“Watch—in another minute victory will be mine!” exultantly she did not keep the shrillness from her voice. I did not blame her for thrilling to the moment. I had thought her unnaturally calm and it made me feel better to know that she was not as calm as she appeared.
A sunbeam glinted against the wall, then another, and a low monotonous grumble came out of the mouth of the gorge, barely preceding the grim men who rounded the corner. I felt Lilah tremble. My eyes were impatiently fixed on the scarlet finger nails that lay caressingly on the buttons. Why did she not press them? As if in answer she did press two buttons, and the heavy lead blinds unclosed the window.
Involuntarily I gasped as the light flooded us like a spotlight. It was like Lilah to flaunt her prowess before men she was about to vanquish, nevertheless, it was foolish! My eyes flew to the scene below. And it was not guns that I saw threatening her, but empty hands raised in unmistakable salute.
A rising clamor came up to us even through the separating layers of rock. Why were the guards shouting instead of shooting at the soldiers like a dark flood spreading and filling the space before the Temple? I tore my gaze from the wadi floor to look into Lilah’s mocking eyes. She met mine boldly. She needed no longer to watch the oncoming army. With a hand she swept aside the heavy bangs of hair and it was there! The Mark glowed and seemed alive on the smooth whiteness of her forehead!
Simon heard my gasp and turned to look. A grey palor spread across his features as the full significance of what he saw overcame him.
“Dumb as you are, Tanya, you were smart in one thing at least.” Lilah now mocked me with her disdain. “You always hated me and feared me—yes, I could see it. You felt big and generous standing up for me, even after reading my pretty letter, didn’t you? How do you feel now?”
Instinctively my eyes went back into the room toward the radio man, but the chill of helpless terror deepened as I saw that he was covering us with a small pistol.
Lilah laughed, “I don’t leave loose ends that might trip me,—the men downstairs won’t interfere either. The lead doors can serve another purpose than to keep out invaders.” So that was the meaning of the sounds coming up to us from below! “Relax, you might as well watch the show. It’s all over but the shouting anyway.” She turned back to the window and, as if in answer to her words, the men below began to cheer and she took their cheers regally as if she were their queen. Another queen had stood thus in her window flaunting pride and evil challenge in the face of God and His prophet. But this Jezebel was safe from the vengeful arms that would fling her down because behind us stood the watchful operator, and we were unarmed.
At a crisp command the column halted. Three men detached themselves from it, then came across to enter and mount the stairs. Lilah waved us to one side, as she stood to receive the officers.
“Greetings from our great Prince Damon!” the spokesman bowed low. “We are yours to command, Princess.”
Lilah could not refrain from casting her look of triumph in our direction.
“There’s little left to do.” She shrugged deprecatingly, but the flush in her cheeks belied her light acceptance of the admiration the men gave her. “You will find the valley deserted. Everyone is inside awaiting the all-clear signal. It can be given to the cave-dwellers,” derisively, “one at a time. There will be no trouble from them. The leaders have been split up. Part of them are in the big central room below.” The clamoring had ceased for the moment. “Penderton will be here shortly to direct you to the other leaders. They kindly promised to stay in the good doctor’s domicile to await further orders.” The men laughed at her joke.
“It would be good if the doctor were there, too!” the officers exclaimed.
“Then he hasn’t been caught?” Lilah asked. In spite of my fear I was suddenly glad.
“Not him! He’s slippery as an eel. Almost as slippery as the two blackguards, that have kept us chasing all over the country the past three years and more!”
“He will be caught—just as they were.” Lilah’s cold assurance struck new terror to my heart.
Surely they could be speaking of none other than the two prophets miraculously returned to prophesy to lost men. Yet, if they had come from God how could they have been touched? What of the fire that had shielded them from every alien hand? What of the miraculous power that had made them vanish before the very eyes of not only enemy but friend time after time?
“I wish I had been there,” the captain said ruefully. “I lost more than one good man to their infernal fire or ray!”
