WHEN THE RAIN MIST LIFTED
The Professor had just rubbed his eyes in the first moments of waking
consciousness, when he heard a yell resound through the machine,
but of an unmistakably earthly type. The next moment he had sprung
to his feet, thrust on an overcoat, and was up the stairs into the
dining-room. Carysfort and the others had emerged with equal speed;
Jackson, indeed, with more zeal than conventionality, appeared in his
night-shirt.
Abercromby was standing, ghastly pale, his hair erect, every muscle and
limb shaking, and pointing to the window. A huge, man-like creature,
with reeking jaws, porcupine-like bristles, and one enormous eye in the
middle of his forehead, had clambered up the stairway and was tearing
at the smooth surface of the glass with claw-like hands. With a cry of
horror Carysfort rushed to fetch his gun, but, finding the way to the
stair-ladder barred, he stopped and hesitated. As if to make matters
worse, two other creatures, equally hideous and furious, flung out
their arms and sought to clasp the Asteroid in their foul clutches.
Carmichael at once made for the conning-tower and started the machine
in an upward flight. The irons tore and creaked, but of course gave
way after a minute, while the Asteroid rose over the tree tops, a
hundred feet from the ground. With a hideous yell the gorilla creatures
let go and were hurled downwards, not to the ground but into the waters
of the river. They evidently had no idea of swimming, for, after a
brief struggle, they were swept away by the current.
“A pretty appetiser we have had for breakfast,” grumbled Frank
Abercromby. “Darwin’s missing link was not in it.”
“How on earth did the monsters first appear?” asked Carysfort.
“My friend, you must say in future ‘How on Venus,’” replied Abercromby.
“Well, I had better cry ‘peccavi,’ as the Indian governor did when he
wrote ‘I have Scinde.’ I was just going to fall asleep at my post, when
that strange and most attractive Johnnie came and looked reproachfully
at me. But I wonder I did not go stark staring mad on the spot.”
“Where are we to venture the machine now?” asked Radcliffe, who looked
very white though he had said nothing.
“We will keep this side of the river at all events,” said the
Professor. They chose another less restricted camping-place, the
anchors were made fast, and the party alighted to be quite certain the
coast was clear. Radcliffe declared that he heard certain gobblings and
chucklings emanating from the thickets hard by, and the others, after
attentively listening, believed he was right. They resolved, therefore,
to make but a very short stay, in fact, only just sufficient to take
their meal. Even Abercromby disclaimed the thought of an out-of-door
picnic, and therefore they had breakfast in the dining-room and drew in
the stair-ladder as a precaution.
“What concerns me is the thought that those creatures are the real
inhabitants of Venus,” remarked Carysfort.
“God forbid!” said Radcliffe fervently. “I cannot and will not think so
until I am obliged.”
“If _that_ is evolution illustrated,” remarked Abercromby, “it would
have made Darwin himself orthodox.”
“I am by no means disposed to reject evolution,” replied Radcliffe,
“because the Creator could work in and through evolution, even if man
be descended from a protoplasm as well as from a monkey. All I ask for
is that God’s hand should guide the process all through the countless
ages. Not that I consider Darwin’s theory proved. I only say that if it
ever comes to be, it would not shake my faith.”
“Don’t be too liberal and concessive, my dear fellow,” said the
Professor, “though the advice may sound queer as coming from me.
Evolution is _a_ theory, not _the_ theory. To make it account for all
the facts of creation is to take up one of those short and easy cuts
which are as great a nuisance to true science as to anything else. I
regard evolution as one of the helpful working forces of the universe.
I believe that the original types of animal life were fewer than the
existing types. But when I have said that, I no more believe that all
life came from a jelly-fish than I believe that every species was
distinctly and separately created. People always think that nature is
uniform in its ways, while we shall have to learn that it is not. As to
the inhabitants of Venus being represented by those creatures, my mind
turns sick at the very thought. However, we must face facts, but we
will not rush at facts.”
“No, I did not rush at the monster, I waited for fresh light on the
situation, and you brought it me, Professor,” said Abercromby. “I
should never be eating this breakfast had I taken a short and easy road
to knowledge by going out and shaking hands with him.”
“Well, I think we will start,” said the Professor, “when you have done
eating, Abercromby.”
“Yes; we will have a good day’s aerial exploration to blow the
nightmare off,” remarked the engineer.
They travelled at least a hundred miles over the fair and diversified
land before they had accomplished more than half the distance to the
southern mountains. Once Radcliffe declared that there were some houses
perched upon an eminence to the west, but a careful survey proved that
they were only high rocks of white colour shining in the sun’s rays
above the forest land. As some doubt was still felt, they shaped their
course towards them, for it did not take them many miles out of their
way.
It proved to be a tableland of grey-white rocks, several hundred feet
above the plain. Here the Asteroid alighted and it was resolved to rest
for the night, for the place appeared fairly inaccessible to wild
beasts, and if any such were to appear, they could be easily seen
before they touched the Asteroid. But there were no traces of wild
beasts, though some richly plumed birds made the air melodious with
their song for a few minutes. Jackson was preparing the supper, and all
except Radcliffe were within. Radcliffe was out on the plateau, wrapped
in his thoughts, as Abercromby told them, as well as in his greatcoat.
“Well, I wish the dear fellow would not express them in that
everlasting tune,” said the engineer; “he has been well on for a
quarter of an hour, and it rather gets on my nerves.”
“It is one of the melodies those fiddlers were playing at Cullercoats,”
remarked the Professor, “‘Love launched a fairy boat,’ I believe.”
“The prettiest song I ever heard, that, and ‘All in the hush of
twilight,’” said Abercromby; “but alas and alack! there is no maiden to
sing with me, though we are in the Love planet itself.”
