returned to my scheme. With my unshod feet I walked slowly up to the
guard-house, whence issued unmistakable sounds of deep slumber. I even
ventured to peep through the open window, so as to catch a glimpse of
four or five soldiers within, all sleeping on mattresses beneath the
subdued rays of a great guard lanthorn. Quitting the building I found
no obstacle in crossing the bridge, but soon after reaching its farther
end I nearly met with an unexpected calamity. Groping in the gloom of
a thicket of pines I suddenly felt my movements hampered, to discover
just in time that I had inadvertently stumbled against a stout cord.
There could be little question as to its import and object; it was a
cord of intercommunication that was stretched from the temple above to
the guard-house below. My good genius was certainly in close attendance
on me that most memorable night, for had I tripped over this rope and
set the alarm signal in motion, there could have been only one result
to my escapade. As it so happened, I was not a little assisted by my
discovery. In the first place, I neatly severed the cord itself, and
then proceeded to fasten each of the divided ends with a clove hitch
to a bough so that in the possible event of the guard at the bridge or
the watchers in the temple wishing to communicate, their efforts would
be nullified. Also I perceived that by following the direction of the
cord, I should pursue the easiest way of ascent to the temple itself.
Bestowing a delicate touch from time to time on the friendly clue,
I hurried upward, treading a well-worn path through the hanging
woods that in daylight, or possibly even in moonlight, would have
been sufficiently simple and obvious to the pedestrian. So rapid and
unimpeded were my steps that I was out of breath by the time I reached
the huge bastions that overtopped the forest trees and uplifted the
main platform of the temple. Here I rested a while, and then once more,
with the aid of the cord, lighted on a narrow winding stairway which
I ascended with infinite caution. Arrived almost at the head of the
steps, I kneeled down and very slowly raised my eyes above the level of
the low parapet. What I now descried was a long narrow space, perhaps
four hundred feet in length, which served as platform to an immense
plain building with a lofty roof. Its long lateral extent disclosed
a number of doors flush with the exterior wall and all of identical
design. Even more exciting to me however than this gigantic edifice
was the apparition of a white-robed guardian pacing slowly along the
terrace. Towards this new opponent I entertained none of those scruples
that had racked me before hurling myself on the unfortunate sentry
below; but I realised the extreme danger and delicacy of the situation.
The councillor, whose identity I could not discover owing to the
prevailing gloom, paraded the terrace from end to end, the conclusion
of his paces bringing him within a few yards of the spot where I knelt
hunched below the parapet with my fingers on the handle of my hunting
knife. But he noticed nothing, and turning again towards the east
began to retrace his steps. When he had retired some distance, I darted
from my hiding-place to examine the nearest of the doors. But there
was no sign of any means of ingress either in that door, or in its
neighbour, or in the door beyond. Having hazarded so much, I hastened
back to my niche, there to await the return of this nocturnal watcher.
In my mind, that knew time was of the essence of my final success, I
was still debating whether to spring upon the approaching senator, or
to make one more effort to enter the temple, when my good genius again
solved my perplexity. Of a sudden I grew aware of a curious rustling
sound in the tree-tops, and a second later a large drop of water
plashed on my upturned face. Soon rain was pattering heavily on all
around, and by the time the councillor had reached the tether of his
promenade he began to feel the effects of this unexpected drenching. I
saw him pause, hold out both hands to test the violence of the sudden
shower, fling his cloak over his head, and then make a precipitate
and somewhat undignified rush for the shelter of the building. With
straining eyeballs I watched him pass each doorway till he paused at
the seventh from the end, which admitted him without impediment of any
kind. Still in bent posture I hurried in his footsteps through the
hissing downfall, caught the swinging door before it had ceased to
oscillate, and noiselessly insinuated myself within the portal. I was
fully nerved for an immediate struggle, but on entering I perceived
that the senator had already walked ahead some paces towards the
eastern end of the huge building, and was evidently still unaware of
the presence of an unauthorised visitor. Shrinking behind a pillar or
buttress, I waited in patient silence for the next turn of Fortune's
wheel, which was certainly revolving fast and furious that night.
