*CHAPTER XVI.*
*HOW ILL-LUCK OVERTOOK ME.*
Good fortune fared forth with me from the royal city and remainedsteadfastly at my right hand as long as the matches lasted; but when thelast one had flickered out and left me in impenetrable gloom, mytroubles began.
I was well into the rough country when the lights failed, threading aroad bordered by hills that in some places were shoulder high. Aboutthe first thing I did was to blunder off the trail; in trying to regainit I stumbled over a five-foot mountain and went down all of a heap.
Had I fallen on the exchequer I should have smashed it into a cockedhat--a result only narrowly averted. Regaining my feet and smotheringsome good strong language that rose instinctively to my lips, I essayedonce more to find the Baigol road.
I had my trouble for my pains, and, after an hour spent in fruitlessblundering, I sat down on a cliff, propped up the exchequer on the sideof a canon and nursed my barked shins until day began flashing from thereflectors.
As I sat there waiting for the light my brain was filled with evilthoughts which I recall with contrition and chronicle with regret. Iknew the exchequer must contain the king's wealth--golden pieces ofeight of a rare fineness unknown to the mints of Terra.
I was not of a mind to return the gold after allowing the king of Baigolto take his Bolla. Why not stow the treasure away about my clothes andrely upon my native tact and discretion to get me to the steel car inspite of the grasping monarch of Baigadd?
I was much wrought up over the way I had lost the loot taken from theplutocrats. In my mind's eye I could see those four bulginghandkerchiefs waxing and waning about the castle, and I had hoped theywould fall to the surface of Mercury along with the car, so that I mightstill be able to secure them.
In this I was disappointed. Once the Mercurial atmosphere was struckthe loot and the revolver had fallen away from the castle like so manypieces of lead.
The wallets, undoubtedly, had been incinerated by the sun's rays,together with the banknotes that were in them. I imagined that theintense heat had exploded the cartridges in the six-shooter and hadwarped and twisted the firearm until it was no longer serviceable.
The other plunder also, even if found, could not by any possibility beutilized by me or any one else.
All this had made me savagely eager to recoup my finances. And as I satbrooding on the cliff I asked myself why I should not do this at theexpense of the Baigadd exchequer.
I did not arouse myself at the first reflected flash of day. Although Ihad decided to appropriate the contents of Gaddbai's coffers, I wascasting about for a suitable method that would gain my end with theleast inconvenience.
A maudlin chuckle from near at hand brought me abruptly out of myreflections. I turned, and there, on a neighboring elevation, stoodGilhooly, balancing the exchequer on the broad of his hand.
I was brought up staring. What could the motive power of the B.&B.Interplanetary be doing there, at that time? His absence must haveinterfered sadly with the train schedule. Certainly the officers of thesystem, would not have countenanced this neglect of duty, had they knownof it.
Then it flashed over me that Gilhooly had run away. He had tired ofracing up and down the V-shaped groove with a string of toy cars and hadtaken French leave of the system.
The fire of insanity was still in his eyes, and he retreated step bystep as I advanced upon him.
"Look here, Gilhooly," said I in my most persuasive tones, "thatbuilding you have in your hands is the imperial exchequer. Put it down,there's a good fellow. Don't juggle with it in that way. Suppose youwere to drop it!"
Gilhooly had begun shaking it up and down as though it were one of thosecast-iron banks in which children sometimes deposit their coppers Thejingle of the exchequer's contents appeared to please him.
"If you want this road you have got to bid up for it," said he. "I'mnot so young that I don't know a good thing when I've got it in mygrip."
"That road has gone into the hands of a receiver," I returned, humoringhis fancy, "and I'm the receiver. Give it here, Gilhooly."
"I was not consulted when the receiver was appointed," he answered. "Ihave rights in the matter and those rights must be protected. It's adeal framed up to beat the pool. My, how it rattles!" and he shook theexchequer again.
I was at my wits' end. I knew that tact was far and away more effectivethan violence when dealing with a crazed person.
"Put it down for a moment, Gilhooly," I wheedled, "and come over to thedirectors' meeting."
"Who are the directors?" he asked suspiciously.
