From the tanks they took a number of packages which, when unfolded, proved to be big sacks made of some transparent material like thick cellophane. They were about eight feet long and each had a bulky apparatus attached to it. Into two of them the monsters stuffed the bedding and all the other things that they had brought from the estancia; then, by the use of some self-sealing device, they closed the mouth of each sack so that it became air-tight and had the appearance of a sausage-like balloon, through the skin of which the contents could be clearly seen.
By the time they had done, the three captives, although in no actual pain, were breathing heavily, half fainting and incapable of any effort, owing to the increasing pull of gravity. As they watched, Gog slowly took up another sack and opened its mouth wide. Then Magog reached out and grasped Carmen in his huge hands.
Her mouth opened to scream, but she had no breath to do so. As Kem saw the terror on her face he made a feeble effort to reach her, but he and Escobar had already been forced to their knees by the increasing pressure. Horrified they watched while she was pushed into the sack and its mouth was sealed above her head.
Escobar was crouching nearer to the giants, so they seized upon him next; then Kem’s turn came. Neither was capable of offering any resistance.
Once Kem had been sealed inside the sack he suddenly found that he could breathe more easily. It occurred to him then that part of the apparatus attached to it was probably an oxygen flask. Through the material of which the sack was made he could still see the chamber in which he had been so long confined. Gog and Magog were evidently now also seriously affected by the pressure, for their movements had become exceptionally laborious. As Kem peered at them he saw them go over to the lavatory tank and remove the funnel-shaped pan it contained; then they pulled up from it several long sections of pipe.
He now lay nearer to them than either Carmen or Escobar. Slowly they reached out and grasped him, drew him along the deck and lifted him until the mouth of the sack, the apparatus attached to it, and his head were over the rim of the tank. He saw that the removal of the pan had left the tank empty and that where the pipe had been there was now only a wide, well-like shaft, at the bottom of which lay impenetrable darkness.
Gog and Magog gave a heave. Kem kicked out wildly; but that did not prevent his being tipped over the edge of the tank upside down. Head first he shot down the shaft, and ten seconds later he was hurtling from the Saucer into the black night below.
13
Chamber of Horror
During those moments while Gog and Magog had sealed Kem in the sack, then dragged him to the chute and thrown him down it, reason had told him that the Martians would not go to such trouble to kidnap them and bring them all that way only to dash them to pieces on arrival; but as he dropped like a stone head foremost from the Saucer’s vent the thought did nothing to lessen his terror.
For what could have only been seconds, but seemed to him an eternity, he plunged downwards with ever-increasing speed. Only one thing penetrated his panic-stricken mind. It was much lighter outside the Saucer than in its shaft, yet the light was diffused and did not come from below him; the Martian earth was still hidden in a pall of darkness.
Suddenly, he was subjected to a sideways tug. At the same moment the speed at which he was falling lessened. The sack turned right over, bringing him head uppermost. His descent was further checked until he was floating down no faster than a piece of paper thrown out of a window, and he began to sway like a pendulum. The oxygen was still working and he took a deep breath, then he looked upward, guessing now what he would see. The apparatus attached to the sack had contained a large parachute; it billowed out above him like a huge umbrella. It hid the Saucer, but the sky below its edge revealed the source of light by which he could see clearly. From horizon to horizon it was sprinkled with a multitude of stars; never, on the clearest summer night, had he seen from Earth one-tenth of their number.
After a moment he realised that some of the brighter ones could not be stars. They moved too swiftly and were following him down. It dawned upon him then that they must be some of the Thinking Lights. He tried to count them, but became confused and gave up, after assessing their number to be somewhere between twelve and fifteen. Next, against the canopy of stars, he spotted a dark object a little above him to his left; then another and another, and knew that they must be the parachutes carrying down his companions and Carmen’s belongings.
