Thorndyke went down into his chambers to make his toilet and was ready
to leave when there was a soft rap on his door. He opened it, and to his
surprise saw Bernardino modestly draw herself back into the shadow of
the hall.
“Pardon me, but I must speak to you,” she stammered in confusion.
“What is it?” he asked, going out to her.
“I want to advise you to avoid my father to-day. He is greatly
disappointed with the accident of yesterday, and he is never courteous
to strangers when he is displeased. He was particularly anxious to have
you entertained by the fete.”
“Thank you; I shall keep out of his way,” promised the Englishman.
“Where had I better stay--here in my rooms?”
“No, he might send for you. If you would care to see Winter Park, I can
go with you as your guide.”
“I should be delighted; nothing could please me more.”
“But,” (as a servant passed in the room with a tray) “that is your
breakfast. Meet me at the fountain at the north entrance of the palace
in half an hour.” And, drawing her veil over her face, she vanished in
the darkness of the corridor.
After he had breakfasted and sent the man away, he hastened below to the
place designated by the princess. She was waiting for him under the palm
trees, and was so disguised that he would not have known her but for her
low amused laugh as he was about to pass her.
“It would not do for any one to suspect me,” she explained; “my father
would never forgive me for doing this.” She pointed to a flying-machine
near by. “We must take the air; I have made all the arrangements. Winter
Park is beyond the limits of the city.”
He followed her across the grass to the machine and into the car. They
could see the driver behind the glass of the narrow compartment in which
he sat, and when he turned the polished metal wheel the machine rose
like a liberated balloon.
Thorndyke looked out of the window. The blue haze of the fifth hour of
the morning was breaking over everything, and as the domes, pinnacles,
and vari-colored roofs fell away in the beautiful light, the breast of
the Englishman heaved with delightful emotions. Bernardino was watching
his face with a gratified smile.
“You like Alpha,” she said, half anxiously, half inquiringly.
“Very much,” he replied; “but I want to show you the great world I came
from;--and some day perhaps I can.”
The blood ran into her cheeks suddenly, and then as quickly receded,
leaving a wistful expression in her eyes. She sighed. “It has been my
dream for a long time. I have always imagined that it is more wonderful
than Alpha; but you know there is no chance for you to return now.”
“I shall manage to escape some way and you shall go with me as my wife.”
Her blushes came again. “I did not know that you cared that much for
me,” she said. Then, as if to change the subject, she pointed through
the window. “See, we are approaching the Park, and shall descend in a
moment.”
He looked out of the window and then drew his head in quickly.
“We are coming down into a big lake!” he cried out. “Oh, no, it is only
the glass roof of the park,” she laughed; “true, it does look like water
in the sunlight.”
The machine sank lower and finally rested on a plot of grass in a little
square ornamented with beds of flowers and white statues. Thorndyke
saw a seemingly endless wall, so high that he could not calculate its
height. Bernardino preceded him in at a great arching door in the wall,
and they found themselves in a stone-paved vestibule several hundred
feet square.
A maid servant came forward at once and brought heavy fur clothing
for them and invited them into separate toilet rooms. When he came out
Bernardino was waiting for him. He could hardly breathe, so thick were
the furs he had put on.
“It is warm here, but it will be colder in a moment,” said the princess.
And she led him to a door across the room. When the door was opened,
Thorndyke uttered an exclamation of astonishment. Before their eyes lay
a wide expanse of snow-covered roads, woodlands and frozen lakes and
streams. The air was as crisp and invigorating as a Canadian winter.
Bernardino led him to a pavilion where a number of pleasure-seekers were
gathered and selected a sleigh and two mettlesome horses. She took
the reins from the man, and sprang lightly into the graceful cutter.
Thorndyke followed her and wrapped the thick robes about her feet. Away
they sped like the wind down the smooth road, through a leafless forest.
Overhead the glass roof could not be seen, but a lowering gray cloud
hung over them and a light snow was falling.
“Winter Park is a great resort,” the princess explained; “we get tired
of the unchanging climate, and it is pleasant to visit such a place as
this. There is a winter park in every town of any size in Alpha.”
They drove along the shore of a beautiful lake, on the frozen surface
of which hundreds of skaters were darting here and there, and passed
hillsides on which crowds of young people were coasting in sleds. When
they had driven about ten miles in a circuitous route she turned the
horses round.
“We had better return,” she said; “you have not seen all of the Park,
but we can visit it some other time.”
Outside they found their flying-machine awaiting them, and were soon on
the way back to the city. They parted at the fountain in the park, she
hastening to the palace, and he turning to stroll through the little
wood behind him.
He was passing a thick bunch of trees when he was startled by hearing
his name called. He turned round, but at first saw no one.
“Thorndyke!” There it was again, and then he saw a hand beckoning to him
from a hedge of ferns at his right. He stepped back a few paces; a man
came out of the wood.
It was Johnston, his face was white and haggard, his clothing rent and
soiled.
“My God, can it be you?” gasped the Englishman.
“Nobody else,” groaned Johnston, cautiously advancing and laying a
trembling hand on the arm of Thorndyke; “but don't talk loud, they will
find me.”
“Where did you come from?”
Johnston pointed first to the east, and then swept his hand over the sky
to the west.
“Over the wall,” he said despondently. “From the dead lands behind the
sun.”
“How did you get back here?”
For reply Johnston parted the fern leaves and pointed to the lank figure
of the tall Alphian, who lay curled up on the grass as if asleep.
