the radium -valley or chasm. Oogalah refused. I think he did not relish Goritz’s -company. Now Hopkins and I believed Goritz harbored the intention to -gather his belongings at a favorable moment, mostly the gold objects and -the radium, and, trusting blindly in his great strength, experience, and -resources, to force his way back to the Krocker Land Rim, regain the -coast, hunt up the naphtha launch and possibly make some attempt to sail -back to Point Barrow. It was sheer madness. We had had few occasions to -argue it with him, as he rather avoided us, and his secretiveness and -stealthy activity strengthened our suspicions. Hopkins half feared the -unfortunate man was losing his mind. - -[Illustration: - - GORITZ’S DEATH -] - -But when we learned of his absence—we were all rather marked men now in -Radiumopolis and our goings and comings were minutely noticed—I -suspected at once he had tried to get to the radium fields alone and had -been lost or destroyed there. Taking Oogalah, now acting under orders, -Hopkins and I started out. We reached the peridotite hills which -afforded us such welcome relief against the inordinate misery of our -heads, that arose from the powerful emanations of the region of the -granite ledges. No traces of our missing friend appeared. Oogalah left -us, passing through the gateway between the sulphur patches, and made -straight for the edge of the cliffside that broke down into the -unapproachable and impossible crevice. Beyond the farthest point he -dared to penetrate lay the prostrate body of Antoine Goritz, our former -leader, dead. Oogalah could see him plainly, but he hesitated to try to -reach him, and it would have been impossible for him alone to have -carried this youthful giant back. Goritz’s head was towards Oogalah -coming from the east. He had fallen headlong, a little crumpled up, as -if in convulsions when he fell, and in his hands, still clutched in an -irretractable deathgrip, were two lumps of radium. - -Sorrowfully Hopkins and I turned back, followed by the mute but -wondering Eskimo. We could not possibly have recovered the body then, -but we hoped to later. We had already heard that the workers in radium, -the Gold Makers, were like Oogalah immunized or less sensitive to its -paralyzing influence, and with some of these men we hoped the recovery -could be made. We noticed on this sad errand that our own susceptibility -had changed, that it deterred us less, just as for months past the -irritation of the eyes from the peculiar light of the land had passed -away, which before, in the Deer Fels, even in the Pine Tree Gredin, had -afflicted us. So, reluctantly we returned, fully assured by Oogalah that -with assistance from some of the gold makers the body could be -withdrawn. And that, sir, partially led to our second visit to the -village of the Gold Makers. - -That gold was made by some miraculous power, aided by some peculiar -skill in the Radiumopolites, we had convinced ourselves, before we -reached that city. Since then the spectacle of the Capitol, the apparent -extravagance of the use of gold in decoration and in apparel, and even -in the appurtenances of the rooms and homes of the officers of the city, -the shockingly hideous Crocodilo-Python effigies on the palace, and that -impossible, realistic creation of the Serpent-Throne in which the -Professor sat at the time of his triumphant coronation, and Ziliah’s -story and the equally credible narrations of Oogalah confirmed -specifically our suspicions. But we had never seen it made, nor even -found in the industries of the city any trace of its manufacture. That -the odd encounter of ours with the sphalerite in the limestone cave of -the Deer Fels, when the convocation of little men drifted down from the -sky, borne by those incommensurable balloons (and, by the way, we had -never since seen a balloon in use or idle) had something to do with gold -making, we were positive. - -Since our arrival and establishment in the city we had heard of the Gold -Makers. It was for them that Oogalah explored the radium fields near the -Crater of Everlasting Light. Oogalah told us most of what we learned -about them. They were a different people again from either the Eskimo or -the Hebrew type in the city of Radiumopolis, and the Valley of Rasselas. -They lived in a secluded community many miles away from Radiumopolis, -and seldom visited the city, though they occasionally intermarried with -the comely Eskimo girls or the larger women of the small race. When we -inquired the cause of their isolation Oogalah said the _mines_ were -where they were to be found, and the burial grounds. - -The last named excited our wonder, but Oogalah was vague on the subject -and seemingly uninterested. He did exhibit some enthusiasm over his -recollections of the wildness and beauty of the country where the Gold -Makers lived and worked, and mentioned a mighty river there. This was -the river that issued from the Canon of Promise, the effluent from the -Saurian Sea, which, as I have said, again turned westward and through -another savage defile entered the Kara Sea. That river I named -“_Homeward Bound_,” for by it I came out. - -Well, the Professor, after his accession, expressed the strongest desire -to see the Gold Makers and their country, and said that we all must -accompany him. For the Professor had acquired a little knowledge of the -language, and with me as interpreter he got on famously, and told the -Council of wise men that he was writing a book about them, and after -they had mastered the idea, for among their other trivialities they had -no books, no writings of any sort, they took to it immensely. This -appeal to their vanity—megalomania literally and figuratively—was a -great stroke. Bjornsen will find out all their knowledge before he -abdicates. - -So it very soon materialized that we should be shown the Gold Makers. -(This was some time before Goritz’s death.) It was a picturesque trip. I -shall never forget it, and for good reasons. It started me on my way -home. - -The Professor, Goritz, Hopkins, myself, and the chief men of the Senate, -Javan, Put, Hul, Peleg and Hadad, made up the party with the guard, -drivers and a few attendants. We went in their odd wooden-wheeled -jaunting cars, pulled by the very lively and entertaining rams. - -It would form an appealing and pleasant study for me to describe the -Junta of Radiumopolis—those thirty humorous little figures, with the -sedate, old, and variously featured faces, a galaxy of physiognomies -that embraced good nature, cunning, sullenness, querulous self -importance, feebleness, gravity, benevolence (more in the seeming than -in the reality, I take it) spitefulness, apathy, fussiness, dullness, -alertness, sympathy, cruelty, perhaps sternness, and above all a -mannerism of profundity unspeakably amusing. Their physique is hopeless, -for they have pin bodies and have pin heads, as Hopkins described them, -and their off-the-center look with their top-heavy heads and bowed -shoulders make a mannikin effect, ludicrous and grotesque. All are dark. - -But while we are on our way to the Gold Makers, through the open -flowering meads and broad pastures and arable acres of the Rasselas -Valley, I will try very briefly—_in staccato_—to put before you Javan, -Put, Hul, Peleg and Hadad. - -Javan, the father of Ziliah, was by far the best looking, and generally -the best formed. His face was really handsome, and his beard made no -false claim to being one. It was full and flowing. His eyes were large, -glowing and passionate. He smiled too much, and a “few crowns and -bridges made from home material would have benefited his mouth organ,” -said Hopkins. His cheeks were hollow and pale, but the positive beauty -of the broad white brow seemed to compensate for all other defects. - -Put was a rather tall man, under the restricted sense of long and short -as applied to these gentlemen, and nearly bald. His nose was a more -modest creation that those of most of his colleagues, but his mouth, in -so small a face, was portentous. Nature by some ineptitude had almost -omitted his ears, and his eyes had a glassy and fixed stare (when not -concealed by the official goggles), but the forlorn remnant of some -forgotten smile had become fastened in his face, which actually helped -the artificial effect of his eyes to the point of making you almost -believe he was of wood or plaster, and not of flesh and blood. Hopkins -quoted the Bab Ballad verse, which runs, - - “‘The imp with yell unearthly-wild, - Threw off his dark enclosure: - His dauntless victim looked and smiled - With singular composure. - For hours he tried to daunt the youth, - For days indeed, but vainly— - The stripling smiled! to tell the truth - _The stripling smiled inanely_.’” - -Hull was somewhat shorter but he was a distinct analogue to Put, with -most of Put’s eccentricities, softened, by no means to the point of -extinction, but so far as to make him a laughable simulacrum. - -Peleg was the best example of this small Semitic people in the thirty -Areopagites. He was really muscular in a way, well developed, with a -hawk’s eye, and a severity that would require, I surmised, very little -provocation to turn it into ferocity. His head seemed less ponderous, he -carried it straighter, and a deeper glow of redness in his face imparted -to him a humanity denied by the parchment-like texture of his fellows. -His beard too, was full and his hair really rich and luxuriant. I think -he would have proven a firm friend. - -Hadad was an anomaly. He was fat. Hopkins called him “the Alderman”; he -was the presumably happy possessor of a so-called corporation (as -Hopkins put it, “a Trust individualized as an abdomen”), and his voice -and laugh were musical. Generally I don’t insist on the association, but -I have found it noticeable. Hadad had pop-eyes and an incorrigible habit -of spitting. He seemed loquacious, and he usually could be found in the -midst of any discussion. - -This conventionalized description might produce a wrong impression. -These little men did not dress in coat, vest and pants. Figure them in -yellow or blue tunics falling well below the knees, sometimes in a sort -of violet cassock, either bound with the rococo gold belt and its -conspicuous gold buckle, with leggings or buskins, with the beehive hat, -and all this apparel on state occasions loaded with gold chains. You can -conceive that they presented a most unusual appearance, even one of some -dignity, though it must be confessed their relatively large noses -undeniably depraved it with a vaudeville effect. Hopkins never could get -over this impression. - -“Alfred, if I could ship ’em, as they stand, on the hoof so to speak, to -New York!—sign a contract as manager, and bill ’em for a tour of the -States, my financial horizon would be cloudless. Eh?” - -The defects of these diminutive people seemed increased by contrast with -the taller race, who were well made, normal in every way, and whose -women were most pleasing. And as regards the ladies of the small type, -they were much bigger than the men—another fact to the disadvantage of -their undersized partners—and often, as with Ziliah, they were superb. -(The matrimonial question was already looming ominously prominent for -King Bjornsen, and his counsellors, I knew, were solicitous for his -royal appreciation of their daughters—“one, or several or all,” said -Hopkins.) - -And _there_ was the great and glorious land of the Gold Makers. As we -approached, its diversity and contrasts became excitingly apparent. And, -as in myself dawned the scheme of making it the point of my departure, -or ESCAPE, to that great outer world from which like thrown pebbles -Chance—not in this case a blind goddess—had dropped us into this sealed -and secluded lesser world, it assumed a veritable splendor. Far off the -shimmering agitation of the broad stream that poured its accumulated -flood down a long grade from the Canon of Promise, in a vast crosscut -through the Pine Tree Gredin, sparkled in our view. Hills, low and -sparsely wooded, rose from the floor of the Valley of Rasselas—we had -already reached the latter’s northwestern limit—between them were flat -and grassed interspaces, and in the foreground a savannah-like expanse, -quite treeless, and then far to the right the clustering villages of the -Gold Makers. Obviously the river dominated the scene, with that far -distant background of indefinite elevations outlining the northern -concentric bulwarks of Krocker Land, beyond which a good glass might -detect the shroud of the Perpetual Nimbus, and yet farther, infinitely -removed, but seen in presence if not in form, the snowy or ruddy -pinnacles of Krocker Land Rim. The river before it reached the pastoral -foreground had recovered its calm, and only in its full tide did the -gliding patches of foam, and here and there a larger, more disquieted -wave, indicate the turmoil and torture of its descent. The road drew -near to its banks. Within our view it turned westward, and we could see -that it again passed outward between the walls of a rugged and imposing -defile. Could I trust myself to its impetuous current, and find over its -boiling waters an avenue of escape? So I mused, as we jolted along and -as, to me, the scenery brought back long forgotten pictures of the Vale -of Llangollen in Wales. - -Scarcely were we in sight of the villages than some of their occupants -hurried to meet us. When they came closer, to our wonder, we found them, -as Oogalah had described, of a different racial type from the rest of -the Radiumopolites and very unmistakably Samoyedes, men from the vast -Siberian uplands, physically distinguishable by the broad faces and -pyramidal skulls of the Turanian family. These nomads of the treeless -fringes of Siberia, so far as indications showed or inquiry elicited, -had been in a small company, wrecked on the Arctic coast of Krocker Land -in some dateless past. They had made their way into the Valley of -Rasselas, had established themselves without molestation in this -restricted corner, and had then—how, remained an unanswered or insoluble -question—come under subjection of the Radiumopolites. When the peculiar -industry which now engaged them had developed was as indefinite in its -relations to what went before or followed after it as the advent of the -supernatural(?) stranger who had taught Radiumopolis the process of gold -manufacture itself. - -It seemed however that at an early time these Samoyedes had been -appropriated as workers in this singular art, because of their -discovered immunity from the deleterious effects or influences of the -hypostatic element. - -I saw men and women fishing in the broad river, and to my amazement -found their boats were literally rafts—wooden logs bound together by -ropes or thongs of leather and fibre. Hardly had I perceived this before -the thought and hope flashed through my mind that on some such vehicle -of transit I could trust myself to the stream, and that it was most -likely that these hardy highlanders could give me the information I now -needed as to the channel, direction, debouchment, and navigableness of -the noble water in its course to the coast. - -One of the strange idiosyncracies of the Radiumopolites, in spite of -their attested skill in workmanship, their intelligence and emotional -liveliness, was their obtuseness in geographic matters, or better, -_numbness_. I don’t think they ever questioned the fact of their -absolute finality both in place and in existence. Outside of the distant -Krocker Land Rim was nothing but that blockade of ice, of which they had -heard—the gold belt found by Goritz was a token of an aeronautic (?) -reconnaissance—and outside of that, if speculation in their minds -suggested the query, was just nothing again. As the Professor said, “The -centripetal tendency of many primitive cultures was well understood, but -in this case it was pivotal on a new topographic conformation that -forbade migration.” I don’t suppose it ever occurred to a Radiumopolite -to even ask what might become of that river cutting across this corner -of his Eden-like valley. They had become _static_, and what they knew -and what they enjoyed never changed. In house building, in weaving, in a -rude artistry of design, in agriculture, in brick and tile and pot -making, in their religion, in their games, they had attained a -development that gave them happiness. And that ended it. It was -Inca-like, or Mayan, Toltecan, Aztecan, or any of the American cultures -which inhabit one spot, flourishing within it and never exceeding it, -like the phenomena of centralization in plants and animals. And yet what -questions this same culture suggested to a less individualized student, -that diminutive Semitic race, the tree and serpent survival, and this -unique oligarchy of little magnates! - -Arrived within the precincts of the Samoyedian village, there was a -bustling reception from dogs and children. These were the first dogs we -had seen. Then a slow emergence of women and older men from the low -briquette abodes followed. Almost without noticing their salutations, -Javan, Put, Hul, Peleg, Hadad, leading the way, took us through the -scanty settlement to a series of barracks, also made of burned clay -briquettes, and entered the first one. On long rude tables were heaped, -in this armory, piles of _galena_ (lead sulphide), and the glistening -mineral was in nodules, free and clear, or enclosed in a pulverulent -limestone. It was the duty here of the workmen to extract the mineral -from its matrix, pound it into dust, and separate it in small wicker -baskets. It was then carried away in these receptacles, by men, to other -buildings. In another house or shed _Sphalerite_ (zinc sulphide) was -similarly treated. From these preparatory stages we passed to the radium -storehouse. This was practically a cave dug in the side of the hill, -where the material, gathered by Oogalah was kept, and which we were not -permitted to enter. The radium masses were thrown into this place -through an opening above, a sort of chimney, and removed below by an -opening which permitted their extrication by stone hoes. As they were -drawn out they were taken in baskets to the Mixing House. The critical -work was effected here. - -In every respect it was like the other workshops, but in it the workmen -did not remain more than two hours at a time, the “shifts,” as we would -say, being then changed. At one end of this building the radium nodules -were cleared of their dull coatings of oxide. Instantly the metallic -nuclei, which was malleable to a slight degree, but which soon developed -brittleness, were pushed towards other workmen, who hammered them with -stone mallets or hammers until they were broken or splintered into -grains or small angular pieces. This triturated metal was pushed forward -again with slate knives to the last group of workers to whom the basket -of pulverized lead and zinc mineral had been brought. - -These operators divided the broken radium into lots and poured over each -lot the contents of a single basket. The heap thus formed of the -commingled radium and sulphide was then drawn to the edge of the stone -and brick table and carefully scraped into a leathern or woven apron or -bag and tied up. From this house these bundles were carried away to a -distant upland which furnished a favorable soil for their burial; they -were deposited in holes, five to ten feet deep, the variation in depth -having some reference to the size of the bundles. These burials were -then not disturbed for a length of time which corresponded to about a -year of our time. At the expiration of that period they were exhumed and -examined. Fortunately we were enabled to see this stage of the process -also. The bundle being taken out of its sepulture is opened on a table -and its contents spread out in a thin layer. From the granular -commixture the gold particles are carefully picked out, and are then -collected for welding by pressure into larger pieces. - -Certainly nothing could have been more amazing than the exhibition thus -offered of the transmuting power of this wizard element. The -transmutation is never complete, that is, the original mass of galena or -sphalerite is never wholly converted into gold. The residues are -reinterred with the almost unaltered radium, and after six months are -again examined. The second crop of gold grains invariably is less, and -after a third trial the mixture is carefully freed from the radium and -the unaffected sulphide thrown out. The radium thus used is kept apart -from the fresher supplies of radium whose potency is always stronger. -But the partially exhausted reagent is saved, and used over and over -again with fresh ores. For, just as the radium suffers a diminution of -efficacy, so does the sulphide lose its susceptibility to its influence. -This necessarily involves considerable sorting, parceling, labeling and -adjustment. Superintendents watch the operations of each workhouse, and -the new and old supplies of the radium and of the ores are successfully -recorded and mutually apportioned, as experience dictates. The lead -sulphide yields the larger percentage of transmuted gold. - -In all instances the crop of gold is small, and its accumulation slow, -so that the rich displays at Radiumopolis must have represented the -result of many years of this peculiar labor. Javan told me that the -yield of gold was steadily diminishing because of the difficulty of -obtaining radium, and the almost exhausted condition of the lead and -zinc sulphide mines. Then he told me of a possible new replenishment of -the latter from deposits far beyond the pine tree forest to the east. -The Professor, Hopkins, and myself exchanged an astute smile of -understanding as did also Goritz, though less intelligibly. We recalled -the flying trip of the doctors, and the radium-lighted cave in the Deer -Fels. The mines of sulphide in the limestone hills of the Gold Makers’ -country are of the types familiar to the miners of the same mineral in -Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. - -With what wonder stricken faces the Professor, Hopkins, Goritz and I -gazed upon the flattened piles of sulphide ore and radium, after the -long-buried mixture was taken out of the ground in whose seclusion the -miraculous effect had indisputably been produced. The lead-gray glint of -the ore made more conspicuous the scattered dust of gold amongst it, -with particles cohering to half converted lumps of galena. And our -wonder transcended words when we were led into an adjoining room where -the gold detritus was hammered into sizeable bits, and these again -compacted into sticks or nodules, while on the shelves surrounding this -apartment, the collected masses lay in bewildering confusion. Aladdin’s -Lamp seemed almost less insupportably incredible. - - * * * * * - -It was on the occasion of the enforced second—but much desired—visit, -when we besought the services of the Samoyedes to recover the body of -our lost friend, that I again studied, more closely, the chances of the -river liberating me from the increasingly unendurable imprisonment. A -few of the hardened Samoyedes were brought back with us, after this -errand of mercy, to Radiumopolis, and with Oogalah they recovered the -body of Goritz. I think the Council would have been pleased to have -instituted a special Crocodilo-Python festival, and delivered the poor -fellow’s body to the horrible denizens of the neighboring swamps, but -King Bjornsen forbade that sternly, and it caused some unpleasantness. -It was another indication to me of the inevitable “blow-up,” as Hopkins -called it, of our amicable relations with these Radiumopolites, and the -increasing urgency of my effecting my escape, to bring to my friends the -means of their possible extrication. Under the pretence of returning -Goritz to the sky, from which (with us) he had come, we secretly buried -him in the valley, and there he lies today. - -It was something of a _contre-temp_ to have Goritz die at all. It gave a -rather second-hand and made-up look to our claims to have come from the -heavens, and to the inquiring minds of our enemies supplied undesirable -data for starting grave doubts as to our authenticity—still another -danger lurking in our path, or, as Hopkins gloomily put it, “another -nail in our coffins.” - -Our friend was King indeed, but the enthusiasm that had carried him to -that eminence lacked permanence. It could not be rooted in racial -consanguinity, it was probably constantly decried by the little doctors, -and the Professor, to quote the epigrammatic Hopkins, was a “poor -mixer.” That last word unveiled a multitude of perils. