Hotter and hotter grew that stifling spell, more and more languid man
and beast, drier and drier the parching earth.
All the water gave out on the morning after I had bearded Ar-hap in his
den, and our strength went with it. No earthly heat was ever like it,
and it drank our vitality up from every pore. Water there was down
below in the bitter, streaming gulf, but so noisome that we dared not
even bathe there; here there was none but the faintest trickle. All
discipline was at an end; all desire save such as was born of thirst.
Heru I saw as often as I wished as she lay gasping, with poor Si at her
feet, in the women's verandah; but the heat was so tremendous that I
gazed at her with lack-lustre eyes, staggering to and fro amongst the
courtyard shadows, without nerve to plot her rescue or strength to
carry out anything my mind might have conceived.
We prayed for rain and respite. Ar-hap had prayed with a wealth of
picturesque ceremonial. We had all prayed and cursed by turns, but
still the heavens would not relent, and the rain came not.
At last the stifling heat and vapour reached an almost intolerable
pitch. The earth reeked with unwholesome humours no common summer could
draw from it, the air was sulphurous and heavy, while overhead the sky
seemed a tawny dome, from edge to edge of angry clouds, parting now and
then to let us see the red disc threatening us.
Hour after hour slipped by until, when evening was upon us, the clouds
drew together, and thunder, with a continuous low rumble, began to rock
from sky to sky. Fitful showers of rain, odorous and heavy, but
unsatisfying, fell, and birds and beasts of the woodlands came slinking
in to our streets and courtyards. Ever since the sky first darkened
our own animals had become strangely familiar, and now here were these
wild things of the woods slinking in for companionship, sagheaded and
frightened. To me especially they came, until that last evening as I
staggered dying about the streets or sat staring into the remorseless
sky from the steps of Heru's prison house, all sorts of beasts drew
softly in and crowded about, whether I sat or moved, all asking for the
hope I had not to give them.
At another time this might have been embarrassing; then it seemed pure
commonplace. It was a sight to see them slink in between the useless
showers, which fell like hot tears upon us--sleek panthers with lolling
tongues; russet-red wood dogs; bears and sloths from the dark arcades
of the remote forests, all casting themselves down gasping in the
palace shadows; strange deer, who staggered to the garden plots and lay
there heaving their lives out; mighty boars, who came from the river
marshes and silently nozzled a place amongst their enemies to die in!
Even the wolves came off the hills, and, with bloodshot eyes and
tongues that dripped foam, flung themselves down in my shadow.
All along the tall stockades apes sat sad and listless, and on the
roof-ridges storks were dying. Over the branches of the trees, whose
leaves were as thin as though we had had a six months' drought, the
toucans and Martian parrots hung limp and fashionless like gaudy rags,
and in the courtyard ground the corn-rats came up from their tunnels in
the scorching earth to die, squeaking in scores along under the walls.
Our common sorrow made us as sociable as though I were Noah, and
Ar-hap's palace mound another Ararat. Hour after hour I sat amongst
all these lesser beasts in the hot darkness, waiting for the end.
Every now and then the heavy clouds parted, changing the gloom to
sudden fiery daylight as the great red eye in the west looked upon us
through the crevice, and, taking advantage of those gleams, I would
reel across to where, under a spout leading from a dried rivulet, I had
placed a cup to collect the slow and tepid drops that were all now
coming down the reed for Heru. And as I went back each time with that
sickly spoonful at the bottom of the vessel all the dying beasts lifted
their heads and watched--the thirsty wolves shambling after me; the
boars half sat up and grunted plaintively; the panthers, too weak to
rise, beat the dusty ground with their tails; and from the portico the
blue storks, with trailing wings, croaked husky greeting.
But slower and slower came the dripping water, more and more
intolerable the heat. At last I could stand it no longer. What
purpose did it serve to lay gasping like this, dying cruelly without a
hope of rescue, when a shorter way was at my side? I had not drank for
a day and a half. I was past active reviling; my head swam; my reason
was clouded. No! I would not stand it any longer. Once more I would
take Heru and poor Si the cup that was but a mockery after all, then
fix my sword into the ground and try what next the Fates had in store
for me.
