Suddenly, Véronique said, simply:
“Leo, I’m hungry and thirsty.”
He started.
“Damn!” he exclaimed. “Me too!” In a different tone, shaking his head, he added: “But I was thinking...”
“What?” asked Gno.
“That the security of the Rheans seems, indeed, to be absolute—by day. But during the night… is it because of terrible nocturnal dangers that things here are as we se them?”
Véronique d’Olbans, Gno Mitang, Ariste Fageat, Jean Margot, Vitto and Soca all exclaimed:
“Yes of course! That’s probable… certain! Night, eh! But what dangers?”
There was another silence.
“In truth, I too am hungry and thirsty,” said the Japanese, abruptly. And he added: “Saint-Clair, I propose that we return to the Olb.-I. Nourishment, rest, completion of our on-board journal. Then another meal, light but substantial. Afterwards, we can attempt another expedition by night, going straight through the forest and across the plain to the city, whose direction we now know in relation to the clearing where we landed.”
“Agreed,” said Saint-Clair, putting his binoculars back into their case.
Two minutes later, the seven Terrans, bounding from rock to rock, were descending from the top of the hill toward the great forest of yellow trees, in a clearing of which they had left the Olb.-I.
Thanks to the marks made on many trees by Vitto’s and Soca’s hatchets, they had no need to hesitate over which direction to follow through the undergrowth.
Again they encountered the quadrumane animals similar to terrestrial monkeys, which fled yelping in terror. Then they saw the silent and tranquil birds again. And they found, intact and locked in the solitude of the large clearing, the solid and comfortable vehicle in which they had traveled so bizarrely from Earth to Rhea.
On seeing it, they were relieved of a vague dread, unexpressed by born in each of them as soon as they began the return journey: that the Olb.-I might be surrounded by new “human beings” different from those in the city. But no! Nothing lived in the forest but fearful quadrumanes and indifferent birds.
Chapter VI
The First Night
In the Olb.-I, thanks to the diligence of Véronique, aided by Vitto and Soca, lunch was soon ready, as abundant, variant and succulent as they could wish. As an exception, after the coffee, there was old Armagnac, fine champagne or liqueurs according to taste, and cigars, cigarettes or pipes. Rest followed for a few hours, consisting of a few general conversations in which, all their observations having already been well coordinated, they allowed themselves to formulate a thousand hypotheses regarding the inhabitants of Rhea and their conditions of life.
Finally, after a long dusk, darkness fell: a clear night with a pure, starry sky, with the particular spectacle of two lunar bodies, one being the Moon itself, the other the Earth.
On Saint-Clair’s orders, everyone added a portable electric lamp to their equipment, except for Saint-Clair himself—for he was the Nyctalope, whose eyes had the rare faculty of being as clear-sighted in darkness as in daylight.
And for the second time, the doors and portholes being securely shut, the Olb.-I was left alone in the clearing by the Terrans, who, having got their bearings, drew away from it through the woods in a south-south-westerly direction.
It took them two hours of long-striding but prudent marching to emerge from the forest region and discover the vast plain ahead of them. They did not see any birds; doubtless they were sleeping in their nests or on branches, hidden in the foliage. They saw the simian quadrumanes flee, chattering, though.
“It seems to me,” said Mademoiselle d’Olbans, “that those animals are even more curious than fearful.”
That remark had no echo. She was right, and merited general approval, but the six men were preoccupied with other problems, and hey did not enjoy the serene and astonishing freedom of spirit that was one of the young woman’s principal qualities.
On emerging from the undergrowth on to the plain, they all came to a sudden halt, exclaiming in surprise.
“My God!” said Véronique. “What strange enchantment!”
“That was unexpected!” said Saint-Clair.
Because of the wan light spread by the Earth, the Moon and the innumerable stars, the plain was entirely pale gray in color. By virtue of their low altitude, they could only see the upper part of the river to the west, upstream of the city. As for the city itself...
How can it be described? How can one give an idea of its fantastic, magical appearance?