"Well, there are only two. I'm one, you know, and you're the other."
He exploded a laugh, tossed the exchequer in the air like a strong manplaying with a cannon ball, and then caught it deftly as it came down.
"I'm the boy to juggle with railroads!" he boasted. "Ask any one in theStreet and they'll tell you."
"Look out!" I gasped, "or you'll drop it."
"Not I!" he mumbled. "I never yet wrecked a railroad."
"Where did you come from, Gilhooly?" I asked, seeking to get him intoconversation while I edged closer to him by degrees.
"From distant parts," he replied. "I've been the whole thing for a bigtranscontinental line that I'm adding to the Gilhooly System." Hechuckled craftily. "They thought they had me, but I got out from underwith the rolling stock. I've hid the cars in a gully, and my next movewill be to steal the right of way. I'm the big railroad man of thecountry. Just ask anybody who knows what's what in transportationcircles and they'll tell you the same thing."
I had arrived within a few feet of him, and suddenly I leaped forward.But he was wary and sprang aside, the exchequer jingling sharply.
"No, you don't," said he. "You're trying to serve a subpoena on me andI'm too foxy for you. Get out of here or I'll have you throwndownstairs."
"Come over to the directors' meeting, Gilhooly," I urged, turning andwalking away from him. "You've got to look after your interests, youknow."
But the vagaries of a shattered mind are hard to deal with. Gilhoolylaughed at me, sat down on a rock and took the exchequer on his knees.He was wary, and never for an instant permitted me to lose his eyes.
"You can't fool me," he cried, "so you'd better take the next train forhome. I hold a majority of the stock, and after I've watered it alittle I'll have enough to buy another line. It's easy being a railroadmagnate when you know how. Clear out, you annoy me."
"Gilhooly," said I, with a gentleness I was far from feeling, "don't youwant to know something about Popham?"
"Don't know him," snarled Gilhooly, "but if he's trying to break intothis railroad game, just tell him that I control the whole bag of tricksand that it's not worth his while."
Hugging the exchequer in his arms, he rocked back and forth and began tosing.
"Well," said I, starting away again, "if you don't want to attend thisdirectors' meeting I'll have to look after it myself."
He made no reply but kept on hugging the exchequer, rocking back andforth, and timing his monotonous croon to the rattle of treasure in theking's strong rooms.
Warily as I could, I circled about, creeping on all fours and screeningmyself by the little hills and ridges. My design was to come up onGilhooly from behind and snatch the exchequer away from him.
But he heard me. Before I had come within a dozen feet of him, hestopped his singing, leaped to his feet, and whirled around. The nextmoment he had placed himself at a safe distance.
"I'm too many for you," he shouted. "Go away, or I'll call the police."
I was in a sweat for fear some of King Gaddbai's soldiers would locateus and develop their zetbais. One flash of that violet fire would dothe business for both Gilhooly and me, and the professor's cherishedplans would go by the board. Besides, I had plans of my own, and itseemed as though Gilhooly was destined to make a mess of everything.
"Oh, come, now," I cri
ed, in a bit of a temper. "That won't do you anygood, Gilhooly. It doesn't belong to you, and you haven't any right tokeep it."
"Don't we ever keep anything that don't belong to us?" he askedsarcastically. "I'm not that sort of a fellow, for I keep everything inthe railroad line that I can get my hands on."
Logic and reason were utterly dead in his mind. Whims he had, but theywere but fancies of the moment. As I stood there looking at him, Iwondered how the people of Baigadd had ever managed to keep him haulingtheir trains as long as they had.
"Good-by," he called suddenly, taking the exchequer under his arm. "Ithink I'll go to the office and----"
Just then I made a dash at him. With a mocking laugh he whirled aboutand raced off across the hills, myself in hot pursuit.
Gilhooly's course intersected the Baigol highway and he turned into it,roaring defiantly as he sped along. Suddenly he stumbled and fell, anda cry of dismay escaped me.
He had fallen squarely on the exchequer and wrecked it completely!
