by John Munro
CHAPTER XI.
THE FLYING APE.
It was broad day when I awoke, and oppressively warm in the littlecabin. My first thoughts were of Alumion, the consecration of our loves,and my resolution to abide in Venus. In getting up I felt so light andbuoyant that for a moment I fancied I must be giddy, but on reflection Iascribed the sensation to the intoxication of passion, and theexhilarating atmosphere of the planet. I looked out of a window towardsthe blessed island of my dreams, and to my blank amazement found that_it was gone!_ I could neither see anything of the lake, the square, northe town, but only a bare and rugged platform of weathered rocks, andthe cloudy sky above it.
What was the matter? Had Gazen and Carmichael taken it into their headsto make an excursion, such as we had often planned, in order to observesomething more of the country? Yes, that was it, no doubt.
Under the circumstances I was far from pleased with them for havingcarried me off without asking my leave, knowing as they should havedone, that I would be eager to rejoin Alumion; but experience of travelhad taught me that a man must not expect to have it all his own way, andshould know when to let his companions have theirs, and above all thingsto keep his temper. I, therefore, decided to take their behaviour ingood part, more especially as we could always return to the capital asquickly as we had come from it.
Apparently there was nobody in the car but myself. Wondering, andperhaps a trifle uneasy at the dead stillness, I dressed rapidly andwent outside.
The welkin was wholly overcast with dense, murky vapours, which totallyhid the sun, and the air was excessively hot, moist, and sultry asbefore a thunderstorm--an unusual phenomenon in Womla. Black bouldersand crags, speckled with lichens, and carpeted with coarse herbage, shutout the prospect on every side but one, where the edge of the platformon which the car was resting ran along the sky. I saw it all now. Gazenand Carmichael had made a journey to the extreme verge of the country;to the very summit of the precipice which surrounded the Crater Land.
Picking my steps over the rough rocks like one who treads on air, Ihastened to the brink of the platform. If the car were on the furtherside of the summit I should be able to see the wide ocean, but if, as Ifondly hoped, it were on the hither side, I should enjoy a far-offglimpse of the city and its holy island, which had become a heaven tome. How different was the scene which met my view!
I was looking away over a vast plain towards a distant range of volcanicmountains. A broad river wound through the midst between isolatedvolcanoes, curling with smoke, and thick forests of a sable hue, orexpanded into marshy lakes half lost in brakes of grisly reeds, on themargin of which living monsters were plashing in the mud, or soaringinto the air on dusky pinions.
My first shock of surprise passed into a fearful admiration for thesavage and gloomy grandeur of the primeval landscape; but as thatfeeling wore away the old irritation against my fellow-travellers cameback. From all I had heard or seen there was no such place as this inWomla, and as it dawned upon me that they had migrated to some otherisland, or perhaps continent in Venus, I forgot my good resolution, andshouted indignantly,
"Gazen, Gazen! Hallo there! Hallo!"
There was no response, and the dead silence that swallowed up my voicewas awful. Had anything happened to my companions, and was I left alonein this appalling solitude? Was I in my right senses, or was I not? Ishouted again at the very pitch of my voice, and this time an answeringcry came to my relief. On turning in the direction from which itproceeded, I observed Professor Gazen coming slowly towards me, round amass of turretted rocks.
"What is the meaning of all this?" I demanded petulantly, as he camenear, gingerly stepping from stone to stone.
He made no reply, but seemed to be meditating what he would say.
"A nice trick you've played me! Wherever have we got to?"
"Mercury," replied Gazen coolly.
"_Mercury!_" I exclaimed, fairly astounded. "Impossible!"
"Not at all."
"Oh, come!" said I sarcastically, "that won't do. A joke is a joke; butI'm not in a merry mood this morning."
"So I see. A laugh would do you good."
"Well, where are we?"
"In Mercury."
"What nonsense!" I ejaculated. "Last night I went to bed in Venus, andyou want me to believe that I've woke up on Mercury. Tell that to themarines."
"Last night you say; but do you know how long you have slept? And haveyou forgotten that we are now so near the sun--that the attraction ofthe sun on the car has assisted the machines to propel us through theintermediate space?"
