TORPEON
TORPEON now fought single-handed against the maddened thousands of his
subjects. He laughed as he fought. He cleared a space around him, and at
every wave of his truncheon a man fell. But they still came on, for they
were desperate. They knew that, so long as Torpeon survived, misery,
torture, and death would be their portion. The gage of battle having been
thrown down, there could be no truce or quarter until he was slain; and if
he were to be victorious, so much the more reason for them to fight to the
death. They hated him more than they loved their own lives. They had
served him in fear, and groaned in their servitude. Now the hour had come
for liberty or annihilation.
“Snatch his truncheon from him,” they shouted to one another. “Tear him to
pieces!”
Torpeon smiled, and death leapt out from his hand. But they still drove in
upon him, for they were very many, and the fight was to the finish.
A gigantic creature, half ape, hairy and hideous, nurtured in the caverns
and gorges of the dark mountains, came toward him from behind, crouching
low behind the others, crawling between their legs, his lips drawn back
from his grinning fangs, snarling in his throat, gripping in one hand a
flint with a jagged edge. The flint had been soaked in the venom of
crushed serpents. Asgar, realizing the opportunity, roused those in front
to a fiercer attack, so that the prince’s attention might be diverted from
the true point of danger. He tossed his thick arms frantically, and his
gross body shook as he shrieked out his orders. Torpeon caught sight of
him over the heads of the nearer fighters; he lifted his staff and pointed
it at him. The invisible bolt flew to its mark. With a screech of rage and
agony, Asgar sprang in the air and fell dead, the top of his skull blown
off and his brains spattering the heads and faces of those behind him.
“Good old Asgar!” said Torpeon, chuckling in his beard. “Who next?”
But, an instant after, there rose from the crowd such a yell of horrible
triumph and bloodthirsty frenzy as made the previous uproar seem tame by
comparison.
The man-ape, seizing his chance, burst through the foremost ranks of those
who hemmed the prince in from the rear, and made his spring. He alighted
on Torpeon’s back, his short legs gripping him round the body, while his
left arm, powerful as a bar of iron, encircled his throat, and with his
right hand, armed with the poisoned flint, he strove to dash death into
his face. Torpeon, overbalanced by the immense weight of the grisly
creature, and half throttled by the squeeze of the hairy arm, staggered
back and nearly fell, striving all the while to bring to bear the
truncheon; but his antagonist warded it off with his upthrown shoulder;
and now a headlong rush by those in front threw the prince off his feet,
and he would have fallen had he not been held up by a simultaneous rush by
those behind. By a titanic effort of strength he wrenched himself free
from the strangler, and, twisting about, laid him dead with his staff; but
not before the other, with a final blow of his armed fist, had succeeded
in wounding him on the forehead with his envenomed stone.
At that juncture the gates of the castle were thrown open, and Miriam
appeared on the threshold. Those who first caught sight of her uttered
shrill cries of amazement and alarm, which turned the attention of others
from their enemy; and in a moment the whole mob was facing toward her.
None of them had ever seen her before, nor any creature resembling her;
and the unknown terrified them. Her beauty and dignity struck them as a
menace. She could have come for no other reason than to succor Torpeon,
and therefore to attack them. They hesitated, wavering back and forth, not
knowing with what powers she might be armed, or in what form the new
assault would be made. But the masses in the rear, heartened by their
advantage over the prince, forced forward those in front, and the space
between her and them grew narrower. Miriam, on her side, after casting a
comprehensive glance over the tumult, stepped out from the gateway and
advanced straight toward the storm-tossed multitude. She seemed alone, for
the companion who walked at her side was invisible to their eyes.
Torpeon, meanwhile, had gained a respite; but he was aware of his wound
and of the deadly peril it involved. Already he felt the first chill of
the poison congealing the current of his blood. For the time being,
however, by the use of the charm against such dangers which he possessed,
he was able to ward off the effects in some measure; but what aided yet
more to restore him was the apparition at such a moment of Miriam.
It kindled a wild fire in him; for he could interpret her presence only as
designed to aid him or to share his fate. She loved him, then! At that
thought so fierce a tempest of emotions burst out in his heart that he
shivered like a tower in earthquake; all else was lost, but she was won,
and of what value beside that was any other victory or defeat! He threw
himself toward her, slipping in blood, stumbling over corpses; if he could
but gain the castle with her, and force his way to that guarded crypt
below where was hidden the engine prepared against the last emergency,
lurking there like a monstrous jinnee, biding its time to defy God and
nature, he could wrench asunder the invisible cables that bound his globe
to a hated obedience, and soar with her untrammeled into cosmic freedom.
