THE TWELVE

For a minute or two Rolla was not observed. She simply stood and

stared, being neither confident enough to go forward nor scared

enough to retreat. Childlike, she scrutinized the group with great

thoroughness.

Their comparatively white faces and hands puzzled her most. Also,

she could not understand the heavy black robes in which all were

dressed. Falling to the floor and reaching far above their necks,

such garments would have been intolerable to the free-limbed

Sanusians. To the watchers on the earth, however, the robes made the

group look marvelously like a company of monks.

Not that there was anything particularly religious about the place

or in their behavior. All twelve seemed to be silent only because

they were voraciously hungry. A meal was spread on the table. Except

for the garments, the twelve might have been so many harvest hands,

gathered for the evening meal in the cook-house. From the

white-bearded man who sat at the head of the table and passed out

large helpings of something from a big pot, to the fair-haired young

fellow at the foot, who could scarcely wait for his share, there was

only one thing about them which might have been labeled pious; and

that was their attitude, which could have been interpreted: "Give us

this day our daily bread--and hurry up about it!"

Apparently Rolla was convinced that these men were thoroughly human,

and as such fairly safe to approach. For she allowed her curiosity

to govern her caution, and proceeded to sidle through the doorway.

Half-way through she caught a whiff of the food, and her sidling

changed to something faster.

At that instant she was seen. A tall, dark-haired chap on the far

side of the table glanced up and gave a sharp, startled exclamation.

Instantly the whole dozen whirled around and with one accord shot to

their feet.

Rolla stopped short.

There was a second's silence; then the white-bearded man, who seemed

to be the leader of the group, said something peremptory in a deep,

compelling voice. Rolla did not understand.

He repeated it, this time a little less commandingly; and Rolla,

after swallowing desperately, inclined her head in the diffident way

she had, and said:

"Are ye friends or enemies?"

Eleven of the twelve looked puzzled. The dark-haired man, who had

been the first to see her, however, gave a muttered exclamation;

then he cogitated a moment, wet his lips and said something that

sounded like: "What did you say? Say it again!"

Rolla repeated.

The dark-haired man listened intently. Immediately he fell to

nodding with great vigor, and thought deeply again before making

another try: "We are your friends. Whence came ye, and what seek

ye?"

Rolla had to listen closely to what he said. The language was

substantially the same as hers; but the verbs were misplaced in the

sentences, the accenting was different, and certain of the vowels

were flatted. After a little, however, the man caught her way of

talking and was able to approximate it quite well, so that she

understood him readily.

"I seek," Rolla replied, "food and rest. I have traveled far and am

weary."

"Ye look it," commented the man. His name, Rolla found out later,

was Somat. "Ye shall have both food and rest. However, whence came

ye?"

"From the other side of the world," answered Rolla calmly.

Instantly she noted that the twelve became greatly excited when

Somat translated her statement. She decided to add to the scene.

"I have been away from my people for many days," and she held up one

hand with the five fingers spread out, opening and closing them four

times, to indicate twenty.

"Ye came over the edge of the world!" marveled Somat. "It were a

dangerous thing to do, stranger!"

"Aye," agreed Rolla, "but less dangerous than that from which I

fled. However," impatiently, "give me the food ye promised; I can

talk after my stomach be filled."

"Of a surety," replied Somat apologetically. "I were too interested

to remember thy hunger." He spoke a word or two, and one of his

companions brought another stool, also dishes and table utensils.

Whereupon the watchers on the earth got a first-class surprise. Here

they had been looking upon twelve men, living in almost barbaric

fashion amid the ruins of a great city; but the men had been eating

from hand-painted china of the finest quality, and using silverware

that was simply elegant, nothing less! Luxury in the midst of

desolation!

Rolla, however, paid little attention to these details. She was

scarcely curious as to the food, which consisted of some sort of

vegetable and meat stew, together with butterless bread, a kind of

small-grained corn on the cob, a yellowish root-vegetable not unlike

turnips, and large quantities of berries. She was too hungry to be

particular, and ate heartily of all that was offered, whether cooked

or uncooked. The twelve almost forgot their own hunger in their

interest in the stranger.

It was now pretty dark in the big room. The white-bearded man said

something to the young fellow at the foot of the table, whereupon

the chap got up and stepped to the nearest wall, where he pressed

something with the tip of his finger. Instantly the room was flooded

with white light--from two incandescent bulbs!

Rolla leaped to her feet in amazement, bunking painfully in the

unaccustomed glare.

"What is this?" she demanded, all the more furiously to hide her

fear. "Ye would not trick me with magic; ye, who call yourselves

friends!"

