THE LOVER’S DREAM
Day after day the caravan moved slowly on, under the blazing sun of the
desert.
One day was much like the other, just sand and sun, sun and sand. Days
of intense heat, nights of extreme cold!
It was getting too monotonous for Carl. Inaction of body allowed too
great a freedom of mind. His days and nights were filled with thoughts
of Sana, thoughts that became maddening as he realized the futility of
life. Thoughts which made him more and more morose as the days went by.
Only once did he show a mutual interest in the things that occurred
about him. That was when one of the travelers called his attention to
a beautiful oasis nearby, to which, however, the guides paid not the
slightest attention. Questioned as to why the caravan did not stop, the
guides replied to the effect that this was but a mirage of the Gurara
Oasis, some five hundred miles away.
For a few minutes they watched it, shimmering in the sunlight. Then it
was gone as quickly as it had appeared.
“Fata Morgana,” mused Carl, “Life and it are the same--just an
illusion.”
That night they reached Tenduf, having placed a thousand miles of
desert behind them.
The following day they reached the sand-hill region of Igidi. Here the
desert looked as if on fire. The sands glowed red beneath the blazing
sun. In the distance one could see great whirling clouds of sand,
rising hundreds of feet in the air.
The caravan halted. For a time it looked as if the storm would pass in
another direction. Suddenly, however, it was upon them. The sky was
darkened with the flying sand, the very ground itself seemed to be
shifting under the fury of the storm.
Instinctively the camels had lowered themselves to the ground. The
travelers, under the direction of the guides, quickly threw themselves
on the sands alongside of their beasts, covering themselves as best
they could with their cloaks.
For two long hours the storm raged--hours that seemed eternity to the
suffocating men. Try as they would, they could not keep the dustlike
sand from entering their eyes, nose and mouth. It was necessary, too,
that they rise up for a minute or two to keep from being sanded in.
[Illustration: The sky was darkened with the sand storm; instinctively
the camels lowered themselves and the travelers threw themselves on the
shifting sand, alongside of their beasts.]
At last the storm was spent and the air once more fit to breathe. Man
and beast stood up, shaking off their burdens of sand, to resume their
journey. But thirty miles had been covered so far that day and they
faced twenty more miles before they could rest.
Carl was worn out. The storm and his general indisposition had got the
better of him. It was with difficulty that he mounted his camel, and
once up, it was harder still for him to keep awake.
For a time he struggled with the desire to sleep, but it was useless.
Gone now was the caravan, gone the desert! Sana and he were in a huge
aeroplane. It was their first flight together in the “Meteor,” as he
had named it. Long had he worked to perfect this machine. Nothing
similar had ever before been devised. Its large bullet-shaped body and
spreading wings gave it the appearance of a gigantic bird. It flew
without an engine, propelled by an invisible force, the secret of which
was his, alighting and soaring at will, through wind or calm. It would
hover in the air like a hawk and at the pressure of his hand on a
lever would rush through space at an unlimited speed. He had gotten a
thousand miles an hour out of it, but that was nothing compared to what
it could do!
Below them lay what was once the great Sahara Desert. But how different
now! The great canal had been dug and the waters of the sea let in but
a short year before. Already the country had changed--great fertile
fields had sprung up on all sides. Gone were the sand hills--gone too,
Sana cried, was her Gurara Oasis.
Swinging southward they soon passed over the great jungles of Africa.
Here, too, a mighty change had been wrought. The tropical climate
had gone, the jungle life was dying. Ice was forming on some of the
swamps. Strange beasts were wandering about aimlessly, seeking a
warmer land. Among these were animals of which modern man knew little
or nothing--the unicorn for instance, an animal existing only in the
imagination of writers and artists, or as Carl noted, through his
powerful field glasses, a monstrous dinosaur, walking on its high legs.
He had seen many skeletons of that primitive beast in museums all over
the world, but he had believed, with the rest of the world, that no
such animal existed in modern times. Yet here it was, driven from its
jungle haunts by the ever increasing cold. The natives, too, he saw
bewildered and afraid--huddled close to their fires, filled with wonder
and dismay.
