Between Worlds

by Garret Smith

  “One at a time!” He laughed. “The simplest way to answer is to begin where we parted last and tell the whole story. I can guess pretty well what happened to you from what the queen has told me. So I’ll give my experience first.

  “When I left you people at the foot of the ship’s ladder my one hope was that the savages hadn’t yet found their way into the cabins. I believed that if I could run the gauntlet of their sharp ears and noses and once get inside, I could lock myself in, repair the vessel’s machinery, and devise some scheme of getting rid of our boarders.

  “Well, I got to the deck just in time. Right opposite the top of our ladder, you know, was the door into the motor cabin. By good luck it had slammed shut after you two dragged me out so unceremoniously, but it was not locked.

  “Just as I reached the top of the ladder, one of the brutes was feeling the handle of. the cabin door. I thought of nothing but the need of keeping him out of the cabin. But even then it didn’t occur to me to use the spear I had brought with me. I’m not used to the idea of killing, you know, even if my name does come from ancestors who made that a business.

  “I simply dropped the spear on the deck and made a dash at the fellow. He heard me, of course, and started to turn about just as I struck him. I caught him by the arms before he could raise his spear and whirled him away from the door.

  “In the meantime a brother savage of his at my left had heard me also, and evidently catching the odor of a stranger, despite the familiar clothing I had on, let drive his spear in my direction. By chance, I had thrown the other’s body in front of me just in time for it to catch the spear-thrust that was intended for me. The thing I clutched gave a choking cry and dropped bleeding in my arms, I shrank away, faint with horror for the moment.

  “But I had not time to indulge in squeamishness. At that instant I caught sight of another savage with spear set and dilated nostrils sniffing the air in my direction, feeling his way along the edge of the cabin. I saw at a glance that he would reach me before I could wrench the door up; the noise I would make doing it would draw his spear unerringly at me.

  “At that my hereditary instincts came to the rescue, I had just time to snatch up the spear I had dropped, dodge to one side, arid thrust it through the savage’s middle. Then I wrenched up the door, stumbled into the cabin, slammed down and locked the door, and dropped on the floor in a half-faint.

  “There was a tumult of rage outside by now. A spear shattered the cabin window and one savage, fingering the ragged glass, cut his hand badly. He turned away in pain and shouted something that sounded like our word for ‘bitten.’

  “At that, the rest drew away from the cabin and stood doubtfully, muttering among themselves. I think by now they believed they had encountered some, new form of great beast.

  “Meantime I had recovered myself and began hastily revising my plans. I recognized the fact that fear had little part in the make-up of those stolid brutes, and it was only a matter of moments when they would break into the cabin. There was no time to repair our motors while they were at large. I must overcome them first.

  “My first thought was of my laboratory. I had stored, you know, a very complete outfit of chemicals and chemical apparatus on the ship, not knowing what need I might have of them in the new world I expected to discover.

  “Among them was a quantity of the volatile anesthetic discovered by my grandfather. You know of its use in surgery. A little of it sprayed in the open air will render instantly unconscious any living thing within its reach unless equipped with the neutralizing mask that the physician wears while using it. The asphyxiated person remains rigidly in the position he was in when overcome, arid when he comes to, has no knowledge of the fact that he has been unconscious.

  “WELL, I HAD one of the masks and a spray syringe in my cabinet. I loaded the sprayer in a hurry and put on the mask. Then I threw open, the door and let them have a good dose of the stuff.

  “The whole crew froze in their tracks on the instant. I had already planned how to handle them. I dug a coil of rope out of the storeroom, cut it into short lengths, and when the crowd came to, every man of them was tied hand and foot.

  “And then, just as I was debating my next move, I heard a terrific uproar out over the ice. The ship leaped so violently that we were all hurled to the deck. I had just made out the ice mountain bearing down on us when the vessel crashed against the opposite side of the channel, and heeled violently over against the ice field. The battery connections must have been wrenched away, for the lights went out, and so as to what happened after “that I can only guess.

  “Apparently the big mass of ice passed just to one side of us. We were tossed about like a plaything in the hands of a child. The vessel rolled almost completely over, first to one side, then the other. I thought surely her sides were broken in.

  “But when the motion at length subsided we were still above water, though the ship lay over on her side at so steep a pitch that it was impossible to stand on her decks. I and my prisoners were huddled together in a mass against the lower rail. My first task was to restore the lights. What with the tangle of wreckage I found within the cabin, and the absolute darkness in which I must feel my way about, it was a long and difficult task. My labor, also, was accompanied by a most distracting uproar of wails and cries from my tethered prisoners. The amazing fashion in which they had suddenly found themselves bound and helpless, apparently without the aid of human hands, together with the climax of the ice-mountain’s part in the performance, had at last affected even their rudimentary nerves.

  “But at length I had our lights going again. I found that our shattered vessel lay high and dry on the surface of the ice-field, as though a giant hand had picked it up and hurled it there.

