Fifteen Hundred Miles An Hour 13
"True, true, my dear Temple," remarked the Doctor, regaining his
usual _sang froid_; "time is pressing. We may rest assured that this
morning's work is well noised abroad, and ere long, there will be a
hue and cry after us. Although my remarks may savour of egotism, I can
frankly say, I have no fear of any living being on this planet. From
what little I have seen of its civilisation, I am confident that we
shall, at any-rate, receive justice at the hands of its inhabitants. If
a low-born labourer of the field--for such I take this Martial, whom we
have slain, to be--can show such courage, and be possessed of a weapon
that makes the arms of Earth seem but as the toys of barbarians, in
comparison--if, I say, the lower classes of this planet's people are so
much in advance of ourselves, then its aristocracy must be gifted with
intelligence far higher than aught we wot of; and with such a people we
have nought to fear, provided we can make them understand who we are,
whence we came, and what is our mission. Let us lose no time in getting
away from here; let us visit the city yonder in the _Sirius_, boldly
and with brave hearts; and I feel sure we shall be received in a manner
worthy of our confidence and our courage."
"Doctor, I am afraid your naturally brave nature makes you feel too
sanguine. I frankly own that I am unable to acquiesce with all you say;
still, I cannot suggest anything so good as an alternative, and am
ready to act on your suggestion. Let us hope all may yet be well," said
Temple.
"We could start off elsewhere," said Graham. "The good _Sirius_ can
carry us to some other part of this Martial world, where we may have
better luck with the natives."
"Gently, Graham," rejoined the Doctor; "you overlook the fact that we
have nearly worn out our machinery. Everything requires a thorough
overhaul; as things are now, I much doubt if the _Sirius_ would carry
us a couple of hundred miles. I ascertained this before we started this
morning."
"As an engineer I ought to have known this, Doctor; but, really, the
excitement of the last few days seems to have knocked everything out of
me. By all means let us visit the city with what little electric force
is still left to us, and take our chance," answered Graham, and his
remarks were seconded by Temple.
Our conversation was suddenly interrupted by a mighty blast from what
we judged to be some instrument like a horn. It sounded so near that we
each sprang up to look, fully expecting that the alarm had already been
given and that our hiding-place was discovered. As we cautiously peeped
between the trees, whilst standing on the balcony of the _Sirius_,
we beheld dozens of this mighty race of people, searching everywhere
about the countryside; and another blast from the horn, which sounded
much nearer than the previous one, informed us that some at least of
our pursuers were coming in our direction, and that the discovery of
our hiding-place was but a matter of a very short time. The climax
was reached a few minutes afterwards when a black-bearded giant of
herculean strength burst through the low underwood, and with a curious
unearthly shout as of triumph rushed towards the _Sirius_. Perhaps
fortunately for us he carried no rod-like weapon--his sole equipment
seemed to be a mighty horn, whose bright and gleaming gold-like coils
encircled his body several times!
But he came too late! For ere he could get within twenty paces of the
_Sirius_ the command was given by Doctor Hermann, and Graham set the
engines in motion. We shot upwards towards the sky with great speed,
and before our astonished pursuer could recover from his surprise we
were a thousand feet above him in the air. However superior to us in
their intelligence the people of Mars might be, they were evidently
nonplussed at our escape, and appeared to be utterly ignorant of aerial
navigation in any form whatever. At least we thought so then, as we
watched them gathering into terror-stricken groups below us, and ever
and anon pointing to the _Sirius_, now almost at rest four thousand
feet above them.
"Doctor, how I wish we could manage to well clean our machinery, and be
able to rely upon our electricity for safety. This is beating the enemy
with a vengeance," said Graham.
"But, my young friend, you forget that we cannot live in the air; our
mission is to make friends with these people, not to shun them; to
fraternise with them in the common interests of humanity. Now that we
are here, a serious responsibility rests upon each and all of us--the
teeming millions of our fellow-men, left behind on earth, will expect
us to make the very most of our glorious opportunities, and to carry
back to them a full history of the wonders of this new world and new
race. 'Advance' must be our watchword, until our work is done; even
though our lives are lost in the effort. Recall the words you uttered,
Graham, years ago, on that fateful evening, when you solemnly pledged
yourself to this mission, nay, even devoted your life to its full
accomplishment. Our course is clear; put the _Sirius_ up another ten
thousand feet, and we will let her head towards the beautiful city
yonder. We will come to rest on that elevation above it, and then be
guided by events."