So once again the leathern mug was fetched and carried through the
prostrate guards to where the Martian girl lay, like a withered flower,
upon her couch. Once again I moistened those fair lips, while my own
tongue was black and swollen in my throat, then told Si, who had had
none all the afternoon, to drink half and leave half for Heru. Poor Si
put her aching lips to the cup and tilted it a little, then passed it
to her mistress. And Heru drank it all, and Si cried a few hot tears
behind her hands, FOR SHE HAD TAKEN NONE, and she knew it was her life!
Again picking a way through the courtyard, scarce noticing how the
beasts lifted their heads as I passed, I went instinctively, cup in
hand, to the well, and then hesitated. Was I a coward to leave Heru
so? Ought I not to stay and see it out to the bitter end? Well, I
would compound with Fate. I would give the malicious gods one more
chance. I would put the cup down again, and until seven drops had
fallen into it I would wait. That there might be no mistake about it,
no sooner was the mug in place under the nozzle wherefrom the moisture
beads collected and fell with infinite slowness, than my sword, on
which I meant to throw myself, was bared and the hilt forced into a
gaping crack in the ground, and sullenly contented to leave my fate so,
I sat down beside it.
I turned grimly to the spout and saw the first drop fall, then another,
and another later on, but still no help came. There was a long rift in
the clouds now, and a glare like that from an open furnace door was
upon me. I had noticed when I came to the spring how the comet which
was killing us hung poised exactly upon the point of a distant hill. If
he had passed his horrible meridian, if he was going from us, if he
sunk but a hair's breadth before that seventh drop should fall, I could
tell it would mean salvation.
But the fourth drop fell, and he was big as ever. The fifth drop fell,
and a hot, pleasing nose was thrust into my hand, and looking down I
saw a grey wolf had dragged herself across the court and was asking
with eloquent eyes for the help I could not give. The sixth drop
gathered, and fell; already the seventh was like a seedling pearl in
its place. The dying wolf yanked affectionately at my hand, but I put
her by and undid my tunic. Big and bright that drop hung to the spout
lip; another minute and it would fall. A beautiful drop, I laughed,
peering closely at it, many-coloured, prismatic, flushing red and pink,
a tiny living ruby, hanging by a touch to the green rim above; enough!
enough! The quiver of an eyelash would unhinge it now; and angry with
the life I already felt was behind me, and turning in defiant
expectation to the new to come, I rose, saw the red gleam of my sword
jutting like a fiery spear from the cracking soil where I had planted
it, then looked once more at the drop and glanced for the last time at
the sullen red terror on the hill.
Were my eyes dazed, my senses reeling? I said a space ago that the
meteor stood exactly on the mountain-top and if it sunk a hair's
breadth I should note it; and now, why, there WAS a flaw in its lower
margin, a flattening of the great red foot that before had been round
and perfect. I turned my smarting eyes away a minute,--saw the seventh
drop fall with a melodious tingle into the cup, then back again,--there
was no mistake--the truant fire was a fraction less, it had shrunk a
fraction behind the hill even since I looked, and thereon all my life
ran back into its channels, the world danced before me, and "Heru!" I
shouted hoarsely, reeling back towards the palace, "Heru, 'tis well;
the worst is past!"
But the little princess was unconscious, and at her feet was poor Si,
quite dead, still reclining with her head in her hands just as I had
left her. Then my own senses gave out, and dropping down by them I
remembered no more.
I must have lain there an hour or two, for when consciousness came
again it was night--black, cool, profound night, with an inky sky low
down upon the tree-tops, and out of it such a glorious deluge of rain
descending swiftly and silently as filled my veins even to listen to.
Eagerly I shuffled away to the porch steps, down them into the swimming
courtyard, and ankle-deep in the glorious flood, set to work lapping
furiously at the first puddle, drinking with gasps of pleasure, gasping
and drinking again, feeling my body filling out like the thirsty
steaming earth below me. Then, as I still drank insatiably, there came
a gleam of lightning out of the gloom overhead, a brilliant yellow
blaze, and by it I saw a few yards away a panther drinking at the same
pool as myself, his gleaming eyes low down like mine upon the water,
and by his side two apes, the black water running in at their gaping
mouths, while out beyond were more pools, more drinking animals.
