A Trip to Mars

He had had a talk with Monck about it, and had been rather snubbed for his pains. The engineer said he had seen Kazzaro go with his master on board the large ex-warship which he had pointed out as serving now as Agrando's private yacht. Therefore, the Ogre could not possibly have been where Clinch said he was.

And Monck had ended the talk by rather curtly advising Gerald not to hunt for mares' nests, and warning him to be careful not to mention such suspicions to any one else.

'We shall make inquiries and find out who the people were who so nearly ran us down,' Monck assured him; 'and they will be called to account for their reckless navigation of the air. But I do not myself believe that there was anything more than carelessness, nor that Kazzaro could have been on board.'

Gerald felt a little sore at the engineer's blunt refusal to believe honest Tom Clinch; and Jack sympathised with him, and tried to comfort him by declaring that he agreed with his view.

'Depend upon it, Tom would not be likely to make a mistake in such a matter,' Jack agreed. 'He is an old sailor, and is as sharp as a needle in a case of emergency like that. My own opinion – strictly, of course, between ourselves – is that that imp of evil we call the Ogre was there, and that he deliberately tried to run us down and to kill us all, including the king's son. You will remember my saying I believed that some understanding existed between the Ogre and Zuanstroom. I am still positive that I was right, and that there is some sinister mischief brewing. Mr Monck may disbelieve it and laugh at the idea if he chooses to, but don't you feel sore, old chap. I am afraid he will wish by-and-by that he had treated our hints more seriously.'

Gerald shivered. 'I would rather it should turn out that it is Monck who is right and we who are wrong,' he returned. 'It's horrible to think that we have come all this way, and incurred so many risks, only to meet with plots and murderous attempts. It used not to be so in my dreams,' he added moodily. 'I wonder why it should be so now? Mr Monck gave us to understand that we were coming to a place where there were no more wars, where King Ivanta reigned in peace and security, beloved by all his subjects. Why does it not seem to be as he led us to believe? Are we the cause? Is it due simply to the fact that the Zuanstrooms don't like us – that they are angry because we came, or jealous because the king shows more favour to you than he does to Silas?'

'No; I don't think it is our fault,' said Jack, with decision. 'Zuanstroom has brought with him the biggest cargo of diamonds ever seen; and, as Mr Armeath said, trouble was sure to follow. Now, dismiss it from your thoughts, old chap, and go to sleep.'

'I will; and perhaps some of the old dreams about the stars will come back to me,' Gerald finished, with a sigh. 'I hope, if they do, there will be no diamonds there!'

CHAPTER XV

HUNTING THE GREAT MARS EAGLE

The time that followed upon their arrival on Mars was a period of great enjoyment for the two chums. The gloomy feeling which had been caused by their narrow escape upon that first day quickly passed away and was now almost forgotten.

Agrando and the Ogre stayed at home in their own country, and the chums saw and heard nothing of them. Zuanstroom and his son went their own way, for the most part making friends with the nobles and the chief citizens, and seemingly bent only upon the acquisition of useful knowledge concerning the country they were in and its inhabitants.

Gerald and Jack, on the other hand, became the daily companions of the young prince; and the three grew more friendly and intimate as the weeks passed by.

Alondra showed himself a charming host in his behaviour towards his young guests, and did all he could to make their stay pleasant. He took them about, showing and explaining such things as were new to them and likely to excite their interest, and in particular initiating them into the mysteries of the Martian sports and pastimes. In some of these, as has been related, the two lads had already made themselves proficient during the voyage; but those had necessarily been only of such a kind as were possible in a comparatively confined space.

To attempt to tell of the many strange things the visitors met with, the novel and surprising sights they saw, and all their curious experiences, would, however, extend this narrative to too great a length. It is only possible to relate some of the more noteworthy.

