When Austen Struck
I lost little time in the examination of the dead creature. The shafts
from which it had come were but a few hundred yards below, and the
purple gas was still rolling out of the funnels. I did not know when a
second monster might follow the first. My mind was too much upset by
grief and terror to be capable of intelligent planning, but I knew I
wanted to get away from here, and I think I had some notion of reaching
the northern pass, and of getting back to an unburned growth of the red
vegetation, for I was weak with thirst and hunger. But all that was
very vague.
I walked around the wells, keeping at a distance; and struck out for
the east as fast as my wearied limbs could carry me. Soon the cliff was
out of sight. All about was the desolate, rolling black landscape, with
the gloomy purple sky overhead. My thoughts were as dark and sere as
the world. Memories of dear old Austen and of lovely Melvar were always
with me, even when I tried to banish them and to think rationally of my
position.
When I had gone perhaps three hours from the cliff, and had almost lost
my fear of pursuit, I saw a great cigar-shaped object of gleaming white
on a low hill before me. So dulled were my perceptions that it was many
minutes before I realized that it was the rocket-ship in which we had
come over the Silver Sea. Then, bringing a faint thrill of hope, the
thought came to me that it was still probably in a condition to fly,
and that, if I could succeed in controlling it, it offered a possible
avenue of escape from the crater.
I walked up to the thick metal walls. They seemed undamaged by the
fire. Of course, they were used to withstanding the far higher
temperatures developed during flight. I walked around the ship, and was
surprised to see that the heavy metal door, which we had left open,
had been swung shut. Lying against it was the charred skeleton of a
man. About the bones were woven metal garments and crystal armor that
I recognized with a shock as Naro's. So, I thought, the fellow had
deserted his beautiful sister to seek the shelter of the rocket-ship,
and had fallen a victim to the flames at the last moment.
For a moment, I stared grimly at the remains; then, animated by a
sudden ray of hope, I sprang to the door, pulled it open, and leaped
into the ship. There, lying on the floor, was the lovely form of
Melvar. Her clothing was tattered and smeared with stains of red and
black from the burning forest, but she was unharmed. It was almost
incredible to me to find her restored. I was half afraid that my mind
had failed at last, and that she was but an illusion. I dropped on my
knees beside her, and kissed her warm red lips. She stirred a little
and, still but half awake, put a trustful arm about my shoulder.
"Winfield, I knew you would come," she whispered at last. "But where
are Naro and Austen?"
"They will never come," I said.
She drew me fiercely toward her, as if to use me for a shield against
the awful truth. It was some time before she was able to talk; but
presently she told me how Naro had seen the smoke, and how she had
thought of seeking shelter from the fire in the rocket-ship. They had
run down the trail we had made as they left the ship. The fire had
overtaken them just as they reached it. The boy had carried her the
last few yards, had put her through the door, and then had been unable
to enter himself. But, a hero to the last, a worthy warrior of old
_Astran_, he had swung the door shut with his dying motion.
Presently I turned my attention to the ship. The marvelous periscope
still gave the illusion that the bow was transparent. When I moved the
little control lever, the jets of purple gas rushed out again. After a
time I had the vessel worked loose from its place in the earth. Then,
once again, I pulled up the little metal knob and pushed it forward.
The blackened terrain was colored by the purple mist. It was dimmed,
blurred, blotted out. We shot through the purple cloud and abruptly
plunged into clear air and blessed sunshine. Melvar stood by me, with
her arm upon my shoulder. She cried out gladly as we came into the
light. It was not quite noon and the sun was shining very brightly into
the crater. The crescent Silver Lake was still gleaming with the same
argent luster, and _Astran_ shone like a great gem set in the dark red
upland beyond.
Suddenly the clouds of purple mist below were thrown up and scattered
in a thousand ragged streamers. A great blaze of opalescence burst out
where it had been. A flood of fire ran over the Silver Sea. It was
a white, milky light like that we had seen between the blue crystal
globes of the great machine in the chasm. In a moment the whole crater
was a torn and angry ocean of iridescent flame. The red upland was
blotted out, and _Astran_ vanished forever. White flames that were like
the tongues of burning hydrogen that burst from exploding suns, flared
up behind us.
Then we heard the sound of the cataclysm--a crashing roar like the
thunder of a thousand falling mountains, as deep, as vast, as awful, as
the crash of colliding worlds. At the same instant we felt the force of
the greatest explosion that has ever occurred on earth. The rocket shot
upward as though shot out of a mighty cannon. The blue sky darkened
about us, and the stars flamed out like a million scintillating gems,
in incredible myriads, gleaming cold and hard against the infinite
empty blackness. We had been hurled out of the atmosphere and into
interplanetary space!
Austen had struck! The world of the _Krimlu_ was no more! The whole
Silver Sea had gone off in a great explosion. From our ever-rising
craft we could see the desert spread out around the mountain like a
vast yellow sea, rimmed on the south by a steely blue line that was
the ocean. The white fire dulled, faded, and was gone as quickly as it
had flashed up. The crater of the Mountain of the Moon was left a wild
black ruin of jagged, scattered masses of smoking stone. Of the Silver
Lake, of the red vegetation upon the upland, of brilliant _Astran_, not
a trace was left!
The crater was left far behind in the long arching flight of the
rocket. The white frozen brilliance of the stars faded out, the untold
glories of the solar corona were dimmed, and blue was restored to the
midnight sky. We were plunging toward the desert in the direction of
Kanowna. I pulled back the lever and used the full force of the rockets
to check our meteor-like flight until the fuel was exhausted. A moment
afterward we struck the earth.
We climbed out and left the vessel there on the sand. Just as the stars
were coming out that night we arrived at the headquarters of a great
sheep ranch. People were very much excited over the earthquake. (The
shock of the explosion of the Silver Lake had been registered at every
seismographic station in the world.)
The rancher and his wife cared for us with great hospitality, if
ill-controlled curiosity. After we had had a week of rest, they took
us by automobile to Kanowna. There I astounded them by rewarding their
generosity with a magnificent emerald--I still had in my pack a half
pound or so of jewels that Naro had brought me from _Astran_.
Melvar ever surprised me with her innocent beauty, her grace and poise,
with the ease with which she learned to face new situations, and to
meet people. I believe that no one ever suspected that she had not
had a lifetime of training in the best of society. We were married at
Kanowna, and reached Perth a few days later.
The End