Land of the Changing Sun

by Will N. Harben

  Chapter VIII.

  As Thorndyke watched the flying machine that was bearing his friendaway a genuine feeling of pity went over him. Poor Johnston! He had beenhaunted all day with the belief that he was to meet with some misfortunefrom which Thorndyke was to be spared, and Thorndyke had ridiculedhis fears. When the air-ship had become a mere speck in the sky, theEnglishman turned back into the palace and strolled about in the vastcrowd.

  A handsome young man in uniform approached and touched his hat:

  "Are you the comrade of the fellow they are just sending away?" heasked.

  "Yes. Where are they taking him?"

  "To the 'Barrens,' of course; where do you suppose they would take sucha man? He couldn't pass his examination. You are not a great physicalsuccess yourself, but they say you pleased the king with your tongue."

  "To the Barrens," repeated Thorndyke, too much concerned over the fateof his comrade to notice the speaker's tone of contempt; "what are they,where are they?"

  The Alphian officer changed countenance, as he looked him over withwidening eyes.

  "Your accent is strange; are you from the other world?"

  "I suppose so,--this is a new one to me at any rate."

  "The world of endless oceans?"

  "Yes."

  "And the unchanging sun--forever white and----?"

  "Yes; but where the devil is the Barrens?"

  "Behind the sun, beyond the great endless wall."

  "Do they intend to put him to death?"

  "No, that would be--what do you call it? murder; they will simply leavehim there to die of his own accord. And the king is right. I never sawsuch a weakling. He would taint our whole race with his presence."

  Without a word Thorndyke abruptly turned from the officer and hastenedtoward the apartment of the king. He would demand the return of poorJohnston or kill the king if his demand was not granted. In his hasteand perturbation, however, he lost his way and wandered into a part ofthe palace he had not seen. At every step he was more and more impressedwith the magnificent proportions of the structure and the grandeur ofeverything about it.

  Passing hurriedly through a large hall he saw an assemblage of beautifulwomen and handsome men dancing to the music of a great orchestra.Further on--in a great court--a regiment of soldiers were drilling,their rapid evolutions making no more sound than if they were moving inmid-air. In another room he saw a great body of men, women and childrenin vari-colored suits bathing in a pool of rose-colored, perfumed water.

  He was passing on when a woman, closely veiled and simply dressed,touched his arm.

  "Be watchful and follow me," she said, in a low, guarded tone.

  The heart of the Englishman bounded and his blood rushed to his face,for the speaker was the Princess Bernardino. She did not pause, butglided on into the shade of a great palm tree, and, behind a row ofthick-growing ferns of great height and thickness, she waited for him.

  She lowered her veil as he approached and looked at him from her deepbrown eyes in great concern. He stood spell-bound under the witchery ofher beauty.

  "I came to warn you, Prince," she said, and her soft musical voice setevery nerve in Thorndyke's body to tingling with delight. "My fatherhas banished the faithful slave that you love, but you must not showthe anger that you feel, else he will kill you. You must be exceedinglycautious if you would save him. My father would punish me severely ifhe knew that I had sought you in this way. I was obliged to come indisguise; this dress belongs to my most trusted maid."

  "And you came for my sake?" blurted out the Englishman, muchembarrassed; "I am not worthy of such a high honor."

  She smiled and tears rose in her eyes.

  "Oh, Prince, don't speak to me so! You are far above me. I am weak. Iknow nothing. I never cared for other men than the king and my brotherstill I saw you today, but now I would willingly be your slave."

  "I am yours forever, and an humble one," bowed the courteous Englishman."The moment I saw you at the throne of your father my heart went out toyou. You wound it up in your music and trampled it under your dancingfeet. I have been over the whole world, and you are the loveliestcreature in it. It is because I saw you, because you are here, that I donot want to leave your country. They may do as they will with me if theyonly will let me see you now and then."

  The princess was deeply moved. The blood rushed to her face andbeautified it. Her eyes fell beneath his admiring glance. Thorndykecould not restrain himself. He caught her slender hand and pressed itpassionately to his lips, and she made only a slight effort to preventit.

  "I am your obedient slave; what shall I do?" he asked.

  "Do not try to rescue him now," she said softly. "I shall come to youagain when we are not watched--you can know me by this dress. There isno need for great haste, he could live in the Barrens several days;I shall try to think of some way to save him, though such a thing hasnever been done--never."

  Footsteps were heard on the other side of the row of ferns. A man waspassing and others soon followed him. The bathers were leaving the greatpool.

  "I must leave you now," she whispered. "If the king honors you again bytalking of his kingdom, continue to act as you did; your fearlessnessand good humor have pleased him greatly."

  "Could I not persuade him to bring Johnston back?"

