Adrift in the Unknown; or, Queer Adventures in a Queer Realm
Page 12
*CHAPTER XII.*
*CONDEMNED TO DEATH.*
"Have courage, Mr. Meigs," said Professor Quinn. "It is my hope thatsome high personage may be with the approaching army, in which event theroyal banner given us by the king of Baigol will be respected and provethe salvation of all three of us."
This great and good man was utterly incapable of harboring resentmentagainst any one. He beguiled the plutocrats into his castle, I grantyou, and shuffled them from the scene of their grievous labors, yet thiswas not because he loved the rich man less but the poor man more.
As I write these words, piecing my narrative together out of mycommonplace book, a wave of affection and reverence rolls over me.
And often I steal forth o' nights when skies are propitious, gaze atMercury through my telescope, and can almost fancy myself in communionwith the gentle soul forever lost to its native planet. But Ianticipate.
The retreating Gaddbaizets had reached headquarters and acquainted thehigh chief in command with the fact that two more colossi had appeared;so the major part of the king's forces had been ordered out. By tactfulmaneuvres, they were approaching from all sides.
A cordon was drawn around us--a cordon of soldiers with their flashingzetbais presented. One hostile move would have placed the seal on ourdeath warrant.
The high chief, perhaps fearing his word-box might be wrecked as hiscaptain's had been, had evidently laid plans and given all orders inadvance of his attack on our position. The assault was noiseless,swift, and sure.
When completely surrounded by the troops, a number of the soldiersdisengaged themselves from various points of the circle. These soldierscarried lances at least ten feet long.
The lances were held high, and to the point of each the upper edge of anet was made fast, the lower edge of the net trailing along the ground.
As the lancemen advanced the net took the form of a rapidly contractingcircle, the professor, Meigs, and myself in the centre.
In less than five minutes we three colossi were stoutly encompassed bythe net, hurled together and thrown in a helpless jumble. The web wasfinely woven and of a material that defied our efforts to break throughit.
Professor Quinn made a fierce attempt to use his word-box, but he washeld so rigidly that he could not do so. One by one we weredisentangled, the upper parts of our bodies were wrapped about insections of the net so that only our legs were free, and we were forcedto proceed with our captors, the army marching on every side of us.
Meigs was loudly bewailing his evil fortune.
"Take heart, man!" cried Quinn. "If I can see the king or get word tohim I am sure that all will yet be well."
"It's all day with us," returned Meigs with a groan, "and you cannotmake me believe otherwise."
There was no twilight in the nether kingdoms. Day leaped into night asswiftly as a curtain falls on a stage play.
Long before we reached our destination we were in Stygian blackness.There were no artificial illuminants known to the creatures of theunder-world, and they had no need of them. Their single eyes were giftedwith power to see at night almost as keenly as in the daytime.
When we had traveled several hours we were made to halt and a circle ofzet, similar to the one that had imprisoned Quinn and myself in Baigol,was reared around us. Thereupon we were freed of the nets and left toourselves.
The instant he was able to make use of his hands the professor grabbedhis word-box and began shooting questions into the opaque gloom thathemmed us in.
"Why have you taken us prisoners? What harm have we ever done you? Weare under the protection of King Golbai. Did not the captain of theother detachment so inform you?"
Answer came back:
"You have been taken prisoners because you resisted the royal authorityand tried to protect a man who stole goods from our regal master. Theftof goods from his majesty's storehouse is punishable with death. Evenambassadors from King Golbai are not above the laws of our realm."
"What is to be our fate?"
"Zet," was the laconic answer. "You will all three be slain by theexecutioner-general as soon as may be after the great reflector sendsits first gleam of day through the kingdom."
That ended the professor's talk with our unseen enemy who, presumably,was the high chief of the forces. It was sufficiently discouraging,although I was reckless enough to ease my feelings with a few expletiveson Key 7--the most insolent and defiant that I had learned in Baigol.
"Mr. Munn, Mr. Munn!" cried Quinn in rebuke. "This is no time to expressyourself in that key."
"I am not endowed with your magnificent forbearance, professor," said I,"and I had to say something."
"What's it all about, anyway?" asked Meigs.
"We are to die at sunrise, Meigs," I answered roughly, "or as soon aftersunrise as the executioner-general may find it convenient."
"I would have spared Mr. Meigs that information," said the professor.
"He ought to have time to prepare himself," I returned. "As the nightis far spent I am going to turn in and snatch forty winks against thetime the reflectors begin to work. Good night, professor," I added, asI stretched out on the ground. "I don't amount to much more than Meigs,and will never be missed, but I am sorry for you."
