Life Everlasting and Other Tales of Science, Fantasy, and Horror

by David Henry Keller

  At that time, there were three great Empires in the world. Atlantis occupied all the land west of Ireland, an island reaching far west till, from its farthermost shores, the coast of America showed as a purple haze on the horizon. From this country went emigrants to Egypt, Greece, and the other countries of the Barbarians bordering on the Great Sea.

  The Empire of Mo filled in all the great waste that is now covered by the waves of the Pacific. To the west, it was separated from Asia by three hundred miles of water, but on its eastern borders it was almost in touch with Central America. It had colonies all through North and South America, but the largest of these were in Central America. Some of these colonies were commercial, others led toward the spreading of the service of the All-Good-God whom they worshipped diligently, and one, in the valley of the Colorado river, where Arizona now stands, was intended for a city of refuge if, at some future time (as the dismal priests believed), all of Mo should be destroyed.

  The third great Empire was Gobi. This kingdom occupied all of Asia, at that time a lowland covered with fertile plains and dark forests. There were little rolling hills, but the Himalayas still slumbered unborn, in the womb of the earth.

  Of these three countries, one, before its destruction, gave of its learning to Egypt, which in turn made the culture of Greece possible. Mo, most brilliant of all three as far as learning was concerned, died so quickly that nothing remained save a dim memory in the places where once her peoples had ruled in their might; while Gobi, shattered by a grim cataclysm, managed to live on in the desperate cold and barbarous country of Thibet. The three lands died together, but men lived on, forced by circumstance to forget all they ever knew, and learn it all over again. Gradually, man rose again in the scale of civilization, and by the time fourteen thousand years had passed, the human race had relearned perhaps half of what it knew before they had destroyed the three fairest empires the world had ever known.

  At the end of three months, the great men of Gobi met again, but this time no plenteous splendor marked their gathering. Secretly, they met by night in the bowels of the earth, many feet under the Palace, in a room that only a few of each generation knew of and which none ever dared to name above a whisper. It was a room of black marble. Around the walls were nine dragons of red stone from whose eyes came a glow that lit the room. In the belly of each dragon was a seat. Thus there was a seat for the Emperor and one for each of the Seven Wise Men and one for the High Priest. On the floor sat a blond man of about thirty. His eyes were blue and his hair flaxen, and there was an unafraid look upon his face. On him there were neither bonds nor fetters.

  The Chief of the Navy of Gobi began the tale of the stranger.

  "O most illustrious Emperor, Representative of the Dragon in human form, Wearer of the Ring, when you commanded us to find for you the secret of longevity, if not even that of immortality, each of us went our varied ways to find the answer to your command. To me came the inspiration to search the sea between our land and Mo in the hope that among the prisoners I might capture would be a man of learning in the art and sciences of the cursed country of our enemies. In order to examine those we captured, I took in our fleet one of our learned men, and also men skilled in obtaining the truth from such persons, no matter how unwilling they are to disclose it. We cruised for some weeks and took several vessels which had sailed too far from Mo for their safety. Of the men we captured, we killed most, either as ignorant folk or else stubborn ones who died when the tormentors began to work on them. However, we were fortunate in obtaining one of their physicians, who, when he found out what we wanted, claimed the power to lengthen life. This man you see here. If his ability is equal to his boasts, he can satisfy our desires to prolong the life of your Highness."

  The Emperor looked thoughtfully into the face of the young man.

  After a long pause, he asked:

  "Have any of you Seven Wise Men questioned him to find wherein his power to prolong life lies?"

  "We have done so, Your Highness," replied the Royal Physician, he who knew more about the healing arts than any other man in the realm. "I talked over the matter with him."

  "And what opinion did you arrive at concerning his method?"

  "It has all the elements of philosophical truth in it."

  "But will it really work in the lengthening of life?"

  "That cannot be said without a trial."

  Again silence, filled with suspense, covered those in the mystic room, the sacred Hall of the Dragon.