“No! that is quite true,” replied the Professor dryly.
Radcliffe came in, happily unconscious of the late topic of criticism.
They took their places at the supper-table, when one of the most
startling interruptions that had ever yet tried their nerves broke in
upon the meal.
Overhead they heard a loud noise followed by a wailing cry. It seemed
to come from the north, to attain to a piercing intensity, and then to
die away southwards into tremulous silence.
“What the deuce is that?” shouted Abercromby; and, before the others
could stop him, he had opened the door, and, regardless of the absence
of the steps, had bounded out upon the plateau. There they saw him
throwing his arms to and fro, and wildly gesticulating to them the
other side of the windows. They could see he was in no danger, but mad
with eagerness and excitement.
The whole party sprang to their feet and were by his side in two
minutes. They looked in the direction in which he was wildly pointing,
and saw a huge greyish thing, with outspread fans, whirling away to the
mountain heights and then vanishing behind them.
The Professor, after a moment’s dead silence, said: “This is very
serious; let us come within.”
“Why very serious?” asked the engineer, when they were again at the
supper-table.
“Because it means one of two things, either of which will greatly
affect us. It is either a huge primeval monster, or a flying machine
like our own, in so far as it is an airship.”
“And why are either of these things so grave after all?” said
Abercromby. “If that affair yonder were an airship, your heart ought to
be glad, Professor; if a monster, it has the right to be sorry, your
heart I mean; but why alarmed?”
“If it be a monster, Abercromby, we have come to Venus too soon to
find intelligent human life. Such creatures could hardly co-exist
with man in a world which, for practical purposes, has but so little
accommodation. If it be an airship, then we are going to meet a race
incapable of being either terrified by us, or even much astonished
by us, who can meet us on equal terms, man to man, but may be armed
millions against armed units. Now you understand what I fear, and why I
fear it.”
“Take it easy, Professor, we may astonish the niggers after all; but
I _must_ say I want to see them, even if it be only possible for them
to astonish _me_. We will sing them a song or two before we die,
Professor.”
* * * * *
The night was far from being a restful one under such circumstances.
Two were placed on guard, to relieve each other every three hours. On
the next day they found it impossible to start, as a thin, penetrating
rain descended, the first they had experienced upon Venus. It
continued, without cessation, for several hours, while the whole valley
lay enwrapped in a silvery mist. The Asteroid afforded them a secure
asylum, but, in their state of eager excitement, the time passed very
slowly.
At last, soon after they had had their lunch, the mist began to
disperse and the sun shone out in splendour. The air was much fresher
and cooler; had they not been so naturally impatient to push on, they
would have taken a walk, at least along the ridge of the plateau. But
they were in no mood to do this--they were hunting for niggers, as
Abercromby elegantly phrased it, and as nobody else overheard him, it
did not much matter.
The Professor ordered the start at about 3 p.m. by their watches. The
Asteroid was set at fairly high speed, and soon reached the slopes of
the mountains. A few miles to the west they saw a huge gap or defile,
and towards this they steered. A great wall of precipitous rock shelved
downwards in the direction in which they had come, but, to the south, a
pass extended of varying breadth, sometimes almost too narrow for the
whole of them to walk abreast.
The Asteroid was therefore in a rather awkward position; they could
descend if they liked and make the journey on foot, but, in such a
place, it seemed too hazardous to deprive themselves of the aid of
their machine. They decided therefore to rise higher, and to follow
the course of the pass, but at a safe elevation above it. In a few
minutes the pass ended, they came out over a grassy upland height, but,
unfortunately, the rain mist had now taken up its position to the south
of them, and though there was evidently a grand landscape prospect, it
was, for the present, completely wiped out.
A clump of lofty trees reared their heads a few hundred yards away, and
to these they steered, coming to an anchorage beneath them. The party
gladly took shelter in the dining-room, for they began to be positively
chilly, doubtless owing to the peculiar state of the atmosphere,
perhaps, even, to their restless nerves.
Neither cold nor rain could deter Clarence Radcliffe from venturing
to the end of the clump of trees where the ground sloped suddenly
downwards. He saw the mist begin to uncoil and lift itself; slowly
the outlines grew clearer and more distinct. Feature after feature of
a country, rich in its loveliness, disclosed themselves. High hills
were interspersed with park-like glades; a lake of superb dimensions
appeared, glittering in the sunshine, into which two majestic rivers
poured their rapid waters. In the midst was a large island, and in the
centre rose an object that sent the blood tingling through his veins--a
colossal palace fortress or temple, with four graceful pinnacles each
glittering with a different hue of colour--while beyond the lake was a
greater sight still, at which, after a glance of fascinated admiration,
he turned away, his eyes dim with tears. “O that one had been here to
see it with me, but it was not to be. Her eyes behold a landscape with
which even this cannot compare. If I could but know she was looking at
me now, I should be more brave to do what perhaps lies before me. But I
know she would wish me to do it, and I _will_.”
Then he turned and went back to the Asteroid. They were all in the
dining-room making preparations to start for a walk, as the weather was
clearing. But all stood petrified at the expression on his face.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “I have chanced to see what you should all have
seen with me. I owe you an apology. Come at once.”
They rushed out to the edge of the great precipice and stopped,
absolutely incapable for the moment either of speech or action. The
vast plain was dotted with houses and palaces, each standing in its
grove and garden, while up the sides of the two southern hills that
sloped towards the lake shore stretched the outlines of a great city,
its domes, towers, and pinnacles shining in the light of a sun more
splendid than the sun of India, yet tempered in its rays by the
white-robed circle of the sky.
The object of the expedition was accomplished; before them lay the
life, the civilisation, and the glory of the planet Venus.