The country below us seemed teeming with people, spreading about in
all directions; and dense bodies of what looked like troops, could
be distinguished coming from the city in the direction of the place
where the _Sirius_ had rested the previous night. Evidently these
people had some very rapid means of communication, one with the
other. The entire district appeared to be thoroughly aroused, and the
commotion was evidently increasing each moment. That we were seen was
manifest--thousands of upturned faces told us that the _Sirius_ was the
centre of attraction, and every movement was keenly noted. We had now a
much better view of the three glittering domes; they appeared to be the
roof of some magnificent temple, whose walls seemed of white marble;
but the dense growth of trees round the entire edifice, still concealed
much of its rare beauty from our gaze.
Just as we came over the outskirts of this wonderful town, the _Sirius_
received a terrible blow from some missile, which made her quiver from
top to bottom, and we quite expected that we were about to fall to the
ground. Had the projectile struck us fairly, nothing could have saved
us; but by good fortune it glanced obliquely along the sides of the
_Sirius_, and spent itself in space.
"If I mistake not, that has been fired at us from the city below;
but what the force was that hurled that bullet so high, and with
such marvellously accurate aim is unknown to me, for no explosion
accompanied it," said the Doctor, with rather a disconcerted air.
"It is time we descended of our own free will, Doctor," answered
Temple, "otherwise we shall be brought down as ignominiously as
a winged hawk, and there will then be a speedy end to us and our
projects."
We were now directly over the city. And such a noble city, too! The
buildings were all of colossal grandeur, the streets wide, and at right
angles; no smaller houses mingled with the rest--all were uniformly
grand, though the variety of the architecture prevented the slightest
monotony. There were several magnificent buildings which we concluded
were palaces or seats of government, on the larger of the two hills on
which the city rested, and some of these were surrounded by gardens.
The top of each hill had been levelled, and the bridge between them was
a superb structure, quite half a mile in width, and perhaps three miles
in length! What surprised us beyond everything was the total absence
of conveyances, or of any kind of beasts of burthen whatever in the
spacious thoroughfares, which were crowded with people alone.
"What palaces! What domes! What halls and towers! What streets!"
shouted Graham, carried away by his admiration for the architects and
engineers who had planned and reared them.
After earnest consultation we decided to descend at once, choosing
a vast open square before one of the largest edifices, but which
appeared to be deserted of people, as the exact spot. Slowly we dropped
through the air. Nearer and nearer to the ground we came, each moment
the magnificence of the city increasing as our eager scrutiny became
closer. One thousand feet more! Five hundred! One hundred only left!
Not a living creature in view! Our hearts beat fast; our excitement
became agony in its intensity. The courtyard seemed paved with precious
stones of every hue, as large as ostrich-eggs; certainly no common
stones of Earth are like them, and none known to man, even the most
rare, so large. Curious plants and trees grew in well-kept beds;
fountains of perfumed water shot like crystal rockets to the sky! All
this, and more, we noted in the short time that we were descending the
last few feet; but ere the _Sirius_ could touch the ground, a thousand
stalwart warrior-giants rushed out from every side! In an instant we
were the centre of an excited frenzied throng, and our lives were
apparently not worth another moment's purchase!
CHAPTER X.
CAPTIVITY.
As may naturally be inferred, the language spoken on Mars is totally
different from any uttered by either of the civilised races on Earth.
We, of course, were ignorant of this dialect spoken on Mars, and were
unable to understand what was said to us at the time of our capture,
or what the Martials were saying to each other. But we were amazed to
find how easily their language could be acquired, and in a very short
space of time we were able to converse with this new people. Curiously
enough, on the other hand, the Martials found great difficulty in
mastering any of the languages of Earth; and we were able to try
them with Latin, with Greek, Hebrew, German, French, Gaelic, and
English; and it was not for many weeks that even the higher classes of
inhabitants acquired even a smattering of the latter tongue.
For several moments it seemed as though our fate was sealed, as the
gigantic troopers closed round the _Sirius_ with fierce and angry
gestures, some of them trying to climb up the sides and reach us as we
stood in fear and trembling, looking down upon the surging throng from
our station on the balcony. Three words which were uttered incessantly
by the crowd of soldiers, we were able to distinguish from all the rest
of the tumult. They were, as near as we can express them, "Yan ye bo,"
which being translated into English means "Beings from the sky." Angry
shouts of "Emi, emi, tat ya mos" filled the air, and these words we
afterwards learned signified "Slay, slay them at once."
Fortunately for us, our situation on the balcony, above the heads of
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