Gulliver of Mars

by

Edwin L. Arnold

Original Title: Lieut. Gulliver Jones

CHAPTER I

Dare I say it? Dare I say that I, a plain, prosaic lieutenant in therepublican service have done the incredible things here set out for thelove of a woman--for a chimera in female shape; for a pale, vapid ghostof woman-loveliness? At times I tell myself I dare not: that you willlaugh, and cast me aside as a fabricator; and then again I pick up mypen and collect the scattered pages, for I MUST write it--the pallidsplendour of that thing I loved, and won, and lost is ever before me, and will not be forgotten. The tumult of the struggle into which thatvision led me still throbs in my mind, the soft, lisping voices of theplanet I ransacked for its sake and the roar of the destruction whichfollowed me back from the quest drowns all other sounds in my ears! Imust and will write--it relieves me; read and believe as you list. 

At the moment this story commences I was thinking of grilled steak andtomatoes--steak crisp and brown on both sides, and tomatoes red as asetting sun!

Much else though I have forgotten, THAT fact remains as clear as thelast sight of a well-remembered shore in the mind of some wave-tossedtraveller. And the occasion which produced that prosaic thought was anight well calculated to make one think of supper and fireside, thoughthe one might be frugal and the other lonely, and as I, Gulliver Jones, the poor foresaid Navy lieutenant, with the honoured stars of ourRepublic on my collar, and an undeserved snub from those in authorityrankling in my heart, picked my way homeward by a short cut through thedismalness of a New York slum I longed for steak and stout, slippersand a pipe, with all the pathetic keenness of a troubled soul. 

It was a wild, black kind of night, and the weirdness of it showed upas I passed from light to light or crossed the mouths of dim alleysleading Heaven knows to what infernal dens of mystery and crime even inthis latter-day city of ours. The moon was up as far as the churchsteeples; large vapoury clouds scudding across the sky between us andher, and a strong, gusty wind, laden with big raindrops snarled angrilyround corners and sighed in the parapets like strange voices talkingabout things not of human interest. 

It made no difference to me, of course. New York in this year of graceis not the place for the supernatural be the time never so fit forwitch-riding and the night wind in the chimney-stacks sound never somuch like the last gurgling cries of throttled men. No! the world wasvery matter-of-fact, and particularly so to me, a poor younger son withfive dollars in my purse by way of fortune, a packet of unpaid bills inmy breastpocket, and round my neck a locket with a portrait therein ofthat dear buxom, freckled, stub-nosed girl away in a little southernseaport town whom I thought I loved with a magnificent affection. Gods! I had not even touched the fringe of that affliction. 

Thus sauntering along moodily, my chin on my chest and much tooabsorbed in reflection to have any nice appreciation of what washappening about me, I was crossing in front of a dilapidated block ofhouses, dating back nearly to the time of the Pilgrim Fathers, when Ihad a vague consciousness of something dark suddenly sweeping by me--athing like a huge bat, or a solid shadow, if such a thing could be, andthe next instant there was a thud and a bump, a bump again, ahalf-stifled cry, and then a hurried vision of some black carpetingthat flapped and shook as though all the winds of Eblis were in itsfolds, and then apparently disgorged from its inmost recesses a littleman. 

Before my first start of half-amused surprise was over I saw him by theflickering lamp-light clutch at space as he tried to steady himself, stumble on the slippery curb, and the next moment go down on the backof his head with a most ugly thud. 

Now I was not destitute of feeling, though it had been my lot to seemen die in many ways, and I ran over to that motionless form without anidea that anything but an ordinary accident had occurred. There helay, silent and, as it turned out afterwards, dead as a door-nail, thestrangest old fellow ever eyes looked upon, dressed in shabbysorrel-coloured clothes of antique cut, with a long grey beard upon hischin, pent-roof eyebrows, and a wizened complexion so puckered andtanned by exposure to Heaven only knew what weathers that it wasimpossible to guess his nationality. 

I lifted him up out of the puddle of black blood in which he was lying, and his head dropped back over my arm as though it had been fixed tohis body with string alone. There was neither heart-beat nor breath inhim, and the last flicker of life faded out of that gaunt face even asI watched. It was not altogether a pleasant situation, and the onlything to do appeared to be to get the dead man into proper care (thoughlittle good it could do him now!) as speedily as possible. So, sending a chance passer-by into the main street for a cab, I placed himinto it as soon as it came, and there being nobody else to go, got inwith him myself, telling the driver at the same time to take us to thenearest hospital. 

"Is this your rug, captain?" asked a bystander just as we were drivingoff. 

"Not mine, " I answered somewhat roughly. "You don't suppose I go aboutat this time of night with Turkey carpets under my arm, do you? Itbelongs to this old chap here who has just dropped out of the skies onto his head; chuck it on top and shut the door!" And that rug, thevery mainspring of the startling things which followed, was thuscarelessly thrown on to the carriage, and off we went. 

Well, to be brief, I handed in that stark old traveller from nowhere atthe hospital, and as a matter of curiosity sat in the waiting-roomwhile they examined him. In five minutes the house-surgeon on dutycame in to see me, and with a shake of his head said briefly--

"Gone, sir--clean gone! Broke his neck like a pipe-stem. Moststrange-looking man, and none of us can even guess at his age. Not afriend of yours, I suppose?"

"Nothing whatever to do with me, sir. He slipped on the pavement andfell in front of me just now, and as a matter of common charity Ibrought him in here. Were there any means of identification on him?"

"None whatever, " answered the doctor, taking out his notebook and, as amatter of form, writing down my name and address and a few briefparticulars, "nothing whatever except this curious-looking bead hunground his neck by a blackened thong of leather, " and he handed me athing about as big as a filbert nut with a loop for suspension andapparently of rock crystal, though so begrimed and dull its nature wasdifficult to speak of with certainty. The bead was of no seeming valueand slipped unintentionally into my waistcoat pocket as I chatted for afew minutes more with the doctor, and then, shaking hands, I saidgoodbye, and went back to the cab which was still waiting outside. 

It was only on reaching home I noticed the hospital porters had omittedto take the dead man's carpet from the roof of the cab when theycarried him in, and as the cabman did not care about driving back tothe hospital with it, and it could not well be left in the street, Isomewhat reluctantly carried it indoors with me. 

Once in the shine of my own lamp and a cigar in my mouth I had a closerlook at that ancient piece of art work from heaven, or the other place, only knows what ancient loom. 

A big, strong rug of faded Oriental colouring, it covered half thefloor of my sitting-room, the substance being of a material more likecamel's hair than anything else, and running across, when examinedclosely, were some dark fibres so long and fine that surely they musthave come from the tail of Solomon's favourite black stallion itself. But the strangest thing about that carpet was its pattern. It wasthreadbare enough to all conscience in places, yet the design stilllived in solemn, age-wasted hues, and, as I dragged it to mystove-front and spread it out, it seemed to me that it was as much likea star map done by a scribe who had lately recovered from deliriumtremens as anything else. In the centre appeared a round such as mightbe taken for the sun, while here and there, "in the field, " as heraldssay, were lesser orbs which from their size and position couldrepresent smaller worlds circling about it. Between these orbs weredotted lines and arrow-heads of the oldest form pointing in alldirections, while all the intervening spaces were filled up with wovencharacters half-way in appearance between Runes and Cryptic-Sanskrit. Round the borders these characters ran into a wild maze, a perfectjungle of an alphabet through which none but a wizard could have forceda way in search of meaning. 

Altogether, I thought as I kicked it out straight upon my floor, it wasa strange and not unhandsome article of furniture--it would do nicelyfor the mess-room on the Carolina, and if any representatives of yonderpoor old fellow turned up tomorrow, why, I would give them a couple ofdollars for it. Little did I guess how dear it would be at any price!

Meanwhile that steak was late, and now that the temporary excitement ofthe evening was wearing off I fell dull again. What a dark, soddenworld it was that frowned in on me as I moved over to the window andopened it for the benefit of the cool air, and how the wind howledabout the roof tops. How lonely I was! What a fool I had been to askfor long leave and come ashore like this, to curry favour with a set ofstubborn dunderheads who cared nothing for me--or Polly, and could notor would not understand how important it was to the best interests ofthe Service that I should get that promotion which alone would send meback to her an eligible wooer! What a fool I was not to havevolunteered for some desperate service instead of wasting time likethis! Then at least life would have been interesting; now it was dullas ditch-water, with wretched vistas of stagnant waiting between nowand that joyful day when I could claim that dear, rosy-checked girl formy own. What a fool I had been!

"I wish, I wish, " I exclaimed, walking round the little room, "I wish Iwere--"

While these unfinished exclamations were actually passing my lips Ichanced to cross that infernal mat, and it is no more startling thantrue, but at my word a quiver of expectation ran through that gauntweb--a rustle of anticipation filled its ancient fabric, and one frayedcorner surged up, and as I passed off its surface in my stride, thesentence still unfinished on my lips, wrapped itself about my left legwith extraordinary swiftness and so effectively that I nearly fell intothe arms of my landlady, who opened the door at the moment and came inwith a tray and the steak and tomatoes mentioned more than once already. 

It was the draught caused by the opening door, of course, that had madethe dead man's rug lift so strangely--what else could it have been? Imade this apology to the good woman, and when she had set the table andclosed the door took another turn or two about my den, continuing as Idid so my angry thoughts. 

"Yes, yes, " I said at last, returning to the stove and taking my stand, hands in pockets, in front of it, "anything were better than this, anyenterprise however wild, any adventure however desperate. Oh, I wish Iwere anywhere but here, anywhere out of this redtape-ridden world ofours! I WISH I WERE IN THE PLANET MARS!"

How can I describe what followed those luckless words? Even as I spokethe magic carpet quivered responsively under my feet, and an undulationwent all round the fringe as though a sudden wind were shaking it. Ithumped up in the middle so abruptly that I came down sitting with ashock that numbed me for the moment. It threw me on my back andbillowed up round me as though I were in the trough of a stormy sea. Quicker than I can write it lapped a corner over and rolled me in itsfolds like a chrysalis in a cocoon. I gave a wild yell and made onefrantic struggle, but it was too late. With the leathery strength of agiant and the swiftness of an accomplished cigar-roller covering a"core" with leaf, it swamped my efforts, straightened my limbs, rolledme over, lapped me in fold after fold till head and feet and everythingwere gone--crushed life and breath back into my innermost being, andthen, with the last particle of consciousness, I felt myself liftedfrom the floor, pass once round the room, and finally shoot out, pointforemost, into space through the open window, and go up and up and upwith a sound of rending atmospheres that seemed to tear like riven silkin one prolonged shriek under my head, and to close up in thunderastern until my reeling senses could stand it no longer, and time andspace and circumstances all lost their meaning to me. 

CHAPTER II

How long that wild rush lasted I have no means of judging. It may havebeen an hour, a day, or many days, for I was throughout in a state ofsuspended animation, but presently my senses began to return and withthem a sensation of lessening speed, a grateful relief to a heavypressure which had held my life crushed in its grasp, withoutdestroying it completely. It was just that sort of sensation thoughmore keen which, drowsy in his bunk, a traveller feels when he isaware, without special perception, harbour is reached and a voyagecomes to an end. But in my case the slowing down was for a long timecomparative. Yet the sensation served to revive my scattered senses, and just as I was awakening to a lively sense of amazement, anincredible doubt of my own emotions, and an eager desire to know whathad happened, my strange conveyance oscillated once or twice, undulatedlightly up and down, like a woodpecker flying from tree to tree, andthen grounded, bows first, rolled over several times, then steadiedagain, and, coming at last to rest, the next minute the infernal rugopened, quivering along all its borders in its peculiar way, andhumping up in the middle shot me five feet into the air like a cattossed from a schoolboy's blanket. 

As I turned over I had a dim vision of a clear light like the shine ofdawn, and solid ground sloping away below me. Upon that slope wasranged a crowd of squatting people, and a staid-looking individual withhis back turned stood nearer by. Afterwards I found he was lecturingall those sitters on the ethics of gravity and the inherent propertiesof falling bodies; at the moment I only knew he was directly in my lineas I descended, and him round the waist I seized, giddy with the lightand fresh air, waltzed him down the slope with the force of my impetus, and, tripping at the bottom, rolled over and over recklessly with himsheer into the arms of the gaping crowd below. Over and over we wentinto the thickest mass of bodies, making a way through the people, until at last we came to a stop in a perfect mound of writhing formsand waving legs and arms. When we had done the mass disentangleditself and I was able to raise my head from the shoulder of someone onwhom I had fallen, lifting him, or her--which was it?--into a sittingposture alongside of me at the same time, while the others rose aboutus like wheat-stalks after a storm, and edged shyly off, as well asthey might. 

Such a sleek, slim youth it was who sat up facing me, with a flush ofgentle surprise on his face, and dapper hands that felt cautiouslyabout his anatomy for injured places. He looked so quaintly rueful yetwithal so good-tempered that I could not help bursting into laughter inspite of my own amazement. Then he laughed too, a sedate, musicalchuckle, and said something incomprehensible, pointing at the same timeto a cut upon my finger that was bleeding a little. I shook my head, meaning thereby that it was nothing, but the stranger with gracefulsolicitude took my hand, and, after examining the hurt, deliberatelytore a strip of cloth from a bright yellow toga-like garment he waswearing and bound the place up with a woman's tenderness. 

Meanwhile, as he ministered, there was time to look about me. Wherewas I? It was not the Broadway; it was not Staten Island on a Saturdayafternoon. The night was just over, and the sun on the point ofrising. Yet it was still shadowy all about, the air being marvellouslytepid and pleasant to the senses. Quaint, soft aromas like the breathof a new world--the fragrance of unknown flowers, and the dewy scent ofnever-trodden fields drifted to my nostrils; and to my ears came asound of laughter scarcely more human than the murmur of the wind inthe trees, and a pretty undulating whisper as though a great concourseof people were talking softly in their sleep. I gazed about scarcelyknowing how much of my senses or surroundings were real and how muchfanciful, until I presently became aware the rosy twilight wasbroadening into day, and under the increasing shine a strange scene wasfashioning itself. 

At first it was an opal sea I looked on of mist, shot along its uppersurface with the rosy gold and pinks of dawn. Then, as that soft, translucent lake ebbed, jutting hills came through it, black andcrimson, and as they seemed to mount into the air other lower hillsshowed through the veil with rounded forest knobs till at last thebrightening day dispelled the mist, and as the rosy-coloured gauzyfragments went slowly floating away a wonderfully fair country lay atmy feet, with a broad sea glimmering in many arms and bays in thedistance beyond. It was all dim and unreal at first, the mountainsshadowy, the ocean unreal, the flowery fields between it and me vacantand shadowy. 

Yet were they vacant? As my eyes cleared and day brightened stillmore, and I turned my head this way and that, it presently dawned uponme all the meadow coppices and terraces northwards of where I lay, allthat blue and spacious ground I had thought to be bare and vacant, werealive with a teeming city of booths and tents; now I came to look moreclosely there was a whole town upon the slope, built as might be in anight of boughs and branches still unwithered, the streets and ways ofthat city in the shadows thronged with expectant people moving ingroups and shifting to and fro in lively streams--chatting at thestalls and clustering round the tent doors in soft, gauzy, parti-coloured crowds in a way both fascinating and perplexing. 

I stared about me like a child at its first pantomime, dimlyunderstanding all I saw was novel, but more allured to the colour andlife of the picture than concerned with its exact meaning; and while Istared and turned my finger was bandaged, and my new friend had beenlisping away to me without getting anything in turn but a shake of thehead. This made him thoughtful, and thereon followed a curious incidentwhich I cannot explain. I doubt even whether you will believe it; butwhat am I to do in that case? You have already accepted the episode ofmy coming, or you would have shut the covers before arriving at thispage of my modest narrative, and this emboldens me. I may strengthenmy claim on your credulity by pointing out the extraordinary marvelswhich science is teaching you even on our own little world. To quote asingle instance: If any one had declared ten years ago that it wouldshortly be practicable and easy for two persons to converse from shoreto shore across the Atlantic without any intervening medium, he wouldhave been laughed at as a possibly amusing but certainly extravagantromancer. Yet that picturesque lie of yesterday is amongst theaccomplished facts of today! Therefore I am encouraged to ask yourindulgence, in the name of your previous errors, for the following andany other instances in which I may appear to trifle with strictveracity. There is no such thing as the impossible in our universe!

When my friendly companion found I could not understand him, he lookedserious for a minute or two, then shortened his brilliant yellow toga, as though he had arrived at some resolve, and knelt down directly infront of me. He next took my face between his hands, and putting hisnose within an inch of mine, stared into my eyes with all his might. At first I was inclined to laugh, but before long the most curioussensations took hold of me. They commenced with a thrill which passedall up my body, and next all feeling save the consciousness of the loudbeating of my heart ceased. Then it seemed that boy's eyes were insidemy head and not outside, while along with them an intangible somethingpervaded my brain. The sensation at first was like the application ofether to the skin--a cool, numbing emotion. It was followed by acurious tingling feeling, as some dormant cells in my mind answered tothe thought-transfer, and were filled and fertilised! My otherbrain-cells most distinctly felt the vitalising of their companions, and for about a minute I experienced extreme nausea and a headache suchas comes from over-study, though both passed swiftly off. I presumethat in the future we shall all obtain knowledge in this way. TheProfessors of a later day will perhaps keep shops for the sale ofmiscellaneous information, and we shall drop in and be inflated withlearning just as the bicyclist gets his tire pumped up, or the motoristis recharged with electricity at so much per unit. Examinations willthen become matters of capacity in the real meaning of that word, andwe shall be tempted to invest our pocket-money by advertisements of "Acheap line in Astrology, " "Try our double-strength, two-minute courseof Classics, " "This is remnant day for Trigonometry and Metaphysics, "and so on. 

My friend did not get as far as that. With him the process did nottake more than a minute, but it was startling in its results, andreduced me to an extraordinary state of hypnotic receptibility. Whenit was over my instructor tapped with a finger on my lips, utteringaloud as he did so the words--

"Know none; know some; know little; know morel" again and again; andthe strangest part of it is that as he spoke I did know at first alittle, then more, and still more, by swift accumulation, of his speechand meaning. In fact, when presently he suddenly laid a hand over myeyes and then let go of my head with a pleasantly put question as tohow I felt, I had no difficulty whatever in answering him in his owntongue, and rose from the ground as one gets from a hair-dresser'schair, with a vague idea of looking round for my hat and offering himhis fee. 

"My word, sir!" I said, in lisping Martian, as I pulled down my cuffsand put my cravat straight, "that was a quick process. I once heard ofa man who learnt a language in the moments he gave each day to havinghis boots blacked; but this beats all. I trust I was a docile pupil?"

"Oh, fairly, sir, " answered the soft, musical voice of the strangebeing by me; "but your head is thick and your brain tough. I couldhave taught another in half the time. "

"Curiously enough, " was my response, "those are almost the very wordswith which my dear old tutor dismissed me the morning I left college. Never mind, the thing is done. Shall I pay you anything?"

"I do not understand. "

"Any honorarium, then? Some people understand one word and not theother. " But the boy only shook his head in answer. 

Strangely enough, I was not greatly surprised all this time either atthe novelty of my whereabouts or at the hypnotic instruction in a newlanguage just received. Perhaps it was because my head still spun toogiddily with that flight in the old rug for much thought; perhapsbecause I did not yet fully realise the thing that had happened. But, anyhow, there is the fact, which, like so many others in my narrative, must, alas! remain unexplained for the moment. The rug, by the way, had completely disappeared, my friend comforting me on this score, however, by saying he had seen it rolled up and taken away by one whomhe knew. 

"We are very tidy people here, stranger, " he said, "and everythingfound Lying about goes back to the Palace store-rooms. You will laughto see the lumber there, for few of us ever take the trouble to reclaimour property. "

Heaven knows I was in no laughing mood when I saw that enchanted webagain!

When I had lain and watched the brightening scene for a time, I got up, and having stretched and shaken my clothes into some sort of order, westrolled down the hill and joined the light-hearted crowds that twinedacross the plain and through the streets of their city of booths. Theywere the prettiest, daintiest folk ever eyes looked upon, well-formedand like to us as could be in the main, but slender and willowy, sodainty and light, both the men and the women, so pretty of cheek andhair, so mild of aspect, I felt, as I strode amongst them, I could haveplucked them like flowers and bound them up in bunches with my belt. And yet somehow I liked them from the first minute; such a happy, careless, light-hearted race, again I say, never was seen before. Therewas not a stain of thought or care on a single one of those whiteforeheads that eddied round me under their peaked, blossom-like caps, the perpetual smile their faces wore never suffered rebuke anywhere;their very movements were graceful and slow, their laughter was low andmusical, there was an odour of friendly, slothful happiness about themthat made me admire whether I would or no. 

Unfortunately I was not able to live on laughter, as they appeared tobe, so presently turning to my acquaintance, who had told me his namewas the plain monosyllabic An, and clapping my hand on his shoulder ashe stood lost in sleepy reflection, said, in a good, hearty way, "Hullo, friend Yellow-jerkin! If a stranger might set himself athwartthe cheerful current of your meditations, may such a one ask how far'tis to the nearest wine-shop or a booth where a thirsty man may get amug of ale at a moderate reckoning?"

That gilded youth staggered under my friendly blow as though the hammerof Thor himself had suddenly lit upon his shoulder, and ruefullyrubbing his tender skin, he turned on me mild, handsome eyes, answeringafter a moment, during which his native mildness struggled with thepain I had unwittingly given him--

"If your thirst be as emphatic as your greeting, friend Heavy-fist, itwill certainly be a kindly deed to lead you to the drinking-place. Myshoulder tingles with your good-fellowship, " he added, keeping twoarms'-lengths clear of me. "Do you wish, " he said, "merely to cleansea dusty throat, or for blue or pink oblivion?"

"Why, " I answered laughingly, "I have come a longish journey sinceyesterday night--a journey out of count of all reasonable mileage--andI might fairly plead a dusty throat as excuse for a beginning; but asto the other things mentioned, those tinted forgetfulnesses, I do noteven know what you mean. "

"Undoubtedly you are a stranger, " said the friendly youth, eyeing mefrom top to toe with renewed wonder, "and by your unknown garb one fromafar. "

"From how far no man can say--not even I--but from very far, in truth. Let that stay your curiosity for the time. And now to bench andale-mug, on good fellow!--the shortest way. I was never so thirsty asthis since our water-butts went overboard when I sailed the southernseas as a tramp apprentice, and for three days we had to damp our blacktongues with the puddles the night-dews left in the lift of ourmainsail. "

Without more words, being a little awed of me, I thought, the boy ledme through the good-humoured crowd to where, facing the main road tothe town, but a little sheltered by a thicket of trees covered withgigantic pink blossoms, stood a drinking-place--a cluster of tables setround an open grass-plot. Here he brought me a platter of some lightinefficient cakes which merely served to make hunger moreself-conscious, and some fine aromatic wine contained in atriple-bodied flask, each division containing vintage of a separatehue. We broke our biscuits, sipped that mysterious wine, and talked ofmany things until at last something set us on the subject of astronomy, a study I found my dapper gallant had some knowledge of--which was notto be wondered at seeing he dwelt under skies each night set thickabove his curly head with tawny planets, and glittering constellationssprinkled through space like flowers in May meadows. He knew whatworlds went round the sun, larger or lesser, and seeing this I began toquestion him, for I was uneasy in my innermost mind and, you willremember, so far had no certain knowledge of where I was, only a dim, restless suspicion that I had come beyond the ken of all men'sknowledge. 

Therefore, sweeping clear the board with my sleeve, and breaking thewafer cake I was eating, I set down one central piece for the sun, and, "See here!" I said, "good fellow! This morsel shall stand for that sunyou have just been welcoming back with quaint ritual. Now stretch yourstarry knowledge to the utmost, and put down that tankard for a moment. If this be yonder sun and this lesser crumb be the outermost one of ourrevolving system, and this the next within, and this the next, and soon; now if this be so tell me which of these fragmentary orbs isours--which of all these crumbs from the hand of the primordial wouldbe that we stand upon?" And I waited with an anxiety a light mannerthinly hid, to hear his answer. 

It came at once. Laughing as though the question were too trivial, andmore to humour my wayward fancy than aught else, that boy circled hisrosy thumb about a minute and brought it down on the planet Mars!

I started and stared at him; then all of a tremble cried, "You triflewith me! Choose again--there, see, I will set the symbols and namethem to you anew. There now, on your soul tell me truly which thisplanet is, the one here at our feet?" And again the boy shook hishead, wondering at my eagerness, and pointed to Mars, saying gently ashe did so the fact was certain as the day above us, nothing wasmarvellous but my questioning. 

Mars! oh, dreadful, tremendous, unexpected! With a cry of affright, and bringing my fist down on the table till all the cups upon it leapt, I told him he lied--lied like a simpleton whose astronomy was as rottenas his wit--smote the table and scowled at him for a spell, then turnedaway and let my chin fall upon my breast and my hands upon my lap. 

And yet, and yet, it might be so! Everything about me was new andstrange, the crisp, thin air I breathed was new; the lukewarm sunshinenew; the sleek, long, ivory faces of the people new! Yesterday--was ityesterday?--I was back there--away in a world that pines to know ofother worlds, and one fantastic wish of mine, backed by a hideous, infernal chance, had swung back the doors of space and shot me--if thatboy spoke true--into the outer void where never living man had beenbefore: all my wits about me, all the horrible bathos of my earthlyclothing on me, all my terrestrial hungers in my veins!

I sprang to my feet and swept my hands across my eyes. Was that adream, or this? No, no, both were too real. The hum of my farawaycity still rang in my ears: a swift vision of the girl I had loved; ofthe men I had hated; of the things I had hoped for rose before me, still dazing my inner eye. And these about me were real people, too;it was real earth; real skies, trees, and rocks--had the infernal godsindeed heard, I asked myself, the foolish wish that started from mylips in a moment of fierce discontent, and swept me into anothersphere, another existence? I looked at the boy as though he couldanswer that question, but there was nothing in his face but vacuouswonder; I clapped my hands together and beat my breast; it was true; mysoul within me said it was true; the boy had not lied; the djins hadheard; I was just in the flesh I had; my common human hungers stillunsatisfied where never mortal man had hungered before; and scarcelyknowing whether I feared or not, whether to laugh or cry, but with allthe wonder and terror of that great remove sweeping suddenly upon me Istaggered back to my seat, and dropping my arms upon the table, leantmy head heavily upon them and strove to choke back the passion whichbeset me. 

CHAPTER III

It was the light touch of the boy An upon my shoulder which roused me. He was bending down, his pretty face full of concernful sympathy, andin a minute said--knowing nothing of my thoughts, of course. 

"It is the wine, stranger, the pink oblivion, it sometimes makes onefeel like that until enough is taken; you stopped just short of whatyou should have had, and the next cup would have been delight--I shouldhave told you. "

"Ay, " I answered, glad he should think so, "it was the wine, no doubt;your quaint drink, sir, tangled up my senses for the moment, but theyare clearer now, and I am eager past expression to learn a little moreof this strange country I have wandered into. "

"I would rather, " said the boy, relapsing again into his state ofkindly lethargy, "that you learnt things as you went, for talking iswork, and work we hate, but today we are all new and fresh, and if everyou are to ask questions now is certainly the time. Come with me tothe city yonder, and as we go I will answer the things you wish toknow;" and I went with him, for I was humble and amazed, and, in truth, at that moment, had not a word to say for myself. 

All the way from the plain where I had awoke to the walls of the citystood booths, drinking-places, and gardens divided by labyrinths ofcanals, and embowered in shrubberies that seemed coming into leaf andflower as we looked, so swift was the process of their growth. Thesewaterways were covered with skiffs being pushed and rowed in everydirection; the cheerful rowers calling to each other through the leafyscreens separating one lane from another till the place was full oftheir happy chirruping. Every booth and way-side halting-place wasthronged with these delicate and sprightly people, so friendly, sogracious, and withal so purposeless. 

I began to think we should never reach the town itself, for first myguide would sit down on a green stream-bank, his feet a-dangle in theclear water, and bandy wit with a passing boat as though there werenothing else in the world to think of. And when I dragged him out ofthat, whispering in his ear, "The town, my dear boy! the town! I amall agape to see it, " he would saunter reluctantly to a booth a hundredyards further on and fall to eating strange confections or sippingcoloured wines with chance acquaintances, till again I plucked him bythe sleeve and said: "Seth, good comrade--was it not so you called yourcity just now?--take me to the gates, and I will be grateful to you, "then on again down a flowery lane, aimless and happy, wasting my timeand his, with placid civility I was led by that simple guide. 

Wherever we went the people stared at me, as well they might, as Iwalked through them overtopping the tallest by a head or more. Thedrinking-cups paused half-way to their mouths; the jests died away upontheir lips; and the blinking eyes of the drinkers shone with amomentary sparkle of wonder as their minds reeled down thosemany-tinted floods to the realms of oblivion they loved. 

I heard men whisper one to another, "Who is he?"; "Whence does hecome?"; "Is he a tribute-taker?" as I strolled amongst them, my mindstill so thrilled with doubt and wonder that to me they seemed hardlymore than painted puppets, the vistas of their lovely glades and theivory town beyond only the fancy of a dream, and their talk asincontinent as the babble of a stream. 

Then happily, as I walked along with bent head brooding over theincredible thing that had happened, my companion's shapely legs gaveout, and with a sigh of fatigue he suggested we should take a skiffamongst the many lying about upon the margins and sail towards thetown, "For, " said he, "the breeze blows thitherward, and 'tis a shameto use one's limbs when Nature will carry us for nothing!"

"But have you a boat of your own hereabouts?" I queried; "for to tellthe truth I came from home myself somewhat poorly provided with meansto buy or barter, and if your purse be not heavier than mine we muststill do as poor men do. "

"Oh!" said An, "there is no need to think of that, no one here to hireor hire of; we will just take the first skiff we see that suits us. "

"And what if the owner should come along and find his boat gone?"

"Why, what should he do but take the next along the bank, and themaster of that the next again--how else could it be?" said the Martian, and shrugging my shoulders, for I was in no great mood to argue, wewent down to the waterway, through a thicket of budding trees underlaidwith a carpet of small red flowers filling the air with a scent ofhoney, and soon found a diminutive craft pulled up on the bank. Therewere some dainty cloaks and wraps in it which An took out and laidunder a tree. But first he felt in the pouch of one for a sweetmeatwhich his fine nostrils, acute as a squirrel's, told him was there, andtaking the lump out bit a piece from it, afterwards replacing it in theowner's pocket with the frankest simplicity. 

Then we pushed off, hoisted the slender mast, set the smallest lug-sailthat ever a sailor smiled at, and, myself at the helm, and that goldenyouth amidships, away we drifted under thickets of drooping canestasselled with yellow catkin-flowers, up the blue alley of the waterinto the broader open river beyond with its rapid flow and crowdingboats, the white city front now towering clear before us. 

The air was full of sunshine and merry voices; birds were singing, trees were budding; only my heart was heavy, my mind confused. Yet whyshould I be sad, I said to myself presently? Life beat in my pulses;what had I to fear? This world I had tumbled into was new and strange, no doubt, but tomorrow it would be old and familiar; it discredited mymanhood to sit brow-bent like that, so with an effort I roused myself. 

"Old chap!" I said to my companion, as he sat astride of a thwartslowly chewing something sticky and eyeing me out of the corner of hiseyes with vapid wonder, "tell me something of this land of yours, orsomething about yourself--which reminds me I have a question to ask. Itis a bit delicate, but you look a sensible sort of fellow, and willtake no offence. The fact is, I have noticed as we came along halfyour population dresses in all the colours of the rainbow--'fancysuitings' our tailors could call it at home--and this half of thecensus are undoubtedly men and women. The rub is that the other half, to which you belong, all dress alike in YELLOW, and I will be firedfrom the biggest gun on the Carolina's main deck if I can tell what sexyou belong to! I took you for a boy in the beginning, and the way youclosed with the idea of having a drink with me seemed to show I wasdead on the right course. Then a little later on I heard you and afriend abusing our sex from an outside point of view in a way which wasvery disconcerting. This, and some other things, have set me all abroadagain, and as fate seems determined to make us chums for thisvoyage--why--well, frankly, I should be glad to know if you be boy orgirl? If you are as I am, no more nor less then--for I likeyou--there's my hand in comradeship. If you are otherwise, as thosesleek outlines seem to promise--why, here's my hand again! But man orwoman you must be--come, which is it?"

If I had been perplexed before, to watch that boy now was more curiousthan ever. He drew back from me with a show of wounded dignity, thenbit his lips, and sighed, and stared, and frowned. "Come, " I saidlaughingly, "speak! it engenders ambiguity to be so ambiguous ofgender! 'Tis no great matter, yes or no, a plain answer will set usfairly in our friendship; if it is comrade, then comrade let it be; ifmaid, why, I shall not quarrel with that, though it cost me a likelymessmate. "

"You mock me. "

"Not I, I never mocked any one. "

"And does my robe tell you nothing?"

"Nothing so much; a yellow tunic and becoming enough, but nothing aboutit to hang a deduction on. Come! Are you a girl, after all?"

"I do not count myself a girl. "

"Why, then, you are the most blooming boy that ever eyes were set upon;and though 'tis with some tinge of regret, yet cheerfully I welcome youinto the ranks of manhood. "

"I hate your manhood, send it after the maidhood; it fits me just asbadly. "

"But An, be reasonable; man or maid you must be. "

"Must be; why?"

"Why?" Was ever such a question put to a sane mortal before? I staredat that ambiguous thing before me, and then, a little wroth to beplayed with, growled out something about Martians being all drunk ormad. 

"'Tis you yourself are one or other, " said that individual, by thistime pink with anger, "and if you think because I am what I am you cansafely taunt me, you are wrong. See! I have a sting, " and like athwarted child my companion half drew from the folds of the yellowtunic-dress the daintiest, most harmless-looking little dagger that wasever seen. 

"Oh, if it comes to that, " I answered, touching the Navy scabbard stillat my hip, and regaining my temper at the sight of hers, "why, I have asting also--and twice as long as yours! But in truth, An, let us nottalk of these things; if something in what I have said has offendednice Martian scruples I am sorry, and will question no more, leaving mywonder for time to settle. "

"No, " said the other, "it was my fault to be hasty of offence; I am notso angered once a year. But in truth your question moves us yellowrobes deeply. Did you not really know that we who wear this saffrontunic are slaves, --a race apart, despised by all. "

"'Slaves, ' no; how should I know it?"

"I thought you must understand a thing so fundamental, and it was thatthought which made your questions seem unkind. But if indeed you havecome so far as not to understand even this, then let me tell you oncewe of this garb were women--priestesses of the immaculate conceptionsof humanity; guardians of those great hopes and longings which die soeasily. And because we forgot our high station and took to apinganother sex the gods deserted and men despised us, giving us, in thefierceness of their contempt, what we asked for. We are the slave antsof the nest, the work-bees of the hive, come, in truth, of those herewho still be men and women of a sort, but toilers only; unknown inlove, unregretted in death--those who dangle all children but theirown--slaves cursed with the accomplishment of their own ambition. "

There was no doubt poor An believed what she said, for her attitude wasone of extreme dejection while she spoke, and to cheer her I laughed. 

"Oh! come, it can't be as bad as that. Surely sometimes some of youwin back to womanhood? You yourself do not look so far gone but whatsome deed of abnegation, some strong love if you could but conceive itwould set you right again. Surely you of the primrose robes cansometimes love?"

Whereat unwittingly I troubled the waters in the placid soul of thatoutcast Martian! I cannot exactly describe how it was, but she benther head silently for a moment or two, and then, with a sigh, liftingher eyes suddenly to mine, said quietly, "Yes, sometimes;sometimes--but very seldom, " while for an instant across her face thereflashed the summer lightning of a new hope, a single transient glanceof wistful, timid entreaty; of wonder and delight that dared not evenyet acknowledge itself. 

Then it was my turn to sit silent, and the pause was so awkward that ina minute, to break it, I exclaimed--

"Let's drop personalities, old chap--I mean my dear Miss An. Tell mesomething about your people, and let us begin properly at the top: haveyou got a king, for instance?"

To this the girl, pulling herself out of the pleasant slough of herlistlessness, and falling into my vein, answered--

"Both yes and no, sir traveller from afar--no chiefly, and yet perhapsyes. If it were no then it were so, and if yes then Hath were ourking. "

"A mild king I should judge by your uncertainty. In the place where Icame from kings press their individualities somewhat more clearly ontheir subjects' minds. Is Hath here in the city? Does he come to yourfeasts today?"

An nodded. Hath was on the river, he had been to see the sunrise; evennow she thought the laughter and singing down behind the bend might bethe king's barge coming up citywards. "He will not be late, " said mycompanion, "because the marriage-feast is set for tomorrow in thepalace. "

I became interested. Kings, palaces, marriage-feasts--why, here wassomething substantial to go upon; after all these gauzy folk might turnout good fellows, jolly comrades to sojourn amongst--andmarriage-feasts reminded me again I was hungry. 

"Who is it, " I asked, with more interest in my tone, "who getsmarried?--is it your ambiguous king himself?"

Whereat An's purple eyes broadened with wonder: then as though shewould not be uncivil she checked herself, and answered with smotheredpity for my ignorance, "Not only Hath himself, but every one, stranger, they are all married tomorrow; you would not have them married one at atime, would you?"--this with inexpressible derision. 

I said, with humility, something like that happened in the place I camefrom, asking her how it chanced the convenience of so many came to oneclimax at the same moment. "Surely, An, this is a marvel ofarrangement. Where I dwelt wooings would sometimes be long or sometimesshort, and all maids were not complacent by such universal agreement. "

The girl was clearly perplexed. She stared at me a space, then said, "What have wooings long or short to do with weddings? You talk as ifyou did your wooing first and then came to marriage--we get marriedfirst and woo afterwards!"

"'Tis not a bad idea, and I can see it might lend an ease and certaintyto the pastime which our method lacks. But if the woman is got firstand sued subsequently, who brings you together? Who sees to theessential preliminaries of assortment?"

An, looking at my shoes as though she speculated on the remoteness ofthe journey I had come if it were measured by my ignorance, replied, "The urn, stranger, the urn does that--what else? How it may be inthat out-fashioned region you have come from I cannot tell, buthere--'tis so commonplace I should have thought you must have knownit--we put each new year the names of all womenkind into an urn and themen draw for them, each town, each village by itself, and those theydraw are theirs; is it conceivable your race has other methods?"

I told her it was so--we picked and chose for ourselves, beseeching thedamsels, fighting for them, and holding the sun of romance was at itssetting just where the Martians held it to rise. Whereat An burst outlaughing--a clear, ringing laugh that set all the light-hearted folk inthe nearest boats laughing in sympathy. But when the grotesqueness ofthe idea had somewhat worn off, she turned grave and asked me if such afancy did not lead to spite, envy, and bickerings. "Why, it seems tome, " she said, shaking her curly head, "such a plan might fire cities, desolate plains, and empty palaces--"

"Such things have been. "

"Ah! our way is much the better. See!" quoth that gentle philosopher. "'Here, ' one of our women would say, 'am I to-day, unwed, as free ofthought as yonder bird chasing the catkin down; tomorrow I shall bemarried, with a whole summer to make love in, relieved at one bound ofall those uncertainties you acknowledge to, with nothing to do but lieabout on sunny banks with him whom chance sends me, come to the goal oflove without any travelling to get there. ' Why, you must acknowledgethis is the perfection of ease. "

"But supposing, " I said, "chance dealt unkindly to you from yournuptial urn, supposing the man was not to your liking, or anothercoveted him?" To which An answered, with some shrewdness--

"In the first case we should do what we might, being no worse off thanthose in your land who had played ill providence to themselves. In thesecond, no maid would covet him whom fate had given to another, it weretoo fatiguing, or if such a thing DID happen, then one of them wouldwaive his claims, for no man or woman ever born was worth a wrangle, and it is allowed us to barter and change a little. "

All this was strange enough. I could not but laugh, while An laughedat the lightest invitation, and thus chatting and deriding each other'ssocial arrangements we floated idly townwards and presently came outinto the main waterway perhaps a mile wide and flowing rapidly, asstreams will on the threshold of the spring, with brash or waste ofdistant beaches riding down it, and every now and then a broken branchor tree-stem glancing through waves whose crests a fresh wind liftedand sowed in golden showers in the intervening furrows. The Martiansseemed expert upon the water, steering nimbly between these floatingdangers when they met them, but for the most part hugging the shorewhere a more placid stream better suited their fancies, and for a timeall went well. 

