Pharaoh's Broker

by Ellsworth Douglass

  CHAPTER XIII

  The Revelation of Hotep

  I was not a little surprised to see that they carried me to the sameante-room in the palace which I had occupied on coming to Kem. But itwas now quite stripped of all furnishings, and over each door were hunglarge, closely-spun fabrics, which completely covered and concealed themfrom sight. There were but two little windows high above my head, andhad I been free to leap up to them, they were too small to afford me anexit. Driven into a stone slab of the floor were two large bent-woodstaples. Between these they placed several cushions, upon which theylaid me.

  "May it please the strong man to rest here quietly, aye! and to slumberif he feel the need, until my master, the worshipful Zaphnath, berisen?" sneered the leader in polite irony, as the soldiers, havingunbound my arms, proceeded to tie each hand securely to one of thewooden rings. Then with jeers they left me, pointing the fire-arms andswords at me as they went. I heard them bar the doors on the outsideand try them with a severe shake; then their footsteps receded and allwas still.

  As I lay on my back looking up at the vaulted stone roof, I had my firstleisure to reflect on the desperate condition into which we had at lastfallen. The arms, which had meant our supremacy, were in the hands ofour enemies; Hotep, our only friend in the palace, had mysteriouslydisappeared; the doctor was taken, perhaps killed by this time; and Icould hardly outlast the day, for Zaphnath would reserve but one fatefor a conspirator who sought his place. How soon would he come, and howwould he dispose of me? I remembered having seen the punishment fortreason of a noble personage, with whom I had once eaten at thePharaoh's table. He was confined at the bottom of a tight stone pit, anda heavy, poisonous gas was slowly poured into it. He could see it slowlyfill the pit, and as it gradually rose toward his nostrils, he couldfeel his death gradually measured out to him by inches. When he hadbreathed it in a little, his face swelled a livid purple, he choked andstrangled, staggered and fell beneath the murky surface to die out ofsight. The terror of such a slowly creeping danger! the horror of such arepulsive death! I remember saying at the time that in his place I wouldhave snatched a quick respite from the lingering agonies by stranglingmyself, or tearing my wrist open with my teeth. Now, as I thought ofit, I suddenly remembered my dream of being similarly smothered in theGnomons by slowly inpouring grain. A superstitious mind would havefeared that dream foretold my fate, but I was rational enough toperceive that it must have been suggested to me by a vagrant memory ofthe poisoning I had seen.

  As I lay thinking thus, I shifted my position a little on the pillowsfor better comfort, and my eyes wandered slowly from the vaulted roof tothe daylight at the two little high windows. I started in terror at whatI saw, but blinked my eyes to make sure I was awake, and then lookedmore intently. There was no dreaming this time! I saw clearly, and atboth windows, a curling, purple stream of dense, noxious gas pouringdown into the room! It was much heavier than the air, and trickledslowly down like the ghost of murky waters gradually filling up a greatwell. Then I turned to look at the floor, the stones were no longervisible, but a coat of muddy purple covered them to a depth of severalinches, and the noisome gas already reached almost to the tops of mycushions! All this had trickled in within ten minutes, and twice as muchmore would rise and cover me completely. Then an awful but silent deathwould creep into my lungs, and my only friends, the common people ofKem, would never know how I had perished.

  Did I try to strangle myself or tear open my wrist? I could not get handand mouth near enough together for either of these expedients, had thestubborn instinct of self-preservation left them any place in my mind. Ikicked away the cushions, which gave me a little more room to work myknees under me. Then by straining on my thongs I was able to lift myhead and shoulders upright, and save my nostrils from the noxious stufffor many minutes longer. All the years of my life on Ptah I had beenvain of my superior physical strength. Would it serve me now to breakthe thongs that bound me? I tugged, and pulled, and struggled until Icut the flesh, but they only drew tighter; yet at each effort I gained alittle more length of thong.

  The purple surface, on which death floated, crept up toward me. The roomwas gas-tight; the doors were so covered that they could not leak, andhad I succeeded in breaking loose I could not have shaken their bars. Tosave myself, I must make a breach in the floor; I must pull up a slaband let the gaseous poison run out below. That was my only chance. Iworked my knees back as nearly as possible to the edge of the slab intowhich the wooden staples were fastened, and threw all my weight andstrength into the effort. The stone did not move. Yet I got morethong-room, and succeeded in doubling my feet under me to give moreforce to the next heave. I felt sure I could have lifted the weight ofthe stone if it were free, but struggle as I would, I could not loosenit from its wedged position. The purple poison had risen to my waist bythis time, and in my violent efforts I had stirred it into billowingwaves which occasionally surged almost to my nostrils. I had breathed alittle which made me faint and giddy. I feared lest I should stagger andfall into it. Once my head below the surface, and I was most surely andhorribly drowned!