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XV - - MY ESCAPE - - -You must have observed, sir, that in my narrative I have from time to -time exhibited our variant and varying frames or states of mind toward -the strange conditions we were approaching, and the still stranger ones -we actually entered. You have been told that some of us dreaded to go -on—myself for instance—that later, diverted or enthralled by the -strangeness of it all, we wanted to go faster, that from shrinkingly -divining some disaster we were lulled into the anticipation of great -pleasure, and that when our actual danger was reached and surmounted it -might seem we should almost have resigned ourselves to stay; resigned -ourselves to that serenity of mind depicted by Doctor Johnson, from -whose work the Professor derived the name he had given to the central -vale of Krocker Land, where, “such was the appearance of security and -delight which their retirement afforded, that they to whom it was new -always desired that it might be perpetual.” - -But it surely does not require much penetration of feeling, to say the -least, or sympathy of mind, to see that our position would very soon -become unendurable, from the same general repugnance in all of us and -from particular motives in each. To begin with, we soon felt stifled in -this recondite and obsolete and trivial civilization; the very circular -enclosure which shut it in became a prison, and after all, if we were of -the same zoological _stirps_, as these people, we had differentiated too -much for pleasurable association. At no time have I felt so keenly that -the breath of the modern man’s life must be the breath of the world -where it moves the fastest and its breath is quickest. - -Then there was the wonderful discovery itself to be published, the -Professor’s notes, crowded upon the pages of a notebook he had most -carefully preserved, to be given to science. Goritz before his death -yearned for the gratification of indulgences to be purchased by his new -wealth, and, as he thought, his new knowledge. I revolted at the -surroundings, the snakes and the periodic sacrifices, and feared an -inevitable distrust and collision. Hopkins loved Ziliah, but he had -found in this _rara-avis_ a positive promise of supreme adaptation to -the best life he could give her in the world. At any rate he wished to -try it. - -Our discontent increased, our impatience chafed our nerves, and in -hastily stolen conferences we determined upon a supreme effort to -escape. We were tormented by the espionage and ruffled manners of the -Council of Thirty, who interminably buzzed about us, and had probably -shrewdly detected our hidden restlessness. And the utter dullness of the -life! Never before have I so unspeakably realized that even if you -cannot live in the current of life, you must live near it, hear its -murmurs, watch its waves, and rejoice in knowing those who swim either -with or against it. We had all been dreadfully disappointed in the -Radiumopolites. - -Again and again we planned to break away under some pretence of -revisiting our celestial home, hurrying off and disappearing completely, -though now we had made up our minds to return with big reinforcements of -assistance and to turn over this new continent to the examination and -gaze of science. It seems a cruel decision. But why not? Krocker Land -could not in any case remain much longer concealed, and we were entitled -to the fruits of our adventure, while we were reasonably confident we -could make its investiture by our civilization safe, humane, -undisturbing. I think differently now, but that was our conclusion. - -“This Ascension business,” as Hopkins called it, was just humanly -possible by the use of balloons, and it was apposite that at the -Professor’s enthronement, the aeronautics of the Radiumopolites were -displayed at last. It very oddly turned out that only the smaller race -played with the balloons. The word is deliberately correct. These -balloons were a kind of household furniture or means of diversion, as a -bicycle is with us. They furnished inexhaustible amusement to the little -people, but even there their use was limited to the very daring or the -_very light_. Almost every family possessed one. And yet more curiously -it was in the balloon line that experiment and invention were actually -stirring these ludicrous people to improve and add to what they knew. -This activity sprang from the unsatisfactory discrimination their -present aeronautical knowledge made between light and heavy weights. - -This ballooning in Krocker Land is in every way anomalous and -extraordinary, and like their knowledge of transmutation partakes of the -miraculous, certainly the previously unsuspected. Science here is again -in the presence of a New Departure. The balloons are filled with a gas -having a far greater buoyancy than pure hydrogen and it is derived from -gas wells, themselves of very moderate depth, but evidently supplied -from far more deeply seated sources. It is incontestable. A balloon not -three feet in diameter will levitate thirty pounds! - -Except for the astonishing transmutation this physical fact invades the -realm of the unbelievable more deeply than anything else. - -No evidence of this wide-spread predilection appeared before the -Professor’s enthronement. The suppression of the sport had something to -do with the ceremonial rites of visiting the tree shrines, I believe, -the winter solstitial feeding with human bodies of the saurians, and -awaiting the spring planting of grain. The opening of the season, so to -speak, is inaugurated by the ascent of the entire Areopagus, and after -that the amusement becomes general. - -All of the Aeropagites are not equally expert, and many, after a -sufficient aerial excursion to meet the ceremonial requirements, which -are _de rigueur_, subside and retire. But the art of sailing the air is -traditionally a matter of pride, and the leaders do very well. It was an -adventuresome trip for them to have attempted reaching the outskirts of -Krocker Land when we met them softly settling down on the Deer Fels, and -it later proved almost indubitable that they were the customary -political bosses, Javan, Put, Hul, Peleg and Hadad, though a closer -inspection of these worthies corrected some of our first impressions, -expressed before in that chapter of this narrative. - -The experimental efforts at improvement arose from the discontent and -envy of the heavier individuals over the glad pastimes and disportments -of the lighter ones. You see the method involved the use of at least -three balloons, one from each shoulder and one from the waist, and as -three feet diameter was the maximum size, safely manipulated, those -weighing over ninety pounds—and there were a great number of these, -almost all adults of the taller race, and many women of the smaller—were -simply excluded from this diversion. _Hinc illae lacrymae_, and hence -also the energy of invention to overcome this disparity. - -When the sports began, nothing could have been more interesting and -spectacular. Groups would rise together, separate, and reunite. This -air-swimming was effected by fans attached to the wrists. But the -Aeropagites revealed a superior guidance, at least we imagined so, for -when their floating shapes had thrown shadows on the illumined summits -of the Deer Fels, they had been provided with those inexplicable tubes, -and up to the moment of my escape these miracles had not been repeated. -And the NEW tubes—where were they? - -The proper state of the weather was indispensable and only in complete -calms would the amusing exhibition take place. As in all exercises, -bolder spirits attempted their excursions under perilous conditions in -high or moderate winds, but these had often resulted in loss of life, -the unhappy aeronaut falling or actually being driven headlong like a -fly or moth beyond the valley into the solitudes and dangers of its -encircling zones. - -The harness—for it is nothing less—which the aeronaut assumes holds him -easily and steadily to the three bubbles above him, and, as he generally -can regulate his flight with his hands, his indeterminate control is -over his descent. Few accidents occur. The balloons are symmetrized in -position over him, the one at the waist being nearest his body and the -two outside bags higher but on a level with each other. His control is -entirely over the central balloon which he may quickly deplete by -opening a valve. Variations of adjustment and of apparatus, as might be -imagined, are numerous, and individual tastes or designs introduce great -diversity. There may be four or five or even six balloons employed, but -in this case they are made much smaller. The balloons may be of -different sizes. Along the direction of increasing the number of maximum -sized balloons lay the hopes of the bigger people, but there had been -some bad mishaps, and the balance or adjustment proved difficult. The -levitation became unmanageable, and the descents were often appallingly -rapid and shockingly tragic. - -When these air revels began—as they did at the Professor’s -coronation—minus the crown—we momentarily seized upon the project of -adapting this locomotion for our flight. It required a very brief -inspection to utterly expose the hopelessness of this scheme and still -more strongly occurred to us the prohibition from attempting to leave -together. Such a wholesale evacuation, unless accomplished as one might -say _de coup de tonnerre_, would never be practicable, and as Hopkins -ruefully reminded us, “Ziliah may be an angel, but I’d rather sour on -her prospects of being a balloonist.” - -Literally I was the only free man, now that Goritz was gone, and -literally upon me devolved the task of getting back, rousing the world, -and effecting my friends’ release. How should, how could I do it? - -Always distressed by this inseparable anxiety, the trip to the Gold -Makers suddenly appealed to my searching mind with a strong likelihood -that the great river we had skirted might carry me safely, and, too, -with a swiftness beyond our hopes to liberty, though when more seriously -considered, it might prove, I saw, to be only the _Liberty of Death_. - -Immediately, therefore, after our return I found a convenient occasion -to discuss this project with the Professor and Hopkins. It struck them -both favorably, though they rather shrank from recommending it, as it -was equally clear that if the river could be, as it were, employed at -all, it would probably prove to be an obstreperous and mischievous -servant. However, that _way lay my path_. - -Under the pretence—hardly ever now were we free from some dogging spy at -our elbows—of wishing to report more faithfully the operations of the -Gold Makers in that book which he was writing on Radiumopolis, and which -somehow had now captivated the fancy of the Council, the Professor (King -Bjornsen), Hopkins and myself revisited the distant village. Although we -were not permitted to go unattended, it was easy enough for me to engage -the Samoyedes in conversation, and ask them about their knowledge of the -great river. They spoke quite freely about it, and proved not only -willing to tell me all they knew, but discouraged my plan to navigate -the river to its mouth, by a not altogether lucid account of the attempt -of one of their fishermen to venture on the river beyond the rocky -gateway frowning on them to the west, and of his receiving some sort of -violent treatment at its hands, he being thrown ashore and returning -along the banks of the stream, reaching home almost more dead than -alive. So ran their broken and obscure story. - -Where was this man? “Dead.” Were any of his family, descendants, -acquaintances, intimates, living? “Oh—yes—he knew everybody.” After some -painstaking examination, accompanied by an immense amount of irrelevant -recollections of what he did after his return, how he died, and how he -was buried, his size, his strength, his obstinacy, and a recital of the -disposition of his slender estate, I uncovered a trail of associations -leading to an old blind man who was yet alive, and who, it was supposed, -knew a little more exactly than anyone else what this daring disciple of -Izaak Walton had seen or experienced. - -This ancient was located, but it proved a mountainous task to extract -much intelligible information from him, partly because he was dreadfully -deaf, hopelessly stupid, and so incoherent that the interpreters chosen -to interview him appeared to be at their wits’ ends to make him out, and -more particularly because he was himself suspicious of his examiners. - -I at last came away with the impression that the man had floated off -peacefully on the swelling breast of the flood as it emerged from the -broad lake-like embayment in the Gold Makers’ land, and had been carried -along for a great distance at a rapid rate but not with much or any -danger, until the descent brought him to a change in the bed or banks of -the river (what this change was could not be determined), and that he -had even survived this, but that later he jumped overboard from his raft -(for raft it was), and reached the shore and, satisfied with his -adventure, had made his way back by almost incredible exertions. - -Singular as it may seem to you, sir, my deductions from this incomplete -story, bristling as it might seem with unimagined, untold dangers, were, -that the river maintained a full flow, was seldom interrupted by -obstructions, had some serious breaks in its grade, which, however, did -not involve actual falls, and, if violent at any point, was not -unnegotiable, as you say. The fisherman evidently passed the worst place -alive, but did not survive the shock. He lost his nerve and got -ashore—and besides, in his case, there were most valid reasons for -objecting to a lengthier transit. - -This favorable interpretation, so far as it helped me to make up my -mind, was really itself helped by a kind of desperation. It was -impossible for me to remain in this solitude any longer. An almost -fierce monomania of repulsion was growing within me, and, of some -natural hardihood myself, this excitant for action bestowed on me an -almost unnatural indifference to danger. - -Later I told my friends I had made up my mind. Whatever perils lay in my -way I would cope with them as I could—but GO I would, and as an avenue -of escape that seemed to promise the quickest release I preferred the -river. There were many solemn and affecting conferences—continued as we -had opportunity—and the preparations were, so far as the resources -allowed, carefully made. They were indeed so wisely made that I reached -the Siberian Sea safe and sound. The intervention of Luck or Providence -in assisting him, is consciously or unconsciously expected by