CHOKTROO
THE Lilamo were usually occupied in these sanitary duties, but at
times the other section of their defence of Limanora claimed their
attention. I had had good reason to know the force of the lilaran, or
storm-cone, in my attempt to arrive in the island. Had it not been
decided to permit our entrance, our perseverance would have failed of
the attainment of our object.
I was soon to witness a marvellous display of the defensive and
repulsive powers of the storm-cone. For some years after the first
period of my novitiate and my partial admission to privileges as
a citizen with which this period ended, there had been observed
throughout the archipelago a movement which spread with considerable
rapidity. It was one of the amusements of the Limanorans to watch
the comedy of life upon the other islands through the idrovamolan,
or instrument for distance seeing and hearing, which they had fixed
high up the mountain. On a floating strip of irelium, that could
be projected far into the sky, scenes beneath the horizon could
be mirrored and watched through this instrument and through other
instruments for reducing distance. The sounds, too, that rose from
the scene re-echoed from the under-surface of the floating mirror,
and could be magnified by the makrakoustic part of the idrovamolan
into their original volume. A rarer and more difficult instrument was
one which combined with this power of seeing and hearing at a great
distance that of noting the magnetism working in a community even under
the horizon.
Recently they had found that they could dispense with the floating
mirror and reflector. The ether was their transmitter of all they
wished to see or hear at a distance. Through it passed electric waves
from even immeasurable distances, whilst the sky itself formed a
sufficiently complete mirror for reflecting whatever was occurring
under the horizon. By recent discoveries and inventions they were
enabled to transform electric impulses into the scene or sound that
gave them out into the surrounding air. Their new instruments would
tap the occurrences at any point on any given line or in any given
direction. They were now independent of any artificial medium for their
knowledge of the outside world. The receivers of their new idrovamolan
were every moment recording and analysing whatsoever occurred along the
line in which it was directed; and its transformers were constantly
translating the electric records into the forms or sounds which
originally sent out the impulses; it was so constructed as to prevent
the confusion of waves that came from different points on the route,
for it moved with the swiftness of light or, if required, with that of
electricity. These new modifications gave them hope that they would
soon be able to see and hear much of what goes on in universes which,
though invisible, yet transmit luminous and electric waves sufficiently
strong to affect their telescopic instruments, and that the straggling
rays of light or electricity might be transformed into the scenes and
sounds which gave them birth.
As it was, the Limanorans were able to watch all that was going on in
the islands around them. During their leisure hours, when it was their
duty as well as their pleasure to relax the mind, they would sit and
observe the life of what they called their menagerie. To them, indeed,
the whirling eddy of existence with its ambitions and crimes, its
luxury and misery, in the archipelago around seemed little more than
the antics of monkeys or the internecine appetites of wild beasts. The
scenes were generally amusing in the ape-like vanities and mimicries
they exhibited. Sometimes they were offensive and even repulsive in
their filth or brutalities. How beings formed like themselves could
endure the grossness of their luxuries and the falsity and hollowness
of their most admired social displays was to them a bewildering
problem. Even the best of these islanders were as far behind the
Limanorans in true human qualities as they thought themselves in
advance of apes. The daily observation of these creatures so humanly
endowed and yet so foul and blind in act was often too much to bear
for any length of time; the most repulsive scenes were those of what
was considered high life, of courts and courtly circles, of rulers
and leaders of act and thought. “Who can bear the horror of their
intrigues and hypocrisies, their cruel trampling of the fallen, their
hideous fawning on the successful, their insolent pride and intolerance
of the weak!” I often heard exclamations like this from the lips of
the watchers as they turned away from the idrovamolan with a shudder.
The combination of ape and bully, of reptile and vapourer was, in the
thoughts of this people, the lowest depth to which human nature could
fall; and it was the usual and most envied form in the high social
life of most of these islands. The barbarism and ignorance of the poor
and downtrodden marked a less retrograde phase of humanity. The sight
of the posturings and scrapings, the insolence and spaniel manners of
the higher classes served every day to deepen the horror of exile and
to frighten every Limanoran from anything that would lead even to the
slightest retrogression. Had it not been for this wholesome effect upon
their minds, they would have long ago abandoned the custom of watching
this beast spectacle of retrograde and showy civilisation, so much pain
mingled with their amusement at it. They knew that their pity was vain;
for it would take unremitting effort for thousands of years to raise
these peoples to the Limanoran level, if the Limanoran missionaries had
not in the meantime been dragged down to the lower level; and these
thousands of years could be better spent in attaining higher and higher
ideals in their own life. The task, they knew, was as hopeless as if
these descendants of their degenerate exiles should attempt to drag
the lower animals up to their stage of human development, and this
irremediable nature of their state added to the pain of the observers.
