DREADFUL CREATURES OF THE GLOOM
The deck of the air ship was tipped up at an angle of forty-five degrees
by the pressure, and with inarticulate cries most of those on board
tumbled off, some falling into the water and some disappearing amidst the
tangled vegetation. Ala was visible, as the machine sank lower, and
crashed through the branches, clinging to an upright on the sloping deck,
while Juba, who hung on like a huge baboon, was helping her to maintain
her place.
Almost at the same moment I caught sight of the head of the monstrous
animal which had caused the disaster. It was as massive as that of an
elephant or mammoth; and the awful arm resembled a trunk, but was of
incredible size. Moreover, it was covered with sucking mouths or disks.
The creature apparently had four eyes ranged round the conical front of
the head where it tapered into the trunk, and two of these were visible,
huge, green, and deadly bright in the gleam of the lantern.
For a moment we all stood as if petrified; then the great arm was thrown
with a movement quick as lightning round both Ala and Juba as they clung
to the upright! My heart shot into my mouth, but before the animal could
haul in its prey, a series of terrific reports rattled like the discharge
of a machine gun at my ear. The monstrous arm released the victims, and
waved in agony, breaking the thick, clammy branches of the vegetation,
and the vast head disappeared. Edmund had fired all the ten shots in his
automatic pistol with a single pressure of the double trigger and an
unvarying aim, directed, no doubt, at one of the creature's eyes.
"Quick!" he shouted, as the air ship, relieved from the stress, righted
itself; "climb aboard."
The vessel had sunk so low, and the vegetation was so crowded about it,
that we had no great difficulty in obeying his commands. He was the last
aboard, and instantly he grasped the controlling apparatus, and we rose
out of the tangle. We could hear the wounded monster thrashing in the
swamp, but saw only the reflection of its movements in the commotion of
the branches.
I had expected that Edmund would immediately fly at top speed away from
the dreadful place, but, instead, as soon as we were at a safe elevation,
he brought the air ship to a hover, circling slowly above the
comparatively open spot of dry ground at the edge of the swamp.
"We cannot leave the poor fellows who have fallen overboard," he said, as
quietly as if he had been safely aboard his own car. "We must stay here
and find them."
Soon their cries came to our ears, and turning down the light of the
lantern we saw five of them collected together on the solid ground, and
gesticulating to us in an agony of terror. Edmund swept the ship around
until we were directly over the poor fellows, and then allowed it to
settle until it rested on the ground beside them. I trembled with
apprehension at this bold maneuver, but Edmund was as steady as a rock.
Ala instantly comprehended his intention, and encouraged her followers,
who were all but paralyzed with fright, to clamber aboard. A momentary
communication of the eyes took place between Edmund and Ala, and I
understood that he was demanding if all had been found.
There was another--and not a trace of him could be seen.
"We must wait a moment," said Edmund, reloading the chamber of his pistol
while he spoke. "I'll look about for him."
"In God's name, Edmund! You don't think of going down there!"
"But I do," he said firmly, and before I could put my hand on his arm he
had dropped from the deck. The gigantic creature that he had wounded was
still thrashing about a little distance off, occasionally making horrible
sounds, but Edmund seemed to have no fear. We saw him, with amazement,
walk collectedly round the ground encircled by the swamp, peering into
the tangle, and frequently uttering a call. But his search was vain, and
after five minutes of the most intense nervous strain that I ever
endured, I thanked Heaven for seeing him return in safety, and come
slowly aboard. There was another consultation with Ala, which evidently
related to the ability of the engineer of the ship to resume his
functions. This had a satisfactory result, for the fellow took his place,
and the vessel finally quitted the ground. But, at Edmund's request, it
rose only to a moderate height, and then began again to circle about. He
would not yet give up the search.
We flew in widening circles, Edmund keeping his lantern directed toward
the ground, and the full horror of these interminable morasses now became
plain. I was in a continual shudder at the evidence of Ingra's pitiless
scheme for our destruction. He had meant that we should be the prey of
the unspeakable inhabitants of the fens, and had believed that there was
no possibility of escape from them. We became aware that there was a
great variety of them in the swamps and thickets beneath through the
noises that they made--heart-quaking cries, squealing sounds, gruntings,
and, most trying of all, a loud, piercing whistle whose sibilant
pulsations penetrated the ear like thrusts of a needle. I pictured to
myself a colossal serpent as the most probable author of this terrifying
sound, but the error of my fancy was demonstrated by a tragedy which
shook even Edmund's iron nerves.
Always circling, and always watching what was below by the light of the
lantern, which was of extraordinary power for so small an instrument, we
saw occasionally a curling trunk uplifted above the vegetation, as if its
owner imagined that the strange light playing on the branches was some
delicate prey that could be grasped, and sometimes a gliding form whose
details escaped detection, when, upon passing over a relatively open
place, like that where our adventure had occurred, a blood-curdling sight
met our eyes.
Directly ahead, in the focus of the reflector of the lantern, and not
more than a hundred feet distant, stood a prodigious black creature, on
eight legs, rolling something in its mandibles, which were held close to
what seemed to be its mouth.
"Good Lord!" cried Jack. "It's a tarantula as big as a buffalo!"
"It has caught the missing man!" said Edmund. "Look!"
He pointed to a shred of garment dangling on a thorny branch. I felt sick
at heart, and I heard a groan from Jack. After all, these people were
like us, and our feelings would not have been more keenly agitated if the
victim had been a descendant of Adam.
"He is beyond all help," I faltered.
"But he can be avenged," said Edmund, in a tone that I had never heard
him use before.
As he spoke he whipped out his pistol, and crash! crash! crash! sounded
the hurrying shots. As their echo ceased, the giant arachnid dropped his
prey, and then there came from him--clear, piercing, quivering through
our nerves--that arrowy whistle that had caused us to shudder as we
unwillingly listened to it darting out of the gloom of the impenetrable
thickets.
Then, to our horror, the creature, which, if touched at all by the shots,
had not been seriously injured, picked up its prey and bounded away in
the darkness. Edmund instantly turned to Ala, and I knew as well as if he
had spoken, what his demand was. He wished to follow, and his wish was
obeyed. We swooped ahead, and in a minute we saw the creature again. It
had stopped on another oasis of dry land, and it still carried its
dreadful burden. Its head was toward us, and it appeared to be watching
our movements. Its battery of eyes glittered wickedly, and I noticed the
bristle of stiff hairs, like wires, that covered its body and legs.
Again Edmund fired upon it, and again it uttered its stridulous pipe of
defiance, or fear, and leaped away in the tangle. We sped in pursuit, and
when we came upon it for the third time it had stopped in an opening so
narrow that the bow of the air ship almost touched it before we were
aware of its presence. This time its prey was no longer visible. There
was no question now that its attitude meant defiance. Cold shivers ran
all over me as, with fascinated eyes, I gazed at its dreadful form. It
seemed to be gathering itself for a spring, and I shrank away in terror.
Crash! bang! bang! bang! sounded the shots once more, and in the midst of
them there came a blinding tangle of bristled, jointed legs that thrashed
the deck, a thud that shook the air ship to its center, and a cry from
Jack, who fell on his back with a crimson line across his face.
"Give me your pistol!" shouted Edmund, snatching my arm.
I hardly know how I got it out of my pocket, I was so unnerved, but it
was no sooner in Edmund's hand than he was leaning over the side of the
deck and pouring out the shots. When the pistol was emptied he
straightened up, and said simply:
"_That_ devil is ended."
Then he turned to where Jack lay on the deck. We all bent over him with
anxious hearts, even Ala sharing our solicitude. He had lost his senses,
but a drop from Edmund's flask immediately brought him round, and he rose
to his feet.
"I'm all right," he said, with a rather sickly smile; "but," drawing his
hand across his brow and cheek, "he got me here, and I thought it was a
hot iron. Where is he now?"
"Dead," said Edmund.
"Jo, I'd have liked to finish him myself!"
We were worried by the appearance of the wound, like a long, deep
scratch, on Jack's face, but, of course, we said nothing about our
worriment to him. Edmund bound it up, as best he could, and it afterwards
healed, but it took a long time about it, and left a mark that never
disappeared. There was probably a little poison in it.
Edmund himself needed the attention of a surgeon, for his wrists had been
cruelly burned by the matches, but he would not allow us to speak of his
sufferings, and putting on some slight bandages, he declared that it was
time now to get out of this wilderness of horrors. He communicated with
Ala, and in a few minutes we were speeding, at a high elevation, toward
the land of the opaline dome. So far above the morasses we no longer
heard the brute voices of its terrible inhabitants, nor saw the swaying
of the branches as they looked about in search of prey.
"This," said Edmund, "exceeds everything that I could have imagined. I do
not know in what classification to put any of the strange beasts that we
have seen. They can only be likened to the monsters of the early dawn on
the earth, in the age of the dinosaurs. But they are _sui generis_, and
would make our anatomists and paleontologists stare. I am only surprised
that we have encountered no flying dragons here."
"But was it really a--a giant spider that captured Ala's man?" I asked
with a shudder.
"God knows what it was! It had the form of a spider, and it leaped like
one. If it had been armored I could never have killed it. I think the
shock of its impact against the air ship helped to finish it."
It was only after we had issued from under the curtain of twilight that
we learned the story of the chase which had brought our salvation. Edmund
first obtained it from Ala and Juba, filling out the outlines of their
wordless narrative with his ready power of interpretation, and then he
told it to us."
"We owe our lives to Juba," he said. "Ala had just returned to the mine
from the capital when our abduction took place. Juba, who had wandered
out on our track, saw from a distance the seizure, and a few minutes
afterwards Ala's air ship arrived. He instantly communicated the facts to
her, and without losing an instant the chase was begun. Ingra's delay in
choosing his course was the thing that saved us. They knew that they must
not lose sight of us for an instant, and their motors were driven to
their highest capacity. Fortunately, Ala's vessel is one of the
speediest, and they were able to gain on us from the start. Slowly they
drew up until the border of the twilight zone was reached. Then as we
entered under the clouds we were swallowed from the sight of all except
Juba. But for his wonderful eyes, there would have been no hope of
continuing the chase. He had lived all his life in a land of darkness and
now he began to feel himself at home. Throwing off the shades which he
has worn since our arrival, he had no difficulty in following the
movements of Ingra, even after our vessel had completely faded from the
view of all the others. So, without abating their fearful speed, they
plunged into the gloom straight upon our track. The nose of the
bloodhound is not more certain in the chase than were Juba's eyes in that
terrible flight through the darkness. When Ingra changed his course and
doubled, Juba saw the maneuver and turned the dodge against its inventor,
for now Ingra could not see them, and did not know that they were still
on his track. They cut off the corners, and gained so rapidly that they
were close at hand when Ingra rose from the swamp after pitching us
overboard. They had heard Henry's cry, which served to tell them what had
happened, and to direct them to the spot. But even Juba could not discern
us in the midst of the vegetation, and it was the sudden flashing out of
our lamp which revealed our location when they were about to pass
directly over us."
I need not say with what breathless attention we listened to this
remarkable story, which Edmund's scientific imagination had constructed
out of the bones of fact that he had been able to gather.
"Jo," said Jack, "our luck is simply outlandish!"
Then he broke out in one of his fits of enthusiasm. Slapping Juba on the
shoulder, he danced around him, laughing joyously, and exclaiming:
"Bully old boy! Oh, you're a trump! Wait till I get you in New York, and
I'll give you the time of your life! Eh, Edmund, won't we make him a
member of Olympus? Golly, won't he make a sensation!"
And Jack hugged himself again with delight. His reference to home threw
us into a musing. At length I asked:
"Shall we ever see the earth again, Edmund?"
"Why, of course we shall," he replied heartily. "I have the material I
need, and it only remains to repair the car. I shall set about it the
moment we reach the capital. Do you know," he continued, "this adventure
has undoubtedly been a benefit to us."
"How so?"
"By increasing our prestige. They have seen the terrible power of the
pistols. They have seen us conquer monsters that they must have regarded
as invincible. When they see what the car can do, even Ingra will begin
to fear us, and to think that we are more than mortal."
"But what will Ala think of Ingra now?"
"Ah, I cannot tell; but, at any rate, he cannot have strengthened himself
in her regard, for it is plain that she, at least, has no desire to see
us come to harm. But he is a terrible enemy still, and we must continue
to be on our guard against him."
"I should think that he would hardly dare to show himself now," I
remarked.
"Don't be too sure of that. After all, we are interlopers here, and he
has all the advantages of his race and his high rank. Ala is interested
in us because she has, I believe I may say, a philosophical mind, with a
great liking for scientific knowledge. It was she who planned and
personally conducted the expedition toward the dark hemisphere. From me
she has learned a little. She appreciates our knowledge and our powers,
and would ask nothing better than to learn more about us and from us. Her
prompt pursuit and interference to save us when she must have understood,
perfectly, Ingra's design, shows that she will go far to protect us; but
we must not presume too much on her ability to continue her protection,
nor even on her unvarying disposition to do so. For the present, however,
I think that we are safe, and I repeat that our position has been
strengthened. Ingra made a great mistake. He should have finished us out
of hand."
"His leaving us to be devoured by those fearful creatures showed an
inexplicable cruelty on his part; he chose the most horrible death he
could think of for us," I said.
"Oh, I don't know," replied Edmund. "Did you ever see a laughing boy
throw flies into a spider's den? It is my idea that he simply wished to
have us disappear mysteriously, and then _he_ would never have offered an
explanation, unless it might have been the malicious suggestion that we
had suddenly decamped to return to the world we pretended to have come
from. And but for Ala's unexpected return to the mine he would have
succeeded. No doubt his crew were pledged to secrecy."