An, as we went along, was telling me more of her strange country, pointing out birds or flowers and naming them to me. "Now that, " shesaid, pointing to a small grey owl who sat reflective on a floating logwe were approaching--"that is a bird of omen; cover your face and lookaway, for it is not well to watch it. "

Whereat I laughed. "Oh!" I answered, "so those ancient follies havecome as far as this, have they? But it is no bird grey or black orwhite that can frighten folk where I come from; see, I will ruffle hisphilosophy for him, " and suiting the action to the words I lifted apebble that happened to lie at the bottom of the boat and flung it atthat creature with the melancholy eyes. Away went the owl, dipping hiswings into the water at every stroke, and as he went wailing out aghostly cry, which even amongst sunshine and glitter made one's fleshcreep. 

An shook her head. "You should not have done that, " she said; "ourdead whom we send down over the falls come back in the body of yonderlittle bird. But he has gone now, " she added, with relief; "see, hesettles far up stream upon the point of yonder rotten bough; I wouldnot disturb him again if I were you--"

Whatever more An would have said was lost, for amidst a sound of flutesand singing round the bend of the river below came a crowd of boatsdecked with flowers and garlands, all clustering round a barge barelyable to move, so thick those lesser skiffs pressed upon it. So closethose wherries hung about that the garlanded rowers who sat at the oarscould scarcely pull, but, here as everywhere, it was the same goodtemper, the same carelessness of order, as like a flowery island in thedancing blue water the motley fleet came up. 

I steered our skiff a space out from the bank to get a better view, while An clapped her hands together and laughed. "It is Hath--hehimself and those of the palace with him. Steer a little nearer still, friend--so! between yon floating rubbish flats, for those with Hath aregood to look at. "

Nothing loth I made out into mid-stream to see that strange prince goby, little thinking in a few minutes I should be shaking hands withhim, a wet and dripping hero. The crowd came up, and having theadvantage of the wind, it did not take me long to get a front place inthe ruck, whence I set to work, with republican interest in royalty, tostare at the man who An said was the head of Martian society. He didnot make me desire to renounce my democratic principles. The royalfellow was sitting in the centre of the barge under a canopy and on athrone which was a mass of flowers, not bunched together as they wouldhave been with us, but so cunningly arranged that they rose from thefootstool to the pinnacle in a rhythm of colour, a poem in bud andpetals the like of which for harmonious beauty I could not haveimagined possible. And in this fairy den was a thin, gaunt young man, dressed in some sort of black stuff so nondescript that it amounted tolittle more than a shadow. I took it for granted that a substance ofbone and muscle was covered by that gloomy suit, but it was the faceabove that alone riveted my gaze and made me return the stare he gaveme as we came up with redoubled interest. It was not an unhandsomeface, but ashy grey in colour and amongst the insipid countenances ofthe Martians about him marvellously thoughtful. I do not know whetherthose who had killed themselves by learning ever leave ghosts behind, but if so this was the very ideal for such a one. At his feet Inoticed, when I unhooked my eyes from his at last, sat a girl in aloose coral pink gown who was his very antipode. Princess Heru, for soshe was called, was resting one arm upon his knee at our approach andpulling a blue convolvulus bud to pieces--a charming picture of daintyidleness. Anything so soft, so silken as that little lady was neverseen before. Who am I, a poor quarter-deck loafer, that I shouldattempt to describe what poet and painter alike would have failed torealise? I know, of course, your stock descriptives: the melting eye, the coral lip, the peachy cheek, the raven tress; but these were coinedfor mortal woman--and this was not one of them. I will not attempt todescribe the glorious tenderness of those eyes she turned upon mepresently; the glowing radiance of her skin; the infinite grace ofevery action; the incredible soul-searching harmony of her voice, whenlater on I heard it--you must gather something of these things as Igo--suffice it to say that when I saw her there for the first time inthe plenitude of her beauty I fell desperately, wildly in love with her. 

Meanwhile, even the most infatuated of mortals cannot stare for everwithout saying something. The grating of our prow against thegarlanded side of the royal barge roused me from my reverie, andnodding to An, to imply I would be back presently, I lightly jumped onto Hath's vessel, and, with the assurance of a free and independentAmerican voter, approached that individual, holding out my palm, andsaying as I did so, "Shake hands, Mr. President!"

The prince came forward at my bidding and extending his hand for mine. He bowed slow and sedately, in that peculiar way the Martians have, aripple of gratified civility passing up his flesh; lower and lower hebowed, until his face was over our clasped hands, and then, with simplecourtesy, he kissed my finger-tips! This was somewhat embarrassing. Itwas not like the procedure followed in Courts nearer to Washington thanthis one, as far as my reading went, and, withdrawing my fingershastily, I turned to the princess, who had risen, and was eyeing hersomewhat awkwardly, the while wondering what kind of salutation wouldbe suitable in her case when a startling incident happened. The river, as said, was full of floating rubbish brought down from some far-awayuplands by a spring freshet while the royal convoy was making slowprogress upstream and thus met it all bow on. Some of this stuff washeavy timber, and when a sudden warning cry went up from the leadingboats it did not take my sailor instinct long to guess what was amiss. Those in front shot side to side, those behind tried to drop back as, bearing straight down on the royal barge, there came a log of blackwood twenty feet long and as thick as the mainmast of an oldthree-decker. 

Hath's boat could no more escape than if it had been planted on a rockypedestal, garlands and curtains trailing in the water hung so heavy onit. The gilded paddles of the slender rowers were so feeble--they hadbut made a half-turn from that great javelin's road when down it cameupon them, knocking the first few pretty oarsmen head over heels andcrackling through their oars like a bull through dry maize stalks. Isprang forward, and snatching a pole from a half-hearted slave, jammedthe end into the head of the log and bore with all my weight upon it, diverting it a little, and thereby perhaps saving the ship herself, butnot enough. As it flashed by a branch caught upon the trailingtapestry, hurling me to the deck, and tearing away with it all thatfinery. Then the great spar, tossing half its dripping length into theair, went plunging downstream with shreds of silk and flowers trailingfrom it, and white water bubbling in its rear. 

When I scrambled to my feet all was ludicrous confusion on board. Hathstill stood by his throne--an island in a sea of disorder--staring atme; all else was chaos. The rowers and courtiers were kicking andwallowing in the "waist" of the ship like fish newly shot out of atrawl net, but the princess was gone. Where was she? I brushed thespray from my eyes, and stared overboard. She was not in the bubblingblue water alongside. Then I glanced aft to where the log, now fifteenyards away, was splashing through the sunshine, and, as I looked, afair arm came up from underneath and white fingers clutchedconvulsively at the sky. What man could need more? Down the barge Irushed, and dropping only my swordbelt, leapt in to her rescue. Thegentle Martians were too numb to raise a hand in help; but it was notnecessary. I had the tide with me, and gained at every stroke. Meanwhile that accursed tree, with poor Heru's skirts caught on abranch, was drowning her at its leisure; lifting her up as it rose uponthe crests, a fair, helpless bundle, and then sousing her in its fallinto the nether water, where I could see her gleam now and again likepink coral. 

I redoubled my efforts and got alongside, clutching the rind of thatold stump, and swimming and scrambling, at last was within reach of theprincess. Thereon the log lifted her playfully to my arms, and when Ihad laid hold came down, a crushing weight, and forced us far into theclammy bosom of Martian sea. Again we came up, coughing and choking--Itugging furiously at that tangled raiment, and the lady, a mere lump ofsweetness in my other arm--then down again with that log upon me andall the noises of Eblis in my ears. Up and down we went, over andover, till strength was spent and my ribs seemed breaking; then, with alast desperate effort, I got a knee against the stem, and by sheerstrength freed my princess--the spiteful timber made a last ugly thrustat us as it rolled away--and we were free!

I turned upon my back, and, sure of rescue now, took the lady's headupon my chest, holding her sweet, white fists in mine the while, and, floating, waited for help. 

It came only too quickly. The gallant Martians, when they saw theprincess saved, came swiftly down upon us. Over the lapping of thewater in my ears I heard their sigh--like cries of admiration andsurprise, the rattle of spray on the canoe sides mingled with thesplash of oars, the flitting shadows of their prows were all about us, and in less time than it takes to write we were hauled aboard, revived, and taken to Hath's barge. Again the prince's lips were on myfingertips; again the flutes and music struck up; and as I squeezed thewater out of my hair, and tried to keep my eyes off the outline ofHeru, whose loveliness shone through her damp, clinging, pink robe, asif that robe were but a gauzy fancy, I vaguely heard Hath sayingwondrous things of my gallantry, and, what was more to the purpose, asking me to come with him and stay that night at the palace. 

CHAPTER IV

They lodged me like a prince in a tributary country that first night. Iwas tired. 'Twas a stiff stage I had come the day before, and theygave me a couch whose ethereal softness seemed to close like the wingsof a bird as I plunged at its touch into fathomless slumbers. But thenext day had hardly broken when I was awake, and, stretching my limbsupon the piled silk of a legless bed upon the floor, found myself in agreat chamber with a purple tapestry across the entrance, and a squarearch leading to a flat terrace outside. 

It was a glorious daybreak, making my heart light within me, the airlike new milk, and the colours of the sunrise lay purple and yellow inbars across my room. I yawned and stretched, then rising, wrapped asilken quilt about me and went out into the flat terrace top, wherefromall the city could be seen stretched in an ivory and emerald patchwork, with open, blue water on one side, and the Martian plain trending awayin illimitable distance upon the other. 

Directly underneath in the great square at the bottom of Hath's palacesteps were gathered a concourse of people, brilliant in many-coloureddresses. They were sitting or lying about just as they might for all Iknew have done through the warm night, without much order, save thatwhere the black streaks of inlaid stone marked a carriageway across thesquare none were stationed. While I wondered what would bring so manytogether thus early, there came a sound of flutes--for these people cando nothing without piping like finches in a thicket in May--and fromthe storehouses half-way over to the harbour there streamed a line ofcarts piled high with provender. Down came the teams attended by theirslaves, circling and wheeling into the open place, and as they passedeach group those lazy, lolling beggars crowded round and took the dolethey were too thriftless to earn themselves. It was strange to see howlistless they were about the meal, even though Providence itself put itinto their hands; to note how the yellow-girted slaves scudded amongstthem, serving out the loaves, themselves had grown, harvested, andbaked; slipping from group to group, rousing, exhorting, administeringto a helpless throng that took their efforts without thought or thanks. 

I stood there a long time, one foot upon the coping and my chin upon myhand, noting the beauty of the ruined town and wondering how such afeeble race as that which lay about, breakfasting in the limpidsunshine, could have come by a city like this, or kept even the ruinsof its walls and buildings from the covetousness of others, untilpresently there was a rustle of primrose garments and my friend of theday before stood by me. 

"Are you rested, traveller?" she questioned in that pretty voice ofhers. 

"Rested ambrosially, An. "

"It is well; I will tell the Government and it will come up to wash anddress you, afterwards giving you breakfast. "

"For the breakfast, damsel, I shall be grateful, but as for the washingand dressing I will defend myself to the last gasp sooner than submitto such administration. "

"How strange! Do you never wash in your country?"

"Yes, but it is a matter left largely to our own discretion; so, mydear girl, if you will leave me for a minute or two in quest of thatmeal you have mentioned, I will guarantee to be ready when it comes. "

Away she slipped, with a shrug of her rosy shoulders, to returnpresently, carrying a tray covered with a white cloth, whereon werehalf a dozen glittering covers whence came most fragrant odours ofcooked things. 

"Why, comrade, " I said, sitting down and lifting lid by lid, for thecold, sweet air outside had made me hungry, "this is better than washoped for; I thought from what I saw down yonder I should have to trotbehind a tumbril for my breakfast, and eat it on my heels amongst yoursleepy friends below. "

An replied, "The stranger is a prince, we take it, in his own country, and princes fare not quite like common people, even here. "

"So, " I said, my mouth full of a strange, unknown fish, and a cake softas milk and white as cotton in the pod. "Now that makes me feel athome!"

"Would you have had it otherwise with us?"

"No! now I come to think of it, it is most natural things should bemuch alike in all the corners of the universe; the splendid simplicitythat rules the spheres, works much the same, no doubt, upon one side ofthe sun as upon the other. Yet, somehow--you can hardly wonder atit--yesterday I looked to find your world, when I realised where I hadtumbled to, a world of djin and giants; of mad possibilities overrealised, and here I see you dwellers by the utterly remote little moremarvellous than if I had come amongst you on the introduction of acheap tourist ticket, and round some neglected corner of my own distantworld!"

"I hardly follow your meaning, sir. "

"No, no, of course you cannot. I was forgetting you did not know!There, pass me the stuff on yonder platter that looks like caked mudfrom an anchor fluke, and swells like breath of paradise, and let mequestion you;" and while I sat and drank with that yellow servitorsitting in front of me, I plied her with questions, just as a babymight who had come into the world with a full-blown gift of speech. But though she was ready and willing enough to answer, and laughedgaily at my quaint ignorance of simple things, yet there was littlewater in the well. 

"Had they any kind of crafts or science; any cult of stars or figures?"But again she shook her head, and said, "Hath might know, Hathunderstood most things, but herself knew little of either. " "Armies ornavies?" and again the Martian shrugged her shoulders, questioning inturn--

"What for?"

"What for!" I cried, a little angry with her engaging dulness, "Why, tokeep that which the strong hand got, and to get more for those who comenext; navies to sweep yonder blue seas, and armies to ward what theyshould bring home, or guard the city walls against all enemies, --for Isuppose, An, " I said, putting down my knife as the cheering thoughtcame on me, --"I suppose, An, you have some enemies? It is not likeProvidence to give such riches as you possess, such lands, such cities, and not to supply the antidote in some one poor enough to covet them. "

At once the girl's face clouded over, and it was obvious a tendersubject had been chanced upon. She waved her hand impatiently asthough to change the subject, but I would not be put off. 

"Come, " I said, "this is better than breakfast. It was the onething--this unknown enemy of yours--wanting to lever the dull mass ofyour too peacefulness. What is he like? How strong? How stands thequarrel between you? I was a soldier myself before the sea allured me, and love horse and sword best of all things. "

"You would not jest if you knew our enemy!"

"That is as it may be. I have laughed in the face of many a strongerfoe than yours is like to prove; but anyhow, give me a chance to judge. Come, who is it that frightens all the blood out of your cheeks by abare mention and may not be laughed at even behind these substantialwalls?"

"First, then, you know, of course, that long ago this land of ours washarried from the West. "

"Not I. "

"No!" said An, with a little warmth. "If it comes to that, you knownothing. "

Whereat I laughed, and, saying the reply was just, vowed I would notinterrupt again; so she wont on saying how Hath--that interminableHath!--would know it all better than she did, but long ago the land wasoverrun by a people from beyond the broad, blue waters outside; apeople huge of person, hairy and savage, uncouth, unlettered, and poorAn's voice trembled even to describe them; a people without mercy orcompunction, dwellers in woods, eaters of flesh, who burnt, plundered, and destroyed all before them, and had toppled over this city alongwith many others in an ancient foray, the horrors of which, still burntlurid in her people's minds. 

"Ever since then, " went on the girl, "these odious terrors of the outerland have been a nightmare to us, making hectic our pleasures, andfilling our peace with horrid thoughts of what might be, should theychance to come again. "

"'Tis unfortunate, no doubt, lady, " I answered. "Yet it was long ago, and the plunderers are far away. Why not rise and raid them in turn?To live under such a nightmare is miserable, and a poet on my side ofthe ether has said--

 "'He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, Who will not put it to the touch, To win or lose it all. '

It seems to me you must either bustle and fight again, or sit tamelydown, and by paying the coward's fee for peace, buy at heavy price, indulgence from the victor. "

"We, " said An simply, and with no show of shame, "would rather die thanfight, and so we take the easier way, though a heavy one it is. Look!"she said, drawing me to the broad window whence we could get a glimpseof the westward town and the harbour out beyond the walls. "Look! seeyonder long row of boats with brown sails hanging loose reefed fromevery yard ranged all along the quay. Even from here you can make outthe thin stream of porter slaves passing to and fro between them andthe granaries like ants on a sunny path. Those are our tax-men'sships, they came yesterday from far out across the sea, as punctual asfate with the first day of spring, and two or three nights hence wetrust will go again: and glad shall we be to see them start, althoughthey leave scupper deep with our cloth, our corn, and gold. "

"Is that what they take for tribute?"

"That and one girl--the fairest they can find. "

"One--only one! 'Tis very moderate, all things considered. "

"She is for the thither king, Ar-hap, and though only one as you say, stranger, yet he who loses her is apt sometimes to think her one toomany lost. "

"By Jupiter himself it is well said! If I were that man I would stirup heaven and hell until I got her back; neither man, nor beast, nordevil should stay me in my quest!" As I spoke I thought for a minuteAn's fingers trembled a little as she fixed a flower upon my coat, while there was something like a sigh in her voice as she said--

"The maids of this country are not accustomed, sir, to be so stronglyloved. "

By this time, breakfasted and rehabilitated, I was ready to go forth. The girl swung back the heavy curtain that served in place of dooracross the entrance of my chamber, and leading the way by a corridorand marble steps while I followed, and whether it was the Martian airor the meal I know not, but thinking mighty well of myself until wecame presently onto the main palace stairs, which led by statelyflights from the upper galleries to the wide square below. 

As we passed into the full sunshine--and no sunshine is so crisplygolden as the Martian--amongst twined flowers and shrubs and gay, quaint birds building in the cornices, a sleek youth rose slowly fromwhere he had spread his cloak as couch upon a step and approachingasked--

"You are the stranger of yesterday?"

"Yes, " I answered. 

"Then I bring a message from Prince Hath, saying it would pleasure himgreatly if you would eat the morning meal with him. "

"Why, " I answered, "it is very civil indeed, but I have breakfastedalready. "

"And so has Hath, " said the boy, gently yawning. "You see I came hereearly this morning, but knowing you would pass sooner or later Ithought it would save me the trouble if I lay down till you came--thosequaint people who built these places were so prodigal of steps, " andsmiling apologetically he sank back on his couch and began toying witha leaf. 

"Sweet fellow, " I said, and you will note how I was getting into theirstyle of conversation, "get back to Hath when you have rested, give himmy most gracious thanks for the intended courtesy, but tell him theinvitation should have started a week earlier; tell him from me, younimble-footed messenger, that I will post-date his kindness and cometomorrow; say that meanwhile I pray him to send any ill news he has forme by you. Is the message too bulky for your slender shoulders?"

"No, " said the boy, rousing himself slowly, "I will take it, " and thenhe prepared to go. He turned again and said, without a trace ofincivility, "But indeed, stranger, I wish you would take the messageyourself. This is the third flight of stairs I have been up today. "

Everywhere it was the same friendly indolence. Half the breakfasterswere lying on coloured shawls in groups about the square; the otherhalf were strolling off--all in one direction, I noticed--as slowly ascould be towards the open fields beyond; no one was active or hadanything to do save the yellow folk who flitted to and fro fosteringthe others, and doing the city work as though it were their onlythought in life. There were no shops in that strange city, for therewere no needs; some booths I saw indeed, and temple-like places, buthollow, and used for birds and beasts--things these lazy Martians love. There was no tramp of busy feet, for no one was busy; no clank ofswords or armour in those peaceful streets, for no one was warlike; nohustle, for no one hurried; no wide-packed asses nodding down thelanes, for there was nothing to fill their packs with, and though acart sometimes came by with a load of lolling men and maids, or a smallhorse, for horses they had, paced along, itself nearly as lazy as themaster he bore, with trappings sewed over bits of coloured shell andcoral, yet somehow it was all extraordinarily unreal. It was a cityfull of the ghosts of the life which once pulsed through its ways. Thestreets were peopled, the chatter of voices everywhere, the singingboys and laughing girls wandering, arms linked together, down the waysfilled every echo with their merriment, yet somehow it was all soshallow that again and again I rubbed my eyes, wondering if I wereindeed awake, or whether it were not a prolonged sleep of which thetomorrow were still to come. 

"What strikes me as strangest of all, good comrade, " I observedpleasantly to the tripping presence at my elbow, "is that thesecountrymen of yours who shirk to climb a flight of steps, and havepalms as soft as rose petals, these wide ways paved with stones as hardas a usurer's heart. "

An laughed. "The stones were still in their native quarries had itbeen left to us to seek them; we are like the conies in the ruins, sir, the inheritors of what other hands have done. "

"Ay, and undone, I think, as well, for coming along I have noted axechippings upon the walls, smudges of ancient fire and smoke upon thecornices. "

An winced a little and stared uneasily at the walls, muttering belowher breath something about trying to hide with flower garlands themarks they could not banish, but it was plain the conversation was notpleasing to her. So unpleasant was talk or sight of woodmen(Thither-folk, as she called them, in contradiction to the Hitherpeople about us here), that the girl was clearly relieved when we werefree of the town and out into the open playground of the people. Thewhole place down there was a gay, shifting crowd. The booths ofyesterday, the arcades, the archways, were still standing, and duringthe night unknown hands had redecked them with flowers, while anotherday's sunshine had opened the coppice buds so that the whole place wasbrilliant past expression. And here the Hither folk were varying theiridleness by a general holiday. They were standing about in groups, orlying ranked like new-plucked flowers on the banks, piping to eachother through reeds as soft and melodious as running water. They wereplaying inconsequent games and breaking off in the middle of them likechildren looking for new pleasures. They were idling about thedrinking booths, delicately stupid with quaint, thin wines, dealt outto all who asked; the maids were ready to chevy or be chevied throughthe blossoming thickets by anyone who chanced upon them, the menslipped their arms round slender waists and wandered down the paths, scarce seeming to care even whose waist it was they circled or intowhose ear they whispered the remainder of the love-tale they had begunto some one else. And everywhere it was "Hi, " and "Ha, " and "So, " and"See, " as these quaint people called to one another, knowing each otheras familiarly as ants of a nest, and by the same magic it seemed to me. 

"An, " I said presently, when we had wandered an hour or so through thedrifting throng, "have these good countrymen of yours no other namesbut monosyllabic, nothing to designate them but these chirrupingsyllables?"

"Is it not enough?" answered my companion. "Once indeed I think we hadlonger names, but, " she added, smiling, "how much trouble it saves tolimit each one to a single sound. It is uncivil to one's neighbours toburden their tongues with double duty when half would do. "

"But have you no patronymics--nothing to show the child comes of thesame source as his father came?"

"We have no fathers. "

"What! no fathers?" I said, starting and staring at her. 

"No, nor mothers either, or at least none that we remember, for again, why should we? Mayhap in that strange district you come from you keepcount of these things, but what have we to do with either when theirinitial duty is done. Look at that painted butterfly swinging on thehoney-laden catkin there. What knows she of the mother who shed herlife into a flowercup and forgot which flower it was the minuteafterwards. We, too, are insects, stranger. "

"And do you mean to say of this great concourse here, that every atomis solitary, individual, and can claim no kindred with another save theloose bonds of a general fraternity--a specious idea, horrible, impracticable!"

Whereat An laughed. "Ask the grasshoppers if it is impracticable; askthe little buzzing things of grass and leaves who drift hither andthither upon each breath of wind, finding kinsmen never but comradeseverywhere--ask them if it is horrible. "

This made me melancholy, and somehow set me thinking of the friendsimmeasurably distant I had left but yesterday. 

What were they doing? Did they miss me? I was to have called for mypay this afternoon, and tomorrow was to have run down South to see thatfreckled lady of mine. What would she think of my absence? What wouldshe think if she knew where I was? Gods, it was too mad, too absurd! Ithrust my hands into my pockets in fierce desperation, and there theyclutched an old dance programme and an out-of-date check for a New Yorkferry-boat. I scowled about on that sunny, helpless people, and layingmy hand bitterly upon my heart felt in the breast-pocket beneath apacket of unpaid Boston tailors' bills and a note from my landladyasking if I would let her aunt do my washing while I was on shore. Oh!what would they all think of me? Would they brand me as a deserter, apoltroon, and a thief, letting my name presently sink down in shame andmystery in the shadowy realm of the forgotten? Dreadful thoughts! Iwould think no more. 

Maybe An had marked my melancholy, for presently she led me to a stallwhere in fantastic vases wines of sorts I have described before wereput out for all who came to try them. There was medicine here forevery kind of dulness--not the gross cure which earthly wine effects, but so nicely proportioned to each specific need that one couldregulate one's debauch to a hairbreadth, rising through all the gamutof satisfaction, from the staid contentment coming of that flask thereto the wild extravagances of the furthermost vase. So my striplingtold me, running her finger down the line of beakers carved withstrange figures and cased in silver, each in its cluster of littleattendant drinking-cups, like-coloured, and waiting round on the whitenapkins as the shore boats wait to unload a cargo round the sides of amerchant vessel. 

"And what, " I said, after curiously examining each liquor in turn, "what is that which stands alone there in the humble earthen jar, asthough unworthy of the company of the others. "

"Oh, that, " said my friend, "is the most essential of them all--that isthe wine of recovery, without which all the others were deadly poisons. "

"The which, lady, looks as if it had a moral attaching to it. "

"It may have; indeed I think it has, but I have forgotten. Prince Hathwould know! Meanwhile let me give you to drink, great stranger, let meget you something. "

"Well, then, " I laughed, "reach me down an antidote to fate, a specificfor an absent mistress, and forgetful friends. "

"What was she like?" said An, hesitating a little and frowning. 

"Nay, good friend, " was my answer, "what can that matter to you?"

"Oh, nothing, of course, " answered that Martian, and while she tookfrom the table a cup and filled it with fluid I felt in the pouch of mysword-belt to see if by chance a bit of money was lying there, butthere was none, only the pips of an orange poor Polly had sucked andlaughingly thrown at me. 

However, it did not matter. The girl handed me the cup, and I put mylips to it. The first taste was bitter and acrid, like the liquor oflong-steeped wood. At the second taste a shiver of pleasure ranthrough me, and I opened my eyes and stared hard. The third tastegrossness and heaviness and chagrin dropped from my heart; all thecomplexion of Providence altered in a flash, and a stupid irresistiblejoy, unreasoning, uncontrollable took possession of my fibre. I sankupon a mossy bank and, lolling my head, beamed idiotically on thelolling Martians all about me. How long I was like that I cannot say. The heavy minutes of sodden contentment slipped by unnoticed, unnumbered, till presently I felt the touch of a wine-cup at my lipsagain, and drinking of another liquor dulness vanished from my mind, myeyes cleared, my heart throbbed; a fantastic gaiety seized upon mylimbs; I bounded to my feet, and seizing An's two hands in mine, swungthat damsel round in a giddy dance, capering as never dancer dancedbefore, till spent and weary I sank down again from sheer lack ofbreath, and only knew thereafter that An was sitting by me saying, "Drink! drink stranger, drink and forget!" and as a third time a cupwas pressed to my lips, aches and pleasures, stupidness and joy, lifeitself, seemed slipping away into a splendid golden vacuity, a hazyepisode of unconscious Elysium, indefinite, and unfathomable. 

CHAPTER V

When I woke, feeling as refreshed as though I had been dreaming througha long night, An, seeing me open-eyed, helped me to my feet, and when Ihad recovered my senses a little, asked if we should go on. I wasmyself again by this time, so willingly took her hand, and soon cameout of the tangle into the open spaces. I must have been under thespell of the Martian wines longer than it seemed, for already it waslate in the afternoon, the shadows of trees were lying deep andfar-reaching over the motley crowds of people. Out here as the daywaned they had developed some sort of method in their sports. In frontof us was a broad, grassy course marked off with garlandedfinger-posts, and in this space rallies of workfolk were taking part inall manner of games under the eyes of a great concourse of spectators, doing the Martians' pleasures for them as they did their labours. Anled me gently on, leaning on my arm heavier, I thought, than she haddone in the morning, and ever and anon turning her gazelle-like eyesupon me with a look I could not understand. As we sauntered forward Inoticed all about lesser circles where the yellow-girted ones weredrawing delighted laughter from good-tempered crowds by tricks ofsleight-of-hand, and posturing, or tossing gilded cups and balls asthough they were catering, as indeed they were, for outgrown children. Others fluted or sang songs in chorus to the slow clapping of hands, while others were doing I knew not what, sitting silent amongst silentspectators who every now and then burst out laughing for no cause thatI could see. But An would not let me stop, and so we pushed on throughthe crowd till we came to the main enclosures where a dozen slaves hadrun a race for the amusement of those too lazy to race themselves, andwere sitting panting on the grass. 

To give them time to get their breath, perhaps, a man stepped out ofthe crowd dressed in a dark blue tunic, a strange vacuous-lookingfellow, and throwing down a sheaf of javelins marched off a dozenpaces, then, facing round, called out loudly he would give sixteensuits of "summer cloth" to any one who could prick him with a javelinfrom the heap. 

"Why, " I said in amazement, "this is the best of fools--no one couldmiss from such a distance. "

"Ay but, " replied my guide, "he is a gifted one, versed in mystics. "

I was just going to say a good javelin, shod with iron, was a strongerargument than any mystic I had ever heard of could stand, when out ofthe crowd stepped a youth, and amid the derisive cheers of his friendschose a reed from the bundle. He poised it in his hand a minute to getthe middle, then turned on the living target. Whatever else they mightbe, these Martians were certainly beautiful as the daytime. Never hadI seen such a perfect embodiment of grace and elegance as that boy ashe stood there for a moment poised to the throw; the afternoon sunshinewarm and strong on his bunched brown hair, a girlish flush of shynesson his handsome face, and the sleek perfection of his limbs, clear cutagainst the dusky background beyond. And now the javelin was going. Surely the mystic would think better of it at the last moment! No! theinitiate held his ground with tight-shut lips and retrospective eyes, and even as I looked the weapon flew upon its errand. 

"There goes the soul of a fool!" I exclaimed, and as the words wereuttered the spear struck, or seemed to, between the neck and shoulder, but instead of piercing rose high into the air, quivering and flashing, and presently turning over, fell back, and plunged deep into the turf, while a low murmur of indifferent pleasure went round amongst theonlookers. 

Thereat An, yawning gently, looked to me and said, "A strong-willedfellow, isn't he, friend?"

I hesitated a minute and then asked, "Was it WILL which turned thatshaft?"

She answered with simplicity, "Why, of course--what else?"

By this time another boy had stepped out, and having chosen a javelin, tested it with hand and foot, then retiring a pace or two rushed up tothe throwing mark and flung it straight and true into the bared bosomof the man. And as though it had struck a wall of brass, the shaftleapt back falling quivering at the thrower's feet. Another andanother tried unsuccessfully, until at last, vexed at their futility, Isaid, "I have a somewhat scanty wardrobe that would be all the betterfor that fellow's summer suiting, by your leave I will venture a throwagainst him. "

"It is useless, " answered An; "none but one who knows more magic thanhe, or is especially befriended by the Fates can touch him through theenvelope he has put on. "

"Still, I think I will try. "

"It is hopeless, I would not willingly see you fail, " whispered thegirl, with a sudden show of friendship. 

"And what, " I said, bending down, "would you give me if I succeeded?"Whereat An laughed a little uneasily, and, withdrawing her hand frommine, half turned away. So I pushed through the spectators and steppedinto the ring. I went straight up to the pile of weapons, and havingchosen one went over to the mystic. "Good fellow, " I cried outostentatiously, trying the sharpness of the javelin-point with myfinger, "where are all of those sixteen summer suits of yours lyinghid?"

"It matters nothing, " said the man, as if he were asleep. 

"Ay, but by the stars it does, for it will vex the quiet repose of yoursoul tomorrow if your heirs should swear they could not find them. "

"It matters nothing, " muttered the will-wrapped visionary. 

"It will matter something if I take you at your word. Come, friendPurple-jerkin, will you take the council with your legs and run whilethere is yet time, or stand up to be thrown at?"

"I stand here immoveable in the confidence of my initiation. "

"Then, by thunder, I will initiate you into the mysteries of ajavelin-end, and your blood be on your head. "

The Martians were all craning their necks in hushed eagerness as Iturned to the casting-place, and, poising the javelin, faced themagician. Would he run at the last moment? I half hoped so; for aminute I gave him the chance, then, as he showed no sign of wavering, Idrew my hand back, shook the javelin back till it bent like a reed, andhurled it at him. 

The Martians' heads turned as though all on one pivot as the spear spedthrough the air, expecting no doubt to see it recoil as others haddone. But it took him full in the centre of his chest, and with a wildwave of arms and a flutter of purple raiment sent him backwards, anddown, and over and over in a shapeless heap of limbs and flyingraiment, while a low murmur of awed surprise rose from the spectators. They crowded round him in a dense ring, as An came flitting to me witha startled face. 

"Oh, stranger, " she burst out, "you have surely killed him!" but moreastounded I had broken down his guard than grieved at his injury. 

"No, " I answered smilingly; "a sore chest he may have tomorrow, butdead he is not, for I turned the lance-point back as I spun it, and itwas the butt-end I threw at him!"

"It was none the less wonderful; I thought you were a common man, aprince mayhap, come but from over the hills, but now something tells meyou are more than that, " and she lapsed into thoughtful silence for atime. 

Neither of us were wishful to go back amongst those who were raisingthe bruised magician to his legs, but wandered away instead through thedeepening twilight towards the city over meadows whose damp, softfragrance loaded the air with sleepy pleasure, neither of us saying aword till the dusk deepened and the quick night descended, while wecame amongst the gardened houses, the thousand lights of an unreal cityrising like a jewelled bank before us, and there An said she wouldleave me for a time, meeting me again in the palace square later on, "To see Princess Heru read the destinies of the year. "

"What!" I exclaimed, "more magic? I have been brought up on moresubstantial mental stuff than this. "

"Nevertheless, I would advise you to come to the square, " persisted mycompanion. "It affects us all, and--who knows?--may affect you morethan any. "

Therein poor An was unconsciously wearing the cloak of prophesyherself, and, shrugging my shoulders good-humouredly, I kissed herchin, little realising, as I let her fingers slip from mine, that Ishould see her no more. 

Turning back alone, through the city, through ways twinkling withmyriad lights as little lamps began to blink out amongst garlands andflower-decked booths on every hand, I walked on, lost in varyingthoughts, until, fairly tired and hungry, I found myself outside astall where many Martians stood eating and drinking to their hearts'content. I was known to none of them, and, forgetting past experience, was looking on rather enviously, when there came a touch upon my arm, and--

"Are you hungry, sir?" asked a bystander. 

"Ay, " I said, "hungry, good friend, and with all the zest which anempty purse lends to that condition. "

"Then here is what you need, sir, even from here the wine smells good, and the fried fruit would make a mouse's eye twinkle. Why do you wait?"

"Why wait? Why, because though the rich man's dinner goes in at hismouth, the poor man must often be content to dine through his nose. Itell you I have nothing to get me a meal with. "

The stranger seemed to speculate on this for a time, and then he said, "I cannot fathom your meaning, sir. Buying and selling, gold andmoney, all these have no meaning to me. Surely the twin blessings ofan appetite and food abundant ready and free before you are enough. "

"What! free is it--free like the breakfast served out this morning?"

"Why, of course, " said the youth, with mild depreciation; "everythinghere is free. Everything is his who will take it, without exception. What else is the good of a coherent society and a Government if itcannot provide you with so rudimentary a thing as a meal?"

Whereat joyfully I undid my belt, and, without nicely examining theargument, marched into the booth, and there put Martian hospitality tothe test, eating and drinking, but this time with growing wisdom, tillI was a new man, and then, paying my leaving with a wave of the hand tothe yellow-girted one who dispensed the common provender, I saunteredon again, caring little or nothing which way the road went, and soonacross the current of my meditations a peal of laughter broke, accompanied by the piping of a flute somewhere close at hand, and thenext minute I found myself amid a ring of light-hearted roisterers whowere linking hands for a dance to the music a curly-headed fellow wasmaking close by. 

They made me join them! One rosey-faced damsel at the hither end ofthe chain drew up to me, and, without a word, slipped her soft, babyfingers into my hand; on the other side another came with melting eyes, breath like a bed of violets, and banked-up fun puckering her daintymouth. What could I do but give her a hand as well? The flute beganto gurgle anew, like a drinking spout in spring-time, and away we went, faster and faster each minute, the boys and girls swinging themselvesin time to the tune, and capering presently till their tender feet weretwinkling over the ground in gay confusion. Faster and faster till, asthe infection of the dance spread even to the outside groups, I caperedtoo. My word! if they could have seen me that night from the deck ofthe old Carolina, how they would have laughed--sword swinging, coat-tails flying--faster and faster, round and round we went, tilllimbs could stand no more; the gasping piper blew himself quite out, and the dance ended as abruptly as it commenced, the dancers meltingaway to join others or casting themselves panting on the turf. 

Certainly these Martian girls were blessed with an ingratiatingsimplicity. My new friend of the violet-scented breath hung back alittle, then after looking at me demurely for a minute or two, like achild that chooses a new playmate, came softly up, and, standing ontiptoe, kissed me on the cheek. It was not unpleasant, so I turned theother, whereon, guessing my meaning, without the smallest hesitation, she reached up again, and pressed her pretty mouth to my bronzed skin asecond time. Then, with a little sigh of satisfaction, she ran an armthrough mine, saying, "Comrade, from what country have you come? Inever saw one quite like you before. "

"From what country had I come?" Again the frown dropped down upon myforehead. Was I dreaming--was I mad? Where indeed had I come from? Istared back over my shoulder, and there, as if in answer to mythought--there, where the black tracery of flowering shrubs waved inthe soft night wind, over a gap in the crumbling ivory ramparts, thesky was brightening. As I looked into the centre of that glow, aplanet, magnified by the wonderful air, came swinging up, pale butsplendid, and mapped by soft colours--green, violet, and red. I knewit on the minute, Heaven only knows how, but I knew it, and a desperatethrill of loneliness swept over me, a spasm of comprehension of thehorrible void dividing us. Never did yearning babe stretch arms morewistfully to an unattainable mother than I at that moment to my motherearth. All her meanness and prosaicness was forgotten, all herimperfections and shortcomings; it was home, the one tangible thing inthe glittering emptiness of the spheres. All my soul went into my eyes, and then I sneezed violently, and turning round, found that sweetdamsel whose silky head nestled so friendly on my shoulder was ticklingmy nose with a feather she had picked up. 

