Land of the Changing Sun

by Will N. Harben

  Chapter X.

  To Thorndyke the dark corridor seemed endless. The king's last words hadnow a sinister meaning, and Bernardino's whispered warning filled himwith dread. "Keep your presence of mind," she urged; was it then, somefrightful mental ordeal he was about to pass through?

  Presently they came to a door. Thorndyke heard his guide feeling forthe bolt and key-hole. The rattling of the keys sounded like a ghostlythreat in the empty corridors. The air was as damp as a fog, and thestones were cold and slimy. After a moment the guard succeeded inunlocking the door and roughly pushed the Englishman forward. The doorclosed with a little puff, and Thorndyke felt about him for the guide;but he was alone. For a moment there was no sound. With the closingof the door it seemed to him that he was cut off from every livingcreature. In the awful silence he could hear his own heart beating likea drum.

  "Stand where you are!" came in a hissing whisper from the darkness nearby, and then the invisible whisperer moved away, making a weird sound ashe slid his hand along a wall, till it died away in the distance.

  A cold thrill ran over him. He was a brave man and feared no living manor beast, but the superstitious fears of his childhood now came upon himwith redoubled force. For several minutes he did not stir; presently heput out his hand to the door and his blood ran cold. There was no knob,latch, or key-hole, and he could feel the soft padding into which thedoor closed to keep out sound. Then he remembered the warning of theprincess, and strove with all his might to fight down his apprehensions."For your life keep your presence of mind," he repeated over and over,but try as he would his terror over-powered him. He laughed out loud,but in the dreadful silence and darkness his laugh sounded unearthly.

  A cold perspiration broke out on him. It seemed as if hours passedbefore he again heard the sliding noise on the wall. Some one was comingto him. The sound grew louder and nearer, till a firm hand was laid onhis arm; it felt as cold as ice through his clothing.

  "Come," a voice whispered, and the Englishman was led forward. Presentlyanother door opened--a door that closed after them without any sound.Here the silence was more intensified, the darkness thicker as ifcompressed like air.

  Hands were placed on the shoulders of Thorndyke and he was gently forcedinto a chair. As soon as he was seated two metal clamps grasped likea vise his arms between the elbows and the shoulders, and two morefastened round his ankles.

  There was a faint puff of air from the door and the prisoner feltthat he was alone. Terror held him in bondage. He tried to think ofBernardino, but in vain. Did they intend to drive him to madness? Hebegan to suspect that the king had discovered his natural superstitionand had decided to put it to a test. What he had undergone so far hefelt was but the introduction to greater terrors in store for him.

  There was a sigh far away in the darkness--then a groan that seemed toflit about in space, as if seeking to escape the dark, and then diedaway in a low moan of despair. Before him the blackness seemed to hanglike a dark curtain about ten yards in front of him, and in it shone atiny speck of light no larger than the head of a pin, and which was sobright that he could not look at it steadily. It increased to the sizeof a pea, and then he discovered that, at times, it would seem milesaway in space and then again to draw quite near to hand. Glancing down,he noticed that it cast a bright round spot about an inch in diameter onthe floor, and that the spot was slowly revolving in a circle sosmall that its motion was hardly observable. Surely the mind of asuperstitious man was never so punished! When Thorndyke looked steadilyat the spot, the black floor seemed to recede, and the spot to sink fardown into the empty darkness below like a solitary star; So realisticwas this that the Englishman could not keep from fancying that thischair was poised in some way over fathomless space. Presently he noticedthat the spot had ceased its circular movement and was slowly--almost asslowly as the movement of the hand of a clock--advancing in a straightline toward him.

  No such terror had ever before possessed the stout heart of theEnglishman. As the uncanny spot, ever growing brighter, advanced towardhim, he thought his heart had stopped beating; his brain was in a whirl.After a long while the spot reached his feet and began to climb up hislegs. With a shudder and a smothered cry, he tried to draw his feetaway, but they were too firmly manacled.

  "It is searching for my heart," thought Thorndyke. "My God, when itreaches it, I shall die!" As the strange spot, gleaming like a burningdiamond in whose heart leaped a thousand different colored flames, andwhich seemed possessed of some strange hellish purpose, crossed histhighs and began to climb up his body, the brain of the prisoner seemedon fire. He tried to close his eyes, but, horror of horrors! his eyelidswere paralyzed. It was almost over his heart, and Thorndyke was faintingthrough sheer mental exhaustion when it stopped, began to descendslowly, and, then, with a rapid, wavering motion, it fell to the floor,flashed about in the darkness, and vanished.

