IMPRISONMENT AND ESCAPE
HE went on board and I returned to my guide, whom I found greatly
disturbed. An official spy had come down from the marble city; and this
meant that a whole army of them in covered armour were in the
neighbourhood and on the alert. He had scarcely ears for an account of
my interview with Garrulesi till I reached the story of his blanching at
the sight of a stranger. His alarm grew, and he was concocting a scheme
for getting to my fireship, though he knew it would be almost impossible
to pass through the cordon of state guards that was, he was certain,
drawn round us. Just as dusk shuttled into dark he had matured his
scheme, and we were about to put it into effect when the door of our
room in the hostelry opened and a missive was delivered to each of us.
We were invited by the monarch to return to the marble city and sojourn
with him in his palace. Nothing could be clearer than that the bureaus
had received information of our movements and suspected that we were
engaged in stirring the artisans and peasants to revolution. And this
was a pleasant invitation to euthanasia. Our doom was fixed if we could
find no other way out of the noose.
Early in the morning a car of triumphal proportions drew up at our door
and we were bowed by the town officials with great ceremony into it. It
went off at funereal pace by a coast road to the marble city,
accompanied by an escort of royal guards. It was plain from the faces of
the wayfarers of the ruling class that there was something portentous in
our procession, for they looked back at us with glances full of pity. My
guide, who came to be more self-controlling in his manner and more
confidential and intimate in his tone, told me how often he had feared
such a result; but they had followed their own diabolical style of
letting him have complete freedom till he had become reckless, and now
they had pounced upon him. He asked me, if I escaped, to make for
Broolyi, his native country, and inform the authorities of his fate;
they would give me full protection and treat me with the greatest
hospitality, I might be sure. He told me his own name—Blastemo—and said
that the mention of it would turn all his relatives into my friends. But
lest the devils should, with their usual pharisaic inhumanity, make
their refined methods of torture take the place of euthanasia, he gave
me a small nutful of a most potent drug, a pinch of which, small enough
to be hidden under the nails, would launch me in a few seconds into the
tide of unconsciousness that leads to death. In the palace we would be
watched by a hundred eyes that we could never see. Unseen, unguessed-at
espionage was one of the secrets of the mysterious power that the
bureaus had over all. They seemed to know almost what was transacted in
the depths of the soul in the darkness of midnight. The only safeguard
in the Isle of Liars (thus he translated the name) was the universal
suspicion that tortured the marble citizens. None of them felt sure of
even his nearest relative or closest friend. And if any chance of escape
came to us, it would be through some official of the palace who was
getting uneasy about his own fate.
We were welcomed at our destination with great and effusive ceremonies
as if we were about to be enthroned. And for days we seemed to be the
centre of all its hospitalities; we were fêted and banqueted and amused
in the most elaborate style. And through the whole series of festivity
and pomp we were without any apparent caution kept strictly apart, so
that we were not able to pass even a word.
The monarch showed himself greatly interested in me and asked me
innumerable questions about my people and country, being especially
amused at my description of the use of steam in doing work, and of the
use of firearms. His little six-year-old boy was even more entranced by
my pictures of the steam-engine and of our warfare. He was the one
weakness of his father. He clung to my side, especially when in
disgrace, and that was very often. It was he who told me that my
fireship was off the mouth of the estuary where I had landed. I
stimulated his curiosity to the utmost, seeing a possible way of escape.
He kept begging the king to let him go to it. But clearly the bureaus
were against such a venture.
At last the child fell ill. The physicians declared the illness to be
one of the heart, and after a time warned his father of its dangerous
character if the boy were in any way thwarted. He whined every day his
old request that he might be taken on board my fireship. The king
pleaded with the heads of the bureaus to let him go; and they at last
grew alarmed too, for he was the only heir to the throne, and the
father’s life was by no means certified by the physicians as likely to
be long. They saw the risk of getting thrown out of power. And they
consented to the expedition, but under the most stringent conditions. I
was to remain on shore whilst Blastemo and the little prince should go
on board with his father and a royal escort.
We set out, and after much floundering in the mud and grappling with the
current they swept over the bar under the guidance of a fisherman who
knew every sand-bank and could prevent such a mishap as befell me when I
landed. I had sent a note with them, and I could see that the three were
received on board with every sign of friendliness. But the boats
containing the escort drew out to a distance from the steamer.
Everything seemed to go well for a time; the sea was calm, with a slight
breath and ripple off the shore. Suddenly I saw a whiff of smoke shoot
out from the bow of my yacht, and with a loud report reverberating from
the cliffs behind, a ball landed in the midst of a troop of guards that
was stationed to cut off my retreat towards the north, the only possible
way of escape; on the other side was the river with its acres of mud,
and behind was the road to the city, well guarded at all points. The
result was as sudden as the shot. I had just time to collect my senses
and look round; and away on the highway I could see the tails of the
guard in the wind. Another shot and another ploughed the earth or
flapped into the mud, and cleared the lowlands of every Aleofanian.
I soon realised the situation and quietly walked off to the north over a
long spit. I made no attempt to run as if I were escaping. But as I
moved higher and higher on the rising ground I could see the shot strike
the flat I had left. When I reached the highest part of the promontory I
found the reason for the demonstration. A falla lay in the offing,
sheltered from sight of the retreating troops by the high bluff in which
the spit terminated. Garrulesi’s instructions flashed into my mind; and
I remembered that this was the point he had indicated for my safety if
ever I needed to escape.
I got over the ridge, and as I looked back I could see the sand
occasionally pirouetting in the air and I could hear a reverberation
sound in the rear. I then ran as quickly as legs would carry me towards
the shore. In a sheltered nook of quiet water lay a native boat, with
the men sitting paddles in hand. They gave me the signal agreed upon,
and I readily jumped on board. The canoe shot out from the rocks. And it
was not too soon. For a troop, recovering from their panic, were making
down the sheltered side of the spit, unnoticed by the yacht. And we were
not out of reach when the first arrows sliced the water. The men
redoubled their efforts, and only half a dozen missiles struck the boat
before we were safe on board Garrulesi’s falla.
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