Fifteen Hundred Miles an Hour

by Charles Dixon

  CHAPTER IX.

  THE MORROW--AND WHAT CAME OF IT!

  Never did four human beings await the coming of daylight with suchfeelings as ours. Not one of us slept for a moment, the livelongnight; our excitement was too intense, and the result of our doingson the morrow too momentous. We were up and out of the _Sirius_ bysunrise, looking westwards across the undulating expanse of country,to obtain a glimpse of the fair city we saw yesterday; but vain wereour endeavours; a group of low hills hid all from view. On a hillabout twenty miles to the north of where we stood, however, we sawthree mighty domes, the central one being more than twice the size ofthe others. From the way in which they glistened in the sunlight, weconcluded that they were roofed with gold, or some metal unknown tous of the same colour and brilliancy. A large wood that surroundedthem hid the remainder of the buildings from sight, but their sizeappeared to be enormous, dwarfing all earthly structures into utterinsignificance.

  We started off in the yet early morning, fully armed and equipped forour walk across country to the distant city, to make the acquaintanceof its yet unknown inhabitants. That they were beings of noble staturewe had not the slightest doubt; for only a race of giants could havereared such a colossal city; besides, the very physical conditionsof Mars point to the existence of larger types of life than any nowprevailing on earth.

  We had not walked more than four miles on our way before we reachedcountry evidently in a high state of cultivation. We passed largeenclosures of red "grass," divided by hedges of a cactus-like plant,similar to the one we noticed growing in the swamp. These fields wereevidently crops, the herbage being finer and longer than that growingwild on the mountain slopes. There were other enclosures full of acreeping plant, something like convolvulus, but bearing a long narrowpod, full of small bean-like seeds; and in others were bushes ladenwith fruit as big as melons, and very similar in appearance.

  We were walking steadily along a broad kind of pathway between theseenclosures, when an exclamation from Sandy caused us to halt, andimmediately confine our attention to something which the cautious Scotwas looking at on the ground before him.

  It was the imprint of feet in the soft, bare ground, and evidently theimpressions of a being shod with moccasins, and of mighty stature.As we were all stooping down, intently examining the first absolutetraces of the intellectual inhabitants of Mars, we did not notice theapproach of the being who had doubtless left these tracks behind. Hecame slowly along the path we were following--a being--shall we say ahuman being? for in all his outward frame he resembled ourselves, savethat in stature he was a giant, quite nine feet in height. His featureswere noble-looking, almost like the Egyptians of old, and his skin waswonderfully fair and beautiful. His black beard swept downwards to hisbreast, and his long bushy hair, of the same tint, was confined simplyby a ring of some metal which just encircled the crown of his shapelyhead. He was clothed in a loosely flowing robe of some soft material,almost like silk, which draped from his neck to his knees, girdedat the waist with a broad strap, from which dangled several curiousarticles of which we knew not the use. His legs and feet were coveredwith the skins of some beast, curiously ornamented. Slowly but withouta sign of fear he advanced towards us, carrying in his hands a long rodmade of some metal. His expression was warlike; we had evidently todeal with no coward; but we could plainly see that his curiosity wasmost intense.

  With the exception, perhaps, of the Doctor, all of us were visiblyalarmed at this strange bold and haughty man, and had we not beenassured by the calm confidence of our friend we should most certainlyhave felt inclined either to fight our visitor at once, or make thebest of our way out of his presence. There was something uncanny abouthim. Had he even spoken, the awe and mystery surrounding him would nothave been so terrible. But he came towards us in absolute silence;and when about a dozen paces away from where we stood, he paused andwatched us intently.

  Doctor Hermann, foolishly we thought, hailed him successively inGerman, in English, and in Latin, but he made no sound in reply.He was examining us minutely, evidently full of confidence in thesuperiority of his size and strength. He must have looked upon uswith much the same contemptuous wonder as the old travellers viewedthe race of dwarfs that they assure us inhabit the vast forests ofCentral Africa. Sandy at last hurled at him a perfect torrent ofhonest Gaelic, which only seemed to rouse his anger, and he utteredseveral sounds which were evidently meant for words of warning, in aloud, imperious, but not unpleasant voice. His arm was raised as if inthreat towards us, and all of us felt thoroughly alarmed, except theDoctor, who advanced a step towards him with both hands held out as ifin greeting. At this he pointed the long rod he was carrying towardsone of the curious animals we had previously met with near the lake,which happened to be grazing quietly half-a-mile away, and within asecond of time we saw the poor creature leap into the air and dropdead! We heard no report, we saw no flash! This was too much for Sandy,and before we could prevent him his revolver was drawn, pointed at theunknown stranger, and fired once, twice, three times into his stalwartbody! At the first shot he screamed with pain, and tried to level hisrod at us; at the second he fell to the ground; the result of thethird we never learned, for we all turned and fled as if for our livestowards the friendly cover which sheltered the _Sirius_. As we ranbehind the welcome shelter of the low hills we noticed several more ofthese strange beings, hastening from various directions to their fallencomrade; and as we had every reason to dread the deadly weapons withwhich they were most probably armed, we were glad to reach the woodedcountry and seek our refuge under the cover of the trees.