Had the habit of watching the comedy of their menagerie been given up,
the Lilamo would have still had to observe the enactment of history
in the surrounding islands. It was part of their duty of defence to
anticipate all armaments against Limanora; and they had discovered
that there was unusual excitement amongst the various peoples since
the arrival of the _Daydream_ in their waters. It was evident
that this formed an epoch in the history of the archipelago. The
Lilamo reported the movements of the portentous smoke-pennoned ship
which sailed in the teeth of all winds like their own ships of the
air. What was to prevent it approaching Limanora in spite of the
force of the storm-cone? The thought brought the first trace of fear
into the breasts of this people; for, once a foreign element had been
able to force its way into their midst, how could they prevent moral
contamination and swift retrogression? Their advance would crumble away
in a few centuries, nothing but their material progress being likely to
survive the incursion of barbarism.
It was imperative that new measures of defence be adopted. It was then
that the forces of Rimla had been enormously increased, thus making
it possible for most of its energy to take the electric form in the
storm-cone. With this they would be able to repel the new monster with
so much metal in its bosom; they would play with it as with a toy on
the water. All my wanderings had been narrowly watched, my landing
in Aleofane, my escape from it, my sojourn in Tirralaria and ascent
of Klimarol, my companionship with Sneekape and my scorn of him, my
sympathy with the refugees in Nookoo, and my friendship with Noola.
Nothing escaped their attention, and my character was analysed in the
most minute way by deductions from the details of my conduct. It was
decided that, if I showed eagerness and persistence enough, I should be
allowed to land with Noola; but that my fire-ship and my men should be
blown off from the coast.
Since then the affairs of the archipelago had been observed as
narrowly as before, and especially the wanderings and history of the
_Daydream_. As I expected, it passed finally into the possession
of Broolyi, and the new ideas and methods it brought into the warfare
of this isolated zone of the world made an era in its history. A great
military organiser had arisen; and he had by the potency of his will
moulded Broolyi into a unity which with the help of new fire-ships
built on the model of my yacht had brought the other islands into
subjection. Even the aristocratic and refined Aleofane with its subtle
government and all-powerful central institutions had to bow its neck
to the yoke. This strange romance had been enacting for more than
a decade; and the Limanorans had been watching it, at first with
amusement, and afterwards with resolution and clear purpose. They
knew the whole of this subjugative process was based on hypocrisy and
injustice and bloodshed, but it was not worse than the methods of
political existence it displaced; it only meant the substitution of one
vicious ideal for others as vicious. There would be more movement and
activity for a time, but as soon as the masterful will had vanished,
there would be a quick return to the old lazy luxury in the few and
lazy misery in the many. It had cost multitudes of lives, and would
cost many more before the military mania had burned itself out; but
of what worth were most of those lives to themselves or to the world?
They succeeded, where they did succeed, only in sustaining themselves
wretchedly and perpetuating a strain of existence that was, if changed
at all, tending downwards. The new spectacle was more sanguinary, but
not one whit more dismal than the ones the Limanorans had witnessed
for many generations. The misery was irremediable, the standard of
existence was so low. To fence it off like a plague was all that could
be done.
When I sat down to the idrovamolan I soon discovered the master of
this transformation scene. I heard in Broolyi from all the entrenched
camps and the towns loud huzzas and cries of “Long live Choktroo!”
Turning the line of sight to the capital, the conflagration of cries
which swept the crowded streets soon led my eye to the centre of the
far-reaching magnetic thrill, the square of the imperial palace. There
I saw step out on a balcony and bow to the enthusiastic populace
a little firm-set figure that seemed to awaken memories in me. I
strengthened the power of vision in order to examine the face more
keenly, and, as a great burst of “Long live our emperor! Long live
Choktroo!” kindled and blazed athwart the city, the identity of the
little conqueror broke upon my consciousness.
It was my cabin-boy, Jock Drew, whom I had rescued from a life of
degradation, if not ultimate infamy, in his native village. His father,
the local chimney-sweep, a man of vigorous but small physique, had
succumbed to the fate of so many of his trade, and swept his throat
hourly with the fiercest of whiskey. His mother, a brave, strong little
peasant girl, had died early of the effort to master this thirsty
piece of humanity that had been tied to her, and his vice. The boy
had the maternal lines in his nature, strong will, great courage,
and fiery passion. It stirred my pity to see him struggle with such
a mean destiny, doubtless to sink hopelessly into the ditch. He had
been shielding himself from the temptation that his drunken father
set before him by living in a world of penny romance. His imagination
was strung to its highest pitch by the gory pages of his hard-won
treasures. When he heard of my proposed expedition to the other side of
the world, he came and pleaded for even the most menial position on
board the _Daydream_. I was only too eager to rescue him from the
hideous fate before him, and engaged him as cabin-boy.