  “I was far more concerned, however, over the fate of you people than with our ship’s plight. I determined to use my prisoners in hunting you out, if you were still alive. In listening to their jargon I had discovered, as you doubtless have, that they had some words in common with our speech. Making use of this knowledge, I managed to make them understand that I had comrades out on the Ice near where they had fought the great beast, and that they must lead me to you. They were now thoroughly cowed and ready to do anything I commanded.

  “My next move was to unfasten one of the ship’s lights and attach a small battery cell to it, so that I had a portable illumination. I did this just in time, for the main battery was still defective, and presently the other lights went out again. Then I untied the feet of my followers, still keeping their hands bound, however, and we climbed out to the ice.

  “The strange, unerring instinct with which those sightless creatures found their way about was a source of endless wonder to me. Their sense of smell is so acute that they followed your trail from the ship straight here. We arrived only a little time after the last of you straggled in.

  “Imagine my surprise at finding a considerable city here built of blocks of ice, and a beautiful woman, with eyes, and the ability to make and use light, ruling these eyeless savages with a rod of iron.

  “Intelligent as she is, however, the bound condition of the warriors I led in, the tale they told, and my own appearance and speech, filled her with awe and fear of me. Nevertheless, it was necessary just now to give her a demonstration with my anesthetic to clinch the matter and prove that we are people not to be trifled with.”

  “So we really did see you in a big room with a beautiful woman by your side!” I exclaimed. “I was convinced that I was dreaming. I may be dreaming yet.”

  “Not at all!” he assured me. “You really saw what you thought you did. I brought my anesthetic spray with me. When I told her I was going into the darkness, I simply filled the atmosphere with the vapor, and she, with all the rest in the room, became instantly insensible, excepting myself, who was protected by the mask I held over my nose. You were all insensible long enough for me to bring you and Weaver here. When they woke up out there, it seemed to them that we had vanished instantaneousl
y into thin air, for they had no sensation of losing consciousness.

  “It’s a handy little invention in our present plight. I had already rescued you from unpleasant slavery and myself from death, and I propose to use the influence it has given me to make the rest of our stay in the Land of Darkness both safe and comfortable.”

  ONCE convinced that we had not dreamed these remarkable experiences, we were filled with a not unnatural curiosity as to this strange woman whom Hunter called the queen. How could it be possible that from so degenerate a race, whose eyes had atrophied from lack of use, if indeed it ever possessed those organs, could have sprung this beautiful creature, not only possessed of perfect eyes, but feeling the need of using them and able to devise a way of doing so?

  Moreover, what was the explanation of her comparatively fluent use of our speech among a people whose vocabulary consisted only of a few simple and badly distorted words?

  But we found Hunter as much at loss as we on these points. His brief interview with her, however, had convinced him that she was no freakish offshoot of the race of the blind that came of utterly different origin. He had asked her if there were other people in the Land of Darkness who were able to see, and she had assured him that she had never before seen eyes in a human head. From her earliest infancy she had lived among these blind people, as far as she could remember.

  How artificial light had first come to be used in this Land of Darkness she did not know. Her earliest recollection was of life in a small ice-hut, on the wall of which was a burning torch. Someone who took care of her then had shown her a great store of unburned torches, and taught her to light a new one whenever the old one died down. Otherwise there was no way to create new light. Later she had learned to make the torches from the hair of beasts saturated with oil tried from their flesh.

  This guardian of hers, whether parent or not, must, have died about the time she was taught the use of the torches, for she could recall nothing of him or her after that. She knew, however, that she had been taught to speak before this time.

  We assumed that this person also must have possessed sight to have known the use of light.

  She had evidently inherited a good brain, for she soon saw her advantage over those around her and brought them under her unquestionable rule. She had used much of her energy in compelling her subjects to build larger and larger huts, till now she ruled, over a city of ice buildings, some of them equal in size to small mansions.

  “But I am not so much interested in the origin of this lady, fascinating as she is, as I am in my plans for recovering and repairing the ship and continuing our explorations,” Hunter concluded.

  “How will that be possible?” questioned the practical-minded Weaver. “If our vessel is lodged on solid ice, and no open channel near it, what good will it do to make repairs? We cannot float her again. My advice would be to rescue from the vessel several of the life-rafts, our food supply, and other necessary equipment, and compel these savages to drag them back over the ice the way we came until we are near the Land of Light.

  “Then we may be able to paddle back to the light, and perhaps be picked up by a passing merchant vessel. Later, if you insist, we can secure another ship and make a second attempt.”

  This proposal, I could see, met with no favor from Hunter. It seemed rather to irritate him.

  “There are still some things about the ship that even you do not know, Weaver,” he replied, with some asperity “In the first place, it could hardly be replaced at all. Moreover it has in it an appliance I have never explained to any of you. Like the lights which were a complete surprise to you, this contrivance has never had a practical trial, but. I feel equally sure it will succeed. I will not explain it until I can try it. If it fails, then I’ll consider your advice.

  “None of these miracle-working devices of mine are at all original. I am no inventor. I have simply applied well-known discoveries that have never before been used because the need has never before arisen. That has been the curse of the race. We have suffered little need. So we have not, in ages, developed anything but useless, theoretical knowledge.”