“They won’t use it again. There was no sign of any gun or weapon on their bodies—they must have used it up or lost it. At any rate they were easy enough to kill! Maybe the fanatics who followed them will find out that they can be killed, too!” Malicious laughter followed, but Lilah broke in curtly.
“It’s been three days since their carcasses were left lying to rot in the gutters. This is not the only trap allowed to fill with defiers of our Prince! Jerusalem is swarming with the curious who come to spit and kick at the two dead prophets! There will be mourners sneaking in by night trying to steal their bodies. Damon has set traps that have and will draw in the snivelling ‘believers’ like flies to carrion!” I shivered again at the venom in Lilah’s voice and eyes. How had I ever envied or wished to be like her!
“And we have to be stuck out here and miss the fun!”
“Maybe there will be attractions enough to keep you busy once you get settled.” Lilah smiled knowingly and the men laughed.
“Hmm, maybe we’d better send back the army and take over by ourselves, until we’ve had our pick of the fun,” one man spoke, but the captain silenced him.
“From the reports the Princess sent out there will be plenty and to spare for all of us! They’ve been flocking in here for the past three years and that should make for quite a crowd.”
“The captain is right. Let Jerusalem take care of itself. We have our reward right here.”
The scout came and Lilah turned to give him orders.
“Penderton, take the captain and enough men to bring the leaders. They are in the doctor’s quarters as planned.”
“Right.” The scout grinned and started away.
“What about these two? Shall we relieve you of them?” The captain nodded toward us.
Lilah let her amused smile play. “Leave them be. I don’t want them to miss anything!”
“As you wish,” replied the captain reluctantly and his calculating eye ran over my face and drew blood into my cheeks, then a chilling terror shook me anew.
1. Psalm 148.
28
THE EARTHQUAKE
GLOOM ENTERED THE ROCKY ROOM as Lilah turned to watch for the men to come out below. Fascinated we could not keep our eyes from the window as she well knew. Was it imagination or only the black hopelessness of our position that caused the sky to seem to darken? The momentary flashes of fear came and went, but were as nothing compared with the terror I had felt in the hands of the oppressors beyond the seas. For then I had not known God. I was afraid, but the greater fear was lest I show anything but Christ and His peace to these tormentors. Others, countless others had died through the ages; yes, even in the past months thousands had been killed for belief in Him. I could not understand why God had brought us here to trap us—yet it was not for me to question or understand. There was a kind of understanding deep in my heart, too. Many might never have been afforded the chance to hear and to believe if they had not come here. Silently I offered my prayer to God, and it was not alone for myself or my loved ones:
“Lift up your arms, oh, Israel, and give praise to God who did not let you go down without hope and without promise, that you will yet be raised! The Messiah will return and will bring vengeance with Him!”
Again Lilah was speaking, and with difficulty I brought my mind back to hear her.
“Paul was a fool! He could be next to Damon! It won’t be long before he’ll be begging me for favors! Then it will be m
y turn to turn him down!” I shivered, but I wanted to cry for my foolish jealousy. Mother had been right. Paul had never loved Lilah. Her wrath was born perhaps in the day he refused to give her the love she wanted. Foolish, childish Lilah, surely you should know Paul well enough to know he will never beg favors from you or anyone else who wears that mark!
“But the letters?” Simon spoke softly.
“That!” Lilah brightened. “That letter was a stroke of genius. I intended using it to pry you loose from him, you know, Tanya!” she shrugged sardonically. “Damon thought it was good. He thought Paul wrote it. Although he has keen eyes and a probing judgment that sees right through everybody and everything that letter fooled Damon. It was I who thought of writing to you, Tanya, so that you would help me if I ran against any snags. But I didn’t intend you to have that first letter. I had used it to check the accuracy of my memory of Paul’s writing and somehow gave it to you with the other one. But big-hearted, chicken-livered Tanya played the nice little martyr and let Lilah in after all!”
