Arriving there, they found the Duke and Diregus quite actively
engaged--for Hili-lites; still, very much valuable time was being
wasted. Already the snow had ceased to fall, and the temperature, Peters
thinks, must have reached ten degrees below freezing, and was rapidly
falling. In the ducal palace there were, in two or three rooms, hearths,
and flue-openings for carrying off smoke; but as there was no wood ready
for burning, and as there seemed to be no dry wood in sight, the Duke
and his son were at the end of their resources as soon as they had
gathered together into a safe place food sufficient to last for a week
or ten days. Fortunately the palace was unusually well stocked with
edibles.
When Pym and Peters arrived, their cool manner and prompt action
exhaling confidence with every look and movement, the Duke and Diregus
were soon enlivened, as in fact were all others who came in contact with
these two active and intrepid strangers.
Pym glanced about him, compassing at a look all possible resources. Then
he issued his orders, himself working with the others, and, so to speak,
'setting the pace.' In ten minutes a large outbuilding--similar to our
summer-houses, or Anglo-Saxon kiosks--was razed to the ground, broken in
pieces, and placed in the rooms, in which fires were soon glowing and
crackling. In twenty minutes, those whom Pym and Peters had found
half-frozen and wholly discouraged, were cheerful, comfortable, and out
of danger.
The two men hastened forth through the city, giving assistance and
advice, and infusing confidence. The smaller residences, as well as many
of those of medium size, were constructed of wood. Pym went rapidly
through the city, ordering that one house in each square be demolished,
and the wood divided--but haste! haste! The temperature was rapidly
declining to a point at which a Hili-lite, even when actively at work,
could not exist.
Pym and Peters might, unaided, have reached one-tenth of the people of
Hili-li, and have shown them the way to safety. As many more, possibly,
might have found other means of saving themselves. It seems improbable
that more than one-fourth of the people of Hili-li would have survived
this terrible storm, had Pym and Peters not been reinforced.
"Let no man, in his finite weakness, ever question the methods of
Infinite Wisdom, which is Infinite Goodness. At the very time when every
moment gained by Pym and Peters meant the saving of a hundred more
lives--at the very moment when two additional men, hardy and inured to
danger, would have doubled the life-saving force, four hundred of the
'Exiles of Olympus' arrived in the city. They had left behind them
warmth and safety, and sailing across thirty miles of tempestuous sea,
had come, headed by Medosus, to try to save their fellow-countrymen.
These four hundred men, young and vigorous, comprised the real
enterprise and daring of Hili-li. They had been promised their liberty,
and their visits, individually, to Hili-li had recently been not only
allowed but even encouraged by those in authority; but the final act
permitting them to return had been, by the formalities of state,
delayed.
"Pym, Peters, and Medosus consulted for a moment, and then the exiles
divided into a hundred parties of four each, and systematically
scattered through the city, doing the work of giants. Finally the exiles
established a hundred stations, selecting for the purpose large rooms,
in which they built hearths of lava-blocks taken from the streets, in
most of the houses the hearths being placed in the centre of an upper
room, and an opening directly above cut through the roof. At each of
these stations one exile at a time took charge of the fire, whilst the
other three of the party in charge scoured the neighborhood for persons
that might in the first desultory search have been overlooked. Then,
when all seemed provided for, the exiles, protecting their bodies with
such additional clothing as those now cared for could spare, went forth
in search of food, to the deserted houses, and to such depots of supply
as the city possessed.
"The work of rescue being thoroughly inaugurated, Pym had a moment in
which his mind might roam from the work immediately in hand; and he
thought of the aged mystic, Masusælili. The old man resided in a spot so
retired that the various rescue parties might easily have overlooked
him; and the temperature was now probably fifty degrees below freezing.
Fortunately, at the instant he thought of the old philosopher, he and
Peters were near the city limits, and within a third of a mile of
Masusælili's home; and starting off at a brisk run, the two were five
minutes later in the old man's house, standing outside his laboratory
door. As the two had hurried along, Peters would continue to murmur
against the project: 'What's the use,' he would growl; 'we'll only find
the old fellow roasting himself in front of a magic fire of burning snow
or ice. _He's_ all right, and we'd better be saving human people.'