  I saw that Hunter was off on his hobby again, and hastened to interrupt him as tactfully as possible.

  “Wouldn’t it be well to return to the queen before she recovers from her surprise enough to send searchers after us?” I suggested. “We can lay our plans a little later for return to the ship. We mustn’t risk spoiling the effect of your trick.”

  “You are right,” he assented. “At the same time we must push our plans for escape as quickly as possible.”

  “Can’t be too quick about it to suit me,” grumbled Weaver. “If I am forced to eat much more of that cursed geese, I’ll grow fur and begin growling like an animal. As it was, I came near biting my keeper’s hand when he fed me the stuff.”

  “Come down the passage close behind me,” Hunter directed. “I’ll give them another sleeping dose and we’ll return to our places under-cover of it. Hold your breath when I give the signal, and it won’t affect you.”

  So we extinguished the torch, stole on tiptoe down the passage, and peered into the great chamber. We need not have been at such pains to preserve quiet. The crowd was in an uproar. The savages were all jabbering excitedly at once.

  On the dais the queen sat half upright, leaning backward on her hands, and staring in terror and amazement at the spot beside her from which Hunter had so miraculously vanished.

  Then our leader gave the signal on which we had agreed. Weaver and I took deep breaths and held them as Hunter had directed. He clapped his mask over his face, drew from under his tunic his magic sprayer, and pressed the piston.

  The effect was almost instantaneous. The outcries of the savages ceased. Each was caught and held rigid in whatever position he happened to be at the moment.

  In some instances, particularly, the result was most grotesque. I noted especially my own keeper, who stood poised over the spot where I should have been, his suddenly stiffened clawlike fingers clutching at the empty air.

  “Now, quick! Back to our places! Just as we were before!” whispered Hunter.

  Weaver and I slipped into position beside our respective keepers, and Hunter threw himself down on the fur-covered dais beside the dead-eyed, staring queen.

  A MOMENT passed. Then through all the room quavered a sighing as of the wind through the leaves of a garden, and the breath returned to the crowd. Each continued his own clamor where it had been broken off till the surprised shouts of the keepers of Weaver and myself informed them that the lost were found, and they fell into stolid silence. I could not forbear amusement, too, at the bewilderment in the faces of those of our ship’s company to whom the trick had not been explained.

  The emotions of the queen betrayed a more highly sensitized nervous organism. The instant the light of consciousness returned to her face, she leaped to her feet. A moment she stared incredulously at Hunter, then, with a piercing scream that caused every eager lance of her motley followers to leap to attention, she swayed forward in a faint. She would have fallen from the dais had not Hunter sprung up and caught her in his arms.

  Gently he laid her on her rug; then stood awkwardly over her, for once at a loss what to do. But presently she stirred and moaned a little; then suddenly sat up and, again stared at Hunter, shrinking away from him in terror.

  Our leader by now had recovered some degree of his accustomed ease. He was altogether unused to dealing with hysterical women, however, and for the moment I had feared that in his discomfiture he might lose some of the advantage he had gained over this savage queen who had such power over our destiny.

  “Have no fear, O queen,” he said, with a return to the ceremonial manner he had affected in addressing her. “We are your friends, and mean no harm to you or your people. We of the two eyes, as you have seen, possess powers as much greater than yours as yours are greater than those of these eyeless people whom you rule. It will be of no avail, then, to try to restrain us against our will
.

  “We ask first that you release these men of mine and send your men away while we confer with you. That you may feel safer, we grant that you keep, as many of your spearmen standing guard at the passage-ways as there are men of us in our party. It will be of no use for them to attack us. If they try it, they will suddenly find themselves bound again as they did when they assailed me on my ship.”

  For a little time the queen stood irresolute, looking thoughtfully first at Hunter then at us, and then at the sightless faces of her guests. When at last she spoke it was in the guttural jargon of the blind tribe. For an instant I half feared that Hunter had overestimated the impression he had made upon her, and that in ignorant bravado she was about to order an attack upon us.

  But instead, to the relief both of our sight and nostrils, the filthy brutes wheeled about and departed. A moment later the members of our ship’s company, who had been separated under such harrowing circumstances, now freed from restraint, were exchanging intimate greetings.

  A little later I noted that the queen had recovered from her fright, and that Hunter at last seemed perfectly at ease in her presence. They were conversing intimately together, and on the face of each was evident the keenest interest in the other.

  It had already occurred to me that we were not getting very far with our proposed conference over the rescue of our ship.

  It was Weaver, the blunt, who broke up this little tête–à–tête.

  This direct old mariner, after briefly greeting his shipmates, had been pacing about uneasily, casting furtive glances of displeasure now and then at the pair on the dais.

  At length he stepped resolutely over and addressed our leader.

  “Hunter, I beg leave to interrupt,” he began.

  At his first word the queen glanced up, startled, a far-away look came into her eyes, the look of one striving to recall something out of the distant past.

  “Hunter, you said,” she half whispered. “Hunter? Hunter? Hunter? What does that mean? I’ve heard it before, long ago.”