There would be leisure, then, to heal him of his wound; or, if death must
come, it would find him in her arms. His brain began to reel; moments of
blankness drifted across his mind; but he staggered onward.
To Jack the spirits of the slain were more conspicuous than were the still
incarnate, and he perceived that they swarmed round the prince,
bewildering his brain, urging him to insane thoughts, causing him to step
amiss, and distracting his attention from the assaults of the mob. They
constituted a peril more immediate than from the latter. He saw, too, that
he could himself exercise more control over these dead than over the
living. They saw and feared him, whereas the others divided their menace
between Torpeon and Miriam.
The spirit of the hairy monster, reeking from his own corpse, and
incomparably more hideous and infuriated than before, was especially
active against his slayer. At this instant, seconded by the rampant
specter of Asgar, he swerved Torpeon from his course, so that he tripped
over Asgar’s body and fell headlong. The shock of the fall caused the
truncheon to fly from his hand and left him defenseless. The mob made a
rush for him.
No wrath or hatred against any living creature dwelt in Jack’s soul; his
insight had now become too penetrating and comprehensive for that. He had
no desire but to save the prince. With a gesture he drove back the
murderous ghosts from their prey, but he could influence only indirectly
the savage hosts of the earth-bound; and that would not suffice!
Miriam, however, hesitated not a moment. Unarmed and unshielded, she
sprang to the rescue. The mob, lacking a leader either dead or living,
gave back in transient panic before her, not knowing what magic weapon
might be at her command. Torpeon struggled to his feet once more. But he
was no longer fully conscious of what he did. Miriam said to Jack:
“Guide him to the castle, where he will be safe; leave these poor
creatures to me.”
But a new element entered into the fray.
Jim, who had not noticed Miriam’s absence from the upper window, where he
and Jenny had been observing the conflict below, had been greatly startled
to behold her emerge from the gateway, apparently unaccompanied. Whatever
had been his original plan of campaign, the turn of affairs had seemed so
well calculated to forward his main object, that he had been satisfied to
let it continue; a free fight, too, is always a captivating spectacle for
a boy. But Miriam’s unexpected participation in the battle threatened
total disaster to all his projects; and the necessity of protecting her
swept all other considerations from his mind.
Disregarding the lamentations of poor Jenny, he seized his crutch and made
off incontinently for the stricken field. He had not stopped to consider
what form his intervention should take; he thought of himself not at all,
except as an instrument of use for persons he loved; but he had full
confidence in the efficacy of Solarion’s gift.
Selfless love for others is the soul of the faith that works what we
regard as miracles. Things may happen in our daily walk and pass
unobserved that are in their essence more marvelous than the
transformation of a blackthorn stick into a battle-charger.
Be that as it may, it was a mounted cavalier who issued forth from the
castle just as Miriam helped the dazed and moribund Prince of Tor to his
feet and assigned him to Jack’s care while she faced the mob. She faced
them, but made no demonstration. They were intimidated, but it would not
be for long. The sight of Torpeon making his escape into the castle set
fire to their rage anew. They were gathering courage for an onset.
Jim, as he rode forth, marked Torpeon entering in, but he had no
consciousness of his guide. He had no misgiving but that his boss was many
thousands of miles distant from this debatable ground. And if he could
furnish the means of getting him and the woman he loved together, the
chief end of his existence, as he saw it, would be achieved. To what else
might happen he was royally indifferent.
“De boss an’ de missis is de real goods,” he told himself complacently;
“not’in’ else ain’t in dere class; de on’y t’ing ails dem is, dey ain’t
got no caution! Any guy what makes good in de ring has to be wise to
side-steppin’; foot-work is de cheese; but dese here folks o’ mine, dey
rushes in head down an’ wide open. De odder guy lands his uppercut, an’ ef
de time-keeper ain’t on de job wid de bell, dey’s counted out! Well, I’s
de timekeeper for dis roun’, an’ I figgers ter make a reckud!”
As he rode up to Miriam he hailed her cheerfully.
