NEEDFUL PREPARATIONS
As they had all suspected, a change soon came over the situation; they
had a task set them to do, and this was to learn the language of the
country.
Every day both men and women came to their prison to give them
instructions, which they carried on by signs, by pictures, by every
conceivable method. They submitted with the best grace they could,
although they could not tell to what this education process was
destined to lead, whether to life or to death. Carmichael was at a
disadvantage, for he had never developed an aptitude for learning
languages, and it was said that he had got through his “Little Go” at
Cambridge with considerable difficulty, as his laurels were gained
in another field. The engineer was a man of many tongues, as he had
travelled much, both in Mexico and South America. Abercromby always
spoke of himself as a hopeless dunce, but it was often noticed that
he found the way to learn whatever he really wished to learn. As to
Clarence Radcliffe, he threw his whole soul into the work--a process
which on this occasion stood him in good stead, as, in ordinary cases,
languages were not his strong point.
The mystery of the English writing was not solved. Radcliffe persisted
in thinking that the two people who had visited them on the hillside
were the authors of it. There was some plausibility in this, for they
may have meant it as a return for the trouble he had taken with them
over the diagrams and the solar-system map. But plausible as the
suggested motive might be, it did not explain how they could have
carried it out.
When a little progress had been made Carmichael one day showed the
papers to some who had come to teach them. He was surprised to find
that they evinced little or no curiosity or astonishment. The reason,
however, soon appeared. They thought that the prisoners had written the
words for themselves, and it was the presence of their own words, not
of the English words, that they specially noted. When the Professor
understood this, Carysfort earnestly advised him to let the matter
drop, for in their helpless position indiscreet disclosures or even
questions might get them all into trouble. They would soon find out
for themselves what powers the wise men of the planet really had.
“Besides,” he said, “I am convinced by a minute study of the letters
that they were never written by one to whom our language was familiar;
their shape is quite stilted and foreign.”
Carmichael was satisfied now that they had not been forestalled by some
traveller from earth.
They early made discovery of the name by which Venus was known to its
own people. Venusian was not a pleasing term, and did not sound so
well as Atalantan. The planet was called Atalanta, which meant “the
flowery land.” As there was but one nation, one empire, dwelling upon
it, Atalanta was the name given to both the country and its metropolis.
The beautiful vale in which the city stood with the great lake from
whose shores its steep ascents took their rise was Meloria; the broad
spreading high hills bounding the vale to the north were the Keraunian
Mountains, so called from an ancient king of Atalanta who had saved the
life of the child of one of the noblest of his subjects, while climbing
their heights, at the expense of his own.
Carmichael was told that his supposition of a high mountain near the
southern pole was correct. It was a peaked mountain called Aptaura, and
was twenty miles above the sea-level, the highest point on the planet.
The earth was known to the Atalantans as Karamandra, “Queen of the cold
night”; Mercury, which was the only planet visible from the lighted
hemisphere, was called Araminta, the bright flashing; while the sun
was Asti, the furnace, though he had other titles connected with the
Atalantan religion.
Carmichael saw that it was useless to seek any information as to what
was going to happen to them, nor would his teachers tell much about
their politics or customs. The travellers even suspected that any
questions they put were noted down. Radcliffe got on the best, as he
only made enquiries about their beliefs, and on this point they were
willing, as far as he was concerned, to be a little more communicative,
though it is to be feared that he was not greatly encouraged by what
they told him.
On the other hand, the Atalantans put very few questions themselves
and these only of a harmless sort. It was evident that they had no
intention of treachery, but how much of what the travellers said was
reported elsewhere, the latter could not be equally certain.
One evening the party were seated in their parlour, when Abercromby
asked the Professor to tell them what he had been able to glean as to
Atalantan matters.
“Well,” replied Carmichael, “my supply of talk is but scanty, but it
may while away the time to piece it together. I have ascertained that
there exists no variety of race upon the planet; that these people
have been settled here for a couple of thousand years at least; that
they are descended from a pair, pretty much after the Bible account of
Adam and Eve, only much more recent in time; that they were originally
patriarchal in government, but that gradually the kingly power grew and
grew until it became what it is now, a sort of benevolent autocracy
rather resembling that of the ancient Incas of Peru. The growth of the
race has been exceedingly slow compared with that of earthly races, but
I have an opinion that this is largely due to the deliberate will of
the people themselves, who know that they have but a small available
territory for the comfortable support of life in a civilised form.
Towns and cities do not exist, nor distinct villages. There is but
the giant capital and scattered and independent country houses. There
is an extension of the land southwards forming a peninsula called
Anactorium; the land then ends near the south pole with the giant
mountain Aptaura, on which is situated an observatory for the study of
the heavenly bodies, our earth included.
“Off the south-western coast is a large island called Melandria
inhabited by a somewhat more hardy population, of which island the
princess Melanitis is said to be very fond.
“Now, Carysfort, you take up the cudgels, and tell us what your supply
of knowledge is.”
“Not very much,” muttered the engineer. “These folk have found out how
to steer airships about two hundred years ago, and it seems they use
them for all purposes of travel. This is why, except in Melandria,
there are few roads and fewer vehicles. Before the airship came in
they used palanquins and litter-travelling for the aristocracy, while
the rest of the people walked. The aristocracy consist of those only
who have done deeds of kindness or valour, such as the Royal House may
think worthy of wearing the crimson sash, the tiara, and the coronet;
their children inherit their honours till they do anything disgraceful
and then the title lapses.