Quinn groped for my hand.
"Life, in itself, is a small thing," said he, "no matter whether it islong or short. It is what we do with life that counts, Mr. Munn."
"I have no regrets for what I have done with mine," I declared.
And I had not. Conscience did not accuse me in the least. Never had Itaken a penny from those who could not afford to lose it.
"Think again, Mr. Munn!" implored the professor. "I would not have youface your doom in that mental attitude. Surely your senses are notblunted to the evil of your past life?"
"Sir," I answered, imbued to the core with the sophistry that had mademe what I was, "I have been a financier in a small way. Not having therequisite capital for large operations, I was compelled to work in asmall way. My business, however, while it may not have been aslegitimate, was every whit as honest as that of Meigs and hisassociates."
"If you men would stop that useless palavering," called Meigs, fromsomewhere in the dark, "and try to think of some way for making ourescape, you would be putting in your time to better advantage."
"Never mind him, professor," said I. "This is probably the lastopportunity we shall ever have for an extended talk. At such a time aman speaks from the heart, and I want you to know just where I stand."
"Just a moment, Mr. Munn." The professor turned his head to answerMeigs. "It is impossible for us to escape," said he. "Even if we couldget away from here, we should find the entire country in arms againstus."
"Possibly we could get back to that other benighted kingdom from whichyou and the thief come accredited as ambassadors?" returned Meigs.
"It is a hard journey from here, Mr. Meigs, and we should be overtakenand recaptured before we could cross the border into a friendly country.Before we could take to flight, however, we should have to beat down thebarrier of zet that hems its in. That, as I know from experience, isout of the question."
Meigs began to complain, and to find fault, and the professor turnedfrom him and went on talking with me.
"I have brought these troubles upon you, Mr. Munn," he continued, a sadnote in his voice, "and upon the others. It seems impossible toaccomplish any great good without causing some small amount of misery."
"Don't let my situation worry you," I remarked. "While constantlyexercising my wits to secure the best fortune for myself, I have alwaysmade it a point to be prepared for the worst. I shall face the zetbaisin the morning without the quiver of an eyelid."
"Don't misunderstand me, Mr. Munn," said the professor earnestly."While I grieve that matters should have fallen out in this fashion, yetI would not undo the one thing which brought us into these troubledwaters. In other words, I would rather be her
e, in Njambai, with deathstaring us in the face, than back there on Terra, with Meigs, Markham,Popham, and Gilhooly free to work out their nefarious plans."
"That's the spirit!" I cried warmly.
"It's the spirit that has put many a man in the penitentiary," calledMeigs, who appeared to be following our conversation even if he was nottaking any part in it.
I turned with a stinging reply on my lips, but the professor dropped ahand on my arm, and I held my peace.
"We are sharing together our last few hours," said he, "and let us haveno quarrelsome talk. Personally, I have a good deal of charity forMeigs. He is a man who, until very recently, has been accustomed tohaving scores of people wait upon his slightest nod. Here he has beensubjected to much indignity, and at the hands of a people whom hebelieves to be his inferiors. Naturally that renders him disagreeable."
"He might, at least, have the grace to leave you alone," I answered.
"Not so, Mr. Munn. He is perfectly right in badgering me. I am atfault, so far as he and his associates are concerned, and he knows it. Ido not expect approbation at their hands, but at the hands of those, infar-away Terra, whom my drastic actions have helped. Your calmacceptance of your fate is so different from the attitude of Meigs thatit touches me deeply. You have the same cause to blame and abuse me,and yet you let the opportunity pass."
"It has been worth something, professor," I responded, "to stand at yourside and to pass through these remarkable adventures shoulder toshoulder with you."
"Thank you for that, my friend."
"I have no doubt," I continued, "that if you and I were to be spared,you might in time lead me to see what you are disposed to call the errorof my way, for you are a master hand at arguing; but, as I am atpresent, I feel that my chances in the next world are as good as anyone's. The rich have taken from the poor in a way that the lawsanctions; and I have taken from the rich in a way the law does notsanction, and, in a few rare instances, have given to the poor. There'snothing in that to oppress my conscience. The only thing I am sorry foris that I entered your castle with my felonious intention centred uponyour property. Now that I know you so well, my plan to steal from youlooks more like a crime than anything else I have done."
"Munn," he replied, "it grieves me to think that your career is to becut short before you have had an opportunity to reform. However"--andhe sighed softly--"there is no escaping fate on our own planet or onthis. Good night to you."