Womanlike, she had forgotten all about her first question, and nowasked another, "Will you come to supper with me, stranger? 'Tis nearlyready, I think. "

"To be able to say no to such an invitation, lady, is the first thing ayoung man should learn, " I answered lightly; but then, seeing there wasnothing save the most innocent friendliness in those hazel eyes, I wenton, "but that stern rule may admit of variance. Only, as it chances, Ihave just supped at the public expense. If, instead, you would be asailor's sweetheart for an hour, and take me to this show ofyours--your princess's benefit, or whatever it is--I shall be obliged;my previous guide is hull down over the horizon, and I am clean out ofmy reckoning in this crowd. "

By way of reply, the little lady, light as an elf, took me by thefingertips, and, gleefully skipping forward, piloted me through themazes of her city until we came out into the great square fronting onthe palace, which rose beyond it like a white chalk cliff in the dulllight. Not a taper showed anywhere round its circumference, but amysterious kind of radiance like sea phosphorescence beamed from thepalace porch. All was in such deathlike silence that the nails in my"ammunition" boots made an unpleasant clanking as they struck on themarble pavement; yet, by the uncertain starlight, I saw, to mysurprise, the whole square was thronged with Martians, all facingtowards the porch, as still, graven images, and as voiceless, for once, as though they had indeed been marble. It was strange to see themsitting there in the twilight, waiting for I knew not what, and myfriend's voice at my elbow almost startled me as she said, in awhisper, "The princess knows you are in the crowd, and desires you togo up upon the steps near where she will be. "

"Who brought her message?" I asked, gazing vaguely round, for none hadspoken to us for an hour or more. 

"No one, " said my companion, gently pushing me up an open way towardsthe palace steps left clear by the sitting Martians. "It came directfrom her to me this minute. "

"But how?" I persisted. 

"Nay, " said the girl, "if we stop to talk like this we shall not beplaced before she comes, and thus throw a whole year's knowledge out. "

So, bottling my speculations, I allowed myself to be led up the firstflight of worn, white steps to where, on the terrace between them andthe next flight leading directly to the palace portico, was a flat, having a circle about twenty feet across, inlaid upon the marble withdarker coloured blocks. Inside that circle, as I sat down close by itin the twilight, showed another circle, and then a final one in whoseinmost middle stood a tall iron tripod and something atop of it coveredby a cloth. And all round the outer circle were magic symbols--Istarted as I recognised the meaning of some of them--within these againthe inner circle held what looked like the representations of planets, ending, as I have said, in that dished hollow made by countlessdancers' feet, and its solitary tripod. Back again, I glanced towardsthe square where the great concourse--ten thousand of them, perhaps--were sitting mute and silent in the deepening shadows, thenback to the magic circles, till the silence and expectancy of a strangescene began to possess me. 

Shadow down below, star-dusted heaven above, and not a figure moving;when suddenly something like a long-drawn sigh came from the lips ofthe expectant multitude, and I was aware every eye had suddenly turnedback to the palace porch, where, as we looked, a figure, wrapped inpale blue robes, appeared and stood for a minute, then stole down thesteps with an eagerness in every movement holding us spellbound. Ihave seen many splendid pageants and many sights, each of which mightbe the talk of a lifetime, but somehow nothing ever so engrossing, sothrilling, as that ghostly figure in flowing robes stealing across thepiazza in starlight and silence--the princess of a broken kingdom, thepriestess of a forgotten faith coming to her station to perform ajugglery of which she knew not even the meaning. It was my versatilefriend Heru, and with quick, incisive steps, her whole frame ambent forthe time with the fervour of her mission, she came swiftly down towithin a dozen yards of where I stood. Heru, indeed, but not the sameprincess as in the morning; an inspired priestess rather, her slim bodywrapped in blue and quivering with emotion, her face ashine withDelphic fire, her hair loose, her feet bare, until at last when, as shestood within the limit of the magic circle, her white hands upon herbreast, her eyes flashing like planets themselves in the starshine shelooked so ghostly and unreal I felt for a minute I was dreaming. 

Then began a strange, weird dance amongst the imagery of the rings, over which my earth planet was beginning to throw a haze of light. Atfirst it was hardly more than a walk, a slow procession round the twincircumferences of the centred tripod. But soon it increased to anextraordinary graceful measure, a cadenced step without music or soundthat riveted my eyes to the dancer. Presently I saw those mystic, twinkling feet of hers--as the dance became swifter--were performing ameasured round amongst the planet signs--spelling out something, I knewnot what, with quick, light touch amongst the zodiac figures, dancingout a soundless invocation of some kind as a dumb man might spell amessage by touching letters. Quicker and quicker, for minute afterminute, grew the dance, swifter and swifter the swing of the light bluedrapery as the priestess, with eager face and staring eyes, swungpanting round upon her orbit, and redder and redder over the city topsrose the circumference of the earth. It seemed to me all the silentmultitude were breathing heavily as we watched that giddy dance, andwhatever THEY felt, all my own senses seemed to be winding up upon thatrevolving figure as thread winds on a spindle. 

"When will she stop?" I whispered to my friend under my breath. 

"When the earth-star rests in the roof-niche of the temple it isclimbing, " she answered back. 

"And then?"

"On the tripod is a globe of water. In it she will see the destiny ofthe year, and will tell us. The whiter the water stays, the better forus; it never varies from white. But we must not talk; see! she isstopping. "

And as I looked back, the dance was certainly ebbing now with suchsmoothly decreasing undulations, that every heart began to beat calmerin response. There was a minute or two of such slow cessation, andthen to say she stopped were too gross a description. Motion ratherdied away from her, and the priestess grounded as smoothly as a shipgrounds in fine weather on a sandy bank. There she was at last, crouched behind the tripod, one corner of the cloth covering it graspedin her hand, and her eyes fixed on the shining round just poised uponthe distant run. 

Keenly the girl watched it slide into zenith, then the cloth wassnatched from the tripod-top. As it fell it uncovered a beautiful andperfect globe of clear white glass, a foot or so in diameter, andobviously filled with the thinnest, most limpid water imaginable. Atfirst it seemed to me, who stood near to the priestess of Mars, withthat beaming sphere directly between us, and the newly risen world, that its smooth and flawless face was absolutely devoid of sign orcolouring. Then, as the distant planet became stronger in themagnifying Martian air, or my eyes better accustomed to that suddennucleus of brilliancy, a delicate and infinitely lovely network ofcolours came upon it. They were like the radiant prisms that sometimesflush the surface of a bubble more than aught else for a time. But asI watched that mosaic of yellow and purple creep softly to and fro uponthe globe it seemed they slowly took form and meaning. Another minuteor two and they had certainly congealed into a settled plan, and then, as I stared and wondered, it burst upon me in a minute that I waslooking upon a picture, faithful in every detail, of the world I stoodon; all its ruddy forests, its sapphire sea, both broad and narrowones, its white peaked mountains, and unnumbered islands being mappedout with startling clearness for a spell upon that beaming orb. 

Then a strange thing happened. Heru, who had been crouching in atremulous heap by the tripod, rose stealthily and passed her hands afew times across the sphere. Colour and picture vanished at her touchlike breath from a mirror. Again all was clear and pellucid. 

"Now, " said my companion, "now listen! For Heru reads the destiny; thewhiter the globe stays the better for us--" and then I felt her handtighten on mine with a startled grasp as the words died away upon herlips. 

Even as the girl spoke, the sphere, which had been beaming in thecentre of the silent square like a mighty white jewel, began to flushwith angry red. Redder and redder grew the gleam--a fiery glow whichseemed curdling in the interior of the round as though it were filledwith flame; redder and redder, until the princess, staring into it, seemed turned against the jet-black night behind, into a form of moltenmetal. A spasm of terror passed across her as she stared; her limbsstiffened; her frightened hands were clutched in front, and she stoodcowering under that great crimson nucleus like one bereft of power andlife, and lost to every sense but that of agony. Not a syllable camefrom her lips, not a movement stirred her body, only that dumb, stupidstare of horror, at the something she saw in the globe. What could Ido? I could not sit and see her soul come out at her frightened eyes, and not a Martian moved a finger to her rescue; the red shine gleamedon empty faces, tier above tier, and flung its broad flush over theendless rank of open-mouthed spectators, then back I looked toHeru--that winsome little lady for whom, you will remember, I hadalready more than a passing fancy--and saw with a thrill of emotionthat while she still kept her eyes on the flaming globe like one in ahorrible dream her hands were slowly, very slowly, rising insupplication to ME! It was not vanity. There was no mistaking thedirection of that silent, imploring appeal. 

Not a man of her countrymen moved, not even black Hath! There was nota sound in the world, it seemed, but the noisy clatter of my ownshoenails on the marble flags. In the great red eye of that unholyglobe the Martians glimmered like a picture multitude under the redcliff of their ruined palace. I glared round at them with contempt fora minute, then sprang forward and snatched the princess up. It waslike pulling a flower up by the roots. She was stiff and stark when Ilay hold of her, but when I tore her from the magic ground she suddenlygave a piercing shriek, and fainted in my arms. 

Then as I turned upon my heels with her upon my breast my foot caughtupon the cloths still wound about the tripod of the sphere. Over wentthat implement of a thousand years of sorcery, and out went the redfire. But little I cared--the princess was safe! And up the palacesteps, amidst a low, wailing hum of consternation from the recoveringMartians, I bore that bundle of limp and senseless loveliness up intothe pale shine of her own porch, and there, laying her down upon acouch, watched her recover presently amongst her women with a variedassortment of emotions tingling in my veins. 

CHAPTER VI

Beyond the first flutter of surprise, the Martians had shown nointerest in the abrupt termination of the year's divinations. Theymelted away, a trifle more silently perhaps than usual, when Ishattered the magic globe, but with their invariable indifference, andhaving handed the reviving Heru over to some women who led her away, apparently already half forgetful of the things that had just happened, I was left alone on the palace steps, not even An beside me, and onlythe shadow of a passerby now and then to break the solitude. Whereon agreat loneliness took hold upon me, and, pacing to and fro along theancient terrace with bent head and folded arms, I bewailed my fate. Toand fro I walked, heedless and melancholy, thinking of the old world, that was so far and this near world so distant from me in everythingmaking life worth living, thinking, as I strode gloomily here andthere, how gladly I would exchange these poor puppets and the mockeryof a town they dwelt in, for a sight of my comrades and a corner in thepoorest wine-shop salon in New York or 'Frisco; idly speculating why, and how, I came here, as I sauntered down amongst the glistening, shell-like fragments of the shattered globe, and finding no answer. How could I? It was too fair, I thought, standing there in the open;there was a fatal sweetness in the air, a deadly sufficiency in thebeauty of everything around falling on the lax senses like some sleepydraught of pleasure. Not a leaf stirred, the wide purple roof of thesky was unbroken by the healthy promise of a cloud from rim to rim, thesplendid country, teeming with its spring-time richness, lay in rankperfection everywhere; and just as rank and sleek and passionless werethose who owned it. 

Why, even I, who yesterday was strong, began to come under the spell ofit. But yesterday the spirit of the old world was still strong withinme, yet how much things were now changing. The well-strung musclesloosening, the heart beating a slower measure, the busy mind drowsingoff to listlessness. Was I, too, destined to become like these? Wasthe red stuff in my veins to be watered down to pallid Martian sap? Wasambition and hope to desert me, and idleness itself become laborious, while life ran to seed in gilded uselessness? Little did I guess howunnecessary my fears were, or of the incredible fairy tale of adventureinto which fate was going to plunge me. 

Still engrossed the next morning by these thoughts, I decided I wouldgo to Hath. Hath was a man--at least they said so--he might sympathiseeven though he could not help, and so, dressing finished, I went downtowards the innermost palace whence for an hour or two had come soundsof unwonted bustle. Asking for the way occasionally from sleepy folklolling about the corridors, waiting as it seemed for their breakfaststo come to them, and embarrassed by the new daylight, I wandered to andfro in the labyrinths of that stony ant-heap until I chanced upon acurtained doorway which admitted to a long chamber, high-roofed, amplein proportions, with colonnades on either side separated from the mainaisle by rows of flowery figures and emblematic scroll-work, meaning Iknew not what. Above those pillars ran a gallery with many windowslooking out over the ruined city. While at the further end of thechamber stood three broad steps leading to a dais. As I entered, thewhole place was full of bustling girls, their yellow garments like abed of flowers in the sunlight trickling through the casements, and allintent on the spreading of a feast on long tables ranged up and downthe hall. The morning light streamed in on the white cloths. Itglittered on the glass and the gold they were putting on the trestles, and gave resplendent depths of colour to the ribbon bands round thepillars. All were so busy no one noticed me standing in the twilightby the door, but presently, laying a hand on a worker's shoulder, Iasked who they banqueted for, and why such unwonted preparation?

"It is the marriage-feast tonight, stranger, and a marvel you did notknow it. You, too, are to be wed. "

"I had not heard of it, damsel; a paternal forethought of yourGovernment, I suppose? Have you any idea who the lady is?"

"How should I know?" she answered laughingly. "That is the secret ofthe urn. Meanwhile, we have set you a place at the table-head nearPrincess Heru, and tonight you dip and have your chance like all ofthem; may luck send you a rosy bride, and save her from Ar-hap. "

"Ay, now I remember; An told me of this before; Ar-hap is the sovereignwith whom your people have a little difference, and shares unbidden inthe free distribution of brides to-night. This promises to beinteresting; depend on it I will come; if you will keep me a placewhere I can hear the speeches, and not forget me when the turtle soupgoes round, I shall be more than grateful. Now to another matter. Iwant to get a few minutes with your President, Prince Hath. Heconcentrates the fluid intelligence of this sphere, I am told. Wherecan I find him?"

"He is drunk, in the library, sir!"

"My word! It is early in the day for that, and a singular conjunctionof place and circumstance. "

"Where, " said the girl, "could he safer be? We can always fetch him ifwe want him, and sunk in blue oblivion he will not come to harm. "

"A cheerful view, Miss, which is worthy of the attention of ourreformers. Nevertheless, I will go to him. I have known men tell moretruth in that state than in any other. "

The servitor directed me to the library, and after desolate wanderingsup crumbling steps and down mouldering corridors, sunny and lovely indecay, I came to the immense lumber-shed of knowledge they had told meof, a city of dead books, a place of dusty cathedral aisles stored withforgotten learning. At a table sat Hath the purposeless, enthroned inleather and vellum, snoring in divine content amongst all that wastedlabour, and nothing I could do was sufficient to shake him intosemblance of intelligence. So perforce I turned away till he shouldhave come to himself, and wandering round the splendid litter of anoble library, presently amongst the ruck of volumes on the floor, amongst those lordly tomes in tattered green and gold, and ivory, myeye lit upon a volume propped up curiously on end, and going to itthrough the confusion I saw by the dried fruit rind upon the stickssupporting it, that the grave and reverend tome was set to catch amouse! It was a splendid book when I looked more closely, bound as aking might bind his choicest treasure, the sweet-scented leather on itwas no doubt frayed; the golden arabesques upon the covers had longsince shed their eyes of inset gems, the jewelled clasp locking itslearning up from vulgar gaze was bent and open. Yet it was a lordlytome with an odour of sanctity about it, and lifting it withdifficulty, I noticed on its cover a red stain of mouse's blood. Thosewho put it to this quaint use of mouse-trap had already had some sport, but surely never was a mouse crushed before under so much learning. Andwhile I stood guessing at what the book might hold within, Heru, theprincess, came tripping in to me, and with the abrupt familiarity ofher kind, laid a velvet hand upon my wrist, conned the title over toherself. 

"What does it say, sweet girl?" I asked. "The matter is learned, byits feel, " and that maid, pursing up her pretty lips, read the title tome--"The Secret of the Gods. "

"The Secret of the Gods, " I murmured. "Was it possible other worldshad struggled hopelessly to come within the barest ken of that greatknowledge, while here the same was set to catch a mouse with?"

I said, "Silver-footed, sit down and read me a passage or two, " andpropping the mighty volume upon a table drew a bench before it andpulled her down beside me. 

"Oh! a horrid, dry old book for certain, " cried that lady, her pinkfingertips falling as lightly on the musty leaves as almond petals onMarch dust. "Where shall I begin? It is all equally dull. "

"Dip in, " was my answer. "'Tis no great matter where, but near thebeginning. What says the writer of his intention? What sets he out toprove?"

"He says that is the Secret of the First Great Truth, descendedstraight to him--"

"Many have said so much, yet have lied. "

"He says that which is written in his book is through him but not ofhim, past criticism and beyond cavil. 'Tis all in ancient and crabbedcharacters going back to the threshold of my learning, but here uponthis passage-top where they are writ large I make them out to say, 'ONLY THE MAN WHO HAS DIED MANY TIMES BEGINS TO LIVE. '"

"A pregnant passage! Turn another page, and try again; I have aninkling of the book already. "

"'Tis poor, silly stuff, " said the girl, slipping a hand covertly intomy own. "Why will you make me read it? I have a book on pomatumsworth twice as much as this. "

"Nevertheless, dip in again, dear lady. What says the next heading?"And with a little sigh at the heaviness of her task, Heru read out:"SOMETIMES THE GODS THEMSELVES FORGET THE ANSWERS TO THEIR OWN RIDDLES. "

"Lady, I knew it!

"All this is still preliminary to the great matter of the book, but themutterings of the priest who draws back the curtains of the shrine--andhere, after the scribe has left these two yellow pages blank as thoughto set a space of reverence between himself and what comes next--herespeaks the truth, the voice, the fact of all life. " But "Oh! Jones, "she said, turning from the dusty pages and clasping her young, milk-warm hands over mine and leaning towards me until her blushingcheek was near to my shoulder and the incense of her breath upon me. "Oh! Gulliver Jones, " she said. "Make me read no more; my soulrevolts from the task, the crazy brown letters swim before my eyes. Isthere no learning near at hand that would be pleasanter reading thanthis silly book of yours? What, after all, " she said, growing bolder atthe sound of her own voice, "what, after all, is the musty reticence ofgods to the whispered secret of a maid? Jones, splendid stranger forwhom all men stand aside and women look over shoulders, oh, let me beyour book!" she whispered, slipping on to my knee and winding her armsround my neck till, through the white glimmer of her single vest, Icould feel her heart beating against mine. "Newest and dearest offriends, put by this dreary learning and look in my eyes; is therenothing to be spelt out there?"

And I was constrained to do as she bid me, for she was as fresh as analmond blossom touched by the sun, and looking down into two swimmingblue lakes where shyness and passion were contending--books easyenough, in truth, to be read, I saw that she loved me, with theunconventional ardour of her nature. 

It was a pleasant discovery, if its abruptness was embarrassing, forshe was a maid in a thousand; and half ashamed and half laughing I lether escalade me, throwing now and then a rueful look at the Secret ofthe Gods, and all that priceless knowledge treated so unworthily. 

What else could I do? Besides, I loved her myself! And if there was amomentary chagrin at having yonder golden knowledge put off by thislovely interruption, yet I was flesh and blood, the gods couldwait--they had to wait long and often before, and when this sweetinterpreter was comforted we would have another try. So it happened Itook her into my heart and gave her the answer she asked for. 

For a long time we sat in the dusky grandeur of the royal library, mymind revolving between wonder and admiration of the neglected knowledgeall about, and the stirrings of a new love, while Heru herself, lapsedagain into Martian calm, lay half sleeping on my shoulder, butpresently, unwinding her arms, I put her down. 

"There, sweetheart, " I whispered, "enough of this for the moment;tonight, perhaps, some more, but while we are here amongst all thislordly litter, I can think of nothing else. " Again I bid her turn thepages, noting as she did so how each chapter was headed by the colouredconfiguration of a world. Page by page we turned of cracklingparchment, until by chance, at the top of one, my eye caught a colouredround I could not fail to recognise--'twas the spinning button on theblue breast of the immeasurable that yesterday I inhabited. "Readhere, " I cried, clapping my finger upon the page midway down, wherethere were some signs looking like Egyptian writing. "Says this quaintdabbler in all knowledge anything of Isis, anything of Phra, of Ammon, of Ammon Top?"

"And who was Isis? who Ammon Top?" asked the lady. 

"Nay, read, " I answered, and down the page her slender fingers wentawandering till at a spot of knotted signs they stopped. "Why, here issomething about thy Isis, " exclaimed Heru, as though amused at myperspicuity. "Here, halfway down this chapter of earth-history, itsays, " and putting one pink knee across the other to better prop thebook she read:

"And the priests of Thebes were gone; the sand stood untrampled on thetemple steps a thousand years; the wild bees sang the song ofdesolation in the ears of Isis; the wild cats littered in the stony lapof Ammon; ay, another thousand years went by, and earth was tilled ofunseen hands and sown with yellow grain from Paradise, and the thinveil that separates the known from the unknown was rent, and men walkedto and fro. "

"Go on, " I said. 

"Nay, " laughed the other, "the little mice in their eagerness have beenbefore you--see, all this corner is gnawed away. "

"Read on again, " I said, "where the page is whole; those sips ofknowledge you have given make me thirsty for more. There, begin wherethis blazonry of initialed red and gold looks so like the carpet spreadby the scribe for the feet of a sovereign truth--what says he here?"And she, half pouting to be set back once more to that task, halfwondering as she gazed on those magic letters, let her eyes run downthe page, then began:

"And it was the Beginning, and in the centre void presently there camea nucleus of light: and the light brightened in the grey primevalmorning and became definite and articulate. And from the midst of thatnatal splendour, behind which was the Unknowable, the life camehitherward; from the midst of that nucleus undescribed, undescribable, there issued presently the primeval sigh that breathed the breath oflife into all things. And that sigh thrilled through the empty spacesof the illimitable: it breathed the breath of promise over the frozenhills of the outside planets where the night-frost had lasted withoutbeginning: and the waters of ten thousand nameless oceans, girdingnameless planets, were stirred, trembling into their depth. It crossedthe illimitable spaces where the herding aerolites swirl foreverthrough space in the wake of careering world, and all their whistlingwings answered to it. It reverberated through the grey wastes ofvacuity, and crossed the dark oceans of the Outside, even to the blackshores of the eternal night beyond. 

"And hardly had echo of that breath died away in the hollow of theheavens and the empty wombs of a million barren worlds, when the lightbrightened again, and drawing in upon itself became definite and tookform, and therefrom, at the moment of primitive conception, therecame--"

And just then, as she had read so far as that, when all my facultieswere aching to know what came next--whether this were but the idlescribbling of a vacuous fool, or something else--there rose the soundof soft flutes and tinkling bells in the corridors, as seneschalswandered piping round the palace to call folk to meals, a smell ofroast meat and grilling fish as that procession lifted the curtainsbetween the halls, and--

"Dinner!" shouted my sweet Martian, slapping the covers of The Secretof the Gods together and pushing the stately tome headlong from thetable. "Dinner! 'Tis worth a hundred thousand planets to the hungry!"

Nothing I could say would keep her, and, scarcely knowing whether tolaugh or to be angry at so unseemly an interruption, but both beingpurposeless I dug my hands into my pockets, and somewhat sulkilyrefusing Heru's invitation to luncheon in the corridor (Navy rationshad not fitted my stomach for these constant debauches of gossamerfood), strolled into the town again in no very pleasant frame of mind. 

CHAPTER VII

It was only at moments like these I had any time to reflect on mycircumstances or that giddy chance which had shot me into space in thisfashion, and, frankly, the opportunities, when they did come, broughtsuch an extraordinary depressing train of thought, I by no meansinvited them. Even with the time available the occasion was alwaysawry for such reflection. These dainty triflers made sulking asimpossible amongst them as philosophy in a ballroom. When I stalkedout like that from the library in fine mood to moralise andapostrophise heaven in a way that would no doubt have looked fine uponthese pages, one sprightly damsel, just as the gloomy rhetoric wasbursting from my lips, thrust a flower under my nose whose scentbrought on a violent attack of sneezing, her companions joining handsand dancing round me while they imitated my agony. Then, when I burstaway from them and rushed down a narrow arcade of crumbling mansions, another stopped me in mid-career, and taking the honey-stick she wassucking from her lips, put it to mine, like a pretty, playful child. Another asked me to dance, another to drink pink oblivion with her, andso on. How could one lament amongst all this irritating cheerfulness?

An might have helped me, for poor An was intelligent for a Martian, butshe had disappeared, and the terrible vacuity of life in the planet wasforced upon me when I realised that possessing no cognomen, no fixedaddress, or rating, it would be the merest chance if I ever came acrossher again. 

Looking for my friendly guide and getting more and more at sea amongsta maze of comely but similar faces, I made chance acquaintance withanother of her kind who cheerfully drank my health at the Government'sexpense, and chatted on things Martian. She took me to see a funeralby way of amusement, and I found these people floated their dead off onflower-decked rafts instead of burying them, the send-offs all takingplace upon a certain swift-flowing stream, which carried the dead awayinto the vast region of northern ice, but more exactly whither myinformant seemed to have no idea. The voyager on this occasion wasold, and this brought to my mind the curious fact that I had observedfew children in the city, and no elders, all, except perhaps Hath, being in a state of sleek youthfulness. My new friend explained thepeculiarity by declaring Martians ripened with extraordinary rapidityfrom infancy to the equivalent of about twenty-five years of age, withus, and then remained at that period however long they might live; Onlywhen they died did their accumulated seasons come upon them; the girlturning pale, and wringing her pretty hands in sympathetic concern whenI told her there was a land where decrepitude was not so happilypostponed. The Martians, she said, arranged their calendar by thevarying colours of the seasons, and loved blue as an antidote to thegenerally red and rusty character of their soil. 

Discussing such things as these we lightly squandered the day away, andI know of nothing more to note until the evening was come again: thatwonderful purple evening which creeps over the outer worlds at sunset, a seductive darkness gemmed with ten thousand stars riding so low inthe heaven they seem scarcely more than mast high. When that hour wascome my friend tiptoed again to my cheek, and then, pointing to thepalace and laughingly hoping fate would send me a bride "as soft ascatkin and as sweet as honey, " slipped away into the darkness. 

Then I remembered all on a sudden this was the connubial evening of mysprightly friends--the occasion when, as An had told me, the Governmentconstituted itself into a gigantic matrimonial agency, and, with thecheerful carelessness of the place, shuffled the matrimonial pack anew, and dealt a fresh hand to all the players. Now I had no wish to availmyself of a sailor's privilege of a bride in every port, but surelythis game would be interesting enough to see, even if I were but adisinterested spectator. As a matter of fact I was something more thanthat, and had been thinking a good deal of Heru during the day. I donot know whether I actually aspired to her hand--that were a largeorder, even if there had been no suspicion in my mind she was alreadybespoke in some vague way by the invisible Hath, most abortive ofprinces. But she was undeniably a lovely girl; the more one thought ofher the more she grew upon the fancy, and then the preference she hadshown myself was very gratifying. Yes, I would certainly see thisquaint ceremonial, even if I took no leading part in it. 

The great centre hall of the palace was full of a radiant lightbringing up its ruined columns and intruding creepers to the besteffect when I entered. Dinner also was just being served, as theywould say in another, and alas! very distant place, and the wholebuilding thronged with folk. Down the centre low tables with room forfour hundred people were ranged, but they looked quaint enough sincebut two hundred were sitting there, all brand-new bachelors about to beturned into brand new Benedicts, and taking it mightily calmly itseemed. Across the hall-top was a raised table similarly arranged andornamented; and entering into the spirit of the thing, and littleguessing how stern a reality was to come from the evening, I sat downin a vacant place near to the dais, and only a few paces from where thepale, ghost-eyed Hath was already seated. 

Almost immediately afterwards music began to buzz all about thehall--music of the kind the people loved which always seemed to me asthough it were exuding from the tables and benches, so disembodied anddifficult it was to locate; all the sleepy gallants raised theirflower-encircled heads at the same time, seizing their wine-cups, already filled to the brim, and the door at the bottom of the hallopening, the ladies, preceded by one carrying a mysterious vase coveredwith a glittering cloth, came in. 

Now, being somewhat thirsty, I had already drunk half the wine in mybeaker, and whether it was that draught, drugged as all Martian winesare, or the sheer loveliness of the maids themselves, I cannot say, butas the procession entered, and, dividing, circled round under thecolonnades of the hall, a sensation of extraordinary felicity came overme--an emotion of divine contentment purged of all grossness--and Istared and stared at the circling loveliness, gossamer-clad, flower-girdled, tripping by me with vapid delight. Either the wine wasbudding in my head, or there was little to choose from amongst them, for had any of those ladies sat down in the vacant place beside me, Ishould certainly have accepted her as a gift from heaven, withoutquestion or cavil. But one after another they slipped by, modestlytaking their places in the shadows until at last came Princess Heru, and at the sight of her my soul was stirred. 

She came undulating over the white marble, the loveliness of her fairyperson dimmed but scarcely hidden by a robe of softest lawn in colourlike rose-petals, her eyes aglitter with excitement and a charmingblush upon her face. 

She came straight up to me, and, resting a dainty hand upon myshoulder, whispered, "Are you come as a spectator only, dear Mr. Jones, or do you join in our custom tonight?"

"I came only as a bystander, lady, but the fascination of theopportunity is deadly--"

"And have you any preference?"--this in the softest little voice fromsomewhere in the nape of my neck. "Strangers sometimes say there arefair women in Seth. "

"None--till you came; and now, as was said a long time ago, 'All isdross that is not Helen. ' Dearest lady, " I ran on, detaining her bythe fingertips and gazing up into those shy and star-like eyes, "must Iindeed put all the hopes your kindness has roused in me these last fewdays to a shuffle in yonder urn, taking my chance with all these lazyfellows? In that land whereof I was, we would not have had it so, weloaded our dice in these matters, a strong man there might have awilling maid though all heaven were set against him! But give meleave, sweet lady, and I will ruffle with these fellows; give me aglance and I will barter my life for your billet when it is drawn, butto stand idly by and see you won by a cold chance, I cannot do it. "

That lady laughed a little and said, "Men make laws, dear Jones, forwomen to keep. It is the rule, and we must not break it. " Then, gently tugging at her imprisoned fingers and gathering up her skirts togo, she added, "But it might happen that wit here were better thansword. " Then she hesitated, and freeing herself at last slipped from myside, yet before she was quite gone half turned again and whispered solow that no one but I could hear it, "A golden pool, and a silver fish, and a line no thicker than a hair!" and before I could beg a meaning ofher, had passed down the hall and taken a place with the otherexpectant damsels. 

"A golden pool, " I said to myself, "a silver fish, and a line of hair. "What could she mean? Yet that she meant something, and somethingclearly of importance, I could not doubt. "A golden pool, and a silverfish--" I buried my chin in my chest and thought deeply but withouteffect while the preparations were made and the fateful urn, each maidhaving slipped her name tablet within, was brought down to us, coveredin a beautiful web of rose-coloured tissue, and commenced its round, passing slowly from hand to hand as each of those handsome, impassive, fawn-eyed gallants lifted a corner of the web in turn and helpedthemselves to fate. 

"A golden pool, " I muttered, "and a silver fish"--so absorbed in my ownthoughts I hardly noticed the great cup begin its journey, but when ithad gone three or four places the glitter of the lights upon it caughtmy eye. It was of pure gold, round-brimmed, and circled about with astring of the blue convolvulus, which implies delight to these people. Ay! and each man was plunging his hand into the dark and taking in histurn a small notch-edged mother-of-pearl billet from it that flashedsoft and silvery as he turned it in his hand to read the name engravedin unknown characters thereon. "Why, " I said, with a start, "surelyTHIS might be the golden pool and these the silver fish--but thehair-fine line?" And again I meditated deeply, with all my senses onthe watch. 

Slowly the urn crept round, and as each man took a ticket from it, andpassed it, smiling, to the seneschal behind him, that official read outthe name upon it, and a blushing damsel slipped from the crowd above, crossing over to the side of the man with whom chance had thus lightlylinked her for the brief Martian year, and putting her hands in histhey kissed before all the company, and sat down to their places at thetable as calmly as country folk might choose partners at a village fairin hay-time. 

But not so with me. Each time a name was called I started and staredat the drawer in a way which should have filled him with alarm hadalarm been possible to the peace-soaked triflers, then turned to glanceto where, amongst the women, my tender little princess was leaningagainst a pillar, with drooping head, slowly pulling a convolvulus budto pieces. None drew, though all were thinking of her, as I could tellin my fingertips. Keener and keener grew the suspense as name aftername was told and each slim white damsel skipped to the place allottedher. And all the time I kept muttering to myself about that "goldenpool, " wondering and wondering until the urn had passed half round thetables and was only some three men up from me--and then an idea flashedacross my mind. I dipped my fingers in the scented water-basin on thetable, drying them carefully on a napkin, and waiting, outwardly ascalm as any, yet inwardly wrung by those tremors which beset all malecreation in such circumstances. 

And now at last it was my turn. The great urn, blazing golden, throughits rosy covering, was in front, and all eyes on me. I clapped asunburnt hand upon its top as though I would take all remaining in itto myself and stared round at that company--only her herself I durstnot look at! Then, with a beating heart, I lifted a corner of the weband slipped my hand into the dark inside, muttering to myself as I didso, "A golden pool, and a silver fish, and a line no thicker than ahair. " I touched in turn twenty perplexing tablets and was no whit thewiser, and felt about the sides yet came to nothing, groping here andthere with a rising despair, until as my fingers, still damp and fineof touch, went round the sides a second time, yes! there was something, something in the hollow of the fluting, a thought, a thread, and yetenough. I took it unseen, lifting it with infinite forbearance, andthe end was weighted, the other tablets slipped and rattled as fromtheir midst, hanging to that one fine virgin hair, up came a pearlybillet. I doubted no longer, but snapped the thread, and showed thetablet, heard Heru's name, read from it amongst the soft applause ofthat luxurious company with all the unconcern I could muster. 

There she was in a moment, lip to lip with me, before them all, hereyes more than ever like planets from her native skies, and only thequick heave of her bosom, slowly subsiding like a ground swell after astorm, remaining to tell that even Martian blood could sometimes beatquicker than usual! She sat down in her place by me in the simplestway, and soon everything was as merry as could be. The main meal cameon now, and as far as I could see those Martian gallants had extremelygood appetites, though they drank at first but little, wiselyremembering the strength of their wines. As for me, I ate of fishesthat never swam in earthly seas, and of strange fowl that never flappeda way through thick terrestrial air, ate and drank as happy as a king, and falling each moment more and more in love with the wonderfullybeautiful girl at my side who was a real woman of flesh and blood Iknew, yet somehow so dainty, so pink and white, so unlike other girlsin the smoothness of her outlines, in the subtle grace of eachunthinking attitude, that again and again I looked at her over the rimof my tankard half fearing she might dissolve into nothing, being thehalf-fairy which she was. 

Presently she asked, "Did that deed of mine, the hair in the urn, offend you, stranger?"

"Offend me, lady!" I laughed. "Why, had it been the blackest crimethat ever came out of a perverse imagination it would have brought itsown pardon with it; I, least of all in this room, have least cause tobe offended. "

"I risked much for you and broke our rules. "

"Why, no doubt that was so, but 'tis the privilege of your kind to havesome say in this little matter of giving and taking in marriage. I onlymarvel that your countrywomen submit so tamely to the quaintest game ofchance I ever played at. 

"Ay, and it is women's nature no doubt to keep the laws which othersmake, as you have said yourself. Yet this rule, lady, is one brokenwith more credit than kept, and if you have offended no one more thanme, your penance is easily done. "

"But I have offended some one, " she said, laying her hand on mine withgentle nervousness in its touch, "one who has the power to hurt, andenough energy to resent. Hath, up there at the cross-table, have Ioffended deeply tonight, for he hoped to have me, and would havecompelled any other man to barter me for the maid chance assigned tohim; but of you, somehow, he is afraid--I have seen him staring at you, and changing colour as though he knew something no one else knows--"

"Briefly, charming girl, " I said, for the wine was beginning to sing inmy head, and my eyes were blinking stupidly--"briefly, Hath hath theenot, and there's an end of it. I would spit a score of Haths, as thesefigs are spit on this golden skewer, before I would relinquish a hairof your head to him, or to any man, " and as everything about the greathall began to look gauzy and unreal through the gathering fumes of myconfusion, I smiled on that gracious lady, and began to whisper I knownot what to her, and whisper and doze, and doze--

I know not how long afterwards it was, whether a minute or an hour, butwhen I lifted my head suddenly from the lady's shoulder all the placewas in confusion, every one upon their feet, the talk and the drinkingceased, and all eyes turned to the far doorway where the curtains werejust dropping again as I looked, while in front of them were standingthree men. 

These newcomers were utterly unlike any others--a frightful vision ofugly strength amidst the lolling loveliness all about. Low of stature, broad of shoulder, hairy, deep-chested, with sharp, twinkling eyes, setfar back under bushy eyebrows, retreating foreheads, and flat noses infaces tanned to a dusky copper hue by exposure to every kind of weatherthat racks the extreme Martian climate they were so opposite to allabout me, so quaint and grim amongst those mild, fair-skinned folk, that at first I thought they were but a disordered creation of my fancy. 

I rubbed my eyes and stared and blinked, but no! they were real men, offlesh and blood, and now they had come down with as much stateliness astheir bandy legs would admit of, into the full glare of the lights tothe centre table where Hath sat. I saw their splendid apparel, thegreat strings of rudely polished gems hung round their hairy necks andwrists, the cunningly dyed skins of soft-furred animals, green and redand black, wherewith their limbs were swathed, and then I heard someone by me whisper in a frightened tone, "The envoys from over seas. "

"Oh, " I thought sleepily to myself, "so these are the ape-men of thewestern woods, are they? Those who long ago vanquished mywhite-skinned friends and yearly come to claim their tribute. Jove, what hay they must have made of them! How those peach-skinned girlsmust have screamed and the downy striplings by them felt their dimpledknees knock together, as the mad flood of barbarians came pouring overfrom the forest, and long ago stormed their citadels like a stream ofred lava, as deadly, as irresistible, as remorseless!" And I layasprawl upon my arms on the table watching them with the stupidindifference I thought I could so well afford. 

Meanwhile Hath was on foot, pale and obsequious like others in thepresence of those dread ambassadors, but more collected, I thought. With the deepest bows he welcomed them, handing them drink in a goldenState cup, and when they had drunk (I heard the liquor running downtheir great throats, in the frightened hush, like water in a runnel ona wet day), they wiped their fierce lips upon their furry sleeves, andthe leader began reciting the tribute for the year. So much corn, somuch wine--and very much it was--so many thousands ells of cloth andwebbing, and so much hammered gold, and sinah and lar, precious metalof which I knew nothing as yet; and ever as he went growling throughthe list in his harsh animal voice, he refreshed his memory with acoloured stick whereon a notch was made for every item, the woodmen nothaving come as yet, apparently, to the gentler art of written signs andsymbols. Longer and longer that caravan of unearned wealth stretchedout before my fancy, but at last it was done, or all but done, and thehead envoy, passing the painted stick to a man behind, folded his bare, sinewy arms, upon which the red fell bristles as it does upon agorilla's, across his ample chest, and, including us all in one generalscowl, turned to Hath as he said--

"All this for Ar-hap, the wood-king, my master and yours; all this, andthe most beautiful woman here tonight at your tables!"

"An item, " I smiled stupidly to myself, for indeed I was very sleepyand had no nice perception of things, "which shows his majesty with thetwo-pronged name is a jolly fellow after all, and knows wealth isincomplete without the crown and priming of all riches. I wonder howthe Martian boys will like this postscript, " and chin on hand, and eyesthat would hardly stay open, I watched to see what would happen next. There was a little conversation between the prince and the ape-man;then I saw Hath the traitor point in my direction and say--

"Since you ask and will be advised, then, mighty sir, there can be nodoubt of it, the most beautiful woman here tonight is undoubtedly shewho sits yonder by him in blue. "

"A very pretty compliment!" I thought, too dull to see what was comingquickly, "and handsome of Hath, all things considered. "

And so I dozed and dozed, and then started, and stared! Was I in mysenses? Was I mad, or dreaming? The drunkenness dropped from me likea mantle; with a single, smothered cry I came to myself and saw that itwas all too true. The savage envoy had come down the hall at Hath'svindictive prompting, had lifted my fair girl to her feet, and there, even as I looked, had drawn her, white as death, into the red circle ofhis arm, and with one hand under her chin had raised her sweet face towithin an inch of his, and was staring at her with small, ugly eyes. 