  I stood resting a second, anxiously thinking, planning in desperationand keeping my eyes always fixed on the rising purple. Suddenly, thoughI had given no tug, I heard the stone under me crunch at its edges, andfelt it begin to rise a little at one side! What could have loosened it,when all my efforts had failed? No matter! if I could pull it away nowand make a breach, I would at least gain a long respite. I tugged againand found it easy to pull the loosened stone up on one edge, till ittottered and fell over against me. Feverishly I watched the poison aboutme; it rose no longer; slowly it began to sink away. Thank God for somuch!

  Then suddenly I heard voices calling me. They seemed to come from below.Yes! It was Hotep in Kemish,--and the doctor in English! Were theyconfined in the cavern below, then? And had the gas been reserved forthem, when it had finished its dread work with me? Horrible thought! Ifso, in saving myself I was only sending the sure poison to them. Wherewere they? I could not see down through the murky stuff; but I mustwarn them.

  "Halloo! The gas is poisonous! Leap through, save yourselves! Climb out,or it will kill you!"

  "Bear up!" I heard the doctor's voice begin, "one minute more andwe----" Then there was a violent coughing, a door slammed, and the voicewas barely heard--afar off--as through a wall. Had they escaped, then,to another room? I had no further time to puzzle what it meant, foranother slab of my floor rose, wavered and fell over with a crash, andup through the purplish gas I could see a great round black thingrising, stretching high up into the room until its top almost touchedthe roof.

  My God! _It was the projectile!_

  When the breach in the floor was cleared, all the gas rushed down intothe lower chamber. The projectile eased over on its side, and out of therear port-hole came Hotep with a revolver and a sword. He soon had mecut loose, and then he told me how it all had happened.

  He had been chamberlain but a single day when he discovered theexistence of a secret subterranean chamber under the ante-room of thebanquet hall. His curiosity led him to explore this, and in its darkestrecess, unseen at first entrance, he found our projectile. It had beenthere ever since the day of its disappearance. During our interviewbefore Zaphnath and the wise men, they had learned from us that otherscould not come from Earth without the projectile, and that we had leftno third person in charge of it. It must have been with an order to makeaway with the projectile, and to secrete it in this chamber, that thethird messenger had been dispatched that day. Also on my first eveningin this very ante-room, I had heard Two-spot barking in the chamberbelow, and the servant, on hearing him too, had him hastily released,lest he should betray the hiding-place.

  As soon as Hotep had found the projectile, he had sent for us, but itwas the doctor alone who joined him. They two had been busy all that dayand night repairing the projectile and storing it anew. In this mannerthe doctor had escaped the soldiers who came at daybreak to capture usboth. Beyond the proje
ctile, Hotep had discovered a secret passageleading outside the palace walls, which they could use on their errandsof repairs without being observed.

  All night they worked without disturbance, but early in the morningsomething happened to alarm them. They heard footsteps outside and anoise at the door which led to the palace. It probably meant death to bediscovered there, but they extinguished their lights, entered theprojectile, and closed the port-holes and lay there quite still. Thedoor was opened, and soldiers bearing lights entered. But they made nosearch; they carried with them our swords, fire-arms, and the two beltsof cartridges, which they deposited here, it being the natural placefor their safe keeping. When they were gone, the doctor emerged andexamined the revolvers and rifles, and finding that five cartridges hadbeen discharged, he knew there had been a struggle with me in which Ihad been worsted. This caused them to hasten their efforts and make anescape with the projectile as soon as possible. All the suppliesnecessary to the batteries had been found intact in their places, andthe compressing of air with the repaired pump and the further storing offood could be postponed till they were more free to do it.

  At last the projectile lifted and worked; slowly it loosened the stonesof my floor above them; but when one stone was pushed aside they noticedthat the daylight did not come through the breach as it ought. They hadheard my cries, and as the gas came down on them, the doctor had slammedthe front port-hole, which was never wide open, and had thus savedhimself. Hotep was safely shut into the other compartment with thefire-arms and ammunition.

  The doctor now came down to the rear port-hole to speak to me.

  "My plan is to escape now to the Gnomons, where we will leave Hotep inpossession with most of our fire-arms. You can give him someinstructions how to use them, so that he may defend himself. There wecan finish our stores of air and food." To this I assented, and said toHotep,--

  "The Gnomons I give to thee, and all the land round about them, as areward for thy most valuable assistance. Also I put into thy charge allmy stores of wheat, to be distributed among the needy. Thou must husbandthem to last yet four years more, and for thine own thou mayest keep onemeasure in twenty. Take thou also a sword, a rifle, a revolver, and abelt of cartridges. Mayhap, to thy right to rule they may add the powerto be a Pharaoh!"