I was dog-tired and went off into slumber the moment I closed my eyes.About the last thing I heard was the peevish voice of Meigs resistingwhat little comfort the professor tried to offer him.
I was aroused by the professor.
"The first gleam of day, Mr. Munn," said he, bending over me with aquiet smile.
I rubbed my eyes and got the cobwebs out of my brain. Yes, it was thefirst gleam of day--our last day.
We were in an open square in the heart of a diminutive city. From everyside radiated trim little streets bordered thickly with white dwellings.
In front of us was a palace, rising dome upon dome until it stood fullthirty feet high. Inhabitants of the royal city were already abroad,walking rapidly or gathering in groups and using their word-boxesexcitedly.
"Toot! toot! Ting-a-ling-a-ling!"
The familiar sounds came from a distance, and I sprang erect and withthe professor gazed in the direction from which they reached us.Presently Gilhooly came along with a loaded train.
He halted in front of the palace, the passengers disembarked andGilhooly bent over the cars, picked them up carefully and turned themthe other way along the V-shaped groove.
"All aboard!" he cried, and a minute later he was off and away.
"Poor Gilhooly!" murmured Quinn. "He is bringing excursionists towitness our execution. I am glad that he does not know what he is doingand that Meigs is asleep."
Quinn laid his hand on my shoulder.
"I deeply regret, Mr. Munn," he went on, "that I am the indirect causeof Gilhooly's lunacy. It was a great surprise to me to find that hisintellect was not strong enough to withstand the ordeal to which Isubjected it."
"It couldn't be helped, professor," I returned. "It was a grand idea ofyours--that of abducting these trust magnates and placing them wherethey could do no harm to the poor of our planet. What though one mindhas been wrecked? Better that than the misery and enslavement ofhundreds of thousands."
"Mr. Munn," said the professor with feeling, "I thank you. Such wordsfrom a companion who is about to suffer jointly with me the extremepenalty prove that you are a man of parts and fitted for a nobler walkin life than the one you have heretofore taken. I am very, very sorrythat you are to be cut off so soon."
Quinn was fortitude itself, his courage born of a knowledge of duty welldone. I am prone to believe, also, that I myself was not less firm,although a less laudable cause lay back of it.
The square, I should judge, measured about two hundred feet on eachside. While the professor and I were engaged in talk, sight-seers hadbeen gathering in the streets, keeping carefully to the sidewalkboundaries of the open space.
Every eye was turned upon the professor and myself and the sleepingMeigs. The broker was snoring dismally, the sound rumbling above thebabble of the word-boxes and echoing through the adjacent thoroughfares.
"What has happened to the executioner-general?" I said to the professor."He isn't very punctual in keeping his engagement with us, it seems tome. We have had daylight for an hour."
"Something has gone wrong, Mr. Munn," Quinn answered, taking note of aripple of excitement that ran through the crowds around us. "Ah! Herecomes the high chief of the military forces. He has his word-box ready,so I suppose he is going to explain."
The high chief was pushing through the throng into the square, two ofhis hands holding a word-box and the other two a zetbai. Advancing uponus, he halted just without the ring.
"Be patient, gentlemen," he said through his talk machine. "You willnot be kept waiting much longer."
"We are not so wildly impatient as you seem to think," I sent back athim; whereupon he tittered a little with Key 7.
Seeing that I was getting ready to use the same key for a fewexpletives, the professor made haste to break in.
"What has happened?" he asked.
"It has just been discovered that there is no white paint in the king'sstorehouse," replied the high chief.
"What is the white paint to be used for?" came curiously from theprofessor.
"The executioner-general is obliged by law to give himself a fresh coatof white paint at every execution. It would be impossible for him toperform his function without first complying with the statute."
"Could not some one else, who has been freshly decorated, do the work inhis stead?" I inquired, somewhat flippantly.
"No," answered the high chief. "He is the only one in the kingdom whois duly empowered to execute criminals. Our executioner is a proudperson, and jealous of the prerogatives of his office. He receives noless than two kanos for every happy dispatch that he performs. In thiscase he will be the richer by six kanos, so you will understand howanxious he is to have everything done as it should be."
A kano was the equivalent of a half cent of our own money; so that ourone-time millionaire, Mr. J. Archibald Meigs, was to yield up hisvaluable life and help swell the executioner-general's income to theextent of a single copper. Had he been awake, I should have explainedthe matter to him so that he might have still further expatiated uponthe irony of fate.
