Fifteen Hundred Miles An Hour

For several minutes after this harangue was finished, the silence was profound. Every eye was turned towards us; the old King's face was grave and stern and troubled. Then, as if to make matters worse, the silence was broken by a loud commotion at one of the entrances to the hall, and the next moment poor old Rover broke through the ring of guards and officers, and leaping and barking for joy, hastened to Sandy's side. At first the direst alarm prevailed, and we noticed the lovely woman by the King's side clutch his arm in terror, for of course our dog was even a stranger animal to the company here assembled than we were ourselves. At a word from Sandy he lay down between us, and, curiously enough, there he was suffered to remain. He had broken out of the Sirius, where in the excitement of our departure we had left and forgotten him, and made his way unerringly to his master's side – our only friend.

We afterwards learned that the most serious part of our case was the slaying of the Martial; and as the old minister told this part of his story, one of the guards advanced and pointed with his brass tube to Sandy, indicating that he was the actual culprit. A long and animated discussion took place, in which the King occasionally joined, or was appealed to for his advice. Then a long interval of silence followed, in which the King was evidently considering the facts which had been laid before him. Our hearts beat fast; each one's right hand clasped the revolver concealed within his breast; for each had mentally determined to fight for life unto the bitter end.

"Courage," whispered Dr. Hermann, "and for the love of heaven do not fire until I give the signal. I am going to try and make these people understand a little of our history."

A moment after, the Doctor advanced a few steps towards the King, bowing low and with hands extended as if in welcome. The King watched him curiously, and so did we; for we had not the slightest idea what his intentions were. He then pointed to the open entrance, up into the night sky, where the planet Earth, by some miraculous good fortune, chanced to be shining with unusual splendour almost alone in the firmament. Then by various signs he attempted to explain how we had come from that particular star; that we were friends, and were anxious to gain their good will. We afterwards learned that the King had comprehended much of what the Doctor had sought to convey; but prejudice ran high, and though personally inclined to befriend us, he was biassed by his ministers.

The Doctor rejoined us once more, and almost directly afterwards the King began to speak. As one man, the mighty throng saluted him and bowed in reverence. Then the multitude, all standing, listening intently to his words, which were as follows:

"Beloved subjects and children: a great event hath happened amongst us, such as hath never been known to you, my people, throughout the long and glorious history of our race. Five strange beings have made their appearance amongst us – from whence they come we know not; who they are, or what their object is in coming here, are also mysteries which we cannot readily solve. By shedding the blood of our poor brother yesterday, we fear these beings are of evil repute, and therefore should be treated as enemies of our race, and die. Their leader, by sundry signs, hath sought to tell us that they come from the star-world Ramos, which they call 'Earth.' If this were true, and their hands were not stained in blood, we would welcome them as brothers, for our wise men have long suspected that beings fashioned like ourselves do dwell thereon. Wisdom cometh slowly, and knowledge is gained by degrees. We will wait and see, my people, if these strangers can prove that what they say by signs is true. We of this world do nothing hurriedly, nor do we take life without just cause. We know not these strangers' tongues; nor they ours. Justice bids us wait. Forty days of grace will we allow them; then here, in this our Hall of Justice, shall they take their trial, and their fate be decided. We have spoken these words with such wisdom as God hath given us, and may He still continue to preserve my people from all harm."

Amidst shouts of approval the King ceased speaking, and as we understood not a word of what he had said, we concluded that our doom was decided. In all that mighty throng we had not one to befriend us. Each face was stern and of forbidding aspect! Yet, stay, there was one whose eyes were even wet with tears at our misfortune, and whose shy, pitying glances steeled our nerves anew. The lady by the King's side breathed hope in her glances. Her lovely eyes were dimmed with tears for us, and we felt as men once more. Love's all-potent power was working. By what attractive force was the latent spark of compassion ignited in that fair Martial breast? She alone of all that multitude was drawn towards us by a bond of sympathy! Who knows but that, all unconsciously, her spirit and ours may have mingled in that Silent World of shadows, where language, race, or creed form no barrier to friendly intercourse, and where the inconveniences of space, as we experience them in our mortal shapes, are unknown? Who, after this, shall say that lives may not be governed and influenced by beings on other worlds, in other spheres, just as the attraction of one planet can sway another from its course across the sky?