  With thankful hearts we reached the _Sirius_, finding everything as wehad left it. Doctor Hermann was angry beyond all measure with Sandy forhis foolishness in shooting without just provocation, and threatenedthat if he did not keep more command over himself in future, he shouldnot carry firearms at all.

  "This, Temple, is a most unfortunate occurrence--most unfortunate forus all," continued the Doctor, after he had finished lecturing Sandy,who was now all contrition, and cursing himself for his stupid blunder."There is no telling what may happen now; it is impossible to estimatethe amount of misfortune this unwarranted attack on a harmless beingmay bring upon us. It is folly now to think of visiting that fair cityyonder, on foot, as I so much desired."

  "I quite agree with you, Doctor; yet, after all, there is some littleexcuse for poor Sandy. Matters certainly looked threatening; my ownhand, too, was on my revolver at the time."

  "Well," continued Temple, "all our arguments will avail us nothing now.Regrets are useless; we are in a serious position. Like all Englishmen,we have readily got ourselves into a mess; and let us hope, like ourcountrymen, we shall display the usual quickness of resource in thetime of difficulty and danger, and soon see a way out of it."

  "True, true, my dear Temple," remarked the Doctor, regaining hisusual _sang froid_; "time is pressing. We may rest assured that thismorning's work is well noised abroad, and ere long, there will be ahue and cry after us. Although my remarks may savour of egotism, I canfrankly say, I have no fear of any living being on this planet. Fromwhat little I have seen of its civilisation, I am confident that weshall, at any-rate, receive justice at the hands of its inhabitants. Ifa low-born labourer of the field--for such I take this Martial, whom wehave slain, to be--can show such courage, and be possessed of a weaponthat makes the arms of Earth seem but as the toys of barbarians, incomparison--if, I say, the lower classes of this planet's people are somuch in advance of ourselves, then its aristocracy must be gifted withintelligence far higher than aught we wot of; and with such a people wehave nought to fear, provided we can make them understand who we are,whence we came, and what is our mission. Let us lose no time in gettingaway from here; let us visit the city yonder in the _Sirius_, boldlyand with brave hearts; and I feel sure we shall be received in a mannerworthy of our confidence and our courage."

  "Doctor, I am afraid your naturally brave nature makes you feel toosanguine. I frankly own that I am unable to
acquiesce with all you say;still, I cannot suggest anything so good as an alternative, and amready to act on your suggestion. Let us hope all may yet be well," saidTemple.

  "We could start off elsewhere," said Graham. "The good _Sirius_ cancarry us to some other part of this Martial world, where we may havebetter luck with the natives."

  "Gently, Graham," rejoined the Doctor; "you overlook the fact that wehave nearly worn out our machinery. Everything requires a thoroughoverhaul; as things are now, I much doubt if the _Sirius_ would carryus a couple of hundred miles. I ascertained this before we started thismorning."

  "As an engineer I ought to have known this, Doctor; but, really, theexcitement of the last few days seems to have knocked everything out ofme. By all means let us visit the city with what little electric forceis still left to us, and take our chance," answered Graham, and hisremarks were seconded by Temple.

  Our conversation was suddenly interrupted by a mighty blast from whatwe judged to be some instrument like a horn. It sounded so near that weeach sprang up to look, fully expecting that the alarm had already beengiven and that our hiding-place was discovered. As we cautiously peepedbetween the trees, whilst standing on the balcony of the _Sirius_,we beheld dozens of this mighty race of people, searching everywhereabout the countryside; and another blast from the horn, which soundedmuch nearer than the previous one, informed us that some at least ofour pursuers were coming in our direction, and that the discovery ofour hiding-place was but a matter of a very short time. The climaxwas reached a few minutes afterwards when a black-bearded giant ofherculean strength burst through the low underwood, and with a curiousunearthly shout as of triumph rushed towards the _Sirius_. Perhapsfortunately for us he carried no rod-like weapon--his sole equipmentseemed to be a mighty horn, whose bright and gleaming gold-like coilsencircled his body several times!