I had not thought of that.
"Then it is true."
"Of course."
"And why have you come here--what authority--what right--had you tocarry me off in this manner without my consent?" I burst out angrily."You knew I had made up my mind to stay in Venus. I took you into myconfidence and told you about my love affair. Why have you betrayed thatconfidence, and kidnapped me like a slave or a lunatic?"
"Hear me, old friend," said Gazen softly. "We have all noticed a decidedchange in you of late--ever since the day of the ceremony on the island.You have been like a different person--absent in your mind--incoherentin your speech--abrupt in your manner. You have forsaken your oldfriends completely, and apparently lost all interest in their doings,all desire for their company. In short, you have behaved like a manbeside himself, distraught. We could not make it out, and we had manyanxious consultations about the matter. I wondered whether you had had asunstroke. Carmichael suggested that the stimulating air of Venus hadaffected your brain. Miss Carmichael alone suspected that you were inlove; but I would not believe her. I had been so much in your societywithout having seen anything to justify her suspicion, and you yourselfhad never breathed a word to lend it colour. Carmichael and I sought toquestion you about your health, and the influence of the sun and airupon you, while Miss Carmichael tried to draw you on the subject of theladies. All in vain. We could not solve the mystery, and as yourcondition was evidently growing worse and worse, we resolved to leavethe planet. Although it was not in the original programme, we hadsometimes talked of extending our journey to Mercury, so as to visit allthe inferior planets, and give me an opportunity of getting as near thesun as possible for my observations, and this project was made thepretext for hastening our departure.
"We submitted the plan to you, and you know the rest. After you hadgiven us your word of honour that you would break with the lady andreturn home with us for the sake of your friends, after we had made allour preparations to start, you came back at the eleventh hour, anddeclared that you had made up your mind to stay behind. If anything hadbeen wanted to prove to us that you were hopelesslyinfatuated--hypnotised--mad--it would have been that; and as we weremorally bound to fetch you back with us, we took the bull by the horns,and carried you off in spite of yourself."
"You had no business to do anything of the kind," I replied hotly. "I amchiefly responsible for this expedition."
"True; but you forget that Carmichael is the nominal leader, by your ownagreement, and we are all to some extent under his orders. I, too, wasbound in honour to bring you safe home if I could."
"Bound in honour to take care of _me_! You treat me like a baby."
"People don't come away on such an adventure as ours without a tacit ifnot a formal understanding to protect each other to the best of theirability, and besides, I had given my word to your friends that I woulddo my best to help you through. When you come to your senses you willacknowledge that we did right."
Despite my excusable anger and vexation, the calm and friendlyexplanation of the professor was not without its effect on me. It wastrue that I had broken my promise to my fellow-travellers; true thatCarmichael was commander of the expedition. I was myself at fault. Andyet what a disappointment! What would Alumion think of me! After all myvows of eternal fidelity, uttered as they had been in that sacred spot,I had sneaked away like a thief in the night.
"I shall go back to Venus," said I, in
a determined manner.
"Tut, tut," said Gazen, with a good-natured smile; "you had better giveup that idea. You are clearly the victim of hypnotic influence--ofsuggestion. By-and-by it will lose its hold on you, and you will regainyour freedom of action."
"Never!" I exclaimed, with all the energy of my soul. "My dear Gazen,you are quite mistaken in supposing anything of the kind. I was neversaner in my life. Nay, it is only now that I know what it is to be sane;what life was meant to be. Hypnotic suggestion! Pshaw! I know what I amdoing as well as you do. I am not a fool. I am only seeking my ownhappiness--and hers--I tell you that a single moment in her society isworth a whole lifetime on the earth. What do I say? A lifetime? Aneternity. Heaven itself were nothing to me without her. I would not takeit as a gift. I shall go back. I must go back. I cannot live withouther."
"Take time to consider at all events," said Gazen, somewhat impressed bymy vehemence. "In the meantime let us join Miss Carmichael. She isbeyond the rocks there sketching the valley."
We walked in that direction.