  And then the Emperor asked the young man:

  "Are you a man from the land of Mo?"

  "No, I come from far away Atlantis."

  "How came you in a ship of Mo?"

  "Years ago, as a child, I was taken prisoner from my home; and since then I have lived in Mo. They thought they saw in me astonishing aptness to be a physicker and a dealer in drugs and magical healings, so they taught me all they knew; and of all the young men in their college of medicine none knew more than I did. When I was taken by your ship, I was voyaging to a far land to heal a mighty man of his disease."

  "So you have no tie of love for Mo?"

  "Why should I, when they killed my family and took me from the home of my childhood."

  "Would you stay with us?"

  "One place is as good as another, since I cannot be a free man."

  "But suppose I make you free? Give you a place at my right hand?"

  "It would all depend on what was in your right hand," answered the young physician, and there was no fear in his eye as he said it. "For I have been in the presence of the King of Mo, and I have seen mighty ones sit at his right hand and die there from poisoned wine or the silken cord around the neck."

  The Emperor frowned; for even so did great men die in Gobi.

  "Can you make me live beyond the age of common men?" he finally asked, and in his words was a great longing for years sufficient to see the ending of Mo.

  "I can."

  "How?"

  The young man eased himself on the floor, and then spoke in answer:

  "The life of the working bee is six weeks. They work that long, and then they die. Mo is full of flowers; and the bee is there, a sacred insect. For centuries, the Royal Bee-Keepers have studied the habits and manners and diseases of these bees in the Royal Hives. They know that the working bees live six weeks, but the queen bee lives for five, and sometimes six, years. All those years, she is lively and full of vigor, and does her work in the world of bees with a healthy constitution. Long years ago, this difference was seen in the relative age of the bees. The men who worked with the bees tried to lengthen the lives of the workers so that more honey-could be produced, but no one was able to tell why one bee lived six weeks and another five years. Then I was told of the problem, and how the wise men had failed to solve it. I worked on the matter, and now I know why the queen lives so long. It is all a matter of the food she eats from the time she first crawls from the broken egg shell. This food, the 'queen jelly,' has in it the elements of immortality. I think, if she were protected from the younger queens, she would never die; but the time comes when she is killed, and perhaps that is best for the hive— but at least she lives a life that is nearly two hundred and fifty times as long as the life of the working bee, who eats what he can and when he can, and dies after six weeks of toil."

  Thus the young man came to the end of his talking, and the Emperor replied:

  "Would such food work on a man?"

  "I think so."

  "But how could it be made in quantities to keep a man alive ? We have no bees in Gobi; and if there were, it would take large numbers of hives to make a meal for a man."

  "When I studied this queen jelly, I made thereof an analysis, and found of it the various components and their amounts, and the formula for the making thereof. I can take the blood of a bull, the fat of geese, the oil of the turtle, and the flesh of certain fish; and, by a way that I know, I can make a food in abundance that will do even as the food of the hive. This food I
have tried with creeping things and flying things and little mice. All thrive on the food, and their life appears to be greatly lengthened. This food I can make here in Gobi if I have a place to work and dishes of glass and of gold and all the parts of the formula brought to me. I will make the food, and this food you shall drink and eat, and nothing else. Some of the food I will flavor and serve solid, and some will seem like wine with the perfume of the vine and the poppy; and in every way, your thirst and your hunger shall be satisfied. This, only, shall you eat and drink and nothing else."

  "You shall have what you need to work with!" swore the Emperor with a horrible oath; "and I shall eat and drink of the food, and so shall these Seven Wise Men, and so shall this High Priest, and so shall you. We ten will eat and drink of this food, and we shall see the ending of Mo and the destruction of our enemy. Because of this thing, you shall have great honor and shall sit at my right hand. All the people shall reverence you. I will give you land and places of beauty and women to delight your soul, and you shall be the child of my old age. The ten of us shall one day gather here in this sacred place and hear of the ending of Mo. Now, you Seven Wise Men, harken unto me, and do as I command! For even though your bellies are filled with this bee food, yet can your throats be cut as easily as ever. Give this physicker all he demands, satisfy his every desire, aid him in every way. Do this first; and, after that, use all your power for the hastening of the destruction of Mo. For life will be tiresome to me so long as they rule in splendor all over the South Seas and deny me the right to levy taxes and take tribute from them."