He had hardly sighed with thankfulness at the thought that their parachutes had also functioned properly, when, turning his head, he caught sight of the Saucer. Its 100-foot diameter showed only as a big black patch against the stars. As he watched, a little cluster of the Thinking Lights appeared over its edge and came floating earthwards. Suddenly a bright spot showed in the centre of the Saucer. It glowed red and rapidly increased in size; then a tongue of flame licked from it halfway across the Saucer’s lower surface. It was on fire. Next moment it was ablaze all over. For a few seconds it burnt with the brightness of a huge magnesium flare, blotting out the background all round it. Then it was gone, as utterly consumed as if it had never existed.
Kem was still staring upwards at the place where it had been when his feet struck the ground sharply, sending his knees up to his chest and driving the breath from his body. There followed a confused impression of bouncing, being dragged, turned head over heels and dragged again.
When he came to rest he was still winded; but as soon as he had recovered a little he scrambled up into a kneeling position and peered about him. The starlight now showed the landscape plainly—if it could be called a landscape. No tree or shrub broke the smooth contours which cut off the sky low down on either side; and the ground about him did not even boast tufts of coarse grass. He had come down in a shallow pan of sandy earth that was entirely featureless.
Instinctively he grasped two folds of the balloon-like sack that enveloped him and exerted his strength in an attempt to tear it open; but although as clear as glass it was as tough as silk and defied his efforts to break through it. As he released his hold second thoughts told him that perhaps that was just as well; for the sack was serving him as an oxygen tent.
The thought brought in its train a wave of depression. If that were so it might mean that he would be condemned to spend the rest of his life inside a captive balloon, or tank. He had hoped to regain a degree of liberty sufficient to see something of this strange new world; instead he might have to suffer the indignity of playing the part of an animal in a zoo for the interest and amusement of its inhabitants.
Presently he noticed that two of the Thinking Lights had come down and were circling round and round one another about twenty feet above his head. It consoled him a little to think that anyway his position had been picked up; so, presumably, someone would soon arrive to collect him. Almost immediately afterwards, with mingled feelings of relief and apprehension, he suddenly became aware that newcomers had already appeared upon the scene.
The sack in which he was crouching was sound-proof and they came upon him from behind, so he neither heard nor saw their approach. It was a slight turn of the head that caused him to catch sight of a big machine which had come silently up to within a few feet of him. From his position on the ground he could see only the under-part of it, but that was enough to convey that it was a form of truck. Its large, flat, open deck was reminiscent of an aircraft float, but there the resemblance ended, as it had no tender or driver’s cabin and instead of wheels was supported by two rows of big balls that appeared to play the part of caterpillar tracks. As Kem swung round, a giant slipped down from its six-foot-high side, caught hold of him, and tossed him up on to its deck with as little effort as if he had weighed no more than a sucking pig.
Kem held his breath expecting to hit the deck with a most painful thump, but to his surprise he landed on it quite gently. He remembered then that the gravity on Mars was, near enough, only one-third that of Earth, which meant that he would now turn the scales at not much above t
hree and a half stone, and to the giant was the equivalent to a mere sixteen-pound bundle. It was his greatly diminished weight now being distributed over the same size body that had caused him to come down like a bolster instead of a sack of potatoes.
As he rolled over he saw that two of the other sacks were already aboard; the nearer contained some of the bedding and the further Carmen. She was lying propped up on one elbow, so evidently had sustained no serious injury in landing, and at the sight of him her face lit up with swift relief; but he glimpsed it only for a moment. Beside both sacks were heaped the parachutes that had brought them down, and after a single glance his view of her was cut off by his own parachute being thrown up to descend so that a number of its folds settled gently across his body. Only by craning his neck could he now see any part of the machine except its front. Another of the giants was squatting there cross-legged. Presumably he was its driver; as, a moment later, it began to roll in the direction he was facing, across the depression and up a slight slope.