“Sir Thomas More and Gulliver ought to have lived in this land before
writing their terrestrial books.”
“How are the people fed?” asked Radcliffe.
“Everybody grows his own produce and makes his own furniture and
clothes,” said Carysfort. “All the central and northern lands are the
free property of the state. Anybody can take what he wants if he has
the energy to go there. If he has not, then he must have a poorer
house and wear shabbier clothes.”
“How do they elect the king?”
“The crown descends from sire to son, or from sire to daughter, for
one hundred years, then the nobility meet in conclave and elect the
worthiest man or woman of their number. If they cannot agree, the
reigning sovereign may hold the throne till death; but this has only
happened twice.”
“Now, Abercromby, tell us your discoveries,” said Carmichael.
“The king has two daughters, Melanitis and Mexitli,” he answered; “the
former will be queen on her father’s death, and he is a very old man.
“I am afraid after all, Professor, you are much to be commiserated
that you did not go to Mars. It is a feminine world, Professor, in the
worst of all senses, that men appear to be in a position of distinct
inferiority. They do all the work, and what the others do I have not
clearly learned at present, but when I know I will tell you. So far as
I can find out, their rule is decently benevolent, but I shudder to
think of the exceptions. I suppose it will all figure out right; if it
doesn’t we shan’t be here to see.”
“I believe you are humbugging,” laughed Carmichael.
“I will tell you a pathetic story,” continued Abercromby. “I happened
to ask one of the most recent damsels who came here to complete my
studies if the princesses were good-looking. She got in such a rage
that I asked her what the dickens she meant by it. As she failed to
understand me, my words soothed her, and then with the airs of all
the queens from Semiramis to Victoria, she demanded by what right a
Karamandran barbarian from outer space presumed to ask such a thing
respecting the two fairy pillars upon which Atalanta would one day
rest. She told me I was only fit to herd with mangas, and I told her
she was enough to make a cat laugh like Charlie’s Aunt, but I spoke in
English, of course.”
“What is a manga?” asked Radcliffe.
“I fear it is one of those dear monkeys that made me howl and wake the
Professor, but I am not sure.
“I think we will agree not to ask Radcliffe what he has found out, for
we are hardly in a fit mood for serious talk, and I don’t think he
wants to tell us,” continued Abercromby.
“No, not to-night,” said Radcliffe. “I told Frank that I was afraid
they worshipped the sun, and he consoled me by saying they would not
think of worshipping the moon, because Venus had not got one.”
As Radcliffe himself laughed the whole party saw no harm in doing the
same.
Three days later a most remarkable event occurred. This was nothing
less than the arrival of Jackson, with his hands fettered, it is true,
but the guards told them they might release him at once.
“Well, Tom, old friend and comrade, I am glad to see you,” said
Carmichael warmly.
“More glad than I am to see myself,” answered Jackson. “I don’t know
how I can bear to tell you all that has happened.”
“It was not your fault,” said his master kindly. “Let us hear the
worst at once--the machine has been taken away or destroyed.”
“Not so bad as all that, sir; it is put under lock and key and strongly
guarded. When I saw you made prisoner I thought I would set the engines
going, soar up, and play a game in the sky which would frighten them,
but I never got the chance; they swarmed in, knocked me down, after I
had sent some of them down, bound me hands and feet, and fastened me
to one of the couches in the dining-room. Then they began poking their
blessed noses into every nook and corner, and there I was swearing and
cussing and not able to do nothing to stop them.
“Presently they takes me and opens my mouth and puts something in that
sends me straight off asleep for the next twenty hours. When I wakes up
some low-looking fellows were standing over me and feeling me about,
and I put out my tongue in case it was a doctor. Well, they brought me
food and drink, and I was that mad hungry and thirsty I cleared the
plate and mug, I can tell you, and then off I went to sleep again, and
this was pretty much how I was treated till this morning, when they
took me out of the machine and brought me to you. They had moved the
machine with me in it while I was unconscious.”
“Did they teach you to speak their language?” asked the Professor.
“Not they, sir. They didn’t think me up to it, I suppose.”
“Well, they have taken no end of pains to teach us,” said Abercromby,
and he told Jackson the extraordinary incident of the English words.
“I believe I can make that out, sir,” said Jackson.
The Professor looked amazed, but he only said, “If you can, Tom, you
will take quite a load off my brains.”
“It was one of their monkey tricks they played on me, depend on it,
sir. When I got my senses back, I saw one of the rascals holding
sheets of our manuscript paper in his hand. I believe he just went and
mesmerised me, and got me to say and do all he wanted. Of course, if
they were after teaching you their lingo, they would start much the
quicker by helping you to put their work into our letters, and I am
sure that was how they did it; they made me say and write the English
alphabet when they had got me like wax in their hands and I had no
power to fight them. But if I did you a good turn, sir, I’ll forgive
them.”
“Now we have got the key at last,” says Carysfort. “We need not trouble
any more about it.”
The next morning Cleito, the commandant of the palace guard, entered
their parlour and said to them: “Four days from now, strangers from
Karamandra, and you will stand before the Royal House in the Hall of
Audience and of Perfect Justice, and you will reply to the questions
put to you by the king and by the princesses his daughters, and as your
answers shall be good or evil in their sight, so shall your destiny be.”
“It has come at last,” said Radcliffe.