_JOCI CAUSÂ_
“Look, the world tempts our eye
And we would know it all.”
(+Arnold.+)
As the _Regina_ arose amongst the flames or protuberances of the planet
they were leaving, they saw several violent eruptions, the dense masses
of flames in the chromosphere being sent upwards to measured heights of
half a million miles, and as they passed high into the corona, which
dyed the interior of the ship with gorgeous colour notwithstanding the
darkened windows, again they found the sun’s mass to cut off the whole
sight of the heavens, and later still to be but a vast horizon, then
a great disc behind them, from which the blackened heavens extended
into limitless space. One evening as they were sitting in the saloon
for their customary chat, Ross said, casually,—“We must now set
about finding our mutineers and take them home!” which remark caused
considerable comment, for, strange to say, so absorbed had they all
been in the wonders they encountered every day that the thought of the
mutineers had scarcely crossed their minds, and Ross’s simple remark
came upon them as a surprise.
“I suppose you have got sufficiently correct bearings to locate the
position of the world on which we left them?” asked Dalton.
“Yes,” responded Rollsborough, “it will be comparatively easy to find
when we reach the orbit of Venus. We shall have to follow in the wake
of the planet a little, that will be all.”
“How shall we locate it?” inquired Rutherford.
“It was a ‘Nova,’ or new star, which had been drawn into the orbit of
Venus and attracted to that planet.”
“But it was between Venus and the sun as seen from Earth?” said Dalton.
“That was so,” assented Rollsborough; “but that was mere coincidence;
it will be encircling Venus as a new satellite or forming a binary or
double planet, and consequently be easy to find.”
“But supposing it is not easy to find, what then?” said Rutherford,
laughing.
“We got its position too carefully to make any mistake,” replied
Rollsborough, also laughing. “Sorrel and several others of us worked
the thing out independently, then compared notes and all were the same.
I think we need have no fear.”
“It would be decidedly awkward if it’s gone, certainly!” chimed in
Sorrel, “but that is scarcely likely. We tested its progress and
gravity, and it was following exactly the planet Venus; and, if you
remember, we followed it up for some time after we had sighted it,
testing it in every way before we landed our rebels. I don’t think
there can be any doubt.”
“None at all,” rejoined Ross, “we are sure to find it when we see
Venus.”
Very soon the screens could be taken from the windows; that portion of
the net covering the glass of the saloon and observatory had been made
so that it could be drawn aside or tightly secured from the inside,
and as the ship was some distance from the sun, the de-atomising and
repelling forces projected outside were now thought to be sufficient
to keep the ship secure, so these portions of the net were released
and observation was now possible all over the universe, as during the
first part of their outward journey. Venus was soon sighted, and along
with her a second world, forming a ‘double.’
“There she is!” cried several, excitedly. “There’s the planet we want,
still alongside,” and all rushed to the windows; but the greater
experience of Rollsborough and Sorrel discovered something, the
communication of which caused general consternation. They went to the
windows and at the first glance, Rollsborough exclaimed, “that’s not
the planet, that’s not a ‘binary’! the world we want is not there; now
what shall we do!”
“Not there!” repeated several, incredulously. “Why, we can see it!”
“That star is a long way past Venus! it is a ‘double’! get your glasses
and look,” said Sorrel.
A rush was made to the observatory telescope and to the windows with
hand-glasses, when Rollsborough was proved to be right. Examination
showed that the new star, planet, or satellite of Venus had vanished,
and what they were examining was a large and distant star, the position
of which chanced to be close behind Venus ‘in line of sight,’ appearing
to be in the same plane, just as when two boats sailing down a river,
one in the middle and the other near the middle would, when viewed from
a distant bridge in line with the way they were travelling, or ‘end
on,’ appear as if sailing abreast, when in reality one might be a mile
before the other, which a change of position would show. So it was with
Venus; for some time the two stars seemed to be travelling together,
when a slight alteration in the _Regina’s_ position showed Venus
sailing rapidly to one side, whilst her supposed companion remained
fixed, ‘in line’ with the bows of the vessel—a distant star—the angle
of distance between the two worlds becoming wider and wider every
moment. Venus was lacking her previous attendant, and the occupants of
the _Regina_ looked at each other in dismay.
“Our friends stand a fair chance of settling down permanently in their
new quarters,” said Godfrey, nonchalantly; “they are not at all likely
to mutiny here again.”
This set every one smiling, notwithstanding the seriousness of the
situation, and Rowland exclaimed, “How shall we set about finding the
runaway!”
No one could offer a satisfactory reply at the moment, so Godfrey
continued, laughing, “We ought to have chalked it!” and turning to
Dennis and his chums, “this beats the Jupiter affair altogether,
triad!” at which the three laughed sheepishly, and on the others
inquiring what was meant, Godfrey explained,—“Some years ago, Oakland,
Ainley, and Eastern took me to Jupiter to find a particular grub that
was to give us the material for the outer net, and the only address
they had was ‘one special grub, species unknown, Jupiter’; they had no
more information, in fact they were not quite sure if it _was_ Jupiter,
as if we could go round asking all the planets if they’d got a grub to
sell! I thought that showed a superb mind for detail, but this takes
all the shine out of it, we’ve dumped the folk down and where are
they? ‘eight denizens of Earth, a star, the universe,’ is a most lucid
address! shall we go there, Denny?” and as Godfrey made some further
similar remarks, Dennis cried, “Shut up, Godfrey! it’s no laughing
matter.”