“He brought me in that flying-machine there; but he has spent all his
strength in trying to manage the thing, which was out of order, and now
he is helpless. Twice we came within an inch of sinking down into the
internal fires. The last time we escaped only by the breadth of a hair;
if he had not had the endurance of a man of iron he would have succumbed
to the heat and we would have been lost. We sank so far down that I
became insensible and never knew a thing till the fresh air revived me.
See, my beard and hair are singed, and look how he is blistered. Poor
fellow! He is a hero.” Johnston stepped back and shook the Alphian, but
the poor fellow's head only rolled to one side, showing his bloodshot
eyes. He was insensible.
“He is in a bad fix,” said Thorndyke; “where did he come from?”
“Banished like myself; we met over there in the dark and roamed about
together.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don't know; I was following his lead. We will both be put to death if
we are discovered.”
“Did he not tell you his plan?”
Johnston started visibly. “Oh, I forgot,” he exclaimed. “He declares
that all this vast cavern is in danger. Over in the west we discovered
a hole in the roof through which the ocean is streaming in a torrent.
He calculated that before many hours the water would overflow into the
internal fires and produce a volcanic eruption that will swallow up all
of Alpha.”
“Merciful Heaven! and you are hiding here at such a moment? The king
must be informed at once.”
Johnston had grown suddenly paler. “It may not be as bad as Branasko
feared, and the king would have no mercy on me and him.”
“Leave that to me,” said Thorndyke; “I have made a good friend of the
Princess Bernardino. She will tell me what is best to do. Remain here.”
In breathless haste, Thorndyke went into the audience chamber.
Fortunately the king was not on his throne, and he caught sight of the
confidential maid of the princess.
She saw him approaching, and withdrew behind a cluster of tall white
jars of porcelain containing rare plants.
“I must see your mistress,” he said; “tell her to come to me at once; we
are in great peril!”
The girl swept her eyes over the balconies and the throne and said: “She
is in her apartments, sir; I shall bring her.”
“Tell her to meet me at the fountain where we last met,” and he hastened
back to the spot mentioned.
She soon came. “What is it?” she asked excitedly.
“Johnston is back,” he replied. “He is in the wood there with a fellow
who escaped with him in a disabled flying-machine. He says the sea
has broken through over in the west and is streaming into Alpha in a
torrent.”
“Surely there is some mistake,” she said; “such a thing has never
happened.”
“It may have been caused by the explosives during the storm,” went on
Thorndyke. “Branasko, the Alphian who was with Johnston, says we are in
imminent peril.”
“There must be some mistake,” she repeated incredulously, as she looked
to westward. The green glow of the second hour of the afternoon lay
over everything. She stood mute and motionless for a long time,
looking steadily at the horizon; then she started suddenly, changed her
position, and shaded her eyes from the sunlight.
“It really does seem to me that there is a cloud rising, and it is
unlike any cloud I ever saw.”
“I see it too!” cried the Englishman; “it must be that the water has
already reached the internal fires.”
Bernardino was very pale when she turned to him.
“My father must know this at once; come with me.”
Into the palace, through the vast rotunda, past the throne, and into
the very apartment of the king himself she led him hastily. A royal
attendant met them and held up his hands warningly. “The king is
asleep,” he said in an undertone.
“Wake him--wake him at once!” commanded the excited girl.
“I cannot, it would offend him,” was the reply.
She did not pause an instant, but darting past the man and running to
the king's couch, she drew the curtain aside and touched the sleeper. He
waked in anger, but her first word disarmed him.
“Alpha is in danger.”
“What!” he growled, half awake. “The sea is breaking through in the
west, and running into the internal fires.”
“How do you know that?”
“A dense cloud is rising in the west, and:----”
“Impossible!” the word came from far down in his throat, and he was
ghastly pale. He ran to the table and touched a button and, to the
astonishment of Thorndyke, the walls on the western side of the room
silently parted, showing a little balcony overlooking the street
below. The king went hastily out and looked toward the west. The others
followed him. The princess stifled a cry of alarm when she glanced at
the sky.
Great black, rolling clouds were rapidly spreading along the horizon.
The king looked at them as helplessly as a frightened child. “The air!”
he groaned. “It is hot!” and then he held out his hand to the princess,
and showed her a flake of soot on it, and he dumbly pointed to others
that were falling about them.
“How did you discover it?” he asked, and Thorndyke saw that he was
trying to appear calm.
“Mr.--this gentleman's friend has returned from banishment, and----”
“Returned! has the wall been destroyed?”
“No; he accidentally discovered the danger, and came in a flying-machine
to warn you.”
“Where is he? bring him to me, quick!”
“But you will not ----”
He waved his hand impatiently. “Go; if Alpha is saved he shall be at
liberty--if it is not, what does it matter?”
Thorndyke hastened away after Johnston, who, when he was told of the
king's words, readily accompanied his friend to the presence of the
ruler. They found him with his daughter still on the balcony.
“How did you discover this?” asked the king, turning to the American.
As quickly as possible, Johnston related his adventures, and
particularly the story of the shooting fountain and the fall of salt
water. The king did not wait for him to conclude. He ran back into his
chamber, touched another button, and the next instant alarm-bells were
ringing all over the city.
“A signal to the protectors,” explained the princess to Thorndyke; “by
this time they are ringing all over Alpha. Oh, what will become of us?”
as she spoke she leaned over the balustrade and looked down into the
street. Vast crowds had gathered and were motionless, except at points
where the purple-clad “protectors” rushed from public buildings to
assemble in squads on the street corner.