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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Columbus of Space, by Garrett P. Serviss
+#3 in our series by Garrett P. Serviss
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+Title: A Columbus of Space
+
+Author: Garrett P. Serviss
+
+Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8673]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 31, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COLUMBUS OF SPACE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+                           A COLUMBUS OF SPACE
+
+                          BY GARRETT P. SERVISS
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Standing on the steps ... was a creature shaped like a
+man, but more savage than a gorilla."]
+
+
+                            TO THE READERS OF
+                          JULES VERNE'S ROMANCES
+                          THIS STORY IS DEDICATED
+
+
+Not because the author flatters himself that he can walk in the Footsteps
+of that Immortal Dreamer, but because, like Jules Verne, he believes that
+the World of Imagination is as legitimate a Domain of the Human Mind as
+the World of Fact.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+    I.  A MARVELOUS INVENTION
+
+   II.  A TRIP OF TERROR
+
+  III.  THE PLANETARY LIMITED
+
+   IV.  THE CAVERNS OF VENUS
+
+    V.  OFF FOR THE SUN LANDS
+
+   VI.  LOST IN THE CRYSTAL MOUNTAINS
+
+  VII.  THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN
+
+ VIII.  LANGUAGE WITHOUT SPEECH
+
+   IX.  AN AMAZING METROPOLIS
+
+    X.  IMPRISONMENT AND A WONDERFUL ESCAPE
+
+   XI.  BEFORE THE THRONE OF VENUS
+
+  XII.  MORE MARVELS
+
+ XIII.  WE FALL INTO TROUBLE AGAIN
+
+  XIV.  THE SUN GOD
+
+   XV.  AT THE MERCY OF FEARFUL ENEMIES
+
+  XVI.  DREADFUL CREATURES OF THE GLOOM
+
+ XVII.  EARTH MAGIC ON VENUS
+
+XVIII.  WILD EDEN
+
+  XIX.  THE SECRET OF THE CAR
+
+   XX.  THE CORYBANTIA OF THE SUN
+
+  XXI.  THE EARTH
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+"Standing on the steps ... was a creature shaped like a man, but more
+savage than a gorilla"
+
+"We were in the heart of the _Crystal Mountains!_"
+
+"'Who and what are you, and whence do you come?'"
+
+"It curled itself over the edge of the hovering air ship and drew it
+down"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+A MARVELOUS INVENTION
+
+I am a hero worshiper; an insatiable devourer of biographies; and I say
+that no man in all the splendid list ever equaled Edmund Stonewall. You
+smile because you have never heard his name, for, until now, his
+biography has not been written. And this is not truly a biography; it is
+only the story of the crowning event in Stonewall's career.
+
+Really it humbles one's pride of race to see how ignorant the world is of
+its true heroes. Many a man who cuts a great figure in history is, after
+all, a poor specimen of humanity, slavishly following old ruts, destitute
+of any real originality, and remarkable only for some exaggeration of the
+commonplace. But in the case of Edmund Stonewall the world cannot be
+blamed for its ignorance, because, as I have already said, his story
+remains to be written, and hitherto it has been guarded as a profound
+secret.
+
+I do not wish to exaggerate; yet I cannot avoid seeming to do so in
+simply telling the facts. If Stonewall's proceedings had become
+Matter  of common knowledge the world would have been--I must speak
+plainly--revolutionized. He held in his hands the means of realizing the
+wildest dreams of power, wealth, and human mastery over the forces of
+nature, that any enthusiast ever treasured in his prophetic soul. It was
+a part of his originality that he never entertained the thought of
+employing his advantage in any such way. His character was entirely free
+from the ordinary forms of avidity. He cared nothing for wealth in
+itself, and as little for fame. All his energies were concentrated upon
+the attainment of ends which nobody but himself would have regarded as of
+any practical importance. Thus it happened that, having made an invention
+which would have put every human industry upon a new footing, and
+multiplied beyond the limits of calculation the activities and
+achievements of mankind, this extraordinary person turned his back upon
+the colossal fortune which he had but to stretch forth his hand and
+grasp, refused to seize the unlimited power which his genius had laid at
+his feet, and used his unparalleled discovery for a purpose so eccentric,
+so wildly unpractical, so utterly beyond the pale of waking life, that to
+any ordinary man he must have seemed a lunatic lost in an endless dream
+of bedlam. And to this day I cannot, without a nervous thrill, think how
+the desire of all the ages, the ideal that has been the loadstar for
+thousands of philosophers, savants, inventors, prophets, and dreamers,
+was actually realized upon the earth; and yet of all its fifteen hundred
+million inhabitants but a single one knew it, possessed it, controlled
+it--and he would not reveal it, but hoarded and used his knowledge for
+the accomplishment of the craziest design that ever took shape in a human
+brain.
+
+Now, to be more specific. Of Stonewall's antecedents I know very little.
+I only know that, in a moderate way, he was wealthy, and that he had no
+immediate family ties. He was somewhere near thirty years of age, and
+held the diploma of one of our oldest universities. But he was not, in a
+general way, sociable, and I never knew him to attend any of the reunions
+of his former classmates, or to show the slightest interest in any of the
+events or functions of society, although its doors were open to him
+through some distant relatives who were widely connected in New York, and
+who at times tried to draw him into their circle. He would certainly have
+adorned it, but it had no attraction for him. Nevertheless he was a
+member of the Olympus Club, where he frequently spent his evenings. But
+he made very few acquaintances even there, and I believe that except
+myself, Jack Ashton, Henry Darton, and Will Church, he had no intimates.
+And we knew him only at the club. There, when he was alone with us, he
+sometimes partly opened up his mind, and we were charmed by his variety
+of knowledge and the singularity of his conversation. I shall not
+disguise the fact that we thought him extremely eccentric, although the
+idea of anything in the nature of insanity never entered our heads. We
+knew that he was engaged in recondite researches of a scientific nature,
+and that he possessed a private laboratory, although none of us had ever
+entered it. Occasionally he would speak of some new advance of science,
+throwing a flood of light by his clear expositions upon things of which
+we should otherwise have remained profoundly ignorant. His imagination
+flashed like lightning over the subject of his talk, revealing it at the
+most unexpected angles, and often he roused us to real enthusiasm for
+things the very names of which we almost forgot amidst the next day's
+occupations.
+
+There was one subject on which he was particularly
+eloquent--radioactivity; that most strange property of matter whose
+discovery had been the crowning glory of science in the closing decade of
+the nineteenth century. None of us really knew anything about it except
+what Stonewall taught us. If some new incomprehensible announcement
+appeared in the newspapers we skipped it, being sure that Edmund would
+make it all clear at the club in the evening. He made us understand, in a
+dim way, that some vast, tremendous secret lay behind it all. I recall
+his saying, on one occasion, not long before the blow fell:
+
+"Listen to this! Here's Professor Thomson declaring that a single grain
+of radium contains in its padlocked atoms energy enough to lift a million
+tons three hundred yards high. Professor Thomson is too modest in his
+estimates, and he hasn't the ghost of an idea how to get at that energy.
+Neither has Professor Rutherford, nor Lord Kelvin; _but somebody will get
+at it, just the same_."
+
+He positively thrilled us when he spoke thus, for there was a look in his
+eyes which seemed to penetrate depths unfathomable to our intelligence.
+Yet we had not the faintest conception of what was really passing in his
+mind. If we had understood it, if we had caught a single clear glimpse of
+the workings of his intellect, we should have been appalled. And if we
+had known how close we stood to the verge of an abyss of mystery about to
+be lighted by such a gleam as had never before been emitted from the
+human spirit, I believe that we would have started from our chairs and
+fled in dismay.
+
+But we understood nothing, except that Edmund was indulging in one of his
+eccentric dreams, and Jack, in his large, careless, good-natured way
+broke in with:
+
+"Well, Edmund, suppose _you_ could 'get at it,' as you say; what would
+you do with it?"
+
+Stonewall's eyes gleamed for a moment, and then he replied, with a
+curious emphasis:
+
+"I might do what Archimedes dreamed of."
+
+None of us happened to remember what it was that Archimedes had dreamed,
+and the subject was dropped.
+
+For a considerable time afterwards we saw nothing of Stonewall. He did
+not come to the club, and we were beginning to think of looking him up,
+when one evening, quite unexpectedly, he dropped in, wearing an unusually
+cheerful expression. We had greatly missed him, and we now greeted him
+with effusion. His animation impressed us all, and he had no sooner
+shaken hands than he said, with suppressed excitement in his voice:
+
+"Well, I've 'got at it.'"
+
+"Got at what?" drawled Jack.
+
+"The inter-atomic energy. I've got it under control."
+
+"The deuce you have!" said Jack.
+
+"Yes, I've arrived where a certain professor dreamed of being when he
+averred that 'when man knows that every breath of air he draws has
+contained within itself force enough to drive the workshops of the world
+he will find out some day, somehow, some way of tapping that energy.' The
+thing is done, for I've tapped it!"
+
+We stared at one another, not knowing what to say, except Jack, who,
+inspired by the spirit of mischief, drawled out:
+
+"Ah, yes, I remember. Well then, Edmund, as I asked you before, what are
+you going to do with it?"
+
+There was not really any thought among us of poking fun at Edmund; we
+respected and admired him far too much for that; nevertheless, catching
+the infection of banter from Jack, we united in demanding, in a manner
+which I can now see must have appeared most provoking:
+
+"Why, yes, Edmund, tell us what you are going to do with it."
+
+And then Jack added fuel by mockingly, though with perfectly good-natured
+intention, taking Edmund by the hand and swinging him in front of us
+with:
+
+"Gentlemen, Archimedes junior."
+
+Stonewall's eyes flashed and his cheek darkened, but for a moment he said
+nothing. Presently, with a return of his former affability, he said:
+
+"I wish you would come over to the laboratory and let me show you what I
+am going to do."
+
+Of course we instantly assented. Nothing could have pleased us better
+than this invitation, for we had long been dying to see the inside of
+Edmund's laboratory. We all got our hats and started out with him. We
+knew where he lived, occupying a whole house though he was a bachelor,
+but none of us had ever seen the inside of it, and our curiosity was on
+the _qui vive_. He led us through a handsome hallway and a rear apartment
+directly into the back yard, half of which we were surprised to find
+inclosed and roofed over, forming a huge shanty, like a workshop. Edmund
+opened the door of the shanty and ushered us in.
+
+A remarkable object at once concentrated our attention. In the center of
+the place was the queerest-looking thing that you can well imagine. I can
+hardly describe it. It was round and elongated like a boiler, with
+bulging ends, and seemed to be made of polished steel. Its total length
+was about eighteen feet, and its width ten feet. Edmund approached it and
+opened a door in the end, which was wide and high enough for us to enter
+without stooping or crowding.
+
+"Step in, gentlemen," he said, and unhesitatingly we obeyed him, all
+except Church, who for some unknown reason remained outside, and when we
+looked for him had disappeared.
+
+Edmund turned on a bright light, and we found ourselves in an
+oblong chamber, beautifully fitted up with polished woodwork, and
+leather-cushioned seats running round the sides. Many metallic knobs and
+handles shone on the walls.
+
+"Sit down," said Edmund, "and I will tell you what I have got here."
+
+He stepped to the door and called again for Church but there was no
+answer. We concluded that, thinking the thing would be too deep to be
+interesting, he had gone back to the club. That was not what he had done,
+as you will learn later, but he never regretted what he did do. Getting
+no response from Church, Edmund finally sat down with us on one of the
+leather-covered benches, and began his explanation.
+
+"As I was telling you at the club," he said, "I've solved the mystery of
+the atoms. I'm sure you'll excuse me from explaining my method" (there
+was a little raillery in his manner), "but at least you can understand
+the plain statement that I've got unlimited power at my command. These
+knobs and handles that you see are my keys for turning it on and off, and
+controlling it as I wish. Mark you, this power comes right out of the
+heart of what we call matter; the world is chock full of it. We have
+known that it was there at least ever since radioactivity was discovered,
+but it looked as though human intelligence would never be able to set it
+free from its prison. Nevertheless I have not only set it free, but I am
+able to control it as perfectly as if it were steam from a boiler, or an
+electric current from a dynamo."
+
+Jack, who was as unscientific a person as ever lived, yawned, and Edmund
+noticed it. But he showed no irritation, merely smiling, and saying, with
+a wink at me and Henry:
+
+"Even this seems to be rather too deep, so perhaps I had better show you,
+instead of telling you, what I mean. Excuse me a moment."
+
+He stepped out of the door, and we remained seated. We heard a noise
+outside like the opening of a barn door, and immediately Edmund
+reappeared and closed the door of the chamber in which we were. We
+watched him with growing curiosity. With a singular smile he pressed a
+knob on the wall, and instantly we felt that the chamber was rising in
+the air. It rocked a little like a boat in wavy water. We were startled,
+of course, but not alarmed.
+
+"Hello!" exclaimed Jack. "What kind of a balloon is this?"
+
+"It's something more than a balloon," was Edmund's reply, and as he spoke
+he touched another knob, and we felt the car, as I must now call it, come
+to rest. Then Edmund opened a shutter at one side, and we all sprang up
+to look out. Below us we saw roofs and the tops of two trees standing at
+the side of the street.
+
+"We're about a hundred feet up," said Edmund quietly. "What do you think
+of it now?"
+
+"Wonderful! wonderful!" we exclaimed in a breath. And I continued:
+
+"And do you say that it is inter-atomic energy that does this?"
+
+"Nothing else in the world," returned Edmund.
+
+But bantering Jack must have his quip:
+
+"By the way, Edmund," he demanded, "what was it that Archimedes dreamed?
+But no matter; you've knocked him silly. Now, what are you going to do
+with your atomic balloon?"
+
+Edmund's eyes flashed:
+
+"You'll see in a minute."
+
+The scene out of the window was beautiful, and for a moment we all
+remained watching it. The city lights were nearly all below our level,
+and away off over the New Jersey horizon I noticed the planet Venus, near
+to setting, but as brilliant as a diamond. I am fond of star-gazing, and
+I called Edmund's attention to the planet as he happened to be standing
+next to me.
+
+"Lovely, isn't she?" he said with enthusiasm. "The finest world in the
+solar system, and what a strange thing that she should have one side
+always day and the other always night."
+
+I was surprised by his exhibition of astronomic lore, for I had never
+known that he had given any attention to the subject, but a minute later
+the incident was forgotten as Edmund suddenly pushed us back from the
+window and closed the shutter.
+
+"Going down again so soon?" asked Jack.
+
+Edmund smiled. "Going," he said simply, and put his hand to one of the
+knobs. Immediately we felt ourselves moving very slowly.
+
+"That's right, Edmund," put in Jack again, "let us down easy; I don't
+like bumps."
+
+We expected at each instant to feel the car touch the cradle in which it
+had evidently rested, but never were three mortals so mistaken. What
+really did happen can better be described in the words of Will Church,
+who, you will remember, had disappeared at the beginning of our singular
+adventure. I got the account from him long afterwards. He had written it
+out carefully and put it away in a safe, as a sort of historic document.
+Here is Church's narrative, omitting the introduction, which read like a
+law paper:
+
+"When we went over from the club to Stonewall's house, I dropped behind
+the others, because the four of them took up the whole width of the
+sidewalk. Stonewall was talking to them, and my attention was attracted
+by something uncommon in his manner. He had an indefinable carriage of
+the head which suggested to me the suspicion that everything was not just
+as it should be. I don't mean that I thought him crazy, or anything of
+that kind, but I felt that he had some scheme in his mind to fool us.
+
+"I bitterly repented, after things turned out as they did, that I had not
+whispered a word to the others. But that would have been difficult, and,
+besides, I had no idea of the seriousness of the affair. Nevertheless, I
+determined to stay out of it, so that the laugh should not be on me at
+any rate. Accordingly when the others entered the car I stayed outside,
+and when Stonewall called me I did not answer.
+
+"When he came out to open the roof of the shed, he did not see me in the
+shadow where I stood. The opening of the roof revealed the whole scheme
+in a flash. I had had no suspicion that the car was any kind of a
+balloon, and even after he had so significantly thrown the roof open, and
+then entered the car and closed the door, I was fairly amazed to see the
+thing began to rise without the slightest noise, and as if it were
+enchanted. It really looked diabolical as it floated silently upward and
+passed through the opening, and the sight gave me a shiver.
+
+"But I was greatly relieved when it stopped at a height of a hundred feet
+or so, and then I said to myself that I should have been less of a fool
+if I had stayed with the others, for now they would have the laugh on me
+alone. Suddenly, while I watched, expecting every moment to see them drop
+down again, for I supposed that it was merely an experiment to show that
+the thing would float, the car started upward, very slowly at first, but
+increasing its speed until it had attained an elevation of perhaps five
+hundred feet. There it hung for a moment, like some mail-clad monster
+glinting in the quavering light of the street arcs, and then, without
+warning, made a dart skyward. For a minute it circled like a strange bird
+taking its bearings, and finally rushed off westward until I lost sight
+of it behind some tall buildings. I ran into the house to reach the
+street, but found the outer door locked, and not a person visible. I
+called but nobody came. Returning to the yard I discovered a place where
+I could get over the fence, and so I escaped into the street. Immediately
+I searched the sky for the mysterious car, but could see no sign of it.
+They were gone! I almost sank upon the pavement in a state of helpless
+excitement, which I could not have explained to myself if I had stopped
+to reason; for why, after all, should I take the thing so tragically. But
+something within me said that all was wrong. A policeman happened to
+pass.
+
+"'Officer! officer!' I shouted, 'have you seen it?'
+
+"'Seen what?' asked the blue-coat, twirling his club.
+
+"'The car--the balloon,' I stammered.
+
+"'Balloon in your head! You're drunk. Get long out o' here!'
+
+"I realized the impossibility of explaining the matter to him, and
+running back to the place where I had got over the fence I climbed into
+the yard and entered the shed. Fortunately the policeman paid no further
+attention to my movements after I left him. I sat down on the empty
+cradle and stared up through the opening in the roof, hoping against hope
+to see them coming back. It must have been midnight before I gave up my
+vigil in despair, and went home, sorely puzzled, and blaming myself for
+having kept my suspicions unuttered. I finally got to sleep, but I had
+horrible dreams.
+
+"The next day I was up early looking through all the papers in the hope
+of finding something about the car. But there was not a word. I watched
+the news columns for several days without result. Whenever the coast was
+clear I haunted Stonewall's yard, but the fatal shed yawned empty, and
+there was not a soul about the house. I cannot describe my feelings. My
+friends seemed to have been snatched away by some mysterious agency, and
+the horror of the thing almost drove me crazy. I felt that I was, in a
+manner, responsible for their disappearance.
+
+"One day my heart sank at the sight of a cousin of Jack Ashton's
+motioning to me in the street. He approached, with a troubled look. 'Mr.
+Church,' he said, 'I think you know me; can you tell me what has become
+of Jack? I haven't seen him for several days.' What could I say? Still
+believing that they would soon come back, I invented, on the spur of the
+moment, a story that Jack, with a couple of intimate friends, had gone
+off on a hunting expedition. I took a little comfort in the reflection
+that my friends, like myself, were bachelors, and consequently at liberty
+to disappear if they chose.
+
+"But when more than a week had passed with out any news of them I was
+thrown into despair. I had to give up all hope. Remembering how near we
+were to the coast, I concluded that they had drifted out over the sea and
+gone down. It was hard for me, after the lie I had told, to let out the
+truth to such of their friends as I knew, but I had to do it. Then the
+police took the matter in hand and ransacked Stonewall's laboratory and
+the shanty without finding anything to throw light on the mystery. It was
+a newspaper sensation for a few days, but as nothing came of it everybody
+soon forgot all about it--all except me. I was left to my loneliness and
+my regrets.
+
+"A year has now passed with no news from them. I write this on the
+anniversary of their departure. My friends, I know, are dead--somewhere!
+Oh, what an experience it has been! When your friends die and are buried
+it is hard enough but when they disappear in a flash and leave no
+token--! It is almost beyond endurance!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+A TRIP OF TERROR
+
+I take up the story at the point where I dropped it to introduce Church's
+narrative.
+
+As minute after minute elapsed and we continued in motion we changed our
+minds about the descent, and concluded that the inventor was going to
+give us a much longer ride than we had anticipated. We were startled and
+puzzled but not really alarmed, for the car traveled so smoothly that it
+gave one a sense of confidence. On the other hand, we felt a little
+indignation that Edmund should treat us like a lot of boys, without wills
+of our own. No doubt we had provoked him, though unintentionally, but
+this was going too far on his part. I am sure we were all hot with this
+feeling and presently Jack flamed out:
+
+"Look here, Edmund," he exclaimed, dropping his customary good-natured
+manner, "this is carrying things with a pretty high hand. It's a good
+deal like kidnapping, it seems to me. I didn't give you permission to
+carry me off in this way, and I want to know what you mean by it and what
+you are about. I've no objection to making a little trip in your car,
+which is certainly mighty comfortable, but first I'd like to be asked
+whether I want to go or no."
+
+Edmund shrugged his shoulders and made no reply. He was very busy just
+then with the metallic knobs. Suddenly we were jerked off our feet as if
+we had been in a trolley driven by a green motorman. Edmund also would
+have fallen if he had not clung to one of the handles. We felt that we
+were spinning through the air at a fearful speed. Still Edmund uttered
+not a word, but while we staggered upon our feet, and steadied ourselves
+with hands and knees on the leather-cushioned benches like so many
+drunken men, he continued pulling and pushing at his knobs. Finally the
+motion became more regular and it was evident that the car had slowed
+down from its wild rush.
+
+"Excuse me," said Edmund, then, quite in his natural manner, "the thing
+is new yet and I've got to learn the stops by experience. But there's no
+occasion for alarm."
+
+But our indignation had grown hotter with the shake-up that we had just
+had, and as usual Jack was spokesman for it:
+
+"Maybe there is no occasion for alarm," he said excitedly, "but will you
+be kind enough to answer my question, and tell us what you're about and
+where we are going?"
+
+And Henry, too, who was ordinarily as mute as a clam, broke out still
+more hotly:
+
+"See here! I've had enough of this thing! Just go down and let me out. I
+won't be carried off so, against my will and knowledge."
+
+By this time Edmund appeared to have got things in the shape he wanted,
+and he turned to face us. He always had a magnetism that was
+inexplicable, and now we felt it as never before. His features were
+perfectly calm, but there was a light in his eyes that seemed electric.
+As if disdaining to make a direct reply to the heated words of Jack and
+Henry he began in a quiet voice:
+
+"It was my first intention to invite you to accompany me on a very
+interesting expedition. I knew that none of you had any ties of family or
+business to detain you, and I felt sure that you would readily consent.
+In case you should not, however, I had made up my mind to go alone. But
+you provoked me more than you knew, probably, at the club, and after we
+had entered the car, and, being myself hot-tempered, I determined to
+teach you a lesson. I have no intention, however, of abducting you. It is
+true that you are in my power at present, but if you now say that you do
+not wish to be concerned in what I assure you will prove the most
+wonderful enterprise ever undertaken by human beings, I will go back to
+the shed and let you out."
+
+We looked at one another, in doubt what to reply until Jack, who, with
+all his impulsiveness had more of the milk of human kindness in his heart
+than anyone else I ever knew, seized Edmund's hand and exclaimed:
+
+"All right, old boy, bygones are bygones; I'm with you. Now what do you
+fellows say?"
+
+"I'm with you, too," I cried, yielding to the spur of Jack's enthusiasm
+and moved also by an intense curiosity. "I say go ahead."
+
+Henry was more backward. But his curiosity, too, was aroused, and at
+length he gave in his voice with the others.
+
+Jack swung his hat.
+
+"Three cheers, then, for the modern Archimedes! You won't take that amiss
+now Edmund."
+
+We gave the cheers, and I could see that Edmund was immensely pleased.
+
+"And now," Jack continued, "tell us all about it. Where are we going?"
+
+"Pardon me, Jack," was Edmund's reply, "but I'd rather keep that for a
+surprise. You shall know everything in good time; or at least everything
+that you can understand," he added, with a slightly malicious smile.
+
+Feeling a little more interest than the others, perhaps, in the
+scientific aspects of the business, I asked Edmund to tell us something
+more about the nature of his wonderful invention. He responded with great
+good humor, but rather in the manner of a schoolmaster addressing pupils
+who, he knows, cannot entirely follow him.
+
+"These knobs and handles on the walls," he said, "control the driving
+power, which, as I have told you, comes from the atoms of matter which I
+have persuaded to unlock their hidden forces. I push or turn one way and
+we go ahead, or we rise; I push or turn another way and we stop, or go
+back. So I concentrate the atomic force just as I choose. It makes us go,
+or it carries us back to earth, or it holds us motionless, according to
+the way I apply it. The earth is what I kick against at present, and what
+I hold fast by; but any other sufficiently massive body would serve the
+same purpose. As to the machinery, you'd need a special education in
+order to understand it. You'd have to study the whole subject from the
+bottom up, and go through all the experiments that I have tried. I
+confess that there are some things the fundamental reason of which I
+don't understand myself. But I know how to apply and control the power,
+and if I had Professor Thomson and Professor Rutherford here, I'd make
+them open their eyes. I wish I had been able to kidnap them."
+
+"That's a confession that, after all, you've kidnapped us," put in Jack,
+smiling.
+
+"If you insist upon stating it in that way--yes," replied Edmund, smiling
+also. "But you know that now you've consented."
+
+"Perhaps you'll treat us to a trip to Paris," Jack persisted.
+
+"Better than that," was the reply. "Paris is only an ant-hill in
+comparison with what you are going to see."
+
+And so, indeed, it turned out!
+
+Finally all got out their pipes, and we began to make ourselves at home,
+for truly, as far as luxurious furniture was concerned, we were as
+comfortable as at the Olympus Club, and the motion of the strange craft
+was so smooth and regular that it soothed us like an anodyne. It was only
+those unnamed, subtle senses which man possesses almost without being
+aware of their existence that assured us that we were in motion at all.
+
+After we had smoked for an hour or so, talking and telling stories quite
+in the manner of the club, Edmund suddenly asked, with a peculiar smile:
+
+"Aren't you a little surprised that this small room is not choking full
+of smoke? You know that the shutters are tightly closed."
+
+"By Jo," exclaimed Jack, "that's so! Why here we've been pouring out
+clouds like old Vesuvius for an hour with no windows open, and yet the
+air is as clear as a bell."
+
+"The smoke," said Edmund impressively, "has been turned into atomic
+energy to speed us on our way. I'm glad you're all good smokers, for that
+saves me fuel. Look," he continued, while we, amazed, stared at him,
+"those fellows there have been swallowing your smoke, and glad to get
+it."
+
+He pointed at a row of what seemed to be grinning steel mouths, barred
+with innumerable black teeth, and half concealed by a projecting ledge at
+the bottom of the wall opposite the entrance, and as I looked I was
+thrilled by the sight of faint curls of smoke disappearing within their
+gaping jaws.
+
+"They are omnivorous beasts," said Edmund. "They feed on the carbon from
+your breath, too. Rather remarkable, isn't it, that every time you expel
+the air from your lungs you help this car to go?"
+
+None of us knew what to say; our astonishment was beyond speech. We began
+to look askance at Edmund, with creeping sensations about the spine. A
+formless, unacknowledged fear of him entered our souls. It never occurred
+to us to doubt the truth of what he had said. We knew him too well for
+that; and, then, were we not here, flying mysteriously through the air in
+a heavy metallic car that had no apparent motive power? For my part,
+instead of demanding any further explanations, I fell into a hazy reverie
+on the marvel of it all; and Jack and Henry must have been seized the
+same way, for not one of us spoke a word, or asked a question; while
+Edmund, satisfied, perhaps, with the impression he had made, kept equally
+quiet.
+
+Thus another hour passed, and all of us, I think, had fallen into a doze,
+when Edmund aroused us by saying:
+
+"I'll have to keep the first watch, and all the others, too, this night."
+
+"So then we're not going to land to-night?"
+
+"No, not to-night, and you may as well turn in. You see that I have
+prepared good, comfortable bunks, and I think you'll make out very well."
+
+As Edmund spoke he lifted the tops from some of the benches along the
+walls, and revealed excellent beds, ready for occupancy.
+
+"I believe that I have forgotten nothing that we shall really need," he
+added. "Beds, arms, instruments, books, clothing, furs, and good things
+to eat."
+
+Again we looked at one another in surprise, but nobody spoke, although
+the same thought probably occurred to each--that this promised to be a
+pretty long trip, judging from the preparations. Arms! What in the world
+should we need of arms? Was he going to the Rocky Mountains for a bear
+hunt? And clothing, and furs!
+
+But we were really sleepy, and none of us was very long in taking Edmund
+at his word and leaving him to watch alone. He considerately drew a shade
+over the light, and then noiselessly opened a shutter and looked out.
+When I saw that, I was strongly tempted to rise and take a look myself,
+but instead I fell asleep. My dreams were disturbed by visions of the
+grinning nondescripts at the foot of the wall, which transformed
+themselves into winged dragons, and remorselessly pursued me through the
+measureless abysses of space.
+
+When I woke, windows were open on both sides of the car, and brilliant
+sunshine was streaming in through one of them. Henry was still asleep,
+Jack was yawning in his bunk, and Edmund stood at one of the windows
+staring out. I made a quick toilet, and hastened to Edmund's side.
+
+"Good morning," he said heartily, taking my hand. "Look out here, and
+tell me what you think of the prospect."
+
+As I put my face close to the thick but very transparent glass covering
+the window, my heart jumped into my mouth!
+
+"In Heaven's name, where are we?" I cried out.
+
+Jack, hearing my agitated exclamation, jumped out of his bunk and ran to
+the window also. He gasped as he gazed out, and truly it was enough to
+take away one's breath!
+
+We appeared to be at an infinite elevation, and the sky, as black as ink,
+was ablaze with stars, although the bright sunlight was streaming into
+the opposite window behind us. I could see nothing of the earth.
+Evidently we were too high for that.
+
+"It must lie away down under our feet," I murmured half aloud, "so that
+even the horizon has sunk out of sight. Heavens, what a height!"
+
+I had that queer uncontrollable qualm that comes to every one who finds
+himself suddenly on the edge of a soundless deep.
+
+Presently I became aware that straight before us, but afar off, was a
+most singular appearance in the sky. At first glance I thought that it
+was a cloud, round and mottled, But it was strangely changeless in form,
+and it had an unvaporous look.
+
+"Phew!" whistled Jack, suddenly catching sight of it and fixing his eyes
+in a stare, "what's _that?_"
+
+"_That's the earth!_"
+
+It was Edmund who spoke, looking at us with a quizzical smile. A shock
+ran through my nerves, and for an instant my brain whirled. I saw that it
+was the truth that he had uttered, for, as sure as I sit here, his words
+had hardly struck my ears when the great cloud rounded out and hardened,
+the deception vanished, and I recognized, as clearly as ever I saw them
+on a school globe, the outlines of Asia and the Pacific Ocean!
+
+In a second I had become too weak to stand, and I sank trembling upon a
+bench. But Jack, whose eyes had not accommodated themselves as rapidly as
+mine to the gigantic perspective, remained at the window, exclaiming:
+
+"Fiddlesticks! What are you trying to give us? The earth is down below, I
+reckon."
+
+But in another minute he, too, saw it as it really was, and his
+astonishment equaled mine. In fact he made so much noise about it that he
+awoke Henry, who, jumping out of bed, came running to see, and when we
+had explained to him where we were, sank upon a seat with a despairing
+groan and covered his face. Our astonishment and dismay were too great to
+permit us quickly to recover our self-command, but after a while Jack
+seized Edmund's arm, and demanded:
+
+"For God's sake, tell us what you've been doing."
+
+"Nothing that ought to appear very extraordinary," answered Edmund, with
+uncommon warmth. "If men had not been fools for so many ages they might
+have done this, and more than this long ago. It's enough to make one
+ashamed of his race! For countless centuries, instead of grasping the
+power that nature had placed at the disposal of their intelligence, they
+have idled away their time gabbling about nothing. And even since, at
+last, they have begun to do something, look at the time that they have
+wasted upon such petty forces as steam and 'electricity,' burning whole
+mines of coal and whole lakes of oil, and childishly calling upon winds
+and tides and waterfalls to help them, when they had under their thumbs
+the limitless energy of the atoms, and no more understood it than a baby
+understands what makes its whistle scream! It's inter-atomic force that
+has brought us out here, and that is going to carry us a great deal
+farther."
+
+We simply listened in silence; for what could we say? The facts were more
+eloquent than any words, and called for no commentary. Here we _were_,
+out in the middle of space; and _there_ was the earth, hanging on
+nothing, like a summer cloud. At least we knew where we were if we didn't
+quite understand how we had got there.
+
+Seeing us speechless, Edmund resumed in a different tone:
+
+"We made a fairly good run during the night. You must be hungry by this
+time, for you've slept late; suppose we have breakfast."
+
+So saying, he opened a locker, took out a folding table, covered it
+with a white cloth, turned on something resembling a little electric
+range, and in a few minutes had ready as appetizing a breakfast of eggs
+and as good a cup of coffee as I ever tasted. It is one of the
+compensations of human nature that it is able to adjust itself to the
+most unheard-of conditions provided only that the inner man is not
+neglected. The smell of breakfast would almost reconcile a man to
+purgatory--anyhow it reconciled us for the time being to our unparalleled
+situation, and we ate and drank, and indulged in as cheerful good
+comradeship as that of a fishing party in the wilderness after a big
+morning's catch.
+
+When the breakfast was finished we began to chat and smoke, which
+reminded me of those gulping mouths under the wainscot, and I leaned down
+to catch a glimpse of their rows of black fangs, thinking to ask Edmund
+for further explanation about them; but the sight gave me a shiver, and I
+felt the hopelessness of trying to understand their function.
+
+Then we took a turn at looking out of the window to see the earth. Edmund
+furnished us with binoculars which enabled us to recognize many
+geographical features of our planet. The western shore of the Pacific was
+now in plain sight, and a few small spots, near the edge of the ocean, we
+knew to be Japan and the Philippines. The snowy Himalayas showed as a
+crinkling line, and a huge white smudge over the China Sea indicated
+where a storm was raging and where good ships, no doubt, were battling
+with the tossing waves.
+
+After a time I noticed that Edmund was continually going from one window
+to the other and looking out with an air of anxiety. He seemed to be
+watching for something, and there was a look of mingled expectation and
+apprehension in his eyes. He had a peephole at the forward end of the car
+and another in the floor, and these he frequently visited. I now recalled
+that even while we were at breakfast he had seemed uneasy and
+occasionally left his seat to look out. At last I asked him:
+
+"What are you looking for, Edmund?"
+
+"Meteors."
+
+"Meteors, out here!"
+
+"Of course. You're something of an astronomer; don't you know that they
+hang about all the planets? They didn't give me any rest last night. I
+was on tender hooks all the time while you were sleeping. I was half
+inclined to call one of you to help me. We passed some pretty ugly
+fellows while you slept, I can tell you! You know that this is an
+unexplored sea that we are navigating, and I don't want to run on the
+rocks."
+
+"But we seem to be a good way off from the earth now," I remarked, "and
+there ought not to be much danger."
+
+"It's not as dangerous as it was, but there may be some of them yet
+around here. I'll feel safer when we have put a few more million miles
+behind us."
+
+_A few more million miles!_ We all stood aghast when we heard the words.
+We had, indeed, imagined that the earth looked as if it might be a
+million miles away, but, then, it was merely a passing impression, which
+had given us no sense of reality; but now when we heard Edmund say that
+we actually had traveled such a distance, the idea struck us with
+overwhelming force.
+
+"In the name of all that's good, Edmund," cried Jack, "at what rate are
+we traveling, then?"
+
+"Just at present," Edmund replied, glancing at an indicator, "we're
+making twenty miles a second."
+
+_Twenty miles a second!_ Our excited nerves had another shock.
+
+"Why," I exclaimed, "that's faster than the earth moves in its orbit!"
+
+"Yes, a trifle faster; but I'll probably have to work up to a little
+better speed in order to get where I want to go before our goal begins to
+run away from us."
+
+"Ah, there you are," said Jack. "That's what I wanted to know. What is
+our goal? Where are we going?"
+
+Before Edmund could reply we all sprang to our feet in affright. A loud
+grating noise had broken upon our ears. At the same instant the car gave
+a lurch, and a blaze of the most vicious lightning streamed through a
+window.
+
+"Confound the things!" shouted Edmund, springing to the window, and then
+darting to one of his knobs and beginning to twist it with all his force.
+
+In a second we were sprawling on the floor--all except Edmund, who kept
+his hold on the knob. Our course had been changed with amazing quickness,
+and our startled eyes beheld a huge misshapen object darting past the
+window.
+
+"Here comes another!" cried Edmund, again seizing the knob.
+
+I had managed to get my face to the window, and I certainly thought that
+we were done for. Apparently only a few rods away, and rushing straight
+at the car, was a vast black mass, shaped something like a dumb-bell,
+with ends as big as houses, tumbling over and over, and threatening us
+with annihilation. If it hit us, as it seemed sure that it would do, I
+knew that we should never return to the earth, unless in the form of
+pulverized ashes!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+THE PLANETARY LIMITED
+
+But Edmund had seen the meteor sooner than I, and as quick as thought he
+swerved the car, and threw us all off our feet once more. But we should
+have been thankful if he had broken our heads, since he had saved us from
+instant destruction.
+
+The danger, however, was not yet passed. Scarcely had the immense
+dumb-bell (which Edmund declared must have been composed of solid iron,
+so great was its effect on his needles) disappeared, before there came
+from outside a blaze so fierce that it fairly slapped our lids shut.
+
+"A collision!" Edmund exclaimed. "The thing has struck another big
+meteor, and they are exchanging fiery compliments."
+
+He threw himself flat on the floor, and stared out of the peephole. Then
+he jumped to his feet and gave us another tumble.
+
+"They're all about us," he faltered, breathless with exertion; then,
+having drawn a deep inspiration, he continued: "We're like a boat in a
+raging freshet, with rocks, tree trunks, and cakes of ice threatening it
+on all sides. But we'll get out of it. The car obeys its helm as if it
+appreciated the danger. Why, I got away from that last fellow by setting
+up atomic reaction against it, as a boatman pushes with his pole."
+
+Even in the midst of our terror we could not but admire our leader. His
+resources seemed boundless, and our confidence in him grew with every
+escape. While he kept guard at the peepholes we watched for meteors from
+the windows. We must have come almost within striking distance of a
+thousand in the course of an hour, but Edmund decided not to diminish
+our speed, for he said that he could control the car quicker when it was
+under full headway.
+
+So on we rushed, dodging the things like a crow in a flock of pestering
+jays, and we really enjoyed the excitement. It was more fascinating sport
+than shooting rapids in a careening skiff, and at last we grew so
+confident in the powers of our car and its commander that we were rather
+sorry when the last meteor passed, and we found ourselves once more in
+open, unimpeded space.
+
+After that the time passed quietly. We ate our meals and went to bed and
+rose as regularly as if we had been at home. In one respect, however,
+things were very different from what they were on the earth. We had no
+night! The sun shone continually, although the sky was black and always
+glittering with stars. None of us needed to be told by our conductor that
+this was due to the fact that we no longer had the shadow of the earth to
+make night for us when the sun was behind it. The sun was now never
+behind the earth, or any other great opaque body, and when we wished to
+sleep we made an artificial night, for our special use, by closing all
+the shutters. And there was no atmosphere about us to diffuse the
+sunlight, and so to hide the stars. We kept count of the days by the aid
+of a calendar clock; there seemed to be nothing that Edmund had
+forgotten. And it was a delightful experience, the wonder of which grew
+upon us hour by hour. It was too marvelous, too incredible, to be
+believed, and yet--_there we were!_
+
+Once the idea suddenly came to me that it was astonishing that we had not
+long ago perished for lack of oxygen. I understood, of course, from what
+Edmund had said, that the mysterious machines along the wall absorbed the
+carbonic acid, but we must be constantly using up the oxygen. When I put
+my difficulty before Edmund he laughed.
+
+"That's the easiest thing of all," he said. "Look here."
+
+He threw open a little grating.
+
+"In there," he continued, "there's an apparatus which manufactures just
+enough oxygen to keep the air in good condition. It is supplied with
+materials to last a month, which will be much longer than this expedition
+will take."
+
+"There you are again," exclaimed Jack. "I was asking you about that when
+we ran into those pesky meteors. What _is_ this expedition? Where are we
+going, anyway?"
+
+"Well," Edmund replied, "since we have become pretty good shipmates, I
+don't see any objection to telling you. We are going to Venus."
+
+"Going to Venus!" we all cried in a breath.
+
+"To be sure. Why not? We've got the proper sort of conveyance, haven't
+we?"
+
+There was no denying that. Our conveyance had already brought us some
+millions of miles out into space; why, indeed, should it not be able to
+carry us to Venus, or any other planet?
+
+"How far is it to Venus?" asked Jack.
+
+"When we quit the earth," Edmund answered, "Venus was rapidly approaching
+inferior conjunction. You know what that is," addressing me, "it's when
+the planet comes between the sun and the earth. The distance from the
+earth is not always the same at such a conjunction, but I figured out
+that on this occasion, after allowing for the circuit we should have to
+make, there would be just twenty-seven million miles to travel. At an
+average speed of twenty miles a second we could do that distance in
+fifteen days, fourteen and one half hours. But, of course, I had to lose
+some time going slow through the earth's atmosphere, for otherwise the
+car would have taken fire, like a meteor, on account of the friction.
+Then, too, I shall have to slow up on entering the atmosphere of Venus,
+which appears to be very deep and dense; so, upon the whole, I don't
+count on landing upon Venus in less than sixteen days from the time of
+our departure. We've already been out five days, and within eleven more I
+expect to introduce you to the inhabitants of another world."
+
+The inhabitants of another world! Again Edmund had thrown out an idea
+which took us all aback.
+
+"Do you believe there are any inhabitants on Venus?" I asked at length.
+
+"Certainly. I know there are."
+
+"For sure," put in Jack, stretching out his legs and pulling at his pipe.
+"Who'd go twenty-seven million miles to pay a visit if he didn't know
+there was somebody at home?"
+
+"Then that's what you put the arms aboard for," I remarked.
+
+"Yes, but I hope we shall not have to use them."
+
+"Strikes me that this is a sort of pirate ship," said Jack. "But what
+kind of arms have you got, Edmund?"
+
+For answer Edmund threw open a locker and showed us a gleaming array of
+automatic guns and pistols and even some cutlasses.
+
+"Decidedly piratical!" exclaimed the incorrigible Jack. "You'd better
+hoist the black flag. But, see here, Edmund, with all this inter-atomic
+energy that you talk about, why in the world didn't you invent something
+new--something that would just knock the Venustians silly, and blow their
+old planet up if necessary? Automatic arms are pretty good at home, on
+that unprogressive earth that you have spurned with your heels, but
+they'll likely be rather small pumpkins on Venus."
+
+"I didn't prepare anything else," Edmund replied, "because, in the first
+place, I was too busy with more important things, and in the second place
+because I don't really anticipate that we shall have any use for arms. I
+only took these as a precaution."
+
+"You mean to try moral suasion, I suppose," drawled Jack. "Well, anyhow,
+I hope they'll be glad to see us, and since it is Venus that we are going
+to visit, I don't look for much fighting. I'm glad you made it Venus
+instead of Mars, Edmund, for, from all I've heard of Mars with its
+fourteen-foot giants, I don't think I should like to try the pirate
+business in that direction."
+
+We all laughed at Jack's fancies; but there was something tremendously
+thrilling in the idea. Think of landing on another world! Think of
+meeting inhabitants there! Really, it made one's head spin.
+
+"Confound it, this is all a dream," I said to myself. "I'm on my back in
+bed with a nightmare. I'll kick myself awake."
+
+But do what I would I could make no dream of it. On the contrary, I felt
+that I had never been quite so much awake in all my life before.
+
+After a while we all settled down to take the thing in earnest. And then
+the charm of it began to master our imaginations. We talked over the
+prospects in all their aspects. Edmund said little, and Henry nothing,
+but Jack and I were stirred to the bottom of our romantic souls. Henry
+was different. He had no romance in his make-up. He always looked at the
+money in a thing. To his mind, going to Venus was playing the fool, when
+we had at our command the means of owning the earth.
+
+"Edmund," he said, after mumbling for a while under his breath, "this is
+the most utter tomfoolery that ever I heard of. Here you've got an
+invention that would revolutionize mechanics, and instead of utilizing it
+you rush off into space on a hairbrained adventure. You might have been
+twenty times a billionaire inside of a year if you had stayed at home and
+developed the thing. Why, it's folly; pure, beastly folly! Going to
+Venus! What can you make on Venus?"
+
+Edmund only smiled. After a little he said:
+
+"Well, I'm sorry for you, Henry. But then you're cut out on the ordinary
+pattern. But cheer up. When we go back, perhaps I'll let you take out a
+patent, and you can make the billions. For my part, Venus is more
+interesting to me than all the money you could pile up between the
+Atlantic Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. Why," he continued, warming up,
+and straightening with a certain pride which he had, "am I not the
+Columbus of Space?--And you my lieutenants," he added, with a smile.
+
+"Right you are," cried Jack enthusiastically. "The Columbus of Space,
+that's the ticket! Where's old Archimedes now? Buried, by Jo! _He_
+couldn't go to Venus! And what need we care for your billionaires?"
+
+Edmund patted Jack on the back, and I rather sympathized with his
+enthusiasm myself.
+
+The time ran on, and we watched anxiously the day-hand of the calendar
+clock. Soon it had marked a week; then ten days; then a fortnight. We
+knew we must be getting very close to our goal, yet up to this time
+neither Jack, nor Henry, nor I had caught a glimpse of Venus. Edmund,
+however, had seen it, but he told us that in order to do so he had been
+obliged to alter our course because the planet was directly in the eye of
+the sun. In consequence of the change of course we were now approaching
+Venus from the east--flanking her, so to speak--and Edmund described her
+appearance as that of an enormous crescent. Finally he invited us to take
+a look for ourselves.
+
+I shall never forget that first view! It was only a glimpse, for Edmund
+was nervous about meteors again, and would allow us only a moment at the
+peephole because he wished to be continually on the watch himself. But,
+brief as was the view, that vast gleaming sickle hanging in the black sky
+was the most tremendous thing I ever looked upon!
+
+Soon afterwards Edmund changed the course again, and then we saw her no
+more. We had not come upon the swarms of meteors that Edmund had expected
+to find lurking about the planet, and he said that he now felt safe in
+running into her shadow, and making a landing on her night hemisphere.
+You will allow me to remind you that Schiaparelli had long before found
+out that Venus doesn't turn on her axis once every twenty-four hours,
+like the earth, but keeps always the same face to the sun; the
+consequence being that she has perpetual day on one side and perpetual
+night on the other. I asked Edmund why he should not rather land on the
+daylight side; but he replied that his plan was safer, and that we could
+easily go from one side to the other whenever we chose. It didn't turn
+out to be so easy after all, but that is another part of the story.
+
+"I hardly expect to find any inhabitants on the night side," Edmund
+remarked, "for it must be fearfully cold there--too cold for life to
+exist, perhaps; but I have provided against that as far as we are
+concerned. Still, one can never tell. There _may_ be inhabitants there,
+and at any rate I am going to find out. If there are none, we'll just
+stop long enough to take a look at things, and then the car will quickly
+transport us to the daylight hemisphere, where life certainly exists. By
+landing on the uninhabited side, you see, we shall have a chance to
+reconnoiter a little, and can approach the inhabitants on the other side
+so much the more safely."
+
+"That sounds all right enough," said Jack, "but if Venus is correctly
+named, I'm for getting where the inhabitants are as quick as possible."
+
+When we swung round into the shadow of the planet we got her between the
+sun and ourselves, and as she completely hid the sun, we now had
+perpetual night about the car. Out of the peephole she looked like a
+stupendous black circle, blacker than the sky itself, but round the rim
+was a beautiful ring of light.
+
+"That's her atmosphere," Edmund explained, "lighted up by the sun from
+behind. But, for the life of me, I cannot tell what those immense flames
+mean."
+
+He referred to a vast circle of many-colored spires that blazed and
+flickered like a burning rainbow at the inner edge of the ring of light.
+It was one of the most awful, and yet beautiful, sights that I had ever
+gazed upon.
+
+"That's something altogether outside my calculations," Edmund added. "I
+can't account for it at all."
+
+"Perhaps they are already celebrating our arrival with fireworks,"
+suggested Jack, always ready to take the humorous view of everything.
+
+"That's not fire," Edmund responded earnestly. "But what it is I confess
+I can't imagine. We'll find out, however, for I haven't come all this
+distance to be scared off."
+
+And here I must try to explain a very curious thing which had puzzled our
+senses, though not our understanding (because Edmund had promptly
+explained it), throughout the voyage, and that was--levitation.  On our
+first day out from the earth, we began to notice the remarkable ease with
+which we handled things, and the strange tendency we had to bump into one
+another because we seemed to be all the time employing more strength than
+was necessary and almost to be able to walk on air. Jack declared that he
+felt as if his head had become a toy balloon.
+
+"It's the lack of weight," said Edmund. "Every time we double our
+distance from the earth we lose another three quarters of our weight. If
+I had thought to bring along a spring dynamometer, I could have shown
+you, Jack, that when we were 4,000 miles above the earth's surface the
+200 good pounds with which you depress the scales at home had diminished
+to 50, and that when we had passed about 150,000 miles into space you
+weighed no more than a couple of ounces. From that point on, it has been
+the attraction of the sun to which we have owed whatever weight we had,
+and the floor of the car has been toward the sun, because, at that
+distance from the earth, the latter ceases to exercise the master force,
+and the pull of the sun becomes greater than the earth's. But as we
+approach Venus the latter begins to restore our weight, and when we
+arrive on her surface we shall weigh about four fifths as much as when we
+started from the earth."
+
+"But I don't look as if I had lost any avoirdupois," said Jack, glancing
+at his round limbs. "And when you give us a fling I seem to strike pretty
+hard, though in other respects I confess I do feel a good deal like an
+angel."
+
+"Ah," said Edmund, laughing, "that's the _inertia of mass_. Your mass is
+the same, although your weight has almost disappeared. Weight depends
+upon the distance from the attracting body, but mass is independent of
+everything."
+
+"Do you mean to say that angels are massive?"
+
+"They may be as massive as they like provided they keep well away from
+great centers of gravitation."
+
+"But Venus is such a center--then there can't be any angels there."
+
+"I hope to find something better than angels," was Edmund's smiling
+reply.
+
+Now, as we drew near to Venus, the truth of Edmund's statements became
+apparent. We felt that our weight was returning, and our muscular
+activity sinking back to the normal again. We imagined that every minute
+we could feel our feet pressing more heavily upon the floor.
+
+Our approach was so rapid that the immense black circle grew visibly
+minute by minute. Soon it was so large that we could no longer see its
+boundaries through the peephole in the floor.
+
+"We're now within a thousand miles," said Edmund, "and must be close to
+the upper limits of the atmosphere. I'll have to slow down, or else we'll
+be burnt up by the heat of friction."
+
+He proceeded to slow down a little more rapidly than was comfortable. It
+was jerk after jerk, as he dropped off the power, and put on the brakes,
+but at last we got down to the speed of a fast express train. Soon we
+were so close that the surface of the planet became dimly visible, simply
+from the starlight. We were now settling down very cautiously, and
+presently we began to notice curious shafts of light which appeared to
+issue from the ground, as if the surface beneath us had been sprinkled
+with iron founderies.
+
+"Aha!" cried Edmund, "I believe there _are_ inhabitants on this side
+after all. Those lights don't come from volcanoes. I'm going to make for
+the nearest one, and we'll soon know what they are."
+
+Accordingly we steered for one of the gleaming shafts. It was a thrilling
+moment, I can tell you--that when we first saw another world than ours
+under our feet! As we approached the light it threw a pale illumination
+on the ground around. Everything appeared to be perfectly flat and level.
+It was like dropping down at night upon a vast prairie. But the features
+of the landscape were indistinguishable in the gloom. Edmund boldly
+continued to approach until we were within a hundred feet of the shaft of
+light, which we could now perceive issued directly from the ground.
+Suddenly, with the slightest perceptible bump, we touched the soil, and
+the car came to rest. We had landed on Venus!
+
+"It's unquestionably frightfully cold outside," said Edmund, "and we'll
+now put on these things."
+
+He dragged out of one of his many lockers four suits of thick fur
+garments, and as many pairs of fur gloves, together with caps and shields
+for the face, leaving only narrow openings for the eyes. When we had got
+them on we looked like so many Esquimaux. Finally Edmund handed each of
+us a pair of small automatic pistols, telling us to put them where they
+would be handy in our side pockets.
+
+"Boarders all!" cried the irrepressible Jack. "Pirates, do your duty!"
+
+Our preparations being made, we opened the door. The air that rushed in
+almost hardened us into icicles!
+
+"It won't hurt you," said Edmund in a whisper. "It can't be down to
+absolute zero on account of the dense atmosphere. You'll get used to it
+in a few minutes. Come on."
+
+His whispering gave us a sense of imminent danger, but nevertheless we
+followed as he led the way straight toward the shaft of light. On nearing
+it we saw that it came out of an irregularly round hole in the ground.
+When we got yet nearer we were astonished to see rough steps which led
+down into the pit. The next instant we were frozen in our tracks! For a
+moment my heart stopped beating.
+
+Standing on the steps, just below the level of the ground, and intently
+watching us, with eyes as big and luminous as moons, was a creature
+shaped like a man, but more savage than a gorilla!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE CAVERNS OF VENUS
+
+For two or three minutes the creature continued to stare at us,
+motionless; and we stared at him. It was so dramatic that it makes my
+nerves tingle now when I think of it. His eyes alone were enough to
+harrow up your soul. Huge beyond belief, round and luminous as full
+moons, they were filled with the phosphorescent greenish-yellow glare
+that sometimes appears in the expanded pupils of a cat or a wild beast.
+The great hairy head was black, but the stocky body was as white as a
+polar bear. The arms were apelike and very long and muscular, and the
+entire aspect of the creature betokened immense strength and activity.
+
+Edmund was the first to recover from the stupor of surprise, and
+instantly he did a thing so apparently absurd but so marvelous in its
+calculated effect that no brain but his could have conceived it. It
+shakes me at once with laughter and recollected terror when I recall it.
+
+"WELL, HELLO YOU!" he called out in a voice of such stentorian power that
+we jumped as at a thunderclap. The effect on the strange brute was
+electric. A film shot across the big eyes, he leaped into the air,
+uttering a squeak that was ridiculous, coming from an animal of such size
+and strength, and instantly disappeared, tumbling down the steps.
+
+But we were as much frightened as the ugly monster himself. We stared at
+Edmund, speechless in our amazement. Never could I have believed it
+possible for such a voice to issue from the human throat. It was not the
+voice of our friend, nor the voice of a man at all, but an indescribable
+clangor; and the words I have quoted had been scarcely distinguishable,
+so shattered were they by the crash of sound that whirled them into our
+astonished ears. Edmund, seeing us gaping in speechless wonder, laughed
+with such an appearance of hearty enjoyment as I had never known him to
+exhibit--and his merriment produced another thunderous explosion that
+shook the air.
+
+Then the truth burst upon me, and I exclaimed:
+
+"It's the atmosphere!"
+
+I had not spoken very loudly, but the words seemed to reverberate in my
+mouth, as if to testify to the correctness of my explanation.
+
+"Yes," said Edmund, taking pains to moderate his voice, "you've hit it,
+it's the atmosphere. I had calculated on an effect of the kind, but the
+reality exceeds all that I had anticipated. Spectroscopic analysis as
+well as telescopic appearances demonstrated long ago that the atmosphere
+of Venus was extraordinarily extensive and dense, from which fact I
+inferred that we should encounter some wonderful acoustic phenomena here,
+and this was in my mind when, on stepping out of the car, I addressed you
+in a whisper. The reaction even of the whisper on my organs of speech
+told me that I was right, and showed me what to expect if the full power
+of the voice were used. When we caught sight of the creature at the top
+of the pit I had no desire to shoot him, and I saw that he was too
+powerful to be captured alive. In a second I had decided what to do. It
+ran through my mind that, in a world where the density, and probably
+something also in the peculiar constitution of the air, had the effect of
+vastly magnifying sound, the phonetic and acoustic organs of the
+inhabitants would be modified, and that the sounds uttered by them would
+be much fainter than those that we are accustomed to hear from living
+creatures on the earth. That being so, I argued that a very great and
+heavy sound coming from a strange animal would produce in the creature
+before us a paralyzing terror. You have seen that it did so. I expect
+that this will give us an immense advantage to begin with. We have
+already inspired so great a fear that I believe that we can now safely
+follow the creature into its habitation, and encounter without danger any
+of its congeners that may be there. Nevertheless, I shall not ask you to
+run any risks, and I will alone descend into the pit."
+
+"If you do, may I be hanged for sheep stealing!"
+
+You will guess at once that it was Jack who had spoken thus.
+
+"No, sir," he continued, "if you go, we all go. Isn't that so, boys?"
+
+In answer to an appeal thus put, neither Henry nor myself could have hung
+back even if we had had the disposition to do so. But I believe that we
+all instinctively felt that our place was by Edmund's side, wherever he
+might choose to go.
+
+"Go ahead, then, Edmund," Jack added, seeing that we consented, "we're
+with you." And then his enthusiasm taking fire, as usual, he exclaimed:
+"Hurrah! Columbus forever! We've conquered a hemisphere with a blank
+shot."
+
+And so we began our descent into the mysterious pit. The strange light
+that came from it, and formed a shaft in the dense atmosphere above like
+sunlight in a haymow, was accompanied by a considerable degree of heat,
+which was very grateful to our lungs after the frigid plunge that we had
+taken from the comfortable car. As we descended, the temperature
+continually rose until we were glad to throw off our Arctic togs, and
+leave them on a shelf of rock to await our return. But, fortunately, we
+did not forget to take the pistols from the pockets before leaving the
+garments. I am very uncertain what would have been the future course of
+our history if we had neglected this precaution.
+
+It was an awful hole for depth. The steps, rudely cut, wound round and
+round the sides like those in a cathedral tower, but the pit was not
+perfectly circular. It looked like a natural formation, such as the
+vertical entrance to a limestone cavern, or the throat of a sleeping
+volcano. But whatever the nature of the pit might be, I was convinced
+that the steps were of artificial origin. They were reasonably regular in
+height and broad enough for two, or even three, persons to go abreast.
+
+When we had descended perhaps as much as two hundred feet, we suddenly
+found ourselves in a broad cavern with a surprisingly level floor. The
+temperature had been steadily rising all the time, and here it was as
+warm as in an ordinary living room. The cavern appeared to be about
+twenty yards broad and eight or ten feet in height, with a flat roof of
+rock. It was dimly illuminated by a small heap of what seemed to be hard
+coal, burning in a very roughly constructed brazier, which, as far as
+looks went, one would have said was constructed of iron.
+
+You will imagine our surprise upon seeing these things. The appearance of
+the gorilla-like beast with the awful eyes had certainly not led us to
+anticipate the finding in his lair of any such evidences of human
+intelligence, and we stood fast in our tracks for a minute or two, nobody
+speaking a word. Then Edmund said:
+
+"This is far better than I hoped. I had not thought about caverns, though
+I ought to have foreseen the probability of something of the kind. It is
+hard to drive out life as long as a world has solid foundations, and air
+for breathing. I shall be greatly surprised now if these creatures do not
+turn out to be at least as intelligent as our African or Australian
+savages."
+
+"But," said I, "the fellow that we saw surely cannot have more
+intelligence than a beast. There must be some more highly developed
+creatures living here."
+
+"I'm not so sure of that," Edmund responded. "Looks go for nothing in
+such a case. He had arms and hands, and his brain may be well organized."
+
+"If his brain is as big as his eyes," Jack put in, "he ought to be able
+to give odds to old Solomon and beat him easy. My, but I'd like to see
+their spectacles--if they ever wear any!"
+
+Jack's humor recalled us from our meditation, and we began to look about
+more carefully. There was not a living creature in sight, but over in a
+corner I detected a broad hole, down which the steps continued to
+descend.
+
+"Here's the way," said Edmund, discovering the steps at the same moment.
+"Down we go."
+
+He again led the way, and we resumed the descent. As we stumbled along
+downward we began to talk of a strange but agreeable odor which we had
+noticed in the cavern. Edmund said that it was due, perhaps, to some
+peculiar quality of the atmosphere.
+
+"I think," he continued, "that it is heavily charged with oxygen. You
+have noticed that none of us feels the slightest fatigue, notwithstanding
+the precipitancy of our long descent."
+
+I reflected that this might also be the cause of our rising courage, for
+I was sure that not one of us felt the slightest fear in thus pushing on
+toward dangers of whose nature we could form no idea. The steps,
+precisely like those above, wound round and round and led us down I
+should say as much as three hundred feet before we entered another
+cavern, larger and loftier than the first.
+
+And there we found them!
+
+There was never another such sight! It made our blood run cold once more,
+rather with surprise than fear, though the latter quickly followed.
+
+Ranged along the farther side of the cavern, and visible in the light of
+another glowing heap in the center, were as many as thirty of those huge
+hairy creatures, standing shoulder to shoulder, their great eyes glaring
+like bull's-eye lanterns. But the thing that filled us with terror was
+their motions.
+
+You have read, with thrilling nerves, how a huge cobra, reared on his
+coils, sways his terrible head from side to side before striking. Well,
+all those black heads before us were swaying in unison, but with a
+sickening circular movement, which was regularly reversed in direction.
+Three times by the right and then three times by the left those heads
+circled, in rhythmic cadence, while the luminous eyes seemed to leave
+phosphorescent rings in the air, intersecting one another in consequence
+of the rapidity of the motion.
+
+It was such a spectacle as I had never beheld in the wildest dream. It
+was baleful. It was the charm of the serpent fascinating his terrified
+prey. In an instant I felt my brain turning, and I staggered in spite of
+my utmost efforts. A kind of paralysis stiffened my limbs.
+
+Presently, all moving together, and uttering a hissing, whistling sound,
+they began slowly to approach us, keeping in line, each shaggy leg lifted
+at the same moment, like so many soldiers on parade, while the heads
+continued to swing, and the glowing eyes to cut linked circles in the
+air. But for Edmund we should certainly have been lost. Standing a little
+to the fore, he spoke to us over his shoulder, in a low voice:
+
+"Take out your pistols, but don't shoot unless they make a rush. Then
+kill as many as you can. I'll knock over the leader in the center, and I
+think that will be enough."
+
+We could as easily have stirred our arms if we had been marble statues,
+but he promptly raised his pistol, and the explosion followed on the
+instant. The report was like an earthquake. It shocked us into our senses
+and almost out of them again. The weight of the air and the confinement
+of the cavern magnified and concentrated the sound so that it was awful
+beyond belief. The fellow in the center was hurled back as if shot from a
+catapult, and the others fell at flat as he, and lay there groveling,
+their big eyes filming and swaying, but no longer in unison.
+
+The charm was broken, and as we saw our fearful enemies prostrate, our
+courage returned at a bound.
+
+"I thought as much," said Edmund coolly. "But I'm sorry now that I aimed
+at that fellow; the sound alone would have sufficed. It was not necessary
+to take life. However, we should probably have had to come to it
+eventually, and now we have them thoroughly cowed. Our safety consists in
+keeping them terrified."
+
+Thus speaking, Edmund boldly approached the groveling row, and pushed
+with his foot the furry body of the one he had shot. The bullet had gone
+through his head. At Edmund's approach the creatures sank lower on the
+rocky floor, and those nearest him turned up their moon eyes with an
+expression of submission and supplication that was grotesque. He motioned
+us to join him and, imitating him, we began to pat and smooth the
+shrinking bodies until, understanding that we would not hurt them, they
+gradually acquired confidence.
+
+In the meantime the crowd in the cavern increased, others coming in
+through side passages, and exhibiting the utmost astonishment at the
+spectacle which greeted them. It was clear that those who had taken part
+in the opening scene imparted to the newcomers a knowledge of the
+situation of affairs, and we could see that our prestige was thoroughly
+established. It remained to utilize our advantage, and we looked to
+Edmund to show how it should be done. He was equal to the undertaking,
+but I shall not trouble you with the details of his diplomacy. Let it
+suffice to say that by a combination of gentleness and firmness he
+quickly reduced almost the entire population of the caverns (for, as we
+afterwards discovered, there were a dozen or more of these underground
+dwellings connected by horizontal passages through the rocks) into
+subjection to his will. I say "almost," because, as you will see in a
+little while, there were certain members of this extraordinary community
+who possessed a spirit of independence too strong to be so easily
+subdued.
+
+As we became better acquainted with the cave dwellers we found that they
+were by no means as savage as they looked. Their appearance was certainly
+grotesque, and even unaccountable. Why, for instance, should their heads
+have been covered with coarse black disordered hair while their bodies,
+from the neck down, were almost beautiful with a natural raiment of
+golden white, as soft as silk and as brilliant as floss? I never could
+explain it, and Edmund was no less puzzled by this peculiarity. The
+immense size of their eyes did not seem astonishing after we began to
+reflect upon the consequences of the relative lack of light in their
+world. It was but a natural adjustment to their environment; with such
+eyes they could see in the dark better than cats. Their feet were bare
+and covered on the soles with thick soft skin, while the insides of their
+long hands were almost as white and delicate as those of a human being.
+
+Their intelligence was sufficiently demonstrated by the construction of
+the hundreds of rocky steps leading from the caverns to the surface of
+the ground, and by their employment of fire, and manufacture of the
+metallic braziers which contained it. But this was not all. We found that
+in some of the winding passages connecting the caverns they cultivated
+food. It consisted entirely of vegetables of various kinds, and all
+unlike any that I ever saw on the earth. Water dripped from the roofs of
+these particular passages, and the almost colorless vegetation thrived
+there with astonishing luxuriance. They had many simple ways of cooking
+their food, and it was evident that they possessed some form of salt,
+though we did not discover the deposit from which they must have drawn
+it. They collected water in cisterns hollowed in the rock.
+
+Although we still had abundance of food in the car, Edmund insisted on
+trying theirs, and it proved to be very palatable.
+
+"This is fortunate, though hardly surprising," said Edmund. "If we had
+found the food on Venus uneatable, we should indeed have been in a fine
+fix. While we remain here we will eat as the natives eat, and save our
+own supplies for future need."
+
+The only brute animals that we saw in the caverns were some doglike
+creatures, about as large as terriers, but very furry, which showed the
+utmost terror whenever we appeared.
+
+One of the first things that we discovered outside the main cavern where
+we had made our debut was the burial ground of the community. This
+happened when they came to dispose of the fellow that Edmund had shot.
+They formed a regular procession, which greatly impressed us, and we
+followed them as they bore the body through several winding ways into a
+large cavern, at a considerable distance from any of the others. Here
+they had dug a grave, and, to our astonishment, there appeared to be
+something resembling a religious ceremony connected with the interment.
+And then, for the first time, we distinguished the females from the
+others. But a still greater surprise awaited us. It was no less than
+plain evidence of regular family relationship.
+
+As the body was lowered into the grave one of the females approached with
+every sign of distress and sorrow. Jack declared that he saw tears
+running down her hairy cheeks. She held two little ones by the hand, and
+this spectacle produced an astonishing effect upon Edmund, revealing an
+entirely new side of his character. I have told you that he expressed
+regret for having killed the fellow in the cavern, but now, at the sight
+before him, he seemed filled with remorse.
+
+"I wish I had never come here!" he said bitterly. "The first thing I have
+done is to kill an inoffensive and intelligent creature."
+
+"Intelligent, perhaps," said Jack, "but inoffensive--not by a long shot!
+Where'd we have been if you hadn't killed him? They'd have made mincemeat
+of us."
+
+"No," replied Edmund, sorrowfully shaking his head, "it wasn't necessary.
+The noise would have sufficed; and I ought to have known it."
+
+"Why didn't you shout, then? That scared the first one," put in Henry,
+whose soul, it must be said, was not overflowing with sympathy.
+
+"I did what I thought was best at the moment," Edmund replied, with a
+broken voice. "They were so many and so threatening that I imagined my
+voice alone might not be effective. But I'm sorry, sorry!"
+
+"Henry, you're a fool!" cried the sympathetic Jack. "Come now, Edmund,"
+he continued, kindly laying a hand on his shoulder, "what you did was the
+only thing under heaven that could have been done. You're wrong to blame
+yourself. By Jo, if you hadn't done it I would!"
+
+But Edmund only shook his head, as if refusing to be comforted. It was
+the first sign of weakness that we had seen in our incomparable leader,
+but I am sure it only increased our respect for him--at least that's true
+of Jack and me. After that I noticed that Edmund was far more gentle than
+before in his relations with the people of the caverns.
+
+Not long after this painful incident we made a discovery of extreme
+interest. It was nothing less than a big smithy! Edmund had foretold that
+we should find something of the kind.
+
+"Those braziers and cooking pots," he had said, "and the tools that must
+have been needed to build the steps and to dig their graves, prove that
+they know how to work in iron. If it is not done in these caverns, then
+they get it from some other similar community. But I think it likely that
+we shall come upon some signs of the work hereabouts."
+
+"Maybe they import it from Pittsburg," was the remark that fun-loving
+Jack could not refrain from making.
+
+"Well, you'll see," said Edmund.
+
+And, as I have already told you, he was right. We did find the smithy,
+with several stout fellows pounding out rude tools with equally rude
+hammers of iron. Of course we could ask them no questions, for their
+language was only a kind of squeak, and they seemed to converse mostly by
+means of expressive signs. But Edmund was not long in drawing his
+conclusions.
+
+"This," he said, after closely examining the metal, "is native iron.
+There's nothing remarkable in the fact that it should be here. All the
+solid planets, as you know" (turning to me), "are very largely composed
+of iron, and Venus, being nearer the center of the system, may have
+proportionally more of it than the earth. And these fellows have found
+out its usefulness, and how to work it. There's nothing surprising in
+that, either, for some of our savages have done as much on the earth. Now
+I'll make another prediction--we are going to find coal here. That is
+inevitable, since we know that they burn it in the caverns. I shouldn't
+wonder if it were close at hand, from the look of these rocks."
+
+He approached the wall of the cavern containing the smithy, and
+immediately exclaimed:
+
+"Look here! Here it is!"
+
+And sure enough, on joining him we saw a seam of as fine anthracite as
+Pennsylvania ever produced.
+
+"A Carboniferous Age on Venus!" Edmund continued. "What do you think of
+that? But, of course, it was sure to be so; all the planets that are old
+enough have been through practically the same stages. Think of it! The
+plants that gave origin to this coal must have flourished here when Venus
+still rotated on her axis rapidly enough to have day and night succeeding
+one another on all sides of her, for now no vegetation except the
+insignificant plants that grow in these caverns can live on this
+hemisphere. And think, too, of the countless ages that must have been
+consumed in slowing down her rotation by the friction of her ocean
+tides."
+
+"Has Venus got any oceans?" asked Jack.
+
+"I haven't a doubt of it; but we shall find none on this side, although
+they must once have been here."
+
+We all mused for a time on the subject that Edmund had started, when
+suddenly his face lighted up with the greatest animation, and he
+exclaimed, but as if speaking to himself rather than to us:
+
+"Capital! It couldn't have happened better!"
+
+"What's capital?" drawled Jack.
+
+"Why, this smithy, and these Tubal Cains here. Unconsciously they have
+solved for me a problem that has given me considerable trouble. Almost as
+soon as we got acquainted with the people of the caverns the idea
+occurred to me that I should like to take some of them with us when we
+visit the other hemisphere. There are many interesting observations that
+their presence on that side of Venus would give rise to, and, besides,
+they might be of great use to us. Of course I meant to bring them back to
+their home. But the puzzling question has been how to transport them. The
+car has a full load already."
+
+"They've got good legs; make 'em walk," said Jack.
+
+Edmund burst into a laugh.
+
+"Why, Jack," he asked, "how far do you think it is to the other side of
+Venus?"
+
+"I don't know," said Jack, "but I suppose it's not very far round her.
+How far is it?"
+
+"Five thousand miles, at least, to the edge of the sunlit hemisphere."
+
+Jack whistled.
+
+"By Jo! I wouldn't have believed it."
+
+"Well, it's a fact," said Edmund, "and of course I don't propose to take
+several months to make the journey. Now the sight of these fellows at
+work has shown me just how it can be done in short order. It's this way:
+I'll have iron sleds made, put the natives that I propose to take along
+upon them, hitch them by wire cables, which luckily I've got, to the car,
+and away we'll spin. The power of the car is practically unlimited, and,
+as you have observed, the ground is as flat and smooth as a prairie, and,
+moreover, is coated with an icy covering."
+
+Jack glowed with enthusiasm over this project, and was about to indulge
+in one of his characteristic outbreaks, when there came an interruption
+which ended in a drama that put silver streaks among my coal-black locks!
+Some one came in where we were and called off the workmen, who went out
+with the others in great haste. Of course we followed at their heels. On
+reaching the principal cavern, we found a singular scene. Two natives,
+whom we had never seen before, were evidently in charge of some kind of a
+ceremony. They wore tall, conical hats made of polished metal and covered
+with hieroglyphics, and carried staves of iron in their hands.
+
+"Priests," Edmund immediately whispered. "Now we'll see something
+interesting."
+
+The "priests" marshaled all the others, numbering several hundreds, into
+a long column, and then began a slow, solemn march up the steps. The
+leaders produced a squeaking music by blowing into the ends of their
+staves. Women were mingled with men, and even the children were there,
+too. We followed at the tail of the procession, our curiosity at the
+highest pitch. At the rate we went it must have taken nearly an hour to
+mount the steps, but at last all emerged in the open air, where the cold
+struck to our marrow. The natives didn't seem to mind it, but we ran back
+and donned our furs. Then we re-ascended and stepped out into the Arctic
+night, finding the crowd assembled not far from the entrance to the
+cavern. The frosty sky was ablaze with stars, and directly overhead shone
+a planet of amazing size and splendor with a little one beside it.
+
+"The earth and the moon!" exclaimed Edmund.
+
+I cannot describe the flood of feeling that went over me at that sight!
+But in a moment Edmund interrupted my meditation by saying, in a quick,
+nervous way:
+
+"_Look at that!_"
+
+The natives had formed themselves in a circle with the two priests
+standing alone in the center. All but these two had dropped on their
+knees, while the leaders, elevating their long arms toward the zenith,
+gazed upward, uttering a kind of chant in their queer, squeaking voices.
+
+"Don't you see what they're about?" demanded Edmund, twitching me
+irritably by the sleeve. "They're worshipping the earth!"
+
+It was the truth--the amazing truth! They were worshipping our planet in
+the sky! And, indeed, she looked worth worshipping. Never have I seen so
+splendid a star. She was twenty times as bright as the most brilliant
+planet that any terrestrial astronomer ever beheld; and the moon, glowing
+beside her like an attendant, redoubled the beauty of the sight.
+
+"It's just the moment of the conjunction," said Edmund. "This is their
+religion; the earth is their goddess, and when she is nearest and
+brightest they perform this ceremony in her honor. I wouldn't have missed
+this for a world."
+
+Suddenly the two priests began to pirouette, and as they whirled more and
+more rapidly, their huge glowing eyes made phosphorescent circles in the
+gloom like those that had so alarmed and fascinated us in the cavern.
+They gyrated round the ring of worshipers with accelerated speed, and all
+those poor creatures fell under the fascination and drooped with heads to
+the ground. Now for the first time I caught sight of an oblong object
+rising a couple of feet above the ground in the center of the circle. I
+was wondering what it might be when the spinning priests, who had
+gradually drawn closer to the ring of worshipers, dived into the circle,
+and, catching each a native in his arms, ran with their captives to the
+curious object that I have just described.
+
+"It's a sacrificial stone!" exclaimed Edmund. "They're going to kill them
+as an offering to the earth and her child the moon."
+
+I was frozen with horror at the sight, but just as the second priest
+reached the altar, where the first victim had already been pinned with
+the sharp point of the sacrificial staff, his captive, suddenly
+recovering his senses, and terrified by the awful fate confronting him,
+uttered a cry, wrenched himself loose, and, running like the wind, leaped
+over the circle and disappeared in the darkness. The fugitive passed
+close by us, and Jack shouted as he darted past:
+
+"Good boy!"
+
+The enraged priest was after him like lightning, and as he came near us
+his awful eyes seemed to emit actual flames. But the runner had vanished.
+Without an instant's hesitation the priest shot out his great arm and
+caught _me_ by the throat! In another second I felt myself carried in a
+bound, as if a tiger had seized me, over the drooping heads of the
+worshipers and toward the horrible altar.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+OFF FOR THE SUN LANDS
+
+Dreadful as the moment was, I did not lose my senses. On the contrary, my
+mind was fearfully clear and active. There was not a horror that I
+missed. The strength and agility of my captor were astounding. I could no
+more have struggled with him than with a lion. Only one thing flashed
+upon me to do; I yelled with all the strength of my lungs. But they had
+become accustomed to our voices now, and the maddened creature was so
+intent upon his fell purpose that a cannon-shot would not have diverted
+him from it.
+
+He got me to the altar, where the preceding victim already lay with his
+heart torn out, and, pressing me against it with all his bestial force,
+raised the pointed staff to transfix me. With dying eyes I saw the earth
+gleaming, magnificent, directly over my head, and my heart bounded with
+unreasoning hope at the sight. It was my mother planet, powerful to save!
+
+All this passed in a second, while the dreadful spear was poised for its
+work. Even in that fraction of time I noticed the bunching muscles of the
+murderer's hairy arm, and then I pressed my eyes shut.
+
+_Bang!_
+
+Something touched me, and I felt the warm blood gushing. Then I knew no
+more.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the midst of a dream of boyhood scenes a murmur of familiar voices
+awoke me. I opened my eyes, but as I could not make out where I was,
+closed them again.
+
+Then I heard Edmund saying:
+
+"He's coming out all right."
+
+Thereupon, I reopened my eyes, but still the scene puzzled me. I saw
+Edmund's face, and behind those of Jack and Henry, wearing anxious looks.
+But this was not my room! It seemed to be a cave, with faint firelight
+reflections on the walls.
+
+"Where am I?" I asked.
+
+"Back in the cavern, and coming along all right," said Edmund.
+
+Back in the cavern! What did he mean? Then, suddenly, memory returned.
+
+"So he didn't sacrifice me!" I cried.
+
+"Not on your life!" Jack's hearty voice responded. "Edmund was too quick
+for that."
+
+"But only by a fraction of a second!" said Edmund, smiling.
+
+"What happened, then?" I asked, my recollections coming back stronger and
+stronger.
+
+"A mighty good shot happened," said Jack. "The best I ever saw."
+
+I looked inquiringly at Edmund. He saw that I could bear it, and he
+began:
+
+"When that fellow snatched you up and leaped inside the circle I had my
+furs wrapped so closely around me, not anticipating any danger, that for
+quite ten seconds I was unable to get out my pistol. I tore the garment
+open just in time, for already he was pressing you against the accursed
+altar with his spear poised. I didn't waste any time finding my aim, but
+even as it was the iron point had touched you when the bullet crashed
+through his brain. The shock swerved the weapon a little and you were
+only wounded in the shoulder. You got a scratch which might have been
+serious but for your Arctic coat. The fellow fell dead beside you, and
+under the circumstances I felt compelled to shoot the other one also, for
+he was insane with the delirium of their bloody rite, and I knew that our
+lives would never be safe if he remained ready for mischief.
+
+"I'm sorry to have had to begin killing right and left again, but I guess
+that's the lot of all invaders, wherever they may go. It's the second
+lesson for these savages, and I believe it will prove final. When their
+priests were dead and the others had no fight in them, even if they had
+intended any harm to us.  Nobody knows to what those chaps might have led
+them, and my conscience is easy this time."
+
+"How long have I been here?" I asked.
+
+"Two days by the calendar clock?" replied Jack.
+
+"Yes, two days," Edmund assented. "I never saw a man so knocked out by a
+shock, for the wound wasn't much; I fixed that up in five minutes. But I
+don't blame you. In your place I should have been scared to the bottom of
+my soul also. But look at yourself."
+
+He held a pocket mirror before me, and then I saw that my hair was
+streaked with gray!
+
+"But we haven't been idle in the meanwhile," Edmund went on. "I've got
+two sleds nearly completed, and to-morrow at midnight--earth time--I mean
+to set out for the sunny lands of Venus."
+
+"How in the world could you have worked so fast?" I asked in surprise.
+
+"Because I had certain tools in the car which vastly facilitated the
+operation; but I must admit that the savage blacksmiths worked well, too,
+and showed surprising intelligence in comprehending my directions.
+Perhaps that was because I had learned their language."
+
+"Learned their language!" I exclaimed, staring in amazement.
+
+"Well, perhaps that's putting it a little too strong; but I have learned
+enough to establish a pretty good understanding with them. There's
+nothing like working together to make intelligent creatures comprehend
+one another."
+
+"But what kind of a language is it, then?" I asked.
+
+"A language to make your hair stand on end," put in Jack. "The language
+that ghosts speak, I reckon! Not that I understand the least little bit
+of it, but I judge from what Edmund says."
+
+With increasing bewilderment I looked at our leader. He smiled, and then
+looked thoughtful for a moment before again speaking. At last he said:
+
+"It's a subject that I may be better able to discuss after I have learned
+more about it. All I can say at present is that it appears to be a kind
+of telepathy. You know that their voices seem hardly more cultivated, or
+capable of regular articulation, than those of mere brutes; and, besides,
+they have a certain horror of sound. These smiths wear coverings over
+their ears to minify the noise of their hammering. Yet they are able to
+converse, partly by physical signs, but more, I am sure, by some means
+which they possess of transferring thought without the mediation of any
+senses familiar to us. Sometimes I imagine that their extraordinary eyes
+play a large part in the phenomenon. But, however that may be, they
+certainly are able to read some of my thoughts, when we are in close
+relations and working together. One of them is especially gifted in this
+way, and what do you think? I have discovered his name!"
+
+"Now, Edmund--" I began incredulously.
+
+"Yes," he persisted, "it's a fact. You are to remember that they do
+interchange some of their ideas by means of sounds, and they have certain
+words, among which I am disposed to think are their individual
+designations. One of these words particularly attracted my attention
+because I observed that it was always addressed to the person I have just
+spoken of, and I finally concluded that it was his name. As near as I can
+imitate it, it sounds something like 'Juba.' So that's what I call him,
+and he's going to be the chief of the party that I propose to take with
+us. His services may be invaluable to us."
+
+A great deal more was said on this curious subject, but since we did not
+arrive at a complete understanding of it until after we had reached the
+other side of the planet, I shall postpone any further explanation to the
+chapters which will be devoted to our astonishing adventures on that part
+of Venus.
+
+My wound, as Edmund had said, was very slight, and the effects of the
+shock having passed off during the period of my unconsciousness, I was
+soon busy with the others in making the final preparations for our
+departure. The sleds were, of course, very rude affairs, but they were
+also very strong. Among the innumerable stores which Edmund's foresight
+had led him to put into the car were a number of exceedingly strong but
+light metallic cables. With these the two sleds were hitched, one behind
+the other, and a line about a hundred feet long connected them with the
+car. The latter could thus rise to a considerable height without lifting
+the sleds from the ground.
+
+The sleds were provisioned from the stores of the natives, and we also
+took some of their food in the car, not only to eke out our own but
+because we had come to like it.
+
+Edmund had already chosen the fellows who were to accompany us, and among
+them were two of the smiths besides Juba. In all they were eight. How he
+succeeded in persuading them I do not know, but not the slightest
+objection was apparent on their part, or on the part of their compatriots
+in the caverns. We were all ready at the predetermined time, and the
+scene at our departure was a strange one.
+
+At least five hundred natives had assembled in a furry crowd around the
+entrance to the caverns to see us off. When we started, the fellows on
+the sleds, being unused to the motion, clung together like so many
+awkward white bears taking a ride in the circus. Their friends stood
+about the ill-omened sacrificial altar, waving their long arms, while
+their huge eyes goggled in the starlight.