"You may return to the earth," said I; "but on the way you must drop meat Venus."
Gazen had no opportunity of answering, for just at that moment we werestartled by a piercing shriek from behind the crags, and rushing, orrather bounding forward, saw a sight that made our very blood run cold.
A flying monster, with enormous bat-like wings and hanging legs, wasevidently swooping down on Miss Carmichael, as she stood beside hereasel on the brow of the cliff.
"Run for your life!" roared Gazen, dashing towards her with franticspeed.
Alas! she did not hear him, or else she was fascinated by theapproaching horror, and rooted to the spot. He was still several hundredyards from her, but owing to the feebleness of gravity on the planet hewas so preternaturally light and nimble that he might have covered thedistance in a minute or so, had he been more accustomed to control hislimbs, and the ground been smoother. As it was he leaped high into theair, and rebounded from the stones like an india-rubber ball, at therisk of spraining his ankles or breaking his neck, while brandishing hisarms, and firing his pistol, and hooting with all his force of lung tofrighten away the monster.
Too late. The huge leathery wings of the dragon overshadowed theshrinking form of the girl, and the talons of its drooping feet caughtin her dress. She made one desperate, but futile effort to free herselffrom its terrible clutch, and, screaming loudly for help, was borne awayover the abyss of the valley as easily as a lamb is carried by an eagle.
"Oh, Heaven!" cried Gazen, stopping with a gesture of despair.
He was deeply moved, and pale as death; but he did not altogether losehis head.
What was to be done?
"The car--the car!" he exclaimed. "We must follow her in the car. Keepyour eye on the beast while I go for it."
Carmichael was fast asleep in his cabin, after his long weary vigilduring the passage from Venus, but the car was quickly put in motion,and I jumped on board just as it cleared the brink of the precipice.
The dragon, which had the start of us by a mile or more, was apparentlysteering for the mountains on the other side of the valley.Notwithstanding its enormous bulk, and the dead weight hanging from itsclaws, it flew with surprising speed, owing to the weakness of gravityand the vast spread of its wings.
I shall never forget that singular chase, which is probably unparalleledin the history of the universe. A prey to anxiety and the mostdistressing emotions, we did not properly observe the marvellous, theTitanic, I had almost said the diabolical aspect of the country beneathus, and still we could not altogether blind ourselves to it. Colossaljungles, resembling brakes of moss and canes five hundred or a thousandfeet in height--creeks as black as porter, gliding under their dank androtting aisles--mountainous quadrupeds or lizards crashing and tearingthrough their branches--one of them at least six hundred feet in length,with a ridgy back and long spiky tail, dragging on the ground, a balefulgreen eye, and a crooked mouth full of horrid fangs, which made it lookthe very incarnation of cruelty and brute strength--black lakes andgrisly reeds as high as bamboo--prodigious black serpents troubling thewater, and rearing their long spiry necks above the surface--giganticalligators and crocodiles resting motionless in the shallows, with theirsnouts high in the air--hideous toads or such-like forbidding reptiles,many with tusks like the walrus, and some with glorious eyes, crouchingon the banks or waddling in the reeds, and so enormous as to givevariety to the landscape--volcanic craters, with red-hot lava simmeringin their depths, and emitting fumes of sulphur, which might have chokedus had we not closed the scuttles--while over all great dragons andother bat-like animals were flitting through the dusky atmosphere likedemons in a nightmare.
Little by little we gained upon our quarry, but being afraid to run himtoo close for fear that he might drop his victim, we kept at a safedistance behind him, yet within rifle range, and near enough to make aprompt attack when he should settle on the ground.
At length we reached the other side of the valley, and found to ourintense satisfaction that the monster was making for a rocky ledge onthe shoulder of an extinct volcano, where we could see the yawning mouthof what appeared an immense cavern.
"That is probably his den," said Gazen, who was now as collected as Ihave ever seen him. Nevertheless all his faculties were on the stretch.His keen grey eye was everywhere, and his active mind was calculatingevery chance. I felt then as I had often felt before that in action aswell as in thought the professor was a man of no common mark.