In Europe they found similar climatic changes. It was July, but
everywhere the people were wearing their heaviest clothing to keep
warm. The vegetation of the land was being slowly but surely destroyed
by the terrible frosts. People were dying by millions because of the
lack of food and the diseases that swept the land.
Forgotten were the hatreds of war--forgotten the enmities of society.
Nations were striving with each other to maintain life. In Germany Carl
found the entire resources devoted to the manufacture and distribution
of a chemical preparation which was to take the place of food for the
Germans and other peoples of Europe.
Throughout Europe all communication by wireless, by telegraph or
telephone was halted. This was caused by the continual display of the
so-called “Northern Lights,” now of much greater intensity in Europe
than ever witnessed before even at the North Pole.
In a flight over the Arctic regions they saw the great ice flows break
up and drift southward, exposing land that had never been known to
exist.
Volcanoes, long thought to have been extinct, suddenly came to life,
belching forth numerous pillars of ashes, smoke and molten lava. On the
western coast of North America a great earthquake took place, throwing
up a range of mountains thousands of feet high, accompanied by untold
loss of life and property. So frequent and great were the earthquakes
that shook the globe that it was feared by the learned men the world
over that the world would be literally shattered to pieces. Large
bodies of water, which had accumulated in the Sahara, seeped through
the dry sand into the hot bowels of the earth, where the water was
converted into steam and under high pressure caused the eruption and
explosion of numerous volcanoes.
Ocean steamers fortunate enough to avoid the great icebergs that were
daily gathering their toll of life or the terrible waterspouts that
occurred in every part of the sea would not respond to the compass.
Their masters reported that the needles pointed far away from what had
been north. The earth had been thrown out of balance! This explained to
some extent the change of climate the world over. Lands that had been
in equatorial regions were thrown north or south with regard to their
position in relation to the sun.
The saying of Archimedes, “Give me a fulcrum and I will move the
earth,” had come true. But instead of a lever and fulcrum, a counter
ballast of water, flooding the Sahara, had done the work.
Scientists began to speculate as to the course the earth would follow
in its yearly movement around the sun. By comparative astronomical
measurements it was established that the earth was following a path
greatly deflected from its former orbit, while other planets flouted
the rules as to orbits and behaved more like comets. Would the earth
now collide with other planets, was the question on everyone’s lips.
All the fixed “rules of thumb” the astronomers used had to be discarded
for new calculations and guesswork.
And the earth was traveling through unknown space at a speed of six
hundred and sixty-six thousand miles an hour!
Then came the age of darkness! The millions of tons of dust and ashes
thrown into the heavens from the hundreds of erupting volcanoes,
traveling with the winds of the earth, formed a heavy film through
which the rays of the sun could barely penetrate. The air grew cold;
blizzards were ever more frequent and severe; gradually the earth was
sheathed in a covering of ice.
But through the darkness there came a light, growing brighter and
brighter as the days went by.
Astronomers reported that this strange light came from an unknown comet
traveling at great speed toward the earth. As time passed the entire
horizon was illuminated by this strange visitor. The light became
brighter and more intense than that of the hottest sun. And nearer and
nearer it came to the earth!
All over the world anxious eyes watched the comet night and day. Was
the end of the world at hand? The most irreligious people spent days
and nights in prayer. Nations set prayer-days to save the world from
destruction. People lost their reason and wandered around helplessly
and aimlessly, until maddened entirely they took their lives.
A poisonous gas swept over the face of the earth. Chemists and
scientists alike were baffled in their attempts to analyze it. Was it
caused by the passing of the world through one of the nebulae, which
long had been regarded as composed of dangerous gases? Or could it be
that the comet now speeding toward them was discharging these gases?
They could find no answer.
But whatever it was, it was taking fearful toll on earth. Never had
anything like it been witnessed before. Men dropped dead in the
streets. Women, their babes at their breasts, died in their homes. The
open air was no longer safe. Even the houses were penetrated regardless
of what precautions were taken to stop up crevices in doors and windows.
Life on earth was unbearable!
Carl, disgusted with the miserable condition, determined, then, that he
and his wife, Sana, would leave the now inhospitable earth and seek a
haven of refuge on some other planet.