“Here yer are, miss! Las’ call ter lunch! Forw’d cyar on yer right! Hop
right aboard while de hoppin’s good! On’y line what issers free passes ter
N’York! Step lively an’ avoid de rush! All clear ahead, no sidin’s nor
interference!” He had dismounted and taken his place on the left, with his
hand ready to assist her in mounting. “Put yer foot here, miss, an’ up yer
goes! Are yer on? Firs’ stop, Sattum, an’ de boss waitin’ fer yer on de
platform. So-long!”
“But you must ride behind me, Jim!” said Miriam, holding out a hand to
help him to the crupper. The creatures were closing round them.
Jim recoiled with an air of injured dignity. “Say, miss, fer de sake o’
Mike, git busy wid yerself! What, me? Is I de sort ter take de boss’s
place, I arsks yer? Me, I takes me time, see! Jes’ you leave dese here
slumgullions ter me! Say, cleanin’ up a bunch like dat is me middle name!
An’ I’ll lan’ in N’York befo’ you does, at dat!”
Miriam felt that there was no leisure to parley. She stooped down quickly
and caught the little anatomy round the body. But even as she lifted him
to the saddle, a heavy stone, hurled with deadly aim and tremendous force,
struck the boy just over the heart. He gave a gasp, and lay limp across
her saddle-bow. The horse bounded into the air.
A blaze of light, spanning the heavens from east to west, arched across
overhead—Lamara’s sign of the ring to the Saturnians. The whole stupendous
circle had burst into dazzling flame. That appalling splendor sent its
rays throughout the firmament. Simultaneously, Miriam saw the solid globe
from whose surface she had just risen rock and lurch like a balloon
straining at its moorings. It seemed to be endowed with a terrible life;
it yawed and plunged this way and that; groanings broke from it; the peaks
and crags were overthrown in ruin; the boiling rivers were tossed from
their channels and emptied into the belching craters of the volcanoes; and
the Bitter Sea, rushing from its bed, poured its flood over the city and
its people. It whirled around the castle, deep down in whose rock-quarried
crypt the crazed desperado had set in motion the huge wheels of his
impious engine. The waters beat upon the walls and towers; they tottered
and crumbled, and, whirling as they fell, buried their builder beneath a
pyramid of shattered stone.
But, as Miriam still rose aloft, she saw the vast sphere of Saturn
outspread beneath her. Upon its surface, revealed in the intense light of
the blazing arch, the myriads of the Saturnians performed in concert the
evolutions of their mystic rite. They covered the face of the sphere like
a network of many colored strands, ceaselessly shifting and reforming in
harmonious figures; a living web, through whose threads coursed the single
will and impulse to master disorder with order, darkness with light, hate
with love. The great globe was clothed with a lovely iridescence, the
mingling hues of which united in white shafts of light, bearing in their
bosom the invisible rays of spiritual energy which should counteract and
overcome the profane forces of dissolution. Slowly but irresistibly the
gigantic struggle issued in the victory of law and peace, and the infernal
armies of rebellion and chaos gave way before the might of their
opponents. Miriam saw the throes and heavings of tortured Tor gradually
subside, and the planet resumed the steadfast track of its orbit. The
embassy of Zarga, faithfully fulfilled, had not failed of its object.
A hand was at her bridle rein, though invisible to her sight; but she
yielded with confidence to its guidance.
“Dearest,” she said, “must that draft which you accepted for my sake from
Solarion part us on earth henceforth, or may we be fully reunited here?”
“I took the risk, beloved,” he replied. “What will be the outcome I cannot
tell. We love each other, and love’s gains must always be greater than its
sacrifices, for any sacrifice in that cause can but give each of us to the
other the more. But it seems to me that the halo of which Lamara told me
must be the reward of a soul so loyal, loving, and magnanimous as to give
all for the sole happiness of giving. No other gift is pure enough to be
divine.”
Tears gushed to Miriam’s eyes; and she bent down and kissed the forehead
of the little gnome who lay lifeless across her saddle.
The flames of the ring subsided as they dropped in wide circlings toward
Saturn. The choral dance had ceased, and the people had retired to their
places. But the planet bloomed with a fresh, unprecedented beauty; the air
rang with birdsongs, and was rich with flower-fragrance. When Miriam
alighted on the turf in front of the amphitheater, a deputation of the
little Nature people were awaiting her. They took Jim’s body and laid it
on a bier which they had brought, made of green boughs woven together and
covered with flowers, and bore it away, to the music of quaint chantings,
just as Lamara and some others came up the slope from the sea.