“It looks it, old man,” answered Godfrey, as he sat tilted back on a
chair with his toes just touching the floor. “We’re all serious, and
we ‘appreciate your joke’ as the wave message there says; I see it is
still up. It is a joke worthy of any of us.”
For reply, Dennis shied an air-cushion at him; he caught it and placing
it at his back, continued, beaming,—“Thanks, dear boy! I’m glad to see
you’ve got an eye to your old chum’s comfort on this most solemn and
serious occasion.”
“Oh! stop it, Godfrey!” exclaimed Ross, “you’ll kill us all! I can’t
laugh any more!”
“Ay, do be serious!” said Gilbert, dabbing the tears of laughter out of
his eyes, his expression belying the words, “it’s no laughing matter!
we’ve put those fellows on a world which we’ve got to find, and how are
we to do it amongst the lot outside?”
“Oh, easily enough!” replied Godfrey, airily, with a wave of his arm,
“take the lot in rotation and knock at each one, and ask if eight of
the wickedest and cleverest men of Earth are there, and if so, can they
come out? it’s simple enough!”
This renewed the laughter, and another cushion came flying across the
room, this time from Gilbert, as Ross said,—
“Stop it, Godfrey, or we shall be ill! you look after your grubs and
leave us to find the runaways.”
“Oh, very well!” responded Godfrey, pretending to take offence. “What
did Gilbert ask me for if he didn’t want to know? there’s been some
mighty brain at work to provide us with this entertainment! was it
yours, Denny? it’s worthy of you, my boy, although by the quality of
it, you’ve all three had a hand in it.”
After a little more banter all round, the travellers discussed the
situation more seriously. In the first place, the star was accompanying
Venus, and at no great distance, comparatively. For millions of miles
the _Regina_ had gone out of her course so that the voyagers could
test, retest, and confirm its position and movement, and so far as
human means could ascertain, Venus had permanently attached to herself
a satellite. As seen from Earth Venus would now be a morning star
rising nearly four hours before the sun; for some weeks previously she
had been moving to the left, crossing the constellation Leo and was, on
that particular day close to β in Virgo; she had only just passed the
period of her greatest brilliancy as a morning star, and from Earth
would appear like a crescent moon. Between Venus and β in Virgo this
‘Nova,’ or satellite, should now be seen, for the first plan, drawn
before the mutineers were landed, had been most carefully compiled; the
exact spot was now marked on the plan, but no star was there. Again
were the calculations checked over, and again the result showed the
position as being between Venus and β in Virgo, as now seen from Earth.
“We shall have to do something!” exclaimed Rollsborough. “We cannot
return to Earth and leave our fellow creatures to their fate.”
“Certainly not!” replied Dennis, “but what are we to do? We are still
racing rapidly onward with the impetus obtained from the sun; we can
slow up by converting the repulsive force into attractive, but we shall
lose the speed and cannot get it again until we come to some world from
whose gravity we can get a rebound. It is impossible for us to stand
still in space; we can only do that when within the force of gravity of
some other world.”
“Can you alter direction?” asked Sorrel.
“Yes, to a certain extent, but every deviation in space means loss of
speed, and we may now be going miles out of the right course every
second,” answered Gilbert, as they all stood talking together and
asking all manner of questions.
“_We_ are not lost,” remarked Ross, “but we are practically in the same
state when in any and every direction we go we may be wrong.”
“If we turn, can you get force enough to travel, and if we stop, what
would happen? annihilation?”
“We can turn, certainly,” was the reply, “but as Oakland says, we shall
lose speed we cannot regain, and if we lost all, we should have little
or no de-atomising force and only a slight repelling force, and be
thrown entirely on our engines, which now we use only in atmosphere;
with a speed of a few hundred miles an hour obtained in this way it
would take us years to get anywhere, almost. We should have to become
negative and allow ourselves to be drawn into the gravity of the
nearest large star, which in this case is the sun, and we should fly
back on to his surface like a comet.”
“Then we should be lost?”
“No, for we should set the compensating current ready for whatever
might draw us, and whenever sufficiently near for it to act, we should
have full power again.”
“Then there is no real danger to us, in any case?” questioned Reeve.
“No, not to us; the only difficulty is the loss of time. We shall lose
speed by turning, but so long as we reserve enough power to return to
the sun, or do not go outside his influence, we can always get more
force, but it is obvious that we cannot waste all our time going back
to get fresh starts, and it seems to me that that is what it amounts
to if we cannot locate the position of the world we are in search of.
The idea of hunting up one world in infinity, as Godfrey put it, is
appalling!”
