Gulliver of Mars Read online

  CHAPTER V

  When I woke, feeling as refreshed as though I had been dreaming througha long night, An, seeing me open-eyed, helped me to my feet, and when Ihad recovered my senses a little, asked if we should go on. I wasmyself again by this time, so willingly took her hand, and soon cameout of the tangle into the open spaces. I must have been under thespell of the Martian wines longer than it seemed, for already it waslate in the afternoon, the shadows of trees were lying deep andfar-reaching over the motley crowds of people. Out here as the daywaned they had developed some sort of method in their sports. In frontof us was a broad, grassy course marked off with garlandedfinger-posts, and in this space rallies of workfolk were taking part inall manner of games under the eyes of a great concourse of spectators,doing the Martians' pleasures for them as they did their labours. Anled me gently on, leaning on my arm heavier, I thought, than she haddone in the morning, and ever and anon turning her gazelle-like eyesupon me with a look I could not understand. As we sauntered forward Inoticed all about lesser circles where the yellow-girted ones weredrawing delighted laughter from good-tempered crowds by tricks ofsleight-of-hand, and posturing, or tossing gilded cups and balls asthough they were catering, as indeed they were, for outgrown children.Others fluted or sang songs in chorus to the slow clapping of hands,while others were doing I knew not what, sitting silent amongst silentspectators who every now and then burst out laughing for no cause thatI could see. But An would not let me stop, and so we pushed on throughthe crowd till we came to the main enclosures where a dozen slaves hadrun a race for the amusement of those too lazy to race themselves, andwere sitting panting on the grass.

  To give them time to get their breath, perhaps, a man stepped out ofthe crowd dressed in a dark blue tunic, a strange vacuous-lookingfellow, and throwing down a sheaf of javelins marched off a dozenpaces, then, facing round, called out loudly he would give sixteensuits of "summer cloth" to any one who could prick him with a javelinfrom the heap.

  "Why," I said in amazement, "this is the best of fools--no one couldmiss from such a distance."

  "Ay but," replied my guide, "he is a gifted one, versed in mystics."

  I was just going to say a good javelin, shod with iron, was a strongerargument than any mystic I had ever heard of could stand, when out ofthe crowd stepped a youth, and amid the derisive cheers of his friendschose a reed from the bundle. He poised it in his hand a minute to getthe middle, then turned on the living target. Whatever else they mightbe, these Martians were certainly beautiful as the daytime. Never hadI seen such a perfect embodiment of grace and elegance as that boy ashe stood there for a moment poised to the throw; the afternoon sunshinewarm and strong on his bunched brown hair, a girlish flush of shynesson his handsome face, and the sleek perfection of his limbs, clear cutagainst the dusky background beyond. And now the javelin was going.Surely the mystic would think better of it at the last moment! No! theinitiate held his ground with tight-shut lips and retrospective eyes,and even as I looked the weapon flew upon its errand.

  "There goes the soul of a fool!" I exclaimed, and as the words wereuttered the spear struck, or seemed to, between the neck and shoulder,but instead of piercing rose high into the air, quivering and flashing,and presently turning over, fell back, and plunged deep into the turf,while a low murmur of indifferent pleasure went round amongst theonlookers.

  Thereat An, yawning gently, looked to me and said, "A strong-willedfellow, isn't he, friend?"

  I hesitated a minute and then asked, "Was it WILL which turned thatshaft?"

  She answered with simplicity, "Why, of course--what else?"

  By this time another boy had stepped out, and having chosen a javelin,tested it with hand and foot, then retiring a pace or two rushed up tothe throwing mark and flung it straight and true into the bared bosomof the man. And as though it had struck a wall of brass, the shaftleapt back falling quivering at the thrower's feet. Another andanother tried unsuccessfully, until at last, vexed at their futility, Isaid, "I have a somewhat scanty wardrobe that would be all the betterfor that fellow's summer suiting, by your leave I will venture a throwagainst him."

  "It is useless," answered An; "none but one who knows more magic thanhe, or is especially befriended by the Fates can touch him through theenvelope he has put on."

  "Still, I think I will try."

  "It is hopeless, I would not willingly see you fail," whispered thegirl, with a sudden show of friendship.