"Yes, " said the enjoy, more interestedly than he had spoken yet, "itwill do; the tribute is accepted--for Ar-hap, my master!" And takingshrinking Heru by the wrist, and laying a heavy hand upon her shoulder, he was about to lead her up the hall. 

I was sober enough then. I was on foot in an instant, and before allthe glittering company, before those simpering girls and pale Martianyouths, who sat mumbling their fingers, too frightened to lift theireyes from off their half-finished dinners, I sprang at the envoy. Istruck him with my clenched fist on the side of his bullet head, and helet go of Heru, who slipped insensible from his hairy chest like awhite cloud slipping down the slopes of a hill at sunrise, and turnedon me with a snort of rage. We stared at each other for a minute, andthen I felt the wine fumes roaring in my head; I rushed at him andclosed. It was like embracing a mountain bull, and he responded with ahug that made my ribs crackle. For a minute we were locked togetherlike that, swinging here and there, and then getting a hand loose, Ibelaboured him so unmercifully that he put his head down, and that waswhat I wanted. I got a new hold of him as we staggered and plunged, roaring the while like the wild beasts we were, the teeth chattering inthe Martian heads as they watched us, and then, exerting all mystrength, lifted him fairly from his feet and with supreme effort swunghim up, shoulder high, and with a mighty heave hurled him across thetables, flung that ambassador, whom no Martian dared look upon, crashing and sprawling through the gold and silver of the feast, whirled him round with such a splendid send that bench and trestle, tankards and flagons, chairs and cloths and candelabras all went downinto thundering chaos with him, and the envoy only stayed when hissacred person came to harbour amongst the westral odds and ends, thesoiled linen, and dirty platters of our wedding feast. 

I remember seeing him there on hands and knees, and then the liquor Ihad had would not be denied. In vain I drew my hands across mydrooping eyelids, in vain I tried to master my knees that knockedtogether. The spell of the love-drink that Heru, blushing, had held tomy lips was on me. Its soft, overwhelming influence rose like aprismatic fog between me and my enemy, everything again became hazy anddreamlike, and feebly calling on Heru, my chin dropped upon my chest, my limbs relaxed, and I slipped down in drowsy oblivion before my rival. 

CHAPTER VIII

They must have carried me, still under the influence of wine fumes, tothe chamber where I slept that night, for when I woke the followingmorning my surroundings were familiar enough, though a glorious maze ofuncertainties rocked to and fro in my mind. 

Was it a real feast we had shared in overnight, or only a quaint dream?Was Heru real or only a lovely fancy? And those hairy ruffians of whoma horrible vision danced before my waking eyes, were they fancy too?No, my wrists still ached with the strain of the tussle, the quaint, sad wine taste was still on my lips--it was all real enough, I decided, starting up in bed; and if it was real where was the little princess?What had they done with her? Surely they had not given her to theape-men--cowards though they were they could not have been cowardsenough for that. And as I wondered a keen, bright picture of thehapless maid as I saw her last blossomed before my mind's eye, theambassadors on either side holding her wrists, and she shrinking fromthem in horror while her poor, white face turned to me for rescue indesperate pleading--oh! I must find her at all costs; and leaping frombed I snatched up those trousers without which the best of heroes isnothing, and had hardly got into them when there came the patter oflight feet without and a Martian, in a hurry for once, with half adozen others behind him, swept aside the curtains of my doorway. 

They peeped and peered all about the room, then one said, "Is PrincessHeru with you, sir?"

"No, " I answered roughly. "Saints alive, man, do you think I wouldhave you tumbling in here over each other's heels if she were?"

"Then it must indeed have been Heru, " he said, speaking in an awedvoice to his fellows, "whom we saw carried down to the harbour atdaybreak by yonder woodmen, " and the pink upon their pretty cheeksfaded to nothing at the suggestion. 

"What!" I roared, "Heru taken from the palace by a handful of men andnone of you infernal rascals--none of you white-livered abortionslifted a hand to save her--curse on you a thousand times. Out of myway, you churls!" And snatching up coat and hat and sword I rushedfuriously down the long, marble stairs just as the short Martian nightwas giving place to lavender-coloured light of morning. I found my waysomehow down the deserted corridors where the air was heavy witharomatic vapours; I flew by curtained niches and chambers where amongstmounds of half-withered flowers the Martian lovers were slowly waking. Down into the banquethall I sped, and there in the twilight was thelitter of the feast still about--gold cups and silver, broken bread andmeat, the convolvulus flowers all turning their pallid faces to therosy daylight, making pools of brightness between the shadows. Amongstthe litter little sapphire-coloured finches were feeding, twitteringmerrily to themselves as they hopped about, and here and there down thelong tables lay asprawl a belated reveller, his empty oblivion-phialbefore him, his curly head upon his arms, dreaming perhaps of lastnight's feast and a neglected bride dozing dispassionate in somedistant chamber. But Heru was not there and little I cared fortwittering finches or sighing damsels. With hasty feet I rushed downthe hall out into the cool, sweet air of the planet morning. 

There I met one whom I knew, and he told me he had been among the crowdand had heard the woodmen had gone no farther than the river gate, thatHeru was with them beyond a doubt. I would not listen to more. "Good!"I shouted. "Get me a horse and just a handful of your sleek kindredand we will pull the prize from the bear's paw even yet! Surely, " Isaid, turning to a knot of Martian youths who stood listening a fewsteps away, "surely some of you will come with me at this pinch? Thebig bullies are very few; the sea runs behind them; the maid in theirclutch is worth fighting for; it needs but one good onset, fiveminutes' gallantry, and she is ours again. Think how fine it will lookto bring her back before yon sleepy fellows have found their weapons. You, there, with the blue tunic! you look a proper fellow, andsomething of a heart should beat under such gay wrappings, will youcome with me?"

But blue-mantle, biting his thumbs, murmured he had not breakfasted yetand edged away behind his companions. Wherever I looked eyes droppedand timid hands fidgeted as their owners backed off from my dangerousenthusiasm. There was obviously no help to be had from them, andmeantime the precious moments were flying, so with a disdainful glanceI turned on my heels and set off alone as hard as I could go for theharbour. 

But it was too late. I rushed through the marketplace where all wassilent and deserted; I ran on to the wharves beyond and they were emptysave for the litter and embers of the fires Ar-hap's men had madeduring their stay; I dashed out to the landing-place, and there at thehythe the last boat-loads of the villains were just embarking, twoboatloads of them twenty yards from shore, and another still upon thebeach. This latter was careening over as a dusky group of men liftedaboard to a heap of tumbled silks and stuffs in the stern such a sweetpiece of insensible merchandise as no man, I at least of all, couldmistake. It was Heru herself, and the rogues were ladling her on boardlike so much sandal-wood or cotton sheeting. I did not wait for more, but out came my sword, and yielding to a reckless impulse, for whichperhaps last night's wine was as much to blame as anything, I sprangdown the steps and leapt aboard of the boat just as it was pushed offupon the swift tide. Full of Bersark rage, I cut one brawnycopper-coloured thief down, and struck another with my fist between theeyes so that he went headlong into the water, sinking like lead, anddeep into the great target of his neighbour's chest I drove my blade. Had there been a man beside me, had there been but two or three of allthose silken triflers, too late come on the terraces above to watch, wemight have won. But all alone what could I do? That last red beastturned on my blade, and as he fell dragged me half down with him. Istaggered up, and tugging the metal from him turned on the next. 

At that moment the cause of all the turmoil, roused by the fighting, came to herself, and sitting up on the piled plunder in the boat staredround for a moment with a childish horror at the barbarians whose prizeshe was, then at me, then at the dead man at my feet whose blood waswelling in a red tide from the wound in his breast. As the fullmeaning of the scene dawned upon her she started to her feet, lookingwonderfully beautiful amongst those dusky forms, and extending herhands to me began to cry in the most piteous way. I sprang forward, and as I did so saw an ape-man clap his hairy paw over her mouth andface--it was like an eclipse of the moon by a red earth-shadow, Ithought at the moment--and drag her roughly back, but that was aboutthe last I remembered. As I turned to hit him standing on the slipperythwart, another rogue crept up behind and let drive with a club he hadin hand. The cudgel caught me sideways on the head, a glancing shot. I can recall a blaze of light, a strange medley of sounds in my ears, and then, clutching at a pile of stuffs as I fell, a tall bower ofspray rising on either hand, and the cool shock of the blue sea as Iplunged headlong in--but nothing after that!

How long after I know not, but presently a tissue of daylight creptinto my eyes, and I awoke again. It was better than nothing perhaps, yet it was a poor awakening. The big sun lay low down, and the day wasall but done; so much I guessed as I rocked in that light with anundulating movement, and then as my senses returned more fully, recognised with a start of wonder that I was still in the water, floating on a swift current into the unknown on an air-filled pile ofsilken stuffs which had been pulled down with me from the boat when Igot my ganging from yonder rascal's mace. It was a wet couch, soddenand chilly, but as the freshening evening wind blew on my face and thedarkening water lapped against my forehead I revived more fully. 

Where had we come to? I turned an aching neck, and all along on bothsides seemed to stretch steep, straight coasts about a mile or soapart, in the shadow of the setting sun black as ebony. Between thetwo the hampered water ran quickly, with, away on the right, someshallow sandy spits and islands covered with dwarf bushes--chilly, inhospitable-looking places they seemed as I turned my eyes upon them;but he who rides helpless down an evening tide stands out for no greatniceties of landing-place; could I but reach them they would make atleast a drier bed than this of mine, and at that thought, turning over, I found all my muscles as stiff as iron, the sinews of my neck andforearms a mass of agonies and no more fit to swim me to those reedyswamps, which now, as pain and hunger began to tell, seemed to wear theaspects of paradise. 

With a groan I dropped back upon my raft and watched the islandsslipping by, while over my feet the southern sky darkened to purple. There was no help there, but glancing round away on the left and a fewfurlongs from me, I noticed on the surface of the water two convergingstrands of brightness, an angle the point of which seemed to be comingtowards me. Nearer it came and nearer, right across my road, until Icould see a black dot at the point, a head presently developed, then aswe approached the ears and antlers of a swimming stag. It was a hugebeast as it loomed up against the glow, bigger than any mortal stagever was--the kind of fellow-traveller no one would willingly accost, but even if I had wished to get out of its path I had no power to do so. 

Closer and closer we came, one of us drifting helplessly, and the otherswimming strongly for the islands. When we were about a furlong apartthe great beast seemed to change its course, mayhap it took thewreckage on which I floated for an outlying shoal, something on whichit could rest a space in that long swim. Be this as it may, the beastcame hurtling down on me lip deep in the waves, a mighty brown headwith pricked ears that flicked the water from them now and then, smallbright eyes set far back, and wide palmated antlers on a mightyforehead, like the dead branches of a tree. What that Martian mountainelk had hoped for can only be guessed, what he met with was a tangle offloating finery carrying a numbed traveller on it, and with a snort ofdisappointment he turned again. 

It was a poor chance, but better than nothing, and as he turned I triedto throw a strand of silk I had unwound from the sodden mass over hisbranching tines. Quick as thought the beast twisted his head aside andtossed his antlers so that the try was fruitless. But was I to lose myonly chance of shore? With all my strength I hurled myself upon him, missing my clutch again by a hair's-breadth and going headlong into thesalt furrow his chest was turning up. Happily I kept hold of the web, for the great elk then turned back, passing between me and the ruck ofstuff and getting thereby the silk under his chin, and as I camegasping to the top once more round came that dainty wreckage over hisback, and I clutched it, and sooner than it takes to tell I was towingto the shore as perhaps no one was ever towed before. 

The big beast dragged the ruck like withered weed behind him, bellowingall the time with a voice which made the hills echo all round; andthen, when he got his feet upon the shallows, rose dripping andmountainous, a very cliff of black hide and limb against the nightshine, and with a single sweep of his antlers tore the webbing from me, who lay prone and breathless in the mud, and, thinking it was hisenemy, hurled the limp bundle on the beach, and then, having pounded itwith his cloven feet into formless shreds, bellowed again victoriouslyand went off into the darkness of the forests. 

CHAPTER IX

I landed, stiff enough as you will guess, but pleased to be on shoreagain. It was a melancholy neighbourhood of low islands, overgrownwith rank grass and bushes, salt water encircling them, and insidesandy dunes and hummocks with shallow pools, gleaming ghostly in theretreating daylight, while beyond these rose the black bosses of whatlooked like a forest. Thither I made my way, plunging uncomfortablythrough shallows, and tripping over blackened branches which, lyingjust below the surface, quivered like snakes as the evening breezeruffled each surface, until the ground hardened under foot, andpresently I was standing, hungry and faint but safe, on dry land again. 

The forest was so close to the sea, one could not advance withoutentering it, and once within its dark arcades every way looked equallygloomy and hopeless. I struggled through tangles night made more andmore impenetrable each minute, until presently I could go no further, and where a dense canopy of trees overhead gave out for a minute on theedge of a swampy hollow, I determined to wait for daylight. 

Never was there a more wet or weary traveller, or one more desperatelylonely than he who wrapped himself up in the miserable insufficiency ofhis wet rags, and without fire or supper crept amongst the exposedroots of a tree growing out of a bank, and prepared to hope grimly formorning. 

Round and round meanwhile was drawn the close screen of night, till theclearing in front was blotted out, and only the tree-tops, black asrugged hills one behind the other, stood out against the heavy purpleof the circlet of sky above. As the evening deepened the quaintestnoises began on every hand--noises so strange and bewildering that as Icowered down with my teeth chattering, and stared hard into theimpenetrable, they could be likened to nothing but the crying of allthe souls of dead things since the beginning. Never was there such aninfernal chorus as that which played up the Martian stars. Down therein front, where hummock grass was growing, some beast squeakedcontinuously, till I shouted at him, then he stopped a minute, andbegan again in entirely another note. Away on the hills two rivalmonsters were calling to each other in tones so hollow they seemed as Ilistened to penetrate through me, and echo out of my heart again. Faroverhead, gigantic bats were flitting, the shadow of their wingsdimming a dozen universes at once, and crying to each other in shrilltones that rent the air like tearing silk. 

As I listened to those vampires discussing their infernal loves underthe stars, from a branch right overhead broke such a deathly howl fromthe throat of a wandering forest cat that everything else was hushedfor a moment. All about a myriad insects were making night giddy withtheir ghostly fires, while underground and from the labyrinths ofmatted roots came quaint sounds of rustling snakes and forest pigs, andall the lesser things that dig and scratch and growl. 

Yet I was desperately sleepy, my sword hung heavy as lead at my side, my eyelids drooped, and so at last I dozed uneasily for an hour or two. Then, all on a sudden, I came wide awake with a shock. The night wasquieter now; away in the forest depth strange noises still arose, butclose at hand was a strange hush, like the hush of expectation, and, listening wonderingly, I was aware of slow, heavy footsteps coming upfrom the river, now two or three steps together, then a pause, thenanother step or two, and as I bent towards the approaching thing, staring into the darkness, my strained senses were conscious of anotherapproach, as like as could be, coming from behind me. On they came, making the very ground quake with their weight, till I judged that bothwere about on the edge of the clearing, two vast rat-like shadows, butas big as elephants, and bringing a most intolerable smell of sourslime with them. There, on the edge of the amphitheatre, each for thefirst time appeared to become aware of the other's presence--thefootsteps stopped dead. I could hear the water dripping from the fur ofthose giant brutes amongst the shadows and the deep breathing of theone nearest me, a scanty ten paces off, but not another sound in thestillness. 

Minute after minute passed, yet neither moved. A half-hour grew to afull hour, and that hour lengthened amid the keenest tension till myears ached with listening, and my eyes were sore with straining intothe blackness. At last I began to wonder whether those earth-shakingbeasts had not been an evil dream, and was just venturing to stretchout a cramped leg, and rally myself upon my cowardice, when, withoutwarning, at my elbow rose the most ear-piercing scream of rage thatever came from a living throat. There was a sweeping rush in thedarkness which I could feel but not see, and with a shock the twogladiators met in the midst of the arena. Over and over they wentscreaming and struggling, and slipping and plunging. I could hear themtearing at each other, and the sharp cries of pain, first one and thenanother gave as claw or tooth got home, and all the time, though theground was quaking under their struggles and the air full of horribleuproar, not a thing was to be seen. I did not even know what manner ofbeasts they were who rocked and rolled and tore at each other'sthroats, but I heard their teeth snapping, and their fierce breath inthe pauses of the struggle, and could but wait in a huddle amongst theroots until it was over. To and fro they went, now at the far side ofthe dark clearing, now so close that hot drops of blood from their jawsfell on my face like rain in the darkness. It seemed as though thefight would never end, but presently there was more of worrying in itand less of snapping; it was clear one or the other had had enough andas I marked this those black shadows came gasping and strugglingtowards me. There was a sudden sharp cry, a desperate finaltussle--before which strong trees snapped and bushes were flattened outlike grass, not twenty yards away--and then for a minute all was silent. 

One of them had killed, and as I sat rooted to the spot I was forced tolisten while his enemy tore him up and ate him. Many a banquet have Ibeen at, but never an uglier one than that. I sat in the darknesswhile the unknown thing at my feet ripped the flesh from his half-deadrival in strips, and across the damp night wind came the reek of thatabominable feast--the reek of blood and spilt entrails--until I turnedaway my face in loathing, and was nearly starting to my feet to venturea rush into the forest shadows. But I was spellbound, and remainedlistening to the heavy munch of blood-stained jaws until presently Iwas aware other and lesser feasters were coming. There was a twinkleof hungry eyes all about the limits of the area, the shine of greenpoints of envious fire that circled round in decreasing orbits, as thelittle foxes and jackals came crowding in. One fellow took me for arock, so still I sat, putting his hot, soft paws upon my knee for aspace, and others passed me so near I could all but touch them. 

The big beast had taken himself off by this time, and there must havebeen several hundreds of these newcomers. A merry time they had of it;the whole place was full of the green, hurrying eyes, and amidst thesnap of teeth and yapping and quarrelling I could hear the flesh beingtorn from the red bones in every direction. One wolf-like individualbrought a mass of hot liver to eat between my feet, but I gave him akick, and sent him away much to his surprise. Gradually, however, thesound of this unholy feast died away, and, though you may hardlybelieve it, I fell off into a doze. It was not sleep, but it servedthe purpose, and when in an hour or two a draught of cool air rousedme, I awoke, feeling more myself again. 

Slowly morning came, and the black wall of forest around became full ofpurple interstices as the east brightened. Those glimmers of lightbetween bough and trunk turned to yellow and red, the day-shinepresently stretched like a canopy from point to point of the treetopson either side of my sleeping-place, and I arose. 

All my limbs were stiff with cold, my veins emptied by hunger andwounds, and for a space I had not even strength to move. But a littlerubbing softened my cramped muscles presently and limping painfullydown to the place of combat, I surveyed the traces of that midnightfight. I will not dwell upon it. It was ugly and grim; the trampledgrass, the giant footmarks, each enringing its pool of curdled blood;the broken bushes, the grooved mud-slides where the unknown brutes hadslid in deadly embrace; the hollows, the splintered boughs, theirragged points tufted with skin and hair--all was sickening to me. Yetso hungry was I that when I turned towards the odious remnants of thevanquished--a shapeless mass of abomination--my thoughts flew at onceto breakfasting! I went down and inspected the victim cautiously--ahuge rat-like beast as far as might be judged from the bare uprisingribs--all that was left of him looking like the framework of a schooneryacht. His heart lay amongst the offal, and my knife came out to cut ameal from it, but I could not do it. Three times I essayed the task, hunger and disgust contending for mastery; three times turned back inloathing. At last I could stand the sight no more, and, slamming theknife up again, turned on my heels, and fairly ran for fresh air andthe shore, where the sea was beginning to glimmer in the light a fewscore yards through the forest stems. There, once more out on theopen, on a pebbly beach, I stripped, spreading my things out to dry onthe stones, and laying myself down with the lapping of the waves in myears, and the first yellow sunshine thawing my limbs, tried to piecetogether the hurrying events of the last few days. 

What were my gay Martians doing? Lazy dogs to let me, a stranger, bethe only one to draw sword in defence of their own princess! Where waspoor Heru, that sweet maiden wife? The thought of her in the hands ofthe ape-men was odious. And yet was I not mad to try to rescue, oreven to follow her alone? If by any chance I could get off thisbeast-haunted place and catch up with the ravishers, what had I to lookfor from them except speedy extinction, and that likely enough by themost painful process they were acquainted with?

The other alternative of going back empty handed was terriblyignominious. I had lectured the amiable young manhood of Seth sosoundly on the subject of gallantry, and set them such a good exampleon two occasions, that it would be bathos to saunter back, hands inpockets, and confess I knew nothing of the lady's fate and had beendaunted by the first night alone in the forest. Besides, how dull itwould be in that beautiful, tumble-down old city without Heru, with noexpectation day by day of seeing her sylph-like form and hearing themerry tinkle of her fairy laughter as she scoffed at the unknownlearning collected by her ancestors in a thousand laborious years. No!I would go on for certain. I was young, in love, and angry, and beforethose qualifications difficulties became light. 

Meanwhile, the first essential was breakfast of some kind. I arose, stretched, put on my half-dried clothes, and mounting a low hummock onthe forest edge looked around. The sun was riding up finely into thesky, and the sea to the eastward shone for leagues and leagues in theloveliest azure. Where it rippled on my own beach and those of the lowislands noted over night, a wonderful fire of blue and red played onthe sands as though the broken water were full of living gems. The skywas full of strange gulls with long, forked tails, and a lovely littleflying lizard with transparent wings of the palest green--like those ofa grasshopper--was flitting about picking up insect stragglers. 

All this was very charming, but what I kept saying to myself was"Streaky rashers and hot coffee: rashers and coffee and rolls, " and, indeed, had the gates of Paradise themselves opened at that moment Ifear my first look down the celestial streets within would have beenfor a restaurant. They did not, and I was just turning awaydisconsolate when my eye caught, ascending from behind the next bluffdown the beach, a thin strand of smoke rising into the morning air. 

It was nothing so much in itself--a thin spiral creeping upwardsmast-high, then flattening out into a mushroom head--but it meanteverything to me. Where there was fire there must be humanity, andwhere there was humanity--ay, to the very outlayers of theuniverse--there must be breakfast. It was a splendid thought; I rusheddown the hillock and went gaily for that blue thread amongst the reeds. It was not two hundred yards away, and soon below me was a tiny baywith bluest water frilling a silver beach, and in the midst of it afire on a hearth dancing round a pot that simmered gloriously. But ofan owner there was nothing to be seen. I peered here and there on theshore, but nothing moved, while out to sea the water was shining likemolten metal with not a dot upon it!--what did it matter? I laughedas, pleased and hungry, I slipped down the bank and strode across thesands; it pleased Fate to play bandy with me, and if it sent mesupperless to bed, why, here was restitution in the way of breakfast. I took up a morsel of the stuff in the kettle on a handy stick andfound it good--indeed, I knew it at once as a very dainty mess madefrom the roots of a herb the Martians greatly liked; An had piled myplatter with it when we supped that night in the market-place of Seth, and the sweet white stuff had melted into my corporal essence, itseemed, without any gross intermediate process of digestion. And hereI was again, hungry, sniffing the fragrant breath of a full meal andnot a soul in sight--I should have been a fool not to have eaten. Sothinking, down I sat, taking the pot from its place, and when it was alittle cool plunging my hands into it and feasting with as good anappetite as ever a man had before. 

It was gloriously ambrosial, and deeper and deeper I went, with thetall stalk of the smoke in front growing from the hearth-stones likesome strange new plant, the pleasant sunshine on my back, and never athought for anything but the task in hand. Deeper and deeper, oblivious of all else, until to get the very last drops I lifted thepipkin up and putting back my head drank in that fashion. 

It was only when with a sigh of pleasure I lowered it slowly again thatover the rim as it sank there dawned upon me the vision of a Martianstanding by an empty canoe on the edge of the water and regarding mewith calm amazement. I was, in fact, so astonished that for a minutethe empty pot stood still before my face, and over its edge we staredat each other in mute surprise, then with all the dignity that might beI laid the vessel down between my feet and waited for the newcomer tospeak. She was a girl by her yellow garb, a fisherwoman, it seemed, for in the prow of her craft was piled a net upon which the scales offishes were twinkling--a Martian, obviously, but something more robustthan most of them, a savour of honest work about her sunburnt facewhich my pallid friends away yonder were lacking in, and when we hadstared at each other for a few moments in silence she came forward astep or two and said without a trace of fear or shyness, "Are you aspirit, sir?

"Why, " I answered, "about as much, no more and no less, than most ofus. "

"Aye, " she said. "I thought you were, for none but spirits live hereupon this island; are you for good or evil?"

"Far better for the breakfast of which I fear I have robbed you, butwandering along the shore and finding this pot boiling with no owner, Iventured to sample it, and it was so good my appetite got the better ofmanners. "

The girl bowed, and standing at a respectful distance asked if I wouldlike some fish as well; she had some, but not many, and if I would eatshe would cook them for me in a minute--it was not often, she addedlightly, she had met one of my kind before. In fact, it was obviousthat simple person did actually take me for a being of another world, and was it for me to say she was wrong? So adopting a dignity worthyof my reputation I nodded gravely to her offer. She fetched from theboat four little fishes of the daintiest kind imaginable. They wereeach about as big as a hand and pale blue when you looked down uponthem, but so clear against the light that every bone and vein in theirbodies could be traced. These were wrapped just as they were in abroad, green leaf and then the Martian, taking a pointed stick, made ahollow in the white ashes, laid them in side by side, and drew the hotdust over again. 

While they cooked we chatted as though the acquaintance were the mostcasual thing in the world, and I found it was indeed an island we wereon and not the mainland, as I had hoped at first. Seth, she told me, was far away to the eastward, and if the woodmen had gone by in theirships they would have passed round to the north-west of where we were. 

I spent an hour or two with that amiable individual, and, it is to behoped, sustained the character of a spiritual visitant withconsiderable dignity. In one particular at least, that, namely, ofappetite, I did honour to my supposed source, and as my entertainerwould not hear of payment in material kind, all I could do was to showher some conjuring tricks, which greatly increased her belief in mysupernatural origin, and to teach her some new hitches and knots, usingher fishing-line as a means of illustration, a demonstration whichcalled from her the natural observation that we must be good sailors"up aloft" since we knew so much about cordage, then we parted. 

She had seen nothing of the woodmen, though she had heard they had beento Seth and thought, from some niceties of geographical calculationwhich I could not follow, they would have crossed to the north, as juststated, of her island. There she told me, with much surprise at mydesire for the information, how I might, by following the forest trackto the westward coast, make my way to a fishing village, where theywould give me a canoe and direct me, since such was my extraordinarywish, to the place where, if anywhere, the wild men had touched ontheir way home. 

She filled my wallet with dried honey-cakes and my mouth with sugarplums from her little store, then down on her knees went that poor waifof a worn-out civilisation and kissed my hands in humble farewell, andI, blushing to be so saluted, and after all but a sailor, got her bythe rosy fingers and lifted her up shoulder high, and getting one handunder her chin and the other behind her head kissed her twice upon herpretty cheeks; and so, I say, we parted. 

CHAPTER X

Off into the forest I went, feeling a boyish elation to be so free nortaking heed or count of the reckless adventure before me. The Martianweather for the moment was lovely and the many-coloured grass lush andsoft under foot. Mile after mile I went, heeding the distance lightly, the air was so elastic. Now pressing forward as the main interest ofmy errand took the upper hand, and remembrance of poor Heru like acrushed white flower in the red grip of those cruel ravishers came uponme, and then pausing to sigh with pleasure or stand agape--forgetfuleven of her--in wonder of the unknown loveliness about me. 

And well might I stare! Everything in that forest was wonderful!There were plants which turned from colour to colour with the varyinghours of the day. While others had a growth so swift it was dangerousto sit in their neighbourhood since the long, succulent tendrilsclambering from the parent stem would weave you into a helpless tanglewhile you gazed, fascinated, upon them. There were plants that climbedand walked; sighing plants who called the winged things of the air tothem with a noise so like to a girl sobbing that again and again Istopped in the tangled path to listen. There were green bladder-mosseswhich swam about the surface of the still pools like giganticfrog-broods. There were on the ridges warrior trees burning in thevindictiveness of a long forgotten cause--a blaze of crimson scimitarthorns from root to topmost twig; and down again in the cool hollowswere lady-bushes making twilight of the green gloom with their cloudyivory blossoms and filling the shadows with such a heavy scent thathead and heart reeled with fatal pleasure as one pushed aside theirbranches. Every river-bed was full of mighty reeds, whose stemsclattered together when the wind blew like swords on shields, and everynow and then a bit of forest was woven together with the ropey stems ofgiant creepers till no man or beast could have passed save for thepaths which constant use had kept open through the mazes. 

All day long I wandered on through those wonderful woodlands, and infact loitered so much over their infinite marvels that when sundowncame all too soon there was still undulating forest everywhere, vistasof fairy glades on every hand, peopled with incredible things andechoing with sounds that excited the ears as much as other thingsfascinated the eyes, but no sign of the sea or my fishing villageanywhere. 

It did not matter; a little of the Martian leisureliness was gettinginto my blood: "If not today, why then tomorrow, " as An would havesaid; and with this for comfort I selected a warm, sandy hollow underthe roots of a big tree, made my brief arrangements for the night, atesome honey cakes, and was soon sleeping blissfully. 

I woke early next morning, after many hours of interrupted dreams, andhaving nothing to do till the white haze had lifted and made itpossible to start again, rested idly a time on my elbow and watched thesunshine filter into the recesses. 

Very pretty it was to see the thick canopy overhead, by star-light soimpenetrable, open its chinks and fissures as the searching sun cameupon it; to see the pin-hole gaps shine like spangles presently, thespaces broaden into lesser suns, and even the thick leafage brightenand shine down on me with a soft sea-green radiance. The sunward sidesof the tree-stems took a glow, and the dew that ran dripping down theirmossy sides trickled blood-red to earth. Elsewhere the shadows werestill black, and strange things began to move in them--things we in ourmiddle-aged world have never seen the likeness of: beasts half birds, birds half creeping things, and creeping things which it seemed to mepassed through lesser creations down to the basest life that crawlswithout interruption or division. 

It was not for me, a sailor, to know much of such things, yet some Icould not fail to notice. On one grey branch overhead, jutting from atree-stem where a patch of velvet moss made in the morning glint afairy bed, a wonderful flower unfolded. It was a splendid bud, ivorywhite, cushioned in leaves, and secured to its place by naked whiteroots that clipped the branch like fingers of a lady's hand. Even as Ilooked it opened, a pale white star, and hung pensive and inviting onits mossy cushion. From it came such a ravishing odour that even I, atthe further end of the great scale of life, felt my pulses quicken andmy eyes brighten with cupidity. I was in the very act of climbing thetree, but before I could move hand or foot two things happened, whetheryou take my word for them or no. 

Firstly, up through a glade in the underwood, attracted by the odour, came an ugly brown bird with a capacious beak and shining claws. Heperched near by, and peeped and peered until he made out the flowerpining on her virgin stem, whereat off he hopped to her branch andthere, with a cynical chuckle, strutted to and fro between her and themain stem like an ill genius guarding a fairy princess. 

Surely Heaven would not allow him to tamper with so chaste a bud! Myhand reached for a stone to throw at him when happened the secondthing. There came a gentle pat upon the woodland floor, and from atree overhead dropped down another living plant like to the one aboveyet not exactly similar, a male, my instincts told me, in full solitaryblossom like her above, cinctured with leaves, and supported by half ascore of thick white roots that worked, as I looked, like the limbs ofa crab. In a twinkling that parti-coloured gentleman vegetable near mewas off to the stem upon which grew his lady love; running andscrambling, dragging the finery of his tasselled petals behind, it waslaughable to watch his eagerness. He got a grip of the tree and up hewent, "hand over hand, " root over root. I had just time to note othersof his species had dropped here and there upon the ground, and werehurrying with frantic haste to the same destination when he reached thefatal branch, and was straddling victoriously down it, blind to all butlove and longing. That ill-omened bird who stood above themaiden-flower let him come within a stalk's length, so near that thewhite splendour of his sleeping lady gleamed within arms' reach, thenthe great beak was opened, the great claws made a clutch, the gallant'shead was yanked from his neck, and as it went tumbling down the maw ofthe feathered thing his white legs fell spinning through space, and layknotting themselves in agony upon the ground for a minute or two beforethey relaxed and became flaccid in the repose of death. Another andanother vegetable suitor made for that fatal tryst, and as each came upthe snap of the brown bird's beak was all their obsequies. At last nomore came, and then that Nemesis of claws and quills walked over to thegirl-flower, his stomach feathers ruffled with repletion, the greenblood of her lovers dripping from his claws, and pulled her goldenheart out, tore her white limbs one from the other, and swallowed herpiecemeal before my very eyes! Then up in wrath I jumped and yelled athim till the woods echoed, but too late to stay his sacrilege. 

By this time the sun was bathing everything in splendour, and turningaway from the wonders about me, I set off at best pace along thewell-trodden path which led without turning to the west coast villagewhere the canoes were. 

It proved far closer than expected. As a matter of fact the forest inthis direction grew right down to the water's edge; the salt-lovingtrees actually overhanging the waves--one of the pleasantest sights innature--and thus I came right out on top of the hamlet before there hadbeen an indication of its presence. It occupied two sides of a prettylittle bay, the third side being flat land given over to thecultivation of an enormous species of gourd whose characteristic yellowflowers and green, succulent leaves were discernible even at thisdistance. 

I branched off along the edge of the surf and down a dainty littleflowery path, noticing meanwhile how the whole bay was filled byhundreds of empty canoes, while scores of others were drawn up on thestrand, and then the first thing I chanced upon was a group ofpeople--youthful, of course, with the eternal Martian bloom--and in thesplendid simplicity of almost complete nakedness. My first idea wasthat they were bathing, and fixing my eyes on the tree-tops with greatpropriety, I gave a warning cough. At that sound instead of getting tocover, or clothes, all started up and stood staring for a time like aherd of startled cattle. It was highly embarrassing; they were rightin the path, a round dozen of them, naked and so little ashamed thatwhen I edged away modestly they began to run after me. And the fartherthey came forward the more I retired, till we were playing a kind ofgame of hide-and-seek round the tree-stems. In the middle of it my heelcaught in a root and down I went very hard and very ignominiously, whereon those laughing, light-hearted folk rushed in, and with smilesand jests helped me to my feet. 

"Was I the traveller who had come from Seth?"

"Yes. "

"Oh, then that was well. They had heard such a traveller was on theroad, and had come a little way down the path, as far as might bewithout fatigue, to meet him. "

"Would I eat with them?" these amiable strangers asked, pushing theirsoft warm fingers into mine and ringing me round with a circle. "Butfirstly might they help me out of my clothes? It was hot, and thesethings were cumbersome. " As to the eating, I was agreeable enoughseeing how casual meals had been with me lately, but my clothes, thoughHeaven knows they were getting horribly ragged and travel-stained, Iclung to desperately. 

My new friends shrugged their dimpled shoulders and, arguments beingtedious, at once squatted round me in the dappled shade of a big treeand produced their stores of never failing provisions. After apleasant little meal taken thus in the open and with all the simplicityMartians delight in, we got to talking about those yellow canoes whichwere bobbing about on the blue waters of the bay. 

"Would you like to see where they are grown?" asked an individualbasking by my side. 

"Grown!" I answered with incredulity. "Built, you mean. Never in mylife did I hear of growing boats. "

"But then, sir, " observed the girl as she sucked the honey out of thestalk of an azure convolvulus flower and threw the remains at abutterfly that sailed across the sunshine, "you know so little! Youhave come from afar, from some barbarous and barren district. Here weundoubtedly grow our boats, and though we know the Thither folk andsuch uncultivated races make their craft by cumbrous methods of flatplanks, yet we prefer our own way, for one thing because it savestrouble, " and as she murmured that all-sufficient reason the gentledamsel nodded reflectively. 

But one of her companions, more lively for the moment, tickled her witha straw until she roused, and then said, "Let us take the stranger tothe boat garden now. The current will drift us round the bay, and wecan come back when it turns. If we wait we shall have to row in bothdirections, or even walk, " and again planetary slothfulness carried theday. 

So down to the beach we strolled and launched one of the golden-huedskiffs upon the pretty dancing wavelets just where they ran, lippedwith jewelled spray, on the shore, and then only had I a chance toscrutinise their material. I patted that one we were upon inside andout. I noted with a seaman's admiration its lightness, elasticity, andsupreme sleekness, its marvellous buoyancy and fairy-like "lines, " andafter some minutes' consideration it suddenly flashed across me that itwas all of gourd rind. And as if to supply confirmation, the flat landwe were approaching on the opposite side of the bay was covered by thecharacteristic verdure of these plants with a touch here and there ofsplendid yellow blossoms, but all of gigantic proportions. 

"Ay, " said a Martian damsel lying on the bottom, and taking and kissingmy hand as she spoke, in the simple-hearted way of her people, "I seeyou have guessed how we make our boats. Is it the same in your distantcountry?"

"No, my girl, and what's more, I am a bit uneasy as to what the fellowson the Carolina will say if they ever hear I went to sea in ahollowed-out pumpkin, and with a young lady--well, dressed as youare--for crew. Even now I cannot imagine how you get your ships sotrim and shapely--there is not a seam or a patch anywhere, it looks asif you had run them into a mould. "

"That's just what we have done, sir, and now you will witness themoulds at work, for here we are, " and the little skiff was pulledashore and the Martians and I jumped out on the shelving beach, hauledour boat up high and dry, and there right over us, like great greenumbrellas, spread the fronds of the outmost garden of this strangest ofall ship-building yards. Briefly, and not to make this part of my storytoo long, those gilded boys and girls took me ashore, and chatteringlike finches in the evening, showed how they planted their gourd seed, nourished the gigantic plants as they grew with brackish water and theburnt ashes; then, when they flowered, mated the male and femaleblossoms, glorious funnels of golden hue big enough for one to live in;and when the young fruit was of the bigness of an ordinary bolster, howthey slipped it into a double mould of open reed-work something likethe two halves of a walnut-shell; and how, growing day by day in this, it soon took every curve and line they chose to give it, even thehanging keel below, the strengthened bulwarks, and tall prow-piece. Itwas so ingenious, yet simple; and I confess I laughed over my firstskiff "on the stalk, " and fell to bantering the Martians, askingwhether it was a good season for navies, whether their Cunarders werespreading nicely, if they could give me a pinch of barge seed, or ayacht in bud to show to my friends at home. 

But those lazy people took the matter seriously enough. They led medown green alleys arched over with huge melon-like leaves; they led mealong innumerable byways, making me peep and peer through the chequeredsunlight at ocean-growing craft, that had budded twelve months before, already filling their moulds to the last inch of space. They told methat when the growing process was sufficiently advanced, they loosenedthe casing, and cutting a hole into the interior of each giant fruit, scooped out all its seed, thereby checking more advance, and throwinginto the rind strength that would otherwise have gone toreproductiveness. They said each fruit made two vessels, but the upperhalf was always best and used for long salt-water journeys, the lowerpiece being but for punting or fishing on their lakes. They cut themin half while still green, scraped out the light remaining pulp whendry, and dragged them down with the minimum of trouble, light asfeathers, tenacious as steel plate, and already in the form and fashionof dainty craft from five to twenty feet in length, when the processwas completed. 