"As several raps, increasing from the gentlest to the most vigorous,
elicited no response, Pym opened the laboratory door, and with Peters
entered. But the old man was nowhere to be seen. Pym hastily returned to
the hallway, and discovering a stair leading to a small cellar, he
descended. The cellar was filled with _débris_, two small window
casements opening to the exterior air were broken and decayed to the
last degree of dilapidation, and the icy wind whistled through the
rubbish of the doleful spot. He ran back to the laboratory, where Peters
was hunting about, hoping to find Masusælili alive, yet fearing to find
his emaciated form lying lifeless amid the mass of chemical and
mechanical appliances which littered the room. Several of the large
vase-like objects before alluded to stood here and there; and as the
smaller of them might have hidden the body of a large-sized man, the
searchers even glanced into them. Each vase sat apart upon the floor,
flaring upward like a giant lily to a height of four or five feet; and
from each of them projected, within an inch of the floor, a faucet of
rude construction, through which passed a very primitive spigot. One of
these enormous vases, large enough to have secreted two small men, stood
inverted; and Pym, with no particular object in view, but simply because
he could not think of anything else to do, gave the vase a push, in such
a way as to raise for an inch or two from the floor its large rim,
flaring out to a diameter of probably four feet.
"'Put that down,' came a hollow and stridulous voice, so unexpected and
startling to Pym that he withdrew his hand, allowing the vase to drop
back to the floor with a resounding thud.
"'If thou hast aught of importance to impart, 'continued the voice--that
of Masusælili--still stridulous, but now having also the quality
possessed by a voice heard through a speaking-tube, 'put thy mouth near
to the spigot-hole, and disclose thine errand.'
"Pym placed his lips within an inch of the open faucet, which was only
an inch or two lower than his mouth as he stood beside the vase, and
from the opening of which came a fog-like vapor, similar in appearance
to that exhaled from the mouth and nostrils on a very cold day, and
said:
"'We came, sir, to offer our help--to procure for you wood, and, if
possible, food; or, if you should so prefer, to remove you in safety to
comfortable quarters.'
"For a moment there was silence, during which the fog-like vapor
continued to come from the spigot-hole of the inverted vase. Then the
voice of the aged mystic was again heard in reply:
"'Youth--and thine ape-like companion--go hence. Through three and fifty
of these storms have I safely passed. Beneath this vase have I two
lamps, alight; oil wherewith to supply with fuel these two lamps for a
space of eight days, which hitherto has been the longest duration of any
of these periodical storms; food and water have I sufficient for my
body's wants for a week. And, too, have I mental aliment; for have I
here a manuscript written by the youthful sage, Ægyptus, who sent it to
me by the hand of Azza, long before the legend of Romulus started from
its mythic source to float adown the stream of time: a manuscript which
it delighteth my soul once in each century to peruse. Fear not for one
who knows no fear. Go hence, and quickly go--go with humiliation in thy
heart; for thou hast not yet begun to live, and yet thou presumest to
think in danger one who helped to plan and to construct what thou
callest the ancient city of Babylon. Youth, when thou didst disturb me,
I was reading from my friend, who writes from a village called Sakkarah,
of how a foolish Pharaoh thinks to perpetuate his memory by building a
mighty pyramidal structure of stone, which my friend terms a device
planned by himself to divert the fancy of his ruler, and incidentally to
astonish those European barbarians who may happen that way; and, among
other matters, this Azza asks for my opinion concerning the outer
surface of his pyramid; to which request for advice I remember that I
replied, saying that the walls should be constructed so as to ascend in
step-like angles. Ha, ha, ha!' came from the spigot-hole a hollow,
cracked attempt at derisive laughter--'Ye say--ha, ha!--ye say this
Pharaoh was of the _first_ dynasty!--ha, ha!--the first! Go hence, vain
child.'
"'But, sir,' insisted Pym, after a pause, 'have you provided for
ventilating your--your small apartment?'
"'In the floor beneath me is a knot-hole, which doth open to the outer
air; and upon the opening is a flat stone, which, little by little, more
or less, I remove and replace in accordance with certain laws, allowing
just the proper amount of atmospheric air to enter from below. This oil
maketh very little smoke, yet seest thou not some smoke emerge from the
open faucet? Feel'st thou not with thine hand the heat escape? Again I
say, go hence, vain youth.'
"Pym stood for a moment, meditating; and then something--perhaps
something connected with the words several months before whispered into
his ear by Masusælili--impelled him to say:
"'Good sir, we meant you no harm. Tell me, Allwise One, can you read the
future?'
"Before a reply came, there was a pause so long that, says Peters, Pym
was about to speak again. Then came the voice of this old man who had
investigated and pondered for thousands of years that only inexhaustible
study in the universe, the phenomenon of consciousness--the aged mystic
no doubt being pleasantly warmed and mollified by the appellation
'Allwise One.'
"'None but God,' said Masusælili, 'knows of a certainty the future.
