Chapter XV.
The sun was, indeed, slowing up. The two men peered out at the door.
"It would be unlucky for us if it should not come so near to the earthas it did on the other side," whispered Branasko.
"I can hardly feel any motion to the thing at all," replied theAmerican. "Look! for some reason it is not so dark below. I can see therocks. Surely we have already passed over the wall."
"That's so," returned the Alphian. "Come; we must be quick and watch ouropportunity to land. I can't imagine where the light comes from unlessit be from the people waiting for the arrival of the sun." Every instantthe speed was lessening. Overhead the cables were beginning to creakand groan, and, now and then, the great globe swung perilously near sometall stony peak, or passed under a mighty stalactite. Slower and slowerit got till, when within a few feet of the ground, it stopped its onwardmotion and only swung back and forth like a pendulum.
"Quick," whispered Branasko, "we must get down while it is swinging, notime to lose--not an instant!" And as the sun moved backward, with hishand on the doorsill, he leaped to the earth. Johnston followed him.They were not a moment too soon, for about fifty yards away they saw abody of sixty or seventy men with lights in their hands hastening towardthem.
"Just in time," exulted Branasko, and he quickly drew Johnston into alittle cave in the face of a cliff. Crouching behind a great rock, theysaw and heard the men as they approached.
Some of them walked around the sun, and two, evidently in authority,entered the door. The others were placing ladders against the side ofthe sphere, when suddenly there was a loud clattering in the interior, awhirling of wheels under the platform above, and the surface of the sunburst into light.
The two refugees were momentarily blinded. Branasko had the presence ofmind to quickly draw his companion down close to the earth behind therock. "They could see us in the light," he whispered.
There was a joyous clamoring of voices among the men, and they withdrewseveral yards to look at the sun. This drew them nearer the hiding-placeof the two refugees.
"Only an accident," said a voice; "it won't happen again."
Then one of them went into the sun and the lights died out. In a momentthe sun began to move. Slowly and majestically it swept over the rockyearth, followed by the crowd, till it reached a great hole and sank intoit.
"Gone into the tunnel," said the Alphian, as the crowd disappearedbehind the cliff.
"What are we to do now?" asked Johnston. "We certainly can't go throughwith the sun."
"Wait till the next trip," grimly replied Branasko.
The rumbling noise from the big hole gradually died away, and the twomen left their hiding-place.
"What is that?" asked Johnston. He pointed to the west, where a redlight shone against the towering cliffs.
"It must be the internal fires," answered Branasko, with a noticeableshudder. "Let's go nearer; I have heard that there is a point near herewhere one can look down into the Lake of Flame."
"The Lake of Flame!" echoed the American, "What is that?" "It is whereall of the dead of Alpha is cast by the black 'vultures of death.'"
Johnston said nothing, for it was difficult to keep up with the Alphian,who was bounding over rocks and dangerous fissures toward the red glowin the distance.
At every step the atmosphere got warmer, and they detected a slightgaseous odor in the air. Finally, after an arduous tramp of an hour,they climbed up a steep hill and looked sharply down into a vastbubbling lake of molten matter more than a thousand yards below.Branasko noticed a stone weighing several tons evenly balanced on theverge of the great gulf, and pushed it with both his hands. It rocked,broke loose from its slender hold on the cliff and bounded out into thered space. Down it went, lessen-ing as it sank till it became a mereblack speck and then disappeared.
"That's where the dead go," said Branasko gloomily.
Just then the American, happening to glance up, saw something like ahuge black bird with outspread wings circling about in the red lightover the pit. Branasko saw it, too, and his face paled and a tremolo wasin his voice when he spoke.
"It is one of the 'vultures of death;' don't stir; we won't be seen ifwe remain where we are!" The strange machine sank lower over the lakeof fire, till, as if buoyed up on the hot air, with faintly quiveringwings, it paused. A man opened a door of the black car and carelesslythrew out the bodies of a woman and a child.
The bodies whirled over and over and disappeared in the pit, and the manclosed the door. The machine then rose and gracefully winged its flightto the east. In a moment others came with their grim burdens, and stillothers, till the mouth of the pit was dark with them.
"Something has happened," whispered Branasko, "some great calamity, forsurely so many people do not die in Alpha in a single day."
For an hour they watched the coming and going of the vultures, till,finally the last one hovered over the lake of fire. Suddenly the machineswerved so near to Branasko and Johnston that they shrank close to theearth to keep from being seen. Something was evidently wrong with themachine, for there was a wild look of desperation on the driver's faceas he tugged excitedly at the pilot-wheel. But all his efforts onlycaused the air-ship to dart irregularly from side to side, and, now andthen, to strike the rocks of the pit's mouth, to shoot up suddenly, orto sink dangerously down toward the fire.