Ross looked at his companions for suggestions, but no one had any to
make, so Dennis repeated, “What can we do? we are perhaps going further
off every second, and it would be madness to rush here and there on the
bare chance of any one of these millions of stars being the particular
one we seek.”
“Could we not compare the photographs we are taking now with those
taken in coming? They would give us the progress and course of the star
in question,” suggested Godfrey. “Rollsborough, here, would work out
where that star is now from the course of its orbit.”
This suggestion was acted upon immediately, but after leaving the
planet the ship had headed for the sun, and the shielded lenses were
round the bows, so that when they turned, the planet being then at the
stern all view of it ended with their departure.
“Could you tell by the heavens now, compared with the relative position
in coming, whether any new stars are there?” again suggested Godfrey;
but Rollsborough shook his head, replying, “It is not possible; the
heavens are changing momentarily, and to calculate the positions of all
the stars, so that we could locate every one at any given moment, would
take too long for us to consider the attempt even. Besides, we have
seen thousands of new stars not visible to Earth, and these would have
to be explained before we could hope even to guess at the right one,
and as Ainley and Oakland say, it would be madness to guess.”
However, Rollsborough, Sorrel, and several others did make many
calculations as to the relative positions their ship bore on the
outward journey to their present position, but the results were far
from encouraging, as were several special photographs, though the
latter were of great service to science, for in addition to the many
new stars seen with the naked eye, the searching lenses revealed many
distant ones of varying magnitude, invisible from Earth by reason of
their distance, or of other stars intervening.
It was most difficult to arrive at location in space, for what on
Earth appeared as groups and constellations by reason of being viewed
in ‘line of sight’ ceased to be such when amongst them. Finally,
Rollsborough said to Dennis, “How would it be to ‘wave’ to Earth, and
inquire if they observed the phenomenon of the new satellite of Venus?
If they have had it under observation, and if they know where it has
gone?”
At once this wise suggestion was carried into effect, and a few hours
later came the answer,—“For a short time preceding the date given,
Venus was scarcely visible here, being very low down in Sagittarius,
and was an evening star. She set twenty minutes after the sun,
gradually extending the time to two hours as she slowly passed into
Capricornus. She was at the opposite side of the sun from Earth,
and was most brilliantly illumined; though small, her disc was so
exceedingly and unusually bright as to excite general and keen
examination, especially as she was moving a little to the south of
Saturn. They being so near together, the effect was very marked, and,
entering the small space between the two planets, there appeared a new
object which we took to be a moon, either of Venus or Saturn. For ten
days after that, the weather prevented further observation, the skies
being overshadowed with clouds. On the eleventh day the light was bad,
though better; Saturn was too near the sun for successful observation,
and the extra moon was not noticed. Then he passed behind the sun (in
conjunction) and became invisible for five weeks. Venus was obliterated
by thick clouds and for several days no observation was possible, then
the sky cleared, and Venus was passed by Luna, but no new object was
visible. Can you explain the new object?”
There the message ended and left them in the same difficulty as before.
Though from Earth, Saturn and Venus had the appearance of being close
together, when viewed from the ship in space their great distance apart
could be realised, but could Saturn, at his enormous distance, have
wrested a planet from Venus, who was comparatively close to the sun?
It did not seem possible. Or had the sun drawn the new planet to his
surface, it being between him and Venus? If so, then search could not,
of course, be successful, no matter how protracted, for the world would
but have swollen a small portion of the sun-sea, scarcely making any
difference.
“Do you think it was merely drawn into the orbit of Venus for the time
being, and then flung out, to go travelling onward?” asked Dalton.
“It is impossible to say,” responded Rollsborough. “In the time since
we left many things may have happened, meteor-swarms and dozens of
other things may have drawn it away.”
“Are the fellows worth troubling about?” debated Field. “Considering
their offence, are we justified in wasting time looking for them?”
“Perhaps not,” said Dennis, “but we must get them if at all possible.”
“Then if you have the exact position of the heavens when they were
dumped on this moon, could you not calculate its present position from
its previous movement?”
“That we have done,” replied Rollsborough, “and taking into account the
progress, the attraction of Venus, that of the sun, its own gravity,
and the influence and positions of the other members of the solar
family, the previous movement still brings it an attendant on Venus,
and every calculation we make gives that result, yet you see it is
not there! I have tried everything I can think of, so have Sorrel and
several others, but all our results come to Venus, and nowhere else—so
we are nonplussed.”
“You know the attractive power of the world, Oakland?” said Coombes,
“Could you not draw it here?”
Dennis shook his head without answering.
“Would not that be possible?” Coombes persisted.
“No, quite impossible! to attempt to do that would upset the balance of
the whole solar system and bring inconceivable disaster. We should also
attract millions of planetoids, meteor-swarms, and everything of less
power to resist, and be crowded with them on all sides for thousands of
miles.”
“Then what _can_ we do, Oakland?” asked Rowland. “It would take
hundreds of years to go to all the planets we see from here, and every
mile we go brings new ones into view.”
“I am done, Rowland!” replied Dennis, despairingly, “so are we all.
You tell us something, Rollsborough!”