So far as I could observe in the faint and flickering light I was
standing within a vast barrel-vaulted erection with pillared alcoves on
either side, reminding me somewhat of an immense Renaissance church.
There was artificial lighting somewhere, but I failed to trace its
whereabouts; the western end of the building lay in inky shadow, but
its eastern extremity was open and exposed to the air. The central
portion was largely occupied by a long abyss which appeared to be a
species of graving dock, and resting on metal lines that ran the whole
length of this hollow space were four or more bulky vessels constructed
of some silver-glinted material not unlike aluminium.
Far from inspiring terror the sombre novelty of the place engendered
in me a thrill of exultation, even of satisfaction, in the thought
that I had indeed penetrated to the very heart of The Secret. Of my
two guiding emotions at this moment an overwhelming curiosity--the
unflinching curiosity of the Caliph Vathek and his mother Carathis in
the fatal halls of Eblis--was perhaps predominant; but almost equally
potent was the itching to revenge myself on the treacherous hierarchy
of Meleager. Meanwhile the footfalls of the unsuspecting guardian
of the place echoed faintly in the distance, and I could detect the
silhouette of his form against the background of open space to the
east. Slowly the figure returned, perhaps to repass the door, for the
storm without had abated and the sky was clearing. Nearer he drew and
nearer, so that in the superior light of the building I could at last
distinguish the individual features of the councillor. It was Marzona,
Arch-priest.
This sudden recognition caused me to start, so that possibly I may
have emitted some betraying noise to call attention to my presence,
though what ensued before the actual impact I am still puzzled to say.
For in a trice I found myself and Marzona locked together in a deadly
but silent embrace, since instinctively it would seem I had posed for
action with my cloak as on the previous encounter at the bridge. For a
second time I held my antagonist's head enveloped in those ample folds,
albeit his limbs were unembarrassed. We were knotted, I say, in a death
grip, swaying from side to side, our hatred oozing as it were from our
very pores, as we strained and wrestled with furious determination.
Naturally, I was the taller and the stronger of the two, but intensity
of hate gives an additional stimulus, and that advantage perhaps
Marzona could claim. Vainly did I struggle to utilise my dagger; try
as I would, it was all I could contrive with my superior strength to
keep Marzona's head tightly swathed and his limbs powerless to inflict
an injury. How long this embittered duel might have lasted, and with
what final result, I cannot tell, had not a false step on my enemy's
part brought him perilously near the edge of the central abyss. Another
step, and his left foot was treading in vacuity. He reeled; made one
despairing but ineffectual effort to drag me with him in his disaster;
and then I saw him, with my cloak still encompassing his head, fall
headlong into that gaping pit beside us. There followed a dull faint
thud of contact with something far below, and then I found myself
kneeling hot and exhausted on the brink of that fatal chasm. Very
warily did I lean forward to peer down and to listen, but there was
nothing but blackness and silence in those impenetrable depths.
