OFF FOR THE SUN LANDS
Dreadful as the moment was, I did not lose my senses. On the contrary, my
mind was fearfully clear and active. There was not a horror that I
missed. The strength and agility of my captor were astounding. I could no
more have struggled with him than with a lion. Only one thing flashed
upon me to do; I yelled with all the strength of my lungs. But they had
become accustomed to our voices now, and the maddened creature was so
intent upon his fell purpose that a cannon-shot would not have diverted
him from it.
He got me to the altar, where the preceding victim already lay with his
heart torn out, and, pressing me against it with all his bestial force,
raised the pointed staff to transfix me. With dying eyes I saw the earth
gleaming, magnificent, directly over my head, and my heart bounded with
unreasoning hope at the sight. It was my mother planet, powerful to save!
All this passed in a second, while the dreadful spear was poised for its
work. Even in that fraction of time I noticed the bunching muscles of the
murderer's hairy arm, and then I pressed my eyes shut.
_Bang!_
Something touched me, and I felt the warm blood gushing. Then I knew no
more.
* * * * *
In the midst of a dream of boyhood scenes a murmur of familiar voices
awoke me. I opened my eyes, but as I could not make out where I was,
closed them again.
Then I heard Edmund saying:
"He's coming out all right."
Thereupon, I reopened my eyes, but still the scene puzzled me. I saw
Edmund's face, and behind those of Jack and Henry, wearing anxious looks.
But this was not my room! It seemed to be a cave, with faint firelight
reflections on the walls.
"Where am I?" I asked.
"Back in the cavern, and coming along all right," said Edmund.
Back in the cavern! What did he mean? Then, suddenly, memory returned.
"So he didn't sacrifice me!" I cried.
"Not on your life!" Jack's hearty voice responded. "Edmund was too quick
for that."
"But only by a fraction of a second!" said Edmund, smiling.
"What happened, then?" I asked, my recollections coming back stronger and
stronger.
"A mighty good shot happened," said Jack. "The best I ever saw."
I looked inquiringly at Edmund. He saw that I could bear it, and he
began:
"When that fellow snatched you up and leaped inside the circle I had my
furs wrapped so closely around me, not anticipating any danger, that for
quite ten seconds I was unable to get out my pistol. I tore the garment
open just in time, for already he was pressing you against the accursed
altar with his spear poised. I didn't waste any time finding my aim, but
even as it was the iron point had touched you when the bullet crashed
through his brain. The shock swerved the weapon a little and you were
only wounded in the shoulder. You got a scratch which might have been
serious but for your Arctic coat. The fellow fell dead beside you, and
under the circumstances I felt compelled to shoot the other one also, for
he was insane with the delirium of their bloody rite, and I knew that our
lives would never be safe if he remained ready for mischief.
"I'm sorry to have had to begin killing right and left again, but I guess
that's the lot of all invaders, wherever they may go. It's the second
lesson for these savages, and I believe it will prove final. When their
priests were dead and the others had no fight in them, even if they had
intended any harm to us. Nobody knows to what those chaps might have led
them, and my conscience is easy this time."
"How long have I been here?" I asked.
"Two days by the calendar clock?" replied Jack.
"Yes, two days," Edmund assented. "I never saw a man so knocked out by a
shock, for the wound wasn't much; I fixed that up in five minutes. But I
don't blame you. In your place I should have been scared to the bottom of
my soul also. But look at yourself."
He held a pocket mirror before me, and then I saw that my hair was
streaked with gray!
"But we haven't been idle in the meanwhile," Edmund went on. "I've got
two sleds nearly completed, and to-morrow at midnight--earth time--I mean
to set out for the sunny lands of Venus."
"How in the world could you have worked so fast?" I asked in surprise.
"Because I had certain tools in the car which vastly facilitated the
operation; but I must admit that the savage blacksmiths worked well, too,
and showed surprising intelligence in comprehending my directions.
Perhaps that was because I had learned their language."
"Learned their language!" I exclaimed, staring in amazement.
"Well, perhaps that's putting it a little too strong; but I have learned
enough to establish a pretty good understanding with them. There's
nothing like working together to make intelligent creatures comprehend
one another."