every -Arctic explorer, probably by any explorer; and with the contribution of -his best judgment, unsparing effort, and personal fortitude, he is -inclined to put the blame of his failure—if he fails—on those two -omnipotent factors. If he succeeds, a brave man is probably not less -inclined to give them the credit. - -We selected the best rifle of our little collection, stored all of our -ammunition, depending on the ingenuity of Hopkins and the King to -reconcile the Radiumopolites to this sequestration of their beloved -thunder, the Professor entrusted to me some pencil scribbled papers, and -then we turned our attention to my personal equipment. I believed that -in a week’s time at the most I would be enabled to reach the coast. We -all felt that, assuming a parallel conformation of the various zonal -strips we had traversed entering Rasselas, their proximity on the west -argued for a probable narrowing of their width. To have attempted the -eastward route over the path we had taken had no attractions for me, and -from the first we felt my absence would then be more quickly discovered, -and myself _willy-nilly_ overhauled. - -But later we turned our first plans upside-down. Hopkins said my -departure should be a public event, that we would never be able to -accomplish anything satisfactorily in this hidden, secret fashion. - -“Take the bull by the horns; fly a high kite and put it up to ’em this -way. Tell ’em the shade, spirit, spook, anything that’s handy of Antoine -Goritz, has appeared to you, and told you to take to the water; that big -things will be brought back that way; that the Serpent God wishes it—Oh, -anything. Hand it out strong and lively and scary. I guess that’ll -rehabilitate Goritz too, give him the _saecula saeculorum_ sort of -effect, and it won’t do us any harm either to keep up our show of being -on intimate terms with ghosts and such.” - -“Will they believe it?” I asked. - -“Sure. Why not? What else have they got to do? They’re made that way. -All of these rubbishy people who came into existence before gas and -electricity, the telephone, trolley car, pasteurized milk and -incubators, will believe anything you tell ’em about goblins and witches -and scarecrows and second sight and dreams and invisible voices. Try it, -Alfred. It’s a cinch.” - -Well, we did try it and it was, to put it that way, an unalleviated -success. Still there was a fly in the ointment, in a way. Ziliah told -Hopkins the little doctors were overjoyed—they wanted _me_ out of the -road. I asked the Professor and Hopkins what they thought about that and -they both agreed they could take care of themselves. This upshot of the -matter was indeed a rather disturbing surprise, but—my departure was a -triumph! - -The resources of Radiumopolis were at my disposal—food, clothing, and -although direction or information could not be furnished, the physical -requisitions for combating hunger and cold were generously provided. -This alacrity on the part of the little rulers was unmistakably -connected with their expectation that the adventure would be the last of -_me_. They were obedient to the injunctions of King Bjornsen, but their -subserviency was hypocritical in its protestations of devotion. - -Unluckily there was the most helpless ignorance of boat making to -contend with, and the additional provocation to despair that there were -no tools to make them with. This historic fisherman had tried to do the -trick with a raft. I would take a raft too. What else? The Samoyedes -built them well and strongly, and under my uncontrolled supervision a -narrow raft made of two tiers of logs, crossed in position and bound -together with the strongest ropes, was prepared. On this a woven hamper -was firmly fastened, and in that were placed my provisions (tortillas, -and dried meat) and extra clothing, and rugs, and a sleeping bag of -sheepskin. A pack strapped to my back carried Goritz’s gold souvenirs, -some radium masses, a compass, chronometer, matches and a selection of -fishing hooks and lines. A gun was almost riveted to my side, so -immobile did it seem. But the _tour de force_ of foresight was involved -in the insertion of two short posts (five feet high) at the stern, -though distant from the raft’s edge by about three feet, and distant -from each other by three feet. To each of these posts, at the level of -my shoulders, was reamed a hole for two looped leathern thongs, so -adjusted that standing between the posts I could insert my arms in the -loops, clasp my hands across my breast, and secure a chancery that -nothing short of dislocation of the raft itself could break, or the -avulsion of my own arms from their sockets, while in an instant I could -free myself. - -The Samoyedes rigged up a rude steering tiller which of course was -indispensable. It consisted of a girdle suspended from a cross piece, -binding the two abovementioned posts, through which a stick paddle was -swung. It was decidedly awkward, as it displaced me from my position of -safety between the posts, and therefore at critical moments might prove -quite worthless, if not a positive danger. Here I must count on my own -agility and strength. Besides this tiller half a dozen poles and as many -oars were tied to the posts projecting above them like short masts. -These might prove very serviceable. But there was also a last Atlantean -touch. Two of the three foot balloons were firmly tied to the crosspiece -of the upright posts. It was the Professor’s suggestion, and I am -positive that at a critical twist it saved matters. - -That was about all, except that some further records were given me by -Bjornsen and they were consigned to the great woven hamper. Well, some -learned societies will be saved head splitting disputes, and no less -head dizzying theories, the former perhaps not altogether harmless. -_That hamper never came through._ - -By the beginning of July I was ready for the plunge. The day was -auspicious, clear but torrid, with the stationary sun wrapped in -luminous clouds, and its overwhelming rival coursing a higher altitude -in unchecked splendor. The great river assumed an enticing placidity; -its tranquil current had even lost the chained bubbles floating from the -shattering cascades that freed it from the Canon of Promise. And -Radiumopolis had bodily transferred itself to the scene; the banks, the -hills, the roofs of a few abandoned sheds were closely crowded, by a -wonderfully variegated multitude, intensely interested, subdued into a -faintly murmurous throng by the excitement of admiration. I was -something more than a hero that day. Obeying the summons of the spirit -of my former companion, I was to rejoin him along that trackless pathway -of the great river, whose banks touched heaven, in whose inaccessible -depths dwelt all the demons of death and terror. - -There was a reservation of space, at the point where my raft swung -uneasily, for the King, the Council, Hopkins and Ziliah, and the -magistrates of the city, and only a Hogarth could have done justice to -that commixture of physiognomies, the odd and contrasted figures, -interspersed with the taller men and women, all wearing their regalia, -and the massed battalions beyond them in holiday array. Some daring -aeronauts circled in the air above me. Flowers did not figure in the -festivals nor in the predilections of the Radiumopolites, though blue -and yellow blossoms lit their landscapes with a smile of floral -prettiness that was very bewitching, and their own blue and yellow -tunics, or coats, indicated some sympathy with these colors. On this -occasion I was presented with some flat pincushion-like mats made up of -these flowers by some blushing girls, and from the laughter—gentle and -decorous—that this evoked, I believed they evinced a warmer sentiment -than regret. Of course my mission, as publicly declared, precluded my -probable return, or, at least, it meant my long absence. By the Council -doubtless, certainly by a few undisguised enemies in it, it was hoped -that it meant my wholesale and irremediable destruction. - -As I shook hands with all I came at last to the Professor (King -Bjornsen) and Hopkins. Our hands closed tightly and we dared not look -each other in the face. I heard Hopkins whisper, “Heaven help you,” and -if prayer reaches the throne of Grace when it is consecrated by the -heart’s holiest hope, that prayer, I know, ascended to its place. As the -Professor embraced me, he loosened the belt of lead I had worn and -replaced it with a heavy gold girdle whose big buckle bore the carven -Serpent. That, Mr. Link, I have never shown to anyone. Diaz, Huerta nor -Angelica have ever seen it. It will amaze you. The Professor removed it -from his own waist. There was a half hushed remonstrance. But the King’s -gift was interpreted favorably, and as I received it a shout went up, -and even the Council, for prudent reasons possibly, indulged in a titter -of endorsement. My raft was pushed by willing hands into the stream. Its -prow or front yielded to the gentle urgency of the current, and turned. -I stood upon the hamper, and waved my hat—not the beehive contraption -but a sheepskin fez—and again the Radiumopolites, now strangely stirred -by this solemn gliding departure of a single man into the unknown, broke -spontaneously into one of their sing-song, not quite unmusical, and not -exactly musical, chants, which rising in pitch until it swelled to me -over the water, almost seemed, I drearily thought, like a dirge. Its -crooning wail still filled my ears when all details of the multitude -were lost, and the shadow of the great gateway of rock, into which the -river was relentlessly carrying me fell across the glassy wave that had -now become my path to liberty. - -There was now nothing to be thought of but self-preservation amid -unknown and unsuspected dangers. I seized some bread—_tortilla_—a hunk -of the dried, not unpalatable meat, and drank some wine. This -interjected meal raised my spirits. A momentary _sang-froid_ replaced my -nervousness, and indeed, so great was my exultation at the thought of -regaining the vanished world, of liberation from an unendurable -stagnation and the bald, horrible misery of a silly paganism, that I -became almost cheerful. That mood did not last long. Already I had -passed the portal of the deep canon. The red sandstone walls rose in -sheer precipices above me, and were rising visibly higher beyond. A few -shrunken pine trees clung here and there to shelves of rock, while -through some upward openings, and leading into transverse valleys, I -caught glimpses of the dark green motionless tops of the serried trees -that here marked the amphitheater of the Pine Tree Gredin. - -The grimness of the swiftly developing descent almost appalled me now. I -was on the back of a resistless flood not yet maddened into a fury of -impetuous violence by opposition, nor quickened into the onset of a -galloping torrent by sharper changes in its gradient, but doubtless -bringing me and my smoothly drifting raft into just such wild -vicissitudes. Could either one or the other survive them? The clumsy -boat beneath my feet was a willing servant. It responded to the strokes -of the tiller, and my dismal forebodings were momentarily forgotten in -the amusement it gave me to swing the raft from side to side of the -still broad waterway. As the light became dimmer, and a half crepuscular -dusk crept into the deepening fissure over whose topmost edges the sky -hung like an illuminated ribbon, I felt the grip of a solemn dread, the -precurrent rigor of that deadly _rigor animae_ which palsies the heart. - -Still on and on, in a course that scarcely deviated from a straight -line, and thus safely conducted _us_ (to me my little barge shared, as a -sentient thing, our common danger, and it alleviated my solitude to -fancifully, as children do, personify it, talk to it, praise it) toward -that distant goal, the ice-packed shore of Krocker Land. The bed of the -stream lay in a rectilinear joint and the weathering on either side had -not greatly widened the aperture above. The picture changed only in -detail. The frowning sides, walls scarcely relieved by any vegetation -or, which, if there, was too far above me for my eyes to detect, offered -no distinction in color. Nature had not here spread her palette of -blending hues, those that over the silent expanses of the Grand Canon of -the Colorado transfer the colors of sunset to the immutable stone. It -was the utter sternness, the harsh, immense uniformity of the still -increasing precipices that crushed the soul. I seemed like an atom in -the void, a plaything of nature; for a moment, and for a moment only, -seen in this outraged solitude, to become then a part too of the -lifeless panorama. - -The cliffs rose now a thousand feet or more, and sensibly receded, the -dislodged blocks from their summits building an awful fringe of titanic -boulders, angular monoliths, at the water’s edge. Beyond me stretched -the unvarying avenue, the shooting river seeming far away, motionless -and fixed like a congealed mass, though every particle of it was flying -onward with fresh acceleration. There could be no doubt of