  "No; that would be impossible; those who are pronounced physically unfitare obliged to die. It has been a law for a long time; you must notcount on that. I have, however, another plan, but I cannot tell you ofit now, for they may miss me and wonder where I am, and then, too, myfather may be looking for you. He will naturally desire to see you soonagain."

  Bowing, she turned away and passed on toward the apartments of the king,which the Englishman now recognized in the distance. Thorndyke wentinto the bathing-room to watch those remaining in the great pool ofrose-colored water. The sight was beautiful. The waves which lappedagainst the shelving shores of white marble were pink and white, and thedeeper water was as red as coral.

  The Englishman was at once troubled over the fate of Johnston and elatedover having won Bernardino's regard. Thoughtfully he strolled away fromthe bathers into a great picture-gallery. Here hung on the walls andstood on pedestals some of the rarest works of art he had ever seen. Hepassed through this room and was entering a shady retreat where plants,flowers and umbrageous trees grew thickly, when he heard a step behindhim and the rustling of a silken skirt against the plants.

  It was Bernardino.

  "We can be unobserved here," she said, taking off her thick veil andarranging her luxuriant hair. "I hasten back. The king thinks, somy maid tells me, that I am asleep in my chamber. He is busy with anaudience of police from a neighboring town and will not think of us."

  She sat down on a sofa upholstered in leather, and he took a seat besideher. "I am glad that we can talk alone," he said, "for I have much toask you. First, tell me where we are,--where this strange country is onthe map of the world."

  "It is a long story," she replied, "and it would greatly incense theking if he should find out that I had told you, for one of his chiefpleasures is to note the surprise and admiration of new-comers over whatthey see here. But if you will promise to gratify his vanity in thisparticular I will try to explain it all."

  "I promise, and you can depend on my not getting you into trouble,"replied Thorndyke. "I never was so puzzled in my life, with that sullensky overhead, the wonderful changing sunlight, and the remarkableatmosphere. I am both bewildered and entranced. Every moment I seesomething new and startling. Where are we?"

  "Far beneath the ocean and the surface of the earth. I only know whatthe king has let fall in my hearing in his conferences with his men ofscience and inventors; but I shall try to make you understand how it allcame about."

  "It was a long time ago, two hundred years back, I suppose, that one ofmy ancestors discovered a little isolated island in the Atlantic Ocean.He was forced in a storm to land there with his ship and crew to makesome repairs in his vessel. In wanderi
ng about over the island hediscovered a narrow entrance to a cave, and, with two or three of hismen, he began to explore it. When they had gone for a mile or two downinto the interior of the cavern, which seemed to lead straight downtoward the centre of the earth, they began to find small pieces of gold.The further they went the more they found, till at last the very cavernwalls seemed lined with it.

  "They were at first wildly excited over their sudden good fortune andwere about to load their ship with it and return to Europe at once, butthe better judgment of my ancestor prevailed. He explained that, if theworld were informed of the discovery of such an inexhaustible mine ofgold, that the value of the precious metal would decline till it wouldbe worth little more than some grosser metal, and that if they wouldonly keep their secret to themselves they could in time control thefinances of the world. So, acting on this suggestion, they only dug outa few thousand pounds and took part of it to Europe and part of it toAmerica and turned it into money.

  "Then, to curtail my story, they elected my ancestor as ruler, and, withships loaded with every available convenience that inexhaustible wealthcould procure and a colony of carefully chosen men, they returned to theisland.

  "After the men and their families had settled in the great roomy mouthof the cavern my ancestor supplied himself with several strong men andfood and lights, and sought to explore the entire cavern.

  "To their astonishment they found that it was practically endless. Whenthey had gone down about sixty or seventy miles below the sea level theyfound themselves on a vast, undulating plain, the soil of which was darkand rich, with the black roof of the cavern arching overhead like thebottom of a great inverted bowl. And when they had travelled about tendays and reached the other side my ancestor calculated that the cavemust be over one hundred miles in diameter and almost circular in shape.But what elated and surprised them most was the remarkable salubrityof the atmosphere. In all parts of the cave it was exactly the sametemperature, and they found that they scarcely felt any fatigue fromtheir journey, and that they had little desire to eat the provisionswith which they were supplied. Indeed, the very air seemed permeatedwith a subtle quality that gave them strength and energy of mind andbody.

  "Finally, when, after a month had passed, and they returned to theiranxious friends, these people overwhelmed them with exclamations ofsurprise over their appearance. And in the light of day the explorerslooked at one another in astonishment, for, in the dim light of thelanterns they had carried, they had not noticed the great change thathad come over them. They had all become the finest specimens of physicalhealth that could be imagined. Their bodies had filled out; they wereremarkably strong; their skins shone with healthful color and their eyessparkled with intellectual energy, and their minds, even to the humblestburden-carrier, were astonishingly acute and active.

