A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future

by John Jacob Astor

  CHAPTER XIV.

  HIC ILLE JACET.

  At daybreak the thunder-shower passed off, but was followed by acold, drenching rain. Supposing Ayrault had remained in theCallisto, Bearwarden and Cortlandt did not feel anxious, and, notwishing to be wet through, remained in the cave, keeping up agood fire with the wood they had collected. Towards evening acold wind came up, and, thinking this might clear the air, theyventured out, but, finding the ground saturated, and that therain was again beginning to fall, they returned to shelter,prepared a dinner of canned meat, and made themselves ascomfortable as possible for the night.

  "I am surprised," said Cortlandt, "that Dick did not try toreturn to us, since he had the mackintoshes."

  "I dare say he did try," replied Bearwarden, "but finding thecourse inundated, and knowing we should not need the mackintoshesif we remained under cover, decided to put back. The Callistois, of course, as safe as a church."

  "I hope," said Cortlandt, "no harm has come to him on the way.It will be a weight off my mind to see him safely with us."

  "Should he not turn up in the morning," replied Bearwarden, "wemust begin a search for him bright and early."

  Making up the fire as near the entrance of the cave as they couldfind a dry place, so that Ayrault should see it if he attemptedto return during the night, they piled on wood, and talked oftheir recent experiences.

  "However unwilling I was," said Cortlandt, "to believe my senses,which I felt were misleading me, I can no longer doubt thereality of that spirit bishop, or the truth of what be says.When you look at the question dispassionately, it is what youmight logically expect. In my desire to disprove what is to ussupernatural, I tried to create mentally a system that would be asubstitute for the one he described, but could evolve nothingthat so perfectly filled the requirements, or that was so simple.Nothing seems more natural than that man, having been evolvedfrom stone, should continue his ascent till he discards materialaltogether. The metamorphism is more striking in the firstchange than in the second. Granted that the soul is immaterial,and that it leaves the body after death, what is there to keep iton earth? Gravitation cannot affect it. What is more likelythan that it is left behind by the earth in its orbit, or that itcontinues its forward motion, but in a straight line, till,reaching the paths of the greater planets, it is drawn to them bysome affinity or attraction that the earth does not possess, andthat the souls held in that manner remain here on probation,developing like young animals or children, till, by graduallyacquired power, resulting from their wills, they are able to riseagain into space, to revisit the earth, and in time to explorethe universe? It might easily come about that, by someexplainable sympathy, the infant good souls are drawn to thisplanet, while the condemned pass on to Cassandra, which holdsthem by some property peculiar to itself, until perhaps they,too, by virtue of their wills, acquire new power, unlessinvolution sets in and they lose what they have. The simplicityof the thing is what surprises me now, and that for agesphilosophers have been racking their brains with everyconceivable fancy, when, by simply extending and followingnatural laws, they could discern the whole."

  "It is the old story," said Bearwarden, "of Columbus and the egg.Schopenhouer and his predecessors appear to have tried every ideabut the right one, and even Darwin and Huxley fell short in theirreasoning, because they tried to obtain more or less than four byputting two with two."

  Thus they sat and talked while the night wore on. Neitherthought of sleeping, hoping all the while that Ayrault might walkin as he had the night before.

  At last the dawn began to tint the east, and the growing lightshowed them that the storm had passed. The upper strata ofSaturn's atmosphere being filled with infinitesimal particles ofdust, as a result of its numerous volcanoes, the conditions werehighly favourable to beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Sooncoloured streaks extended far into the sky, and though they knewthat when the sun's disc appeared it would seem small, it filledthe almost boundless eastern horizon with the most variegated andgorgeous hues.

  Turning away from the welcome sight--for their minds were ill atease--they found the light strong enough for their search tobegin. Writing on a sheet of paper, in a large hand, "Have goneto the Callisto to look for you; shall afterwards return here,"they pinned this in a conspicuous place and set out due west,keeping about a hundred yards apart. The ground was wet andslippery, but overhead all was clear, and the sun soon shonebrightly. Looking to right and left, and occasionally shoutingand discharging their revolvers, they went on for half an hour.

  "I have his tracks," called Bearwarden, and Cortlandt hastened tojoin him.

  In the soft ground, sure enough, they saw Ayrault's footprints,and, from the distance between them, concluded that he must havebeen running or walking very fast; but the rain had washed downthe edges of the incision. The trail ascended a gentle slope,where they lost it; but on reaching the summit they saw it againwith the feet together, as though Ayrault had paused, and aboutit were many other impressions with the feet turned in, as if thewalkers or standers had surrounded Ayrault, who was in thecentre.

  "I hope," said Cortlandt, "these are nothing more than thefootprints we have seen formed about ourselves."

  "See," said Bearwarden, "Dick's trail goes on, and the othersvanish. They cannot have been made by savages or Indians, forthey seem to have had weight only while standing."

  They then resumed their march, firing a revolver shot atintervals of a minute. Suddenly they came upon a tall, straighttree, uprooted by the wind and lying diagonally across theirpath. Following with their eyes the direction in which it lay,they saw a large, hollow trunk, with the bark stripped off, andcharred as if struck by lightning. Obliged to pass near this bythe uprooted tree-whose thick trunk, upheld by the branches atthe head, lay raised about two feet from the ground-- bothsearchers gave a start, and stood still as if petrified. Insidethe great trunk they saw a head, and, on looking more closely,descried Ayrault's body. Grasping it by the arms, they drew itout. The face was pale and the limbs were stiff. InstantlyCortlandt unfastened the collar, while Bearwarden applied a flaskto the lips. But they soon found that their efforts were vain.

  "The spirit!" ejaculated Cortlandt. "Dick may be in a trance, inwhich case he can help us. Let us will hard and long."