By the time we had explored this strangest of ship-building yards, andI had seen last year's crop on the stocks being polished and fittedwith seats and gear, the sun was going down; and the Martian twilight, owing to the comparative steepness of the little planet's sides, beingbrief, we strolled back to the village, and there they gave meharbourage for the night, ambrosial supper, and a deep draught of thewine of Forgetfulness, under the gauzy spell of which the real andunreal melted into the vistas of rosy oblivion, and I slept. 

CHAPTER XI

With the new morning came fresh energy and a spasm of conscience as Ithought of poor Heru and the shabby sort of rescuer I was to lie aboutwith these pretty triflers while she remained in peril. 

So I had a bath and a swim, a breakfast, and, to my shame be itacknowledged, a sort of farewell merry-go-round dance on the yellowsands with a dozen young persons all light-hearted as the morning, beautiful as the flowers that bound their hair, and in the extremity ofstatuesque attire. 

Then at last I got them to give me a sea-going canoe, a stock of cakesand fresh water; and with many parting injunctions how to find theWoodman trail, since I would not listen to reason and lie all the restof my life with them in the sunshine, they pushed me off on my lonelyvoyage. 

"Over the blue waters!" they shouted in chorus as I dipped my paddleinto the diamond-crested wavelets. "Six hours, adventurous stranger, with the sun behind you! Then into the broad river behind the yellowsand-bar. But not the black northward river! Not the strong, blackriver, above all things, stranger! For that is the River of the Dead, by which many go but none come back. Goodbye!" And waving them adieu, I sternly turned my eyes from delights behind and faced the fascinationof perils in front. 

In four hours (for the Martians had forgotten in their calculationsthat my muscles were something better than theirs) I "rose" the furthershore, and then the question was, Where ran that westward river oftheirs?

It turned out afterwards that, knowing nothing of their tides, I haddrifted much too far to northward, and consequently the coast hadclosed up the estuary mouth I should have entered. Not a sign of anopening showed anywhere, and having nothing whatever for guidance Iturned northward, eagerly scanning an endless line of low cliffs, asthe day lessened, for the promised sand-bar or inlet. 

About dusk my canoe, flying swiftly forward at its own sweet will, brought me into a bight, a bare, desolate-looking country with novegetation save grass and sedge on the near marshes and stony hillsrising up beyond, with others beyond them mounting step by step to along line of ridges and peaks still covered in winter snow. 

The outlook was anything but cheering. Not a trace of habitation hadbeen seen for a long time, not a single living being in whoseneighbourhood I could land and ask the way; nothing living anywhere buta monstrous kind of sea-slug, as big as a dog, battening on thewaterside garbage, and gaunt birds like vultures who croaked on themud-flats, and half-spread wings of funereal blackness as theygambolled here and there. Where was poor Heru? Where pink-shoulderedAn? Where those wild men who had taken the princess from us? Lastly, but not least, where was I?

All the first stars of the Martian sky were strange to me, and my boatwhirling round and round on the current confused what little geographyI might otherwise have retained. It was a cheerless look out, andagain and again I cursed my folly for coming on such a fool's errand asI sat, chin in hand, staring at a landscape that grew more and moredepressing every mile. To go on looked like destruction, to go backwas almost impossible without a guide; and while I was still wonderingwhich of the two might be the lesser evil, the stream I was on turned acorner, and in a moment we were upon water which ran with swift, oilysmoothness straight for the snow-ranges now beginning to loomunpleasantly close ahead. 

By this time the night was coming on apace, the last of theevil-looking birds had winged its way across the red sunset glare, andthough it was clear enough in mid-river under the banks, now steep andunclimbable, it was already evening. 

And with the darkness came a wondrous cold breath from off theice-fields, blowing through my lowland wrappings as though they werebut tissue. I munched a bit of honey-cake, took a cautious sip of wine, and though I will not own I was frightened, yet no one will deny thatthe circumstances were discouraging. 

Standing up in the frail canoe and looking around, at the second glancean object caught my eye coming with the stream, and rapidly overtakingme on a strong sluice of water. It was a raft of some sort, andsomething extra-ordinarily like a sitting Martian on it! Nearer andnearer it came, bobbing to the rise and fall of each wavelet with thelast icy sunlight touching it up with reds and golds, nearer and nearerin the deadly hush of that forsaken region, and then at last so near itshowed quite plainly on the purple water, a raft with some one sittingunder a canopy. 

With a thrill of delight I waved my cap aloft and shouted--

"Ship-ahoy! Hullo, messmate, where are we bound to?"

But never an answer came from that swiftly-passing stranger, so again Ihailed--

"Put up your helm, Mr. Skipper; I have lost my bearings, and thechronometer has run down, " but without a pause or sound that strangecraft went slipping by. 

That silence was more than I could stand. It was against all seacourtesies, and the last chance of learning where I was passing away. So, angrily the paddle was snatched from the canoe bottom, and roaringout again--

"Stop, I say, you d---- lubber, stop, or by all the gods I will makeyou!" I plunged the paddle into the water and shot my little craftslantingly across the stream to intercept the newcomer. A singlestroke sent me into mid-stream, a second brought me within touch ofthat strange craft. It was a flat raft, undoubtedly, though sodisguised by flowers and silk trailers that its shape was difficult tomake out. In the centre was a chair of ceremony bedecked with greeneryand great pale buds, hardly yet withered--oh, where had I seen such achair and such a raft before?

And the riddle did not long remain unanswered. Upon that seat, as Iswept up alongside and laid a sunburnt hand upon its edge, was a girl, and another look told me she was dead!

Such a sweet, pallid, Martian maid, her fair head lolling back againstthe rear of the chair and gently moving to and fro with the rise andfall of her craft. Her face in the pale light of the evening likecarved ivory, and not less passionless and still; her arms bare, andher poor fingers still closed in her lap upon the beautiful buds theyhad put into them. I fairly gasped with amazement at the dreadfulsweetness of that solitary lady, and could hardly believe she wasreally a corpse! But, alas! there was no doubt of it, and I stared ather, half in admiration and half in fear; noting how the last sunsetflush lent a hectic beauty to her face for a moment, and then how fairand ghostly she stood out against the purpling sky; how her lightdrapery lifted to the icy wind, and how dreadfully strange all thosesoft-scented flowers and trappings seemed as we sped along side by sideinto the country of night and snow. 

Then all of a sudden the true meaning of her being there burst upon me, and with a start and a cry I looked around. WE WERE FLYING SWIFTLYDOWN THAT RIVER OF THE DEAD THEY HAD TOLD ME OF THAT HAS NO OUTLET ANDNO RETURNING!

With frantic haste I snatched up a paddle again and tried to paddleagainst the great black current sweeping us forward. I worked untilthe perspiration stood in beads on my forehead, and all the time Iworked the river, like some black snake, hissed and twined, and thatpretty lady rode cheerily along at my side. Overhead stars ofunearthly brilliancy were coming out in the frosty sky, while on eitherhand the banks were high and the shadows under them black as ink. Inthose shadows now and then I noticed with a horrible indifference otherrafts were travelling, and presently, as the stream narrowed, they cameout and joined us, dead Martians, budding boys and girls; oldervoyagers with their age quickening upon them in the Martian manner, just as some fruit only ripens after it falls; yellow-girt slavesstaring into the night in front, quite a merry crew all clustered aboutI and that gentle lady, and more far ahead and more behind, all bobbingand jostling forward as we hurried to the dreadful graveyard in theMartian regions of eternal winter none had ever seen and no one cameto! I cried aloud in my desolation and fear and hid my face in myhands, while the icy cliffs mocked my cry and the dead maid, trippingalongside, rolled her head over, and stared at me with stony, unseeingeyes. 

Well, I am no fine writer. I sat down to tell a plain, unvarnishedtale, and I will not let the weird horror of that ride get into my pen. We careened forward, I and those lost Martians, until pretty near onmidnight, by which time the great light-giving planets were up, andnever a chance did Fate give me all that time of parting company withthem. About midnight we were right into the region of snow and ice, notthe actual polar region of the planet, as I afterwards guessed, but oneof those long outliers which follow the course of the broad waterwaysalmost into fertile regions, and the cold, though intense, was somewhatmodified by the complete stillness of the air. 

It was just then that I began to be aware of a low, rumbling soundahead, increasing steadily until there could not be any doubt thejourney was nearly over and we were approaching those great falls Anhad told me of, over which the dead tumble to perpetual oblivion. There was no opportunity for action, and, luckily, little time forthought. I remember clapping my hand to my heart as I muttered animperfect prayer, and laughing a little as I felt in my pocket, betweenit and that organ, an envelope containing some corn-plaster and apacket of unpaid tailors' bills. Then I pulled out that locket withpoor forgotten Polly's photograph, and while I was still kissing itfervently, and the dead girl on my right was jealously nudging my canoewith the corner of her raft, we plunged into a narrow gully as black ashell, shot round a sharp corner at a tremendous pace, and the momentafterwards entered a lake in the midst of an unbroken amphitheatre ofcliffs gleaming in soft light all round. 

Even to this moment I can recall the blue shine of those terrible icecrags framing the weird picture in on every hand, and the strangeeffect upon my mind as we passed out of the darkness of the gully downwhich we had come into the sepulchral radiance of that place. Butthough it fixed with one instantaneous flash its impression on my mindforever, there was no time to admire it. As we swept on to the lake'ssurface, and a glance of light coming over a dip in the ice walls tothe left lit up the dead faces and half-withered flowers of myfellow-travellers with startling distinctness, I noticed with a newterror at the lower end of the lake towards which we were hurrying thewater suddenly disappeared in a cloud of frosty spray, and it was fromthence came the low, ominous rumble which had sounded up the ravine aswe approached. It was the fall, and beyond the stream dropped downglassy step after step, in wild pools and rapids, through which no boatcould live for a moment, to a black cavern entrance, where it wasswallowed up in eternal night. 

I WOULD not go that way! With a yell such as those solitudes hadprobably never heard since the planet was fashioned out of the void, Iseized the paddle again and struck out furiously from the main current, with the result of postponing the crisis for a time, and finding myselfbobbing round towards the northern amphitheatre, where the light fellclearest from planets overhead. It was like a great ballroom withthose constellations for tapers, and a ghastly crowd of Martians weredoing cotillions and waltzes all about me on their rafts as thetroubled water, icy cold and clear as glass, eddied us here and therein solemn confusion. On the narrow beaches at the cliff foot werehundreds of wrecked voyagers--the wall-flowers of that ghostlyassembly-room--and I went jostling and twirling round the circle asthough looking for a likely partner, until my brain spun and my heartwas sick. 

For twenty minutes Fate played with me, and then the deadly suck of thestream got me down again close to where the water began to race for thefalls. I vowed savagely I would not go over them if it could behelped, and struggled furiously. 

On the left, in shadow, a narrow beach seemed to lie between the waterand the cliff foot; towards it I fought. At the very first stroke Ifouled a raft; the occupant thereof came tumbling aboard and nearlyswamped me. But now it was a fight for life, so him I seized withoutceremony by clammy neck and leg and threw back into the water. Thenanother playful Martian butted the behind part of my canoe and set itspinning, so that all the stars seemed to be dancing giddily in thesky. With a yell I shoved him off, but only to find his comrades wereclosing round me in a solid ring as we sucked down to the abyss atever-increasing speed. 

Then I fought like a fury, hacking, pushing, and paddling shorewards, crying out in my excitement, and spinning and bumping and twisting everdownwards. For every foot I gained they pushed me on a yard, as thoughdetermined their fate should be mine also. 

They crowded round me in a compact circle, their poor flower-girt headsnodding as the swift current curtsied their crafts. They hemmed me inwith desperate persistency as we spun through the ghostly starlight ina swirling mass down to destruction! And in a minute we were so closeto the edge of the fall I could see the water break into ridges as itfelt the solid bottom give way under it. We were so close that alreadythe foremost rafts, ten yards ahead, were tipping and their occupantsone by one waving their arms about and tumbling from their funeralchairs as they shot into the spray veil and went out of sight under afaint rainbow that was arched over there, the symbol of peace and theonly lovely thing in that gruesome region. Another minute and I musthave gone with them. It was too late to think of getting out of thetangle then; the water behind was heavy with trailing silks andflowers. We were jammed together almost like one huge float and inthat latter fact lay my one chance. 

On the left was a low ledge of rocks leading back to the narrow beachalready mentioned, and the ledge came out to within a few feet of wherethe outmost boat on that side would pass it. It was the only chanceand a poor one, but already the first rank of my fleet was trembling onthe brink, and without stopping to weigh matters I bounded off my owncanoe on to the raft alongside, which rocked with my weight like atea-tray. From that I leapt, with such hearty good-will as I had neverhad before, on to a second and third. I jumped from the footstool ofone Martian to the knee of another, steadying myself by a free use oftheir nodding heads as I passed. And every time I jumped a shipcollapsed behind me. As I staggered with my spring into the last andoutermost boat the ledge was still six feet away, half hidden in asmother of foam, and the rim of the great fall just under it. Then Idrew all my sailor agility together and just as the little vessel wasgoing bow up over the edge I leapt from her--came down blinded withspray on the ledge, rolled over and over, clutched frantically at thefrozen soil, and was safe for the moment, but only a few inches fromthe vortex below!

As soon as I picked myself up and got breath, I walked shorewards andfound, with great satisfaction, that the ledge joined the shelvingbeach, and so walked on in the blue obscurity of the cliff shadow backfrom the falls in the bare hope that the beach might lead by some wayinto the gully through which we had come and open country beyond. Butafter a couple of hundred yards this hope ended as abruptly as the spititself in deep water, and there I was, as far as the darkness wouldallow me to ascertain, as utterly trapped as any mortal could be. 

I will not dwell on the next few minutes, for no one likes toacknowledge that he has been unmanned even for a space. When thoseminutes were over calmness and consideration returned, and I was ableto look about. 

All the opposite cliffs, rising sheer from the water, were in light, their cold blue and white surfaces rising far up into the blackstarfields overhead. Looking at them intently from this vantage-pointI saw without at first understanding that along them horizontally, tierabove tier, were rows of objects, like--like--why, good Heavens, theywere like men and women in all sorts of strange postures and positions!Rubbing my eyes and looking again I perceived with a start and astrange creepy feeling down my back that they WERE men andwomen!--hundreds of them, thousands, all in rows as cormorants standupon sea-side cliffs, myriads and myriads now I looked about, in everyconceivable pose and attitude but never a sound, never a movementamongst the vast concourse. 

Then I turned back to the cliffs behind me. Yes! they ere there too, dimmer by reason of the shadows, but there for certain, from thesnowfields far above down, down--good Heavens! to the very level whereI stood. There was one of them not ten yards away half in and half outof the ice wall, and setting my teeth I walked over and examined him. And there was another further in behind as I peered into the clear bluedepth, another behind that one, another behind him--just like cherriesin a jelly. 

It was startling and almost incredible, yet so many wonderful thingshad happened of late that wonders were losing their sharpness, and Iwas soon examining the cliff almost as coolly as though it were onlysome trivial geological "section, " some new kind of petrifiedsea-urchins which had caught my attention and not a whole nation inice, a huge amphitheatre of fossilised humanity which stared down on me. 

The matter was simple enough when you came to look at it withphilosophy. The Martians had sent their dead down here for manythousand years and as they came they were frozen in, the bands andzones in which they sat indicating perhaps alternating seasons. Thenafter Nature had been storing them like that for long ages someupheaval happened, and this cleft and lake opened through the heart ofthe preserve. Probably the river once ran far up there where thestarlight was crowning the blue cliffs with a silver diadem of light, only when this hollow opened did it slowly deepen a lower course, spreading out in a lake, and eventually tumbling down those icy stepslose itself in the dark roots of the hills. It was very simple, nodoubt, but incredibly weird and wonderful to me who stood, the soleliving thing in that immense concourse of dead humanity. 

Look where I would it was the same everywhere. Those endless rows offrozen bodies lying, sitting, or standing stared at me from every nicheand cornice. It almost seemed, as the light veered slowly round, asthough they smiled and frowned at times, but never a word was thereamongst those millions; the silence itself was audible, and save thedull low thunder of the fall, so monotonous the ear became accustomedto and soon disregarded it, there was not a sound anywhere, not arustle, not a whisper broke the eternal calm of that great caravansaryof the dead. 

The very rattle of the shingle under my feet and the jingle of my navyscabbard seemed offensive in the perfect hush, and, too awed to befrightened, I presently turned away from the dreadful shine of thosecliffs and felt my way along the base of the wall on my own side. Therewas no means of escape that way, and presently the shingle beach itselfgave out as stated, where the cliff wall rose straight from the surfaceof the lake, so I turned back, and finding a grotto in the icedetermined to make myself as comfortable as might be until daylightcame. 

CHAPTER XII

Fortunately there was a good deal of broken timber thrown up at"high-water" mark, and with a stack of this at the mouth of the littlecave a pleasant fire was soon made by help of a flint pebble and thesteel back of my sword. It was a hearty blaze and lit up all the nearcliffs with a ruddy jumping glow which gave their occupants amarvellous appearance of life. The heat also brought off the dull rimeupon the side of my recess, leaving it clear as polished glass, and Iwas a little startled to see, only an inch or so back in the ice andstanding as erect as ever he had been in life, the figure of animposing grey clad man. His arms were folded, his chin dropped upon hischest, his robes of the finest stuff, the very flowers they had deckedhis head with frozen with immortality, and under them, round his crispand iron-grey hair, a simple band of gold with strange runes andfigures engraved upon it. 

There was something very simple yet stately about him, though his facewas hidden and as I gazed long and intently the idea got hold of methat he had been a king over an undegenerate Martian race, and hadstood waiting for the Dawn a very, very long time. 

I wished a little that he had not been quite so near the glassy surfaceof the ice down which the warmth was bringing quick moisture drops. Hadhe been back there in the blue depths where others were sitting andcrouching it would have been much more comfortable. But I was asailor, and misfortune makes strange companions, so I piled up the fireagain, and lying down presently on the dry shingle with my back to himstared moodily at the blaze till slowly the fatigues of the day told, my eyelids dropped and, with many a fitful start and turn, at length Islept. 

It was an hour before dawn, the fire had burnt low and I was dreamingof an angry discussion with my tailor in New York as to the sit of mylast new trousers when a faint sound of moving shingle caught my quickseaman ear, and before I could raise my head or lift a hand, a man'sweight was on me--a heavy, strong man who bore me down withirresistible force. I felt the slap of his ice-cold hand upon my throatand his teeth in the back of my neck! In an instant, though but halfawake, with a yell of surprise and anger I grappled with the enemy, andexerting all my strength rolled him over. Over and over we wentstruggling towards the fire, and when I got him within a foot or so ofit I came out on top, and, digging my knuckles into his throttle, banged his head upon the stony floor in reckless rage, until all of asudden it seemed to me he was done for. I relaxed my grip, but theother man never moved. I shook him again, like a terrier with a rat, but he never resented it. Had I killed him? How limp and cold he was!And then all of a sudden an uneasy feeling came upon me. I reachedout, and throwing a handful of dried stuff upon the embers the firedanced gaily up into the air, and the blaze showed me I was savagelyholding down to the gravel and kneeling on the chest of that long-deadking from my grotto wall!

It was the man out of the ice without a doubt. There was the veryniche he had fallen from under the influence of the fire heat, the veryrecess, exactly in his shape in every detail, whence he had stoodgazing into vacuity all those years. I left go my hold, and after theflutter in my heart had gone down, apologetically set him up againstthe wall of the cavern whence he had fallen; then built up the fireuntil twirling flames danced to the very roof in the blue light ofdawn, and hobgoblin shadows leapt and capered about us. Then once moreI sat down on the opposite side of the blaze, resting my chin upon myhands, and stared into the frozen eyes of that grim stranger, who, withhis chin upon his knees, stared back at me with irresistible, remorseless steadfastness. 

He was as fresh as if he had died but yesterday, yet by his clothingand something in his appearance, which was not that of the Martian ofto-day, I knew he might be many thousand years old. What things he hadseen, what wonders he knew! What a story might be put into his mouthif I were a capable writer gifted with time and imagination instead ofa poor outcast, ill-paid lieutenant whose literary wit is often taxedhardly to fill even a log-book entry! I stared at him so long andhard, and he at me through the blinking flames, that again I dozed--anddozed--and dozed again until at last when I woke in good earnest it wasdaylight. 

By this time hunger was very aggressive. The fire was naught but acirclet of grey ashes; the dead king, still sitting against thecave-side, looked very blue and cold, and with an uncomfortablerealisation of my position I shook myself together, picked up andpocketed without much thought the queer gold circlet that had droppedfrom his forehead, and went outside to see what prospect of escape thenew day had brought. 

It was not much. Upriver there was not the remotest chance. Not evena Niagara steamer could have forged back against the sluice coming downfrom the gulch there. Looking round, the sides of the icyamphitheatre--just lighting up now with glorious gold and crimsonglimmers of morning--were as steep as a wall face; only back towardsthe falls was there a possibility of getting out of the dreadful trap, so thither I went, after a last look at the poor old king, along mynarrow beach with all the eagerness begotten of a final chance. Up tothe very brink it looked hopeless enough, but, looking downwards whenthat was reached, instead of a sheer drop the slope seemed to be a wild"staircase" of rocks and icy ledges with here and there a little patchof sand on a cornice, and far below, five hundred feet or so, a goodbig spread of gravel an acre or two in extent close by where the riverplunged out of sight into the nethermost cavern mouth. 

It was so hopeless up above it, it could not possibly be worse furtherdown, and there was the ugly black flood running into the hole to trustmyself to as a last resource; so slipping and sliding I began thedescent. 

Had I been a schoolboy with a good breakfast ahead the incident mighthave been amusing enough. The travelling was mostly done on the seatof my trousers, which consequently became caked with mud and glacialloam. Some was accomplished on hands and knees, with now and then a bitdown a snow slope, in good, honest head-over-heels fashion. The resultwas a fine appetite for the next meal when it should please providenceto send it, and an abrupt arrival on the bottom beach about fiveminutes after leaving the upper circles. 

I came to behind a cluster of breast-high rocks, and before moving tooka look round. Judge then of my astonishment and delight at the secondglance to perceive about a hundred yards away a brown object, lookinglike an ape in the half light, meandering slowly up the margin of thewater towards me. Every now and then it stopped, stooping down to pickup something or other from the scum along the torrent, and it was thefact that these trifles, whatever they were, were put into a wallet bythe vision's side--not into his mouth--which first made me understandwith a joyful thrill that it was a MAN before me--a real, living man inthis huge chamber of dead horrors! Then again it flashed across mymind in a luminous moment that where one man could come, or go, orlive, another could do likewise, and never did cat watch mouse withmore concentrated eagerness than I that quaint, bent-shouldered thinghobbling about in the blue morning shadows where all else was silence. 

Nearer and nearer he came, till so close face and garb werediscernible, and then there could no longer be any doubt, it was awoodman, an old man, with grizzled monkey-face, stooping gait, and ashaggy fur cloak, utterly unlike the airy garments of my Hither folk, who now stood before me. It gave me quite a start to recognise himthere, for it showed I was in a new land, and since he was going socheerfully about his business, whatever it might chance to be, theremust be some way out of this accursed pit in which I had fallen. Sovery cautiously I edged out, taking advantage of all the cover possibleuntil we were only twenty yards apart, and then suddenly standing up, and putting on the most affable smile, I called out--

"Hullo, mess-mate!"

The effect was electrical. That quaint old fellow sprang a yard intoair as though a spring had shot him up. Then, coming down, he stoodtransfixed at his full height as stiff as a ramrod, staring at me withincredible wonder. He looked so funny that in spite of hunger andloneliness I burst out laughing, whereat the woodman, suddenlyrecovering his senses, turned on his heels and set off at his best pacein the opposite direction. This would never do! I wanted him to be myguide, philosopher, and friend. He was my sole visible link with theoutside world, so after him I went at tip-top speed, and catching himup in fifty yards along the shingle laid hold of his nether garments. Whereat the old fellow stopping suddenly I shot clean over his back, coming down on my shoulder in the gravel. 

But I was much younger than he, and in a minute was in chase again. This time I laid hold of his cloak, and the moment he felt my grip heslipped the neck-thongs and left me with only the mangy garment in myhands. Again we set off, dodging and scampering with all our mightupon that frozen bit of beach. The activity of that old fellow wasmarvellous, but I could not and would not lose him. I made a rush andgrappled him, but he tossed his head round and slipped away once moreunder my arm, as though he had been brought up by a Chinese wrestler. Then he got on one side of a flat rock, I the other, and for three orfour minutes we waltzed round that slab in the most insane manner. 

But by this time we were both pretty well spent--he with age and I withfaintness from my long fast, and we came presently to a standstill. 

After glaring at me for a time, the woodman gasped out as he struggledfor breath--

"Oh, mighty and dreadful spirit! Oh, dweller in primordial ice, sayfrom which niche of the cliffs has the breath of chance thawed you?"

"Never a niche at all, Mr. Hunter-for-Haddocks'-Eyes, " I answered assoon as I could speak. "I am just a castaway wrecked last night onthis shore of yours, and very grateful indeed will I be if you can showme the way to some breakfast first, and afterwards to the outsideworld. "

But the old fellow would not believe. "Spirits such as you, " he saidsullenly, "need no food, and go whither they will by wish alone. "

"I tell you I am not a spirit, and as hungry as I don't particularlywant to be again. Here, look at the back of my trousers, caked threeinches deep in mud. If I were a spirit, do you think I would slideabout on my coat-tails like that? Do you think that if I could travelby volition I would slip down these infernal cliffs on my pants' seatas I have just done? And as for materialism--look at this fist; itpunched you just now! Surely there was nothing spiritual in thatknock?''

"No, " said the savage, rubbing his head, "it was a good, honest rap, soI must take you at your word. If you are indeed man, and hungry, itwill be a charity to feed you; if you are a spirit, it will at least beinteresting to watch you eat; so sit down, and let's see what I have inmy wallet. "

So cross-legged we squatted opposite each other on the table rock, and, feeling like another Sindbad the Sailor, I watched my new friend fumblein his bag and lay out at his side all sorts of odds and ends ofstring, fish-hooks, chewing-gum, material for making a fire, and so on, until at last he came to a package (done up, I noted with delight, in abroad, green leaf which had certainly been growing that morning), andunrolling it, displayed a lump of dried meat, a few biscuits, muchthicker and heavier than the honey-cakes of the Hither folk, andsomething that looked and smelt like strong, white cheese. 

He signed to me to eat, and you may depend upon it I was not slow inaccepting the invitation. That tough biltong tasted to me like thetenderest steak that ever came from a grill; the biscuits wereambrosial; the cheese melted in my mouth as butter melts in that of thevirtuous; but when the old man finished the quaint picnic by invitingme to accompany him down to the waterside for a drink, I shook my head. I had a great respect for dead queens and kings, I said, but there weretoo many of them up above to make me thirsty this morning; my respectdid not go to making me desire to imbibe them in solution!

Afterwards I chanced to ask him what he had been picking up just nowalong the margin, and after looking at me suspiciously for a minute heasked--

"You are not a thief?" On being reassured on that point he continued:"And you will not attempt to rob me of the harvest for which I ventureinto this ghost-haunted glen, which you and I alone of living men haveseen?"

"No. " Whatever they were, I said, I would respect his earnings. 

"Very well, then, " said the old man, "look here! I come hither to pickup those pretty trifles which yonder lords and ladies have done with, "and plunging his hand into another bag he brought out a perfect fistfulof splendid gems and jewels, some set and some unset. "They wash fromthe hands and wrists of those who have lodgings in the crevices of thefalls above, " he explained. "After a time the beach here will be thickwith them. Could I get up whence you came down, they might be gatheredby the sackful. Come! there is an eddy still unsearched, and I willshow you how they lie. "

It was very fascinating, and I and that old man set to work amongst thegravels, and, to be brief, in half an hour found enough glitteringstuff to set up a Fifth Avenue jeweller's shop. But to tell the truth, now that I had breakfasted, and felt manhood in my veins again, I waseager to be off, and out of the close, death-tainted atmosphere of thatvalley. Consequently I presently stood up and said--

"Look here, old man, this is fine sport no doubt, but just at present Ihave a big job on hand--one which will not wait, and I must be going. See, luck and young eyes have favoured me; here is twice as much goldand stones as you have got together--it is all yours without a questionif you will show me the way out of this den and afterwards put me onthe road to your big city, for thither I am bound with an errand toyour king, Ar-hap. "

The sight of my gems, backed, perhaps, with the mention of Ar-hap'sname, appealed to the old fellow; and after a grunt or two about"losing a tide" just when spoil was so abundant, he accepted thebargain, shouldered his belongings, and led me towards the far cornerof the beach. 

It looked as if we were walking right against the towering ice wall, but when we were within a yard or two of it a narrow cleft, onlyeighteen inches wide, and wonderfully masked by an ice column, showedto the left, and into this we squeezed ourselves, the entrance by whichwe had come appearing to close up instantly we had gone a pace or two, so perfectly did the ice walls match each other. 

It was the most uncanny thoroughfare conceivable--a sheer, sharp crackin the blue ice cliffs extending from where the sunlight shone in adazzling golden band five hundred feet overhead to where bottom wastouched in blue obscurity of the ice-foot. It was so narrow we had totravel sideways for the most part, a fact which brought my face closeagainst the clear blue glass walls, and enabled me from time to time tosee, far back in those translucent depths, more and more and evermorefrozen Martians waiting in stony silence for their release. 

But the fact of facts was that slowly the floor of the cleft trendedupwards, whilst the sky strip appeared to come downwards to meet it. Amile, perhaps, we growled and squeezed up that wonderful gully; thenwith a feeling of incredible joy I felt the clear, outer air smitingupon me. 

In my hurry and delight I put my head into the small of the back of thepuffing old man who blocked the way in front and forced him forward, until at last--before we expected it--the cleft suddenly ended, and heand I tumbled headlong over each other on to a glittering, frozensnowslope; the sky azure overhead, the sunshine warm as a tepid bath, and a wide prospect of mountain and plain extending all around. 

So delightful was the sudden change of circumstances that I becamequite boyish, and seizing the old man in my exuberance by the hands, dragged him to his feet, and danced him round and round in a circle, while his ancient hair flapped about his head, his skin cloak wavedfrom his shoulders like a pair of dusky wings and half-eaten cakes, dried flesh, glittering jewels, broken diadems, and golden finger-ringswere flung in an arc about us. We capered till fairly out of breath, and then, slapping him on the back shoulder, I asked whose land allthis was about us. 

He replied that it was no one's, all waste from verge to verge. 

"What!" was my exclamation. "All ownerless, and with so much treasurehidden hereabout! Why, I shall annex it to my country, and you and Iwill peg out original settlers' claims!" And, still excited by themountain air, I whipped out my sword, and in default of a star-spangledbanner to plant on the newly-acquired territory, traced in giganticletters on the snow-crust--U. S. A. 

"And now, " I added, wiping the rime off my blade with the lappet of mycoat, "let us stop capering about here and get to business. You havepromised to put me on the way to your big city. "

"Come on then, " said the little man, gathering up his property. "Thiswhite hillside leads to nowhere; we must get into the valley first, andthen you shall see your road. " And right well that quaint barbariankept his promise. 

CHAPTER XIII

It was half a day's march from those glittering snow-fields into thelow country, and when that was reached I found myself amongst quiteanother people. 

The land was no longer fat and flowery, giving every kind of producefor the asking, but stony for the most part, and, where we first cameon vegetation, overgrown by firs, with a pine which looked to me like aspecies which went to make the coal measures in my dear but distantplanet. More than this I cannot say, for there are no places in theworld like mess-room and quarter-deck for forgetting school learning. Instead of the glorious wealth of parti-coloured vegetation my eyes hadbeen accustomed to lately, here they rested on infertile stretches ofmarshland intersected by moss-covered gravel shoots, looking as thoughthey had been pushed into the plains in front of extinct glacierscoming down from the region behind us. On the low hills away from thesea those sombre evergreen forests with an undergrowth of moss and redlichens were more variegated with light foliage, and indeed the pinesproved to be but a fringe to the Arctic ice, giving way rapidly to moretypical Martian vegetation each mile we marched to the southward. 

As for the inhabitants, they seemed, like my guide, rough, uncouthfellows, but honest enough when you came to know them. Anintroduction, however, was highly desirable. I chanced upon the firstnative as he was gathering reindeer-moss. My companion was some littleway behind at the moment, and when the gentle aborigine saw thestranger he stared hard for a moment, then, turning on his heels, withextraordinary swiftness flung at me half a pound of hard flint stone. Had his aim been a little more careful this humble narrative had neverappeared on the Broadway bookstalls. As it was, the pebble, missing myhead by an inch or two, splintered into a hundred fragments on a rockbehind, and while I was debating whether a revengeful rush at theslinger or a strategic advance to the rear were more advisable, myguide called out to his countryman--

"Ho! you base prowler in the morasses; you eater of unclean vegetation, do you not see this is a ghost I am conducting, a dweller in the icecliffs, a spirit ten thousand years old? Put by your sling lest hewither you with a glance. " And, very reasonably, surprised, theaborigine did as he was bid and cautiously advanced to inspect me. 

The news soon spread over the countryside that my jewel-hunter wasbringing a live "spook" along with him, considerable curiosity mixedwith an awe all to my advantage characterising the people we metthereafter. Yet the wonder was not so great as might have beenexpected, for these people were accustomed to meeting the tags of lostraces, and though they stared hard, their interest was chiefly inhearing how, when, and where I had been found, whether I bit or kicked, or had any other vices, and if I possessed any commercial value. 

My guide's throat must have ached with the repetition of the narrative, but as he made the story redound greatly to his own glory, he put upcheerfully with the hoarseness. In this way, walking and talkingalternately, we travelled during daylight through a country whichslowly lost its rugged features and became more and more inhabited, thehardy people living in scattered villages in contradiction to thedebased city-loving Hither folk. 

About nightfall we came to a sea-fishers' hamlet, where, after the oldman had explained my exalted nature and venerable antiquity, I wasoffered shelter for the night. 

My host was the headman, and I must say his bearing towards thesupernatural was most unaffected. If it had been an Avenue hotel Icould not have found more handsome treatment than in that reed-thatchedhut. They made me wash and rest, and then were all agog for my history;but that I postponed, contenting myself with telling them I had beenlately in Seth, and had come thence to see them via the ice valley--toall of which they listened with the simplicity of children. AfterwardsI turned on them, and openly marvelled that so small a geographicaldistance as there was between that land and this could make so vast ahuman difference. "The truth, O dweller in blue shadows of primordialice, is, " said the most intelligent of the Thither folk as we sat overfried deer-steak in his hut that evening, "we who are MEN, notPeri-zad, not overstayed fairies like those you have been amongst, arenewcomers here on this shore. We came but a few generations ago fromwhere the gold curtains of the sun lie behind the westward pine-trees, and as we came we drove, year by year, those fays, those spenttriflers, back before us. All this land was theirs once, and more andmore towards our old home. You may still see traces of harbours dugand cities built thousands of years ago, when the Hither folk wereliving men and women--not their shadows. The big water outside stops usfor a space, but, " he added, laughing gruffly and taking a draught of astrong beer he had been heating by the fire, "King Ar-hap has theirpretty noses between his fingers; he takes tribute and girls while hegets ready--they say he is nearly ready this summer, and if he is, itwill not be much of an excuse he will need to lick up the last of thosetriflers, those pretences of manhood. "

Then we fell to talking of Ar-hap, his subjects and town, and I learnedthe tides had swept me a long way to the northward of the proper routebetween the capitals of the two races, that day they carried me intothe Dead-Men's Ice, as these entertainers of mine called the northernsnows. To get back to the place previously aimed at, where the woodmenroad came out on the seashore, it was necessary to go either by boat, aroundabout way through a maze of channels, "as tangled as the grassroots in autumn"; or, secondly, by a couple of days' marching duesouthward across the base of the great peninsula we were on, and sostrike blue water again at the long-sought-for harbour. 

As I lay dozing and dreaming on a pile of strange furs in the corner ofthe hut that evening I made up my mind for the land journey tomorrow, having had enough for the moment of nautical Martian adventures; andthis point settled, fell again to wondering what made me follow soreckless a quest in the way I was doing; asking myself again and againwhat was gazelle-eyed Heru to me after all, and why should it mattereven as much as the value of a brass waist-coat button whether Hath hadher or Ar-hap? What a fool I was to risk myself day by day in quaintand dangerous adventures, wearing out good Government shoe-leather inother men's quarrels, all for a silly slip of royal girlhood who, bythis time, was probably making herself comfortable and forgetting bothHath and me in the arms of her rough new lord. 

And from Heru my mind drifted back dreamily to poor An, and Seth, thecity of fallen magnificence, where the spent masters of a strangeplanet now lived on sufferance--the ghosts of their former selves. Where was An, where the revellers on the morning--so long ago itseemed!--when first that infernal rug of mine translated a chance wishinto a horrible reality and shot me down here, a stranger and anoutcast? Where was the magic rug itself? Where my steak and tomatosupper? Who had eaten it? Who was drawing my pay? If I could but findthe rug when I got back to Seth, gods! but I would try if it would notreturn whence I had come, and as swiftly, out of all these silly coilsand adventuring. 

So musing, presently the firelight died down, and bulky forms ofhide-wrapped woodmen sleeping on the floor slowly disappeared inobscurity like ranges of mountains disappearing in the darkness ofnight. All those uncouth forms, and the throb of the sea outside, presently faded upon my senses, and I slept the heavy sleep of onewhose wakefulness gives way before an imperious physical demand. Allthrough the long hours of the night, while the waves outside champedupon the gravels, and the woodmen snored and grunted uneasily as theysimultaneously dreamt of the day's hunting and digested its proceeds, Islept; and then when dawn began to break I passed from that heavystupor into another and lighter realm, wherein fancy again rosesuperior to bodily fatigue, and events of the last few days passed inprocession through my mind. 

I dreamt I was lunching at a fashionable seaside resort with Polly atmy side, and An kept bringing us melons, which grew so monstrous everytime a knife was put into them that poor Polly screamed aloud. I dreamtI was afloat on a raft, hotly pursued by my tailor, whose bare andshiny head--may Providence be good to him!--was garlanded with roses, while in his fist was a bunch of unpaid bills, the which he wavedaloft, shouting to me to stop. And thus we danced down an ink-blackriver until he had chiveyed me into the vast hall of the Admiralty, where a fearsome Secretary, whose golden teeth rattled and dropped fromhis head with mingled cold and anger, towered above me as he asked whyI was absent from my ship without leave. And I was just mumbling outexcuses while stooping to pick up his golden dentistry, when some onestirring in the hut aroused me. I started up on my elbow and lookedaround. Where was I? For a minute all was confused and dark. Theheavy mound-like forms of sleeping men, the dim outlines of theirhunting gear upon the walls, the pale sea beyond, half seen through theopen doorway, just turning livid in the morning light; and then as myeyes grew more accustomed to the obscurity, and my stupid sensesreturned, I recognised the surroundings, and, with a sigh, rememberedyesterday's adventures. 

However, it would never do to mope; so, rising silently and picking away through human lumber on the floor, I went out and down to thewater's edge, where "shore-going" clothes, as we sailors call them, were slipped off, and I plunged into the sea for a swim. 