But for the low gravity the movement would have been most uncomfortable, as the flat deck had no springs beneath it, and half bumped, half bounded, forward across the uneven ground. After a few minutes it rocked to a halt and another sack was loaded on to it, but Kem could not see if the sack contained the rest of Carmen’s things or Escobar. There followed another short, wild ride and the fifth sack was put aboard. As the parachute attached to it sank on the deck in a rumpled heap Kem saw the driver stand up, leave his place and pick his way through the jumble of sacks and parachutes towards the back of the trolley. Next moment it had started off again, but now what had been its rear was in front; so evidently it could be driven from either end.
The next lap was considerably longer. For the best part of a quarter of an hour the trolley zigzagged over ground that had few gradients but could hardly have been a road, as the surface was too rough. Nevertheless its bumping was not sufficiently serious for there to be any fear of its passengers being thrown from it; and Kem, now lying on his back, was able without difficulty to keep his eyes fixed on a little bevy of Thinking Lights that danced above them as they careered along.
Beyond the Thinking Lights the star-spangled vault of heaven remained unbroken in every direction. No dark silhouette of trees, crag, tower or radio mast reared up to cut it as they passed; but Kem did notice one thing that warmed his anxious heart a little. Among the myriad of stars he could pick out that old familiar constellation, the Plough—or Dipper. It struck him as extraordinary that, although he had been transported many million miles through space, it should look no different from when he had last seen it, except that its stars were far brighter than when seen from Earth. It was, he felt, a practical demonstration of what Escobar had told him, of the whole Solar system-being no larger than a grain of sand in the Sahara compared with the unfathomable vastness of the Universe; yet the sight of those seven great distant suns that he had known from childhood was strangely reassuring.
He wished that he could tell Carmen about it, but although he was free to move about in his sack, he could not crawl while it encased him; and, even as he contemplated attempting to roll across the rumpled parachutes, he remembered that should he succeed in reaching her the sack would prevent her from hearing anything he said.
Next moment he was given something else to think about. It seemed as though a sharp-edged curtain of velvet blackness was being pulled up on invisible wires in front of the trolley. The curtain rose so swiftly that in a few seconds it loomed overhead blotting out half the starry sky; then the trolley plunged right into it, and was swallowed up in stygian darkness.
The way was smoother now, and raising himself a little Kem looked back. He could see the end of a twenty-five-foot-high tunnel, and following them down it were several of the Thinking Lights. A few hundred yards further on the trolley slowed down, then halted. The Lights came up with it and zoomed round and round overhead, faintly illuminating as they did so the shadowy roof of a vaulted chamber hewn out of solid rock, which was the same height as the tunnel but very much broader.
For the first time Kem saw the Thinking Lights against a solid background, and he could now see that they were not, as he had previously thought, pure flame. Seen closer they had the appearance of incandescent mantles tightly enclosed in wire mesh globes, similar to those which are still sometimes used to protect the naked flames of gas-jets, but much smaller. They had, too, what appeared to be several short wires trailing from them and at one side a round knob that cast a black shadow when seen against the light. The wires and the knob confirmed him in his first impression that they must be some form of aerial instrument that was controlled by wireless, but he could not even guess at their purpose.
He was not given long to speculate about it. The two giants who had brought the trolley there were detaching the parachutes from the sacks. As soon as they had done so, one of them climbed through a large circular hole high up in the wall; the other then passed the sacks through it to him. When Kem’s turn came he saw that the inner chamber was smaller, somewhat lower and had a flat roof. It was illuminated only by two of the Thinking Lights that hovered in one corner near the ceiling. The place was un-carpeted and completely empty; it was a bare, round, stone cistern about thirty-five feet across. When the second monster had passed in the last of the five sacks, he wriggled through the hole after it.