The one great marvel of the place – naturally, the one which had first attracted their attention, and which was always in evidence – was the fact that everybody went about in the air. No one ever thought of travelling far in any other manner; no other kind of mechanical locomotion was to be seen, except as regards the transport of heavy goods. These were still carried to and fro on railways of various kinds, or on other motor vehicles – 'slow, old-fashioned affairs,' as Alondra called them – or still slower 'electric ships.' None of these, Monck explained, could travel at a faster rate than a hundred miles or so an hour – reckoning miles as we do on Earth, and that was far too slow to suit the Martians of to-day.

'Fancy any one travelling at such an absurdly slow speed!' observed Alondra, laughing at the idea. 'Yet, ages ago, in what some here call the good, old-fashioned days, people, even upon the longest journeys, had to be content with crawling about our world no faster than that! We can travel far more quickly now, in our racing air-yachts, and I suppose that on your planet, which we know is bigger than ours, you travel more swiftly still?'

Gerald thought of some of our old-fashioned, slow-going railways, and blushed. 'I am sorry to have to confess that we do not,' he returned, a little shamefacedly. He did not like having to admit at every turn how far his native Earth was 'behind the age,' as things were understood in Mars. But it was constantly the case, nevertheless.

They sailed about almost daily in the young prince's yacht – the one which had carried them up to the king's palace the first day – and they were astounded at the speed she attained in the air. No doubt, as Jack remarked, the marvellous Ivenia must have travelled immeasurably faster, or they would have been years upon their journey instead of months. But they had scarcely been aware of her real speed, because they had passed no object near enough to give any idea of the actual rate at which they were being whirled through space.

It happened that the prince's air-yacht had been named after our Earth. She was called Lokris, which, as has been already made known, was the name by which the Martians knew our planet.

'She was built shortly after my father's return from his first visit to your world,' Alondra explained; 'and I felt so interested in all he had to tell me about it that I called her by that name.'

At times there were 'air-regattas,' at which races were arranged for various classes of airships and flying-machines. The prizes at these were valuable and were eagerly competed for, and the Lokris was frequently one of the competitors. In these contests the young prince showed himself a skilful and daring navigator of the air; and sometimes, when the two chums accompanied him, they had some exciting experiences, as the competing yachts whirled along, often neck and neck, at almost incredible speed. At such times it was often the most venturesome – almost, one might say, the most reckless – who came in winners.

Alondra was delighted to discover that in his two visitors he had gained sailing companions after his own heart. He took special pains to teach them to assist him in the handling of the yacht, and they soon grew expert. Then the two sailors were instructed, and took the place of the former crew; and the five became celebrated for their skilful and fearless manoeuvring and for the number of races they won.

Tom Clinch and Bob Reid entered into the spirit of the thing with great gusto, and soon proved themselves as clever in the air as ever they had been in the handling of sailing-boats on the water at home. And when the prizes began to come in – half of which Alondra allotted to them, the other half being distributed in charity – their satisfaction and delight may well be imagined.

It should be explained that these Earth-born assistants gained a considerable advantage from the fact, which has already been noted, that their muscles were stronger comparatively than those of the natives. Thus the four on board the Lokris could do the work of nearly double the number of Martians – and as in this kind of racing the work was often heavy, and required considerable physical exertion, the saving in weight effected by carrying a smaller crew made an important difference.

But the great sport of the Martians, it presently appeared, was eagle-hunting. A species of eagle, very much larger than any on Earth, had their eyries amongst some mountain peaks in a wild district some distance away. In regard to size, the visitors found that birds were larger on the average, while some animals were often smaller, than those species on our earth which correspond to them. Certainly these eagles – known by the name of krondos – were gigantic birds, swift and very high flyers, and terribly savage, powerful creatures when attacked.

Doubtless they would have been exterminated long ago but for the fact that they had been expressly preserved for the purposes of sport, just as foxes are in England.

Packs of smaller tame eagles, of a different breed, were trained to hunt them. Assisted by these, a party of Martian nobles would sally forth in their air-yachts and chase the formidable giant eagles from peak to peak, following them in their circling flights into the upper air or their dizzy downward swoops, until some expert hunter-aeronaut contrived to throw a net over the quarry and capture it alive.

