THE CITY OF TOWERS
At the Pirates' Cave, the task of getting out the treasure proved very
difficult, but it was done at last.
The Committee's camp in the forest had supplied abundance of provisions,
and a great number of animals; the Committee traveled in luxury.
On the level ground where Mr. Hanlon had given his exhibition of
head-work, the toilers were now resting in the hot sun, and drying their
garments, thoroughly soaked by their trips in and out of the cave, under
the water-fall. They looked with intense delight on the boxes and bags
which lay before them.
"What I say is," said Toby, "let's divide the treasure now, so we won't
have to bother about it when we get to the City of Towers."
"How beautiful is nature!" said the Sly Old Codger. "Behold that wide
expanse of field and forest resting so--so--expansively beneath the orb
of day! A true, true work of nature! At such a moment as this, dear
friends, a warm feeling invades my heart, a feeling of--of--Did I hear a
suggestion to divide the treasure?"
The division was carefully made, and when it was done, and each person
had declared himself well satisfied, each share was packed separately,
and the treasure loaded on the backs of the extra mules. It was a
princely fortune.
"Do you suppose," said the Old Codger with the Wooden Leg, "that--er--I
shall be able to obtain, in the City of Towers, such a thing as a
pipeful--ahem!--a pipeful of tobacco?"
"Never fear," said the Third Vice-President. "I fancy you will be able
to buy there all the tobacco you can use."
"Wery sorry I am to 'ear it," said Mr. Punch. "Hi regard the tobacco
'abit as a wery reprehensible 'abit. Wery."
"Oh, you do!" said Toby, glaring at him.
"Wery reprehensible indeed," went on Mr. Punch, calmly. "My conscience
'as troubled me for a long time by reason of my position in the tobacco
trade. Being posted, as one may s'y, in a wery hadwantageous position
for hobserwation, I 'ave seen too much, entirely too much, of the sad
effects of the hobnoxious weed. Many a time 'ave I wept to myself, when
the hobserver may 'ave thought it was only rain on me cheek, to see 'em,
young and hold, going in and hout of Toby Littleback's shop, knowing
what would come of it sooner or later, and me a-standing there
hencouraging of 'em in, as one may s'y, with me packet of cigars in me
'and. Hoften enough 'ave I wished to give it hup and embark in a
hoccupation less reprehensible; many a time 'ave I said to myself, 'Ho,
hif I could only be hinnocent once, just once.' And now Hi shall put
be'ind me hall the d'ys of me sinful past, and with my share of the
treasure Hi shall open a shop for the purveying of tripe."
"There's a deal more harm been done by tripe than ever there was by
tobacco," said Toby.
"There is a total absence of nicotine in tripe," said Mr. Punch,
loftily. "At least, such is my hinformation. And I carn't 'elp 'oping
that my friend Littleback will reform hisself, now that 'e can afford
it, and engage in some pursuit less 'armful to the young. Hif I was
arsked, I would suggest pinking and pleating."
"You ain't been asked," said Toby. "I can see myself pinking and
pleating. When I want advice what to do with my money, I'll ask you.
Tobacco is my line, and tobacco is going to be my line to the end of the
chapter, and that's flat. Pinking and pleating! Humph."
"It's my belief," said the Churchwarden, "after listening to what's been
said, pro and con, backwards and forwards, up and down, that if we don't
start for the City of Towers, we'll never get there."
"And what's more," said Toby, "when I get back I'm going to have an
_Indian_ outside my door, instead of a tripe-seller."
"Excuse me," said the Third Vice-President. "I am sorry to interrupt
this interesting discussion, but we really ought to be going.
Gentlemen," to the Committee, "our steeds are waiting. To the City of
Towers!"
The journey which now commenced proved to be a very long one. Day after
day the pilgrims plodded through a wilderness of forest and field, over
streams, across mountains, down into deep valleys and up again, camping
at night wherever they happened to find water and wood, and sleeping
under the stars in blankets on beds of boughs. The moon was gone before
their journey was over.
One morning the trail brought them down on a mountain-side to a
well-paved road. This road they followed for some hours, and it brought
them finally to the top of a gentle hill, covered with trees. From the
top of this hill they saw a striking scene.
Stretching away from the foot of the hill lay a great rolling valley, up
which the road ran as straight as a ribbon. Far away, at the end of the
road, against a dark wooded mountain, stood a great city, walled around
with a high wall, and shining in the sun with white and gold domes and
turrets and towers. The rear of the city rose along the lower slope of
the mountain, and on the top of the mountain, concealing its peak, lay
a cloud; black below, and glittering with sunlight at the edges. It hung
there motionless during the time when the watchers sat watching the
scene. Directly under the cloud, on the slope where the farthest portion
of the city lay, was an open space among the buildings, like a great
garden or park, and in the midst of it a vast white building with a flat
roof, great enough for the palace of a king. That which struck the
strangers most, at their first look, was the great number of towers
which rose at all points in the city; surely so many towers had never
been gotten together in one place before; and the most remarkable one of
them was the tower which rose from just behind the great white building
in the park. It was dull in colour, and doubtless of brick; it was round
in shape, tapering gradually upwards. It rose to a height which none of
the strangers would have thought possible, had they not seen it with
their own eyes; it rose straight to the cloud which hung motionless upon
the mountain; it pierced the cloud, and its top was lost to view in the
cloud or above it.