that. Points -observed on the shores were more and more rapidly passed. This hastening -pace became to me a portent of disaster. The angry river, placable at -first, luring its audacious victim onward, now in sullen mastery, with a -rising temper, as if impatient over its own leniency threatened to hurl -the petty intruder, the graceless little egotist, into eternity. It -would have done with him, washing his lifeless corse on its sullied -waters to the depthless ocean, a memento and a warning, if so paltry an -object could be either. Thus I seemed to divine the storm of its -gathering wrath. - -So far the great volume of water had been accommodated in the channel, -and the surface of the river was almost smooth. But with the increasing -speed the channel narrowed, and the water became turbulent. Waves rushed -on and out from the shores and rolling backs of water chased each other -in the center of the stream. Fortunately, though the waves washed the -raft from end to end and sometimes drove me to the protection of the -upright posts, the river maintained its straight course, and we still -rode gallantly onward. There were sudden dips, down which we slid with -alarming velocity, that made me shudder, but nowhere a rock, a breaker, -no treacherous bend, no falls, not even yet the dashing turmoil of a -rapid. What invention of malice was this? - -Suddenly my eye noticed a prominent bulge in the river, perhaps three or -four miles ahead. It lay about midstream. Here was some formidable -interruption? Was there a sluice-way on either side of it? If so I could -avoid it; the balloons helped my buoyancy. The raft trembled. Ah, -already it felt some premonitions of the tussle. Yes, a decided—no, not -a bulge after all; it was a drop, the river fell over a ledge, but -apparently a low one, so low that the deep volume filled it up, making -the transition from above to below it inconsiderable, and below—I could -just see—was retardation, and expansion; the river moved there over a -flat! Curious, such relenting! - -“Have no fear, Old Boy,” I shouted, stamping the logs beneath me to -awaken their attention, “stick together, take a brace and over we go, -safe and sound.” - -The spot seemed to rush towards us. For an instant I hesitated. Should I -scoot to the sides and avoid the plunge? Was it a trap? The tortuous -flow sideways might smash us against the rocks, and then—Ah! then, -_requiescat in pace_. Down the center, sink or swim, there was no help -for it—once over, thrice saved—a wetting perhaps, perhaps a mouthful of -water. - -The boiling water lashed us, and something like a moan came to me from -the shores, almost as if the baffled river gnashed in its impotent -disgust. I steered for the rounded mound in front; a straining creak -from the grinding logs, a sharper bolt ahead—I clung to the posts, and -the neglected tiller dragged behind—another sprint and I saw the -shelving face of the water below the drop tossing furiously. Over, with -an upward jolt; that was the greatest danger of all. But the sturdy -frame held together, and then in a tussle of bristling waves, noisy, -each one striking over its neighbor’s shoulder at us, and I hard at the -tiller, we raced down the slope, inundated, wrenched, even pitched a -little, but quite safe, quite sound. I could not restrain my impulse to -shout, though a moment later, as the mocking echoes smote my ear, fear -stilled my voice, and stunned conscience whispered: “Pride goeth before -a fall.” - -The raft swam later into the center of a lake-like space, in a welter of -bubbles and foam from the cascading water. The cliffs here declined, and -to the north a pass led upwards at whose termination on the waterside -two deer were actually drinking. Had they heard me shout? Their -undisturbed assurance denied it. But now they caught sight of me and -were retreating with backward glances as they halted on the grass-lined -trail. I was in the Deer Fels. - -I steered my craft, which had now gained the prestige of an actual -companionship, toward the shore, drew out one of the poles, and poled it -carefully inshore at a sandy brink not far from the footprints of the -deer. I was very quiet now, so as not to frighten away the animals who -watched me from a high point. Their presence delighted me, and -reinforced my courage. Had they been at my side I could not have raised -a hand against them, so fraternal and human did they seem. But oh, for a -voice to answer my own! I talked to myself, but not loudly. I dreaded to -wake those jeering echoes. - -The sunlight streamed through the pass, and I went up a short distance -very softly, for the deer were vigilant, but still remained where I -could see them. I lay down on a grassy knoll and dried myself. Then I -returned to the raft and picked out some food. Much of it was wet and -the contents of the hamper needed overhauling and drying. I made a fire, -finding some chance sticks and wood, and in the one kettle left to us, -and which Hopkins had given me, I actually made a stew which tasted -divine. - -Then I climbed to the top of the ridge and looked about. I could see the -pine trees’ shadow eastward, the rolling hill land of the Fels about me, -and beyond, westward, the big plateau of the aquatic trough, and then I -thought I caught the pale, fluctuating, gushing pillars of the Nimbus -and, as had often happened from other points, glimpses of the pinnacled -and snow-capped Rim. I momentarily doubted my own resolve. Should I -abandon the raft and travel over the land to the coast? But that awful -crevice of the Nimbus rose threateningly to mind. I feared it. Before it -the untried terrors of that descent to the coast by the imprisoned -plunging stream actually looked inviting. Perhaps too the worst was -over. And then the quickness of it. Twenty-four hours more and I would -be released. Released? How? Thrown on a pitiless coast, beleaguered by -the endless ice! What madness was this. Safety, a kind of animal -happiness, at least, had been mine in the sleeping vale of Rasselas. But -now—? I shuddered, and the swarming rogues of despair and foreboding -rose in clouds like gnats from a shaken bush. It was an instant when a -man’s heart seems to weaken into water. - -I had slowly retraced my way, and there I stood at the edge of the -waterway, one foot lifted to step upon the raft, to all appearances a -man calmly bent upon the fulfillment of his purpose. And yet all the -while I was beset with conflicting and warring thoughts. It was so as I -took the sleeping bag and a rug or so and tied them to the posts, -arguing almost unwittingly that, were the hamper swept away, I would -thus save _them_. And then blindly I crammed my pack—ready at any crisis -for my back—with food. It was even so as I took my place on the raft, as -I pushed it off from the shore, as I maneuvered it into the streamway, -even as I took the tiller and guided my boat on to the fastest current. -The automatic force of some ulterior prevention just kept me in the -chosen line of work, unconsciously and yet irreversibly. Strange! - -Again the darkness of the canon walls fell around me, and then only the -subdued mind rose and reformed, as it were, visibly, my unalterable -determination. And indeed now there no longer was room for incertitude. -The rush forward keyed every sense into a vivid expectancy. The bed of -the river had become more gorge-like, the uneven and projecting cornice -edges of the rock on either side sent back the bounding water, and the -surface around me was filled with leaping waves. The course though, most -luckily, remained almost undeviatingly straight. To have engineered a -curve or any sharp deflection would have been almost impossible at the -rapid swing the raft was taking in the descent, which, however, hardly -varied from my previous experience. It was difficult enough to keep “my -keel” steady, with the constant tendency of the logs to throw themselves -across the stream. It was buffeted by the “rollers” sent inward from the -shores, and the rapid pull of the midstream was itself interrupted or -diverted by the development of short waves, that chased down the center -of the channel, and that indicated obstructions or inequalities in the -bed over which the water was impetuously pouring. - -It was only by the stiffest exertions that I was enabled to keep the -raft headed true, and, as it was, over the rougher passages it was swept -with water. I was drenched, the spray and waves splashed and rose upon -me. I now realized the indispensable assistance given by the posts and -the unbreakable loops, one of which at least was constantly in use. The -management of the tiller, in this half imprisonment, was awkward, but in -spite of strains, shiftings, violent jolts and lunges the raft shot well -along the center, and did not seriously deviate from an axial position. - -It was evident, too, as we swept onward, though my attention was too -eagerly fixed on the recurrent predicaments in the water to be able to -notice it carefully, that the canon above had enormously widened. I mean -that the upper walls had receded through progressive weathering; the -tunnel-like grimness had somewhat softened, and more light fell on me. -Fortunately there were changes in the gradient of the rocky floor, and -while some were on the wrong side of the account, others introduced -agreeable relief. These latter were more level stretches where the -turbulence disappeared, and the raft floated evenly, and was easily kept -obedient to her helm. - -I had been running safely enough, though the margin of safety, it must -be said, was often a very narrow one, for some ten or twelve hours, and -the loss of sleep, constant anxiety, the wetting and the indifferent -sustenance had been slowly telling on me when my weary eyes detected a -new, perhaps a crowning danger. - -Before me the walls of the canon seemed to close—they always did so in -the manner of a perspective coalescence—but this was now different. -There was a break in the continuity of the channel. The stream turned to -the left, and I saw a wall of rock before me. At such a point a -whirlpool effect was inevitable, and this, apart from the danger of a -wreck on the rocks in the rapids, I had most dreaded. - -I noticed the elbow was rounded towards the south, forming a sort of -pool, and reminding me of the Niagara whirlpool, but it was not so -large, and, as the raft began to be seized by a stronger current, it was -also evident that the bed sloped again, and that the stream attained a -dangerous velocity. The waves spanked and broke over the raft, the -distance was white with foam; I was rocked as in a cradle, and I felt -that I must abandon the tiller, insert myself between the posts, and -hold on to the loops. If the raft escaped or survived engulfment I might -then be saved. The balloons were intact and their attachments unbroken. -They were doing some service, though a slight one, as they dragged -behind me, restraining my descent. - -Another feature appeared ahead in the rapidly nearing vortex, about -which all doubt was now removed; I could see its powerful rotation. This -new feature was a periodic uplift of the water from the pool in a broad -spout or fountain, ejected obliquely and falling on the waves beyond the -whirlpool itself. At first this outburst alarmed me. Its discharge -seemed so unaccountable and so violent. A moment later I felt it might -mean my safety. - -On like an arrow _we_ sped—the raft had become a companion—and fearing -the tiller might in some way become entangled or deflected and in the -turmoil of our certain submergence play some fatal trick that would -disable me, I cast it loose. I could see it swing past the raft, and -dance madly on the combing surges. Then it was lost but I strained my -eyes to detect, if possible, its emergence in the spout ahead. I thought -I saw it, but now in the clutches of the ravenous tide, I became blind -with unmistakable terror. The noise of the chaotic water around me -seemed like a low roar, mingled, too, with an interminable hiss, and in -the gloom of the desolate stony chasm the menace almost darkened my mind -and made me unconscious. - -A boom struck my ear, low, definite, smothered; I attributed it to the -regurgitant geyser from the whirlpool. A leap forward, a choking rattle -from the logs beneath, and then a wrenching twist that threw my feet -from under me, and the water rose solidly over my head. I could reach -the air by pulling myself upward on the straps about my arms. I saw the -balloons tugging desperately and two reports like the bursting of a bomb -immediately followed. They were in tatters. Again I sank; this time it -seemed like doom. Yet I was still conscious, and then, as if an -omnipotent arm thrust from below raised us, I felt the raft pressed -upward against the welter and inrush, and then a titanic convulsion, and -the raft, and I dangling to the posts, were shot bodily out of the -maelstrom, though scarcely lifted above the surface; and, enveloped in -the hill of water that accompanied us, the raft swam out again upon the -descending stream, in a turbulence of waves that made me dizzy with its -confusion. - -I hardly realized I was