"But what kind of a language is it, then?" I asked.
"A language to make your hair stand on end," put in Jack. "The language
that ghosts speak, I reckon! Not that I understand the least little bit
of it, but I judge from what Edmund says."
With increasing bewilderment I looked at our leader. He smiled, and then
looked thoughtful for a moment before again speaking. At last he said:
"It's a subject that I may be better able to discuss after I have learned
more about it. All I can say at present is that it appears to be a kind
of telepathy. You know that their voices seem hardly more cultivated, or
capable of regular articulation, than those of mere brutes; and, besides,
they have a certain horror of sound. These smiths wear coverings over
their ears to minify the noise of their hammering. Yet they are able to
converse, partly by physical signs, but more, I am sure, by some means
which they possess of transferring thought without the mediation of any
senses familiar to us. Sometimes I imagine that their extraordinary eyes
play a large part in the phenomenon. But, however that may be, they
certainly are able to read some of my thoughts, when we are in close
relations and working together. One of them is especially gifted in this
way, and what do you think? I have discovered his name!"
"Now, Edmund--" I began incredulously.
"Yes," he persisted, "it's a fact. You are to remember that they do
interchange some of their ideas by means of sounds, and they have certain
words, among which I am disposed to think are their individual
designations. One of these words particularly attracted my attention
because I observed that it was always addressed to the person I have just
spoken of, and I finally concluded that it was his name. As near as I can
imitate it, it sounds something like 'Juba.' So that's what I call him,
and he's going to be the chief of the party that I propose to take with
us. His services may be invaluable to us."
A great deal more was said on this curious subject, but since we did not
arrive at a complete understanding of it until after we had reached the
other side of the planet, I shall postpone any further explanation to the
chapters which will be devoted to our astonishing adventures on that part
of Venus.
My wound, as Edmund had said, was very slight, and the effects of the
shock having passed off during the period of my unconsciousness, I was
soon busy with the others in making the final preparations for our
departure. The sleds were, of course, very rude affairs, but they were
also very strong. Among the innumerable stores which Edmund's foresight
had led him to put into the car were a number of exceedingly strong but
light metallic cables. With these the two sleds were hitched, one behind
the other, and a line about a hundred feet long connected them with the
car. The latter could thus rise to a considerable height without lifting
the sleds from the ground.
The sleds were provisioned from the stores of the natives, and we also
took some of their food in the car, not only to eke out our own but
because we had come to like it.
Edmund had already chosen the fellows who were to accompany us, and among
them were two of the smiths besides Juba. In all they were eight. How he
succeeded in persuading them I do not know, but not the slightest
objection was apparent on their part, or on the part of their compatriots
in the caverns. We were all ready at the predetermined time, and the
scene at our departure was a strange one.
At least five hundred natives had assembled in a furry crowd around the
entrance to the caverns to see us off. When we started, the fellows on
the sleds, being unused to the motion, clung together like so many
awkward white bears taking a ride in the circus. Their friends stood
about the ill-omened sacrificial altar, waving their long arms, while
their huge eyes goggled in the starlight.
Jack, in a burst of enthusiasm, fired four or five parting shots from his
pistol. As the reports crashed through the heavy air, you should have
seen the crowd vanish down the hole! The sight made me wince, for they
must have gone down like a cataract, all heaped together. But they were
tough, and I trust no heads were broken. The effect on the eight fellows
on the sleds came near being disastrous. I expected to see them leap off
and run, which no doubt they would have done if Edmund had not taken, for
other reasons, the precaution to tie them fast. But they strained at
their bonds, and squealed in terror.
"Give me your pistol!" commanded Edmund, in a voice of thunder, and with
blazing eyes.
Jack was almost twice his size, but he handed over the pistol with the
air of a rebuked schoolboy.
"When you learn how to use it, I'll give it back to you," said Edmund
sternly, and that closed the incident.
Then we began gradually to put on speed, and as the ground was icy smooth
and entirely unobstructed, we were soon traveling at the rate of sixty
miles an hour. The plan of the sleds worked like magic, and after their
first terror had passed away it was plain to be seen that the natives
enjoyed the new sensation immensely. And, indeed, it was a glorious spin!