It was but a matter of hours to make arrangements. A generous supply
of the artificial food was put into the machine. They did not have to
worry about fuel, as the “Meteor” would generate its mysterious power
as it traveled. Carl had explained this to Sana, confidentially. Fuel
for the engines, if such the delicate apparatus might be called, was
secured directly from the atmosphere. The higher the speed of the plane
the more rarefied the atmosphere, the better the quality of fuel.
Furthermore, Carl did not have to attend any steering devices. The
plane traveled in an electric wave zone, driven forward by this new
device, and once headed in any desired direction would continue in that
direction indefinitely.
Helping Sana into the enclosed body of the “Meteor,” Carl bade farewell
to the earth. Soon they were speeding heavenward at a tremendous pace,
going in the direction of the earth’s rotation.
Looking out of the port-hole-like windows of the plane Carl and Sana
saw that they had already passed through the dust cloud which enveloped
the earth. As they watched, they saw the earth and moon whiz past them
with the speed of falling comets.
From this time on their mentality was severed from that of the peoples
of the earth. They were independent of the conception of time, which,
really, exists only in the minds of the human race, according to
Einstein’s theory.
An unusual sight now presented itself to the flying couple. The great
comet that had caused so much consternation on earth was in plain
view. Behind the tremendous sun-like head trailed a most imposing
tail, millions of miles in length, and from all appearances composed
of gases and without any sharp lines of demarkation. This tail had not
been visible to the watchers on earth because of the great dust cloud.
To Carl and Sana, however, it was quite distinct, looking much like a
great inverted comma, imprinted on the endless depths of the sky.
It was necessary for Carl, after a while, to go to the pressure
chambers to replenish the air supply of their cabin. This done, he idly
fingered the tuning dials of the wireless apparatus with which the
plane was equipped. To his surprise the cabin was filled with the sound
of incoming messages. He endeavored to interpret them but they were in
a language unknown to him. Somewhere out in the ether there existed
people, he realized, of an intelligence far greater than that of the
earth-men.
Tuning down the wireless, he returned to Sana, who was again peering
through the windows of the plane at the myriads of stars that went
flashing by.
Now a great planet came into view. Carl recognized Saturn, 750 times
the size of the earth. Around it traveled a broad concentric ring. It
was accompanied by ten moons.
They kept up their wild flight, passing, after some days--according
to Carl’s watch, at a great distance, Uranus. In the distance they
observed Neptune and realizing that upon reaching it, they would be
some three billion miles from home, so they decided to turn homeward.
With a great sweep taking several days the “Meteor” shot around
Neptune, and again after two weeks they passed Uranus and Saturn. After
a while the great planet Jupiter passed them, or rather they passed the
planet, although flying at their terrific speed they were unconscious
of motion.
In the distance loomed up the Milky Way, comprised as they saw, of
billions of stars closely grouped together. Not wishing to encounter
any of these stars, Carl swung the plane in a wide detour.
This danger passed, the plane hummed along for a few hours, when
Carl, looking downward, saw beneath them the planet Mars. Throttling
down their speed they hung suspended above that planet at a few miles
height. From their position they could see the great canal systems
which brought the waters from the snow and ice clad polar regions to
the more temperate zones. These zones, they saw, were covered with
large areas of vegetation, nesting among which were what appeared to be
cities. Above these cities flew countless airplanes, not so very much
different in appearance from those used on earth.
With “Let us land here,” Carl guided the “Meteor” Mars-ward, landing
shortly in a field covered with moss and strange plants.
Immediately their plane was surrounded by a host of strange people.
In form they were very much like the people of the earth. They were,
however, much smaller and had heads large out of all proportion to
their bodies. Clothes too, were not to be seen.
Before they left the plane Carl warned Sana to be very careful how she
moved about. As Mars is only one tenth the size of the earth in volume,
gravitation is likewise less. Carl who, on earth weighed about one
hundred and sixty pounds, would weigh but sixty-four or five pounds on
Mars. He told Sana, jokingly, that she could easily step over their
huge airplane, while a Martian would break his neck if he tried to jump
over an ordinary soap box.