It was not fire and it was not light; only the word phosphorescence...
The Terrans could only see, in the far distance, its enormous wall and half a dozen pyramidal roofs whose exceptional height surpassed it.
That wall, and those roofs were all luminous, and that light, seemingly internal, cold, motionless and devoid of radiance, was phosphorescence.
“Astonishing!” said Gno. “That’s not produced by projectors or any kind of lamps; it must emanate from the very matter of which the wall and the edifices are constructed.”
“But why?” asked Ariste Fageat. “Nothing is phosphorescent, hereabouts at least, in Rhean nature—neither the trees, nor the ground, nor the water in the river, nor the rocks on the hills; we can only see that nature because it’s illuminated by the stars. Only the architectural constructions of the city are phosphorescent. How and why?”
“Bah!” said Saint-Clair. “We’ll find out. And to discover that, and many other things, let’s go!”
He resumed walking. Everyone followed him. Véronique and Gno Mitang placed themselves by his sides with a single bound. Behind them, bounding in equally long trajectories, came the group formed by Margot, Fageat, Vitto and Soca.
What delights and intoxications there were in that strange progression over the even ground, in the pure, light air, almost as delicately warm as during the day! Truly, it was not an excess of imagination on the part of the Terrans to think themselves equipped with wings!
An without encumbrance or delay, without any encounter of any sort, in less than an hour, they came to the bank of the river in front of the city, facing the city’s fantastic wall. They were only separated from it by the width of the river.
“A hundred meters,” said Fageat, in a low voice.
Véronique leaned over, putting her bare hand into the water that ran alongside the sandy and gently-sloping bank.
“Oh, it’s warm—almost hot!” the young woman murmured.
Everyone imitated her. Saint-Clair tasted the water, and Gno Mitang too.
“It seems to be drinkable,” he said.
Standing up, ranged along the water’s edge, they gazed at the city—or, rather, at it’s wall—for they were so close to it, that they could not see anything except that bewildering wall.
It was then that there was a further occurrence—not a static fact like the phosphorescence of the wall or the warmth of the water but a dynamic event. New living beings appeared.
It was Vito who called attention to them, confusedly. He had chanced to turn his head to look toward the hills on which they had found themselves during the morning; and he saw...
“Boss!” he said, in a low voice. “Turn around and look—what’s that?”
Pronounced by Vitto or Soca, the word “boss” could only be addressed to Saint-Clair.
The Nyctalope turned round. What the Corsican, Véronique and everyone else only saw confusedly—indecisive and obscure moving masses against the background of blue-grey ground, the Nyctalope saw clearly.
“Aha!” he said. “Take cover, quickly!”
A short way downstream, the edge of the water made an elbow in the shore, the floor of which offered a series of small sand-dunes. Saint-Clair dragged Véronique, whose hand he had grabbed, toward those dunes. The others followed. Soon, they were all lying on the sand, two or three meters from the water, hidden upstream and downstream and from the great plain by the little dunes
. Having hollowed out gaps in front of them with their hands, they could see in all directions with the minimum risk of being seen—and they watched avidly.
Almost immediately, the Nyctalope had said:
“They’re Rheans of another species. Sometimes resembling humans and sometimes gorillas, according to whether they’re advancing by bounds on four feet or two. Many are dragging tree-trunks, or entire trees with their branches. They must have Herculean strength.”
Thanks to his nyctalopia, Saint-Clair had been able to discern all that from afar, in the semi-darkness of he depths of the plain in the direction of the woods and the rocky hills. The other six Terrans, however, could not see anything at first but a large somber mass advancing rapidly, increasing in height, width and depth. The noises they heard were those of animal footfalls on had ground and those of violent and continuous friction, as objects were dragged that sometimes fractured with dry snapping sounds.
In the light of the two “moons” and stars on the near extent of the gray-blue plain, however, the moving masses did not take long to be discernible in their distinct parts.
“But they’re giants!” Véronique murmured.
“Yes,” said Saint-Clair.