“I am quite in the dark like yourselves, Oakland, and anything I
can suggest must, of necessity, be wild and perhaps reckless, but I
recognise that we ought not to speed along home and perhaps be leaving
the planet we want further afield every second. I have an idea that we
are in some way the cause of the disappearance, and I would like to
work out the world’s present position, taking it to have flown off at a
tangent after we left.”
After what seemed an interminable time, though in reality but a few
minutes, Rollsborough continued,—“This calculation I have made would
show the star to have taken a course directly to a few degrees to the
left of the way we are travelling, and it points to one of these two
stars which we see here on the last photograph, but invisible through
our glasses till we get nearer. I propose that we alter our course
slightly and proceed to one of these uncharted stars lying somewhat to
our left, and trust to chance to find the right one. This will entail
the alteration of but a few degrees, and would not, perhaps, lessen the
ship’s speed appreciably; would it, Oakland?”
“That would not be sufficient to affect it in any way,” answered
Dennis; and a moment later they were heading for a distant star, and
after some days had passed, drew sufficiently near to form some idea of
its orbit. It was travelling rapidly from them, in the same direction,
which accounted for the long time taken to approach its mass, they,
fortunately, travelling at a much greater speed.
On resting in its atmosphere, they obtained samples, to find it
contained constituents unknown on Earth, and every sample analysed by
Earth-methods exploded, and so seriously as to destroy much of the
glass apparatus in the laboratory. Although it was evident human beings
could not exist there, in response to the general desire to explore,
the good ship sank through the atmosphere and hovered about one hundred
feet over the ground, the occupants searching for signs of inhabitants.
As far as their eyes could reach, to the distant horizon, the surface
of the globe was covered with water, and numerous islands, on which
were some fine animals not unlike the now almost extinct horses of
Earth, but with the spreading, palmated antlers of the elk, or moose.
After the first momentary start of surprise, the animals took no notice
of the great ship overhead, but continued their playing in total
unconcern. “If animals like these can breathe the atmosphere, we should
be able to do so,” said Farrant.
“I fear not,” said Gilbert, “the composition is such as we have no
means of ascertaining without considerable research, but we can try it
on the birds.”
All watched as some of the air was collected and one of the sun-birds
was about to be put in, when it was deemed to be too precious to
experiment with, so Reeve called up his dog and tried to put his
head in the receiver, but the dog only thought it a joke and barked
furiously; however, when Reeve dropped a biscuit in the jar and
suddenly released the cap, Dick fetched out his biscuit and ran off
with it to one of the softest rugs, where he could get a good grip and
make a litter of crumbs. Though much of the air in the receiver must
have mixed with that in the ship, there could not have been anything
harmful in it, or Dick would not have tried it, for he was very careful
and left experimenting to other dogs, and then he would fight for the
prize, or, more generally, cause others to do so, snatching it away
while they were busy, for he was a terrier and a born diplomatist. The
air doing Dick no harm, they concluded it would be breathable by them,
though to guard against danger, the large door was thrown open and
quickly closed, but they only felt a slight draught, the air itself
being undistinguishable from that in the vessel. The doors were then
flung wide open and the occupants stepped on the outer deck.
“I should like a run on one of those things,” said Ingle. “Shall we get
down? We can’t do wrong, because they are on that small island.”
The idea was urged by several others and when the vessel came to within
eight or ten feet of the ground, Coombes, Ingle, Kelman, Reeve and
Gardner descended. The animals allowed themselves to be caught, and
vaulting on their backs by the aid of their antlers, the riders got
excellent seats. Whether they were accustomed to being driven, or the
presence of a burden startled them, there was little time to discover,
for no sooner were the riders seated than the horses flourished their
heels and then set off like the wind, with heads lowered and horns
nearly vertical. Shouts of delight came from the daring riders as
they raced onward, surprised and thankful that the animals did not
elevate their heads and thus bring the horns horizontal, in which case
they would have stood an excellent chance of being swept off. On they
went at a break-neck pace, waving their arms and shouting to their
companions above who were watching, with not a little envy, perhaps
excusable. The speed increased as the horses settled down into long,
swinging strides, and now the end of the island was in sight; about
half a mile of water separated it from the next island, but the horses
never slackened pace, and instead of wheeling round and returning, or
following the contour of the island, they rushed madly forward, dashing
straight into the water at full speed, and that which followed made
every one breathless. They did not sink, or at any rate not more than
if they had been on sand, and the flying hoofs cut through the ripples
of water, flinging behind them the crests and splashes of the waves as
if they had been sand.
The surprise of it so overcame Kelman that he let go the antlers, and
at the sudden release the creature lifted up his head, gave it a turn,
and the next instant Kelman was swept off his back, narrowly escaping
being trampled to death by the scores of riderless horses following,
whose flying hoofs, to the horrified gaze of those in the ship, seemed
to be pounding him to a jelly. Instead of sinking, however, he fell
flat with a splash, the water rising all around like sand, but in tiny
globules as of quicksilver, and there he lay floating on the water,
half his body immersed, and the waves lapping gently over him, wetting
him to the skin, he being too surprised to do anything but lie still
and stare around him. Then he essayed to rise, but instead of his feet
sinking, they remained almost where they were, the frustrated action
rolling him over on his face. From this position he got on his hands
and knees, and finally stood up with only his feet slightly sunk, as in
sand on the sea-shore, the water dripping from his nose, chin, elbows
and his clothing.