+
+Jack, in a burst of enthusiasm, fired four or five parting shots from his
+pistol. As the reports crashed through the heavy air, you should have
+seen the crowd vanish down the hole! The sight made me wince, for they
+must have gone down like a cataract, all heaped together. But they were
+tough, and I trust no heads were broken. The effect on the eight fellows
+on the sleds came near being disastrous. I expected to see them leap off
+and run, which no doubt they would have done if Edmund had not taken, for
+other reasons, the precaution to tie them fast. But they strained at
+their bonds, and squealed in terror.
+
+"Give me your pistol!" commanded Edmund, in a voice of thunder, and with
+blazing eyes.
+
+Jack was almost twice his size, but he handed over the pistol with the
+air of a rebuked schoolboy.
+
+"When you learn how to use it, I'll give it back to you," said Edmund
+sternly, and that closed the incident.
+
+Then we began gradually to put on speed, and as the ground was icy smooth
+and entirely unobstructed, we were soon traveling at the rate of sixty
+miles an hour. The plan of the sleds worked like magic, and after their
+first terror had passed away it was plain to be seen that the natives
+enjoyed the new sensation immensely. And, indeed, it was a glorious spin!
+
+But in a little while a danger developed which we had not thought of. It
+arose from the existence of other caverns whose mouths opened upon the
+plain. To have precipitated the sleds into these would have been fatal.
+Luckily, shafts of light issued from all of them, and warned by these, we
+managed to avoid the danger. But it was not entirely passed before we had
+traveled at least a hundred miles. It was like an immense city of prairie
+dogs without mounds. The cavern that we had discovered on our arrival was
+evidently situated on the outskirts of the group, and now we were passing
+through the center of it. Occasionally we saw a huge white form disappear
+in one of the holes as we swiftly approached, but that was all we beheld
+of the inhabitants. But the spectacle of the shafts of light rising all
+around us was amazing. When we were in the midst of it Edmund hesitated
+for a moment, muttering that we had been too hasty and should have
+remained longer to study the peculiarities of this wonderful world of
+night; but finally he decided to keep on, and soon afterwards we saw the
+last of the caverns. Then, as there appeared to be no obstructions of any
+kind, the speed was worked up to a hundred miles an hour. Going straight
+ahead as we did, there was no danger of the sleds being overturned.
+
+Having, as Edmund had calculated, about five thousand miles to go before
+reaching the edge of the sun-illuminated hemisphere, it was evident that,
+at our present rate of progress, we should arrive there in a little over
+two days by the calendar clock. We guided our course by the stars, and
+for me one of the most interesting things was to see the earth sinking
+toward the horizon, accompanied by the stars, as if the heavens were
+revolving in a direction opposed to our line of travel. We smoked and
+talked and ate and slept in the old way, while the marvelous mouths in
+the wall resumed their strange deglutition. Thus the time passed, without
+ennui, until, unexpectedly, a new phenomenon captured our attention.
+
+Ahead, through the peephole, Edmund had descried again the flaming spires
+which had so astonished us on our approach to Venus. But now their
+appearance was splendid and imposing beyond words. Above them rose an arc
+of pearly light which grew higher every hour. And with the arc of light
+rose the flames also. At the same time they seemed to spread to the right
+and the left, until they were simultaneously visible from both of the
+side windows of the car. Their colors were wonderful--red, green, purple,
+orange--all the hues of the prism.
+
+"There is the old mystery again," exclaimed Edmund, "and I can no more
+explain it now than I could when we first saw it on nearing the planet.
+The arc of light above is natural enough; it's simply the dawn. The sun
+never rises on this side of Venus, but it will rise for us because we are
+approaching it, and the light is the first indication that we are getting
+near enough to the border between day and night for some of the sun's
+rays to be bent over the horizon by refraction. But those flames! See how
+steady they are as a whole, and yet how they change color like a slowly
+turning prism."
+
+"Don't, for God's sake, run us into a conflagration," said Jack. "I'm
+ready to believe anything of this topsy-turvy old planet, and I shouldn't
+be surprised if the other side is all fire as this one is all frost.  I
+can stand these hairy beasts, but I'll be hanged if I want to be
+introduced among salamanders."
+
+"That's not real fire," said Edmund. "When we get a little nearer we can
+see what it is. In the meantime I'll try to think it out."
+
+The result of Edmund's meditations, when he announced it to us, an hour
+later, awoke as much amazement in our minds as anything that had yet
+occurred. He had been sitting silent in his corner, occasionally taking a
+glimpse through the peephole, or one of the windows, when suddenly he
+slapped his thigh, and springing to his feet, exclaimed:
+
+"They're mountains of crystal!"
+
+"Mountains of crystal!" we echoed.
+
+"Nothing else in the world, and I am ashamed not to have foreseen the
+thing. It's plain enough when you come to think about it. Remember that
+Venus being a world lying half in the daylight and half in the night, is
+necessarily as hot on one side as it is cold on the other. All of the
+clouds and floating vapors are on the day side, where the sunbeams act.
+The heated air charged with moisture rises over the sunward hemisphere,
+and flows off above, on all sides, toward the night side, while from the
+latter cold air flows in beneath to take its place. Along the junction of
+the two hemispheres the clouds and moisture are condensed by the intense
+cold, and fall in ceaseless snowstorms. This snow descending for ages has
+piled up in mountainous masses whose height may be increased in some
+places by real mountain ranges buried beneath. The atmospheric moisture
+cannot pass very far into the night hemisphere without being condensed,
+and so it is all arrested within a ring, or band, extending completely
+around the planet, and marking the division between perpetual day and
+perpetual night. The appearance of gigantic flames is produced by the
+sunbeams striking these mountains of ice and snow from behind and
+breaking into prismatic fire."
+
+We listened to this explanation, so simple and yet so wonderful, with
+mingled feelings of astonishment and admiration. And then we turned again
+to regard the phenomenon, which now, with our nearer approach, had become
+splendid and awful beyond description.
+
+In a few minutes Edmund addressed us again. "I foresee now," he said,
+"considerable trouble for us. There has been a warning of that, too, if I
+had but heeded it. I've noticed for some time that a wind, getting
+gradually stronger, has been following us, sometimes dying out and then
+coming on again stronger than before. It is likely that this wind gets to
+be a perfect hurricane in the neighborhood of those strange mountains. It
+is the back suction, caused, as I have already told you, by the rising of
+the heated air on the sunny side of the planet. It may play the deuce
+with us when we get into the midst of it. I shall have to be cautious."
+
+He immediately reduced the speed to not more than ten miles an hour, and
+at once we noticed the wind of which he had spoken. It came now in great
+gusts from behind, rapidly increasing in frequency and fury. Soon it was
+strong enough to drive the sleds without any pull upon the cable, and
+sometimes they were forced directly under the car, and even ahead of it,
+the natives clinging to one another in the utmost terror. Edmund managed
+to govern the motions of the car for a time, holding it back against the
+storm, but as he confessed, this was a contingency he had made no
+provision for, and eventually we became almost as helpless as a ship in a
+typhoon.
+
+"Of course I could cut loose from the sleds and run right out of this,"
+said Edmund, "but that would never do. I've taken them into my service
+and I'm bound to look out for them. If there was room for them in the car
+it would be all right. Let's see. Yes! I've got it. I'll fetch up the
+sleds and fasten them underneath the car, like baskets to a balloon, and
+so carry the whole thing. There's plenty of power; it's only room that's
+wanting."
+
+No sooner said than done with Edmund. By this time we were getting into
+the ice, huge hills of which surrounded us. Edmund dropped the car in the
+lee of one of these strange hummocks. Here the force of the wind was
+broken, and the sky directly over us was free from clouds, but a short
+distance ahead we could see them whirling and tumbling in mighty masses
+of tumultuous vapor. Lashing the two sleds together we attached them
+about ten feet below the bottom of the car. Then the natives, who had
+been unbound, and had stood looking on in utter bewilderment, were
+securely fastened on the sleds. We entered the car and the power was
+turned on.
+
+"We'll rise straight up," said Edmund, "and as soon as we are out of the
+wind current we will sail over the mountains and come down on the other
+side as nice as you please. Strange that I didn't think of carrying the
+sleds in this way to begin with."
+
+It was a beautiful program that Edmund had outlined, and we had complete
+confidence in our leader's ability to carry it through; but it didn't
+work as expected. Even his genius had met its match this time.
+
+No sooner had we risen out of the protection of the hill of ice than the
+hurricane caught us. It was a blast of such power and ferocity that in an
+instant it had the car spinning like a teetotum, and then it shot us
+ahead, banging the sleds against the car as if they had been tassels. It
+is a wonder of wonders that the poor creatures on them were not flung
+off, but fortunately we had taken particular pains with their lashings,
+and as for knocks, they could stand them like so many bears.
+
+In the course of twenty minutes we must have traveled twice as many
+miles, perfectly helpless to arrest our mad rush because, Edmund said,
+the atomic reaction partly refused to work, and he could not rise as he
+had expected to do. We were pitched hither and thither, and were
+sprawling on the floor more than half the time. The noise was awful, and
+nobody tried to speak after Edmund had shouted his single communication
+about the power, which would have filled us with dismay if we had had
+leisure to think.
+
+The shutters were open, and suddenly I saw through one of the windows a
+sight which I thought must surely be my last. The car had been sweeping
+through a dense cloud of boiling vapors, and these had without warning
+split open before my eyes--and there, almost in contact with the car, was
+a glittering precipice of solid ice, gleaming with wicked blue flashes,
+and we were rushing upon it as if shot out of a cannon!
+
+The next instant came a terrific shock, which I thought must have crushed
+the car like an eggshell, and down we fell--down and down!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+LOST IN THE CRYSTAL MOUNTAINS
+
+If we had seen the danger earlier, and had not been so tumbled about by
+the pitching of the car, it is possible that Edmund would have prevented
+the collision, in spite of the partial disablement of his apparatus. The
+blow against the precipice of ice was not as severe as it had seemed to
+me, and the car was not smashed; but the fall was terrible! There was
+only one thing which saved us from destruction. At the base of the mighty
+cliff against which the wind had hurled the car an immense deposit of
+snow had collected, and into this we plunged. We were all thrown together
+in a heap, the car and the sleds being entangled with the wire ropes.
+
+Fortunately the stout glass windows were not broken, and after we had
+struggled to our feet Edmund managed to open the door. Before emerging he
+bade us put on our furs, but even with them we found the cold outside all
+but unendurable. Yet the natives paid no attention to it. Not one of them
+was seriously hurt, although they were firmly attached to the sleds, and
+unable to undo their fastenings. We set them loose, and then began
+seriously to examine the situation.
+
+Above us towered the vertical precipice disappearing in the whirling
+clouds, and the wind drove square against it with the roar of Niagara.
+The air was filled with snow and ice dust, and at intervals we could not
+see objects three feet away from our noses. Our poor furry companions
+huddled together, and being of no use to themselves or us, suffered more
+from the noise, and from the terror inspired by the snow than from any
+injuries that they had received.
+
+"We've got to get out of this mighty quick," shouted Edward. "Hustle now
+and repair ship."
+
+We got to work at once, Juba aiding us a little under Edmund's direction,
+and soon we had the sleds out of the tangle and properly attached. Then
+we replaced the natives on their seats, and entered the car. Edmund began
+to fumble with his apparatus. After some ten minutes' work he said, in an
+evasive way, that the damage was not serious enough to prevent the
+working of the car, but I thought I caught an expression of extreme
+anxiety in his face. Still, his manner indicated that he considered
+himself master of the situation.
+
+"You notice," he said, "that this wind is variable, and there lies our
+chance. When the blasts weaken, the air springs back from the face of the
+cliff and then whirls round to the right. I've no doubt that there is a
+passage in that direction through which the wind finds its way behind
+this icy mountain, and if we can get there, too, we shall undoubtedly
+find at least partial shelter. I'm going to take advantage of the first
+lull."
+
+It worked out just as he had predicted. As the wind surged back after a
+particularly vicious rush against the great blue cliff, we cut loose and
+went sailing up into it, rushing past the glittering wall so swiftly that
+it made our heads swim. In two or three minutes we rounded a corner, and
+then found ourselves in a kind of atmospheric eddy, where the car simply
+spun round and round, with the sleds whirling below it.
+
+"Now for it!" shouted Edmund. "Hang on!"
+
+He touched a knob, and instantly we rose with immense speed. We must have
+shot up a couple of thousand feet, when the wind, coming over the top of
+the icy barrier we had just flanked, caught us again, and swept us off on
+a horizontal course. Then, suddenly, the air cleared all round about, as
+if a magic broom had swept away the clouds. The spectacle that was
+revealed--but why try to describe it! No language could do it. Yet I must
+tell you what we saw.
+
+We were in the heart of the _Crystal Mountains!_ They towered round us on
+every side, and stretched away in interminable ranges of shining
+pinnacles. Such shapes! Such colors! Such flashing and blazing of
+gigantic rainbows and prisms! There were mountains that looked to my
+amazed eyes as lofty as Mont Blanc, and as massive, every solid mile of
+which was composed of crystalline ice, refracting and reflecting the
+sunbeams with iridescent splendor. For now we could begin to see a part
+of the orb of the sun itself, prodigious in size, and poised on the edge
+of the gem-glittering horizon, where the jeweled summits split its beams
+into a thousand haloes.
+
+There was one mighty peak, still ahead of us, but toward which we were
+rushed sidewise by the wind, which surpassed all the others in
+marvelousness. It towered majestically above our level--a superb,
+stupendous, coruscating _Alp of Light_! On every side it darted blinding
+rays of a hundred splendid hues, as if a worldful of emeralds, rubies,
+sapphires, and diamonds had been heaped together in one gigantic pile and
+transfused with a sunburst. Even Edmund was for a moment speechless with
+astonishment at this wildly magnificent sight. But presently he spoke,
+very calmly, though what he said changed our amazement to terror.
+
+"The trouble with the apparatus is very serious. I am unable to make the
+car rise higher. It will no longer react against an obstacle. We are
+entirely at the mercy of the wind. If it carries us against that
+glittering devil no power under heaven can save us."
+
+If my hair had not whitened before it surely would have whitened now!
+
+[Illustration: "We were in the heart of the _Crystal Mountains_!"]
+
+When we were swept against the first icy precipice the danger had come
+unexpectedly, out of a concealing cloud, and anticipation was swallowed
+up in the event. But now we had to bear the fearful strain of
+expectation, with the paralyzing knowledge that nothing that we could do
+could aid us in the least. I thought that even Edmund's face paled with
+fear.
+
+On we rushed, still borne sidewise, so that the spectacle was burned into
+our eyes, as, with the fascination of impending death, we gazed helpless
+out of the window. Now we were upon it! Instinctively I threw myself
+backward; but the blow did not come. Instead there was a wild rush of ice
+crystals sweeping the thick glass.
+
+"Look!" shouted Edmund. "We are safe! See how the particles of ice are
+swept from the face of the peak by the tempest. They leap toward us, and
+are then whirled round the mountain. The compacted air forms a buffer. We
+may yet touch the precipice, but the wind, having free vent on both
+sides, will carry us one way or the other without a serious shock."
+
+He had hardly finished speaking, in a voice that had risen to a shriek
+with the effort to make himself heard, when the crisis came. We did just
+touch a projecting ridge, but the wind, howling past it, carried us in an
+instant round the obstruction.
+
+"Scared ourselves for nothing," said Edmund, in a quieter voice, as the
+roar died down. "We were really as safe all the time as a boat in a deep
+rapid. The velocity of the current sheered us off."
+
+Our hearts beat more steadily again, but there was a greater danger, of
+which he had warned us, but which we had not had time to contemplate. I,
+at least, began to think of it with dismay when the scintillant peak was
+left behind, and I saw Edmund again working away at his machinery.
+Presently it was manifest that we were rapidly sinking.
+
+"What's the matter?" I cried. "We seem to be going down."
+
+"So we are," he replied quietly, "and I fear that we shall not go up
+again very soon. The power is failing all the time. It will be pretty
+hard to have to stop indefinitely in this frightful place, but I am
+afraid that that is our destiny."
+
+Lost and helpless in these mountains of ice and this world of gloom and
+storm! The thought was too terrible to be entertained. Yet it was forced
+into our minds even more by our leader's manner than by his words. Not
+one of us failed to comprehend its meaning, and it was characteristic
+that, while talkative Jack now said not a word, uncommunicative Henry
+burst into a brief fury of denunciation. I was startled by the energy of
+his words:
+
+"Edmund Stonewall," he cried, agitating his arms, "you have brought me to
+my death with your infernal invention! May you be--"
+
+But he never finished the sentence. His face turned as white as a sheet,
+and he sank in a heap upon the floor.
+
+"Poor fellow," said Edmund, pityingly. "Would to God that he instead of
+Church had remained at home. But I'll get him and all of us out of this
+trouble; only give me a little time."
+
+In a few minutes Jack and I had restored Henry to his senses, but he was
+as weak as a child, and remained lying on one of the cushioned benches.
+In the meantime the car descended until at last it rested upon the snow
+in a deep valley, where we were protected from the wind. In this profound
+depression a kind of twilight prevailed, for the sun, which we had
+glimpsed when we were on the level of the peaks, was at least thirty
+degrees below our present horizon. Henry having recovered his nerve, we
+all got out of the car, unloosed the natives, and began to look about us.
+
+The scene was more disheartening than ever. All about towered the crystal
+mountains, their bases leaden-hued and formless in the ghostly gloom,
+while their middle parts showed deep gleams of ultramarine, brightening
+to purple higher up, and a few aspiring peaks behind us sparkled
+brilliantly where the sunlight touched them. It was such a spectacle as
+the imagination could not have conceived, and I have often tried in vain
+to reproduce it satisfactorily in my own mind.
+
+Was there ever such a situation as ours? Cast away in a place wild and
+wonderful beyond description, millions of miles from all human aid and
+sympathy, millions of miles from the world that had given us birth! I
+could, in bitterness of spirit, have laughed at the suggestion that there
+was any hope for us. And yet, at that very moment, not only was there
+hope, but there was even the certainty of deliverance. But, unknown to
+us, it lay in the brain of the incomparable man who had brought us
+hither.
+
+I have told you that it was twilight in the valley where we lay. But
+when, as frequently happened, tempests of snow burst over the mountains,
+and choked the air about us, the twilight turned to deepest night, and we
+had to illumine the lamps in the car. By great good fortune, Edmund said,
+enough power remained to furnish us with light and heat, and now I looked
+upon those mysterious black-tusked muzzles in the car with a new
+sentiment, praying that they would not turn to mouths of death.
+
+The natives, being used to darkness, needed no artificial illumination.
+In fact, we had observed that whenever the sunlight had streamed over
+them their great eyes were almost blinded, and they suffered cruelly from
+an affliction so completely outside of all their experience. Edmund now
+began to speak to us of this, saying that he ought to have foreseen and
+provided against it.
+
+"I shall try to find some means of affording protection to their eyes
+when we arrive in the sunlit hemisphere," he said. "It must be my first
+duty."
+
+We heard these words with a thrill of hope.
+
+"Then you think that we shall escape?" I asked.
+
+"Of course we shall escape," he replied cheerfully. "I give you my word
+for it, but do not ask me for any particulars yet. The exact means I have
+not yet found, but find them I will. We may have to stay where we are for
+a considerable time, and our companions must be made comfortable. Even
+under their furry skins they'll suffer from this kind of weather."
+
+Following his directions we took a lot of extra furs from the car, and
+constructed a kind of tent, under which the natives could huddle on the
+sleds. There being but little wind in the valley, this was not so
+difficult an undertaking as it may seem. And the poor fellows were very
+glad of the shelter, for some of them were shivering, since, not knowing
+what to do, they were less active than ourselves. No sooner were they
+housed than they fell to eating ravenously. Both the car and the sleds
+had been abundantly provisioned, so that there was no immediate fear of a
+famine among us.
+
+Inside the car we soon had things organized very much as they were during
+our voyage from the earth. We read, talked, and smoked to our hearts'
+content, almost forgetting the icy mountains that tottered over us, and
+the howling tempest which, with hardly an intermission, tore through the
+cloud-choked air a thousand or two thousand feet above our heads. We
+talked of our adventure with the meteors, which seemed an event of long
+ago, and then we talked of home--home twenty-six million miles away! In
+fact, it may have been thirty millions by this time, for Edmund had told
+us that Venus, having passed conjunction while we were at the caverns,
+was now receding from the earth.
+
+But while we thus strove to kill the time and banish thoughts of our
+actual situation, Edmund sat apart much of the time absorbed in thought,
+and we respected his privacy, knowing that our only chance of escape lay
+in him. One day (I speak always of "days," because we religiously counted
+the passage of time by our clock) he issued alone from the car and was
+absent a long time, so that we began to be concerned, and, going outside
+looked everywhere for signs of him. At length, to our infinite relief, he
+appeared stumbling and crawling along the foot of an icy mountain. As he
+drew nearer we saw that he was smiling, and as soon as he was within easy
+earshot he called out:
+
+"It's all right. I've found the solution."
+
+Then upon joining us he continued:
+
+"We'll get out all right, but we shall have to be patient for a while
+longer."
+
+"What is it?" we asked eagerly. "What have you found out?"
+
+"Peter," he said, turning to me, "you know what libration means; well,
+it's libration that is going to save us. As Venus travels round the sun
+she turns just once on her axis in making a complete circuit, the
+consequence being, as you already know, that she has one side on which
+the sun never rises while the other half is in perpetual daylight. But,
+since her orbit is not a perfect circle, she travels a little faster than
+the average during about half of her year and a little slower during the
+other half, but, at the same time, her steady rotation on her axis never
+varies. This produces the phenomenon that is called libration, the result
+of which is that, along the border between the day and night hemispheres
+there is a narrow strip where the sun rises and sets once in each of her
+years, which are about two hundred and twenty-five of our days in length.
+Within this strip the sun shines continuously for about sixteen weeks,
+gradually rising during eight weeks and sinking during the following
+eight. Then, during the next sixteen weeks, the strip lies in unceasing
+night.
+
+"Now the kind fates have willed that we should fall just within this
+lucky strip. By the utmost good fortune after we passed the blazing peak
+which so nearly wrecked us, we were carried on by the wind so far, before
+the ascensional power of the car gave out, that we descended on the
+sunward side of the crest of the range. The sun is now just beginning to
+rise on the part of the strip where we are, and it will get higher for
+several weeks to come. The result will be that a great melting of ice and
+snow will occur here, and in this deep valley a river will form, flowing
+off toward the sunward hemisphere, exactly where we want to go. I shall
+take advantage of the torrent that will flow here and float down with it
+until we are out of the labyrinth. It's our only chance, for we couldn't
+possibly clamber over the hummocky ice and drag the car with us."
+
+"Why not leave the car here?" asked Henry.
+
+Edmund looked at him and smiled.
+
+"Do you want to stay on Venus all your life?" he asked. "I thought you
+didn't like it well enough for that. How could we ever get back to the
+earth without the car? I can repair the mechanism as soon as I can find
+certain substances, which I am sure exist on this planet as well as on
+the earth. But it is no use looking for them in this icy wilderness. No,
+we can never abandon the car. We must take it with us, and the only
+possible way to transport it is with the aid of the coming river."
+
+"But how will you manage to float?" I asked.
+
+"The car, being air-tight, will float like a buoy."
+
+"But the natives, will you abandon them?"
+
+"God forbid. I'll contrive a way for them."
+
+The effects of libration on Venus were not new to me, but they were to
+Jack and Henry, who had never studied such things, and they expressed
+much doubt about Edmund's plan, but I had confidence in it from the
+beginning, and it turned out just as he had predicted, as things always
+did. Every twenty-four hours we saw, with thankful hearts, that the sun
+had perceptibly risen, and as it rose, the sky gradually cleared, while
+the sunbeams, falling uninterruptedly, grew hotter and hotter. Soon we no
+longer had any use for furs, or for artificial heat. At the same time the
+melting of the ice began. It formed, in fact, a new danger, by bringing
+down avalanches into the valley, yet we watched the process joyously,
+since it fell so entirely within Edmund's program. While we were awaiting
+the flood, Edmund had prepared screens to protect the eyes of the
+natives.
+
+We were just at the bottom of the trough of the valley, near its head. It
+wound away before us, turning out of sight beyond an icy bulwark. Streams
+were soon pouring down from the heights all around, and uniting, they
+formed a little torrent, which flowed swiftly over the smooth, hard ice.
+Edmund now completed his plan.
+
+"I'll take Juba in the car with us," he said. "There's just room for him.
+As for the others, we'll fasten the sleds on each side of the car, which
+will be buoyant enough to float them, and they'll have to take their
+chances outside."
+
+We made the final arrangements while the little torrent was swelling to a
+river. Before it became too broad and deep we managed to place the car
+across the center of its course, the sleds forming outriders. Then all
+took their places and waited. Higher and higher rose the waters, while
+avalanches, continually increasing in size and number, thundered down the
+heights, and vast cataracts leaped and poured from the precipices. It was
+a mercy that we were so situated that the avalanches could not reach the
+car. But we received some pretty hard knocks before the stream became
+deep and steady enough to float us off. Shall I ever forget that moment?
+
+There came a sudden wave, forced onward by a great slide of ice, which
+lifted car and sleds on its crest, and away we went! The car proved more
+buoyant than I had believed possible. The sleds, fastened on each side,
+tended to give it extra stability, and it did not sink deeper than the
+middle of the windows. The latter, though formed of very thick glass,
+might have been broken by the tossing ice if they had not been divided
+into small panes separated by bars of steel, which projected a few inches
+outside.
+
+"I made that arrangement for meteors," said Edmund, "but I never thought
+that they would have to be defended against ice."
+
+The increasing force of the current sent us spinning down the valley with
+accelerated speed. We swept round the nearest ice peak on the left, and
+as we passed under its projecting buttresses a fearful roar above
+informed us that an avalanche of unexampled magnitude had been unchained.
+We could not withdraw our eyes from the window on that side of the car,
+and almost instantly immense masses of ice appeared crashing into the
+water, throwing it over us in floods and half drowning the unfortunate
+wretches on the sleds. Still, they clung on, fastened together, and we
+could do nothing to aid them. The uproar grew worse, and the ice came
+plunging down faster and faster, accompanied with a deluge of water from
+the heights above. The car pitched and rolled until we were all flung off
+our feet. Poor Juba was a picture of abject terror. He hung moaning to a
+bench, his huge eyes aglow with fright.
+
+Suddenly the car seemed to be lifted clear from the water, and then it
+fell back again and was submerged, so that we were buried in night.
+Slowly we rose to the surface, and Edmund, springing to a window,
+shouted:
+
+"They're gone! Heaven have pity on them--and on me!"
+
+In spite of their fastenings the water had swept every living soul from
+the sled on the left. We rushed to the other window. It was the same
+story there--the sled on that side was also empty. I saw a furry body
+tossed in the torrent alongside, but in a second it disappeared beneath
+the raging water. At the same time Edmund exclaimed:
+
+"God forgive us for bringing those poor creatures here only to meet their
+death!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN
+
+But the situation was too critical to permit us to think of the
+unfortunates whose death we had undoubtedly caused. There seemed less
+than an even chance of our getting through with our own lives. As we
+tossed and whirled onward the water rose yet higher, and blocks of ice
+assailed us on all sides. First the sled on the left was torn loose; then
+the other followed it, leaving the car to fight its battle alone. But the
+loss of the sleds was a good thing now that their occupants were gone,
+for it eased off the weight and the car rose much higher in the water.
+Moreover, it gave way more readily when pressed by the ice. To be sure,
+it rolled more than before, but still, being well ballasted, it did not
+turn turtle, and most of the time we were able to keep on our feet by
+holding fast to the inside window bars.
+
+Once we took a terrible plunge, over a vertical fall of not less than
+twenty or thirty feet. But the water below the fall was very deep, a
+profound hole having been quickly scooped out in the unfathomable ice
+beneath, so that we did not strike bottom, as I had feared, but came
+bobbing to the top again like a cork. Below this fall there was a very
+long series of rapids, extending, it seemed, for miles upon miles, and we
+shot down them with the speed of an express train, lurching from side to
+side, and colliding with hundreds of ice floes. It must not be supposed
+that we went through this experience without suffering any injuries. On
+the contrary, our hands were all bleeding, our faces cut, Henry had one
+eye closed by a blow, and our clothing, for we were not wearing our
+Arctic outfit, was badly used up. Yet none of our injuries was really
+serious, although we looked as if we had just come out of the toughest
+kind of a street brawl.
+
+But there is no use in prolonging the story of this awful ride. It seemed
+to us to last for days upon days, though, in fact, the worst of it was
+over within twelve hours after we were lifted from our moorings in the
+valley. The tumbling stream gradually broadened out as it left the region
+of the high mountains, and then we found ourselves in a district covered
+with icy hills of no great elevation. But we could still see, by glances,
+as the stream curved this way and that, the glittering peaks behind. It
+was an appalling thing to watch many of the nearer hills as they suddenly
+sank, collapsed, and disappeared, like pinnacles of loaf sugar melting
+and falling to pieces in a basin of water.
+
+Edmund said that all of the ice-hills and mounds through which we were
+passing no doubt owed their existence to pressure from behind, in the
+belt where the sun never rose, and where the ice was piled up in actual
+mountains. These foothills were, in fact, enormous glaciers thrust out
+toward the sunward hemisphere.
+
+After a long time the now broad river widened yet more until it became a
+great lake, or bay. The surface of the planet around appeared nearly
+level, and, as far as we could see, was mostly covered by the water. Here
+vast fields of ice floated, and the water was not muddy, as it would have
+been if it had passed over soil, but of crystal purity and wonderfully
+blue in places where shafts of sunlight penetrated to great depths--for
+now the sun was high above the horizon ahead, and shining in an almost
+clear sky. Presently we began to notice the wind again. It came fitfully,
+first from one quarter and then another, rapidly increasing until, at
+times, it rose into a tempest. It lifted the water in huge combing waves,
+but the car rode them like a lifeboat.
+
+"There is peril for us in this," said Edmund, at last. "We are being
+carried by the current into a region where the contending winds may play
+havoc. It is the place where the hot air from the sunward side begins to
+be chilled and to descend, meeting the colder air from the night side. It
+must form a veritable belt of storms, which may be as difficult to pass,
+circumstanced as we are, as the crystal mountains themselves."
+
+"Suppose it should turn out that there is nothing but an ocean on this
+side of the planet," I suggested.
+
+"That I believe to be impossible," Edmund responded. "This hemisphere
+must be, as a whole, broken up into highlands and depressions. The
+geological formation of the other side, as far as I could make it out
+from the appearance of the rocks in the caverns, indicates that Venus has
+undergone the same experience of upheavals and fracturings of the crust
+that the earth has been through. If that is true of one side it must be
+true of the other also, for during a large part of these geological
+changes she undoubtedly rotated rapidly on her axis like the earth."
+
+"But we traveled five thousand miles on the other side without
+encountering anything but a frozen prairie," I objected.
+
+"True enough, and yet I would lay a wager that all of that side of the
+planet is not equally level. Remember the vast plains of Russia and
+Siberia."
+
+"Well," put in Jack, whose spirits were beginning to revive, "if there's
+a shore somewheres, let's find it. I want to see the other kind of
+inhabitants. These that we've met don't accord with my ideas of Venus."
+
+"We shall find them," responded Edmund, "and I think I can promise you
+that they will not disappoint your expectations."
+
+Yet there seemed to be nothing in our present situation to warrant the
+confidence expressed by our leader's words and manner. The current that
+had carried us out of the crystal mountains gradually disappeared in a
+vast waste of waters, and we were driven hither and thither by the
+tempestuous wind. Its force increased hour by hour, and at last the sky,
+which at brief intervals had been clear and exquisitely blue, became
+choked with black clouds, sweeping down upon the face of the waters, and
+often whirled into great _trombes_ by the tornadic blasts. Several times
+the car was deluged by waterspouts, and once it was actually lifted up
+into the air by the mighty suction. An ordinary vessel would not have
+lived five minutes in that hell of winds and waters. But the car, if it
+had been built for this kind of navigation, could not have behaved
+better.
+
+I do not know how long all this lasted. It grew worse and worse.
+Sometimes a flood of rain fell, and then would come a storm of lightning,
+and a downpour of gigantic hailstones that rattled upon the steel shell
+of the car like a rain of bullets from a battery of machine guns. Half
+the time one window or the other was submerged by the waves, and when we
+got an opportunity to glance out, we saw nothing but torn streamers of
+cloud whipping the face of the waters. But when the change came at last,
+it was as sudden as the dropping of a curtain. The clouds broke away, a
+soft light filled the atmosphere, the waves ceased to break and rolled in
+long undulations, and a marvelous dome appeared overhead.
+
+That dome, at its first dramatic appearance, was one of the most
+astonishing things that we saw in the whole course of our adventures. It
+was not a cerulean vault like that which covers the earth in halcyon
+weather, but an indescribably soft, pinkish-gray concavity that seemed
+nearer than the sky and yet farther than the clouds. Here and there, far
+beneath it, but still at a vast elevation, floated delicate gauzy
+curtains, tinted like sheets of mother-of-pearl. The sun was no longer
+visible, but the air was filled with a delicious luminousness, which
+bathed the eyes as if it had been an ethereal liquid.
+
+Below each window was a steel ledge, broad enough to stand on, with
+convenient hold-fasts for the hands. These had evidently been prepared
+for some such contingency, and Edmund, throwing open the windows, invited
+us to go outside. We gladly accepted the invitation, and all, except
+Juba, issued into the open air. The temperature was that of an early
+spring day, and the air was splendidly fresh and stimulating. The rolling
+of the car had now nearly ceased, and we had no difficulty in maintaining
+our positions. For a long while we admired, and talked of, the great dome
+overhead, which drew our attention, for the time, from the sea that had
+so strangely brought us hither.
+
+"There," said Edmund, pointing to the dome, "is the inside of the shell
+of cloud whose exterior, gleaming in the sunshine, baffles our
+astronomers in their efforts to see the surface of Venus. I believe that
+we shall find the whole of this hemisphere covered by it. It is a shield
+for the inhabitants against the fervors of an unsetting sun. Its presence
+prevents their real world from being seen from outside."
+
+"Well," said Jack, laughing, "I never heard before that Venus was fond of
+a veil."
+
+"Not only can they not be seen," continued Edmund, "but they cannot
+themselves see beyond the screen that covers them."
+
+"Worse and worse!" exclaimed Jack. "The astronomers have certainly made a
+mistake in naming this bashful planet Venus."
+
+We continued for a long time to gaze at the great dome, admiring the
+magnificent play of iridescent colors over its vast surface, until
+suddenly Jack, who had gone to the other side of the car, called out to
+us:
+
+"Come here and tell me what this is."
+
+We hurried to his side and were astonished to see a number of glittering
+objects which appeared to be floating in the atmosphere. They were
+arranged in an almost straight row, at an elevation of perhaps two
+thousand feet, and were apparently about three miles away. After a few
+moments of silence, Edmund said, in his quiet way:
+
+"Those are air ships."
+
+"Air ships!"
+
+"Yes, surely. An exploring expedition, I shouldn't wonder. I anticipated
+something of that kind. You know already how dense the atmosphere of
+Venus is. It follows that balloons, and all sorts of machines for aerial
+navigation, can float much more easily here than over the earth. I was
+prepared to find the inhabitants of Venus skilled in such things, and I'm
+not surprised by what we see."
+
+"Venus with wings!" cried Jack. "Now, Edmund, that sounds more like it. I
+guess we've struck the right planet after all."
+
+"But," I said, "you spoke of an exploring expedition. How in the world do
+you make that out?"
+
+"It seems perfectly natural to me," replied Edmund. "Remember the two
+sides of the planet, so wonderfully different from one another. If we on
+the earth are so curious about the poles of our planet, simply because
+they are unlike other parts of the world, don't you think that the
+inhabitants of Venus should be at least equally curious concerning a
+whole hemisphere of their world, which differs _in toto_ from the half on
+which they live?"
+
+"That does seem reasonable," I assented.
+
+"Of course it's reasonable, and I imagine that we, ourselves, are about
+to be submitted to investigation."
+
+"By Jo!" exclaimed Jack, running his hands through his hair, and
+smoothing his torn and rumpled garments, "then we must make ready for
+inspection. But I'm afraid we won't do much honor to old New York. Can I
+get a shave aboard your craft, Edmund?"
+
+"Oh, yes," Edmund replied, laughing. "I didn't forget soap and razors."
+
+But Jack would have had no time to make his toilet even if he had
+seriously thought of it. The strange objects in the air approached with
+great rapidity, and we soon saw that Edmund had correctly divined their
+nature. They were certainly air ships, and I was greatly interested in
+the observation that they seemed to be constructed somewhat upon the
+principles upon which our inventors were then working on the earth. But
+they were neither aeroplanes nor balloons. They bore a resemblance to
+mechanical birds, and seemed to be sustained and forced ahead by a
+wing-like action.
+
+This, of course, did not escape Edmund's notice.
+
+"Look," he said admiringly, "how easily and gracefully they fly. Perhaps
+with our relatively light atmosphere we shall never be able to do that
+on the earth; but no matter," he added, with a flush, "for with the
+inter-atomic energy at our command, we shall have no need to imitate the
+birds."
+
+"Perhaps they have made that discovery here, too," I suggested.
+
+"No, it is evident that they have not, else they would not be employing
+mechanical means of flight. Once let me get the car fixed up and we'll
+give them a surprise."
+
+"Yes, and if you had used common sense," growled Henry, nursing his
+injured eye, "you would not be here fooling away your time and ours, and
+risking our lives every minute, but you'd be making millions and
+revolutionizing life at home."
+
+"And where'd the Columbus of Space be then?" demanded Jack. "Hanged if
+Edmund is not right! I'd rather be here meeting these doves of Venus than
+grinding out dollars on the earth. And can't we go back and scoop in the
+money when we get ready?"
+
+The discussion went no further, for, by this time, two of the air ships
+were close at hand. And now we perceived, for the first time, the beings
+that they carried. Our surprise at the sight was even greater than that
+which we had experienced upon meeting the inhabitants of the dark
+hemisphere. The latter were extraordinary--but we were looking for
+extraordinary things. Indeed they were, except for certain peculiarities,
+much more like some members of our own race than we should have deemed
+possible. How great, then, was our astonishment upon seeing the two air
+ships apparently in charge of _real human beings_!
+
+At least that was our first impression. In the midst of the strange
+apparatus, which evidently fulfilled the function of wings for the air
+ships, we saw decks, spacious enough to contain twenty persons, and
+surmounted with deck houses, and along the railings inclosing the decks
+were gathered the crews, among whom we believed that we could recognize
+their officers. The two vessels had approached within a hundred yards
+before being suddenly arrested. Then they settled gracefully down upon
+the water, where they floated like swans.
+
+At first, as I have said, the resemblance of their crews to inhabitants
+of the earth seemed complete. One would have said that we had met a
+yachting party, composed of tall, well-formed, light-complexioned,
+yellow-haired Englishmen, the pick of their race. At a distance their
+dress alone appeared strange, though it, too, might easily be imitated on
+the earth. As well as I can describe it, it bore some resemblance, in
+general effect, to the draperies of a Greek statue, and it was specially
+remarkable for the harmonious blending of soft hues in its texture.
+
+During a space of at least five minutes we gazed at them, and they at us.
+Probably their surprise was greater than ours, because we had been on the
+lookout for strange sights, being, of our own volition, in a foreign
+world, while they could have had no expectation of such an encounter,
+even if, as Edmund had conjectured, they were engaged in exploration. We
+could read their astonishment in their gesticulations. Slowly the car and
+the nearer of the two air ships drifted closer together. When we were
+within less than fifty yards of one another, Jack suddenly called out:
+
+"A woman! By Jo, it's Venus herself!"
+
+His excited voice rang like a rattle of musketry in the heavy air, and
+the beings on the air ship started back in alarm. But although, like the
+inhabitants of the dark hemisphere, they were, evidently, unaccustomed
+to hearing sounds of such forcefulness issue from a living creature no
+larger than themselves, they were not faint-hearted, and the air ship did
+not, as we half expected it would, take flight. The momentary commotion
+was quickly quieted, and our visitors continued their inspection. All of
+us immediately recognized the personage whom Jack had singled out as the
+subject of his startling exclamation. It was clear that he had rightly
+guessed her sex, and she appeared worthy of his admiring designation.
+Even at the distance of a hundred feet we could see that she was very
+beautiful. Her complexion was light, with a flame upon the cheeks; her
+hair a chestnut blond; and her large, round eyes were sapphire blue, and
+seemed to radiate a light of their own. This last statement (about the
+eyes) must not be taken for a conventional exaggeration, such as writers
+of fiction employ in describing heroines who never existed. On the
+contrary, it expresses a literal fact; and moreover, as the reader will
+see further on, this peculiarity of the eyes was shared, in varying
+degrees, by all these people of Venus, and was connected with the most
+amazing of all our discoveries on that planet. I should say here that,
+while the eyes of the inhabitants of the day side were larger than ours,
+they did not, in respect of size, resemble the extraordinary organs of
+vision possessed by the compatriots of Juba.
+
+In a few minutes we became aware that the beautiful creature we had been
+admiring was not the only representative of the female sex on the air
+ship. Several others surrounded her, and the fact quickly became manifest
+that they recognized her as a superior. Still more surprising was the
+discovery, which we were not long in making, that she was actually the
+commander of the craft. We could see that the orders which determined its
+movements emanated from her.
+
+"Amazons!" exclaimed Jack, taking pains this time to moderate his voice.
+"And what a queen they've got!"
+
+During all this time the car and the air ship were slowly drifting nearer
+to one another, drawn by that strange attraction which seems to affect
+inanimate things when in close neighborhood, and when they were not more
+than fifteen yards apart the personage we had been watching slowly lifted
+her arm, revealing a glittering bracelet, and, with an ineffably winning
+smile, made a gesture which said plainer than any words could have done:
+
+"Welcome, strangers."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+LANGUAGE WITHOUT SPEECH
+
+"That breaks the ice," said the irrepressible Jack. "We're introduced! Now
+for the conquest of Venus."
+
+We had all instinctively returned the smile of our beautiful
+interlocutor, with bows and gestures of amity, and it looked as though we
+might soon be within touch of her hand, for the vessels continued to
+drift nearer, when suddenly Juba clambered out of the window and stood
+beside us, his moon eyes blinking in the unaccustomed light. The greatest
+agitation was immediately manifest among the crowd on the deck of the air
+ship. They seemed to be even more startled than they had been by the
+sound of Jack's voice. They interchanged looks, and, apparently, a few
+words, spoken in very low voices, and glanced from Juba to us in a way
+which plainly showed that they were astonished at our being together.
+
+Edmund, whose perspicacity never deserted him, immediately penetrated
+their thoughts.
+
+"It is clear," he said, "that these people recognize Juba as an
+inhabitant of the dark hemisphere, while, as to us, they are puzzled, and
+all the more so now that Juba has made his appearance. I think it certain
+that they have never actually met any representative of Juba's race
+before, but no doubt he bears, to their eyes, ethnological
+characteristics which escape our discernment, and it is likely that
+tradition has handed down to them facts about the inhabitants of the
+other side of their planet which accord with his appearance."
+
+"Then, they must conclude that we have come from the other side, and
+brought Juba along as a captive," I said.
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+"And what must they think of us--that we are inhabitants of the dark
+hemisphere also?"
+
+"What else can they think?"
+
+I do not know into what train of speculation this might have led us if a
+new incident had not suddenly changed the current of our thoughts.
+Unnoticed by us the second air ship had drawn near. Signals were
+interchanged between it and the first, and we observed that she who
+seemed to be the commander in chief gave orders that the second air ship
+should lay us aboard. The order was no sooner given than executed, and we
+found ourselves face to face with a dozen of the blond-haired natives,
+led by one who was clearly their captain. The deck of the air ship
+touched the side of the car, and, as if instinctively recognizing our
+leader, the captain laid his hand on Edmund's arm, but with a smile which
+gave assurance that no violence was intended.
+
+"Come," said Edmund, in a low voice, "it is best that we should go aboard
+their craft. We are in their hands, and luckily so, for they will take us
+where we want to go."
+
+Accordingly, all, including Juba, passed upon the deck of the air ship.
+You will readily imagine the intensity of interest with which we studied
+the faces and forms of those whom I will call our captors. Now that we
+were in contact with them we could better observe their resemblances to,
+and differences from, ourselves. In all the main features of body they
+were human beings, but of a somewhat superior stature. Noses and mouths
+were small and delicate; hair long, silken, and either light gold or rich
+chestnut in color; skin white and smooth; ears small and peculiarly
+formed, with a curious mobility; and eyes large, round, invariably light
+blue, and possessing that strange luminousness of which I have already
+spoken. One could not look directly into these eyes without a certain
+shrinking, for some wonderful power seemed to radiate from them, and one
+had the feeling that the intelligence behind them could dip to the bottom
+of his mind. We were gently treated and could perceive no indication of
+peril to ourselves. Nevertheless, we were glad to feel our pistols in our
+pockets. There were seats on the deck to which we were civilly conducted,
+but Edmund refused to sit.
+
+"I must see the commander herself," he whispered. "These are only
+subordinates, and I cannot deal with them. It will not do to leave the
+car here at the mercy of the waves. I must find the means of making them
+understand that it is to go with us."
+
+Accordingly, he approached the captain, and we watched him with beating
+hearts, not being able to divine what an attempt to dictate terms on our
+part might lead to. Jack shook his head, and put his hand on his pistol,
+which Edmund had restored to him while we were in the ice mountains.
+
+"I'll drop the jackanapes in his tracks if he shows up ugly," he said.
+
+"You'd better keep quiet," I whispered, "and don't let them see your
+weapon. They appear to have no arms, and you should trust to Edmund to
+manage the affair. When he gives the word it will be time enough to begin
+shooting."
+
+Jack grumbled, but kept the pistol in his pocket, although he did not
+withdraw his hand from it.
+
+I have already told you how, at the caverns, Edmund had discovered that
+the inhabitants there possessed a means of converse which he likened to
+telepathy, and from what I had seen of the people here I was convinced
+that they had the same mysterious power, and probably in a higher degree.
+To be sure, they used words occasionally, but for the most part they
+communed together in some other way. I felt sure that Edmund was now
+about to apply what he had learned, and his actions quickly demonstrated
+that my conjecture was well founded. Just what he did, I do not know, but
+the result of his conference was promptly apparent.
+
+The first air ship had withdrawn a short distance when the other boarded
+the car, but now the two mutually approached until it was possible to
+step from one deck to the other. As soon as they touched, Edmund was
+conducted by the captain, at whose side he had remained standing, to the
+presence of the important personage whom Jack had begun to designate as
+the queen. We remained where we were, watching with all eyes, while Jack
+persisted in keeping his hand on the pistol in his pocket. A crowd
+immediately surrounded Edmund and we were unable to see exactly what went
+on, a fact that rendered Jack so much the more impatient. But it turned
+out that there was no cause for alarm. In about ten minutes the crowd
+opened and Edmund appeared. Uninterfered with, he came to the edge of the
+deck, close by us, and said:
+
+"It is all arranged. The car will be towed by one of the air ships. I am
+to stay here and you will remain where you are until we reach our
+destination."
+
+"Have you had a talk with her?" asked Jack.
+
+"Not in any language that you understand," Edmund responded, smiling.
+"But I have made good use of what I learned in the caverns. These people
+are intellectually vastly superior to the others, and, as I guessed, they
+possess a more perfect command of the sort of telepathy that I told you
+about. I have not found much difficulty in making my wish understood, and
+your amazon is a very obliging person. It is only necessary to be
+discreet and we shall have no trouble."
+
+"But why are you to be separated from us?" asked Jack anxiously. "That
+looks bad, for it is exactly what they would do if they meant to kill us
+one at a time."
+
+"Why should they kill us?" retorted Edmund.
+
+"And why should we be separated?" persisted Jack. "I tell you, Edmund, I
+don't like it."
+
+"Very well, then," Edmund said, after a moment's thought; "if that's the
+way you feel about it, I'll see what I can do. It will be another
+exercise for me in this new kind of language. But, mark this, if I
+succeed in persuading the chieftainess to keep us together, you will have
+to acknowledge that your fears were groundless. Perhaps it's worth trying
+on that very account."
+
+He disappeared from our eyes again--for as soon as he approached their
+leader the people of the air ship crowded close around as if to afford
+her protection--and, after another ten minutes' conference, came back
+smiling to the edge of the deck.
+
+"Dismiss your fears, friend Jack," he said cheerfully. "You are all to
+come aboard here with me. So you see there could have been no thought of
+treachery; but I'm glad that we are not to be separated, and I thank you
+for your solicitude on my account.  I'm sure that the original
+arrangement was made only because of lack of room aboard this craft, and
+you'll see that that was the reason."
+
+He was right, for immediately half a dozen of the crew of the principal
+air ship were sent aboard ours while we were transferred to take their
+place.
+
+We now had an opportunity to study the countenance of the "amazon"
+commander, and we found her to be an even more remarkable personage than
+she had appeared at a distance. Of the beauty of her features and form I
+shall say no more, but about her eyes I could write a chapter. The
+pupils, widely expanded amidst their circles of sky-blue iris, seemed to
+speak. I can describe the impression that they made in no other way. I no
+longer wondered at Edmund's ability to converse with her, for I felt
+that, with a little instruction, and more of our leader's mental
+penetration, I could do it myself. At times I shrank from encountering
+her gaze, for I verily believed that she read my inmost thoughts. And I
+could see that _thought came out of her eyes_, but it escaped all my
+efforts to grasp it; it was too evanescent, or I was too dull. Sometimes
+I imagined that the meaning was at the threshold of comprehension, but
+yet it evaded me, like forgotten words whose general sense dimly
+irradiates the mind, while they refuse to take a definite shape, and keep
+flitting just beyond the reach of memory. Still, charity and good will
+shone out so plainly that anybody could read them, and I do not know how
+to express the feeling that came over me at this evidence of friendliness
+exhibited by an inhabitant of a world so far from our own. It was as if a
+dim sense of ultimate fraternity bound her to us. Jack's enthusiasm, as
+you may guess, was without bounds, and strangely enough it rendered him
+almost speechless.
+
+"By Jo!" he kept repeating to himself in an undertone, without venturing
+upon any further expression of his feelings.
+
+Henry, as usual, was silent, but I know that he felt the influence no
+less than the rest of us. Edmund, too, said nothing, but it was plain
+that he was continually studying the phenomenon, and I felt sure that his
+analytic mind would find a more complete explanation than we yet
+possessed. Of course you are not to suppose that the power that I have
+been trying to describe was peculiar to this woman. On the contrary, as I
+have already intimated, it was common to all of them; but with her it
+seemed to have reached a higher development, and, what was of special
+interest, she alone exhibited a marked benevolence toward us.
+
+The car was attached by a cable to the air ship that we had just quitted,
+and our voyage into a new unknown began. The other air ships, which had
+been hovering about, moved up into line, and, with the exception of the
+one which towed the car, all rose to an elevation of perhaps a thousand
+feet, and moved rapidly away from a row of dark clouds which we could now
+see low on the horizon behind. We found the air ship splendidly fitted
+up, with everything that could contribute to the comfort of its inmates.
+And what a voyage it was! "Yachting on Venus," as Jack called it. We sat
+on the deck, with a pleasant breeze, produced by the swift, steady
+motion, fanning our faces; the temperature was delightful; the air was
+wonderfully stimulating; the light, softly and evenly diffused from the
+great shell-like dome of the sky, seemed to bewitch the eyesight; and the
+sea beneath us, reflecting the dome, was a marvel of refluent colors.
+
+We had left the calendar clock in the car, but, with our watches, which
+we had never ceased to wind up regularly, we were able to measure the
+time. The voyage lasted about seventy-two hours, but could, perhaps, have
+been performed in less time if we had not been somewhat delayed by the
+towing of the car. They had on the air ship ingenious clocks, driven by
+weights, and governed by pendulums, but the divisions of time were unlike
+ours, and there was nothing corresponding to our days. This, of course,
+arose from the fact that there was never any night, and, being unable to
+see either sun or stars, they had no measure of the year. With them time
+was simply endless duration, with no return in cycles.
+
+"What interests me most," said Edmund, "is the fact that they should have
+established any chronological measure at all. It would puzzle some of our
+metaphysicians on the earth to account for the origin of their sense of
+time. To me it seems evident that the consciousness of duration is
+fundamental in all intelligent life, and does not necessarily demand
+natural recurrences, like the succession of day and night, and the
+passage of sun and stars across the meridian, to give it birth. Did you
+ever read St. Augustine's reply to the question, 'What is time'--'I know
+if you don't ask me'?"
+
+"If they haven't any years," said Jack, "how do they know when they are
+old enough to die?"
+
+"They have the years, but no measure for them," replied Edmund, and then
+added quizzically, "Perhaps they _don't_ die."
+
+"Well, I shouldn't wonder," Jack returned, "for this seems to me to be
+Paradise for sure."
+
+When we felt sleepy, we imitated the natives themselves, and, just as we
+had done during the voyage from the earth, created an artificial night by
+shutting ourselves up in the cabins that had been assigned to us. Rest
+was taken by all of them in this manner as regularly as it is taken at
+night on the earth.
+
+One subject which we frequently discussed during the voyage was the
+astonishing resemblance of our hosts to the _genus homo_. Influenced by
+speculations which I had read at home about the probable unlikeness to
+one another of the inhabitants of different planets, I was particularly
+insistent upon this point, and declared that the facts as we found them
+were utterly inexplicable.
+
+"Not at all," Edmund averred. "It is perfectly natural, and quite as I
+expected. Venus resembles the earth in composition, in form, in physical
+constitution, and in subordination to the sun, the great ruler of the
+entire system. Here are the same chemical elements, and the same laws of
+matter. The human type is manifestly the highest possible that could be
+developed with such materials to work upon. Why, then, should you be
+surprised to find that it prevails here as well as upon our planet?
+Intelligent life could find no more suitable abode than in a human body.
+The details are simply varied in accordance with the environment--a
+principle that works on the earth also."
+
+I was not altogether satisfied with the reasoning--but as to the facts,
+we had to believe our eyes.
+
+Palatable food was served to us, and during the waking time Edmund was
+frequently engaged in his mysterious conversation with the "queen."
+Within forty-eight hours after we had set out in the air ship, he came to
+us, wearing one of his enigmatic smiles, and said:
+
+"I've got another aphroditic word for you to remember. It is the name of
+our hostess--Ala."
+
+We were not so much surprised by this news as we should have been but for
+what had occurred at the caverns, where he had discovered the patronymic
+of Juba.
+
+"Good!" cried Jack, "it's a fine name. I was going to call her Aphrodite,
+myself, but this is better as well as shorter."
+
+"But, Edmund," I said, "how does it happen that these people, if they
+converse by 'telepathy' as you say, and as I fully believe, nevertheless
+occasionally use sounds and words? I should think it would be all one
+thing or all the other."
+
+"Think a moment," he replied. "Is it so with us? Do we not use signs and
+gestures as well as words? And what do we mean by 'silent converse,' when
+mind speaks to mind and soul to soul without the intervention of spoken
+language? We have the potentiality of telepathic intercommunication, but
+we have not yet developed it into a kinetic form as these people have
+done. Ah, when will men begin to appreciate _what mind means?_"
+
+I made no reply, and after a moment's musing, he continued:
+
+"I suspect that here, too, speech preceded the higher form of converse,
+and that the spoken language remains only as a survival, presenting
+certain advantages for particular cases. But we shall learn more as time
+goes on."
+
+There was no disputing Edmund's conclusions. He was the greatest accepter
+and defender of facts as he found them that I have ever known.
+
+It was written that before this voyage ended we should have another phase
+of language without speech presented for our wonderment. It came about
+near the end of the trip. We were standing apart in a group, greatly
+interested and excited by the discovery, which had just been made, of
+land ahead. Far in advance we could see a curving, yellow shore line,
+and, dim in the distance behind it, a range of mountains. Edmund had just
+called our attention to these, with the remark that now I must admit that
+he had reasoned correctly about the existence of elevated regions on this
+side of Venus, when Jack, always the first to note a new phenomenon,
+exclaimed:
+
+"Hurrah! Here they come! We're going to have a royal reception."
+
+He pointed toward the land in a different direction from that in which we
+had been gazing, and immediately we beheld an extraordinary assemblage of
+air ships, perhaps ten miles off, but rapidly making toward us. More were
+coming up from behind, as if rising out of the land, and soon they
+resembled flocks of large birds all converging to a common center. In a
+little while they became almost innumerable, but their number soon ceased
+to be as great a cause of surprise to us as their peculiar appearance.
+Viewed with our binoculars they showed an infinite variety of shapes and
+sizes. Chinese kites could not, for a moment, be compared in
+grotesqueness with the forms which many of them presented. Some soared in
+vast circles at a great height, with the steady flight of eagles; others
+spread out to right and left, as if to flank us on either hand; and in
+the center, directly ahead, about a hundred advanced in column deployed
+in a semicircle, each keeping its place with the precision of a soldier
+in line of battle.
+
+As we continued to gaze, fascinated by the splendor and strangeness of
+the spectacle, suddenly the air was filled with fluttering colors. I do
+not mean flags and streamers, but _colors in the air itself_! Colors the
+most exquisite that ever the eye looked upon! They changed, flickered,
+melted, brightened, flowed over one another in iridescent waves, mingled,
+separated, turned the whole atmosphere into a spectral kaleidoscope. And
+it was evident that, in some inexplicable way, the approaching squadrons
+were the sources of this marvelous display. Presently from the craft that
+carried us, answering colors flashed out, as if the air around us had
+suddenly been changed to crystal with a thousand quivering rainbows shot
+through it, their beautiful arches shifting and interchanging so rapidly
+that the eye could not follow them.
+
+Then I began to notice that all this incessant play of colors was based
+upon an unmistakable rhythm. I can think of no better way to describe it
+than to say that it was as if a great organ should send forth from its
+keys harmonic vibrations consisting not of concordant sounds but of even
+more perfectly related undulations of color. The permutations and
+combinations of this truly chromatic scale were marvelous and magical in
+their infinite variety. It thrilled us with awe and wonder. But none was
+so rapt as Edmund himself. He gazed as if his soul were in his eyes, and
+finally he turned to us, with a strange look, and said, almost under his
+breath:
+
+"This, too, is language, and more than that--it is music!"
+
+"Impossible!" I exclaimed.
+
+"No, not impossible, since it _is_. They are not only exchanging
+intelligence in this way, but we are being greeted with a great anthem
+played in the heaven itself!"
+
+There was the force of enthusiastic conviction in Edmund's words, and we
+could only look at him, and at one another, in silent astonishment.
+
+"Oh, what a people! What a people!" he muttered. "And yet I am not
+surprised. I dimly fore-read this in Ala's eyes."
+
+Even Jack's levity was subdued for the time, but after a while he said to
+me with a shrug, half in earnest, half in derision:
+
+"Well, this Yankee-doodling in the air gets me! I'd prefer a little plain
+English and the Old Folks at Home."
+
+After about ten minutes the display ceased as suddenly as it had begun,
+and the nearer of the approaching air craft began to circle around us.
+Finally one of them ran so close alongside that an officer of high rank,
+for such he seemed to be, leaped aboard us, and was quickly at Ala's
+side. There was a rapid interchange of communications between them, and
+then the newcomer was, I may say, presented. Ala led him to where we were
+standing, and I could read in his eyes the astonishment that the sight of
+such strangers produced in him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+AN AMAZING METROPOLIS
+
+If I should undertake to describe in detail all the events that now
+followed in rapid succession, this history would take a lifetime to
+write. I must choose only the more significant facts.
+
+The newcomer, whose remarkable face had immediately impressed me, and not
+altogether favorably, proved to be a personage of very great importance,
+second only, as we could see, to Ala herself. And, what was particularly
+important for us, he showed none of her friendly disposition. I do not
+mean to suggest that he seemed inclined to any active hostility, but
+evidently we were, in his eyes, no better than savages, and consequently
+entitled to no special consideration, and especially to no favors. Jack,
+who, with all his careless ways, had a penetrating mind for the
+perception of character, whispered to me, within five minutes after the
+fellow came aboard:
+
+"If that galoot had his way, we'd make our entry in irons. Mark my words,
+there's mischief in him. Hang him! I'm going to keep my pistol handy when
+he's around."
+
+Edmund, who happened to overhear Jack's remark, interposed:
+
+"See here, Master Jack, this is no time to be talking of pistols. I trust
+that we are done with shooting."
+
+We were not done with it; but that comes later.
+
+It was not long before Edmund had discovered a name for the newcomer
+also; he called him Ingra. It was singular, he said, that all the names
+seemed to be characterized by the prevalence of vowels sounds, but he
+thought it likely that this arose from the greater ease with which they
+could be enunciated. They were like Spanish words, which are the easiest
+of all for foreigners, and probably also for natives, to pronounce.
+
+After we reached the coast we descended to the ground, at Edmund's
+request, I believe, because he wished to superintend the loading of the
+car upon one of the largest air ships, and it was an unforgettable sight
+to watch him managing the work as coolly and effectively as if he had
+been in charge of a gang of workmen at home! And, while I looked, I found
+myself again doubting if, after all, this was not a dream. The workers
+hurrying about, Edmund following them, pointing, objecting, urging and
+directing, with his derby hat, which had come through all our adventures
+(though somewhat damaged), stuck on the back of his head--and all this on
+the planet Venus! No! I could not be awake. But yet I was.
+
+When we started again, we were escorted by a hundred air ships, forming a
+complete circle about us. Now I noticed, what had escaped attention
+during the extraordinary atmospheric display, viz., that these craft were
+painted in colors that I should call gorgeous if they had not been so
+perfectly harmonious and pleasing. Every one looked like the careful
+creation of an artist, and the variety of tints exhibited was incredible.
+Our own air ship, and its consorts, on the other hand, were very plain in
+their decorations. I called Edmund's attention to this and immediately he
+said:
+
+"Remember what I told you--this has been an exploring expedition, and the
+craft taking part in it have been fitted up for rough work. That reminds
+me that I have not yet made the inquiries that I intended on that
+subject. I shall go to Ala now and see what I can learn."
+
+She was standing on the deck near the other end, with Ingra beside her.
+As Edmund approached them, Jack nudged me:
+
+"Look at that fellow," he said. "Wasn't I right?"
+
+There was no doubt about it; Ingra scowled and showed every sign of
+displeasure at Edmund's presence. But Ala greeted him graciously, and,
+apparently, Ingra did not dare to interfere. I could see that Jack was
+grasping his pistol again, but I did not anticipate that there would be
+any occasion to use it. Nevertheless, I watched them closely for a time,
+hoping to discover Edmund's method of reading her meaning; as to her
+comprehension of his I had no question about that. But I got no light on
+the subject, and, as it soon became evident, even to Jack, that there was
+no danger this time, we fell to examining the land over which we were
+passing.
+
+We flew at a height of about two thousand feet, so that the range of
+vision was very wide. The sea behind us curved into the land in three
+great scallops, separated by acuminate promontories, whose terminal
+bluffs of sand were as yellow as gold. Away ahead the line of mountains,
+that we had noticed before, appeared as a dark sierra, and between it and
+the sea the country seemed to be very little broken by hills. Large
+forests were visible, but from our elevation it was impossible to tell
+whether the trees composing them bore any resemblance to terrestrial
+forms. The open land was about equally divided in area between bare
+yellowish soil (or what we took to be soil) and bright green expanses
+whose color suggested vegetation. Scattered here and there we saw what
+appeared to be habitations, but we could not be sure of their nature;
+and, upon the whole, the land seemed to us to be very thinly populated.
+
+Many birds accompanied us in our flight, frequently alighting on the deck
+and other parts of the air ship. They were remarkably tame, allowing us
+to approach them closely, and we were delighted by their beautiful
+plumage and their singular forms. This reminds me to say that the motion
+of the craft was extremely curious--a kind of gentle rising and falling,
+which was very agreeable when once we were accustomed to it, and which
+resembled what one would suppose to be the movement of a bird in flight.
+This, of course, arose from the structure of the air ship, which, as I
+have before said, seemed to be modeled, as far as its motive parts were
+concerned, upon the principle of wings rather than of simple aeroplanes.
+But the mechanism was very complicated, and I never arrived at a full
+comprehension of it.
+
+Edmund remained a long time in conference with Ala, Ingra staying
+constantly with them, and when he had apparently finished his
+"conversation" we were surprised to see them begin a tour of inspection
+of the air ship, finally descending into the interior. This greatly
+excited Jack, who was for following them at once.
+
+"I can't be easy," he declared. "Nobody can tell what may happen to him
+if they get him alone."
+
+But I succeeded in persuading him that there could be no danger, and that
+we ought to trust to Edmund's discretion. They were gone so long,
+however, that at last I became anxious myself, and was on the point of
+suggesting to Jack that we try to find them, when they reappeared, and
+Edmund at once came to us, his face irradiated with smiles.
+
+"I have plenty of news for you," he said, as soon as he had joined us.
+"Never in my life have I spent two hours more delightfully. In the first
+place, I have found out practically all that I wished to know about this
+expedition, and, second, I have thoroughly examined the mechanism of the
+ship. Its complication is only apparent, and the management of it is so
+simple that a single man can pilot it easily. I could do it myself."
+
+We did not appreciate at the time what the knowledge that Edmund had thus
+acquired meant for us.
+
+"Well, what about the expedition?" asked Jack. "And where are we going?"
+
+"From what I can make out," replied Edmund musingly, "Ala is really what
+you called her, Jack, a queen. But such a queen! If we had some like her
+on the earth, monarchy might not be such a bad thing after all. She is a
+_savant_."
+
+"Bluestocking," put in Jack. "This is a new kind of amazon."
+
+Edmund did not smile.
+
+"I am in earnest," he continued. "Of course you understand that most of
+my conclusions are really based upon inference. I cannot grasp all that
+she tries to tell me, but her gestures are so speaking, and her eyes so
+full of a kind of meaning which seems to force its way into my mind, I
+cannot tell how, that I am virtually sure of the correctness of my
+interpretation. The expedition, which I am certain was planned by her,
+was intended to explore the outskirts of the dark hemisphere. Perhaps
+they meant to penetrate within it, but, if so, the stormy belt that we
+crossed was too serious an obstacle for them to overcome. Our
+encountering them was the greatest stroke of good fortune that we have
+yet had. It places us right at the center of affairs."
+
+"Where are they going now?"
+
+"Evidently back to their starting point; which is likely to be a great
+city--the capital and metropolis, most probably. The more I think of it
+the stronger becomes my conviction that Ala is really, at least in power
+and influence, a queen. And you can see for yourselves that it must be a
+great and rich empire that she rules, for remember the extraordinary
+reception with which she was greeted, the innumerable air ships, the
+splendor of everything."
+
+"But are we to be well treated? Is there no danger for us in accompanying
+them?"
+
+"If there were danger, it would be hard for us to escape from it now; but
+why should there be danger? We did not kill the Esquimaux that our polar
+explorers brought from the Arctic regions, and for these people, we are a
+greater curiosity than ever the Esquimaux, or the Pygmies of Africa, were
+for us. Instead of encountering any danger, I anticipate that we shall be
+very well treated."
+
+"Perhaps they'll put us in a cage," said Jack, with a ludicrous grimace,
+"and tote us about as a great moral show for children. If there's a
+Barnum on Venus, our fate is sealed."
+
+Jack's humorous suggestion struck home, for there seemed to be
+probability behind it, and Henry groaned, while, for my part, I confess
+that I felt rather uncomfortable over the prospect. But Edmund did not
+pursue the conversation, and soon we fell to regarding again the
+landscape beneath and far around us. We were gradually nearing the
+mountains, although they were still distant, and presently we caught
+sight of what resembled, as much as anything, gigantic cobwebs glittering
+with dew, and rising out of the plain between us and the mountains.
+
+"There, Edmund," said Jack, "there's another chance to exercise your
+genius for explaining mysteries. What are those things?"
+
+Edmund watched the objects for several minutes before replying. At length
+he said, with the decision characteristic of him:
+
+"Palaces."
+
+Jack burst out laughing.
+
+"Castles in Spain, I reckon," he said. "But, really, Edmund, what do you
+think they can be?"
+
+"I have already told you, palaces, or castles, if you prefer."
+
+"You are serious?" I asked.
+
+"Perfectly so. They cannot be anything else."
+
+Seeing our astonishment and incredulity, Edmund added:
+
+"Since they retain their places, it is evident that they are edifices of
+some kind, attached to the ground. But their great height and aerial
+structure indicate that they are erected in the air--floating, I should
+say, but firmly anchored at the bottom. Really, I cannot see anything
+astonishing about it; it accords with everything else that we have seen.
+Your minds are too hidebound to terrestrial analogies, and you do not
+give your imaginations sufficient play with the new materials that are
+here offered.
+
+"This atmosphere," he continued, after a pause, "is exactly suited for
+such things. It is a region of atmospheric calm. If we were not moving,
+you would hardly feel a breeze, and I doubt if there is ever a high wind
+here. To build their habitations in the air and make them float like
+gossamers--could any idea be more beautiful than that, or more in harmony
+with the nature of this planet, which is the favorite of the sun, for
+first he inundates it with a splendor unknown to the earth, and then
+generously covers it with a gorgeous screen of cloud which cuts off his
+scorching beams but suffers the light to pass, filtered to opalescent
+ether?"
+
+When Edmund spoke like that, as he sometimes did, suffusing his words
+with the fervor of his imagination, even Henry, I believe, felt his soul
+lifted to unaccustomed heights. We hung upon his lips, and, without a
+word, waited for him to continue. Presently he murmured, in an undertone:
+
+"Yes, all this I foresaw in my dream. A world of crystal, houses that
+seemed not made with hands, reaching toward heaven, and a people,
+beautiful beyond compare, dwelling in the aerial home of birds"; and
+then, addressing us, in his ordinary tones: "You will see that the
+capital, which we are unquestionably approaching, is to a large extent
+composed of this airy architecture."
+
+And it turned out to be as he had said--when, indeed, was it ever
+otherwise? As we drew nearer, the aerial structures which we had first
+seen began to tower up to an amazing height, just perceptibly swaying and
+undulating with the gentle currents of air that flowed through their
+traceried lattices, while behind them began to loom an immense number of
+floating towers, rising stage above stage, like the steel monsters of New
+York before they have received their outer coverings, but incomparably
+lighter in appearance, and more delicate and graceful; truly fairy
+constructions, bespangled with countless brilliant points. Yet nearer,
+and we could see cables attached to the higher structures, and running
+downward as if anchored to the ground beneath, but the ground itself we
+could not see, because now we had dropped lower in the air, and a long
+hill rose between us and the fairy towers, whose slight sinuous motion,
+affecting so many together, produced a trifling sense of dizziness as we
+gazed. Still nearer, and we believed that we could see people in the
+buoyant towers. A minute later there was no doubt about their presence,
+for the _colors_ broke forth, and that marvelous interchange of chromatic
+signals, which had so astonished us as we drew near the coast, was
+resumed.
+
+"It is my belief," said Edmund, "that, notwithstanding the buoyancy of
+the heavy atmosphere, those structures cannot be maintained at such
+elevations without mechanical aid. You will see when we get nearer that
+every stage is furnished with some means of support, probably vertical
+screws reacting upon the air."
+
+Again he had guessed right, for in a little while we were near enough to
+see the screws, working in a maze of motion, like the wings of a
+multitude of insects. The resemblance was increased by their gauzy
+structure, and, as they turned, they flashed and glittered as if
+enameled. (The supernatant structures that they maintained were, as we
+afterwards ascertained, framed of hollow beams and trusses--a kind of
+bamboo, of great strength and lightness.)
+
+Now we rose over the intervening hill, and as we did so a cry burst from
+our lips. A vast city made its appearance as by magic, a magnified
+counterpart of the aerial city above it. Put all the glories of
+Constantinople, Damascus, Cairo, and Bombay, with all their spires,
+towers, minarets, and domes together, and multiply their splendor a
+thousand times, and yet your imagination will be unable to picture the
+scene of enchantment on which our eyes rested.
+
+"It is the capital of Venus," exclaimed Edmund. "There can be nothing
+greater than this!"
+
+It must, indeed, be the capital, for in the midst of it rose an edifice
+of unparalleled splendor, which could only be the palace of a mighty
+monarch. Above this magnificent building, which gleamed with metallic
+reflections, although it was as light and airy in construction as
+frostwork, rose the loftiest of the aerial towers, a hundred, two
+hundred--I cannot tell you how many stories in height, for I never
+succeeded in counting them.
+
+The other air ships now dropped back, and ours alone approached this
+stupendous tower, making apparently for its principal landing stage.
+Along the sides of the tower a multitude of small air ships ran up and
+down, stopping at various stages to discharge their living cargoes.
+
+"Elevators," said Edmund.
+
+Glancing round we saw that similar scenes were occurring at all the
+towers. They were filling up with people, and the continual rising and
+descending of the little craft that bore them, the holiday aspect of the
+gay colors everywhere displayed, and the brilliancy of the whole
+spectacle moved us beyond words. But the most astonishing scene still
+awaited us.
+
+Just before our vessel reached the landing stage, the enormous tower,
+from foot to apex, broke out with all the hues of the rainbow, like an
+enchanted rose tree covered with millions of brilliant flowers at the
+touch of a wand. The effect was overwhelming. The air became tremulous
+with rippling colors, whose vibrant waves, with quick succession of
+concordant tints afforded to the eye an exquisite pleasure akin to that
+which the ear receives from a carillon of bells. Our companions, and the
+people crowded on the towers, seemed to be transported with ecstatic
+delight.
+
+"Again the music of the spectrum!" cried Edmund. "The diapason of color!
+It is their national hymn, or the hymn of their race, written on a
+prismatic, instead of a sonometric, staff. And, mark me, this has a
+significance beyond your conjectures!"
+
+I believe that our enjoyment of this astonishing spectacle was hardly
+less than that of the natives themselves, but the pleasure was suddenly
+broken off by a tragedy that struck cold to our hearts.
+
+We had nearly touched the landing, when we observed that a discussion was
+going on between Ala and Ingra, and it quickly became evident that we
+were the subject of it. Before we could exchange a word, they approached
+us, and Ingra, in a threatening manner, laid his hand on Edmund's
+shoulder. In a second Jack had his pistol covering Ingra. Edmund saw the
+motion, and struck Jack's arm aside, but the weapon exploded, and,
+clutching her breast, Ala fell at our feet!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+IMPRISONMENT AND A WONDERFUL ESCAPE
+
+The shock of this terrible accident, the full import of which must have
+flashed simultaneously through the mind of every one of us, drove the
+blood from Edmund's face, while Jack staggered, uttering a pitiful moan,
+Henry collapsed, and I stood trembling in every limb. The report of the
+pistol produced upon the natives the effect that was to have been
+expected. Ingra sprang backward with a cry like that of a startled beast,
+and many upon the deck fell prostrate, either through terror or the
+effect of collision with one another in their wild flight. What occurred
+among the waiting crowd on the tower I do not precisely know, but a wind
+of fear seemed to pass through the air--a weird, heart-quaking _shadow of
+sound_.
+
+For a few moments, I believe, no one but ourselves understood what had
+happened to Ala. Ingra may have thought, if he thought at all in his
+terror and surprise, that she had fallen as the result of nervous shock.
+This moment of paralysis on the part of those whom we had now to regard
+as our enemies, whatever they may have been before, afforded the
+opportunity for escape--if there had been any way to escape. But we were
+completely trapped; there was no direction in which we could flee. Yet I
+doubt if the thought of flight occurred to any of us. Certainly it did
+not to Edmund, who was the first to recover his self-command.
+
+"_We have shot down our only friend!_" he said with terrible emphasis,
+and, as he spoke, he lifted Ala in his arms and laid her on a seat. Her
+breast was stained with blood.
+
+At the sight of this, a flash of comprehension passed over the features
+of Ingra; then, instantly, his face changed to a look of fury, and he
+sprang upon Edmund. With trembling hand, I tried to draw my pistol, but
+before I could get it from my pocket there was a rush, a hairy form
+darted past me, and Ingra lay sprawling on his back. Over him, with foot
+planted on his breast, stood the burly form of Juba, with his muscular
+arms uplifted, and his enormous eyes blazing fire!
+
+God only knows what would have happened next, but at this instant Ala--to
+my amazement, for I had thought that the bullet had gone through her
+heart--rose to an upright posture, and made a commanding gesture, which
+arrested those who were now hurrying to take a part in the scene. All,
+natives as well as ourselves, stood as motionless as stone. Her face was
+pale and her eyes were wonderful to look upon. With a gasp of
+thankfulness, I noticed that the blood on her breast was but a narrow
+streak Juba, staring at her, slowly withdrew his foot from his prostrate
+opponent, and Ingra first sat up, and then got upon his feet. Ala, who
+had been seated, rose at the same moment, and looked Ingra straight in
+the face. I saw Edmund glancing from one to the other, and I knew he was
+trying to follow the communication that was taking place between them.
+
+The general sense of it I could follow, myself. Ingra, metaphorically,
+stormed and Ala commanded. That she was defending us was plain, and it
+was but natural that my admiration for this wonderful woman should rise
+to the highest pitch. I thanked God, in my heart, that her wound could be
+no more than a scratch--and yet it was a wound, inflicted upon the person
+of her who, there could be no doubt, was the ruler of a powerful empire.
+It was less majesty, or worse, and she, herself, might not be able to
+protect us against its consequences.
+
+At last, it became evident that a decision had been made. Ala turned to
+us with a smile, which we took for an assurance of encouragement, at
+least, and started to leave the deck. Edmund instantly stepped in front
+of her, and pointed to the stain of blood, with a gesture and a look
+which meant, at the same time, an inquiry as to the nature of the wound
+and an expression of the wish to do something to repair the injury. She
+shook her head and smiled again, in a manner which clearly said that the
+hurt was not serious and that she understood that it was an accident.
+Then, surrounded by her female attendants, she passed out of our sight in
+the crowd on the landing. Edmund turned to us:
+
+"We shall probably get out of it all right," he said, "but not without
+some difficulty. They will surely imprison us. Make no resistance. Leave
+all to me. Jack's pistol will, no doubt, be seized, but if the rest of
+you keep yours concealed, they may not search for them, as they know
+nothing about the weapons."
+
+Edmund had spoken hurriedly, and had hardly finished when a dozen stout
+fellows, under Ingra's directions, took us in charge, Juba included, and
+we were led from the deck, through the vast throng on the platform, who
+made room for our passage, while devouring us with curious, though
+frightened eyes. In a minute we embarked on one of the "elevators," and
+made a thrillingly rapid descent. Arrived at the bottom, we were
+conducted, through long, stone-walled passages, into a veritable dungeon.
+And there they left us. I wondered if this had been done at Ala's order,
+or in defiance of her wishes. After all, I reflected, what claim have we
+upon her?
+
+In the absolute darkness where we now found ourselves, we remained silent
+for a minute or two, feeling about for one another, until the quiet voice
+of Edmund said:
+
+"Fortune still favors us."
+
+As he spoke, a light dazzled our eyes. He had turned on a pocket electric
+lamp. We looked about and found that we were in a square chamber, about
+fifteen feet on a side, with walls of heavy stone.
+
+"They make things solid enough down here," said Jack, with some return of
+his usual spirits, "however airy and fairy they may be above."
+
+"All the better for us," returned Edmund enigmatically.
+
+Henry sank upon the floor, the picture of dejection and despair. I
+expected another outbreak from him, but he spoke not a word. His heart
+was too full for utterance, and I pitied him so much that I tried to
+reanimate his spirits.
+
+"Come, now," I said, "don't take it this way, man. Have confidence in
+Edmund. He has never yet been beaten."
+
+"I reckon he's got his hands full this time," put in Jack. "What do you
+think, Edmund, can your atomic energy bore a hole through these walls?"
+
+"If I had it here, you'd see," Edmund replied. "But there's no occasion
+to worry, we'll come out all right."
+
+It was his unfailing remark when in difficulties, and somehow it always
+enheartened us. Juba, more accustomed to such situations, seemed the
+least disturbed member of the party. He rolled his huge eyes around the
+apartment once or twice, and then lay down on the floor, and seemed at
+once to fall asleep.
+
+"That's a good idea of Juba's," said Edmund, smiling; "it's a long time
+since we have had a nap. Let's all try a little sleep. I may dream of
+some way out of this."
+
+It was a fact that we were all exhausted for want of sleep, and, in spite
+of our situation, I soon fell into deep slumber, as peaceful as if I had
+been in my bed at home. Edmund had turned out the lamp, and the silence
+and darkness were equally profound.
+
+I dreamt that I was at the Olympus Club on the point of trumping an ace,
+when a flash of light in the eyes awoke me. I started up and found Edmund
+standing over me. The others were all on their feet. Edmund immediately
+whispered:
+
+"Come quietly; I've found a way out."
+
+"What have you found?"
+
+"Something extremely simple. This is no prison cell, but a part of what
+appears to be the engine rooms--probably it is an unused storeroom. They
+have put us here for convenience, trusting more to the darkness than to
+the lock, for the corridors outside are as black as Erebus and as crooked
+as a labyrinth."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because, while you were all asleep, I made an exploration. The lock was
+nothing; the merest tyro could pick it. Fortunately they never guessed
+that I had a lamp. In this world of daylight, it is not likely that
+pocket lamps have ever been thought of. Just around the corner, there is
+another door opening into a passage that leads by a power house. That
+passage gives access to a sort of garage of air craft, and when I stole
+into it five minutes ago, there was not a soul in sight. We'll simply
+slip in there, and if I can't run away with one of those fliers, then I'm
+no engineer. To tell the truth, I'm not altogether sure that it is wise
+for us to escape, for I have a feeling that Ala will help us; still, when
+Providence throws one a rope, it's best, perhaps, to test its strength.
+Come on, now, and make no noise."
+
+Accompanied by Juba, we stepped noiselessly outside, extinguishing the
+light, and, led by Edmund, passed what he had called the power house,
+where we saw several fellows absorbed in their work, lighted somehow from
+above. Then we slipped into the "garage." Here light entered from
+without, through a large opening at the side. There may have been twenty
+small air ships resting on cradles. Edmund selected one, which he
+appeared to have examined in advance, and motioning us to step upon its
+little deck, he began to manipulate the mechanism as confidently as if it
+had been his own invention.
+
+"You see that I did not waste my time in examining the air ship that
+brought us," he whispered, and never before had I admired and trusted him
+as I did now. In less than a minute after we had stepped aboard, we were
+circling in the air outside. We rose with stunning rapidity, swooping
+away in a curve like an eagle.
+
+At this instant we were seen!
+
+There was a quick flashing of signals, and two air craft shot into sight
+above us.
+
+"Now for a chase!" cried Edmund, actually laughing with exultation.
+
+We darted upward, curving aside to avoid the pursuers. And then they
+swooped after us. We rose so rapidly that within a couple of seconds we
+were skirting the upper part of the great tower. Then others saw us, and
+joined in the chase. Jack's spirits soared with the excitement:
+
+"Sorry to take rogue's leave of these Venuses," he exclaimed. "But no
+dungeons for us, if you please."
+
+"We're not away, yet," said Edmund over his shoulder; and, indeed, we
+were not!
+
+The air ships swarmed out on every side like hornets; the atmosphere
+seemed full of them. I gave up all hope of escape, but Edmund was like a
+racer who hears the thud of hoofs behind him. He put on more and more
+speed until we were compelled to hang on to anything within reach in
+order to save ourselves from being blown off by the wind which we made,
+or whirled overboard on sharp turns.
+
+Crash! We had run straight into a huge craft that persisted in getting in
+our way. She dipped and rolled like a floating log. I saw the fellows on
+her tumble over one another, as we shot by, and I glanced anxiously to
+see if any had gone overboard. We could afford to do no killing if we
+could avoid it; for, in case of recapture, that would be another
+indictment against us. I saw no one falling from the discomfited air
+ship, and I felt reassured. Occupied as he was, dodging and turning,
+Edmund did not cease to address a few words to us occasionally.