To the Martians, Sana and Carl must have appeared quite strange, both
as to size and clothing. For a time the crowd stood at a distance as
if in awe of these strange beings that had come to them out of the
skies. At length, however, one of the group stepped forward and spoke.
Much to his surprise Carl realized that he understood him perfectly.
And stranger, still, Carl found himself answering in a language that
was new to his ears.
Courteously they questioned him as to his desires, and being informed
that Carl and Sana had flown through space from the earth, their
amazement was without bounds. Would more follow him, they asked, to
which Carl was quick to reply that none would come. Realizing their
doubt, he assured them that he alone knew the secret of his flight and
that no other earth-men could make the journey.
Assured at last, that these two visitors had come without intent to
harm, they led Carl and Sana to a great hall, where food and drink were
served them. Food and drink such as they had never tasted before! The
various dishes of chemical food had the same brown granular appearance,
but when placed in the mouth each gave a different taste and had
different satisfying qualities. The same applied to the drinks. One
could not be distinguished from the other, either in appearance or
odor, yet each was distinctly different to the palate.
The hall or room and its furnishings, they noted, were very much like
those of the earth. While this was indeed strange, Carl reasoned that
there was no good reason why two worlds of people, although separated
by untold miles, should not conceive things along the same lines.
Having eaten, Carl and Sana were informed that they could come and go
as they pleased among the people of Mars. Whatever they wished was
theirs for the asking--as was the case with all Martians.
This promise of freedom proved well founded. Together Carl and Sana
studied and explored without interference, although they soon realized
that their every move was witnessed by some Martian or other.
Life on Mars, they found to be Utopian in the fullest sense of the
word, compared to which the democracies of the earth were naught but
the greatest farces. Mars, of course, was a much older world compared
with the earth, so far as human life was concerned and naturally
greater things could have been accomplished.
Here on Mars each individual was accountable to his neighbor for a
certain amount of work; every man, woman and child had some one thing
to do, and did it willingly.
They had long realized that upon the proper application of scientific
knowledge depended the welfare of their civilization. Science was
their God, and they worshiped it as we do our Creator!
Most marvelous of the many wonderful things the two earth people
encountered on every hand was the application of wireless to many walks
of life. Every Martian carried a small and delicate receiving set
with him. No matter where he was he was always equipped and ready for
whatever message might be sent him. Numerous stations were continually
broadcasting the news of the day. No papers were needed; in fact the
written language had been discarded long ago as an obsolete thing.
There were no schools, churches, or meeting halls such as we have on
earth. The people sat in their homes and were informed of all there was
to know.
Transportation, too, differed greatly from that of the earth. All the
railways were underground, and instead of tracks and wheeled cars,
such as we have, cylindrical tubes were shot forward like pistons in
a cylinder, or rather these cylinder-like cars were sucked from one
station to another, at a terrific speed, by means of great solenoids,
the electrical current for which was secured from the numerous
hydro-electric generating stations that dotted the banks of the canals,
which served the Martians a double purpose. They furnished the water
needed to irrigate the fields and at the same time ran the generating
plants.
Carl was forcibly struck by the ingenuity displayed in the utilizing
of these canal waters. The waters used at one station, after being
discharged, were carried along for a short distance, until, through
a series of steps it fell to a lower level, to again be used by a
generating station. It was only after it had served its purpose of
generating power that the water was finally pumped over the fields.
The fields ran along both sides of the canals for thousands of miles
and averaged perhaps fifteen miles in width. He saw, too, that while
most of the canals ran parallel with each other, there were some that
crossed each other at different elevations.
Very little labor was performed by hand. Practically all the work on
Mars was done by electrical machinery, devised by the inhabitants of
that strange world.
Much traveling was done by means of airplanes, such as they had noticed
when first they hovered over the planet. These airplanes had no
engines, but were propelled by wireless from stations on land. Freight
planes, too, sailed prescribed courses, without pilots, guided by a
lone operator in a distant tower.
For a time things ran along smoothly but at last Carl and Sana realized
that they would soon have to return to earth. Life was dear to them
and their days were numbered if they continued to live upon Mars. The
rarity of the atmosphere and the strange mode of living was making
its impression upon them. Besides, they noted, the ever increasing
hostility on the part of some of the Martians.