V
After some minutes spent in useless speculation I rose from my knees
and proceeded to explore the building, for I knew I must hasten. With
feelings compact of awe and interest I approached the weird monsters
of metal that stood reposing on their sustaining rails, and growing
bolder I actually entered the vessel that was nearest to the broad
eastern exit. I experienced no difficulty in descending into what I
can best describe as a moderate-sized cabin with two smaller closets
adjoining. Standing on its hinges at right angles to the cabin was the
great lid of the airship. In this modified twilight I had no trouble
in picking my steps, but a minute survey of details demanded a much
stronger light. Nevertheless, I could distinguish directions in Latin
painted on various parts of the cabin, and it was during a strained
examination of one of these notices that I must have inadvertently
touched or trodden on the concealed spring, which again was destined
by my abiding good angel to prove my next instrument of salvation. A
gentle humming or whirring seemed to vibrate around me, beginning very
softly but gradually rising in intensity so that in alarm I prepared
to quit the ship and regain the floor. But before I could collect my
dazed thoughts into sufficient concert to act at all, I became aware
of a soft gliding motion and actually perceived the long vista of
the hall recede from my eyes, as I was slowly drifting through some
unseen mechanical force out of the edifice and was being launched
into the infinite beyond. With a joyful bound, so it seemed to me,
my craft passed out of the open arching portal and was now running
swiftly as though borne on invisible wires. I watched, as in a vision,
the temple, mountain and shores of Meleager dwindle and diminish in
my track, until they became mere outlines in the grey dimness that
precedes the dawn. Still, as one fascinated, I could only stare and
marvel, for the superfluity of adventures and wonders of this night
had caused a sort of mental congestion of my brain. Suddenly I was
once more recalled to the necessity of action, when I felt something
hard pressing on my neck, and realised it was the cover of the airship
closing gently of its own volition. Hurriedly I subsided into the well
of the cabin with my eyes fixed on the slow descending cover, which
finally settled down on the lower portion of the vessel like the lid of
some Brobdingnagian snuff-box. Meanwhile I lay below, stupefied in an
atmosphere which I soon found unpleasantly warm and also permeated with
a subtle indescribable odour that at first produced a sense of nausea
and of suffocation. However, by lying prone on a couch, for the cabin
was furnished with tolerable comfort, these disagreeable symptoms were
mitigated, though throughout my long journey I never felt any desire
to rise and move about by reason of my giddiness. I could see that the
vessel was well supplied with provisions, mostly in liquid form; and in
truth there was every arrangement for two or three persons to inhabit
this hold without any marked discomfort for a considerable space of
time. At intervals around the walls of the cabin were printed long
sentences in Latin, interspersed with many technical terms in English,
French and German wherever the classical tongue failed to express
adequately the required meaning. All these notices related to the
working of various levers and other pieces of mechanism on board, and
as I lay reclined in a state of semi-consciousness I amused myself by
deciphering these injunctions.
Time was practically non-existent during this mad whirling through
aerial space, and as my capacity for further amazement was by now
completely exhausted, I resigned myself to my present condition of a
not unpleasant drowsiness, which made me indifferent as to whither my
strange vehicle was bearing me. Day and night chased each other like
alternate streaks of black and white; sunlight, moonlight, starlight,
darkness, opacity in no wise concerned me during my voyage from the
planet of Meleager. From time to time I sought to allay my constant
thirst, or rather the irritating dryness of mouth and gullet (for I
felt no hunger), with the contents of some of the numerous bottles
near me; and thus refreshed, I gladly returned to my couch and sank
into my previous state of lethargy. As I lay thus, I often meditated on
the past, but of the present and the future I felt utterly careless and
apathetic.
How long this hurtling through the empyrean lasted I cannot say;
presumably there were instruments on board for computing the speed
of the machine and other statistics, but I never sought to discover
such appliances. Rarely too did I care to gaze out of the many
port-hole windows, for the sight of the circumambient waves of empty
space induced in me a horrible sense of dizziness. So I remained thus
prostrate in a half-sleeping, half-waking condition that for aught I
knew or cared might be prolonged for eternity, until at last I was
aroused from my somnolence by a faint icy breath falling on my face. On
looking up I perceived the lid of my prison slowly opening, for all the
world like the upper shell of some gigantic oyster, and the widening
aperture was admitting draughts of fresh bracing air into the vitiated
atmosphere of the cabin. Instinctively I knew we were entering the
air-zone of the Earth. Strange sounds and clickings were now manifest
in the unseen machinery; our motion became less rapid and regular;
and these phenomena together with the bitter cold soon dispelled my
torpor and brought me to my feet, for I could stand upright now that
the lid of the vessel was raised on its hinges. Craning forward I saw
we were in truth nearing the Earth, though evidently at a relaxed
rate of velocity; and fascinating it was to me to note the steady
aggrandisement of the great orb of Mundus, as we drew perceptibly
closer to its surface. Already the Eastern hemisphere was brilliantly
defined, with Asia and the islands of the Orient all glowing in the
flush of dawn, which was driving the lingering shadows of night to
westward. A colossal globe of gold and azure and sable was slowly
revolving under my eyes, which remained in fixed contemplation of an
expanding scene that none save a few enraptured mystics or poets have
ever aspired to describe.