+
+"There's just one chance to beat them," he said, "and only one. I'm going
+to try it as soon as I can get out of this press."
+
+I had no notion of what he meant, but a few minutes later I divined his
+intention. I had observed that all the while he was working higher and
+higher, and this, as you will presently see, was the key to his plan.
+
+Up and up we shot, Edmund making the necessary circles as short as
+possible, and so recklessly did he turn on the speed that it really began
+to look as if we might get away after all. Two thirds of our pursuers
+were now far below our level, but none showed a disposition to give up
+the chase, and those which were yet above tried to cross our bow. While I
+saw that Edmund's idea was to hold a skyward course, I was far from
+guessing the particular reason he had for doing so, and, finally, Jack,
+who comprehended it still less, exclaimed:
+
+"See here, Edmund, if you keep on going up instead of running off in one
+direction or another, they'll corner you in the middle of the sky. Don't
+you see how they have circled out on all sides so as to surround us? Then
+when we get as high as we can go, they'll simply close in, and we'll be
+trapped."
+
+"Oh, no, we won't," Edmund replied.
+
+"I don't see why."
+
+"Because they can't go as high as we can."
+
+"The deuce they can't! I guess they understand these ships as well as you
+do."
+
+"Can a fish live out of water?" asked Edmund, laughing.
+
+"What's that got to do with it?"
+
+"Why, it's plain enough. These people are used to breathing an atmosphere
+surcharged with oxygen and twice as dense as that of the earth. It
+doesn't trouble our breathing, simply giving us more energy; but we can
+live where they would gasp for breath. Air impossibly rare for them is
+all right for us, and that's what I am in search of, and we shall find it
+if we can get high enough."
+
+The beauty and simplicity of this unexpected plan struck us all with
+admiration, and Jack, his doubts instantly turning to enthusiasm, cried:
+
+"By Jo, Edmund, you're a trump! I'd like to get a gaff into the gills of
+that catfish, Ingra, when he begins to blow. By Jo, I'd pickle him and
+make a present of him to the Museum of Natural History. '_Catfishia
+Venusensis_, presented by Jack Ashton, Esq.'--how'd that look on a label,
+hey?"
+
+And Jack hugged himself with delight over his conceit.
+
+In a short time the accuracy of Edmund's conjecture became apparent. Our
+pursuers, one by one, dropped off. Their own strategy, to which Jack had
+called attention, was simply a playing into our hands. They had really
+thought to catch us in the center of a contracting circle, when, to their
+amazement, we rose straight up into air so rare that they could not live
+in it. Edmund roared with laughter when he saw the assured success of his
+maneuver.
+
+But there was one thing which even he had overlooked, and it struck to
+our hearts when we became aware of it. Poor, faithful Juba, who had so
+recently proved his devotion to us, could endure this rare air no better
+than our pursuers. Already, unnoticed in the excitement, he had fallen
+upon the deck, where he lay gasping.
+
+"Good God, he's dying!" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"He shall not die!" responded Edmund, setting his lips, and turning to
+his machinery.
+
+"But, you're not going back down there!"
+
+"I'll run beyond the edge of the circle, and drop down far enough to
+revive him. Then we can keep dodging up and down just out of their reach,
+and so be out of danger both ways."
+
+No sooner said than done. We ran rapidly on a horizontal course until we
+had cleared the air ships below, and then dropped like a shot. Juba came
+to his senses in a few moments after we entered the denser air. But now
+our pursuers, thinking, no doubt, that we had found it impracticable to
+remain where they knew they could not go, began to close in upon us. I
+reflected that here was the only mistake that Edmund had made--I mean the
+bringing along with us of the natives of the dark hemisphere. It was only
+their presence that had prevented us from sailing triumphantly over the
+crystal mountains; it was because of them that we had wrecked the car;
+and now it was Juba who baffled our best chance of escape. And yet--and I
+am glad to be able to say it--I could not regret his presence, for had he
+not made himself one of us; had he not proved himself entitled to all the
+privileges of comradeship?
+
+But Henry (I am sorry to write it) did not share these feelings.
+
+"Edmund," he said, "why do you insist upon endangering our lives for the
+sake of this--this--animal here?"
+
+Never have I beheld such a blaze of anger as that which burst from
+Edmund's eyes as he turned upon Henry:
+
+"You cowardly brute!" he shouted. "I ought to throw you overboard!"
+
+He seemed about to execute his threat, dropping the controller from his
+hand as he spoke, and Henry, with ashen face, ran from him like a madman.
+I caught him in my arms, fearing that he would tumble overboard in his
+fright, and Edmund, instantly recovering his composure, turned back to
+his work.
+
+Finding Juba sufficiently recovered, although yet weak and almost
+helpless, he rose again, but more cautiously than before. And now our
+pursuers, plainly believing that these maneuvers could have but one
+ending, began to set their net, and I could not help admiring their plan,
+which would surely have succeeded if they had not made a fundamental
+error in their calculations, but one for which they were not to blame.
+There was such a multitude of their craft, fresh ones coming up all the
+while, that they were able to form themselves into the shape of a huge
+bag net, the edge of which was carried as high as they dared to go, while
+the sides and receding bottom were composed of air ships so numerous that
+they were packed almost as closely as meshes. Edmund laughed again as he
+looked down into this immense net.
+
+"No, no," he shouted. "We're no gudgeons! You'll have to do better than
+that!"
+
+"See here, Edmund," Jack suddenly exclaimed, "why don't you make off and
+leave them? By keeping just above their reach we could easily escape."
+
+"_And leave the car?_" was the reply.
+
+"By Jo," returned Jack, "I never thought of that. But, then, what did you
+run away for at all?"
+
+"Because," said Edmund quietly, "I thought it better to parley than to
+lie in prison."
+
+"Parley! How are you going to parley?"
+
+"That remains to be seen; but I guess we'll manage it."
+
+We were now, as far as I could estimate, five or six miles high. When we
+were highest, the great cloud dome seemed to be but a little way above
+our heads, and I thought, at first, that Edmund intended to run up into
+it and thus conceal our movements. The highest of our pursuers were about
+half a mile below us. They circled about, and were evidently parleying on
+their own account, for waves of color flowed all about them, making a
+spectacle so brilliant and beautiful that sometimes I almost forgot our
+critical situation in watching it.
+
+"I suppose you'll play them a prismatic symphony," said Henry mockingly.
+
+I looked at him in surprise. Evidently his fear of Edmund had vanished;
+no doubt because he knew in his heart the magnanimity of our great
+leader.
+
+"Who knows?" Edmund replied. "I've no doubt the materials are aboard, and
+if I had been here a month, I'd probably try it. As things stand, we
+shall have to resort to other methods."
+
+While we were talking, Edmund did not relax his vigilance, and two or
+three times, when he had dropped to a lesser elevation for Juba's sake,
+he baffled a dash of the enemy. At last we noticed a movement in the
+crowd which betokened something of importance, and in a moment we saw
+what it was. A splendid air ship, by far the most beautiful that we had
+yet seen, was swiftly approaching from below.
+
+"It's the queen," said Edmund. "I thought she'd come."
+
+The approaching ship made its way straight toward us, and, without the
+slightest hesitation, Edmund dropped down to meet it. Those who had been
+our pursuers now made no attempt to interfere with us; they recognized
+the presence of a superior authority. Soon we were so near that we could
+recognize Ala, who looked like Cleopatra in her barge on the charmed
+waves of Cydnus. Beside her, to the intense disappointment of Jack and
+myself, stood Ingra.
+
+"Confound him!" growled Jack. "He's always got to have his oar in the
+puddle. Blamed if I'm not sorry Edmund spoiled my aim. I'd have had his
+scalp to hang up at the Olympus to be smoked at!"
+
+Of what now occurred, I can give no detailed account, because it was all
+beyond my comprehension. We approached almost within touch, and then
+Edmund stood forth, fearless and splendid as Caesar, and conducted his
+"parley." When it was over, there was a flashing of aerial colors between
+Ala's ship and the others, and then all, including ours, set out to
+return to the capital. After a while Edmund, who had been very
+thoughtful, turned to us and said:
+
+"You can make your minds easy. Of course you'll understand there is a
+certain amount of guesswork in what I tell you, but you can depend upon
+the correctness of my general conclusions. I believe that I have made it
+perfectly clear that we intended no harm, and that we are not dangerous
+characters. At least Ala understands it perfectly. As for Ingra, perhaps
+he doesn't want to understand it. I can't make out the cause of his
+enmity, but it is certain that he doesn't like us, and if it all depended
+upon him, it would go hard with us. I believe that we shall have to stand
+a trial of some kind, but remember that we've got a powerful advocate. I
+don't regret our running off, for, as I anticipated, it afforded us the
+opportunity to establish some sort of terms. The mere fact that we return
+willingly when they know that we might have fled beyond their reach
+should count in our favor, for, as I have always insisted, these are
+highly intelligent people, with civilized ideas. If I had not been sure
+of that I should have continued the flight and depended upon some other
+means of recovering the car--or constructing a new one."
+
+We had become so much accustomed to accept Edmund's decisions as final
+that none of us thought of objecting to what he had done; unless it might
+have been Henry, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+BEFORE THE THRONE OF VENUS
+
+While we were dropping down toward the city, with a great fleet of air
+ships attending, Edmund opened his mind upon another curious difficulty
+besetting us.
+
+"You, of course, noted," he said, "how close we approached at one time to
+the cloud dome. The existence of that sky screen is a circumstance which
+may possibly be decisive in the determination of our fate."
+
+"Favorable or unfavorable?" I asked.
+
+"Unfavorable, for this reason. If these people could be made to
+understand that we are visitors from another world, and not inhabitants
+of the other side of their own planet, they might treat us with greater
+consideration, and even with a certain superstitious deference. The
+imagination is doubtless as active with them as with terrestrial beings,
+and if you can once touch the imagination, even of the most intelligent
+and instructed persons, you can do almost anything you choose with them.
+But how am I to convey to them any idea of this kind? Seeing neither sun,
+nor moon, nor stars, they can have no conception of such a thing as
+another world than their own."
+
+"Couldn't you persuade them," said Jack, "that we come from the upper
+side of the cloud dome? You could pretend that it's very fine living up
+there--plenty of sunshine and good air."
+
+Edmund laughed.
+
+"I'm afraid, Jack, that they are too intelligent to believe that a person
+of your avoirdupois could walk on the clouds. You're not quite angelic
+enough for that. I'm sure that they know perfectly well what the dome
+consists of."
+
+"The presence of Juba with us is another difficulty," I suggested. "If,
+as you suppose, they recognize certain racial characteristics in him,
+which convince them that he belongs to the other side of Venus, then they
+are sure to believe that we belong there, too."
+
+"Certainly. But I must find some way round the difficulty. I depend upon
+the intelligence of Ala. If she had been killed, nothing could have saved
+us. We have had an unpleasant escape from something too closely
+resembling the misfortune of Oedipus."
+
+In the meanwhile, we reached the capital and disembarked on the great
+tower. To our intense surprise and delight, instead of being reconducted
+to prison, we were led into a magnificent apartment, with open arches
+facing toward the distant mountains, and a repast was spread before us.
+Juba, to our great contentment, was allowed to accompany us. I think that
+Jack was the most pleased member of the party at the sight of the food.
+We sat at a round table, and I observed that the eatables consisted, as
+with Juba's people, exclusively of vegetables, except that there were
+birds, of species unknown to us, but of most exquisite flavor, and a
+light, white wine, the most delicious that I ever tasted.
+
+When we had finished eating, we fell to admiring the view, and Jack
+pulled out his pipe, and, aided by Edmund's pocket lamp, which possessed
+an attachment for cigar lighting, began to smoke, leaning back
+luxuriously in his seat, with as much nonchalance as if he had been in
+the smoking room at the Olympus. I think I may say that we all exhibited
+a _sang froid_ amidst our novel surroundings that would have astonished
+us if we had stopped to analyze our feelings, but in that respect Jack
+was often the coolest member of the party, although he had not the iron
+nerves of Edmund. On this occasion, he was not long in producing a
+sensation. No sooner had the smoke begun to curl from his lips than the
+attendants in the room were thrown into a state of laughable
+consternation. Evidently they thought, like the servant of Walter
+Raleigh, that the smoke must come from an internal fire. Their looks
+showed alarm as well as astonishment.
+
+"Keep your pipe concealed," whispered Edmund. "Take a few strong whiffs,
+and hide it in your pocket before they observe whence the smoke really
+comes. This may do us some good; it will, at least, serve to awake their
+imagination, and that is what we need."
+
+Jack did as requested, first filling his mouth with smoke, and then
+slowly letting it out in puffs that more and more astonished the
+onlookers, who kept at a respectful distance, and excitedly discussed the
+phenomenon. Suddenly, Jack, with characteristic mobility of thought,
+turned to Edmund and demanded:
+
+"Edmund, why didn't those fellows shoot us when we were running away?
+There were enough of them to bring us down with the wildest sort of
+shooting."
+
+"They didn't shoot," was the reply, "because they had nothing to shoot
+with. I have made up my mind that they are an unwarlike people. I don't
+believe that they have the slightest idea what a gun is. Yet they are no
+cowards, and they'll fight if there is need of fighting, and no doubt
+they have weapons of some kind; only they are not natural slaughterers
+like ourselves, and I shouldn't be surprised if war is unknown on Venus.
+
+"All the same," said Jack, "I wish I had my pistol back. I tried to hide
+it, but those fellows had their eyes on it, and it's confiscated. I'm
+glad you think they don't know how to use it."
+
+"And I'm glad," returned Edmund, "that you haven't got your pistol.
+You've been altogether too handy with it. Now," he continued, "let us
+consider our situation. You see at a glance that we have gained a great
+deal as a result of the parley; the way we have just been treated here
+shows plainly enough that we shall, at least, have a fair trial, and we
+couldn't have counted on that before. You can never make people listen to
+reason against their inclination unless you hold certain advantages, and
+our advantage was that we clearly had it in our power to continue our
+flight. My only anxiety now is in regard to the means of holding them to
+the agreement--for agreement it certainly was--and of impressing them not
+only with a conviction of our innocence but with a sense of our reserve
+power, and the more mysterious I can make that power seem to them, the
+better. That is why I welcomed even the incident of Jack's smoking. We
+shall surely be arraigned before a court of some kind, and I imagine that
+we shall not have long to wait. What I wish particularly is that all of
+you shall desist from every thought of resistance, and follow strictly
+such instructions as I may have occasion to give you."
+
+He had hardly ceased speaking when a number of official-looking persons
+entered the room where we were.
+
+"Here come the cops," said Jack. "Now for the police court."
+
+He was not very far wrong. We were gravely conducted to one of the little
+craft which served for elevators, and after a rapid descent, were led
+through a maze of passages terminating in a vast and splendid apartment,
+apparently perfectly square in plan, and at least three hundred feet on a
+side. It was half filled with a brilliant throng, in which our entry
+caused a sensation. Light entered through lofty windows on all four
+sides. The floor seemed to be of a rose-colored marble, with inlaid
+diapering of lapis lazuli, and the walls and ceiling were equally rich.
+But that which absolutely fascinated the eye in this great apartment was
+a huge circle high on the wall opposite the entrance door, like a great
+clock face, or the rose window of a cathedral, from which poured
+trembling streams of colored light.
+
+"Chromatic music, once more," said Edmund, in a subdued voice. "Do you
+know, that has a strange effect upon my spirits, situated as we are. It
+is a prelude that may announce our fate; it might reveal to us the
+complexion of our judges, if I could but read its meaning."
+
+"It is too beautiful to spell tragedy," I said.
+
+"Ah, who knows? What is so fascinating as tragedy for those who are only
+lookers-on?"
+
+"But, Edmund," I protested, "why do you, who are always the most hopeful,
+now fall into despondency?"
+
+"I am not desponding," he replied, straightening up. "But this soundless
+music thrills me with its mysterious power, and sometimes it throws me
+into dejection, though I cannot tell why. To me, when what I firmly
+believe was the great anthem of this wonderful race, was played in the
+sky with spectral harmonies, there was, underlying all its mystic beauty,
+an infinite sadness, an impending sense of something tragic and
+terrible."
+
+I was deeply surprised and touched by Edmund's manner, and would have
+questioned him further, but we were interrupted by the officials, who now
+led us across the vast apartment and to the foot of a kind of throne
+which stood directly under the great clock face. Then, for the first
+time, we recognized Ala, seated on the throne. Beside her was a person of
+majestic stature, with features like those of a statue of Zeus, and long
+curling hair of snowy whiteness. The severity of his aspect struck cold
+to my heart, but Ala's countenance was smiling and full of encouragement.
+As we were led to our places a hush fell upon the throng of attendants,
+and the colors ceased to play from the circle.
+
+"Orchestra stopped," whispered the irrepressible Jack. "Curtain rises."
+
+The pause that followed brought a fearful strain upon my nerves, but in a
+moment it was broken by Ala, who fixed her eyes upon Edmund's face as he
+stood a little in advance of the rest of us. He returned her regard
+unflinchingly. Every trace of the feeling which he had expressed to me
+was gone. He stood erect, confident, masterful, and as I looked, I felt a
+thrill of pride in him, pride in his genius which had brought us hither,
+pride in our mother earth--for were we not her far-wandering children?
+
+[Illustration: "'Who and what are you, and whence do you come?'"]
+
+I summoned all my powers in the effort to understand the tongueless
+speech which I knew was issuing from Ala's eyes. And I did understand it!
+Although there was not a sound, I would almost have sworn that my ears
+heard the words:
+
+"Who and what are you, and whence do you come?"
+
+Breathlessly I awaited Edmund's answer. He slowly lifted his hand and
+pointed upward. He was, then, going at once to proclaim our origin from
+another world; to throw over us the aegis of the earth!
+
+The critical experiment had begun, and I shivered at the thought that
+here they knew no earth; here no flag could protect us. I saw perplexity
+and surprise in Ala's eyes and in those of the stern Zeus beside her.
+Suddenly a derisive smile appeared on the latter's lips, while Ala's
+confusion continued. God! Were we to fail at the very beginning?
+
+Edmund calmly repeated his gesture, but it met with no response; no
+indication appeared to show that it awakened any feeling other than
+uncomprehending astonishment in one of his judges and derision in the
+other. And then, with a start, I caught sight of Ingra, standing close
+beside the throne, his face made more ugly by the grin which overspread
+it.
+
+I was almost wild; I opened my mouth to cry I know not what, when there
+was a movement behind, and Juba stepped to Edmund's side, dropped on his
+knees, rose again, and fixed his great eyes upon the judges!
+
+My heart bounded at the thoughts which now raced through my brain. Juba
+belonged to their world, however remote the ancestral connection might
+be; he possessed at least the elements of their unspoken language; and
+_it might be a tradition among his people, who we knew worshipped the
+earth-star, that it was a brighter world than theirs_. Had Edmund's
+gesture suddenly suggested to his mind the truth concerning us--a truth
+which the others had not his means of comprehending--and could he now
+bear effective testimony in our favor?
+
+With what trembling anxiety I watched his movements! Edmund, too, looked
+at him with mingled surprise and interest in his face. Presently he
+raised his long arm, as Edmund had done, and pointed upward. A momentary
+chill of disappointment ran through me--could he do no more than that?
+But he _did_ more. Half unconsciously I had stepped forward where I could
+see his face. _His eyes were speaking._ I knew it. And, thank God! there
+was a gleam of intelligence answering him from the eyes of our judges.
+
+He had made his point; he had suggested to them a thought of which they
+had never dreamed!
+
+They did not thoroughly comprehend him; I could see that, for he must
+have been for them like one speaking a different dialect, to say nothing
+of the fundamental difficulty of the idea that he was trying to convey,
+but yet the meaning did not escape, and as he continued his strange
+communication, the wonder spread from face to face, for it was not only
+the judges who had grasped the general sense of what he was telling them.
+Even at that critical moment there came over me a feeling of admiration
+for a language like this; a truly universal language, not limited by
+rules of speech or hampered by grammatical structure. At length it became
+evident that Juba had finished, but he continued standing at Edmund's
+side.
+
+Ala and her white-headed companion looked at one another, and I tried to
+read their thoughts. In her face, I believed that I could detect every
+sign of hope for us. Occasionally she glanced with a smile at Edmund. But
+the old judge was more implacable, or more incredulous. There was no
+kindness in his looks, and slowly it became clear that Ala and he were
+opposed in their opinion.
+
+Suddenly she placed her hand upon her breast, where the bullet must have
+grazed her, and made an energetic gesture, including us in its sweep,
+which I interpreted to mean that she had no umbrage against those who had
+unintentionally injured her. It was plain that she insisted upon this
+point, making it a matter personal to herself, and my hopes rose when I
+thought that I detected signs of yielding on the part of the other. At
+this moment, when the decision seemed to hang in the balance, a new
+element was introduced into the case with dramatic suddenness and
+overwhelming force.
+
+For several minutes I had seen nothing of Ingra, but my thoughts had been
+too much occupied with more important things to take heed of his
+movements. Now he appeared at the left of the throne, leading a file of
+fellows bearing a burden. They went direct to the foot of the throne, and
+deposited their burden within a yard of the place where Edmund was
+standing. They drew off a covering, and I could not repress a cry of
+consternation.
+
+It was the body of one of their compatriots, and a glance at it sufficed
+to show the manner in which death had been inflicted. It had been crushed
+in a way which could probably mean nothing else than a fearful fall. The
+truth flashed upon me like a gleaming sword. The victim must have been
+precipitated from the air ship which we had struck at the beginning of
+our flight!
+
+And there stood our enemy, Ingra, with exultation written on his
+features. He had made a master stroke, like a skillful prosecutor.
+
+"Hang him!" I heard Jack mutter between his teeth. "Oh, if I only had my
+pistol!"
+
+"Then you would make matters a hundred times worse," I whispered. "Keep
+your head, and remember Edmund's injunction."
+
+The behavior of the latter again awoke my utmost admiration.
+Contemptuously turning his back upon Ingra, he faced Ala and old Zeus,
+and as their regards mingled, I knew well what he was trying to express.
+This time, since his meaning involved no conception lying utterly beyond
+their experience, he was more successful. He told them that the death of
+this person was a fact hitherto unknown to us, and that, like the injury
+to Ala, it had been inflicted without our volition. I believed that this
+plea, too, was accepted as valid by Ala; but not so with the other. He
+understood it perfectly, and he rejected it on the instant. My reason
+told me that nothing else could have been expected of him, for, truly,
+this was drawing it rather strong--to claim twice in succession immunity
+for evils which had undeniably originated from us.
+
+Our case looked blacker and blacker, as it became evident that the
+opposition between our two judges had broken out again, and was now more
+decided than before. The features of the old man grew fearfully stern,
+and he rejected all the apparent overtures of Ala. He had been willing to
+pardon the injury and insult to her person, since she herself insisted
+upon pardon, but now the affair was entirely different. Whether purposely
+or not, we had caused the death of a subject of the realm, and he was not
+to be swerved aside from what he regarded as his duty. My nerves shook at
+the thought that we knew absolutely nothing about the social laws of this
+people, and that, among them, the rule of an eye for an eye, and blood
+for blood, might be more inviolable than it had ever been on the earth.
+
+As the discussion proceeded, with an intensity which spoken words could
+not have imparted to it, Ala's cheeks began to glow, and her eyes to
+glitter with strange light. One could see the resistance in them rising
+to passion, and, at last, as the aged judge again shook his head, with
+greater emphasis than ever, she rose, as if suddenly transformed. The
+majestic splendor of her countenance was thrilling. Lifting her jeweled
+arm with an imperious gesture, she commanded the attendants to remove the
+bier, and was instantly obeyed. Then she beckoned to Edmund, and without
+an instant's hesitation, he stepped upon the lower stage of the throne.
+With the stride of a queen, she descended to his side, and, resting her
+hand on his shoulder, looked about her with a manner which said, as no
+words could have done:
+
+"It is the power of my protection which encircles him!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+MORE MARVELS
+
+It was not until long afterwards that we fully comprehended all that Ala
+had done in that simple act; but I will tell you now what it meant. By
+the unwritten law of this realm of Venus, she, as queen, had the right to
+interpose between justice and its victim, and such interposition was
+always expressed in the way which we had witnessed. It was a right rarely
+exercised, and probably few then present had ever before seen it put into
+action. The sensation which it caused was, in consequence, exceedingly
+great, and a murmur of astonishment arose from the throng in the great
+apartment, and hundreds pressed around the throne, staring at us and at
+the queen. The majestic look which had accompanied her act gradually
+faded, and her features resumed their customary expression of kindness.
+The old judge had risen as she stepped from her place beside him, and he
+seemed as much astonished as any onlooker. His hands trembled, he shook
+his head, and a single word came from his mouth, pronounced with a
+curious emphasis. Ala turned to him, with a new defiance in her eyes,
+before which his opposition seemed to wither, and he sank back into his
+seat.
+
+But there was at least one person present who accepted the decision with
+a bad grace--Ingra. He had been sure of victory in his incomprehensible
+persecution of us, he had played a master card, and now his
+disappointment was written upon his face. With surprise, I saw Ala
+approach him, smiling, and I was convinced that she was trying to
+persuade him to cease his opposition. There was a gentleness in her
+manner--almost a deference--which grated upon my feelings, while Jack's
+disgust could find no words sufficient to express itself:
+
+"Beauty and the beast!" he growled. "By Jo, if _he's_ got any influence
+over her, I'm sorry for her."
+
+"Well, well, don't worry about him," I said. "He's played his hand and
+lost, and if you were in his place, you wouldn't feel any better about
+it."
+
+"No, I'd go and hang myself, and that's what he ought to do. But isn't
+_she_ a queen, though!"
+
+Ala now resumed her place upon the throne, and issued orders which
+resulted in our being conducted to apartments that were set aside for us
+in the palace. There were four connecting rooms, and Juba had one of
+them. But we immediately assembled in the chief apartment, which had been
+assigned to Edmund. There was much more deference in the manner of our
+attendants than we had observed before, and as soon as they left us we
+fell to discussing the recent events. Jack's first characteristic act was
+joyously to slap Juba on the back:
+
+"Bully old boy!" he exclaimed. "Edmund, where'd we have been without
+Juba?"
+
+"I ought to have foreseen that," said Edmund. "If I had been as wise as I
+sometimes think myself, I'd have arranged the thing differently. Of
+course it should have been obvious all the while that Juba would be our
+trump card. I dimly saw that, but I ought to have instructed him in
+advance. As it was, his own intelligence did the business. He understood
+my claim to an origin outside this planet, when they could not. It must
+have come over him all at a flash."
+
+"But do you think that they understand it now?" I asked.
+
+"To a certain extent, yes. But it is an utterly new idea to them, and all
+the better for us that it is so. It is so much the more mysterious; so
+much the more effective with the imagination. But this is not the end of
+it; they will want to know more--especially Ala--and now that Juba has
+broken the ice, it will be comparatively easy to fortify the new opinion
+which they have conceived of us."
+
+"But Ingra nearly wrecked it all," I remarked.
+
+"Yes, that was a stunning surprise. How devilish cunning the fellow is;
+and how inexplicable his antipathy to us."
+
+"I believe that it is a kind of jealousy," I said.
+
+"A kind of natural cussedness, _I_ guess," put in Jack.
+
+"Why should he be jealous?" asked Edmund.
+
+"I don't know, exactly; but you know we are not simple barbarians in
+their eyes, and Ingra may have conceived a prejudice against us, somehow,
+on that very account."
+
+"Very unlikely," Edmund returned, "but we shall find out all about it in
+time; in the meanwhile, do nothing to prejudice him further, for he is a
+power that we have got to reckon with."
+
+The conversation then turned upon the mysterious language that had been
+employed at what we called the trial. I expressed the admiration which I
+had felt for such a means of communication when I had observed the effect
+that Juba had been able to produce.
+
+"Yes," said Edmund, "it seems as wonderful as it is beautiful, but there
+is no reason why it should not have been acquired by the inhabitants of
+the earth. We have the elements, not merely in what we call telepathy, or
+mind reading, but in our everyday converse. Try it yourself, and you will
+be astonished at what the eyes, the looks, are able to convey. Even
+abstract ideas are not beyond their reach. Often we abandon speech for
+this better method of conveying our meaning. How many a turn in the
+history of mankind has depended upon the unspoken diplomacy of the eyes;
+how many a crisis in our personal lives is determined, not by words, but
+by looks."
+
+"That's right," said Jack, "more matches are made with eyes than with
+lips."
+
+Edmund smiled and continued: "There's nothing really mysterious about it.
+It has a purely physical basis, and only needs attention and development
+to become the most perfect mode of mental communication that intellectual
+beings could possibly possess."
+
+"And the music and language of color?" I asked. "How has that been
+developed?"
+
+"As naturally as the silent speech. We have it, and we feel it, in
+pictures, in flower gardens, and in landscapes; only with us it is a
+frozen music. Living music exists on the earth only in the form of
+sonorous vibrations because we have not developed our sense of the
+harmony of colors except when they lie dead and motionless before us. A
+great painting by Raphael or Turner is to one of these color hymns of
+Venus like a printed score, which merely suggests its harmonies, compared
+with the same composition when poured forth from a perfect instrument
+under the fingers of a master player."
+
+"Well, Edmund," interposed Jack, "I've no doubt it's all as you say, and
+I'd like to know just enough of their speechless speech to tell Ingra
+what he ought to hear; and if I understood their music, I'd play him a
+dead march, sure."
+
+"But," continued Edmund, disregarding Jack's interruption, "mark me,
+there's something else behind all this. I have a dim foreglimpse of it,
+and if we have luck, we'll know more before long."
+
+I find that the enthusiasm which these wonderful memories arouse, as they
+flood back into my mind, is leading me to dwell upon too many details,
+and I must sum up in fewer words the story of the events which
+immediately followed our acquittal, although it involves some of the most
+astonishing discoveries that we made in the world of Venus.
+
+As Edmund had surmised, Ala lost no time in seeking more light upon the
+mystery surrounding us. Within twenty-four hours after the dramatic scene
+in the hall of judgment, we were summoned before her, in a splendid
+apartment, which was apparently an audience chamber, where we found her
+surrounded by several of her female attendants, as well as by what seemed
+to be high officers of the court; and among them, to our displeasure, was
+Ingra. He, in fact, appeared to be the most respected and important
+personage there, next to the queen herself, and he kept close by her
+side. Edmund glanced at him, and half turning to us, shook his head. I
+took his meaning to be that we were not to manifest any annoyance over
+Ingra's presence.
+
+The queen was very gracious, and seats were offered to us. Immediately
+she began to question Edmund, as I could see; but with all my efforts I
+could make out nothing of what was "said." But Juba evidently was able to
+follow much of the conversation, in which he manifested the liveliest
+interest. The conference lasted about an hour, and at its conclusion, we
+retired to our apartments. There we eagerly questioned Edmund concerning
+what had occurred.
+
+He seemed to be greatly impressed and pleased. He told us that he had
+learned more than he had communicated, but that he had succeeded, as he
+believed, in making clearer to Ala our celestial origin. Still, he
+doubted if she fully comprehended it, while as for Ingra, he was sure
+that the fellow rejected our claim entirely, and persisted in regarding
+us as inhabitants of the dark hemisphere.
+
+"Bosh!" cried Jack. "He's too stupid to understand anything above the
+level of his nose, and I'd like to flatten that for him!"
+
+"No," said Edmund, "he's not stupid, but I'm afraid he's malicious. If he
+were a little more stupid, it would be the better for us."
+
+"But does Ala comprehend the difference between us and Juba--I mean in
+regard to origin?" I asked.
+
+"I think so. In fact Juba bears unmistakable signs that he is of their
+world, although so different in physical appearance. His remarkable
+comprehension of their method of mental communication is alone sufficient
+to stamp him as ancestrally one of them. And yet," Edmund continued,
+musing, "think of the vast stretch of ages that separates the inhabitants
+of the two sides of this planet, the countless eons of evolution that
+have brought about the differences now existing! I am delighted to
+find that Ala has some understanding of all this. She has had good
+teachers--do not smile--for what you have seen of their mechanical
+achievements proves that science exists and is cultivated here; and from
+her savants she has learned--what our astronomers have deduced--that
+formerly Venus turned rapidly on her axis, and had days and nights
+swiftly succeeding one another. But they do not know the scientific
+reasons as completely as we do. With them this is knowledge based largely
+upon tradition, 'ancestral voices' echoing down through periods of time
+so vast that our most ancient legends seem but tales of yesterday.
+Whatever may be the measure of man's antiquity on the earth, I am certain
+that here intellectual life has existed for millions upon millions of
+years, and its history stretches back beyond the time when the brake of
+tidal friction had so far destroyed the rotation of the planet that its
+surface became permanently divided between the reigns of day and night."
+
+I listened with amazement and could not help exclaiming:
+
+"But, Edmund, how could you learn all this in so short a time?"
+
+"Because," he replied, smiling, "the language of the mind, unhampered by
+dragging words and blundering sentences, plays back and forth with the
+quickness of thought. There is another thing, too, which I have learned,
+a thing so amazing that it daunts me. I have found, I believe, the
+explanation of that minor note of infinite sadness which, as I told you,
+I always feel, even in the most joyous-seeming paeans of their color
+music. I think it is due to their forereaching science, which assures
+them that this world has entered upon the last stage of its existence
+which began with the arrest of its axial rotation, and which will end
+with the total extinction of life through the evaporation of all the
+waters under the never-setting sun, and the consequent complete
+desiccation of this now so beautiful land."
+
+"But," I objected, "you have said that they never see the sun."
+
+"That was, I believe, a mistake, I am sure that they never see the stars
+or the planets, but I think that sometimes they see the sun, or, at least
+that there is a tradition of its having been seen. The whole thing is yet
+obscure to me, but I have received an inkling of something very, very
+strange in that regard."
+
+"Then, Ala may think that it is from the sun that we claim to come," I
+said, disregarding his last remark, which had a significance which even
+he could not then have appreciated.
+
+"I am not sure; we must wait for further light. But I have still another
+communication not so instinct with mystery. We are to be shown the
+sources of their mechanical power--the means by which they run all their
+motors."
+
+"Hurrah," cried Jack. "Now, that's something I like! I can understand a
+machine--if you don't ask me to run it--but as for this talking through
+the eyes, and playing Jim Crow with rainbows, it's too much for me."
+
+It was not many hours later when we were conducted by Ala, accompanied as
+usual by the inevitable Ingra, and a brilliant cortege of attendants,
+upon our first excursion through the capital. We embarked in a gorgeous
+air ship, and flying low at first, skirted the roofs of the innumerable
+houses which constituted the bulk of the city resting on the ground. The
+oriental magnificence of the views which we caught in the winding streets
+and frequent squares crowded with people, excited our interest to the
+utmost. But we kept on without descending or stopping until, at length,
+we passed the limits of the immense metropolis, and, flying more rapidly,
+and at a greater elevation, soon approached what, at a distance, appeared
+to be a waterfall, greater than Niagara, pouring out of the air!
+
+"What marvel can this be?" I asked.
+
+"A fountain," responded Edmund.
+
+"A cataract turned upside down," exclaimed Jack. "Well, I've ceased to be
+surprised at anything I see here. I wouldn't be astonished now to find
+that their whole old planet was hollow, and full of gnomes, or whatever
+you call 'em."
+
+When we got nearer we saw that Edmund's description was substantially
+correct. The vast mass of water gushed from the top of a broad plateau,
+in the form of a gigantic vertical fountain, with a roar so stupendous
+that Ala and her attendants immediately covered their ears with
+protectors, and we should not have been sorry to follow their example,
+for our eardrums were almost burst by the billowing force of the sound
+waves. The water shot upward four or five hundred feet with geyser-like
+plumes reaching a thousand feet, and then descended in floods on all
+sides. But the slope of the ground was such that eventually it was all
+collected in a river, which flowed away with great swiftness, past the
+distant city, and disappeared in the direction of the sea from which we
+had come. The solid column of rising water must have been, at its base,
+three hundred feet in diameter!
+
+But our amazement was redoubled when we recognized, at various points of
+vantage, squat, metallic towers of enormous strength, which caught the
+descending water, allowing it to issue in roaring torrents from their
+bases.
+
+"Those," shouted Edmund in our ears, "are power houses. I knew already
+that these people had learned the mechanical uses of electricity; and if
+we have seen no electric lights as yet, it is because, in a world of
+perpetual daylight, they have little or no use for them. They employ the
+power for other purposes."
+
+"But how do you account for this incredible fountain?" I asked.
+
+"It must be due to geological causes, if I may use a terrestrial term.
+You observe that the land all has a slope hitherward from the distant
+range of mountains, and that between us and the sea there is a chain of
+hills. The metropolis lies at the lower edge of a vast basin, and it must
+be that the relatively porous surface, over many thousands of square
+miles, is underlain by an almost unbroken shell of rock, impermeable to
+water. The result is that the drainage of this whole immense region,
+after being collected under ground, flows together to this point, where
+the existence of a huge vent in the upper layer offers it a way of
+escape, and it comes spouting out of the great crater with the
+consequences which you behold."
+
+Many objections to Edmund's theory occurred to my mind; but he spoke so
+confidently, the course of things on this strange planet had so often
+followed his indications, and I felt myself so incapable of suggesting a
+more satisfactory hypothesis, that I made no reply, as a geologist,
+perhaps, would have done. At any rate the wonderful phenomenon existed
+before our eyes, explanation or no explanation. We learned afterwards
+that the river formed by the giant fountain passed through a gap in the
+hills to the seaward, and the more I reflected upon Edmund's idea the
+more acceptable I found it.
+
+A great deal of the water was led away from the foot of the plateau out
+of which the fountain issued by ditches constructed to irrigate the rich
+gardens surrounding the metropolis and the open agricultural country for
+many miles around. At the queen's invitation, although she did not
+accompany us, we inspected one of the power houses, and Edmund found the
+greatest delight in studying the details of the enormous dynamos and the
+system of cables by which, quite in our own manner, the electric power
+was conveyed to the city. We noticed that everywhere the most ingenious
+devices were employed for killing noise.
+
+"I knew we should find all this," said Edmund--"although I did not
+precisely anticipate the form that the natural supply of energy would
+take--as soon as I saw the aerial screws that give buoyancy to the great
+towers. In fact, I foresaw it as soon as I found, in inspecting the
+machinery of the air ship which brought us from the sea, that their
+motors were driven by storage batteries. It was obvious, then, that they
+had some extraordinary source of energy."
+
+"Oh, of course, you knew it all!" muttered Henry under his breath. "But
+if you were as omniscient as you think yourself, you'd not be in this
+fool's paradise."
+
+"What's that you're saying?" demanded Jack, partly catching the import of
+Henry's remark, and beginning to ruffle his feathers.
+
+"Oh, nothing," mumbled Henry, and I shook my head at Jack to keep quiet.
+We all felt at times Edmund's assumption of superiority, but Jack and I
+were willing to put up with it as one of the privileges of genius. If
+Edmund had not believed in himself, he would never have brought us
+through. And besides, we always found that he was right, and if he
+sometimes spoke rather boastingly of his knowledge and foresight, at
+least it was real knowledge and genuine foresight.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+WE FALL INTO TROUBLE AGAIN
+
+It was not long after our visit to the marvelous fountain when Jack
+proposed to me that he and I should make a little excursion on our own
+account in the city. Edmund was absent at the moment, engaged in some
+inquiries which interested him, under the guidance of Ala and her
+customary attendants. I forget why Jack and I had stayed behind, since
+both Juba and Henry had accompanied Edmund, but it was probably because
+we wished to make some necessary repairs to our garments for I confess
+that I shared a little of the coquettishness of Jack in that matter. At
+any rate, we grew weary of being alone, and decided to venture just a
+little way in search of adventure. We calculated that the tower of the
+palace, which was so conspicuous, would serve us as a landmark, and that
+there was no danger of getting lost.
+
+Nobody interfered with us at our departure, as we had feared they might,
+and in a short time we had become so absorbed in the strange spectacles
+of the narrow streets, lined with shops and filled with people on foot,
+while small air ships continually passed just above the roofs, that we
+forgot the necessity of keeping our landmark constantly in view, and were
+lost without knowing it.
+
+One thing which immediately struck us was the entire absence of beasts of
+burden--nothing like horses or mules did we see. There were not even
+dogs, although, as I have told you, some canine-like animals dwelt with
+the people of the caverns. Everybody went either on foot or in air ships.
+There were no carriages, except a kind of palanquin, some running on
+wheels and others borne by hand.
+
+"I should think they would have autos," said Jack, "with all their
+science and ingenuity which Edmund admires so much."
+
+But there was not a sign of anything resembling an auto; the silence of
+the crowded streets was startling, and made the scene more dreamlike.
+Everybody appeared to be shod with some noise-absorbing material. We
+strolled along, turning corners with blissful carelessness, staring and
+being stared at (for, of course, everybody knew who we were), peering
+into open doors and the gaping fronts of bazaars, chattering like a
+couple of boys making their first visit to a city, and becoming every
+moment more hopelessly, though unconsciously, lost, and more interested
+by what we saw. The astonishing display of pleasing colors and the
+brilliancy of everything fascinated us. I had never seen anything
+comparable to this in beauty, variety, and richness. We passed a market
+where we saw some of the bright-plumaged birds that we had eaten at our
+first repast hung up for sale. They had a way of serving these birds at
+table with the brilliant feathers of the head and neck still attached, as
+if they found a gratification even at their meals in seeing beautiful
+colors before them.
+
+Other shops were filled with birds in gilded cages, which we should have
+taken for songsters but for the fact that, although crowds gathered about
+and regarded them with mute admiration, not a sound issued from their
+throats--at least we heard none. A palanquin stopped at one of these
+shops, and a lady alighted and bought three beautiful birds which she
+carried away in their cages, watching them with every indication of the
+utmost pleasure, which we ascribed to the splendor of their plumage and
+the gracefulness of their forms. As a crowd watched the transaction
+without interference on the part of the shopkeeper, or evidence of
+annoyance on that of the lady, we took the liberty of a close look
+ourselves. Then we saw their money.
+
+"Good, yellow gold," whispered Jack.
+
+Such, indeed, it seemed to be. The lady took the money, which consisted
+of slender rings, chased with strange characters, from a golden purse,
+and the whole transaction seemed so familiar that we might well have
+believed ourselves to be witnessing a purchase in a bazaar of Cairo or
+Damascus. This scene led to a desire on Jack's part to buy something
+himself.
+
+"If I only had some of their money," he said, "I'd like to get some
+curiosities to carry home. I wonder if they'd accept these?" and he drew
+from his pocket some gold and silver coins.
+
+"No doubt they'd be glad to have a few as keepsakes," I said.
+
+"By Jo! I think I'll try it," said Jack, "but not here. I'm not a bird
+fancier myself. Let's look a little farther."
+
+We wandered on, getting more and more interested, and followed by a
+throng of curious natives, who treated us, I must say, much more
+respectfully than we should have been treated in similar circumstances at
+home. Many of the things we saw, I cannot describe, because there is
+nothing to liken them to, but all were as beautiful as they were strange.
+At last we found a shop whose contents struck Jack's fancy. The place
+differed from any that we had yet seen; it was much larger, and more
+richly fitted up than the others, and there were no counters, the things
+that it contained being displayed on the inner walls, while a single
+keeper, of a grave aspect, and peculiarly attired, all in black, occupied
+a seat at the back. The objects on view were apparently ornaments to be
+hung up, as we hang plaques on the wall. They were of both gold and
+silver, and in some the two metals were intermixed, with pleasing
+effects. What seemed singular was the fact that the _motif_ of the
+ornaments was always the same, although greatly varied in details of
+execution. As near as I could make it out, the intention appeared to be
+to represent a sunburst. There was invariably a brilliant polished boss
+in the center, sometimes set with a jewel, and surrounding rays of
+crinkled form, which plunged into a kind of halo that encircled the
+entire work. The idea was commonplace, and it did not occur to me amidst
+my admiration of the extreme beauty of the workmanship that there was any
+cause for surprise in the finding of a sunburst represented here. Jack
+was enthusiastic.
+
+"That's the ticket for me," he said. "How would one of those things look
+hanging over the fireplace of old Olympus? You bet I'm going to persuade
+the old chap to exchange one for a handful of good solid American money."
+
+I happened to glance behind us while Jack was scooping his pocket, and
+was surprised to see that the crowd of idlers, which had been following
+us, had dispersed. Looking out of the doorway, I saw some of them
+furtively regarding us from a respectful distance. I twitched Jack by the
+sleeve:
+
+"See here," I said, "there's some mistake about this. I don't believe
+that this is a shop. You'd better be careful, or we may make a bad
+break."
+
+"Oh, pshaw!" he replied; "it's a shop all right, or if it isn't exactly a
+shop that old duffer will be glad to get a little good money for one of
+his gimcracks."
+
+My suspicion that all was not right was not allayed when I noticed that
+the old man, whose complexion differed from the prevailing tone here, and
+who was specially remarkable by the possession of an eagle-beaked nose, a
+peculiarity that I had not before observed among these people, began to
+frown as Jack brusquely approached him. But I could not interfere before
+Jack had thrown a handful of coin in his lap, and, reaching up, had put
+his hand upon one of the curious sunbursts, saying:
+
+"I guess this will suit; what do you say, Peter?"
+
+Instantly the old fellow sprang to his feet, sending the coins rolling
+over the polished floor, and with eyes ablaze with anger, seized Jack by
+the throat. I sprang to his aid, but in a second four stout fellows,
+darting out of invisible corners, grappled us, and before we could make
+any effective resistance, they had our arms firmly bound behind our
+backs! Jack exerted all his exceptional strength to break loose, but in
+vain.
+
+"I tried to stop you, Jack--" I began, in a tone of annoyance, but
+immediately he cut me off:
+
+"This is on _me_, Peter; don't you worry. _You_ haven't done anything."
+
+"I'm afraid it's on all of us," I replied. "The whole party, Edmund and
+all, may have to suffer for our heedlessness."
+
+"Fiddlesticks," he returned. "I haven't got his old ornament, but he's
+got my coin. This looks like a skin game to me. What in thunder did he
+hang the things up for if he didn't want to sell 'em?"
+
+"But I told you this wasn't a shop."
+
+"No, I see it isn't; it's a trap for suckers, I guess."
+
+Jack's indignation grew hotter as we were dragged out into the street,
+and followed by a crush of people drawn to the scene, were hurried along,
+we knew not whither. In fact, his indignation swallowed up the alarm
+which he ought to have experienced, and which I felt in full force. I
+beat my brains in vain to find some explanation for the merciless
+severity with which we were treated so out of all proportion to the
+venial fault that had unconsciously been committed, and my perplexity
+grew when I saw in the faces of the crowd surrounding us, and running to
+keep up, a look of horror, as if we had been guilty of an unspeakable
+crime. We were too much hurried and jolted by our captors to address one
+another, and in a short time we were widely separated, Jack being led, or
+rather dragged, ahead, as if to prevent any communication between us.
+Once in a while, to my regret, I observed him exerting all his force to
+break his bonds and slinging his custodians about; but he could not get
+away, and at last, to my infinite comfort, he ceased to struggle, and
+went along as quietly as the rapid pace would permit.
+
+Presently an air ship swooped down from above, and alighted in a little
+square which we had just entered. Immediately we were taken aboard, with
+small regard to our comfort, and the air ship rose rapidly, and bore off
+in the direction of the great tower of the palace which we could now see.
+Upon our arrival we were taken through the inevitable labyrinth of
+corridors, and finally found ourselves in a place that was entirely new
+to us.
+
+It was a round chamber, perhaps two hundred feet in diameter, lighted,
+like the Roman Pantheon, by a huge circular opening in the vaulted roof,
+through which I caught a glimpse of the pearl-tinted cloud dome, which
+seemed infinitely remote. No opposition was made when I pushed ahead in
+order to be at Jack's side, and as a throng quickly hedged us round, our
+conductors released their hold, although our arms remained bound. When at
+last we stood fast we were in front of a rich dais, containing a
+thronelike seat occupied by a personage attired in black, the first
+glimpse of whose face gave me such a shock as I had not experienced since
+the priest of the earth-worshipers seized me for his prey. I have never
+seen anything remotely resembling that face. It was without beard, and of
+a ghastly paleness. It was seen only in profile, except when, with a
+lightning-like movement, it turned, for the fraction of a second, toward
+us, and was instantly averted again. It made my nerves creep to look at
+it. The nose was immense, resembling a huge curved beak, and the eyes, as
+black and glittering as jet, were roofed with shaggy brows, and seemed
+capable of seeing crosswise.
+
+Sometimes one side of the face and sometimes the other was presented, the
+transition being effected by two instantaneous jerks, with a slight pause
+between, during which the terrible eyes transfixed us. At such moments
+the creature--though he bore the form of a man--seemed to project his
+dreadful countenance toward the object of his inspection like a monstrous
+bird stretching forth its neck toward its prey. The effect was
+indescribable, terrifying, paralyzing! The eyes glowed like fanned
+embers.
+
+"In God's name," gasped Jack, leaning his trembling shoulder upon me,
+"what is it?"
+
+I was, perhaps, more unmanned than he, and could make no reply.
+
+Then there was a movement in the throng surrounding us, and the old man
+of the sunbursts appeared before the throne, and, after dropping on his
+knees and rising again, indicated us with his long finger, and, as was
+plain, made some serious accusation. The face turned upon us again with a
+longer gaze than usual, and we literally shrank from it. Then its owner
+rose from his seat, towering up, it seemed, to a height of full seven
+feet, shot his hand out with a gesture of condemnation, and instantly sat
+down again and averted his countenance. There seemed to have been a world
+of meaning in this brief act to those who could comprehend it. We were
+seized, even more roughly than before, and dragged from the chamber, and
+at the end of a few minutes found ourselves thrown into a dungeon, where
+there was not the slightest glimmer of light, and the door was locked
+upon us.
+
+It was a long time before either of us summoned up the courage to speak.
+At length I said faintly:
+
+"Jack, I'm afraid it's all over with us. We must have done something
+terrible, though I cannot imagine what it was."
+
+But Jack, after his manner, was already recovering his spirits, and he
+replied stoutly:
+
+"Nonsense, Peter, we're all right, as Edmund says. Wait till he comes and
+he'll fix it."
+
+"But how can he know what has happened? And what could he do if he did?
+More likely they will all be condemned along with us."
+
+Jack felt around in the dark and got me by the hand, giving it a hearty
+pressure.
+
+"Remember Ala," he said. "She's our friend, or Edmund's, and they'll
+bring us out of this. You want to brace up."
+
+"Remember Ingra!" I responded with a shiver, and I could feel Jack start
+at the words.
+
+"Hang him!" he muttered. "If I'd only finished him when I had the drop!"
+
+After that neither spoke. If Jack's thoughts were blacker than mine he
+must have wished for his pistol to blow out his own brains. At no time
+since our arrival on the planet had I felt so depressed. I had no courage
+left; could see no lightening of the gloom anywhere. In the horror of the
+darkness which enveloped us, the _horror of space_ came over my spirit.
+One feels a little of that sometimes when the breadth of an ocean
+separates him from home, and from all who really care for him--but what
+is the Atlantic or the Pacific to millions upon millions of leagues of
+interplanetary space! To be cast away among the inhabitants of another
+world than one's own! To have lost, as we had done (for in that moment of
+despair I was _sure_ Edmund could never repair the car), the only
+possible means of return! To have offended, just _because_ we were
+strangers, and _could_ not know better, some incomprehensible social law
+of this strange people, who owned not a drop of the blood of our race, or
+of any race whatsoever dwelling on the earth! To lie under the
+condemnation of that goblin face, without the possibility of pleading
+even the mercy that our hearts instinctively grant to the smallest mite
+of fellow life on our own planet! To be alone! friendless! forsaken!
+condemned!--in a far-off, kinless world! I could have fallen down in
+idolatry before a grain of sand from the shore of the Atlantic!
+
+In the murkiest depth of my despair a sound roused me with a shock that
+made my heart ache. In a moment the door opened, light streamed in, and
+Edmund stood there.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+THE SUN GOD
+
+Strangely enough, I, who have an exceptional memory for spoken words,
+cannot, by any effort, recall what Edmund said, as his face beamed in
+upon us. I have only a confused recollection that he spoke, and that his
+words had a marvelous effect upon my broken spirit. But I can see, as if
+it were yet before me, the smile that illumined his features. My heart
+bounded with joy, as if a messenger had come straight from the earth
+itself, bearing a reprieve whose authority could not be called in
+question.
+
+Jack's joy was no less than mine, although he had not suffered mentally
+as I had done. And the sight of Ala was hardly less reassuring to us, but
+to find Ingra, too, present was somewhat of a shock to our confidence in
+speedy delivery from trouble. And, in fact, we were not at once
+delivered. We had to spend many weary hours yet in our dark prison, but
+they were rendered less gloomy by Edmund's assurance that he would save
+us. The confidence that he always inspired seems to me to have been
+another mark of his genius. We had an instinct that he could do in any
+circumstances what was impossible to ordinary men.
+
+At last the welcome moment came, and we were led forth, free, and
+rejoined Edmund, Henry, and Juba in our apartments. Then, for the first,
+we learned what we had done, and how narrow had been our escape from a
+terrible doom. It was a new chapter of wonder that Edmund opened before
+us. I shall tell it in his own words.
+
+"When I returned to the palace and found you missing I was greatly
+wrought up. Immediately I applied to Ala for aid in finding you. She was
+quickly informed of all the circumstances of your arrest, and I saw at
+once, by the expression of her features, that it was a matter of the
+utmost gravity. I was not reassured by Ingra's evident joy. I could read
+in his face the pleasure that the news gave him, and I perceived that
+there was again opposition between him and Ala, and that she was trying,
+with less success than I hoped for, to bring him round to her view.
+
+"With no little trouble I finally discovered the nature of your offense.
+I understood it the more readily because I had already begun to suspect
+the existence among these people of a strange form of idolatry, in some
+respects akin to the earth-worship of the cavern dwellers. I have told
+you that certain things had led me to think that they occasionally see
+the sun here. It is a phenomenon of excessive rarity, and whole
+generations sometimes pass without its recurrence. It is due to an
+opening which at irregular periods forms for a brief space of time in the
+cloud dome. I imagine that it may be in some way connected with sunspots,
+but here they have no notion of its cause, and look upon it as entirely
+miraculous.
+
+"Whenever this rare event occurs it gives rise to extraordinary religious
+excitement, and ceremonies concerning which there is some occult mystery
+that I have not yet penetrated. I suspect that the ceremonies are not
+altogether unlike the Bacchanalian festivals of ancient Greece. At any
+rate the momentary appearance of the sun at these times is regarded as
+the avatar of a supreme god, and their whole religious system is based
+upon it. So universal and profound is the superstition to which it gives
+rise that the most instructed persons among them are completely under its
+dominion. The eagle-beaked individual who condemned you, and whom I have
+since seen, is the chief priest of this superstition, and within his
+sphere his power is unlimited. It is solely to the belief--which, through
+Ala, I have succeeded in impressing upon him--that we are _children of
+the sun_ that I owe the success of my efforts in your behalf. Without
+that you would surely have been sacrificed, and we with you.
+
+"One of the forms which this superstition takes is a belief that the
+anger of the sun god can be mollified by offerings of images, made in his
+likeness, which are first consecrated by the chief priest, and then hung
+up on the walls of certain small temples, which are scattered through the
+city, and are always kept open to the air under the guard of a minor
+priest and his attendants. A whole family, as I understand it, deems
+itself protected by one of these images, which are made by artists who
+never touch any other work, and which are only granted to those who have
+undergone a painful series of purifications in the great temple. The
+preliminary ceremonies finished, the images are suspended, and at certain
+times those to whom they belong go and kneel and pray before them, as
+before their guardian saints."
+
+"What a fool I was not to understand it," I murmured.
+
+"You will understand now," Edmund continued, "how serious was Jack's
+offense in insulting a priest, and laying impious hands upon a sacred
+image, belonging, no doubt, to a family whose antiquity of descent would
+make our oldest pedigrees on the earth seem as ephemeral as the existence
+of a May fly; for I am convinced that here life has gone on,
+uninterrupted by wars and changes of dynasty, for untold ages.
+
+"It is a marvel that you escaped, for already they were preparing the
+awful sacrifice. The chief priest was amazed when an interposition was
+made on your behalf. Such a thing had never been known, and, as I have
+said, it was only by acting upon his superstition that I succeeded, with
+Ala's assistance, in obtaining a reprieve. As the case stands, we find
+ourselves occupying a dangerous eminence, which it may be difficult for
+us to maintain. I must beseech you to be on your guard, and to act only
+under my direction. It is all the more serious for us because I am
+convinced that Ingra has no faith whatever in the legend which protects
+us. He persists in believing that we are simply interlopers from the dark
+hemisphere, and the opposition between him and Ala has now become so
+sharp that he would gladly witness our destruction. I am sure that he
+will do his utmost to unmask us, and thus send us to our death."
+
+"But--" I began.
+
+"Wait a moment," said Edmund, "I have not yet finished. I must now tell
+you who Ingra is. _He is the destined consort of Ala._ That explains his
+influence over her. From what I can make out, it appears that he is of
+the royal blood, and that the marriage of the queen is arranged, not by
+her preference, but by an unwritten law, administered by the chief
+priest. She has no choice in the matter."
+
+"I should say not," broke in Jack. "She never would have chosen that
+jackanapes! If you hadn't spoiled my aim I'd have relieved her of the
+burden."
+
+"Not another word of that!" said Edmund severely. "In no manner, not even
+by a look, are you ever to express your dislike of him. And remember, you
+must govern your very thoughts, for here they lie open, as legible as
+print."
+
+"Hang me," growled Jack, "if I like a world where a man can't even think
+his own thoughts because his mind goes bare! Take me back where you have
+to speak before you are understood."
+
+"When you have wicked thoughts don't look them in the eyes," said Edmund,
+half smiling, "and then you will run no danger. It is through the eyes
+that they read. Now, to resume what I was saying, I am more than ever
+anxious to recover the car, and to find the materials that will enable me
+to repair its machinery. With it in our possession, and in good shape, we
+shall be in a position to run away whenever it may seem necessary to do
+so, and in the meantime to impose our legend upon them by the possession
+of so apparently miraculous a means of conveying ourselves through space.
+It will be overwhelming proof of the truth of our assertion of an origin
+outside their world, and perhaps, upon the whole, it is just as well that
+they should think that we belong to the sun, of whose existence they have
+some knowledge, rather than to the earth, of which they know nothing, in
+spite of the inkling that Juba succeeded in conveying to them."
+
+"The car is here, isn't it?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, it is in the great tower, but it is useless in its present
+condition."
+
+"And what materials do you want to find?"
+
+"Primarily nothing but uranium. They understand chemistry here. They have
+the apparatus that I need, but they do not know how to use it as I do.
+The uranium certainly exists somewhere. They mine gold and silver, and
+other things, and when I can find their mines, without exciting their
+suspicion, and can get the use of a laboratory in secret, I shall soon
+have what I need. But I must be very circumspect, for it would not do to
+let them perceive that chemistry really lies at the basis of our miracle.
+It is this necessity for secrecy which troubles me most. But I shall find
+a way."
+
+"For God's sake, find it quick," Henry burst out. "And then get away from
+this accursed planet."
+
+Edmund looked at him a moment before replying:
+
+"We shall go when the necessity for going arises, and not before. We have
+not yet seen all the interesting things of this world."
+
+I believe that even Jack and I shared to some extent Henry's
+disappointment on hearing this announcement. We should have been glad to
+know that we were to start on the return journey as soon as the car was
+in shape to transport us. But the event proved that Edmund's instinct
+was, as usual, right, and that the things which were yet to be seen and
+experienced were well worth the fearful risk we ran in remaining.
+
+While Edmund undertook the delicate inquiries which were necessary in
+order to determine the direction that his search for uranium should take,
+and to enable him to conduct his chemical processes without awaking
+suspicion as to his real purpose, we were left much of the time in charge
+of a party of attendants who, by his intercession, had been selected to
+act as our guides when we wished to examine the wonders of the palace and
+the capital. Sometimes he accompanied us; but more often he was with Ala
+and her suite, including her uneludable satellite, Ingra.
+
+"I bless my stars that he doesn't favor _us_ with his delightful
+company," was Jack's comment, when he saw Ingra tagging along after Ala
+and Edmund.
+
+I privately believed that Ingra had his spies among our attendants, but I
+was careful not to mention my suspicions to Jack.
+
+But, oh, the delight of those excursions! Those streets; and those aerial
+towers, which rose like forests of coral in a gulf of liquid ether! They
+shine often in my dreams. A thousand times I have tried to put into
+words, simply for my own satisfaction, a description of the things that
+we saw, and the impressions that they made on my mind--but it is
+impossible. I understand now why the tales of travelers into strange
+lands never convey a tithe of what is in the writers' minds; they
+simply cannot; the necessary words and analogies do not exist. I can only
+use general terms, ransacking the vocabulary of adjectives--"beautiful,"
+"wonderful," "fascinating," "marvelous," "indescribable," "magical,"
+"enchanting," "amazing," "inexplicable," "_sans pareil_"--what you
+will--but all that says nothing except to my own mind. Only the language
+of Venus could describe the charms and the wonders of Venus!
+
+There was one thing, however, which was sufficiently comprehensible--_the
+great library_. Edmund was not with us when we paid our first visit to
+it; but he had predicted its existence during one of our conversations,
+when we were talking of the silent language.
+
+"This people," he had said, "has a great history behind it, extending
+over periods which would amaze our disinterrers of human antiquity, but
+an intelligent race cannot make history without also keeping records of
+it. Tradition alone, handed on from mind to mind, would not answer their
+requirements. The possession of the power to communicate thought without
+spoken language does not presuppose a power of memory any more perfect
+than we have. The brain forgets, the imagination misleads, with them as
+with us, and consequently they must have books of some kind--which
+implies a written or printed language. It is probable that this language
+does not correspond with the very meager one of which we occasionally
+hear them pronounce a few words. The latter is, I am convinced, used only
+for names and interjections, and sometimes to call the attention of the
+person addressed, while the former must be a rich and carefully
+elaborated system of literary expression, which may not be phonetic at
+all. We shall find that this is so; and there are unquestionably
+libraries--probably a great imperial library--devoted to history and
+science. There must be schools also."
+
+Thus Edmund had spoken, and thus we found it to be. The great library was
+in a building separate from the palace. It was admirably lighted from
+without, and its nature was apparent the moment we were led into it. The
+"books" were long scrolls, which might have been taken for parchment or
+papyrus, and the characters written on them resembled those of the
+Chinese language, but worked out in exquisite colors, which might
+themselves have had a meaning. The rolls were kept in proper receptacles
+under the charge of librarians, and we saw many grave persons at desks
+poring over them. Absolute silence reigned, and as I gazed at the scene I
+found admiration for this extraordinary people taking the place of the
+prejudice which I had recently been led to feel against them.
+
+Jack, unusually impressed, whispered to me that Edmund must have been
+playing us some Hindoo bedevilment trick, for he could not believe that
+we were actually in a foreign world. The same impression came over me.
+This was too earthlike; too much as if, instead of being on the planet
+Venus, we had been transported to some land of antique civilization in
+our own world. But, after all, we _knew where we were_, and as the
+realization of that fact came to us we could only stare with increasing
+astonishment at the scene before us. I may say here that Edmund
+subsequently visited this great library, and also some of the schools,
+and I know that he made notes of what he discovered and learned in them,
+with the purpose, as I supposed, of writing upon the subject after his
+return. But the expected book, which would have supplemented and
+clarified much of what I have undertaken to tell, with but a half
+understanding of what we saw, never appeared.
+
+Our wonderful excursions came to an end when Edmund at length announced
+that he had obtained the information he needed, and that we were about to
+make a trip to some of the mines of Venus.
+
+"I have discovered," he said, "that Venus is exceedingly rich in the
+precious metals, as well as in iron and lead. They mine them all, and
+we shall visit the mines under Ala's escort. My real purpose, of
+course, is to find uranium, of whose properties, strangely--and for us
+luckily--enough, they seem to have no knowledge. Nevertheless, they are
+capital chemists as far as they go, and possess laboratories provided
+with all that I shall need. They refine the metals at the mines
+themselves, so that I am sure of finding everything necessary to do my
+work right on the ground. The substance which I obtain from uranium is so
+concentrated that I can carry in my pocket all that will be required to
+repair the damage done to the transformers in the car. A careful
+examination, which I have made of the car, proves that the terrific
+shocks the machinery suffered in the crystal mountains caused an atomic
+readjustment which destroyed the usefulness of the material in the
+transformers, and while I might, by laboratory treatment, possibly
+restore its properties, I think it safer to obtain an entirely fresh
+supply. We shall start with the queen's ship within a few hours; so you
+had better make your preparations at once."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+AT THE MERCY OF FEARFUL ENEMIES
+
+If we could have foreseen what was to happen during this trip, even
+Edmund, I believe, would have shrunk from undertaking it. But we all
+embarked upon it gladly, because we had conceived the highest
+expectations of the delight that it would afford us; and at the news that
+we were to visit mines of gold richer than any on the earth, Henry
+exhibited the first enthusiasm that he had shown since our departure from
+home.
+
+Embarked on Ala's splendid "yacht," as Jack called it, and attended by
+her usual companions, we rapidly left the city behind, and sped away
+toward the purple mountains, so often seen in the distance. The voyage
+was a long one, but at length we drew near the foothills, and beheld the
+mountains towering into peaks behind. Lofty as they looked, there was no
+snow on their summits. We now descended where plumes of smoke had for
+some time attracted our attention, and found ourselves at one of the
+mines. It was a gold mine. The processes of extracting the ore,
+separating the metal, etc., were conducted with remarkable silence, but
+they showed a knowledge of metallurgy that would have amazed us if we had
+not already seen so much of the capacity of this people. Yet similarly to
+the scene in the library, its earth-likeness was startling.
+
+"This sort of thing is uncanny," said Jack, as we were led through the
+works. "It makes me creep to see them doing things just as we do them at
+home, except that they are so quiet about it. If everything was different
+from our ways it would seem more natural."
+
+"Anyhow," I replied, "we may take it as a great compliment to ourselves,
+for it shows that we have found out ways of doing things which cannot be
+improved even in Venus."
+
+I should like to describe in detail the wonders of this mine, but I have
+space for only a few words about it. It was, Edmund learned, the richest
+on the planet, and was the exclusive property of the government,
+furnishing the larger part of its revenues, which were not comparable
+with those of a great terrestrial nation because of the absence of all
+the expenditures required by war. No fleets and no armies existed here,
+and no tariffs were needed where commerce was free. This great mine was
+the Laurium of Venus. The display of gold in the vaults connected with it
+exceeded a hundredfold all that the most imaginative historian has ever
+written of the treasures of Montezuma and Atahualpa. Henry's eyes fairly
+shone as he gazed upon it, and he could not help saying to Edmund:
+
+"You might have had riches equal to this if you had stayed at home and
+developed your discovery."
+
+Edmund contemptuously shrugged his shoulders, and turned away without a
+word.
+
+We were afterwards conducted to a silver mine, which we also inspected,
+and finally to a lead mine in another part of the hills. This was in
+reality the goal at which Edmund had been aiming, for he had told us that
+uranium was sometimes found in association with lead. Our joy was very
+great when, after a long inspection, he informed us that he had
+discovered uranium, and that it now remained only to submit it to certain
+operations in a laboratory in order to prepare the substance that was to
+give renewed life to those lilliputian monsters in the car, which fed
+upon men's breath and begot power illimitable.
+
+"I must now contrive," said Edmund, "to get admission to the laboratory
+connected with the mine, and to do my work without letting them suspect
+what I am about."
+
+He managed it somehow, as he managed all things that he undertook, and
+within forty-eight hours after our arrival he was hard at work, evidently
+exciting the admiration of the native chemists by the knowledge and skill
+which he displayed. At first they crowded around him so that he was
+hampered in his efforts to conceal the real object of his labors; but at
+last they left him comparatively alone, and I could see by his expression
+whenever I visited the laboratory that things were going to his liking.
+But the work was long and delicate. Edmund had to fabricate secretly some
+of the chemical apparatus he needed, destroying it as fast as it served
+its purpose, so that weeks of time rolled by before he had what he called
+the "thimbleful of omnipotence" that was to make us masters of our fate.
+As fast as he produced it he put it in a metal box, shaped like a
+snuffbox, and covertly he showed it to us. It consisted of brilliant
+black grains, finer than millet seeds.
+
+"Every one of those minute grains," he told us, "is packed with as much
+potential energy as that of a ton's weight suspended a mile above the
+earth."
+
+But while the little box was being gradually filled with crystallized
+powder, we, who could lend no aid in the fabrication of Edmund's miracle,
+improved the opportunity to make acquaintance with the beauties of the
+surrounding country. Ala had returned to the capital, leaving an air ship
+at our disposal, and, of all persons in the world, _Ingra in command_! We
+refused all invitations to accompany him in the air ship, preferring to
+make our excursions on foot, accompanied at first by some of the
+attendants that Ala had left. Edmund did not share our fears that Ingra
+meditated mischief.
+
+"He doesn't dare," was his reply to all our representations. But nothing
+could induce Jack and me to trust to Ingra's tender mercies.
+
+Among the favorite spots which we had found to visit in the neighborhood
+of the mine was a little knoll crowned with a group of the most beautiful
+trees that I ever saw, and washed at its base by a brook of exquisitely
+transparent water which tinkled over a bed of white and clear-yellow
+pebbles, sparkling like jewels. More than once at the beginning I fished
+some of them out in the belief that they were nuggets of pure gold
+polished by the water. In a pool under the translucent shadow of the
+overhanging trees played small fish so splendid in their varied hues that
+they looked like miniature rainbows darting about beneath the water.
+Birds of vivid color sometimes flitted among the branches overhead. There
+was but one "rainy day" while we were at the mine; all the rest of the
+time not a cloud appeared under the great dome, and a scented zephyr
+continually drew down from the mountains and fanned us. Here, then, we
+passed many hours and many days, chatting of our adventures and our
+chances, drowsily happy in the pure physical enjoyment which this
+charming spot afforded.
+
+When at last Edmund informed us that his box was full, and he was ready
+to return to the capital, we would not let him go without first
+conducting him to our little paradise. All together, then, with the
+exception of Juba, who, by some interference of an overlooking
+providence, was left at the mine, we set out in the highest spirits to be
+for once our leader's leaders in the exploration of some of the charms of
+Venus. Edmund was no less delighted than we had been with the place, and
+yielding to its somnolent influences we were soon stretched side by side
+on the spreading roots of a giant tree, and sleeping the sleep of
+sensuous languor.
+
+Our waking was as terrible as it was sudden. I heard a cry, and at the
+same instant felt an irresistible hand grasping me by the throat. As I
+opened my eyes I saw that the whole party were prisoners. Nearby an air
+ship was quivering, as, held in leash, it lightly touched the ground; and
+a dozen gigantic fellows, whipping our hands behind our backs, hurried us
+aboard, the great mechanical bird, which instantly rose, describing a
+circle that carried us above the treetops. I did not try to struggle, for
+I felt how vain would be any effort that I could make.
+
+Glancing about me, the very first features I recognized were those of
+Ingra. At last he had us in his power!
+
+I looked at Edmund, but his face was set in thought, and he did not
+return my glance. Henry, as usual, had plunged into silent hopelessness,
+and Jack was a picture of mingled rage and despair. Although we were
+loosely fastened side by side to a rail on the deck, neither of us spoke
+for perhaps half an hour. In the meantime the air ship rose to a height
+greater than that of the nearby mountains, and then more slowly
+approached them. At last it began to circle, as if an uncertainty
+concerning the route to be chosen had arisen, and I observed, for we
+could look all about in spite of our bonds, that Ingra and one who
+appeared to be his lieutenant were engaged in an animated discussion.
+They pointed this way and that, and the debate grew every moment more
+earnest. This continued for a long time, while the ship hovered, running
+slowly in the wide circles. We could not then know how much this
+hesitation meant for us. If Ingra had been as rapid in his decision now
+as he was in the act of taking us prisoners, this history would never
+have been written. I watched Edmund, and saw that his attention was
+absorbed by what our captors were about, and even in that emergency I
+felt a touch of comfort through my unfailing confidence in our leader.
+
+Finally a decision seemed to have been reached, and we set off over the
+crest of the range. As its huge peaks towered behind us and we descended
+nearer the ground, my heart sank again, for now we were cut off from the
+world beyond, and in the improbable event of any pursuit, how could the
+pursuers know what course we had taken, or where to look for us? And,
+then, who would pursue? Juba could do nothing, Ala was far away at the
+capital, even supposing that she should be disposed to set out in search
+of us, and hours, perhaps days, must elapse before she could be informed
+of what had happened. Not even when Jack and I were in the dungeon had
+our case seemed so desperate.
+
+But how the gods repent when they have sunk men in the blackest pit of
+despair, sending them a messenger of hope to steady their hearts!
+
+Good fortune had willed that we should be so placed upon the deck that we
+faced most easily sternward. Suddenly, as I gazed despondently at the
+serrated horizon receding in the distance, a thrill ran through my nerves
+at the sight of a dark speck in the sky, which seemed to float over one
+of the highest peaks. A second look assured me that it was moving; a
+third gave birth to the wild thought that it was in chase. Then I turned
+to Edmund and whispered:
+
+"There is something coming behind us."
+
+"Very well, do nothing to attract attention," he returned. "I have seen
+it. They are following us."
+
+I said nothing to Jack or Henry, who had not yet caught sight of the
+object; but I could not withdraw my eyes from it. Sometimes I persuaded
+myself that it was growing larger, and then, with the intensity of my
+gaze, it blurred and seemed to fade. At last Jack spied it, and
+instantly, in his impetuous way, he exclaimed:
+
+"Edmund! Look there!"
+
+His voice drew Ingra's attention, and immediately the latter observed the
+direction of our glances, and himself saw the growing speck. He turned
+with flushed face to his lieutenant and in a trice the vessel began
+fairly to leap through the air.
+
+"Ah, Jack," said Edmund reproachfully, but yet kindly, "if only you could
+always think before you speak! It is certain from Ingra's alarm that we
+are pursued by somebody whom he does not wish to meet. Most likely it is
+the queen, although it seems impossible that she could so quickly have
+learned of our mishap. Peter and I have been watching that object, which
+is unquestionably an air ship, in silence for the last twenty minutes,
+during which it has perceptibly gained upon us. But for your lack of
+caution it might have come within winning distance before it was
+discovered by Ingra, but now--"
+
+The rebuke was deserved, perhaps, but yet I wished that Edmund had not
+given it, so painful was the impression that it made upon Jack's
+generous heart. His countenance was convulsed, and a tear rolled down his
+cheek--all the more pitiful to see because his arms were pinioned, and he
+could do nothing to conceal his agitation. Edmund was stricken with
+remorse when he saw the effect of his words.
+
+"Jack," he said, "forgive me; I am sorry from the bottom of my heart. I
+should not have blamed you for a little oversight, when I alone am to
+blame for the misfortunes of us all."
+
+"All right, Edmund, all right," returned Jack in his usual cheerful
+tones. "But, see here, I don't admit that you are to blame for anything.
+We're all in this boat together and hanged if we won't get out of it
+together, too, and you'll be the man to fetch us out."
+
+Edmund smiled sadly, and shook his head.
+
+Meanwhile Ingra, with the evident intention of concealing the movements
+of the vessel, dropped her so low that we hardly skipped the tops of the
+trees that we were passing over, for now we had entered a wide region of
+unbroken forest. Still that black dot followed straight in our wake, and
+I easily persuaded myself that it was yet growing larger. Edmund declared
+that I was right, and expressed his surprise, for we were now flying at
+the greatest speed that could be coaxed out of the motors. Suddenly a
+shocking thought crossed my mind. I tried to banish it, fearing that
+Ingra might read it in my eyes, and act upon it. Suppose that he should
+hurl us overboard! It was in his power to do so, and it seemed a quick
+and final solution. But he showed no intention to do anything of the
+kind. He may have had good reasons for refraining, but, at the time I
+could only ascribe his failure to take a summary way out of his
+difficulty to a protecting hand which guarded us even in this extremity.
+
+On we rushed through the humming air, and still the pursuing speck chased
+us. And minute by minute it became more distinct against the background
+of the great cloud dome. Presently Edmund called our attention to
+something ahead.
+
+"There," he said, "is Ingra's hope and our despair."
+
+I turned my head and saw that in front the sky was very dark. Vast clouds
+seemed to be rolling up and obscuring the dome. Already there was a
+twilight gloom gathering about us.
+
+"This," said Edmund, "is apparently the edge of what we may call the
+temperate zone, which must be very narrow, surrounding in a circle the
+great central region that lies under the almost vertical sun. The clouds
+ahead indicate the location of a belt of contending air currents,
+resembling that which we crossed after floating out of the crystal
+mountains. Having entered them, we shall be behind a curtain where our
+enemy can work his will with us."
+
+Was it knowledge of this fact which had restrained Ingra from throwing us
+overboard? Was he meditating for us a more dreadful fate?
+
+It was, indeed, a land of shadow which we now began to enter, and we
+could see that ahead of us the general inclination of the ground was
+downward. I eagerly glanced back to see if the pursuers were yet in
+sight. Yes! There was the speck, grown so large now that there could be
+no doubt that it was an air ship, driven at its highest speed. But we had
+entered so far under the curtain that the greater part of the dome was
+concealed, the inky clouds hanging like a penthouse roof far behind. We
+could plainly perceive the chasers; but could they see us? I tried to
+hope that they could, but reason was against it. Still they were
+evidently holding the course.
+
+But even this hope faded when Ingra cunningly changed our course, turning
+abruptly to the left in the gloom. He knew, then, that we were invisible
+to the pursuers. But not content with one change, he doubled like a
+hunted fox. We watched for the effect of these maneuvers upon those
+behind us, and to our intense disappointment, though not to our surprise,
+we saw that they were continuing straight ahead. They surely could not
+have seen us, and even if they anticipated Ingra's ruse, how could they
+baffle it, and find our track again? At last the spreading darkness
+swallowed up the arc of illuminated sky behind, and then we were alone in
+the gloom.
+
+This, you will understand, was not the deep night of the other side of
+the planet; it was rather a dusky twilight, and as our eyes became
+accustomed to it, we could begin to discern something of the character of
+our surroundings. We flew within a hundred yards of the ground, which
+appeared to be perfectly flat, and soon we were convinced by the
+pitchy-black patches which frequently interrupted the continuity of the
+umbrageous surface beneath, that it was sprinkled with small bodies of
+water--in short, a gigantic Dismal Swamp, or Everglade. I need hardly say
+that it was Edmund who first drew this inference, and when its full
+meaning burst upon my mind I shuddered at the hellish design which Ingra
+evidently entertained. Plainly, he meant to throw us into the morass,
+either to drown in the foul water, whose miasma now assailed our
+nostrils, or to starve amidst the fens! But his real intention, as you
+will perceive in a little while, was yet more diabolical.
+
+The bird ship stooped lower, just skimming the tops of strange trees, the
+most horrible vegetable forms that I have ever beheld. And then, without
+warning, we were seized and pushed overboard, while the vessel, making a
+broad swoop, quickly disappeared. Henry alone uttered a loud cry as we
+fell.
+
+We crashed through the clammy branches and landed close together in a
+swamp. Fortunately the water was not deep, and we were able to struggle
+upon our feet and make our way to a comparatively dry open place, perhaps
+half an acre in extent. No sooner were we all safe on the land than I
+noticed Edmund struggling violently and then he exclaimed:
+
+"Here, quick! Hold a hand here!"
+
+As he spoke he backed up to me.
+
+"Take a match from this box which I have twisted out of my pocket, and
+while I hold the box, scratch it, and hold the flame against the bonds
+around my wrists."
+
+I managed to get out a match, and scratched it. But the match broke.
+Edmund, with the skill of a prestidigitator, got out another match, and
+pushed it into my fingers. It failed again.
+
+"It's got to be done!" he said. "Here, Jack, you try."
+
+Again he extracted a match, as Jack backed up in my place. Whether his
+hands happened to be less tightly bound, or whether luck favored him,
+Jack, on a second attempt, succeeded in illuminating a match.
+
+"Don't lose it," urged Edmund, as the light flashed out; "burn the cord."
+
+Jack tried. The smell of burning flesh arose, but Edmund did not wince.
+In a few seconds the match went out.
+
+"Another!" said Edmund, and the operation was repeated. A dozen separate
+attempts of this kind had been made, and I believe that I felt the pain
+inflicted by them more than Edmund did, when, making a tremendous effort,
+he burst the charred cord. His hands and wrists must have been fearfully
+burned, but he paid no attention to that. In a flash he had out his knife
+and cut us all loose. It was a mercy that they had not noticed the flame
+of the matches from the air ship, for if they had, unquestionably Ingra
+would have returned and made an end of us.
+
+After our release we stood a few moments in silence, awaiting our
+leader's next move. Presently a sonorous sign startled us, followed by a
+sticky, tramping sound.
+
+"In God's name, what's that?" exclaimed Jack.
+
+[Illustration: "It curled itself over the edge of the hovering air ship
+and drew it down."]
+
+"We'll see," said Edmund quietly, and threw open his pocket lantern.
+
+As the light streamed out there was a rustle in the branches above us,
+and the form of an air ship pushed into view.
+
+Ingra!
+
+No, it was not Ingra! Thank God, there was the bushy head of Juba visible
+on the deck as the ship drifted over us! And near him stood Ala and a
+half dozen attendants.
+
+As one man we shouted, but the sound had not ceased to echo when, out of
+the horrible tangle about us, rose, with a swift, sinuous motion, a
+monstrous anacondalike arm, flesh pink in the electric beam, but covered
+with spike-edged spiracles! It curled itself over the edge of the
+hovering air ship and drew it down.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+DREADFUL CREATURES OF THE GLOOM
+
+The deck of the air ship was tipped up at an angle of forty-five degrees
+by the pressure, and with inarticulate cries most of those on board
+tumbled off, some falling into the water and some disappearing amidst the
+tangled vegetation. Ala was visible, as the machine sank lower, and
+crashed through the branches, clinging to an upright on the sloping deck,
+while Juba, who hung on like a huge baboon, was helping her to maintain
+her place.
+
+Almost at the same moment I caught sight of the head of the monstrous
+animal which had caused the disaster. It was as massive as that of an
+elephant or mammoth; and the awful arm resembled a trunk, but was of
+incredible size. Moreover, it was covered with sucking mouths or disks.
+The creature apparently had four eyes ranged round the conical front of
+the head where it tapered into the trunk, and two of these were visible,
+huge, green, and deadly bright in the gleam of the lantern.
+
+For a moment we all stood as if petrified; then the great arm was thrown
+with a movement quick as lightning round both Ala and Juba as they clung
+to the upright! My heart shot into my mouth, but before the animal could
+haul in its prey, a series of terrific reports rattled like the discharge
+of a machine gun at my ear. The monstrous arm released the victims, and
+waved in agony, breaking the thick, clammy branches of the vegetation,
+and the vast head disappeared. Edmund had fired all the ten shots in his
+automatic pistol with a single pressure of the double trigger and an
+unvarying aim, directed, no doubt, at one of the creature's eyes.
+
+"Quick!" he shouted, as the air ship, relieved from the stress, righted
+itself; "climb aboard."
+
+The vessel had sunk so low, and the vegetation was so crowded about it,
+that we had no great difficulty in obeying his commands. He was the last
+aboard, and instantly he grasped the controlling apparatus, and we rose
+out of the tangle. We could hear the wounded monster thrashing in the
+swamp, but saw only the reflection of its movements in the commotion of
+the branches.
+
+I had expected that Edmund would immediately fly at top speed away from
+the dreadful place, but, instead, as soon as we were at a safe elevation,
+he brought the air ship to a hover, circling slowly above the
+comparatively open spot of dry ground at the edge of the swamp.
+
+"We cannot leave the poor fellows who have fallen overboard," he said, as
+quietly as if he had been safely aboard his own car. "We must stay here
+and find them."