Carl waited until their baby was born and Sana well on the road to
recovery, before making any definite plans for the future.
Came the day, however, when they went once more to the “Meteor” to
leave that strange land. And just in time. The plane literally swarmed
with Martians, who, from all appearances were doing their utmost to
dismantle it. At Carl’s approach they fell back, taken by surprise.
One of the Martians, in particular, was quite hostile and abusive. With
a snarl he attempted to take baby Charlie from Sana, who screamed to
Carl for help. Carl, with a spring, was at her side. Without hesitating
an instance he swung his arm and landed a mighty blow on the head of
the offender. To the surprise of all, the Martian did not fall, but
went flying through the air, at a height of perhaps twenty feet, to
land in a misshapen heap some hundred yards away.
This sight cowed the rest of them to a certain extent. Carl had time to
help Sana and the baby into the cabin of the plane, give a hasty glance
at the mechanism at the head of the machine, climb inside and shut the
door, which automatically was hermetically sealed.
Once more the Martians swarmed about the “Meteor” in a last attempt
to prevent its leaving the ground. Their efforts were, of course,
useless. No power on earth or Mars could have held the “Meteor,” once
Carl established his electric zone, the airplane would shoot forward
at the speed of electric waves. With a rush they were off, soaring
far out into space, followed, as they saw upon looking back, by a
myriad of Martian airplanes, which, although capable of traveling at
a speed greater than any ordinary airplane of the earth, were soon
out-distanced.
Looking at one of the wings, Carl saw, hanging on, with a desperation
caused by fear and astonishment, a Martian at the end of the wing.
Apparently he had been unable to scramble off when the “Meteor” had
started.
Without saying anything to Sana as to this, Carl flapped the encumbered
wing in the way a bird would, and saw the Martian torn from his grasp
and catapulted far out into space, only to describe a wide arc and
fall like a plummet down into the limitless depths. Would he, Carl
mused, too become a wanderer of the skies?
Putting the countless miles speedily behind them, the “Meteor” at
last came in sight of the moon. Calling Sana to his side, Carl let
their ship hover above that cold dead world. The sight below them was
fearful--the planet was a veritable charnel-house. Countless circular
mountain ranges, looking like great inactive volcanic craters, some
of them hundreds of miles in diameter and with ramparts more than
twenty-five thousand feet high, studded the surface of the moon.
Between these mountain ranges the surface of the moon was scarred with
great clefts or crevices, evidently caused by the sudden cooling of
that planet.
Recalling that among the various books they had with them, was one
containing photographic maps of the moon, compiled by the greatest of
the earth’s astronomers, Carl procured it and with Sana’s assistance,
compared the pictured maps with the planet itself. Yes, there was the
great Copernicus crater, with its strange central peak rising some
eleven thousand feet from the bottom of the pit, although the peak
rose only some two thousand five hundred feet above the surface of
the moon. There was the Plato crater, sixty miles in diameter with
peaks over seven thousand feet high; Clavius, one hundred and forty
miles from rampart to rampart with peaks sixteen thousand feet high;
Herschel ninety miles in diameter; Gauss and Humbolt each about one
hundred miles across. He recognized, too, the lunar Apennines, some
four thousand five hundred miles long, soaring in rugged steps to a
height of eighteen thousand feet; the lunar Alps, consisting of some
hundred peaks, rising to a height of ten thousand feet, while the great
peaks of the Doerfel and Leipnitz mountains overshadowed all in their
majestic heights of twenty-six to twenty-seven thousand feet.
Gleaming white, dull red and brilliant yellow the peaks and craters
reflected the rays of the sun. A beautiful sight, indeed, yet more
impressive, to Carl, was the fact that the planet they inspected was
but the skeleton of what might once have been a world of life and
progress. Who knows?
Leaving the moon behind, they headed for the earth. The dust clouds had
disappeared and the land and water surfaces were clearly visible even
at their great distance. Their earth-home was once again in sight. A
feeling of happiness stole over the returning wanderers. Truly, there
is no place like home.