That was, briefly, the general procedure, Monck explained; but, as he further remarked, it did not always come off as per programme. Sometimes the krondos assumed the offensive against the hunters; and cases had been even known of their dragging men out of the airships and carrying them off, or dashing them down upon the rocks below.

'The king has arranged for a grand krondo-hunt to-morrow, in your honour!' Alondra one day informed the chums. 'We must be astir early in the morning. You are to come with me in my yacht. Now you will see some truly royal sport. Our air-yacht races are but as a children's game compared with this!'

It came to pass, accordingly, that at dawn a great procession of air-craft, headed by the king in his own yacht – known as the Nelda– started off in the beams of the rising sun for the district which was the haunt of the great birds.

An hour's run brought them to the hunting-ground, and the chums thought they had never seen a more desolate tract. Great, rocky cliffs and heights, and soaring mountain-peaks above, with dark, gloomy ravines and valleys below, were its chief features – truly a suitable region for the ferocious winged monsters they were in search of.

Alondra was the first to sight one of the creatures; and, following the rules of the hunt, turned his yacht quickly and dashed away in pursuit. He was wearing, as it happened, through a fancy of his own, his new flying-dress. Why, exactly, the chums who were with him did not know; though he had hinted mysteriously at some new experiment he was desirous of trying.

As the Lokris shot upwards, and then swerved to round a towering peak, something went wrong with one of the revolving spirals; and Gerald, as he had done before in a similar case, climbed up the mast to try to right it.

In the meantime, the speed was checked, and the craft passed closer to the rock than had been intended.

Other yachts, which had turned aside to follow, were catching them up; and Alondra, who did not like this, was shouting excited instructions to Gerald, when there came a loud rushing of wings as two immense dark forms rose unexpectedly from off the rock and sailed upwards within a few yards of him. One of the giant birds swung round in a narrow circle, poised, and then swooped down upon the busy worker on the top of the mast.

So sudden and unlocked for was the rush, so powerful the clutch which gripped him, that Gerald was forced from his hold; and a moment later the bird, with its prey, was seen either flying or falling headlong down towards the valley, thousands of feet below.

A great shout of horror and dismay went up from the spectators; but, even as the cries were heard, a glistening, shining figure flashed from the side of the yacht.

Alondra had dived through the air after his friend!

CHAPTER XVI

IN DIRE PERIL

As Alondra disappeared over the side of the Lokris, Jack made a dart at the controlling-gear and began handling the levers. They were placed on a raised platform or bridge situated in the bow, in such a position as to give the best all-round view for directing and managing the craft. He had seen that Gerald had cleared the spiral just before he had been attacked by the giant eagle, and that everything, therefore, was now again in working order. Just before leaping off, Alondra had paused a second to give him a look which said as plainly as words could have done, 'I leave you in charge;' and Jack acted promptly upon the unspoken wish.

'Hold tight, everybody!' he shouted, and a moment later the airship plunged downward.

The Nelda, carrying King Ivanta and his party, had turned and dived too; and the two airships came close together, and raced for a while side by side in their swift descent.

King Ivanta was directing his own craft, and he made signs to Jack, indicating in dumb show his line of action.

Below them, and, as yet, far ahead, could be seen the feathered monster bearing off his prey, in what was now a more gradual downward sweep. Alondra could be seen, too, in close pursuit behind.

Jack understood Ivanta's meaning, and the two airships parted company – one going off to the right and the other to the left.

Then followed a most strange and terribly exciting chase.

The desolate valley at its farther end opened out, and there, away in the distance, could be seen a sheet of water forming an extensive lake. It was the object of the pursuers to drive the krondo in that direction.

This required very delicate and careful manoeuvring. If, on the one hand, the bird were pressed too closely, it might drop its prey upon the rocks beneath, which would mean for Gerald certain death. On the other hand, it was advisable to force it to fly its hardest, so that it would have no leisure to peck at its victim en route. Once it was over the water, Alondra, who had armed himself with his trident, would probably be able to deal with it.