  "And what," I said, bending down, "would you give me if I succeeded?"Whereat An laughed a little uneasily, and, withdrawing her hand frommine, half turned away. So I pushed through the spectators and steppedinto the ring. I went straight up to the pile of weapons, and havingchosen one went over to the mystic. "Good fellow," I cried outostentatiously, trying the sharpness of the javelin-point with myfinger, "where are all of those sixteen summer suits of yours lyinghid?"

  "It matters nothing," said the man, as if he were asleep.

  "Ay, but by the stars it does, for it will vex the quiet repose of yoursoul tomorrow if your heirs should swear they could not find them."

  "It matters nothing," muttered the will-wrapped visionary.

  "It will matter something if I take you at your word. Come, friendPurple-jerkin, will you take the council with your legs and run whilethere is yet time, or stand up to be thrown at?"

  "I stand here immoveable in the confidence of my initiation."

  "Then, by thunder, I will initiate you into the mysteries of ajavelin-end, and your blood be on your head."

  The Martians were all craning their necks in hushed eagerness as Iturned to the casting-place, and, poising the javelin, faced themagician. Would he run at the last moment? I half hoped so; for aminute I gave him the chance, then, as he showed no sign of wavering, Idrew my hand back, shook the javelin back till it bent like a reed, andhurled it at him.

  The Martians' heads turned as though all on one pivot as the spear spedthrough the air, expecting no doubt to see it recoil as others haddone. But it took him full in the centre of his chest, and with a wildwave of arms and a flutter of purple raiment sent him backwards, anddown, and over and over in a shapeless heap of limbs and flyingraiment, while a low murmur of awed surprise rose from the spectators.They crowded round him in a dense ring, as An came flitting to me witha startled face.

  "Oh, stranger," she burst out, "you have surely killed him!" but moreastounded I had broken down his guard than grieved at his injury.

  "No," I answered smilingly; "a sore chest he may have tomorrow, butdead he is not, for I turned the lance-point back as I spun it, and itwas the butt-end I threw at him!"

  "It was none the less wonderful; I thought you were a common man, aprince mayhap, come but from over the hills, but now something tells meyou are more than that," and she lapsed into thoughtful silence for atime.

  Neither of us were wishful to go back amongst those who were raisingthe bruised magician to his legs, but wandered away instead through thedeepening twilight towards the city over meadows whose damp, softfragrance loaded the air with sleepy pleasure, neither of us saying aword till the dusk deepened and the quick night descended, while wecame amongst the gardened houses, the thousand lights of an unreal cityrising like a jewelled bank before us, and there An said she wouldleave me for a time, meeting me again in the palace square later on,"To see Princess Heru read the destinies of the year."

  "What!" I exclaimed, "more magic? I have been brought up on moresubstantial mental stuff than this."

  "Nevertheless, I would advise you to come to the square," persisted mycompanion. "It affects us all, and--who knows?--may affect you morethan any."

  Therein poor An was unconsciously wearing the cloak of prophesyherself, and, shrugging my shoulders good-humouredly, I kissed herchin, little realising, as I let her fingers slip from mine, that Ishould see her no more.

  Turning back alone, through the city, through ways twinkling withmyriad lights as little lamps began to blink out amongst garlands andflower-
decked booths on every hand, I walked on, lost in varyingthoughts, until, fairly tired and hungry, I found myself outside astall where many Martians stood eating and drinking to their hearts'content. I was known to none of them, and, forgetting past experience,was looking on rather enviously, when there came a touch upon my arm,and--

  "Are you hungry, sir?" asked a bystander.

  "Ay," I said, "hungry, good friend, and with all the zest which anempty purse lends to that condition."

  "Then here is what you need, sir, even from here the wine smells good,and the fried fruit would make a mouse's eye twinkle. Why do you wait?"

  "Why wait? Why, because though the rich man's dinner goes in at hismouth, the poor man must often be content to dine through his nose. Itell you I have nothing to get me a meal with."

  The stranger seemed to speculate on this for a time, and then he said,"I cannot fathom your meaning, sir. Buying and selling, gold andmoney, all these have no meaning to me. Surely the twin blessings ofan appetite and food abundant ready and free before you are enough."

  "What! free is it--free like the breakfast served out this morning?"

  "Why, of course," said the youth, with mild depreciation; "everythinghere is free. Everything is his who will take it, without exception.What else is the good of a coherent society and a Government if itcannot provide you with so rudimentary a thing as a meal?"