alive, but in a few minutes every sense attested -its reality. I _felt_ the pack on my back—I had very early secured it -there—I _heard_ that the creaking, groaning logs were still intact, I -_looked_ before me and saw the hamper had been swept away, I _tasted_ -the cold water in my mouth. I was saturated, it almost seemed, and I was -faint, perhaps from shock, in a measure. The sturdy posts which had been -my refuge were unshaken, and now, straight before me in a shouting -turmoil, the waters put on to me a friendly guise, and seemed just -delirious over my escape. So quickly does the temperature and spirit of -the heart find its reflection in inanimate nature. For now, though I had -been despoiled I was safe, and my gun, my cartridges, some food at -least, my fishing tackle, the evidences of Krocker Land, many notes, the -compass, matches—in a watertight box—and, thanks to my forethought a rug -and a sleeping bag were all with me, as most helpful friends. - -The recovery had been so unexpected that I felt gay as a child, and as -the French say, everything about me wore for a little while _couleur de -rose_. The stream itself, ample and full, sprawled out in a wider bed; -before me a break in the canon walls, on one side, indicated some -tributary valley and affluent and—I was rummaging my pack—here was a -bottle of undiluted, unwatered wine! I almost emptied it. A tortilla and -some strips of dried meat completed my banquet. I was myself again. The -poles and paddles lashed to the posts were still there, and one of the -former was soon in my hands, for the guidance of the boat. The best I -could do now would be to keep her off the shores, turn and wriggle as -she might in the middle stream. - -My composure now returned, and permitted me to consider my predicament -more calmly. Where was I? A few minutes after I asked myself this -question, the lateral valley opened to view. It was a rough, rocky -streambed in which now a probably much shrunken tributary to the -river—Homeward Bound—on which I was, made its way from a bare, rugged -upland. But here I caught a glimpse of the sluggishly ascending vapors -and clouds from the Perpetual Nimbus. I could not be mistaken. The wall -of wavering whiteness seemed to stretch southward. The confirmation of -the Professor’s hypothesis was complete. The Valley of Rasselas was an -enclosed pit, on all sides of which the terraced zones we had traversed -on the east, would certainly be found. Here on the west less developed, -compressed and narrower, they still existed. Radiumopolis at least was -excentrically placed in the valley, but the valley itself was excentric -also. Then I would soon be crossing the Rim, and apprehensions of new -difficulties swarmed in my mind. The canon I was in cut across the great -circular fissure which surrounded Rasselas, and the position of the -whirlpool perhaps marked the crossing. Could it be possible? It was an -extraordinary geological situation I was sure, but its explanation could -wait. What terrors of rapids, falls, or cataracts, or more whirlpools -lay before me? I looked ahead. The light from the stationary sun had -gone, but the friendly luminary that now more than replaced it, was -burning in the sky, and it showed my future course. - -To my delight, on either side the canon walls declined; indeed, it -seemed that far off they became simply high banks and nowhere were there -perceptible disturbances in the stream itself. The great volume poured -its almost unruffled torrent over a very ancient bed, and the whole -aspect of the river assumed a peculiar sedateness, as it were, compared -with the rushing, headlong haste it had shown above the whirlpool. And -there! On either side rose the snow crowned pinnacles of the Rim! The -encircling mountain fence of Krocker Land was opened here by a valley, -and in that valley, deeply entrenched, Homeward Bound was placed. And -now a new and beautiful feature developed. Brooks or streams, fed -perhaps by melting snows or ice, leaped into my river from the still -high cliffs. I could count a dozen or so, the splash of the falling -water breaking the surface of the river into waves, and the noise of -their motion and impact filling the canon with a half musical roar. It -was a fascinating picture. - -The river turned, not abruptly, but swinging southward in a long arm or -curve, and then a vista developed that, for an instant, filled me with -fresh alarm. On the left side the cliffs fell away, and their place was -taken by the face, it looked so, of a small glacier. I was at sea level -perhaps. The wall rose somewhat on the right, and intermittent threads -of water still seamed their sides with lines of light and whiteness, but -to the left there appeared the wide mouth of a glacial _coulisse_, and -from the ice mass in it, little bergs floated in the now much retarded -and widened river. The bergs scared me. A white or yellowish turbidity -spread from the glacier, the contribution of rock-meal brought by the -river that issued from beneath it. - -It was quite possible to guide my raft by the paddle I had, and, though -the Homeward Bound maintained considerable current still, it had but -little directional force. In half an hour I was opposite the glacier, -and amongst its bergs. I gazed eagerly seaward, trusting I might catch -some glimpse of the coast that must be near at hand. But the view closed -again, there seemed to be a contraction of the river, the walls rose on -both sides, and now the river’s flow was but little more than the -propulsion caused by its residual momentum. - -The ice serpent wound upward into the snow recesses of the mountains. -Opposite to me its riven front glowed with beryl and sapphire veins; the -white calves lazily caught the motion of the stream, and almost, it -seemed to me, resented my intrusion, so suddenly did they gather about -me, either in derision or in menace. I did indeed feel powerless among -them. Ice cakes flecked the stream. I was in a treacherous company. -Anxiously I steered my craft through them, but in the mist that sprang -from their sides, I would sometimes fail to see them and an inauspicious -bump would send me sprawling. I felt that the moment of release was -approaching. Soon the pale, haunted, Arctic Ocean would hold me. I felt -its immensity already, and now that the excitement of the scramble for -liberty, this arrowy voyage down the strange and majestic chasm of a -great new river of the earth, was behind me, my heart quailed before the -UNKNOWN, that confronted me with what—Deliverance or Death? - -The mountains sloped away on either hand, or were, in fact, already -behind me, for I was now floating with a diminished current that aided -my avoidance of the torpidly drifting bergs. I was in a canal, literally -cut through an ancient gigantic moraine, the vast scourings of an -ancient ice sheet. It was not long delayed—my emergence on the ice-bound -shore of western Krocker Land. The banks declined and slowly -disappeared, yielding now to the broad fringe of a coastal plain where -the river, encountering a varying resistance, had succumbed to the -vagaries of mere idleness, and swung in broad loops to the sea. -Yes—there it was—to quote the graphic words of Nansen—“that strange -Arctic hush, and misty light, over everything,—that grayish white light -caused by the reflection from the ice being cast high into the air -against masses of vapor, the dark land offering a wonderful contrast.” - -[Illustration: - - ERICKSON’S ESCAPE -] - -And now the river widened, its banks receded and dwindled. To the north -the high Rim advanced upon the sea, and black promontories rose in -august severity in the glare of day, desolate and grim, their skirts -fringed with the white surf of inrolling waves. Beyond them open water -and then ice floes, endless prospect! To the south the Rim declined -abruptly into a wide detrital platform of sand and clay banks, and huge -boulders, and, here and there, like white ships, the icebergs that had -stranded. I was in the Kara Sea. Beyond that dread, compassionless -horizon lay Siberia—but could I reach it? The awful chill of a -realization of my abject helplessness for the first time overwhelmed me. -I was alone in the Arctic Ocean, a mere atom before the uncontrollable -forces that a whim of the weather might suddenly summon forth on their -wild errands of destruction; or else a waif cast on a desert shore to be -left with pitiless irony, in the calm scorn of merciless Nature, to -perish. - -I’m not a praying man, Mr. Link, but somehow I asked GOD then to help -me. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - - THE SEQUEL - - -I worked my tried and still most workable and useful raft to the shore, -and stepped from it to the sand, between some ragged floes of ice—a kind -of ice foot. The loss of the hamper was a heavy blow, and to confront -the unknown future with a few morsels of meat and some soaked -_tortillas_ seemed only a desperate and suicidal bravado. I was for a -while stunned into a torpor of inaction. I had managed to force the raft -somewhat up on the shore, but I took the precaution of further loading -it with stones. Until I had more clearly made up my mind what would be -my next step, I would not part company with this friend, for somehow to -me _then_, the mute bundle of logs had become almost animate with a -human affection. - -And now the reaction against fatigue and all the sleepless hours made me -faint and weak. I must first sleep. I untied the welcome sleeping bag -and the rug, and disengaging the heavy gold belt—what a mockery its -value seemed in this sterile solitude—and the small hatchet which it -held, I rolled myself up, and instantly fell into unconsciousness. I -must have slept almost twenty-four hours, for the sun which had been -declining to the horizon was in almost the same position when I awoke. I -was ravenously hungry, but my courage had returned, and at least I felt -equal to considering my plans. - -But first it was food. I made a fire, warmed or toasted the flat -pancakes and roasted the meat chunks, and these with water contrived to -satisfy my hunger. The contents of the pack were now my sole resource. -They had been well soaked, but I had spread them on the white sands, and -in the heat of the sun they had dried, even the matches proving -serviceable again. My gun, which had been well greased (swagged) was -uninjured, and the wax-smeared cartridges retained their murderous -facility of exploding. If game was to be had the life in my body might -yet reasonably expect considerable prolongation. And why not game? I -recalled our first encounter when we were unceremoniously introduced to -Krocker Land—the musk oxen. But was I to become a prowling Robinson -Crusoe; were the days, the weeks, the months—there could not be -years—before me to be a savage struggle to just live and then -realize—_starvation_? At any rate there must be a plan. What should it -be? It was then that my mind working feverishly over a few projects—the -only ones I could conceive of, and all of them preposterous—was suddenly -arrested by recalling that this very summer, even during this month, -Coogan and Stanwix, Phillips and Spent would be pushing the “Astrum” -through that very sea—but farther east—to find us. On that peg of -suggestion I hung my hopes. I would work eastward if I could, or as far -as possible, keep a watchout, and hope for the best. What else? - -At first I thought I could make use of the raft, as there was much open -water, but it required only a little circumspection to show me that the -plan was impracticable; worse, fatal. I must fight my way somehow along -the coast eastward, replenishing my larder with game, possibly with -fish, not going farther than the inevitable angle—there must be such a -turning point—where the land contours bent northward. That was a _plan_, -it had a significant value. Immediately my spirits rose, so quickly does -the mind recover its equipoise in an emergency when it is set about a -rational scheme of action. It was really difficult for me to desert the -raft. In that long drive through the canon of Homeward Bound, the -irrepressible instinct of companionship had nurtured a curious -hallucination of impersonation, and the bundle of dead logs had assumed -an indefinite but real vitality. Could not I shape or build from it a -serviceable sledge, and still, transformed, keep it in my service? Then -again, could I spare the time to effect this change? I had only my -hatchet for an implement, and the thongs and strands, rope and cords -that had so stoutly kept it intact for nails and iron bands. - -I abandoned the project, but before I started on my desperate search, I -hacked enough timber from it to build a fire and cooked or roasted my -last meal over it. It partook to me of the fantastic feeling of a -valedictory. - -The shore along which I now made my way was favorable for a rapid -advance. It was a low upland, mainly detrital in composition with a -beach apron of sand, gravel, and mud flats. It sloped upward to a -semi-piedmont zone of hills, beyond which towered the monarchs of the -Rim. The view landward was inspiritingly beautiful, and when the fogs -that