After he came on board, some of the men were inclined to patronise
him, and, when he resisted their approaches and grew sulky, to apply
a rope’s end to him. I had to stand between him and them, even though
I saw that in the end he would have the best of the quarrel; for
he was strong of build and violent in temper, and only controlled
himself, I could see, that he might have the surer and more complete
revenge. He was a solitary, musing boy, and I thought to draw him
from his solitude by interesting him in scientific and philosophical
books; but he returned with the greater gusto to his penny series of
lives of the great pirates, robbers, warriors, and conquerors. The
only section of the _Daydream’s_ library which could seduce him
from his loved studies was that containing history and adventures.
The crew, as was natural, held the studious little recluse too cheap;
and occasionally felt the sting of his tongue when they bantered him;
but his melodramatic manners and attitude, copied from the coloured
representations of his heroes in his favourite series, laid him open
again to their laughter and scorn. His mind was unwholesome with
brooding over gory achievements and tremendous ambitions. He often
uttered absurd boasts and gave himself airs that were incongruous
with his minute figure and menial position, and Jock Drew ceased to
be the butt of the ship only when I was present; but he never ceased
to read and meditate. The laughter of his shipmates drove him more
and more into his books and into himself. Later on in the voyage he
extended his reading to books on naval architecture and the management
of the steam-engine, and at last would spend hours assisting the
engineer below. He came to know every part of the machinery and every
secret of its construction and management. Indeed, the chief engineer
acknowledged that in case of his illness he had an able successor on
board. The guns and all the ironwork of the ship drew his attention
next, and he came to be respected for his practical knowledge of every
part; when anything needed mending, it was he who was ultimately called
in to give advice or aid. Slowly he rose to be the real master of the
_Daydream_, even though he continued to be laughed at for his
heromimic airs and his occasional boasts. He had by his reading and
studies made himself essential to every man on board, and his strong
will exacted outward respect, if not obedience to him, in return. It
was strange to see the revolution in the ship’s crew during their
voyaging about the archipelago. When I came on board again, I saw that,
though they continued a semblance of their old bantering, they had in
their hearts begun to bow before the boy of twenty. The very gall of
their scorn and of his menial position had driven him into this slow
but striking revolt.
And here I saw the result. His boyhood, neglected and beaten, had
given the cunning and worldly wisdom and concentration of power that
belong in most to late maturity. The strength that had lain dormant
for so many centuries in his mother’s peasant race had gathered in him
like a torrent. The hard conditions of his youth had reined in the
wildness and animality which had run riot in his father’s debauchery.
Hundreds of such masterful natures, finding no sphere in their native
locality to give scope to the long-dammed-up powers of their race,
waste themselves in chafing against their petty surroundings and die
with the reputation of miniature devils. The focussed energy of two
long-suppressed races had in this case found its career and scope, and
a diabolic conflagration was the consequence in this isolated region of
the world. The race of Jock Drew had never before blossomed; now that
it had found the fit soil, it had flowered portentously.
The misfortune was that his ill-moulded youth and his favourite
reading had left him naked of morality. He was not in this respect
much worse than the people whom he misled into war or than those whom
he subjugated. He had only more concentrated will and energy and a
keener appreciation of the means that would best satisfy his appetite
for power. The complete suppression of the desire through thousands
of years of his peasant ancestry made its ultimate manifestation on
finding freedom of action all the more tremendous. It grew with growing
self-confidence; and confidence grew with success. His bearing wholly
altered during the wanderings of the _Daydream_ before I had
abandoned her. He had grown erect and threw his great chest out and
held his large head up till he overawed his persecutors. Seeing him
only in a sitting position or looking only at his bust one would have
guessed him to be of lofty stature. Yet like his father and mother
he never rose above five feet in height; and as his face filled up
with good fare and the knowledge of his own powers it grew handsome
and calm, seldom showing the fierce brute slumbering underneath. His
wonderful self-control and reserve held him silent in circumstances
where speech or action would have revealed his innate folly or
animality, and he learned the power of such reserve, allied with
sudden and decisive action, over the wills of others; he saw that it
throws an air of mystery round the individuality. So he refrained
from action till he had complete control of the circumstances and had
gathered such resources into his hands as would astonish his rivals or
enemies; silently, unscrupulously, he got to know the cards they held
in their hands, whilst he concealed his own under seeming inaction;
then with a sudden and unnerving move he threw all his forces upon them
and demoralised them. I had watched the method in the little intrigues
and conspiracies on shipboard, and I knew when I observed him through
the idrovamolan that he was the same Jock Drew, only more developed by
his astonishing successes.