Guiding the “Meteor” in the direction of the earth’s rotation, they
swooped earthward, landing at last in a highly vegetated field.
People were working the lands, using, Carl soon saw, rather primitive
implements. The alighting airplane caused a great deal of commotion
among these people, but seeing that the people who stepped from the
machine were human beings, looking much like themselves, they soon got
over their fright, and came forward, eager questions on their lips.
They spoke a sort of dialect English, and Carl had little difficulty
in making himself understood. He informed them that he, too, was an
earth-dweller, who had returned with his wife and baby from a trip to a
distant world. Amazement was plain on every face, but they assured him
of their belief in what he said, adding that they had never before seen
such a thing as the strange ship in which he had come, although their
books taught them that there was a time when earth-men flew about in
some such machines.
Scarcely believing his ears, Carl asked them the name of the country in
which he had landed, and was told it was called “Artonia.”
“Artonia? I have never heard of that. Where is it in location to the
rest of the world?”
He learned, then, that this was the region of the one-time North Pole,
as it was called ages ago.
“Ages ago? What year is it now?” he asked, amazed.
“It is the year 3831,” came the reply.
“3831?” questioned his mind. Unbelievable! Nearly two thousand years of
earth-time had elapsed during their journey, and to them it had seemed
but the matter of a year. Turning to Sana, Carl said, “Is it possible
that Einstein was right?”
If such changes had been wrought at the pole, what had happened to the
rest of the world? What had become of the great cities of the world and
their people? Sadly they realized that they alone of the old order of
things existed. This world, their home, would be as strange to them as
Mars!
They might as well utilize their means of travel and visit the other
parts of the globe. The “Meteor,” although badly strained by the severe
use to which it had been subjected in their flight, would still suffice
them on earth. They, in turn, had become nomads of the earth--wanderers
without a place they could call home. Men without a world!
Their supply of the artificial food had about been exhausted, and Carl
questioned the strange folk as to where he could purchase food. At his
remark, “But I have little money,” they asked curiously, “Money? What
is that?”
Carl tried to explain, but they did not understand. He knew then that
they, in their primitiveness had not yet reached the stage where a
standard form of exchange was required. So he reverted to their method
of barter.
He had not much choice in the way of what to offer. In fact the only
things he had were his books. Perhaps they would serve his purpose.
And serve his purpose they did. Cooked meats, fruits and vegetables
galore were given him in exchange for a single book--a book of wild
game hunt in Africa. He noted with a smile, that it was the pictures
that interested these people. They passed the book from hand to hand,
looking at the highly colored illustrations, like so many amused school
children.
Promising these new made friends that they would return to them, to
tell them of what they had seen in their tour of the world, they said
goodbye, and headed for Europe.
The Europe they had known was gone--gone were the great centers of
population, gone were the peoples they had known, swallowed up, all, in
the relentless march of Time!
Gone too, were the great nations of Europe, as Carl and Sana knew them.
All that remained of the once great British Empire was the little isle
of England--the rest of her domains had shaken off the yoke and were
independent countries.
In France a greater change had taken place. The one-time French race
had completely extinguished itself generations before. The land was now
overrun with a polyglot race of Russians and Germans, who were more
phlegmatic than ever.
Germany and the other countries of Europe, too, were changed to such an
extent that there was no comparison between the order now in existence
and the order that had passed.
In all Europe laws of equality of man had been established, so that
now all men were equally rich, or rather equally poor. Equally poor,
because, there was no longer any incentive or inducement to strive
to gain. The people had become drones to an extreme degree. There
was no reward for labor, so none labored. No man tried to outdo his
neighbor, for in the end, his neighbor had as much as he. Hence
progress had ceased long ago. There was no industry worthy of the name.
Civilization, as Carl and Sana knew it, was, too, a thing of the past.
To all appearances, the people existed only because they did not die.
Nothing mattered to them but food, and as eating was a necessary evil,
they procured their food, individually, with as little exertion as was
possible. Too lazy, in most instances, to even cook the fish and game
they caught, they ate it raw, and having filled their bellies, would
lie down beside their mates to sleep until they were hungry again.