Simon had been astonished at Lilah’s first words which were quite incomprehensible to him since he knew of only the one letter. I silently thanked him for his innocent question which had thus given me Lilah’s confession. Paul, Paul how could I have doubted you?
Simon’s eyes met mine across Lilah’s head as she bent to watch the men below. They were taking too much time getting their party assembled, but I saw Simon’s eyes drop to the row of buttons and rise to sweep the rocky gorge facing us. Instantly I grasped his meaning. Of course! If we could press the right buttons and give the signal, perhaps the army could be halted long enough to give us time to somehow give the alarm. Even as I gave my slight nod I felt the mad impossibility of guessing the right buttons to press.
There would be no chance given for a second try. Whatever buttons we chose to push would have to be right or we would have lost our opportunity. At least I had seen the two buttons she had pressed to open our lead blinds and presumably to close the heavy door below. I darted a quick glance at Simon and saw the despair in his own. He was as bewildered by the buttons as I was. Quick as my glance had been, yet when I looked up a dark veil seemed to have fallen between me and the window. I raised my hand to brush away the dizziness which threatened to overwhelm me just when I needed to keep my wits intact. But the veil did not dissolve under my hand, nor the dizziness leave me.
My knees shook, threatening to collapse under me. I reached toward the sill for support and had forgotten the buttons. Withdrawing the hand with which I was vainly trying to wipe away the cobwebs, that somehow had darkened my vision, I looked into Lilah’s face. Never had I seen such hate, such fury! Or, such abject fear! Her voice raised in a shrill piercing shriek.
“Run! Run, you fools! Run!”
The radio operator flung me aside, took only the briefest of looks outside, then stampeded for the stairs.
“Come back, idiot, you fool, come back!” If he heard her, he did not heed her command.
I saw then what those below could not see. Slowly, as if impelled by some unseen hand, the solid mountains of rock were swaying, rocking on silent rollers. It was not dizziness then that had made me shake, but that same slow rolling that unsteadied my feet! The men below were intent on their business, their shifting movements hid the tremble of the earth, or they laid it to the vibration of their own feet. The captain looked up raising his hand again in the salute to Lilah, but his hand froze in position before her livid face.
“Run! You fools! Why do you stand there! Get out from under those walls! Run!” This time they heard, but as the fear took hold of them it was too late.
A terrible, hideous screaming mingled with the grinding as the tons upon tons of rocks came crashing in upon the army that would have invaded God’s City of refuge and taken His own! There was no need for the puny rockslides conceived by our leaders. The whole earth seemed to tilt before our eyes, then followed a blinding, choking cloud of dust. Above the grating rumble rose screams that pierced to the very marrow of our bones as the crushing weight of rock and debris silenced the voices forever.
Lilah must have been adding her hysterical shrieks to the others. She whirled on us when there were no other ears to hear her out there. My ears shut against the vituperative tirade that rained down upon us. Never had human lips spewed forth such venom. Never had I seen such evil though it had been matched in the Prince’s eyes no doubt and he had veiled it from view. She hurled threat after threat at us, then cursed God who had spoiled her plans, and she vowed to accomplish her purpose. Higher and higher rose her voice. She shook with impotent fury, then Simon moved to seize her. She sprang away with the litheness of an untamed lioness then she was gone through the door.
Simon was not young and I was too stunned to move swiftly, but we knew that she would find no shelter in the valley for long. The room lightened and the earth stopped its travail. Without the dust hung heavy as we turned to look through the window. The desert stretched flat and seemed endless in front of the towering rock wall that held our temple. Gone were the winding gorges, the narrowing sheer cliff walls. Gone, too, was the army that had come into it to be sucked down in the cataclysm that had changed the face of the earth and changed a catastrophe, beyond man’s control, into a victory possible only to an omnipotent and omniscient God!