Somat interpreted this to the others. Some laughed; others looked

pityingly at her. Somat explained:

"It is nothing, stranger. Be not afraid. We forgot that ye might

know nothing of this 'magic.'" He considered deeply, apparently

trying to put himself in her place. "Know ye not fire?" Of course,

she did not know what he meant. "Then," with an inspiration,

"perchance ye have see the flower, the red flower, ye might call--"

"Aye!" eagerly. "Doth it grow here?"

Somat smiled with satisfaction, and beckoned for her to follow him.

He led the way through a small door into another room, evidently

used as a kitchen. There he pointed to a large range, remarkably

like the up-to-date article known on the earth.

"The flower 'groweth' here," said he, and lifted a lid from the

stove. Up shot the flame.

"Great Mownoth!" shouted Holla, forgetting all about her hunger. "I

have found it--the precious flower itself!"

Somat humored her childlike view-point. "We have the seed of the

flower, too," said he. He secured a box of matches from a shelf, and

showed her the "little sticks."

"Exactly what the angel showed me!" jubilated Holla. "I have come to

the right place!"

Back she went to her food, her face radiant, and all her lurking

suspicion of the twelve completely gone. From that time on she had

absolute and unquestioning confidence in all that was told her. In

her eyes, the twelve were simply angels or gods who had seen fit to

clothe themselves queerly and act human.

Supper over, she felt immensely tired. All the strain of the past

three weeks had to have its reaction. Like a very tired, sleepy

child, she was led to a room in another part of the building, where

she was shown an ordinary sleeping-cot. She promptly pulled the

mattress onto the floor, where she considered it belonged, and fell

fast asleep.

Meanwhile, back on the earth, Van Emmon and Smith had lost no time

in making use of the doctor's description of the twelve. Within a

few minutes they had new agents; Van Emmon used Somat's eyes and

ears, while Smith got in touch with the elderly bearded man at the

head of the table. His name was Deltos.

"A very striking confirmation of the old legends," he was saying

through a big yawn, as Smith made connection. He used a colloquial

type of language, quite different from the lofty, dignified speech

of the Sanusians. "That is, of course, if the woman is telling the

truth."

"And I think she is," declared the young fellow at the foot of the

table. "It makes me feel pretty small, to think that none of us ever

had the nerve to make the trip; while she, ignorant as she is, dared

it all and succeeded!"

"You forget, Sorplee," reminded Somat, "that such people are far

hardier than we. The feat is one that requires apelike ability. The

only thing that puzzled me is--why did she do it at all?"

"It will have to remain a puzzle until she awakens," said Deltos,

rising from the table. "Lucky for us, Somat, that you saw fit to

study the root tongues. Otherwise we'd have to converse by signs."

Neither Smith nor Van Emmon learned anything further that night. The

twelve were all very tired, apparently, and went right to bed; a

procedure which was straightway seconded by the four watchers on the

earth. Which brings us in the most ordinary manner to the events of

the next day.

After breakfast all but Somat left the place and disappeared in

various directions; and Rolla noted that the robes were, evidently,

worn only at meal time. Most of the men were now dressed in rough

working garments, similar to what one sees in modern factories.

Whimsical sort of gods, Rolla told herself, but gods just the same.

"Tell me," began Somat, as the woman sat on the floor before him--he

could not get her to use a chair--"tell me, what caused thee to

leave thy side of the world? Did ye arouse the wrath of thy fellow

creatures?"

"Nay," answered Rolla, and proceeded to explain, in the wrong order,

as a child might, by relating first the crossing of the ridge, the

flight from the bees, the "masters'" cruel method of dealing with

Corrus and Dulnop, and finally the matter of the fire itself, the

real cause of the whole affair. Somat was intelligent enough to fill

in such details as Rolla omitted.

"Ye did right, and acted like the brave girl ye are!" he exclaimed,

when Rolla had finished. However, he did not fully appreciate what

she had meant by "the winged masters," and not until she pointed out

some bees and asked if, on this part of the planet, such were the

rulers of the humans, that the man grasped the bitter irony of it

all.

"What! Those tiny insects rule thy lives!" It took him some time to

comprehend the deadly nature of their stings, and the irresistible

power of concerted effort; but in the end he commented: "'Tis not so

strange, now that I think on it. Mayhap life is only a matter of

chance, anyway."

Presently he felt that he understood the Sanusian situation. He fell

silent; and Rolla, after waiting as long as her patience would

allow, finally put the question temporarily uppermost in her mind:

"It is true that I have crossed the edge of the world. And yet, I

understand it not at all. Can ye explain the nature of this strange

world we live upon, Somat?" There was infinite respect in the way

Rolla used his name; had she known a word to indicate human

infallibility, such as "your majesty," she would have used it.