  Whereat joyfully I undid my belt, and, without nicely examining theargument, marched into the booth, and there put Martian hospitality tothe test, eating and drinking, but this time with growing wisdom, tillI was a new man, and then, paying my leaving with a wave of the hand tothe yellow-girted one who dispensed the common provender, I saunteredon again, caring little or nothing which way the road went, and soonacross the current of my meditations a peal of laughter broke,accompanied by the piping of a flute somewhere close at hand, and thenext minute I found myself amid a ring of light-hearted roisterers whowere linking hands for a dance to the music a curly-headed fellow wasmaking close by.

  They made me join them! One rosey-faced damsel at the hither end ofthe chain drew up to me, and, without a word, slipped her soft, babyfingers into my hand; on the other side another came with melting eyes,breath like a bed of violets, and banked-up fun puckering her daintymouth. What could I do but give her a hand as well? The flute beganto gurgle anew, like a drinking spout in spring-time, and away we went,faster and faster each minute, the boys and girls swinging themselvesin time to the tune, and capering presently till their tender feet weretwinkling over the ground in gay confusion. Faster and faster till, asthe infection of the dance spread even to the outside groups, I caperedtoo. My word! if they could have seen me that night from the deck ofthe old Carolina, how they would have laughed--sword swinging,coat-tails flying--faster and faster, round and round we went, tilllimbs could stand no more; the gasping piper blew himself quite out,and the dance ended as abruptly as it commenced, the dancers meltingaway to join others or casting themselves panting on the turf.

  Certainly these Martian girls were blessed with an ingratiatingsimplicity. My new friend of the violet-scented breath hung back alittle, then after looking at me demurely for a minute or two, like achild that chooses a new playmate, came softly up, and, standing ontiptoe, kissed me on the cheek. It was not unpleasant, so I turned theother, whereon, guessing my meaning, without the smallest hesitation,she reached up again, and pressed her pretty mouth to my bronzed skin asecond time. Then, with a little sigh of satisfaction, she ran an armthrough mine, saying, "Comrade, from what country have you come? Inever saw one quite like you before."

  "From what country had I come?" Again the frown dropped down upon myforehead. Was I dreaming--was I mad? Where indeed had I come from? Istared back over my shoulder, and there, as if in answer to mythought--there, where the black tracery of flowering shrubs waved inthe soft night wind, over a gap in the crumbling ivory ramparts, thesky was brightening. As I looked into the centre of that glow, aplanet, magnified by the wonderful air, came swinging up, pale butsplendid, and mapped by soft colours--green, violet, and red. I knewit on the minute, Heaven only knows how, but I knew it, and a desperatethrill of loneliness swept over me, a spasm of comprehension of thehorrible void dividing us. Never did yearning babe stretch arms morewistfully to an unattainable mother than I at that moment to my motherearth. All her meanness and prosaicness was forgotten, all herimperfections and shortcomings; it was home, the one tangible thing inthe glittering emptiness of the spheres. All my soul went into my eyes,and then I sneezed violently, and turning round, found that sweetdamsel whose silky head nestled so friendly on my shoulder was ticklingmy nose with a feather she had picked up.

  Womanlike, she had forgotten all about her first question, and nowasked another, "Will you come to supper with me, stranger? 'Tis nearlyready, I think."

  "To be able to say no to such an invitation, lady, is the first thing ayoung man should learn," I answered lightly; but then, seeing there wasnothing save the most innocent friendliness in those hazel eyes, I wenton, "but that stern rule may admit of variance. Only, as it chances, Ihave just supped at the public expense. If, instead, you would be asailor's sweetheart for an hour, and take me to this show ofyours--your princess's benefit, or whatever it is--I shall be obliged;my previous guide is hull down over the horizon, and I am clean out ofmy reckoning in this crowd."

  By way of reply, the little lady, light as an elf, took me by thefingertips, and, gleefully skipping forward, piloted me through themazes of her city until we came out into the great square fronting onthe palace, which rose beyond it like a white chalk cliff in the dulllight. Not a taper showed anywhere round its circumference, but amysterious kind of radiance like sea phosphorescence beamed from thepalace porch. All was in such deathlike silence that the nails in my"ammunition" boots made an unpleasant clanking as they struck on themarble pavement; yet, by the uncertain starlight, I saw, to mysurprise, the whole square was thronged with Martians, all facingtowards the porch, as still, graven images, and as voiceless, for once,as though they had indeed been marble. It was strange to see themsitting there in the twilight, waiting for I knew not what, and myfriend's voice at my elbow almost startled me as she said, in awhisper, "The princess knows you are in the crowd, and desires you togo up upon the steps near where she will be."