But in a little while a danger developed which we had not thought of. It
arose from the existence of other caverns whose mouths opened upon the
plain. To have precipitated the sleds into these would have been fatal.
Luckily, shafts of light issued from all of them, and warned by these, we
managed to avoid the danger. But it was not entirely passed before we had
traveled at least a hundred miles. It was like an immense city of prairie
dogs without mounds. The cavern that we had discovered on our arrival was
evidently situated on the outskirts of the group, and now we were passing
through the center of it. Occasionally we saw a huge white form disappear
in one of the holes as we swiftly approached, but that was all we beheld
of the inhabitants. But the spectacle of the shafts of light rising all
around us was amazing. When we were in the midst of it Edmund hesitated
for a moment, muttering that we had been too hasty and should have
remained longer to study the peculiarities of this wonderful world of
night; but finally he decided to keep on, and soon afterwards we saw the
last of the caverns. Then, as there appeared to be no obstructions of any
kind, the speed was worked up to a hundred miles an hour. Going straight
ahead as we did, there was no danger of the sleds being overturned.
Having, as Edmund had calculated, about five thousand miles to go before
reaching the edge of the sun-illuminated hemisphere, it was evident that,
at our present rate of progress, we should arrive there in a little over
two days by the calendar clock. We guided our course by the stars, and
for me one of the most interesting things was to see the earth sinking
toward the horizon, accompanied by the stars, as if the heavens were
revolving in a direction opposed to our line of travel. We smoked and
talked and ate and slept in the old way, while the marvelous mouths in
the wall resumed their strange deglutition. Thus the time passed, without
ennui, until, unexpectedly, a new phenomenon captured our attention.
Ahead, through the peephole, Edmund had descried again the flaming spires
which had so astonished us on our approach to Venus. But now their
appearance was splendid and imposing beyond words. Above them rose an arc
of pearly light which grew higher every hour. And with the arc of light
rose the flames also. At the same time they seemed to spread to the right
and the left, until they were simultaneously visible from both of the
side windows of the car. Their colors were wonderful--red, green, purple,
orange--all the hues of the prism.
"There is the old mystery again," exclaimed Edmund, "and I can no more
explain it now than I could when we first saw it on nearing the planet.
The arc of light above is natural enough; it's simply the dawn. The sun
never rises on this side of Venus, but it will rise for us because we are
approaching it, and the light is the first indication that we are getting
near enough to the border between day and night for some of the sun's
rays to be bent over the horizon by refraction. But those flames! See how
steady they are as a whole, and yet how they change color like a slowly
turning prism."
"Don't, for God's sake, run us into a conflagration," said Jack. "I'm
ready to believe anything of this topsy-turvy old planet, and I shouldn't
be surprised if the other side is all fire as this one is all frost. I
can stand these hairy beasts, but I'll be hanged if I want to be
introduced among salamanders."
"That's not real fire," said Edmund. "When we get a little nearer we can
see what it is. In the meantime I'll try to think it out."
The result of Edmund's meditations, when he announced it to us, an hour
later, awoke as much amazement in our minds as anything that had yet
occurred. He had been sitting silent in his corner, occasionally taking a
glimpse through the peephole, or one of the windows, when suddenly he
slapped his thigh, and springing to his feet, exclaimed:
"They're mountains of crystal!"
"Mountains of crystal!" we echoed.
"Nothing else in the world, and I am ashamed not to have foreseen the
thing. It's plain enough when you come to think about it. Remember that
Venus being a world lying half in the daylight and half in the night, is
necessarily as hot on one side as it is cold on the other. All of the
clouds and floating vapors are on the day side, where the sunbeams act.
The heated air charged with moisture rises over the sunward hemisphere,
and flows off above, on all sides, toward the night side, while from the
latter cold air flows in beneath to take its place. Along the junction of
the two hemispheres the clouds and moisture are condensed by the intense
cold, and fall in ceaseless snowstorms. This snow descending for ages has
piled up in mountainous masses whose height may be increased in some
places by real mountain ranges buried beneath. The atmospheric moisture
cannot pass very far into the night hemisphere without being condensed,
and so it is all arrested within a ring, or band, extending completely
around the planet, and marking the division between perpetual day and
perpetual night. The appearance of gigantic flames is produced by the
sunbeams striking these mountains of ice and snow from behind and
breaking into prismatic fire."
We listened to this explanation, so simple and yet so wonderful, with
mingled feelings of astonishment and admiration. And then we turned again
to regard the phenomenon, which now, with our nearer approach, had become
splendid and awful beyond description.
In a few minutes Edmund addressed us again. "I foresee now," he said,
"considerable trouble for us. There has been a warning of that, too, if I
had but heeded it. I've noticed for some time that a wind, getting
gradually stronger, has been following us, sometimes dying out and then
coming on again stronger than before. It is likely that this wind gets to
be a perfect hurricane in the neighborhood of those strange mountains. It
is the back suction, caused, as I have already told you, by the rising of
the heated air on the sunny side of the planet. It may play the deuce
with us when we get into the midst of it. I shall have to be cautious."
He immediately reduced the speed to not more than ten miles an hour, and
at once we noticed the wind of which he had spoken. It came now in great
gusts from behind, rapidly increasing in frequency and fury. Soon it was
strong enough to drive the sleds without any pull upon the cable, and
sometimes they were forced directly under the car, and even ahead of it,
the natives clinging to one another in the utmost terror. Edmund managed
to govern the motions of the car for a time, holding it back against the
storm, but as he confessed, this was a contingency he had made no
provision for, and eventually we became almost as helpless as a ship in a
typhoon.
"Of course I could cut loose from the sleds and run right out of this,"
said Edmund, "but that would never do. I've taken them into my service
and I'm bound to look out for them. If there was room for them in the car
it would be all right. Let's see. Yes! I've got it. I'll fetch up the
sleds and fasten them underneath the car, like baskets to a balloon, and
so carry the whole thing. There's plenty of power; it's only room that's
wanting."
No sooner said than done with Edmund. By this time we were getting into
the ice, huge hills of which surrounded us. Edmund dropped the car in the
lee of one of these strange hummocks. Here the force of the wind was
broken, and the sky directly over us was free from clouds, but a short
distance ahead we could see them whirling and tumbling in mighty masses
of tumultuous vapor. Lashing the two sleds together we attached them
about ten feet below the bottom of the car. Then the natives, who had
been unbound, and had stood looking on in utter bewilderment, were
securely fastened on the sleds. We entered the car and the power was
turned on.
"We'll rise straight up," said Edmund, "and as soon as we are out of the
wind current we will sail over the mountains and come down on the other
side as nice as you please. Strange that I didn't think of carrying the
sleds in this way to begin with."
It was a beautiful program that Edmund had outlined, and we had complete
confidence in our leader's ability to carry it through; but it didn't
work as expected. Even his genius had met its match this time.
No sooner had we risen out of the protection of the hill of ice than the
hurricane caught us. It was a blast of such power and ferocity that in an
instant it had the car spinning like a teetotum, and then it shot us
ahead, banging the sleds against the car as if they had been tassels. It
is a wonder of wonders that the poor creatures on them were not flung
off, but fortunately we had taken particular pains with their lashings,
and as for knocks, they could stand them like so many bears.
In the course of twenty minutes we must have traveled twice as many
miles, perfectly helpless to arrest our mad rush because, Edmund said,
the atomic reaction partly refused to work, and he could not rise as he
had expected to do. We were pitched hither and thither, and were
sprawling on the floor more than half the time. The noise was awful, and
nobody tried to speak after Edmund had shouted his single communication
about the power, which would have filled us with dismay if we had had
leisure to think.
The shutters were open, and suddenly I saw through one of the windows a
sight which I thought must surely be my last. The car had been sweeping
through a dense cloud of boiling vapors, and these had without warning
split open before my eyes--and there, almost in contact with the car, was
a glittering precipice of solid ice, gleaming with wicked blue flashes,
and we were rushing upon it as if shot out of a cannon!
The next instant came a terrific shock, which I thought must have crushed
the car like an eggshell, and down we fell--down and down!