+
+Soon their cries came to our ears, and turning down the light of the
+lantern we saw five of them collected together on the solid ground, and
+gesticulating to us in an agony of terror. Edmund swept the ship around
+until we were directly over the poor fellows, and then allowed it to
+settle until it rested on the ground beside them. I trembled with
+apprehension at this bold maneuver, but Edmund was as steady as a rock.
+Ala instantly comprehended his intention, and encouraged her followers,
+who were all but paralyzed with fright, to clamber aboard. A momentary
+communication of the eyes took place between Edmund and Ala, and I
+understood that he was demanding if all had been found.
+
+There was another--and not a trace of him could be seen.
+
+"We must wait a moment," said Edmund, reloading the chamber of his pistol
+while he spoke. "I'll look about for him."
+
+"In God's name, Edmund! You don't think of going down there!"
+
+"But I do," he said firmly, and before I could put my hand on his arm he
+had dropped from the deck. The gigantic creature that he had wounded was
+still thrashing about a little distance off, occasionally making horrible
+sounds, but Edmund seemed to have no fear. We saw him, with amazement,
+walk collectedly round the ground encircled by the swamp, peering into
+the tangle, and frequently uttering a call. But his search was vain, and
+after five minutes of the most intense nervous strain that I ever
+endured, I thanked Heaven for seeing him return in safety, and come
+slowly aboard. There was another consultation with Ala, which evidently
+related to the ability of the engineer of the ship to resume his
+functions. This had a satisfactory result, for the fellow took his place,
+and the vessel finally quitted the ground. But, at Edmund's request, it
+rose only to a moderate height, and then began again to circle about. He
+would not yet give up the search.
+
+We flew in widening circles, Edmund keeping his lantern directed toward
+the ground, and the full horror of these interminable morasses now became
+plain. I was in a continual shudder at the evidence of Ingra's pitiless
+scheme for our destruction. He had meant that we should be the prey of
+the unspeakable inhabitants of the fens, and had believed that there was
+no possibility of escape from them. We became aware that there was a
+great variety of them in the swamps and thickets beneath through the
+noises that they made--heart-quaking cries, squealing sounds, gruntings,
+and, most trying of all, a loud, piercing whistle whose sibilant
+pulsations penetrated the ear like thrusts of a needle. I pictured to
+myself a colossal serpent as the most probable author of this terrifying
+sound, but the error of my fancy was demonstrated by a tragedy which
+shook even Edmund's iron nerves.
+
+Always circling, and always watching what was below by the light of the
+lantern, which was of extraordinary power for so small an instrument, we
+saw occasionally a curling trunk uplifted above the vegetation, as if its
+owner imagined that the strange light playing on the branches was some
+delicate prey that could be grasped, and sometimes a gliding form whose
+details escaped detection, when, upon passing over a relatively open
+place, like that where our adventure had occurred, a blood-curdling sight
+met our eyes.
+
+Directly ahead, in the focus of the reflector of the lantern, and not
+more than a hundred feet distant, stood a prodigious black creature, on
+eight legs, rolling something in its mandibles, which were held close to
+what seemed to be its mouth.
+
+"Good Lord!" cried Jack. "It's a tarantula as big as a buffalo!"
+
+"It has caught the missing man!" said Edmund. "Look!"
+
+He pointed to a shred of garment dangling on a thorny branch. I felt sick
+at heart, and I heard a groan from Jack. After all, these people were
+like us, and our feelings would not have been more keenly agitated if the
+victim had been a descendant of Adam.
+
+"He is beyond all help," I faltered.
+
+"But he can be avenged," said Edmund, in a tone that I had never heard
+him use before.
+
+As he spoke he whipped out his pistol, and crash! crash! crash! sounded
+the hurrying shots. As their echo ceased, the giant arachnid dropped his
+prey, and then there came from him--clear, piercing, quivering through
+our nerves--that arrowy whistle that had caused us to shudder as we
+unwillingly listened to it darting out of the gloom of the impenetrable
+thickets.
+
+Then, to our horror, the creature, which, if touched at all by the shots,
+had not been seriously injured, picked up its prey and bounded away in
+the darkness. Edmund instantly turned to Ala, and I knew as well as if he
+had spoken, what his demand was. He wished to follow, and his wish was
+obeyed. We swooped ahead, and in a minute we saw the creature again. It
+had stopped on another oasis of dry land, and it still carried its
+dreadful burden. Its head was toward us, and it appeared to be watching
+our movements. Its battery of eyes glittered wickedly, and I noticed the
+bristle of stiff hairs, like wires, that covered its body and legs.
+
+Again Edmund fired upon it, and again it uttered its stridulous pipe of
+defiance, or fear, and leaped away in the tangle. We sped in pursuit, and
+when we came upon it for the third time it had stopped in an opening so
+narrow that the bow of the air ship almost touched it before we were
+aware of its presence. This time its prey was no longer visible. There
+was no question now that its attitude meant defiance. Cold shivers ran
+all over me as, with fascinated eyes, I gazed at its dreadful form. It
+seemed to be gathering itself for a spring, and I shrank away in terror.
+
+Crash! bang! bang! bang! sounded the shots once more, and in the midst of
+them there came a blinding tangle of bristled, jointed legs that thrashed
+the deck, a thud that shook the air ship to its center, and a cry from
+Jack, who fell on his back with a crimson line across his face.
+
+"Give me your pistol!" shouted Edmund, snatching my arm.
+
+I hardly know how I got it out of my pocket, I was so unnerved, but it
+was no sooner in Edmund's hand than he was leaning over the side of the
+deck and pouring out the shots. When the pistol was emptied he
+straightened up, and said simply:
+
+"_That_ devil is ended."
+
+Then he turned to where Jack lay on the deck. We all bent over him with
+anxious hearts, even Ala sharing our solicitude. He had lost his senses,
+but a drop from Edmund's flask immediately brought him round, and he rose
+to his feet.
+
+"I'm all right," he said, with a rather sickly smile; "but," drawing his
+hand across his brow and cheek, "he got me here, and I thought it was a
+hot iron. Where is he now?"
+
+"Dead," said Edmund.
+
+"Jo, I'd have liked to finish him myself!"
+
+We were worried by the appearance of the wound, like a long, deep
+scratch, on Jack's face, but, of course, we said nothing about our
+worriment to him. Edmund bound it up, as best he could, and it afterwards
+healed, but it took a long time about it, and left a mark that never
+disappeared. There was probably a little poison in it.
+
+Edmund himself needed the attention of a surgeon, for his wrists had been
+cruelly burned by the matches, but he would not allow us to speak of his
+sufferings, and putting on some slight bandages, he declared that it was
+time now to get out of this wilderness of horrors. He communicated with
+Ala, and in a few minutes we were speeding, at a high elevation, toward
+the land of the opaline dome. So far above the morasses we no longer
+heard the brute voices of its terrible inhabitants, nor saw the swaying
+of the branches as they looked about in search of prey.
+
+"This," said Edmund, "exceeds everything that I could have imagined. I do
+not know in what classification to put any of the strange beasts that we
+have seen. They can only be likened to the monsters of the early dawn on
+the earth, in the age of the dinosaurs. But they are _sui generis_, and
+would make our anatomists and paleontologists stare. I am only surprised
+that we have encountered no flying dragons here."
+
+"But was it really a--a giant spider that captured Ala's man?" I asked
+with a shudder.
+
+"God knows what it was! It had the form of a spider, and it leaped like
+one. If it had been armored I could never have killed it. I think the
+shock of its impact against the air ship helped to finish it."
+
+It was only after we had issued from under the curtain of twilight that
+we learned the story of the chase which had brought our salvation. Edmund
+first obtained it from Ala and Juba, filling out the outlines of their
+wordless narrative with his ready power of interpretation, and then he
+told it to us."
+
+"We owe our lives to Juba," he said. "Ala had just returned to the mine
+from the capital when our abduction took place. Juba, who had wandered
+out on our track, saw from a distance the seizure, and a few minutes
+afterwards Ala's air ship arrived. He instantly communicated the facts to
+her, and without losing an instant the chase was begun. Ingra's delay in
+choosing his course was the thing that saved us. They knew that they must
+not lose sight of us for an instant, and their motors were driven to
+their highest capacity. Fortunately, Ala's vessel is one of the
+speediest, and they were able to gain on us from the start. Slowly they
+drew up until the border of the twilight zone was reached. Then as we
+entered under the clouds we were swallowed from the sight of all except
+Juba. But for his wonderful eyes, there would have been no hope of
+continuing the chase. He had lived all his life in a land of darkness and
+now he began to feel himself at home. Throwing off the shades which he
+has worn since our arrival, he had no difficulty in following the
+movements of Ingra, even after our vessel had completely faded from the
+view of all the others. So, without abating their fearful speed, they
+plunged into the gloom straight upon our track. The nose of the
+bloodhound is not more certain in the chase than were Juba's eyes in that
+terrible flight through the darkness. When Ingra changed his course and
+doubled, Juba saw the maneuver and turned the dodge against its inventor,
+for now Ingra could not see them, and did not know that they were still
+on his track. They cut off the corners, and gained so rapidly that they
+were close at hand when Ingra rose from the swamp after pitching us
+overboard. They had heard Henry's cry, which served to tell them what had
+happened, and to direct them to the spot. But even Juba could not discern
+us in the midst of the vegetation, and it was the sudden flashing out of
+our lamp which revealed our location when they were about to pass
+directly over us."
+
+I need not say with what breathless attention we listened to this
+remarkable story, which Edmund's scientific imagination had constructed
+out of the bones of fact that he had been able to gather.
+
+"Jo," said Jack, "our luck is simply outlandish!"
+
+Then he broke out in one of his fits of enthusiasm. Slapping Juba on the
+shoulder, he danced around him, laughing joyously, and exclaiming:
+
+"Bully old boy! Oh, you're a trump! Wait till I get you in New York, and
+I'll give you the time of your life! Eh, Edmund, won't we make him a
+member of Olympus? Golly, won't he make a sensation!"
+
+And Jack hugged himself again with delight. His reference to home threw
+us into a musing. At length I asked:
+
+"Shall we ever see the earth again, Edmund?"
+
+"Why, of course we shall," he replied heartily. "I have the material I
+need, and it only remains to repair the car. I shall set about it the
+moment we reach the capital. Do you know," he continued, "this adventure
+has undoubtedly been a benefit to us."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"By increasing our prestige. They have seen the terrible power of the
+pistols. They have seen us conquer monsters that they must have regarded
+as invincible. When they see what the car can do, even Ingra will begin
+to fear us, and to think that we are more than mortal."
+
+"But what will Ala think of Ingra now?"
+
+"Ah, I cannot tell; but, at any rate, he cannot have strengthened himself
+in her regard, for it is plain that she, at least, has no desire to see
+us come to harm. But he is a terrible enemy still, and we must continue
+to be on our guard against him."
+
+"I should think that he would hardly dare to show himself now," I
+remarked.
+
+"Don't be too sure of that. After all, we are interlopers here, and he
+has all the advantages of his race and his high rank. Ala is interested
+in us because she has, I believe I may say, a philosophical mind, with a
+great liking for scientific knowledge. It was she who planned and
+personally conducted the expedition toward the dark hemisphere. From me
+she has learned a little. She appreciates our knowledge and our powers,
+and would ask nothing better than to learn more about us and from us. Her
+prompt pursuit and interference to save us when she must have understood,
+perfectly, Ingra's design, shows that she will go far to protect us; but
+we must not presume too much on her ability to continue her protection,
+nor even on her unvarying disposition to do so. For the present, however,
+I think that we are safe, and I repeat that our position has been
+strengthened. Ingra made a great mistake. He should have finished us out
+of hand."
+
+"His leaving us to be devoured by those fearful creatures showed an
+inexplicable cruelty on his part; he chose the most horrible death he
+could think of for us," I said.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," replied Edmund. "Did you ever see a laughing boy
+throw flies into a spider's den? It is my idea that he simply wished to
+have us disappear mysteriously, and then _he_ would never have offered an
+explanation, unless it might have been the malicious suggestion that we
+had suddenly decamped to return to the world we pretended to have come
+from. And but for Ala's unexpected return to the mine he would have
+succeeded. No doubt his crew were pledged to secrecy."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+EARTH MAGIC ON VENUS
+
+We were no sooner installed again at the capital than Edmund began his
+"readjustment of the atomic energies."
+
+"Blessed if I know what he means," said Jack; "but he gets the goods, and
+that's enough for me."
+
+In reality I did not understand it any better than Jack did, only I had
+more knowledge than he of the nature of the forces that Edmund employed.
+We went with him to the place in the great tower where the car had been
+stored, and where it seemed to be regarded with a good deal of
+superstitious awe. But they had not yet the least idea of its marvelous
+powers. We were preparing for them the greatest surprise of their lives,
+and our impatience to see the effect that would be produced when we made
+our first flight grew by day, while Edmund, shut up alone in the car,
+labored away at his task.
+
+"I wonder what they think he is doing in there," I said, the third day
+after our return, as we sat on a balcony of the floating tower, with our
+feet nonchalantly elevated on a railing, and our eyes drinking in the
+magnificent prospect of the vast city, as brilliant in variegated colors
+as a flower garden, while a soft breeze, that gently swayed the gigantic
+gossamer, soothed us like a perfumed fan.
+
+"Worshipping the sun god, I reckon," laughed Jack. "But, see here, Peter,
+what do you make of this religion of theirs, anyway?"
+
+"I don't know what to make of it," I replied. "But if the sun really does
+appear to them once in a lifetime, or so, as Edmund thinks, it seems to
+me natural enough that they should worship it. We have done more
+surprising things of the kind on the earth."
+
+"Not civilized people like these."
+
+"Oh, yes. The Egyptians were civilized, and the Romans, and they
+worshipped all sorts of strange things that struck their fancy. And what
+can you say to the Greeks--they were civilized enough, and look what a
+collection of gods they had."
+
+"But the wise heads among them didn't really believe in their gods."
+
+"I'm not sure of that; at any rate they had to pretend that they
+believed. No doubt there were some who secretly scoffed at the popular
+belief, and it may be the same here. I shouldn't wonder if Ingra were one
+of the scoffers. Edmund has a great opinion of his intelligence, and if
+he really doesn't believe in the thing, he is all the more dangerous for
+us, because you know that now we are depending a good deal on their
+superstition for our safety."
+
+"But Ala is very intelligent, a regular wonder, I should think, from what
+Edmund says; and yet she accepts their superstition as gospel."
+
+"Lucky for us that she does believe," I said. "But there's some great
+mystery behind all this; Edmund has convinced me of that. We don't begin
+to understand it yet, and there are moments when I think that Edmund is
+afraid of the whole thing. He seems dimly to foresee some catastrophe
+connected with it, though what it may be I cannot imagine, and I think he
+doesn't know himself."
+
+Henry listened to our conversation without proffering a remark--quite the
+regular thing with him--and at this point Jack, yielding to the
+overpowering sense of well-being, and the soothing influence of the
+delicious air and delightful view, closed his eyes for a nap.
+
+Presently Edmund came and roused us all up with the remark that he had
+finished his work. Jack was instantly on his feet:
+
+"Hurrah!" he exclaimed. "Now for another trip that will open the eyes of
+these Venusians. Where shall we go, Edmund?"
+
+"We shall go nowhere just at present. I want first to make sure by a
+trial trip that everything is in perfect shape. For that purpose I shall
+wait for the hours of repose when there will be nobody to watch us."
+
+I must here explain more fully what I have already said--that in this
+land of unceasing daylight, everybody took repose as regularly as on the
+earth. That is a necessity for all physical organisms. When they slept,
+they retired into darkened chambers, and passed several hours in peaceful
+slumber. We had learned the time when this periodical need for sleep
+seized upon the entire population, and although, naturally, there were a
+few wide-awakes who kept "late hours," yet within a certain time after
+the habitual hour for repose had arrived it was a rare thing to see
+anybody stirring. We had, then, only to wait until "the solemn dead of
+night" came on in order that Edmund might try his experiment with almost
+a certainty of not being observed. This was the easier, since latterly
+there had been no guard kept over our movements. We were not confined in
+any way, and could go and come as we pleased. Evidently, if anybody
+thought of such a thing as an attempt to escape on our part, they trusted
+to the fact that we had no means of getting away, for after our first
+exploit of that kind, all the air ships were carefully guarded, and
+placed beyond our reach. As to the car, there was nothing about it to
+suggest that it could fly, and probably they took it simply for some kind
+of boat, since they had seen us employ it only in navigating the sea. I
+have often thought, with wonder, of their unsuspiciousness in permitting
+Edmund to spend so much time alone and undisturbed in the car. Possibly,
+there was something in Jack's suggestion, that they supposed it to be
+connected with our religious observances. Anyhow, so it was; and I can
+only ascribe the fact to the kindness of that overlooking Power which so
+often interfered in our behalf, making it no disparagement of our claim
+upon its protection that we had abandoned our mother earth and ventured
+so far away into space!
+
+One thing decidedly in our favor was that, since our return from the mine
+(the adventure in the land of bogs and monsters was, as far as Edmund
+could ascertain, unknown at the capital, except by those who had taken
+part in it), we had been accustomed to pass the hours of repose in the
+tower. We should thus be close to the car when we got ready to start.
+Another equally favorable circumstance--and perhaps it was even more
+important--was the absence of Ingra, who, either because he did not care
+just now to face Ala, or because he had gone off somewhere after throwing
+us to the animals and was not yet aware of our escape, had not shown
+himself. If he had been present it might not have been so easy for Edmund
+to make his preparations.
+
+Never had the great city seemed to me so long in quieting down for its
+periodical rest as on this occasion. After all was deserted in the
+streets below, people were still moving about on the tower, and it did
+seem as if they had taken a fit of wakefulness expressly to annoy us and
+interfere with our plans. We kept stealing out of our sleeping room, and
+looking cautiously about, for at least two hours, but always there was
+some one stirring in the immediate neighborhood. At last a tall fellow,
+who had been standing an interminable time at the rail directly in front
+of the storage place of the car, and whom Jack had half seriously
+threatened to throttle if he stood there any longer, turned and went
+yawning away. No sooner was he out of sight than Edmund led the way, and
+with the slightest possible noise, aided by Juba, who was as strong as
+three men, we got the car out on the platform. I was in a fever lest
+there should be a squeak from the little wheels that carried it. But they
+ran as still as rubber.
+
+"Get in," whispered Edmund; and we obeyed him with alacrity.
+
+Would it go?
+
+Even Edmund could not answer that question. He pulled a knob, and I held
+my breath. There was the slightest perceptible tremor. Was it going to
+balk? No, thank Heaven! It was under way. In a few seconds we were off
+the tower in the free air. Edmund pressed a button, and the speed
+instantly increased. The gorgeous tower seemed to be flying away from us
+like a soap bubble. Jack, in ecstasy, could hardly repress a cheer.
+
+"Hurrah, if you want to,"' said Edmund.
+
+"They won't hear you, and now I don't care if they do. The apparatus is
+all right, and we'll give them something to wake up for. My only anxiety
+was lest they should witness a failure, which might have led to
+disagreeable consequences. There must be no dropping of knives in our
+juggling."
+
+"Good!" cried Jack. "Then let's give 'em a salute."
+
+Edmund smiled and nodded his head:
+
+"The guns are in the locker," he said.
+
+Jack had one of the automatic rifles out in a hurry.
+
+"Shoot high," said Edmund, "and off toward the open country. The
+projectiles fly far, and I guess we can take the risk."
+
+He threw both windows open, and Jack aimed skyward and began to pull the
+trigger.
+
+Bang! bang! bang! Heavens, what a noise it was! The car must have seemed
+a flying volcano. And it woke them up! The sleeping city poured forth its
+millions to gaze and wonder. Surely they had never heard such a
+thundering. Within five minutes we saw them on the roofs and in the
+towers. Many were staring at us through a kind of opera glasses which
+they had. Then from a dozen aerial pavilions the colors broke forth and
+quivered through the air.
+
+"Saluting us!" exclaimed Jack, delighted.
+
+"Asking one another questions, rather," said Edmund.
+
+They certainly asked enough of them, and I wondered what answers they
+returned.
+
+"Probably they think we're off for good," said I.
+
+"And aren't we?" asked Henry anxiously.
+
+"Not yet," Edmund replied, and Henry's countenance fell.
+
+The car turned and approached the great tower again. We swept round it
+within a hundred yards, and could see the amazement in the faces that
+watched us. But if they were astonished they were not terror-stricken.
+Within ten minutes twenty air ships were swiftly approaching us. Edmund
+allowed them to come within a few yards, and then darted away, rushed
+round the whole city like a flying cloud, and finally rose straight up
+with dizzying velocity, which made the vast metropolis shrink to a
+colored patch, as if we had been viewing it through the wrong end of a
+telescope.
+
+"I'll go right up through the cloud dome now," he said. "Nothing could
+more impress them with a sense of our power than that; and when we come
+back again they will know that we have no fear, and the very act will be
+a proof of origin from the sky."
+
+When we were in the midst of the mighty curtain of vapor, I was
+interested in noticing the peculiar quality of the light that surrounded
+us. We seemed to be immersed in a rose-pink mist.
+
+"I do not understand," I said to Edmund, "how this dome is maintained at
+so great an elevation, and in apparent independence of the rain clouds
+which sometimes form beneath. No rain ever falls from the dome itself,
+and yet it consists of true clouds."
+
+"I think," he replied, "that the dome is due to vapors which assemble at
+a general level of condensation, and do not form raindrops, partly
+because of the absence of dust to serve as nuclei at this great height,
+and partly because of some peculiar electrical condition of the air,
+arising from the relative nearness of Venus to the sun, which prevents
+the particles of vapor from gathering into drops heavy enough to fall.
+You will observe that there is a peculiar inner circulation in the vapor
+surrounding us, marked by ascending and descending currents which are
+doubtless limited by the upper and lower surfaces of the dome. The true
+rain clouds form in the space beneath the dome, where there seems to be
+an independent circulation of the winds."
+
+On entering the cloud vault Edmund had closed the windows, explaining
+that it was not merely the humidity which led him to do so, but the
+diminishing density of the air which, when we had risen considerably
+above the dome, would become too rare for comfortable breathing. In a
+little while his conjecture about a peculiar electrical condition was
+justified by a pale-blue mist which seemed to fill the air in the car;
+but we felt no effects and the mechanism was not disturbed. Owing to our
+location on Venus, still at a long distance from the center of the
+sunward hemisphere, the sun was not directly overhead, but inclined at a
+large angle to the vertical, so that when we began to approach the upper
+surface of the vault, and the vapor thinned out, we saw through one of
+the windows a pulsating patch of light, growing every moment brighter and
+more distinct, until as we shot out of the clouds it instantly sharpened
+into a huge round disk of blinding brilliance.
+
+"The sun! The sun!" we cried.
+
+We had not seen it for months. When it had gleamed out for a short time
+during our drift across the water from the land of ice into the belt of
+tempests, we had been too much occupied with our safety to pay attention
+to it; but now the wonder of it awed us. Four times as large and four
+times as bright and hot as it appears from the earth, its rays seemed to
+smite with terrific energy. Juba, wearing his eye shades, shrank into a
+corner and hid his face.
+
+"It is well that we are protected by the walls of the car and the thick
+glass windows," said Edmund, "for I do not doubt that there are solar
+radiations in abundance here which scarcely affect us on the earth, but
+which might prove dangerous or even mortal if we were exposed to their
+full force."
+
+Even at the vast elevation which we had now attained there was still
+sufficient air to diffuse the sunlight, so that only a few of the
+brightest stars could be glimpsed. Below us the spectacle was magnificent
+and utterly unparalleled. There lay the immense convex shield of Venus,
+more dazzling than snow, and as soft in appearance as the finest wool. We
+gazed and gazed in silent admiration, until suddenly Henry, who had shown
+less enthusiasm over the view than the rest of us, said, in a doleful
+voice:
+
+"And now that we are here--free, free, where we can do as we like--with
+all means at our command--oh! why will you return to that accursed
+planet? Edmund, in the name of God, I beseech you, go back to the earth!
+Go now! For the love of Heaven do not drag us into danger again! Go home!
+Oh, go home!"
+
+The appeal was pitiful in its intensity of feeling, and a shade of
+hesitation appeared on Edmund's face. If it had been Jack or I, I believe
+that he would have yielded. But he slowly shook his head, saying in a
+sympathetic tone:
+
+"I am sorry, Henry, that you feel that way. But I _cannot_ leave this
+planet yet. Have patience for a little while and then we will go home."
+
+I doubt whether afterwards, Edmund himself did not regret that he had
+refused to grant Henry's prayer. If we had gone now when it was in our
+power to go without interference, we should have been spared the most
+tragic and heart-rending event of all that occurred during the course of
+our wandering. But Edmund seemed to feel the fascination of Venus as a
+moth feels that of the candle flame.
+
+When we emerged again on the lower side of the dome we were directly over
+the capital. We had been out of view for at least three hours, but many
+were still gazing skyward, toward the point where the car had
+disappeared, and when we came into sight once more there were signs of
+the utmost agitation. The prismatic signals began to flash from tower to
+tower, conveying the news of the reappearance of the car, and as we drew
+near we saw the crowds reassembling on every point of vantage. We went
+out on the window ledges to watch the display.
+
+"Perhaps they think that we have been paying a visit to the sun," I
+suggested.
+
+"Well, if they do I shall not undeceive them," said Edmund, "although it
+goes against the grain to make any pretense of the kind. Ala,
+particularly, is so intelligent, and has so genuine a desire for
+knowledge, that if I could only cause her to comprehend the real truth it
+would afford me one of the greatest pleasures of my life."
+
+"I hope old Beak Nose is getting his fill of this show," put in Jack.
+"He'll be likely to treat us with more respect after this. By the way, I
+wonder what's become of my money. I think I'll sue out a writ of replevin
+in the name of the sun to recover it."
+
+Nobody replied to Jack's sally, and the car rapidly approached the great
+tower.
+
+"Are you going to land there?" I asked.
+
+"I certainly shall," Edmund responded with decision.
+
+"But they'll seize the car!" exclaimed Henry in affright.
+
+"No, they won't. They are too much afraid of it."
+
+Any further discussion was prevented by a sight which arrested the eyes
+of all of us. On the principal landing of the tower, whence we had
+departed with the car, stood Ala with her suite, and by her side was
+Ingra!
+
+His sudden apparition was a great surprise, as well as a great
+disappointment, for we had felt sure that he was not in the city, and I,
+at least, had persuaded myself that he might be in disgrace for his
+attempt on our lives. Yet here he was, apparently on terms of confidence
+with her whom we had regarded as our only sure friend.
+
+"Hang him!" exclaimed Jack. "There he is! By Jo, if Edmund had only
+invented a noiseless gun of forty million atom power, I'd rid Venus of
+_him_, in the two-billionth part of a second!"
+
+"Keep quiet," said Edmund, sternly, "and remember what I now tell you; in
+no way, by look or act, is any one of us to indicate to him the slightest
+resentment for what he did. Ignore him, as if you had never seen him."
+
+By this time the car had nearly touched the landing. Edmund stepped
+inside a moment and brought it completely to rest, anchoring it, as he
+whispered to me, by "atomic attraction." When the throng on the tower saw
+the car stop dead still, just in contact with the landing, but manifestly
+supported by nothing but the air--no wings, no aeroplanes, no screws, no
+mechanism of any kind visible--there arose the first _voice of a crowd_
+that we had heard on the planet. It fairly made me jump, so unexpected,
+and so contrary to all that we had hitherto observed, was the sound. And
+this multitudinous voice itself had a quality, or timbre, that was unlike
+any sound that had ever entered my ears. Thin, infantine, low, yet
+multiplied by so many mouths to a mighty volume, it was fearful to listen
+to. But it lasted only a moment; it was simply a universal ejaculation,
+extorted from this virtually speechless people by such a marvel as they
+had never dreamed of looking upon. But even this burst of astonishment,
+as Edmund afterwards pointed out, was really a tribute to their
+intelligence, since it showed that they had instantly appreciated both
+the absence of all mechanical means of supporting the car and the fact
+that here was something that implied a power infinitely exceeding any
+that they possessed. And to have produced in a world where aerial
+navigation was the common, everyday means of conveyance, such a sensation
+by a performance in the _air_ was an enormous triumph for us!
+
+No sooner had we gathered at the door of the car to step out upon the
+platform than an extraordinary thing occurred. The front of the crowd
+receded into the form of a semicircle, of which the point where we stood
+marked the center, and in the middle of the curve, slightly in advance of
+the others, stood forth the tall form of the eagle-beaked high priest
+with the terrible face, flanked on one side by Ala and on the other by
+the Jovelike front of the aged judge before whom our first arraignment
+had taken place. Directly behind Ala stood Ingra. The contrast between
+the three principal personages struck my eye even in that moment of
+bewilderment--Ala stately, blonde, and beautiful as a statue of her own
+Venus; the high priest ominous and terrifying in aspect, even now when we
+felt that he was honoring us; and the great judge, with his snow-white
+hair and piercing eyes, looking like a god from Olympus.
+
+"Do you note the significance of that arrangement?" Edmund asked, nudging
+me. "Ala, the queen, yields the place of honor to the high priest. That
+indicates that our reception is essentially a religious one, and proves
+that our flight sunward has had the expected effect. Now we have the head
+of the religious order on our side. Human nature, if I may use such a
+term, is the same in whatever world you find it. Touch the imagination
+with some marvel and you awaken superstition; arouse superstition and you
+can do what you like."
+
+It would be idle for me to attempt to describe our reception because
+Edmund himself could only make shrewd guesses as to the meaning of what
+went on, and you would probably not be particularly interested in his
+conjectures. Suffice it to say that when it was over, we felt that, for a
+time at least, we were virtually masters of the situation.
+
+Only one thing troubled my mind--what did Ingra think and what would he
+do? At any rate, he, too, for the time being, seemed to have been carried
+away with the general feeling of wonder, and narrowly as I watched him I
+could detect in his features no sign of a wish to renew his persecution.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+WILD EDEN
+
+The next day after our return from the trip above the cloud dome, and our
+astonishing reception (you will, of course, understand the sense in which
+I use the term "day"), Edmund sprang another surprise upon us.
+
+"I have persuaded Ala," he said, "to make a trip in the car."
+
+"You don't mean it!"
+
+"Oh, yes, and I am sure she will be delighted."
+
+"But she is not going alone?"
+
+"Surely no; she will be accompanied by one of her women--and by Ingra."
+
+"_Ingra_!"
+
+"Of course. Did you suppose that he would consent to be left behind? Ala
+herself would refuse to go without him."
+
+"Then," I said, with deep disappointment, "he has resumed all his
+influence over her."
+
+"I'm not sure he ever lost it," returned Edmund. "You forget his rank,
+and his position as her destined consort. Whatever we do we have got to
+count him in."
+
+Jack raged inwardly, but said nothing. For my part, I almost wished
+Jack's bullet had not gone astray at that first memorable shooting.
+
+"Now," Edmund continued, "the car, as you know, has but a limited amount
+of room. I do not wish to crowd it uncomfortably, but I can take six
+persons. Ala's party comprises three, so there is room for just two
+besides myself. You will have to draw lots."
+
+"Is Juba included in the drawing?"
+
+"Yes, and I'm half inclined to take him anyway, and let you three draw
+for the one place remaining."
+
+"You can count me out," said Henry. "If there is another to stay with me
+I prefer to remain."
+
+"Very well," said Edmund, "then Peter and Jack can draw lots."
+
+"Since we can't all go," said Jack, "and since that fellow is to be of
+the party, I'll stay with Henry."
+
+So it was settled without an appeal to chance, and I went with Edmund and
+Juba. As usual Edmund immediately put his project into execution. It
+showed an astonishing confidence in us that Ala should consent to make
+such a trip, and that her people, and especially Ingra, should assent to
+it, and I could not sufficiently wonder at the fact. But we were now at
+the summit of favor and influence, and it is impossible to guess what
+thoughts may have been in their minds. At any rate, it showed how
+completely Edmund had established himself in Ala's esteem, and I suspect
+that her woman's curiosity had played a large part in the decision. There
+was another thing which astonished me yet more, and, in fact, awakened a
+good deal of apprehension in my mind. I could not but wonder that Edmund,
+after all the precautions that he had previously taken, should now think
+of admitting these people into the car, where they could witness his
+manipulations of the mechanism. I spoke to him about it. "Rest your mind
+easy about that," he said. "Now that everything goes like a charm, they
+will suspect nothing. It will be all a complete mystery to them. Even the
+gods used natural agencies when they visited the earth without shaking
+the belief of mankind in them. I employ no force of which they have the
+least idea, and if they see me touch a button, or pull a knob, what can
+that convey to their minds except an impression of mysterious power?"
+
+I said no more, but I was not convinced, and the sequel proved that, for
+once, Edmund had made a serious mistake, the more amazing because he had
+been the first to detect the exceptional intelligence and shrewdness of
+Ingra. But, no doubt, in the exultation of his recent triumph, he counted
+upon the strength of the superstitious regard in which we were held.
+
+Our departure from the tower was the signal for the assembling of great
+crowds of spectators again, and we sailed away with the utmost _eclat_.
+Ala at once showed all the eager excitement of a child over so novel and
+enjoyable an experience. The motion of the car was entirely unlike that
+of the air ships. Perfectly steady, it skimmed along at a speed which
+filled her with amazement and delight. The city, with its towers, seemed
+to fly away from us by magic, and the trees and fields beneath ran into
+streaming lines. The windows were thrown wide open, and all stood by
+them, watching the scene. Finally Ala wished to go out on the window
+ledges, where one was perfectly secure if he kept a firm hold on the
+supports. Edmund was most of the time with us outside, only stepping
+within when he wished to change the course. I thought that he showed a
+disposition to conceal his manipulations as much as possible, as if what
+I had said had made an impression. But all were so much occupied with
+their novel sensations that, for the time at least, there was no danger
+of their taking note of anything else.
+
+I believe that it must have been some intimation from Ala which finally
+led Edmund to hold his course toward the mountains, but in a direction
+different from that which led to the mines. When he had once chosen this
+direction he worked up the speed to fully a hundred miles an hour, and
+all were compelled to go inside on account of the wind created by our
+rush through the air. We held on thus for five hours. During this time
+Edmund spread a repast made up of dishes chosen from the supplies in the
+car, and, of course, utterly strange to our guests. They found them to
+their taste, however, and were delighted with Edmund's entertainment. We
+spent a long time at our little table, and I was surprised at the variety
+of delicious things which Edmund managed to extract from his stores.
+There was even some champagne, and I noticed that Edmund urged it upon
+Ingra, who, nothing loth, drank enough to make him decidedly tipsy, a
+fact which was not surprising since we had found that the wines of Venus
+were very light, and but slightly alcoholized.
+
+At length we began to approach what proved to be the goal of our journey.
+Before us spread a vast extent of forest composed of trees of the most
+beautiful forms and foliage. Some towered up to a great height, spreading
+their pendulous branches over the less aspiring forms, like New England
+elms; others were low and bushy, and afire with scarlet blossoms, whose
+perfume filled the air; a few resembled gigantic grasses or great timothy
+stems, surmounted with nodding plumes of golden leaves, streaming out
+like gilt gonfalons in the breeze; but there was one species, as tall and
+massive as oaks, and scattered everywhere through the forest, that I
+could liken to nothing but enormous rose bushes in the full bloom of
+June. When we began to pass above this strange woodland, Ala made some
+communication to Edmund which caused him to slow down the movement of the
+car. By almost imperceptible touches he controlled the motive power, and
+presently we came to rest above a delightful glade, where a small stream
+ran at the foot of a gravelly slope, crowned with grass and overhung by
+trees.
+
+Here the car was allowed to settle gently upon the ground, and all
+alighted. Ingra, over whom the influence of the champagne had been
+growing, tottered on his legs in a way that would have filled Jack with
+uncontrollable delight, but Edmund gravely helped him out of the car and
+steadied him to a seat on the soft turf under the tree. I saw Ala
+regarding Ingra with a puzzled look, and no wonder, for Edmund had been
+careful that no one else should take enough of the wine to produce more
+than the slightest exhilaration of spirits. It is possible that Edmund
+had plied Ingra with the idea of rendering him less observant, and it
+probably had that effect; but it resulted, as you will see presently, in
+a revelation which finally put Edmund on guard against the very danger to
+which he had seemed so insensible when I mentioned it to him before our
+start.
+
+The place where we now were was, beyond comparison, the most charming
+that we had yet seen. A very Eden it seemed, wild, splendid, and remote
+from all cultivation. The air was loaded with indescribable fragrance
+shed from the thousands of strange blossoms that depended from trees and
+shrubs, and starred the rich grass. I learned afterwards from Edmund, who
+had it from Ala, that the spot was famous for its beauty and other
+attractions, and was sometimes visited in air ships from the capital. But
+for them, what took us but a few hours was a trip extending over several
+days of time. One would have said that the forest was imbedded in a
+garden of the most extraordinary orchids. The shapes of some of the
+flowers were so fantastic that it seemed impossible that Nature could
+have produced them. And their colors were no less unparalleled,
+inimitable, and incredible.
+
+The flowery bank on which we had chosen our resting place was removed a
+few yards from the spot where the car rested, and the latter was hidden
+from view by intervening branches and huge racemes of gorgeous flowers,
+hanging like embroidered curtains about us. A peculiarity of the place
+was that little zephyr-like breezes seemed to haunt it, coming one could
+not tell whence, and they stirred the hanging blossoms, keeping them in
+almost continual rhythmic motion. The effect was wonderfully charming,
+but I observed that Ala was especially influenced by it. She sat with her
+maid beside her, and fixed her eyes, with an expression of ecstasy, upon
+the swinging flowers. I whispered to Edmund to regard her singular
+absorption. But he had already noticed it, and seemed to be puzzling his
+brain with thoughts that it suggested to him.
+
+Thus as we sat, the leaves of a tree over our heads were lightly stirred,
+and a bird, adorned with long plumes more beautiful than those of a bird
+of paradise, alighted on a branch, and began to ruffle its iridescent
+feathers in a peculiar way. With every movement waves of color seemed to
+flow over it, merging and dissolving in the most marvelous manner. As
+soon as this bird appeared, Ala gave it all her attention, and the
+pleasure which she experienced in watching it was reflected upon her
+countenance. She seemed positively enraptured. After a few moments the
+conviction came to me that she was _listening!_ Her whole attitude
+expressed it. And yet not an audible sound came from the bird. At last I
+whispered to Edmund:
+
+"Edmund, I believe that Ala hears something which we do not."
+
+"Of course she does," was his reply. "There is music here, such music as
+was never heard on earth. That bird is _singing_, but our ears are not
+attuned to its strain. You know the peculiarity of this atmosphere with
+regard to sound, and that all of these people have a horror of loud
+noises. But their ears detect sounds which are beyond the range of the
+vibrations that affect ours. If you will observe the bird closely you
+will perceive that there is a slight movement of its throat. But that is
+not the greatest wonder, by any means. I am satisfied that there is _a
+direct relation here between sounds and colors_. The swaying of the
+flowers in the breeze and the rhythmic motion of the bird's plumage
+produce harmonious combinations and recombinations of colors which are
+transformed into sounds as exquisite as those of the world of insects. A
+cluster of blossoms, when the wind stirs them, shake out a kind of
+aeolian melody, and it was that which so entranced Ala a few moments ago.
+She hears it still, but now it is mastered by the more perfect harmonies
+that come from the bird, partly from its throat but more from the
+agitation of its delicate feathers."
+
+You may imagine the wonder with which I listened to this. It immediately
+recalled what Jack and I had observed at the shop of the bird fancier,
+and when the lady carried off her seemingly mute pets in the palanquin.
+
+"But," I said, after a moment of reflection, "how can such a thing be? To
+me it seems surely impossible."
+
+"I can only try to explain it by an analogy," said Edmund. "You know how,
+by a telephone, sounds are first transmuted into electric vibrations and
+afterwards reshaped into sonorous waves. You know, also, that we have
+used a ray of light to send telephonic messages, through the
+sensitiveness of a certain metal which changes its electric resistance in
+accord with the intensity of the light that strikes it. Thus with a beam
+of light we can reproduce the human voice. Well, what we have done
+awkwardly and tentatively by the aid of imperfect mechanical
+contrivances, Nature has here accomplished perfectly through the peculiar
+composition of the air and some special adjustment of the auditory
+apparatus of this people.
+
+"Light and sound, color and music, are linked for them in a manner
+entirely beyond our comprehension. It is plain to me now that the music
+of color which we witnessed at the capital, was something far more
+complete and wonderful than I then imagined. Together with the pleasure
+which they derive from the harmonic combinations of shifting hues, they
+drink in, at the same time, the delight arising from sounds which are
+associated with, and, in many cases, awakened by, those very colors. It
+is probable that all their senses are far more fully, though more
+delicately, developed than ours. The perfume of these wonderful flowers
+is probably more delightful to Ala than to us. As there are sounds which
+they hear though inaudible to us, and colors visible to them which lie
+beyond the range of our vision, so there may be vibrations affecting the
+olfactory nerves which make no impression upon our sense of smell."
+
+"Well, well," I exclaimed, "this seems appropriate to Venus."
+
+"Yes," said Edmund with a smile, "it is appropriate; and yet I am not
+sure that some day we may not arrive at something of the kind on the
+earth."
+
+I was about to ask him what he meant when there came an exciting
+interruption. Ingra, who had fallen more and more under the influence of
+the champagne, had stumbled to the other side of the little glade,
+virtually unnoticed, and Juba had wandered out of sight. Suddenly there
+came from the direction of the car the sound of a struggle mingled with
+inarticulate cries. We sprang to our feet, and, running to the car, found
+both Ingra and Juba inside it. The former had his hands on one of the
+knobs controlling the mechanism, and Juba had grasped him round the waist
+and was trying to drag him away. Ingra was resisting with all his
+strength, and uttering strange noises, whose sense, if they had any, we,
+of course, did not comprehend. Just as we reached the door, Juba
+succeeded in wrenching his opponent from his hold, and immediately gave
+him a fling which sent him clear out of the car, tumbling in a heap at
+our feet. Juba's eyes were ablaze with a dangerous light, but the moment
+he encountered Edmund's gaze he quietly walked away and sat down on the
+bank. Ala was immediately by our side, and I thought that I could read
+embarrassment as well as surprise in her looks. Fortunately the knob that
+Ingra had grasped had been thrown out of connection; else he and Juba
+might have made an involuntary voyage through space.
+
+We picked up Ingra, found a seat for him, and Edmund, going down to the
+brook, filled a pocket flask with water and flung it in the fellow's
+face. This was repeated several times with the effect of finally
+straightening out his muddled senses sufficiently to warrant us in
+embarking for the return trip. All the way home Ingra was in a sulky
+mood, like any terrestrial drunkard after a debauch, but he kept his eyes
+on all Edmund's movements with an expression of cunning, which he had not
+sufficient self-command to conceal, and which could leave no doubt in our
+minds as to the nature of the quest which had led him into the car. As to
+Juba--although his interference had been of no practical benefit, since
+Ingra, especially in his present state, could surely have made no
+discovery of any importance--the devotion which he had again shown to our
+interests endeared him the more to us. Ala's manner showed that she was
+deeply chagrined, and thus our trip, which had opened so joyously, ended
+in gloom, and we were glad when the car again touched the platform, and
+our guests departed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+THE SECRET OF THE CAR
+
+Jack and Henry were overjoyed to see us again, for after our departure
+they had fallen into a despondent mood, and began to imagine all sorts of
+evil.
+
+"Jo!" was Jack's greeting; "I never was so glad to see anybody in my
+life. Edmund, don't you ever go off and leave any of us alone again."
+
+"I'll never leave you again," responded Edmund. "You can count on that."
+
+Then we told them the story of what we had seen, and of what had happened
+in the wild Eden that we had visited. They were not so much interested in
+the most wonderful thing of all--the combination of sound and color--as
+they were in the conduct of Ingra. Jack laughed until he was tired over
+Ingra's drunkenness, but he drew a long face when he heard of the
+adventure in the car.
+
+"Edmund," he said earnestly, "I am beginning to be of Henry's opinion;
+you had better get away from here without losing a moment."
+
+"No," said Edmund, "we'll not go yet. The time hasn't come to run away.
+What difference does it make even if Ingra does suspect that the car is
+moved by some mechanism instead of by pure magic? He could not understand
+it if I should explain it to him."
+
+"But you have said that he is extraordinarily intelligent."
+
+"So he is, but his intelligence is limited by the world he lives in, and
+while there are many marvelous things here, nobody has the slightest
+conception of inter-atomic force. They have never heard even of
+radioactivity. At the same time I don't mean that they shall go nosing
+about the car. I'll take care of that."
+
+"But," said Jack, "it grinds me to see that brute Ingra get off scot-free
+after trying to murder us. And what has he got against us, anyway? But
+for him we should never have had any trouble. He was against us from the
+beginning."
+
+"I don't think he was particularly _against_ us at the start," said
+Edmund. "Only he was for treating us with less consideration than Ala was
+disposed to show. But after the first accidental shooting, and the
+drubbing that Juba gave him, naturally his prejudices were aroused, and
+he could hardly be blamed for thinking us dangerous. Then, when he found
+himself defeated, and his wishes disregarded, on all sides, he began to
+hate us. It is easy enough to account for his feelings. Now, since our
+recent astonishing triumph, being himself incredulous about our celestial
+origin, he will try to undermine us by showing that our seeming miracle
+is no miracle at all."
+
+"And you gave him the chance by taking him in the car!" I could not help
+exclaiming.
+
+"Yes," said Edmund, with a smile. "I admit that I made a mistake. I
+counted too much upon the influence of the sense of mystery. But it will
+come out all right."
+
+"I doubt it," I persisted. "He will never rest now until he has found out
+the secret."
+
+Nothing more was said on the subject, but Edmund was careful not to leave
+the car unguarded. It was always kept afloat, though in contact with the
+landing. The expenditure of energy needed to keep it thus anchored
+without support was, Edmund assured us, insignificant in comparison with
+the quantity stored in his mysterious batteries.
+
+We were not long in finding, on all sides, evidence that our trip up
+through the cloud dome had been a master stroke, and that the presumable
+incredulity of Ingra with regard to our claims was not shared by others.
+He might have his intimates, who entertained prejudices against us
+resembling his own, but if so we saw nothing of them. In fact, Ingra was
+much less in evidence than before, but I did not feel reassured by that;
+on the contrary, it made me all the more fearful of some plot on his
+part, and Jack was decidedly of my opinion.
+
+"Hang him!" he said, "he's up to some mischief, and I know it. Much as I
+detest him, I'd rather have him _in_ sight than _out_, just now. He makes
+me feel like a snake in a bush; if he'd only show his ugly head, or
+spring his rattle, I'd be more comfortable."
+
+But the kindness and deference with which we were treated, and the new
+wonders that were shown to us in the capital, gradually drove Ingra from
+our minds. Now we were permitted to enter the temples without opposition,
+our presence there according with our new character of "children of the
+sun." We saw the worship that was offered before the solar images by
+family parties, and attended, as favored guests, the periodical
+ceremonies in the great temple. Edmund confessed that the high priest
+greatly embarrassed him by staring into his eyes, and plainly assuming
+that he knew things of which he was profoundly ignorant.
+
+"The hardest thing I ever undertook," he said, "is to hold my mind in
+suspense during these trying interviews, when he endeavors to read the
+depths of my soul, and I to throw a veil over them which he cannot
+penetrate."
+
+In some way, Edmund discovered that the high priest and all the priests
+connected with the sun worship (and they certainly bore a family
+likeness) belonged to a special race, whose roots ran back into the most
+remote antiquity, and about whose persons clung a sacredness that placed
+them, in some respects, above the royal family itself. We frequently
+visited the great library, where Edmund undertook a study of the language
+of the printed rolls, though what he made of it I never clearly
+understood. I do not think that he succeeded in deciphering any of it. He
+also spent much time studying their mechanics and engineering, for which
+he professed great admiration.
+
+But most interesting of all to us was what Edmund himself accomplished. I
+have told you of his remark about the color-sound music, viz., that he
+thought it not impossible that even human senses might be enabled to
+appreciate it. Well, he actually realized that wildly improbable dream!
+He fitted up a laboratory of his own in which he labored sometimes for
+twenty hours at a stretch, and at last he brought to us the astonishing
+invention he had made.
+
+I can make no pretense of understanding it; although Edmund declared
+that, in substance, it was no more wonderful than a telephone. The
+machine consisted of a little metal box. (He made three of them, and I
+have mine yet, but it will not work on the earth, and it lies on my table
+as I write, serving for the most wonderful paper weight that a man ever
+possessed.) When this box was pressed against the ear in front of one of
+the revolving disks that threw out blending colors, or in the presence of
+a "singing" bird, the most divine harmonies seemed to awake _in the
+brain_. I cannot make the slightest approach to a description of the
+marvelous phenomenon. One felt his whole being infused with ecstatic
+joy. It was the very soul of music itself, celestial, ineffable! The
+wonder-box also enabled us to catch many sounds peculiar to the
+atmosphere of Venus, formed of vibrations, as Edmund had explained, that
+lie outside our gamut. But to these, apart from the music, I could never
+listen. They were _too_ abnormal, filling one with inexplicable terror,
+as if he had been snatched out of nature and compelled to listen to the
+sounds of a preternatural world. The only sound that I ever heard with my
+natural ear which bore the slightest resemblance to these was the awful
+piercing whistle of the monster that killed Ala's man.
+
+Yet we derived immense pleasure from the possession of those little
+boxes. With their aid, we could appreciate the exquisite melodies that
+were played everywhere--in great halls where thousands were assembled, in
+the temples great and small, and in the homes of the people, to which we
+were often admitted. In every house there was on one of the walls a
+"musical rose," whose harmonies entranced the visitor. And the variety of
+musical _motifs_ seemed to be absolutely without limit. One was never
+tired of the entertainment because there was so little repetition.
+
+On one ever-memorable occasion we heard the great national, or, as Edmund
+preferred to call it, "racial" hymn, played in the air from the principal
+tower. When we had only beheld the play of colors characterizing this
+composition we had found it altogether delightful, although, as I have
+said, Edmund detected, even then, some underlying tone of sadness or
+despair; but when its _sounds_ broke into the brain the effect was
+overwhelming. The entire thing seemed to have been "written in a minor
+key," of infinite world-embracing pathos. The listener was plunged into
+depths of feeling that seemed unfathomable, eternal--and unendurable.
+
+"Heavens!" whispered Jack to me in an awed voice, dropping the box from
+his ear, "I can't _stand_ it!"
+
+I saw tears running down his face, and felt them on my own. Edmund and
+Henry were equally affected, and could not continue to listen. Edmund
+said nothing, but I recalled his words about the traditional belief of
+this people that their world had entered upon the last stage of its
+existence. Then I watched the countenances about us; they wore an
+expression of solemnity, and yet there was something which spoke of an
+uplifting pride, awakened by the great paean, and swelling the heart with
+memories of interminable ages of past glory.
+
+"Come," said Edmund at last, turning away, "this is not for us. The
+measureless sadness we feel, but the triumphant reflection of ancestral
+greatness is for them alone. Heavens! what an artist he must have been
+who composed this!--if it be not like the Iliad, the work of an age
+rather than of a man."
+
+We almost forgot the passage of time in the enjoyment of our now
+delightful and untroubled existence, but there came at last a rude
+awakening from this life, which had become for us like a dream.
+
+As I have said, we had ceased to worry about Ingra, whom we seldom saw,
+and who, when we did see him, gave no indication of continued enmity. At
+first we had kept the car under continual surveillance, but as time went
+on we became careless in this respect, and at last we did not guard it at
+all.
+
+One day, during the time of repose, I happened to be, with Juba, in our
+room on that stage of the great tower where the car was anchored, while
+Edmund and the others were below in the palace. Juba was already asleep,
+and I was lying down and courting drowsiness, when a slight noise outside
+attracted my attention. I stepped softly to the door and looked out. The
+door of the car was open! Supposing that Edmund was there I approached to
+speak to him. By good fortune I was wearing the soft slippers worn by
+everybody here, and which we had adopted, so that my footsteps made no
+sound.
+
+As I reached the car door and looked in, I nearly dropped in the
+intensity of my surprise and consternation. There, at the farther end,
+was Ingra, on his knees before the mechanical mouths which swallowed the
+invisible elements of power from the air; and beside him was another,
+also on his knees, and busy with tools, apparently trying to detach the
+things. The explanation flashed over my mind; Ingra had brought a skilled
+engineer to aid him in discovering the secret of the car, and, no doubt,
+to rob it of its mysterious mechanism. They seemed to fear no
+interruption, because Ingra had undoubtedly informed himself of the fact
+that for a day or two past we had abandoned the use of our room in the
+tower, and taken our repose in our apartments in the palace. It was by
+mere chance that Juba and I had, on this occasion, remained so long aloft
+that I had decided to take our sleep in the tower room.
+
+Anticipating no surveillance, Ingra was not on his guard, and had no idea
+that I was behind him. Instinctively I grasped for my pistol but
+instantly remembered that it was with my coat in the room. I tiptoed
+back, awoke Juba, making him a sign to be noiseless, got the pistol, and
+returned, without a sound, to the open door of the car with Juba at my
+heels. They were yet on their knees, with their heads under the shelf,
+and I heard the slight grating made by the tool that Ingra's assistant
+was using. The pistol was in my hand. What should I do? Shoot him down
+without warning, or trust to the strength of Juba to enable us to
+overcome them both and make them prisoners?
+
+While I hesitated, and it was but a moment, Ingra suddenly rose to his
+feet and confronted us. An exclamation burst from his lips, and the other
+sprang up. I covered Ingra with the pistol and pulled the trigger. There
+was not a sound! The sickening remembrance then burst over me that I had
+not reloaded the pistol since Edmund had emptied its whole chamber in the
+closing fight with the tarantula of the swamps. Ingra, followed by his
+man, sprang upon me like a tiger. In a twinkling I lay on my back, and
+before I could recover my feet, I saw Juba and Ingra in a deadly
+struggle, while the other ran away and disappeared. Jumping up I ran to
+Juba's assistance, but the fight was so furious, and the combatants
+whirled so rapidly, that I could get no hold. I saw, however, that Juba
+was more than a match for his opponent, and I darted into the car to get
+one of the automatic rifles, thinking that I could use it as a club to
+put an end to the struggle if the opportunity should offer. But the
+locker was firmly closed and I could not open it. After a minute of vain
+efforts I returned to the combatants and found that Juba had nearly
+completed his mastery. He had Ingra doubled over his knee and was
+endeavoring to pinion his hands.
+
+At this instant, when the victory seemed complete, and our enemy in our
+power, Juba uttered a faint cry and fell in a heap. Blood instantly
+stained the floor around him, and Ingra, with a bound, dropping a long
+knife, attained the door of a nearby chamber, and was out of sight before
+I could even start to pursue him. Nevertheless, I ran after him, but
+quickly became involved in a labyrinth where it was useless to continue
+the search, and where I nearly lost my way.
+
+I then returned to see how seriously Juba had been wounded. He had
+crawled into the car. I bent over him--he was dead! The knife had
+inflicted a fearful wound, and it seemed wonderful that he could have
+made his way unassisted even over the short distance from where he was
+struck down to the door of the car.
+
+_Juba dead!_ I felt faint and sick! But the critical nature of the
+emergency helped to steady my nerves by giving me something else to think
+of and to do. Edmund must be called at once. There were no "elevators"
+running regularly during the general hours of repose, and I did not know
+the way up and down the tower by the ladder-like stairways which
+connected the stages. But there were signals by which the little craft
+that served as elevators could be summoned in case of necessity, and I
+pulled one of the signal cords. It seemed an age before the air ship
+came, and another before I could reach Edmund.
+
+His great self-control enabled him to conceal his grief at my news, but
+Jack was overcome. He had really loved Juba almost as if he had been
+human and a brother. The big-hearted fellow actually sobbed as if his
+heart would break. Then came the reaction, and I should never have
+believed that Jack Ashton could exhibit such malevolent ferocity. His
+lips all but foamed, as he fairly shouted, striking his big fists
+together:
+
+"This'll be _my_ job! Edmund! Peter! You hear me! Don't either of you
+dare to lay a hand on _that devil!_ He's _mine!_ Oh! I'll--" But he could
+not finish his sentence for gnashing his teeth.
+
+We calmed him as best we could and then summoned an air ship. While we
+waited, Edmund suddenly put his hand in his pocket, and withdrawing it
+quickly, said, with a bitter smile:
+
+"What a fool I have been in my carelessness. Ingra has had the key
+abstracted from my pocket by some thief. That explains how he got the car
+open."
+
+The moment the ship came we hurriedly ascended to the platform. When
+Edmund saw poor Juba's body lying in the car and learned how he had made
+his way there to die, he was more affected than when he first heard of
+his death.
+
+"He has died for us," he said solemnly; "he has crawled here as to a
+refuge, and here he shall remain until I can bury him among his people in
+his old home. Would to God I had never taken him from it!"
+
+"Then you will start at once for the dark hemisphere?" I asked.
+
+"At the earliest possible moment; and it shall be on the way to our own
+home."
+
+But we were not to depart before even a more terrible tragedy had
+darkened over us, for now the tide of fate was suddenly running at flood.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+THE CORYBANTIA OF THE SUN
+
+I have several times mentioned Edmund's half-formed impression that there
+was some very remarkable ceremony connected with the cyclical apparition
+of the sun before the eyes of its worshipers. He had said, you may
+recall, that it seemed probable that the religious rites on these rare
+occasions bore some resemblance to the _bacchanalia_, or _dionysia_, of
+ancient Greece. How he had derived that idea I do not know, but it proved
+to have been but too well founded---only he had not guessed the full
+truth. The followers of Dionysus made themselves drunken with the wine of
+their god and then indulged in the wildest excesses. Here, as we were now
+to learn, the worshipers of the sun were seized with another kind of
+madness, leading to scenes that I believe, and hope, have never had their
+parallel upon the earth.
+
+With our hearts sore for Juba, we had completed our preparations for
+departure within six hours after his tragic death. Ala had been informed
+of the tragedy, and had visited the car and looked upon the dead form,
+which I thought greatly affected her. Edmund held little communication
+with her, but it was evidently with her cooperation that he was able to
+procure a kind of coffin, in which we placed Juba's body. I do not know
+whether Edmund informed her of his purpose to quit the planet, but she
+must have known that we were going to convey our friend somewhere for
+interment.
+
+We were actually on the point of casting loose the car, Ala and a crowd
+of attendants watching our movements, when there came the second great
+sound of united voices which we had heard in this speechless world. It
+rose like a sudden wail from the whole city. There was a rushing to and
+fro, Ala's face grew as pale as death, and her attendants fell upon their
+knees and began to lift their hands heavenward, with an expression of
+terror and wild appeal.
+
+At the same time we noticed a sudden brightening about us, and Edmund
+stepping out on the platform, immediately beckoned, with the first signs
+of uncontrollable excitement that I had ever seen him display. I was
+instantly at his side, and a single glance told the story.
+
+High in the heavens, the sun had burst forth in all its marvelous
+splendor!
+
+A vast rift was open in the cloud dome, through which the gigantic god of
+day poured down his rays with a fierceness that was inconceivable. The
+heat was like the blast of a furnace, and I felt my head beginning to
+swim.
+
+"Quick!" cried Edmund, grasping my sleeve and pulling me into the car.
+"These rays are fatal! My God, what a sight!"
+
+As by magic the atmosphere had become crowded with air ships, and throngs
+of thousands were pouring from them upon the great platform and the other
+stages, as well as upon the surrounding towers. Every available space was
+filling up with people hastening from below. As fast as they arrived they
+threw themselves into the most extraordinary postures of adoration,
+lifting hands and eyes to the sun. I remember thinking, in a flash, that
+the intense glare of light must burn to the very sockets of their
+eyes--but they did not flinch. It was evident, however, that those who
+looked directly in the sun's face were blinded.
+
+I looked round for Ala, and noticed with a thrill that her beautiful eyes
+were wide open and glancing with an expression that I cannot describe,
+over her kneeling people. Beside her was the towering form of the great
+priest, who was staring straight at the sun--and yet, although his eyes
+were open, it was evident that they were not rendered altogether
+sightless even by that awful light. They burned like coals. He was making
+strange gestures with his long arms, and in unison with his every
+movement a low, heart-thrilling sound came from the throats of the
+multitude.
+
+Edmund, at my shoulder, muttered under his breath:
+
+"Shall I try to save her from this?--But to what good?"
+
+For a moment he seemed to hesitate, and I thought that he was about to
+rush out upon the platform and seize Ala in order to rescue her from some
+danger that he foresaw; when, all at once, the multitude rose to its
+feet, staggering, and began to rush to and fro, colliding with one
+another, falling, rising again, grappling, struggling, uttering terrible
+cries--and then I saw the flash of knives.
+
+"Good heavens!" shouted Edmund. "It is the ultraviolet rays! They have
+gone mad!"
+
+In the meantime the gigantic high priest whirled upon his heel, swinging
+his arms abroad and uttering a kind of chant which was audible above the
+dreadful clamor of the rabid multitude. Though he had no weapon, he
+seemed the inspirer of this Aceldama, and around him its fury raged.
+Presently he drew close to Ala, who still stood motionless, as if
+petrified by the awful scene. I felt Edmund give a violent start, and
+before I comprehended his intention, he had dashed from the car, and was
+forcing his way through the struggling throng toward the queen.
+
+"Edmund!" I shouted. "For God's sake, come back!"
+
+Jack started to follow him, but I held him back with all my strength.
+
+"Let me go!" he yelled. "Edmund will be killed!"
+
+"And you, too!" I answered. "Break open the locker and get the guns!"
+
+Jack threw himself upon the door of the locker, and strove to wrench it
+open. Meanwhile, half paralyzed with excitement, I remained standing at
+the door. I saw Edmund hurl aside those who attacked him, and push on
+toward his goal. But a minute later a knife reached him, and he fell.
+
+"Quick, Jack, quick!" I shouted; "Edmund is down!"
+
+He had not got the locker open, but he darted to my side, and together we
+rushed out into the press. Shall I ever forget that moment! We were
+pushed, hustled, struck, hurled to and fro; but we had only a few steps
+to go, and we reached our leader where he lay. Seizing him, we succeeded
+somehow in carrying him into the car. Our clothes were torn, our hands
+and faces were bleeding, and there was blood on Jack's shoulder. Edmund
+was alive. We placed him on a bench, and then the fascination of the
+spectacle without again enchained us.
+
+Suddenly my eyes fell upon Ingra, who had not previously made his
+appearance. He was as insane as the others, and like many of them had a
+knife in his hand. In a moment he pushed his way toward Ala, and my heart
+rose in my throat, for I did not know what mad thought might be in his
+mind. If I had had a weapon, I believe I should have shot him, but before
+he had arrived within three yards of the queen there came an explosion of
+flame--I do not know how else to describe it, for it was so sudden--and
+the great platform was instantly wrapped in licking tongues of fire.
+
+The wickerwork caught like tinder, and the gauzy screws threw off streams
+of sparks like so many Fourth of July pinwheels. The gush of heat from
+the conflagration was terrible, and I turned my eyes in horror from the
+stricken multitude which seemed to have been shocked back into sanity by
+the sudden universal danger only to find itself a helpless prey to the
+flames.
+
+"It's all over with them!" cried Jack.
+
+His words awoke me to our own danger. We must get away instantly. Knowing
+the proper button to touch to throw the mechanism into action, I pushed
+it forcibly and pulled out a knob which I had often seen Edmund
+manipulate in starting the car. It responded immediately, and in a second
+we were afloat, and clear of the tower. Seeing that the direction which
+the car was taking would remove us from the reach of the flames, and that
+there was nothing ahead to obstruct its progress, and knowing that Edmund
+often left it to run of itself when the speed was slow, and there was no
+occasion to change its course, I now hurried with Jack to Edmund's side.
+Henry all this time had been lying on a bench like one in a trance.
+
+Jack and I stripped off Edmund's coat, and at once saw the nature of his
+wound. A knife had penetrated his side, and there was considerable
+effusion of blood, but I was surgeon enough to feel sure that the wound
+was not mortal. He roused up as he felt us working over him, and opening
+his eyes, said faintly:
+
+"You will find bandages under the locker. What has happened? We are
+moving."
+
+"The tower is all in flames!" exclaimed Jack, before I could interrupt
+him, for I should have preferred not to tell Edmund the real situation
+just at that moment.
+
+Jack's words roused him like an electric shock. He pushed us aside, and
+struggled to his feet. Then he sprang to a knob, and brought the car to
+rest.
+
+We had been moving slowly, and had not gone more than a quarter of a mile
+from the tower. The car had swung round so that the fire was not visible
+from the open door, but now, as Edmund arrested its progress, it swayed
+back again and the spectacle burst into view. The heat smote us in the
+face even at this distance. In the few minutes since I had last seen the
+tower the flames had made incredible progress. The whole of the immense
+structure was blazing. Spires of flame leaped and swayed from its summit,
+partitions were falling, platforms giving way, and hundreds of air ships
+caught by the sheets of fire were crumpling and falling in swooping
+curves like birds whose wings had been seared. I was thankful that we
+could not see the unfortunates who were perishing in that furnace. It was
+but too evident that not a soul on the tower could have escaped.
+
+I glanced at Edmund's face. It was pale and set--the face of a man gazing
+upon an awful tragedy with which he is absolutely powerless to interfere.
+His breath came quick, but he did not utter a word. Then came the
+reaction, and, staggering, he leaned on my shoulder, and I led him to the
+bench from which he had risen. For a moment I thought he had fainted, but
+when I put a flask to his lips he swallowed a mouthful and immediately
+recovered sufficient strength to sit up, resting his head on his hand.
+
+"Had we not better go on?" I asked.
+
+"Ye-es," he replied, after a moment's hesitation. "We can do nothing.
+They are all gone; the queen has perished with the rest! Pull out that
+knob on the right, but gently, and then push this button. We must circle
+round the outskirts until we see whether the fire will seize upon the
+other towers and extend to the city below."
+
+I followed his directions, and, as we started our circuit, the vast tower
+suddenly swayed aside, and then, tumbling in upon itself, it went down in
+a whirl of smoke and eddying sparks.
+
+As far as we could see none of the other aerial structures had caught
+fire. The entire absence of wind was no doubt the favorable circumstance
+that saved them. But all the towers were swaying under the impulse
+imparted to them by the excited multitudes that crowded their platforms.
+Although the light of the conflagration faded as soon as the principal
+tower fell, the others continued to shine brilliantly in the solar rays,
+but suddenly, as we watched, the splendor failed, and the subdued
+illumination characteristic of the endless daylight under the great dome
+took its place. The rift in the clouds above had closed as unexpectedly
+as it had recently opened, and the sun was no longer visible. It had been
+in view less than an hour, but in that brief space what scenes had been
+enacted!
+
+Presently Edmund, shaking his head sadly, said:
+
+"It is useless to stay longer. Even if the conflagration should spread we
+could do nothing to help the unfortunates. They must depend upon
+themselves."
+
+He then gave me directions for changing our course to a direct line away
+from the city, at the same time increasing the speed. In the meantime he
+himself aided in binding up his wound.
+
+"If there were the slightest chance that Ala could have escaped," he
+said, after a few minutes, "I would remain here, and search for her, but
+it is only too clear what her fate has been. She was really our only
+friend, and now that she is gone, we must get away from the sight and
+memory of these things as quickly as possible."
+
+Seeing that his strength was gradually coming back to him, and secretly
+rejoicing that he bore this terrible blow so stoically, I felt that we
+might now converse about the catastrophe which we had witnessed.
+
+"What do you think was the cause of the sudden outburst of fire?" I
+asked.
+
+"It could hardly have been the direct action of the sunlight," he
+replied. "It must have resulted from some accidental concentration of the
+solar rays upon an inflammable substance by a mirror."
+
+"I recall seeing a large concave glass on the principal platform in which
+they were fond of looking at their magnified images," I said.
+
+"Yes, and no doubt that was the instrument chosen by fate to bring about
+this terrible end. The power of the sunbeams is twice as great here as
+upon the earth, and the heat in the focus of a mirror a couple of feet in
+diameter would suffice to set fire to the flimsy materials which abounded
+on the tower. Once started in such a place it ran like sparks in a train
+of gunpowder."
+
+"But the madness that seized the multitude before the catastrophe--what
+did you mean by saying that it was the ultraviolet rays?"
+
+"I used the term," Edmund replied slowly, "without attaching a very clear
+meaning to it. It simply expressed the general thought that was in my
+mind. It may be some other form of solar radiation to which we are not
+accustomed on the earth, but which is specially effective here when the
+sun is uncovered because of the greater nearness of Venus. This
+atmosphere, notwithstanding its density, may well be diaphanous to the
+ultraviolet rays, owing to some peculiarity in its composition which I
+have not had time to study. At any rate, it is evident, from what we have
+seen, that the rays of the unclouded sun almost instantly affect the
+brain. I, myself, felt them as if a thousand needles had been thrust
+through my skull; and I believe that they are responsible, rather than
+the shock of the wound in my side, for my present weakness."
+
+"And did you foresee the consequences of the uncovering of the sun?"
+
+"Not altogether. I had been led to think that something extraordinary
+must accompany the periodical appearances of the great orb, and if I
+could have known that an apparition was at hand I might have made
+preparations for it and we might have been able to save Ala. When I saw
+what was going on, I tried to reach her, and you know the result."
+
+"But is it not incredible that a people of so peaceable a disposition
+should be seized with such murderous instincts when driven out of their
+senses by the effect of the rays?"
+
+"No, it does not seem so to me. You know the general tendency of sudden
+madness, which usually produces a complete reversal of the ordinary
+instincts of the demented persons, making them dangerous to their dearest
+friends. But why talk longer of this? It is too painful--too
+overwhelming. What can man do against the great forces of Nature? At this
+moment I solemnly declare to you that I regret that I ever entered upon
+this expedition."
+
+While we had been talking, the car had receded to a great distance from
+the city, and now all but the tops of a few of the airy pinnacles were
+lost to our sight forever. But as we gazed, straining our sight for a
+last look, we perceived a familiar flickering of prismatic lightning on
+the horizon. We glanced at each other meaningly. It was the color speech
+again. But, oh, what must be the burden of their communications now!
+Suddenly, Edmund, whose eyes were fixed with intensity upon the scene,
+remarked, half shuddering:
+
+"It is the great Paean."
+
+Seized with curiosity, I pressed the magic box to my ear, and faintly
+there echoed in my brain a few disconnected strains of that solemn music.
+But now, more than ever, it was insufferable to me, and I dropped the box
+with a crash.
+
+As Edmund recovered his strength he once more took charge of the car, and
+in a little while he had risen to a great height in order to take
+advantage of the easier going in the lighter atmosphere above. Thus we
+ran on for several hours until we began to catch sight of the sea, which
+was soon beneath us, while far ahead we saw the tumbling clouds marking
+the location of the belt of tempests behind which we knew lay the range
+of the crystal mountains. At length we issued from beneath the cloud
+dome, and then we saw the sun again, and the storms whipping the waters,
+whose waves occasionally flashed up at us through rifts in the streaming
+clouds beneath. And at last the icy peaks began to glitter on the
+horizon, and we knew that we were nearing the world of eternal night and
+frost. It was with strange feelings that we once more beheld the crystal
+mountains, for our minds were filled with the recollection of the scenes
+that had occurred among them when we were helpless in the grasp of their
+tempests. But now there was a certain exhilaration in the thought that
+this time we could safely sail over their summits. As we passed over them
+we looked eagerly for landmarks that might show where our former passage
+had occurred, and as Edmund purposely dropped as close to their summits
+as it was safe to go, I at last believed that I recognized the mighty
+peak of rainbows that had so nearly wrecked us.
+
+When we had left the mountains behind and entered into the region of
+night, I asked Edmund how he would proceed in order to find the location
+of the caverns.
+
+"I shall go by the stars," he said. "I noted the bearing of the place,
+and I have no doubt that I can find it again."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+THE EARTH
+
+Edmund's reference to the stars instantly drew my attention to the
+heavens. They were ablaze with amazing gems, but at first I could not see
+the earth among them.
+
+"I know what you are looking for," said Edmund. "Here, look through the
+peephole in the bow. From our present position the earth appears but
+little elevated above the horizon, but when we reach the caverns, which
+are in the center of the dark hemisphere, we shall see her overhead."
+
+I knelt at the peephole, and my heart was in my throat. There was our
+glorious planet, oh, so bright! and close beside her the moon. At the
+sight, an irrepressible longing arose in me to be once more at home. Jack
+and Henry took their turns at looking, and they were no less affected
+than I had been. But Edmund retained a perfect self-command:
+
+"Do you know," he asked with an odd smile (for now the lamps were
+glowing, and we had plenty of light in the car), "how long we have been
+absent from home?"
+
+Not one of us had kept a record.
+
+"It is just six hundred and four days," he continued, "since we left New
+York. We were sixteen days on our way to Venus; six days after our
+arrival at the caverns occurred the conjunction of the earth, and the
+ceremonies that Peter will not forget as long as he refrains from hair
+dye; two days later we departed for the sun lands; and since then five
+hundred and eighty days have passed. Now, between one conjunction of the
+earth and Venus to the next, five hundred and eighty-four days elapse.
+Already five hundred and eighty-two of those days have passed, so that
+within two days another conjunction will occur, and if we are then at the
+caverns we shall doubtless witness another sacrifice to the earth and the
+moon."
+
+"God forbid!" I exclaimed.
+
+"I feel as you do," said Edmund. "We have seen enough of such things. In
+order, then, to hasten our arrival at the caverns, where we must bury
+Juba, for on that I insist, I am going to rise up out of the atmosphere,
+in order that we may fly with planetary speed. We can thus reach the
+caverns, traversing the five thousand miles of distance that yet remain,
+in something like an hour, for some time must be lost in rising out of
+and returning into the atmosphere, and in the meantime I must make
+observations to determine our location. Having found the caverns we will
+complete our rites at Juba's grave, and get away for good before the
+sacrificial ceremonies begin."
+
+It was a programme that suited us all, and it was quickly carried out. I
+had not thought that my admiration of Edmund's ability could be
+increased, but it was carried a notch higher when I saw how easily,
+guiding himself by the ever-visible stars, he located the caverns. When
+he knew that he was directly over them he dropped the car swiftly, and we
+could not repress a cry as we saw directly beneath us the familiar shafts
+of light issuing from the ground.
+
+"We may have to do a little searching," said Edmund, as we approached the
+lights, "for, of course, my observations are not accurate enough to
+enable me to locate the exact spot where we landed before."
+
+But fortune favored us marvelously, and the very first opening that we
+approached was at once recognized, for there stood the sacrificial altar.
+
+We anchored the car near the shaft, and carried out Juba's coffin.
+
+"Wait here," said Edmund, "while I descend."
+
+"No, you're not going alone," exclaimed Jack. "I'll go with you."
+
+Edmund made no objection and he and Jack descended the steps. Half an
+hour elapsed before they returned, accompanied by a dozen of the natives,
+stolid, and not exhibiting the signs of surprise over our return which I
+had expected to see. Edmund had now made so much progress in their
+strange means of communication that he had little difficulty in causing
+them to comprehend what was wanted. They easily carried the coffin, and
+all of us followed down into the depths. It was the strangest funeral
+procession that ever a man saw!
+
+While the grave was being prepared in the underground cemetery where we
+had witnessed the interment of the first victim of our pistols, Henry and
+I remained as a sort of guard of honor for Juba in the lower of the two
+great chambers which have been described in the earlier chapters of this
+history, and there a most singular thing occurred. We were startled by a
+low whining, and looking about saw one of the doglike creatures which
+appeared to be the only inhabitants of the caverns except the natives
+seated on its haunches close to the coffin, and exhibiting exactly the
+signs of distress that a dog sometimes displays over its dead master.
+That we were taken aback by this scene I need not assure you. We had
+never observed, during our former visit, that either Juba or any of his
+people was followed by these creatures; in fact, they had always fled at
+our approach, and we had paid little attention to them.
+
+But now, if the poor animal could have spoken, he could not more plainly
+have told us that, by means of the mysterious instinct which beings of
+his kind possess, he had recognized the presence of his old master, and
+was mourning for him. It was truly a touching spectacle, and Henry was
+hardly less moved by it than I. When Edmund and Jack came back, having
+superintended the preparations, Jack was cut to the heart by the sight.
+Immediately he declared that the "dog" must accompany us in the car, and
+Edmund assented by a grave inclination of the head. The animal followed
+us to the grave, and remained there watching us intently. He seemed to
+have dismissed his fear, as if he comprehended that we were friends of
+his master.
+
+There were not more than twenty of the natives present at the interment,
+and none of them showed signs of sorrow. And when the grave was closed
+and we turned away, the little creature followed at our heels. Edmund had
+carved on a flat stone the word "JUBA," and left it lying on the grave,
+and Jack, having nothing else, threw a silver dollar on top of it. The
+natives probably regarded these things as talismans, or religious
+symbols, for they treated them with the greatest deference, and no doubt
+they lie there yet, and will continue to lie there through all the eons,
+for in those dry caverns the progress of decay can hardly be perceptible
+even after the passage of ages. It was a singular fact, noted by Edmund,
+that the natives exhibited not the slightest curiosity concerning their
+comrades who had been lost in the crystal mountains, and I really doubt
+whether they knew what the coffin contained.
+
+When we had paid the last honors to Juba, we began to think of our final
+departure. This place had become disagreeable to us. After the brilliant
+scenes that we had witnessed on the other side of the planet, the gloom
+here, and the absence of all that had made the land of perpetual daylight
+seem a paradise of beauty, were intensely oppressive to our spirits. But
+Edmund still wished to make some investigations, and we were compelled to
+await his movements. What the nature of his investigations was I do not
+know, for I was devoured by the desire to get away, and did not inquire.
+But fully twenty-four hours had elapsed before our leader was ready to
+depart. In the meanwhile "Juba's dog" had become firmly attached to Jack,
+who petted it as probably no creature of its race had ever been petted
+before. It was a strange-looking animal; about as large as a terrier,
+with a big square head, covered with long black hair, while, in startling
+imitation of the hirsute adornment of the natives themselves, its body
+was clothed with a golden-white pelt of silky texture. It would eat
+anything we offered it, and seemed immensely pleased with its new master,
+as it had every reason for being.
+
+During the last hours of our stay we noticed unmistakable indications of
+preparation for the dreaded ceremonies of the conjunction, and our
+departure was hastened on that account. The priests, whom Edmund had been
+compelled to put out of the way of further mischief on the former
+occasion, had been replaced by others, and we thought that, perhaps, this
+being the first opportunity for the display of their functions, they
+would try to make it memorable--which presented a still stronger reason
+why we should not delay. But, with one thing and another, we were held
+back until the very eve of the ceremonies.
+
+When we finally stood ready to enter the car, with Juba's dog at Jack's
+heels, the procession up the steps had already begun. Edmund decided to
+wait until the multitude had all assembled. They came trooping up into
+the starlight, and I am sure that they had no idea of what we intended to
+do. Undoubtedly they must have recalled what had happened on the other
+occasion, but they showed no sign of either regret or anxiety on that
+account. They arranged themselves in a dense circle, as before, and the
+priests took their place in the center. At this moment Edmund gave the
+word to enter the car. We sprang into it, and immediately Jack and I went
+out on a window ledge in order to get a better view of the scene. Edmund
+started the car, and we rose straight toward the earth which glowed in
+the zenith. Our movement was unexpected, and we at once arrested the
+attention even of the priests. The beginning of the ceremony was stopped
+short. All eyes were evidently drawn to us, and when they saw the
+direction that we were taking a low murmur arose.
+
+"Let me give them a parting salute," said Jack.
+
+Edmund thought a moment, and then said:
+
+"Very well, take a gun, but don't fire at them. If it terrifies them into
+abandoning their sacrifice we shall have done one good thing in this
+world."
+
+Jack instantly had the gun roaring, and although we were now high above
+their heads, we could see that they were seized with consternation,
+rising from their knees, and running wildly about. Whether the noise and
+the sight of us flying toward the earth, had the effect which Edmund had
+hoped for, will never be known; but the last sight we had of living
+beings on Venus was the spectacle of those white forms darting about in
+the starry gloom.
+
+Our long journey home was interrupted by one more almost tragic episode.
+When we had been ten days in flight, and the earth had become like a
+round moon of dazzling brilliance, Juba's dog, which had grown feeble and
+refused to eat, died. Jack was broken-hearted, and protested when Edmund
+said that the body of the animal must be thrown out. He would have liked
+to try to stuff the skin, but Edmund was firm.
+
+"But if you open a window," I said, "the air will escape."
+
+"Some of it will undoubtedly escape," Edmund replied. "But, luckily, this
+is the air of Venus which we are carrying, and being very dense, we can
+spare a little of it without serious results. I shall be quick, and there
+will be no danger."
+
+It was as he had said. When the window was partially opened, for only a
+second or two, we distinctly felt a lowering of the atmospheric pressure
+that made us gasp for a moment, but instantly Edmund had the window
+closed again, and we were all right. As we shot away we saw the little
+white body gleaming in the sunlight like a thistledown, and then it
+disappeared forever.
+
+"It is a new planet born," said Edmund, "and the law of gravitation will
+pay it as much attention as if it were a Jupiter. It may wander in space
+for untold ages, and sometime it may even fall within the sphere of the
+earth's attraction, and then Jack's wish will have been fulfilled; but it
+will be but a flying spark, flashing momentarily in the heavens as it
+shoots through the air."
+
+       *      *       *       *       *
+
+Our home-coming was a strange one. For some reason of his own Edmund did
+not wish to take the car to New York. He landed in the midst of the
+Adirondack woods, far from any habitation, and there, concealed in a
+swamp, he insisted upon leaving the car. We made our way out of the
+wilderness to the nearest railway station, and our first care was to
+visit a barber and a clothing merchant. Probably, as we carried some of
+the guns, they took us for a party of hunters who wished to furbish up
+before revisiting civilization.
+
+On reaching New York, we went, in the evening, straight to the Olympus
+Club, where our arrival caused a sensation. We found Church in the old
+corner, staring dejectedly at a newspaper. He did not see who was
+approaching him. Jack slapped him on the shoulder, and as he looked up
+and recognized us he fell back nearly fainting, and with mouth open,
+unable to utter a word.
+
+"Come, old man," said Jack, "so we've found you! What did you run away
+for? Let me introduce you to the Columbus of Space, and don't you forget
+that I'm one of his lieutenants."
+
+I don't think that Church has ever fully believed our story. He thinks,
+to this day, that we lost our "balloon," as he calls it, and invented the
+rest. We purposely allowed the newspaper reporters to take the same view
+of the case, but when we four were alone we unburdened our hearts, and
+relived the marvelous life of Venus. I use the past tense, because I have
+yet to tell you most disquieting news.
+
+Edmund has disappeared.
+
+Within three months after our return he bade us good night at an
+unusually early hour and we have never seen him since, although more than
+a year has now elapsed since he went out of the room at the Olympus. Jack
+and I have made every effort to find a trace of him, without avail. Led
+by a natural suspicion, we have ransacked the Adirondack woods, but we
+could never satisfy ourselves that we had found the place where the car
+was left. Henry persists in the belief that Edmund is trying in secret to
+develop his invention, with the intention of "revolutionizing industry
+and making himself a multibillionaire." But Jack and I know better!
+Wherever he may be, whatever may occupy his wonderful powers, we feel
+that the ordinary concerns of the earth have no interest for him. Yet we
+are sure that if he is alive he often thinks of us.
+
+Last night as Jack and I were walking to the club with my completed
+manuscript under my arm, a falling star shot across the sky.
+
+"Do you know what that recalls to me?" asked Jack, with a far-off
+expression in his eyes.
+
+"What?"
+
+"Juba's dog."