Landing in North Africa, both Carl and Sana were astounded at the
changes that had taken place. The once barren wastes of the desert
country had been converted, as if by the wave of a magic wand, into
a great agricultural country. The terrific heat of the days and the
freezing cold of the nights had gone and in their place was a mild
climate, similar to that of the central United States. With this great
change had come prosperity; prosperity of such magnitude as to even
surpass that of Carl’s own country at the time he and Sana had taken
flight from the earth.
The flooding of the lower desert areas, while inundating tremendous
territory, had caused the surrounding lands to become fertile, rich
in nitrates and plant values. The people of the new, for such it was,
land, were the descendants of the one-time semi-savage races. Now they
numbered some two hundred millions and in truth had become a mighty
race, rich in power and wealth.
On every hand, Carl and Sana saw bodies of soldiers in training. On
inquiring as to this, they were informed that ages ago France had
taught them the military arts. Today these people believed the entire
world was in fear of them. In fact they were bragging of the great
military strength and boasted of the fact that for centuries no nation
had even so much as dared try to exploit them.
Sana pointed out to Carl that these people were not as dark of skin as
they were when the land was still a desert. On hearing her remark, a
native man, of apparent great learning, and who was acting as a sort of
self-appointed guide to the couple, explained, saying:
“Ages ago, that is, some two thousand years ago, France used our people
to fight her wars against other nations of white peoples. France
realized that if she had more of us available to fight her battles,
she could soon gain control of the entire world. To this end she
established this great African country of ours, believing at the time
that the people of this great land would always remain subject to her
rule and would always be at her call to aid her against the world.
“In this she was partly right. If she could always control the colonies
of black peoples, she could defy any nation on the earth.”
The speaker paused, then continued, with a smile of satisfaction, “But
France overlooked the fact that France herself, as a white race was
dying gradually. She overlooked too, to what great extent the black
races had mingled with the white French, with its self-evident result.
“Today, the African and the Asiatic races rule the world, thanks to the
one-time French and the English.
“We two colored races, that is the black and yellow races, are the only
ones on earth that amount to anything. We are the mighty ones of the
earth today and none dare interfere or disturb us.
“When France realized that the tables were being turned against her,
and that she was sure to be the loser, she tried to avert the impending
disaster to France, by attempting to make this great country a barren
waste of sand once more. But it was too late. Too late for France to
undo the great wrong she had done the white races of the earth. We were
already strong enough to resist any such action on her part. Rising
up in our might, much to their surprise, we overthrew our masters and
became a nation independent and free from the yoke that had rested on
our necks for so many years.
“From that time on the white French disappeared still faster from the
face of the earth. Our histories tell us that in the course of the two
following generations there were no more white French in France.
“These colored people you now see here are to a great extent the
descendants of the French. In other words they are the result of
the mingling of the white and the black, with the black, as you see,
predominating.”
“But how was it that the black races prospered so?” Carl interrupted.
Things were not quite clear to him, as yet.
The answer came quickly--“You know from your histories that the white
races, from the beginning of time, have been warring upon each other.
You know too, that the colored races have never fought each other as
have the whites. That is the answer.
“England aided the growth of the yellow race by letting Japan overrun
Russia. France conscripted the black race to fight the white. What
other outcome was there to expect? Sooner or later the two races must
dominate. When the black and yellow races are allowed to kill off the
white, there could be no other result.
“And, because that result was inevitable, so it has come to pass. Today
where are the whites? Scattered over the earth! But they are nobody.
Their ambition lies dormant; they are even too lazy to procure their
food. They are a dying race.
“But we colored people are different. We are the civilized peoples of
the earth. Our civilization has taken the place of that of the white
peoples some two thousand years ago.”
The truth became clear to Carl and Sana as they listened to the
speaker’s words. The hypocrisy of nations, like that of individuals,
ends with disaster.
Asking whether all these great changes had been wrought in a natural
way, Carl was told “Not quite so. At the time when the Sahara, as it
was then known, was changed from a desert into a flowering garden,
there was, according to history, a great astronomical upheaval,
destroying great cities, and killing millions of people. Ever since,
the ‘great comet,’ which will soon be visible in the sky, has appeared
daily. Then our colored people with the mixture of the French blood get
excited. They cannot lose their fear.”