  Thus the meeting came to an end; and all of the Seven went to worship their special Gods, for that a way had been found to prolong their Lord's life and thus permit them to live longer with their sons and their wives.

  Heracles, the wise young physician from Mo, was given a place of his own with special rooms for him to work in and others for him to live and love in. All of the wealth and wisdom of Gobi went to aid him in his work. Assigned to help him were certain young men who labored for him as he commanded, but the final preparation of the food was done in secret. At the ending of the third month, the first supply of food was made and ready to feed the ten who were appointed to eat of it. In every way it was delicate, and delicious, and dainty, in its taste and smell, and in the pleasure it gave to the tongue and palate. The Emperor was pleased and sent a dozen dancing girls to Heracles as a present, and each girl bore on her body jewels that would have served as a king's ransom. Heracles put the jewels in a place he knew and the girls in his harem, and promptly forgot about both for he was engaged in a mighty work. After that, the Emperor and the Seven Wise Men and the Priest ate all their meals together; for after he had found that the food was healthy and not in any way poison, the Emperor would at times excuse Heracles from attending at meat with the others, as he knew how hard he was working preparing food for all of them. Yet this absence from the Royal Table caused the Emperor sadness on account of the great love he bore for the young physician.

  Meantime, the wealth and manpower of Gobi was working as it had never done before. To the North and West lay the Kingdom of Gobi, while to the South and East, for more miles than man could measure, was the beautiful land of Mo. Sixty million men and women of power lived in that land, besides untold slaves and common folk. Between the two lands rolled three hundred miles of ocean. Neither country could transport armies large enough to conquer the other. Thus each grew in greatness and wealth and hatred of the other. They knew of Atlantis, the third kingdom, but that land gave neither of them concern, for her ways were peaceful, and her ambitions more in the conquest of art than of other nations.

  Gobi determined to destroy Mo.

  Mo brooded over the ending of Gobi.

  Each used all the skill and energy and determination they possessed toward the accomplishment of their purpose, and, while each had a partial idea of the plans of the other, they laughed at the impending danger because it seemed so fantastic.

  The plan that Gobi was working out was simple and yet gigantic in its scope. It was nothing more nor less than to blow their enemy to pieces. Tradition and their ancient wise men whispered of large caverns under the land of Mo, huge reservoirs ten miles under the surface of the land; and these were filled with explosive and inflammable gases. It was believed the entire land of Mo rested on a thin crust of earth, and that beneath that crust were vast caves, large caverns, tremendous open spaces, filled only with threats and sullen murmurings from the hidden fires that lived silently so many miles below. Mo rested on top of a living Hell. Unconscious of their danger, the people laughed, and sang, and loved, while beneath them a scarlet doom awaited, with endless patience, the signal for its release.

  This was the way the land of Mo was built, and on this fact the Seven Wise Men of Gobi built all hopes. Their plan was simple in its scope, though it would take years in its working. It was nothing more nor less than the digging of a tunnel under that three hundred miles of ocean, and then from that tunnel a dozen side tunnels, till all of the land of Mo was burrowed under, even as a mole works in a garden after worms. At the end, deep shafts were to be sunk till the fire of the Pit made it impossible to work any longer, and in these pits powder was to be put, not just pounds nor yet tons, but all of each of the the twenty-seven vast pits were to be filled with powder, and the lateral tunnels were also to be filled and even part of the tunnel under the sea.

  This powder was not the kind made of saltpeter, but was of a power that was mighty and so great in its might that even the men of Gobi dreaded it. No greater punishment could be given a criminal than to be sentenced to work in the houses where it was made.