All this King Ivanta had conveyed to Jack in pantomime, for no words could be heard amidst the rush through the air as the airships plunged madly downwards. Jack had been quick to divine what was intended, and now took his share in the hunt accordingly.

The krondo, however, also seemed to guess what its pursuers were trying to do, and it exhibited a desire to balk them by making for one or other of the rocky precipices which rose like colossal walls on either side of the valley. Every time it tried to do this, the king on the one side, or Jack on the other, immediately swept round to head it off.

Behind them came a number of other airships, which had formed now into more or less orderly ranks, some above and some below. Their occupants were watching all that took place with breathless interest, and held themselves ready to close up if the bird should elude the leading pursuers and break back.

The position was rendered yet more difficult by the appearance of four other krondos, which swooped down with blood-curdling screams, and followed the first one, quite ready and willing to fight it on their own account for the possession of its prize.

In one respect this, perhaps, was an advantage, as it had the effect of causing the robber to hold on to its prey more obstinately, and rendered it less likely to drop it. But there was also the danger of the other krondos closing round and pecking Gerald to death amongst them.

Suddenly a new factor was added. From the king's yacht quite a flock of birds emerged and began flying about with shrill cries and hoarse calls. These were Ivanta's tame eagles – small birds, comparatively speaking, but still, in actual fact, strong creatures, which had been trained to hunt their giant cousins.

At first they circled round and darted this way and that in seeming confusion, no doubt dazzled by the light, for they had thus far been kept hooded. But they quickly became accustomed to their surroundings, and then a close observer might have seen that they were all watching their master the king, as he stood plainly in view upon the prow of his craft.

He waved his hands, and away they flew in a compact cloud, heading straight for the four krondos, just as they were beginning to 'mob' the one which was carrying Gerald.

Then ensued a battle-royal in mid-air, the sagacious, trained birds dashing at the bigger ones and darting away again, harrying and worrying them, as clever hounds will rush in at a wild boar, snap at it, and dart away before the bigger beast has time to turn and rend them.

This attack of the trained birds had the effect of turning the pursuing krondos from their intended purpose. They had now enough to do to defend themselves; and clouds of feathers could be seen falling through the air, testifying to the severity of the combat.

During the melee the first robber, glad of the opportunity of making its escape with its prize, winged its way steadily onwards until at last it was over the waters of the lake.

Here its speed grew perceptibly less, and it began to dip in its flight – unmistakable signs that it was tiring. For, large and powerful as the creature was, the weight it was carrying was bound to tell upon it sooner or later.

The pursuing airships now came up, and while some forged on ahead, the others closed round in such a manner as to hem the robber in.

Alondra, who had been following the heavily burdened thief without any great effort, made a sudden spurt, and, sweeping round, passed close to it. There was a flash of light, and a sharp, crackling sound.

Then the spreading wings drooped, the gigantic bird seemed to stagger and shrink, and finally it collapsed. Robber and prey fell together into the lake, and the waters closed over them.

There were a few moments of anxious suspense. Was Gerald injured? Would he be able to swim? These and similar questions were in the minds of the spectators as they scanned the surface of the lake.

Jack had turned his airship downwards as he saw Alondra make his rush, and a moment or two after the bird's fall the craft alighted on the water and lay gently rocking within a few yards of the spot.

Jack and Clinch both sprang to the side, and there were two splashes as they dived almost simultaneously.

Just, however, as they disappeared from sight beneath the water, two other forms emerged. One was the krondo, which floated motionless; the other was Gerald, who was swimming vigorously, seemingly none the worse for what he had undergone.

A great cheer went up from the assembled crowd, which was renewed again and again as first Jack and then Clinch reappeared, and, catching sight of their friend, hastened towards him to offer their help.

Just then the king's yacht descended close to the swimmers; a ladder was thrown from her side, and Ivanta himself stepped down and assisted them to climb on hoard.