Kyzicks--yellow coins the size of a gold dollar and worth five times asmuch--rolled, everywhere about the road, diverging from a heap that layrevealed by the collapsed walls of the building. Flinging forward, Iwent to my knees and began plunging my hands into the pile.
I believe that just then I was as daft as Gilhooly himself. In thosedays the glimmer of gold always had a demoralizing effect on me.
As I raked my outspread fingers through the yellow pile I brought up around, jet-black stone the size of my fist. I regarded it as a bit ofchaff in the bin of wealth and hurled it from me down the road. With aloud yell, Gilhooly leaped after it.
Then I became aware of a weird and inexplicable feeling that laid itselflike an axe at the root of my professional instinct. What right had Ito all this treasure? It belonged to the king of Baigall; he was anunworthy creature, perhaps, but still it belonged to him. What had Ibeen about to do? My heart sickened and I sprang up, spurned thekyzicks with my heel and turned my back.
That was my awakening. In one instant the iron of repentance hadpierced my soul. The past rolled its turgid waters in front of me. Ishivered and drew back from that wave of evil, covering my eyes to blotit from my sight.
How should I atone for the days that had been? Could I do it by anunflinching rectitude in the days there were to be? Conscience wasbelaboring me with telling blows. I had not been on intimate terms withmy conscience for many years, and to have it thus suddenly overmaster meand drive me into reformation was a mystery beyond my power to explain.
While I stood there consumed with regret and hoping against hope for thefuture, a voice hailed me from down the road.
"Did you say your name was Munn?"
Could that calm, contained voice have come from Emmet Gilhooly? Ilooked in his direction and found him leaning against a jutting spur ofrocks, his right hand clutching convulsively the black stone I had flungfrom me.
The crazed light had vanished from his eyes. An expression of wonder wason his face, but it was a rational wonder developed by an awakening asabrupt and complete as mine had been.
"You have it right, Mr. Gilhooly," I answered, the extreme mildness ofmy voice surprising me. "My full name is James Peter Munn and----"
"You are the thief who just came into the castle and relieved myself andmy friends of their valuables?"
Gilhooly's normal condition had come back to him at the point where ithad been dropped. I was not slow in reasoning how this might be.
"I was a thief in the letter and spirit less than ten minutes back," Ihumbly answered, "but now, sir, I have turned a leaf. I promise youthat the rest of the book shall read better than what has gone before."
Gilhooly passed his left hand across his forehead.
"Where--where am I?" he faltered.
"In the kingdom of Baigadd," I returned, "some distance out of the royalcity."
"Baigadd? Royal city? You talk strangely, Mr. Munn. Where is thecastle? Where are Meigs, Markham, and Popham? And Professor Quinn?Are we";--he started forward and looked wildly around--"still in thecastle? But no, that can't be. You just said we were somewhere else.I beg your pardon, Mr. Munn. I am confused and hardly know what I amsaying."
I began an explanation, going patiently into every detail, and when Ifinally finished Gilhooly knew as much about our situation as I did.
For some time Gilhooly walked up and down the road, passing andrepassing the heap of gold. At last he paused beside it.
"We should return this treasure to its owner, Mr. Munn," said he, and hedropped the black stone on the yellow pile. "From what you tell me,this is a strange planet and strangely peopled. Yet there issuperstition here as well as in our native orb--as these wonder talesabout the Bolla will bear evidence."
"I think with you, sir," said I. "The Bolla is simply a fetish and itsmiraculous powers are purely imaginary."
"That is the sensible way to look at it. Suppose we load our pocketswith the gold and start back with it to the city from whence it wastaken?"
I assented and suggested using our coats as improvised bags for theeasier transportation of the king's wealth, and we stripped to our shirtsleeves and set about our work. In half an hour we had collected allthe scattered treasure, had bound it up in our coats and had startedback.
Gilhooly preserved a pensive silence. His thoughts were far away and heseemed entirely oblivious of the fact that I was trudging along at hisside. It was only when we turned an angle in the road and came face toface with Quinn, Meigs, Markham, and Popham that Gilhooly showed anyinterest in our present situation.
Adrift in the Unknown; or, Queer Adventures in a Queer Realm Page 16