*CHAPTER XV.*
*SURVEYING OUR OWN PLANET.*
Day slipped along to its close, and shortly after the reflectors winkedout the king came, accompanied by Olox, a guard of Gaddbaizets, and sixattendants bearing the telescope.
To our surprise and gratification, both Markham and Popham were in themidst of the royal guard.
"It struck me," said the king graciously, "that your friends might alsowish to view the orb from which they came. It is a little thing and canbe done without inconvenience, so I am pleased to favor them."
The high chief traced an opening in the zet ring with the black tip ofhis weapon, and Meigs was first to rush through and hurl himself intothe arms of Popham. The unfortunate gentlemen were long in each other'sembrace.
When they finally drew apart, Meigs groped through the black gloom byMarkham, while the professor felt for the coal baron's hand and gave ita gentle and reassuring pressure.
"Professor Quinn," said Popham, "I am being badly treated. The king hasput me on the night shift in one of the royal coal mines and thesoldiers make me work like a galley slave. This is the first night Ihave had off since they set me to work."
Popham was loud in his complainings, but was cut short by the king.
"We must proceed, gentlemen. I have word from above that the night isfine and everything propitious for an excellent view of your planet, butstorms come suddenly and we can never be sure of the weather on theouter crust. It is well to make haste."
We started stumblingly, each of us led by a soldier to whom the way wasplain. We were jostled here and there through the gloom, and finallywere made to mount some object which gave a metallic ring beneath ourfeet.
"This is the royal lift," explained the king. "When the heat of the dayis suspended I often go above."
He then addressed himself to Olox. "Give the signal at once."
The signal was given and we shot aloft. The transformation from thefury of a storm to the light and tranquillity of the underworld had beengreat and astounding; but this second transformation was none the lessimpressive.
We emerged into a wonderful night set with stars that were perfectlyfamiliar to me. The Dipper and Polaris were in the north and occupyingrelatively the same positions that they do when viewed from Earth--solittle effect has the immensities of distance upon their posts in thevault.
But our own globe! It hung huge and tremulous in the blue of theevening sky, so plain that we could almost note the continents thatgemmed its surface.
Meigs gave a whimpering cry and he and Markham and Popham rushedtogether, fell upon each other's neck, and wept aloud.
"Oh, I wish I was back, I wish I was back!" moaned the broker.
"I'm lonesome enough to die!" sobbed Markham.
"Exiled, exiled, exiled!" was all the coal baron could murmur in huskytones.
I will not say that I was proof against the sentiments that had unmannedthe one-time magnates, but I will declare that both Quinn and myself hadour feelings under better control. In silence I assisted the professorto plant the telescope and we each gazed longingly at the greenish starmagnified to many times its diameter.
"There's the United States!" cried Popham.
"Can you see New York?" whispered Meigs hoarsely. "Look for New York,man!"
Of course, a view of New York was out of the question, but the franticex-plutocrats imagined they could see it, and even look down into WallStreet for aught I know. Again were their emotions too much for them,and they gave way as they had done before.
"Mr. Munn," said the professor, "this is harrowing."
"It is pretty hard on those gentlemen," I returned, "to be brought faceto face with something they thought they owned and yet not be able topossess it."
"That remark is unlike you," answered the professor, and turned to theking. "A thought occurred to me while we were coming up on the lift,"he went on, "and I should like you to explain."
"If it is in my power." answered the king, his eye to the telescope.
"When we dropped into the kingdom of Baigol there was a storm on thesurface of this planet. That storm must have hidden the sun, and yetthe reflectors below were sending day throughout the realm."
"The reflection came from other and smaller reflectors arranged to takecare of just such an emergency," explained the king. "Storms are onlylocal, you know, and when one gathers over the giant reflector thesmaller ones at the other points are brought into use. But let's nottalk of this planet, but of that other one up here."
And along that line the king's conversation ran for a full hour.
At last, when we were ready to descend, so far from being dismayed bythe enormity of the task before him, the royal zealot was fortified inhis resolution to carry it out.
His majesty was in great good humor, and when we had left the lift andmarched back to the square he very graciously tendered us the freedom ofthe town.
He could not understand why the professor and I should have any desireto escape from his country, and inasmuch as he had made us his honoredguests, to return us to the circle of zet would be to besmirch hishospitality.
The zet had been regathered into the high chief's zetbai and it was notagain released. It was not necessary for Popham to return to the royalmines until the following night, so he remained with us, along withMarkham, and we all bunked down in the centre of the plaza.
"Is there no way, Professor Quinn," quavered Popham, "whereby we canescape from the inhuman monsters who people this planet? The treatmentI have suffered is monstrous! I feel as though I shall die if I have togo back to those royal coal mines again. Being a large man, they expectme to do the work of a dozen Mercurials. There are blisters on my handsand my feet are so sore I can hardly walk."
This wail from the brusque and tyrannical Popham was in itself a highlyedifying comment on his sad experiences.
"Your position was grace itself compared with mine," mourned Markham."These people seemed determined to starve me to death. I am expected totravel from house to house, begging food, and they hardly give me enoughat one house to take me to the next."