The event showed that his surmise was correct, for soon after he hadspoken the dragon uttered a startling cry--a kind of squawk like that ofa drake, but much louder, hoarser, shriller--and alighted on the ground.
"There is not a moment to lose," said Gazen. "We must attack him beforehe enters the cave."
Certainly the darkness inside the cavern would give the beast a greatadvantage, and although we might succeed in killing him, we couldscarcely hope to find Miss Carmichael alive. Was she alive now? I had mydoubts, but I kept them to myself. Since she had been carried away shehad not given the smallest sign of life, not even when the dragonsettled. Perhaps, however, she had merely lost her senses throughfright, and was still in a dead faint.
We might have fought the creature from the air, but we had decided toassail him on the solid ground, because we should thus be able toscatter and take him in the flank, if not in the rear.
While Carmichael landed his car the astronomer and I kept a sharp watchon the beast, all ready to fire at the first movement which seemed tothreaten the safety of the young girl, who was lying motionless at thebottom of a slope or talus which led up to the mouth of the cavern.Freed from his burden the dragon now stood erect, and a more awfulmonster it would be difficult to conceive. He must have been at leastforty feet in stature, yet he gave us an impression of squat and sturdystrength.
I have called him a dragon, but he was not at all like the dragons ofour imagination. With his great bullet head and prick ears, his beetlingbrows and deep sunken eyes, his ferocious mouth and protruding tusks,his short thick neck and massive shoulders, his large, gawky, andmisshapen trunk, coated with dingy brown fur, shading into dirty yellowon the stomach, his stout, bandy legs armed with curving talons, and hishuge leathern wings hanging in loose folds about him, he looked morelike an imp of Satan than a dragon.
Hitherto he had not appeared to notice his pursuers; but now that he wasfreer to observe, the grating of the car upon the rocks caught hisattention. He turned quickly, and stared at the apparition of thevessel, which must have been a strange object to him; but he did notseem to take alarm. It was the gaze of a jaguar or a tiger who seessomething curious in the jungle--vigilant and deadly if you like, butneither scared nor fierce.
We lost no time in sallying forth, all three of us, armed with magazinerifle, cutlass, and revolver. Mr. Carmichael in the middle, I on thelower, and Gazen on the upper side, or that nearest to Miss Carmichael.The rocks around were slippery with ordure, and the
sickening stench ofrotting skeletons made our very gorge rise. Suddenly a loud squeaking inthe direction of the cave arrested us, and before we had recovered fromour surprise, nearly a dozen young dragons, each about the size of aman, tumbled hastily down the slope, and rushed upon the lifeless formof Miss Carmichael.
"Great Scott, there's the whole family," muttered Gazen between histeeth, at the same time bringing his rifle to the shoulder, and firingin quick succession.
The foremost of the crew, which had already flung itself upon the prey,was seen to spring head over heels into the air, and fall back dead;another lay writhing in agony upon the ground, and uttering strangelyhuman shrieks; whilst the others, terrified by the noise, turned andfled back helter-skelter to the cave.
The old one, roused to anger by the injury done to his offspring,snarled ferociously at his enemies and, drawing himself to his fullheight, made a furious dash for Gazen.
Our rifles cracked again and again; the monster started as he felt theshots, and halted, glaring from one to another of us like a manirresolute. Purple streams were gushing from his head and sides; heattempted to fly, and ran towards the brink of the ledge; but ere hecould gain sufficient impetus to launch himself into the air, hestaggered and fell heavily to the ground, with his broken wings beneathhim.
Gazen, quicker than her father, flew towards Miss Carmichael, and bentover her.
"Is she alive?" enquired Carmichael, in breathless and tremblingaccents.
"Yes, thank God," responded Gazen fervently; as he raised her hand tohis lips and kissed it.
There were tears of joy in his eyes, and I knew then what I had longsuspected, that he loved her.
Suddenly a loud croak in the distance caused us to look up, and webeheld another dragon on the wing, coining rapidly towards us from apass among the mountains. There was not a moment to be lost, and Gazen,taking Miss Carmichael in his arms, we all hurried on board the car,eager to escape from this revolting spot.