+
+Neither of us spoke again before we reached the clubhouse steps, but I am
+certain that through both our minds there streamed a glittering
+procession of such memories as life on this planet could never give birth
+to. And they ended with a sigh.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Columbus of Space, by Garrett P. Serviss
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Columbus of Space, by Garrett P. Serviss
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+Title: A Columbus of Space
+
+Author: Garrett P. Serviss
+
+Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8673]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 31, 2003]
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COLUMBUS OF SPACE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+                           A COLUMBUS OF SPACE
+
+                          BY GARRETT P. SERVISS
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Standing on the steps ... was a creature shaped like a
+man, but more savage than a gorilla."]
+
+
+                            TO THE READERS OF
+                          JULES VERNE'S ROMANCES
+                          THIS STORY IS DEDICATED
+
+
+Not because the author flatters himself that he can walk in the Footsteps
+of that Immortal Dreamer, but because, like Jules Verne, he believes that
+the World of Imagination is as legitimate a Domain of the Human Mind as
+the World of Fact.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+    I.  A MARVELOUS INVENTION
+
+   II.  A TRIP OF TERROR
+
+  III.  THE PLANETARY LIMITED
+
+   IV.  THE CAVERNS OF VENUS
+
+    V.  OFF FOR THE SUN LANDS
+
+   VI.  LOST IN THE CRYSTAL MOUNTAINS
+
+  VII.  THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN
+
+ VIII.  LANGUAGE WITHOUT SPEECH
+
+   IX.  AN AMAZING METROPOLIS
+
+    X.  IMPRISONMENT AND A WONDERFUL ESCAPE
+
+   XI.  BEFORE THE THRONE OF VENUS
+
+  XII.  MORE MARVELS
+
+ XIII.  WE FALL INTO TROUBLE AGAIN
+
+  XIV.  THE SUN GOD
+
+   XV.  AT THE MERCY OF FEARFUL ENEMIES
+
+  XVI.  DREADFUL CREATURES OF THE GLOOM
+
+ XVII.  EARTH MAGIC ON VENUS
+
+XVIII.  WILD EDEN
+
+  XIX.  THE SECRET OF THE CAR
+
+   XX.  THE CORYBANTIA OF THE SUN
+
+  XXI.  THE EARTH
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+"Standing on the steps ... was a creature shaped like a man, but more
+savage than a gorilla"
+
+"We were in the heart of the _Crystal Mountains!_"
+
+"'Who and what are you, and whence do you come?'"
+
+"It curled itself over the edge of the hovering air ship and drew it
+down"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+A MARVELOUS INVENTION
+
+I am a hero worshiper; an insatiable devourer of biographies; and I say
+that no man in all the splendid list ever equaled Edmund Stonewall. You
+smile because you have never heard his name, for, until now, his
+biography has not been written. And this is not truly a biography; it is
+only the story of the crowning event in Stonewall's career.
+
+Really it humbles one's pride of race to see how ignorant the world is of
+its true heroes. Many a man who cuts a great figure in history is, after
+all, a poor specimen of humanity, slavishly following old ruts, destitute
+of any real originality, and remarkable only for some exaggeration of the
+commonplace. But in the case of Edmund Stonewall the world cannot be
+blamed for its ignorance, because, as I have already said, his story
+remains to be written, and hitherto it has been guarded as a profound
+secret.
+
+I do not wish to exaggerate; yet I cannot avoid seeming to do so in
+simply telling the facts. If Stonewall's proceedings had become
+Matter  of common knowledge the world would have been--I must speak
+plainly--revolutionized. He held in his hands the means of realizing the
+wildest dreams of power, wealth, and human mastery over the forces of
+nature, that any enthusiast ever treasured in his prophetic soul. It was
+a part of his originality that he never entertained the thought of
+employing his advantage in any such way. His character was entirely free
+from the ordinary forms of avidity. He cared nothing for wealth in
+itself, and as little for fame. All his energies were concentrated upon
+the attainment of ends which nobody but himself would have regarded as of
+any practical importance. Thus it happened that, having made an invention
+which would have put every human industry upon a new footing, and
+multiplied beyond the limits of calculation the activities and
+achievements of mankind, this extraordinary person turned his back upon
+the colossal fortune which he had but to stretch forth his hand and
+grasp, refused to seize the unlimited power which his genius had laid at
+his feet, and used his unparalleled discovery for a purpose so eccentric,
+so wildly unpractical, so utterly beyond the pale of waking life, that to
+any ordinary man he must have seemed a lunatic lost in an endless dream
+of bedlam. And to this day I cannot, without a nervous thrill, think how
+the desire of all the ages, the ideal that has been the loadstar for
+thousands of philosophers, savants, inventors, prophets, and dreamers,
+was actually realized upon the earth; and yet of all its fifteen hundred
+million inhabitants but a single one knew it, possessed it, controlled
+it--and he would not reveal it, but hoarded and used his knowledge for
+the accomplishment of the craziest design that ever took shape in a human
+brain.
+
+Now, to be more specific. Of Stonewall's antecedents I know very little.
+I only know that, in a moderate way, he was wealthy, and that he had no
+immediate family ties. He was somewhere near thirty years of age, and
+held the diploma of one of our oldest universities. But he was not, in a
+general way, sociable, and I never knew him to attend any of the reunions
+of his former classmates, or to show the slightest interest in any of the
+events or functions of society, although its doors were open to him
+through some distant relatives who were widely connected in New York, and
+who at times tried to draw him into their circle. He would certainly have
+adorned it, but it had no attraction for him. Nevertheless he was a
+member of the Olympus Club, where he frequently spent his evenings. But
+he made very few acquaintances even there, and I believe that except
+myself, Jack Ashton, Henry Darton, and Will Church, he had no intimates.
+And we knew him only at the club. There, when he was alone with us, he
+sometimes partly opened up his mind, and we were charmed by his variety
+of knowledge and the singularity of his conversation. I shall not
+disguise the fact that we thought him extremely eccentric, although the
+idea of anything in the nature of insanity never entered our heads. We
+knew that he was engaged in recondite researches of a scientific nature,
+and that he possessed a private laboratory, although none of us had ever
+entered it. Occasionally he would speak of some new advance of science,
+throwing a flood of light by his clear expositions upon things of which
+we should otherwise have remained profoundly ignorant. His imagination
+flashed like lightning over the subject of his talk, revealing it at the
+most unexpected angles, and often he roused us to real enthusiasm for
+things the very names of which we almost forgot amidst the next day's
+occupations.
+
+There was one subject on which he was particularly
+eloquent--radioactivity; that most strange property of matter whose
+discovery had been the crowning glory of science in the closing decade of
+the nineteenth century. None of us really knew anything about it except
+what Stonewall taught us. If some new incomprehensible announcement
+appeared in the newspapers we skipped it, being sure that Edmund would
+make it all clear at the club in the evening. He made us understand, in a
+dim way, that some vast, tremendous secret lay behind it all. I recall
+his saying, on one occasion, not long before the blow fell:
+
+"Listen to this! Here's Professor Thomson declaring that a single grain
+of radium contains in its padlocked atoms energy enough to lift a million
+tons three hundred yards high. Professor Thomson is too modest in his
+estimates, and he hasn't the ghost of an idea how to get at that energy.
+Neither has Professor Rutherford, nor Lord Kelvin; _but somebody will get
+at it, just the same_."
+
+He positively thrilled us when he spoke thus, for there was a look in his
+eyes which seemed to penetrate depths unfathomable to our intelligence.
+Yet we had not the faintest conception of what was really passing in his
+mind. If we had understood it, if we had caught a single clear glimpse of
+the workings of his intellect, we should have been appalled. And if we
+had known how close we stood to the verge of an abyss of mystery about to
+be lighted by such a gleam as had never before been emitted from the
+human spirit, I believe that we would have started from our chairs and
+fled in dismay.
+
+But we understood nothing, except that Edmund was indulging in one of his
+eccentric dreams, and Jack, in his large, careless, good-natured way
+broke in with:
+
+"Well, Edmund, suppose _you_ could 'get at it,' as you say; what would
+you do with it?"
+
+Stonewall's eyes gleamed for a moment, and then he replied, with a
+curious emphasis:
+
+"I might do what Archimedes dreamed of."
+
+None of us happened to remember what it was that Archimedes had dreamed,
+and the subject was dropped.
+
+For a considerable time afterwards we saw nothing of Stonewall. He did
+not come to the club, and we were beginning to think of looking him up,
+when one evening, quite unexpectedly, he dropped in, wearing an unusually
+cheerful expression. We had greatly missed him, and we now greeted him
+with effusion. His animation impressed us all, and he had no sooner
+shaken hands than he said, with suppressed excitement in his voice:
+
+"Well, I've 'got at it.'"
+
+"Got at what?" drawled Jack.
+
+"The inter-atomic energy. I've got it under control."
+
+"The deuce you have!" said Jack.
+
+"Yes, I've arrived where a certain professor dreamed of being when he
+averred that 'when man knows that every breath of air he draws has
+contained within itself force enough to drive the workshops of the world
+he will find out some day, somehow, some way of tapping that energy.' The
+thing is done, for I've tapped it!"
+
+We stared at one another, not knowing what to say, except Jack, who,
+inspired by the spirit of mischief, drawled out:
+
+"Ah, yes, I remember. Well then, Edmund, as I asked you before, what are
+you going to do with it?"
+
+There was not really any thought among us of poking fun at Edmund; we
+respected and admired him far too much for that; nevertheless, catching
+the infection of banter from Jack, we united in demanding, in a manner
+which I can now see must have appeared most provoking:
+
+"Why, yes, Edmund, tell us what you are going to do with it."
+
+And then Jack added fuel by mockingly, though with perfectly good-natured
+intention, taking Edmund by the hand and swinging him in front of us
+with:
+
+"Gentlemen, Archimedes junior."
+
+Stonewall's eyes flashed and his cheek darkened, but for a moment he said
+nothing. Presently, with a return of his former affability, he said:
+
+"I wish you would come over to the laboratory and let me show you what I
+am going to do."
+
+Of course we instantly assented. Nothing could have pleased us better
+than this invitation, for we had long been dying to see the inside of
+Edmund's laboratory. We all got our hats and started out with him. We
+knew where he lived, occupying a whole house though he was a bachelor,
+but none of us had ever seen the inside of it, and our curiosity was on
+the _qui vive_. He led us through a handsome hallway and a rear apartment
+directly into the back yard, half of which we were surprised to find
+inclosed and roofed over, forming a huge shanty, like a workshop. Edmund
+opened the door of the shanty and ushered us in.
+
+A remarkable object at once concentrated our attention. In the center of
+the place was the queerest-looking thing that you can well imagine. I can
+hardly describe it. It was round and elongated like a boiler, with
+bulging ends, and seemed to be made of polished steel. Its total length
+was about eighteen feet, and its width ten feet. Edmund approached it and
+opened a door in the end, which was wide and high enough for us to enter
+without stooping or crowding.
+
+"Step in, gentlemen," he said, and unhesitatingly we obeyed him, all
+except Church, who for some unknown reason remained outside, and when we
+looked for him had disappeared.
+
+Edmund turned on a bright light, and we found ourselves in an
+oblong chamber, beautifully fitted up with polished woodwork, and
+leather-cushioned seats running round the sides. Many metallic knobs and
+handles shone on the walls.
+
+"Sit down," said Edmund, "and I will tell you what I have got here."
+
+He stepped to the door and called again for Church but there was no
+answer. We concluded that, thinking the thing would be too deep to be
+interesting, he had gone back to the club. That was not what he had done,
+as you will learn later, but he never regretted what he did do. Getting
+no response from Church, Edmund finally sat down with us on one of the
+leather-covered benches, and began his explanation.
+
+"As I was telling you at the club," he said, "I've solved the mystery of
+the atoms. I'm sure you'll excuse me from explaining my method" (there
+was a little raillery in his manner), "but at least you can understand
+the plain statement that I've got unlimited power at my command. These
+knobs and handles that you see are my keys for turning it on and off, and
+controlling it as I wish. Mark you, this power comes right out of the
+heart of what we call matter; the world is chock full of it. We have
+known that it was there at least ever since radioactivity was discovered,
+but it looked as though human intelligence would never be able to set it
+free from its prison. Nevertheless I have not only set it free, but I am
+able to control it as perfectly as if it were steam from a boiler, or an
+electric current from a dynamo."
+
+Jack, who was as unscientific a person as ever lived, yawned, and Edmund
+noticed it. But he showed no irritation, merely smiling, and saying, with
+a wink at me and Henry:
+
+"Even this seems to be rather too deep, so perhaps I had better show you,
+instead of telling you, what I mean. Excuse me a moment."
+
+He stepped out of the door, and we remained seated. We heard a noise
+outside like the opening of a barn door, and immediately Edmund
+reappeared and closed the door of the chamber in which we were. We
+watched him with growing curiosity. With a singular smile he pressed a
+knob on the wall, and instantly we felt that the chamber was rising in
+the air. It rocked a little like a boat in wavy water. We were startled,
+of course, but not alarmed.
+
+"Hello!" exclaimed Jack. "What kind of a balloon is this?"
+
+"It's something more than a balloon," was Edmund's reply, and as he spoke
+he touched another knob, and we felt the car, as I must now call it, come
+to rest. Then Edmund opened a shutter at one side, and we all sprang up
+to look out. Below us we saw roofs and the tops of two trees standing at
+the side of the street.
+
+"We're about a hundred feet up," said Edmund quietly. "What do you think
+of it now?"
+
+"Wonderful! wonderful!" we exclaimed in a breath. And I continued:
+
+"And do you say that it is inter-atomic energy that does this?"
+
+"Nothing else in the world," returned Edmund.
+
+But bantering Jack must have his quip:
+
+"By the way, Edmund," he demanded, "what was it that Archimedes dreamed?
+But no matter; you've knocked him silly. Now, what are you going to do
+with your atomic balloon?"
+
+Edmund's eyes flashed:
+
+"You'll see in a minute."
+
+The scene out of the window was beautiful, and for a moment we all
+remained watching it. The city lights were nearly all below our level,
+and away off over the New Jersey horizon I noticed the planet Venus, near
+to setting, but as brilliant as a diamond. I am fond of star-gazing, and
+I called Edmund's attention to the planet as he happened to be standing
+next to me.
+
+"Lovely, isn't she?" he said with enthusiasm. "The finest world in the
+solar system, and what a strange thing that she should have one side
+always day and the other always night."
+
+I was surprised by his exhibition of astronomic lore, for I had never
+known that he had given any attention to the subject, but a minute later
+the incident was forgotten as Edmund suddenly pushed us back from the
+window and closed the shutter.
+
+"Going down again so soon?" asked Jack.
+
+Edmund smiled. "Going," he said simply, and put his hand to one of the
+knobs. Immediately we felt ourselves moving very slowly.
+
+"That's right, Edmund," put in Jack again, "let us down easy; I don't
+like bumps."
+
+We expected at each instant to feel the car touch the cradle in which it
+had evidently rested, but never were three mortals so mistaken. What
+really did happen can better be described in the words of Will Church,
+who, you will remember, had disappeared at the beginning of our singular
+adventure. I got the account from him long afterwards. He had written it
+out carefully and put it away in a safe, as a sort of historic document.
+Here is Church's narrative, omitting the introduction, which read like a
+law paper:
+
+"When we went over from the club to Stonewall's house, I dropped behind
+the others, because the four of them took up the whole width of the
+sidewalk. Stonewall was talking to them, and my attention was attracted
+by something uncommon in his manner. He had an indefinable carriage of
+the head which suggested to me the suspicion that everything was not just
+as it should be. I don't mean that I thought him crazy, or anything of
+that kind, but I felt that he had some scheme in his mind to fool us.
+
+"I bitterly repented, after things turned out as they did, that I had not
+whispered a word to the others. But that would have been difficult, and,
+besides, I had no idea of the seriousness of the affair. Nevertheless, I
+determined to stay out of it, so that the laugh should not be on me at
+any rate. Accordingly when the others entered the car I stayed outside,
+and when Stonewall called me I did not answer.
+
+"When he came out to open the roof of the shed, he did not see me in the
+shadow where I stood. The opening of the roof revealed the whole scheme
+in a flash. I had had no suspicion that the car was any kind of a
+balloon, and even after he had so significantly thrown the roof open, and
+then entered the car and closed the door, I was fairly amazed to see the
+thing began to rise without the slightest noise, and as if it were
+enchanted. It really looked diabolical as it floated silently upward and
+passed through the opening, and the sight gave me a shiver.
+
+"But I was greatly relieved when it stopped at a height of a hundred feet
+or so, and then I said to myself that I should have been less of a fool
+if I had stayed with the others, for now they would have the laugh on me
+alone. Suddenly, while I watched, expecting every moment to see them drop
+down again, for I supposed that it was merely an experiment to show that
+the thing would float, the car started upward, very slowly at first, but
+increasing its speed until it had attained an elevation of perhaps five
+hundred feet. There it hung for a moment, like some mail-clad monster
+glinting in the quavering light of the street arcs, and then, without
+warning, made a dart skyward. For a minute it circled like a strange bird
+taking its bearings, and finally rushed off westward until I lost sight
+of it behind some tall buildings. I ran into the house to reach the
+street, but found the outer door locked, and not a person visible. I
+called but nobody came. Returning to the yard I discovered a place where
+I could get over the fence, and so I escaped into the street. Immediately
+I searched the sky for the mysterious car, but could see no sign of it.
+They were gone! I almost sank upon the pavement in a state of helpless
+excitement, which I could not have explained to myself if I had stopped
+to reason; for why, after all, should I take the thing so tragically. But
+something within me said that all was wrong. A policeman happened to
+pass.
+
+"'Officer! officer!' I shouted, 'have you seen it?'
+
+"'Seen what?' asked the blue-coat, twirling his club.
+
+"'The car--the balloon,' I stammered.
+
+"'Balloon in your head! You're drunk. Get long out o' here!'
+
+"I realized the impossibility of explaining the matter to him, and
+running back to the place where I had got over the fence I climbed into
+the yard and entered the shed. Fortunately the policeman paid no further
+attention to my movements after I left him. I sat down on the empty
+cradle and stared up through the opening in the roof, hoping against hope
+to see them coming back. It must have been midnight before I gave up my
+vigil in despair, and went home, sorely puzzled, and blaming myself for
+having kept my suspicions unuttered. I finally got to sleep, but I had
+horrible dreams.
+
+"The next day I was up early looking through all the papers in the hope
+of finding something about the car. But there was not a word. I watched
+the news columns for several days without result. Whenever the coast was
+clear I haunted Stonewall's yard, but the fatal shed yawned empty, and
+there was not a soul about the house. I cannot describe my feelings. My
+friends seemed to have been snatched away by some mysterious agency, and
+the horror of the thing almost drove me crazy. I felt that I was, in a
+manner, responsible for their disappearance.
+
+"One day my heart sank at the sight of a cousin of Jack Ashton's
+motioning to me in the street. He approached, with a troubled look. 'Mr.
+Church,' he said, 'I think you know me; can you tell me what has become
+of Jack? I haven't seen him for several days.' What could I say? Still
+believing that they would soon come back, I invented, on the spur of the
+moment, a story that Jack, with a couple of intimate friends, had gone
+off on a hunting expedition. I took a little comfort in the reflection
+that my friends, like myself, were bachelors, and consequently at liberty
+to disappear if they chose.
+
+"But when more than a week had passed with out any news of them I was
+thrown into despair. I had to give up all hope. Remembering how near we
+were to the coast, I concluded that they had drifted out over the sea and
+gone down. It was hard for me, after the lie I had told, to let out the
+truth to such of their friends as I knew, but I had to do it. Then the
+police took the matter in hand and ransacked Stonewall's laboratory and
+the shanty without finding anything to throw light on the mystery. It was
+a newspaper sensation for a few days, but as nothing came of it everybody
+soon forgot all about it--all except me. I was left to my loneliness and
+my regrets.
+
+"A year has now passed with no news from them. I write this on the
+anniversary of their departure. My friends, I know, are dead--somewhere!
+Oh, what an experience it has been! When your friends die and are buried
+it is hard enough but when they disappear in a flash and leave no
+token--! It is almost beyond endurance!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+A TRIP OF TERROR
+
+I take up the story at the point where I dropped it to introduce Church's
+narrative.
+
+As minute after minute elapsed and we continued in motion we changed our
+minds about the descent, and concluded that the inventor was going to
+give us a much longer ride than we had anticipated. We were startled and
+puzzled but not really alarmed, for the car traveled so smoothly that it
+gave one a sense of confidence. On the other hand, we felt a little
+indignation that Edmund should treat us like a lot of boys, without wills
+of our own. No doubt we had provoked him, though unintentionally, but
+this was going too far on his part. I am sure we were all hot with this
+feeling and presently Jack flamed out:
+
+"Look here, Edmund," he exclaimed, dropping his customary good-natured
+manner, "this is carrying things with a pretty high hand. It's a good
+deal like kidnapping, it seems to me. I didn't give you permission to
+carry me off in this way, and I want to know what you mean by it and what
+you are about. I've no objection to making a little trip in your car,
+which is certainly mighty comfortable, but first I'd like to be asked
+whether I want to go or no."
+
+Edmund shrugged his shoulders and made no reply. He was very busy just
+then with the metallic knobs. Suddenly we were jerked off our feet as if
+we had been in a trolley driven by a green motorman. Edmund also would
+have fallen if he had not clung to one of the handles. We felt that we
+were spinning through the air at a fearful speed. Still Edmund uttered
+not a word, but while we staggered upon our feet, and steadied ourselves
+with hands and knees on the leather-cushioned benches like so many
+drunken men, he continued pulling and pushing at his knobs. Finally the
+motion became more regular and it was evident that the car had slowed
+down from its wild rush.
+
+"Excuse me," said Edmund, then, quite in his natural manner, "the thing
+is new yet and I've got to learn the stops by experience. But there's no
+occasion for alarm."
+
+But our indignation had grown hotter with the shake-up that we had just
+had, and as usual Jack was spokesman for it:
+
+"Maybe there is no occasion for alarm," he said excitedly, "but will you
+be kind enough to answer my question, and tell us what you're about and
+where we are going?"
+
+And Henry, too, who was ordinarily as mute as a clam, broke out still
+more hotly:
+
+"See here! I've had enough of this thing! Just go down and let me out. I
+won't be carried off so, against my will and knowledge."
+
+By this time Edmund appeared to have got things in the shape he wanted,
+and he turned to face us. He always had a magnetism that was
+inexplicable, and now we felt it as never before. His features were
+perfectly calm, but there was a light in his eyes that seemed electric.
+As if disdaining to make a direct reply to the heated words of Jack and
+Henry he began in a quiet voice:
+
+"It was my first intention to invite you to accompany me on a very
+interesting expedition. I knew that none of you had any ties of family or
+business to detain you, and I felt sure that you would readily consent.
+In case you should not, however, I had made up my mind to go alone. But
+you provoked me more than you knew, probably, at the club, and after we
+had entered the car, and, being myself hot-tempered, I determined to
+teach you a lesson. I have no intention, however, of abducting you. It is
+true that you are in my power at present, but if you now say that you do
+not wish to be concerned in what I assure you will prove the most
+wonderful enterprise ever undertaken by human beings, I will go back to
+the shed and let you out."
+
+We looked at one another, in doubt what to reply until Jack, who, with
+all his impulsiveness had more of the milk of human kindness in his heart
+than anyone else I ever knew, seized Edmund's hand and exclaimed:
+
+"All right, old boy, bygones are bygones; I'm with you. Now what do you
+fellows say?"
+
+"I'm with you, too," I cried, yielding to the spur of Jack's enthusiasm
+and moved also by an intense curiosity. "I say go ahead."
+
+Henry was more backward. But his curiosity, too, was aroused, and at
+length he gave in his voice with the others.
+
+Jack swung his hat.
+
+"Three cheers, then, for the modern Archimedes! You won't take that amiss
+now Edmund."
+
+We gave the cheers, and I could see that Edmund was immensely pleased.
+
+"And now," Jack continued, "tell us all about it. Where are we going?"
+
+"Pardon me, Jack," was Edmund's reply, "but I'd rather keep that for a
+surprise. You shall know everything in good time; or at least everything
+that you can understand," he added, with a slightly malicious smile.
+
+Feeling a little more interest than the others, perhaps, in the
+scientific aspects of the business, I asked Edmund to tell us something
+more about the nature of his wonderful invention. He responded with great
+good humor, but rather in the manner of a schoolmaster addressing pupils
+who, he knows, cannot entirely follow him.
+
+"These knobs and handles on the walls," he said, "control the driving
+power, which, as I have told you, comes from the atoms of matter which I
+have persuaded to unlock their hidden forces. I push or turn one way and
+we go ahead, or we rise; I push or turn another way and we stop, or go
+back. So I concentrate the atomic force just as I choose. It makes us go,
+or it carries us back to earth, or it holds us motionless, according to
+the way I apply it. The earth is what I kick against at present, and what
+I hold fast by; but any other sufficiently massive body would serve the
+same purpose. As to the machinery, you'd need a special education in
+order to understand it. You'd have to study the whole subject from the
+bottom up, and go through all the experiments that I have tried. I
+confess that there are some things the fundamental reason of which I
+don't understand myself. But I know how to apply and control the power,
+and if I had Professor Thomson and Professor Rutherford here, I'd make
+them open their eyes. I wish I had been able to kidnap them."
+
+"That's a confession that, after all, you've kidnapped us," put in Jack,
+smiling.
+
+"If you insist upon stating it in that way--yes," replied Edmund, smiling
+also. "But you know that now you've consented."
+
+"Perhaps you'll treat us to a trip to Paris," Jack persisted.
+
+"Better than that," was the reply. "Paris is only an ant-hill in
+comparison with what you are going to see."
+
+And so, indeed, it turned out!
+
+Finally all got out their pipes, and we began to make ourselves at home,
+for truly, as far as luxurious furniture was concerned, we were as
+comfortable as at the Olympus Club, and the motion of the strange craft
+was so smooth and regular that it soothed us like an anodyne. It was only
+those unnamed, subtle senses which man possesses almost without being
+aware of their existence that assured us that we were in motion at all.
+
+After we had smoked for an hour or so, talking and telling stories quite
+in the manner of the club, Edmund suddenly asked, with a peculiar smile:
+
+"Aren't you a little surprised that this small room is not choking full
+of smoke? You know that the shutters are tightly closed."
+
+"By Jo," exclaimed Jack, "that's so! Why here we've been pouring out
+clouds like old Vesuvius for an hour with no windows open, and yet the
+air is as clear as a bell."
+
+"The smoke," said Edmund impressively, "has been turned into atomic
+energy to speed us on our way. I'm glad you're all good smokers, for that
+saves me fuel. Look," he continued, while we, amazed, stared at him,
+"those fellows there have been swallowing your smoke, and glad to get
+it."
+
+He pointed at a row of what seemed to be grinning steel mouths, barred
+with innumerable black teeth, and half concealed by a projecting ledge at
+the bottom of the wall opposite the entrance, and as I looked I was
+thrilled by the sight of faint curls of smoke disappearing within their
+gaping jaws.
+
+"They are omnivorous beasts," said Edmund. "They feed on the carbon from
+your breath, too. Rather remarkable, isn't it, that every time you expel
+the air from your lungs you help this car to go?"
+
+None of us knew what to say; our astonishment was beyond speech. We began
+to look askance at Edmund, with creeping sensations about the spine. A
+formless, unacknowledged fear of him entered our souls. It never occurred
+to us to doubt the truth of what he had said. We knew him too well for
+that; and, then, were we not here, flying mysteriously through the air in
+a heavy metallic car that had no apparent motive power? For my part,
+instead of demanding any further explanations, I fell into a hazy reverie
+on the marvel of it all; and Jack and Henry must have been seized the
+same way, for not one of us spoke a word, or asked a question; while
+Edmund, satisfied, perhaps, with the impression he had made, kept equally
+quiet.
+
+Thus another hour passed, and all of us, I think, had fallen into a doze,
+when Edmund aroused us by saying:
+
+"I'll have to keep the first watch, and all the others, too, this night."
+
+"So then we're not going to land to-night?"
+
+"No, not to-night, and you may as well turn in. You see that I have
+prepared good, comfortable bunks, and I think you'll make out very well."
+
+As Edmund spoke he lifted the tops from some of the benches along the
+walls, and revealed excellent beds, ready for occupancy.
+
+"I believe that I have forgotten nothing that we shall really need," he
+added. "Beds, arms, instruments, books, clothing, furs, and good things
+to eat."
+
+Again we looked at one another in surprise, but nobody spoke, although
+the same thought probably occurred to each--that this promised to be a
+pretty long trip, judging from the preparations. Arms! What in the world
+should we need of arms? Was he going to the Rocky Mountains for a bear
+hunt? And clothing, and furs!
+
+But we were really sleepy, and none of us was very long in taking Edmund
+at his word and leaving him to watch alone. He considerately drew a shade
+over the light, and then noiselessly opened a shutter and looked out.
+When I saw that, I was strongly tempted to rise and take a look myself,
+but instead I fell asleep. My dreams were disturbed by visions of the
+grinning nondescripts at the foot of the wall, which transformed
+themselves into winged dragons, and remorselessly pursued me through the
+measureless abysses of space.
+
+When I woke, windows were open on both sides of the car, and brilliant
+sunshine was streaming in through one of them. Henry was still asleep,
+Jack was yawning in his bunk, and Edmund stood at one of the windows
+staring out. I made a quick toilet, and hastened to Edmund's side.
+
+"Good morning," he said heartily, taking my hand. "Look out here, and
+tell me what you think of the prospect."
+
+As I put my face close to the thick but very transparent glass covering
+the window, my heart jumped into my mouth!
+
+"In Heaven's name, where are we?" I cried out.
+
+Jack, hearing my agitated exclamation, jumped out of his bunk and ran to
+the window also. He gasped as he gazed out, and truly it was enough to
+take away one's breath!
+
+We appeared to be at an infinite elevation, and the sky, as black as ink,
+was ablaze with stars, although the bright sunlight was streaming into
+the opposite window behind us. I could see nothing of the earth.
+Evidently we were too high for that.
+
+"It must lie away down under our feet," I murmured half aloud, "so that
+even the horizon has sunk out of sight. Heavens, what a height!"
+
+I had that queer uncontrollable qualm that comes to every one who finds
+himself suddenly on the edge of a soundless deep.
+
+Presently I became aware that straight before us, but afar off, was a
+most singular appearance in the sky. At first glance I thought that it
+was a cloud, round and mottled, But it was strangely changeless in form,
+and it had an unvaporous look.
+
+"Phew!" whistled Jack, suddenly catching sight of it and fixing his eyes
+in a stare, "what's _that?_"
+
+"_That's the earth!_"
+
+It was Edmund who spoke, looking at us with a quizzical smile. A shock
+ran through my nerves, and for an instant my brain whirled. I saw that it
+was the truth that he had uttered, for, as sure as I sit here, his words
+had hardly struck my ears when the great cloud rounded out and hardened,
+the deception vanished, and I recognized, as clearly as ever I saw them
+on a school globe, the outlines of Asia and the Pacific Ocean!
+
+In a second I had become too weak to stand, and I sank trembling upon a
+bench. But Jack, whose eyes had not accommodated themselves as rapidly as
+mine to the gigantic perspective, remained at the window, exclaiming:
+
+"Fiddlesticks! What are you trying to give us? The earth is down below, I
+reckon."
+
+But in another minute he, too, saw it as it really was, and his
+astonishment equaled mine. In fact he made so much noise about it that he
+awoke Henry, who, jumping out of bed, came running to see, and when we
+had explained to him where we were, sank upon a seat with a despairing
+groan and covered his face. Our astonishment and dismay were too great to
+permit us quickly to recover our self-command, but after a while Jack
+seized Edmund's arm, and demanded:
+
+"For God's sake, tell us what you've been doing."
+
+"Nothing that ought to appear very extraordinary," answered Edmund, with
+uncommon warmth. "If men had not been fools for so many ages they might
+have done this, and more than this long ago. It's enough to make one
+ashamed of his race! For countless centuries, instead of grasping the
+power that nature had placed at the disposal of their intelligence, they
+have idled away their time gabbling about nothing. And even since, at
+last, they have begun to do something, look at the time that they have
+wasted upon such petty forces as steam and 'electricity,' burning whole
+mines of coal and whole lakes of oil, and childishly calling upon winds
+and tides and waterfalls to help them, when they had under their thumbs
+the limitless energy of the atoms, and no more understood it than a baby
+understands what makes its whistle scream! It's inter-atomic force that
+has brought us out here, and that is going to carry us a great deal
+farther."
+
+We simply listened in silence; for what could we say? The facts were more
+eloquent than any words, and called for no commentary. Here we _were_,
+out in the middle of space; and _there_ was the earth, hanging on
+nothing, like a summer cloud. At least we knew where we were if we didn't
+quite understand how we had got there.
+
+Seeing us speechless, Edmund resumed in a different tone:
+
+"We made a fairly good run during the night. You must be hungry by this
+time, for you've slept late; suppose we have breakfast."
+
+So saying, he opened a locker, took out a folding table, covered it
+with a white cloth, turned on something resembling a little electric
+range, and in a few minutes had ready as appetizing a breakfast of eggs
+and as good a cup of coffee as I ever tasted. It is one of the
+compensations of human nature that it is able to adjust itself to the
+most unheard-of conditions provided only that the inner man is not
+neglected. The smell of breakfast would almost reconcile a man to
+purgatory--anyhow it reconciled us for the time being to our unparalleled
+situation, and we ate and drank, and indulged in as cheerful good
+comradeship as that of a fishing party in the wilderness after a big
+morning's catch.
+
+When the breakfast was finished we began to chat and smoke, which
+reminded me of those gulping mouths under the wainscot, and I leaned down
+to catch a glimpse of their rows of black fangs, thinking to ask Edmund
+for further explanation about them; but the sight gave me a shiver, and I
+felt the hopelessness of trying to understand their function.
+
+Then we took a turn at looking out of the window to see the earth. Edmund
+furnished us with binoculars which enabled us to recognize many
+geographical features of our planet. The western shore of the Pacific was
+now in plain sight, and a few small spots, near the edge of the ocean, we
+knew to be Japan and the Philippines. The snowy Himalayas showed as a
+crinkling line, and a huge white smudge over the China Sea indicated
+where a storm was raging and where good ships, no doubt, were battling
+with the tossing waves.
+
+After a time I noticed that Edmund was continually going from one window
+to the other and looking out with an air of anxiety. He seemed to be
+watching for something, and there was a look of mingled expectation and
+apprehension in his eyes. He had a peephole at the forward end of the car
+and another in the floor, and these he frequently visited. I now recalled
+that even while we were at breakfast he had seemed uneasy and
+occasionally left his seat to look out. At last I asked him:
+
+"What are you looking for, Edmund?"
+
+"Meteors."
+
+"Meteors, out here!"
+
+"Of course. You're something of an astronomer; don't you know that they
+hang about all the planets? They didn't give me any rest last night. I
+was on tender hooks all the time while you were sleeping. I was half
+inclined to call one of you to help me. We passed some pretty ugly
+fellows while you slept, I can tell you! You know that this is an
+unexplored sea that we are navigating, and I don't want to run on the
+rocks."
+
+"But we seem to be a good way off from the earth now," I remarked, "and
+there ought not to be much danger."
+
+"It's not as dangerous as it was, but there may be some of them yet
+around here. I'll feel safer when we have put a few more million miles
+behind us."
+
+_A few more million miles!_ We all stood aghast when we heard the words.
+We had, indeed, imagined that the earth looked as if it might be a
+million miles away, but, then, it was merely a passing impression, which
+had given us no sense of reality; but now when we heard Edmund say that
+we actually had traveled such a distance, the idea struck us with
+overwhelming force.
+
+"In the name of all that's good, Edmund," cried Jack, "at what rate are
+we traveling, then?"
+
+"Just at present," Edmund replied, glancing at an indicator, "we're
+making twenty miles a second."
+
+_Twenty miles a second!_ Our excited nerves had another shock.
+
+"Why," I exclaimed, "that's faster than the earth moves in its orbit!"
+
+"Yes, a trifle faster; but I'll probably have to work up to a little
+better speed in order to get where I want to go before our goal begins to
+run away from us."
+
+"Ah, there you are," said Jack. "That's what I wanted to know. What is
+our goal? Where are we going?"
+
+Before Edmund could reply we all sprang to our feet in affright. A loud
+grating noise had broken upon our ears. At the same instant the car gave
+a lurch, and a blaze of the most vicious lightning streamed through a
+window.
+
+"Confound the things!" shouted Edmund, springing to the window, and then
+darting to one of his knobs and beginning to twist it with all his force.
+
+In a second we were sprawling on the floor--all except Edmund, who kept
+his hold on the knob. Our course had been changed with amazing quickness,
+and our startled eyes beheld a huge misshapen object darting past the
+window.
+
+"Here comes another!" cried Edmund, again seizing the knob.
+
+I had managed to get my face to the window, and I certainly thought that
+we were done for. Apparently only a few rods away, and rushing straight
+at the car, was a vast black mass, shaped something like a dumb-bell,
+with ends as big as houses, tumbling over and over, and threatening us
+with annihilation. If it hit us, as it seemed sure that it would do, I
+knew that we should never return to the earth, unless in the form of
+pulverized ashes!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+THE PLANETARY LIMITED
+
+But Edmund had seen the meteor sooner than I, and as quick as thought he
+swerved the car, and threw us all off our feet once more. But we should
+have been thankful if he had broken our heads, since he had saved us from
+instant destruction.
+
+The danger, however, was not yet passed. Scarcely had the immense
+dumb-bell (which Edmund declared must have been composed of solid iron,
+so great was its effect on his needles) disappeared, before there came
+from outside a blaze so fierce that it fairly slapped our lids shut.
+
+"A collision!" Edmund exclaimed. "The thing has struck another big
+meteor, and they are exchanging fiery compliments."
+
+He threw himself flat on the floor, and stared out of the peephole. Then
+he jumped to his feet and gave us another tumble.
+
+"They're all about us," he faltered, breathless with exertion; then,
+having drawn a deep inspiration, he continued: "We're like a boat in a
+raging freshet, with rocks, tree trunks, and cakes of ice threatening it
+on all sides. But we'll get out of it. The car obeys its helm as if it
+appreciated the danger. Why, I got away from that last fellow by setting
+up atomic reaction against it, as a boatman pushes with his pole."
+
+Even in the midst of our terror we could not but admire our leader. His
+resources seemed boundless, and our confidence in him grew with every
+escape. While he kept guard at the peepholes we watched for meteors from
+the windows. We must have come almost within striking distance of a
+thousand in the course of an hour, but Edmund decided not to diminish
+our speed, for he said that he could control the car quicker when it was
+under full headway.
+
+So on we rushed, dodging the things like a crow in a flock of pestering
+jays, and we really enjoyed the excitement. It was more fascinating sport
+than shooting rapids in a careening skiff, and at last we grew so
+confident in the powers of our car and its commander that we were rather
+sorry when the last meteor passed, and we found ourselves once more in
+open, unimpeded space.
+
+After that the time passed quietly. We ate our meals and went to bed and
+rose as regularly as if we had been at home. In one respect, however,
+things were very different from what they were on the earth. We had no
+night! The sun shone continually, although the sky was black and always
+glittering with stars. None of us needed to be told by our conductor that
+this was due to the fact that we no longer had the shadow of the earth to
+make night for us when the sun was behind it. The sun was now never
+behind the earth, or any other great opaque body, and when we wished to
+sleep we made an artificial night, for our special use, by closing all
+the shutters. And there was no atmosphere about us to diffuse the
+sunlight, and so to hide the stars. We kept count of the days by the aid
+of a calendar clock; there seemed to be nothing that Edmund had
+forgotten. And it was a delightful experience, the wonder of which grew
+upon us hour by hour. It was too marvelous, too incredible, to be
+believed, and yet--_there we were!_
+
+Once the idea suddenly came to me that it was astonishing that we had not
+long ago perished for lack of oxygen. I understood, of course, from what
+Edmund had said, that the mysterious machines along the wall absorbed the
+carbonic acid, but we must be constantly using up the oxygen. When I put
+my difficulty before Edmund he laughed.
+
+"That's the easiest thing of all," he said. "Look here."
+
+He threw open a little grating.
+
+"In there," he continued, "there's an apparatus which manufactures just
+enough oxygen to keep the air in good condition. It is supplied with
+materials to last a month, which will be much longer than this expedition
+will take."
+
+"There you are again," exclaimed Jack. "I was asking you about that when
+we ran into those pesky meteors. What _is_ this expedition? Where are we
+going, anyway?"
+
+"Well," Edmund replied, "since we have become pretty good shipmates, I
+don't see any objection to telling you. We are going to Venus."
+
+"Going to Venus!" we all cried in a breath.
+
+"To be sure. Why not? We've got the proper sort of conveyance, haven't
+we?"
+
+There was no denying that. Our conveyance had already brought us some
+millions of miles out into space; why, indeed, should it not be able to
+carry us to Venus, or any other planet?
+
+"How far is it to Venus?" asked Jack.
+
+"When we quit the earth," Edmund answered, "Venus was rapidly approaching
+inferior conjunction. You know what that is," addressing me, "it's when
+the planet comes between the sun and the earth. The distance from the
+earth is not always the same at such a conjunction, but I figured out
+that on this occasion, after allowing for the circuit we should have to
+make, there would be just twenty-seven million miles to travel. At an
+average speed of twenty miles a second we could do that distance in
+fifteen days, fourteen and one half hours. But, of course, I had to lose
+some time going slow through the earth's atmosphere, for otherwise the
+car would have taken fire, like a meteor, on account of the friction.
+Then, too, I shall have to slow up on entering the atmosphere of Venus,
+which appears to be very deep and dense; so, upon the whole, I don't
+count on landing upon Venus in less than sixteen days from the time of
+our departure. We've already been out five days, and within eleven more I
+expect to introduce you to the inhabitants of another world."
+
+The inhabitants of another world! Again Edmund had thrown out an idea
+which took us all aback.
+
+"Do you believe there are any inhabitants on Venus?" I asked at length.
+
+"Certainly. I know there are."
+
+"For sure," put in Jack, stretching out his legs and pulling at his pipe.
+"Who'd go twenty-seven million miles to pay a visit if he didn't know
+there was somebody at home?"
+
+"Then that's what you put the arms aboard for," I remarked.
+
+"Yes, but I hope we shall not have to use them."
+
+"Strikes me that this is a sort of pirate ship," said Jack. "But what
+kind of arms have you got, Edmund?"
+
+For answer Edmund threw open a locker and showed us a gleaming array of
+automatic guns and pistols and even some cutlasses.
+
+"Decidedly piratical!" exclaimed the incorrigible Jack. "You'd better
+hoist the black flag. But, see here, Edmund, with all this inter-atomic
+energy that you talk about, why in the world didn't you invent something
+new--something that would just knock the Venustians silly, and blow their
+old planet up if necessary? Automatic arms are pretty good at home, on
+that unprogressive earth that you have spurned with your heels, but
+they'll likely be rather small pumpkins on Venus."
+
+"I didn't prepare anything else," Edmund replied, "because, in the first
+place, I was too busy with more important things, and in the second place
+because I don't really anticipate that we shall have any use for arms. I
+only took these as a precaution."
+
+"You mean to try moral suasion, I suppose," drawled Jack. "Well, anyhow,
+I hope they'll be glad to see us, and since it is Venus that we are going
+to visit, I don't look for much fighting. I'm glad you made it Venus
+instead of Mars, Edmund, for, from all I've heard of Mars with its
+fourteen-foot giants, I don't think I should like to try the pirate
+business in that direction."
+
+We all laughed at Jack's fancies; but there was something tremendously
+thrilling in the idea. Think of landing on another world! Think of
+meeting inhabitants there! Really, it made one's head spin.
+
+"Confound it, this is all a dream," I said to myself. "I'm on my back in
+bed with a nightmare. I'll kick myself awake."
+
+But do what I would I could make no dream of it. On the contrary, I felt
+that I had never been quite so much awake in all my life before.
+
+After a while we all settled down to take the thing in earnest. And then
+the charm of it began to master our imaginations. We talked over the
+prospects in all their aspects. Edmund said little, and Henry nothing,
+but Jack and I were stirred to the bottom of our romantic souls. Henry
+was different. He had no romance in his make-up. He always looked at the
+money in a thing. To his mind, going to Venus was playing the fool, when
+we had at our command the means of owning the earth.
+
+"Edmund," he said, after mumbling for a while under his breath, "this is
+the most utter tomfoolery that ever I heard of. Here you've got an
+invention that would revolutionize mechanics, and instead of utilizing it
+you rush off into space on a hairbrained adventure. You might have been
+twenty times a billionaire inside of a year if you had stayed at home and
+developed the thing. Why, it's folly; pure, beastly folly! Going to
+Venus! What can you make on Venus?"
+
+Edmund only smiled. After a little he said:
+
+"Well, I'm sorry for you, Henry. But then you're cut out on the ordinary
+pattern. But cheer up. When we go back, perhaps I'll let you take out a
+patent, and you can make the billions. For my part, Venus is more
+interesting to me than all the money you could pile up between the
+Atlantic Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. Why," he continued, warming up,
+and straightening with a certain pride which he had, "am I not the
+Columbus of Space?--And you my lieutenants," he added, with a smile.
+
+"Right you are," cried Jack enthusiastically. "The Columbus of Space,
+that's the ticket! Where's old Archimedes now? Buried, by Jo! _He_
+couldn't go to Venus! And what need we care for your billionaires?"
+
+Edmund patted Jack on the back, and I rather sympathized with his
+enthusiasm myself.
+
+The time ran on, and we watched anxiously the day-hand of the calendar
+clock. Soon it had marked a week; then ten days; then a fortnight. We
+knew we must be getting very close to our goal, yet up to this time
+neither Jack, nor Henry, nor I had caught a glimpse of Venus. Edmund,
+however, had seen it, but he told us that in order to do so he had been
+obliged to alter our course because the planet was directly in the eye of
+the sun. In consequence of the change of course we were now approaching
+Venus from the east--flanking her, so to speak--and Edmund described her
+appearance as that of an enormous crescent. Finally he invited us to take
+a look for ourselves.
+
+I shall never forget that first view! It was only a glimpse, for Edmund
+was nervous about meteors again, and would allow us only a moment at the
+peephole because he wished to be continually on the watch himself. But,
+brief as was the view, that vast gleaming sickle hanging in the black sky
+was the most tremendous thing I ever looked upon!
+
+Soon afterwards Edmund changed the course again, and then we saw her no
+more. We had not come upon the swarms of meteors that Edmund had expected
+to find lurking about the planet, and he said that he now felt safe in
+running into her shadow, and making a landing on her night hemisphere.
+You will allow me to remind you that Schiaparelli had long before found
+out that Venus doesn't turn on her axis once every twenty-four hours,
+like the earth, but keeps always the same face to the sun; the
+consequence being that she has perpetual day on one side and perpetual
+night on the other. I asked Edmund why he should not rather land on the
+daylight side; but he replied that his plan was safer, and that we could
+easily go from one side to the other whenever we chose. It didn't turn
+out to be so easy after all, but that is another part of the story.
+
+"I hardly expect to find any inhabitants on the night side," Edmund
+remarked, "for it must be fearfully cold there--too cold for life to
+exist, perhaps; but I have provided against that as far as we are
+concerned. Still, one can never tell. There _may_ be inhabitants there,
+and at any rate I am going to find out. If there are none, we'll just
+stop long enough to take a look at things, and then the car will quickly
+transport us to the daylight hemisphere, where life certainly exists. By
+landing on the uninhabited side, you see, we shall have a chance to
+reconnoiter a little, and can approach the inhabitants on the other side
+so much the more safely."
+
+"That sounds all right enough," said Jack, "but if Venus is correctly
+named, I'm for getting where the inhabitants are as quick as possible."
+
+When we swung round into the shadow of the planet we got her between the
+sun and ourselves, and as she completely hid the sun, we now had
+perpetual night about the car. Out of the peephole she looked like a
+stupendous black circle, blacker than the sky itself, but round the rim
+was a beautiful ring of light.
+
+"That's her atmosphere," Edmund explained, "lighted up by the sun from
+behind. But, for the life of me, I cannot tell what those immense flames
+mean."
+
+He referred to a vast circle of many-colored spires that blazed and
+flickered like a burning rainbow at the inner edge of the ring of light.
+It was one of the most awful, and yet beautiful, sights that I had ever
+gazed upon.
+
+"That's something altogether outside my calculations," Edmund added. "I
+can't account for it at all."
+
+"Perhaps they are already celebrating our arrival with fireworks,"
+suggested Jack, always ready to take the humorous view of everything.
+
+"That's not fire," Edmund responded earnestly. "But what it is I confess
+I can't imagine. We'll find out, however, for I haven't come all this
+distance to be scared off."
+
+And here I must try to explain a very curious thing which had puzzled our
+senses, though not our understanding (because Edmund had promptly
+explained it), throughout the voyage, and that was--levitation.  On our
+first day out from the earth, we began to notice the remarkable ease with
+which we handled things, and the strange tendency we had to bump into one
+another because we seemed to be all the time employing more strength than
+was necessary and almost to be able to walk on air. Jack declared that he
+felt as if his head had become a toy balloon.
+
+"It's the lack of weight," said Edmund. "Every time we double our
+distance from the earth we lose another three quarters of our weight. If
+I had thought to bring along a spring dynamometer, I could have shown
+you, Jack, that when we were 4,000 miles above the earth's surface the
+200 good pounds with which you depress the scales at home had diminished
+to 50, and that when we had passed about 150,000 miles into space you
+weighed no more than a couple of ounces. From that point on, it has been
+the attraction of the sun to which we have owed whatever weight we had,
+and the floor of the car has been toward the sun, because, at that
+distance from the earth, the latter ceases to exercise the master force,
+and the pull of the sun becomes greater than the earth's. But as we
+approach Venus the latter begins to restore our weight, and when we
+arrive on her surface we shall weigh about four fifths as much as when we
+started from the earth."
+
+"But I don't look as if I had lost any avoirdupois," said Jack, glancing
+at his round limbs. "And when you give us a fling I seem to strike pretty
+hard, though in other respects I confess I do feel a good deal like an
+angel."
+
+"Ah," said Edmund, laughing, "that's the _inertia of mass_. Your mass is
+the same, although your weight has almost disappeared. Weight depends
+upon the distance from the attracting body, but mass is independent of
+everything."
+
+"Do you mean to say that angels are massive?"
+
+"They may be as massive as they like provided they keep well away from
+great centers of gravitation."
+
+"But Venus is such a center--then there can't be any angels there."
+
+"I hope to find something better than angels," was Edmund's smiling
+reply.
+
+Now, as we drew near to Venus, the truth of Edmund's statements became
+apparent. We felt that our weight was returning, and our muscular
+activity sinking back to the normal again. We imagined that every minute
+we could feel our feet pressing more heavily upon the floor.
+
+Our approach was so rapid that the immense black circle grew visibly
+minute by minute. Soon it was so large that we could no longer see its
+boundaries through the peephole in the floor.
+
+"We're now within a thousand miles," said Edmund, "and must be close to
+the upper limits of the atmosphere. I'll have to slow down, or else we'll
+be burnt up by the heat of friction."
+
+He proceeded to slow down a little more rapidly than was comfortable. It
+was jerk after jerk, as he dropped off the power, and put on the brakes,
+but at last we got down to the speed of a fast express train. Soon we
+were so close that the surface of the planet became dimly visible, simply
+from the starlight. We were now settling down very cautiously, and
+presently we began to notice curious shafts of light which appeared to
+issue from the ground, as if the surface beneath us had been sprinkled
+with iron founderies.
+
+"Aha!" cried Edmund, "I believe there _are_ inhabitants on this side
+after all. Those lights don't come from volcanoes. I'm going to make for
+the nearest one, and we'll soon know what they are."
+
+Accordingly we steered for one of the gleaming shafts. It was a thrilling
+moment, I can tell you--that when we first saw another world than ours
+under our feet! As we approached the light it threw a pale illumination
+on the ground around. Everything appeared to be perfectly flat and level.
+It was like dropping down at night upon a vast prairie. But the features
+of the landscape were indistinguishable in the gloom. Edmund boldly
+continued to approach until we were within a hundred feet of the shaft of
+light, which we could now perceive issued directly from the ground.
+Suddenly, with the slightest perceptible bump, we touched the soil, and
+the car came to rest. We had landed on Venus!
+
+"It's unquestionably frightfully cold outside," said Edmund, "and we'll
+now put on these things."
+
+He dragged out of one of his many lockers four suits of thick fur
+garments, and as many pairs of fur gloves, together with caps and shields
+for the face, leaving only narrow openings for the eyes. When we had got
+them on we looked like so many Esquimaux. Finally Edmund handed each of
+us a pair of small automatic pistols, telling us to put them where they
+would be handy in our side pockets.
+
+"Boarders all!" cried the irrepressible Jack. "Pirates, do your duty!"
+
+Our preparations being made, we opened the door. The air that rushed in
+almost hardened us into icicles!
+
+"It won't hurt you," said Edmund in a whisper. "It can't be down to
+absolute zero on account of the dense atmosphere. You'll get used to it
+in a few minutes. Come on."
+
+His whispering gave us a sense of imminent danger, but nevertheless we
+followed as he led the way straight toward the shaft of light. On nearing
+it we saw that it came out of an irregularly round hole in the ground.
+When we got yet nearer we were astonished to see rough steps which led
+down into the pit. The next instant we were frozen in our tracks! For a
+moment my heart stopped beating.
+
+Standing on the steps, just below the level of the ground, and intently
+watching us, with eyes as big and luminous as moons, was a creature
+shaped like a man, but more savage than a gorilla!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE CAVERNS OF VENUS
+
+For two or three minutes the creature continued to stare at us,
+motionless; and we stared at him. It was so dramatic that it makes my
+nerves tingle now when I think of it. His eyes alone were enough to
+harrow up your soul. Huge beyond belief, round and luminous as full
+moons, they were filled with the phosphorescent greenish-yellow glare
+that sometimes appears in the expanded pupils of a cat or a wild beast.
+The great hairy head was black, but the stocky body was as white as a
+polar bear. The arms were apelike and very long and muscular, and the
+entire aspect of the creature betokened immense strength and activity.
+
+Edmund was the first to recover from the stupor of surprise, and
+instantly he did a thing so apparently absurd but so marvelous in its
+calculated effect that no brain but his could have conceived it. It
+shakes me at once with laughter and recollected terror when I recall it.
+
+"WELL, HELLO YOU!" he called out in a voice of such stentorian power that
+we jumped as at a thunderclap. The effect on the strange brute was
+electric. A film shot across the big eyes, he leaped into the air,
+uttering a squeak that was ridiculous, coming from an animal of such size
+and strength, and instantly disappeared, tumbling down the steps.
+
+But we were as much frightened as the ugly monster himself. We stared at
+Edmund, speechless in our amazement. Never could I have believed it
+possible for such a voice to issue from the human throat. It was not the
+voice of our friend, nor the voice of a man at all, but an indescribable
+clangor; and the words I have quoted had been scarcely distinguishable,
+so shattered were they by the crash of sound that whirled them into our
+astonished ears. Edmund, seeing us gaping in speechless wonder, laughed
+with such an appearance of hearty enjoyment as I had never known him to
+exhibit--and his merriment produced another thunderous explosion that
+shook the air.
+
+Then the truth burst upon me, and I exclaimed:
+
+"It's the atmosphere!"
+
+I had not spoken very loudly, but the words seemed to reverberate in my
+mouth, as if to testify to the correctness of my explanation.
+
+"Yes," said Edmund, taking pains to moderate his voice, "you've hit it,
+it's the atmosphere. I had calculated on an effect of the kind, but the
+reality exceeds all that I had anticipated. Spectroscopic analysis as
+well as telescopic appearances demonstrated long ago that the atmosphere
+of Venus was extraordinarily extensive and dense, from which fact I
+inferred that we should encounter some wonderful acoustic phenomena here,
+and this was in my mind when, on stepping out of the car, I addressed you
+in a whisper. The reaction even of the whisper on my organs of speech
+told me that I was right, and showed me what to expect if the full power
+of the voice were used. When we caught sight of the creature at the top
+of the pit I had no desire to shoot him, and I saw that he was too
+powerful to be captured alive. In a second I had decided what to do. It
+ran through my mind that, in a world where the density, and probably
+something also in the peculiar constitution of the air, had the effect of
+vastly magnifying sound, the phonetic and acoustic organs of the
+inhabitants would be modified, and that the sounds uttered by them would
+be much fainter than those that we are accustomed to hear from living
+creatures on the earth. That being so, I argued that a very great and
+heavy sound coming from a strange animal would produce in the creature
+before us a paralyzing terror. You have seen that it did so. I expect
+that this will give us an immense advantage to begin with. We have
+already inspired so great a fear that I believe that we can now safely
+follow the creature into its habitation, and encounter without danger any
+of its congeners that may be there. Nevertheless, I shall not ask you to
+run any risks, and I will alone descend into the pit."
+
+"If you do, may I be hanged for sheep stealing!"
+
+You will guess at once that it was Jack who had spoken thus.
+
+"No, sir," he continued, "if you go, we all go. Isn't that so, boys?"
+
+In answer to an appeal thus put, neither Henry nor myself could have hung
+back even if we had had the disposition to do so. But I believe that we
+all instinctively felt that our place was by Edmund's side, wherever he
+might choose to go.
+
+"Go ahead, then, Edmund," Jack added, seeing that we consented, "we're
+with you." And then his enthusiasm taking fire, as usual, he exclaimed:
+"Hurrah! Columbus forever! We've conquered a hemisphere with a blank
+shot."
+
+And so we began our descent into the mysterious pit. The strange light
+that came from it, and formed a shaft in the dense atmosphere above like
+sunlight in a haymow, was accompanied by a considerable degree of heat,
+which was very grateful to our lungs after the frigid plunge that we had
+taken from the comfortable car. As we descended, the temperature
+continually rose until we were glad to throw off our Arctic togs, and
+leave them on a shelf of rock to await our return. But, fortunately, we
+did not forget to take the pistols from the pockets before leaving the
+garments. I am very uncertain what would have been the future course of
+our history if we had neglected this precaution.
+
+It was an awful hole for depth. The steps, rudely cut, wound round and
+round the sides like those in a cathedral tower, but the pit was not
+perfectly circular. It looked like a natural formation, such as the
+vertical entrance to a limestone cavern, or the throat of a sleeping
+volcano. But whatever the nature of the pit might be, I was convinced
+that the steps were of artificial origin. They were reasonably regular in
+height and broad enough for two, or even three, persons to go abreast.
+
+When we had descended perhaps as much as two hundred feet, we suddenly
+found ourselves in a broad cavern with a surprisingly level floor. The
+temperature had been steadily rising all the time, and here it was as
+warm as in an ordinary living room. The cavern appeared to be about
+twenty yards broad and eight or ten feet in height, with a flat roof of
+rock. It was dimly illuminated by a small heap of what seemed to be hard
+coal, burning in a very roughly constructed brazier, which, as far as
+looks went, one would have said was constructed of iron.
+
+You will imagine our surprise upon seeing these things. The appearance of
+the gorilla-like beast with the awful eyes had certainly not led us to
+anticipate the finding in his lair of any such evidences of human
+intelligence, and we stood fast in our tracks for a minute or two, nobody
+speaking a word. Then Edmund said:
+
+"This is far better than I hoped. I had not thought about caverns, though
+I ought to have foreseen the probability of something of the kind. It is
+hard to drive out life as long as a world has solid foundations, and air
+for breathing. I shall be greatly surprised now if these creatures do not
+turn out to be at least as intelligent as our African or Australian
+savages."
+
+"But," said I, "the fellow that we saw surely cannot have more
+intelligence than a beast. There must be some more highly developed
+creatures living here."
+
+"I'm not so sure of that," Edmund responded. "Looks go for nothing in
+such a case. He had arms and hands, and his brain may be well organized."
+
+"If his brain is as big as his eyes," Jack put in, "he ought to be able
+to give odds to old Solomon and beat him easy. My, but I'd like to see
+their spectacles--if they ever wear any!"
+
+Jack's humor recalled us from our meditation, and we began to look about
+more carefully. There was not a living creature in sight, but over in a
+corner I detected a broad hole, down which the steps continued to
+descend.
+
+"Here's the way," said Edmund, discovering the steps at the same moment.
+"Down we go."
+
+He again led the way, and we resumed the descent. As we stumbled along
+downward we began to talk of a strange but agreeable odor which we had
+noticed in the cavern. Edmund said that it was due, perhaps, to some
+peculiar quality of the atmosphere.
+
+"I think," he continued, "that it is heavily charged with oxygen. You
+have noticed that none of us feels the slightest fatigue, notwithstanding
+the precipitancy of our long descent."
+
+I reflected that this might also be the cause of our rising courage, for
+I was sure that not one of us felt the slightest fear in thus pushing on
+toward dangers of whose nature we could form no idea. The steps,
+precisely like those above, wound round and round and led us down I
+should say as much as three hundred feet before we entered another
+cavern, larger and loftier than the first.
+
+And there we found them!
+
+There was never another such sight! It made our blood run cold once more,
+rather with surprise than fear, though the latter quickly followed.
+
+Ranged along the farther side of the cavern, and visible in the light of
+another glowing heap in the center, were as many as thirty of those huge
+hairy creatures, standing shoulder to shoulder, their great eyes glaring
+like bull's-eye lanterns. But the thing that filled us with terror was
+their motions.
+
+You have read, with thrilling nerves, how a huge cobra, reared on his
+coils, sways his terrible head from side to side before striking. Well,
+all those black heads before us were swaying in unison, but with a
+sickening circular movement, which was regularly reversed in direction.
+Three times by the right and then three times by the left those heads
+circled, in rhythmic cadence, while the luminous eyes seemed to leave
+phosphorescent rings in the air, intersecting one another in consequence
+of the rapidity of the motion.
+
+It was such a spectacle as I had never beheld in the wildest dream. It
+was baleful. It was the charm of the serpent fascinating his terrified
+prey. In an instant I felt my brain turning, and I staggered in spite of
+my utmost efforts. A kind of paralysis stiffened my limbs.
+
+Presently, all moving together, and uttering a hissing, whistling sound,
+they began slowly to approach us, keeping in line, each shaggy leg lifted
+at the same moment, like so many soldiers on parade, while the heads
+continued to swing, and the glowing eyes to cut linked circles in the
+air. But for Edmund we should certainly have been lost. Standing a little
+to the fore, he spoke to us over his shoulder, in a low voice:
+
+"Take out your pistols, but don't shoot unless they make a rush. Then
+kill as many as you can. I'll knock over the leader in the center, and I
+think that will be enough."
+
+We could as easily have stirred our arms if we had been marble statues,
+but he promptly raised his pistol, and the explosion followed on the
+instant. The report was like an earthquake. It shocked us into our senses
+and almost out of them again. The weight of the air and the confinement
+of the cavern magnified and concentrated the sound so that it was awful
+beyond belief. The fellow in the center was hurled back as if shot from a
+catapult, and the others fell at flat as he, and lay there groveling,
+their big eyes filming and swaying, but no longer in unison.
+
+The charm was broken, and as we saw our fearful enemies prostrate, our
+courage returned at a bound.
+
+"I thought as much," said Edmund coolly. "But I'm sorry now that I aimed
+at that fellow; the sound alone would have sufficed. It was not necessary
+to take life. However, we should probably have had to come to it
+eventually, and now we have them thoroughly cowed. Our safety consists in
+keeping them terrified."
+
+Thus speaking, Edmund boldly approached the groveling row, and pushed
+with his foot the furry body of the one he had shot. The bullet had gone
+through his head. At Edmund's approach the creatures sank lower on the
+rocky floor, and those nearest him turned up their moon eyes with an
+expression of submission and supplication that was grotesque. He motioned
+us to join him and, imitating him, we began to pat and smooth the
+shrinking bodies until, understanding that we would not hurt them, they
+gradually acquired confidence.
+
+In the meantime the crowd in the cavern increased, others coming in
+through side passages, and exhibiting the utmost astonishment at the
+spectacle which greeted them. It was clear that those who had taken part
+in the opening scene imparted to the newcomers a knowledge of the
+situation of affairs, and we could see that our prestige was thoroughly
+established. It remained to utilize our advantage, and we looked to
+Edmund to show how it should be done. He was equal to the undertaking,
+but I shall not trouble you with the details of his diplomacy. Let it
+suffice to say that by a combination of gentleness and firmness he
+quickly reduced almost the entire population of the caverns (for, as we
+afterwards discovered, there were a dozen or more of these underground
+dwellings connected by horizontal passages through the rocks) into
+subjection to his will. I say "almost," because, as you will see in a
+little while, there were certain members of this extraordinary community
+who possessed a spirit of independence too strong to be so easily
+subdued.
+
+As we became better acquainted with the cave dwellers we found that they
+were by no means as savage as they looked. Their appearance was certainly
+grotesque, and even unaccountable. Why, for instance, should their heads
+have been covered with coarse black disordered hair while their bodies,
+from the neck down, were almost beautiful with a natural raiment of
+golden white, as soft as silk and as brilliant as floss? I never could
+explain it, and Edmund was no less puzzled by this peculiarity. The
+immense size of their eyes did not seem astonishing after we began to
+reflect upon the consequences of the relative lack of light in their
+world. It was but a natural adjustment to their environment; with such
+eyes they could see in the dark better than cats. Their feet were bare
+and covered on the soles with thick soft skin, while the insides of their
+long hands were almost as white and delicate as those of a human being.
+
+Their intelligence was sufficiently demonstrated by the construction of
+the hundreds of rocky steps leading from the caverns to the surface of
+the ground, and by their employment of fire, and manufacture of the
+metallic braziers which contained it. But this was not all. We found that
+in some of the winding passages connecting the caverns they cultivated
+food. It consisted entirely of vegetables of various kinds, and all
+unlike any that I ever saw on the earth. Water dripped from the roofs of
+these particular passages, and the almost colorless vegetation thrived
+there with astonishing luxuriance. They had many simple ways of cooking
+their food, and it was evident that they possessed some form of salt,
+though we did not discover the deposit from which they must have drawn
+it. They collected water in cisterns hollowed in the rock.
+
+Although we still had abundance of food in the car, Edmund insisted on
+trying theirs, and it proved to be very palatable.
+
+"This is fortunate, though hardly surprising," said Edmund. "If we had
+found the food on Venus uneatable, we should indeed have been in a fine
+fix. While we remain here we will eat as the natives eat, and save our
+own supplies for future need."
+
+The only brute animals that we saw in the caverns were some doglike
+creatures, about as large as terriers, but very furry, which showed the
+utmost terror whenever we appeared.
+
+One of the first things that we discovered outside the main cavern where
+we had made our debut was the burial ground of the community. This
+happened when they came to dispose of the fellow that Edmund had shot.
+They formed a regular procession, which greatly impressed us, and we
+followed them as they bore the body through several winding ways into a
+large cavern, at a considerable distance from any of the others. Here
+they had dug a grave, and, to our astonishment, there appeared to be
+something resembling a religious ceremony connected with the interment.
+And then, for the first time, we distinguished the females from the
+others. But a still greater surprise awaited us. It was no less than
+plain evidence of regular family relationship.
+
+As the body was lowered into the grave one of the females approached with
+every sign of distress and sorrow. Jack declared that he saw tears
+running down her hairy cheeks. She held two little ones by the hand, and
+this spectacle produced an astonishing effect upon Edmund, revealing an
+entirely new side of his character. I have told you that he expressed
+regret for having killed the fellow in the cavern, but now, at the sight
+before him, he seemed filled with remorse.
+
+"I wish I had never come here!" he said bitterly. "The first thing I have
+done is to kill an inoffensive and intelligent creature."
+
+"Intelligent, perhaps," said Jack, "but inoffensive--not by a long shot!
+Where'd we have been if you hadn't killed him? They'd have made mincemeat
+of us."
+
+"No," replied Edmund, sorrowfully shaking his head, "it wasn't necessary.
+The noise would have sufficed; and I ought to have known it."
+
+"Why didn't you shout, then? That scared the first one," put in Henry,
+whose soul, it must be said, was not overflowing with sympathy.
+
+"I did what I thought was best at the moment," Edmund replied, with a
+broken voice. "They were so many and so threatening that I imagined my
+voice alone might not be effective. But I'm sorry, sorry!"
+
+"Henry, you're a fool!" cried the sympathetic Jack. "Come now, Edmund,"
+he continued, kindly laying a hand on his shoulder, "what you did was the
+only thing under heaven that could have been done. You're wrong to blame
+yourself. By Jo, if you hadn't done it I would!"
+
+But Edmund only shook his head, as if refusing to be comforted. It was
+the first sign of weakness that we had seen in our incomparable leader,
+but I am sure it only increased our respect for him--at least that's true
+of Jack and me. After that I noticed that Edmund was far more gentle than
+before in his relations with the people of the caverns.
+
+Not long after this painful incident we made a discovery of extreme
+interest. It was nothing less than a big smithy! Edmund had foretold that
+we should find something of the kind.
+
+"Those braziers and cooking pots," he had said, "and the tools that must
+have been needed to build the steps and to dig their graves, prove that
+they know how to work in iron. If it is not done in these caverns, then
+they get it from some other similar community. But I think it likely that
+we shall come upon some signs of the work hereabouts."
+
+"Maybe they import it from Pittsburg," was the remark that fun-loving
+Jack could not refrain from making.
+
+"Well, you'll see," said Edmund.
+
+And, as I have already told you, he was right. We did find the smithy,
+with several stout fellows pounding out rude tools with equally rude
+hammers of iron. Of course we could ask them no questions, for their
+language was only a kind of squeak, and they seemed to converse mostly by
+means of expressive signs. But Edmund was not long in drawing his
+conclusions.
+
+"This," he said, after closely examining the metal, "is native iron.
+There's nothing remarkable in the fact that it should be here. All the
+solid planets, as you know" (turning to me), "are very largely composed
+of iron, and Venus, being nearer the center of the system, may have
+proportionally more of it than the earth. And these fellows have found
+out its usefulness, and how to work it. There's nothing surprising in
+that, either, for some of our savages have done as much on the earth. Now
+I'll make another prediction--we are going to find coal here. That is
+inevitable, since we know that they burn it in the caverns. I shouldn't
+wonder if it were close at hand, from the look of these rocks."
+
+He approached the wall of the cavern containing the smithy, and
+immediately exclaimed:
+
+"Look here! Here it is!"
+
+And sure enough, on joining him we saw a seam of as fine anthracite as
+Pennsylvania ever produced.
+
+"A Carboniferous Age on Venus!" Edmund continued. "What do you think of
+that? But, of course, it was sure to be so; all the planets that are old
+enough have been through practically the same stages. Think of it! The
+plants that gave origin to this coal must have flourished here when Venus
+still rotated on her axis rapidly enough to have day and night succeeding
+one another on all sides of her, for now no vegetation except the
+insignificant plants that grow in these caverns can live on this
+hemisphere. And think, too, of the countless ages that must have been
+consumed in slowing down her rotation by the friction of her ocean
+tides."
+
+"Has Venus got any oceans?" asked Jack.
+
+"I haven't a doubt of it; but we shall find none on this side, although
+they must once have been here."
+
+We all mused for a time on the subject that Edmund had started, when
+suddenly his face lighted up with the greatest animation, and he
+exclaimed, but as if speaking to himself rather than to us:
+
+"Capital! It couldn't have happened better!"
+
+"What's capital?" drawled Jack.
+
+"Why, this smithy, and these Tubal Cains here. Unconsciously they have
+solved for me a problem that has given me considerable trouble. Almost as
+soon as we got acquainted with the people of the caverns the idea
+occurred to me that I should like to take some of them with us when we
+visit the other hemisphere. There are many interesting observations that
+their presence on that side of Venus would give rise to, and, besides,
+they might be of great use to us. Of course I meant to bring them back to
+their home. But the puzzling question has been how to transport them. The
+car has a full load already."
+
+"They've got good legs; make 'em walk," said Jack.
+
+Edmund burst into a laugh.
+
+"Why, Jack," he asked, "how far do you think it is to the other side of
+Venus?"
+
+"I don't know," said Jack, "but I suppose it's not very far round her.
+How far is it?"
+
+"Five thousand miles, at least, to the edge of the sunlit hemisphere."
+
+Jack whistled.
+
+"By Jo! I wouldn't have believed it."
+
+"Well, it's a fact," said Edmund, "and of course I don't propose to take
+several months to make the journey. Now the sight of these fellows at
+work has shown me just how it can be done in short order. It's this way:
+I'll have iron sleds made, put the natives that I propose to take along
+upon them, hitch them by wire cables, which luckily I've got, to the car,
+and away we'll spin. The power of the car is practically unlimited, and,
+as you have observed, the ground is as flat and smooth as a prairie, and,
+moreover, is coated with an icy covering."
+
+Jack glowed with enthusiasm over this project, and was about to indulge
+in one of his characteristic outbreaks, when there came an interruption
+which ended in a drama that put silver streaks among my coal-black locks!
+Some one came in where we were and called off the workmen, who went out
+with the others in great haste. Of course we followed at their heels. On
+reaching the principal cavern, we found a singular scene. Two natives,
+whom we had never seen before, were evidently in charge of some kind of a
+ceremony. They wore tall, conical hats made of polished metal and covered
+with hieroglyphics, and carried staves of iron in their hands.
+
+"Priests," Edmund immediately whispered. "Now we'll see something
+interesting."
+
+The "priests" marshaled all the others, numbering several hundreds, into
+a long column, and then began a slow, solemn march up the steps. The
+leaders produced a squeaking music by blowing into the ends of their
+staves. Women were mingled with men, and even the children were there,
+too. We followed at the tail of the procession, our curiosity at the
+highest pitch. At the rate we went it must have taken nearly an hour to
+mount the steps, but at last all emerged in the open air, where the cold
+struck to our marrow. The natives didn't seem to mind it, but we ran back
+and donned our furs. Then we re-ascended and stepped out into the Arctic
+night, finding the crowd assembled not far from the entrance to the
+cavern. The frosty sky was ablaze with stars, and directly overhead shone
+a planet of amazing size and splendor with a little one beside it.
+
+"The earth and the moon!" exclaimed Edmund.
+
+I cannot describe the flood of feeling that went over me at that sight!
+But in a moment Edmund interrupted my meditation by saying, in a quick,
+nervous way:
+
+"_Look at that!_"
+
+The natives had formed themselves in a circle with the two priests
+standing alone in the center. All but these two had dropped on their
+knees, while the leaders, elevating their long arms toward the zenith,
+gazed upward, uttering a kind of chant in their queer, squeaking voices.
+
+"Don't you see what they're about?" demanded Edmund, twitching me
+irritably by the sleeve. "They're worshipping the earth!"
+
+It was the truth--the amazing truth! They were worshipping our planet in
+the sky! And, indeed, she looked worth worshipping. Never have I seen so
+splendid a star. She was twenty times as bright as the most brilliant
+planet that any terrestrial astronomer ever beheld; and the moon, glowing
+beside her like an attendant, redoubled the beauty of the sight.
+
+"It's just the moment of the conjunction," said Edmund. "This is their
+religion; the earth is their goddess, and when she is nearest and
+brightest they perform this ceremony in her honor. I wouldn't have missed
+this for a world."
+
+Suddenly the two priests began to pirouette, and as they whirled more and
+more rapidly, their huge glowing eyes made phosphorescent circles in the
+gloom like those that had so alarmed and fascinated us in the cavern.
+They gyrated round the ring of worshipers with accelerated speed, and all
+those poor creatures fell under the fascination and drooped with heads to
+the ground. Now for the first time I caught sight of an oblong object
+rising a couple of feet above the ground in the center of the circle. I
+was wondering what it might be when the spinning priests, who had
+gradually drawn closer to the ring of worshipers, dived into the circle,
+and, catching each a native in his arms, ran with their captives to the
+curious object that I have just described.
+
+"It's a sacrificial stone!" exclaimed Edmund. "They're going to kill them
+as an offering to the earth and her child the moon."
+
+I was frozen with horror at the sight, but just as the second priest
+reached the altar, where the first victim had already been pinned with
+the sharp point of the sacrificial staff, his captive, suddenly
+recovering his senses, and terrified by the awful fate confronting him,
+uttered a cry, wrenched himself loose, and, running like the wind, leaped
+over the circle and disappeared in the darkness. The fugitive passed
+close by us, and Jack shouted as he darted past:
+
+"Good boy!"
+
+The enraged priest was after him like lightning, and as he came near us
+his awful eyes seemed to emit actual flames. But the runner had vanished.
+Without an instant's hesitation the priest shot out his great arm and
+caught _me_ by the throat! In another second I felt myself carried in a
+bound, as if a tiger had seized me, over the drooping heads of the
+worshipers and toward the horrible altar.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+OFF FOR THE SUN LANDS
+
+Dreadful as the moment was, I did not lose my senses. On the contrary, my
+mind was fearfully clear and active. There was not a horror that I
+missed. The strength and agility of my captor were astounding. I could no
+more have struggled with him than with a lion. Only one thing flashed
+upon me to do; I yelled with all the strength of my lungs. But they had
+become accustomed to our voices now, and the maddened creature was so
+intent upon his fell purpose that a cannon-shot would not have diverted
+him from it.
+
+He got me to the altar, where the preceding victim already lay with his
+heart torn out, and, pressing me against it with all his bestial force,
+raised the pointed staff to transfix me. With dying eyes I saw the earth
+gleaming, magnificent, directly over my head, and my heart bounded with
+unreasoning hope at the sight. It was my mother planet, powerful to save!
+
+All this passed in a second, while the dreadful spear was poised for its
+work. Even in that fraction of time I noticed the bunching muscles of the
+murderer's hairy arm, and then I pressed my eyes shut.
+
+_Bang!_
+
+Something touched me, and I felt the warm blood gushing. Then I knew no
+more.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the midst of a dream of boyhood scenes a murmur of familiar voices
+awoke me. I opened my eyes, but as I could not make out where I was,
+closed them again.
+
+Then I heard Edmund saying:
+
+"He's coming out all right."
+
+Thereupon, I reopened my eyes, but still the scene puzzled me. I saw
+Edmund's face, and behind those of Jack and Henry, wearing anxious looks.
+But this was not my room! It seemed to be a cave, with faint firelight
+reflections on the walls.
+
+"Where am I?" I asked.
+
+"Back in the cavern, and coming along all right," said Edmund.
+
+Back in the cavern! What did he mean? Then, suddenly, memory returned.
+
+"So he didn't sacrifice me!" I cried.
+
+"Not on your life!" Jack's hearty voice responded. "Edmund was too quick
+for that."
+
+"But only by a fraction of a second!" said Edmund, smiling.
+
+"What happened, then?" I asked, my recollections coming back stronger and
+stronger.
+
+"A mighty good shot happened," said Jack. "The best I ever saw."
+
+I looked inquiringly at Edmund. He saw that I could bear it, and he
+began:
+
+"When that fellow snatched you up and leaped inside the circle I had my
+furs wrapped so closely around me, not anticipating any danger, that for
+quite ten seconds I was unable to get out my pistol. I tore the garment
+open just in time, for already he was pressing you against the accursed
+altar with his spear poised. I didn't waste any time finding my aim, but
+even as it was the iron point had touched you when the bullet crashed
+through his brain. The shock swerved the weapon a little and you were
+only wounded in the shoulder. You got a scratch which might have been
+serious but for your Arctic coat. The fellow fell dead beside you, and
+under the circumstances I felt compelled to shoot the other one also, for
+he was insane with the delirium of their bloody rite, and I knew that our
+lives would never be safe if he remained ready for mischief.
+
+"I'm sorry to have had to begin killing right and left again, but I guess
+that's the lot of all invaders, wherever they may go. It's the second
+lesson for these savages, and I believe it will prove final. When their
+priests were dead and the others had no fight in them, even if they had
+intended any harm to us.  Nobody knows to what those chaps might have led
+them, and my conscience is easy this time."
+
+"How long have I been here?" I asked.
+
+"Two days by the calendar clock?" replied Jack.
+
+"Yes, two days," Edmund assented. "I never saw a man so knocked out by a
+shock, for the wound wasn't much; I fixed that up in five minutes. But I
+don't blame you. In your place I should have been scared to the bottom of
+my soul also. But look at yourself."
+
+He held a pocket mirror before me, and then I saw that my hair was
+streaked with gray!
+
+"But we haven't been idle in the meanwhile," Edmund went on. "I've got
+two sleds nearly completed, and to-morrow at midnight--earth time--I mean
+to set out for the sunny lands of Venus."
+
+"How in the world could you have worked so fast?" I asked in surprise.
+
+"Because I had certain tools in the car which vastly facilitated the
+operation; but I must admit that the savage blacksmiths worked well, too,
+and showed surprising intelligence in comprehending my directions.
+Perhaps that was because I had learned their language."
+
+"Learned their language!" I exclaimed, staring in amazement.
+
+"Well, perhaps that's putting it a little too strong; but I have learned
+enough to establish a pretty good understanding with them. There's
+nothing like working together to make intelligent creatures comprehend
+one another."
+
+"But what kind of a language is it, then?" I asked.
+
+"A language to make your hair stand on end," put in Jack. "The language
+that ghosts speak, I reckon! Not that I understand the least little bit
+of it, but I judge from what Edmund says."
+
+With increasing bewilderment I looked at our leader. He smiled, and then
+looked thoughtful for a moment before again speaking. At last he said:
+
+"It's a subject that I may be better able to discuss after I have learned
+more about it. All I can say at present is that it appears to be a kind
+of telepathy. You know that their voices seem hardly more cultivated, or
+capable of regular articulation, than those of mere brutes; and, besides,
+they have a certain horror of sound. These smiths wear coverings over
+their ears to minify the noise of their hammering. Yet they are able to
+converse, partly by physical signs, but more, I am sure, by some means
+which they possess of transferring thought without the mediation of any
+senses familiar to us. Sometimes I imagine that their extraordinary eyes
+play a large part in the phenomenon. But, however that may be, they
+certainly are able to read some of my thoughts, when we are in close
+relations and working together. One of them is especially gifted in this
+way, and what do you think? I have discovered his name!"
+
+"Now, Edmund--" I began incredulously.
+
+"Yes," he persisted, "it's a fact. You are to remember that they do
+interchange some of their ideas by means of sounds, and they have certain
+words, among which I am disposed to think are their individual
+designations. One of these words particularly attracted my attention
+because I observed that it was always addressed to the person I have just
+spoken of, and I finally concluded that it was his name. As near as I can
+imitate it, it sounds something like 'Juba.' So that's what I call him,
+and he's going to be the chief of the party that I propose to take with
+us. His services may be invaluable to us."
+
+A great deal more was said on this curious subject, but since we did not
+arrive at a complete understanding of it until after we had reached the
+other side of the planet, I shall postpone any further explanation to the
+chapters which will be devoted to our astonishing adventures on that part
+of Venus.
+
+My wound, as Edmund had said, was very slight, and the effects of the
+shock having passed off during the period of my unconsciousness, I was
+soon busy with the others in making the final preparations for our
+departure. The sleds were, of course, very rude affairs, but they were
+also very strong. Among the innumerable stores which Edmund's foresight
+had led him to put into the car were a number of exceedingly strong but
+light metallic cables. With these the two sleds were hitched, one behind
+the other, and a line about a hundred feet long connected them with the
+car. The latter could thus rise to a considerable height without lifting
+the sleds from the ground.
+
+The sleds were provisioned from the stores of the natives, and we also
+took some of their food in the car, not only to eke out our own but
+because we had come to like it.
+
+Edmund had already chosen the fellows who were to accompany us, and among
+them were two of the smiths besides Juba. In all they were eight. How he
+succeeded in persuading them I do not know, but not the slightest
+objection was apparent on their part, or on the part of their compatriots
+in the caverns. We were all ready at the predetermined time, and the
+scene at our departure was a strange one.
+
+At least five hundred natives had assembled in a furry crowd around the
+entrance to the caverns to see us off. When we started, the fellows on
+the sleds, being unused to the motion, clung together like so many
+awkward white bears taking a ride in the circus. Their friends stood
+about the ill-omened sacrificial altar, waving their long arms, while
+their huge eyes goggled in the starlight.