"You are on the surface," returned Popham, "and you are not delvingcontinually in the hot, unhealthy regions where I must do my work. Ihave to toil like a galley slave for a cent a day, and a cent's worth ofthis vegetable food, which seems to be all they have here, does notfurnish me with enough strength for my labor."
"You have your clothes, at least," whimpered Meigs. "Quinn ought tohelp us; he _must_ help us."
"I shall do what I can, gentlemen," said the professor wearily. "I havenot succeeded in showing you the error of your ways, but I must let thatpass. A greater calamity menaces our planet than any you could possiblylet loose upon our devoted country."
"Meigs was saying something about that," spoke up Popham. "What is itthis mad king thinks of doing?"
"Why, with fifty warriors, armed with zetbais, he intends making anattack upon Terra. He hopes to conquer our mother orb."
Popham gave a faint cry of derision.
"Why; if that rascal ever landed on our planet," said he, "he and hiswarriors would be captured out of hand and turned over to some museumfor exhibition purposes. If _I_ happened to be around at the time oftheir capture," he finished angrily, "I would send every last one ofthem into mines that are mines. I'd make them toil with their fourhands until they wore them off at the wrists. Gad, but that would be arevenge worth having!"
"This is not a time to think of revenge, Mr. Popham," spoke up theprofessor, more in sorrow than rebuke. "We have our planet to consider,and, next to the planet, ourselves."
"Our planet is big enough to take care of itself," averred Markham."Leave that out of the question, professor, and confine your attentionto some way in which we can better our condition."
"The danger that threatens Earth is greater than you appear to imagine,"went on Quinn. "For whatever happened to our home-star because of KingGaddbai and h
is astounding plans of conquest, I should be responsible.The thought weighs upon me and will give me no rest. The king must befoiled."
"How does he intend to reach the Earth?" asked Markham.
"By means of our car."
"Is that in usable condition?" came joyously from Popham.
"So far as I can discover, it lies intact at the bottom of the crater onwhose rim we landed. There is no reason why the car cannot be employedfor a return to Terra; but," and here the professor's words becameemphatic, "it shall not be so employed by King Gaddbai and his army ofconquest. I shall prevent that at all hazards."
"How?" came hoarsely from the three ex-millionaires.
"By destroying the car, as a last resort and when other means fail," wasthe calm rejoinder.
"You would not dare!" breathed Popham.
"You would not have the heart to take from us our sole means of escape!"added Markham.
"Madman!" ground out Meigs. "If I really thought that you would destroyour only means of salvation, I'd----"
"You wouldn't do a thing, Meigs," I chimed in. "Whatever the professorthinks best to do is going to be done, and no two ways about it."
"I don't want to destroy the car," continued the professor, unmoved bythis storm he had aroused, "if other means can be made to serve. And Imay say that we shall exhaust every effort to make other means serve. Ifeel that it is my duty to return you gentlemen to the place from whenceyou were taken. I have not accomplished what I had hoped to do, but itis better to be disappointed in that rather than to let King Gaddbai getaway in the car with his fifty warriors."
"Certainly it is your duty to send us back," said Meigs, "and you shouldconsider that duty before anything and everything else."
"Exactly!" seconded Popham, "and we must take Gilhooly with us. If onegoes, all must go."
"Leave the matter to me, gentlemen," counseled the professor quietly."I shall do everything possible."
The coal baron and the food-trust magnate continued to dwell upon theirharrowing experiences with various degrees of intensity until a commandfor silence came from a word-box somewhere around us. Our raucous toneswere keeping the people awake all over the city, the talking machineaverred, and unless we became instantly quiet the authorities would takethe matter in hand.
This threat had the desired result. We gave over our conversation andsettled ourselves for the night.
I do not know how long I slept, but it must have been some hours. I wasaroused to find it still dark and to behold the professor with a lightedmatch in one hand and his other hand over my lips.
The burning match threw a fitful glare around the open space and evenreached to the roof tops beyond. Both the palace and the imperialexchequer were brought shadowily forth out of the gloom.
"Now is the time, Mr. Munn!" whispered the professor.
"The time?" I returned sotto voce. "Time for what?"
Without a word he pointed to the square building under the wing of thepalace. I understood. It was now or never if I intended to make my raidand secure the Bolla.
I started erect.
"You have matches, Mr. Munn?" the professor asked in the very faintestof audible tones.
I nodded.
"You must be very careful to keep to the street until you reach thecountry," the professor went on. "If you should make a misstep andwreck a block of houses the disaster would be irretrievable."
"I will strike matches and light my way until I get well into thehills," said I.
"Just what I should have suggested," said he. "Good-by, Mr. Munn. Failnot to return with the exchequer as soon as the king of Baigol hassecured the Bolla. Meantime I shall hope to get the car in readiness tospeed our departure."
We struck hands as men will when confronted by an issue of life anddeath. Then I stepped into the street, bent over the imperialexchequer, and wrenched it from its foundations.
It was a well-constructed building, and, although its contents jingledlike a rattle box when I took it under my arm, it did not give way inany part.
Striking a match on the roof of the exchequer, I lighted my way down thestreet, picking my steps with care and caution.
Adrift in the Unknown; or, Queer Adventures in a Queer Realm Page 15