By some subtle influence, we felt reassured; all thoughts of fighting for our lives departed, and when Kaosp and his guards stepped forward, we followed them even cheerfully back to our prison, Rover being allowed to trot behind at our heels.

CHAPTER XI.

LOVE AND JEALOUSY

Once more we were ushered into the large and lofty room which was to be our prison house. Our guards withdrew, the massive door swung back, moved by hidden automatic action, and we were left to our own sad reflections.

"Oh, for the good Sirius, with everything in order!" sighed Graham. "We would soon show these Martial hosts that we are not the poor weak fools they take us to be."

"Tut, tut, Graham," said the Doctor, cheerily. "The game seems against us now, but we may hold the trump cards yet, man! Besides, you have evidently made a conquest," he continued, with sly humour, "and that fair Martial maiden may yet prove a guardian angel."

"Ah, Doctor, sanguine as ever! What a hopeful old boy you are! But I, for one, seem to think we are in a deuce of a hole this time," said Temple, with just a tinge of irritation in his voice.

"I don't see the least call for any such joke at my expense, Doctor," said Graham, smilingly. "But there, it is best to look on the bright side of things."

"Ah, now I was right, after all! Graham, the fair lady who seems so grieved about us, little dreams that she has made a conquest too!"

"Doctor, I feel peckish mysel', and I ken puir old Rover misses his supper. Surely they dinna mean starvin' o' us!"

"All in good time, Sandy; all in good time. Here's a biscuit for Rover, I happened to put in my pocket this morning," remarked the Doctor, good-humouredly.

"Well, Temple," he continued, "we have evidently been respited for some reason or other. That looks as though these strange people were not altogether unfriendly disposed towards us. We must make a lot of allowance for them, after all. Think what a fuss five beings from Mars would make, were they to drop from the sky into Trafalgar Square or Palace Yard, some fine day; and that, mind you, after killing in cold blood an innocent farm-labourer at Ealing or Hendon! Why, all London would be wild with excitement, and a righteously incensed populace would be clamouring for their immediate trial and execution – the evening papers, especially! We take these inoffensive people by surprise, and, really, we are fortunate in having been able so far to conciliate them as to gain time – and that is all we want. We shall be – "

But the Doctor was interrupted by the door swinging open, and Kaosp making his appearance once more, accompanied by the two attendant guards, and five servants bearing dishes. These dishes were of the costliest description, evidently of fine gold, beautifully chased, with curiously-shaped leaves and flowers, the like of which we had never seen before. Each servant bore his dish in silent state, and placed it upon the inlaid marble table, then, bowing low, withdrew. The guards stationed themselves one on either side of the doorway, and then Kaosp advanced, and in his unknown tongue, assisted by signs, conveyed to us the fact that it was by the King's desire that this food was brought, and that we were to sit down and eat. We began to look on Kaosp almost as a friend; he seemed equally to be kindly disposed towards us, for he smiled and smote his breast – evidently a salute – as he and his guards departed.

"Come, come," said the Doctor, "this is not so bad, after all. We must try and pick up their language, and then I have no doubt, by being able to explain ourselves, we shall be safe with these people. Now, Sandy, uncover our dishes, and let us see on what strange food we are expected to fare."

"Do, Doctor, be serious!" remarked Temple. "What are you going to do?"

"Why, eat, of course, man, since these captors of ours have condescended to supply us with the wherewithal to do so. I must confess, in spite of our bad luck, I begin to feel uncommonly hungry," said the Doctor.

It was all no good, however; Temple seemed thoroughly cast down, and all that we could do or say failed to arouse him from his despondent mood.