  "Who brought her message?" I asked, gazing vaguely round, for none hadspoken to us for an hour or more.

  "No one," said my companion, gently pushing me up an open way towardsthe palace steps left clear by the sitting Martians. "It came directfrom her to me this minute."

  "But how?" I persisted.

  "Nay," said the girl, "if we stop to talk like this we shall not beplaced before she comes, and thus throw a whole year's knowledge out."

  So, bottling my speculations, I allowed myself to be led up the firstflight of worn, white steps to where, on the terrace between them andthe next flight leading directly to the palace portico, was a flat,having a circle about twenty feet across, inlaid upon the marble withdarker coloured blocks. Inside that circle, as I sat down close by itin the twilight, showed another circle, and then a final one in whoseinmost middle stood a tall iron tripod and something atop of it coveredby a cloth. And all round the outer circle were magic symbols--Istarted as I recognised the meaning of some of them--within these againthe inner circle held what looked like the representations of planets,ending, as I have said, in that dished hollow made by countlessdancers' feet, and its solitary tripod. Back again, I glanced towardsthe square where the great concourse--ten thousand of them,perhaps--were sitting mute and silent in the deepening shadows, thenback to the magic circles, till the silence and expectancy of a strangescene began to possess me.

  Shadow down below, star-dusted heaven above, and not a figure moving;when suddenly something like a long-drawn sigh came from the lips ofthe expectant multitude, and I was aware every eye had suddenly turnedback to the palace porch, where, as we looked, a figure, wrapped inpale blue robes, appeared a
nd stood for a minute, then stole down thesteps with an eagerness in every movement holding us spellbound. Ihave seen many splendid pageants and many sights, each of which mightbe the talk of a lifetime, but somehow nothing ever so engrossing, sothrilling, as that ghostly figure in flowing robes stealing across thepiazza in starlight and silence--the princess of a broken kingdom, thepriestess of a forgotten faith coming to her station to perform ajugglery of which she knew not even the meaning. It was my versatilefriend Heru, and with quick, incisive steps, her whole frame ambent forthe time with the fervour of her mission, she came swiftly down towithin a dozen yards of where I stood. Heru, indeed, but not the sameprincess as in the morning; an inspired priestess rather, her slim bodywrapped in blue and quivering with emotion, her face ashine withDelphic fire, her hair loose, her feet bare, until at last when, as shestood within the limit of the magic circle, her white hands upon herbreast, her eyes flashing like planets themselves in the starshine shelooked so ghostly and unreal I felt for a minute I was dreaming.

  Then began a strange, weird dance amongst the imagery of the rings,over which my earth planet was beginning to throw a haze of light. Atfirst it was hardly more than a walk, a slow procession round the twincircumferences of the centred tripod. But soon it increased to anextraordinary graceful measure, a cadenced step without music or soundthat riveted my eyes to the dancer. Presently I saw those mystic,twinkling feet of hers--as the dance became swifter--were performing ameasured round amongst the planet signs--spelling out something, I knewnot what, with quick, light touch amongst the zodiac figures, dancingout a soundless invocation of some kind as a dumb man might spell amessage by touching letters. Quicker and quicker, for minute afterminute, grew the dance, swifter and swifter the swing of the light bluedrapery as the priestess, with eager face and staring eyes, swungpanting round upon her orbit, and redder and redder over the city topsrose the circumference of the earth. It seemed to me all the silentmultitude were breathing heavily as we watched that giddy dance, andwhatever THEY felt, all my own senses seemed to be winding up upon thatrevolving figure as thread winds on a spindle.

  "When will she stop?" I whispered to my friend under my breath.

  "When the earth-star rests in the roof-niche of the temple it isclimbing," she answered back.

  "And then?"

  "On the tripod is a globe of water. In it she will see the destiny ofthe year, and will tell us. The whiter the water stays, the better forus; it never varies from white. But we must not talk; see! she isstopping."

