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 incredi
ble, 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.
Gulliver of Mars Page 11