  All the dirt from these tunnels had to be carried back to the mouth of the tunnel in the land of Gobi, and there it was piled in long rows. The mountains thus made are still to be seen in parts of Asia though few knew how they came there.

  The finishing of this tunnel and the placing of the powder would take thirty years, but the actual exploding of the powder would be but the time of the taking of a deep breath. Even so, it would take a day for the final, distant charges to be exploded, so great was the distance to the far parts of the land.

  Only a part of the destruction would be accomplished by the powder exploding. The flames from this would light the large caverns of lethal gases, and these would explode and blast holes into the very bottomless Pits of Despair. From these pits would come the fire of Hell, and what that fire would do to the hated land of Mo could hardly be guessed.

  Part of this plan had reached Mo through its secret spy system; but it was so fantastic, so peculiarly impossible in its greatness, that little attention was paid to it. Besides, they knew that it would take years for Gobi to dig such tunnels under their land and under the far corners of their kingdom, and before that time had come they had a very pleasant surprise to hand to Gobi which would give the wise men of that land plenty to worry about besides spending an eternity of years digging tunnels under the sea.

  For there were also wise men in Mo. Perhaps their wise men were possessed of more wisdom than the Seven Wise Men of Gobi, though at this time, fourteen thousand years after both lands died and lost their wisdom, it is hard to evaluate such a delicate matter as the intelligence of a nation. However, the end results confirmed the boast of Mo that they would win a victory over their enemies before those enemies could come to an end of their tunnel.

  Now it is an interesting fact that the men of Gobi knew of the plans of Mo just as the men of Mo knew of the plans of Gobi. Each had a partial idea of how the enemy was going to attack, and each felt that the schemes were impracticable and foolish. It is not to be wondered at that the Seven Wise Men made a special report to the Emperor of Gobi, and in that report told him that Mo would try to destroy them; but that the method was an impossible one and opposed to all the known laws of nature. To be brief. Mo intended to have the laws of gravity set aside for a short period over the entire land of Gobi, with the result that the land, no longer held
down by gravity or the weight of the atmosphere, would leap into the air and leave the entire kingdom miles above the ocean in an atmosphere of bitter cold where pleasure would cease and men be so occupied with fighting the winter that no time or energy would remain for the pursuit of pleasure or the softer recreations of life. The people of Gobi would have neither time nor energy for building tunnels to destroy Mo. If they remained in their former land, they would have to fight the cold. If they left it, they would have to fight the Barbarians. Meantime, the gentle folk of Mo would continue to live in pleasure and a warm place under the tropical sun.

  Thus each country lived in what proved to be a fool's paradise.

  Yet not all, for the Emperor of Mo had built in the far east a special retreat and a place of refuge, and there he and his rich men and their wives went for six months every year, when the summer sun was the warmest in Mo. Many centuries before, it had been foretold that when Mo was destroyed it would be during the period of intense heat; and now for several decades the chosen few protected themselves against such a fate even though they laughingly told each other that it was impossible.

  The plans of the wise men of Mo were not as fantastic as might be imagined. Even today, in our dense ignorance, there are East Indians who can suspend themselves in the air in absolute defiance of the laws of gravitation. If a man can do this now in our dark ages, why should not a field or a forest do the same in a time when men knew many things that so far we have failed to learn? At least, what really happened was this: Heracles had not come to Gobi by accident. His capture was simply a part of the plans of the conspirators of Mo. Had he not been captured on ship board, he would have come to Gobi anyway. His ability to make the life-prolonging bee jelly was just a happy coincidence, something accidental in its occurence; but at the same time such was the wisdom of this young man that had almost anything else been asked of him, he would have been able to give a satisfactory answer. He had come to Gobi to lift that unhappy country three miles into the air; his making of the bee food simply made it easier for him to carry out his plans. Now the trusted friend of the Emperor, in fact, the man who was making his royal food, he had full access to every part of the Kingdom of Gobi.