"He is losing control of it," whispered Branasko, "he does not know whatto do. See, he is trying to lighten the load, by kicking out the body."
That was true, and, as the machine made a sudden plunge toward the cliffa few yards to the left of the refugees, the dead body, which the driverhad managed to move to the door with his feet, fell out and lodged uponthe edge of the cliff instead of falling into the fiery depths. Themachine bounded up a few yards and paused, now apparently under thecontrol of its driver. The man looked down hesitatingly at the corpsefor a moment and then lowered the machine to the sloping rock near wherethe body lay. He alighted and cautiously crept down the steep inclineto the body. He raised it in his arms and was about to cast it from himwhen his foot slipped, and with a cry of horror he fell with his burdenover the cliff's edge into the red abyss.
Johnston uttered an exclamation of horror, but Branasko was unmoved.After a moment he rose, and carefully scanning the space overhead,he crawled on hands and knees toward the machine. Johnston heard himchuckling to himself and uttering spasmodic laughs, and he watched himclosely as he reached the machine. For several minutes he seemed to beinspecting it critically, both inside and out; then he stood away fromit, a bold, black silhouette on a background of flame, and motioned theAmerican to come to him.
Johnston promptly, but not without many misgivings, obeyed his signal."What are you up to?" asked he, as the Alphian assisted him to rise fromhis hands and knees.
Branasko touched the machine and smiled. His face was shining withenthusiasm.
"The question of our returning to Alpha is settled," he saidsententiously.
"How?"
"We can go in this."
"Can you manage it?"
"Easily; that fellow must have been drunk; the machine is in good order,I think."
"When do you propose to start?" and the American eyed the funeral-cardubiously.
"The night is before us; we could not get a better time." As he spokehe entered the car and laid his hand on the wheel. Johnston, obeyinghis nod, followed, shuddering as he remarked the traces of blood on thefloor.
"All right!" Branasko turned the wheel slowly, and the wings outsidebegan to flap, and the car mounted into the air like a startled bird andflew out quickly over the pit.
Branasko bit his lip, and Johnston heard him stifle an exclamation ofimpatience. As for the American, he was at once thrilled and fascinatedby the awful sight below; he could now see beneath the overhanging mouthof the pit, and look far down into a boundless lake of molten matterthat seemed as restless as an ocean in a storm.
Then the air became so hot he could hardly breathe. He loo
ked at theAlphian in alarm. The latter was whirling the wheel first one way andthen another with a startled look of fear in his eyes, and then Johnstonnoticed that the walls of the pit were rising about them, and the blackcanopy overhead rapidly receding.
They were sinking down into the fire.
Almost wild with terror, the American sprang toward the wheel, butBranasko pushed him away roughly.
"Stand back," he ordered gruffly. "It is the heat; let me alone!"
The American sank into his seat. The heat became more and more intense.Both men were purple in the face, and the perspiration was rolling fromtheir bodies in streams. Down sank the machine.
"I can't manage it," said Branasko hoarsely, "we'd as well give up."Just then Johnston noticed the mouth of a cave behind Branasko.
"Look," he cried, "can't we get into it?"
Branasko looked over his shoulder, and, as he saw the cave, he uttered aglad cry. He quickly turned the wheel and drew out a lever at his right.The machine obeyed instantly; it swerved round suddenly and divedinto the cave. The cool air soon revived them, and Branasko had littletrouble in bringing the car to a resting-place on the rocky floor of thecave. Before them hung impenetrable darkness, behind a curtain of redlight.
"We are in a pretty pickle now," said Johnston despondently, as theyalighted from the car.
"Nothing to do but to make the best of it," sighed Branasko.
"Perhaps this cave may lead out into some place of safety."
Johnston's eyes had become somewhat accustomed to the gloom, and hebegan to peer into the darkness.
"I see a light," he exclaimed; "it cannot be a reflection from the firein the pit, for it is whiter."
The Alphian gazed at it steadily for a moment, then he said decidedly:"We must go and see what it is." Without another word he started towardthe white, star-like spot, sliding his hand over the rocky wall, andspringing over a fissure in the floor.
Gradually the light grew brighter, till, as they suddenly rounded acliff, a grand sight burst upon their view. They found themselves in avast dome-shaped cavern, thousands of yards in diameter and height.And almost in the centre of the floor, from a red and purple mound ofcooling lava, leapt a white stream of molten matter from the floor tothe dome. And in the black dome, where the lava turned to molten spray,hung countless stalactites of every color known to the artistic eye. Andfrom the foot of the fountain ran a tortuous rivulet that lighted thewalls and roof of a narrow chamber that extended for miles down towardthe bowels of the earth.