This water was almost solid, as substantial as the soft sand on a
terrestrial sea-shore, and utterly oblivious to all else in his
astonishment, he stood splashing and slapping the water with his feet
and trying to sink. Then he tasted it, swallowed a mouthful, then
another, and then went down again on his knees digging and wobbling his
hands in an endeavour to bury his arms in the water flowing past, but
he might almost have tried to push them through earth, for he got no
further than the wrists despite his exertions.
Meanwhile the watchers on board the _Regina_, on first seeing that the
horses meant taking to the water, considered it a fine joke, but when
the sight of its wonderful buoyancy followed, they were so surprised
that the herd had passed out of sight into a wood on the next island
almost before they had realised the situation. Quickly following, the
_Regina_ hovered over Kelman, who, apparently forgetting all that
had passed in the moment of surprised discovery, glanced upward and
shouted,—“Look here, you fellows, this water is solid as sand; I’ve
just had a drink and it’s beautiful. Come down, all of you!”
“Where have the others gone?” shouted several from the outer deck.
“The others? oh, ay! the others, to be sure!” he repeated, looking
round in dismay, without the ghost of an idea where they were, and
astonished to find himself alone. “The others? ay! yes, the others? ay,
yes!” and again he looked down and round, and up and down again, as if
he expected them to rise up out of the water, or fall from the sky;
“the others! they’re not here!”
The remarkable wisdom displayed in this statement set every one
laughing, and then Kelman saw the situation himself, and laughed
boisterously, standing all the time in the water, and then said—no
longer abstractedly,—“I was so astonished and absorbed in this
discovery that really for the moment I had quite forgotten everything
else and how I came here. Help me up, you fellows, and don’t stand
grinning there. How can we hunt for them if you grin the time away
like that!” and amidst general laughter he was hauled up, dripping
as he was, when the ship rose so that they could get a more extended
horizon, but nowhere could the runaways be seen. This was serious, so
Godfrey, Dalton, Field and Rutherford were put down on the next island,
near the wood, armed in case of danger, and with instructions not to
leave that island. The _Regina_ rose to scour the country and the four
searchers entered the wood. All this, however, had taken some time, and
it was fully fifteen minutes before the _Regina_ could start her own
independent search.
“It will be easy to search this,” said Godfrey, who led the party,
“for the antlers of the horses would make a track, or show one.
There it is!” as they came to a broad open way like an avenue where
the grass was trampled down. As they entered this avenue Godfrey
cautioned,—“Rutherford and I will go first; Dalton and Field, do you
keep a few yards in the rear and look well behind you and at each side,
to prevent any attack that way; we don’t know what dangers may be
lurking for us.”
In this order they progressed for about half a mile, when a figure
dropped in front of them from one of the trees, and Ingle greeted them
with,—“So you’ve come, have you?” which self-evident fact was met by
the equally lucid,—“Oh, it’s you, is it?” and all five stood together
while Ingle recounted what had passed,—
“You saw us cross that water? Yes? The surprise of it nearly unseated
us all. Kelman did fall; is he safe? Yes? Well, he had the best of it.
Most of us were well seated with an arm on the shovel or web-shaped
part of the antlers as they stuck up. When we entered the wood the
horses held their noses up, which made the antlers lie close on their
backs, so we were wedged as if in arm-chairs, and we pressed our elbows
on the horns to keep them down and steady, so getting a good leverage.
The horses didn’t like being held that way and began to wriggle, and
the brute I was on tried several times to spin his head and slice me
off, but I held him tight and then, like a streak of lightning, he
darted under the trees here, with his nose high in the air, and antlers
tight on his back. He’d have swept me off with some bough and killed
me in another second had I not instantly guessed his little game, for
we were going at least a mile a minute, so the instant he swerved, I
jumped off and up, and caught that bough, and he passed under it. See,
his tracks are there. What has become of the others? I’m sure I don’t
know. The fact is, I believe I fainted for a minute or two, for I shot
at the bough with an awful smack, and fell across two; they kept me
up, or I should have been killed, for my brute was one of the first.”
“Then you are hurt!” exclaimed Godfrey, in concern.
“Yes, a little, old man!” he answered, and snatched at Godfrey’s arm,
which he grasped below the greeting-band, but under the circumstances
this was allowed to pass unnoticed, although it was an indictable
offence; recovering himself, he continued,—“What have I done! You must
excuse me, I was a little dizzy for the moment; I have broken two or
three ribs, and I think one has scratched my lung, for I’m bleeding,
see”; and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
“And you jumped off the tree and stood talking to us with broken ribs!
lie down this instant!” ordered Godfrey, in dismay.
“How else could I get down? I had no wings! I was afraid to get off
till some one came, but the jerk has given the lung a scrape; I shall
be glad to lie down, for the trees are spinning, and you are all
upside——” and notwithstanding his bravery he had fainted.