  "My ancestor was a remarkable man, and he had hitherto shown muchinventive ability; but in that month in the cave he had developedinto an intellectual giant. After mature deliberation, he proposed aprodigious scheme to his followers. He explained that, while they might,by using the utmost discretion, hold the financial world in their powerby means of their inexhaustible wealth, that the laws and restrictionsof different countries prevented men of vast wealth from really enjoyingmore privileges than men of moderate means. He grew eloquent in speakingof the underground atmosphere, and proposed that they light the greatcavern from end to end and make it an ideal place where they could liveas it suited them.

  "I see that you guess the end. My ancestor was a great student of thesciences and had already thought of putting electricity to practicaluse. You are surprised? Yes, it has been applied to our purposes for twohundred years, while your people have understood its use such a shorttime."

  "Great heavens!" exclaimed the Englishman. "I see it all; the sun is anelectric one!"

  "Yes."

  "And it runs mechanically over its great course as regularly asclock-work."

  "More accurately, I assure you, but there probably never was a greatermathematical problem than they solved in deciding on the size the sunshould be and amount of light necessary to fill up all the recesses ofthe great vacancy. It was all very crude at the start; for years a greatelectric light was simply suspended in the centre of the cavern's roofand the light did not vary in color. A son of the first king suggestedthe plan of giving the sun diurnal movement and the changing light. Themoon and stars were a later development. They found, too, that the lightcould not be made to reach certain recesses in the cavern where the roofapproached the earth, so they finally built a great wall to keep theinhabitants within proscribed boundaries, and to prevent them fromunderstanding the machinery of the heavens."

  "Wonderful!" exclaimed Thorndyke. "But the temperature of theatmosphere, how does that happen to be so delightful and beneficial?"

  "I believe they do not themselves thoroughly comprehend that. The heatcomes from the internal fires, and the fresh air from without in somemysterious way. At first, in a few places, the heat was too severe, butthe scientific men among the first settlers obviated this difficulty byclosing up the hottest of the fissures and opening others in the coolerparts of the cavern."

  "And the people, where did they come from?"

  "From all parts of the earth. We had agents outside who selectedsuch men and women that were willing to come, and who filled all therequirements, mentally and physically."

  "But why do they desire to live here instead of out in the world, whenthey have all the wealth that they need to assure every advantage."

  "They dread death, and it is undoubtedly true that life is prolongedhere; our medical men declare that the longevity of every generation isimproved."

  "Is it possible? But tell me about the sun, when it sets, what becomesof it?"

  "It goes back to its place of rising through a great tunnel beneath us."

  Thorndyke sat in deep thought for a moment; then he looked so steadilyand so admiringly into Bernardino's eyes that she grew red withconfusion. "But you, yourself, are you thoroughly content here?"

  "I know nothing else," she continued. "I have heard little about yourworld except that your people are discontented, weak and insane, andthat your changeable weather and your careless laws regarding marriageand heredity produce perpetual and innumerable diseases; that yourpeople are not well developed and beautiful; that you war with oneanother, and that one tears down what another builds. I have, too,always been happy, and since you came I am happier still. I don't knowwhat it means. I have never been so much interested in any one before."

  "It is love on the part of both of us," replied the Englishmanimpulsively, taking her hand. "I never was content before. I went rovingover the earth trying to end my life at sea or in balloon voyages, butnow I only want to be with you. I have never dreamed that I could be sohappy or that I would meet any one so beautiful as you are."

  Bernardino's delight showed itself in blushes on her face, andThorndyke, unable to restrain himself, put his arm around her and drewher to his breast and kissed her.

  She sprang up quickly and he saw that she was trembling and that all thecolor had fled from her face.

  "What is the matter?" he asked, in alarm.

  At first she did not answer, but only looked at him half-frightened,and then covered her face with her hands. He drew them from her face andcompelled her to look at him.

  "What is the matter?" he repeated, a strange fear at his heart.

  "You have broken one of the most sacred laws of our country," shefaltered, in great embarrassment; "my father would punish me veryseverely if he knew of it, and he would banish you; for, to treat me inthat manner, as his daughter, is regarded as an insult to him."

  "I beg your pardon most humbly," said the contrite Englishman. "It wasall on account of my ignorance of your customs and my impulsiveness. Itshall never happen again, I promise you."

  Her face brightened a little and the color came back slowly. She satdown again, but not so near Thorndyke, and seemed desirous of changingthe sub
ject.

  "And do you love the man my father has transported?" she questioned.

  "Yes, he is a good, faithful fellow, and it is hard to die so far awayfrom friends."

  "We must try to save him, but I cannot now think of a safe plan. Thepolice are very vigilant."

  "Where was he taken?"

  "Into the darkness behind the sun--beyond the wall of which I spoke."

  A flush of shame came into Thorndyke's face over the remembrance that hehad made no effort to aid poor Johnston, and was sitting listening withdelight to the conversation of Bernardino. He rose suddenly.