Sandy was soon at work, and we found that under each larger cover was a dish divided into compartments, in which a variety of tempting-looking food was placed. We had flesh of various kinds, a liquor like clear soup, fruits, and square tablets of what appeared to be bread, yet very fruity to the taste. The large vase-like vessel contained pure water, and round the lower rim were hung several smaller vases, which were evidently to be used as drinking-cups. Two curious instruments were attached to each dish, which took us some time to comprehend their use. The larger was fashioned something like a spoon, fastened in a carved wooden handle, yet one edge was sharp, and it was ultimately discovered that this served the purpose of knife and spoon in one. The other, a sharply-pointed piece of gold, also set in a handle of carved wood, we took to be a fork, and used it as such. We found the flesh, and one of the dishes of green vegetables, excellent, but the fruit, and what we must call bread, was not very palatable to us.

"I doubt not that if we live here long," remarked Graham, "we shall acquire a taste for the other viands. We can't expect to find everything suited to the tastes and customs of the men of Earth."

"That's true, Graham," said Temple, who was fast recovering his spirits, and beginning to take a more cheerful view of our situation. "It's astonishing what a difference a little food makes, in a hungry, even in a despondent man."

Our meal was quickly finished, Sandy taking good care that Rover had a plentiful portion of the feast. Then Graham produced his well-filled case, and each one of us enjoyed the precious luxury of a really good cigar – a "Bock" of the choicest quality.

"Make the most of them, my comrades," said Graham, striking a wax taper on the end of his silver match-case. "I have but a dozen, and heaven knows when we may get more. There's a score boxes left, at least, in the Sirius, but I suppose they are lost to us for ever."

In the middle of our smoke Kaosp appeared with his guards, and great was his and their amazement to see us smoking. This is evidently an art unknown to the people of Mars – tobacco, apparently, being a plant with which Earth alone is blessed. By some curious action of his, a door in our prison opened and revealed to us another chamber, fitted up with luxuriant couches, soft as eider-down, on which by signs the friendly soldier informed us we might stretch our weary limbs in sleep. We passed into this ante room, and with friendly salute Kaosp withdrew, and the door immediately closed behind him.

It is almost needless to say that we passed a fairly comfortable night, yet we deemed it wisest to keep watch by turns, in case of surprise. The Martial moons shone down through the windows of our prison with great brightness, two of them being visible together, and the planet Earth (now much lower on the horizon than when we were in the Hall of Justice) looked like Venus, as we often see her when fairly placed in the sky of our own world at home.

It is unnecessary here to chronicle all the monotony of our confinement. One day passed much as another, so far as eating, drinking, and sleeping were concerned.

We saw a great deal of the commander, Kaosp, and from him we began to learn the Martial tongue. The Doctor possessed a marvellous aptitude for acquiring any new tongue on Earth, and this served him in good stead on the planet Mars. After a week's intercourse with Kaosp he was able to converse in a broken sort of way, in three weeks he had mastered sufficient for all ordinary purposes. Temple found it more difficult; Sandy only picked up a few words and phrases from his master, but Graham proved himself an apt pupil, and was almost as good a conversationist as the Doctor, in even less time.

From Kaosp we learned much. He was the only one who acted as our jailor. We learned that the King had commanded him to teach us their language, so that we might be prepared to explain ourselves and our mission to him and his ministers at the trial, which he assured us was to take place in forty days from the time of our capture. We also learned that the beautiful being who sat near the King, in the Hall of Justice, was his own daughter; that her name was Volinè; that she was her father's idol and his people's pride. Many startling facts did Kaosp tell us concerning his race. How their span of life averaged five hundred years, which, as the year of Mars is twice the length of Earth's, would be a thousand years of our time! How war was unknown amongst them; one king and one government ruling all civilized beings; how some parts of Mars were inhabited by savage tribes and semi-human beasts; how their armies were kept up for protection against these uncivilized races, and for Court pageantry; and also how one universal language prevailed. He also told us, among other things, that this stranger world was but thinly peopled, its inhabitants increasing very slowly, the results of a marriage rarely producing more than two or three offspring. That one of the most terrible scourges which troubled the Martial world was the almost universal loss of memory that broke out like a plague from time to time, and that owing to this the people were exceedingly careful in keeping records of their pursuits, history, and progress. From what we learned from Kaosp, respecting our preliminary examination in the Hall of Justice, we concluded that when our trial did take place we should be able to vindicate ourselves and make friends with these people. So that we looked forward to the event with eager interest, being most anxious to regain our liberty and explore this strange world to our hearts' desire.