He had found his opportunity when the _Daydream_ finally anchored
in the chief harbour of Broolyi. There was much need of government
after the plague; the monarch and his family had fled and finally
perished; and the two rivals for the position were almost equally
matched. There was prospect of a long civil war. The wiser and stronger
counsellors set up a republic, but this was only a feeble stop-gap. The
flames of civil war burst out in spite of it.
Jock arrived at this stage of their history, and joined the staff of
the competitor for the throne who held the capital and the key of the
public treasury. He rapidly became prime adviser in the camp, and as
soon as he had attracted confidence in himself and his character he
set his method to work. He led an army out to attack the enemy, and
completely routed them by the suddenness of his action; he had led one
half of his troops straight out to meet the forces opposed to him, but
he had sent the others round by a secret path into their rear, and they
burst simultaneously upon the enemy. The surprise broke the spirit of
the attacked and they fled in rout.
With wily stratagem he incited other officers to rival him, and took
care that they went out under disadvantageous conditions. They failed,
and their failures led to loud demands for Choktroo, as he came to be
called. He now got command of the whole of the resources of the state,
and used them for the making of guns and other surprises for the enemy.
Meanwhile he allowed the enemy to think that his party was wholly
demoralised by defeats, and they crept up towards the walls of the
city in their excess of confidence. He knew by his spies in their camp
how vainglorious they had become; but he allowed their bravado to rise
to the pitch of foolhardiness, and then, his preparations being made,
he opened fire upon them, from all sides. So complete was the rout,
that the enemy disappeared from the country around and took refuge in
distant castles and forts.
His name grew into a power of itself, rousing enthusiasm wherever
he appeared and greatly terrifying his opponents. It was then that
there began the most striking part of his career. All the brave and
able generals who during the civil war had come up from the ranks
were completely in his power. He sent them out to master castles or
detachments of the enemy, but with such imperfect forces or supplies
as would render them inactive. Their individual talents snatched
occasional small victories, but as a rule they only prepared for
ultimate victory by raising entrenchments and scouring the country
around. Whenever he discovered that in any part a general was about to
be successful in spite of his disadvantages, he hurried thither and led
the troops to victory. If the feebleness of an officer anywhere seemed
about to ensure defeat he marched reinforcements to his aid and turned
it into success. Whenever he suffered defeat himself, he always managed
to represent it as a brilliant success marred by the incompetence of
some other general. At last he grew weary of the guerrilla warfare and
resolved that it should end. So he withdrew his troops from siege-work
and allowed the rebels to gather confidence and to mass again. He sent
several generals against them with small armies. Their defeats gave
the enemy still greater boldness. They ventured nearer to the capital;
and when they were defiling through a pass he appeared on the heights
with his guns. The two sections of his army closed the mouths of the
pass, and the finest array the rebels had ever shown was shattered.
The castles and forts soon surrendered. With one acclaim Choktroo was
elected emperor, and the candidate whom he was supposed to be helping
vanished from the scene.
His boyish reading had made him as much of an actor as he was by nature
an organiser. Before long the whole people of Broolyi were adoring
him as a god. Their passion was glory; and in him they had found the
incarnation of glory. No piece of work in the state so minute but, if
successful, he claimed as his own, even should it have been centuries
old. No act of his own but, if unsuccessful, he found a scapegoat for.
He was mean enough to steal and eavesdrop in his own household; he was
bold enough to outlie the foulest of his minions, to outface the most
manifest exposure of his crimes. He even dared to assume the rôle of
divinity. He ringed himself round with mystery and ceremonial, and when
he did appear in public made the appearance impressive by its display.
He knew the effect of silence, and cheapened neither himself nor his
words. He organised the state on military lines and made it centre in
his personality.
He soon had exhausted the treasury and the resources of the country
in the civil war and in his public displays. Nor could he keep up his
glory long in inaction, even though it was an inaction of mystery. He
must soon go to war beyond the bounds of the island. There he could
shine, there he could get all the supplies he needed; but he had to
keep up the farce the nation had played for centuries of professing to
keep the peace, for he had adopted the title of the Prince of Peace.
He had to make it appear that his wars were forced on him by his
neighbours, and for this invented an elaborate system of diplomacies
which enabled him to pick a quarrel and yet seem to have it thrust upon
him.