  "I must be doing something to aid him," he said. "I cannot sit hereinactive while he is in danger."

  "Be patient," she advised, looking at him admiringly; "it is near night;see, it is the gray light of dusk; the sun is out of sight. To-night,if possible, I shall come to you. Perhaps I shall approach you withoutdisguise if you are in the throne-room and my father does not object tomy entertaining you, but for the present we must separate. Adieu."

  He bowed low as she turned away, and joined the throng that was passingalong outside. An officer approached him. It was Captain Tradmos, whobowed and smiled pleasantly.

  "I congratulate you," he said, with suave pleasantness.

  "Upon what?" Thorndyke was on his guard at once.

  "Upon having pleased the king so thoroughly. No stranger, in my memory,has ever been treated so courteously. Every other new-comer is put undersurveillance, but you are left unwatched."

  "He is easily pleased," said the Englishman, "for I have done nothing togratify him."

  "I thought he would like you; and I felt that your friend would have tosuffer, but I could not help him."

  "He shall not suffer if I can prevent it."

  "Sh--be cautious. Those words, implying an inclination to treason, ifspoken to any other officer would place you under immediate arrest.I like you, therefore I want to warn you against such folly. You arewholly in the king's power. Another thing I would specially warn youagainst----"

  "And that is?"

  "Not to allow the king to suspect your admiration for the PrincessBernardino. It would displease the king. She is much taken with you; Isaw it in her eyes when she danced for your entertainment."

  Thorndyke made no reply, but gazed searchingly into the eyes of theofficer. Tradmos laughed.

  "You are afraid of me."

  "No, I am not, I trust you wholly; I know that you are honorable; Inever make a mistake along that line."

  Tradmos bowed, pleased by the compliment.

  "I shall aid you all I can with my advice, for I know you will notbetray me; but at present I am powerless to give you material aid. Everysubject of this realm is bound to the autocratic will of the king. It isimpossible for any one to get from under his power."

  "Why?"

  "The only outlet to the upper world is carefully guarded by men whowould not be bribed."

  "Is there any chance for my friend?"

  "None that I can see, but I must walk on; there comes one of the king'sattendants."

  "The king has asked to speak to you," announced the attendant toThorndyke.

  "I will go with you," was his reply, and he followed the man through thecrowded corridors into the throne-room of the king. Thorndyke forced asmile as he saw the king smiling at him as he approached the throne.

  "What do you think of my palace?" asked the king, after Thorndyke hadknelt before him.

  "It is superb," answered the Englishman, recalling the advice ofBernardino. "I am dazed by its splendor, its architecture, and its art.I have seen nothing to equal it on earth."

  The king rose and stood beside him. His manner was both pleasing andsympathetic. "I am persuaded," said he, "that you will make a goodsubject, and have the interest of Alpha always at heart, but I haveoften been mistaken in the character of men and think it best to giveyou a timely warning. An attendant will conduct you to a chamber beneaththe palace where it will be your privilege to converse with a man whoonce planned to get up a rebellion among my people."

  There had come suddenly a stern harshness into the king's tone thatroused the fears of Thorndyke. He was about to reply, but the king heldup his hand. "Wait till you have visited the dungeon of Nordeskyne, thenI am sure that you will be convinced that strict obedience in thoughtas well as deed is best for an inhabitant of Alpha." Speaking thus, hesigned to an attendant who came forward and bowed.

  "Conduct him to the dungeon of Nordeskyne, and return to me," orderedthe king.

  Thorndyke's heart was heavy, and he was filled with strange forebodings,but he simply smiled and bowed, as the attendant led him away. Theattendant opened a door at the back of the throne-room and they wereconfronted by darkness. They went along a narrow corridor for somedistance, the darkness thickening at every step. There was no soundexcept the sound of the guide's shoes on the smooth stone pavement.Presently the man released Thorndyke's arm, saying:

  "It is narrow here, follow close behind, and do not attempt to go back."

  "I shall certainly stick to you," replied the Englishman drily. Theyturned a sharp corner suddenly, and were going in another direction whenThorndyke felt a soft warm hand steal into his from behind, and knewintuitively that it was Bernardino. The guide was a few feet in advanceof them and she drew Thorndyke's head down and whispered into his ear.

  "Be brave--by all that you love--for your life, keep your presence ofmind, and----"

  "What was that?" asked the guide, turning suddenly and catching theEnglishman's arm, "I thought I heard whispering."

  "I was saying my prayers, that is all," and the Englishman pressed thehand of the princess, who, pressed close against the wall, was glidingcautiously away.

  "Prayers, humph--you'll need them later, come on!" and he caught theEnglishman's arm and hastily drew him onward. Thorndyke's spirits sanklower. The air of the narrow under-ground corridor was cold and damp,and he quivered from head to foot.