“Evidently,” said Gno, “it’s gorillas they call to mind most of all.”
“And there are hundreds of them!” said Fageat.
“Luckily for us,” remarked Margot, “they’ll arrive at the edge of the river half a kilometer away from us if they don’t change direction.”
Soca, who was very observant, noticed that the strange galloping host was heading for a point at which, the river being less wide than elsewhere, the bank was closer to the wall.
“Are they going to throw in the trees they’re dragging to make a kind of floating bridge?” asked Vitto.
They shut up, all gripped by the fantastic sight of those enormous gorillas, or giant humans, charging toward the river. Not a cry was uttered by that galloping host, but they emitted heavy breathing sounds, hoarse and panting, and savage grunts.
Having reached the water’s edge, the first ranks of the horde only paused momentarily. With a sort of frenzy they hurled into the water, or on to the water, a dozen enormous trees, long and branches, which they had been dragging or carrying—and they threw themselves into the midst of those trees and branches, which were partly afloat, dragged into the middle of the river by the violent current of the water, gleaming with reflections of he phosphorescent wall.
Without any discontinuity, however, other “gorillas” were arriving and throwing more trees.
“Within five minutes,” whispered Saint-Clair, “the entire width of the river will be covered by an inextricable tangle of branched trunks. The current is only strong in the middle, where the bed of the river must be quite deep. Supported on the sand of the bank and the base of the wall, though, the long woody entanglement will make a kind of bridge, resistant to the current.”
“My God!” said Véronique, with passionate interest. “What are those giant ape-men trying to do?”
“Probably striving to climb the wall.”
“But how?”
“There are only two means, I believe. Eh, Gno?”
“To tell the truth, I can only imagine one,” the Japanese replied, tranquilly. “The human pyramid, as it’s called in gymnastics on Earth.”
Saint-Clair and Gno had guessed correctly.
Having reached the foot of the wall—where the water was only thigh-deep—in a seething mass, those “nocturnal Rheans,” as Margot ingeniously labeled them, set about forming a human pyramid with one row at the base, a solid foundation of a hundred individuals coupled back-to-back. On those fifty pedestals, forty-eight more pedestals were formed, those two of two individuals each. Then, above that, the pyramid continued to rise up rapidly, amid the mingled noise of branches stirred by the water and the groans and exhalations of the nocturnal gymnasts.
Then Vitto, who rarely spoke but always to express a pertinent and wise thought, said:
“Aren’t the Rheans in the city going to defend themselves, Boss?”
“We’ll see!” said Saint-Clair.
And they saw almost immediately. “Diurnals” appeared at the top of the wall.
“Oh!” exclaimed Véronique. “They’re phosphorescent too, like the wall!”
It was, however, because of the flying leaps with which they were detaching themselves from the high platform that they were distinguishable. Yes, their entire bodies were phosphorescent, but their torsos, clad in the tight-fitting garments, were more brightly illuminated than their heads or necks.
“They’re armed!” Margot exclaimed.
Immediately, the Terrans witnessed a battle between the nocturnal Rhean assailants and the diurnal Rheans prohibiting access to their city.
The only weapon that the defenders appeared to have at their disposal was a sort of hatchet with a long, flexible shaft.
For the Terrans, passionately captivated by the spectacle, it was like some kind of vertiginous nightmare, in which, fortunately, they had a very clear sensation of not being involved.
Over the river, the trees and the tangled bridges across the stream, amid the swarming of the assailants not yet engaged in the monstrous pyramid inscribing itself in black against the phosphorescence of the high wall, and also on all the stages of the pyramid—especially its upper ones ceaselessly under construction—Nocturnals and Diurnals, the former quadrumanes, with no other weapons than their enormous hands, and the latter winged and armed with long-handled hatchets, engaged in a fierce, almost silent battle of extraordinary rapidity and maneuvering skill.