His first quarry was Aleofane; for it was the wealthiest island in the
archipelago. For years he kept up a show of alliance with it, till he
had his fire-ships ready, built under his direction on the model of
the _Daydream_. He racked his dominion to make guns and all kinds
of firearms. When the expedition was complete, he made a demand of
Aleofane that had show of reason and yet could not be complied with.
It was refused, and his fleet was outside the capital before it could
make preparation. He sent some of his ships to the other side of the
island to land troops, and as these marched up by land he disembarked
the rest under protection of his guns. The first battle decided the
war. He dethroned the monarch of Aleofane and annexed the island to his
dominions, setting up a viceroy, with a strong force to support him.
He drew new troops from the ranks of the people for service in other
islands. He impoverished those nobles who refused to join his court or
his staff. He broke the spirit of all who would not adore him, and he
drained by taxation the resources of the country.
With still larger armies and larger fleets he swept conquering over
the whole archipelago, till every people bowed before him. Those who
distinguished themselves in his wars or in his service he elevated to
new distinctions and titles. Those who died in his wars he beatified.
With great ceremony he would raise all the dead on one of his
battle-fields to the rank of sub-divinities, till his heaven was as
crowded as his court. He did not obliterate the old religions; but he
overshadowed them, and his policy kept subject to him the passion for
glory in life and deification after death that lurks in every human
bosom. The active and the romantic were strung up to enthusiasm by
the magnetism of his name. Most thought it was his personality which
set their blood throbbing, but it was only that his deeds and his
histrionic power of magnifying them worked on their imaginations. How
wild their fervour I could scarcely have realised had I not observed it
with my own senses.
He had to keep moving and victoriously moving if his magnetism were not
to vanish. When his empire included all the islands in the archipelago
but the Isle of Devils in the centre, there was nothing for it but to
attempt its conquest. We heard him bluster out his favourite bombastic
phrases, learned from his penny romances and biographies. “Heaven is
our ally, and who on earth can stand against us? Is it not our mission,
the mission of a god, to chase all devils from the earth? Our last
conquest shall be hell, and its denizens shall die by fire and sword.”
Utterances and proclamations like this fired the imaginations of his
soldiers, and they would have laid their lives down at the moment for
this fire-eater. What he had boasted or threatened before, he had done,
or had by astute fiction persuaded his followers that he had done;
and what limit was there to his deeds? If he said that he would scale
the heavens, they were certain he would do it. The thought fused them
into a unity and chased out of their breasts the panic which the mere
mention of the central isle produced.
He had not the traditional and hereditary ague-fit to overcome in
his blood, yet there was a new sinking of the heart when he thought
of his task. He had to reassure himself by wild rhodomontade, as he
superintended the building and armament of an enormous fleet and the
concentration of the largest army the archipelago had ever seen. He
could not pick a diplomatic quarrel with his new victim; yet he must
have at least the semblance of a cause in order to put heart into his
followers. He announced that he had sent envoys to the Isle of Devils
to open intercourse with it, but they were not allowed to approach.
Again and again had he tried this pacific measure, but no heed had been
given to him. Let vengeance be upon the heads of so churlish and unjust
a people! How could such poltroons and men-haters be allowed to cumber
the earth?
I watched the great fleet put out from Broolyi with its streamers of
smoke. We could have heard the acclamations almost with the unaided
ear; they rent the sky when Choktroo went on board his own fire-ship,
which was thrice the size of the largest of the others, and thrice
more brilliantly caparisoned. He passed with his favourite silent and
self-absorbed look on his face through the applauding crowds on to a
raised platform in the stern, reserved for him and his staff. Arrived
there he paced silently with his chin resting on his folded arms. He
knew what an impression of godlikeness this made on the crowd. Small
though he was in stature, he doubtless seemed to his followers and the
people on the shore to take gigantic proportions.
I was amazed to see so little perturbation amongst the Limanorans.
They seemed to watch the whole scene as if it were a comedy. On the
fleet steamed, and yet there was perfect calm in the community; only
the Lilamo were at their posts on the peak of Lilaroma. The rest
were peacefully seated at the idrovamolans or busy with their usual
avocations. I knew the destructiveness of the great cannon that
Choktroo had prepared, and the distance they would carry. On this point
indeed I had been consulted some months before. I knew, too, how this
people shrank from every act that would involve the loss of a human
life. How were they to repel this great armament without whelming it
in the ocean and drowning a large proportion of those in the ships?
Thyriel could throw no light on the problem; we were both too young to
be taken into the confidence of the wise men or to know their designs.
I could do nothing but watch the fleet and then pass to my daily duties.