They strapped him up tightly till his breathing became easier, and then
restored him.
“How do you feel now, old fellow?” inquired Rutherford.
“As fit as a fiddle,” was the answer; “but it did hurt to lie across
the boughs! I’d buttoned my things up as tight as I could, but it
wasn’t like this.”
“Then not another word!” said Godfrey. “Dalton and Field will stay
by you for company, but if you talk, they’ll gag you straight away.
Rutherford and I will search through the wood, although what we shall
do if we meet the herd, I don’t know! If danger comes, telepath to us,
and we’ll come back at once.”
“Right!” replied Dalton. “We’ll telepath to the ship, any way, and rig
up a stretcher. Come back as soon as you can.”
“I’m right enough!” expostulated Ingle, “I don’t want a stretcher.”
“If he says another word, you two gag him!” ejaculated Godfrey,
bluntly, and he and Rutherford left, whilst Dalton and Field placed
Ingle in the undergrowth off the main avenue, lest the herd should
return, and prepared to make a stretcher.
“We can’t telepath,” said Ingle, faintly. “I tried all the time I was
in the tree. Now I’ll not say any more.”
“You’d better not, with a chest like that,” warned Field, “we’ll try.”
The two remained in close concentration of thought for a few minutes,
but it was as though an extinguisher was on their mind, and no reply
came.
“That’s strange!” exclaimed Dalton. “I never knew a failure before!”
“Marvellous!” agreed Field. “We’ve ‘waved’ from the sun to Earth, and
the others have ‘waved’ from Jupiter to Earth, and we can telepath all
over our world and yet here we can’t send a message half a mile.”
“It may be that we have no power outside the solar system,” suggested
Dalton.
“I never thought of that,” said Field. “We must look into it.”
While they were discussing this discovery, their two companions passed
through the small forest for about two miles, when they came to water,
which they found as buoyant as that first seen. Finding no other way
out of the forest, except the avenue, they retraced their steps, and
each taking a corner of the stretcher which had been improvised by
taking two long boughs, plaiting the intervening branches together and
filling it with leaves, they brought their burden to the edge of the
forest where they had first alighted, and rested there to wait for the
ship, which was out of sight.
After lowering them, she had risen high so that the occupants could
search the whole country with their glasses, but nowhere could the
runaways be seen; though there were numbers of other animals, the
horses and their riders had disappeared. Whilst they were looking,
however, the herd emerged from a great forest some distance away,
heading for their original pastures, the men still on their backs, and
the question arose as to how the riders could be rescued without being
damaged, or the horses being injured.
“Couldn’t you make them light, and float them up?” asked Sorrel.
“There are difficulties,” said Ross, smiling. “In that case, the horses
would come too, and our friends might be injured in the scrimmage of
getting off. If we lightened them so as not to affect the horses, as
the men’s legs are below the horses’ backs, it would be awkward if half
their bodies came up and the other half stayed down. We don’t know what
would happen, for we’ve never tried it.”
“Make them light, and throw a rope down,” said Rollsborough.
“And, they being light, the rope would knock the life out of them,”
objected Dennis.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” said Rollsborough, laughing; “and, of
course if the rope was equally light, it would be no good.”
“And if the horses are drawn up, they’d get such a fright as might
kill them, I suppose,” said Rowland. “But could we not telepath to the
fellows to stand on the horses’ backs and then waft them up?”
“It will be risky,” returned Gilbert, “for if they slip, the horses
coming behind will rip them up, but we’ll try it,” and they all
telepathed.
During this time the horses were still madly racing and reckless, the
three riders keeping pretty much their original positions.
“Where’s Ingle?” asked Reeve.
“I’m afraid he’s done for,” replied Coombes. “His horse flung him crash
against a tree, and he fell across it like a broken reed,—if he dropped
he would be trampled to death.”
“And Kelman?”
“He fell in the water, and he’ll be done for,” said Gardner, “for there
were scores behind him, or he’s drowned.”
“Why don’t those fellows up there do something! they’re pottering
around, taking observations and photographing us, I’ll be bound,
instead of doing something to help!” said Reeve, grumpily.
“I wish they would. These blessed things are going on for ever,”
exclaimed Gardner. “I’m sat on a thumping ridge of bone and it’s
scraping terribly!”
“Sit tight!” cried Reeve, excitedly, “they’re turning!” as the
riderless horses in front wheeled round, their own and all in the rear
taking the same movement as if in one frame.
“Great Bona!” groaned Gardner, “that jerk took off another inch
of bark, I’m certain! Look up at those asses in the ship, they’re
following us about, shouting for us to hurry up or something like it,
enjoying the fun instead of helping us.”
“And when we get back, they’ll show us our photographs, how nice
we look from their point of view, and expect us to appreciate it,”
exclaimed Reeve.
“They’re immediately overhead and following us and they’ll give us
elaborate calculations of our speed and distance travelled,” said
Coombes, jerkily. “I’m sure they’re measuring every inch of ground.”