rolled inward from the vast ice-flecked and iceberg-studded sea, -were absent the picture was entrancing. Rich verdure covered the upland, -inundating, like a green flood, the opening valleys, slopes and -sheltered ingles, and bearing on its bosom the Arctic yellow poppy and -even the golden stars of the dandelion. Surely in this land I might -expect to find game. - -Nor was I to look long. I could just see, far off against a protruding -dazzling granite mound, a moving spot. It was the _Ovibos hopkinsi_. I -almost laughed. I recurred to our first encounter with this new mountain -sheep, when Hopkins and I first saw it, in an almost identical -environment, when we landed at Krocker Land. I watched it with the eye -of a voluptuary. Fresh meat would taste—Ah! my mouth watered—I could not -venture a simile. - -I hastened up the beautiful Arctic glen, and the still unsuspecting -animals moved towards me. Now they saw me, and the bulls ranged -themselves in defence, behind them the still grazing cows, startled only -for a moment into attention. There was no inclination to escape. Only as -I fired and the foremost bull staggered sideways and then dropped -headlong at my second shot, did the herd shuffle to one side and then -scamper away. Before I had reached the fallen leader their shaggy heads -had disappeared over a fold of ground that shut in an adjoining valley. - -I cut some steaks and loaded myself with the juicy red masses of flesh. -Although Greely and Peary had failed to smoke-dry meat, perhaps I might -succeed. I returned to the raft. It had become a base of operations. -Here I cooked my steak and with the tasteless _tortillas_ they made a -feast. But the momentary thought of jerking the meat was hopeless. It -would take too long and then it might prove futile. If Coogan was -looking for me, I must be looking for him. One more long sleep and then -I must “be going.” I felt sad, and the glorious dying day bathing the -horizon in carmine and gold, to be shifted a little further on, with -scarcely a change of color, into sunrise, from its very exorbitant -splendor oppressed me. I slept, but I tossed with forbidding dreams. I -WAS NOT WELL. - -The next day I started down the coast, but I revisited the _ovibos_, -tore more meat from the carcass, and with my pack, a sleeping bag, the -rug, my gun, and a bundle of splinters of wood I began my journey. The -heaped up bundles on my back bent me, and I did not expect to make a -record in walking. I was carrying my household on my back. But the -favoring character of the shore cheered me, and it almost seemed that -the peaks, barricades and buttresses of the mountains receded. I was on -an extensive morainal or alluvial plain, furrowed by small valleys and -inconspicuous ridges, where it rose to the amphitheatrical wall of the -Krocker Land Rim. _If_ it would last! - -The diary of my daily progress for the next few days need not be -rehearsed here. It was satisfactory on the whole, but the sure signs of -scurvy had begun to show themselves, and some rheumatic ailment began to -make every step I took painful. I seemed to see the end of it all, and, -anticipation fed disease. My march each day lessened; the meat had been -consumed in a few days, and was supplemented by ducks, a seal, and -another _ovibos_, so that for almost ten days I suffered no deprivation -of actual nourishment, but my swelling limbs, the pasty and aching jaws, -the occasional vanishing of all strength, and temporary collapses gave -insistent warnings that I could not continue. A dull sense of -helplessness supervened, my memory wavered, delusions visited my brain, -and ever and again the white ice-packed sea seemed a snow covered -tableland on which I might walk safely. Only some frantic remnant of -sanity prevented this suicidal impulse. I was delirious at times with -pain. - -And the end of the propitious coast was in sight. I must have made, Mr. -Link, in those ten days, by superhuman exertions, some one hundred and -fifty miles, furiously driving on, almost unconscious of my motion. And -now a black rampart of bold hills, stretched out like an arresting arm, -crossed the horizon. Higher and higher rose the forbidding cliffs, and I -saw with despair that they entered the sea in escarpments, whose -vertical and gloomy walls were beaten by waves, or against which the -churned ice was flung in broken cakes. Beyond the stern barrier my -flagging strength could never take me. And yet, in my feebleness I -hastened to reach it as an ultimate goal over which, I almost thankfully -noted, so worn was I in spirit, I could not pass. Temperamental decay -was at work in me, and I became inert. _I did not care._ - -At last—oh how heavily dragged my feet, how wearingly surged the pains! -I had come to the dark shadow of the cliffs. It was a sheer precipice. -My wandering and scarcely seeing eyes dimly noted its immensity. It -crushed the last vestiges of effort. Its undeniable prohibition smote me -as a physical violence. I fell headlong. Nothing was with me but my gun. -Pack, rug, sleeping bag, all had been dropped, the first last, for to -its unequivocal testimony (in the gold and in the radium) of all I had -seen, all I had been through, I clung with an almost demented obstinacy. -And now that was left behind. Some recurrent spasm of vitality returned; -I struggled to my feet, shaking in an ague, and just able to support -myself against a detached splinter of rock, almost at the foot of the -overhanging bluff, that seemed to my seared sight to touch the sky. - -What was it then that made me seize my gun, and, steadying myself by -some superhuman help—Yes, Mr. Link, by some help not of this earth—empty -the magazine of cartridges in a crashing volley against that -impenetrable rock? Was it madness, the last rage of defeated purpose, or -was it inspiration? I do not know, but as the sharp reports multiplied, -and to my racked nerves sounded in terrific _crescendos_ I fell forward. -The sense of hearing was the last to desert me, and though my eyes had -closed, even while the shattering reverberations from the cliff rang in -them, I HEARD AN ANSWERING SHOT. It was all I heard. I had swooned. - -But, Mr. Link, the ebbing tide of life returned, slowly indeed at first, -so slowly that the friendly faces around me seemed only indefinite, -leering masks, before which I shuddered. Warmth reasserted its sway, the -warmth of life. I felt fresh, cleanly nourishment, the _elixir of -whisky_ slipping down my throat, and then a delicious thrill of comfort, -and I became conscious, to find myself eating and drinking and around me -the anxious, staring faces of Coogan, Isaac Stanwix, Bell Phillips, and -Jack Spent. - -It was for an instant only, the violence of my return to consciousness -weakened me, and I sank back in their arms, but as I did, the -overmastering care that lay deepest in my heart struggled into -utterance, through all my clouded mind, and I gasped, pointing to the -path over which I had come, “The pack—the pack.” - -It was not many hours later that I again awoke, in the luxurious cabin -of the “Astrum,” pillowed in an easy chair, and watching with grateful -eyes the ministering mercies of my friends. Very gradually my sapped -strength and health were renewed, but indeed it sometimes occurs to me -that I shall never be quite all I once was. The multiplied strains, -repeated, contrasted, with the unapparent but _real_ nervous shocks of -excitement suffered in the ordeals of entering Krocker Land, and those -less obviously but most certainly disordering experiences in -Radiumopolis, with the whole effect of the monstrous unreality of it -all, have unhinged my system. And then—the agony of my last humiliation -in this city. - -[Illustration: - - ERICKSON’S RESCUE -] - -The story told by Coogan was a most simple one. It corroborated my -expectations and of course exactly justified my conduct. The “Astrum” -according to orders left Point Barrow, and steamed into the ice, which -proved to be unusually negotiable, looking for us. They failed to -discover any signs of us on the ice pack, but in an adventuresome trip -northward, invited to the undertaking by the open water, they made a -landfall, and found there the “_Pluto_,” our naphtha launch. It was on -almost exactly the place of our landing from the storm. They concluded -we had skirted the new land, reconnoitering it edgewise, as it were, or -at any rate their first and prudent course was to do so. They had -managed to creep on safely through broad leads between the shore ice and -the big floes, until they came to the _massif_, that, like an out-thrust -arm with clenched fist, cut the land in two. They had rather gingerly -picked their way through the ice around the frowning headlands when my -shots were heard. The rest is the usual story—the story I have hinted -at—and my pack was safe. _It lay at my feet._ - -Now to tell the truth I was rather reticent with Coogan and the others -as to my own adventure. I did not wish then to tell them everything or -even much. The whole marvel must be elsewhere and differently unfolded. -It must be given to the world through science, and the national -government of the United States must be empaneled for the rescue of my -companions. I desired the audience of a nation, and the ears of the -world. And now—deplorable reversion—I am telling it to you alone. I hid -much or all, admitted that the new continent was large, that we had -entered it, that the Professor and Hopkins were pursuing investigations -there, and that I must return in time with a larger expedition. They -seemed to understand my reticence—or was it commiseration?—and -good-naturedly left me alone. About two months later we arrived safely -in San Francisco. - -(“Mr. Link”—the voice of the speaker perceptibly lowered, I might say -perceptibly trembled—“it has been a pleasure to rehearse this wonderful -experience, pleasant to recall my two friends still exiled in that -mysterious continent, pleasant to believe that through the -instrumentality of your publication, they may be extricated from their -bewildering embarrassments, but—it is not pleasant to finish my story.” - -Mr. Erickson was silent for a few moments, as if he half expected me to -release him from the implied obligation of explaining more completely -the origins of the predicament in which we found him. But I was -relentlessly silent, and after a glance at my imperturbable and fixed -gaze, he turned his head aside and resumed the “last measure of his -tale.”) - -I was not long in finding my former acquaintance to whom now -instinctively, in my dearth of companionship, I had recourse for advice, -and sensibly for succor—Carlos Huerta. Nothing could exceed the -boisterous ardor of his welcome. He was overjoyed and appeared almost -rapturous in his demonstrations of astonishment and delight at seeing -me. Of course I succumbed all too easily to the caresses of his -friendship—and then (the speaker paused again and a flood of carmine -filling his cheeks and glowing warmly even in his temples, revealed his -confusion), he introduced me to the most beautiful woman I have ever -seen in all my life, Angelica Sigurda Tabasco, whose intimate, Diaz -Ilario Aguadiente, was a gentleman of marvelous cordiality. I was -literally taken to their hearts. You see, sir, plainly my state of -defencelessness against these scheming reprobates—cunning parasites of -fortune—whose suave geniality disarmed suspicion, and whose enthusiastic -sympathy, not unintelligent either, warmed my weary heart and opened my -lips. - -They wormed a good deal out of me, they saw the gold—_not the -buckle_—the radium, and they actually listened to the recital of our -visit to the Gold Makers. Then they laid their plans. I was to be coaxed -to New York—how many specious inducements could be given for me to go -there. The season was not too late for any relief expedition, and at New -York all the avenues of approach to capital could be reached. I was to -give a public lecture, the best social and scientific auspices would -protect it, and from New York the wave of interest would radiate to all -the capitals of the world. It seemed so simple, it was so inviting, and -then it was urged with such cordial plausibility and fervor, and all -accompanied by that personal suasion of admiration, and the artifices of -encouragement in surroundings that were sumptuous and enthralling. I was -completely taken in. - -I came on to New York with Huerta, who lavished every kindness on me, -and whose incessant questioning as to the process of gold transmutation -which I had seen easily assumed the guise of a natural curiosity. The -merest accident prevented my bringing on to New York the precious pack -in which the gold souvenirs, the _gold buckle_, and the radium mineral -masses were preserved. The trio—themselves deceived by their gloating -cupidity—had urged the necessity of protecting this property by placing -it in a safety-deposit vault, and when the day arrived for Huerta and me -to leave San Francisco, at the last moment, and just as I expected to -call at the safe deposit company to claim and remove my property, I was -seized with a chill that rapidly