A night passed, and at dawn we could see the islands of smoke lie
black on the horizon; the ships themselves had not appeared. Choktroo
evidently knew that it was useless to conceal the expedition or its
object from this far-seeing people under the darkness of night. It
was too well known throughout the archipelago how penetrative was
their gaze. He meant to make his attack by day. Soon the funnels
and the masts broke the sky-line. Yet there was not a sound from
the storm-cone. The slight wind had fallen; everything favoured the
invader. He could see through the translucent air every feature of
our island and almost every movement of its inhabitants as soon as we
could discern the human beings on board his ships with the naked eye.
Were they getting drawn into some gigantic trap? This thought evidently
occurred to the leader of the armament, as it occurred to me, for the
fleet lessened speed. I could see Choktroo, at a loss what to do, on
his poop consulting with his officers, who could help him little. Still
the storm-cone stood silent on the mountain-peak.
The bold step had to be taken; the order was given for advance. The
smoke again streamed in the rear of the fleet, and I could see the
gunners prepare for action and the sailors and soldiers set the boats
ready for launching. What had happened to the Lilamo? Were they all
asleep? Was the progress of the island at last to be trampled under the
feet of this brutal soldier and his forces? The fire-ships were almost
within cannon-shot of the shore; there puffed out the preliminary whiff
from the side of Choktroo’s steamer and the ball fell with a roar into
the ocean between. Another five minutes and matters would be past
remedy. Yet there was perfect calm among the Limanorans. I controlled
my excitement and watched the fleet. Everything was bustle on board,
and when I sat down to the idrovamolan all sounds were jubilant and
boasting. This Isle of Devils was at last to have her master. This
proud isolation was at last to be broken. Such exclamations I could
hear from the gunners as they loaded and ran out their guns.
All was silence, for all was ready for the word of command. Choktroo
paced his poop in scarce-controllable glee. His thoughts were doubtless
stretching out beyond the fog circle to the countries he had left
behind him with his boyhood, other worlds for him to conquer. His
arms were folded and his eye was turned inward; he knew that the
whole expedition was awaiting his nod. Soon he stopped stone-silent
and stiff, as if to give the decisive word. I waited the action, but
he still stood moveless. I looked over the ship; there was his staff
awaiting his beck as if petrified. Every man was at his post, but not
a muscle moved; the eyes stared as if they belonged to the dead. My
glance took in the other ships; all were as silent and still as the
grave. The whole armament seemed turned to stone.
Then there fluttered down upon the vessels human figures that I
recognised as of the Lilamo. In a moment a Limanoran pilot stood at
the helm of each fire-ship; and as if by nature the whole fleet turned
majestically round and made for the shelving beach of a low uninhabited
island underneath the horizon. On and on they sped straight for the
shore, round whose margin not the least fringe of surf whitened.
Through the idrovamolan I could hear the grating keels as they struck
the sand and pebbles at full speed. The crash seemed to awaken the
crews and the soldiers, who rubbed their eyes as if roused from a
dream. Before them the bows of their ships were burrowing themselves in
the blown sand of the beach; but already I could see the pilots winging
their way through the sky back to Limanora.
There was a silent power in the lilaran which I had not investigated:
its power of magnetism. This it could exercise several miles off;
but it grew feebler with the distance. In this aspect, then, the
lilaran could not be used as a weapon of defence far from the shore of
Limanora. If, however, there was a mass of iron or like magnetisable
metal in the ship that contained its victims, its power had been
discovered to be as great far as near. It was only recently that
they had so far developed their personal power of arresting the
consciousness by sudden sleep-petrifaction as to be able to exercise
it at a distance. This they accomplished by material aids to the
magnetic faculty. The sudden flashing of brilliant objects before the
eyes and the use of powerful magnets had been found to intensify the
somnifactive power of the eye and the magnetic sense. This led them to
make experiments with the concentrated power of magnets all brilliant
with irelium jewels. The result was that they found the somnifactive
power to reside even more in things than in persons. They tried it
through the lilaran on Limanorans of the most powerful will at the
farthest corner of the island, and found it to be the more effective
the more power they concentrated and the more iron or metals of similar
quality were near the patient.
This result had been reached about the time they had come to see that
the invasion of their island by Choktroo was inevitable without some
other than the mere wind-power of the lilaran. Step by step the Lilamo
brought their new weapon to perfection; at any moment they could
concentrate the forces of Rimla into this faculty of the lilaran. They
experimented on Limanorans in boats out at sea, and finally could
tabulate the magnetic powers at various distances. This explained to
me the flashings I had often seen on the horizon and had taken for
an effect of the idrovamolan; but they were too near the surface of
the sea for that. This explained the perfect calm with which the
Limanorans watched the approach of Choktroo’s expedition and the
thrilling keenness of the flashes that swept over his fire-ships.