  Accordingly, they threw themselves on their faces, closing theireyes, that nothing might distract their concentration. Minutes,which seemed like ages, passed, and there was no response.

  "Now," said Bearwarden, "will together, hard."

  Suddenly the stillness was broken by the spirit's voice, whichsaid:

  "I felt more than one mind calling, but the effect was so slightI thought first I was mistaken. I will help you in what youwant, for the young man is not dead, neither is he injured."

  Saying which, he stretched himself upon Ayrault, worked his lungsartificially, and willed with an intensity the observers couldfeel where they stood. Quickly the colour returned to Ayrault'scheeks, and with the spirit's assistance he sat up and leanedagainst the tree that had protected him from the storm.

  "Your promise was realized," he said, addressing the spirit. "Ihave seen what I shall never forget, and lest the anguish--thevision of which I saw--come true, let us return to the earth, andnot leave it till I have tasted in reality the joys that in thespirit I seemed to have missed. I have often longed in this lifeto be in the spirit, but never knew what longing was, till Iexperienced it as a spirit, to be once more in the flesh."

  "You see the mercy of God," said the spirit, "in not ordinarilyallowing the spirits of the departed to revisit earth until theyare prepared--that is, until they are sufficiently advanced to gothere unaided--by which time they have come to understand thewisdom of God's laws. In your case the limiting laws werepartially suspended, so that you were able to return at once,with many of the faculties and senses of spirits, but withouttheir accumulated experience. It speaks well for your state ofpreparation that, w
ithout having had those disguised blessings,illness or misfortune, you were not utterly crushed by what yousaw when temporarily released. While in the trance you were notin hell, but experienced the feelings that all mortals would ifallowed to return immediately. Thus no lover can return to earthtill his fiancee has joined him here, or till, perceiving thebenevolence of God's ways, he is not distressed at what he sees,and has the companionship of a host of kindred spirits.

  "The spirits you saw in the cemetery were indeed in hell, but hadbecome sufficiently developed to revisit the earth, though doingso did not relieve their distress; for neither the development oftheir senses, which intensifies their capacity for remorse andregret, nor their investigations into God's boundless mercies,which they have deliberately thrown away, can comfort them.

  "Some of your ancestors are on Cassandra, and others are inpurgatory here. Though a few faintly felt your prayer, none wereable to return and answer beside their graves. It was at yourrequest and prayer that He freed your spirit, but you see howunhappy it made you."

  "I see," replied Ayrault, "that no man should wish to anticipatethe workings of the Almighty, although I have been unspeakablyblessed in that He made an exception--if I may so call it--in myfavour, since, in addition to revealing the responsibilities oflife, it has shown me the inestimable value and loyalty ofwoman's love. I fear, however, that my return to earth greatlydistressed the waterer of the flowers you showed me."

  "She already sleeps," replied the spirit, "and I have comfortedher by a dream in which she sees that you are well."

  "When shall we start?" asked Bearwarden.

  "As soon as you can get ready," replied Ayrault. "I would notrisk running short of enough current to generate the apergyneeded to get us back. I dare say when I have been on earth afew years, and have done something for the good of mysoul--which, as I take it, can be accomplished as well byadvancing science as in any other way--I shall pine for anotherjourney in space as I now do to return."

  "How I wish I were engaged," said Bearwarden, glancing atCortlandt, and overjoyed at Ayrault's recovery.

  Accordingly, they resumed their march in the direction in whichthey had been going when they found Ayrault, and were soon besidethe Callisto. Cortlandt worked the combination lock of the lowerentrance, through which they crawled. Going to the second story,they opened a large window and let down a ladder, on which thespirit ascended at their invitation.

  Bearwarden and Ayrault immediately set about combining thechemicals that were to produce the force necessary to repel themfrom Saturn. Bubbles of hydrogen were given off from the leadand zinc plates, and the viscous primary batteries quickly hadthe wires passing through a vacuum at a white heat.

  "I see you are nearly ready to start," said the spirit, "so Imust say farewell."

  "Will you not come with us?" asked Ayrault.

  "No," replied the spirit. "I do not wish to be away as long asit will take you to reach the earth. The Callisto's atmospherecould not absorb my body, so that, should I leave you before yourarrival, you would be burdened with a corpse. I may visit you inthe spirit, though the desire and effort for communion withspirits, to be of most good, must needs come from the earth. Erelong, my intuition tells me, we shall meet again.

  "The vision of your own grave," he continued, addressingCortlandt, "may not come true for many years, but however longyour lives may be, according to earthly reckoning, remember thatwhen they are past they will seem to have been hardly more than amoment, for they are the personification of frailty andevanescence."

  He held up his hands and blessed them; and then repeating,"Farewell and a happy return!" descended as he had come up.

  The air was filled with misty shadows, and the pulsating hearts,luminous brains, and centres of spiritual activity quivered withmotion. They surrounded the incarnate spirit of the bishop andset up the soft, musical hum the travellers had heard so oftensince their arrival on Saturn.

  "I now understand," thought Ayrault, "why the spirits I met keptrepeating that I should be happy. They perceived I was to betranslated, and though they doubtless knew what suffering itwould cause, they also knew I should be awakened to a sense ofgreat realities, of which I understood but little."

  They drew up the ladder and turned on the current, and theCallisto slowly began to rise, while the three friends crowdedthe window.

  "Good-bye!" called the spirit's pleasant voice, to which the menreplied in chorus.

  The sun had set on the surface of the planet while they madetheir preparations; but as the Callisto rose higher, it seemed torise again, making the sides of their car shine like silver, and,carefully closing the two open windows, they watched thefast-receding world, so many times larger and more magnificentthan their own.