It was a welcome dip, for I needed the plunge physically andintellectually, but it came to an abrupt conclusion. The Thither folkapparently had never heard of this form of enjoyment; to them waterstood for drinking or drowning, nothing else, and since one could notdrink the sea, to be in it meant, even for a ghost, to drown. Consequently, when the word went round the just rousing villages that"He-on-foot-from-afar" was adrift in the waves, rescue parties werehurriedly organised, a boat launched, and, in spite of all my kickingand shouting (which they took to be evidence of my semi-moribundcondition), I was speedily hauled out by hairy and powerful hands, pungent herbs burnt under my nose, and my heels held high in the air inorder that the water might run out of me. It was only with the greatestdifficulty those rough but honest fellows were eventually got tobelieve me saved. 

The breakfast I made of grilled deer flesh and a fish not unlikesalmon, however, convinced them of my recovery, and afterward we partedvery good friends; for there was something in the nature of thoserugged barbarians just coming into the dawn of civilisation that won myliking far more than the effete gentleness of others across the water. 

When the time of parting came they showed no curiosity as to my errand, but just gave me some food in a fish-skin bag, thrust a heavystone-headed axe into my hand, "in case I had to talk to a thief on theroad, " and pointed out on the southern horizon a forked mountain, underwhich, they said, was the harbour and high-road to King Ar-hap'scapital. Then they hugged me to their hairy chests in turn, and let mego with a traveller's blessing. 

There I was again, all alone, none but my thoughts for companions, andnothing but youth to excuse the folly in thus venturing on a recklessquest!

However, who can gainsay that same youth? The very spice of danger mademy steps light and the way pleasant. For a mile or two the track wasplain enough, through an undulating country gradually becoming more andmore wooded with vegetation, changing rapidly from Alpine tosub-tropical. The air also grew warmer, and when the dividing ridge wascrossed and a thick forest entered, the snows and dreadful region ofDeadmen's Ice already seemed leagues and leagues away. 

Probably a warm ocean current played on one side of the peninsula, while a cold one swept the other, but for scientific aspects of thequestion I cared little in my joy at being anew in a soft climate, amongst beautiful flowers and vivid life again. Mile after mileslipped quickly by as I strode along, whistling "Yankee Doodle" tomyself and revelling in the change. At one place I met a rough-lookingMartian woodcutter, who wanted to fight until he found I also wantedto, when he turned very civil and as talkative as a solitary liveroften is when his tongue gets started. He particularly desired to knowwhere I came from, and, as in the case with so many other of hiscountrymen, took it for granted, and with very little surprise, that Iwas either a spirit or an inhabitant of another world. With this ideain his mind he gave me a curious piece of information, which, unfortunately, I was never able to follow up. 

"I don't think you can be a spirit, " he said, critically eyeing myclothes, which were now getting ragged and dirty beyond description. "They are finer-looking things than you, and I doubt if their toes comethrough their shoes like yours do. If you are a wanderer from thestars, you are not like that other one we have down yonder, " and hepointed to the southward. 

"What!" I asked, pricking my ears in amazement, "another wanderer fromthe outside world! Does he come from the earth?"--using the word Anhad given me to signify my own planet. 

"No, not from there; from the one that burns blue in evening betweensun and sea. Men say he worked as a stoker or something of the kindwhen he was at home, and got trifling with a volcano tap, and waslapped in hot mud, and blown out here. My brother saw him about a weekago. "

"Now what you say is down right curious. I thought I had a monopoly ofthat kind of business in this sphere of yours. I should betremendously interested to see him. "

"No you wouldn't, " briefly answered the woodman. "He is the stupidestfool ever blown from one world to another--more stupid to look at thanyou are. He is a gaseous, wavey thing, so glum you can't get two wordsa week out of him, and so unstable that you never know when you arewith him and when the breeze has drifted him somewhere else. "

I could but laugh and insist, with all respect to the woodcutter, suchan individual were worth the knowing however unstable his constitution;at which the man shrugged his shoulders and changed the conversation, as though the subject were too trivial to be worth much consideration. 

This individual gave me the pleasure of his company until nearlysundown, and finding I took an interest in things of the forest, pointed out more curious plants and trees than I have space to mention. Two of them, however, cling to my memory very tenaciously. One was avery Circe amongst plants, the horrible charm of which can never beforgotten. We were going down a glade when a most ravishing odour fellupon my nostrils. It was heavenly sweet yet withal there lurked anincredibly, unexpressibly tempting spice of wickedness in it. Themoment he caught that ambrosial invitation in the air my woodman spitfiercely on the ground, and taking a plug of wool from his pouchstuffed his nostrils up. Then he beckoned me to come away. But theodour was too ravishing, I was bound to see whence it arose, andfinding me deaf to all warnings, the man reluctantly turned aside downthe enticing trail. We pushed about a hundred yards through bushesuntil we came to a little arena full in sunshine where there wereneither birds nor butterflies, but a death-like hush upon everything. Indeed, the place seemed shunned in spite of the sodden loveliness ofthat scent which monopolised and mounted to my brain until I wasbeginning to be drunk with the sheer pleasure of it. And there in thecentre of the space stood a plant not unlike a tree fern, about sixfeet high, and crowned by one huge and lovely blossom. It resembled avast passion-flower of incredible splendour. There were four petals, with points resting on the ground, each six feet long, ivory-whiteinside, exquisitely patterned with glittering silver veins. From thebase of these rose upright a gauzy veil of azure filaments of the samelength as the petals, wirelike, yet soft as silk, and inside them againrested a chalice of silver holding a tiny pool of limpid golden honey. Circe, indeed! It was from that cup the scent arose, and my throatgrew dry with longing as I looked at it; my eyes strained through theblue tendrils towards that liquid nectar, and my giddy senses felt theymust drink or die! I glanced at the woodman with a smile of drunkenhappiness, then turned tottering legs towards the blossom. A stride upthe smooth causeway of white petals, a push through the azure haze, andthe wine of the wood enchantress would be mine--molten amber wine, hotter and more golden than the sunshine; the fire of it was in myveins, the recklessness of intoxication was on me, life itself asnothing compared to a sip from that chalice, my lips must taste or mysoul would die, and with trembling hand and strained face I began toclimb. 

But the woodman pulled me back. 

"Back, stranger!" he cried. "Those who drink there never live again. "

"Blessed oblivion! If I had a thousand lives the price were still toocheap, " and once more I essayed to scramble up. 

But the man was a big fellow, and with nostrils plugged, and eyesaverted from the deadly glamour, he seized me by the collar and threwme back. Three times I tried, three times he hurled me down, far toofaint and absorbed to heed the personal violence. Then standingbetween us, "Look, " he said, "look and learn. "

He had killed a small ape that morning, meaning later on to take itsfur for clothing, and this he now unslung from his shoulder, andhitching the handle of his axe into the loose skin at the back of itsneck, cautiously advanced to the witch plant, and gently hoisted themonkey over the blue palings. The moment its limp, dead feet touchedthe golden pool a shudder passed through the plant, and a birdsomewhere far back in the forest cried out in horror. Quick asthought, a spasm of life shot up the tendrils, and like tongues of blueflame they closed round the victim, lapping his miserable body in theirembrace. At the same time the petals began to rise, showing as theydid so hard, leathery, unlovely outer rinds, and by the time thewoodman was back at my side the flower was closed. 

Closer and closer wound the blue tendrils; tighter and tighter closedthe cruel petals with their iron grip, until at last we heard the ape'sbones crackling like dry firewood; then next his head burst, his brainscame oozing through the crevices, while blood and entrails followedthem through every cranny, and the horrible mess with the overflow ofthe chalice curled down the stem in a hundred steaming rills, till atlast the petals locked with an ugly snap upon their ghastly meal, and Iturned away from the sight in dread and loathing. 

That was plant Number One. 

Plant Number Two was of milder disposition, and won a hearty laugh formy friendly woodman. In fact, being of a childlike nature, his successas a professor of botany quite pleased him, and not content withanswering my questions, he set to work to find new vegetable surprises, greatly enjoying my wonder and the sense of importance it gave him. 

In this way we came, later on in the day, to a spot where herbage wassomewhat scantier, the grass coarse, and soil shallow. Here I espied atree of small size, apparently withered, but still bearing a fewparched leaves on its uppermost twigs. 

"Now that, " quoth the professor, "is a highly curious tree, and Ishould like you to make a close acquaintance with it. It grows from aseed in the course of a single springtime, perishes in the summer; buta few specimens stand throughout the winter, provided the situation issheltered, as this one has done. If you will kindly go down and shakeits stem I believe you will learn something interesting. "

So, very willing to humour him, away I went to the tree, which wasperfect in every detail, but apparently very dry, clasped it with bothhands, and, pulling myself together, gave it a mighty shake. Theresult was instantaneous. The whole thing was nothing but a skin ofdust, whence all fibre and sap had gone, and at my touch it dissolvedinto a cloud of powder, a huge puff of white dust which descended on meas though a couple of flour-bags had been inverted over my head; and asI staggered out sneezing and blinking, white as a miller from face tofoot, the Martian burst into a wild, joyous peal of laughter that madethe woods ring again. His merriment was so sincere I had not the heartto be angry, and soon laughed as loud as he did; though, for thefuture, I took his botanical essays with a little more caution. 

CHAPTER XIV

That woodman friend of mine proved so engaging it was difficult to getaway, and thus when, dusk upon us, and my object still a long distanceoff, he asked me to spend the night at his hut, I gladly assented. 

We soon reached the cabin where the man lived by himself whilst workingin the forest. It was a picturesque little place on a tree-overhunglagoon, thatched, wattled, and all about were piles of apleasant-scented bark, collected for the purpose of tanning hides, andI could not but marvel that such a familiar process should be practisedidentically on two sides of the universal ether. But as a matter offact the similarity of many details of existence here and there was themost striking of the things I learned whilst in the red planet. 

Within the hut stood a hearth in the centre of the floor, whereon acomfortable blaze soon sparkled, and upon the walls hung variousimplements, hides, and a store of dried fruits of various novel kinds. My host, when he had somewhat disdainfully watched me wash in a rill ofwater close by, suggested supper, and I agreed with heartiest good will. 

"Nothing wonderful! Oh, Mr. Blue-coat!" he said, prancing about as hemade his hospitable arrangements. "No fine meat or scented wine tounlock, one by one, all the doors of paradise, such as I have heardthey have in lands beyond the sea; but fare good enough for plain menwho eat but to live. So! reach me down yonder bunch of yellow arufruit, and don't upset that calabash, for all my funniest stories lurkat the bottom of it. "

I did as he bid, and soon we were squatting by the fire toasting aruson pointed sticks, the doorway closed with a wattle hurdle, and theblack and gold firelight filling the hut with fantastic shadows. Thenwhen the banana-like fruit was ready, the man fetched from a recess aloaf of bread savoured with the dust of dried and pounded fish, put theforesaid calabash of strong ale to warm, and down we sat to supper withreal woodman appetites. Seldom have I enjoyed a meal so much, and whenwe had finished the fruit and the wheat cake my guide snatched up thegreat gourd of ale, and putting it to his lips called out:

"Here's to you, stranger; here's to your country; here's to your girl, if you have one, and death to your enemies!" Then he drank deep andlong, and, passed the stuff to me. 

"Here's to you, bully host, and the missus, and the children, if thereare any, and more power to your elbow!"--the which gratified himgreatly, though probably he had small idea of my meaning. 

And right merry we were that evening. The host was a jolly goodfellow, and his ale, with a pleasant savour of mint in it, was theheartiest drink I ever set lips to. We talked and laughed till thevery jackals yapped in sympathy outside. And when he had told a scoreof wonderful wood stories as pungent of the life of these fairy forestsas the aromatic scent of his bark-heaps outside, as iridescent with thecolours of another world as the rainbow bubbles riding down his starlitrill, I took a turn, and told him of the commonplaces of my world sofar away, whereat he laughed gloriously again. The greater thecommonplace the larger his joy. The humblest story, hardly calculatedto impress a griffin between watches on the main-deck, was amasterpiece of wit to that gentle savage; and when I "took off" thetricks and foibles of some of my superiors--Heaven forgive me for suchtreason!--he listened with the exquisite open-mouthed delight of onewho wanders in a brand-new world of mirth. 

We drank and laughed over that strong beer till the little owls outsideraised their voice in combined accord, and then the woodman, shakingthe last remnant of his sleepy wits together, and giving a reproachfullook at me for finally passing him the gourd empty to the last drop, rose, threw a fur on a pile of dead grass at one side of the hut, andbid me sleep, "for his brain was giddy with the wonders of theincredible and ludicrous sphere which I had lately inhabited. "

Slowly the fire died away; slowly the quivering gold and blackarabesques on the walls merged in a red haze as the sticks dropped intotinder, and the great black outline of the hairy monster who had thrownhimself down by the embers rose up the walls against that flush likethe outline of a range of hills against a sunset glow. I listeneddrowsily for a space to his snoring and the laughing answer of thebrook outside, and then that ambrosial sleep which is the gentleattendant of hardship and danger touched my tired eyelids, and I, too, slept. 

My friend was glum the next morning, as they who stay over-long at thesupper flagon are apt to be. He had been at work an hour on hisbark-heaps when I came out into the open, and it was only by a gooddeal of diplomacy and some material help in sorting his faggots that hewas got into a better frame of mind. I could not, however, trust hismood completely, and as I did not want to end so jovial a friendshipwith a quarrel, I hurried through our breakfast of dry bread, withhard-boiled lizard eggs, and then settling my reckoning with one of thebrass buttons from my coat, which he immediately threaded, with everyevidence of extreme gratification, on a string of trinkets hanginground his neck, asked him the way to Ar-hap's capital. 

"Your way is easy, friend, as long as you keep to the straight path andhave yonder two-humped mountain in front. To the left is the sea, andbehind the hill runs the canal and road by which all traffic comes orgoes to Ar-hap. But above all things pass not to the hills right, forno man goes there; there away the forests are thick as night, and intheir perpetual shadows are the ruins of a Hither city, a haunted fairytown to which some travellers have been, but whence none ever returnedalive. "

"By the great Jove, that sounds promising! I would like to see thattown if my errand were not so urgent. "

But the old fellow shook his shaggy head and turned a shade yellower. "It is no place for decent folk, " he growled. "I myself once passedwithin a mile of its outskirts at dusk, and saw the unholy littlepeople's lanterned processions starting for the shrine of Queen Yang, who, tradition says, killed herself and a thousand babies with her whenwe took this land. "

"My word, that was a holocaust! Couldn't I drop in there to lunch? Itwould make a fine paper for an antiquarian society. "

Again the woodman frowned. "Do as I bid you, son. You are too youngand green to go on ventures by yourself. Keep to the straight road:shun the swamps and the fairy forest, else will you never see Ar-hap. "

"And as I have very urgent and very important business with him, comrade, no doubt your advice is good. I will call on Princess Yangsome other day. And now goodbye! Rougher but friendlier shelter thanyou have given me no man could ask for. I am downright sorry to partwith you in this lonely land. If ever we meet again--" but we neverdid! The honest old churl clasped me into his hairy bosom three times, stuffed my wallet with dry fruit and bread, and once more repeating hisdirections, sent me on my lonely way. 

I confess I sighed while turning into the forest, and looked back morethan once at his retreating form. The loneliness of my position, thehopelessness of my venture, welled up in my heart after that goodcomradeship, and when the hut was out of sight I went forward down thegreen grass road, chin on chest, for twenty minutes in the deepestdejection. But, thank Heaven, I was born with a tough spirit, andpossess a mind which has learned in many fights to give brave counselto my spirit, and thus presently I shook myself together, setting myface boldly to the quest and the day's work. 

It was not so clear a morning as the previous one, and a steamy wind onwhat at sea I should have called the starboard bow, as I pressedforward to the distant hill, had a curiously subduing effect on mythoughts, and filled the forest glades with a tremulous unreality liketo nothing on our earth, and distinctly embarrassing to a stranger in astrange land. Small birds in that quaint atmospheric haze looked likecondors, butterflies like giant fowl, and the simplest objects of theforest like the imaginations of a disordered dream. Behind that gauzyhallucination a fine white mist came up, and the sun spread out flatand red in the sky, while the pent-in heat became almost unendurable. 

Still I plodded on, growling to myself that in Christian latitudes allthe evidences would have been held to betoken a storm before night, whatever they might do here, but for the most part lost in my owngloomy speculations. That was the more pity since, in thinking thewalk over now, it seems to me that I passed many marvels, saw manyglorious vistas in those nameless forests, many spreads of colour, manyincidents that, could I but remember them more distinctly, would supplymaterial for making my fortune as a descriptive traveller. But whatwould you? I have forgotten, and am too virtuous to draw on myimagination, as it is sometimes said other travellers have done whenpicturesque facts were deficient. Yes, I have forgotten all about thatday, save that it was sultry hot, that I took off my coat and waistcoatto be cooler, carrying them, like the tramp I was, across my arm, andthus dishevelled passed some time in the afternoon an encampment offorest folk, wherefrom almost all the men were gone, and the women shyand surly. 

In no very social humour myself, I walked round their woodland village, and on the outskirts, by a brook, just as I was wishing there were someone to eat my solitary lunch with, chanced upon a fellow busily engagedin hammering stones into weapons upon a flint anvil. 

He was an ugly-looking individual at best, yet I was hard up forcompany, so I put my coat down, and, seating myself on a log opposite, proceeded to open my wallet, and take out the frugal stores the woodmanhad given me that morning. 

The man was seated upon the ground holding a stone anvil between hisfeet, while with his hands he turned and chipped with great skill aspear-head he was making out of flint. It was about the only pastimehe had, and his little yellow eyes gleamed with a craftsman's pleasure, his shaggy round shoulders were bent over the task, the chips flew inquick particles, and the wood echoed musically as the artificer watchedthe thing under his hands take form and fashion. Presently I spoke, and the worker looked up, not too pleased at being thus interrupted. But he was easy of propitiation, and over a handful of dried raisinscommunicative. 

How, I asked, knowing a craftsman's craft is often nearest to hisheart, how was it such things as that he chipped came to be thought ofby him and his? Whereon the woodman, having spit out the raisin-stonesand wiped his fingers on his fur, said in substance that the firstweapon was fashioned when the earliest ape hurled the first stone inwrath. 

"But, chum, " I said, taking up his half-finished spear and touching therazor-fine edge with admiring caution, "from hurling the crude pebbleto fashioning such as this is a long stride. Who first edged andpointed the primitive malice? What man with the soul of a thousandunborn fighters in him notched and sharpened your natural rock?"

Whereon the chipper grinned, and answered that, when the woodmen hadfound stones that would crack skulls, it came upon them presently thatthey would crack nuts as well. And cracking nuts between two stonesone day a flint shattered, and there on the grass was the golden secretof the edge--the thing that has made man what he is. 

"Yet again, good fellow, " I queried, "even this happy chance only givesus a weapon, sharp, no doubt, and calculated to do a hundred servicesfor any ten the original pebble could have done, but still unhandled, small in force, imperfect--now tell me, which of your amiable ancestorsfirst put a handle to the fashioned flint, and how he thought of it?"

The workman had done his flake by now, and wrapping it in a bit ofskin, put it carefully in his belt before turning to answer my question. 

"Who made the first handle for the first flint, you of the manyquestions? She did--she, the Mother, " he suddenly cried, patting theearth with his brown hand, and working himself up as he spoke, "made itin her heart for us her first-born. See, here is such as the firsthandled weapon that ever came out of darkness, " and he snatched fromthe ground, where it had lain hidden under his fox-skin cloak, a heavyclub. I saw in an instant how it was. The club had been a sapling, andthe sapling's roots had grown about and circled with a splendid grip alump of native flint. A woodman had pulled the sapling, found theflint, and fashioned the two in a moment of happy inspiration, the oneto an axe-head and the other to a handle, as they lay Nature-welded!

"This, I say, is the first--the first!" screamed the old fellow asthough I were contradicting him, thumping the ground with his weapon, and working himself up to a fury as its black magic entered his being. "This is the first: with this I slew Hetter and Gur, and those whoplundered my hiding-places in the woods; with this I have killed ascore of others, bursting their heads, and cracking their bones likedry sticks. With this--with this--" but here his rage rendered himinarticulate; he stammered and stuttered for a minute, and then as thekilling fury settled on him his yellow teeth shut with a sudden snap, while through them his breath rattled like wind through dead pinebranches in December, the sinews sat up on his hands as his fingerstightened upon the axe-heft like the roots of the same pines from theground when winter rain has washed the soil from beneath them; hissmall eyes gleamed like baleful planets; every hair upon his shaggyback grew stiff and erect--another minute and my span were ended. 

With a leap from where I sat I flew at that hairy beast, and sinking myfists deep in his throttle, shook him till his eyes blazed withdelirious fires. We waltzed across the short greensward, and in andabout the tree-trunks, shaking, pulling, and hitting as we went, tillat last I felt the man's vigour dying within him; a little moreshaking, a sudden twist, and he was lying on the ground before me, senseless and civil! That is the worst of some orators, I thought tomyself, as I gloomily gathered up the scattered fragments of my lunch;they never know when they have said enough, and are too apt to becarried away by their own arguments. 

That inhospitable village was left behind in full belief the mountainlooming in the south could be reached before nightfall, while the roadto its left would serve as a sure guide to food and shelter for theevening. But, as it turned out, the morning's haze developed a strongmist ere the afternoon was half gone, through which it was impossibleto see more than twenty yards. My hill loomed gigantic for a time witha tantalising appearance of being only a mile or two ahead, thenwavered, became visionary, and finally disappeared as completely asthough the forest mist had drunk it up bodily. 

There was still the road to guide me, a fairly well-beaten tracktwining through the glades; but even the best of highways are difficultin fog, and this one was complicated by various side paths, madeprobably by hunters or bark-cutters, and without compass or guide marksit was necessary to advance with extreme caution, or get helplesslymazed. 

An hour's steady tramping brought me nowhere in particular, andstopping for a minute to consider, I picked a few wild fruit, such asmy wood-cutter friend had eaten, from an overhanging bush, and in sodoing slipped, the soil having now become damp, and in falling broke abranch off. The incident was only important from what follows. Pickingmyself up, perhaps a little shaken by the jolt, I set off again uponwhat seemed the plain road, and being by this time displeased by mysurroundings, determined to make a push for "civilization" before therapidly gathering darkness settled down. 

Hands in pockets and collar up, I marched forward at a good round pacefor an hour, constantly straining eyes for a sight of the hill and earsfor some indications of living beings in the deathly hush of theshrouded woods, and at the end of that time, feeling sure habitationsmust now be near, arrived at what looked like a little open space, somehow seeming rather familiar in its vague outlines. 

Where had I seen such a place before? Sauntering round the margin, abush with a broken branch suddenly attracted my attention--a brokenbush with a long slide in the mud below it, and the stamp of Navy bootsin the soft turf! I glared at those signs for a moment, then with anexclamation of chagrin recognised them only too well--it was the bushwhence I had picked the fruit, and the mark of my fall. An hour's hardwalking round some accursed woodland track had brought me exactly backto the point I had started from--I was lost!

It really seemed to get twenty per cent darker as I made thatabominable discovery, and the position dawned in all its uncomfortableintensity. There was nothing for it but to start off again, this timejudging my direction only by a light breath of air drifting the misttangles before it; and therein I made a great mistake, for the breezehad shifted several points from the quarter whence it blew in themorning. 

Knowing nothing of this, I went forward with as much lightheartednessas could be managed, humming a song to myself, and carefully puttingaside thoughts of warmth and supper, while the dusk increased and thegreat forest vegetation seemed to grow ranker and closer at every step. 

Another disconcerting thing was that the ground sloped graduallydownwards, not upwards as it should have done, till it seemed the pathlay across the flats of a forest-covered plain, which did not conformto my wish of striking a road on the foot-hills of the mountain. However, I plodded on, drawing some small comfort from the fact that asdarkness came the mist rose from the ground and appeared to condense ina ghostly curtain twenty feet overhead, where it hung between me and aclear night sky, presently illumined by starlight with the strangesteffect. 

Tired, footsore, and dejected, I struggled on a little further. Oh fora cab, I laughed bitterly to myself. Oh for even the humble necessaryomnibus of civilisation. Oh for the humblest tuck-shop where a mug ofhot coffee and a snack could be had by a homeless wanderer; and as Ithought and plodded savagely on, collar up, hands in pockets, throughthe black tangles of that endless wood, suddenly the sound of wailingchildren caught my ear!

It was the softest, saddest music ever mortal listened to. It was asthough scores of babes in pain were dropping to sleep on their mothers'breasts, and all hushing their sorrows with one accord in a commonmelancholy chorus. I stood spell-bound at that elfin wailing, thefirst sound to break the deathly stillness of the road for an hour ormore, and my blood tingled as I listened to it. Nevertheless, here waswhat I was looking for; where there were weeping children there must behabitations, and shelter, and--splendid thought!--supper. Poor littlebabes! their crying was the deadliest, sweetest thing in sorrows I everlistened to. If it was cholic--why, I knew a little of medicine, and ingratitude for that prospective supper, I had a soul big enough to curea thousand; and if they were in disgrace, and by some quaint Martianfashion had suffered simultaneous punishment for baby offences, I wouldplead for them. 

In fact, I fairly set off at the run towards the sobbing, in the black, wet, night air ahead, and, tripping as I ran, looked down and saw inthe filtering starlight that the forest grass had given place to anancient roadway, paved with moss-grown flag-stones, such as they stillused in Seth. 

Without stopping to think what that might mean I hurried on, thewailing now right ahead, a tremulous tumult of gentle grief rising andfalling on the night air like the sound of a sea after a storm; and so, presently, in a minute or two, came upon a ruined archway spanning thelonely road, held together by great masses of black-fingered creepers, gaunt and ghostly in the shadows, an extraordinary and unexpectedvision; and as I stopped with a jerk under that forbidding gateway andglared at its tumbled masonry and great portals hanging rotten at theirhinges, suddenly the truth flashed upon me. I had taken the forbiddenroad after all. I was in the ancient, ghost-haunted city of Queen Yang!

CHAPTER XV

The dark forest seemed to shut behind as I entered the gateway of thedeserted Hither town, against which my wood-cutter friend had warnedme, while inside the soft mist hung in the starlight like grey draperyover endless vistas of ruins. What was I to do? Without all was blackand cheerless, inside there was at least shelter. Wet and cold, mycourage was not to be put down by the stories of a silly savage; Iwould go on whatever happened. Besides, the soft sound of crying, nowapparently all about, seemed companionable, and I had heard so much ofghosts of late, the sharp edge of fear at their presence was wearingoff. 

So in I went: up a broad, decayed street, its flagstones heavedeverywhere by the roots of gnarled trees, and finding nothing saveruin, tried to rest under a wall. But the night air was chilly and theshelter poor, so out I came again, with the wailing in the shadows soclose about now that I stopped, and mustering up courage called aloud:

"Hullo, you who weep there in the dark, are you living or dead?" Andafter a minute from the hollows of the empty hearths around came thesad little responsive echo:

"Are you living or dead?" It was very delusive and unsatisfactory, andI was wondering what to do next when a slant of warmer wind came upbehind me under the mist, and immediately little tongues of blue flameblossomed without visible cause in every darksome crevice; paleflickers of miasmic light rising pallid from every lurking nook andcorner in the black desolation as though a thousand lamps were lit byunseen fingers, and, knee high, floated out into the thoroughfare wherethey oscillated gently in airy grace, and then, forming intoprocession, began drifting before the tepid air towards the citycentre. At once I thought of what the woodcutter had seen, but was toowet and sulky by this time to care. The fascination of the place was onme, and dropping into rear of the march, I went forward with it. Bythis time the wailing had stopped, though now and then it seemed a darkform moved in the empty doorways on either hand, while the mist, parting into gossamers before the wind, took marvellously human formsin every alley and lane we passed. 

Thus I, a sodden giant, led by those elfin torches, paced through thecity until we came to an open square with a great lumber of ruins inthe centre all marred and spoiled by vegetation; and here the lightswavered, and went out by scores and hundreds, just as the petals dropfrom spent flowers, while it seemed, though it may have been only windin the rank grass, that the air was full of most plaintive sighs aseach little lamp slipped into oblivion. 

The big pile was a mass of fallen masonry, which, from the brokenpillars all about, might have been a palace or temple once. I pushedin, but it was as dark as Hades here, so, after struggling for a timein a labyrinth of chambers, chose a sandy recess, with some dry herbageby way of bedding in a corner, and there, thankful at least forshelter, my night's wanderings came to an end and I coiled myself down, ate a last handful of dry fruit, and, strange as it may seem, was soonsleeping peacefully. 

I dreamed that night that a woman, with a face as white as ivory, cameand bent over me. She led a babe by either hand, while behind her werescores of other ones, with lovely faces, but all as pale as the starsthemselves, who looked and sighed, but said nothing, and when they hadstared their fill, dropped out one by one, leaving a wonderful blank inthe monotony where they had been; but beyond that dream nothinghappened. 

It was a fine morning when I woke again, and obviously broad dayoutside, the sunshine coming down through cracks in the old palaceroof, and lying in golden pools on the floor with dazzling effect. 

Rubbing my eyes and sitting up, it took me some time to get my sensestogether, and at first an uneasy feeling possessed me that I wassomehow dematerialised and in an unreal world. But a twinge of crampin my left arm, and a healthy sneeze, which frightened a score of batsoverhead nearly out of their senses, was reassuring on this point, andrubbing away the cramp and staggering to my feet, I looked about at thestrange surroundings. It was cavernous chaos on every side:magnificent architecture reduced to the confusion of a debris-heap, only the hollow chambers being here and there preserved by massivecolumns meeting overhead. Into these the yellow light filteredwherever a rent in a cupola or side-wall admitted it, and allured bythe vision of corridors one beyond the other, I presently set off on atour of discovery. 

Twenty minutes' scrambling brought me to a place where the fallen jambsof a fine doorway lay so close together that there was barely room topass between them. However, seeing light beyond, I squeezed through, and I found myself in the best-preserved chamber of all--a wide, roomyhall with a domed roof, a haze of mural paintings on the walls, and amarble floor nearly hidden in a century of fallen dust. I stumbled oversomething at the threshold, and picking it up, found it was a baby'sskull! And there were more of them now that my eyes became accustomedto the light. The whole floor was mottled with them--scores andhundreds of bones and those poor little relics of humanity jutting outof the sand everywhere. In the hush of that great dead nursery thelittle white trophies seemed inexpressibly pathetic, and I should haveturned back reverently from that chamber of forgotten sorrows but thatsomething caught my eye in the centre of it. 

It was an oblong pile of white stone, very ill-used and chipped, wrist-deep in dust, yet when a slant of light came in from above andfell straight upon it, the marble against the black gloom beyond blazedlike living pearl. It was dazzling; and shading my eyes and goingtenderly over through the poor dead babes, I looked, and there, full inthe shine, lay a woman's skeleton, still wrapped in a robe of whichlittle was left save the hard gold embroidery. Her brown hair, wonderful to say, still lay like lank, dead seaweed about her, andamongst it was a fillet crown of plain iron set with gems such as eyenever looked upon before. There were not many, but enough to make theproud simplicity of that circlet glisten like a little band of fire--agleaming halo on her dead forehead infinitely fascinating. At hersides were two other little bleached human flowers, and I stood beforethem for a long time in silent sympathy. 

Could this be Queen Yang, of whom the woodcutter had told me? It mustbe--who else? And if it were, what strange chance had brought mehere--a stranger, yet the first to come, since her sorrow, from herdistant kindred? And if it were, then that fillet belonged of right toHeru, the last representative of her kind. Ought I not to take it toher rather than leave it as spoil to the first idle thief with pluckenough to deride the mysteries of the haunted city? Long time I thoughtover it in the faint, heavy atmosphere of that hall, and then verygently unwound the hair, lifted the circlet, and, scarcely knowing whatI did, put it in my shoulder-bag. 

After that I went more cheerfully into the outside sunshine, andsetting my clothes to dry on a stone, took stock of the situation. Theplace was, perhaps, not quite so romantic by day as by night, and thescattered trees, matted by creepers, with which the whole wereovergrown, prevented anything like an extensive view of the ruined citybeing obtained. But what gave me great satisfaction was to note overthese trees to the eastward a two-humped mountain, not more than six orseven miles distant--the very one I had mislaid the day before. Herewas reality and a chance of getting back to civilisation. I was asglad as if home were in sight, and not, perhaps, the less so becausethe hill meant villages and food; and you who have doubtless lunchedwell and lately will please bear in mind I had had nothing sincebreakfast the day before; and though this may look picturesque onpaper, in practice it is a painful item in one's programme. 

Well, I gave my damp clothes but a turn or two more in the sun, andthen, arguing that from the bare ground where the forest ended half-wayup the hill, a wide view would be obtained, hurried into my garmentsand set off thither right gleefully. A turn or two down the blankstreets, now prosaic enough, an easy scramble through a gap in thecrumbling battlements, and there was the open forest again, with afriendly path well marked by the passage of those wild animals who madethe city their lair trending towards my landmark. 

A light breakfast of soft green nuts, plucked on the way, and then theground began to bend upwards and the woods to thin a little. Withinfinite ardour, just before midday, I scrambled on to a bare knoll onthe very hillside, and fell exhausted before the top could be reached. 

But what were hunger or fatigue to the satisfaction of that moment?There was the sea before me, the clear, strong, gracious sea, blueleagues of it, furrowed by the white ridges of some distant storm. Icould smell the scent of it even here, and my sailor heart rose inpride at the companionship of that alien ocean. Lovely and blessedthing! how often have I turned from the shallow trivialities of theland and found consolation in the strength of your stately solitudes!How often have I turned from the tinselled presence of the shore, theinfinite pretensions of dry land that make life a sorry, hectic sham, and found in the black bosom of the Great Mother solace and comfort!Dear, lovely sea, man--half of every sphere, as far removed in thesequence of your strong emotions from the painted fripperies of thewoman-land as pole from pole--the grateful blessing of the humblest ofyour followers on you!

The mere sight of salt water did me good. Heaven knows our separationhad not been long, and many an unkind slap has the Mother given me inthe bygone; yet the mere sight of her was tonic, a lethe of troubles, asedative for tired nerves; and I gazed that morning at the illimitableblue, the great, unfettered road to everywhere, the ever-varied, theimmutable, the thing which was before everything and shall be last ofall, in an ecstasy of affection. 

There was also other satisfaction at hand. Not a mile away lay awell-defined road--doubtless the one spoken of by the wood-cutter--andwhere the track pointed to the seashore the low roofs and circlingsmoke of a Thither township showed. 

There I went hot-footed, and, much too hungry to be nice in formality, swung up to the largest building on the waterside quay and demandedbreakfast of the man who was lounging by its doorway chewing a honeyreed. He looked me up and down without emotion, then, falling into thecommon mistake, said, "This is not a hostel for ghosts, sir. We do not board and lodgephantoms here; this is a dry fish shop. "

"Thrice blessed trade!" I answered. "Give me some dried fish, goodfellow, or, for the matter of that, dried horse or dog, or anythingmortal teeth can bite through, and I will show you my tastes arealtogether mundane. "

But he shook his head. "This is no place for the likes of you, whocome, mayhap, from the city of Yang or some other abode of disembodiedspirits--you, who come for mischief and pay harbourage withmischance--is it likely you could eat wholesome food?"

"Indeed I could, and plenty of it, seeing I have dined and breakfastedalong the hedges with the blackbirds this two days. Look here, I willpay in advance. Will that get me a meal?" and, whipping out my knife, cut off another of my fast-receding coat buttons. 

The man took it with great interest, as I hoped he would, the yellowmetal being apparently a very scarce commodity in his part of theplanet. 

"Gold?" he asked. 

"Well--ahem! I forgot to ask the man who sewed them on for me whatthey were exactly, but it looks like gold, doesn't it?"

"Yes, " he answered, turning it to and fro admiringly in his hand, "youare the first ghost I ever knew to pay in advance, and plenty of themgo to and fro through here. Such a pretty thing is well worth ameal--if, indeed, you can stomach our rough fare. Here, you womanwithin, " he called to the lady whom I presume was his wife, "here is agentleman from the nether regions who wants some breakfast and has paidin advance. Give him some of your best, for he has paid well. "

"And what, " said a female voice from inside, "what if I refused toserve another of these plaguy wanderers you are always foisting uponme?"

"Don't mind her tongue, sir. It's the worst part of her, though she ismighty proud of it. Go in and she will see you do not come outhungry, " and the Thither man returned calmly to his honey stick. 

"Come on, you Soul-with-a-man's-stomach, " growled the woman, and toohungry to be particular about the tone of invitation, I strode into theparlour of that strange refreshment place. The woman was the first Ihad seen of the outer race, and better than might have been expected inappearance. Big, strong, and ruddy, she was a mental shock after theslender slips of girlhood on the far side of the water, half a dozen ofwhom she could have carried off without effort in her long arms. Yetthere was about her the credential of rough health, the dignity ofmuscle, an upright carriage, an animal grace of movement, and withal acomely though strongly featured face, which pleased me at once, andlater on I had great cause to remember her with gratitude. She eyed mesulkily for a minute, then her frown gradually softened, and theinstinctive love of the woman for the supernatural mastered her otherfeelings. 

"Is that how you looked in another world?" she asked. 

"Yes, exactly, cap to boots. What do you think of the attire, ma'am?"

"Not much, " replied the good woman frankly. "It could not have beenbecoming even when new, and you appear as though you had taken a muddyroad since then. What did you die of?"

"I will tell you so much as this, madam--that what I am like to die ofnow is hunger, plain, unvarnished hunger, so, in Heaven's name, get outwhat you have and let me fall-to, for my last meal was yesterdaymorning. "

Whereat, with a shrug of her shoulders at the eccentricities of netherfolk, the woman went to the rear of the house, and presently came backwith a meal which showed her husband had done scant justice to theestablishment by calling it a dry fish shop. It is true, fish suppliedthe staple of the repast, as was inevitable in a seaport, but, like allMartian fish, it was of ambrosial kind, with a savour about it of wineand sunshine such as no fish on our side of space can boast of. Thenthere were cakes, steaming and hot, vegetables which fitted into theprevious course with exquisite nicety, and, lastly, a wooden tankard ofthe invariable Thither beer to finish off. Such a meal as a hungry manmight consider himself fortunate to meet with any day. 

The woman watched me eat with much satisfaction, and when I hadanswered a score of artless questions about my previous state, orpresent condition and prospects, more or less to her satisfaction, shesupplied me in turn with some information which was really valuable tome just then. 

First I learned that Ar-hap's men, with the abducted Heru, had passedthrough this very port two days before, and by this time were probablyin the main town, which, it appeared, was only about twelve hours'rowing up the salt-water estuary outside. Here was news! Heru, theprize and object of my wild adventure, close at hand and well. Itbrought a whole new train of thoughts, for the last few days had beenso full of the stress of travel, the bare, hard necessity of gettingforward, that the object of my quest, illogical as it may seem, hadgone into the background before these things. And here again, as Ifinished the last cake and drank down to the bottom of the ale tankard, the extreme folly of the venture came upon me, the madness of venturingsingle-handed into the den of the Wood King. What had I to hope for?What chance, however remote, was there of successfully wresting thatblooming prize from the arms of her captor? Force was out of thequestion; stealth was utterly impractical; as for cajolery, apparentlythe sole remaining means of winning back the Princess--why, one mightas well try the persuasion of a penny flute upon a hungry eagle as seekto rouse Ar-hap's sympathies for bereaved Hath in that way. Surely togo forward would mean my own certain destruction, with no advantage, nohelp to Heru; and if I was ever to turn back or stop in the idle quest, here was the place and time. My Hither friends were behind the sea; tothem I could return before it was too late, and here were the rough buthonest Thither folk, who would doubtless let me live amongst them ifthat was to be my fate. One or other alternative were better than goingto torture and death. 