Kem had had no previous opportunity to get a good look at the giants who had picked them up, but as far as he could see they were twin brothers to Gog and Magog and differed from them in appearance only in that, although they wore protective eye covers, they were not using the mouth-mask breathing apparatus. Both were about twenty feet in height, naked, bald, whitish-grey skinned, with red hair on their bodies and fanning out from their nostrils. For all he knew they might be the same two stupid, repulsive-looking brutes whom he had studied so often; but, somehow, he did not think they were. Then, as one of them stooped to undo the mouth of the sack in which Escobar was sealed up, he became certain of it, for the monster had a big birthmark behind his left shoulder.
As Kem watched, Escobar was pulled out of the sack. He stumbled to his feet, apparently none the worse for his experiences during the past hour; but next moment he was given cause for fresh alarm. One of the giants held him round the waist while the other pulled his coat off. Despite his struggles they then proceeded to deprive him of his trousers, shirt and underwear, while he stood mouthing useless curses at them.
Next the two monsters took Carmen from her sack. She must have seen how they had treated her husband; for, the moment she was free of it, like a Roman galley sailing between the legs of the colossal statue that once straddled the entrance to Rhodes harbour, she dived between the legs of the nearest giant and dashed for the hole in the wall.
As it was more than twice her height from the floor, it did not look as if she could possibly reach it, but the low gravity of Mars converted her flying steps into great leaps. She was across the room before the monsters even had time to turn, and, bounding up, grasped the lower edge of the opening. Desperately she strove to pull herself up and wriggle through it; but one of them took a ten-foot stride, stretched out a great hand, grasped her by the calf of the leg and pulled her, screaming, back into the middle of the room. She scratched and bit, but her strength soon seemed to fail her and in another few minutes the monsters had stripped her too of her clothing.
Turning over, she lay face down on the floor, her arms round her head, her dark hair falling across them and along her back. Kem saw one of the giants reach out for him; but, even in that moment, the uppermost thought in his mind was of Carmen’s distress.
As he was pulled from his sack he saw that Escobar had sunk to his knees and was breathing heavily. A moment later he knew why. Now that he had been deprived of the additional oxygen he found it difficult to get his breath. The air in the chamber was very thin and after a few breaths his heart began to pound uncomfortably.
Having seen what had happened to his compa
nions, he realised the futility of resistance, and offered none. He even helped the two monsters to get him out of his clothes. Then he sat down on the floor, panting slightly.
The giants next took up the two sacks that held Carmen’s belongings, opened them, shook out their contents and scattered them about. Kem was sitting with his back towards the hole in the wall, but the sound of hissing behind him caused him to turn his head. The end of a hose had been thrust through it, and from its nozzle a whitish vapour was spurting to form a small cloud overhead.
The cloud grew in size very quickly. The monsters squatted down on the floor, so evidently the vapour was harmless to them; but the panic fear flashed into Kem’s mind that it might not be harmless to humans. He got to his feet, but had taken only a step forward when he found himself faint from lack of air.
As he stood swaying there, he got a whiff of the gas. It was pungent and, like ammonia, made him gasp. Being short of breath already, the pain stabbed into his lungs like a knife. The whole chamber was now misty with the stuff. Vaguely he noticed that Escobar had fallen forward on his face. He could no longer see the Thinking Lights clearly, but only as two bright blurs high up near the hole in the wall. Suddenly they disappeared and the last glow from them was cut off by a cover being closed over the hole. The chamber was plunged in darkness. He choked, gasped, choked again, then fell with one of his arms across Carmen’s back. It seemed as if his lungs were being torn in pieces. He gave a final gasp and shudder; then lay still.
14
Trial and Tribulation
Kem was recalled to his senses by Escobar shaking him. He found that he was still naked but lying under several layers of course fibre matting. There was enough light to see by and it came from an oblong window high up in the wall. As there had been no window in the chamber in which they had been overcome by the white vapour, he knew that they must have been moved while unconscious; then, as he glanced around, he saw that they were in a lofty oblong cell large enough to accommodate a score of people, but as bleak and bare as a barrack yard.
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