Truly wise men, and the lower animals, when they would penetrate the
future, use not the crude instrument termed _reason_; but rather do they
nestle close to the bosom of--what now call ye Him? Thine ancestors, the
barbarians of Britannia, when I was with them, named Him God. Thus, and
only thus, may the future become known to thee. Have faith, as the bird,
the fish, the little ant, which, _feeling_ God, act, and are not
disappointed. Think ye that the lowest of God's creatures would not have
heard His warning voice, or seen His beckoning arm, or felt His guiding
hand when in the air lurked this present danger? Yet reason told not
you! God shows to us the future, when we should know His edicts in
advance, always--always, if only we will look and hearken. But this,
good youth, God doth permit only to those who lean with full confidence
upon Him, as do the lower animals. To the consciousness of man it is
given, if but the right conditions be attained, truly to know what in
the present happeneth anywhere in the universe. _Time_ is a barrier to
the voluntary acquisition of knowledge, but _distance_ is not an
impediment. My body is confined to this poor vase, but certainly not my
mind--it roams in Europe, in Asia, or amid the stars--but wait a moment.
Poor youth! The hand on the dial of thy destiny moves rapidly. Go! Go
now, and go in haste; for one who loves thee, at this moment sorely
needs thee. Farewell.'
"Pym scarcely heard the word 'farewell;' for he was crossing the
threshold of the house as Masusælili uttered it, and Peters was turning
to follow. They ran as rapidly as the snow and the cutting wind would
permit, and had covered the necessary three miles in about half an hour.
The air was growing intensely cold. They met a party of three exiles,
who were helping to scour the city for any food that might have been
left in deserted homes. These men informed Pym that, in spite of the
promptitude and haste of the rescue parties, more than a hundred persons
had been frozen to death; and that frozen hands and feet by the thousand
had been reported. The Hili-lites were so extremely susceptible to cold
that, at a temperature of 20° Fahrenheit, if they were not well
protected by clothing, they soon became drowsy, then slept, and, if not
found and resuscitated within a very short time, died. One case was
reported in which a woman, only six hundred feet from one of the rescue
stations, was frozen to death in somewhat less than an hour, though she
must have been thoroughly chilled when last seen in an apparently
natural condition. During the day a party of three exiles, whilst on one
of their rounds, had visited the house of this poor woman, and had
carried her three children to the nearest station; and the woman
herself, who was at the time hurrying about the room gathering together
a few articles, it was supposed had followed close behind them. In this
way she was overlooked, until, in the somewhat crowded room to which the
children were taken, the youngest child, a little girl of four years,
broke into tears and began to cry out for her mother. Then two men
hastened back, and found the woman unconscious and apparently dead. The
usual methods of resuscitation were inaugurated, and long continued, but
the woman could not be revived.
"Peters says that he has during his life-time seen a number of persons
who were frozen, several of them fatally; of which a part were in the
Eastern States, others in the far north; and that these Hili-lites froze
to death very differently from those in the northern part of the north
temperate zone. He mentions the case of a Canadian who was exposed to
extreme cold during a whole night. When found, the poor fellow was not
only unconscious, but apparently dead. The arms and legs were frozen
through and through, and the entire body was rigid. He was resuscitated,
but afterwards lost his hands and feet. In Hili-li persons lost their
lives from exposure to cold whose bodies were very little--a few of them
not at all--frozen. The explanation of this difference is to be found in
the fact that an animal dies when bodily temperature in the interior of
the body reaches a certain degree of reduction, which point of reduction
in the Hili-lites is much less than in persons habituated to life in a
colder climate. In persons accustomed to a climate as warm as that of
Hili-li, the heat-producing functions are feeble, and the heat-expelling
functions are very active; but this does not fully explain why, in
Peters' words, 'the people there froze to death without freezing.' Any
person dying as a result of exposure to cold, dies long before any of
the vital organs are frozen; and the Hili-lites no doubt ceased to live
with a reduction of bodily temperature which would not have seriously
inconvenienced a resident of Scotland or Canada. In the storm of which
we speak, the people were nervously depressed as a result of fright.
However, from all I can gather, the temperature was at times certainly
as low as 40° Fahrenheit below freezing, at which degree almost any
thinly clad person might freeze to death.
"But the hour is late, and, though I had expected to close Peters' story
this evening, such a conclusion is, owing to my prolixity, scarcely
practicable. If you still expect to start for home in three days, I
shall certainly in one more evening complete the telling of Peters'
experiences in Hili-li. The day after tomorrow I shall be engaged during
the entire evening, and if we delay our next meeting till the following
evening--your last in Bellevue--it is possible that something may happen
to prevent our meeting; so, if you are willing, my next and last visit
to you here shall be tomorrow evening."