I watched for many days the effect of this great blow upon the nature
and fortunes of my old cabin-boy. Over his immediate staff and army he
was able to regain his full sway as soon as they recovered from the
shock; but his power over the other islanders was completely shaken.
Bodies of them launched the boats from the steamers and made off for
their own islands before the leaders were aware of their intentions.
The moment Choktroo realised the position he turned his still uninjured
guns in the direction of the sea and commanded all issue from the beach
where his ships were buried. For wholesome example he sank several
boats which had almost got out of his reach. Then he set his army to
dig canals around one of his fire-ships; but no sooner was she ready
for floating than the whole force of the lilaran was turned in her
direction; the waves rose and a single night’s surf completely undid
the labour of days. The ship was as deeply embedded as ever; and her
sisters had almost disappeared beneath the sand-dunes. The weight of
metal in them shortened the process of burial.
It was clear that nothing could be done to save the expedition or bring
its material back to Broolyi. Before many days we saw the soldiers
embark somewhat sadly in the boats and find their way across the ocean
to the adjacent islands. Piecemeal the whole army retraced its steps to
Broolyi.
It was not likely that Choktroo would allow this slur to rest on his
fame and eat into his power like rust, for there was clear evidence
that his influence over even the Broolyians had greatly suffered. By
means of his advertising and his histrionic abilities he had brought
them to believe that he was invincible; they now began to feel that
he had the same limitations as themselves: he was powerless against
the magic of the Isle of Devils. All his wiles were needed to check
the spread of panic and distrust. He first of all minimised the defeat
in his proclamations, and before many months were over he had come to
speak of it as a victory marred by the invincible powers of nature. He
had been quick to recognise the similarity of the phenomenon to that
we had experienced in the _Daydream_ when running the gauntlet
of the fog circle, and he sent out party after party to explore the
ring of mystery and to come back with tales of its magical powers of
inducing sleep. Thus was he soon able to convince the archipelago that
the failure of his great expedition was due, not to the inhabitants
of the Isle of Devils, but to the forces of nature. He had in his
own eye and will great mesmeric power, and by practice was able to
develop it into something that he could exercise at pleasure. Then
he made public exhibition of his capacity in the various islands. He
threw numbers into mesmeric sleep, nor would he or could he release
them from its thrall. They became his willing slaves and lived only to
please him. A milder form of mesmeric fascination he used in order to
rivet his despotism on his armies. He would address sections of them
with bombastic self-glorification of his deeds and powers and with
flatteries of them and their glorious courage. His personal magnetism
worked upon them as they gazed at him, and by the close of his speech
he had them enthralled to his will.
It was not long before he was feared as a magician by all who did
not mesmerically worship him; and tens of thousands were eager to
do the most wicked and shameful deeds, if only he bade them. Yet he
dared not shrink from another fall with the inhabitants of the Isle
of Devils; else even this preternatural fascination that he exercised
might vanish. For years he racked the wealth of the islands and built
an enormous fleet of still more powerful fire-ships, and armed it with
still more powerful guns. To supply the funds for the expedition,
those who were not trained fighting men became slaves, who toiled for
him all but their few hours of sleep. Rebellion against this galling
and impoverishing despotism was slowly forming in the breasts of the
people. Many of them were disappearing mysteriously. They had betaken
themselves to unapproachable caverns like Nookoo, and my dreamer of
Swoonarie was arming them with his plague-pellets. A few more months
and revolution would have broken out against the despot, and he at
least would have perished; but the expedition sailed in all its pomp,
again deeply impressing the imaginations of the islanders. This time
he had taken precautions against the somnifaction of his army by
means of a sleep-expelling drug. Every man was furnished with a dose
of it to take as soon as they came near the dreaded isle. The Lilamo
had been busy for some time, I had seen; but the Limanorans were as
unconcerned at this approach as at the former one. What new defence
had they? I could see no more preparation than there had been on the
previous occasion. The calm which prevailed reassured me; yet soon I
grew restless with the fear that this fire-eating cabin-boy with the
mystery in his eyes would sully the shores of Limanora with his vulgar
ambitions.
My fear became alarm as I saw on the horizon the smoke of the fleet
and heard through the idrovamolan the shout of triumph rise from the
army when the peak of Lilaroma had burst on their view. I could see
each man drink his drug; and I thought that all was lost. Suddenly
there came a roar from every ship; and I could see that it accompanied
a plume of steam that escaped from the sides. The boiler of every
fire-ship had evidently been punctured; and soon I could see that it
cost those on board unceasing effort to keep afloat. The soldiers were
about to take to the boats when a deeper-mouthed roar numbed every
other sound. It was the lilaran at work, and the whole fleet soon
vanished over the horizon before its compulsive blast.