"You seem to take the fate of that Hither girl of yours mightily toheart, stranger, " quoth my hostess, with a touch of feminine jealousy, as she watched my hesitation. "Do you know anything of her?"

"Yes, " I answered gloomily. "I have seen her once or twice away inSeth. "

"Ah, that reminds me! When they brought her up here from the boats todry her wet clothes, she cried and called in her grief for just such aone as you, saying he alone who struck down our men at her feast couldrescue her--"

"What! Heru here in this room but yesterday! How did she look? Wasshe hurt? How had they treated her?"

My eagerness gave me away. The woman looked at me through herhalf-shut eyes a space, and then said, "Oh! sits the wind in THATquarter? So you can love as well as eat. I must say you arewell-conditioned for a spirit. "

I got up and walked about the room a space, then, feeling veryfriendless, and knowing no woman was ever born who was not interestedin another woman's loves, I boldly drew my hostess aside and told herabout Heru, and that I was in pursuit of her, dwelling on the girl'sgentle helplessness, my own hare-brained adventure, and frankly askingwhat sort of a sovereign Ar-hap was, what the customs of his courtmight be, and whether she could suggest any means, temporal orspiritual, by which he might be moved to give back Heru to her kindred. 

Nor was my confidence misplaced. The woman, as I guessed, was touchedsomewhere back in her female heart by my melting love-tale, by myanxiety and Heru's peril. Besides, a ghost in search of a fairylady--and such the slender folk of Seth were still considered to be bythe race which had supplanted them--this was romance indeed. To bebrief, that good woman proved invaluable. 

She told me, firstly, that Ar-hap was believed to be away at war, "weekending" as was his custom, amongst rebellious tribes, and bystarting at once up the water, I should very probably get to the townbefore he did. Secondly, she thought if I kept clear of private brawlsthere was little chance of my receiving injury, from the people at allevents, as they were accustomed to strange visitors, and civil enoughuntil they were fired by war. "Sickle cold, sword hot, " was one oftheir proverbs, meaning thereby that in peaceful times they were lambs, however lionlike they might be in contest. 

This was reassuring, but as to recovering the lady, that was anothermatter over which the good woman shook her head. It was ill comingbetween Ar-hap and his tribute, she said; still, if I wanted to seeHeru once again, this was my opportunity, and, for the rest, thatchance, which often favours the enamoured, must be my help. 

Briefly, though I should probably have gone forward in any case out ofsheer obstinacy, had it been to certain destruction, this better aspectof the situation hastened my resolution. I thanked the woman for help, and then the man outside was called in to advise as to the best andspeediest way of getting within earshot of his hairy sovereignty, themonarch of Thitherland. 

CHAPTER XVI

The Martian told me of a merchant boat with ten rowers which was goingup to the capital in a couple of hours, and as the skipper was a friendof his they would no doubt take me as supercargo, thereby saving thenecessity of passenger fees, which was obviously a consideration withme. It was not altogether a romantic approach to the dungeon of animprisoned beauty, but it was practical, which is often better if notso pleasant. So the offer was gladly closed with, and curling myself ina rug of foxskins, for I was tired with much walking, sailors neverbeing good foot-gangers, I slept soundly fill they came to tell me itwas time to go on board. 

The vessel was more like a canal barge than anything else, lean andlong, with the cargo piled in a ridge down the centre as farmers storetheir winter turnips, the rowers sitting on either side of this plyingoars like dessert-spoons with long handles, while they chanted amonotonous cadence of monosyllables:

 Oh, ho, oh, Oh, ho, oh, How high, how high. 

and then again after a pause--

 How high, how high Oh, ho, oh, Oh, ho, oh. 

the which was infinitely sleep-provoking if not a refrain of a highintellectual order. 

I shut my eyes as we pulled away from the wharfs of that namelessemporium and picked a passage through a crowd of quaint shipping, wondering where I was, and asking myself whether I was mentally risingequal to my extraordinary surroundings, whether I adequatelyappreciated the immensity of my remove from those other seas on which Ihad last travelled, tiller-ropes in hand, piloting a captain's galleyfrom a wharf. Good heavens, what would my comrades on my ship say ifthey could see me now steering a load of hairy savages up one of thosewaterways which our biggest telescopes magnify but to the thickness ofan indication? No, I was not rising equal to the occasion, and couldnot. The human mind is of but limited capacity after all, and suchfreaks of fortune are beyond its conception. I knew I was where I was, but I knew I should probably never get the chance of telling of it, andthat no one would ever believe me if I did, and I resigned myself tothe inevitable with sullen acquiescence, smothering the wonder thatmight have been overwhelming in passing interests of the moment. 

There is little to record of that voyage. We passed through a fleet ofAr-hap's warships, empty and at anchor in double line, serviceablehalf-decked cutters, built of solid timber, not pumpkin rind it waspleasant to notice, and then the town dropped away as we proceeded up astream about as broad as the Hudson at its widest, and profuselystudded with islands. This water was bitterly salt and joined anothersea on the other side of the Martian continent. Yet it had apronounced flow against us eastward, this tide running for three springmonths and being followed, I learned, as ocean temperatures varied, bya flow in the opposite direction throughout the summer. 

Just at present the current was so strong eastwards, the moisturebeaded upon my rowers' tawny hides as they struggled against it, andtheir melancholy song dawdled in "linked sweetness long drawn out, "while the swing of their oars grew longer and longer. Truly it wasvery hot, far hotter than was usual for the season, these men declared, and possibly this robbed me of my wonted energy, and you, gentlereader, of a description of all the strange things we passed upon thathighway. 

Suffice it to say we spent a scorching afternoon, the greater part of astifling night moored under a mud-bank with a grove of trees on topfrom which gigantic fire-flies hung as though the place wereilluminated for a garden fete, and then, rowing on again in thecomparatively cool hours before dawn, turned into a backwater atcock-crow. 

The skipper of our cargo boat roused me just as we turned, puttingunder my sleepy nostrils a handful of toasted beans on a leaf, and asmall cup full of something that was not coffee, but smelt as good asthat matutinal beverage always does to the tired traveller. 

Over our prow was an immense arch of foliage, and underneath a longarcade of cool black shadows, sheltering still water, till water andshadow suddenly ended a quarter of a mile down in a patch of brilliantcolour. It was as peaceful as could be in the first morning light, andto me over all there was the inexpressible attraction of the unknown. 

As our boat slipped silently forward up this leafy lane, a thin white"feather" in her mouth alone breaking the steely surface of the stream, the men rested from their work and began, as sailors will, to put ontheir shore-going clothes, the while they chatted in low tones over theprofits of the voyage. Overhead flying squirrels were flitting to andfro like bats, or shelling fruit whereof the husks fell with a pleasantsplash about us, and on one bank a couple of early mothers were washingtheir babies, whose smothered protests were almost the only sound inthis morning world. 

Another silent dip or two of the oars and the colour ahead crystallisedinto a town. If I said it was like an African village on a largescale, I should probably give you the best description in the fewestwords. From the very water's edge up to the crown of a low hill inland, extended a mass of huts and wooden buildings, embowered and partlyhidden in bright green foliage, with here and there patches of millet, or some such food plant, and the flowers that grow everywhere soabundantly in this country. It was all Arcadian and peaceful enough atthe moment, and as we drew near the men were just coming out to thequays along the harbour front, the streets filling and the town wakingto busy life. 

A turn to the left through a watergate defended by towers of wood andmud, and we were in the city harbour itself; boats of many kinds mooredon every side; quaint craft from the gulfs and bays of Nowhere, full ofunheard-of merchandise, and manned by strange-faced crews, every vessela romance of nameless seas, an epitome of an undiscovered world, andevery moment the scene grew busier as the breakfast smoke arose, andwharf and gangway set to work upon the day's labours. 

Our boat--loaded, as it turned out, with spoil from Seth--was run to aplace of honour at the bottom of the town square, and was an object ofmuch curiosity to a small crowd which speedily collected and lent ahand with the mooring ropes, the while chatting excitedly with the crewabout further tribute and the latest news from overseas. At the sametime a swarthy barbarian, whose trappings showed him to be some sort offunctionary, came down to our "captain, " much wagging of heads andcounting of notched sticks taking place between them. 

I, indeed, was apparently the least interesting item of the cargo, andthis was embarrassing. No hero likes to be neglected, it is fatal tohis part. I had said my prayers and steeled myself to all sorts offine endurance on the way up, and here, when it came to the crisis, noone was anxious to play the necessary villain. They just helped meashore civilly enough, the captain nodded his head at me, mutteringsomething in an indifferent tone to the functionary about a ghost whohad wandered overseas and begged a passage up the canal; the groupabout the quay stared a little, but that was all. 

Once I remember seeing a squatting, life-size heathen idol hoisted froma vessel's hold and deposited on a sugar-box on a New York quay. Someribald passer-by put a battered felt hat upon Vishnu's sacred curls, and there the poor image sat, an alien in an indifferent land, a sackacross its shoulders, a "billycock" upon its head, and honoured at mostwith a passing stare. I thought of that lonely image as almost aslonely I stood on the Thither men's quay, without the support offriends or heroics, wondering what to do next. 

However, a cheerful disposition is sometimes better than a bankingaccount, and not having the one I cultivated the other, sunning myselfamongst the bales for a time, and then, since none seemed interested inme, wandered off into the town, partly to satisfy my curiosity, andpartly in the vague hope of ascertaining if my princess was reallyhere, and, if possible, getting sight of her. 

Meanwhile it turned hot with a supernatural, heavy sort of heataltogether, I overheard passersby exclaiming, out of the common, andafter wandering for an hour through gardens and endless streets ofthatched huts, I was glad enough to throw myself down in the shadow ofsome trees on the outskirts of the great central pile of buildings, awhole village in itself of beam-built towers and dwelling-place, suggesting by its superior size that it might actually be Ar-hap'spalace. 

Hotter and hotter it grew, while a curious secondary sunrise in thewest, the like of which I never saw before seemed to add to the heat, and heavier and heavier my eyelids, till I dozed at last, and finallyslept uncomfortably for a time. 

Rousing up suddenly, imagine my surprise to see sitting, chin on knees, about a yard away, a slender girlish figure, infinitely out of place inthat world of rough barbarians. Was it possible? Was I dreaming? No, there was no doubt about it, she was a girl of the Hither folk, slimand pretty, but with a wonderfully sad look in her gazelle eyes, andscarcely a sign of the indolent happiness of Seth in the pale littleface regarding me so fixedly. 

"Good gracious, miss, " I said, still rubbing my eyes and doubting mysenses, "have you dropped from the skies? You are the very last personI expected to see in this barbarian place. "

"And you too, sir. Oh, it is lovely to see one so newly from home, andfree-seeming--not a slave. "

"How did you know I was from Seth?"

"Oh, that was easy enough, " and with a little laugh she pointed to apebble lying between us, on which was a piece of battered sweetmeat ina perforated bamboo box. Poor An had given me something just like thatin a playful mood, and I had kept it in my pocket for her sake, being, as you will have doubtless observed, a sentimental young man, and now Iclapped my hand where it should have been, but it was gone. 

"Yes, " said my new friend, "that is yours. I smelt the sweetmeatcoming up the hill, and crossed the grass until I found you hereasleep. Oh, it was lovely! I took it from your pocket, and white Sethrose up before my swimming eyes, even at the scent of it. I am Si, well named, for that in our land means sadness, Si, the daughter ofPrince Hath's chief sweetmeat-maker, so I should know something of suchstuff. May I, please, nibble a little piece?"

"Eat it all, my lass, and welcome. How came you here? But I canguess. Do not answer if you would rather not. "

"Ay, but I will. It is not every day I can speak to ears so friendlyas yours. I am a slave, chosen for my luckless beauty as last year'stribute to Ar-hap. "

"And now?"

"And now the slave of Ar-hap's horse-keeper, set aside to make room fora fresher face. "

"And do you know whose face that is?"

"Not I, a hapless maid sent into this land of horrors, to bear ignominyand stripes, to eat coarse food and do coarse work, the miserableplaything of some brute in semi-human form, with but the oneconsolation of dying early as we tribute-women always die. Poorcomrade in exile, I only know her as yet by sympathy. "

"What if I said it was Heru, the princess?"

The Martian girl sprang to her feet, and clasping her hands exclaimed, "Heru, the Slender! Then the end comes, for it is written in our booksthat the last tribute is paid when the best is paid. Oh, how splendidif she gave herself of free will to this slavery to end it once forall. Was it so?"

"I think, Si, your princess could not have known of that tradition; shedid not come willingly. Besides, I am come to fetch her back, if itmay be, and that spoils the look of sacrifice. "

"You to fetch her back, and from Ar-hap's arms? My word, Sir Spirit, you must know some potent charms; or, what is less likely, mycountrymen must have amazingly improved in pluck since I left them. Have you a great army at hand?"

But I only shook my head, and, touching my sword, said that here wasthe only army coming to rescue Heru. Whereon the lady replied that shethought my valour did me more honour than my discretion. How did Ipropose to take the princess from her captors?

"To tell the truth, damsel, that is a matter which will have to be leftto your invention, or the kindness of such as you. I am here on ahare-brained errand, playing knight-errant in a way that shocks mycommon sense. But since the matter has gone so far I will see itthrough, or die in the attempt. Your bully lord shall either give meHeru, stock, lock, and block, or hang me from a yard-arm. But I wouldrather have the lady. Come, you will help me; and, as a beginning, ifshe is in yonder shanty get me speech with her. "

Poor Si's eyes dilated at the peril of the suggestion, and I saw thesluggish Martian nature at war against her better feelings. Butpresently the latter conquered. "I will try, " she said. "What mattera few stripes more or less?" pointing to her rosy shoulders where redscars crisscross upon one another showed how the Martian girls fared inAr-hap's palace when their novelty wore off. "I will try to help you;and if they kill me for it--why, that will not matter much. " Andforthwith in that blazing forenoon under the flickering shadow of thetrees we put our heads together to see what we might do for Heru. 

It was not much for the moment. Try what we would that afternoon, Icould not persuade those who had charge of the princess to let me evenapproach her place of imprisonment, but Si, as a woman, was moresuccessful, actually seeing her for a few moments, and managed towhisper in her ear that I had come, theSpirit-with-the-gold-buttons-down-his front, afterwards describing tome in flowing Martian imagery--but doubtless not more highly colouredthan poor Heru's emotion warranted--how delightedly that lady hadreceived the news. 

Si also did me another service, presenting me to the porter's wife, whokept a kind of boarding-house at the gates of Ar-hap's palace forgentlemen and ladies with grievances. I had heard of lobbying before, and the presentation of petitions, though I had never indulged myselfin the pastime; but the crowd of petitioners here, with petitions aswild and picturesque as their own motley appearances, was surely thestrangest that ever gathered round a seat of supreme authority. 

Si whispered in the ear of that good woman the nature of my errand, with doubtless some blandishment of her own; and my errand being one somuch above the vulgar and so nearly touching the sovereign, I was atonce accorded a separate room in the gate-house, whence I could lookdown in comparative peace on the common herd of suitors, and listen tothe buzz of their invective as they practised speeches which Icalculated it would take Ar-hap all the rest of his reign to listen to, without allowing him any time for pronouncing verdicts on them. 

Here I made myself comfortable, and awaited the return of the sovereignas placidly as might be. Meanwhile fate was playing into my feeblehands. 

I have said it was hot weather. At first this seemed but an outcome ofthe Martian climate, but as the hours went by the heat developed to anincredible extent. Also that red glare previously noted in the westgrew in intensity, till, as the hours slipped by, all the town wasstaring at it in panting horror. I have seen a prairie on fire, luckily from the far side of a comfortably broad river, and have riddenthrough a pine-forest when every tree for miles was an uplifted torch, and pungent yellow smoke rolled down each corrie side in grey riverscrested with dancing flame. But that Martian glare was more sombre andterrible than either. 

"What is it?" I asked of poor Si, who came out gasping to speak to meby the gate-house. 

"None of us know, and unless the gods these Thither folk believe in areangry, and intend to destroy the world with yonder red sword in thesky, I cannot guess. Perhaps, " she added, with a sudden flash ofinspiration, "it comes by your machinations for Heru's help. "

"No!"

"If not by your wish, then, in the name of all you love, set your wishagainst it. If you know any incantations suitable for the occasion, oh, practise them now at once, for look, even the very grass iswithering; birds are dropping from trees; fishes, horribly bloated, arebeginning to float down the steaming rills; and I, with all others, have a nameless dread upon me. "

Hotter and hotter it grew, until about sunset the red blaze upon thesky slowly opened, and showed us for about half an hour, through theopening a lurid, flame-coloured meteor far out in space beyond; thenthe cleft closed again, and through that abominable red curtain camethe very breath of Hades. 

What was really happening I am not astronomer enough to say, though oncooler consideration I have come to the conclusion that our planet, ingoing out to its summer pastures in the remoter fields of space, hadsomehow come across a wandering lesser world and got pretty well singedin passing. This is purely my own opinion, and I have not yetsubmitted it to the kindly authorities of the Lick Observatory forverification. All I can say for certain is that in an incredibly shortspace of time the face of the country changed from green to sear, flowers drooped; streams (there were not many in the neighbourhoodapparently) dried up; fishes died; a mighty thirst there was nothing toquench settled down on man and beast, and we all felt that unlessProvidence listened to the prayers and imprecations which the wholetown set to work with frantic zeal to hurl at it, or that abominablecomet in the sky sheered off on another tack with the least possibledelay, we should all be reduced to cinders in a very brief space oftime. 

CHAPTER XVII

The evening of the second day had already come, when Ar-hap arrivedhome after weekending amongst a tribe of rebellious subjects. But anyimposing State entry which might have been intended was renderedimpossible by the heat and the threat of that baleful world in thewestern sky. 

It was a lurid but disordered spectacle which I witnessed from my roomin the gate-house just after nightfall. The returning army hadapparently fallen away exhausted on its march through the town; onlysome three hundred of the bodyguard straggled up the hill, limp andsweating, behind a group of pennons, in the midst of which rode ahorseman whose commanding presence and splendid war harness impressedme, though I could not make out his features; a wild, impressionistscene of black outlines, tossing headgear, and spears glittering andvanishing in front of the red glare in the sky, but nothing more. Eventhe dry throats of the suitors in the courtyard hardly mustered a huskycry of welcome as the cavalcade trooped into the enclosure, and thenthe shadows enfolded them up in silence, and, too hot and listless tocare much what the morrow brought forth, I threw myself on the barefloor, tossing and turning in a vain endeavour to sleep until dawn cameonce more. 

A thin mist which fell with daybreak drew a veil over the horribleglare in the west for an hour or two, and taking advantage of theslight alleviation of heat, I rose and went into the gardens to enjoy adip in a pool, making, with its surrounding jungle of flowers, one ofthe pleasantest things about the wood-king's forest citadel. The veryearth seemed scorched and baking underfoot--and the pool was gone! Ithad run as dry as a limekiln; nothing remained of the pretty fall whichhad fed it but a miserable trickle of drops from the cascade above. Down beyond the town shone a gleam of water where the bitter canalsteamed and simmered in the first grey of the morning, but up here sixmonths of scorching drought could not have worked more havoc. The veryleaves were dropping from the trees, and the luxuriant growths of theday before looked as though a simoon had played upon them. 

I staggered back in disgust, and found some show of official activityabout the palace. It was the king's custom, it appeared, to hearpetitions and redress wrongs as soon after his return as possible, buttoday the ceremony was to be cut short as his majesty was going outwith all his court to a neighbouring mountain to "pray away the comet, "which by this time was causing dire alarm all through the city. 

"Heaven's own particular blessing on his prayers, my friend, " I said tothe man who told me this. "Unless his majesty's orisons are fruitful, we shall all be cooked like baked potatoes before nightfall, and thoughI have faced many kinds of death, that is not the one I would choose bypreference. Is there a chance of myself being heard at the throne?Your peculiar climate tempts me to hurry up with my business and begoneif I may. "

"Not only may you be heard, sir, but you are summoned. The king hasheard of you somehow, and sent me to find and bring you into hispresence at once. "

"So be it, " I said, too hot to care what happened. "I have no leveedress with me. I lost my luggage check some time ago, but if you willwait outside I will be with you in a moment. "

Hastily tidying myself up, and giving my hair a comb, as though justoff to see Mr. Secretary for the Navy, or on the way to get a senatorto push a new patent medicine for me, I rejoined my guide outside, andtogether we crossed the wide courtyard, entered the great log-builtportals of Ar-hap's house, and immediately afterwards found ourselvesin a vast hall dimly lit by rays coming in through square spaces underthe eaves, and crowded on both sides with guards, courtiers, andsupplicants. The heat was tremendous, the odour of Thither men and theill-dressed hides they wore almost overpowering. Yet little I reckedfor either, for there at the top of the room, seated on a dais made ofrough-hewn wood inlet with gold and covered with splendid furs, wasAr-hap himself. 

A fine fellow, swarthy, huge, and hairy, at any other time or place Icould have given him due admiration as an admirable example of thesavage on the borderland of grace and culture, but now I only glancedat him, and then to where at his side a girl was crouching, a gem ofhuman loveliness against that dusky setting. It was Heru, my ravishedprincess, and, still clad in her diaphanous Hither robes, her facewhite with anxiety, her eyes bright as stars, the embodiment ofhelpless, flowery beauty, my heart turned over at sight of her. 

Poor girl! When she saw me stride into the hall she rose swiftly fromAr-hap's side, clasped her pretty hands, and giving a cry of joy wouldhave rushed towards me, but the king laid a mighty paw upon her, underwhich she subsided with a shiver as though the touch had blanched allthe life within. 

"Good morning, your majesty, " I said, walking boldly up to the lowerstep of the dais. 

"Good morning, most singular-looking vagrant from the Unknown, "answered the monarch. "In what way can I be of service to you?''

"I have come about that girl, " I said, nodding to where Heru layblossoming in the hot gloom like some night-flowering bud. "I do notknow whether your majesty is aware how she came here, but it is ahighly discreditable incident in what is doubtless your otherwiseblameless reign. Some rough scullions intrusted with the duty ofcollecting your majesty's customs asked Prince Hath of the Hitherpeople to point out the most attractive young person at his weddingfeast, and the prince indicated that lady there at your side. It was adirty trick, and all the worse because it was inspired by malice, whichis the meanest of all weaknesses. I had the pleasure of knocking downsome of your majesty's representatives, but they stole the girl awaywhile I slept, and, briefly, I have come to fetch her back. "

The monarch had followed my speech, the longest ever made in my life, with fierce, blinking eyes, and when it stopped looked at poorshrinking Heru as though for explanation, then round the circle of hisawestruck courtiers, and reading dismay at my boldness in their faces, burst into a guttural laugh. 

"I suppose you have the great and puissant Hither nation behind you inthis request, Mr. Spirit?"

"No, I came alone, hoping to find justice here, and, if not, thenprepared to do all I could to make your majesty curse the day yourservants maltreated my friends. "

"Tall words, stranger! May I ask what you propose to do if Ar-hap, inhis own palace, amongst his people and soldiers, refuses to disgorge apretty prize at the bidding of one shabby interloper--muddy andfriendless?"

"What should I do?"

"Yes, " said the king, with a haughty frown. "What would you do?"

I do not know what prompted the reply. For a moment I was completelyat a loss what to say to this very obvious question, and then all on asudden, remembering they held me to be some kind of disembodied spirit, by a happy inspiration, fixing my eyes grimly on the king, I answered, "What would I do? Why, I WOULD HAUNT YOU!"

It may not seem a great stroke of genius here, but the effect on theMartian was instantaneous. He sat straight up, his hands tightened, his eyes dilated, and then fidgeting uneasily, after a minute hebeckoned to an over-dressed individual, whom Heru afterwards told mewas the Court necromancer, and began whispering in his ear. 

After a minute's consultation he turned again, a rather frightenedcivility struggling in his face with anger, and said, "We have no wish, of course, stranger, to offend you or those who had the honour of yourpatronage. Perhaps the princess here was a little roughly handled, and, I confess, if she were altogether as reluctant as she seems, alesser maid would have done as well. I could have wooed this one inSeth, where I may shortly come, and our espousals would possibly havelent, in the eyes of your friends, quite a cheerful aspect to myarrival. But my ambassadors have had no great schooling in diplomacy;they have brought Princess Heru here, and how can I hand her over toone I know nothing of? How do I know you are a ghost, after all? Howdo I know you have anything but a rusty sword and much impertinence toback your astounding claim?"

"Oh, let it be just as you like, " I said, calmly shelling and eating anut I had picked up. "Only if you do not give the maid back, why, then--" And I stopped as though the sequel were too painful to put intowords. 

Again that superstitious monarch of a land thronged with maliciousspirits called up his magician, and, after they had consulted a moment, turned more cheerfully to me. 

"Look here, Mister-from-Nowhere, if you are really a spirit, and havethe power to hurt as you say, you will have the power also to go andcome between the living and the dead, between the present and the past. Now I will set you an errand, and give you five minutes to do it in. "

"Five minutes!" I exclaimed in incautious alarm. 

"Five minutes, " said the monarch savagely. "And if in that time theerrand is not done, I shall hold you to be an impostor, an impudentthief from some scoundrel tribe of this world of mine, and will make ofyou an example which shall keep men's ears tingling for a century ortwo. "

Poor Heru dropped in a limp and lovely heap at that dire threat, whileI am bound to say I felt somewhat uncomfortable, not unnaturally whenall the circumstances are considered, but contented myself withremarking, with as much bravado as could be managed, "And now to the errand, Ar-hap. What can I do for your majesty?"

The king consulted with the rogue at his elbow, and then nodding andchuckling in expectancy of his triumph, addressed me. 

"Listen, " he cried, smiting a huge hairy hand upon his knee, "listen, and do or die. My magician tells me it is recorded in his books thatonce, some five thousand years ago, when this land belonged to theHither people, there lived here a king. It is a pity he died, for heseems to have been a jovial old fellow; but he did die, and, accordingto their custom, they floated him down the stream that flows to theregions of eternal ice, where doubtless he is at this present moment, caked up with ten million of his subjects. Now just go and find thatsovereign for me, oh you bold-tongued dweller in other worlds!"

"And if I go how am I to know your ancient king, as you say, amongstten million others?"

"That is easy enough, " quoth Ar-hap lightly. "You have only to pass toand fro through the ice mountains, opening the mouths of the dead menand women you meet, and when you come to a middle-sized man with afillet on his head and a jaw mended with gold, that will be he whom youlook for. Bring me that fillet here within five minutes and the maid isyours. "

I started, and stared hard in amazement. Was this a dream? Was theroyal savage in front playing with me? By what incredible chance hadhe hit upon the very errand I could answer to best, the very trophy Ihad brought away from the grim valley of ice and death, and had stillin my shoulder-bag? No, he was not playing; he was staring hard inturn, joying in my apparent confusion, and clearly thinking he hadcornered me beyond hope of redemption. 

"Surely your mightiness is not daunted by so simple a task, " scowledthe sovereign, playing with the hilt of his huge hunting-knife, "andall amongst your friends' kindred too. On a hot day like this it oughtto be a pleasant saunter for a spirit such as yourself. "

"Not daunted, " I answered coldly, turning on my heels towards the door, "only marvelling that your majesty's skull and your necromancer's couldnot between them have devised a harder task. "

Out into the courtyard I went, with my heart beating finely in spite ofmy assumed indifference; got the bag from a peg in my sleeping-room, and was back before the log throne ere four minutes were gone. 

"The old Hither king's compliments to your majesty, " I said, bowing, while a deathly hush fell on all the assembly, "and he says though yourancestors little liked to hear his voice while alive, he says he has noobjection to giving you some jaw now he is dead, " and I threw down onthe floor the golden circlet of the frozen king. 

Ar-hap's eyes almost started from his head as, with his courtiers, heglared in silent amazement at that shining thing while the great dropsof fear and perspiration trickled down his forehead. As for poor Heru, she rose like a spirit behind them, gazed at the jaw-bone of hermythical ancestor, and then suddenly realising my errand was done andshe apparently free, held out her hands, and, with a tremulous cry, would have come to me. 

But Ar-hap was too quick for her. All the black savage blood swelledinto his veins as he swept her away with one great arm, and then withhis foot gave the luckless jaw a kick that sent it glittering andspinning through the far doorway out into the sunshine. 

"Sit down, " he roared, "you brazen wench, who are so eager to leave aking's side for a nameless vagrant's care! And you, sir, " turning tome, and fairly trembling with rage and dread, "I will not gainsay thatyou have done the errand set you, but it might this once be chance thatgot you that cursed token, some one happy turn of luck. I will notyield my prize on one throw of the dice. Another task you must do. Once might be chance, but such chance comes not twice. "

"You swore to give me the maid this time. "

"And why should I keep my word to a half-proved spirit such as you?"

"There are some particularly good reasons why you should, " I said, striking an attitude which I had once seen a music-hall dramatist takewhen he was going to blast somebody's future--a stick with a star ontop of it in his hand and forty lines of blank verse in his mouth. 

The king writhed, and begged me with a sign to desist. 

"We have no wish to anger you. Do us this other task and none willdoubt that you are a potent spirit, and even I, Ar-hap, will listen toyou. "

"Well, then, " I answered sulkily, "what is it to be this time?"

After a minute's consultation, and speaking slowly as though consciousof how much hung on his words, the king said, "Listen! My soothsayer tells me that somewhere there is a city lost ina forest, and a temple lost in the city, and a tomb lost in the temple;a city of ghosts and djins given over to bad spirits, wherefore allhuman men shun it by day and night. And on the tomb is she who wasonce queen there, and by her lies her crown. Quick! oh you to whom alldistances are nothing, and who see, by your finer essence, into alltimes and places. Away to that city! Jostle the memories of theunclean things that hide in its shadows; ask which amongst them knowswhere dead Queen Yang still lies in dusty state. Get guides amongstyour comrade ghosts. Find Queen Yang, and bring me here in fiveminutes the bloody circlet from her hair. "

Then, and then for the first time, I believed the planet was hauntedindeed, and I myself unknowingly under some strange and watchfulinfluence. Spirits, demons! Oh! what but some incomprehensible power, some unseen influence shaping my efforts to its ends, could have movedthat hairy barbarian to play a second time into my hands like this, tochoose from the endless records of his world the second of the twoincidents I had touched in hasty travel through it? I was almostovercome for a minute; then, pulling myself together, strode forwardfiercely, and, speaking so that all could hear me, cried, "Base king, who neither knows the capacities of a spirit nor has learned as yet todread its anger, see! your commission is executed in a thought, just asyour punishment might be. Heru, come here. " And when the girl, speechless with amazement, had risen and slipped over to me, Istraightened her pretty hair from her forehead, and then, in a waywhich would make my fortune if I could repeat it at a conjuror's table, whipped poor Yang's gemmy crown from my pocket, flashed its balefulsplendour in the eyes of the courtiers, and placed it on the tresses ofthe first royal lady who had worn it since its rightful owner died ahundred years before. 

A heavy silence fell on the hall as I finished, and nothing was heardfor a time save Heru sobbing on my breast and a thirsty baby somewhereoutside calling to its mother for the water that was not to be had. Butpresently on those sounds came the fall of anxious feet, and amessenger, entering the doorway, approached the throne, laid himselfout flat twice, after which obeisance he proceeded to remind the kingof the morning's ceremonial on a distant hill to "pray away the comet, "telling his majesty that all was ready and the procession anxiouslyawaiting him. 

Whereon Ar-hap, obviously very well content to change the subject, rose, and, coming down from the dais, gave me his hand. He was a finefellow, as I have said, strong and bold, and had not behaved badly foran autocrat, so that I gripped his mighty fist with great pleasure. 

"I cannot deny, stranger, " he said, "that you have done all that hasbeen asked of you, and the maid is fairly yours. Yet before you takeaway the prize I must have some assurance of what you yourself will dowith her. Therefore, for the moment, until this horrible thing in thesky which threatens my people with destruction has gone, let it betruce between us--you to your lodgings, and the princess back, unharmed, amongst my women till we meet again. "

"But--"

"No, no, " said the king, waving his hand. "Be content with youradvantage. And now to business more important than ten thousand sillywenches, " and gathering up his robes over his splendid war-gear thewood king stalked haughtily from the hall. 

CHAPTER XVIII

Hotter and hotter grew that stifling spell, more and more languid manand beast, drier and drier the parching earth. 

All the water gave out on the morning after I had bearded Ar-hap in hisden, and our strength went with it. No earthly heat was ever like it, and it drank our vitality up from every pore. Water there was downbelow in the bitter, streaming gulf, but so noisome that we dared noteven bathe there; here there was none but the faintest trickle. Alldiscipline was at an end; all desire save such as was born of thirst. Heru I saw as often as I wished as she lay gasping, with poor Si at herfeet, in the women's verandah; but the heat was so tremendous that Igazed at her with lack-lustre eyes, staggering to and fro amongst thecourtyard shadows, without nerve to plot her rescue or strength tocarry out anything my mind might have conceived. 

We prayed for rain and respite. Ar-hap had prayed with a wealth ofpicturesque ceremonial. We had all prayed and cursed by turns, butstill the heavens would not relent, and the rain came not. 

At last the stifling heat and vapour reached an almost intolerablepitch. The earth reeked with unwholesome humours no common summer coulddraw from it, the air was sulphurous and heavy, while overhead the skyseemed a tawny dome, from edge to edge of angry clouds, parting now andthen to let us see the red disc threatening us. 

Hour after hour slipped by until, when evening was upon us, the cloudsdrew together, and thunder, with a continuous low rumble, began to rockfrom sky to sky. Fitful showers of rain, odorous and heavy, butunsatisfying, fell, and birds and beasts of the woodlands came slinkingin to our streets and courtyards. Ever since the sky first darkenedour own animals had become strangely familiar, and now here were thesewild things of the woods slinking in for companionship, sagheaded andfrightened. To me especially they came, until that last evening as Istaggered dying about the streets or sat staring into the remorselesssky from the steps of Heru's prison house, all sorts of beasts drewsoftly in and crowded about, whether I sat or moved, all asking for thehope I had not to give them. 

At another time this might have been embarrassing; then it seemed purecommonplace. It was a sight to see them slink in between the uselessshowers, which fell like hot tears upon us--sleek panthers with lollingtongues; russet-red wood dogs; bears and sloths from the dark arcadesof the remote forests, all casting themselves down gasping in thepalace shadows; strange deer, who staggered to the garden plots and laythere heaving their lives out; mighty boars, who came from the rivermarshes and silently nozzled a place amongst their enemies to die in!Even the wolves came off the hills, and, with bloodshot eyes andtongues that dripped foam, flung themselves down in my shadow. 

All along the tall stockades apes sat sad and listless, and on theroof-ridges storks were dying. Over the branches of the trees, whoseleaves were as thin as though we had had a six months' drought, thetoucans and Martian parrots hung limp and fashionless like gaudy rags, and in the courtyard ground the corn-rats came up from their tunnels inthe scorching earth to die, squeaking in scores along under the walls. 

Our common sorrow made us as sociable as though I were Noah, andAr-hap's palace mound another Ararat. Hour after hour I sat amongstall these lesser beasts in the hot darkness, waiting for the end. Every now and then the heavy clouds parted, changing the gloom tosudden fiery daylight as the great red eye in the west looked upon usthrough the crevice, and, taking advantage of those gleams, I wouldreel across to where, under a spout leading from a dried rivulet, I hadplaced a cup to collect the slow and tepid drops that were all nowcoming down the reed for Heru. And as I went back each time with thatsickly spoonful at the bottom of the vessel all the dying beasts liftedtheir heads and watched--the thirsty wolves shambling after me; theboars half sat up and grunted plaintively; the panthers, too weak torise, beat the dusty ground with their tails; and from the portico theblue storks, with trailing wings, croaked husky greeting. 

But slower and slower came the dripping water, more and moreintolerable the heat. At last I could stand it no longer. Whatpurpose did it serve to lay gasping like this, dying cruelly without ahope of rescue, when a shorter way was at my side? I had not drank fora day and a half. I was past active reviling; my head swam; my reasonwas clouded. No! I would not stand it any longer. Once more I wouldtake Heru and poor Si the cup that was but a mockery after all, thenfix my sword into the ground and try what next the Fates had in storefor me. 

So once again the leathern mug was fetched and carried through theprostrate guards to where the Martian girl lay, like a withered flower, upon her couch. Once again I moistened those fair lips, while my owntongue was black and swollen in my throat, then told Si, who had hadnone all the afternoon, to drink half and leave half for Heru. Poor Siput her aching lips to the cup and tilted it a little, then passed itto her mistress. And Heru drank it all, and Si cried a few hot tearsbehind her hands, FOR SHE HAD TAKEN NONE, and she knew it was her life!

Again picking a way through the courtyard, scarce noticing how thebeasts lifted their heads as I passed, I went instinctively, cup inhand, to the well, and then hesitated. Was I a coward to leave Heruso? Ought I not to stay and see it out to the bitter end? Well, Iwould compound with Fate. I would give the malicious gods one morechance. I would put the cup down again, and until seven drops hadfallen into it I would wait. That there might be no mistake about it, no sooner was the mug in place under the nozzle wherefrom the moisturebeads collected and fell with infinite slowness, than my sword, onwhich I meant to throw myself, was bared and the hilt forced into agaping crack in the ground, and sullenly contented to leave my fate so, I sat down beside it. 

I turned grimly to the spout and saw the first drop fall, then another, and another later on, but still no help came. There was a long rift inthe clouds now, and a glare like that from an open furnace door wasupon me. I had noticed when I came to the spring how the comet whichwas killing us hung poised exactly upon the point of a distant hill. Ifhe had passed his horrible meridian, if he was going from us, if hesunk but a hair's breadth before that seventh drop should fall, I couldtell it would mean salvation. 

But the fourth drop fell, and he was big as ever. The fifth drop fell, and a hot, pleasing nose was thrust into my hand, and looking down Isaw a grey wolf had dragged herself across the court and was askingwith eloquent eyes for the help I could not give. The sixth dropgathered, and fell; already the seventh was like a seedling pearl inits place. The dying wolf yanked affectionately at my hand, but I puther by and undid my tunic. Big and bright that drop hung to the spoutlip; another minute and it would fall. A beautiful drop, I laughed, peering closely at it, many-coloured, prismatic, flushing red and pink, a tiny living ruby, hanging by a touch to the green rim above; enough!enough! The quiver of an eyelash would unhinge it now; and angry withthe life I already felt was behind me, and turning in defiantexpectation to the new to come, I rose, saw the red gleam of my swordjutting like a fiery spear from the cracking soil where I had plantedit, then looked once more at the drop and glanced for the last time atthe sullen red terror on the hill. 

Were my eyes dazed, my senses reeling? I said a space ago that themeteor stood exactly on the mountain-top and if it sunk a hair'sbreadth I should note it; and now, why, there WAS a flaw in its lowermargin, a flattening of the great red foot that before had been roundand perfect. I turned my smarting eyes away a minute, --saw the seventhdrop fall with a melodious tingle into the cup, then back again, --therewas no mistake--the truant fire was a fraction less, it had shrunk afraction behind the hill even since I looked, and thereon all my liferan back into its channels, the world danced before me, and "Heru!" Ishouted hoarsely, reeling back towards the palace, "Heru, 'tis well;the worst is past!"