+
+Jack, in a burst of enthusiasm, fired four or five parting shots from his
+pistol. As the reports crashed through the heavy air, you should have
+seen the crowd vanish down the hole! The sight made me wince, for they
+must have gone down like a cataract, all heaped together. But they were
+tough, and I trust no heads were broken. The effect on the eight fellows
+on the sleds came near being disastrous. I expected to see them leap off
+and run, which no doubt they would have done if Edmund had not taken, for
+other reasons, the precaution to tie them fast. But they strained at
+their bonds, and squealed in terror.
+
+"Give me your pistol!" commanded Edmund, in a voice of thunder, and with
+blazing eyes.
+
+Jack was almost twice his size, but he handed over the pistol with the
+air of a rebuked schoolboy.
+
+"When you learn how to use it, I'll give it back to you," said Edmund
+sternly, and that closed the incident.
+
+Then we began gradually to put on speed, and as the ground was icy smooth
+and entirely unobstructed, we were soon traveling at the rate of sixty
+miles an hour. The plan of the sleds worked like magic, and after their
+first terror had passed away it was plain to be seen that the natives
+enjoyed the new sensation immensely. And, indeed, it was a glorious spin!
+
+But in a little while a danger developed which we had not thought of. It
+arose from the existence of other caverns whose mouths opened upon the
+plain. To have precipitated the sleds into these would have been fatal.
+Luckily, shafts of light issued from all of them, and warned by these, we
+managed to avoid the danger. But it was not entirely passed before we had
+traveled at least a hundred miles. It was like an immense city of prairie
+dogs without mounds. The cavern that we had discovered on our arrival was
+evidently situated on the outskirts of the group, and now we were passing
+through the center of it. Occasionally we saw a huge white form disappear
+in one of the holes as we swiftly approached, but that was all we beheld
+of the inhabitants. But the spectacle of the shafts of light rising all
+around us was amazing. When we were in the midst of it Edmund hesitated
+for a moment, muttering that we had been too hasty and should have
+remained longer to study the peculiarities of this wonderful world of
+night; but finally he decided to keep on, and soon afterwards we saw the
+last of the caverns. Then, as there appeared to be no obstructions of any
+kind, the speed was worked up to a hundred miles an hour. Going straight
+ahead as we did, there was no danger of the sleds being overturned.
+
+Having, as Edmund had calculated, about five thousand miles to go before
+reaching the edge of the sun-illuminated hemisphere, it was evident that,
+at our present rate of progress, we should arrive there in a little over
+two days by the calendar clock. We guided our course by the stars, and
+for me one of the most interesting things was to see the earth sinking
+toward the horizon, accompanied by the stars, as if the heavens were
+revolving in a direction opposed to our line of travel. We smoked and
+talked and ate and slept in the old way, while the marvelous mouths in
+the wall resumed their strange deglutition. Thus the time passed, without
+ennui, until, unexpectedly, a new phenomenon captured our attention.
+
+Ahead, through the peephole, Edmund had descried again the flaming spires
+which had so astonished us on our approach to Venus. But now their
+appearance was splendid and imposing beyond words. Above them rose an arc
+of pearly light which grew higher every hour. And with the arc of light
+rose the flames also. At the same time they seemed to spread to the right
+and the left, until they were simultaneously visible from both of the
+side windows of the car. Their colors were wonderful--red, green, purple,
+orange--all the hues of the prism.
+
+"There is the old mystery again," exclaimed Edmund, "and I can no more
+explain it now than I could when we first saw it on nearing the planet.
+The arc of light above is natural enough; it's simply the dawn. The sun
+never rises on this side of Venus, but it will rise for us because we are
+approaching it, and the light is the first indication that we are getting
+near enough to the border between day and night for some of the sun's
+rays to be bent over the horizon by refraction. But those flames! See how
+steady they are as a whole, and yet how they change color like a slowly
+turning prism."
+
+"Don't, for God's sake, run us into a conflagration," said Jack. "I'm
+ready to believe anything of this topsy-turvy old planet, and I shouldn't
+be surprised if the other side is all fire as this one is all frost.  I
+can stand these hairy beasts, but I'll be hanged if I want to be
+introduced among salamanders."
+
+"That's not real fire," said Edmund. "When we get a little nearer we can
+see what it is. In the meantime I'll try to think it out."
+
+The result of Edmund's meditations, when he announced it to us, an hour
+later, awoke as much amazement in our minds as anything that had yet
+occurred. He had been sitting silent in his corner, occasionally taking a
+glimpse through the peephole, or one of the windows, when suddenly he
+slapped his thigh, and springing to his feet, exclaimed:
+
+"They're mountains of crystal!"
+
+"Mountains of crystal!" we echoed.
+
+"Nothing else in the world, and I am ashamed not to have foreseen the
+thing. It's plain enough when you come to think about it. Remember that
+Venus being a world lying half in the daylight and half in the night, is
+necessarily as hot on one side as it is cold on the other. All of the
+clouds and floating vapors are on the day side, where the sunbeams act.
+The heated air charged with moisture rises over the sunward hemisphere,
+and flows off above, on all sides, toward the night side, while from the
+latter cold air flows in beneath to take its place. Along the junction of
+the two hemispheres the clouds and moisture are condensed by the intense
+cold, and fall in ceaseless snowstorms. This snow descending for ages has
+piled up in mountainous masses whose height may be increased in some
+places by real mountain ranges buried beneath. The atmospheric moisture
+cannot pass very far into the night hemisphere without being condensed,
+and so it is all arrested within a ring, or band, extending completely
+around the planet, and marking the division between perpetual day and
+perpetual night. The appearance of gigantic flames is produced by the
+sunbeams striking these mountains of ice and snow from behind and
+breaking into prismatic fire."
+
+We listened to this explanation, so simple and yet so wonderful, with
+mingled feelings of astonishment and admiration. And then we turned again
+to regard the phenomenon, which now, with our nearer approach, had become
+splendid and awful beyond description.
+
+In a few minutes Edmund addressed us again. "I foresee now," he said,
+"considerable trouble for us. There has been a warning of that, too, if I
+had but heeded it. I've noticed for some time that a wind, getting
+gradually stronger, has been following us, sometimes dying out and then
+coming on again stronger than before. It is likely that this wind gets to
+be a perfect hurricane in the neighborhood of those strange mountains. It
+is the back suction, caused, as I have already told you, by the rising of
+the heated air on the sunny side of the planet. It may play the deuce
+with us when we get into the midst of it. I shall have to be cautious."
+
+He immediately reduced the speed to not more than ten miles an hour, and
+at once we noticed the wind of which he had spoken. It came now in great
+gusts from behind, rapidly increasing in frequency and fury. Soon it was
+strong enough to drive the sleds without any pull upon the cable, and
+sometimes they were forced directly under the car, and even ahead of it,
+the natives clinging to one another in the utmost terror. Edmund managed
+to govern the motions of the car for a time, holding it back against the
+storm, but as he confessed, this was a contingency he had made no
+provision for, and eventually we became almost as helpless as a ship in a
+typhoon.
+
+"Of course I could cut loose from the sleds and run right out of this,"
+said Edmund, "but that would never do. I've taken them into my service
+and I'm bound to look out for them. If there was room for them in the car
+it would be all right. Let's see. Yes! I've got it. I'll fetch up the
+sleds and fasten them underneath the car, like baskets to a balloon, and
+so carry the whole thing. There's plenty of power; it's only room that's
+wanting."
+
+No sooner said than done with Edmund. By this time we were getting into
+the ice, huge hills of which surrounded us. Edmund dropped the car in the
+lee of one of these strange hummocks. Here the force of the wind was
+broken, and the sky directly over us was free from clouds, but a short
+distance ahead we could see them whirling and tumbling in mighty masses
+of tumultuous vapor. Lashing the two sleds together we attached them
+about ten feet below the bottom of the car. Then the natives, who had
+been unbound, and had stood looking on in utter bewilderment, were
+securely fastened on the sleds. We entered the car and the power was
+turned on.
+
+"We'll rise straight up," said Edmund, "and as soon as we are out of the
+wind current we will sail over the mountains and come down on the other
+side as nice as you please. Strange that I didn't think of carrying the
+sleds in this way to begin with."
+
+It was a beautiful program that Edmund had outlined, and we had complete
+confidence in our leader's ability to carry it through; but it didn't
+work as expected. Even his genius had met its match this time.
+
+No sooner had we risen out of the protection of the hill of ice than the
+hurricane caught us. It was a blast of such power and ferocity that in an
+instant it had the car spinning like a teetotum, and then it shot us
+ahead, banging the sleds against the car as if they had been tassels. It
+is a wonder of wonders that the poor creatures on them were not flung
+off, but fortunately we had taken particular pains with their lashings,
+and as for knocks, they could stand them like so many bears.
+
+In the course of twenty minutes we must have traveled twice as many
+miles, perfectly helpless to arrest our mad rush because, Edmund said,
+the atomic reaction partly refused to work, and he could not rise as he
+had expected to do. We were pitched hither and thither, and were
+sprawling on the floor more than half the time. The noise was awful, and
+nobody tried to speak after Edmund had shouted his single communication
+about the power, which would have filled us with dismay if we had had
+leisure to think.
+
+The shutters were open, and suddenly I saw through one of the windows a
+sight which I thought must surely be my last. The car had been sweeping
+through a dense cloud of boiling vapors, and these had without warning
+split open before my eyes--and there, almost in contact with the car, was
+a glittering precipice of solid ice, gleaming with wicked blue flashes,
+and we were rushing upon it as if shot out of a cannon!
+
+The next instant came a terrific shock, which I thought must have crushed
+the car like an eggshell, and down we fell--down and down!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+LOST IN THE CRYSTAL MOUNTAINS
+
+If we had seen the danger earlier, and had not been so tumbled about by
+the pitching of the car, it is possible that Edmund would have prevented
+the collision, in spite of the partial disablement of his apparatus. The
+blow against the precipice of ice was not as severe as it had seemed to
+me, and the car was not smashed; but the fall was terrible! There was
+only one thing which saved us from destruction. At the base of the mighty
+cliff against which the wind had hurled the car an immense deposit of
+snow had collected, and into this we plunged. We were all thrown together
+in a heap, the car and the sleds being entangled with the wire ropes.
+
+Fortunately the stout glass windows were not broken, and after we had
+struggled to our feet Edmund managed to open the door. Before emerging he
+bade us put on our furs, but even with them we found the cold outside all
+but unendurable. Yet the natives paid no attention to it. Not one of them
+was seriously hurt, although they were firmly attached to the sleds, and
+unable to undo their fastenings. We set them loose, and then began
+seriously to examine the situation.
+
+Above us towered the vertical precipice disappearing in the whirling
+clouds, and the wind drove square against it with the roar of Niagara.
+The air was filled with snow and ice dust, and at intervals we could not
+see objects three feet away from our noses. Our poor furry companions
+huddled together, and being of no use to themselves or us, suffered more
+from the noise, and from the terror inspired by the snow than from any
+injuries that they had received.
+
+"We've got to get out of this mighty quick," shouted Edward. "Hustle now
+and repair ship."
+
+We got to work at once, Juba aiding us a little under Edmund's direction,
+and soon we had the sleds out of the tangle and properly attached. Then
+we replaced the natives on their seats, and entered the car. Edmund began
+to fumble with his apparatus. After some ten minutes' work he said, in an
+evasive way, that the damage was not serious enough to prevent the
+working of the car, but I thought I caught an expression of extreme
+anxiety in his face. Still, his manner indicated that he considered
+himself master of the situation.
+
+"You notice," he said, "that this wind is variable, and there lies our
+chance. When the blasts weaken, the air springs back from the face of the
+cliff and then whirls round to the right. I've no doubt that there is a
+passage in that direction through which the wind finds its way behind
+this icy mountain, and if we can get there, too, we shall undoubtedly
+find at least partial shelter. I'm going to take advantage of the first
+lull."
+
+It worked out just as he had predicted. As the wind surged back after a
+particularly vicious rush against the great blue cliff, we cut loose and
+went sailing up into it, rushing past the glittering wall so swiftly that
+it made our heads swim. In two or three minutes we rounded a corner, and
+then found ourselves in a kind of atmospheric eddy, where the car simply
+spun round and round, with the sleds whirling below it.
+
+"Now for it!" shouted Edmund. "Hang on!"
+
+He touched a knob, and instantly we rose with immense speed. We must have
+shot up a couple of thousand feet, when the wind, coming over the top of
+the icy barrier we had just flanked, caught us again, and swept us off on
+a horizontal course. Then, suddenly, the air cleared all round about, as
+if a magic broom had swept away the clouds. The spectacle that was
+revealed--but why try to describe it! No language could do it. Yet I must
+tell you what we saw.
+
+We were in the heart of the _Crystal Mountains!_ They towered round us on
+every side, and stretched away in interminable ranges of shining
+pinnacles. Such shapes! Such colors! Such flashing and blazing of
+gigantic rainbows and prisms! There were mountains that looked to my
+amazed eyes as lofty as Mont Blanc, and as massive, every solid mile of
+which was composed of crystalline ice, refracting and reflecting the
+sunbeams with iridescent splendor. For now we could begin to see a part
+of the orb of the sun itself, prodigious in size, and poised on the edge
+of the gem-glittering horizon, where the jeweled summits split its beams
+into a thousand haloes.
+
+There was one mighty peak, still ahead of us, but toward which we were
+rushed sidewise by the wind, which surpassed all the others in
+marvelousness. It towered majestically above our level--a superb,
+stupendous, coruscating _Alp of Light_! On every side it darted blinding
+rays of a hundred splendid hues, as if a worldful of emeralds, rubies,
+sapphires, and diamonds had been heaped together in one gigantic pile and
+transfused with a sunburst. Even Edmund was for a moment speechless with
+astonishment at this wildly magnificent sight. But presently he spoke,
+very calmly, though what he said changed our amazement to terror.
+
+"The trouble with the apparatus is very serious. I am unable to make the
+car rise higher. It will no longer react against an obstacle. We are
+entirely at the mercy of the wind. If it carries us against that
+glittering devil no power under heaven can save us."
+
+If my hair had not whitened before it surely would have whitened now!
+
+[Illustration: "We were in the heart of the _Crystal Mountains_!"]
+
+When we were swept against the first icy precipice the danger had come
+unexpectedly, out of a concealing cloud, and anticipation was swallowed
+up in the event. But now we had to bear the fearful strain of
+expectation, with the paralyzing knowledge that nothing that we could do
+could aid us in the least. I thought that even Edmund's face paled with
+fear.
+
+On we rushed, still borne sidewise, so that the spectacle was burned into
+our eyes, as, with the fascination of impending death, we gazed helpless
+out of the window. Now we were upon it! Instinctively I threw myself
+backward; but the blow did not come. Instead there was a wild rush of ice
+crystals sweeping the thick glass.
+
+"Look!" shouted Edmund. "We are safe! See how the particles of ice are
+swept from the face of the peak by the tempest. They leap toward us, and
+are then whirled round the mountain. The compacted air forms a buffer. We
+may yet touch the precipice, but the wind, having free vent on both
+sides, will carry us one way or the other without a serious shock."
+
+He had hardly finished speaking, in a voice that had risen to a shriek
+with the effort to make himself heard, when the crisis came. We did just
+touch a projecting ridge, but the wind, howling past it, carried us in an
+instant round the obstruction.
+
+"Scared ourselves for nothing," said Edmund, in a quieter voice, as the
+roar died down. "We were really as safe all the time as a boat in a deep
+rapid. The velocity of the current sheered us off."
+
+Our hearts beat more steadily again, but there was a greater danger, of
+which he had warned us, but which we had not had time to contemplate. I,
+at least, began to think of it with dismay when the scintillant peak was
+left behind, and I saw Edmund again working away at his machinery.
+Presently it was manifest that we were rapidly sinking.
+
+"What's the matter?" I cried. "We seem to be going down."
+
+"So we are," he replied quietly, "and I fear that we shall not go up
+again very soon. The power is failing all the time. It will be pretty
+hard to have to stop indefinitely in this frightful place, but I am
+afraid that that is our destiny."
+
+Lost and helpless in these mountains of ice and this world of gloom and
+storm! The thought was too terrible to be entertained. Yet it was forced
+into our minds even more by our leader's manner than by his words. Not
+one of us failed to comprehend its meaning, and it was characteristic
+that, while talkative Jack now said not a word, uncommunicative Henry
+burst into a brief fury of denunciation. I was startled by the energy of
+his words:
+
+"Edmund Stonewall," he cried, agitating his arms, "you have brought me to
+my death with your infernal invention! May you be--"
+
+But he never finished the sentence. His face turned as white as a sheet,
+and he sank in a heap upon the floor.
+
+"Poor fellow," said Edmund, pityingly. "Would to God that he instead of
+Church had remained at home. But I'll get him and all of us out of this
+trouble; only give me a little time."
+
+In a few minutes Jack and I had restored Henry to his senses, but he was
+as weak as a child, and remained lying on one of the cushioned benches.
+In the meantime the car descended until at last it rested upon the snow
+in a deep valley, where we were protected from the wind. In this profound
+depression a kind of twilight prevailed, for the sun, which we had
+glimpsed when we were on the level of the peaks, was at least thirty
+degrees below our present horizon. Henry having recovered his nerve, we
+all got out of the car, unloosed the natives, and began to look about us.
+
+The scene was more disheartening than ever. All about towered the crystal
+mountains, their bases leaden-hued and formless in the ghostly gloom,
+while their middle parts showed deep gleams of ultramarine, brightening
+to purple higher up, and a few aspiring peaks behind us sparkled
+brilliantly where the sunlight touched them. It was such a spectacle as
+the imagination could not have conceived, and I have often tried in vain
+to reproduce it satisfactorily in my own mind.
+
+Was there ever such a situation as ours? Cast away in a place wild and
+wonderful beyond description, millions of miles from all human aid and
+sympathy, millions of miles from the world that had given us birth! I
+could, in bitterness of spirit, have laughed at the suggestion that there
+was any hope for us. And yet, at that very moment, not only was there
+hope, but there was even the certainty of deliverance. But, unknown to
+us, it lay in the brain of the incomparable man who had brought us
+hither.
+
+I have told you that it was twilight in the valley where we lay. But
+when, as frequently happened, tempests of snow burst over the mountains,
+and choked the air about us, the twilight turned to deepest night, and we
+had to illumine the lamps in the car. By great good fortune, Edmund said,
+enough power remained to furnish us with light and heat, and now I looked
+upon those mysterious black-tusked muzzles in the car with a new
+sentiment, praying that they would not turn to mouths of death.
+
+The natives, being used to darkness, needed no artificial illumination.
+In fact, we had observed that whenever the sunlight had streamed over
+them their great eyes were almost blinded, and they suffered cruelly from
+an affliction so completely outside of all their experience. Edmund now
+began to speak to us of this, saying that he ought to have foreseen and
+provided against it.
+
+"I shall try to find some means of affording protection to their eyes
+when we arrive in the sunlit hemisphere," he said. "It must be my first
+duty."
+
+We heard these words with a thrill of hope.
+
+"Then you think that we shall escape?" I asked.
+
+"Of course we shall escape," he replied cheerfully. "I give you my word
+for it, but do not ask me for any particulars yet. The exact means I have
+not yet found, but find them I will. We may have to stay where we are for
+a considerable time, and our companions must be made comfortable. Even
+under their furry skins they'll suffer from this kind of weather."
+
+Following his directions we took a lot of extra furs from the car, and
+constructed a kind of tent, under which the natives could huddle on the
+sleds. There being but little wind in the valley, this was not so
+difficult an undertaking as it may seem. And the poor fellows were very
+glad of the shelter, for some of them were shivering, since, not knowing
+what to do, they were less active than ourselves. No sooner were they
+housed than they fell to eating ravenously. Both the car and the sleds
+had been abundantly provisioned, so that there was no immediate fear of a
+famine among us.
+
+Inside the car we soon had things organized very much as they were during
+our voyage from the earth. We read, talked, and smoked to our hearts'
+content, almost forgetting the icy mountains that tottered over us, and
+the howling tempest which, with hardly an intermission, tore through the
+cloud-choked air a thousand or two thousand feet above our heads. We
+talked of our adventure with the meteors, which seemed an event of long
+ago, and then we talked of home--home twenty-six million miles away! In
+fact, it may have been thirty millions by this time, for Edmund had told
+us that Venus, having passed conjunction while we were at the caverns,
+was now receding from the earth.
+
+But while we thus strove to kill the time and banish thoughts of our
+actual situation, Edmund sat apart much of the time absorbed in thought,
+and we respected his privacy, knowing that our only chance of escape lay
+in him. One day (I speak always of "days," because we religiously counted
+the passage of time by our clock) he issued alone from the car and was
+absent a long time, so that we began to be concerned, and, going outside
+looked everywhere for signs of him. At length, to our infinite relief, he
+appeared stumbling and crawling along the foot of an icy mountain. As he
+drew nearer we saw that he was smiling, and as soon as he was within easy
+earshot he called out:
+
+"It's all right. I've found the solution."
+
+Then upon joining us he continued:
+
+"We'll get out all right, but we shall have to be patient for a while
+longer."
+
+"What is it?" we asked eagerly. "What have you found out?"
+
+"Peter," he said, turning to me, "you know what libration means; well,
+it's libration that is going to save us. As Venus travels round the sun
+she turns just once on her axis in making a complete circuit, the
+consequence being, as you already know, that she has one side on which
+the sun never rises while the other half is in perpetual daylight. But,
+since her orbit is not a perfect circle, she travels a little faster than
+the average during about half of her year and a little slower during the
+other half, but, at the same time, her steady rotation on her axis never
+varies. This produces the phenomenon that is called libration, the result
+of which is that, along the border between the day and night hemispheres
+there is a narrow strip where the sun rises and sets once in each of her
+years, which are about two hundred and twenty-five of our days in length.
+Within this strip the sun shines continuously for about sixteen weeks,
+gradually rising during eight weeks and sinking during the following
+eight. Then, during the next sixteen weeks, the strip lies in unceasing
+night.
+
+"Now the kind fates have willed that we should fall just within this
+lucky strip. By the utmost good fortune after we passed the blazing peak
+which so nearly wrecked us, we were carried on by the wind so far, before
+the ascensional power of the car gave out, that we descended on the
+sunward side of the crest of the range. The sun is now just beginning to
+rise on the part of the strip where we are, and it will get higher for
+several weeks to come. The result will be that a great melting of ice and
+snow will occur here, and in this deep valley a river will form, flowing
+off toward the sunward hemisphere, exactly where we want to go. I shall
+take advantage of the torrent that will flow here and float down with it
+until we are out of the labyrinth. It's our only chance, for we couldn't
+possibly clamber over the hummocky ice and drag the car with us."
+
+"Why not leave the car here?" asked Henry.
+
+Edmund looked at him and smiled.
+
+"Do you want to stay on Venus all your life?" he asked. "I thought you
+didn't like it well enough for that. How could we ever get back to the
+earth without the car? I can repair the mechanism as soon as I can find
+certain substances, which I am sure exist on this planet as well as on
+the earth. But it is no use looking for them in this icy wilderness. No,
+we can never abandon the car. We must take it with us, and the only
+possible way to transport it is with the aid of the coming river."
+
+"But how will you manage to float?" I asked.
+
+"The car, being air-tight, will float like a buoy."
+
+"But the natives, will you abandon them?"
+
+"God forbid. I'll contrive a way for them."
+
+The effects of libration on Venus were not new to me, but they were to
+Jack and Henry, who had never studied such things, and they expressed
+much doubt about Edmund's plan, but I had confidence in it from the
+beginning, and it turned out just as he had predicted, as things always
+did. Every twenty-four hours we saw, with thankful hearts, that the sun
+had perceptibly risen, and as it rose, the sky gradually cleared, while
+the sunbeams, falling uninterruptedly, grew hotter and hotter. Soon we no
+longer had any use for furs, or for artificial heat. At the same time the
+melting of the ice began. It formed, in fact, a new danger, by bringing
+down avalanches into the valley, yet we watched the process joyously,
+since it fell so entirely within Edmund's program. While we were awaiting
+the flood, Edmund had prepared screens to protect the eyes of the
+natives.
+
+We were just at the bottom of the trough of the valley, near its head. It
+wound away before us, turning out of sight beyond an icy bulwark. Streams
+were soon pouring down from the heights all around, and uniting, they
+formed a little torrent, which flowed swiftly over the smooth, hard ice.
+Edmund now completed his plan.
+
+"I'll take Juba in the car with us," he said. "There's just room for him.
+As for the others, we'll fasten the sleds on each side of the car, which
+will be buoyant enough to float them, and they'll have to take their
+chances outside."
+
+We made the final arrangements while the little torrent was swelling to a
+river. Before it became too broad and deep we managed to place the car
+across the center of its course, the sleds forming outriders. Then all
+took their places and waited. Higher and higher rose the waters, while
+avalanches, continually increasing in size and number, thundered down the
+heights, and vast cataracts leaped and poured from the precipices. It was
+a mercy that we were so situated that the avalanches could not reach the
+car. But we received some pretty hard knocks before the stream became
+deep and steady enough to float us off. Shall I ever forget that moment?
+
+There came a sudden wave, forced onward by a great slide of ice, which
+lifted car and sleds on its crest, and away we went! The car proved more
+buoyant than I had believed possible. The sleds, fastened on each side,
+tended to give it extra stability, and it did not sink deeper than the
+middle of the windows. The latter, though formed of very thick glass,
+might have been broken by the tossing ice if they had not been divided
+into small panes separated by bars of steel, which projected a few inches
+outside.
+
+"I made that arrangement for meteors," said Edmund, "but I never thought
+that they would have to be defended against ice."
+
+The increasing force of the current sent us spinning down the valley with
+accelerated speed. We swept round the nearest ice peak on the left, and
+as we passed under its projecting buttresses a fearful roar above
+informed us that an avalanche of unexampled magnitude had been unchained.
+We could not withdraw our eyes from the window on that side of the car,
+and almost instantly immense masses of ice appeared crashing into the
+water, throwing it over us in floods and half drowning the unfortunate
+wretches on the sleds. Still, they clung on, fastened together, and we
+could do nothing to aid them. The uproar grew worse, and the ice came
+plunging down faster and faster, accompanied with a deluge of water from
+the heights above. The car pitched and rolled until we were all flung off
+our feet. Poor Juba was a picture of abject terror. He hung moaning to a
+bench, his huge eyes aglow with fright.
+
+Suddenly the car seemed to be lifted clear from the water, and then it
+fell back again and was submerged, so that we were buried in night.
+Slowly we rose to the surface, and Edmund, springing to a window,
+shouted:
+
+"They're gone! Heaven have pity on them--and on me!"
+
+In spite of their fastenings the water had swept every living soul from
+the sled on the left. We rushed to the other window. It was the same
+story there--the sled on that side was also empty. I saw a furry body
+tossed in the torrent alongside, but in a second it disappeared beneath
+the raging water. At the same time Edmund exclaimed:
+
+"God forgive us for bringing those poor creatures here only to meet their
+death!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN
+
+But the situation was too critical to permit us to think of the
+unfortunates whose death we had undoubtedly caused. There seemed less
+than an even chance of our getting through with our own lives. As we
+tossed and whirled onward the water rose yet higher, and blocks of ice
+assailed us on all sides. First the sled on the left was torn loose; then
+the other followed it, leaving the car to fight its battle alone. But the
+loss of the sleds was a good thing now that their occupants were gone,
+for it eased off the weight and the car rose much higher in the water.
+Moreover, it gave way more readily when pressed by the ice. To be sure,
+it rolled more than before, but still, being well ballasted, it did not
+turn turtle, and most of the time we were able to keep on our feet by
+holding fast to the inside window bars.
+
+Once we took a terrible plunge, over a vertical fall of not less than
+twenty or thirty feet. But the water below the fall was very deep, a
+profound hole having been quickly scooped out in the unfathomable ice
+beneath, so that we did not strike bottom, as I had feared, but came
+bobbing to the top again like a cork. Below this fall there was a very
+long series of rapids, extending, it seemed, for miles upon miles, and we
+shot down them with the speed of an express train, lurching from side to
+side, and colliding with hundreds of ice floes. It must not be supposed
+that we went through this experience without suffering any injuries. On
+the contrary, our hands were all bleeding, our faces cut, Henry had one
+eye closed by a blow, and our clothing, for we were not wearing our
+Arctic outfit, was badly used up. Yet none of our injuries was really
+serious, although we looked as if we had just come out of the toughest
+kind of a street brawl.
+
+But there is no use in prolonging the story of this awful ride. It seemed
+to us to last for days upon days, though, in fact, the worst of it was
+over within twelve hours after we were lifted from our moorings in the
+valley. The tumbling stream gradually broadened out as it left the region
+of the high mountains, and then we found ourselves in a district covered
+with icy hills of no great elevation. But we could still see, by glances,
+as the stream curved this way and that, the glittering peaks behind. It
+was an appalling thing to watch many of the nearer hills as they suddenly
+sank, collapsed, and disappeared, like pinnacles of loaf sugar melting
+and falling to pieces in a basin of water.
+
+Edmund said that all of the ice-hills and mounds through which we were
+passing no doubt owed their existence to pressure from behind, in the
+belt where the sun never rose, and where the ice was piled up in actual
+mountains. These foothills were, in fact, enormous glaciers thrust out
+toward the sunward hemisphere.
+
+After a long time the now broad river widened yet more until it became a
+great lake, or bay. The surface of the planet around appeared nearly
+level, and, as far as we could see, was mostly covered by the water. Here
+vast fields of ice floated, and the water was not muddy, as it would have
+been if it had passed over soil, but of crystal purity and wonderfully
+blue in places where shafts of sunlight penetrated to great depths--for
+now the sun was high above the horizon ahead, and shining in an almost
+clear sky. Presently we began to notice the wind again. It came fitfully,
+first from one quarter and then another, rapidly increasing until, at
+times, it rose into a tempest. It lifted the water in huge combing waves,
+but the car rode them like a lifeboat.
+
+"There is peril for us in this," said Edmund, at last. "We are being
+carried by the current into a region where the contending winds may play
+havoc. It is the place where the hot air from the sunward side begins to
+be chilled and to descend, meeting the colder air from the night side. It
+must form a veritable belt of storms, which may be as difficult to pass,
+circumstanced as we are, as the crystal mountains themselves."
+
+"Suppose it should turn out that there is nothing but an ocean on this
+side of the planet," I suggested.
+
+"That I believe to be impossible," Edmund responded. "This hemisphere
+must be, as a whole, broken up into highlands and depressions. The
+geological formation of the other side, as far as I could make it out
+from the appearance of the rocks in the caverns, indicates that Venus has
+undergone the same experience of upheavals and fracturings of the crust
+that the earth has been through. If that is true of one side it must be
+true of the other also, for during a large part of these geological
+changes she undoubtedly rotated rapidly on her axis like the earth."
+
+"But we traveled five thousand miles on the other side without
+encountering anything but a frozen prairie," I objected.
+
+"True enough, and yet I would lay a wager that all of that side of the
+planet is not equally level. Remember the vast plains of Russia and
+Siberia."
+
+"Well," put in Jack, whose spirits were beginning to revive, "if there's
+a shore somewheres, let's find it. I want to see the other kind of
+inhabitants. These that we've met don't accord with my ideas of Venus."
+
+"We shall find them," responded Edmund, "and I think I can promise you
+that they will not disappoint your expectations."
+
+Yet there seemed to be nothing in our present situation to warrant the
+confidence expressed by our leader's words and manner. The current that
+had carried us out of the crystal mountains gradually disappeared in a
+vast waste of waters, and we were driven hither and thither by the
+tempestuous wind. Its force increased hour by hour, and at last the sky,
+which at brief intervals had been clear and exquisitely blue, became
+choked with black clouds, sweeping down upon the face of the waters, and
+often whirled into great _trombes_ by the tornadic blasts. Several times
+the car was deluged by waterspouts, and once it was actually lifted up
+into the air by the mighty suction. An ordinary vessel would not have
+lived five minutes in that hell of winds and waters. But the car, if it
+had been built for this kind of navigation, could not have behaved
+better.
+
+I do not know how long all this lasted. It grew worse and worse.
+Sometimes a flood of rain fell, and then would come a storm of lightning,
+and a downpour of gigantic hailstones that rattled upon the steel shell
+of the car like a rain of bullets from a battery of machine guns. Half
+the time one window or the other was submerged by the waves, and when we
+got an opportunity to glance out, we saw nothing but torn streamers of
+cloud whipping the face of the waters. But when the change came at last,
+it was as sudden as the dropping of a curtain. The clouds broke away, a
+soft light filled the atmosphere, the waves ceased to break and rolled in
+long undulations, and a marvelous dome appeared overhead.
+
+That dome, at its first dramatic appearance, was one of the most
+astonishing things that we saw in the whole course of our adventures. It
+was not a cerulean vault like that which covers the earth in halcyon
+weather, but an indescribably soft, pinkish-gray concavity that seemed
+nearer than the sky and yet farther than the clouds. Here and there, far
+beneath it, but still at a vast elevation, floated delicate gauzy
+curtains, tinted like sheets of mother-of-pearl. The sun was no longer
+visible, but the air was filled with a delicious luminousness, which
+bathed the eyes as if it had been an ethereal liquid.
+
+Below each window was a steel ledge, broad enough to stand on, with
+convenient hold-fasts for the hands. These had evidently been prepared
+for some such contingency, and Edmund, throwing open the windows, invited
+us to go outside. We gladly accepted the invitation, and all, except
+Juba, issued into the open air. The temperature was that of an early
+spring day, and the air was splendidly fresh and stimulating. The rolling
+of the car had now nearly ceased, and we had no difficulty in maintaining
+our positions. For a long while we admired, and talked of, the great dome
+overhead, which drew our attention, for the time, from the sea that had
+so strangely brought us hither.
+
+"There," said Edmund, pointing to the dome, "is the inside of the shell
+of cloud whose exterior, gleaming in the sunshine, baffles our
+astronomers in their efforts to see the surface of Venus. I believe that
+we shall find the whole of this hemisphere covered by it. It is a shield
+for the inhabitants against the fervors of an unsetting sun. Its presence
+prevents their real world from being seen from outside."
+
+"Well," said Jack, laughing, "I never heard before that Venus was fond of
+a veil."
+
+"Not only can they not be seen," continued Edmund, "but they cannot
+themselves see beyond the screen that covers them."
+
+"Worse and worse!" exclaimed Jack. "The astronomers have certainly made a
+mistake in naming this bashful planet Venus."
+
+We continued for a long time to gaze at the great dome, admiring the
+magnificent play of iridescent colors over its vast surface, until
+suddenly Jack, who had gone to the other side of the car, called out to
+us:
+
+"Come here and tell me what this is."
+
+We hurried to his side and were astonished to see a number of glittering
+objects which appeared to be floating in the atmosphere. They were
+arranged in an almost straight row, at an elevation of perhaps two
+thousand feet, and were apparently about three miles away. After a few
+moments of silence, Edmund said, in his quiet way:
+
+"Those are air ships."
+
+"Air ships!"
+
+"Yes, surely. An exploring expedition, I shouldn't wonder. I anticipated
+something of that kind. You know already how dense the atmosphere of
+Venus is. It follows that balloons, and all sorts of machines for aerial
+navigation, can float much more easily here than over the earth. I was
+prepared to find the inhabitants of Venus skilled in such things, and I'm
+not surprised by what we see."
+
+"Venus with wings!" cried Jack. "Now, Edmund, that sounds more like it. I
+guess we've struck the right planet after all."
+
+"But," I said, "you spoke of an exploring expedition. How in the world do
+you make that out?"
+
+"It seems perfectly natural to me," replied Edmund. "Remember the two
+sides of the planet, so wonderfully different from one another. If we on
+the earth are so curious about the poles of our planet, simply because
+they are unlike other parts of the world, don't you think that the
+inhabitants of Venus should be at least equally curious concerning a
+whole hemisphere of their world, which differs _in toto_ from the half on
+which they live?"
+
+"That does seem reasonable," I assented.
+
+"Of course it's reasonable, and I imagine that we, ourselves, are about
+to be submitted to investigation."
+
+"By Jo!" exclaimed Jack, running his hands through his hair, and
+smoothing his torn and rumpled garments, "then we must make ready for
+inspection. But I'm afraid we won't do much honor to old New York. Can I
+get a shave aboard your craft, Edmund?"
+
+"Oh, yes," Edmund replied, laughing. "I didn't forget soap and razors."
+
+But Jack would have had no time to make his toilet even if he had
+seriously thought of it. The strange objects in the air approached with
+great rapidity, and we soon saw that Edmund had correctly divined their
+nature. They were certainly air ships, and I was greatly interested in
+the observation that they seemed to be constructed somewhat upon the
+principles upon which our inventors were then working on the earth. But
+they were neither aeroplanes nor balloons. They bore a resemblance to
+mechanical birds, and seemed to be sustained and forced ahead by a
+wing-like action.
+
+This, of course, did not escape Edmund's notice.
+
+"Look," he said admiringly, "how easily and gracefully they fly. Perhaps
+with our relatively light atmosphere we shall never be able to do that
+on the earth; but no matter," he added, with a flush, "for with the
+inter-atomic energy at our command, we shall have no need to imitate the
+birds."
+
+"Perhaps they have made that discovery here, too," I suggested.
+
+"No, it is evident that they have not, else they would not be employing
+mechanical means of flight. Once let me get the car fixed up and we'll
+give them a surprise."
+
+"Yes, and if you had used common sense," growled Henry, nursing his
+injured eye, "you would not be here fooling away your time and ours, and
+risking our lives every minute, but you'd be making millions and
+revolutionizing life at home."
+
+"And where'd the Columbus of Space be then?" demanded Jack. "Hanged if
+Edmund is not right! I'd rather be here meeting these doves of Venus than
+grinding out dollars on the earth. And can't we go back and scoop in the
+money when we get ready?"
+
+The discussion went no further, for, by this time, two of the air ships
+were close at hand. And now we perceived, for the first time, the beings
+that they carried. Our surprise at the sight was even greater than that
+which we had experienced upon meeting the inhabitants of the dark
+hemisphere. The latter were extraordinary--but we were looking for
+extraordinary things. Indeed they were, except for certain peculiarities,
+much more like some members of our own race than we should have deemed
+possible. How great, then, was our astonishment upon seeing the two air
+ships apparently in charge of _real human beings_!
+
+At least that was our first impression. In the midst of the strange
+apparatus, which evidently fulfilled the function of wings for the air
+ships, we saw decks, spacious enough to contain twenty persons, and
+surmounted with deck houses, and along the railings inclosing the decks
+were gathered the crews, among whom we believed that we could recognize
+their officers. The two vessels had approached within a hundred yards
+before being suddenly arrested. Then they settled gracefully down upon
+the water, where they floated like swans.
+
+At first, as I have said, the resemblance of their crews to inhabitants
+of the earth seemed complete. One would have said that we had met a
+yachting party, composed of tall, well-formed, light-complexioned,
+yellow-haired Englishmen, the pick of their race. At a distance their
+dress alone appeared strange, though it, too, might easily be imitated on
+the earth. As well as I can describe it, it bore some resemblance, in
+general effect, to the draperies of a Greek statue, and it was specially
+remarkable for the harmonious blending of soft hues in its texture.
+
+During a space of at least five minutes we gazed at them, and they at us.
+Probably their surprise was greater than ours, because we had been on the
+lookout for strange sights, being, of our own volition, in a foreign
+world, while they could have had no expectation of such an encounter,
+even if, as Edmund had conjectured, they were engaged in exploration. We
+could read their astonishment in their gesticulations. Slowly the car and
+the nearer of the two air ships drifted closer together. When we were
+within less than fifty yards of one another, Jack suddenly called out:
+
+"A woman! By Jo, it's Venus herself!"
+
+His excited voice rang like a rattle of musketry in the heavy air, and
+the beings on the air ship started back in alarm. But although, like the
+inhabitants of the dark hemisphere, they were, evidently, unaccustomed
+to hearing sounds of such forcefulness issue from a living creature no
+larger than themselves, they were not faint-hearted, and the air ship did
+not, as we half expected it would, take flight. The momentary commotion
+was quickly quieted, and our visitors continued their inspection. All of
+us immediately recognized the personage whom Jack had singled out as the
+subject of his startling exclamation. It was clear that he had rightly
+guessed her sex, and she appeared worthy of his admiring designation.
+Even at the distance of a hundred feet we could see that she was very
+beautiful. Her complexion was light, with a flame upon the cheeks; her
+hair a chestnut blond; and her large, round eyes were sapphire blue, and
+seemed to radiate a light of their own. This last statement (about the
+eyes) must not be taken for a conventional exaggeration, such as writers
+of fiction employ in describing heroines who never existed. On the
+contrary, it expresses a literal fact; and moreover, as the reader will
+see further on, this peculiarity of the eyes was shared, in varying
+degrees, by all these people of Venus, and was connected with the most
+amazing of all our discoveries on that planet. I should say here that,
+while the eyes of the inhabitants of the day side were larger than ours,
+they did not, in respect of size, resemble the extraordinary organs of
+vision possessed by the compatriots of Juba.
+
+In a few minutes we became aware that the beautiful creature we had been
+admiring was not the only representative of the female sex on the air
+ship. Several others surrounded her, and the fact quickly became manifest
+that they recognized her as a superior. Still more surprising was the
+discovery, which we were not long in making, that she was actually the
+commander of the craft. We could see that the orders which determined its
+movements emanated from her.
+
+"Amazons!" exclaimed Jack, taking pains this time to moderate his voice.
+"And what a queen they've got!"
+
+During all this time the car and the air ship were slowly drifting nearer
+to one another, drawn by that strange attraction which seems to affect
+inanimate things when in close neighborhood, and when they were not more
+than fifteen yards apart the personage we had been watching slowly lifted
+her arm, revealing a glittering bracelet, and, with an ineffably winning
+smile, made a gesture which said plainer than any words could have done:
+
+"Welcome, strangers."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+LANGUAGE WITHOUT SPEECH
+
+"That breaks the ice," said the irrepressible Jack. "We're introduced! Now
+for the conquest of Venus."
+
+We had all instinctively returned the smile of our beautiful
+interlocutor, with bows and gestures of amity, and it looked as though we
+might soon be within touch of her hand, for the vessels continued to
+drift nearer, when suddenly Juba clambered out of the window and stood
+beside us, his moon eyes blinking in the unaccustomed light. The greatest
+agitation was immediately manifest among the crowd on the deck of the air
+ship. They seemed to be even more startled than they had been by the
+sound of Jack's voice. They interchanged looks, and, apparently, a few
+words, spoken in very low voices, and glanced from Juba to us in a way
+which plainly showed that they were astonished at our being together.
+
+Edmund, whose perspicacity never deserted him, immediately penetrated
+their thoughts.
+
+"It is clear," he said, "that these people recognize Juba as an
+inhabitant of the dark hemisphere, while, as to us, they are puzzled, and
+all the more so now that Juba has made his appearance. I think it certain
+that they have never actually met any representative of Juba's race
+before, but no doubt he bears, to their eyes, ethnological
+characteristics which escape our discernment, and it is likely that
+tradition has handed down to them facts about the inhabitants of the
+other side of their planet which accord with his appearance."
+
+"Then, they must conclude that we have come from the other side, and
+brought Juba along as a captive," I said.
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+"And what must they think of us--that we are inhabitants of the dark
+hemisphere also?"
+
+"What else can they think?"
+
+I do not know into what train of speculation this might have led us if a
+new incident had not suddenly changed the current of our thoughts.
+Unnoticed by us the second air ship had drawn near. Signals were
+interchanged between it and the first, and we observed that she who
+seemed to be the commander in chief gave orders that the second air ship
+should lay us aboard. The order was no sooner given than executed, and we
+found ourselves face to face with a dozen of the blond-haired natives,
+led by one who was clearly their captain. The deck of the air ship
+touched the side of the car, and, as if instinctively recognizing our
+leader, the captain laid his hand on Edmund's arm, but with a smile which
+gave assurance that no violence was intended.
+
+"Come," said Edmund, in a low voice, "it is best that we should go aboard
+their craft. We are in their hands, and luckily so, for they will take us
+where we want to go."
+
+Accordingly, all, including Juba, passed upon the deck of the air ship.
+You will readily imagine the intensity of interest with which we studied
+the faces and forms of those whom I will call our captors. Now that we
+were in contact with them we could better observe their resemblances to,
+and differences from, ourselves. In all the main features of body they
+were human beings, but of a somewhat superior stature. Noses and mouths
+were small and delicate; hair long, silken, and either light gold or rich
+chestnut in color; skin white and smooth; ears small and peculiarly
+formed, with a curious mobility; and eyes large, round, invariably light
+blue, and possessing that strange luminousness of which I have already
+spoken. One could not look directly into these eyes without a certain
+shrinking, for some wonderful power seemed to radiate from them, and one
+had the feeling that the intelligence behind them could dip to the bottom
+of his mind. We were gently treated and could perceive no indication of
+peril to ourselves. Nevertheless, we were glad to feel our pistols in our
+pockets. There were seats on the deck to which we were civilly conducted,
+but Edmund refused to sit.
+
+"I must see the commander herself," he whispered. "These are only
+subordinates, and I cannot deal with them. It will not do to leave the
+car here at the mercy of the waves. I must find the means of making them
+understand that it is to go with us."
+
+Accordingly, he approached the captain, and we watched him with beating
+hearts, not being able to divine what an attempt to dictate terms on our
+part might lead to. Jack shook his head, and put his hand on his pistol,
+which Edmund had restored to him while we were in the ice mountains.
+
+"I'll drop the jackanapes in his tracks if he shows up ugly," he said.
+
+"You'd better keep quiet," I whispered, "and don't let them see your
+weapon. They appear to have no arms, and you should trust to Edmund to
+manage the affair. When he gives the word it will be time enough to begin
+shooting."
+
+Jack grumbled, but kept the pistol in his pocket, although he did not
+withdraw his hand from it.
+
+I have already told you how, at the caverns, Edmund had discovered that
+the inhabitants there possessed a means of converse which he likened to
+telepathy, and from what I had seen of the people here I was convinced
+that they had the same mysterious power, and probably in a higher degree.
+To be sure, they used words occasionally, but for the most part they
+communed together in some other way. I felt sure that Edmund was now
+about to apply what he had learned, and his actions quickly demonstrated
+that my conjecture was well founded. Just what he did, I do not know, but
+the result of his conference was promptly apparent.
+
+The first air ship had withdrawn a short distance when the other boarded
+the car, but now the two mutually approached until it was possible to
+step from one deck to the other. As soon as they touched, Edmund was
+conducted by the captain, at whose side he had remained standing, to the
+presence of the important personage whom Jack had begun to designate as
+the queen. We remained where we were, watching with all eyes, while Jack
+persisted in keeping his hand on the pistol in his pocket. A crowd
+immediately surrounded Edmund and we were unable to see exactly what went
+on, a fact that rendered Jack so much the more impatient. But it turned
+out that there was no cause for alarm. In about ten minutes the crowd
+opened and Edmund appeared. Uninterfered with, he came to the edge of the
+deck, close by us, and said:
+
+"It is all arranged. The car will be towed by one of the air ships. I am
+to stay here and you will remain where you are until we reach our
+destination."
+
+"Have you had a talk with her?" asked Jack.
+
+"Not in any language that you understand," Edmund responded, smiling.
+"But I have made good use of what I learned in the caverns. These people
+are intellectually vastly superior to the others, and, as I guessed, they
+possess a more perfect command of the sort of telepathy that I told you
+about. I have not found much difficulty in making my wish understood, and
+your amazon is a very obliging person. It is only necessary to be
+discreet and we shall have no trouble."
+
+"But why are you to be separated from us?" asked Jack anxiously. "That
+looks bad, for it is exactly what they would do if they meant to kill us
+one at a time."
+
+"Why should they kill us?" retorted Edmund.
+
+"And why should we be separated?" persisted Jack. "I tell you, Edmund, I
+don't like it."
+
+"Very well, then," Edmund said, after a moment's thought; "if that's the
+way you feel about it, I'll see what I can do. It will be another
+exercise for me in this new kind of language. But, mark this, if I
+succeed in persuading the chieftainess to keep us together, you will have
+to acknowledge that your fears were groundless. Perhaps it's worth trying
+on that very account."
+
+He disappeared from our eyes again--for as soon as he approached their
+leader the people of the air ship crowded close around as if to afford
+her protection--and, after another ten minutes' conference, came back
+smiling to the edge of the deck.
+
+"Dismiss your fears, friend Jack," he said cheerfully. "You are all to
+come aboard here with me. So you see there could have been no thought of
+treachery; but I'm glad that we are not to be separated, and I thank you
+for your solicitude on my account.  I'm sure that the original
+arrangement was made only because of lack of room aboard this craft, and
+you'll see that that was the reason."
+
+He was right, for immediately half a dozen of the crew of the principal
+air ship were sent aboard ours while we were transferred to take their
+place.
+
+We now had an opportunity to study the countenance of the "amazon"
+commander, and we found her to be an even more remarkable personage than
+she had appeared at a distance. Of the beauty of her features and form I
+shall say no more, but about her eyes I could write a chapter. The
+pupils, widely expanded amidst their circles of sky-blue iris, seemed to
+speak. I can describe the impression that they made in no other way. I no
+longer wondered at Edmund's ability to converse with her, for I felt
+that, with a little instruction, and more of our leader's mental
+penetration, I could do it myself. At times I shrank from encountering
+her gaze, for I verily believed that she read my inmost thoughts. And I
+could see that _thought came out of her eyes_, but it escaped all my
+efforts to grasp it; it was too evanescent, or I was too dull. Sometimes
+I imagined that the meaning was at the threshold of comprehension, but
+yet it evaded me, like forgotten words whose general sense dimly
+irradiates the mind, while they refuse to take a definite shape, and keep
+flitting just beyond the reach of memory. Still, charity and good will
+shone out so plainly that anybody could read them, and I do not know how
+to express the feeling that came over me at this evidence of friendliness
+exhibited by an inhabitant of a world so far from our own. It was as if a
+dim sense of ultimate fraternity bound her to us. Jack's enthusiasm, as
+you may guess, was without bounds, and strangely enough it rendered him
+almost speechless.
+
+"By Jo!" he kept repeating to himself in an undertone, without venturing
+upon any further expression of his feelings.
+
+Henry, as usual, was silent, but I know that he felt the influence no
+less than the rest of us. Edmund, too, said nothing, but it was plain
+that he was continually studying the phenomenon, and I felt sure that his
+analytic mind would find a more complete explanation than we yet
+possessed. Of course you are not to suppose that the power that I have
+been trying to describe was peculiar to this woman. On the contrary, as I
+have already intimated, it was common to all of them; but with her it
+seemed to have reached a higher development, and, what was of special
+interest, she alone exhibited a marked benevolence toward us.
+
+The car was attached by a cable to the air ship that we had just quitted,
+and our voyage into a new unknown began. The other air ships, which had
+been hovering about, moved up into line, and, with the exception of the
+one which towed the car, all rose to an elevation of perhaps a thousand
+feet, and moved rapidly away from a row of dark clouds which we could now
+see low on the horizon behind. We found the air ship splendidly fitted
+up, with everything that could contribute to the comfort of its inmates.
+And what a voyage it was! "Yachting on Venus," as Jack called it. We sat
+on the deck, with a pleasant breeze, produced by the swift, steady
+motion, fanning our faces; the temperature was delightful; the air was
+wonderfully stimulating; the light, softly and evenly diffused from the
+great shell-like dome of the sky, seemed to bewitch the eyesight; and the
+sea beneath us, reflecting the dome, was a marvel of refluent colors.
+
+We had left the calendar clock in the car, but, with our watches, which
+we had never ceased to wind up regularly, we were able to measure the
+time. The voyage lasted about seventy-two hours, but could, perhaps, have
+been performed in less time if we had not been somewhat delayed by the
+towing of the car. They had on the air ship ingenious clocks, driven by
+weights, and governed by pendulums, but the divisions of time were unlike
+ours, and there was nothing corresponding to our days. This, of course,
+arose from the fact that there was never any night, and, being unable to
+see either sun or stars, they had no measure of the year. With them time
+was simply endless duration, with no return in cycles.
+
+"What interests me most," said Edmund, "is the fact that they should have
+established any chronological measure at all. It would puzzle some of our
+metaphysicians on the earth to account for the origin of their sense of
+time. To me it seems evident that the consciousness of duration is
+fundamental in all intelligent life, and does not necessarily demand
+natural recurrences, like the succession of day and night, and the
+passage of sun and stars across the meridian, to give it birth. Did you
+ever read St. Augustine's reply to the question, 'What is time'--'I know
+if you don't ask me'?"
+
+"If they haven't any years," said Jack, "how do they know when they are
+old enough to die?"
+
+"They have the years, but no measure for them," replied Edmund, and then
+added quizzically, "Perhaps they _don't_ die."
+
+"Well, I shouldn't wonder," Jack returned, "for this seems to me to be
+Paradise for sure."
+
+When we felt sleepy, we imitated the natives themselves, and, just as we
+had done during the voyage from the earth, created an artificial night by
+shutting ourselves up in the cabins that had been assigned to us. Rest
+was taken by all of them in this manner as regularly as it is taken at
+night on the earth.
+
+One subject which we frequently discussed during the voyage was the
+astonishing resemblance of our hosts to the _genus homo_. Influenced by
+speculations which I had read at home about the probable unlikeness to
+one another of the inhabitants of different planets, I was particularly
+insistent upon this point, and declared that the facts as we found them
+were utterly inexplicable.
+
+"Not at all," Edmund averred. "It is perfectly natural, and quite as I
+expected. Venus resembles the earth in composition, in form, in physical
+constitution, and in subordination to the sun, the great ruler of the
+entire system. Here are the same chemical elements, and the same laws of
+matter. The human type is manifestly the highest possible that could be
+developed with such materials to work upon. Why, then, should you be
+surprised to find that it prevails here as well as upon our planet?
+Intelligent life could find no more suitable abode than in a human body.
+The details are simply varied in accordance with the environment--a
+principle that works on the earth also."
+
+I was not altogether satisfied with the reasoning--but as to the facts,
+we had to believe our eyes.
+
+Palatable food was served to us, and during the waking time Edmund was
+frequently engaged in his mysterious conversation with the "queen."
+Within forty-eight hours after we had set out in the air ship, he came to
+us, wearing one of his enigmatic smiles, and said:
+
+"I've got another aphroditic word for you to remember. It is the name of
+our hostess--Ala."
+
+We were not so much surprised by this news as we should have been but for
+what had occurred at the caverns, where he had discovered the patronymic
+of Juba.
+
+"Good!" cried Jack, "it's a fine name. I was going to call her Aphrodite,
+myself, but this is better as well as shorter."
+
+"But, Edmund," I said, "how does it happen that these people, if they
+converse by 'telepathy' as you say, and as I fully believe, nevertheless
+occasionally use sounds and words? I should think it would be all one
+thing or all the other."
+
+"Think a moment," he replied. "Is it so with us? Do we not use signs and
+gestures as well as words? And what do we mean by 'silent converse,' when
+mind speaks to mind and soul to soul without the intervention of spoken
+language? We have the potentiality of telepathic intercommunication, but
+we have not yet developed it into a kinetic form as these people have
+done. Ah, when will men begin to appreciate _what mind means?_"
+
+I made no reply, and after a moment's musing, he continued:
+
+"I suspect that here, too, speech preceded the higher form of converse,
+and that the spoken language remains only as a survival, presenting
+certain advantages for particular cases. But we shall learn more as time
+goes on."
+
+There was no disputing Edmund's conclusions. He was the greatest accepter
+and defender of facts as he found them that I have ever known.
+
+It was written that before this voyage ended we should have another phase
+of language without speech presented for our wonderment. It came about
+near the end of the trip. We were standing apart in a group, greatly
+interested and excited by the discovery, which had just been made, of
+land ahead. Far in advance we could see a curving, yellow shore line,
+and, dim in the distance behind it, a range of mountains. Edmund had just
+called our attention to these, with the remark that now I must admit that
+he had reasoned correctly about the existence of elevated regions on this
+side of Venus, when Jack, always the first to note a new phenomenon,
+exclaimed:
+
+"Hurrah! Here they come! We're going to have a royal reception."
+
+He pointed toward the land in a different direction from that in which we
+had been gazing, and immediately we beheld an extraordinary assemblage of
+air ships, perhaps ten miles off, but rapidly making toward us. More were
+coming up from behind, as if rising out of the land, and soon they
+resembled flocks of large birds all converging to a common center. In a
+little while they became almost innumerable, but their number soon ceased
+to be as great a cause of surprise to us as their peculiar appearance.
+Viewed with our binoculars they showed an infinite variety of shapes and
+sizes. Chinese kites could not, for a moment, be compared in
+grotesqueness with the forms which many of them presented. Some soared in
+vast circles at a great height, with the steady flight of eagles; others
+spread out to right and left, as if to flank us on either hand; and in
+the center, directly ahead, about a hundred advanced in column deployed
+in a semicircle, each keeping its place with the precision of a soldier
+in line of battle.
+
+As we continued to gaze, fascinated by the splendor and strangeness of
+the spectacle, suddenly the air was filled with fluttering colors. I do
+not mean flags and streamers, but _colors in the air itself_! Colors the
+most exquisite that ever the eye looked upon! They changed, flickered,
+melted, brightened, flowed over one another in iridescent waves, mingled,
+separated, turned the whole atmosphere into a spectral kaleidoscope. And
+it was evident that, in some inexplicable way, the approaching squadrons
+were the sources of this marvelous display. Presently from the craft that
+carried us, answering colors flashed out, as if the air around us had
+suddenly been changed to crystal with a thousand quivering rainbows shot
+through it, their beautiful arches shifting and interchanging so rapidly
+that the eye could not follow them.
+
+Then I began to notice that all this incessant play of colors was based
+upon an unmistakable rhythm. I can think of no better way to describe it
+than to say that it was as if a great organ should send forth from its
+keys harmonic vibrations consisting not of concordant sounds but of even
+more perfectly related undulations of color. The permutations and
+combinations of this truly chromatic scale were marvelous and magical in
+their infinite variety. It thrilled us with awe and wonder. But none was
+so rapt as Edmund himself. He gazed as if his soul were in his eyes, and
+finally he turned to us, with a strange look, and said, almost under his
+breath:
+
+"This, too, is language, and more than that--it is music!"
+
+"Impossible!" I exclaimed.
+
+"No, not impossible, since it _is_. They are not only exchanging
+intelligence in this way, but we are being greeted with a great anthem
+played in the heaven itself!"
+
+There was the force of enthusiastic conviction in Edmund's words, and we
+could only look at him, and at one another, in silent astonishment.
+
+"Oh, what a people! What a people!" he muttered. "And yet I am not
+surprised. I dimly fore-read this in Ala's eyes."
+
+Even Jack's levity was subdued for the time, but after a while he said to
+me with a shrug, half in earnest, half in derision:
+
+"Well, this Yankee-doodling in the air gets me! I'd prefer a little plain
+English and the Old Folks at Home."
+
+After about ten minutes the display ceased as suddenly as it had begun,
+and the nearer of the approaching air craft began to circle around us.
+Finally one of them ran so close alongside that an officer of high rank,
+for such he seemed to be, leaped aboard us, and was quickly at Ala's
+side. There was a rapid interchange of communications between them, and
+then the newcomer was, I may say, presented. Ala led him to where we were
+standing, and I could read in his eyes the astonishment that the sight of
+such strangers produced in him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+AN AMAZING METROPOLIS
+
+If I should undertake to describe in detail all the events that now
+followed in rapid succession, this history would take a lifetime to
+write. I must choose only the more significant facts.
+
+The newcomer, whose remarkable face had immediately impressed me, and not
+altogether favorably, proved to be a personage of very great importance,
+second only, as we could see, to Ala herself. And, what was particularly
+important for us, he showed none of her friendly disposition. I do not
+mean to suggest that he seemed inclined to any active hostility, but
+evidently we were, in his eyes, no better than savages, and consequently
+entitled to no special consideration, and especially to no favors. Jack,
+who, with all his careless ways, had a penetrating mind for the
+perception of character, whispered to me, within five minutes after the
+fellow came aboard:
+
+"If that galoot had his way, we'd make our entry in irons. Mark my words,
+there's mischief in him. Hang him! I'm going to keep my pistol handy when
+he's around."
+
+Edmund, who happened to overhear Jack's remark, interposed:
+
+"See here, Master Jack, this is no time to be talking of pistols. I trust
+that we are done with shooting."
+
+We were not done with it; but that comes later.
+
+It was not long before Edmund had discovered a name for the newcomer
+also; he called him Ingra. It was singular, he said, that all the names
+seemed to be characterized by the prevalence of vowels sounds, but he
+thought it likely that this arose from the greater ease with which they
+could be enunciated. They were like Spanish words, which are the easiest
+of all for foreigners, and probably also for natives, to pronounce.
+
+After we reached the coast we descended to the ground, at Edmund's
+request, I believe, because he wished to superintend the loading of the
+car upon one of the largest air ships, and it was an unforgettable sight
+to watch him managing the work as coolly and effectively as if he had
+been in charge of a gang of workmen at home! And, while I looked, I found
+myself again doubting if, after all, this was not a dream. The workers
+hurrying about, Edmund following them, pointing, objecting, urging and
+directing, with his derby hat, which had come through all our adventures
+(though somewhat damaged), stuck on the back of his head--and all this on
+the planet Venus! No! I could not be awake. But yet I was.
+
+When we started again, we were escorted by a hundred air ships, forming a
+complete circle about us. Now I noticed, what had escaped attention
+during the extraordinary atmospheric display, viz., that these craft were
+painted in colors that I should call gorgeous if they had not been so
+perfectly harmonious and pleasing. Every one looked like the careful
+creation of an artist, and the variety of tints exhibited was incredible.
+Our own air ship, and its consorts, on the other hand, were very plain in
+their decorations. I called Edmund's attention to this and immediately he
+said:
+
+"Remember what I told you--this has been an exploring expedition, and the
+craft taking part in it have been fitted up for rough work. That reminds
+me that I have not yet made the inquiries that I intended on that
+subject. I shall go to Ala now and see what I can learn."
+
+She was standing on the deck near the other end, with Ingra beside her.
+As Edmund approached them, Jack nudged me:
+
+"Look at that fellow," he said. "Wasn't I right?"
+
+There was no doubt about it; Ingra scowled and showed every sign of
+displeasure at Edmund's presence. But Ala greeted him graciously, and,
+apparently, Ingra did not dare to interfere. I could see that Jack was
+grasping his pistol again, but I did not anticipate that there would be
+any occasion to use it. Nevertheless, I watched them closely for a time,
+hoping to discover Edmund's method of reading her meaning; as to her
+comprehension of his I had no question about that. But I got no light on
+the subject, and, as it soon became evident, even to Jack, that there was
+no danger this time, we fell to examining the land over which we were
+passing.
+
+We flew at a height of about two thousand feet, so that the range of
+vision was very wide. The sea behind us curved into the land in three
+great scallops, separated by acuminate promontories, whose terminal
+bluffs of sand were as yellow as gold. Away ahead the line of mountains,
+that we had noticed before, appeared as a dark sierra, and between it and
+the sea the country seemed to be very little broken by hills. Large
+forests were visible, but from our elevation it was impossible to tell
+whether the trees composing them bore any resemblance to terrestrial
+forms. The open land was about equally divided in area between bare
+yellowish soil (or what we took to be soil) and bright green expanses
+whose color suggested vegetation. Scattered here and there we saw what
+appeared to be habitations, but we could not be sure of their nature;
+and, upon the whole, the land seemed to us to be very thinly populated.
+
+Many birds accompanied us in our flight, frequently alighting on the deck
+and other parts of the air ship. They were remarkably tame, allowing us
+to approach them closely, and we were delighted by their beautiful
+plumage and their singular forms. This reminds me to say that the motion
+of the craft was extremely curious--a kind of gentle rising and falling,
+which was very agreeable when once we were accustomed to it, and which
+resembled what one would suppose to be the movement of a bird in flight.
+This, of course, arose from the structure of the air ship, which, as I
+have before said, seemed to be modeled, as far as its motive parts were
+concerned, upon the principle of wings rather than of simple aeroplanes.
+But the mechanism was very complicated, and I never arrived at a full
+comprehension of it.
+
+Edmund remained a long time in conference with Ala, Ingra staying
+constantly with them, and when he had apparently finished his
+"conversation" we were surprised to see them begin a tour of inspection
+of the air ship, finally descending into the interior. This greatly
+excited Jack, who was for following them at once.
+
+"I can't be easy," he declared. "Nobody can tell what may happen to him
+if they get him alone."
+
+But I succeeded in persuading him that there could be no danger, and that
+we ought to trust to Edmund's discretion. They were gone so long,
+however, that at last I became anxious myself, and was on the point of
+suggesting to Jack that we try to find them, when they reappeared, and
+Edmund at once came to us, his face irradiated with smiles.
+
+"I have plenty of news for you," he said, as soon as he had joined us.
+"Never in my life have I spent two hours more delightfully. In the first
+place, I have found out practically all that I wished to know about this
+expedition, and, second, I have thoroughly examined the mechanism of the
+ship. Its complication is only apparent, and the management of it is so
+simple that a single man can pilot it easily. I could do it myself."
+
+We did not appreciate at the time what the knowledge that Edmund had thus
+acquired meant for us.
+
+"Well, what about the expedition?" asked Jack. "And where are we going?"
+
+"From what I can make out," replied Edmund musingly, "Ala is really what
+you called her, Jack, a queen. But such a queen! If we had some like her
+on the earth, monarchy might not be such a bad thing after all. She is a
+_savant_."
+
+"Bluestocking," put in Jack. "This is a new kind of amazon."
+
+Edmund did not smile.
+
+"I am in earnest," he continued. "Of course you understand that most of
+my conclusions are really based upon inference. I cannot grasp all that
+she tries to tell me, but her gestures are so speaking, and her eyes so
+full of a kind of meaning which seems to force its way into my mind, I
+cannot tell how, that I am virtually sure of the correctness of my
+interpretation. The expedition, which I am certain was planned by her,
+was intended to explore the outskirts of the dark hemisphere. Perhaps
+they meant to penetrate within it, but, if so, the stormy belt that we
+crossed was too serious an obstacle for them to overcome. Our
+encountering them was the greatest stroke of good fortune that we have
+yet had. It places us right at the center of affairs."
+
+"Where are they going now?"
+
+"Evidently back to their starting point; which is likely to be a great
+city--the capital and metropolis, most probably. The more I think of it
+the stronger becomes my conviction that Ala is really, at least in power
+and influence, a queen. And you can see for yourselves that it must be a
+great and rich empire that she rules, for remember the extraordinary
+reception with which she was greeted, the innumerable air ships, the
+splendor of everything."
+
+"But are we to be well treated? Is there no danger for us in accompanying
+them?"
+
+"If there were danger, it would be hard for us to escape from it now; but
+why should there be danger? We did not kill the Esquimaux that our polar
+explorers brought from the Arctic regions, and for these people, we are a
+greater curiosity than ever the Esquimaux, or the Pygmies of Africa, were
+for us. Instead of encountering any danger, I anticipate that we shall be
+very well treated."
+
+"Perhaps they'll put us in a cage," said Jack, with a ludicrous grimace,
+"and tote us about as a great moral show for children. If there's a
+Barnum on Venus, our fate is sealed."
+
+Jack's humorous suggestion struck home, for there seemed to be
+probability behind it, and Henry groaned, while, for my part, I confess
+that I felt rather uncomfortable over the prospect. But Edmund did not
+pursue the conversation, and soon we fell to regarding again the
+landscape beneath and far around us. We were gradually nearing the
+mountains, although they were still distant, and presently we caught
+sight of what resembled, as much as anything, gigantic cobwebs glittering
+with dew, and rising out of the plain between us and the mountains.
+
+"There, Edmund," said Jack, "there's another chance to exercise your
+genius for explaining mysteries. What are those things?"
+
+Edmund watched the objects for several minutes before replying. At length
+he said, with the decision characteristic of him:
+
+"Palaces."
+
+Jack burst out laughing.
+
+"Castles in Spain, I reckon," he said. "But, really, Edmund, what do you
+think they can be?"
+
+"I have already told you, palaces, or castles, if you prefer."
+
+"You are serious?" I asked.
+
+"Perfectly so. They cannot be anything else."
+
+Seeing our astonishment and incredulity, Edmund added:
+
+"Since they retain their places, it is evident that they are edifices of
+some kind, attached to the ground. But their great height and aerial
+structure indicate that they are erected in the air--floating, I should
+say, but firmly anchored at the bottom. Really, I cannot see anything
+astonishing about it; it accords with everything else that we have seen.
+Your minds are too hidebound to terrestrial analogies, and you do not
+give your imaginations sufficient play with the new materials that are
+here offered.
+
+"This atmosphere," he continued, after a pause, "is exactly suited for
+such things. It is a region of atmospheric calm. If we were not moving,
+you would hardly feel a breeze, and I doubt if there is ever a high wind
+here. To build their habitations in the air and make them float like
+gossamers--could any idea be more beautiful than that, or more in harmony
+with the nature of this planet, which is the favorite of the sun, for
+first he inundates it with a splendor unknown to the earth, and then
+generously covers it with a gorgeous screen of cloud which cuts off his
+scorching beams but suffers the light to pass, filtered to opalescent
+ether?"
+
+When Edmund spoke like that, as he sometimes did, suffusing his words
+with the fervor of his imagination, even Henry, I believe, felt his soul
+lifted to unaccustomed heights. We hung upon his lips, and, without a
+word, waited for him to continue. Presently he murmured, in an undertone:
+
+"Yes, all this I foresaw in my dream. A world of crystal, houses that
+seemed not made with hands, reaching toward heaven, and a people,
+beautiful beyond compare, dwelling in the aerial home of birds"; and
+then, addressing us, in his ordinary tones: "You will see that the
+capital, which we are unquestionably approaching, is to a large extent
+composed of this airy architecture."
+
+And it turned out to be as he had said--when, indeed, was it ever
+otherwise? As we drew nearer, the aerial structures which we had first
+seen began to tower up to an amazing height, just perceptibly swaying and
+undulating with the gentle currents of air that flowed through their
+traceried lattices, while behind them began to loom an immense number of
+floating towers, rising stage above stage, like the steel monsters of New
+York before they have received their outer coverings, but incomparably
+lighter in appearance, and more delicate and graceful; truly fairy
+constructions, bespangled with countless brilliant points. Yet nearer,
+and we could see cables attached to the higher structures, and running
+downward as if anchored to the ground beneath, but the ground itself we
+could not see, because now we had dropped lower in the air, and a long
+hill rose between us and the fairy towers, whose slight sinuous motion,
+affecting so many together, produced a trifling sense of dizziness as we
+gazed. Still nearer, and we believed that we could see people in the
+buoyant towers. A minute later there was no doubt about their presence,
+for the _colors_ broke forth, and that marvelous interchange of chromatic
+signals, which had so astonished us as we drew near the coast, was
+resumed.
+
+"It is my belief," said Edmund, "that, notwithstanding the buoyancy of
+the heavy atmosphere, those structures cannot be maintained at such
+elevations without mechanical aid. You will see when we get nearer that
+every stage is furnished with some means of support, probably vertical
+screws reacting upon the air."
+
+Again he had guessed right, for in a little while we were near enough to
+see the screws, working in a maze of motion, like the wings of a
+multitude of insects. The resemblance was increased by their gauzy
+structure, and, as they turned, they flashed and glittered as if
+enameled. (The supernatant structures that they maintained were, as we
+afterwards ascertained, framed of hollow beams and trusses--a kind of
+bamboo, of great strength and lightness.)
+
+Now we rose over the intervening hill, and as we did so a cry burst from
+our lips. A vast city made its appearance as by magic, a magnified
+counterpart of the aerial city above it. Put all the glories of
+Constantinople, Damascus, Cairo, and Bombay, with all their spires,
+towers, minarets, and domes together, and multiply their splendor a
+thousand times, and yet your imagination will be unable to picture the
+scene of enchantment on which our eyes rested.
+
+"It is the capital of Venus," exclaimed Edmund. "There can be nothing
+greater than this!"
+
+It must, indeed, be the capital, for in the midst of it rose an edifice
+of unparalleled splendor, which could only be the palace of a mighty
+monarch. Above this magnificent building, which gleamed with metallic
+reflections, although it was as light and airy in construction as
+frostwork, rose the loftiest of the aerial towers, a hundred, two
+hundred--I cannot tell you how many stories in height, for I never
+succeeded in counting them.
+
+The other air ships now dropped back, and ours alone approached this
+stupendous tower, making apparently for its principal landing stage.
+Along the sides of the tower a multitude of small air ships ran up and
+down, stopping at various stages to discharge their living cargoes.
+
+"Elevators," said Edmund.
+
+Glancing round we saw that similar scenes were occurring at all the
+towers. They were filling up with people, and the continual rising and
+descending of the little craft that bore them, the holiday aspect of the
+gay colors everywhere displayed, and the brilliancy of the whole
+spectacle moved us beyond words. But the most astonishing scene still
+awaited us.
+
+Just before our vessel reached the landing stage, the enormous tower,
+from foot to apex, broke out with all the hues of the rainbow, like an
+enchanted rose tree covered with millions of brilliant flowers at the
+touch of a wand. The effect was overwhelming. The air became tremulous
+with rippling colors, whose vibrant waves, with quick succession of
+concordant tints afforded to the eye an exquisite pleasure akin to that
+which the ear receives from a carillon of bells. Our companions, and the
+people crowded on the towers, seemed to be transported with ecstatic
+delight.
+
+"Again the music of the spectrum!" cried Edmund. "The diapason of color!
+It is their national hymn, or the hymn of their race, written on a
+prismatic, instead of a sonometric, staff. And, mark me, this has a
+significance beyond your conjectures!"
+
+I believe that our enjoyment of this astonishing spectacle was hardly
+less than that of the natives themselves, but the pleasure was suddenly
+broken off by a tragedy that struck cold to our hearts.
+
+We had nearly touched the landing, when we observed that a discussion was
+going on between Ala and Ingra, and it quickly became evident that we
+were the subject of it. Before we could exchange a word, they approached
+us, and Ingra, in a threatening manner, laid his hand on Edmund's
+shoulder. In a second Jack had his pistol covering Ingra. Edmund saw the
+motion, and struck Jack's arm aside, but the weapon exploded, and,
+clutching her breast, Ala fell at our feet!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+IMPRISONMENT AND A WONDERFUL ESCAPE
+
+The shock of this terrible accident, the full import of which must have
+flashed simultaneously through the mind of every one of us, drove the
+blood from Edmund's face, while Jack staggered, uttering a pitiful moan,
+Henry collapsed, and I stood trembling in every limb. The report of the
+pistol produced upon the natives the effect that was to have been
+expected. Ingra sprang backward with a cry like that of a startled beast,
+and many upon the deck fell prostrate, either through terror or the
+effect of collision with one another in their wild flight. What occurred
+among the waiting crowd on the tower I do not precisely know, but a wind
+of fear seemed to pass through the air--a weird, heart-quaking _shadow of
+sound_.
+
+For a few moments, I believe, no one but ourselves understood what had
+happened to Ala. Ingra may have thought, if he thought at all in his
+terror and surprise, that she had fallen as the result of nervous shock.
+This moment of paralysis on the part of those whom we had now to regard
+as our enemies, whatever they may have been before, afforded the
+opportunity for escape--if there had been any way to escape. But we were
+completely trapped; there was no direction in which we could flee. Yet I
+doubt if the thought of flight occurred to any of us. Certainly it did
+not to Edmund, who was the first to recover his self-command.
+
+"_We have shot down our only friend!_" he said with terrible emphasis,
+and, as he spoke, he lifted Ala in his arms and laid her on a seat. Her
+breast was stained with blood.
+
+At the sight of this, a flash of comprehension passed over the features
+of Ingra; then, instantly, his face changed to a look of fury, and he
+sprang upon Edmund. With trembling hand, I tried to draw my pistol, but
+before I could get it from my pocket there was a rush, a hairy form
+darted past me, and Ingra lay sprawling on his back. Over him, with foot
+planted on his breast, stood the burly form of Juba, with his muscular
+arms uplifted, and his enormous eyes blazing fire!
+
+God only knows what would have happened next, but at this instant Ala--to
+my amazement, for I had thought that the bullet had gone through her
+heart--rose to an upright posture, and made a commanding gesture, which
+arrested those who were now hurrying to take a part in the scene. All,
+natives as well as ourselves, stood as motionless as stone. Her face was
+pale and her eyes were wonderful to look upon. With a gasp of
+thankfulness, I noticed that the blood on her breast was but a narrow
+streak Juba, staring at her, slowly withdrew his foot from his prostrate
+opponent, and Ingra first sat up, and then got upon his feet. Ala, who
+had been seated, rose at the same moment, and looked Ingra straight in
+the face. I saw Edmund glancing from one to the other, and I knew he was
+trying to follow the communication that was taking place between them.
+
+The general sense of it I could follow, myself. Ingra, metaphorically,
+stormed and Ala commanded. That she was defending us was plain, and it
+was but natural that my admiration for this wonderful woman should rise
+to the highest pitch. I thanked God, in my heart, that her wound could be
+no more than a scratch--and yet it was a wound, inflicted upon the person
+of her who, there could be no doubt, was the ruler of a powerful empire.
+It was less majesty, or worse, and she, herself, might not be able to
+protect us against its consequences.
+
+At last, it became evident that a decision had been made. Ala turned to
+us with a smile, which we took for an assurance of encouragement, at
+least, and started to leave the deck. Edmund instantly stepped in front
+of her, and pointed to the stain of blood, with a gesture and a look
+which meant, at the same time, an inquiry as to the nature of the wound
+and an expression of the wish to do something to repair the injury. She
+shook her head and smiled again, in a manner which clearly said that the
+hurt was not serious and that she understood that it was an accident.
+Then, surrounded by her female attendants, she passed out of our sight in
+the crowd on the landing. Edmund turned to us:
+
+"We shall probably get out of it all right," he said, "but not without
+some difficulty. They will surely imprison us. Make no resistance. Leave
+all to me. Jack's pistol will, no doubt, be seized, but if the rest of
+you keep yours concealed, they may not search for them, as they know
+nothing about the weapons."
+
+Edmund had spoken hurriedly, and had hardly finished when a dozen stout
+fellows, under Ingra's directions, took us in charge, Juba included, and
+we were led from the deck, through the vast throng on the platform, who
+made room for our passage, while devouring us with curious, though
+frightened eyes. In a minute we embarked on one of the "elevators," and
+made a thrillingly rapid descent. Arrived at the bottom, we were
+conducted, through long, stone-walled passages, into a veritable dungeon.
+And there they left us. I wondered if this had been done at Ala's order,
+or in defiance of her wishes. After all, I reflected, what claim have we
+upon her?
+
+In the absolute darkness where we now found ourselves, we remained silent
+for a minute or two, feeling about for one another, until the quiet voice
+of Edmund said:
+
+"Fortune still favors us."
+
+As he spoke, a light dazzled our eyes. He had turned on a pocket electric
+lamp. We looked about and found that we were in a square chamber, about
+fifteen feet on a side, with walls of heavy stone.
+
+"They make things solid enough down here," said Jack, with some return of
+his usual spirits, "however airy and fairy they may be above."
+
+"All the better for us," returned Edmund enigmatically.
+
+Henry sank upon the floor, the picture of dejection and despair. I
+expected another outbreak from him, but he spoke not a word. His heart
+was too full for utterance, and I pitied him so much that I tried to
+reanimate his spirits.
+
+"Come, now," I said, "don't take it this way, man. Have confidence in
+Edmund. He has never yet been beaten."
+
+"I reckon he's got his hands full this time," put in Jack. "What do you
+think, Edmund, can your atomic energy bore a hole through these walls?"
+
+"If I had it here, you'd see," Edmund replied. "But there's no occasion
+to worry, we'll come out all right."
+
+It was his unfailing remark when in difficulties, and somehow it always
+enheartened us. Juba, more accustomed to such situations, seemed the
+least disturbed member of the party. He rolled his huge eyes around the
+apartment once or twice, and then lay down on the floor, and seemed at
+once to fall asleep.
+
+"That's a good idea of Juba's," said Edmund, smiling; "it's a long time
+since we have had a nap. Let's all try a little sleep. I may dream of
+some way out of this."
+
+It was a fact that we were all exhausted for want of sleep, and, in spite
+of our situation, I soon fell into deep slumber, as peaceful as if I had
+been in my bed at home. Edmund had turned out the lamp, and the silence
+and darkness were equally profound.
+
+I dreamt that I was at the Olympus Club on the point of trumping an ace,
+when a flash of light in the eyes awoke me. I started up and found Edmund
+standing over me. The others were all on their feet. Edmund immediately
+whispered:
+
+"Come quietly; I've found a way out."
+
+"What have you found?"
+
+"Something extremely simple. This is no prison cell, but a part of what
+appears to be the engine rooms--probably it is an unused storeroom. They
+have put us here for convenience, trusting more to the darkness than to
+the lock, for the corridors outside are as black as Erebus and as crooked
+as a labyrinth."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because, while you were all asleep, I made an exploration. The lock was
+nothing; the merest tyro could pick it. Fortunately they never guessed
+that I had a lamp. In this world of daylight, it is not likely that
+pocket lamps have ever been thought of. Just around the corner, there is
+another door opening into a passage that leads by a power house. That
+passage gives access to a sort of garage of air craft, and when I stole
+into it five minutes ago, there was not a soul in sight. We'll simply
+slip in there, and if I can't run away with one of those fliers, then I'm
+no engineer. To tell the truth, I'm not altogether sure that it is wise
+for us to escape, for I have a feeling that Ala will help us; still, when
+Providence throws one a rope, it's best, perhaps, to test its strength.
+Come on, now, and make no noise."
+
+Accompanied by Juba, we stepped noiselessly outside, extinguishing the
+light, and, led by Edmund, passed what he had called the power house,
+where we saw several fellows absorbed in their work, lighted somehow from
+above. Then we slipped into the "garage." Here light entered from
+without, through a large opening at the side. There may have been twenty
+small air ships resting on cradles. Edmund selected one, which he
+appeared to have examined in advance, and motioning us to step upon its
+little deck, he began to manipulate the mechanism as confidently as if it
+had been his own invention.
+
+"You see that I did not waste my time in examining the air ship that
+brought us," he whispered, and never before had I admired and trusted him
+as I did now. In less than a minute after we had stepped aboard, we were
+circling in the air outside. We rose with stunning rapidity, swooping
+away in a curve like an eagle.
+
+At this instant we were seen!
+
+There was a quick flashing of signals, and two air craft shot into sight
+above us.
+
+"Now for a chase!" cried Edmund, actually laughing with exultation.
+
+We darted upward, curving aside to avoid the pursuers. And then they
+swooped after us. We rose so rapidly that within a couple of seconds we
+were skirting the upper part of the great tower. Then others saw us, and
+joined in the chase. Jack's spirits soared with the excitement:
+
+"Sorry to take rogue's leave of these Venuses," he exclaimed. "But no
+dungeons for us, if you please."
+
+"We're not away, yet," said Edmund over his shoulder; and, indeed, we
+were not!
+
+The air ships swarmed out on every side like hornets; the atmosphere
+seemed full of them. I gave up all hope of escape, but Edmund was like a
+racer who hears the thud of hoofs behind him. He put on more and more
+speed until we were compelled to hang on to anything within reach in
+order to save ourselves from being blown off by the wind which we made,
+or whirled overboard on sharp turns.
+
+Crash! We had run straight into a huge craft that persisted in getting in
+our way. She dipped and rolled like a floating log. I saw the fellows on
+her tumble over one another, as we shot by, and I glanced anxiously to
+see if any had gone overboard. We could afford to do no killing if we
+could avoid it; for, in case of recapture, that would be another
+indictment against us. I saw no one falling from the discomfited air
+ship, and I felt reassured. Occupied as he was, dodging and turning,
+Edmund did not cease to address a few words to us occasionally.