With the keen draughts of air on my face and in my lungs I began to
foreshadow my ultimate goal. The vessel which had so far carried me
faithfully and smoothly was now beginning to flag and oscillate in
so alarming a manner that I felt my attention was urgently demanded
for its mechanical needs. The inscribed directions at once engaged my
feverish attention, but so excited and over-hasty was I, that I set to
working levers and pulling chains without grasping the full import of
my movements. Eagerly I essayed to steer towards the British Isles,
on which my gaze was concentrated, but my efforts to utilise this
superb masterpiece of mechanism fell below my intentions. In a series
of irregular spirals the great airship continued to descend, nor with
all my frenzied manipulation of its levers and handles and pulleys
could I persuade it to alter its course; down, down it dropped until
I realised nothing could save me now from the wilderness of ocean
beneath. How cruel my fate! To sail thus from the stars to the Earth
only to be engulfed and choked in the barren salt waters! What a mean
conclusion to a divine adventure! Not terror, but fierce disappointment
was my prevailing emotion, as mounting to the rim of the cabin I made
ready to leap at the precise moment the misguided vessel should strike
the surface of the sea.
I have only a faint reminiscence of a sharp plunge and recovery; of a
glimpse of my aerial chariot being swallowed in the surge; of a dull
roar of explosions, before I found myself swimming or floating in calm
tepid waters which were all tinged with the carnation and primrose
and pearly tints of a glorious summer sunrise, whilst above my head
hung the vast impassive dome of heaven flecked with cirrus clouds all
gold and saffron. Even so there sprouted in my brain the vain conceit
that to perish thus in mid-ocean all aglow with prismatic hues was
no ill-fitting termination to the career of a monarch of Meleager.
Thus did Icarus reason perhaps when his pinions melted in the envious
sunbeams and he fell into the classic sea that henceforth assumed his
illustrious name. It would have been in keeping with the late web of
wonders spun around me if I were to find old Neptune in person ready
to receive me with a bevy of ivory-armed nereids to bewail my comely
corpse or an escort of tritons to announce my passing on their raucous
conches. Like the hero of the Puritan poet, I still contrived to hug
my majesty even in my fall from heaven; and the sick fancy seemed to
support me as I straggled in the translucent swell. Involuntarily my
eyes closed, as I finally abandoned myself to--what? Surely but to
the next miracle, to the next freak of Fortune which had guided her
favourite hitherto?
* * * * *
Strange noises echoed in my ears; I was rescued; I recognised my
salvage without surprise and without enthusiasm. It was my due. No
dolphin-mounted Neptune came to claim me; no nereid or triton stirred
in my behalf; but the Man who ascended to the Stars was not destined to
die by drowning. I sensed the familiar timbre of English voices close
at hand; I felt a firm but kindly grip upon my shoulder; I suffered a
painful but dexterous hoisting over a gunwale; I was lying in the stern
of a boat, whose rowers were panting from recent effort; I was safe in
the custody of my own Herthian countrymen.
VI
Perhaps I can plead insensibility for not recalling my further
experiences in the row-boat or in my transmission thence to the
steamship _Orissa_, to which the smaller craft belonged. For I
remember nothing of the happenings between the moment of my rescue in
the water and my deposition in a narrow white-painted cabin of the
British vessel. Here my sodden tunic and vest were removed, not without
expressions of astonishment on the part of the stewards, to be replaced
by some ugly flannel sleeping garments. An attempt on their part to
detach the little leather bag and gold chain from my neck was stoutly
resisted, and eventually I was permitted to retain them. Some hot
vinous potion was poured with well-intentioned effort down my reluctant
throat, and perhaps as a result of this characteristic Herthian
hospitality, I soon fell into a dreamless refreshing slumber which must
have endured some hours.