But the little princess was unconscious, and at her feet was poor Si, quite dead, still reclining with her head in her hands just as I hadleft her. Then my own senses gave out, and dropping down by them Iremembered no more. 

I must have lain there an hour or two, for when consciousness cameagain it was night--black, cool, profound night, with an inky sky lowdown upon the tree-tops, and out of it such a glorious deluge of raindescending swiftly and silently as filled my veins even to listen to. Eagerly I shuffled away to the porch steps, down them into the swimmingcourtyard, and ankle-deep in the glorious flood, set to work lappingfuriously at the first puddle, drinking with gasps of pleasure, gaspingand drinking again, feeling my body filling out like the thirstysteaming earth below me. Then, as I still drank insatiably, there camea gleam of lightning out of the gloom overhead, a brilliant yellowblaze, and by it I saw a few yards away a panther drinking at the samepool as myself, his gleaming eyes low down like mine upon the water, and by his side two apes, the black water running in at their gapingmouths, while out beyond were more pools, more drinking animals. Everything was drinking. I saw their outlined forms, the gleam shiningon wet skins as though they were cut out in silver against thedarkness, each beast steaming like a volcano as the Heaven-sent rainsmoked from his fevered hide, all drinking for their lives, heedless ofaught else--and then came the thunder. 

It ran across the cloudy vault as though the very sky were being rippedapart, rolling in mighty echoes here and there before it died away. Asit stopped, the rain also fell less heavily for a minute, and as I laywith my face low down I heard the low, contented lapping of numberlesstongues unceasing, insatiable. Then came the lightning again, lightingup everything as though it were daytime. The twin black apes werestill drinking, but the panther across the puddle had had enough; I sawhim lift his grateful head up to the flare; saw the limp red tonguelicking the black nose, the green eyes shining like opals, the waterdripping in threads of diamonds from the hairy tag under his chin andevery tuft upon his chest--then darkness again. 

To and fro the green blaze rocked between the thunder crashes. Itstruck a house a hundred yards away, stripping every shingle from theroof better than a master builder could in a week. It fell a minuteafter on a tall tree by the courtyard gate, and as the trunk burst intowhite splinters I saw every leaf upon the feathery top turn light sideup against the violet reflection in the sky beyond, and then the wholemass came down to earth with a thud that crushed the courtyard palingsinto nothing for twenty yards and shook me even across the square. 

Another time I might have stopped to marvel or to watch, as I haveoften watched with sympathetic pleasure, the gods thus at play; buttonight there were other things on hand. When I had drunk, I picked upan earthen crock, filled it, and went to Heru. It was a roughdrinking-vessel for those dainty lips, and an indifferent draught, being as much mud as aught else, but its effect was wonderful. At thefirst touch of that turgid stuff a shiver of delight passed through thedrowsy lady. At the second she gave a sigh, and her hand tightened onmy arm. I fetched another crockful, and by the flickering lightrocking to and fro in the sky, took her head upon my shoulder, like aprodigal new come into riches, squandering the stuff, giving her todrink and bathing face and neck till presently, to my delight, theprincess's eyes opened. Then she sat up, and taking the basin from medrank as never lady drank before, and soon was almost herself again. 

I went out into the portico, there snuffing the deep, strong breath ofthe fragrant black earth receiving back into its gaping self what thelast few days had taken from it, while quick succeeding thoughts ofescape and flight passed across my brain. All through the fiery timewe had just had the chance of escaping with the fair booty yonder hadbeen present. Without her, flight would have been easy enough, but thatwas not worth considering for a moment. With her it was moredifficult, yet, as I had watched the woodmen, accustomed to cool forestshades, faint under the fiery glare of the world above, to make a dashfor liberty seemed each hour more easy. I had seen the men in thestreets drop one by one, and the spears fall from the hands of guardsabout the pallisades; I had seen messengers who came to and frocollapse before their errands were accomplished, and the forest women, who were Heru's gaolers, groan and drop across the thresholds of herprison, until at length the way was clear--a babe might have taken whathe would from that half-scorched town and asked no man's leave. Yetwhat did it avail me? Heru was helpless, my own spirit burnt in anerveless frame, and so we stayed. 

But with rain strength came back to both of us. The guards, lyingabout like black logs, were only slowly returning to consciousness; thetown still slept, and darkness favoured; before they missed us in themorning light we might be far on the way back to Seth--a dangerous waytruly, but we were like to tread a rougher one if we stayed. In fact, directly my strength returned with the cooler air, I made up my mind tothe venture and went to Heru, who by this time was much recovered. Toher I whispered my plot, and that gentle lady, as was only natural, trembled at its dangers. But I put it to her that no time could bebetter than the present: the storm was going over; morning would "linethe black mantle of the night with a pink dawn of promise"; before anyone stirred we might be far off, shaping a course by our luck and thestars for her kindred, at whose name she sighed. If we stayed, Iargued, and the king changed his mind, then death for me, and for Heruthe arms of that surly monarch, and all the rest of her life caged inthese pallisades amongst the uncouth forms about us. 

The lady gave a frightened little shiver at the picture, but after amoment, laying her head upon my shoulder, answered, "Oh, my guardianspirit and helper in adversity, I too have thought of tomorrow, anddoubt whether that horror, that great swine who has me, will not inventan excuse for keeping me. Therefore, though the forest roads aredreadful, and Seth very far away, I will come; I give myself into yourhands. Do what you will with me. "

"Then the sooner the better, princess. How soon can you be prepared?"

She smiled, and stooping picked up her slippers, saying as she did so, "I am ready!"

There were no arrangements to be made. Every instant was of value. So, to be brief, I threw a dark cloak over the damsel's shoulders, forindeed she was clad in little more than her loveliness and the gauziestfilaments of a Hither girl's underwear, and hand in hand led her downthe log steps, over the splashing, ankle-deep courtyard, and into theshadows of the gateway beyond. 

Down the slope we went; along towards the harbour, through a score ofdeserted lanes where nothing was to be heard but the roar of rain andthe lapping of men and beasts, drinking in the shadows as though theynever would stop, and so we came at last unmolested to the wharf. There I hid royal Seth between two piles of merchandise, and went tolook for a boat suitable to our needs. There were plenty of smallcraft moored to rings along the quay, and selecting a canoe--it was notime to stand on niceties of property--easily managed by a singlepaddle, I brought it round to the steps, put in a fresh water-pot, andwent for the princess. 

With her safely stowed in the prow, a helpless, sodden little morsel offeminine loveliness, things began to appear more hopeful and an escapedown to blue water, my only idea, for the first time possible. Yet Imust needs go and well nigh spoil everything by over-solicitude for mycharge. 

Had we pushed off at once there can be no doubt my credit as a spiritwould have been established for all time in the Thither capital, andthe belief universally held that Heru had been wafted away by myenchantment to the regions of the unknown. The idea would havegradually grown into a tradition, receiving embellishments insucceeding generations, until little wood children at their mother'sknees came to listen in awe to the story of how, once upon a time, theSun-god loved a beautiful maiden, and drove his fiery chariot acrossthe black night-fields to her prison door, scorching to death all whostrove to gainsay him. How she flew into his arms and drove awaybefore all men's eyes, in his red car, into the west, and was neverseen again--the foresaid Sun-god being I, Gulliver Jones, a muchunder-paid lieutenant in the glorious United States navy, with a packetof overdue tailors' bills in my pocket, and nothing lovable about mesave a partiality for meddling with other people's affairs. 

This is how it might have been, but I spoiled a pretty fairy story andchanged the whole course of Martian history by going back at thatmoment in search of a wrap for my prize. Right on top of the steps wasa man with a lantern, and half a glance showed me it was the harbourmaster met with on my first landing. 

"Good evening, " he said suspiciously. "May I ask what you are doing onthe quay at such an hour as this?"

"Doing? Oh, nothing in particular, just going out for a littlefishing. "

"And your companion the lady--is she too fond of fishing?"

I swore between my teeth, but could not prevent the fellow walking tothe quay edge and casting his light full upon the figure of the girlbelow. I hate people who interfere with other people's business!

"Unless I am very much mistaken your fishing friend is the Hither womanbrought here a few days ago as tribute to Ar-hap. "

"Well, " I answered, getting into a nice temper, for I had been verymuch harrassed of late, "put it at that. What would you do if it wereso?"

"Call up my rain-drunk guards, and give you in charge as a thief caughtmeddling with the king's property. "

"Thanks, but as my interviews with Ar-hap have already begun to growtedious, we will settle this little matter here between ourselves atonce. " And without more to-do I closed with him. There was a briefscuffle and then I got in a blow upon his jaw which sent the harbourmaster flying back head over heels amongst the sugar bales and potatoes. 

Without waiting to see how he fared I ran down the steps, jumped onboard, loosened the rope, and pushed out into the river. But my heartwas angry and sore, for I knew, as turned out to be the case, that oursecret was one no more; in a short time we should have the savage kingin pursuit, and now there was nothing for it but headlong flight withonly a small chance of getting away to distant Seth. 

Luckily the harbour master lay insensible until he was found at dawn, so that we had a good start, and the moment the canoe passed from thearcade-like approach to the town the current swung her headautomatically seaward, and away we went down stream at a pace once morefilling me with hope. 

CHAPTER XIX

All went well and we fled down the bitter stream of the Martian gulf ata pace leaving me little to do but guide our course just clear of snagsand promontories on the port shore. Just before dawn, however, with athin mist on the water and flocks of a flamingo-like bird croaking asthey flew southward overhead, we were nearly captured again. 

Drifting silently down on a rocky island, I was having a drink at thewater-pitcher at the moment, while Heru, her hair beaded with prismaticmoisture and looking more ethereal than ever, sat in the bowstimorously inhaling the breath of freedom, when all on a sudden voicesinvisible in the mist, came round a corner. It was one of Ar-hap'swar-canoes toiling up-stream. Heru and I ducked down into the hazelike dab-chicks and held our breath. 

Straight on towards us came the toiling ship, the dip of oars resonantin the hollow fog and a ripple babbling on her cutwater plainlydiscernible. 

 Oh, oh! Hoo, hoo! How high, how high!"

sounded the sleepy song of the rowers till they were looming rightabreast and we could smell their damp hides in the morning air. Thenthey stopped suddenly and some one asked, "Is there not something like a boat away on the right?"

"It is nothing, " said another, "but the lees of last night's beercurdling in your stupid brain. "

"But I saw it move. "

"That must have been in dreams. "

"What is all that talking about?" growled a sleepy voice of authorityfrom the stern. 

"Bow man, sir, says he can see a boat. "

"And what does it matter if he can? Are we to delay every time thatlazy ruffian spying a shadow makes it an excuse to stop to yawn andscratch? Go on, you plankful of lubbers, or I'll give you somethingworth thinking about!" And joyfully, oh, so joyfully, we heard thesullen dip of oars commence again. 

Nothing more happened after that till the sun at length shone on thelittle harbour town at the estuary mouth, making the masts of fishingcraft clustering there like a golden reed-bed against the cool, cleanblue of the sea beyond. 

Right glad we were to see it, and keeping now in shadow of the banks, made all haste while light was faint and mist hung about to reach thetown, finally pushing through the boats and gaining a safe hiding-placewithout hostile notice before it was clear daylight. 

Covering Heru up and knowing well all our chances of escape lay inexpedition, I went at once, in pursuance of a plan made during thenight, to the good dame at what, for lack of a better name, must stillcontinue to be called the fish-shop, and finding her alone, franklytold her the salient points of my story. When she learned I had"robbed the lion of his prey" and taken his new wife singlehanded fromthe dreaded Ar-hap her astonishment was unbounded. Nothing would dobut she must look upon the princess, so back we went to thehiding-place, and when Heru knew that on this woman depended our livesshe stepped ashore, taking the rugged Martian hand in her daintyfingers and begging her help so sweetly that my own heart was moved, and, thrusting hands in pocket, I went aside, leaving those two tosettle it in their own female way. 

And when I looked back in five minutes, royal Seth had her arms roundthe woman's neck, kissing the homely cheeks with more than imperialfervour, so I knew all was well thus far, and stopped expectorating atthe little fishes in the water below and went over to them. It wastime! We had hardly spoken together a minute when a couple ofwar-canoes filled with men appeared round the nearest promontory, coming down the swift water with arrow-like rapidity. 

"Quick!" said the fishwife, "or we are all lost. Into your canoe andpaddle up this creek. It runs out to the sea behind the town, and atthe bar is my man's fishing-boat amongst many others. Lie hidden theretill he comes if you value your lives. " So in we got, and while thatgood Samaritan went back to her house we cautiously paddled through adeserted backwater to where it presently turned through low sandbanksto the gulf. There were the boats, and we hid the canoe and lay downamongst them till, soon after, a man, easily recognised as the husbandof our friend, came sauntering down from the village. 

At first he was sullen, not unreasonably alarmed at the danger intowhich his good woman was running him. But when he set eyes on Heru hesoftened immediately. Probably that thick-bodied fellow had never seenso much female loveliness in so small a bulk in all his life, and, being a man, he surrendered at discretion. 

"In with you, then, " he growled, "since I must needs risk my neck for apair of runaways who better deserve to be hung than I do. In with youboth into this fishing-cobble of mine, and I will cover you with netswhile I go for a mast and sail, and mind you lie as still as logs. Thetown is already full of soldiers looking for you, and it will be shortshrift for us all if you are seen. "

Well aware of the fact and now in the hands of destiny, the princessand I lay down as bidden in the prow, and the man covered us lightlyover with one of those fine meshed seines used by these people to catchthe little fish I had breakfasted on more than once. 

Materially I could have enjoyed the half-hour which followed, sincesuch rest after exertion was welcome, the sun warm, the lapping of seaon shingle infinitely soothing, and, above all, Heru was in my arms!How sweet and childlike she was! I could feel her little heart beatingthrough her scanty clothing, while every now and then she turned hergazelle eyes to mine with a trust and admiration infinitely alluring. Yes! as far as that went I could have lain there with that slip ofmaiden royalty for ever, but the fascination of the moment was marredby the thought of our danger. What was to prevent these new friendsgiving us away? They knew we had no money to recompense them for therisk they were running. They were poor, and a splendid reward, wealthitself to them, would doubtless be theirs if they betrayed us even by alook. Yet somehow I trusted them as I have trusted the poor beforewith the happiest results, and telling myself this and comforting Heru, I listened and waited. 

Minute by minute went by. It seemed an age since the fisherman hadgone, but presently the sound of voices interrupted the sea's murmur. Cautiously stealing a glance through a chink imagine my feelings onperceiving half a dozen of Ar-hap's soldiers coming down the beachstraight towards us! Then my heart was bitter within me, and I tastedof defeat, even with Heru in my arms. Luckily even in that moment ofagony I kept still, and another peep showed the men were now wanderingabout rather aimlessly. Perhaps after all they did not know of ournearness? Then they took to horseplay, as idle soldiers will even inMars, pelting each other with bits of wood and dead fish, and thereon Ibreathed again. 

Nearer they came and nearer, my heart beating fast as they strolledamongst the boats until they were actually "larking" round the one nextto ours. A minute or two of this, and another footstep crunched on thepebbles, a quick, nervous one, which my instinct told me was that ofour returning friend. 

"Hullo old sprat-catcher! Going for a sail?" called out a soldier, andI knew that the group were all round our boat, Heru trembling soviolently in my breast that I thought she would make the vessel shake. 

"Yes, " said the man gruffly. 

"Let's go with him, " cried several voices. "Here, old dried haddock, will you take us if we help haul your nets for you?"

"No, I won't. Your ugly faces would frighten all the fish out of thesea. "

"And yours, you old chunk of dried mahogany, is meant to attract themno doubt. "

"Let's tie him to a post and go fishing in his boat ourselves, " someone suggested. Meanwhile two of them began rocking the cobbleviolently from side to side. This was awful, and every moment Iexpected the net and the sail which our friend had thrown downunceremoniously upon us would roll off. 

"Oh, stop that, " said the Martian, who was no doubt quite as well awareof the danger as we were. "The tide's full, the shoals are in thebay--stop your nonsense, and help me launch like good fellows. "

"Well, take two of us, then. We will sit on this heap of nets as quietas mice, and stand you a drink when we get back. "

"No, not one of you, " quoth the plucky fellow, "and here's my staff inmy hand, and if you don't leave my gear alone I will crack some of yourugly heads. "

"That's a pity, " I thought to myself, "for if they take to fighting itwill be six to one--long odds against our chances. " There was indeed ascuffle, and then a yell of pain, as though a soldier had been hitacross the knuckles; but in a minute the best disposed called out, "Oh, cease your fun, boys, and let the fellow get off if he wants to. Youknow the fleet will be down directly, and Ar-hap has promised somethingworth having to the man who can find that lost bit of crackling of his. It's my opinion she's in the town, and I for one would rather look forher than go haddock fishing any day. "

"Right you are, mates, " said our friend with visible relief. "And, what's more, if you help me launch this boat and then go to my missusand tell her what you've done, she'll understand, and give you thebiggest pumpkinful of beer in the place. Ah, she will understand, andbless your soft hearts and heads while you drink it--she's a cute oneis my missus. "

"And aren't you afraid to leave her with us?"

"Not I, my daisy, unless it were that a sight of your pretty face mightgive her hysterics. Now lend a hand, your accursed chatter has alreadycost me half an hour of the best fishing time. "

"In with you, old buck!" shouted the soldiers; I felt the fishermanstep in, as a matter of fact he stepped in on to my toes; a dozen handswere on the gunwales: six soldier yells resounded, it seemed, in myvery ears: there was the grit and rush of pebbles under the keel: asudden lurch up of the bows, which brought the fairy lady'shoney-scented lips to mine, and then the gentle lapping of deep bluewaters underneath us!

There is little more to be said of that voyage. We pulled until out ofsight of the town, then hoisted sail, and, with a fair wind, held uponone tack until we made an island where there was a small colony ofHither folk. 

Here our friend turned back. I gave him another gold button from mycoat, and the princess a kiss upon either cheek, which he seemed tolike even more than the button. It was small payment, but the best wehad. Doubtless he got safely home, and I can but hope that Providencesomehow or other paid him and his wife for a good deed bravely done. 

Those islanders in turn lent us another boat, with a guide, who hadbusiness in the Hither capital, and on the evening of the second day, the direct route being very short in comparison, we were under thecrumbling marble walls of Seth. 

CHAPTER XX

It was like turning into a hothouse from a keen winter walk, ourarrival at the beautiful but nerveless city after my life amongst thewoodmen. 

As for the people, they were delighted to have their princess back, butwith the delight of children, fawning about her, singing, clappinghands, yet asking no questions as to where she had been, showing noappreciation of our adventures--a serious offence in my eyes--and, perhaps most important of all, no understanding of what I may call thepolitical bearings of Heru's restoration, and how far their archenemies beyond the sea might be inclined to attempt her recovery. 

They were just delighted to have the princess back, and that was theend of it. Theirs was the joy of a vast nursery let loose. Flowerprocessions were organised, garlands woven by the mile, a general orderissued that the nation might stay up for an hour after bedtime, and inthe vortex of that gentle rejoicing Heru was taken from me, and I sawher no more, till there happened the wildest scene of all you haveshared with me so patiently. 

Overlooked, unthanked, I turned sulky, and when this mood, one I cannever maintain for long, wore off, I threw myself into the dissipationabout me with angry zeal. I am frankly ashamed of the confession, butI was "a sailor ashore, " and can only claim the indulgences proper tothe situation. I laughed, danced, drank, through the night; I drankdeep of a dozen rosy ways to forgetfulness, till my mind was a greatconfusion, full of flitting pictures of loveliness, till life itselfwas an illusive pantomime, and my will but thistle-down on the folly ofthe moment. I drank with those gentle roisterers all through theirstarlit night, and if we stopped when morning came it was more fromweariness than virtue. Then the yellow-robed slaves gave us the wineof recovery--alas! my faithful An was not amongst them--and all throughthe day we lay about in sodden happiness. 

Towards nightfall I was myself again, not unfortunately with theheadache well earned, but sufficiently remorseful to be in a vein tomake good resolutions for the future. 

In this mood I mingled with a happy crowd, all purposeless and cheerfulas usual, but before long began to feel the influence of one of thosedrifts, a universal turning in one direction, as seaweed turns when thetide changes, so characteristic of Martian society. It was dusk, alovely soft velvet dusk, but not dark yet, and I said to a yellow-robedfairy at my side:

"Whither away, comrade? It is not eight bells yet. Surely we are notgoing to be put to bed so early as this?"

"No, " said that smiling individual, "it is the princess. We are goingto listen to Princess Heru in the palace square. She reads the globeon the terrace again tonight, to see if omens are propitious for hermarriage. She MUST marry, and you know the ceremony has beenunavoidably postponed so far. "

"Unavoidably postponed?" Yes, Heaven wotted I was aware of the fact. And was Heru going to marry black Hath in such a hurry? And after allI had done for her? It was scarcely decent, and I tried to rousemyself to rage over it, but somehow the seductive Martian contentmentwith any fate was getting into my veins. I was not yet altogether sunkin their slothful acceptance of the inevitable, but there was not theslightest doubt the hot red blood in me was turning to vapid stuff suchas did duty for the article in their veins. I mustered up ahalf-hearted frown at this unwelcome intelligence, turning with it onmy face towards the slave girl; but she had slipped away into thethrong, so the frown evaporated, and shrugging my shoulders I said tomyself, "What does it matter? There are twenty others will do as wellfor me. If not one, why then obviously another, 'tis the only rationalway to think, and at all events there is the magic globe. That maytell us something. " And slipping my arm round the waist of the firstdisengaged girl--we were not then, mind you, in Atlantic City--I kissedher dimpling cheek unreproached, and gaily followed in the drift ofhumanity, trending with a low hum of pleasure towards the great whiteterraces under the palace porch. 

How well I knew them! It was just such an evening Heru had consultedFate in the same place once before; how much had happened since then!But there was little time or inclination to think of those things now. The whole phantom city's population had drifted to one common centre. The crumbling seaward ramparts were all deserted; no soldier watch waskept to note if angry woodmen came from over seas; a soft wind blew infrom off the brine, but told no tales; the streets were empty, and, when as we waited far away in the southern sky the earth planetpresently got up, by its light Heru, herself again, came tripping downthe steps to read her fate. 

They had placed another magic globe under a shroud on a tripod for her. It stood within the charmed circle upon the terrace, and I was closeby, although the princess did not see me. 

Again that weird, fantastic dance commenced, the princess workingherself up from the drowsiest undulations to a hurricane of emotion. Then she stopped close by the orb, and seized the corner of the webcovering it. We saw the globe begin to beam with veiled magnificence ather touch. 

Not an eye wavered, not a thought wandered from her in all that silentmultitude. It was a moment of the keenest suspense, and just when itwas at its height there came a strange sound of hurrying feet behindthe outermost crowd, a murmur such as a great pack of wolves might makerushing through snow, while a soft long wail went up from the darkness. 

Whether Heru understood it or not I cannot say, but she hesitated amoment, then swept the cloth from the orb of her fate. 

And as its ghostly, self-emitting light beamed up in the darkness withweird brilliancy, there by it, in gold and furs and war panoply, huge, fierce, and lowering, stood--AR-HAP HIMSELF!

Ay, and behind him, towering over the crouching Martians, blockingevery outlet and street, were scores and hundreds of his men. Neverwas surprise so utter, ambush more complete. Even I was transfixedwith astonishment, staring with open-mouthed horror at the splendidfigure of the barbarian king as he stood aglitter in the ruddy light, scowling defiance at the throng around him. So silently had he come onhis errand of vengeance it was difficult to believe he was a reality, and not some clever piece of stageplay, some vision conjured up byMartian necromancy. 

But he was good reality. In a minute comedy turned to tragedy. Ar-hapgave a sign with his hand, whereon all his men set up a terriblewarcry, the like of which Seth had not heard for very long, and as faras I could make out in the half light began hacking and hewing myluckless friends with all their might. Meanwhile the king made atHeru, feeling sure of her this time, and doubtless intending to makeher taste his vengeance to the dregs; and seeing her handled like that, and hearing her plaintive cries, wrath took the place of stupidsurprise in me. I was on my feet in a second, across the interveningspace, and with all my force gave the king a blow upon the jaw whichsent even him staggering backwards. Before I could close again, soswift was the sequence of events in those flying minutes, a wild mob ofpeople, victims and executioners in one disordered throng, was betweenus. How the king fared I know not, nor stopped to ask, but halfdragging, half carrying Heru through the shrieking mob, got her up thepalace steps and in at the great doors, which a couple of yellow-cladslaves, more frightened of the barbarians than thoughtful of the crowdwithout, promptly clapped to, and shot the bolts. Thus we were safefor a moment, and putting the princess on a couch, I ran up a shortflight of stairs and looked out of a front window to see if there werea chance of succouring those in the palace square. But it was allhopeless chaos with the town already beginning to burn and not a showof fight anywhere which I could join. 

I glared out on that infernal tumult for a moment or two in an agony ofimpotent rage, then turned towards the harbour and saw in the shine ofthe burning town below the ancient battlements and towers of Seth beginto gleam out, like a splendid frost work of living metal clear-cutagainst the smooth, black night behind, and never a show of resistancethere either. Ay, and by this time Ar-hap's men were battering in ourgates with a big beam, and somehow, I do not know how it happened, thepalace itself away on the right, where the dry-as-dust library lay, wasalso beginning to burn. 

It was hopeless outside, and nothing to be done but to save Heru, sodown I went, and, with the slaves, carried her away from the hallthrough a vestibule or two, and into an anteroom, where someyellow-girt individuals were already engaged in the suggestive work oftying up palace plate in bundles, amongst other things, alas! the greatgold love-bowl from which--oh! so long ago--I had drawn Heru's marriagebillet. These individuals told me in tremulous accents they had got aboat on a secret waterway behind the palace whence flight to the mainriver and so, far away inland, to another smaller but more peacefulcity of their race would be quite practical; and joyfully hearing thisnews, I handed over to them the princess while I went to look for Hath. 

And the search was not long. Dashing into the banquet-hall, stilllittered with the remains of a feast, and looking down its desertedvistas, there at the farther end, on his throne, clad in the sombregarments he affected, chin on hand, sedate in royal melancholy, listening unmoved to the sack of his town outside, sat the princehimself. Strange, gloomy man, the great dead intelligence of his raceshining in his face as weird and out of place as a lonely sea beaconfading to nothing before the glow of sunrise, never had he appeared somysterious as at that moment. Even in the heat of excitement I staredat him in amazement, wishing in a hasty thought the confusion of thepast few weeks had given me opportunity to penetrate the recesses ofhis mind, and therefrom retell you things better worth listening tothan all the incident of my adventures. But now there was no time tothink, scarce time to act. 

"Hath!" I cried, rushing over to him, "wake up, your majesty. TheThither men are outside, killing and burning!"

"I know it. "

"And the palace is on fire. You can smell the reek even here. "

"Yes. "

"Then what are you going to do?"

"Nothing. "

"My word, that is a fine proposition for a prince! If you care nothingfor town or palace perhaps you will bestir yourself for Princess Heru. "

A faint glimmer of interest rose upon the alabaster calm of his face atthat name, but it faded instantly, and he said quietly, "The slaves will save her. She will live. I looked into the book ofher fate yesterday. She will escape, and forget, and sit at anothermarriage feast, and be a mother, and give the people yet one moreprince to keep the faint glimmer of our ancestry alive. I am content. "

"But, d--- it, man, I am not! I take a deal more interest in the younglady than you seem to, and have scoured half this precious planet ofyours on her account, and will be hanged if I sit idly twiddling mythumbs while her pretty skin is in danger. " But Hath was lost incontemplation of his shoe-strings. 

"Come, sir, " I said, shaking his majesty by the shoulder, "don't bedown on your luck. There has been some rivalry between us, but nevermind about that just now. The princess wants you. I am going to saveboth her and you, you must come with her. "

"No. "

"But you SHALL come. "

"No!"

By this time the palace was blazing like a bonfire and the uproaroutside was terrible. What was I to do? As I hesitated the arras atthe further end of the hall was swept aside, a disordered mob of slavesbearing bundles and dragging Heru with them rushing down to the doornear us. As Heru was carried swiftly by she stretched her milk-whitearms towards the prince and turned her face, lovely as a convolvulusflower even in its pallor, upon him. 

It was a heart-moving appeal from a woman with the heart of a child, and Hath rose to his feet while for a moment there shone a look ofresponsible manhood in his eyes. But it faded quickly; he bowed slowlyas though he had received an address of condolence on the condition ofhis empire, and the next moment the frightened slaves, stumbling undertheir burdens, had swept poor Heru through the doorway. 

I glanced savagely round at the curling smoke overhead, the redtendrils of fire climbing up a distant wall, and there on a table by uswas a half-finished flask of the lovely tinted wine of forgetfulness. If Hath would not come sober perhaps he might come drunk. 

"Here, " I cried, "drink to tomorrow, your majesty, a sovereign toast inall ages, and better luck next time with these hairy gentlemenbattering at your majesty's doors, " and splashing out a goblet full ofthe stuff I handed it to him. 

He took it and looked rather lovingly into the limpid pool, thendeliberately poured it on the step in front of him, and throwing thecup away said pleasantly, "Not tonight, good comrade; tonight I drink a deeper draught ofoblivion than that, --and here come my cup-bearers. "

Even while he spoke the palace gates had given way; there was ahorrible medley of shrieks and cries, a quick sound of running feet;then again the arras lifted and in poured a horde of Ar-hap'smen-at-arms. The moment they caught sight of us about a dozen of them, armed with bows, drew the thick hide strings to their ears and down thehall came a ravening flight of shafts. One went through my cap, twostuck quivering in the throne, and one, winged with owl feather, caughtblack Hath full in the bosom. 

He had stood out boldly at the first coming of that onset, arms crossedon breast, chin up, and looking more of a gentleman than I had everseen him look before; and now, stricken, he smiled gravely, thenwithout flinching, and still eyeing his enemies with gentle calm, hisknees unlocked, his frame trembled, then down he went headlong, his redblood running forth in rivulets amongst the wine of oblivion he hadjust poured out. 

There was no time for sentiment. I shrugged my shoulders, and turningon my heels, with the woodmen close after me, sprang through the neardoorway. Where was Heru? I flew down the corridor by which it seemedshe had retreated, and then, hesitating a moment where it divided intwo, took the left one. This to my chagrin presently began to trendupwards, whereas I knew Heru was making for the river down below. 

But it was impossible to go back, and whenever I stopped in thosedeserted passages I could hear the wolflike patter of men's feet uponmy trail. On again into the stony labyrinths of the old palace, everupwards, in spite of my desire to go down, until at last, the pursuersoff the track for a moment, I came to a north window in the palacewall, and, hot and breathless, stayed to look out. 

All was peace here; the sky a lovely lavender, a promise of comingmorning in it, and a gold-spangled curtain of stars out yonder on thehorizon. Not a soul moved. Below appeared a sheer drop of a hundredfeet into a moat winding through thickets of heavy-scented convolvulusflowers to the waterways beyond. And as I looked a skiff with half adozen rowers came swiftly out of the darkness of the wall and passedlike a shadow amongst the thickets. In the prow was all Hath's weddingplate, and in the stern, a faint vision of unconscious loveliness, layHeru!

Before I could lift a finger or call out, even if I had had a mind todo so, the shadow had gone round a bend, and a shout within the palacetold me I was sighted again. 

On once more, hotly pursued, until the last corridor ended in two doorsleading into a half-lit gallery with open windows at the further end. There was a wilderness of lumber down the sides of the great garret, and now I come to think of it more calmly I imagine it was Hath's LostProperty Office, the vast receptacle where his slaves depositedeverything lazy Martians forgot or left about in their daily life. Atthat moment it only represented a last refuge, and into it I dashed, swung the doors to and fastened them just as the foremost of Ar-hap'smen hurled themselves upon the barrier from outside. 

There I was like a rat in a trap, and like a rat I made up my mind tofight savagely to the end, without for a moment deceiving myself as towhat that end must be. Even up there the horrible roar of destructionwas plainly audible as the barbarians sacked and burned the ancienttown, and I was glad from the bottom of my heart my poor littleprincess was safely out of it. Nor did I bear her or hers the leastresentment for making off while there was yet time and leaving me to myfate--anything else would have been contrary to Martian nature. Doubtless she would get away, as Hath had said, and elsewhere drop afew pearly tears and then over her sugar-candy and lotus-eating forgetwith happy completeness--most blessed gift! And meanwhile the foresaidbarbarians were battering on my doors, while over their heads chokingsmoke was pouring in in ever-increasing volumes. 

In burst the first panel, then another, and I could see through thegaps a medley of tossing weapons and wild faces without. Short shriftfor me if they came through, so in the obstinacy of desperation I setto work to pile old furniture and dry goods against the barricade. Andas they yelled and hammered outside I screamed back defiance fromwithin, sweating, tugging, and hauling with the strength of ten men, piling up the old Martian lumber against the opening till, so fiercewas the attack outside, little was left of the original doorway andnothing between me and the besiegers but a rampart of broken woodworkhalf seen in a smother of smoke and flames. 

Still they came on, thrusting spears and javelins through every creviceand my strength began to go. I threw two tables into a gap, andbrained a besieger with a sweetmeat-seller's block and smotheredanother, and overturned a great chest against my barricade; but whatwas the purpose of it all? They were fifty to one and my rampartquaked before them. The smoke was stifling, and the pains ofdissolution in my heart. They burst in and clambered up the rampartlike black ants. I looked round for still one more thing to hurl intothe breach. My eyes lit on a roll of carpet: I seized it by one cornermeaning to drag it to the doorway, and it came undone at a touch. 

That strange, that incredible pattern! Where in all the vicissitudesof a chequered career had I seen such a one before? I stared at it inamazement under the very spears of the woodmen in the red glare ofHath's burning palace. Then all on a sudden it burst upon me that ITWAS THE ACCURSED RUG, the very one which in response to a careless wishhad swept me out of my own dear world, and forced me to take as wild ajourney into space as ever fell to a man's lot since the universe wasmade!

And in another second it occurred to me that if it had brought mehither it might take me hence. It was but a chance, yet worth tryingwhen all other chances were against me. As Ar-hap's men came shoutingover the barricade I threw myself down upon that incredible carpet andcried from the bottom of my heart, "I wish--I wish I were in New York!"

Yes!

A moment of thrilling suspense and then the corners lifted as though astrong breeze were playing upon them. Another moment and they hadcurled over like an incoming surge. One swift glance I got at thesmoke and flames, the glittering spears and angry faces, and then foldupon fold, a stifling, all-enveloping embrace, a lift, a sense ofsuper-human speed--and then forgetfulness. 

When I came to, as reporters say, I was aware the rug had ejected me onsolid ground and disappeared, forever. Where was I! It was cool, damp, and muddy. There were some iron railings close at hand and astreet lamp overhead. These things showed clearly to me, sitting on adoorstep under that light, head in hand, amazed and giddy--so amazedthat when slowly the recognition came of the incredible fact my wishwas gratified and I was home again, the stupendous incident scarcelyappealed to my tingling senses more than one of the many others I hadlately undergone. 

Very slowly I rose to my feet, and as like a discreditable reveller ascould be, climbed the steps. The front door was open, and entering theoh, so familiar hall a sound of voices in my sitting-room on the rightcaught my ear. 

"Oh no, Mrs. Brown, " said one, which I recognised at once as myPolly's, "he is dead for certain, and my heart is breaking. He wouldnever, never have left me so long without writing if he had beenalive, " and then came a great sound of sobbing. 

"Bless your kind heart, miss, " said the voice of my landlady in reply, "but you don't know as much about young gentlemen as I do. It is notlikely, if he has gone off on the razzle-dazzle, as I am sure he has, he is going to write every post and tell you about it. Now you go offto your ma at the hotel like a dear, and forget all about him till hecomes back--that's MY advice. "

"I cannot, I cannot, Mrs. Brown. I cannot rest by day or sleep bynight for thinking of him; for wondering why he went away so suddenly, and for hungering for news of him. Oh, I am miserable. Gully! Gully!Come to me, " and then there were sounds of troubled footsteps pacing toand fro and of a woman's grief. 

That was more than I could stand. I flung the door open, and, dirty, dishevelled, with unsteady steps, advanced into the room. 

"Ahem!" coughed Mrs. Brown, "just as I expected!"

But I had no eyes for her. "Polly! Polly!" I cried, and that deargirl, after a startled scream and a glance to make sure it was indeedthe recovered prodigal, rushed over and threw all her weight of dear, warm, comfortable womanhood into my arms, and the moment after burstinto a passion of happy tears down my collar. 

"Humph!" quoth the landlady, "that is not what BROWN gets when heforgets his self. No, not by any means. "

But she was a good old soul at heart, and, seeing how matters stood, with a parting glance of scorn in my direction and a toss of her head, went out of the room, and closed the door behind her. 

Need I tell in detail what followed? Polly behaved like an angel, andwhen in answer to her gentle reproaches I told her the outlines of mymarvellous story she almost believed me! Over there on thewriting-desk lay a whole row of the unopened letters she had showeredupon me during my absence, and amongst them an official one. We wentand opened it together, and it was an intimation of my promotion, amuch better "step" than I had ever dared to hope for. 

Holding that missive in my hand a thought suddenly occurred to me. 

"Polly dear, this letter makes me able to maintain you as you ought tobe maintained, and there is still a fortnight of vacation for me. Polly, will you marry me tomorrow?"

"No, certainly not, sir. "

"Then will you marry me on Monday?"

"Do you truly, truly want me to?"

"Truly, truly. "

"Then, yes, " and the dear girl again came blushing into my arms. 

While we were thus the door opened, and in came her parents who werestaying at a neighbouring hotel while inquiries were made as to mymysterious absence. Not unnaturally my appearance went a long way toconfirm suspicions such as Mrs. Brown had confessed to, and, after theyhad given me cold salutations, Polly's mother, fixing gold glasses onthe bridge of her nose and eyeing me haughtily therefrom, observed, "And now that you ARE safely at home again, Lieutenant Gulliver Jones, I think I will take my daughter away with me. Tomorrow her father willascertain the true state of her feelings after this unpleasantexperience, and subsequently he will no doubt communicate with you onthe subject. " This very icily. 

But I was too happy to be lightly put down. 

"My dear madam, " I replied, "I am happy to be able to save her fatherthat trouble. I have already communicated with this young lady as tothe state of her feelings, and as an outcome I am delighted to be ableto tell you we are to be married on Monday. "

"Oh yes, Mother, it is true, and if you do not want to make me the mostmiserable of girls again you will not be unkind to us. "

In brief, that sweet champion spoke so prettily and smoothed things socleverly that I was "forgiven, " and later on in the evening allowed toescort Polly back to her hotel. 

"And oh!" she said, in her charmingly enthusiastic way when we weresaying goodnight, "you shall write a book about that extraordinarystory you told me just now. Only you must promise me one thing. "

"What is it?"

"To leave out all about Heru--I don't like that part at all. " Thiswith the prettiest little pout. 

"But, Polly dear, see how important she was to the narrative. I cannotquite do that. "

"Then you will say as little as you can about her?"

"No more than the story compels me to. "

"And you are quite sure you like me much the best, and will not goafter her again?"

"Quite sure. "

The compact was sealed in the most approved fashion; and here, indulgent reader, is the artless narrative that resulted--an incidentso incredible in this prosaic latter-day world that I dare not ask youto believe, and must humbly content myself with hoping that if I failto convince yet I may at least claim the consolation of having amusedyou.