Everything was drinking. I saw their outlined forms, the gleam shining
on wet skins as though they were cut out in silver against the
darkness, each beast steaming like a volcano as the Heaven-sent rain
smoked from his fevered hide, all drinking for their lives, heedless of
aught else--and then came the thunder.
It ran across the cloudy vault as though the very sky were being ripped
apart, rolling in mighty echoes here and there before it died away. As
it stopped, the rain also fell less heavily for a minute, and as I lay
with my face low down I heard the low, contented lapping of numberless
tongues unceasing, insatiable. Then came the lightning again, lighting
up everything as though it were daytime. The twin black apes were
still drinking, but the panther across the puddle had had enough; I saw
him lift his grateful head up to the flare; saw the limp red tongue
licking the black nose, the green eyes shining like opals, the water
dripping in threads of diamonds from the hairy tag under his chin and
every tuft upon his chest--then darkness again.
To and fro the green blaze rocked between the thunder crashes. It
struck a house a hundred yards away, stripping every shingle from the
roof better than a master builder could in a week. It fell a minute
after on a tall tree by the courtyard gate, and as the trunk burst into
white splinters I saw every leaf upon the feathery top turn light side
up against the violet reflection in the sky beyond, and then the whole
mass came down to earth with a thud that crushed the courtyard palings
into nothing for twenty yards and shook me even across the square.
Another time I might have stopped to marvel or to watch, as I have
often watched with sympathetic pleasure, the gods thus at play; but
tonight there were other things on hand. When I had drunk, I picked up
an earthen crock, filled it, and went to Heru. It was a rough
drinking-vessel for those dainty lips, and an indifferent draught,
being as much mud as aught else, but its effect was wonderful. At the
first touch of that turgid stuff a shiver of delight passed through the
drowsy lady. At the second she gave a sigh, and her hand tightened on
my arm. I fetched another crockful, and by the flickering light
rocking to and fro in the sky, took her head upon my shoulder, like a
prodigal new come into riches, squandering the stuff, giving her to
drink and bathing face and neck till presently, to my delight, the
princess's eyes opened. Then she sat up, and taking the basin from me
drank as never lady drank before, and soon was almost herself again.
I went out into the portico, there snuffing the deep, strong breath of
the fragrant black earth receiving back into its gaping self what the
last few days had taken from it, while quick succeeding thoughts of
escape and flight passed across my brain. All through the fiery time
we had just had the chance of escaping with the fair booty yonder had
been present. Without her, flight would have been easy enough, but that
was not worth considering for a moment. With her it was more
difficult, yet, as I had watched the woodmen, accustomed to cool forest
shades, faint under the fiery glare of the world above, to make a dash
for liberty seemed each hour more easy. I had seen the men in the
streets drop one by one, and the spears fall from the hands of guards
about the pallisades; I had seen messengers who came to and fro
collapse before their errands were accomplished, and the forest women,
who were Heru's gaolers, groan and drop across the thresholds of her
prison, until at length the way was clear--a babe might have taken what
he would from that half-scorched town and asked no man's leave. Yet
what did it avail me? Heru was helpless, my own spirit burnt in a
nerveless frame, and so we stayed.
But with rain strength came back to both of us. The guards, lying
about like black logs, were only slowly returning to consciousness; the
town still slept, and darkness favoured; before they missed us in the
morning light we might be far on the way back to Seth--a dangerous way
truly, but we were like to tread a rougher one if we stayed. In fact,
directly my strength returned with the cooler air, I made up my mind to
the venture and went to Heru, who by this time was much recovered. To
her I whispered my plot, and that gentle lady, as was only natural,
trembled at its dangers. But I put it to her that no time could be
better than the present: the storm was going over; morning would "line
the black mantle of the night with a pink dawn of promise"; before any
one stirred we might be far off, shaping a course by our luck and the
stars for her kindred, at whose name she sighed. If we stayed, I
argued, and the king changed his mind, then death for me, and for Heru
the arms of that surly monarch, and all the rest of her life caged in
these pallisades amongst the uncouth forms about us.