  And as I looked back, the dance was certainly ebbing now with suchsmoothly decreasing undulations, that every heart began to beat calmerin response. There was a minute or two of such slow cessation, andthen to say she stopped were too gross a description. Motion ratherdied away from her, and the priestess grounded as smoothly as a shipgrounds in fine weather on a sandy bank. There she was at last,crouched behind the tripod, one corner of the cloth covering it graspedin her hand, and her eyes fixed on the shining round just poised uponthe distant run.

  Keenly the girl watched it slide into zenith, then the cloth wassnatched from the tripod-top. As it fell it uncovered a beautiful andperfect globe of clear white glass, a foot or so in diameter, andobviously filled with the thinnest, most limpid water imaginable. Atfirst it seemed to me, who stood near to the priestess of Mars, withthat beaming sphere directly between us, and the newly risen world,that its smooth and flawless face was absolutely devoid of sign orcolouring. Then, as the distant planet became stronger in themagnifying Martian air, or my eyes better accustomed to that suddennucleus of brilliancy, a delicate and infinitely lovely network ofcolours came upon it. They were like the radiant prisms that sometimesflush the surface of a bubble more than aught else for a time. But asI watched that mosaic of yellow and purple creep softly to and fro uponthe globe it seemed they slowly took form and meaning. Another minuteor two and they had certainly congealed into a settled plan, and then,as I stared and wondered, it burst upon me in a minute that I waslooking upon a picture, faithful in every detail, of the world I stoodon; all its ruddy forests, its sapphire sea, both broad and narrowones, its white peaked mountains, and unnumbered islands being mappedout with startling clearness for a spell upon that beaming orb.

  Then a strange thing happened. Heru, who had been crouching in atremulous heap by the tripod, rose stealthily and passed her hands afew times across the sphere. Colour and picture vanished at her touchlike breath from a mirror. Again all was clear and pellucid.

  "Now," said my companion, "now listen! For Heru reads the destiny; thewhiter the globe stays the better for us--" and then I felt her handtighten on mine with a startled grasp as the words died away upon herlips.

  Even as the girl spoke, the sphere, which had been beaming in thecentre of the silent square like a mighty white jewel, began to flushwith angry red. Redder and redder grew the gleam--a fiery glow whichseemed curdling in the interior of the round as though it were filledwith flame; redder and redder, until the princess, staring into it,seemed turned against the jet-black night behind, into a form of moltenmetal. A spasm of terror passed across her as she stared; her limbsstiffened; her frightened hands were clutched in front, and she stoodcowering under that great crimson nucleus like one bereft of power andlife, and lost to every sense but that of agony. Not a syllable camefrom her lips, not a movement stirred her body, only that dumb, stupidstare of horror, at the something she saw in the globe. What could Ido? I could not sit and see her soul come out at her frightened eyes,and not a Martian moved a finger to her rescue; the red shine gleamedon empty faces, tier above tier, and flung its broad flush over theendless rank of open-mouthed spectators, then back I looked toHeru--that winsome little lady for whom, you will remember, I hadalready more than a passing fancy--and saw with a thrill of emotionthat while she still kept her eyes on the flaming globe like one in ahorrible dream her hands were slowly, very slowly, rising insupplication to ME! It was not vanity. There was no mistaking thedirection of that silent, imploring appeal.

  Not a man of her countrymen moved, not even black Hath! There was nota sound in the world, it seemed, but the noisy clatter of my ownshoenails on the marble flags. In the great red eye of that unholyglobe the Martians glimmered like a picture multitude under the redcliff of their ruined palace. I glared round at them with contempt fora minute, then sprang forward and snatched the princess up. It waslike pulling a flower up by the roots. She was stiff and stark when Ilay hold of her, but when I tore her from the magic ground she suddenlygave a piercing shriek, and fainted in my arms.

  Then as I turned upon my heels with her upon my breast my foot caughtupon the cloths still wound about the tripod of the sphere. Over wentthat implement of a thousand years of sorcery, and out went the redfire. But little I cared--the princess was safe! And up the palacesteps, amidst a low, wailing hum of consternation from the recoveringMartians, I bore that bundle of limp and senseless loveliness up intothe pale shine of her own porch, and there, laying her down upon acouch, watched her recover presently amongst her women with a variedassortment of emotions tingling in my veins.