+
+"There's just one chance to beat them," he said, "and only one. I'm going
+to try it as soon as I can get out of this press."
+
+I had no notion of what he meant, but a few minutes later I divined his
+intention. I had observed that all the while he was working higher and
+higher, and this, as you will presently see, was the key to his plan.
+
+Up and up we shot, Edmund making the necessary circles as short as
+possible, and so recklessly did he turn on the speed that it really began
+to look as if we might get away after all. Two thirds of our pursuers
+were now far below our level, but none showed a disposition to give up
+the chase, and those which were yet above tried to cross our bow. While I
+saw that Edmund's idea was to hold a skyward course, I was far from
+guessing the particular reason he had for doing so, and, finally, Jack,
+who comprehended it still less, exclaimed:
+
+"See here, Edmund, if you keep on going up instead of running off in one
+direction or another, they'll corner you in the middle of the sky. Don't
+you see how they have circled out on all sides so as to surround us? Then
+when we get as high as we can go, they'll simply close in, and we'll be
+trapped."
+
+"Oh, no, we won't," Edmund replied.
+
+"I don't see why."
+
+"Because they can't go as high as we can."
+
+"The deuce they can't! I guess they understand these ships as well as you
+do."
+
+"Can a fish live out of water?" asked Edmund, laughing.
+
+"What's that got to do with it?"
+
+"Why, it's plain enough. These people are used to breathing an atmosphere
+surcharged with oxygen and twice as dense as that of the earth. It
+doesn't trouble our breathing, simply giving us more energy; but we can
+live where they would gasp for breath. Air impossibly rare for them is
+all right for us, and that's what I am in search of, and we shall find it
+if we can get high enough."
+
+The beauty and simplicity of this unexpected plan struck us all with
+admiration, and Jack, his doubts instantly turning to enthusiasm, cried:
+
+"By Jo, Edmund, you're a trump! I'd like to get a gaff into the gills of
+that catfish, Ingra, when he begins to blow. By Jo, I'd pickle him and
+make a present of him to the Museum of Natural History. '_Catfishia
+Venusensis_, presented by Jack Ashton, Esq.'--how'd that look on a label,
+hey?"
+
+And Jack hugged himself with delight over his conceit.
+
+In a short time the accuracy of Edmund's conjecture became apparent. Our
+pursuers, one by one, dropped off. Their own strategy, to which Jack had
+called attention, was simply a playing into our hands. They had really
+thought to catch us in the center of a contracting circle, when, to their
+amazement, we rose straight up into air so rare that they could not live
+in it. Edmund roared with laughter when he saw the assured success of his
+maneuver.
+
+But there was one thing which even he had overlooked, and it struck to
+our hearts when we became aware of it. Poor, faithful Juba, who had so
+recently proved his devotion to us, could endure this rare air no better
+than our pursuers. Already, unnoticed in the excitement, he had fallen
+upon the deck, where he lay gasping.
+
+"Good God, he's dying!" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"He shall not die!" responded Edmund, setting his lips, and turning to
+his machinery.
+
+"But, you're not going back down there!"
+
+"I'll run beyond the edge of the circle, and drop down far enough to
+revive him. Then we can keep dodging up and down just out of their reach,
+and so be out of danger both ways."
+
+No sooner said than done. We ran rapidly on a horizontal course until we
+had cleared the air ships below, and then dropped like a shot. Juba came
+to his senses in a few moments after we entered the denser air. But now
+our pursuers, thinking, no doubt, that we had found it impracticable to
+remain where they knew they could not go, began to close in upon us. I
+reflected that here was the only mistake that Edmund had made--I mean the
+bringing along with us of the natives of the dark hemisphere. It was only
+their presence that had prevented us from sailing triumphantly over the
+crystal mountains; it was because of them that we had wrecked the car;
+and now it was Juba who baffled our best chance of escape. And yet--and I
+am glad to be able to say it--I could not regret his presence, for had he
+not made himself one of us; had he not proved himself entitled to all the
+privileges of comradeship?
+
+But Henry (I am sorry to write it) did not share these feelings.
+
+"Edmund," he said, "why do you insist upon endangering our lives for the
+sake of this--this--animal here?"
+
+Never have I beheld such a blaze of anger as that which burst from
+Edmund's eyes as he turned upon Henry:
+
+"You cowardly brute!" he shouted. "I ought to throw you overboard!"
+
+He seemed about to execute his threat, dropping the controller from his
+hand as he spoke, and Henry, with ashen face, ran from him like a madman.
+I caught him in my arms, fearing that he would tumble overboard in his
+fright, and Edmund, instantly recovering his composure, turned back to
+his work.
+
+Finding Juba sufficiently recovered, although yet weak and almost
+helpless, he rose again, but more cautiously than before. And now our
+pursuers, plainly believing that these maneuvers could have but one
+ending, began to set their net, and I could not help admiring their plan,
+which would surely have succeeded if they had not made a fundamental
+error in their calculations, but one for which they were not to blame.
+There was such a multitude of their craft, fresh ones coming up all the
+while, that they were able to form themselves into the shape of a huge
+bag net, the edge of which was carried as high as they dared to go, while
+the sides and receding bottom were composed of air ships so numerous that
+they were packed almost as closely as meshes. Edmund laughed again as he
+looked down into this immense net.
+
+"No, no," he shouted. "We're no gudgeons! You'll have to do better than
+that!"
+
+"See here, Edmund," Jack suddenly exclaimed, "why don't you make off and
+leave them? By keeping just above their reach we could easily escape."
+
+"_And leave the car?_" was the reply.
+
+"By Jo," returned Jack, "I never thought of that. But, then, what did you
+run away for at all?"
+
+"Because," said Edmund quietly, "I thought it better to parley than to
+lie in prison."
+
+"Parley! How are you going to parley?"
+
+"That remains to be seen; but I guess we'll manage it."
+
+We were now, as far as I could estimate, five or six miles high. When we
+were highest, the great cloud dome seemed to be but a little way above
+our heads, and I thought, at first, that Edmund intended to run up into
+it and thus conceal our movements. The highest of our pursuers were about
+half a mile below us. They circled about, and were evidently parleying on
+their own account, for waves of color flowed all about them, making a
+spectacle so brilliant and beautiful that sometimes I almost forgot our
+critical situation in watching it.
+
+"I suppose you'll play them a prismatic symphony," said Henry mockingly.
+
+I looked at him in surprise. Evidently his fear of Edmund had vanished;
+no doubt because he knew in his heart the magnanimity of our great
+leader.
+
+"Who knows?" Edmund replied. "I've no doubt the materials are aboard, and
+if I had been here a month, I'd probably try it. As things stand, we
+shall have to resort to other methods."
+
+While we were talking, Edmund did not relax his vigilance, and two or
+three times, when he had dropped to a lesser elevation for Juba's sake,
+he baffled a dash of the enemy. At last we noticed a movement in the
+crowd which betokened something of importance, and in a moment we saw
+what it was. A splendid air ship, by far the most beautiful that we had
+yet seen, was swiftly approaching from below.
+
+"It's the queen," said Edmund. "I thought she'd come."
+
+The approaching ship made its way straight toward us, and, without the
+slightest hesitation, Edmund dropped down to meet it. Those who had been
+our pursuers now made no attempt to interfere with us; they recognized
+the presence of a superior authority. Soon we were so near that we could
+recognize Ala, who looked like Cleopatra in her barge on the charmed
+waves of Cydnus. Beside her, to the intense disappointment of Jack and
+myself, stood Ingra.
+
+"Confound him!" growled Jack. "He's always got to have his oar in the
+puddle. Blamed if I'm not sorry Edmund spoiled my aim. I'd have had his
+scalp to hang up at the Olympus to be smoked at!"
+
+Of what now occurred, I can give no detailed account, because it was all
+beyond my comprehension. We approached almost within touch, and then
+Edmund stood forth, fearless and splendid as Caesar, and conducted his
+"parley." When it was over, there was a flashing of aerial colors between
+Ala's ship and the others, and then all, including ours, set out to
+return to the capital. After a while Edmund, who had been very
+thoughtful, turned to us and said:
+
+"You can make your minds easy. Of course you'll understand there is a
+certain amount of guesswork in what I tell you, but you can depend upon
+the correctness of my general conclusions. I believe that I have made it
+perfectly clear that we intended no harm, and that we are not dangerous
+characters. At least Ala understands it perfectly. As for Ingra, perhaps
+he doesn't want to understand it. I can't make out the cause of his
+enmity, but it is certain that he doesn't like us, and if it all depended
+upon him, it would go hard with us. I believe that we shall have to stand
+a trial of some kind, but remember that we've got a powerful advocate. I
+don't regret our running off, for, as I anticipated, it afforded us the
+opportunity to establish some sort of terms. The mere fact that we return
+willingly when they know that we might have fled beyond their reach
+should count in our favor, for, as I have always insisted, these are
+highly intelligent people, with civilized ideas. If I had not been sure
+of that I should have continued the flight and depended upon some other
+means of recovering the car--or constructing a new one."
+
+We had become so much accustomed to accept Edmund's decisions as final
+that none of us thought of objecting to what he had done; unless it might
+have been Henry, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+BEFORE THE THRONE OF VENUS
+
+While we were dropping down toward the city, with a great fleet of air
+ships attending, Edmund opened his mind upon another curious difficulty
+besetting us.
+
+"You, of course, noted," he said, "how close we approached at one time to
+the cloud dome. The existence of that sky screen is a circumstance which
+may possibly be decisive in the determination of our fate."
+
+"Favorable or unfavorable?" I asked.
+
+"Unfavorable, for this reason. If these people could be made to
+understand that we are visitors from another world, and not inhabitants
+of the other side of their own planet, they might treat us with greater
+consideration, and even with a certain superstitious deference. The
+imagination is doubtless as active with them as with terrestrial beings,
+and if you can once touch the imagination, even of the most intelligent
+and instructed persons, you can do almost anything you choose with them.
+But how am I to convey to them any idea of this kind? Seeing neither sun,
+nor moon, nor stars, they can have no conception of such a thing as
+another world than their own."
+
+"Couldn't you persuade them," said Jack, "that we come from the upper
+side of the cloud dome? You could pretend that it's very fine living up
+there--plenty of sunshine and good air."
+
+Edmund laughed.
+
+"I'm afraid, Jack, that they are too intelligent to believe that a person
+of your avoirdupois could walk on the clouds. You're not quite angelic
+enough for that. I'm sure that they know perfectly well what the dome
+consists of."
+
+"The presence of Juba with us is another difficulty," I suggested. "If,
+as you suppose, they recognize certain racial characteristics in him,
+which convince them that he belongs to the other side of Venus, then they
+are sure to believe that we belong there, too."
+
+"Certainly. But I must find some way round the difficulty. I depend upon
+the intelligence of Ala. If she had been killed, nothing could have saved
+us. We have had an unpleasant escape from something too closely
+resembling the misfortune of Oedipus."
+
+In the meanwhile, we reached the capital and disembarked on the great
+tower. To our intense surprise and delight, instead of being reconducted
+to prison, we were led into a magnificent apartment, with open arches
+facing toward the distant mountains, and a repast was spread before us.
+Juba, to our great contentment, was allowed to accompany us. I think that
+Jack was the most pleased member of the party at the sight of the food.
+We sat at a round table, and I observed that the eatables consisted, as
+with Juba's people, exclusively of vegetables, except that there were
+birds, of species unknown to us, but of most exquisite flavor, and a
+light, white wine, the most delicious that I ever tasted.
+
+When we had finished eating, we fell to admiring the view, and Jack
+pulled out his pipe, and, aided by Edmund's pocket lamp, which possessed
+an attachment for cigar lighting, began to smoke, leaning back
+luxuriously in his seat, with as much nonchalance as if he had been in
+the smoking room at the Olympus. I think I may say that we all exhibited
+a _sang froid_ amidst our novel surroundings that would have astonished
+us if we had stopped to analyze our feelings, but in that respect Jack
+was often the coolest member of the party, although he had not the iron
+nerves of Edmund. On this occasion, he was not long in producing a
+sensation. No sooner had the smoke begun to curl from his lips than the
+attendants in the room were thrown into a state of laughable
+consternation. Evidently they thought, like the servant of Walter
+Raleigh, that the smoke must come from an internal fire. Their looks
+showed alarm as well as astonishment.
+
+"Keep your pipe concealed," whispered Edmund. "Take a few strong whiffs,
+and hide it in your pocket before they observe whence the smoke really
+comes. This may do us some good; it will, at least, serve to awake their
+imagination, and that is what we need."
+
+Jack did as requested, first filling his mouth with smoke, and then
+slowly letting it out in puffs that more and more astonished the
+onlookers, who kept at a respectful distance, and excitedly discussed the
+phenomenon. Suddenly, Jack, with characteristic mobility of thought,
+turned to Edmund and demanded:
+
+"Edmund, why didn't those fellows shoot us when we were running away?
+There were enough of them to bring us down with the wildest sort of
+shooting."
+
+"They didn't shoot," was the reply, "because they had nothing to shoot
+with. I have made up my mind that they are an unwarlike people. I don't
+believe that they have the slightest idea what a gun is. Yet they are no
+cowards, and they'll fight if there is need of fighting, and no doubt
+they have weapons of some kind; only they are not natural slaughterers
+like ourselves, and I shouldn't be surprised if war is unknown on Venus.
+
+"All the same," said Jack, "I wish I had my pistol back. I tried to hide
+it, but those fellows had their eyes on it, and it's confiscated. I'm
+glad you think they don't know how to use it."
+
+"And I'm glad," returned Edmund, "that you haven't got your pistol.
+You've been altogether too handy with it. Now," he continued, "let us
+consider our situation. You see at a glance that we have gained a great
+deal as a result of the parley; the way we have just been treated here
+shows plainly enough that we shall, at least, have a fair trial, and we
+couldn't have counted on that before. You can never make people listen to
+reason against their inclination unless you hold certain advantages, and
+our advantage was that we clearly had it in our power to continue our
+flight. My only anxiety now is in regard to the means of holding them to
+the agreement--for agreement it certainly was--and of impressing them not
+only with a conviction of our innocence but with a sense of our reserve
+power, and the more mysterious I can make that power seem to them, the
+better. That is why I welcomed even the incident of Jack's smoking. We
+shall surely be arraigned before a court of some kind, and I imagine that
+we shall not have long to wait. What I wish particularly is that all of
+you shall desist from every thought of resistance, and follow strictly
+such instructions as I may have occasion to give you."
+
+He had hardly ceased speaking when a number of official-looking persons
+entered the room where we were.
+
+"Here come the cops," said Jack. "Now for the police court."
+
+He was not very far wrong. We were gravely conducted to one of the little
+craft which served for elevators, and after a rapid descent, were led
+through a maze of passages terminating in a vast and splendid apartment,
+apparently perfectly square in plan, and at least three hundred feet on a
+side. It was half filled with a brilliant throng, in which our entry
+caused a sensation. Light entered through lofty windows on all four
+sides. The floor seemed to be of a rose-colored marble, with inlaid
+diapering of lapis lazuli, and the walls and ceiling were equally rich.
+But that which absolutely fascinated the eye in this great apartment was
+a huge circle high on the wall opposite the entrance door, like a great
+clock face, or the rose window of a cathedral, from which poured
+trembling streams of colored light.
+
+"Chromatic music, once more," said Edmund, in a subdued voice. "Do you
+know, that has a strange effect upon my spirits, situated as we are. It
+is a prelude that may announce our fate; it might reveal to us the
+complexion of our judges, if I could but read its meaning."
+
+"It is too beautiful to spell tragedy," I said.
+
+"Ah, who knows? What is so fascinating as tragedy for those who are only
+lookers-on?"
+
+"But, Edmund," I protested, "why do you, who are always the most hopeful,
+now fall into despondency?"
+
+"I am not desponding," he replied, straightening up. "But this soundless
+music thrills me with its mysterious power, and sometimes it throws me
+into dejection, though I cannot tell why. To me, when what I firmly
+believe was the great anthem of this wonderful race, was played in the
+sky with spectral harmonies, there was, underlying all its mystic beauty,
+an infinite sadness, an impending sense of something tragic and
+terrible."
+
+I was deeply surprised and touched by Edmund's manner, and would have
+questioned him further, but we were interrupted by the officials, who now
+led us across the vast apartment and to the foot of a kind of throne
+which stood directly under the great clock face. Then, for the first
+time, we recognized Ala, seated on the throne. Beside her was a person of
+majestic stature, with features like those of a statue of Zeus, and long
+curling hair of snowy whiteness. The severity of his aspect struck cold
+to my heart, but Ala's countenance was smiling and full of encouragement.
+As we were led to our places a hush fell upon the throng of attendants,
+and the colors ceased to play from the circle.
+
+"Orchestra stopped," whispered the irrepressible Jack. "Curtain rises."
+
+The pause that followed brought a fearful strain upon my nerves, but in a
+moment it was broken by Ala, who fixed her eyes upon Edmund's face as he
+stood a little in advance of the rest of us. He returned her regard
+unflinchingly. Every trace of the feeling which he had expressed to me
+was gone. He stood erect, confident, masterful, and as I looked, I felt a
+thrill of pride in him, pride in his genius which had brought us hither,
+pride in our mother earth--for were we not her far-wandering children?
+
+[Illustration: "'Who and what are you, and whence do you come?'"]
+
+I summoned all my powers in the effort to understand the tongueless
+speech which I knew was issuing from Ala's eyes. And I did understand it!
+Although there was not a sound, I would almost have sworn that my ears
+heard the words:
+
+"Who and what are you, and whence do you come?"
+
+Breathlessly I awaited Edmund's answer. He slowly lifted his hand and
+pointed upward. He was, then, going at once to proclaim our origin from
+another world; to throw over us the aegis of the earth!
+
+The critical experiment had begun, and I shivered at the thought that
+here they knew no earth; here no flag could protect us. I saw perplexity
+and surprise in Ala's eyes and in those of the stern Zeus beside her.
+Suddenly a derisive smile appeared on the latter's lips, while Ala's
+confusion continued. God! Were we to fail at the very beginning?
+
+Edmund calmly repeated his gesture, but it met with no response; no
+indication appeared to show that it awakened any feeling other than
+uncomprehending astonishment in one of his judges and derision in the
+other. And then, with a start, I caught sight of Ingra, standing close
+beside the throne, his face made more ugly by the grin which overspread
+it.
+
+I was almost wild; I opened my mouth to cry I know not what, when there
+was a movement behind, and Juba stepped to Edmund's side, dropped on his
+knees, rose again, and fixed his great eyes upon the judges!
+
+My heart bounded at the thoughts which now raced through my brain. Juba
+belonged to their world, however remote the ancestral connection might
+be; he possessed at least the elements of their unspoken language; and
+_it might be a tradition among his people, who we knew worshipped the
+earth-star, that it was a brighter world than theirs_. Had Edmund's
+gesture suddenly suggested to his mind the truth concerning us--a truth
+which the others had not his means of comprehending--and could he now
+bear effective testimony in our favor?
+
+With what trembling anxiety I watched his movements! Edmund, too, looked
+at him with mingled surprise and interest in his face. Presently he
+raised his long arm, as Edmund had done, and pointed upward. A momentary
+chill of disappointment ran through me--could he do no more than that?
+But he _did_ more. Half unconsciously I had stepped forward where I could
+see his face. _His eyes were speaking._ I knew it. And, thank God! there
+was a gleam of intelligence answering him from the eyes of our judges.
+
+He had made his point; he had suggested to them a thought of which they
+had never dreamed!
+
+They did not thoroughly comprehend him; I could see that, for he must
+have been for them like one speaking a different dialect, to say nothing
+of the fundamental difficulty of the idea that he was trying to convey,
+but yet the meaning did not escape, and as he continued his strange
+communication, the wonder spread from face to face, for it was not only
+the judges who had grasped the general sense of what he was telling them.
+Even at that critical moment there came over me a feeling of admiration
+for a language like this; a truly universal language, not limited by
+rules of speech or hampered by grammatical structure. At length it became
+evident that Juba had finished, but he continued standing at Edmund's
+side.
+
+Ala and her white-headed companion looked at one another, and I tried to
+read their thoughts. In her face, I believed that I could detect every
+sign of hope for us. Occasionally she glanced with a smile at Edmund. But
+the old judge was more implacable, or more incredulous. There was no
+kindness in his looks, and slowly it became clear that Ala and he were
+opposed in their opinion.
+
+Suddenly she placed her hand upon her breast, where the bullet must have
+grazed her, and made an energetic gesture, including us in its sweep,
+which I interpreted to mean that she had no umbrage against those who had
+unintentionally injured her. It was plain that she insisted upon this
+point, making it a matter personal to herself, and my hopes rose when I
+thought that I detected signs of yielding on the part of the other. At
+this moment, when the decision seemed to hang in the balance, a new
+element was introduced into the case with dramatic suddenness and
+overwhelming force.
+
+For several minutes I had seen nothing of Ingra, but my thoughts had been
+too much occupied with more important things to take heed of his
+movements. Now he appeared at the left of the throne, leading a file of
+fellows bearing a burden. They went direct to the foot of the throne, and
+deposited their burden within a yard of the place where Edmund was
+standing. They drew off a covering, and I could not repress a cry of
+consternation.
+
+It was the body of one of their compatriots, and a glance at it sufficed
+to show the manner in which death had been inflicted. It had been crushed
+in a way which could probably mean nothing else than a fearful fall. The
+truth flashed upon me like a gleaming sword. The victim must have been
+precipitated from the air ship which we had struck at the beginning of
+our flight!
+
+And there stood our enemy, Ingra, with exultation written on his
+features. He had made a master stroke, like a skillful prosecutor.
+
+"Hang him!" I heard Jack mutter between his teeth. "Oh, if I only had my
+pistol!"
+
+"Then you would make matters a hundred times worse," I whispered. "Keep
+your head, and remember Edmund's injunction."
+
+The behavior of the latter again awoke my utmost admiration.
+Contemptuously turning his back upon Ingra, he faced Ala and old Zeus,
+and as their regards mingled, I knew well what he was trying to express.
+This time, since his meaning involved no conception lying utterly beyond
+their experience, he was more successful. He told them that the death of
+this person was a fact hitherto unknown to us, and that, like the injury
+to Ala, it had been inflicted without our volition. I believed that this
+plea, too, was accepted as valid by Ala; but not so with the other. He
+understood it perfectly, and he rejected it on the instant. My reason
+told me that nothing else could have been expected of him, for, truly,
+this was drawing it rather strong--to claim twice in succession immunity
+for evils which had undeniably originated from us.
+
+Our case looked blacker and blacker, as it became evident that the
+opposition between our two judges had broken out again, and was now more
+decided than before. The features of the old man grew fearfully stern,
+and he rejected all the apparent overtures of Ala. He had been willing to
+pardon the injury and insult to her person, since she herself insisted
+upon pardon, but now the affair was entirely different. Whether purposely
+or not, we had caused the death of a subject of the realm, and he was not
+to be swerved aside from what he regarded as his duty. My nerves shook at
+the thought that we knew absolutely nothing about the social laws of this
+people, and that, among them, the rule of an eye for an eye, and blood
+for blood, might be more inviolable than it had ever been on the earth.
+
+As the discussion proceeded, with an intensity which spoken words could
+not have imparted to it, Ala's cheeks began to glow, and her eyes to
+glitter with strange light. One could see the resistance in them rising
+to passion, and, at last, as the aged judge again shook his head, with
+greater emphasis than ever, she rose, as if suddenly transformed. The
+majestic splendor of her countenance was thrilling. Lifting her jeweled
+arm with an imperious gesture, she commanded the attendants to remove the
+bier, and was instantly obeyed. Then she beckoned to Edmund, and without
+an instant's hesitation, he stepped upon the lower stage of the throne.
+With the stride of a queen, she descended to his side, and, resting her
+hand on his shoulder, looked about her with a manner which said, as no
+words could have done:
+
+"It is the power of my protection which encircles him!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+MORE MARVELS
+
+It was not until long afterwards that we fully comprehended all that Ala
+had done in that simple act; but I will tell you now what it meant. By
+the unwritten law of this realm of Venus, she, as queen, had the right to
+interpose between justice and its victim, and such interposition was
+always expressed in the way which we had witnessed. It was a right rarely
+exercised, and probably few then present had ever before seen it put into
+action. The sensation which it caused was, in consequence, exceedingly
+great, and a murmur of astonishment arose from the throng in the great
+apartment, and hundreds pressed around the throne, staring at us and at
+the queen. The majestic look which had accompanied her act gradually
+faded, and her features resumed their customary expression of kindness.
+The old judge had risen as she stepped from her place beside him, and he
+seemed as much astonished as any onlooker. His hands trembled, he shook
+his head, and a single word came from his mouth, pronounced with a
+curious emphasis. Ala turned to him, with a new defiance in her eyes,
+before which his opposition seemed to wither, and he sank back into his
+seat.
+
+But there was at least one person present who accepted the decision with
+a bad grace--Ingra. He had been sure of victory in his incomprehensible
+persecution of us, he had played a master card, and now his
+disappointment was written upon his face. With surprise, I saw Ala
+approach him, smiling, and I was convinced that she was trying to
+persuade him to cease his opposition. There was a gentleness in her
+manner--almost a deference--which grated upon my feelings, while Jack's
+disgust could find no words sufficient to express itself:
+
+"Beauty and the beast!" he growled. "By Jo, if _he's_ got any influence
+over her, I'm sorry for her."
+
+"Well, well, don't worry about him," I said. "He's played his hand and
+lost, and if you were in his place, you wouldn't feel any better about
+it."
+
+"No, I'd go and hang myself, and that's what he ought to do. But isn't
+_she_ a queen, though!"
+
+Ala now resumed her place upon the throne, and issued orders which
+resulted in our being conducted to apartments that were set aside for us
+in the palace. There were four connecting rooms, and Juba had one of
+them. But we immediately assembled in the chief apartment, which had been
+assigned to Edmund. There was much more deference in the manner of our
+attendants than we had observed before, and as soon as they left us we
+fell to discussing the recent events. Jack's first characteristic act was
+joyously to slap Juba on the back:
+
+"Bully old boy!" he exclaimed. "Edmund, where'd we have been without
+Juba?"
+
+"I ought to have foreseen that," said Edmund. "If I had been as wise as I
+sometimes think myself, I'd have arranged the thing differently. Of
+course it should have been obvious all the while that Juba would be our
+trump card. I dimly saw that, but I ought to have instructed him in
+advance. As it was, his own intelligence did the business. He understood
+my claim to an origin outside this planet, when they could not. It must
+have come over him all at a flash."
+
+"But do you think that they understand it now?" I asked.
+
+"To a certain extent, yes. But it is an utterly new idea to them, and all
+the better for us that it is so. It is so much the more mysterious; so
+much the more effective with the imagination. But this is not the end of
+it; they will want to know more--especially Ala--and now that Juba has
+broken the ice, it will be comparatively easy to fortify the new opinion
+which they have conceived of us."
+
+"But Ingra nearly wrecked it all," I remarked.
+
+"Yes, that was a stunning surprise. How devilish cunning the fellow is;
+and how inexplicable his antipathy to us."
+
+"I believe that it is a kind of jealousy," I said.
+
+"A kind of natural cussedness, _I_ guess," put in Jack.
+
+"Why should he be jealous?" asked Edmund.
+
+"I don't know, exactly; but you know we are not simple barbarians in
+their eyes, and Ingra may have conceived a prejudice against us, somehow,
+on that very account."
+
+"Very unlikely," Edmund returned, "but we shall find out all about it in
+time; in the meanwhile, do nothing to prejudice him further, for he is a
+power that we have got to reckon with."
+
+The conversation then turned upon the mysterious language that had been
+employed at what we called the trial. I expressed the admiration which I
+had felt for such a means of communication when I had observed the effect
+that Juba had been able to produce.
+
+"Yes," said Edmund, "it seems as wonderful as it is beautiful, but there
+is no reason why it should not have been acquired by the inhabitants of
+the earth. We have the elements, not merely in what we call telepathy, or
+mind reading, but in our everyday converse. Try it yourself, and you will
+be astonished at what the eyes, the looks, are able to convey. Even
+abstract ideas are not beyond their reach. Often we abandon speech for
+this better method of conveying our meaning. How many a turn in the
+history of mankind has depended upon the unspoken diplomacy of the eyes;
+how many a crisis in our personal lives is determined, not by words, but
+by looks."
+
+"That's right," said Jack, "more matches are made with eyes than with
+lips."
+
+Edmund smiled and continued: "There's nothing really mysterious about it.
+It has a purely physical basis, and only needs attention and development
+to become the most perfect mode of mental communication that intellectual
+beings could possibly possess."
+
+"And the music and language of color?" I asked. "How has that been
+developed?"
+
+"As naturally as the silent speech. We have it, and we feel it, in
+pictures, in flower gardens, and in landscapes; only with us it is a
+frozen music. Living music exists on the earth only in the form of
+sonorous vibrations because we have not developed our sense of the
+harmony of colors except when they lie dead and motionless before us. A
+great painting by Raphael or Turner is to one of these color hymns of
+Venus like a printed score, which merely suggests its harmonies, compared
+with the same composition when poured forth from a perfect instrument
+under the fingers of a master player."
+
+"Well, Edmund," interposed Jack, "I've no doubt it's all as you say, and
+I'd like to know just enough of their speechless speech to tell Ingra
+what he ought to hear; and if I understood their music, I'd play him a
+dead march, sure."
+
+"But," continued Edmund, disregarding Jack's interruption, "mark me,
+there's something else behind all this. I have a dim foreglimpse of it,
+and if we have luck, we'll know more before long."
+
+I find that the enthusiasm which these wonderful memories arouse, as they
+flood back into my mind, is leading me to dwell upon too many details,
+and I must sum up in fewer words the story of the events which
+immediately followed our acquittal, although it involves some of the most
+astonishing discoveries that we made in the world of Venus.
+
+As Edmund had surmised, Ala lost no time in seeking more light upon the
+mystery surrounding us. Within twenty-four hours after the dramatic scene
+in the hall of judgment, we were summoned before her, in a splendid
+apartment, which was apparently an audience chamber, where we found her
+surrounded by several of her female attendants, as well as by what seemed
+to be high officers of the court; and among them, to our displeasure, was
+Ingra. He, in fact, appeared to be the most respected and important
+personage there, next to the queen herself, and he kept close by her
+side. Edmund glanced at him, and half turning to us, shook his head. I
+took his meaning to be that we were not to manifest any annoyance over
+Ingra's presence.
+
+The queen was very gracious, and seats were offered to us. Immediately
+she began to question Edmund, as I could see; but with all my efforts I
+could make out nothing of what was "said." But Juba evidently was able to
+follow much of the conversation, in which he manifested the liveliest
+interest. The conference lasted about an hour, and at its conclusion, we
+retired to our apartments. There we eagerly questioned Edmund concerning
+what had occurred.
+
+He seemed to be greatly impressed and pleased. He told us that he had
+learned more than he had communicated, but that he had succeeded, as he
+believed, in making clearer to Ala our celestial origin. Still, he
+doubted if she fully comprehended it, while as for Ingra, he was sure
+that the fellow rejected our claim entirely, and persisted in regarding
+us as inhabitants of the dark hemisphere.
+
+"Bosh!" cried Jack. "He's too stupid to understand anything above the
+level of his nose, and I'd like to flatten that for him!"
+
+"No," said Edmund, "he's not stupid, but I'm afraid he's malicious. If he
+were a little more stupid, it would be the better for us."
+
+"But does Ala comprehend the difference between us and Juba--I mean in
+regard to origin?" I asked.
+
+"I think so. In fact Juba bears unmistakable signs that he is of their
+world, although so different in physical appearance. His remarkable
+comprehension of their method of mental communication is alone sufficient
+to stamp him as ancestrally one of them. And yet," Edmund continued,
+musing, "think of the vast stretch of ages that separates the inhabitants
+of the two sides of this planet, the countless eons of evolution that
+have brought about the differences now existing! I am delighted to
+find that Ala has some understanding of all this. She has had good
+teachers--do not smile--for what you have seen of their mechanical
+achievements proves that science exists and is cultivated here; and from
+her savants she has learned--what our astronomers have deduced--that
+formerly Venus turned rapidly on her axis, and had days and nights
+swiftly succeeding one another. But they do not know the scientific
+reasons as completely as we do. With them this is knowledge based largely
+upon tradition, 'ancestral voices' echoing down through periods of time
+so vast that our most ancient legends seem but tales of yesterday.
+Whatever may be the measure of man's antiquity on the earth, I am certain
+that here intellectual life has existed for millions upon millions of
+years, and its history stretches back beyond the time when the brake of
+tidal friction had so far destroyed the rotation of the planet that its
+surface became permanently divided between the reigns of day and night."
+
+I listened with amazement and could not help exclaiming:
+
+"But, Edmund, how could you learn all this in so short a time?"
+
+"Because," he replied, smiling, "the language of the mind, unhampered by
+dragging words and blundering sentences, plays back and forth with the
+quickness of thought. There is another thing, too, which I have learned,
+a thing so amazing that it daunts me. I have found, I believe, the
+explanation of that minor note of infinite sadness which, as I told you,
+I always feel, even in the most joyous-seeming paeans of their color
+music. I think it is due to their forereaching science, which assures
+them that this world has entered upon the last stage of its existence
+which began with the arrest of its axial rotation, and which will end
+with the total extinction of life through the evaporation of all the
+waters under the never-setting sun, and the consequent complete
+desiccation of this now so beautiful land."
+
+"But," I objected, "you have said that they never see the sun."
+
+"That was, I believe, a mistake, I am sure that they never see the stars
+or the planets, but I think that sometimes they see the sun, or, at least
+that there is a tradition of its having been seen. The whole thing is yet
+obscure to me, but I have received an inkling of something very, very
+strange in that regard."
+
+"Then, Ala may think that it is from the sun that we claim to come," I
+said, disregarding his last remark, which had a significance which even
+he could not then have appreciated.
+
+"I am not sure; we must wait for further light. But I have still another
+communication not so instinct with mystery. We are to be shown the
+sources of their mechanical power--the means by which they run all their
+motors."
+
+"Hurrah," cried Jack. "Now, that's something I like! I can understand a
+machine--if you don't ask me to run it--but as for this talking through
+the eyes, and playing Jim Crow with rainbows, it's too much for me."
+
+It was not many hours later when we were conducted by Ala, accompanied as
+usual by the inevitable Ingra, and a brilliant cortège of attendants,
+upon our first excursion through the capital. We embarked in a gorgeous
+air ship, and flying low at first, skirted the roofs of the innumerable
+houses which constituted the bulk of the city resting on the ground. The
+oriental magnificence of the views which we caught in the winding streets
+and frequent squares crowded with people, excited our interest to the
+utmost. But we kept on without descending or stopping until, at length,
+we passed the limits of the immense metropolis, and, flying more rapidly,
+and at a greater elevation, soon approached what, at a distance, appeared
+to be a waterfall, greater than Niagara, pouring out of the air!
+
+"What marvel can this be?" I asked.
+
+"A fountain," responded Edmund.
+
+"A cataract turned upside down," exclaimed Jack. "Well, I've ceased to be
+surprised at anything I see here. I wouldn't be astonished now to find
+that their whole old planet was hollow, and full of gnomes, or whatever
+you call 'em."
+
+When we got nearer we saw that Edmund's description was substantially
+correct. The vast mass of water gushed from the top of a broad plateau,
+in the form of a gigantic vertical fountain, with a roar so stupendous
+that Ala and her attendants immediately covered their ears with
+protectors, and we should not have been sorry to follow their example,
+for our eardrums were almost burst by the billowing force of the sound
+waves. The water shot upward four or five hundred feet with geyser-like
+plumes reaching a thousand feet, and then descended in floods on all
+sides. But the slope of the ground was such that eventually it was all
+collected in a river, which flowed away with great swiftness, past the
+distant city, and disappeared in the direction of the sea from which we
+had come. The solid column of rising water must have been, at its base,
+three hundred feet in diameter!
+
+But our amazement was redoubled when we recognized, at various points of
+vantage, squat, metallic towers of enormous strength, which caught the
+descending water, allowing it to issue in roaring torrents from their
+bases.
+
+"Those," shouted Edmund in our ears, "are power houses. I knew already
+that these people had learned the mechanical uses of electricity; and if
+we have seen no electric lights as yet, it is because, in a world of
+perpetual daylight, they have little or no use for them. They employ the
+power for other purposes."
+
+"But how do you account for this incredible fountain?" I asked.
+
+"It must be due to geological causes, if I may use a terrestrial term.
+You observe that the land all has a slope hitherward from the distant
+range of mountains, and that between us and the sea there is a chain of
+hills. The metropolis lies at the lower edge of a vast basin, and it must
+be that the relatively porous surface, over many thousands of square
+miles, is underlain by an almost unbroken shell of rock, impermeable to
+water. The result is that the drainage of this whole immense region,
+after being collected under ground, flows together to this point, where
+the existence of a huge vent in the upper layer offers it a way of
+escape, and it comes spouting out of the great crater with the
+consequences which you behold."
+
+Many objections to Edmund's theory occurred to my mind; but he spoke so
+confidently, the course of things on this strange planet had so often
+followed his indications, and I felt myself so incapable of suggesting a
+more satisfactory hypothesis, that I made no reply, as a geologist,
+perhaps, would have done. At any rate the wonderful phenomenon existed
+before our eyes, explanation or no explanation. We learned afterwards
+that the river formed by the giant fountain passed through a gap in the
+hills to the seaward, and the more I reflected upon Edmund's idea the
+more acceptable I found it.
+
+A great deal of the water was led away from the foot of the plateau out
+of which the fountain issued by ditches constructed to irrigate the rich
+gardens surrounding the metropolis and the open agricultural country for
+many miles around. At the queen's invitation, although she did not
+accompany us, we inspected one of the power houses, and Edmund found the
+greatest delight in studying the details of the enormous dynamos and the
+system of cables by which, quite in our own manner, the electric power
+was conveyed to the city. We noticed that everywhere the most ingenious
+devices were employed for killing noise.
+
+"I knew we should find all this," said Edmund--"although I did not
+precisely anticipate the form that the natural supply of energy would
+take--as soon as I saw the aerial screws that give buoyancy to the great
+towers. In fact, I foresaw it as soon as I found, in inspecting the
+machinery of the air ship which brought us from the sea, that their
+motors were driven by storage batteries. It was obvious, then, that they
+had some extraordinary source of energy."
+
+"Oh, of course, you knew it all!" muttered Henry under his breath. "But
+if you were as omniscient as you think yourself, you'd not be in this
+fool's paradise."
+
+"What's that you're saying?" demanded Jack, partly catching the import of
+Henry's remark, and beginning to ruffle his feathers.
+
+"Oh, nothing," mumbled Henry, and I shook my head at Jack to keep quiet.
+We all felt at times Edmund's assumption of superiority, but Jack and I
+were willing to put up with it as one of the privileges of genius. If
+Edmund had not believed in himself, he would never have brought us
+through. And besides, we always found that he was right, and if he
+sometimes spoke rather boastingly of his knowledge and foresight, at
+least it was real knowledge and genuine foresight.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+WE FALL INTO TROUBLE AGAIN
+
+It was not long after our visit to the marvelous fountain when Jack
+proposed to me that he and I should make a little excursion on our own
+account in the city. Edmund was absent at the moment, engaged in some
+inquiries which interested him, under the guidance of Ala and her
+customary attendants. I forget why Jack and I had stayed behind, since
+both Juba and Henry had accompanied Edmund, but it was probably because
+we wished to make some necessary repairs to our garments for I confess
+that I shared a little of the coquettishness of Jack in that matter. At
+any rate, we grew weary of being alone, and decided to venture just a
+little way in search of adventure. We calculated that the tower of the
+palace, which was so conspicuous, would serve us as a landmark, and that
+there was no danger of getting lost.
+
+Nobody interfered with us at our departure, as we had feared they might,
+and in a short time we had become so absorbed in the strange spectacles
+of the narrow streets, lined with shops and filled with people on foot,
+while small air ships continually passed just above the roofs, that we
+forgot the necessity of keeping our landmark constantly in view, and were
+lost without knowing it.
+
+One thing which immediately struck us was the entire absence of beasts of
+burden--nothing like horses or mules did we see. There were not even
+dogs, although, as I have told you, some canine-like animals dwelt with
+the people of the caverns. Everybody went either on foot or in air ships.
+There were no carriages, except a kind of palanquin, some running on
+wheels and others borne by hand.
+
+"I should think they would have autos," said Jack, "with all their
+science and ingenuity which Edmund admires so much."
+
+But there was not a sign of anything resembling an auto; the silence of
+the crowded streets was startling, and made the scene more dreamlike.
+Everybody appeared to be shod with some noise-absorbing material. We
+strolled along, turning corners with blissful carelessness, staring and
+being stared at (for, of course, everybody knew who we were), peering
+into open doors and the gaping fronts of bazaars, chattering like a
+couple of boys making their first visit to a city, and becoming every
+moment more hopelessly, though unconsciously, lost, and more interested
+by what we saw. The astonishing display of pleasing colors and the
+brilliancy of everything fascinated us. I had never seen anything
+comparable to this in beauty, variety, and richness. We passed a market
+where we saw some of the bright-plumaged birds that we had eaten at our
+first repast hung up for sale. They had a way of serving these birds at
+table with the brilliant feathers of the head and neck still attached, as
+if they found a gratification even at their meals in seeing beautiful
+colors before them.
+
+Other shops were filled with birds in gilded cages, which we should have
+taken for songsters but for the fact that, although crowds gathered about
+and regarded them with mute admiration, not a sound issued from their
+throats--at least we heard none. A palanquin stopped at one of these
+shops, and a lady alighted and bought three beautiful birds which she
+carried away in their cages, watching them with every indication of the
+utmost pleasure, which we ascribed to the splendor of their plumage and
+the gracefulness of their forms. As a crowd watched the transaction
+without interference on the part of the shopkeeper, or evidence of
+annoyance on that of the lady, we took the liberty of a close look
+ourselves. Then we saw their money.
+
+"Good, yellow gold," whispered Jack.
+
+Such, indeed, it seemed to be. The lady took the money, which consisted
+of slender rings, chased with strange characters, from a golden purse,
+and the whole transaction seemed so familiar that we might well have
+believed ourselves to be witnessing a purchase in a bazaar of Cairo or
+Damascus. This scene led to a desire on Jack's part to buy something
+himself.
+
+"If I only had some of their money," he said, "I'd like to get some
+curiosities to carry home. I wonder if they'd accept these?" and he drew
+from his pocket some gold and silver coins.
+
+"No doubt they'd be glad to have a few as keepsakes," I said.
+
+"By Jo! I think I'll try it," said Jack, "but not here. I'm not a bird
+fancier myself. Let's look a little farther."
+
+We wandered on, getting more and more interested, and followed by a
+throng of curious natives, who treated us, I must say, much more
+respectfully than we should have been treated in similar circumstances at
+home. Many of the things we saw, I cannot describe, because there is
+nothing to liken them to, but all were as beautiful as they were strange.
+At last we found a shop whose contents struck Jack's fancy. The place
+differed from any that we had yet seen; it was much larger, and more
+richly fitted up than the others, and there were no counters, the things
+that it contained being displayed on the inner walls, while a single
+keeper, of a grave aspect, and peculiarly attired, all in black, occupied
+a seat at the back. The objects on view were apparently ornaments to be
+hung up, as we hang plaques on the wall. They were of both gold and
+silver, and in some the two metals were intermixed, with pleasing
+effects. What seemed singular was the fact that the _motif_ of the
+ornaments was always the same, although greatly varied in details of
+execution. As near as I could make it out, the intention appeared to be
+to represent a sunburst. There was invariably a brilliant polished boss
+in the center, sometimes set with a jewel, and surrounding rays of
+crinkled form, which plunged into a kind of halo that encircled the
+entire work. The idea was commonplace, and it did not occur to me amidst
+my admiration of the extreme beauty of the workmanship that there was any
+cause for surprise in the finding of a sunburst represented here. Jack
+was enthusiastic.
+
+"That's the ticket for me," he said. "How would one of those things look
+hanging over the fireplace of old Olympus? You bet I'm going to persuade
+the old chap to exchange one for a handful of good solid American money."
+
+I happened to glance behind us while Jack was scooping his pocket, and
+was surprised to see that the crowd of idlers, which had been following
+us, had dispersed. Looking out of the doorway, I saw some of them
+furtively regarding us from a respectful distance. I twitched Jack by the
+sleeve:
+
+"See here," I said, "there's some mistake about this. I don't believe
+that this is a shop. You'd better be careful, or we may make a bad
+break."
+
+"Oh, pshaw!" he replied; "it's a shop all right, or if it isn't exactly a
+shop that old duffer will be glad to get a little good money for one of
+his gimcracks."
+
+My suspicion that all was not right was not allayed when I noticed that
+the old man, whose complexion differed from the prevailing tone here, and
+who was specially remarkable by the possession of an eagle-beaked nose, a
+peculiarity that I had not before observed among these people, began to
+frown as Jack brusquely approached him. But I could not interfere before
+Jack had thrown a handful of coin in his lap, and, reaching up, had put
+his hand upon one of the curious sunbursts, saying:
+
+"I guess this will suit; what do you say, Peter?"
+
+Instantly the old fellow sprang to his feet, sending the coins rolling
+over the polished floor, and with eyes ablaze with anger, seized Jack by
+the throat. I sprang to his aid, but in a second four stout fellows,
+darting out of invisible corners, grappled us, and before we could make
+any effective resistance, they had our arms firmly bound behind our
+backs! Jack exerted all his exceptional strength to break loose, but in
+vain.
+
+"I tried to stop you, Jack--" I began, in a tone of annoyance, but
+immediately he cut me off:
+
+"This is on _me_, Peter; don't you worry. _You_ haven't done anything."
+
+"I'm afraid it's on all of us," I replied. "The whole party, Edmund and
+all, may have to suffer for our heedlessness."
+
+"Fiddlesticks," he returned. "I haven't got his old ornament, but he's
+got my coin. This looks like a skin game to me. What in thunder did he
+hang the things up for if he didn't want to sell 'em?"
+
+"But I told you this wasn't a shop."
+
+"No, I see it isn't; it's a trap for suckers, I guess."
+
+Jack's indignation grew hotter as we were dragged out into the street,
+and followed by a crush of people drawn to the scene, were hurried along,
+we knew not whither. In fact, his indignation swallowed up the alarm
+which he ought to have experienced, and which I felt in full force. I
+beat my brains in vain to find some explanation for the merciless
+severity with which we were treated so out of all proportion to the
+venial fault that had unconsciously been committed, and my perplexity
+grew when I saw in the faces of the crowd surrounding us, and running to
+keep up, a look of horror, as if we had been guilty of an unspeakable
+crime. We were too much hurried and jolted by our captors to address one
+another, and in a short time we were widely separated, Jack being led, or
+rather dragged, ahead, as if to prevent any communication between us.
+Once in a while, to my regret, I observed him exerting all his force to
+break his bonds and slinging his custodians about; but he could not get
+away, and at last, to my infinite comfort, he ceased to struggle, and
+went along as quietly as the rapid pace would permit.
+
+Presently an air ship swooped down from above, and alighted in a little
+square which we had just entered. Immediately we were taken aboard, with
+small regard to our comfort, and the air ship rose rapidly, and bore off
+in the direction of the great tower of the palace which we could now see.
+Upon our arrival we were taken through the inevitable labyrinth of
+corridors, and finally found ourselves in a place that was entirely new
+to us.
+
+It was a round chamber, perhaps two hundred feet in diameter, lighted,
+like the Roman Pantheon, by a huge circular opening in the vaulted roof,
+through which I caught a glimpse of the pearl-tinted cloud dome, which
+seemed infinitely remote. No opposition was made when I pushed ahead in
+order to be at Jack's side, and as a throng quickly hedged us round, our
+conductors released their hold, although our arms remained bound. When at
+last we stood fast we were in front of a rich dais, containing a
+thronelike seat occupied by a personage attired in black, the first
+glimpse of whose face gave me such a shock as I had not experienced since
+the priest of the earth-worshipers seized me for his prey. I have never
+seen anything remotely resembling that face. It was without beard, and of
+a ghastly paleness. It was seen only in profile, except when, with a
+lightning-like movement, it turned, for the fraction of a second, toward
+us, and was instantly averted again. It made my nerves creep to look at
+it. The nose was immense, resembling a huge curved beak, and the eyes, as
+black and glittering as jet, were roofed with shaggy brows, and seemed
+capable of seeing crosswise.
+
+Sometimes one side of the face and sometimes the other was presented, the
+transition being effected by two instantaneous jerks, with a slight pause
+between, during which the terrible eyes transfixed us. At such moments
+the creature--though he bore the form of a man--seemed to project his
+dreadful countenance toward the object of his inspection like a monstrous
+bird stretching forth its neck toward its prey. The effect was
+indescribable, terrifying, paralyzing! The eyes glowed like fanned
+embers.
+
+"In God's name," gasped Jack, leaning his trembling shoulder upon me,
+"what is it?"
+
+I was, perhaps, more unmanned than he, and could make no reply.
+
+Then there was a movement in the throng surrounding us, and the old man
+of the sunbursts appeared before the throne, and, after dropping on his
+knees and rising again, indicated us with his long finger, and, as was
+plain, made some serious accusation. The face turned upon us again with a
+longer gaze than usual, and we literally shrank from it. Then its owner
+rose from his seat, towering up, it seemed, to a height of full seven
+feet, shot his hand out with a gesture of condemnation, and instantly sat
+down again and averted his countenance. There seemed to have been a world
+of meaning in this brief act to those who could comprehend it. We were
+seized, even more roughly than before, and dragged from the chamber, and
+at the end of a few minutes found ourselves thrown into a dungeon, where
+there was not the slightest glimmer of light, and the door was locked
+upon us.
+
+It was a long time before either of us summoned up the courage to speak.
+At length I said faintly:
+
+"Jack, I'm afraid it's all over with us. We must have done something
+terrible, though I cannot imagine what it was."
+
+But Jack, after his manner, was already recovering his spirits, and he
+replied stoutly:
+
+"Nonsense, Peter, we're all right, as Edmund says. Wait till he comes and
+he'll fix it."
+
+"But how can he know what has happened? And what could he do if he did?
+More likely they will all be condemned along with us."
+
+Jack felt around in the dark and got me by the hand, giving it a hearty
+pressure.
+
+"Remember Ala," he said. "She's our friend, or Edmund's, and they'll
+bring us out of this. You want to brace up."
+
+"Remember Ingra!" I responded with a shiver, and I could feel Jack start
+at the words.
+
+"Hang him!" he muttered. "If I'd only finished him when I had the drop!"
+
+After that neither spoke. If Jack's thoughts were blacker than mine he
+must have wished for his pistol to blow out his own brains. At no time
+since our arrival on the planet had I felt so depressed. I had no courage
+left; could see no lightening of the gloom anywhere. In the horror of the
+darkness which enveloped us, the _horror of space_ came over my spirit.
+One feels a little of that sometimes when the breadth of an ocean
+separates him from home, and from all who really care for him--but what
+is the Atlantic or the Pacific to millions upon millions of leagues of
+interplanetary space! To be cast away among the inhabitants of another
+world than one's own! To have lost, as we had done (for in that moment of
+despair I was _sure_ Edmund could never repair the car), the only
+possible means of return! To have offended, just _because_ we were
+strangers, and _could_ not know better, some incomprehensible social law
+of this strange people, who owned not a drop of the blood of our race, or
+of any race whatsoever dwelling on the earth! To lie under the
+condemnation of that goblin face, without the possibility of pleading
+even the mercy that our hearts instinctively grant to the smallest mite
+of fellow life on our own planet! To be alone! friendless! forsaken!
+condemned!--in a far-off, kinless world! I could have fallen down in
+idolatry before a grain of sand from the shore of the Atlantic!
+
+In the murkiest depth of my despair a sound roused me with a shock that
+made my heart ache. In a moment the door opened, light streamed in, and
+Edmund stood there.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+THE SUN GOD
+
+Strangely enough, I, who have an exceptional memory for spoken words,
+cannot, by any effort, recall what Edmund said, as his face beamed in
+upon us. I have only a confused recollection that he spoke, and that his
+words had a marvelous effect upon my broken spirit. But I can see, as if
+it were yet before me, the smile that illumined his features. My heart
+bounded with joy, as if a messenger had come straight from the earth
+itself, bearing a reprieve whose authority could not be called in
+question.
+
+Jack's joy was no less than mine, although he had not suffered mentally
+as I had done. And the sight of Ala was hardly less reassuring to us, but
+to find Ingra, too, present was somewhat of a shock to our confidence in
+speedy delivery from trouble. And, in fact, we were not at once
+delivered. We had to spend many weary hours yet in our dark prison, but
+they were rendered less gloomy by Edmund's assurance that he would save
+us. The confidence that he always inspired seems to me to have been
+another mark of his genius. We had an instinct that he could do in any
+circumstances what was impossible to ordinary men.
+
+At last the welcome moment came, and we were led forth, free, and
+rejoined Edmund, Henry, and Juba in our apartments. Then, for the first,
+we learned what we had done, and how narrow had been our escape from a
+terrible doom. It was a new chapter of wonder that Edmund opened before
+us. I shall tell it in his own words.
+
+"When I returned to the palace and found you missing I was greatly
+wrought up. Immediately I applied to Ala for aid in finding you. She was
+quickly informed of all the circumstances of your arrest, and I saw at
+once, by the expression of her features, that it was a matter of the
+utmost gravity. I was not reassured by Ingra's evident joy. I could read
+in his face the pleasure that the news gave him, and I perceived that
+there was again opposition between him and Ala, and that she was trying,
+with less success than I hoped for, to bring him round to her view.
+
+"With no little trouble I finally discovered the nature of your offense.
+I understood it the more readily because I had already begun to suspect
+the existence among these people of a strange form of idolatry, in some
+respects akin to the earth-worship of the cavern dwellers. I have told
+you that certain things had led me to think that they occasionally see
+the sun here. It is a phenomenon of excessive rarity, and whole
+generations sometimes pass without its recurrence. It is due to an
+opening which at irregular periods forms for a brief space of time in the
+cloud dome. I imagine that it may be in some way connected with sunspots,
+but here they have no notion of its cause, and look upon it as entirely
+miraculous.
+
+"Whenever this rare event occurs it gives rise to extraordinary religious
+excitement, and ceremonies concerning which there is some occult mystery
+that I have not yet penetrated. I suspect that the ceremonies are not
+altogether unlike the Bacchanalian festivals of ancient Greece. At any
+rate the momentary appearance of the sun at these times is regarded as
+the avatar of a supreme god, and their whole religious system is based
+upon it. So universal and profound is the superstition to which it gives
+rise that the most instructed persons among them are completely under its
+dominion. The eagle-beaked individual who condemned you, and whom I have
+since seen, is the chief priest of this superstition, and within his
+sphere his power is unlimited. It is solely to the belief--which, through
+Ala, I have succeeded in impressing upon him--that we are _children of
+the sun_ that I owe the success of my efforts in your behalf. Without
+that you would surely have been sacrificed, and we with you.
+
+"One of the forms which this superstition takes is a belief that the
+anger of the sun god can be mollified by offerings of images, made in his
+likeness, which are first consecrated by the chief priest, and then hung
+up on the walls of certain small temples, which are scattered through the
+city, and are always kept open to the air under the guard of a minor
+priest and his attendants. A whole family, as I understand it, deems
+itself protected by one of these images, which are made by artists who
+never touch any other work, and which are only granted to those who have
+undergone a painful series of purifications in the great temple. The
+preliminary ceremonies finished, the images are suspended, and at certain
+times those to whom they belong go and kneel and pray before them, as
+before their guardian saints."
+
+"What a fool I was not to understand it," I murmured.
+
+"You will understand now," Edmund continued, "how serious was Jack's
+offense in insulting a priest, and laying impious hands upon a sacred
+image, belonging, no doubt, to a family whose antiquity of descent would
+make our oldest pedigrees on the earth seem as ephemeral as the existence
+of a May fly; for I am convinced that here life has gone on,
+uninterrupted by wars and changes of dynasty, for untold ages.
+
+"It is a marvel that you escaped, for already they were preparing the
+awful sacrifice. The chief priest was amazed when an interposition was
+made on your behalf. Such a thing had never been known, and, as I have
+said, it was only by acting upon his superstition that I succeeded, with
+Ala's assistance, in obtaining a reprieve. As the case stands, we find
+ourselves occupying a dangerous eminence, which it may be difficult for
+us to maintain. I must beseech you to be on your guard, and to act only
+under my direction. It is all the more serious for us because I am
+convinced that Ingra has no faith whatever in the legend which protects
+us. He persists in believing that we are simply interlopers from the dark
+hemisphere, and the opposition between him and Ala has now become so
+sharp that he would gladly witness our destruction. I am sure that he
+will do his utmost to unmask us, and thus send us to our death."
+
+"But--" I began.
+
+"Wait a moment," said Edmund, "I have not yet finished. I must now tell
+you who Ingra is. _He is the destined consort of Ala._ That explains his
+influence over her. From what I can make out, it appears that he is of
+the royal blood, and that the marriage of the queen is arranged, not by
+her preference, but by an unwritten law, administered by the chief
+priest. She has no choice in the matter."
+
+"I should say not," broke in Jack. "She never would have chosen that
+jackanapes! If you hadn't spoiled my aim I'd have relieved her of the
+burden."
+
+"Not another word of that!" said Edmund severely. "In no manner, not even
+by a look, are you ever to express your dislike of him. And remember, you
+must govern your very thoughts, for here they lie open, as legible as
+print."
+
+"Hang me," growled Jack, "if I like a world where a man can't even think
+his own thoughts because his mind goes bare! Take me back where you have
+to speak before you are understood."
+
+"When you have wicked thoughts don't look them in the eyes," said Edmund,
+half smiling, "and then you will run no danger. It is through the eyes
+that they read. Now, to resume what I was saying, I am more than ever
+anxious to recover the car, and to find the materials that will enable me
+to repair its machinery. With it in our possession, and in good shape, we
+shall be in a position to run away whenever it may seem necessary to do
+so, and in the meantime to impose our legend upon them by the possession
+of so apparently miraculous a means of conveying ourselves through space.
+It will be overwhelming proof of the truth of our assertion of an origin
+outside their world, and perhaps, upon the whole, it is just as well that
+they should think that we belong to the sun, of whose existence they have
+some knowledge, rather than to the earth, of which they know nothing, in
+spite of the inkling that Juba succeeded in conveying to them."
+
+"The car is here, isn't it?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, it is in the great tower, but it is useless in its present
+condition."
+
+"And what materials do you want to find?"
+
+"Primarily nothing but uranium. They understand chemistry here. They have
+the apparatus that I need, but they do not know how to use it as I do.
+The uranium certainly exists somewhere. They mine gold and silver, and
+other things, and when I can find their mines, without exciting their
+suspicion, and can get the use of a laboratory in secret, I shall soon
+have what I need. But I must be very circumspect, for it would not do to
+let them perceive that chemistry really lies at the basis of our miracle.
+It is this necessity for secrecy which troubles me most. But I shall find
+a way."
+
+"For God's sake, find it quick," Henry burst out. "And then get away from
+this accursed planet."
+
+Edmund looked at him a moment before replying:
+
+"We shall go when the necessity for going arises, and not before. We have
+not yet seen all the interesting things of this world."
+
+I believe that even Jack and I shared to some extent Henry's
+disappointment on hearing this announcement. We should have been glad to
+know that we were to start on the return journey as soon as the car was
+in shape to transport us. But the event proved that Edmund's instinct
+was, as usual, right, and that the things which were yet to be seen and
+experienced were well worth the fearful risk we ran in remaining.
+
+While Edmund undertook the delicate inquiries which were necessary in
+order to determine the direction that his search for uranium should take,
+and to enable him to conduct his chemical processes without awaking
+suspicion as to his real purpose, we were left much of the time in charge
+of a party of attendants who, by his intercession, had been selected to
+act as our guides when we wished to examine the wonders of the palace and
+the capital. Sometimes he accompanied us; but more often he was with Ala
+and her suite, including her uneludable satellite, Ingra.
+
+"I bless my stars that he doesn't favor _us_ with his delightful
+company," was Jack's comment, when he saw Ingra tagging along after Ala
+and Edmund.
+
+I privately believed that Ingra had his spies among our attendants, but I
+was careful not to mention my suspicions to Jack.
+
+But, oh, the delight of those excursions! Those streets; and those aerial
+towers, which rose like forests of coral in a gulf of liquid ether! They
+shine often in my dreams. A thousand times I have tried to put into
+words, simply for my own satisfaction, a description of the things that
+we saw, and the impressions that they made on my mind--but it is
+impossible. I understand now why the tales of travelers into strange
+lands never convey a tithe of what is in the writers' minds; they
+simply cannot; the necessary words and analogies do not exist. I can only
+use general terms, ransacking the vocabulary of adjectives--"beautiful,"
+"wonderful," "fascinating," "marvelous," "indescribable," "magical,"
+"enchanting," "amazing," "inexplicable," "_sans pareil_"--what you
+will--but all that says nothing except to my own mind. Only the language
+of Venus could describe the charms and the wonders of Venus!
+
+There was one thing, however, which was sufficiently comprehensible--_the
+great library_. Edmund was not with us when we paid our first visit to
+it; but he had predicted its existence during one of our conversations,
+when we were talking of the silent language.
+
+"This people," he had said, "has a great history behind it, extending
+over periods which would amaze our disinterrers of human antiquity, but
+an intelligent race cannot make history without also keeping records of
+it. Tradition alone, handed on from mind to mind, would not answer their
+requirements. The possession of the power to communicate thought without
+spoken language does not presuppose a power of memory any more perfect
+than we have. The brain forgets, the imagination misleads, with them as
+with us, and consequently they must have books of some kind--which
+implies a written or printed language. It is probable that this language
+does not correspond with the very meager one of which we occasionally
+hear them pronounce a few words. The latter is, I am convinced, used only
+for names and interjections, and sometimes to call the attention of the
+person addressed, while the former must be a rich and carefully
+elaborated system of literary expression, which may not be phonetic at
+all. We shall find that this is so; and there are unquestionably
+libraries--probably a great imperial library--devoted to history and
+science. There must be schools also."
+
+Thus Edmund had spoken, and thus we found it to be. The great library was
+in a building separate from the palace. It was admirably lighted from
+without, and its nature was apparent the moment we were led into it. The
+"books" were long scrolls, which might have been taken for parchment or
+papyrus, and the characters written on them resembled those of the
+Chinese language, but worked out in exquisite colors, which might
+themselves have had a meaning. The rolls were kept in proper receptacles
+under the charge of librarians, and we saw many grave persons at desks
+poring over them. Absolute silence reigned, and as I gazed at the scene I
+found admiration for this extraordinary people taking the place of the
+prejudice which I had recently been led to feel against them.
+
+Jack, unusually impressed, whispered to me that Edmund must have been
+playing us some Hindoo bedevilment trick, for he could not believe that
+we were actually in a foreign world. The same impression came over me.
+This was too earthlike; too much as if, instead of being on the planet
+Venus, we had been transported to some land of antique civilization in
+our own world. But, after all, we _knew where we were_, and as the
+realization of that fact came to us we could only stare with increasing
+astonishment at the scene before us. I may say here that Edmund
+subsequently visited this great library, and also some of the schools,
+and I know that he made notes of what he discovered and learned in them,
+with the purpose, as I supposed, of writing upon the subject after his
+return. But the expected book, which would have supplemented and
+clarified much of what I have undertaken to tell, with but a half
+understanding of what we saw, never appeared.
+
+Our wonderful excursions came to an end when Edmund at length announced
+that he had obtained the information he needed, and that we were about to
+make a trip to some of the mines of Venus.
+
+"I have discovered," he said, "that Venus is exceedingly rich in the
+precious metals, as well as in iron and lead. They mine them all, and
+we shall visit the mines under Ala's escort. My real purpose, of
+course, is to find uranium, of whose properties, strangely--and for us
+luckily--enough, they seem to have no knowledge. Nevertheless, they are
+capital chemists as far as they go, and possess laboratories provided
+with all that I shall need. They refine the metals at the mines
+themselves, so that I am sure of finding everything necessary to do my
+work right on the ground. The substance which I obtain from uranium is so
+concentrated that I can carry in my pocket all that will be required to
+repair the damage done to the transformers in the car. A careful
+examination, which I have made of the car, proves that the terrific
+shocks the machinery suffered in the crystal mountains caused an atomic
+readjustment which destroyed the usefulness of the material in the
+transformers, and while I might, by laboratory treatment, possibly
+restore its properties, I think it safer to obtain an entirely fresh
+supply. We shall start with the queen's ship within a few hours; so you
+had better make your preparations at once."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+AT THE MERCY OF FEARFUL ENEMIES
+
+If we could have foreseen what was to happen during this trip, even
+Edmund, I believe, would have shrunk from undertaking it. But we all
+embarked upon it gladly, because we had conceived the highest
+expectations of the delight that it would afford us; and at the news that
+we were to visit mines of gold richer than any on the earth, Henry
+exhibited the first enthusiasm that he had shown since our departure from
+home.
+
+Embarked on Ala's splendid "yacht," as Jack called it, and attended by
+her usual companions, we rapidly left the city behind, and sped away
+toward the purple mountains, so often seen in the distance. The voyage
+was a long one, but at length we drew near the foothills, and beheld the
+mountains towering into peaks behind. Lofty as they looked, there was no
+snow on their summits. We now descended where plumes of smoke had for
+some time attracted our attention, and found ourselves at one of the
+mines. It was a gold mine. The processes of extracting the ore,
+separating the metal, etc., were conducted with remarkable silence, but
+they showed a knowledge of metallurgy that would have amazed us if we had
+not already seen so much of the capacity of this people. Yet similarly to
+the scene in the library, its earth-likeness was startling.
+
+"This sort of thing is uncanny," said Jack, as we were led through the
+works. "It makes me creep to see them doing things just as we do them at
+home, except that they are so quiet about it. If everything was different
+from our ways it would seem more natural."
+
+"Anyhow," I replied, "we may take it as a great compliment to ourselves,
+for it shows that we have found out ways of doing things which cannot be
+improved even in Venus."
+
+I should like to describe in detail the wonders of this mine, but I have
+space for only a few words about it. It was, Edmund learned, the richest
+on the planet, and was the exclusive property of the government,
+furnishing the larger part of its revenues, which were not comparable
+with those of a great terrestrial nation because of the absence of all
+the expenditures required by war. No fleets and no armies existed here,
+and no tariffs were needed where commerce was free. This great mine was
+the Laurium of Venus. The display of gold in the vaults connected with it
+exceeded a hundredfold all that the most imaginative historian has ever
+written of the treasures of Montezuma and Atahualpa. Henry's eyes fairly
+shone as he gazed upon it, and he could not help saying to Edmund:
+
+"You might have had riches equal to this if you had stayed at home and
+developed your discovery."
+
+Edmund contemptuously shrugged his shoulders, and turned away without a
+word.
+
+We were afterwards conducted to a silver mine, which we also inspected,
+and finally to a lead mine in another part of the hills. This was in
+reality the goal at which Edmund had been aiming, for he had told us that
+uranium was sometimes found in association with lead. Our joy was very
+great when, after a long inspection, he informed us that he had
+discovered uranium, and that it now remained only to submit it to certain
+operations in a laboratory in order to prepare the substance that was to
+give renewed life to those lilliputian monsters in the car, which fed
+upon men's breath and begot power illimitable.
+
+"I must now contrive," said Edmund, "to get admission to the laboratory
+connected with the mine, and to do my work without letting them suspect
+what I am about."
+
+He managed it somehow, as he managed all things that he undertook, and
+within forty-eight hours after our arrival he was hard at work, evidently
+exciting the admiration of the native chemists by the knowledge and skill
+which he displayed. At first they crowded around him so that he was
+hampered in his efforts to conceal the real object of his labors; but at
+last they left him comparatively alone, and I could see by his expression
+whenever I visited the laboratory that things were going to his liking.
+But the work was long and delicate. Edmund had to fabricate secretly some
+of the chemical apparatus he needed, destroying it as fast as it served
+its purpose, so that weeks of time rolled by before he had what he called
+the "thimbleful of omnipotence" that was to make us masters of our fate.
+As fast as he produced it he put it in a metal box, shaped like a
+snuffbox, and covertly he showed it to us. It consisted of brilliant
+black grains, finer than millet seeds.
+
+"Every one of those minute grains," he told us, "is packed with as much
+potential energy as that of a ton's weight suspended a mile above the
+earth."
+
+But while the little box was being gradually filled with crystallized
+powder, we, who could lend no aid in the fabrication of Edmund's miracle,
+improved the opportunity to make acquaintance with the beauties of the
+surrounding country. Ala had returned to the capital, leaving an air ship
+at our disposal, and, of all persons in the world, _Ingra in command_! We
+refused all invitations to accompany him in the air ship, preferring to
+make our excursions on foot, accompanied at first by some of the
+attendants that Ala had left. Edmund did not share our fears that Ingra
+meditated mischief.
+
+"He doesn't dare," was his reply to all our representations. But nothing
+could induce Jack and me to trust to Ingra's tender mercies.
+
+Among the favorite spots which we had found to visit in the neighborhood
+of the mine was a little knoll crowned with a group of the most beautiful
+trees that I ever saw, and washed at its base by a brook of exquisitely
+transparent water which tinkled over a bed of white and clear-yellow
+pebbles, sparkling like jewels. More than once at the beginning I fished
+some of them out in the belief that they were nuggets of pure gold
+polished by the water. In a pool under the translucent shadow of the
+overhanging trees played small fish so splendid in their varied hues that
+they looked like miniature rainbows darting about beneath the water.
+Birds of vivid color sometimes flitted among the branches overhead. There
+was but one "rainy day" while we were at the mine; all the rest of the
+time not a cloud appeared under the great dome, and a scented zephyr
+continually drew down from the mountains and fanned us. Here, then, we
+passed many hours and many days, chatting of our adventures and our
+chances, drowsily happy in the pure physical enjoyment which this
+charming spot afforded.
+
+When at last Edmund informed us that his box was full, and he was ready
+to return to the capital, we would not let him go without first
+conducting him to our little paradise. All together, then, with the
+exception of Juba, who, by some interference of an overlooking
+providence, was left at the mine, we set out in the highest spirits to be
+for once our leader's leaders in the exploration of some of the charms of
+Venus. Edmund was no less delighted than we had been with the place, and
+yielding to its somnolent influences we were soon stretched side by side
+on the spreading roots of a giant tree, and sleeping the sleep of
+sensuous languor.
+
+Our waking was as terrible as it was sudden. I heard a cry, and at the
+same instant felt an irresistible hand grasping me by the throat. As I
+opened my eyes I saw that the whole party were prisoners. Nearby an air
+ship was quivering, as, held in leash, it lightly touched the ground; and
+a dozen gigantic fellows, whipping our hands behind our backs, hurried us
+aboard, the great mechanical bird, which instantly rose, describing a
+circle that carried us above the treetops. I did not try to struggle, for
+I felt how vain would be any effort that I could make.
+
+Glancing about me, the very first features I recognized were those of
+Ingra. At last he had us in his power!
+
+I looked at Edmund, but his face was set in thought, and he did not
+return my glance. Henry, as usual, had plunged into silent hopelessness,
+and Jack was a picture of mingled rage and despair. Although we were
+loosely fastened side by side to a rail on the deck, neither of us spoke
+for perhaps half an hour. In the meantime the air ship rose to a height
+greater than that of the nearby mountains, and then more slowly
+approached them. At last it began to circle, as if an uncertainty
+concerning the route to be chosen had arisen, and I observed, for we
+could look all about in spite of our bonds, that Ingra and one who
+appeared to be his lieutenant were engaged in an animated discussion.
+They pointed this way and that, and the debate grew every moment more
+earnest. This continued for a long time, while the ship hovered, running
+slowly in the wide circles. We could not then know how much this
+hesitation meant for us. If Ingra had been as rapid in his decision now
+as he was in the act of taking us prisoners, this history would never
+have been written. I watched Edmund, and saw that his attention was
+absorbed by what our captors were about, and even in that emergency I
+felt a touch of comfort through my unfailing confidence in our leader.
+
+Finally a decision seemed to have been reached, and we set off over the
+crest of the range. As its huge peaks towered behind us and we descended
+nearer the ground, my heart sank again, for now we were cut off from the
+world beyond, and in the improbable event of any pursuit, how could the
+pursuers know what course we had taken, or where to look for us? And,
+then, who would pursue? Juba could do nothing, Ala was far away at the
+capital, even supposing that she should be disposed to set out in search
+of us, and hours, perhaps days, must elapse before she could be informed
+of what had happened. Not even when Jack and I were in the dungeon had
+our case seemed so desperate.
+
+But how the gods repent when they have sunk men in the blackest pit of
+despair, sending them a messenger of hope to steady their hearts!
+
+Good fortune had willed that we should be so placed upon the deck that we
+faced most easily sternward. Suddenly, as I gazed despondently at the
+serrated horizon receding in the distance, a thrill ran through my nerves
+at the sight of a dark speck in the sky, which seemed to float over one
+of the highest peaks. A second look assured me that it was moving; a
+third gave birth to the wild thought that it was in chase. Then I turned
+to Edmund and whispered:
+
+"There is something coming behind us."
+
+"Very well, do nothing to attract attention," he returned. "I have seen
+it. They are following us."
+
+I said nothing to Jack or Henry, who had not yet caught sight of the
+object; but I could not withdraw my eyes from it. Sometimes I persuaded
+myself that it was growing larger, and then, with the intensity of my
+gaze, it blurred and seemed to fade. At last Jack spied it, and
+instantly, in his impetuous way, he exclaimed:
+
+"Edmund! Look there!"
+
+His voice drew Ingra's attention, and immediately the latter observed the
+direction of our glances, and himself saw the growing speck. He turned
+with flushed face to his lieutenant and in a trice the vessel began
+fairly to leap through the air.
+
+"Ah, Jack," said Edmund reproachfully, but yet kindly, "if only you could
+always think before you speak! It is certain from Ingra's alarm that we
+are pursued by somebody whom he does not wish to meet. Most likely it is
+the queen, although it seems impossible that she could so quickly have
+learned of our mishap. Peter and I have been watching that object, which
+is unquestionably an air ship, in silence for the last twenty minutes,
+during which it has perceptibly gained upon us. But for your lack of
+caution it might have come within winning distance before it was
+discovered by Ingra, but now--"
+
+The rebuke was deserved, perhaps, but yet I wished that Edmund had not
+given it, so painful was the impression that it made upon Jack's
+generous heart. His countenance was convulsed, and a tear rolled down his
+cheek--all the more pitiful to see because his arms were pinioned, and he
+could do nothing to conceal his agitation. Edmund was stricken with
+remorse when he saw the effect of his words.
+
+"Jack," he said, "forgive me; I am sorry from the bottom of my heart. I
+should not have blamed you for a little oversight, when I alone am to
+blame for the misfortunes of us all."
+
+"All right, Edmund, all right," returned Jack in his usual cheerful
+tones. "But, see here, I don't admit that you are to blame for anything.
+We're all in this boat together and hanged if we won't get out of it
+together, too, and you'll be the man to fetch us out."
+
+Edmund smiled sadly, and shook his head.
+
+Meanwhile Ingra, with the evident intention of concealing the movements
+of the vessel, dropped her so low that we hardly skipped the tops of the
+trees that we were passing over, for now we had entered a wide region of
+unbroken forest. Still that black dot followed straight in our wake, and
+I easily persuaded myself that it was yet growing larger. Edmund declared
+that I was right, and expressed his surprise, for we were now flying at
+the greatest speed that could be coaxed out of the motors. Suddenly a
+shocking thought crossed my mind. I tried to banish it, fearing that
+Ingra might read it in my eyes, and act upon it. Suppose that he should
+hurl us overboard! It was in his power to do so, and it seemed a quick
+and final solution. But he showed no intention to do anything of the
+kind. He may have had good reasons for refraining, but, at the time I
+could only ascribe his failure to take a summary way out of his
+difficulty to a protecting hand which guarded us even in this extremity.
+
+On we rushed through the humming air, and still the pursuing speck chased
+us. And minute by minute it became more distinct against the background
+of the great cloud dome. Presently Edmund called our attention to
+something ahead.
+
+"There," he said, "is Ingra's hope and our despair."
+
+I turned my head and saw that in front the sky was very dark. Vast clouds
+seemed to be rolling up and obscuring the dome. Already there was a
+twilight gloom gathering about us.
+
+"This," said Edmund, "is apparently the edge of what we may call the
+temperate zone, which must be very narrow, surrounding in a circle the
+great central region that lies under the almost vertical sun. The clouds
+ahead indicate the location of a belt of contending air currents,
+resembling that which we crossed after floating out of the crystal
+mountains. Having entered them, we shall be behind a curtain where our
+enemy can work his will with us."
+
+Was it knowledge of this fact which had restrained Ingra from throwing us
+overboard? Was he meditating for us a more dreadful fate?
+
+It was, indeed, a land of shadow which we now began to enter, and we
+could see that ahead of us the general inclination of the ground was
+downward. I eagerly glanced back to see if the pursuers were yet in
+sight. Yes! There was the speck, grown so large now that there could be
+no doubt that it was an air ship, driven at its highest speed. But we had
+entered so far under the curtain that the greater part of the dome was
+concealed, the inky clouds hanging like a penthouse roof far behind. We
+could plainly perceive the chasers; but could they see us? I tried to
+hope that they could, but reason was against it. Still they were
+evidently holding the course.
+
+But even this hope faded when Ingra cunningly changed our course, turning
+abruptly to the left in the gloom. He knew, then, that we were invisible
+to the pursuers. But not content with one change, he doubled like a
+hunted fox. We watched for the effect of these maneuvers upon those
+behind us, and to our intense disappointment, though not to our surprise,
+we saw that they were continuing straight ahead. They surely could not
+have seen us, and even if they anticipated Ingra's ruse, how could they
+baffle it, and find our track again? At last the spreading darkness
+swallowed up the arc of illuminated sky behind, and then we were alone in
+the gloom.
+
+This, you will understand, was not the deep night of the other side of
+the planet; it was rather a dusky twilight, and as our eyes became
+accustomed to it, we could begin to discern something of the character of
+our surroundings. We flew within a hundred yards of the ground, which
+appeared to be perfectly flat, and soon we were convinced by the
+pitchy-black patches which frequently interrupted the continuity of the
+umbrageous surface beneath, that it was sprinkled with small bodies of
+water--in short, a gigantic Dismal Swamp, or Everglade. I need hardly say
+that it was Edmund who first drew this inference, and when its full
+meaning burst upon my mind I shuddered at the hellish design which Ingra
+evidently entertained. Plainly, he meant to throw us into the morass,
+either to drown in the foul water, whose miasma now assailed our
+nostrils, or to starve amidst the fens! But his real intention, as you
+will perceive in a little while, was yet more diabolical.
+
+The bird ship stooped lower, just skimming the tops of strange trees, the
+most horrible vegetable forms that I have ever beheld. And then, without
+warning, we were seized and pushed overboard, while the vessel, making a
+broad swoop, quickly disappeared. Henry alone uttered a loud cry as we
+fell.
+
+We crashed through the clammy branches and landed close together in a
+swamp. Fortunately the water was not deep, and we were able to struggle
+upon our feet and make our way to a comparatively dry open place, perhaps
+half an acre in extent. No sooner were we all safe on the land than I
+noticed Edmund struggling violently and then he exclaimed:
+
+"Here, quick! Hold a hand here!"
+
+As he spoke he backed up to me.
+
+"Take a match from this box which I have twisted out of my pocket, and
+while I hold the box, scratch it, and hold the flame against the bonds
+around my wrists."
+
+I managed to get out a match, and scratched it. But the match broke.
+Edmund, with the skill of a prestidigitator, got out another match, and
+pushed it into my fingers. It failed again.
+
+"It's got to be done!" he said. "Here, Jack, you try."
+
+Again he extracted a match, as Jack backed up in my place. Whether his
+hands happened to be less tightly bound, or whether luck favored him,
+Jack, on a second attempt, succeeded in illuminating a match.
+
+"Don't lose it," urged Edmund, as the light flashed out; "burn the cord."
+
+Jack tried. The smell of burning flesh arose, but Edmund did not wince.
+In a few seconds the match went out.
+
+"Another!" said Edmund, and the operation was repeated. A dozen separate
+attempts of this kind had been made, and I believe that I felt the pain
+inflicted by them more than Edmund did, when, making a tremendous effort,
+he burst the charred cord. His hands and wrists must have been fearfully
+burned, but he paid no attention to that. In a flash he had out his knife
+and cut us all loose. It was a mercy that they had not noticed the flame
+of the matches from the air ship, for if they had, unquestionably Ingra
+would have returned and made an end of us.
+
+After our release we stood a few moments in silence, awaiting our
+leader's next move. Presently a sonorous sign startled us, followed by a
+sticky, tramping sound.
+
+"In God's name, what's that?" exclaimed Jack.
+
+[Illustration: "It curled itself over the edge of the hovering air ship
+and drew it down."]
+
+"We'll see," said Edmund quietly, and threw open his pocket lantern.
+
+As the light streamed out there was a rustle in the branches above us,
+and the form of an air ship pushed into view.
+
+Ingra!
+
+No, it was not Ingra! Thank God, there was the bushy head of Juba visible
+on the deck as the ship drifted over us! And near him stood Ala and a
+half dozen attendants.
+
+As one man we shouted, but the sound had not ceased to echo when, out of
+the horrible tangle about us, rose, with a swift, sinuous motion, a
+monstrous anacondalike arm, flesh pink in the electric beam, but covered
+with spike-edged spiracles! It curled itself over the edge of the
+hovering air ship and drew it down.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+DREADFUL CREATURES OF THE GLOOM
+
+The deck of the air ship was tipped up at an angle of forty-five degrees
+by the pressure, and with inarticulate cries most of those on board
+tumbled off, some falling into the water and some disappearing amidst the
+tangled vegetation. Ala was visible, as the machine sank lower, and
+crashed through the branches, clinging to an upright on the sloping deck,
+while Juba, who hung on like a huge baboon, was helping her to maintain
+her place.
+
+Almost at the same moment I caught sight of the head of the monstrous
+animal which had caused the disaster. It was as massive as that of an
+elephant or mammoth; and the awful arm resembled a trunk, but was of
+incredible size. Moreover, it was covered with sucking mouths or disks.
+The creature apparently had four eyes ranged round the conical front of
+the head where it tapered into the trunk, and two of these were visible,
+huge, green, and deadly bright in the gleam of the lantern.
+
+For a moment we all stood as if petrified; then the great arm was thrown
+with a movement quick as lightning round both Ala and Juba as they clung
+to the upright! My heart shot into my mouth, but before the animal could
+haul in its prey, a series of terrific reports rattled like the discharge
+of a machine gun at my ear. The monstrous arm released the victims, and
+waved in agony, breaking the thick, clammy branches of the vegetation,
+and the vast head disappeared. Edmund had fired all the ten shots in his
+automatic pistol with a single pressure of the double trigger and an
+unvarying aim, directed, no doubt, at one of the creature's eyes.
+
+"Quick!" he shouted, as the air ship, relieved from the stress, righted
+itself; "climb aboard."
+
+The vessel had sunk so low, and the vegetation was so crowded about it,
+that we had no great difficulty in obeying his commands. He was the last
+aboard, and instantly he grasped the controlling apparatus, and we rose
+out of the tangle. We could hear the wounded monster thrashing in the
+swamp, but saw only the reflection of its movements in the commotion of
+the branches.
+
+I had expected that Edmund would immediately fly at top speed away from
+the dreadful place, but, instead, as soon as we were at a safe elevation,
+he brought the air ship to a hover, circling slowly above the
+comparatively open spot of dry ground at the edge of the swamp.
+
+"We cannot leave the poor fellows who have fallen overboard," he said, as
+quietly as if he had been safely aboard his own car. "We must stay here
+and find them."