Branasko was delighted.
"The king does not know of this," he declared, "else he would make itaccessible to his people, and call it one of the wonders of Alpha.By accidentally sinking into the pit we have discovered it. But," heconcluded, "we must at once try to find some way out other than that bywhich we came."
They turned from the beautiful fountain, and, holding to each other'shands, and aided by the light behind them, they stumbled laboriouslythrough the semi-darkness. Branasko's ears were very acute. He paused tolisten.
"Hark ye!" he cautioned.
The combined roar of the pit and the fountain of lava had sunk to a lowmurmur, but ahead of them they now heard a rushing sound like a distanttornado.
"Come on," said the Alphian, and he drew his companion after him with aneagerness the American was slow to understand. The light in thecavern gradually grew brighter. By a circuitous route they were againapproaching the pit of fire, though it was still hidden from sight.
Finally they reached a point where the wind was blowing stiffly, andfurther on a volume of cold spray suddenly dashed upon them and wet themto the skin. And when their eyes had become accustomed to the rollingmist, they saw a great lake, and pouring into it from high above was amighty waterfall.
"Mercy!" ejaculated the Alphian, in great alarm. "If this is salt waterwe are lost. All Alpha will come to an end!"
"What do you mean?" And Johnston wondered if Branasko's trials andstruggle could have turned his brain.
"If it be salt water, then it has broken in from the ocean above Alpha,"he explained. "The king has often said that not a drop of the ocean hasever entered the great cavern."
Branasko stooped and wet his hand in a little pool at his feet. "I amalmost afraid to taste it," said he, holding his hand near his mouth."It would settle all our fates." He waited a moment and then touched hisfingers to his tongue.
"Salt!" That was all he said for several moments. He folded his arms andlooked mutely toward the boiling lake. Presently he raised his eyesto the great hole in the roof, and groaned: "The break is graduallywidening. These stones are freshly broken, and the great bowl isfilling."
"It will fill all Alpha with water and drown every soul in it," addedthe terrified American.
"That, however, is not the most immediate danger," said Branasko wisely."They would first suffocate, and later their bodies would be swallowedup in the stomach of the earth."
"What do you mean?"
Branasko shrugged his shoulders. "As soon as this bowl is filled withwater, which would not take many hours, it would run over into the lakeof fire and produce an explosion that would rend Alpha from end to end."
"Who knows, it might turn the whole Atlantic into the centre of theearth, and destroy the entire earth." But Branasko was unable to graspthe full magnitude of the remark, for to him the world was simply avast cavern lighted by human ingenuity. He fastened a narrow splinterof stone upright in the shallow water at his feet, and, lying down on hisstomach with his eyes close to it, he studied it for several minutes.When he got up, a desperate gleam was in his dark eyes.
"It is rising fast," he said. "We must attempt to get to the capitol andwarn the king. It is possible that he may be able to stop the opening.The only thing left to us is to try our machine again."
Johnston found it hard to keep pace with him as he bounded out of themist and on toward the faint glow ahead. Reaching the flying machineBranasko entered it and turned on a small electric light.
"Ah," he grunted with satisfaction, "I have found a light. I can now seewhat is the matter with it."
Johnston stood outside and heard him hammering on the metal parts in thecar, and became so absorbed in thinking of the peril of their positionthat he was startled when Branasko cried out to him:--"All right. Ithink we can make it do; a pin has lost out, but perhaps I can hold thepiece in place with my foot. If only we can stand the heat of the pitlong enough to rise above it, we may escape."
Johnston followed him into the car. Branasko seated himself firmly andgave the wheel a little turn. Slowly the machine rose. "See!" criedBranasko, "it is under control. We must not be too hasty. Now for thepit!"
The heart of the American was in his mouth as the long black wings wavedup and down and the air-ship, like some live thing, shuddered and sweptgracefully out of the mouth of the cave into the glare and heat of thepit.
"Hold your breath!" yelled Branasko, and he bent lower into the car toescape the shower of hot ashes that was falling about them. Far outover the lake in a straight line they glided, and there came to a suddenhalt. Johnston's eyes were glued on his companion's face. Branasko satdoubled up, every muscle drawn, his eyes bulging from their sockets.Would he be strong enough? To Johnston everything seemed in a whirl. Thewalls of the pit were rising around them.
Land of the Changing Sun Page 15