“Ay!” agreed Gardner, “and then they’ll expect us to enthuse over
it—steady there, mind my eye—” as an antler came very near his head.
“I’ve been telepathing like mad, and they take no notice!”
“So have I,” responded Reeve, disgustedly. “But who can concentrate on
these blessed things! It takes us all our time to dodge their horns to
prevent being impaled. They could get at us, though, and they won’t!”
“Not likely!” ejaculated Coombes, “they’re enjoying it too much to
think of our side of it;” and then suddenly,—“Hallo, what’s up now!” as
all the horses left the ground and floated about a foot above it. The
riders looked up, and from the outer deck Ross shouted, “Can you hear
me?”
“Yes,” was the reply.
“We’ve been shouting to you, but the noise the horses made drowned our
voices. Stand up on their backs, you cannot fall lower than you are.
Take hold of the upright horns and mind you don’t get impaled on those
following behind.”
Too intent to speak, they obeyed, when the vessel swooped down and as
the herd divided in fright, many hands snatched up the figures with
a jerk, and in less time than it takes to tell, all three were safe
aboard again, and the horses were restored to their previous weight by
the simple withdrawal of all attraction. The ship then went to pick up
Godfrey and his party, and Ingle was put under treatment, suffering
very little inconvenience. When in the safety of the ship, the three
riders forgot their momentary annoyance, though they felt very contrite
about Ingle’s accident, but he protested he only was to blame, having
first suggested the frolic, and that the enjoyment was worth what
followed, especially considering the discovery of the strange water
which, in all probability, would not have been made but for that.
They took in a quantity of this water, which was sweet and pure, and
although no thicker than Earth-water was wonderfully buoyant, and of
the same specific gravity as the earth of the planet (taken from the
average of twenty samples of different kinds of earth, rock, stone,
etc. etc.).
The adventure whetted their appetites for further exploration, and on
proceeding they saw in many parts of the country colonies of beings,
and selecting one of the largest colonies, they found it inhabited
by strange people, who were highly intelligent and who, though not
greatly unlike human beings, had a skin covered with exceedingly fine
and silky hair which gleamed in the light. They wore no clothing nor
did they eat, as do the denizens of the solar system, but drew in their
nourishment from the air itself, which not only entered the lungs and
gave life and heat to the body as with us, but provided them with a
sufficiency of the chemical elements to build up the frame, and replace
the loss caused by physical and mental exertion. They were apparently
sexless, and seemed all to live together in the closest bonds of love
and friendship, thinking and doing no wrong, and treating their strange
visitors with courtesy, respect and perfect frankness. They examined
the ship with interest, and were pleased to hear what the vessel had
done, though knowing nothing of Earth, which was too far away to be
seen by their instruments, except as a very minute star. They spoke of
the sun—which was seen from here with the naked eye as but a star—as
from actual knowledge, explaining its internal and external structure
accurately, and when their description was confirmed, they were both
pleased and grateful for the proof.
They were entirely without guile, childishly frank and open, and of
a scale of intelligence far surpassing human limits. Although the
Earthians could not telepath even to each other in this world—or indeed
anywhere outside the solar system—they were so much under the influence
of these people that they could both understand and be understood by
thought alone. Dennis and his close friends had been to other planets
in the solar system, and only now did they realise what had previously
escaped their notice, plain though it was. Although the people and
climates, and modes of living, had differed on various planets, yet
there had been a certain similarity in form and thought. They had been
‘humans’—differing more or less, but in action, power, life, manner of
keeping alive by eating cooked or uncooked food, and telepathy alike,
and so far as the terrestrians were concerned they had been able to
communicate with Earth by ether wave so long as they had remained in
the solar system, thus proving that all the members of that system were
really of one family, and that the welfare of one world was identical
with that of all the others, but in this planet—the first they had
visited outside the system—all communication with the units of that
system was cut off.
These new friends confirmed this and pointed out that the influence of
the various worlds and their inhabitants could always be felt most in
their own particular family; it did not necessarily follow that the
characteristics of one system were repeated _en bloc_ in all others
throughout the universe. They also explained that if it were possible
to visit all the systems in the universe, it would be found in each
case that all conditions were changed; gravity was not the same,
chemicals were not governed by the same laws, substances and cohesion
of atoms and particles were under laws suited to them in their special
local relation to other things, and though throughout the whole of
creation a certain general law might and did prevail, the countless
millions of units which formed the one grand whole were controlled and
built up by that which would, in each individual case, be best suited
to enable that one unit to fulfil its allotted task; that nothing in
creation was wasted, and that each world, each unit, was as necessary
to the proper adjustment of the whole, and was as important to the
completion of the great work of creation, as was one small wheel to the
correct movement of a clock.
What that scheme is no mind other than that of the Creator can grasp;
but every single star and grain of meteoric dust in space is needed to
work it out. And all the movements in space, where orbits are within
orbits and worlds innumerable rush on with various speeds, clashing
when necessary, missing when necessary, all in regular motion like a
well-balanced clock; nothing wanting, not a speck of dust superfluous,
show the work of God proceeding, unerringly, unceasingly; in limitless
space above, around, below, where there is neither height, nor depth,
nor length, nor breadth that does not end as remote in eternity as the
beginning, and at the mere thought the mind experiences a crushing
feeling of oppression at such a declaration by the heavens of the Glory
of God.