  I was interrupted by a noise below, as of some one opening the door ofthe secret chamber. All the deadly gas lurked in that room now, and itwas certain death to whoever opened and entered! Yet if an alarm hadbeen raised it was there they would immediately go for the fire-arms. Ilistened and heard faintly a voice of command, like that of Zaphnath,saying, "Haste, get me the thunderers!" Then, as the door below creakedopen, I heard it louder: "The thunderers!" Next I heard many men inviolent fits of coughing; I heard some groan and fall; but who or howmany died by the purplish poison intended for me, I never knew.

  It was but a moment later that hurried footsteps in the banquet-hallwere heard approaching the veiled doorway. I took the revolver fromHotep, and motioned him inside the projectile. How cautiously theyopened the door I could not see, for it was behind the great curtain.Presently, however, the captain who had bound me and bade me wait, drewaside the curtain, and the Pharaoh stood in the door, and behind himwere a crowd of soldiers armed with cross-bows. In all the number I didnot see the face of Zaphnath. They beheld me alone, and had no reason tosuspect the presence of the others inside the projectile.

  "Guard both the doors!" the captain commanded, and a detachment ofsoldiers barred the other door, as if thus to prevent me from escapingwith the projectile; for of course they had not seen it rise through thefloor.

  "Seize and bind yon traitor!" cried the Pharaoh; "and he who hesitatesshall be flayed!"

  "And he who attempts it, shall die ere his first step be taken!" Ireplied, levelling the revolver. The captain started for me and I shothim down.

  "If a man of you moves till I have entered this thing, I will kill thePharaoh, as I have killed this dog! Ye serve him best who stand still asye are!" So saying, I covered the trembling monarch with the revolver,and with my other hand I opened the rear port-hole; then stooping, Isprang inside with a quick motion. When the Pharaoh had recovered fromhis fright, I heard him cry out,--

  "Cast that black thing, and the traitor inside it, into yon poisonoushole again!"

  The soldiers did not fear to act this time, and the whole company seizedthe projectile and carried it toward the breach in the floor. As theylifted it on end to thrust into the hole, I called out to the doctor,who turned in two batteries, and gently we lifted out of their dumbhands and rose steadily till we touched the roof. There the vaultedstonework stopped us, and an exultant shout went up from below. Suddenlya score of arrows twanged against my window, but the doctor turned intwo more batteries and then gradually we lifted the key of the greatstone arch, broke through the roof, and the whole universe was an opensea before us!

  Crouching by me at the port-hole, Hotep watched the roof collapse andtumble in. "For thy sake," I said to him, "I hope a falling stone mayhave crushed him!"

  * * * * *

  Thus ended our other-world life. In a time of activity it would neverhave occurred to me to write down these events. It was to relieve theuneventful quiet of our trip back to Earth that I undertook to set downall our Martian experiences in their proper order. No doubt it was thechangeless monotony of that return journey which made the record appearto me novel, unusual, and at times exciting. But now, six little monthsagain on Earth have made the more than three Martian years (equallingsix years of Earth) seem slow, tame, and profitless. If they werepregnant with adventure, they lacked the real experiences of life whichhave been crowded into the half-year since our return.

  The very day I reached my old home I found another wheat corner morewide-spread, if less complete and impregnable, and I set to work tobreak it down. Thus the maelstroem of modern commercial life dragged meinto its dizzy whirl before I slept the first night on Earth, and I amalready surfeited with it. I seem to take the Earthly life in too largeand rapid doses. Into the half-year she has put a flattering success anda dismaying failure. She has given me a month of her sweetestexperiences and another of her bitterest disappointments. As if she knewI would not remain long at her feast, she has served to me in quicksuccession a measure of renown, a taste of fortune, the rapture ofwooing, the bliss of marriage, and the rare delight of loving a soulcreated to love me. Then one little drop from the cup of Deathembittered the whole feast and turned me against it all.

  In the rush and turmoil of it all I should never have thought of mycrudely written narrative again had not my cousin Ruth, who never tiredof the story, fished it out and sent it to a literary friend in Boston.It was probably the instant success in the scientific world of Dr.Anderwelt's scholarly books on _Mars and His Life_, and the newdirection given to modern thought by his _Theory of Parallel PlanetaryLife_, which led my literary sponsor to think the world would beinterested in a plain, unscientific narrative of our trip Marsward andour doings there. In agreeing to look it over and cause it to be a "gooddelivery" in the literary world, he exacted a promise from me to makemy recent Earthly experiences and our adventures on Venus join inproducing another story. For before the eyes of the first reader havereached these words, Dr. Anderwelt and I will have departed sunwards, onthe visit to our brilliant sister planet, where, according to histheory, life will have run through some 31,000 years more than Earthtoward the perfect existence. By the first return of the projectile Ihave promised to send back a thorough account of the evolution of lifeand the advancement of civilization on Venus, so far as Earthly eyes andwits can see and know it.

  Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.

 
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