The lady gave a frightened little shiver at the picture, but after a
moment, laying her head upon my shoulder, answered, "Oh, my guardian
spirit and helper in adversity, I too have thought of tomorrow, and
doubt whether that horror, that great swine who has me, will not invent
an excuse for keeping me. Therefore, though the forest roads are
dreadful, and Seth very far away, I will come; I give myself into your
hands. Do what you will with me."
"Then the sooner the better, princess. How soon can you be prepared?"
She smiled, and stooping picked up her slippers, saying as she did so,
"I am ready!"
There were no arrangements to be made. Every instant was of value. So,
to be brief, I threw a dark cloak over the damsel's shoulders, for
indeed she was clad in little more than her loveliness and the gauziest
filaments of a Hither girl's underwear, and hand in hand led her down
the log steps, over the splashing, ankle-deep courtyard, and into the
shadows of the gateway beyond.
Down the slope we went; along towards the harbour, through a score of
deserted lanes where nothing was to be heard but the roar of rain and
the lapping of men and beasts, drinking in the shadows as though they
never would stop, and so we came at last unmolested to the wharf.
There I hid royal Seth between two piles of merchandise, and went to
look for a boat suitable to our needs. There were plenty of small
craft moored to rings along the quay, and selecting a canoe--it was no
time to stand on niceties of property--easily managed by a single
paddle, I brought it round to the steps, put in a fresh water-pot, and
went for the princess.
With her safely stowed in the prow, a helpless, sodden little morsel of
feminine loveliness, things began to appear more hopeful and an escape
down to blue water, my only idea, for the first time possible. Yet I
must needs go and well nigh spoil everything by over-solicitude for my
charge.
Had we pushed off at once there can be no doubt my credit as a spirit
would have been established for all time in the Thither capital, and
the belief universally held that Heru had been wafted away by my
enchantment to the regions of the unknown. The idea would have
gradually grown into a tradition, receiving embellishments in
succeeding generations, until little wood children at their mother's
knees came to listen in awe to the story of how, once upon a time, the
Sun-god loved a beautiful maiden, and drove his fiery chariot across
the black night-fields to her prison door, scorching to death all who
strove to gainsay him. How she flew into his arms and drove away
before all men's eyes, in his red car, into the west, and was never
seen again--the foresaid Sun-god being I, Gulliver Jones, a much
under-paid lieutenant in the glorious United States navy, with a packet
of overdue tailors' bills in my pocket, and nothing lovable about me
save a partiality for meddling with other people's affairs.
This is how it might have been, but I spoiled a pretty fairy story and
changed the whole course of Martian history by going back at that
moment in search of a wrap for my prize. Right on top of the steps was
a man with a lantern, and half a glance showed me it was the harbour
master met with on my first landing.
"Good evening," he said suspiciously. "May I ask what you are doing on
the quay at such an hour as this?"
"Doing? Oh, nothing in particular, just going out for a little
fishing."
"And your companion the lady--is she too fond of fishing?"
I swore between my teeth, but could not prevent the fellow walking to
the quay edge and casting his light full upon the figure of the girl
below. I hate people who interfere with other people's business!
"Unless I am very much mistaken your fishing friend is the Hither woman
brought here a few days ago as tribute to Ar-hap."
"Well," I answered, getting into a nice temper, for I had been very
much harrassed of late, "put it at that. What would you do if it were
so?"
"Call up my rain-drunk guards, and give you in charge as a thief caught
meddling with the king's property."
"Thanks, but as my interviews with Ar-hap have already begun to grow
tedious, we will settle this little matter here between ourselves at
once." And without more to-do I closed with him. There was a brief
scuffle and then I got in a blow upon his jaw which sent the harbour
master flying back head over heels amongst the sugar bales and potatoes.
Without waiting to see how he fared I ran down the steps, jumped on
board, loosened the rope, and pushed out into the river. But my heart
was angry and sore, for I knew, as turned out to be the case, that our
secret was one no more; in a short time we should have the savage king
in pursuit, and now there was nothing for it but headlong flight with
only a small chance of getting away to distant Seth.
Luckily the harbour master lay insensible until he was found at dawn,
so that we had a good start, and the moment the canoe passed from the
arcade-like approach to the town the current swung her head
automatically seaward, and away we went down stream at a pace once more
filling me with hope.