increased into a convulsive fit, -followed by a temporary coma. I was alone in the room of my hotel and -the seizure was so sudden that I was unable to summon assistance. When -it had passed, much time had been lost, and actually fearing to reclaim -the pack in my then physical condition I concluded to leave it, and have -it forwarded later upon a written order. - -This was quite feasible, and in some respects, so I thought at the -moment, safer and more preferable, as I had taken the unusual precaution -of enclosing the pack in a strong metal box. - -When on the train I explained to Huerta my mishap he at first changed -his demeanor, frowned and fidgeted and nettled me by his half suppressed -acerbity. I think then I might have been saved, had his suspicious -temper prolonged itself. But it was gone almost instantly, and his -customary deceptive solicitude and optimistic confidence replaced it and -my doubts vanished. It was also supposed by me that Angelica and Diaz -would remain some time longer in San Francisco, and when I encountered -them in east Fifty-eighth Street I was stupefied, though of course, by -that time, I had no reason to feel any surprise over any development in -my relations with these monsters. - -In New York Huerta conducted me to an eastside boarding house. It is -incredible how I permitted myself to follow him. Even while suspicion -and distrust began to assail me I accompanied him into a common sort of -house, apparently the resort of men only, and rather hard looking -characters at that, and yet with these pregnant signs of coming -mischief, I kept alongside of this inhuman brute, sat with him in a -duskily lighted room at a shabby table, served by some slatternly woman -waiters, under surroundings hopelessly sordid and dull. I was not -myself, Mr. Link; the stamina of resistance was extirpated in me, and I -was led like a child. The _denouement_ followed quickly. - -That very night or evening I went to my room or what I supposed was my -room, only to discover it was a small bathroom, provided with a sleeping -cot. I had preceded Huerta, who pointed to the door. As I opened it my -surprise caused me to retreat, but Huerta pushed me in, and instantly he -was joined by two other men from a room near at hand, and the door was -locked. Of course, as by a flash of light, an unexpected danger was -revealed. I saw that I was trapped. - -There happened to be one chair in the place. Huerta, whose whole -demeanor now altered, motioned toward it with a scowl and the other men -stepped forward. Each of them carried a short leaden pipe. Mr. Link, I -am not a timid man—what I have gone through shows that—but I was -intimidated then. I glanced around me; there was not a window in the -room; it was lighted by a smoking gas jet. - -“Well,” I said, collecting my thoughts to meet the situation, “I guess -you have me. What is it? What do you want?” - -Huerta’s agreeable style was resumed. “Why just this, Mr. Erickson. You -have got a sort of knowledge which is rather valuable, and we want to -make an agreement with you; you might call it a sort of combine. You -have got hold of some very interesting information. Let’s pool it and -work it for our common benefit.” - -“What information,” I asked and leaped to my feet, infuriated at the -smiling, insulting visage that he wore as an answer to my question. - -“Oh! Calm yourself. These gentlemen and myself are not icebergs, but -perhaps we can hit as hard. The thing is simple enough. Sign this -paper.” - -He held out a folded sheet which I at once recognized as having been -torn from a writing pad in the Pullman in which we had come to New York. -It was an order on the safe deposit company in San Francisco to forward -to him, Carlos Huerta, my pack, the satchel of gold and radium. Then -followed his address, which was—east Fifty-eighth Street, the very house -in which you found me, Mr. Link. - -I threw the paper in his face. It was _maladroit_. His temper—and he had -the passion of a fiend—broke loose and he struck me. I jumped at him, -and hurled the chair straight at his head, but it was intercepted, and, -in a trice, the three rushed at me and held me, kicking, squirming, and -shouting, on the narrow bed. No help came; I was bound and was knocked -almost senseless. - -(It was some time before Erickson could continue; he was in a pitiful -agitation, walking over and across the room with a most distressful -expression on his face. At length he pulled himself together and resumed -his story.) - -Well, they kept me in that room some five days. I was fed and attended -by my captors—I think now partially drugged by them. But my will -remained stubborn. I had faced death before, I could face it now, though -it seemed more terrifying in this wretched shape than meeting it -undisguised beneath the open skies. This obstinacy drove Huerta frantic. -I calculated that it would lead to an outbreak or issue soon. _It did._ - -The sixth night the room was entered by the three men to whom, now -weakened, dazed, nervous with disgust, I could offer no resistance. I -was really sick. They tied my arms and legs and gagged my mouth, and put -me in a sack. It was then, before they completed their task, that I -managed to secrete a few scribbled words on a slip of paper, which I had -kept by me, and later succeeded in forcing through an aperture in the -bag. This paper your boy Riddles found. I was whisked off in an -automobile, unloaded like a sack of potatoes at the door of—east -Fifty-eighth Street, and taken to the attic floor where you and the -police found me. - -Before you came I was confronted with Angelica and Diaz, and the -proposition was very attractively made that nothing should be said in -any public way about Krocker Land, but that my gold specimen should be -sold as bullion, and that we four should form a transmutation plant with -the radium that I had brought back. Accede to this, they explained (they -were somehow convinced that I was withholding the secret technique I had -learned of the process of transmutation), and combine with them, and my -life and freedom would be assured. - -I saw through the ruse, feeble as I had mentally become. My life, at -least its short continuance, depended upon my resisting their demands. -Once granted, the paper signed, what I knew of the transmutation -revealed—and I now sedulously encouraged their belief in a more or less -recondite process which demanded physical apparatus and silver -bullion—and my life would be but a flash in the pan—out—like that. (And -Erickson snapped his fingers.) If I could delay the upshot—inevitable in -any case unless relief came—until some lucky chance brought me -deliverance and I hoped the paper scribble would—I might yet survive. - -Therefore I pleaded, I argued, I promised everything if they would -liberate me, and then upon their savage refusal, I grew dogged and -silent. It was then or a little afterwards that the conversation -occurred that you and the police overheard and then, when these -ruthless, bloodless imps of Hell were about to inflict their brutal -torture—the door was burst open, _and all was over_. - - * * * * * - -I recall distinctly the evening on which Mr. Erickson concluded his -stupendous narrative. It had been agreed that, apart from some brief -announcements before the various proper scientific bodies of the world, -no details should precede the publication in book form of Erickson’s -personal account and the serial report in the _Truth Getter_. All this -is now a part of history, and a part which fairly challenges comparison -with those thunderstruck days when Columbus and Cabot, Vespucius, -Hudson, and Verrazani rolled up the curtain that hid the western world. - -I say I remember the evening. It was a sombre dying twilight in March. -The servant had just lit the lamp of the library, and a hoarse wind rose -petulantly outside, like the distant drone of a fog whistle. A vision -stood at the door. It was my daughter, Sibyl. She was resplendent. I -noticed Erickson’s awed rapture. She held an evening paper in her hand. -Her voice was as beautiful as her person. Its music conveyed this -message: - -“Father, this paper has a telegram from St. John’s, Newfoundland, saying -that Donald McMillan has reached Krocker Land, and below it is one from -Point Barrow, saying Stefansson has reached Krocker Land. Isn’t that a -surprising coincidence?” - -Erickson sprang toward her, and she handed him the paper; his face in -the red reflection from the hearth looked sallow. He read the lines. - -“My God, it’s true—Then Hopkins and the Professor are saved.” - -“But,” I interjected with proper journalistic trepidation, “where do we -come in, Mr. Erickson?” - -He gazed at me as if petrified: - -“RUSH THE COPY.” - -It was rushed, and before McMillan or Stefansson were again heard from, -Erickson’s story was the property of the world. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - EDITORIAL NOTE - - -There are many things in the foregoing pages that perhaps awaken -incredulity. There are some inconsistencies of statement. There seems to -be discoverable a feeble effort at invention. The reader will almost -instantly, upon reading the last word of it—and surely he can afford to -skip none—feel that perhaps a little enlightened cross examination would -have confused a veracious chronicler. I am inclined to suppose that -almost mechanically he might murmur to himself, “Those balloons, -_dubious_—those tubes, _impossible_—the Crocodilo-Python, -_preposterous_—the little Hebrews, _madness_—the radium chasm, _a -nightmare_—transmutation, _poppy-cock_—the Perpetual Nimbus, _deliberate -lie_,” and so on, until affected by his own overheated thoughts and a -partially justifiable resentment at having been made the victim of a -fabrication, which has consumed some ten hours of his time, and would -have, assuming its reality, supplied him with the most perdurable -reasons for rejoicing that his lot was cast at the beginning of this -twentieth century, he indulges in some specific appeals, _more majorum_, -to the demon of darkness to make away with its editor. - -_Gentle_—pardon the inappropriateness of the word, but to say _Irate_ -might only increase my condemnation—Reader—_wait_. _We shall all see._ -Vilhjalmar Stefansson and Donald McMillan are on the very verge of this -new continent. - -THEY WILL TELL US. - -“Not so fast, Mr. Editor”—It is the voice of the wife of the Gentle -Reader—“Not so fast! What connection had Spruce Hopkins with either -Angelica or Diaz? You remember the flat silver medal that Hopkins flung -into the air on Krocker Land Rim, and which was the last token Erickson -received from the Yankee?” - -_Ah—Madame, that is another story._ - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - ● Transcriber’s Notes: - ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected. - ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected. - ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only - when a predominant form was found in this book. - ○ Text that: - was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW NORTHLAND *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for -copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very -easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation -of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project -Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may -do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected -by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark -license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project -Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the -Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country other than the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work -on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the -phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the - United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where - you are located before using this eBook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project -Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg™ License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format -other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain -Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -provided that: - -• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation.” - -• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ - works. - -• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of -the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set -forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right -of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you “AS-IS”, WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ - -Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™'s -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, -Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up -to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website -and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without -widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our website which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |