EARTH MAGIC ON VENUS
We were no sooner installed again at the capital than Edmund began his
"readjustment of the atomic energies."
"Blessed if I know what he means," said Jack; "but he gets the goods, and
that's enough for me."
In reality I did not understand it any better than Jack did, only I had
more knowledge than he of the nature of the forces that Edmund employed.
We went with him to the place in the great tower where the car had been
stored, and where it seemed to be regarded with a good deal of
superstitious awe. But they had not yet the least idea of its marvelous
powers. We were preparing for them the greatest surprise of their lives,
and our impatience to see the effect that would be produced when we made
our first flight grew by day, while Edmund, shut up alone in the car,
labored away at his task.
"I wonder what they think he is doing in there," I said, the third day
after our return, as we sat on a balcony of the floating tower, with our
feet nonchalantly elevated on a railing, and our eyes drinking in the
magnificent prospect of the vast city, as brilliant in variegated colors
as a flower garden, while a soft breeze, that gently swayed the gigantic
gossamer, soothed us like a perfumed fan.
"Worshipping the sun god, I reckon," laughed Jack. "But, see here, Peter,
what do you make of this religion of theirs, anyway?"
"I don't know what to make of it," I replied. "But if the sun really does
appear to them once in a lifetime, or so, as Edmund thinks, it seems to
me natural enough that they should worship it. We have done more
surprising things of the kind on the earth."
"Not civilized people like these."
"Oh, yes. The Egyptians were civilized, and the Romans, and they
worshipped all sorts of strange things that struck their fancy. And what
can you say to the Greeks--they were civilized enough, and look what a
collection of gods they had."
"But the wise heads among them didn't really believe in their gods."
"I'm not sure of that; at any rate they had to pretend that they
believed. No doubt there were some who secretly scoffed at the popular
belief, and it may be the same here. I shouldn't wonder if Ingra were one
of the scoffers. Edmund has a great opinion of his intelligence, and if
he really doesn't believe in the thing, he is all the more dangerous for
us, because you know that now we are depending a good deal on their
superstition for our safety."
"But Ala is very intelligent, a regular wonder, I should think, from what
Edmund says; and yet she accepts their superstition as gospel."
"Lucky for us that she does believe," I said. "But there's some great
mystery behind all this; Edmund has convinced me of that. We don't begin
to understand it yet, and there are moments when I think that Edmund is
afraid of the whole thing. He seems dimly to foresee some catastrophe
connected with it, though what it may be I cannot imagine, and I think he
doesn't know himself."
Henry listened to our conversation without proffering a remark--quite the
regular thing with him--and at this point Jack, yielding to the
overpowering sense of well-being, and the soothing influence of the
delicious air and delightful view, closed his eyes for a nap.
Presently Edmund came and roused us all up with the remark that he had
finished his work. Jack was instantly on his feet:
"Hurrah!" he exclaimed. "Now for another trip that will open the eyes of
these Venusians. Where shall we go, Edmund?"
"We shall go nowhere just at present. I want first to make sure by a
trial trip that everything is in perfect shape. For that purpose I shall
wait for the hours of repose when there will be nobody to watch us."
I must here explain more fully what I have already said--that in this
land of unceasing daylight, everybody took repose as regularly as on the
earth. That is a necessity for all physical organisms. When they slept,
they retired into darkened chambers, and passed several hours in peaceful
slumber. We had learned the time when this periodical need for sleep
seized upon the entire population, and although, naturally, there were a
few wide-awakes who kept "late hours," yet within a certain time after
the habitual hour for repose had arrived it was a rare thing to see
anybody stirring. We had, then, only to wait until "the solemn dead of
night" came on in order that Edmund might try his experiment with almost
a certainty of not being observed. This was the easier, since latterly
there had been no guard kept over our movements. We were not confined in
any way, and could go and come as we pleased. Evidently, if anybody
thought of such a thing as an attempt to escape on our part, they trusted
to the fact that we had no means of getting away, for after our first
exploit of that kind, all the air ships were carefully guarded, and
placed beyond our reach. As to the car, there was nothing about it to
suggest that it could fly, and probably they took it simply for some kind
of boat, since they had seen us employ it only in navigating the sea. I
have often thought, with wonder, of their unsuspiciousness in permitting
Edmund to spend so much time alone and undisturbed in the car. Possibly,
there was something in Jack's suggestion, that they supposed it to be
connected with our religious observances. Anyhow, so it was; and I can
only ascribe the fact to the kindness of that overlooking Power which so
often interfered in our behalf, making it no disparagement of our claim
upon its protection that we had abandoned our mother earth and ventured
so far away into space!
One thing decidedly in our favor was that, since our return from the mine
(the adventure in the land of bogs and monsters was, as far as Edmund
could ascertain, unknown at the capital, except by those who had taken
part in it), we had been accustomed to pass the hours of repose in the
tower. We should thus be close to the car when we got ready to start.
Another equally favorable circumstance--and perhaps it was even more
important--was the absence of Ingra, who, either because he did not care
just now to face Ala, or because he had gone off somewhere after throwing
us to the animals and was not yet aware of our escape, had not shown
himself. If he had been present it might not have been so easy for Edmund
to make his preparations.
Never had the great city seemed to me so long in quieting down for its
periodical rest as on this occasion. After all was deserted in the
streets below, people were still moving about on the tower, and it did
seem as if they had taken a fit of wakefulness expressly to annoy us and
interfere with our plans. We kept stealing out of our sleeping room, and
looking cautiously about, for at least two hours, but always there was
some one stirring in the immediate neighborhood. At last a tall fellow,
who had been standing an interminable time at the rail directly in front
of the storage place of the car, and whom Jack had half seriously
threatened to throttle if he stood there any longer, turned and went
yawning away. No sooner was he out of sight than Edmund led the way, and
with the slightest possible noise, aided by Juba, who was as strong as
three men, we got the car out on the platform. I was in a fever lest
there should be a squeak from the little wheels that carried it. But they
ran as still as rubber.
"Get in," whispered Edmund; and we obeyed him with alacrity.
Would it go?
Even Edmund could not answer that question. He pulled a knob, and I held
my breath. There was the slightest perceptible tremor. Was it going to
balk? No, thank Heaven! It was under way. In a few seconds we were off
the tower in the free air. Edmund pressed a button, and the speed
instantly increased. The gorgeous tower seemed to be flying away from us
like a soap bubble. Jack, in ecstasy, could hardly repress a cheer.
"Hurrah, if you want to,"' said Edmund.
"They won't hear you, and now I don't care if they do. The apparatus is
all right, and we'll give them something to wake up for. My only anxiety
was lest they should witness a failure, which might have led to
disagreeable consequences. There must be no dropping of knives in our
juggling."
"Good!" cried Jack. "Then let's give 'em a salute."
Edmund smiled and nodded his head:
"The guns are in the locker," he said.
Jack had one of the automatic rifles out in a hurry.
"Shoot high," said Edmund, "and off toward the open country. The
projectiles fly far, and I guess we can take the risk."
He threw both windows open, and Jack aimed skyward and began to pull the
trigger.
Bang! bang! bang! Heavens, what a noise it was! The car must have seemed
a flying volcano. And it woke them up! The sleeping city poured forth its
millions to gaze and wonder. Surely they had never heard such a
thundering. Within five minutes we saw them on the roofs and in the
towers. Many were staring at us through a kind of opera glasses which
they had. Then from a dozen aerial pavilions the colors broke forth and
quivered through the air.
"Saluting us!" exclaimed Jack, delighted.
"Asking one another questions, rather," said Edmund.
They certainly asked enough of them, and I wondered what answers they
returned.
"Probably they think we're off for good," said I.
"And aren't we?" asked Henry anxiously.
"Not yet," Edmund replied, and Henry's countenance fell.
The car turned and approached the great tower again. We swept round it
within a hundred yards, and could see the amazement in the faces that
watched us. But if they were astonished they were not terror-stricken.
Within ten minutes twenty air ships were swiftly approaching us. Edmund
allowed them to come within a few yards, and then darted away, rushed
round the whole city like a flying cloud, and finally rose straight up
with dizzying velocity, which made the vast metropolis shrink to a
colored patch, as if we had been viewing it through the wrong end of a
telescope.
"I'll go right up through the cloud dome now," he said. "Nothing could
more impress them with a sense of our power than that; and when we come
back again they will know that we have no fear, and the very act will be
a proof of origin from the sky."
When we were in the midst of the mighty curtain of vapor, I was
interested in noticing the peculiar quality of the light that surrounded
us. We seemed to be immersed in a rose-pink mist.
"I do not understand," I said to Edmund, "how this dome is maintained at
so great an elevation, and in apparent independence of the rain clouds
which sometimes form beneath. No rain ever falls from the dome itself,
and yet it consists of true clouds."
"I think," he replied, "that the dome is due to vapors which assemble at
a general level of condensation, and do not form raindrops, partly
because of the absence of dust to serve as nuclei at this great height,
and partly because of some peculiar electrical condition of the air,
arising from the relative nearness of Venus to the sun, which prevents
the particles of vapor from gathering into drops heavy enough to fall.
You will observe that there is a peculiar inner circulation in the vapor
surrounding us, marked by ascending and descending currents which are
doubtless limited by the upper and lower surfaces of the dome. The true
rain clouds form in the space beneath the dome, where there seems to be
an independent circulation of the winds."
On entering the cloud vault Edmund had closed the windows, explaining
that it was not merely the humidity which led him to do so, but the
diminishing density of the air which, when we had risen considerably
above the dome, would become too rare for comfortable breathing. In a
little while his conjecture about a peculiar electrical condition was
justified by a pale-blue mist which seemed to fill the air in the car;
but we felt no effects and the mechanism was not disturbed. Owing to our
location on Venus, still at a long distance from the center of the
sunward hemisphere, the sun was not directly overhead, but inclined at a
large angle to the vertical, so that when we began to approach the upper
surface of the vault, and the vapor thinned out, we saw through one of
the windows a pulsating patch of light, growing every moment brighter and
more distinct, until as we shot out of the clouds it instantly sharpened
into a huge round disk of blinding brilliance.
"The sun! The sun!" we cried.
We had not seen it for months. When it had gleamed out for a short time
during our drift across the water from the land of ice into the belt of
tempests, we had been too much occupied with our safety to pay attention
to it; but now the wonder of it awed us. Four times as large and four
times as bright and hot as it appears from the earth, its rays seemed to
smite with terrific energy. Juba, wearing his eye shades, shrank into a
corner and hid his face.
"It is well that we are protected by the walls of the car and the thick
glass windows," said Edmund, "for I do not doubt that there are solar
radiations in abundance here which scarcely affect us on the earth, but
which might prove dangerous or even mortal if we were exposed to their
full force."
Even at the vast elevation which we had now attained there was still
sufficient air to diffuse the sunlight, so that only a few of the
brightest stars could be glimpsed. Below us the spectacle was magnificent
and utterly unparalleled. There lay the immense convex shield of Venus,
more dazzling than snow, and as soft in appearance as the finest wool. We
gazed and gazed in silent admiration, until suddenly Henry, who had shown
less enthusiasm over the view than the rest of us, said, in a doleful
voice:
"And now that we are here--free, free, where we can do as we like--with
all means at our command--oh! why will you return to that accursed
planet? Edmund, in the name of God, I beseech you, go back to the earth!
Go now! For the love of Heaven do not drag us into danger again! Go home!
Oh, go home!"
The appeal was pitiful in its intensity of feeling, and a shade of
hesitation appeared on Edmund's face. If it had been Jack or I, I believe
that he would have yielded. But he slowly shook his head, saying in a
sympathetic tone:
"I am sorry, Henry, that you feel that way. But I _cannot_ leave this
planet yet. Have patience for a little while and then we will go home."
I doubt whether afterwards, Edmund himself did not regret that he had
refused to grant Henry's prayer. If we had gone now when it was in our
power to go without interference, we should have been spared the most
tragic and heart-rending event of all that occurred during the course of
our wandering. But Edmund seemed to feel the fascination of Venus as a
moth feels that of the candle flame.
When we emerged again on the lower side of the dome we were directly over
the capital. We had been out of view for at least three hours, but many
were still gazing skyward, toward the point where the car had
disappeared, and when we came into sight once more there were signs of
the utmost agitation. The prismatic signals began to flash from tower to
tower, conveying the news of the reappearance of the car, and as we drew
near we saw the crowds reassembling on every point of vantage. We went
out on the window ledges to watch the display.
"Perhaps they think that we have been paying a visit to the sun," I
suggested.
"Well, if they do I shall not undeceive them," said Edmund, "although it
goes against the grain to make any pretense of the kind. Ala,
particularly, is so intelligent, and has so genuine a desire for
knowledge, that if I could only cause her to comprehend the real truth it
would afford me one of the greatest pleasures of my life."
"I hope old Beak Nose is getting his fill of this show," put in Jack.
"He'll be likely to treat us with more respect after this. By the way, I
wonder what's become of my money. I think I'll sue out a writ of replevin
in the name of the sun to recover it."
Nobody replied to Jack's sally, and the car rapidly approached the great
tower.
"Are you going to land there?" I asked.
"I certainly shall," Edmund responded with decision.
"But they'll seize the car!" exclaimed Henry in affright.
"No, they won't. They are too much afraid of it."
Any further discussion was prevented by a sight which arrested the eyes
of all of us. On the principal landing of the tower, whence we had
departed with the car, stood Ala with her suite, and by her side was
Ingra!
His sudden apparition was a great surprise, as well as a great
disappointment, for we had felt sure that he was not in the city, and I,
at least, had persuaded myself that he might be in disgrace for his
attempt on our lives. Yet here he was, apparently on terms of confidence
with her whom we had regarded as our only sure friend.
"Hang him!" exclaimed Jack. "There he is! By Jo, if Edmund had only
invented a noiseless gun of forty million atom power, I'd rid Venus of
_him_, in the two-billionth part of a second!"
"Keep quiet," said Edmund, sternly, "and remember what I now tell you; in
no way, by look or act, is any one of us to indicate to him the slightest
resentment for what he did. Ignore him, as if you had never seen him."
By this time the car had nearly touched the landing. Edmund stepped
inside a moment and brought it completely to rest, anchoring it, as he
whispered to me, by "atomic attraction." When the throng on the tower saw
the car stop dead still, just in contact with the landing, but manifestly
supported by nothing but the air--no wings, no aeroplanes, no screws, no
mechanism of any kind visible--there arose the first _voice of a crowd_
that we had heard on the planet. It fairly made me jump, so unexpected,
and so contrary to all that we had hitherto observed, was the sound. And
this multitudinous voice itself had a quality, or timbre, that was unlike
any sound that had ever entered my ears. Thin, infantine, low, yet
multiplied by so many mouths to a mighty volume, it was fearful to listen
to. But it lasted only a moment; it was simply a universal ejaculation,
extorted from this virtually speechless people by such a marvel as they
had never dreamed of looking upon. But even this burst of astonishment,
as Edmund afterwards pointed out, was really a tribute to their
intelligence, since it showed that they had instantly appreciated both
the absence of all mechanical means of supporting the car and the fact
that here was something that implied a power infinitely exceeding any
that they possessed. And to have produced in a world where aerial
navigation was the common, everyday means of conveyance, such a sensation
by a performance in the _air_ was an enormous triumph for us!
No sooner had we gathered at the door of the car to step out upon the
platform than an extraordinary thing occurred. The front of the crowd
receded into the form of a semicircle, of which the point where we stood
marked the center, and in the middle of the curve, slightly in advance of
the others, stood forth the tall form of the eagle-beaked high priest
with the terrible face, flanked on one side by Ala and on the other by
the Jovelike front of the aged judge before whom our first arraignment
had taken place. Directly behind Ala stood Ingra. The contrast between
the three principal personages struck my eye even in that moment of
bewilderment--Ala stately, blonde, and beautiful as a statue of her own
Venus; the high priest ominous and terrifying in aspect, even now when we
felt that he was honoring us; and the great judge, with his snow-white
hair and piercing eyes, looking like a god from Olympus.
"Do you note the significance of that arrangement?" Edmund asked, nudging
me. "Ala, the queen, yields the place of honor to the high priest. That
indicates that our reception is essentially a religious one, and proves
that our flight sunward has had the expected effect. Now we have the head
of the religious order on our side. Human nature, if I may use such a
term, is the same in whatever world you find it. Touch the imagination
with some marvel and you awaken superstition; arouse superstition and you
can do what you like."
It would be idle for me to attempt to describe our reception because
Edmund himself could only make shrewd guesses as to the meaning of what
went on, and you would probably not be particularly interested in his
conjectures. Suffice it to say that when it was over, we felt that, for a
time at least, we were virtually masters of the situation.
Only one thing troubled my mind--what did Ingra think and what would he
do? At any rate, he, too, for the time being, seemed to have been carried
away with the general feeling of wonder, and narrowly as I watched him I
could detect in his features no sign of a wish to renew his persecution.