"The City of Towers!" said the Third Vice-President, waving his arm in
that direction. "The Gate of Wanderers is before us, at the end of the
road."
The party urged their animals forward down the hill-side, and pressed on
until noon, when they halted for rest and refreshment in a wood beside
the road. There they sat at their ease on the grass, and the Third
Vice-President looked from one to another, and spoke as follows:
"My friends, I must tell you the story of the Towers. Our King, you must
know, is a handsome and amiable man, in appearance about thirty years of
age. When I tell you that he has been our king for more than forty
years, you will be surprised. His wife was a princess of some few years
less than his own, and of a beauty unequalled in the kingdom. Her
wedding ring, the gift of her husband, was a single ruby in a plain gold
band, and this ring she was never known to remove from her
wedding-finger for a single moment. She was blessed with three beautiful
children, two boys and a girl, the oldest of whom was nearly nine years
of age.
"When the prince, our present King, was thirty years old, his father the
King, who was then alive, gave a great ball at the palace, and at this
ball the old King declared to the assembled court that he desired to
build a tower; a mighty tower, higher than any other in the world, where
he might seek repose from time to time; a tower so tall that it would
reach the cloud that hangs perpetually on the mountain. To him who
should build such a tower in the shortest time the King would give any
reward which the fortunate bidder might ask. The old King laughed as he
made his offer, and it was plain that he was only half serious; but many
of the richest of his nobility desired the prize, and contended for it
earnestly. One proposed to erect the tower in ten years, another in
eight, and one was found who was willing to promise it in six years and
a half; but these terms were all too long. The King was old, and he
would not wait so long.
"'Is there no one,' said the old King at last, 'who will build me my
tower in less than six years and a half?'
"'I will build it in one night,' said a voice from the rear of the
ball-room.
"An old man came forward and stood before the King; an old man, dressed
in a short gown tied in with a cord about the middle, with sandals on
his feet, a lantern with a lighted candle in one hand, and a staff in
the other. No one in that place had ever seen him before, and no one
knew how he had gotten in amongst that glittering company.
"'I will build your tower in one night,' said the old man.
"The old King laughed outright, but he accepted the offer then and
there. 'In the morning,' said he, 'if we find the tower finished, you
shall have any gift which may be in my power to give.'
"The old man bowed, and made his way slowly out of the palace. A great
shout of laughter went up from the company, and in this the King himself
joined heartily; but the joke was, as I must tell you, my friends, that
in the morning when the King rose, there stood the tower in fact, behind
the palace, so tall that its top could not be seen in the cloud that
hung upon the mountain; and there, my friends, the tower stands to this
day.
"That evening the old man returned for his reward. He stood before the
King, and on the King's right and left stood the prince and the prince's
wife and children. The King asked the old man what reward he desired.
"'I ask nothing,' replied the other, with a sly smile, 'except the ruby
ring upon the finger of the Princess.'
"The Princess turned pale, and hid her hand behind her. She would not
give up her wedding-ring; nothing the King could say could move her. He
offered the old man anything else he might demand; a dozen ruby rings; a
box of ruby rings; anything; but the old man would have nothing but the
ring upon the Princess's finger. The Princess grew paler still, as if
with fear; but she would not give up the ring. The old man smiled his
sly smile again, and went away.
"The next morning the Princess and her three children were gone. Search
was made everywhere, but they were not to be found. The King and the
Prince, mounting the winding stair of the tower, stopped at last when
they were all but exhausted, and at that moment heard a sound of weeping
from above. They climbed higher, and on the stair they found the
children sitting, huddled together and weeping bitterly. Their mother
was gone, they knew not where; and they did not know how they came to be
in the tower. The strongest climbers in the city mounted as far as they
could ascend, but the top of the tower was far beyond their reach; they
found no Princess. She has never been seen from that day.
"Soon after, the old King died, and his son came to the throne. As for
him, our present King, and his three children, time stopped for them
from the day on which the Princess disappeared. They are no older now
than when she left them. It is supposed that they are awaiting her
return unchanged, in order that she may not find them old on her return,
if she should still be young. There are those who say that she has lived
all these years, and still lives, somewhere, in some strange form,
perhaps far from here, bewitched by the old man, and waiting for release
from her enchantment. I do not know."
"And what was her name?" said Aunt Amanda.
"She was named," said the Third Vice-President, "the Princess Miranda."
"And what are all those other towers in the city?" said Aunt Amanda.
"It was the fashion, after the King's Tower was built, to build towers.
The King, as you may suppose, sets the fashion in all things. But no
more pleasure-towers are built nowadays; the thing had its day, and died
out. There is a fashion now in pleasure-domes. They are modeled after
the pleasure-dome built by Kubla Khan in Xanadu."
"Well," said Toby, "I don't see what we've got to do with all this. The
party I want to see is Shiraz the Rug-Merchant."