  But he came too late! For ere he could get within twenty paces of the_Sirius_ the command was given by Doctor Hermann, and Graham set theengines in motion. We shot upwards towards the sky with great speed,and before our astonished pursuer could recover from his surprise wewere a thousand feet above him in the air. However superior to us intheir intelligence the people of Mars might be, they were evidentlynonplussed at our escape, and appeared to be utterly ignorant of aerialnavigation in any form whatever. At least we thought so then, as wewatched them gathering into terror-stricken groups below us, and everand anon pointing to the _Sirius_, now almost at rest four thousandfeet above them.

  "Doctor, how I wish we could manage to well clean our machinery, and beable to rely upon our electricity for safety. This is beating the enemywith a vengeance," said Graham.

  "But, my young friend, you forget that we cannot live in the air; ourmission is to make friends with these people, not to shun them; tofraternise with them in the common interests of humanity. Now that weare here, a serious responsibility rests upon each and all of us--theteeming millions of our fellow-men, left behind on earth, will expectus to make the very most of our glorious opportunities, and to carryback to them a full history of the wonders of this new world and newrace. 'Advance' must be our watchword, until our work is done; eventhough our lives are lost in the effort. Recall the words you uttered,Graham, years ago, on that fateful evening, when you solemnly pledgedyourself to this mission, nay, even devoted your life to its fullaccomplishment. Our course is clear; put the _Sirius_ up another tenthousand feet, and we will let her head towards the beautiful cityyonder. We will come to rest on that elevation above it, and then beguided by events."

  The country below us seemed teeming with people, spreading about inall directions; and dense bodies of what looked like troops, couldbe distinguished coming from the city in the direction of the placewhere the _Sirius_ had rested the previous night. Evidently thesepeople had some very rapid means of communication, one with theother. The entire district appeared to be thoroughly aroused, and thecommotion was evidently increasing each moment. That we were seen wasmanifest--thousands of upturned faces told us that the _Sirius_ was thecentre of attraction, and every movement was keenly noted. We had now amuch better view of the three glittering domes; they appeared to be theroof of some magnificent temple, whose walls seemed of white marble;but the dense growth of trees round the entire edifice, still concealedmuch of its rare beauty from our gaze.

  Just as we came over the outskirts of this wonderful town, the _Sirius_received a terrible blow from some missile, which made her quiver fromtop to bottom, and we quite expected that we were about to fall to theground. Had the projectile struck us fairly, nothing could have savedus; but by good fortune it glanced obliquely along the sides of the_Sirius_, and spent itself in space.

  "If I mistake not, that has been fired at us from the city below;but what the force was that hurled that bullet so high, and withsuch marvellously accurate aim is unknown to me, for no explosionaccompanied it," said the Doctor, with rather a disconcerted air.

  "It is time we descended of our own free will, Doctor," answeredTemple, "otherwise we shall be brought down as ignominiously asa winged hawk, and there will then be a speedy end to us and ourprojects."

  We were now directly over the city. And such a noble city, too! Thebuildings were all of colossal grandeur, the streets wide, and at rightangles; no smaller houses mingled with the rest--all were uniformlygrand, though the variety of the architecture prevented the slightestmonotony. There were several magnificent buildings which we concludedwere palaces or seats of government, on the larger of the two hills onwhich the city rested, and some of these were surrounded by gardens.The top of each hill had been levelled, and the bridge between them wasa superb structure, quite half a mile in width, and perhaps three milesin length! What surprised us beyond everything was the total absenceof conveyances, or of any kind of beasts of burthen whatever in thespacious thoroughfares, which were crowded with people alone.

  "What palaces! What domes! What halls and towers! What streets!"shouted Graham, carried away by his admiration for the architects andengineers who had planned and reared them.

  After earnest consultation we decided to descend at once, choosinga vast open square before one of the largest edifices, but whichappeared to be deserted of people, as the exact spot. Slowly we droppedthrough the air. Nearer and nearer to the ground we came, each momentthe magnificence of the city increasing as our eager scrutiny becamecloser. One thousand feet more! Five hundred! One hundred only left!Not a living creature in view! Our hearts beat fast; our excitementbecame agony in its intensity. The courtyard seemed paved with preciousstones of every hue, as large as ostrich-eggs; certainly no commonstones of Earth are like them, and none known to man, even the mostrare, so large. Curious plants and trees grew in well-kept beds;fountains of perfumed water shot like crystal rockets to the sky! Allthis, and more, we noted in the short time that we were descending thelast few feet; but ere the _Sirius_ could touch the ground, a thousandstalwart warrior-giants rushed out from every side! In an instant wewere the centre of an excited frenzied throng, and our lives wereapparently not worth another moment's purchase!