Saint-Clair, Véronique and their companions soon discerned, within the strange battle, that the Nocturnals evidently had only one goal: to grab hold of the Diurnals and carry them off. When one of the black gorillas was able to seize a phosphorescent Rhean, it disarmed the captive. Then, if it was part of the pyramid, it passed the captive down to another Nocturnal, and from one monstrous hand to another, the Diurnal was transmitted to a group of gorillas waiting on the bank. One of the group then took charge of two Diurnals, now without resistance, and carried them off at a gallop toward the hills.
By contrast, the Diurnals had two objectives: firstly, to prevent the pyramid of assailants reaching the top of the wall; and secondly, not to be captured. The tragic necessity of achieving the first aim, however, was detrimental to the attainment of the second. Fighting courageously, wielding their hatchets cleverly, the phosphorescent Rheans, although they were now succeeding in preventing the highest ranks of the growing pyramid from reaching the summit of the wall, they were exposing themselves heroically, by virtue of that very fact, and many of them were unable to avoid being captured. Fortunately, the contingents of the phosphorescent Rhean army must have been sufficiently numerous within the city, for new companies were arriving incessantly on the platform of the encircling wall, and hurling themselves recklessly into the battle.
That fantastic skirmish between the “gorillas” and the “bat-men” was, at any rater, as brief as it was violent.
Gno Mitang, calm and attentive, had counted about a hundred phosphorescent Rheans seized and carried off by the enormous quadrumanes when a savage cry, both ample and piercing, rose above the tumult—and suddenly, the incomplete pyramid came apart, its elements falling back, flooding back across the river.
It was then that Saint-Clair, in his clear and hard voice of command, pronounced aloud, in such a manner as to be heard by all his companions in adventure:
“Véronique, don’t move. Gno, please stay here and watch over Mademoiselle d’Olbans. Vitto, Soca, Fageat and Margot, follow me. The mission is to take possession of the last monster carrying one or two Rheans. That one, it’s necessary to capture alive. Soca, Vitto, you’ll help me with that. Fageat, Margot, you’ll shoot with pistols any gorillas that try to oppose my action. Gno, Véronique, when you hear my whistle-blast, come quickly to rejoin us. Understood, everyone?”
“Yes,
yes!” came from everywhere around the Nyctalope.
“All together, then—up and away!”
As soon as the pyramid collapsed and the last assailants were in flight toward the bank across the partly-dislocated and partly-immersed bridge of trees, the phosphorescent Rheans arranged themselves along the top of the wall, doubtless to make sure that no further assault was attempted by their enemies. How amazed they must have been by the spectacle—rather confused in the pale starlight but a discernible anomaly nevertheless—presented by the action of unknown beings, by unimaginable means, against the last retreating group of the Nocturnals!
At the rear of that group, galloping in convoy were two “gorillas” each bearing a phosphorescent Rhean under its arm.
Ten paces from the Nocturnals, Saint-Clair commanded:
“Soca, Vitto, it’s necessary to catch these last two. Tap them on the head with the blunt ends of your hatchets, hard enough to stun them but not to kill them. Then tie them up immediately.”
“Yes, Boss,” the two Corsicans replied, in unison.
“Let’s get 100 meters ahead of them first, so as first to astonish them by our appearance. Then rush them as we come back.”
“Yes, Boss.”
Between the last two Nocturnals and the bulk of their fellows, galloping like them toward the hills, there was a gap of about two hundred meters, for the abductors of the final phase of the battle had hung back slightly in order that they might each capture a prey that had come within arm’s reach. It was into that gap that the three Terrans, relatively dark in the lunar light because of their clothing, suddenly surged, and then turned around and bounded toward the two Nocturnal Rheans.
The Nyctalope had no been wrong to count on the overwhelming surprise that such an apparition would cause the “gorillas.”
Bounding together in a long stride, the latter saw the three unknown forms when the trajectory of their present bound was still incomplete. When their huge feet hit the ground again they remained there as if frozen and rooted to the spot; that was evidently because the appearance of the new beings was totally different from that offered by the Diurnal Rheans, and doubtless all the other animal species living on the planet Rhea.
The Return of the Nyctalope Page 9