We also learned from Kaosp that Volinè, the King's daughter, had taken a great interest in us, and had deigned to make numerous enquiries about us from him, he being granted an audience each day, to inform her of whatever portion of our history he had been able to learn. The King himself was also eager to know how his captives fared, but never once did he come to see us in person.

On the tenth morning of our imprisonment, Kaosp brought startling news. Nothing less than that Volinè – Volinè, the King's proud, beautiful daughter, was coming to visit us, in our prison, some time during the day. He told us how she had besought him to let her see us; how he had tried to dissuade her; and how, ultimately, she had commanded him to take her, and that he had not dared to disobey her wish.

We were all full of expectant curiosity. Attendants came, and prepared our large room for the unusual visit; and Sandy's pocket dressing-case – his inseparable companion, even in captivity – was in great requisition by us all; for each of us felt it incumbent to make himself as presentable as possible to our fair and distinguished visitor.

She came. The day was nearly spent; the sun, in a sea of yellow radiance, was just about to sink behind the hills, as our prison doors were thrown open, and Kaosp, saluting respectfully, with helmet in hand, ushered Volinè and her attendant maidens into our presence. We have already alluded to her marvellous beauty, as we saw her reclining by her father's judgment-seat; but far more did her charms impress us now, as she swept, with all queenly grace, into our apartment, with head held high, and flowing golden tresses, mantling over her glorious bust and shoulders, and falling in silky coils below her waist. Her outer dress was polished black – a loosely-fitting robe, girdled at the waist, and which clung in ravishing folds to her stately form. A diadem of glittering purple stones, like diamonds, encircled her brow, and her robe was fastened across her left shoulder by a jewelled buckle of fabulous richness. Though of such commanding stature, she was grace itself; not a part of her magnificent figure out of proportion with the rest – a woman, yet a goddess, too. Beauty personified! Her lovely violet eyes gave an incomparable expression of saintly beauty to her countenance; and yet there was nothing meek or humble there; fire, and passion, and unbending will, lurked deep down in their purple, dreamy depths. No being in female form, whether human or divine, could have appeared more lovely, as Volinè stood, surrounded by the subdued golden glory of the setting sun, which poured in at the window, and threw a halo round her. A murmur of admiration involuntarily burst from each one of us, as we stood, in rapt astonishment, gazing upon the fair being before us. Then we each bowed low and respectfully, as she sank into the pillowed seat which had been provided for her. In truth, it was an impressive scene. Two Martial maidens stood on either side, carrying little golden vessels, suspended by chains of the same metal, and containing a subtle perfume, which soon pervaded our chamber with its sweetness. Two other maidens bore long, tapering, white wands in their left hands – in their right hands they had bouquets of rare and curious flowers.

"Strangers," she commenced in a voice that was singularly sweet and musical – "for your names I know not – I, Volinè, daughter of the King, give you greeting. I have bidden our trusty soldier Kaosp conduct me hither, so that mine eyes may see that it is still well with ye, for I feel an interest in your fate. My ears are open to any complaint, which perchance ye may wish to make concerning your treatment in this our palace, since my royal father and his councillors, in their great wisdom, commanded that ye be held prisoners here. We dwellers in the city Edos are not wanting in hospitality to the stranger; but ye are not our people, not of our world; we know ye not, still, Volinè is your friend."

Doctor Hermann advanced and kissed the white, ring-decked hand extended towards him, and did his best to convey our gratitude to the generous girl; telling her that we were friends, fashioned in the same creative mould as her own race; and that we came from the star which is known as Ramos, but to us, its people, as "Earth"; that we had come to study this new world of hers, and to take back our information, if we were spared to do so, to our fellow-men.

John Temple was then commanded by Volinè to come forward and salute her, a mark of royal favour of which he was not slow to avail himself, as what man would not when the donor was so ravishingly beautiful as she! Then Sandy was called for, and bidden to bring Rover, too. Volinè was deeply interested, and asked many questions, through Kaosp, concerning the Scotsman and his dog.