The dust clouds swirled below the window so we could not see if Lilah had gone out into it. Like a suddenly disturbed nest of snakes the dust clouds became slithering forms that twisted and reached across the leveled wastelands. Fascinated I watched them, in memory compared them to the frightening mists that so long ago had given a premonitory glimpse into this future, perhaps. Before they lifted to let us see her, I knew that Lilah was the prey they were seeking. She was away off, but plainly etched against the lifeless landscape. She stopped to turn and fling up her clenched fist and give, a last cry of defiance and warning. As if the earth had been disturbed, just as it settled to rest, it heaved one great sigh, then only the lifeless desert lay silent before our horror-drenched eyes.
I dissolved in tears from which Simon could not shake me. The tension had been loosed too abruptly. I could find no strength to control the emotions that swept in swift succession through me. I wept for joy and for very humility. I wept, too, for the defiant souls who had refused to see God, who had been crushed beneath His finally aroused wrath. That hand had been stayed in order that they might be given every opportunity, but how had they used His long-suffering love, given so freely? Yet, I wept for them and heard the echo of their cries as they went down into the doom they had chosen. I could not stop my weeping.
Simon must have moved from me, at last urged on to attend to more important matters. Grimly he pushed button after button only guessing what each might set into motion. Once our own lead door thudded down, closing the entrance but he quickly raised it again. That did not stop the flood of my tears. Not until the guard had been released at last, to come storming up the stairs to roar their questions at us, did I stop my silly weeping and act sensibly again.
A mighty chorus of praise arose as anxious scores came from their quarters to view the appalling sight. The sun had set in an aura of drifting dust and sand clouds, then the moon had risen, yet we could not turn our backs on the fantastic scene. Praise and prayer arose simultaneously from countless throats. What had started out as a day of terror and battle ended in a great, spontaneous praise and worship service on the edge of the strange new tableland spread before us by the mighty hand of our God! God had indeed moved once more. Quiet settled slowly over the scene where so recently the storm of God’s wrath had been executed, swallowing up the host of foul creatures that had polluted it with their great wickedness!
29
REVIVAL
WE DO NOT NEED to set a watch in the temple tonight.” It was Simon who took the lead once more.
“If God, who gave the tortuous passage for our protection, has seen fit to level it, I doubt if we need set a guard. At least for tonight
, and until Damon can have had time to rush other forces here, we should not need one.” Others agreed promptly.
We were glad to return to our quarters, to rejoice and to sing praises, also to check our casualties. Oddly no one had wept for a loved one, yet surely there must have been some, we thought, accidentally destroyed with the enemy army. There were the posts and each had its quota of defenders.
“I think Lilah will have left some papers of importance in her desk.” Simon nodded backward toward the cameo-like carving that shimmered with swirls of rose, ivory, and deep mahogany.
“If you plan to remain here a while let some of us stay, too. As any persons are found missing they can be reported to you,” the Rabbi suggested.
“A good plan, Rabbi,” Simon responded.
The word was passed quickly along and it put hurry into our feet. I knew that none of our apartment had been on that watch, but until we were in our own places it would be difficult to be sure. An hour passed. I grew impatient for news. Why had Lilah kept even the list of guards so close a secret that none of us knew who should have been out on that last fateful watch? I looked longingly at Lilah’s corner. I had been trying unsuccessfully on my radio to contact the outer world to find out any news. I knew that Lilah’s radio was much stronger and newer, but I hesitated to go to her quarters. I knew that I was being foolish, so finally, steeling myself against the revulsion I felt in touching any of her things, I went. Almost immediately I brought in one station very clearly.
It was Damon’s sibilant voice that came first to my ears. Its cold accents would shake the heart of any listener. A terrible fury was mounting and threatening to break through his icy calm while he was giving new commands. His eyes must have been shot with blood spilling over from his insane brain. The day that he had set for victory was one of disaster instead!
“Mother, come quick. Listen.” I fairly shrieked my excitement.
The Lost City Page 26