"There is a saying among our people that the world be round. How can

this be so?"

"Yet it is true," answered Somat, "although ye must know that it be

not round like a fruit or a pebble. No more is it flat, like this,"

indicating the lid of the stove, near which they sat. "Instead, 'tis

shaped thus"--and he took from his finger a plain gold band, like an

ordinary wedding ring--"the world is shaped like that!"

Rolla examined the ring with vast curiosity. She had never seen the

like before, and was quite as much interested in the metal as in the

thing it illustrated. Fortunately the band was so worn that both

edges were nearly sharp, thus corresponding with the knifelike ridge

over which she had crawled.

"Now," Somat went on, "ye and your people live on the inner face of

the world," indicating the surface next his skin, "while I and my

kind live on the outer face. Were it not for the difficulties of

making the trip, we should have found you out ere this."

Rolla sat for a long time with the ring in her hand, pondering the

great fact she had just learned. And meanwhile, back on the earth,

four excited citizens were discussing this latest discovery.

"An annular world!" exclaimed the doctor, his eyes sparkling

delightedly. "It confirms the nebular hypothesis!"

"How so?" Smith wanted to know.

"Because it proves that the process of condensation and

concentration, which produces planets out of the original gases can

take place at uneven speeds! Instead of concentrating to the

globular form, Sanus cooled too quickly; she concentrated while she

was still a ring!"

Smith was struck with another phase of the matter. "Must have a

queer sort of gravitation," he pointed out. "Seems to be the same,

inside the ring or outside. Surely, doc it can't be as powerful as

it is here on the earth?"

"No; not likely."

"Then, why hasn't it made a difference in the inhabitants? Seems to

me the humans would have different structure."

"Not necessarily. Look at it the other way around; consider what an

enormous variety of animal forms we have here, all developed under

the same conditions. The humming-bird and the python, for instance.

Gravitation needn't have anything to do with it."

Billie was thinking mainly of the question of day and night. "The

ring must be inclined at an angle with the sun's rays," she

observed. "That being the case, Sanus has two periods each year when

there is continuous darkness on the inner face; might last a week or

two. Do you suppose the people all hibernate during those seasons?"

But no one had an answer to that.

Van Emmon said he would give all he was worth to explore the

Sanusian mountains long enough to learn their geology. He said that

the rocks ought to produce some new mineral forms, due to the

peculiar condition of strain they would be subjected to.

"I'm not sure," said he thoughtfully, "but I shouldn't be surprised

if there's an enormous amount of carbon there. Maybe diamonds are as

plentiful as coal is here."

At the word "diamonds" Smith glanced covertly at Billie's left hand.

But she had hidden it in the folds of her skirt. Next moment the

doctor warned them to be quiet; Somat and Rolla were talking again.

He was telling her about his world. She learned that his people, who

had never concerned themselves with her side of the planet, had

progressed enormously beyond the Sanusians. Rolla did not understand

all that he told her; but the people on the earth gathered, in one

way or another, that civilization had proceeded about as far as that

of the year 1915 in Europe. All this, while fellow humans only a few

thousand miles away, not only failed to make any progress at all,

but lived on, century after century, the absolute slave of a race of

bees!

But it was a fact. The ancient city in which Rolla found herself had

been, only a generation before, a flourishing metropolis, the

capital of a powerful nation. There had been two such nations on

that side of the planet, and the most violent rivalry had existed

between them.

"However," Somat told Rolla, "'twas not this rivalry which wrought

their downfall, except indirectly. The last great war between them

was terrible, but not disastrous. Either could have survived that.

"But know you that the ruler of one of the nations, in order to

carry on this war--which was a war of commerce (never mind what that

means)--in order to carry it on was obliged to make great

concessions to his people. In the other nation, the ruler oppressed

the workers, instead, and drove them mad with his cruelty. So that,

not long after the end of the war, there was a great rebellion among

the people who had been so long oppressed, and their government was

overthrown."

Back on the earth the four investigators reflected on this in

amazement. The case was wonderfully like that of Russia after the

great war. Perhaps--

"Immediately the other nation forced its soldiers to fight the

victorious rebels. But at home the workers had tasted of power. Many

refused to work at all; and one day, behold, there were two

rebellions instead of one! And within a very short time the whole

world was governed by--the working class!"

So this was what the Venusians had meant when they wrote that Sanus

was ruled by the workers!

"What became of these rebellions?" Rolla asked, little understanding

what it meant, but curious anyhow.