  An hour dragged slowly by. What would happen next? The Englishman feltthat his frightful ordeal was not over. To his surprise the darknessbegan to lighten till he could see dimly the outlines of the chamber. Itwas bare save for the chair he occupied against a wall, and a couch onthe opposite side of the room. The couch held something which lookedlike a human body covered with a white cloth. He could see where thesheet rounded over the head and rose sharply at the feet.

  Something told him that it was a corpse and a new terror possessed him.For several minutes he gazed at the couch in dreadful suspense, then hisheart stopped pulsing as the figure on the couch began to move. Slowlythe sheet fell from the head and the figure sat up stiffly. There wasa faint hum of hidden machinery at the couch, and a flashing blue andgreen line running from the couch to the wall betrayed the presence ofan electric wire.

  Slowly the figure rose, and with creaking, rattling joints stood erect.Pale lights shone in the orbits of the eyes and the sound of harshautomatic breathing came from the mouth and nostrils. Slowly andhaltingly the figure advanced toward Thorndyke. The poor fellow triedto wrench himself free from the chair, but he could not stir an inch.On came the figure, its long arms swinging mechanically, and its feetslurring over the stone pavement.

  When within ten feet of the Englishman it stopped, nodded its head threeor four times, and slowly opened its mouth. There was a sharp, whirringnoise, such as comes from a phonograph, and a voice spoke:

  "My voice shall sound on earth for a million years after my spirit hasleft my body; and I shall wander about my dark dungeon as a warning tomen not to do as I have done."

  The voice ceased, but the whirring sound in the creature's breast wenton. The figure shambled nearer to Thorndyke and the voice began again:

  "I disobeyed the laws of great Alpha and her imperial king and amto die. Beware of the temptation to search into the royal motivesor attempt to escape. The fate of all the inhabitants of Alpha, thewonderful Land of the Changing Sun, is in the hands of its ruler.Beware! My death-torture is to be lingering and horrible. I sink intodeepest dejection. I was eager to return to my native land and triedto escape. Behold my punishment! Even my bones and flesh will not beallowed to rest or decay. Beware, the king is just and good, but he willbe obeyed!"

  Slowly the figure retreated toward the couch and lay down on it. Thewhirring sound ceased, the light along the wire went out, and thedarkness thickened till the couch and the outlines of the chamber wereobscured. Then Thorndyke's chair was lifted, as if by unseen hands, andhe was borne backward. In a moment he felt the cool, damp air of thecorridor, and some one raised him to his feet and led him back to thethrone-room.

  In the bright light which burst on him as the door opened, the beautifulwomen and handsome men moving about the throne were to him like aglimpse of Paradise. The attendant left him at the door and he walkedin, so dazed and weak that he hardly knew what to do. No one seemed tonotice him and the king was engaged in an animated conversation withseveral ladies who were sitting at his feet.

  In a bevy of women Thorndyke noticed Bernardino. She gave him a quick,sympathetic glance
of recognition and then looked down discreetly.Presently she left the others and moved on till she had disappearedbehind a great carved wine-cistern which stood on the backs of fourcrouching golden leopards in a retired part of the room. Something inher sudden movement made the Englishman think she wanted to speak tohim, and he went to her. He was not mistaken, for she smiled as heapproached.

  "I am glad," she whispered, touching his arm impulsively, and thenquickly removing her hand as if afraid of detection.

  "Glad of what?" he asked.

  "Glad that you stood that--that torture so well; several men have diedin that chair and some went mad."

  "I remembered your advice; that saved me."

  "I have a plan for us to try to rescue your friend."

  "Ah, I had forgotten him! what is it?"

  "Captain Tradmos likes you and has consented to aid us. We shall needan air-ship and he has one at his disposal which is used only forgovernmental purposes."

  "What do you want with the air-ship?"

  "To go beyond and over the great wall."

  "But can we get away from here without being seen?"

  "Under ordinary circumstances, neither by day nor night, but tomorrowthe king has planned to let his people witness a 'War of the Elements.'"

  "A War of the Elements?"

  "Yes, the grandest fete of Alpha. There will be a frightful storm in thesky; no light for hours; the thunder will be musical and the lightningwill seem to set the world on fire. That will be our chance. When itis darkest we shall try to get away unseen. We may fail. Such a daringthing has never been attempted by any one. If we are detected we shallsuffer death as the penalty, the king could never pardon such a boldviolation of law."