+
+Soon their cries came to our ears, and turning down the light of the
+lantern we saw five of them collected together on the solid ground, and
+gesticulating to us in an agony of terror. Edmund swept the ship around
+until we were directly over the poor fellows, and then allowed it to
+settle until it rested on the ground beside them. I trembled with
+apprehension at this bold maneuver, but Edmund was as steady as a rock.
+Ala instantly comprehended his intention, and encouraged her followers,
+who were all but paralyzed with fright, to clamber aboard. A momentary
+communication of the eyes took place between Edmund and Ala, and I
+understood that he was demanding if all had been found.
+
+There was another--and not a trace of him could be seen.
+
+"We must wait a moment," said Edmund, reloading the chamber of his pistol
+while he spoke. "I'll look about for him."
+
+"In God's name, Edmund! You don't think of going down there!"
+
+"But I do," he said firmly, and before I could put my hand on his arm he
+had dropped from the deck. The gigantic creature that he had wounded was
+still thrashing about a little distance off, occasionally making horrible
+sounds, but Edmund seemed to have no fear. We saw him, with amazement,
+walk collectedly round the ground encircled by the swamp, peering into
+the tangle, and frequently uttering a call. But his search was vain, and
+after five minutes of the most intense nervous strain that I ever
+endured, I thanked Heaven for seeing him return in safety, and come
+slowly aboard. There was another consultation with Ala, which evidently
+related to the ability of the engineer of the ship to resume his
+functions. This had a satisfactory result, for the fellow took his place,
+and the vessel finally quitted the ground. But, at Edmund's request, it
+rose only to a moderate height, and then began again to circle about. He
+would not yet give up the search.
+
+We flew in widening circles, Edmund keeping his lantern directed toward
+the ground, and the full horror of these interminable morasses now became
+plain. I was in a continual shudder at the evidence of Ingra's pitiless
+scheme for our destruction. He had meant that we should be the prey of
+the unspeakable inhabitants of the fens, and had believed that there was
+no possibility of escape from them. We became aware that there was a
+great variety of them in the swamps and thickets beneath through the
+noises that they made--heart-quaking cries, squealing sounds, gruntings,
+and, most trying of all, a loud, piercing whistle whose sibilant
+pulsations penetrated the ear like thrusts of a needle. I pictured to
+myself a colossal serpent as the most probable author of this terrifying
+sound, but the error of my fancy was demonstrated by a tragedy which
+shook even Edmund's iron nerves.
+
+Always circling, and always watching what was below by the light of the
+lantern, which was of extraordinary power for so small an instrument, we
+saw occasionally a curling trunk uplifted above the vegetation, as if its
+owner imagined that the strange light playing on the branches was some
+delicate prey that could be grasped, and sometimes a gliding form whose
+details escaped detection, when, upon passing over a relatively open
+place, like that where our adventure had occurred, a blood-curdling sight
+met our eyes.
+
+Directly ahead, in the focus of the reflector of the lantern, and not
+more than a hundred feet distant, stood a prodigious black creature, on
+eight legs, rolling something in its mandibles, which were held close to
+what seemed to be its mouth.
+
+"Good Lord!" cried Jack. "It's a tarantula as big as a buffalo!"
+
+"It has caught the missing man!" said Edmund. "Look!"
+
+He pointed to a shred of garment dangling on a thorny branch. I felt sick
+at heart, and I heard a groan from Jack. After all, these people were
+like us, and our feelings would not have been more keenly agitated if the
+victim had been a descendant of Adam.
+
+"He is beyond all help," I faltered.
+
+"But he can be avenged," said Edmund, in a tone that I had never heard
+him use before.
+
+As he spoke he whipped out his pistol, and crash! crash! crash! sounded
+the hurrying shots. As their echo ceased, the giant arachnid dropped his
+prey, and then there came from him--clear, piercing, quivering through
+our nerves--that arrowy whistle that had caused us to shudder as we
+unwillingly listened to it darting out of the gloom of the impenetrable
+thickets.
+
+Then, to our horror, the creature, which, if touched at all by the shots,
+had not been seriously injured, picked up its prey and bounded away in
+the darkness. Edmund instantly turned to Ala, and I knew as well as if he
+had spoken, what his demand was. He wished to follow, and his wish was
+obeyed. We swooped ahead, and in a minute we saw the creature again. It
+had stopped on another oasis of dry land, and it still carried its
+dreadful burden. Its head was toward us, and it appeared to be watching
+our movements. Its battery of eyes glittered wickedly, and I noticed the
+bristle of stiff hairs, like wires, that covered its body and legs.
+
+Again Edmund fired upon it, and again it uttered its stridulous pipe of
+defiance, or fear, and leaped away in the tangle. We sped in pursuit, and
+when we came upon it for the third time it had stopped in an opening so
+narrow that the bow of the air ship almost touched it before we were
+aware of its presence. This time its prey was no longer visible. There
+was no question now that its attitude meant defiance. Cold shivers ran
+all over me as, with fascinated eyes, I gazed at its dreadful form. It
+seemed to be gathering itself for a spring, and I shrank away in terror.
+
+Crash! bang! bang! bang! sounded the shots once more, and in the midst of
+them there came a blinding tangle of bristled, jointed legs that thrashed
+the deck, a thud that shook the air ship to its center, and a cry from
+Jack, who fell on his back with a crimson line across his face.
+
+"Give me your pistol!" shouted Edmund, snatching my arm.
+
+I hardly know how I got it out of my pocket, I was so unnerved, but it
+was no sooner in Edmund's hand than he was leaning over the side of the
+deck and pouring out the shots. When the pistol was emptied he
+straightened up, and said simply:
+
+"_That_ devil is ended."
+
+Then he turned to where Jack lay on the deck. We all bent over him with
+anxious hearts, even Ala sharing our solicitude. He had lost his senses,
+but a drop from Edmund's flask immediately brought him round, and he rose
+to his feet.
+
+"I'm all right," he said, with a rather sickly smile; "but," drawing his
+hand across his brow and cheek, "he got me here, and I thought it was a
+hot iron. Where is he now?"
+
+"Dead," said Edmund.
+
+"Jo, I'd have liked to finish him myself!"
+
+We were worried by the appearance of the wound, like a long, deep
+scratch, on Jack's face, but, of course, we said nothing about our
+worriment to him. Edmund bound it up, as best he could, and it afterwards
+healed, but it took a long time about it, and left a mark that never
+disappeared. There was probably a little poison in it.
+
+Edmund himself needed the attention of a surgeon, for his wrists had been
+cruelly burned by the matches, but he would not allow us to speak of his
+sufferings, and putting on some slight bandages, he declared that it was
+time now to get out of this wilderness of horrors. He communicated with
+Ala, and in a few minutes we were speeding, at a high elevation, toward
+the land of the opaline dome. So far above the morasses we no longer
+heard the brute voices of its terrible inhabitants, nor saw the swaying
+of the branches as they looked about in search of prey.
+
+"This," said Edmund, "exceeds everything that I could have imagined. I do
+not know in what classification to put any of the strange beasts that we
+have seen. They can only be likened to the monsters of the early dawn on
+the earth, in the age of the dinosaurs. But they are _sui generis_, and
+would make our anatomists and paleontologists stare. I am only surprised
+that we have encountered no flying dragons here."
+
+"But was it really a--a giant spider that captured Ala's man?" I asked
+with a shudder.
+
+"God knows what it was! It had the form of a spider, and it leaped like
+one. If it had been armored I could never have killed it. I think the
+shock of its impact against the air ship helped to finish it."
+
+It was only after we had issued from under the curtain of twilight that
+we learned the story of the chase which had brought our salvation. Edmund
+first obtained it from Ala and Juba, filling out the outlines of their
+wordless narrative with his ready power of interpretation, and then he
+told it to us."
+
+"We owe our lives to Juba," he said. "Ala had just returned to the mine
+from the capital when our abduction took place. Juba, who had wandered
+out on our track, saw from a distance the seizure, and a few minutes
+afterwards Ala's air ship arrived. He instantly communicated the facts to
+her, and without losing an instant the chase was begun. Ingra's delay in
+choosing his course was the thing that saved us. They knew that they must
+not lose sight of us for an instant, and their motors were driven to
+their highest capacity. Fortunately, Ala's vessel is one of the
+speediest, and they were able to gain on us from the start. Slowly they
+drew up until the border of the twilight zone was reached. Then as we
+entered under the clouds we were swallowed from the sight of all except
+Juba. But for his wonderful eyes, there would have been no hope of
+continuing the chase. He had lived all his life in a land of darkness and
+now he began to feel himself at home. Throwing off the shades which he
+has worn since our arrival, he had no difficulty in following the
+movements of Ingra, even after our vessel had completely faded from the
+view of all the others. So, without abating their fearful speed, they
+plunged into the gloom straight upon our track. The nose of the
+bloodhound is not more certain in the chase than were Juba's eyes in that
+terrible flight through the darkness. When Ingra changed his course and
+doubled, Juba saw the maneuver and turned the dodge against its inventor,
+for now Ingra could not see them, and did not know that they were still
+on his track. They cut off the corners, and gained so rapidly that they
+were close at hand when Ingra rose from the swamp after pitching us
+overboard. They had heard Henry's cry, which served to tell them what had
+happened, and to direct them to the spot. But even Juba could not discern
+us in the midst of the vegetation, and it was the sudden flashing out of
+our lamp which revealed our location when they were about to pass
+directly over us."
+
+I need not say with what breathless attention we listened to this
+remarkable story, which Edmund's scientific imagination had constructed
+out of the bones of fact that he had been able to gather.
+
+"Jo," said Jack, "our luck is simply outlandish!"
+
+Then he broke out in one of his fits of enthusiasm. Slapping Juba on the
+shoulder, he danced around him, laughing joyously, and exclaiming:
+
+"Bully old boy! Oh, you're a trump! Wait till I get you in New York, and
+I'll give you the time of your life! Eh, Edmund, won't we make him a
+member of Olympus? Golly, won't he make a sensation!"
+
+And Jack hugged himself again with delight. His reference to home threw
+us into a musing. At length I asked:
+
+"Shall we ever see the earth again, Edmund?"
+
+"Why, of course we shall," he replied heartily. "I have the material I
+need, and it only remains to repair the car. I shall set about it the
+moment we reach the capital. Do you know," he continued, "this adventure
+has undoubtedly been a benefit to us."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"By increasing our prestige. They have seen the terrible power of the
+pistols. They have seen us conquer monsters that they must have regarded
+as invincible. When they see what the car can do, even Ingra will begin
+to fear us, and to think that we are more than mortal."
+
+"But what will Ala think of Ingra now?"
+
+"Ah, I cannot tell; but, at any rate, he cannot have strengthened himself
+in her regard, for it is plain that she, at least, has no desire to see
+us come to harm. But he is a terrible enemy still, and we must continue
+to be on our guard against him."
+
+"I should think that he would hardly dare to show himself now," I
+remarked.
+
+"Don't be too sure of that. After all, we are interlopers here, and he
+has all the advantages of his race and his high rank. Ala is interested
+in us because she has, I believe I may say, a philosophical mind, with a
+great liking for scientific knowledge. It was she who planned and
+personally conducted the expedition toward the dark hemisphere. From me
+she has learned a little. She appreciates our knowledge and our powers,
+and would ask nothing better than to learn more about us and from us. Her
+prompt pursuit and interference to save us when she must have understood,
+perfectly, Ingra's design, shows that she will go far to protect us; but
+we must not presume too much on her ability to continue her protection,
+nor even on her unvarying disposition to do so. For the present, however,
+I think that we are safe, and I repeat that our position has been
+strengthened. Ingra made a great mistake. He should have finished us out
+of hand."
+
+"His leaving us to be devoured by those fearful creatures showed an
+inexplicable cruelty on his part; he chose the most horrible death he
+could think of for us," I said.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," replied Edmund. "Did you ever see a laughing boy
+throw flies into a spider's den? It is my idea that he simply wished to
+have us disappear mysteriously, and then _he_ would never have offered an
+explanation, unless it might have been the malicious suggestion that we
+had suddenly decamped to return to the world we pretended to have come
+from. And but for Ala's unexpected return to the mine he would have
+succeeded. No doubt his crew were pledged to secrecy."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+EARTH MAGIC ON VENUS
+
+We were no sooner installed again at the capital than Edmund began his
+"readjustment of the atomic energies."
+
+"Blessed if I know what he means," said Jack; "but he gets the goods, and
+that's enough for me."
+
+In reality I did not understand it any better than Jack did, only I had
+more knowledge than he of the nature of the forces that Edmund employed.
+We went with him to the place in the great tower where the car had been
+stored, and where it seemed to be regarded with a good deal of
+superstitious awe. But they had not yet the least idea of its marvelous
+powers. We were preparing for them the greatest surprise of their lives,
+and our impatience to see the effect that would be produced when we made
+our first flight grew by day, while Edmund, shut up alone in the car,
+labored away at his task.
+
+"I wonder what they think he is doing in there," I said, the third day
+after our return, as we sat on a balcony of the floating tower, with our
+feet nonchalantly elevated on a railing, and our eyes drinking in the
+magnificent prospect of the vast city, as brilliant in variegated colors
+as a flower garden, while a soft breeze, that gently swayed the gigantic
+gossamer, soothed us like a perfumed fan.
+
+"Worshipping the sun god, I reckon," laughed Jack. "But, see here, Peter,
+what do you make of this religion of theirs, anyway?"
+
+"I don't know what to make of it," I replied. "But if the sun really does
+appear to them once in a lifetime, or so, as Edmund thinks, it seems to
+me natural enough that they should worship it. We have done more
+surprising things of the kind on the earth."
+
+"Not civilized people like these."
+
+"Oh, yes. The Egyptians were civilized, and the Romans, and they
+worshipped all sorts of strange things that struck their fancy. And what
+can you say to the Greeks--they were civilized enough, and look what a
+collection of gods they had."
+
+"But the wise heads among them didn't really believe in their gods."
+
+"I'm not sure of that; at any rate they had to pretend that they
+believed. No doubt there were some who secretly scoffed at the popular
+belief, and it may be the same here. I shouldn't wonder if Ingra were one
+of the scoffers. Edmund has a great opinion of his intelligence, and if
+he really doesn't believe in the thing, he is all the more dangerous for
+us, because you know that now we are depending a good deal on their
+superstition for our safety."
+
+"But Ala is very intelligent, a regular wonder, I should think, from what
+Edmund says; and yet she accepts their superstition as gospel."
+
+"Lucky for us that she does believe," I said. "But there's some great
+mystery behind all this; Edmund has convinced me of that. We don't begin
+to understand it yet, and there are moments when I think that Edmund is
+afraid of the whole thing. He seems dimly to foresee some catastrophe
+connected with it, though what it may be I cannot imagine, and I think he
+doesn't know himself."
+
+Henry listened to our conversation without proffering a remark--quite the
+regular thing with him--and at this point Jack, yielding to the
+overpowering sense of well-being, and the soothing influence of the
+delicious air and delightful view, closed his eyes for a nap.
+
+Presently Edmund came and roused us all up with the remark that he had
+finished his work. Jack was instantly on his feet:
+
+"Hurrah!" he exclaimed. "Now for another trip that will open the eyes of
+these Venusians. Where shall we go, Edmund?"
+
+"We shall go nowhere just at present. I want first to make sure by a
+trial trip that everything is in perfect shape. For that purpose I shall
+wait for the hours of repose when there will be nobody to watch us."
+
+I must here explain more fully what I have already said--that in this
+land of unceasing daylight, everybody took repose as regularly as on the
+earth. That is a necessity for all physical organisms. When they slept,
+they retired into darkened chambers, and passed several hours in peaceful
+slumber. We had learned the time when this periodical need for sleep
+seized upon the entire population, and although, naturally, there were a
+few wide-awakes who kept "late hours," yet within a certain time after
+the habitual hour for repose had arrived it was a rare thing to see
+anybody stirring. We had, then, only to wait until "the solemn dead of
+night" came on in order that Edmund might try his experiment with almost
+a certainty of not being observed. This was the easier, since latterly
+there had been no guard kept over our movements. We were not confined in
+any way, and could go and come as we pleased. Evidently, if anybody
+thought of such a thing as an attempt to escape on our part, they trusted
+to the fact that we had no means of getting away, for after our first
+exploit of that kind, all the air ships were carefully guarded, and
+placed beyond our reach. As to the car, there was nothing about it to
+suggest that it could fly, and probably they took it simply for some kind
+of boat, since they had seen us employ it only in navigating the sea. I
+have often thought, with wonder, of their unsuspiciousness in permitting
+Edmund to spend so much time alone and undisturbed in the car. Possibly,
+there was something in Jack's suggestion, that they supposed it to be
+connected with our religious observances. Anyhow, so it was; and I can
+only ascribe the fact to the kindness of that overlooking Power which so
+often interfered in our behalf, making it no disparagement of our claim
+upon its protection that we had abandoned our mother earth and ventured
+so far away into space!
+
+One thing decidedly in our favor was that, since our return from the mine
+(the adventure in the land of bogs and monsters was, as far as Edmund
+could ascertain, unknown at the capital, except by those who had taken
+part in it), we had been accustomed to pass the hours of repose in the
+tower. We should thus be close to the car when we got ready to start.
+Another equally favorable circumstance--and perhaps it was even more
+important--was the absence of Ingra, who, either because he did not care
+just now to face Ala, or because he had gone off somewhere after throwing
+us to the animals and was not yet aware of our escape, had not shown
+himself. If he had been present it might not have been so easy for Edmund
+to make his preparations.
+
+Never had the great city seemed to me so long in quieting down for its
+periodical rest as on this occasion. After all was deserted in the
+streets below, people were still moving about on the tower, and it did
+seem as if they had taken a fit of wakefulness expressly to annoy us and
+interfere with our plans. We kept stealing out of our sleeping room, and
+looking cautiously about, for at least two hours, but always there was
+some one stirring in the immediate neighborhood. At last a tall fellow,
+who had been standing an interminable time at the rail directly in front
+of the storage place of the car, and whom Jack had half seriously
+threatened to throttle if he stood there any longer, turned and went
+yawning away. No sooner was he out of sight than Edmund led the way, and
+with the slightest possible noise, aided by Juba, who was as strong as
+three men, we got the car out on the platform. I was in a fever lest
+there should be a squeak from the little wheels that carried it. But they
+ran as still as rubber.
+
+"Get in," whispered Edmund; and we obeyed him with alacrity.
+
+Would it go?
+
+Even Edmund could not answer that question. He pulled a knob, and I held
+my breath. There was the slightest perceptible tremor. Was it going to
+balk? No, thank Heaven! It was under way. In a few seconds we were off
+the tower in the free air. Edmund pressed a button, and the speed
+instantly increased. The gorgeous tower seemed to be flying away from us
+like a soap bubble. Jack, in ecstasy, could hardly repress a cheer.
+
+"Hurrah, if you want to,"' said Edmund.
+
+"They won't hear you, and now I don't care if they do. The apparatus is
+all right, and we'll give them something to wake up for. My only anxiety
+was lest they should witness a failure, which might have led to
+disagreeable consequences. There must be no dropping of knives in our
+juggling."
+
+"Good!" cried Jack. "Then let's give 'em a salute."
+
+Edmund smiled and nodded his head:
+
+"The guns are in the locker," he said.
+
+Jack had one of the automatic rifles out in a hurry.
+
+"Shoot high," said Edmund, "and off toward the open country. The
+projectiles fly far, and I guess we can take the risk."
+
+He threw both windows open, and Jack aimed skyward and began to pull the
+trigger.
+
+Bang! bang! bang! Heavens, what a noise it was! The car must have seemed
+a flying volcano. And it woke them up! The sleeping city poured forth its
+millions to gaze and wonder. Surely they had never heard such a
+thundering. Within five minutes we saw them on the roofs and in the
+towers. Many were staring at us through a kind of opera glasses which
+they had. Then from a dozen aerial pavilions the colors broke forth and
+quivered through the air.
+
+"Saluting us!" exclaimed Jack, delighted.
+
+"Asking one another questions, rather," said Edmund.
+
+They certainly asked enough of them, and I wondered what answers they
+returned.
+
+"Probably they think we're off for good," said I.
+
+"And aren't we?" asked Henry anxiously.
+
+"Not yet," Edmund replied, and Henry's countenance fell.
+
+The car turned and approached the great tower again. We swept round it
+within a hundred yards, and could see the amazement in the faces that
+watched us. But if they were astonished they were not terror-stricken.
+Within ten minutes twenty air ships were swiftly approaching us. Edmund
+allowed them to come within a few yards, and then darted away, rushed
+round the whole city like a flying cloud, and finally rose straight up
+with dizzying velocity, which made the vast metropolis shrink to a
+colored patch, as if we had been viewing it through the wrong end of a
+telescope.
+
+"I'll go right up through the cloud dome now," he said. "Nothing could
+more impress them with a sense of our power than that; and when we come
+back again they will know that we have no fear, and the very act will be
+a proof of origin from the sky."
+
+When we were in the midst of the mighty curtain of vapor, I was
+interested in noticing the peculiar quality of the light that surrounded
+us. We seemed to be immersed in a rose-pink mist.
+
+"I do not understand," I said to Edmund, "how this dome is maintained at
+so great an elevation, and in apparent independence of the rain clouds
+which sometimes form beneath. No rain ever falls from the dome itself,
+and yet it consists of true clouds."
+
+"I think," he replied, "that the dome is due to vapors which assemble at
+a general level of condensation, and do not form raindrops, partly
+because of the absence of dust to serve as nuclei at this great height,
+and partly because of some peculiar electrical condition of the air,
+arising from the relative nearness of Venus to the sun, which prevents
+the particles of vapor from gathering into drops heavy enough to fall.
+You will observe that there is a peculiar inner circulation in the vapor
+surrounding us, marked by ascending and descending currents which are
+doubtless limited by the upper and lower surfaces of the dome. The true
+rain clouds form in the space beneath the dome, where there seems to be
+an independent circulation of the winds."
+
+On entering the cloud vault Edmund had closed the windows, explaining
+that it was not merely the humidity which led him to do so, but the
+diminishing density of the air which, when we had risen considerably
+above the dome, would become too rare for comfortable breathing. In a
+little while his conjecture about a peculiar electrical condition was
+justified by a pale-blue mist which seemed to fill the air in the car;
+but we felt no effects and the mechanism was not disturbed. Owing to our
+location on Venus, still at a long distance from the center of the
+sunward hemisphere, the sun was not directly overhead, but inclined at a
+large angle to the vertical, so that when we began to approach the upper
+surface of the vault, and the vapor thinned out, we saw through one of
+the windows a pulsating patch of light, growing every moment brighter and
+more distinct, until as we shot out of the clouds it instantly sharpened
+into a huge round disk of blinding brilliance.
+
+"The sun! The sun!" we cried.
+
+We had not seen it for months. When it had gleamed out for a short time
+during our drift across the water from the land of ice into the belt of
+tempests, we had been too much occupied with our safety to pay attention
+to it; but now the wonder of it awed us. Four times as large and four
+times as bright and hot as it appears from the earth, its rays seemed to
+smite with terrific energy. Juba, wearing his eye shades, shrank into a
+corner and hid his face.
+
+"It is well that we are protected by the walls of the car and the thick
+glass windows," said Edmund, "for I do not doubt that there are solar
+radiations in abundance here which scarcely affect us on the earth, but
+which might prove dangerous or even mortal if we were exposed to their
+full force."
+
+Even at the vast elevation which we had now attained there was still
+sufficient air to diffuse the sunlight, so that only a few of the
+brightest stars could be glimpsed. Below us the spectacle was magnificent
+and utterly unparalleled. There lay the immense convex shield of Venus,
+more dazzling than snow, and as soft in appearance as the finest wool. We
+gazed and gazed in silent admiration, until suddenly Henry, who had shown
+less enthusiasm over the view than the rest of us, said, in a doleful
+voice:
+
+"And now that we are here--free, free, where we can do as we like--with
+all means at our command--oh! why will you return to that accursed
+planet? Edmund, in the name of God, I beseech you, go back to the earth!
+Go now! For the love of Heaven do not drag us into danger again! Go home!
+Oh, go home!"
+
+The appeal was pitiful in its intensity of feeling, and a shade of
+hesitation appeared on Edmund's face. If it had been Jack or I, I believe
+that he would have yielded. But he slowly shook his head, saying in a
+sympathetic tone:
+
+"I am sorry, Henry, that you feel that way. But I _cannot_ leave this
+planet yet. Have patience for a little while and then we will go home."
+
+I doubt whether afterwards, Edmund himself did not regret that he had
+refused to grant Henry's prayer. If we had gone now when it was in our
+power to go without interference, we should have been spared the most
+tragic and heart-rending event of all that occurred during the course of
+our wandering. But Edmund seemed to feel the fascination of Venus as a
+moth feels that of the candle flame.
+
+When we emerged again on the lower side of the dome we were directly over
+the capital. We had been out of view for at least three hours, but many
+were still gazing skyward, toward the point where the car had
+disappeared, and when we came into sight once more there were signs of
+the utmost agitation. The prismatic signals began to flash from tower to
+tower, conveying the news of the reappearance of the car, and as we drew
+near we saw the crowds reassembling on every point of vantage. We went
+out on the window ledges to watch the display.
+
+"Perhaps they think that we have been paying a visit to the sun," I
+suggested.
+
+"Well, if they do I shall not undeceive them," said Edmund, "although it
+goes against the grain to make any pretense of the kind. Ala,
+particularly, is so intelligent, and has so genuine a desire for
+knowledge, that if I could only cause her to comprehend the real truth it
+would afford me one of the greatest pleasures of my life."
+
+"I hope old Beak Nose is getting his fill of this show," put in Jack.
+"He'll be likely to treat us with more respect after this. By the way, I
+wonder what's become of my money. I think I'll sue out a writ of replevin
+in the name of the sun to recover it."
+
+Nobody replied to Jack's sally, and the car rapidly approached the great
+tower.
+
+"Are you going to land there?" I asked.
+
+"I certainly shall," Edmund responded with decision.
+
+"But they'll seize the car!" exclaimed Henry in affright.
+
+"No, they won't. They are too much afraid of it."
+
+Any further discussion was prevented by a sight which arrested the eyes
+of all of us. On the principal landing of the tower, whence we had
+departed with the car, stood Ala with her suite, and by her side was
+Ingra!
+
+His sudden apparition was a great surprise, as well as a great
+disappointment, for we had felt sure that he was not in the city, and I,
+at least, had persuaded myself that he might be in disgrace for his
+attempt on our lives. Yet here he was, apparently on terms of confidence
+with her whom we had regarded as our only sure friend.
+
+"Hang him!" exclaimed Jack. "There he is! By Jo, if Edmund had only
+invented a noiseless gun of forty million atom power, I'd rid Venus of
+_him_, in the two-billionth part of a second!"
+
+"Keep quiet," said Edmund, sternly, "and remember what I now tell you; in
+no way, by look or act, is any one of us to indicate to him the slightest
+resentment for what he did. Ignore him, as if you had never seen him."
+
+By this time the car had nearly touched the landing. Edmund stepped
+inside a moment and brought it completely to rest, anchoring it, as he
+whispered to me, by "atomic attraction." When the throng on the tower saw
+the car stop dead still, just in contact with the landing, but manifestly
+supported by nothing but the air--no wings, no aeroplanes, no screws, no
+mechanism of any kind visible--there arose the first _voice of a crowd_
+that we had heard on the planet. It fairly made me jump, so unexpected,
+and so contrary to all that we had hitherto observed, was the sound. And
+this multitudinous voice itself had a quality, or timbre, that was unlike
+any sound that had ever entered my ears. Thin, infantine, low, yet
+multiplied by so many mouths to a mighty volume, it was fearful to listen
+to. But it lasted only a moment; it was simply a universal ejaculation,
+extorted from this virtually speechless people by such a marvel as they
+had never dreamed of looking upon. But even this burst of astonishment,
+as Edmund afterwards pointed out, was really a tribute to their
+intelligence, since it showed that they had instantly appreciated both
+the absence of all mechanical means of supporting the car and the fact
+that here was something that implied a power infinitely exceeding any
+that they possessed. And to have produced in a world where aerial
+navigation was the common, everyday means of conveyance, such a sensation
+by a performance in the _air_ was an enormous triumph for us!
+
+No sooner had we gathered at the door of the car to step out upon the
+platform than an extraordinary thing occurred. The front of the crowd
+receded into the form of a semicircle, of which the point where we stood
+marked the center, and in the middle of the curve, slightly in advance of
+the others, stood forth the tall form of the eagle-beaked high priest
+with the terrible face, flanked on one side by Ala and on the other by
+the Jovelike front of the aged judge before whom our first arraignment
+had taken place. Directly behind Ala stood Ingra. The contrast between
+the three principal personages struck my eye even in that moment of
+bewilderment--Ala stately, blonde, and beautiful as a statue of her own
+Venus; the high priest ominous and terrifying in aspect, even now when we
+felt that he was honoring us; and the great judge, with his snow-white
+hair and piercing eyes, looking like a god from Olympus.
+
+"Do you note the significance of that arrangement?" Edmund asked, nudging
+me. "Ala, the queen, yields the place of honor to the high priest. That
+indicates that our reception is essentially a religious one, and proves
+that our flight sunward has had the expected effect. Now we have the head
+of the religious order on our side. Human nature, if I may use such a
+term, is the same in whatever world you find it. Touch the imagination
+with some marvel and you awaken superstition; arouse superstition and you
+can do what you like."
+
+It would be idle for me to attempt to describe our reception because
+Edmund himself could only make shrewd guesses as to the meaning of what
+went on, and you would probably not be particularly interested in his
+conjectures. Suffice it to say that when it was over, we felt that, for a
+time at least, we were virtually masters of the situation.
+
+Only one thing troubled my mind--what did Ingra think and what would he
+do? At any rate, he, too, for the time being, seemed to have been carried
+away with the general feeling of wonder, and narrowly as I watched him I
+could detect in his features no sign of a wish to renew his persecution.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+WILD EDEN
+
+The next day after our return from the trip above the cloud dome, and our
+astonishing reception (you will, of course, understand the sense in which
+I use the term "day"), Edmund sprang another surprise upon us.
+
+"I have persuaded Ala," he said, "to make a trip in the car."
+
+"You don't mean it!"
+
+"Oh, yes, and I am sure she will be delighted."
+
+"But she is not going alone?"
+
+"Surely no; she will be accompanied by one of her women--and by Ingra."
+
+"_Ingra_!"
+
+"Of course. Did you suppose that he would consent to be left behind? Ala
+herself would refuse to go without him."
+
+"Then," I said, with deep disappointment, "he has resumed all his
+influence over her."
+
+"I'm not sure he ever lost it," returned Edmund. "You forget his rank,
+and his position as her destined consort. Whatever we do we have got to
+count him in."
+
+Jack raged inwardly, but said nothing. For my part, I almost wished
+Jack's bullet had not gone astray at that first memorable shooting.
+
+"Now," Edmund continued, "the car, as you know, has but a limited amount
+of room. I do not wish to crowd it uncomfortably, but I can take six
+persons. Ala's party comprises three, so there is room for just two
+besides myself. You will have to draw lots."
+
+"Is Juba included in the drawing?"
+
+"Yes, and I'm half inclined to take him anyway, and let you three draw
+for the one place remaining."
+
+"You can count me out," said Henry. "If there is another to stay with me
+I prefer to remain."
+
+"Very well," said Edmund, "then Peter and Jack can draw lots."
+
+"Since we can't all go," said Jack, "and since that fellow is to be of
+the party, I'll stay with Henry."
+
+So it was settled without an appeal to chance, and I went with Edmund and
+Juba. As usual Edmund immediately put his project into execution. It
+showed an astonishing confidence in us that Ala should consent to make
+such a trip, and that her people, and especially Ingra, should assent to
+it, and I could not sufficiently wonder at the fact. But we were now at
+the summit of favor and influence, and it is impossible to guess what
+thoughts may have been in their minds. At any rate, it showed how
+completely Edmund had established himself in Ala's esteem, and I suspect
+that her woman's curiosity had played a large part in the decision. There
+was another thing which astonished me yet more, and, in fact, awakened a
+good deal of apprehension in my mind. I could not but wonder that Edmund,
+after all the precautions that he had previously taken, should now think
+of admitting these people into the car, where they could witness his
+manipulations of the mechanism. I spoke to him about it. "Rest your mind
+easy about that," he said. "Now that everything goes like a charm, they
+will suspect nothing. It will be all a complete mystery to them. Even the
+gods used natural agencies when they visited the earth without shaking
+the belief of mankind in them. I employ no force of which they have the
+least idea, and if they see me touch a button, or pull a knob, what can
+that convey to their minds except an impression of mysterious power?"
+
+I said no more, but I was not convinced, and the sequel proved that, for
+once, Edmund had made a serious mistake, the more amazing because he had
+been the first to detect the exceptional intelligence and shrewdness of
+Ingra. But, no doubt, in the exultation of his recent triumph, he counted
+upon the strength of the superstitious regard in which we were held.
+
+Our departure from the tower was the signal for the assembling of great
+crowds of spectators again, and we sailed away with the utmost _éclat_.
+Ala at once showed all the eager excitement of a child over so novel and
+enjoyable an experience. The motion of the car was entirely unlike that
+of the air ships. Perfectly steady, it skimmed along at a speed which
+filled her with amazement and delight. The city, with its towers, seemed
+to fly away from us by magic, and the trees and fields beneath ran into
+streaming lines. The windows were thrown wide open, and all stood by
+them, watching the scene. Finally Ala wished to go out on the window
+ledges, where one was perfectly secure if he kept a firm hold on the
+supports. Edmund was most of the time with us outside, only stepping
+within when he wished to change the course. I thought that he showed a
+disposition to conceal his manipulations as much as possible, as if what
+I had said had made an impression. But all were so much occupied with
+their novel sensations that, for the time at least, there was no danger
+of their taking note of anything else.
+
+I believe that it must have been some intimation from Ala which finally
+led Edmund to hold his course toward the mountains, but in a direction
+different from that which led to the mines. When he had once chosen this
+direction he worked up the speed to fully a hundred miles an hour, and
+all were compelled to go inside on account of the wind created by our
+rush through the air. We held on thus for five hours. During this time
+Edmund spread a repast made up of dishes chosen from the supplies in the
+car, and, of course, utterly strange to our guests. They found them to
+their taste, however, and were delighted with Edmund's entertainment. We
+spent a long time at our little table, and I was surprised at the variety
+of delicious things which Edmund managed to extract from his stores.
+There was even some champagne, and I noticed that Edmund urged it upon
+Ingra, who, nothing loth, drank enough to make him decidedly tipsy, a
+fact which was not surprising since we had found that the wines of Venus
+were very light, and but slightly alcoholized.
+
+At length we began to approach what proved to be the goal of our journey.
+Before us spread a vast extent of forest composed of trees of the most
+beautiful forms and foliage. Some towered up to a great height, spreading
+their pendulous branches over the less aspiring forms, like New England
+elms; others were low and bushy, and afire with scarlet blossoms, whose
+perfume filled the air; a few resembled gigantic grasses or great timothy
+stems, surmounted with nodding plumes of golden leaves, streaming out
+like gilt gonfalons in the breeze; but there was one species, as tall and
+massive as oaks, and scattered everywhere through the forest, that I
+could liken to nothing but enormous rose bushes in the full bloom of
+June. When we began to pass above this strange woodland, Ala made some
+communication to Edmund which caused him to slow down the movement of the
+car. By almost imperceptible touches he controlled the motive power, and
+presently we came to rest above a delightful glade, where a small stream
+ran at the foot of a gravelly slope, crowned with grass and overhung by
+trees.
+
+Here the car was allowed to settle gently upon the ground, and all
+alighted. Ingra, over whom the influence of the champagne had been
+growing, tottered on his legs in a way that would have filled Jack with
+uncontrollable delight, but Edmund gravely helped him out of the car and
+steadied him to a seat on the soft turf under the tree. I saw Ala
+regarding Ingra with a puzzled look, and no wonder, for Edmund had been
+careful that no one else should take enough of the wine to produce more
+than the slightest exhilaration of spirits. It is possible that Edmund
+had plied Ingra with the idea of rendering him less observant, and it
+probably had that effect; but it resulted, as you will see presently, in
+a revelation which finally put Edmund on guard against the very danger to
+which he had seemed so insensible when I mentioned it to him before our
+start.
+
+The place where we now were was, beyond comparison, the most charming
+that we had yet seen. A very Eden it seemed, wild, splendid, and remote
+from all cultivation. The air was loaded with indescribable fragrance
+shed from the thousands of strange blossoms that depended from trees and
+shrubs, and starred the rich grass. I learned afterwards from Edmund, who
+had it from Ala, that the spot was famous for its beauty and other
+attractions, and was sometimes visited in air ships from the capital. But
+for them, what took us but a few hours was a trip extending over several
+days of time. One would have said that the forest was imbedded in a
+garden of the most extraordinary orchids. The shapes of some of the
+flowers were so fantastic that it seemed impossible that Nature could
+have produced them. And their colors were no less unparalleled,
+inimitable, and incredible.
+
+The flowery bank on which we had chosen our resting place was removed a
+few yards from the spot where the car rested, and the latter was hidden
+from view by intervening branches and huge racemes of gorgeous flowers,
+hanging like embroidered curtains about us. A peculiarity of the place
+was that little zephyr-like breezes seemed to haunt it, coming one could
+not tell whence, and they stirred the hanging blossoms, keeping them in
+almost continual rhythmic motion. The effect was wonderfully charming,
+but I observed that Ala was especially influenced by it. She sat with her
+maid beside her, and fixed her eyes, with an expression of ecstasy, upon
+the swinging flowers. I whispered to Edmund to regard her singular
+absorption. But he had already noticed it, and seemed to be puzzling his
+brain with thoughts that it suggested to him.
+
+Thus as we sat, the leaves of a tree over our heads were lightly stirred,
+and a bird, adorned with long plumes more beautiful than those of a bird
+of paradise, alighted on a branch, and began to ruffle its iridescent
+feathers in a peculiar way. With every movement waves of color seemed to
+flow over it, merging and dissolving in the most marvelous manner. As
+soon as this bird appeared, Ala gave it all her attention, and the
+pleasure which she experienced in watching it was reflected upon her
+countenance. She seemed positively enraptured. After a few moments the
+conviction came to me that she was _listening!_ Her whole attitude
+expressed it. And yet not an audible sound came from the bird. At last I
+whispered to Edmund:
+
+"Edmund, I believe that Ala hears something which we do not."
+
+"Of course she does," was his reply. "There is music here, such music as
+was never heard on earth. That bird is _singing_, but our ears are not
+attuned to its strain. You know the peculiarity of this atmosphere with
+regard to sound, and that all of these people have a horror of loud
+noises. But their ears detect sounds which are beyond the range of the
+vibrations that affect ours. If you will observe the bird closely you
+will perceive that there is a slight movement of its throat. But that is
+not the greatest wonder, by any means. I am satisfied that there is _a
+direct relation here between sounds and colors_. The swaying of the
+flowers in the breeze and the rhythmic motion of the bird's plumage
+produce harmonious combinations and recombinations of colors which are
+transformed into sounds as exquisite as those of the world of insects. A
+cluster of blossoms, when the wind stirs them, shake out a kind of
+aeolian melody, and it was that which so entranced Ala a few moments ago.
+She hears it still, but now it is mastered by the more perfect harmonies
+that come from the bird, partly from its throat but more from the
+agitation of its delicate feathers."
+
+You may imagine the wonder with which I listened to this. It immediately
+recalled what Jack and I had observed at the shop of the bird fancier,
+and when the lady carried off her seemingly mute pets in the palanquin.
+
+"But," I said, after a moment of reflection, "how can such a thing be? To
+me it seems surely impossible."
+
+"I can only try to explain it by an analogy," said Edmund. "You know how,
+by a telephone, sounds are first transmuted into electric vibrations and
+afterwards reshaped into sonorous waves. You know, also, that we have
+used a ray of light to send telephonic messages, through the
+sensitiveness of a certain metal which changes its electric resistance in
+accord with the intensity of the light that strikes it. Thus with a beam
+of light we can reproduce the human voice. Well, what we have done
+awkwardly and tentatively by the aid of imperfect mechanical
+contrivances, Nature has here accomplished perfectly through the peculiar
+composition of the air and some special adjustment of the auditory
+apparatus of this people.
+
+"Light and sound, color and music, are linked for them in a manner
+entirely beyond our comprehension. It is plain to me now that the music
+of color which we witnessed at the capital, was something far more
+complete and wonderful than I then imagined. Together with the pleasure
+which they derive from the harmonic combinations of shifting hues, they
+drink in, at the same time, the delight arising from sounds which are
+associated with, and, in many cases, awakened by, those very colors. It
+is probable that all their senses are far more fully, though more
+delicately, developed than ours. The perfume of these wonderful flowers
+is probably more delightful to Ala than to us. As there are sounds which
+they hear though inaudible to us, and colors visible to them which lie
+beyond the range of our vision, so there may be vibrations affecting the
+olfactory nerves which make no impression upon our sense of smell."
+
+"Well, well," I exclaimed, "this seems appropriate to Venus."
+
+"Yes," said Edmund with a smile, "it is appropriate; and yet I am not
+sure that some day we may not arrive at something of the kind on the
+earth."
+
+I was about to ask him what he meant when there came an exciting
+interruption. Ingra, who had fallen more and more under the influence of
+the champagne, had stumbled to the other side of the little glade,
+virtually unnoticed, and Juba had wandered out of sight. Suddenly there
+came from the direction of the car the sound of a struggle mingled with
+inarticulate cries. We sprang to our feet, and, running to the car, found
+both Ingra and Juba inside it. The former had his hands on one of the
+knobs controlling the mechanism, and Juba had grasped him round the waist
+and was trying to drag him away. Ingra was resisting with all his
+strength, and uttering strange noises, whose sense, if they had any, we,
+of course, did not comprehend. Just as we reached the door, Juba
+succeeded in wrenching his opponent from his hold, and immediately gave
+him a fling which sent him clear out of the car, tumbling in a heap at
+our feet. Juba's eyes were ablaze with a dangerous light, but the moment
+he encountered Edmund's gaze he quietly walked away and sat down on the
+bank. Ala was immediately by our side, and I thought that I could read
+embarrassment as well as surprise in her looks. Fortunately the knob that
+Ingra had grasped had been thrown out of connection; else he and Juba
+might have made an involuntary voyage through space.
+
+We picked up Ingra, found a seat for him, and Edmund, going down to the
+brook, filled a pocket flask with water and flung it in the fellow's
+face. This was repeated several times with the effect of finally
+straightening out his muddled senses sufficiently to warrant us in
+embarking for the return trip. All the way home Ingra was in a sulky
+mood, like any terrestrial drunkard after a debauch, but he kept his eyes
+on all Edmund's movements with an expression of cunning, which he had not
+sufficient self-command to conceal, and which could leave no doubt in our
+minds as to the nature of the quest which had led him into the car. As to
+Juba--although his interference had been of no practical benefit, since
+Ingra, especially in his present state, could surely have made no
+discovery of any importance--the devotion which he had again shown to our
+interests endeared him the more to us. Ala's manner showed that she was
+deeply chagrined, and thus our trip, which had opened so joyously, ended
+in gloom, and we were glad when the car again touched the platform, and
+our guests departed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+THE SECRET OF THE CAR
+
+Jack and Henry were overjoyed to see us again, for after our departure
+they had fallen into a despondent mood, and began to imagine all sorts of
+evil.
+
+"Jo!" was Jack's greeting; "I never was so glad to see anybody in my
+life. Edmund, don't you ever go off and leave any of us alone again."
+
+"I'll never leave you again," responded Edmund. "You can count on that."
+
+Then we told them the story of what we had seen, and of what had happened
+in the wild Eden that we had visited. They were not so much interested in
+the most wonderful thing of all--the combination of sound and color--as
+they were in the conduct of Ingra. Jack laughed until he was tired over
+Ingra's drunkenness, but he drew a long face when he heard of the
+adventure in the car.
+
+"Edmund," he said earnestly, "I am beginning to be of Henry's opinion;
+you had better get away from here without losing a moment."
+
+"No," said Edmund, "we'll not go yet. The time hasn't come to run away.
+What difference does it make even if Ingra does suspect that the car is
+moved by some mechanism instead of by pure magic? He could not understand
+it if I should explain it to him."
+
+"But you have said that he is extraordinarily intelligent."
+
+"So he is, but his intelligence is limited by the world he lives in, and
+while there are many marvelous things here, nobody has the slightest
+conception of inter-atomic force. They have never heard even of
+radioactivity. At the same time I don't mean that they shall go nosing
+about the car. I'll take care of that."
+
+"But," said Jack, "it grinds me to see that brute Ingra get off scot-free
+after trying to murder us. And what has he got against us, anyway? But
+for him we should never have had any trouble. He was against us from the
+beginning."
+
+"I don't think he was particularly _against_ us at the start," said
+Edmund. "Only he was for treating us with less consideration than Ala was
+disposed to show. But after the first accidental shooting, and the
+drubbing that Juba gave him, naturally his prejudices were aroused, and
+he could hardly be blamed for thinking us dangerous. Then, when he found
+himself defeated, and his wishes disregarded, on all sides, he began to
+hate us. It is easy enough to account for his feelings. Now, since our
+recent astonishing triumph, being himself incredulous about our celestial
+origin, he will try to undermine us by showing that our seeming miracle
+is no miracle at all."
+
+"And you gave him the chance by taking him in the car!" I could not help
+exclaiming.
+
+"Yes," said Edmund, with a smile. "I admit that I made a mistake. I
+counted too much upon the influence of the sense of mystery. But it will
+come out all right."
+
+"I doubt it," I persisted. "He will never rest now until he has found out
+the secret."
+
+Nothing more was said on the subject, but Edmund was careful not to leave
+the car unguarded. It was always kept afloat, though in contact with the
+landing. The expenditure of energy needed to keep it thus anchored
+without support was, Edmund assured us, insignificant in comparison with
+the quantity stored in his mysterious batteries.
+
+We were not long in finding, on all sides, evidence that our trip up
+through the cloud dome had been a master stroke, and that the presumable
+incredulity of Ingra with regard to our claims was not shared by others.
+He might have his intimates, who entertained prejudices against us
+resembling his own, but if so we saw nothing of them. In fact, Ingra was
+much less in evidence than before, but I did not feel reassured by that;
+on the contrary, it made me all the more fearful of some plot on his
+part, and Jack was decidedly of my opinion.
+
+"Hang him!" he said, "he's up to some mischief, and I know it. Much as I
+detest him, I'd rather have him _in_ sight than _out_, just now. He makes
+me feel like a snake in a bush; if he'd only show his ugly head, or
+spring his rattle, I'd be more comfortable."
+
+But the kindness and deference with which we were treated, and the new
+wonders that were shown to us in the capital, gradually drove Ingra from
+our minds. Now we were permitted to enter the temples without opposition,
+our presence there according with our new character of "children of the
+sun." We saw the worship that was offered before the solar images by
+family parties, and attended, as favored guests, the periodical
+ceremonies in the great temple. Edmund confessed that the high priest
+greatly embarrassed him by staring into his eyes, and plainly assuming
+that he knew things of which he was profoundly ignorant.
+
+"The hardest thing I ever undertook," he said, "is to hold my mind in
+suspense during these trying interviews, when he endeavors to read the
+depths of my soul, and I to throw a veil over them which he cannot
+penetrate."
+
+In some way, Edmund discovered that the high priest and all the priests
+connected with the sun worship (and they certainly bore a family
+likeness) belonged to a special race, whose roots ran back into the most
+remote antiquity, and about whose persons clung a sacredness that placed
+them, in some respects, above the royal family itself. We frequently
+visited the great library, where Edmund undertook a study of the language
+of the printed rolls, though what he made of it I never clearly
+understood. I do not think that he succeeded in deciphering any of it. He
+also spent much time studying their mechanics and engineering, for which
+he professed great admiration.
+
+But most interesting of all to us was what Edmund himself accomplished. I
+have told you of his remark about the color-sound music, viz., that he
+thought it not impossible that even human senses might be enabled to
+appreciate it. Well, he actually realized that wildly improbable dream!
+He fitted up a laboratory of his own in which he labored sometimes for
+twenty hours at a stretch, and at last he brought to us the astonishing
+invention he had made.
+
+I can make no pretense of understanding it; although Edmund declared
+that, in substance, it was no more wonderful than a telephone. The
+machine consisted of a little metal box. (He made three of them, and I
+have mine yet, but it will not work on the earth, and it lies on my table
+as I write, serving for the most wonderful paper weight that a man ever
+possessed.) When this box was pressed against the ear in front of one of
+the revolving disks that threw out blending colors, or in the presence of
+a "singing" bird, the most divine harmonies seemed to awake _in the
+brain_. I cannot make the slightest approach to a description of the
+marvelous phenomenon. One felt his whole being infused with ecstatic
+joy. It was the very soul of music itself, celestial, ineffable! The
+wonder-box also enabled us to catch many sounds peculiar to the
+atmosphere of Venus, formed of vibrations, as Edmund had explained, that
+lie outside our gamut. But to these, apart from the music, I could never
+listen. They were _too_ abnormal, filling one with inexplicable terror,
+as if he had been snatched out of nature and compelled to listen to the
+sounds of a preternatural world. The only sound that I ever heard with my
+natural ear which bore the slightest resemblance to these was the awful
+piercing whistle of the monster that killed Ala's man.
+
+Yet we derived immense pleasure from the possession of those little
+boxes. With their aid, we could appreciate the exquisite melodies that
+were played everywhere--in great halls where thousands were assembled, in
+the temples great and small, and in the homes of the people, to which we
+were often admitted. In every house there was on one of the walls a
+"musical rose," whose harmonies entranced the visitor. And the variety of
+musical _motifs_ seemed to be absolutely without limit. One was never
+tired of the entertainment because there was so little repetition.
+
+On one ever-memorable occasion we heard the great national, or, as Edmund
+preferred to call it, "racial" hymn, played in the air from the principal
+tower. When we had only beheld the play of colors characterizing this
+composition we had found it altogether delightful, although, as I have
+said, Edmund detected, even then, some underlying tone of sadness or
+despair; but when its _sounds_ broke into the brain the effect was
+overwhelming. The entire thing seemed to have been "written in a minor
+key," of infinite world-embracing pathos. The listener was plunged into
+depths of feeling that seemed unfathomable, eternal--and unendurable.
+
+"Heavens!" whispered Jack to me in an awed voice, dropping the box from
+his ear, "I can't _stand_ it!"
+
+I saw tears running down his face, and felt them on my own. Edmund and
+Henry were equally affected, and could not continue to listen. Edmund
+said nothing, but I recalled his words about the traditional belief of
+this people that their world had entered upon the last stage of its
+existence. Then I watched the countenances about us; they wore an
+expression of solemnity, and yet there was something which spoke of an
+uplifting pride, awakened by the great paean, and swelling the heart with
+memories of interminable ages of past glory.
+
+"Come," said Edmund at last, turning away, "this is not for us. The
+measureless sadness we feel, but the triumphant reflection of ancestral
+greatness is for them alone. Heavens! what an artist he must have been
+who composed this!--if it be not like the Iliad, the work of an age
+rather than of a man."
+
+We almost forgot the passage of time in the enjoyment of our now
+delightful and untroubled existence, but there came at last a rude
+awakening from this life, which had become for us like a dream.
+
+As I have said, we had ceased to worry about Ingra, whom we seldom saw,
+and who, when we did see him, gave no indication of continued enmity. At
+first we had kept the car under continual surveillance, but as time went
+on we became careless in this respect, and at last we did not guard it at
+all.
+
+One day, during the time of repose, I happened to be, with Juba, in our
+room on that stage of the great tower where the car was anchored, while
+Edmund and the others were below in the palace. Juba was already asleep,
+and I was lying down and courting drowsiness, when a slight noise outside
+attracted my attention. I stepped softly to the door and looked out. The
+door of the car was open! Supposing that Edmund was there I approached to
+speak to him. By good fortune I was wearing the soft slippers worn by
+everybody here, and which we had adopted, so that my footsteps made no
+sound.
+
+As I reached the car door and looked in, I nearly dropped in the
+intensity of my surprise and consternation. There, at the farther end,
+was Ingra, on his knees before the mechanical mouths which swallowed the
+invisible elements of power from the air; and beside him was another,
+also on his knees, and busy with tools, apparently trying to detach the
+things. The explanation flashed over my mind; Ingra had brought a skilled
+engineer to aid him in discovering the secret of the car, and, no doubt,
+to rob it of its mysterious mechanism. They seemed to fear no
+interruption, because Ingra had undoubtedly informed himself of the fact
+that for a day or two past we had abandoned the use of our room in the
+tower, and taken our repose in our apartments in the palace. It was by
+mere chance that Juba and I had, on this occasion, remained so long aloft
+that I had decided to take our sleep in the tower room.
+
+Anticipating no surveillance, Ingra was not on his guard, and had no idea
+that I was behind him. Instinctively I grasped for my pistol but
+instantly remembered that it was with my coat in the room. I tiptoed
+back, awoke Juba, making him a sign to be noiseless, got the pistol, and
+returned, without a sound, to the open door of the car with Juba at my
+heels. They were yet on their knees, with their heads under the shelf,
+and I heard the slight grating made by the tool that Ingra's assistant
+was using. The pistol was in my hand. What should I do? Shoot him down
+without warning, or trust to the strength of Juba to enable us to
+overcome them both and make them prisoners?
+
+While I hesitated, and it was but a moment, Ingra suddenly rose to his
+feet and confronted us. An exclamation burst from his lips, and the other
+sprang up. I covered Ingra with the pistol and pulled the trigger. There
+was not a sound! The sickening remembrance then burst over me that I had
+not reloaded the pistol since Edmund had emptied its whole chamber in the
+closing fight with the tarantula of the swamps. Ingra, followed by his
+man, sprang upon me like a tiger. In a twinkling I lay on my back, and
+before I could recover my feet, I saw Juba and Ingra in a deadly
+struggle, while the other ran away and disappeared. Jumping up I ran to
+Juba's assistance, but the fight was so furious, and the combatants
+whirled so rapidly, that I could get no hold. I saw, however, that Juba
+was more than a match for his opponent, and I darted into the car to get
+one of the automatic rifles, thinking that I could use it as a club to
+put an end to the struggle if the opportunity should offer. But the
+locker was firmly closed and I could not open it. After a minute of vain
+efforts I returned to the combatants and found that Juba had nearly
+completed his mastery. He had Ingra doubled over his knee and was
+endeavoring to pinion his hands.
+
+At this instant, when the victory seemed complete, and our enemy in our
+power, Juba uttered a faint cry and fell in a heap. Blood instantly
+stained the floor around him, and Ingra, with a bound, dropping a long
+knife, attained the door of a nearby chamber, and was out of sight before
+I could even start to pursue him. Nevertheless, I ran after him, but
+quickly became involved in a labyrinth where it was useless to continue
+the search, and where I nearly lost my way.
+
+I then returned to see how seriously Juba had been wounded. He had
+crawled into the car. I bent over him--he was dead! The knife had
+inflicted a fearful wound, and it seemed wonderful that he could have
+made his way unassisted even over the short distance from where he was
+struck down to the door of the car.
+
+_Juba dead!_ I felt faint and sick! But the critical nature of the
+emergency helped to steady my nerves by giving me something else to think
+of and to do. Edmund must be called at once. There were no "elevators"
+running regularly during the general hours of repose, and I did not know
+the way up and down the tower by the ladder-like stairways which
+connected the stages. But there were signals by which the little craft
+that served as elevators could be summoned in case of necessity, and I
+pulled one of the signal cords. It seemed an age before the air ship
+came, and another before I could reach Edmund.
+
+His great self-control enabled him to conceal his grief at my news, but
+Jack was overcome. He had really loved Juba almost as if he had been
+human and a brother. The big-hearted fellow actually sobbed as if his
+heart would break. Then came the reaction, and I should never have
+believed that Jack Ashton could exhibit such malevolent ferocity. His
+lips all but foamed, as he fairly shouted, striking his big fists
+together:
+
+"This'll be _my_ job! Edmund! Peter! You hear me! Don't either of you
+dare to lay a hand on _that devil!_ He's _mine!_ Oh! I'll--" But he could
+not finish his sentence for gnashing his teeth.
+
+We calmed him as best we could and then summoned an air ship. While we
+waited, Edmund suddenly put his hand in his pocket, and withdrawing it
+quickly, said, with a bitter smile:
+
+"What a fool I have been in my carelessness. Ingra has had the key
+abstracted from my pocket by some thief. That explains how he got the car
+open."
+
+The moment the ship came we hurriedly ascended to the platform. When
+Edmund saw poor Juba's body lying in the car and learned how he had made
+his way there to die, he was more affected than when he first heard of
+his death.
+
+"He has died for us," he said solemnly; "he has crawled here as to a
+refuge, and here he shall remain until I can bury him among his people in
+his old home. Would to God I had never taken him from it!"
+
+"Then you will start at once for the dark hemisphere?" I asked.
+
+"At the earliest possible moment; and it shall be on the way to our own
+home."
+
+But we were not to depart before even a more terrible tragedy had
+darkened over us, for now the tide of fate was suddenly running at flood.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+THE CORYBANTIA OF THE SUN
+
+I have several times mentioned Edmund's half-formed impression that there
+was some very remarkable ceremony connected with the cyclical apparition
+of the sun before the eyes of its worshipers. He had said, you may
+recall, that it seemed probable that the religious rites on these rare
+occasions bore some resemblance to the _bacchanalia_, or _dionysia_, of
+ancient Greece. How he had derived that idea I do not know, but it proved
+to have been but too well founded---only he had not guessed the full
+truth. The followers of Dionysus made themselves drunken with the wine of
+their god and then indulged in the wildest excesses. Here, as we were now
+to learn, the worshipers of the sun were seized with another kind of
+madness, leading to scenes that I believe, and hope, have never had their
+parallel upon the earth.
+
+With our hearts sore for Juba, we had completed our preparations for
+departure within six hours after his tragic death. Ala had been informed
+of the tragedy, and had visited the car and looked upon the dead form,
+which I thought greatly affected her. Edmund held little communication
+with her, but it was evidently with her cooperation that he was able to
+procure a kind of coffin, in which we placed Juba's body. I do not know
+whether Edmund informed her of his purpose to quit the planet, but she
+must have known that we were going to convey our friend somewhere for
+interment.
+
+We were actually on the point of casting loose the car, Ala and a crowd
+of attendants watching our movements, when there came the second great
+sound of united voices which we had heard in this speechless world. It
+rose like a sudden wail from the whole city. There was a rushing to and
+fro, Ala's face grew as pale as death, and her attendants fell upon their
+knees and began to lift their hands heavenward, with an expression of
+terror and wild appeal.
+
+At the same time we noticed a sudden brightening about us, and Edmund
+stepping out on the platform, immediately beckoned, with the first signs
+of uncontrollable excitement that I had ever seen him display. I was
+instantly at his side, and a single glance told the story.
+
+High in the heavens, the sun had burst forth in all its marvelous
+splendor!
+
+A vast rift was open in the cloud dome, through which the gigantic god of
+day poured down his rays with a fierceness that was inconceivable. The
+heat was like the blast of a furnace, and I felt my head beginning to
+swim.
+
+"Quick!" cried Edmund, grasping my sleeve and pulling me into the car.
+"These rays are fatal! My God, what a sight!"
+
+As by magic the atmosphere had become crowded with air ships, and throngs
+of thousands were pouring from them upon the great platform and the other
+stages, as well as upon the surrounding towers. Every available space was
+filling up with people hastening from below. As fast as they arrived they
+threw themselves into the most extraordinary postures of adoration,
+lifting hands and eyes to the sun. I remember thinking, in a flash, that
+the intense glare of light must burn to the very sockets of their
+eyes--but they did not flinch. It was evident, however, that those who
+looked directly in the sun's face were blinded.
+
+I looked round for Ala, and noticed with a thrill that her beautiful eyes
+were wide open and glancing with an expression that I cannot describe,
+over her kneeling people. Beside her was the towering form of the great
+priest, who was staring straight at the sun--and yet, although his eyes
+were open, it was evident that they were not rendered altogether
+sightless even by that awful light. They burned like coals. He was making
+strange gestures with his long arms, and in unison with his every
+movement a low, heart-thrilling sound came from the throats of the
+multitude.
+
+Edmund, at my shoulder, muttered under his breath:
+
+"Shall I try to save her from this?--But to what good?"
+
+For a moment he seemed to hesitate, and I thought that he was about to
+rush out upon the platform and seize Ala in order to rescue her from some
+danger that he foresaw; when, all at once, the multitude rose to its
+feet, staggering, and began to rush to and fro, colliding with one
+another, falling, rising again, grappling, struggling, uttering terrible
+cries--and then I saw the flash of knives.
+
+"Good heavens!" shouted Edmund. "It is the ultraviolet rays! They have
+gone mad!"
+
+In the meantime the gigantic high priest whirled upon his heel, swinging
+his arms abroad and uttering a kind of chant which was audible above the
+dreadful clamor of the rabid multitude. Though he had no weapon, he
+seemed the inspirer of this Aceldama, and around him its fury raged.
+Presently he drew close to Ala, who still stood motionless, as if
+petrified by the awful scene. I felt Edmund give a violent start, and
+before I comprehended his intention, he had dashed from the car, and was
+forcing his way through the struggling throng toward the queen.
+
+"Edmund!" I shouted. "For God's sake, come back!"
+
+Jack started to follow him, but I held him back with all my strength.
+
+"Let me go!" he yelled. "Edmund will be killed!"
+
+"And you, too!" I answered. "Break open the locker and get the guns!"
+
+Jack threw himself upon the door of the locker, and strove to wrench it
+open. Meanwhile, half paralyzed with excitement, I remained standing at
+the door. I saw Edmund hurl aside those who attacked him, and push on
+toward his goal. But a minute later a knife reached him, and he fell.
+
+"Quick, Jack, quick!" I shouted; "Edmund is down!"
+
+He had not got the locker open, but he darted to my side, and together we
+rushed out into the press. Shall I ever forget that moment! We were
+pushed, hustled, struck, hurled to and fro; but we had only a few steps
+to go, and we reached our leader where he lay. Seizing him, we succeeded
+somehow in carrying him into the car. Our clothes were torn, our hands
+and faces were bleeding, and there was blood on Jack's shoulder. Edmund
+was alive. We placed him on a bench, and then the fascination of the
+spectacle without again enchained us.
+
+Suddenly my eyes fell upon Ingra, who had not previously made his
+appearance. He was as insane as the others, and like many of them had a
+knife in his hand. In a moment he pushed his way toward Ala, and my heart
+rose in my throat, for I did not know what mad thought might be in his
+mind. If I had had a weapon, I believe I should have shot him, but before
+he had arrived within three yards of the queen there came an explosion of
+flame--I do not know how else to describe it, for it was so sudden--and
+the great platform was instantly wrapped in licking tongues of fire.
+
+The wickerwork caught like tinder, and the gauzy screws threw off streams
+of sparks like so many Fourth of July pinwheels. The gush of heat from
+the conflagration was terrible, and I turned my eyes in horror from the
+stricken multitude which seemed to have been shocked back into sanity by
+the sudden universal danger only to find itself a helpless prey to the
+flames.
+
+"It's all over with them!" cried Jack.
+
+His words awoke me to our own danger. We must get away instantly. Knowing
+the proper button to touch to throw the mechanism into action, I pushed
+it forcibly and pulled out a knob which I had often seen Edmund
+manipulate in starting the car. It responded immediately, and in a second
+we were afloat, and clear of the tower. Seeing that the direction which
+the car was taking would remove us from the reach of the flames, and that
+there was nothing ahead to obstruct its progress, and knowing that Edmund
+often left it to run of itself when the speed was slow, and there was no
+occasion to change its course, I now hurried with Jack to Edmund's side.
+Henry all this time had been lying on a bench like one in a trance.
+
+Jack and I stripped off Edmund's coat, and at once saw the nature of his
+wound. A knife had penetrated his side, and there was considerable
+effusion of blood, but I was surgeon enough to feel sure that the wound
+was not mortal. He roused up as he felt us working over him, and opening
+his eyes, said faintly:
+
+"You will find bandages under the locker. What has happened? We are
+moving."
+
+"The tower is all in flames!" exclaimed Jack, before I could interrupt
+him, for I should have preferred not to tell Edmund the real situation
+just at that moment.
+
+Jack's words roused him like an electric shock. He pushed us aside, and
+struggled to his feet. Then he sprang to a knob, and brought the car to
+rest.
+
+We had been moving slowly, and had not gone more than a quarter of a mile
+from the tower. The car had swung round so that the fire was not visible
+from the open door, but now, as Edmund arrested its progress, it swayed
+back again and the spectacle burst into view. The heat smote us in the
+face even at this distance. In the few minutes since I had last seen the
+tower the flames had made incredible progress. The whole of the immense
+structure was blazing. Spires of flame leaped and swayed from its summit,
+partitions were falling, platforms giving way, and hundreds of air ships
+caught by the sheets of fire were crumpling and falling in swooping
+curves like birds whose wings had been seared. I was thankful that we
+could not see the unfortunates who were perishing in that furnace. It was
+but too evident that not a soul on the tower could have escaped.
+
+I glanced at Edmund's face. It was pale and set--the face of a man gazing
+upon an awful tragedy with which he is absolutely powerless to interfere.
+His breath came quick, but he did not utter a word. Then came the
+reaction, and, staggering, he leaned on my shoulder, and I led him to the
+bench from which he had risen. For a moment I thought he had fainted, but
+when I put a flask to his lips he swallowed a mouthful and immediately
+recovered sufficient strength to sit up, resting his head on his hand.
+
+"Had we not better go on?" I asked.
+
+"Ye-es," he replied, after a moment's hesitation. "We can do nothing.
+They are all gone; the queen has perished with the rest! Pull out that
+knob on the right, but gently, and then push this button. We must circle
+round the outskirts until we see whether the fire will seize upon the
+other towers and extend to the city below."
+
+I followed his directions, and, as we started our circuit, the vast tower
+suddenly swayed aside, and then, tumbling in upon itself, it went down in
+a whirl of smoke and eddying sparks.
+
+As far as we could see none of the other aerial structures had caught
+fire. The entire absence of wind was no doubt the favorable circumstance
+that saved them. But all the towers were swaying under the impulse
+imparted to them by the excited multitudes that crowded their platforms.
+Although the light of the conflagration faded as soon as the principal
+tower fell, the others continued to shine brilliantly in the solar rays,
+but suddenly, as we watched, the splendor failed, and the subdued
+illumination characteristic of the endless daylight under the great dome
+took its place. The rift in the clouds above had closed as unexpectedly
+as it had recently opened, and the sun was no longer visible. It had been
+in view less than an hour, but in that brief space what scenes had been
+enacted!
+
+Presently Edmund, shaking his head sadly, said:
+
+"It is useless to stay longer. Even if the conflagration should spread we
+could do nothing to help the unfortunates. They must depend upon
+themselves."
+
+He then gave me directions for changing our course to a direct line away
+from the city, at the same time increasing the speed. In the meantime he
+himself aided in binding up his wound.
+
+"If there were the slightest chance that Ala could have escaped," he
+said, after a few minutes, "I would remain here, and search for her, but
+it is only too clear what her fate has been. She was really our only
+friend, and now that she is gone, we must get away from the sight and
+memory of these things as quickly as possible."
+
+Seeing that his strength was gradually coming back to him, and secretly
+rejoicing that he bore this terrible blow so stoically, I felt that we
+might now converse about the catastrophe which we had witnessed.
+
+"What do you think was the cause of the sudden outburst of fire?" I
+asked.
+
+"It could hardly have been the direct action of the sunlight," he
+replied. "It must have resulted from some accidental concentration of the
+solar rays upon an inflammable substance by a mirror."
+
+"I recall seeing a large concave glass on the principal platform in which
+they were fond of looking at their magnified images," I said.
+
+"Yes, and no doubt that was the instrument chosen by fate to bring about
+this terrible end. The power of the sunbeams is twice as great here as
+upon the earth, and the heat in the focus of a mirror a couple of feet in
+diameter would suffice to set fire to the flimsy materials which abounded
+on the tower. Once started in such a place it ran like sparks in a train
+of gunpowder."
+
+"But the madness that seized the multitude before the catastrophe--what
+did you mean by saying that it was the ultraviolet rays?"
+
+"I used the term," Edmund replied slowly, "without attaching a very clear
+meaning to it. It simply expressed the general thought that was in my
+mind. It may be some other form of solar radiation to which we are not
+accustomed on the earth, but which is specially effective here when the
+sun is uncovered because of the greater nearness of Venus. This
+atmosphere, notwithstanding its density, may well be diaphanous to the
+ultraviolet rays, owing to some peculiarity in its composition which I
+have not had time to study. At any rate, it is evident, from what we have
+seen, that the rays of the unclouded sun almost instantly affect the
+brain. I, myself, felt them as if a thousand needles had been thrust
+through my skull; and I believe that they are responsible, rather than
+the shock of the wound in my side, for my present weakness."
+
+"And did you foresee the consequences of the uncovering of the sun?"
+
+"Not altogether. I had been led to think that something extraordinary
+must accompany the periodical appearances of the great orb, and if I
+could have known that an apparition was at hand I might have made
+preparations for it and we might have been able to save Ala. When I saw
+what was going on, I tried to reach her, and you know the result."
+
+"But is it not incredible that a people of so peaceable a disposition
+should be seized with such murderous instincts when driven out of their
+senses by the effect of the rays?"
+
+"No, it does not seem so to me. You know the general tendency of sudden
+madness, which usually produces a complete reversal of the ordinary
+instincts of the demented persons, making them dangerous to their dearest
+friends. But why talk longer of this? It is too painful--too
+overwhelming. What can man do against the great forces of Nature? At this
+moment I solemnly declare to you that I regret that I ever entered upon
+this expedition."
+
+While we had been talking, the car had receded to a great distance from
+the city, and now all but the tops of a few of the airy pinnacles were
+lost to our sight forever. But as we gazed, straining our sight for a
+last look, we perceived a familiar flickering of prismatic lightning on
+the horizon. We glanced at each other meaningly. It was the color speech
+again. But, oh, what must be the burden of their communications now!
+Suddenly, Edmund, whose eyes were fixed with intensity upon the scene,
+remarked, half shuddering:
+
+"It is the great Paean."
+
+Seized with curiosity, I pressed the magic box to my ear, and faintly
+there echoed in my brain a few disconnected strains of that solemn music.
+But now, more than ever, it was insufferable to me, and I dropped the box
+with a crash.
+
+As Edmund recovered his strength he once more took charge of the car, and
+in a little while he had risen to a great height in order to take
+advantage of the easier going in the lighter atmosphere above. Thus we
+ran on for several hours until we began to catch sight of the sea, which
+was soon beneath us, while far ahead we saw the tumbling clouds marking
+the location of the belt of tempests behind which we knew lay the range
+of the crystal mountains. At length we issued from beneath the cloud
+dome, and then we saw the sun again, and the storms whipping the waters,
+whose waves occasionally flashed up at us through rifts in the streaming
+clouds beneath. And at last the icy peaks began to glitter on the
+horizon, and we knew that we were nearing the world of eternal night and
+frost. It was with strange feelings that we once more beheld the crystal
+mountains, for our minds were filled with the recollection of the scenes
+that had occurred among them when we were helpless in the grasp of their
+tempests. But now there was a certain exhilaration in the thought that
+this time we could safely sail over their summits. As we passed over them
+we looked eagerly for landmarks that might show where our former passage
+had occurred, and as Edmund purposely dropped as close to their summits
+as it was safe to go, I at last believed that I recognized the mighty
+peak of rainbows that had so nearly wrecked us.
+
+When we had left the mountains behind and entered into the region of
+night, I asked Edmund how he would proceed in order to find the location
+of the caverns.
+
+"I shall go by the stars," he said. "I noted the bearing of the place,
+and I have no doubt that I can find it again."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+THE EARTH
+
+Edmund's reference to the stars instantly drew my attention to the
+heavens. They were ablaze with amazing gems, but at first I could not see
+the earth among them.
+
+"I know what you are looking for," said Edmund. "Here, look through the
+peephole in the bow. From our present position the earth appears but
+little elevated above the horizon, but when we reach the caverns, which
+are in the center of the dark hemisphere, we shall see her overhead."
+
+I knelt at the peephole, and my heart was in my throat. There was our
+glorious planet, oh, so bright! and close beside her the moon. At the
+sight, an irrepressible longing arose in me to be once more at home. Jack
+and Henry took their turns at looking, and they were no less affected
+than I had been. But Edmund retained a perfect self-command:
+
+"Do you know," he asked with an odd smile (for now the lamps were
+glowing, and we had plenty of light in the car), "how long we have been
+absent from home?"
+
+Not one of us had kept a record.
+
+"It is just six hundred and four days," he continued, "since we left New
+York. We were sixteen days on our way to Venus; six days after our
+arrival at the caverns occurred the conjunction of the earth, and the
+ceremonies that Peter will not forget as long as he refrains from hair
+dye; two days later we departed for the sun lands; and since then five
+hundred and eighty days have passed. Now, between one conjunction of the
+earth and Venus to the next, five hundred and eighty-four days elapse.
+Already five hundred and eighty-two of those days have passed, so that
+within two days another conjunction will occur, and if we are then at the
+caverns we shall doubtless witness another sacrifice to the earth and the
+moon."
+
+"God forbid!" I exclaimed.
+
+"I feel as you do," said Edmund. "We have seen enough of such things. In
+order, then, to hasten our arrival at the caverns, where we must bury
+Juba, for on that I insist, I am going to rise up out of the atmosphere,
+in order that we may fly with planetary speed. We can thus reach the
+caverns, traversing the five thousand miles of distance that yet remain,
+in something like an hour, for some time must be lost in rising out of
+and returning into the atmosphere, and in the meantime I must make
+observations to determine our location. Having found the caverns we will
+complete our rites at Juba's grave, and get away for good before the
+sacrificial ceremonies begin."
+
+It was a programme that suited us all, and it was quickly carried out. I
+had not thought that my admiration of Edmund's ability could be
+increased, but it was carried a notch higher when I saw how easily,
+guiding himself by the ever-visible stars, he located the caverns. When
+he knew that he was directly over them he dropped the car swiftly, and we
+could not repress a cry as we saw directly beneath us the familiar shafts
+of light issuing from the ground.
+
+"We may have to do a little searching," said Edmund, as we approached the
+lights, "for, of course, my observations are not accurate enough to
+enable me to locate the exact spot where we landed before."
+
+But fortune favored us marvelously, and the very first opening that we
+approached was at once recognized, for there stood the sacrificial altar.
+
+We anchored the car near the shaft, and carried out Juba's coffin.
+
+"Wait here," said Edmund, "while I descend."
+
+"No, you're not going alone," exclaimed Jack. "I'll go with you."
+
+Edmund made no objection and he and Jack descended the steps. Half an
+hour elapsed before they returned, accompanied by a dozen of the natives,
+stolid, and not exhibiting the signs of surprise over our return which I
+had expected to see. Edmund had now made so much progress in their
+strange means of communication that he had little difficulty in causing
+them to comprehend what was wanted. They easily carried the coffin, and
+all of us followed down into the depths. It was the strangest funeral
+procession that ever a man saw!
+
+While the grave was being prepared in the underground cemetery where we
+had witnessed the interment of the first victim of our pistols, Henry and
+I remained as a sort of guard of honor for Juba in the lower of the two
+great chambers which have been described in the earlier chapters of this
+history, and there a most singular thing occurred. We were startled by a
+low whining, and looking about saw one of the doglike creatures which
+appeared to be the only inhabitants of the caverns except the natives
+seated on its haunches close to the coffin, and exhibiting exactly the
+signs of distress that a dog sometimes displays over its dead master.
+That we were taken aback by this scene I need not assure you. We had
+never observed, during our former visit, that either Juba or any of his
+people was followed by these creatures; in fact, they had always fled at
+our approach, and we had paid little attention to them.
+
+But now, if the poor animal could have spoken, he could not more plainly
+have told us that, by means of the mysterious instinct which beings of
+his kind possess, he had recognized the presence of his old master, and
+was mourning for him. It was truly a touching spectacle, and Henry was
+hardly less moved by it than I. When Edmund and Jack came back, having
+superintended the preparations, Jack was cut to the heart by the sight.
+Immediately he declared that the "dog" must accompany us in the car, and
+Edmund assented by a grave inclination of the head. The animal followed
+us to the grave, and remained there watching us intently. He seemed to
+have dismissed his fear, as if he comprehended that we were friends of
+his master.
+
+There were not more than twenty of the natives present at the interment,
+and none of them showed signs of sorrow. And when the grave was closed
+and we turned away, the little creature followed at our heels. Edmund had
+carved on a flat stone the word "JUBA," and left it lying on the grave,
+and Jack, having nothing else, threw a silver dollar on top of it. The
+natives probably regarded these things as talismans, or religious
+symbols, for they treated them with the greatest deference, and no doubt
+they lie there yet, and will continue to lie there through all the eons,
+for in those dry caverns the progress of decay can hardly be perceptible
+even after the passage of ages. It was a singular fact, noted by Edmund,
+that the natives exhibited not the slightest curiosity concerning their
+comrades who had been lost in the crystal mountains, and I really doubt
+whether they knew what the coffin contained.
+
+When we had paid the last honors to Juba, we began to think of our final
+departure. This place had become disagreeable to us. After the brilliant
+scenes that we had witnessed on the other side of the planet, the gloom
+here, and the absence of all that had made the land of perpetual daylight
+seem a paradise of beauty, were intensely oppressive to our spirits. But
+Edmund still wished to make some investigations, and we were compelled to
+await his movements. What the nature of his investigations was I do not
+know, for I was devoured by the desire to get away, and did not inquire.
+But fully twenty-four hours had elapsed before our leader was ready to
+depart. In the meanwhile "Juba's dog" had become firmly attached to Jack,
+who petted it as probably no creature of its race had ever been petted
+before. It was a strange-looking animal; about as large as a terrier,
+with a big square head, covered with long black hair, while, in startling
+imitation of the hirsute adornment of the natives themselves, its body
+was clothed with a golden-white pelt of silky texture. It would eat
+anything we offered it, and seemed immensely pleased with its new master,
+as it had every reason for being.
+
+During the last hours of our stay we noticed unmistakable indications of
+preparation for the dreaded ceremonies of the conjunction, and our
+departure was hastened on that account. The priests, whom Edmund had been
+compelled to put out of the way of further mischief on the former
+occasion, had been replaced by others, and we thought that, perhaps, this
+being the first opportunity for the display of their functions, they
+would try to make it memorable--which presented a still stronger reason
+why we should not delay. But, with one thing and another, we were held
+back until the very eve of the ceremonies.
+
+When we finally stood ready to enter the car, with Juba's dog at Jack's
+heels, the procession up the steps had already begun. Edmund decided to
+wait until the multitude had all assembled. They came trooping up into
+the starlight, and I am sure that they had no idea of what we intended to
+do. Undoubtedly they must have recalled what had happened on the other
+occasion, but they showed no sign of either regret or anxiety on that
+account. They arranged themselves in a dense circle, as before, and the
+priests took their place in the center. At this moment Edmund gave the
+word to enter the car. We sprang into it, and immediately Jack and I went
+out on a window ledge in order to get a better view of the scene. Edmund
+started the car, and we rose straight toward the earth which glowed in
+the zenith. Our movement was unexpected, and we at once arrested the
+attention even of the priests. The beginning of the ceremony was stopped
+short. All eyes were evidently drawn to us, and when they saw the
+direction that we were taking a low murmur arose.
+
+"Let me give them a parting salute," said Jack.
+
+Edmund thought a moment, and then said:
+
+"Very well, take a gun, but don't fire at them. If it terrifies them into
+abandoning their sacrifice we shall have done one good thing in this
+world."
+
+Jack instantly had the gun roaring, and although we were now high above
+their heads, we could see that they were seized with consternation,
+rising from their knees, and running wildly about. Whether the noise and
+the sight of us flying toward the earth, had the effect which Edmund had
+hoped for, will never be known; but the last sight we had of living
+beings on Venus was the spectacle of those white forms darting about in
+the starry gloom.
+
+Our long journey home was interrupted by one more almost tragic episode.
+When we had been ten days in flight, and the earth had become like a
+round moon of dazzling brilliance, Juba's dog, which had grown feeble and
+refused to eat, died. Jack was broken-hearted, and protested when Edmund
+said that the body of the animal must be thrown out. He would have liked
+to try to stuff the skin, but Edmund was firm.
+
+"But if you open a window," I said, "the air will escape."
+
+"Some of it will undoubtedly escape," Edmund replied. "But, luckily, this
+is the air of Venus which we are carrying, and being very dense, we can
+spare a little of it without serious results. I shall be quick, and there
+will be no danger."
+
+It was as he had said. When the window was partially opened, for only a
+second or two, we distinctly felt a lowering of the atmospheric pressure
+that made us gasp for a moment, but instantly Edmund had the window
+closed again, and we were all right. As we shot away we saw the little
+white body gleaming in the sunlight like a thistledown, and then it
+disappeared forever.
+
+"It is a new planet born," said Edmund, "and the law of gravitation will
+pay it as much attention as if it were a Jupiter. It may wander in space
+for untold ages, and sometime it may even fall within the sphere of the
+earth's attraction, and then Jack's wish will have been fulfilled; but it
+will be but a flying spark, flashing momentarily in the heavens as it
+shoots through the air."
+
+       *      *       *       *       *
+
+Our home-coming was a strange one. For some reason of his own Edmund did
+not wish to take the car to New York. He landed in the midst of the
+Adirondack woods, far from any habitation, and there, concealed in a
+swamp, he insisted upon leaving the car. We made our way out of the
+wilderness to the nearest railway station, and our first care was to
+visit a barber and a clothing merchant. Probably, as we carried some of
+the guns, they took us for a party of hunters who wished to furbish up
+before revisiting civilization.
+
+On reaching New York, we went, in the evening, straight to the Olympus
+Club, where our arrival caused a sensation. We found Church in the old
+corner, staring dejectedly at a newspaper. He did not see who was
+approaching him. Jack slapped him on the shoulder, and as he looked up
+and recognized us he fell back nearly fainting, and with mouth open,
+unable to utter a word.
+
+"Come, old man," said Jack, "so we've found you! What did you run away
+for? Let me introduce you to the Columbus of Space, and don't you forget
+that I'm one of his lieutenants."
+
+I don't think that Church has ever fully believed our story. He thinks,
+to this day, that we lost our "balloon," as he calls it, and invented the
+rest. We purposely allowed the newspaper reporters to take the same view
+of the case, but when we four were alone we unburdened our hearts, and
+relived the marvelous life of Venus. I use the past tense, because I have
+yet to tell you most disquieting news.
+
+Edmund has disappeared.
+
+Within three months after our return he bade us good night at an
+unusually early hour and we have never seen him since, although more than
+a year has now elapsed since he went out of the room at the Olympus. Jack
+and I have made every effort to find a trace of him, without avail. Led
+by a natural suspicion, we have ransacked the Adirondack woods, but we
+could never satisfy ourselves that we had found the place where the car
+was left. Henry persists in the belief that Edmund is trying in secret to
+develop his invention, with the intention of "revolutionizing industry
+and making himself a multibillionaire." But Jack and I know better!
+Wherever he may be, whatever may occupy his wonderful powers, we feel
+that the ordinary concerns of the earth have no interest for him. Yet we
+are sure that if he is alive he often thinks of us.
+
+Last night as Jack and I were walking to the club with my completed
+manuscript under my arm, a falling star shot across the sky.
+
+"Do you know what that recalls to me?" asked Jack, with a far-off
+expression in his eyes.
+
+"What?"
+
+"Juba's dog."
+
+Neither of us spoke again before we reached the clubhouse steps, but I am
+certain that through both our minds there streamed a glittering
+procession of such memories as life on this planet could never give birth
+to. And they ended with a sigh.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Columbus of Space, by Garrett P. Serviss
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