The puncturing had been accomplished by submarine action. The Lilamo
had sent through the waters their floating batteries, which by nicely
adjusted weights lay beneath the surface right on the track of the
fleet. The electric cables by which they were secured could shift them
hither and thither; and through them immense force could be applied,
sending a volley of keen darts up towards whatever iron there was above
them. These darts had entered the hulls of the ships just beneath the
water-line and made their way into the iron of the engines; one or
other told on the boilers and disabled the ships. The electric floats
were unseen by the expedition, and the wounding of the fleet was as
mysterious and magical as the sleep had been on the previous attempt.
Panic seized on every soldier and sailor, and they thanked their gods
when the blast of the lilaran hurried them to the shelving beach of a
low island and they heard the keels grate on shingle and sand. They
scrambled on shore through the surf and found shelter from the wind
behind the mounds that covered the former fleet or under their gaunt
ribs or sides.
But a new panic overcame them when they discovered that their leader
was gone and could nowhere be found. Then it was remembered that in the
worst of the storm which blew from Lilaroma a giant bird had swooped
down towards his ship and rested for a moment on the platform, where
he stood in solitary meditation, and as suddenly soared up again. It
was two messengers of the Lilamo who had been sent in one of their
bird-shaped airships to make an end of these warlike expeditions. They
had alighted beside Choktroo, and by the powerful means they commanded
had sent him into a deep sleep in spite of his drug; they tossed him
into their airship and in a few moments were high in the azure rushing
before the blast of the lilaran. Away they fled with him all day and
all night across the belt of fog, and having reached the outer world
they let him down still tranced on the shore of a lonely coral islet of
the Pacific close to a group inhabited by a savage and warlike tribe.
Choktroo had their instincts and ambitions; let him master the savages
when he awakened. A wild beast could do no harm amongst wild beasts.
His memory and example haunted the archipelago like an evil dream
for generations. Some thought that he had been borne aloft to heaven
by a messenger of the gods, and worshipped him as divine; his cruel
tyranny and wars goaded on his worshippers to wild fury of injustice
and slaughter. Others who were keener of brain and had perceived the
earthly character of their leader and his purposes were incited to like
ambitions. The romance of his life was glorified in verse and prose by
every new school of literature and fired the imaginations of boyhood
to warlike exploits. War, piracy, plunder came to be the favourite
forms of dishonesty in the archipelago. It was marvellous how much the
peaceful and obscure suffered from the romance of this cabin-boy’s
adventures.
But no man of the islands dared again to approach the Isle of Devils.
Even he whom so many of them reputed a god had been unable to break
in; and the mishap to the last fleet had been more bewildering than
that to the first. Magical powers were possessed by the inhabitants
of this island without a doubt; there seemed to be no limit to their
transcendence of the order of nature. Evil they were, and the fear
of them the Broolyians had to endure in patience. Nor did it grow
less from generation to generation. Fancy never let the stories of
the defeat of the great Choktroo rest; they gathered to them features
more and more terrible to contemplate. A halo of dread and mystery is
far more effective as a fence against human intrusion than a halo of
sanctity or even divinity. It cows the miscreant and the brute in the
human breast. The duties of the Lilamo in repelling the attacks of men
would vanish for hundreds of generations.
For Choktroo, his fate was a romantic contrast to that of his fame.
Reports were brought in by the idrovamolan or by flying messengers who
had ventured over the belt of fog. He was rescued by the neighbouring
tribe before he starved on the barren islet, only to be threatened with
sacrifice to one of their gods. A missionary who had some influence
over the heathen arrived at the moment of sacrifice and saved him.
After learning their language he worked his way by intrigues and
assassinations and what they thought magic up to the headship of the
tribe. When he had made himself secure in his power over them, he
built a great fleet of war-canoes, and, after mastering the groups of
islands within range and enlisting their warriors and canoes in his
service, he set sail southward for some land they knew not of. South
and then east the fleet made way, his followers still unalarmed. At
last appeared the circle of mystery on the horizon. He gave the word to
row forward into it; but, before the command had reached the outermost
of the canoes, he was hurled from his platform into the sea, and, as
he rose to the surface, he was promptly speared by his own immediate
staff. Round swung the heads of the canoes by one simultaneous impulse.
Their chief had become a madman to think of entering that belt of
mystery; and away they paddled for very life; nor did they cease their
frantic efforts till the dark cloud had sunk beneath the horizon.