Sana smiled, saying, “After two thousand years they are still excited
and afraid.”
In the days that followed Carl and Sana, in their wanderings about
this strange country, were soon convinced of the truth of the things
they had been told. Much as they would have liked to remain here and
study the civilization and people about them, they desired to hasten
to America. Of Sana’s homestead on the Gurara Oasis there was nothing
to be seen. Ages ago all that was dear to Sana had been buried deep
beneath the waves of the great inland sea.
So getting once more into the “Meteor” they set out for Carl’s beloved
country.
America, too, had changed, Carl found to his great regret, when the
“Meteor” alighted at the site of what was once the world’s greatest
city. Gone were the towering buildings of New York, gone were its
millions of people. In its place was naught but a great sandy plain, or
better, a plateau, extending for miles in all directions, and unpeopled
save for a few straggling groups of rude hut-like shelters.
In landing the “Meteor” had come to a stop at a point that Carl figured
was approximately lower Broadway. Nearby some excavating work was being
done by a group of white-bearded men, who at the sight of the airplane
dropped their implements and came hurrying towards it. Upon questioning
these men Carl learned that they were scientists who had come from
the cities that lay in the distant West, to learn something about the
civilization that had existed on the Atlantic coast in the days of the
past.
To the best of their knowledge, they explained, some thousand or so
years ago the entire coast had been devastated by great tidal waves,
followed by terrible earthquakes causing untold destruction. Volcanic
eruptions, too, had added to the havoc, burying the lands, for
thousands of square miles, under millions of tons of lava and rock.
Leading him to the pit where Carl had first seen them, the excavators
asked him to peer down the deep shaft they had dug. At the bottom, some
two hundred feet below him, Carl saw the tower of the great Woolworth
Building of old New York.
Asking them what they sought, the answer came, “Knowledge. We of today
have little need for the material things of Life. Ours is a search for
the Truth, and we must hurry.”
The spokesman of the party pointed heavenward. Carl, following the
directing finger with his eyes, saw in blazing brilliance, the great
comet whose first appearance had caused Sana and he to flee the earth.
While in Europe he had noticed it, but had paid little attention to it,
being too absorbed in the things around him. The peoples of Europe,
too, had taken it as an accepted thing of life.
The stranger continued, “That has been there in the heavens as long as
man can remember, but we who know, realize that it is coming closer
and closer to the earth. Just when that final rush will come, the rush
that shall bring destruction to this world, we do not know, but we fear
that the day is not far off. For myself I care not. The day can come
anytime and I will be ready. For the sake of the truths we are seeking,
however, I hope that that day will never come.”
A strange world indeed, mused Carl, when the knowledge of truth
dominates and man’s personal ambitions are secondary!
Wandering around Carl and Sana saw how complete the destruction had
been. The wonderful Palisades of the Hudson had disappeared, the river
itself having been turned from its bed many miles away. The East River,
too, was gone, having been filled with lava and rock as had a great
part of Long Island Sound.
While on one of their wonder-filled trips of exploration, they came
upon an extinct volcanic crater, very similar in size and appearance
to some they had seen on the moon. The air, that day, seemed more
oppressive than usual and the heat terrific.
Seeking coolness in the shadow of a great boulder on the rampart of
this crater, Sana sat down, her baby in her arms, while Carl stood
nearby studying the wonderful formations of rock and lava at every hand.
Suddenly the air was filled with a great roaring sound, a sound so
terrific that it was deafening. A light, brighter than that of a
hundred suns, illumined the earth. With a rush the realization was upon
them. The comet was fast approaching the earth--the end of the world
was at hand.
Then the collision--the earth shook under the impact--the air was
filled with dust and smoke. Fearful for the safety of his beloved ones,
Carl sprang to them, to clutch them tightly in his arms. Then darkness!
* * * * *
Someone laughing? Carl opened his eyes. Of course they were laughing at
him, lying at the feet of his camel, from whose back he had fallen in
his sleep, with his arms tightly hugging the camel’s legs.