This kingdom of Baigadd differed from the other kingdom with which wehad already made acquaintance in one material respect: The surface ofthe country had shrunk much farther from the outer crust of the planet.
In Baigol, for instance, we were always able to see the vault thatcovered us; but in Baigadd the sight reached into nothing but emptyspace.
Shortly after the high chief had finished speaking there came a flourishof word-boxes from the direction of the palace. Turning
our eyes towardthat point we beheld two resplendent soldiers in turrets to right andleft of the richly hung balcony.
"Hail to our munificent sovereign, Gaddbai, ruler of the realm andmightiest monarch of Njambai!"
Thus the paeans of the soldiers.
The words were echoed by the crowd, and a surging roar went up from thetalking machines: "Hail to his majesty, King Gaddbai!"
On the heels of the tumult the kaka draperies parted at the rear of theroyal balcony and the king appeared, bowed and seated himself. He had areserved seat for the performance and could see everything that tookplace.
"Let the executioner-general stand forth, prepare himself for his workand then proceed--all in the royal presence!"
Instantly the master of ceremonies put in an appearance. He wore awhite kirtle, carried himself with a lordly air, and was followed by aretinue of attendants.
Two of the attendants bore the official zetbais; another carried theofficial word-box; four more were dragging a cart on sphericalwheels--an open cart laden with an object that startled us.
"Great heavens, Mr. Munn!" gasped the professor. "Unless my eyes deceiveme, the executioner-general is having my tub of anti-gravity compoundhauled after him!"
"Your eyes do not deceive you, sir," I made answer.
"But what in the world are they going to do with it?"
"We shall be able to tell in a few moments. Look! The executioner takeshis word-box and kneels; he is about to address the king."
"Your majesty," said the executioner-general through his talkingmachine, "your slave craves your indulgence in the matter of preparingfor this happy dispatch. The supply of the official pigment is quiteexhausted, and it has been found necessary to fall back upon the whitepaint that was found in the dwelling recently fallen from the top of thecrater."
"Will it answer the purpose?" demanded the king.
"It is white, your majesty, and of proper consistency. So far as I cansee, it will answer the purpose well."
"Then proceed with your preparations. I would have this matter overwith as quick as possible."
Of course Quinn and I understood all this. I knew that the professorwas meditating a final appeal to the king, and he shot a strange look atme as his trembling hands lifted his word-box.
"Before the executioner-general proceeds, your majesty," remarked theprofessor, his fingers none too steady, "will you allow me a word?"
His majesty gave an exclamation of surprise.
"Where have you learned our language?" he inquired.
"In Baigol, your majesty. We come from that country on a visit to you,under the protection of the royal banner of Golbai."
The professor nodded to me and I shook out the banner and held it aloft.
"My royal friend," said Gaddbai, "should have been more particular inchoosing the subjects he sends to visit my realm. The sleepingcolossus, in the ring with you raided my storehouse, and you sought tosave him from capture. For that lawless act death has been decreed toall three of you, and the sentence must be carried out."
"But we were ignorant of the law," pleaded the professor.
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse."
"The gentleman in the red kirtle is a friend of ours----"
"If we know a person by the company he keeps, that speaks ill for you,"interrupted the sovereign.
"You are determined to have us slain, your majesty?"
"It is my royal will."
"Then I shall have to set forces at work to combat the royal will," saidthe professor calmly.
Cries of consternation and anger went up on every hand. The king rosewrathfully from his seat.
"You dare to dispute my authority?" he demanded.
"I dare to dispute your ability to slay us," returned Quinn. "Yourexecutioner will disappear from before your eyes if he attempts it."
The king laughed ironically.
"We shall see," he said, sinking placidly back on his seat. "Let theexecutioner-general proceed with his preparations."
I was greatly pleased with the drift of affairs. Circumstances hadconspired to favor us, and the professor was making the most of hisopportunity.
The executioner-general motioned to one of his attendants and thenraised his four hands above his head. A moment later the attendant hadseized the whitewash brush, dabbed it into the anti-gravity compound,and with two quick strokes had covered the executioner's chest and back.
Had a third stroke been needed it could not have been given. In a flashthe official had been snatched away, vanishing like a streak of white inthe void above.
The king rose gasping, clutching at the balcony rail. The throng aroundus was paralyzed for a space, and not a word-box was heard.
As for Quinn, he had struck an attitude, his left hand raised aloft andhis glittering, bead-like eyes transfixing the king.