Never before had the travellers got such a close insight into the
wondrous Scheme of Creation, and never before had they met creatures
higher than found in any part of the solar system, or any unlike
themselves. Had any one told them that beings could be hairy and
unclothed and not be degraded, they would have been held in derision,
as suggesting an impossibility; yet here were people before their very
eyes, unlike any seen elsewhere, not greatly different in form, manner
or speech, but with soft, hairy skins, glossy as silk, every motion
full of grace and beauty, unclothed and sexless yet not knowing it,
their thoughts and actions guileless as those of children; god-like
in figure and movement, and withal a god-like mind, and a frank love
and trustfulness that were in themselves a protecting hedge from outer
evil, had there been any.
Appreciating the great wisdom and kindness of these people it seemed
but natural to the explorers to tell them of the difficulty they were
in with relation to the recovery of their lost companions, and after
hearing the whole story in detail, and seeing the map of the heavens
at the time, the natives told them that the planet selected had been
for ages a member of the solar family, but it was not likely to be
often seen from Earth, as it was one of the ‘variable stars.’ Some
terrestrial months previously, however, they had seen it pass rapidly
out of the solar system, becoming larger and larger as it drew into
nearer view, and it was even now speeding forward some hundred million
miles distant. On referring to the photograph, it was found to be
the second of the two stars which Rollsborough had cleverly worked
out; they had naturally taken that needing the least alteration in
steering, but had they selected the second, they would by this time
have had their companions on board. On their saying they must go to
recover them, one of the natives asked if they had power to make their
attraction felt by telepathy, seeing the world was really one of the
solar family, but it was explained that so far they had never been able
to telepath anywhere except to Earth, though the people on the other
planets in the system communicated with each other freely, though none
to Earth.
Dennis, Ross and Gilbert, feeling proud of the enormous power they had
under control, boastfully said—as a sort of set-off to the apparent
stigma cast on Earth by its seeming to be the pariah of the solar
system, which they took as personal—that it would be easy for the ship
to arrest the planet in its present course, and draw it to them, if
necessary, and letting their pride get the better of their judgment,
they tried to persuade the passengers to agree to the planet’s course
being changed towards them.
Rollsborough, Sorrel, and some others strongly objected, saying that
such a proceeding would be most unfair both to the people on the planet
now giving them hospitality, and also to those on the world they
proposed attracting, and insinuating that as many dangers had been so
wonderfully overcome, they were allowing their heads to be turned by
their successes, and grossly presuming on their powers over nature.
The rival parties became considerably heated, one side enumerating some
of the evils that might be expected to ensue, the other treating the
matter as a joke, making light of the fears of the older section, until
at last a vote was proposed and taken, and wisdom lost, as usual.
For several hours they talked over the project, most of them saying,
recklessly, that it would be a fine experience to draw the world to
them and let the mutineers almost step off one to the other, arguing
that as the worlds were practically equal in gravitating power, and the
atmospheres, though different in chemical composition, equally capable
of supporting Earth-life, by careful manipulation the two planets could
be brought together safely and their atmospheres would not explode but
would commingle; the harebrained section were certain that with the
power at their disposal they could overcome all the probable dangers,
and bring the two worlds actually into contact at their equators, like
two balls, and the rebels could and _should_ jump from one sphere
to the other, no matter what happened, and then the worlds should
be separated, neither the worse. Rollsborough and his party said
nothing, and without more than these passing thoughts to the possible
consequences, that same evening—so precipitate were they—the _Regina’s_
attractive force was directed towards the runaway world.
“It is speeding away from us rapidly,” said Dennis, “but before we
breakfast it will have begun to pull up until its present force is
broken, when it will veer round and come to us!” and most of them
cheered; but Rollsborough, taking off his glasses and putting them
in their case, said, severely,—“You are lightheaded, gentlemen, and
intoxicated with the previous success; but what will the end be?”
No one spoke, and Sorrel quietly got up to go, but as he was passing
out of the saloon he turned and said,—
“The price will be a heavy one; very heavy indeed. It is a mad project.
Good-night!” and he went to his cabin, followed by Rollsborough, who
silently passed on to his at the other side.
For a few minutes this open disapproval put a damper on the jollity,
which was not lightened when several others rose and merely saying
“Good-night” left for their cabins, but this soon passed, and Allan
Gardner asked Ross,—“Are you going to tell the people here?”
“That is as we may all decide,” answered Ross, already almost
regretting the scheme; “perhaps we had better say nothing, but let it
come as a surprise.”
“Yes, that will be best,” agreed all; and so it came to pass that,
reckless of consequences, eleven men who were regarded as the coolest,
most matter-of-fact, most noted and reliable scientists Earth could
produce—for the sake of doing something bizarre in order to impress a
circle of new-found friends—so far forgot themselves as to wrench a
planet from its course and find it another.