He soon satisfied himself by actual examination that no great harm had been done. Gerald had some nasty scratches, and the muscles were bruised in places; but otherwise he was unhurt, and was inclined to make light of his adventure.

'It's an experience that no one on our own planet can boast of,' he observed with a smile. 'No one since the days of Sindbad the Sailor has ever been carried off by a bird.'

'I am thankful that it has been no worse, my lad,' said Ivanta, and in his tone there was a note of deep and kindly feeling. 'It is an unpleasant variation of our usual sport.'

'I confess I was on tenterhooks the whole time,' said Armeath, who was one of the king's party, 'and I am more relieved than I can tell you.'

'Oh, it's all right, sir!' answered Gerald cheerfully. 'I am none the worse, and I am quite ready to go on with the hunt. Don't let me spoil your day's sport. Besides, I want to get a bit of my own back. Those feathered brutes have hunted me; I want to hunt them before I 've done with them!'

'So you shall!' returned the king. 'But you must first put on some dry clothes. Go down to my cabin, and Alondra will find you a change.'

'I haven't thanked him yet for following up the beast so promptly,' cried Gerald, turning to Alondra, who had just alighted on the deck and grasped his hand. 'I saw all that went on! I saw you, Alondra, leap down after me; and it was that really which turned the bird in the right direction, for he was heading the other way!'

'I noticed that,' said Alondra modestly. 'I remembered that there was this lake ahead of us, and it struck me in a flash that the best – almost the only – chance of saving you was to drive the krondo towards it. Of course, I could have overtaken him and mastered him; but I could not have supported you and battled with him too – to say nothing of the others which would have been after us.'

''Twas wisely thought out, my son,' Ivanta declared. 'I caught your idea directly I noted that you had purposely turned the bird from the line it had first taken. Our young friend here was prompt, too, in following it up and aiding me to prevent it from breaking back,' he added, indicating Jack. 'Now, go and change your clothes; and we will give you your revenge upon the krondos.'

Half an hour later they were back again in the valley which had been the scene of Gerald's startling adventure. A desultory fight was still going on between Ivanta's trained eagles and a pair of their foes. Upon the rocky ground below lay one dead krondo and several of the smaller birds. Of the fourth krondo nothing was to be seen; it had probably taken refuge in flight.

Ivanta looked at his dead birds with grave concern and regret.

'This is my fault! I forgot to call them off!' said he. 'I do not like to have my faithful feathered friends treated like this.'

He put a whistle to his lips, and at the sound of it his eagles obediently left the krondos they were 'mobbing;' and the latter at once flew off. Evidently they had had quite enough of the fray, and were glad of the chance of making good their retreat without further trouble.

'We will find some more to chase presently,' observed Ivanta. 'First, let us see what can be done for those of my eagles which are hurt but not killed.'

Armeath and his wards looked on with wondering approval as they saw the attention Ivanta proceeded to bestow upon his wounded birds. It was curiously characteristic of the man to delay the proceedings and keep all his friends waiting for such a cause.

Later on, the hunt was resumed, and the visitors had some lively experiences among the mountain-peaks, though none quite so startling as the first one.

They found it, as Alondra had said they would, splendid sport. The krondos were hunted out and pursued by the small eagles in all their turns, and these were followed by the airships, just as the huntsmen follow the hounds. There was the same rivalry, too, amongst the latter to be 'in at the death.'

Naturally, this necessitated some bold manoeuvring on the part of the airships. At one time they would be circling through the upper air to dizzy heights far above the highest mountains; then suddenly there would be a turn and a mad plunge downwards for thousands of feet, as their quarry swooped down almost to the level of the ground below. There were many hairbreadth escapes from collisions; and altogether the sport was about as exciting as the most daring or the most reckless could desire.

'It beats the switchback railway business and all that sort of thing hollow!' exclaimed Gerald that evening, when relating their experiences to Freddy; for the Zuanstrooms had not joined the hunting-party.