"Devastation!" stated Somat solemnly. He waved a hand, to include

all that lay within the ruined city. "Not altogether because of the

workers, although they were scarcely fit for ruling but because the

former rulers and others of that kind, who liked to oppose their

wills upon others, saw fit to start a fresh rebellion. Conflict

followed conflict; sometimes workers were in power, and sometimes

aristocrats. But the fighting ended not until"--he drew a deep

breath--"until there were none left to fight!"

"Ye mean," demanded Rolla incredulously, "that your people killed

themselves off in this fashion?"

"Aye," sorrowfully. "There were a few of us--they called us 'the

middle class'--who urged equality. We wanted a government in which

all classes were represented fairly; what we called a democracy.

Once the experiment was started, but it failed.

"Saw ye the skeletons in the streets?" he went on. "'Twas a dreadful

sight, those last few days. I were but a lad, yet I remember it all

too well." He paused, then broke out fiercely: "I tell ye that I saw

brother slay brother, father slay son, son slay mother, in those

last days!

"Lucky am I that I fled, I and my parents! They took me to a

mountainous country, but even there the madness spread, and one day

a soldier of the army killed my father and my mother. He sought me,

also, that he might slay me; but I hid from him beneath a heap of

manure. Aye," he gritted savagely, "I owe my life to a pile of

manure!

"These other eleven men all have like tales to tell. Only one woman

survived those awful days. Young Sorplee is her son; his father was

a soldier, whom she herself slew with her own hands. Even she is now

dead.

"Well," he finished, after a long pause, "when the madness had spent

itself, we who remained came from our hiding-places to find our

world laid waste. 'Tis now thirty years since Sorplee's mother died,

since we first looked upon these ruins, and we have made barely a

beginning. We have little heart for the work. Of what use is it,

with no women to start the race afresh?"

Rolla started despite herself. Was this the reason why she, despite

her savagery, had been made so welcome?

"Ye have not told me," said she hurriedly, "why ye and the others

all wear such curious garments when ye eat."

Somat was taken off his guard. He had been chuckling to himself at

the woman's childlike mind. Now he had to look apologetic and not a

little sheepish as he made reply:

"The robes are a mere custom. It were started a great many years

ago, by the founders of a--a--" He tried to think of a simpler

expression than "college fraternity." "A clan," he decided. "All of

we men were members of that clan."

"And," pursued Rolla, "will ye give me the magic stone, that I may

take the flowing blossoms back to my people, and release my loved

one from the masters' cruelty?" The great question was put! Rolla

waited in tremulous anxiety for the answer.

"Aye, stranger!" replied Somat vigorously. "More; ye shall have some

of the little sticks!"

Whereupon Rolla leaped to her feet and danced in sheer delight.

Somat looked on and marveled. Then, abruptly, he got up and marched

away. He had not seen a woman in thirty years; and he was a man of

principle.

That night, when the twelve were again seated at the table, Somat

related this conversation with Rolla. Since he used his own

language, of course she did not understand what was said. "And I

told her," he concluded, "how we came to be here; also the reason

for the condition of things. But I doubt if she understood half what

I said. We have quite a problem before us," he added. "What shall we

do about it?"

"You mean this woman?" Deltos asked. Rolla was busy with her food.

"It seems to me, brothers, that Providence has miraculously come to

our aid. If we can handle her people rightly the future of the race

is assured."

Somat thought it was simple enough. "All we need to do is send this

woman back with a supply of matches, and implicit instructions as to

how best to proceed against the bees. Once released, their friends

can make their way over the edge and settle among us. Let the bees

keep their country."

The two who had seconded him before again showed agreement. Sorplee

and Deltos, however, together with the other seven, were distinctly

opposed to the method. "Somat," protested Deltos, as though

surprised, "you forget that there's an enormous population over

there. Let them come in of their own free will? Why, they would

overrun our country! What would become of us?"

"We'd have to take our chances, replied Somat energetically, "like

good sports! If we can't demonstrate our worth to them, enough to

hold their respect, we'd deserve to be snowed under!"

"Not while I'm alive!" snarled Sorplee. "If they come here, they've

got to give up their wilderness ways, right off! We can't stand

savagery! The safest thing for us, and the best for them, is to make

an industrial army of 'em and set 'em to work!" His enthusiasm was

boundless.

"I must say," admitted Deltos, with his usual dignity, "that you

have the right idea, Sorplee. If I had stated it, however, I should

have been more frank about it. The arrangements you propose simply

means that we are to take possession of them!"

"What!" shouted Somat, horrified.

"Why, of course! Make slaves of them! What else?"