Volinè's voice was distinctly less commanding in its tone, even tender, when with some slight hesitation she asked that Graham might be presented to her; and as he came forward and pressed her hand to his lips for a moment, we all noticed a blush steal over her lovely face. As a special mark of her favour, she bade one of her attendant maidens hand to him the flowers she was carrying. Graham already was, evidently, held high in her esteem. He was so utterly confounded by such an unexpected mark of royal favour that, beyond kissing the hand held out to him, he was unable to utter a word of gratitude, of compliment, or thanks. Very soon after this the interview came to an end, and Volinè with her attendants withdrew, leaving us to recover ourselves as if from some delicious dream. We had had no feminine society for years, and if the Doctor and Sandy did not miss it, certainly Graham and Temple did, and appreciated the visit of this peerless maiden to the uttermost.

Graham had to run the gauntlet of the Doctor's and Temple's chaff over Volinè's very marked notice of him; but for the first time since we left Earth he failed to enter into the spirit of our jokes, and every now and then we caught him as though engaged in deep and earnest thought. The magic spell of a first love was beginning to work within him, and from this time forth he would never be the same man again!

"Come, come, Graham, my boy," said Temple on the following day, as the two sat together after our morning meal; "what is the matter with you? Why so melancholy? Surely, Volinè's is not the first pretty face you have seen?"

"Mr. Temple," answered Graham, "your last stray shot has hit the mark. No woman on Earth, you know as well as I, is so incomparably beautiful as she. Volinè is a goddess; the soul of Beauty! Would any fellow, especially situated as I am, fancy free, in the pride of early manhood, escape from such seductive attractions unscathed? From the moment that my eyes first fell upon her, I became conscious that I had found my ideal of female beauty at last – found it, alas! under circumstances which admit of no hope, however remote, to become ultimately its proud possessor. I have tried to conceal my feeling from you all; but Love ever betrays itself. She has filled my thoughts by day, and my dreams by night. Yes, I love her! and it is at least consoling to be able to confess my secret to such an old and tried friend as you. It relieves my feelings in some measure to tell them to another who can show some sympathy."

"Why, Graham, you must be hard hit indeed! But your chance is not by any means a hopeless one. From what we can see, Volinè is certainly interested in us, and in you particularly so."

"But look at the differences of our race and station – ah! and my position, too, a prisoner, whose very life is threatened," Graham sighed.

"All the more need for you to put matters in their best light. Go in and win, man. By doing so, you may gain your heart's desire, and save us from death. Volinè is all-powerful. Her word is second to the King's, and she is his only daughter. She looks upon you with decided favour already; and when once you get that far with a woman, the rest is easy – it is certainly so with the ladies of Earth; and if we believe in Doctor Hermann's theory of Universality, the maidens of Mars must be made of much the same material," answered Temple, laughing.

"What you say, Mr. Temple, certainly puts matters in a different light. That flickering phantom men call Hope, once more appears before me and bids me follow; but whither she may lead me is very doubtful."

"I say, Temple and Graham, you two appear to have a very serious topic for your conversation this morning," said the Doctor, rising from his seat at the other end of the room, where he had been busy writing memoranda in his pocket-book.

The Doctor was here interrupted by a visit from Kaosp, who spent the remainder of the morning with us, helping us to acquire the Martial language.

In the afternoon we had another visit from Volinè and her maidens. Her attention to Graham became even more pronounced, and she never seemed to tire of hearing him tell to her the story of Earth. Indeed, so much did she appear to enjoy his company, that the Doctor and Temple felt completely de trop. The Doctor appeared annoyed at Graham for encouraging this flirtation; but Temple was secretly pleased, for he saw in it a possible escape from captivity.

That night Graham retired to rest earlier than usual, pleading a headache for excuse. We now had complete use of the two apartments, thanks to Kaosp, the door separating them having been made to open and close at our will. The Doctor and Temple remained up, discussing one thing and another, until a late hour, the conversation eventually turning to the subject of Volinè and Graham.