When I awoke it was still daylight, and on opening my eyes they at once
rested on the figure of a man seated by my bedside, who was evidently
watching me with the deepest concern. His countenance, which appealed
to my fastidious taste, was honest, intelligent and kindly, though
its features were rugged and suggestive of humble origin. From his
grizzled hair and heavily lined face I concluded him to be on the
border-line of old and middle age, perhaps some sixty years old. Our
two pairs of eyes met in a searching but friendly survey, after which
encounter I smiled graciously, as I should smile upon one of my nobles
in Meleager, and at the same time extended my hand for salutation.
Naturally it was not kissed--how could I expect such behaviour from a
Herthian equal?--but it was clasped with a gentle reassuring pressure
that in no wise prejudiced me against my companion, who after a pause
began to address me. His voice owned the same quality as his features,
and was by no means spoiled by a trace of north-country doric that
still lingered in his speech. His opening questions were of the usual
type that would be found in the secular rituale (did such a compilation
exist), in the section relating to the case of a ship-wrecked waif.
To these I replied in a brief and (I fear) obscurantist manner. That
my questioner was equally puzzled and interested, I could easily
see; so that I found a somewhat malicious amusement in increasing
his perplexity. Contrariwise, I soon began to examine my would-be
interrogator much in the style I might have employed towards dear
old Anzoni or Hiridia. My new friend seemed somewhat surprised, but
good-naturedly supplied all the information I sought, whereby I learned
that the ship now sheltering me was the _Orissa_, of seven thousand
tons' burden, a cargo-boat of the Pheon Line but also carrying
first-class passengers, on her way home to Liverpool from Rangoon. It
would appear that the officer on the bridge at break of day had seen
the airship strike the water and disappear at no great distance on
our port side, and had promptly given orders for a boat to be lowered
to effect a rescue. On nearing the scene of the recent disaster I had
been found floating in an apparently unconscious state but otherwise
uninjured by my late shock and immersion. He himself was Doctor Charles
Wayne, a native of Cumberland and until lately a medical practitioner
in Burmah, where he had spent most of his life in Government service.
He was now returning home on a pension in his sixty-second year. He
was a widower without children. The _Orissa_ had passed through some
exciting experiences in her voyage from Suez to Gibraltar, for on
their way they had learned of the declaration of war between Germany
and Britain. They had hurried with a sharp look-out by day and with
darkened decks at night through the Mediterranean for fear of prowling
German cruisers, so that all aboard were impatient to make the mouth of
the Mersey without any delay or mishap.
Here indeed was startling news! I had been absent barely seven years in
Meleager, and now on my return to the progressive Earth, which I had
left prattling of universal peace, I was confronted by the outbreak
of a European conflict on a vast scale. There had certainly been wars
and rumours of war in plenty during the past half-century, but such
barbaric terrors I used to be assured were the mere dying echoes of
the moribund volcano of militarism, and that before us there extended
a blessed and endless period of peace, wherein moral education,
increasing wages and salaries, dissent, teetotalism and other blessings
of equal value were to be the special marks of a glorious democratic
era that would have no termination.
"They manage these things better in Meleager," I half muttered to
myself, whilst Dr Wayne continued to expatiate to me on the bellicose
attitude of the Hohenzollerns, on the magnificent patriotism of the
French politicians, of the foresight and skill displayed by our own
ministers of state, and of the lofty altruism of the Tsar. I listened,
but without the attention that the exceptional nature of the case
seemed to demand. Somehow it merely appeared to me that the mundane
kaleidoscope had only sustained another vigorous revolution, and that
the scarlet of human riot and unrest was in reality no more predominant
now than in the previous arrangement of its component colours. And yet
I should be doing myself an injustice were I to speak of my lack of
interest concerning this stupendous piece of news; although at the same
time I found myself surveying this newest phase of the world's progress
with the cold aloofness of an external critic from some distant
planet--which attitude after all exactly fitted my case. Thus I fell
once more into a reverie on the relative values of human happiness
and human progress, that theme whereon I had so often argued with my
councillors in my deserted palace at Tamarida.