A Honeymoon in Space Read online

  A HONEYMOON IN SPACE

  by

  GEORGE GRIFFITH

  Author of "Valdar the Oft-Born," "The Virgin of the Sun," "The Rose ofJudah," &c., &c.

  Illustrated by Stanley Wood and Harold Piffard

  LondonC. Arthur Pearson Ltd.Henrietta Street1901

  Arno PressA New York Times CompanyNew York--1975Reprint Edition 1974 by Arno Press Inc.

  Reprinted from a copy in The Libraryof the University of California, Riverside

  A Honeymoon in Space

  "_The Earth, the Earth--thank God, the Earth!_"]

  Contents

  PROLOGUE--The First Cruise of the _Astronef_

  Chapter I.

  Chapter II.

  Chapter III.

  Chapter IV.

  Chapter V.

  Chapter VI.

  Chapter VII.

  Chapter VIII.

  Chapter IX.

  Chapter X.

  Chapter XI.

  Chapter XII.

  Chapter XIII.

  Chapter XIV.

  Chapter XV.

  Chapter XVI.

  Chapter XVII.

  Chapter XVIII.

  Chapter XIX.

  Chapter XX.

  Epilogue

  List of Illustrations

  "THE EARTH, THE EARTH--THANK GOD, THE EARTH!"

  A HIDEOUS SHAPE ROSE OUT OF THE WATER BEHIND THEM

  IT TOOK THE STRANGE-WINGED CRAFT AMIDSHIPS

  SNOW PEAKS AND CLOUD SEAS

  CAME FORWARD TO MEET THEM WITH BOTH HANDS OUTSTRETCHED

  WHOLE MOUNTAIN RANGES OF GLOWING LAVA WERE HURLED UP MILES HIGH

  WITHOUT ANY APPARENT EFFORT HE RAISED HER ABOUT FIVE FEET FROM THE FLOOR

  THE HUGE PALELY LUMINOUS EYES LOOKED IN UPON THEM

  PROLOGUE

  THE FIRST CRUISE OF THE _ASTRONEF_

  About eight o'clock on the morning of the 5th of November, 1900, thoseof the passengers and crew of the American liner _St. Louis_ whohappened, whether from causes of duty or of their own pleasure, to be ondeck, had a very strange--in fact a quite unprecedented experience.

  The big ship was ploughing her way through the long, smooth rollers ather average twenty-one knots towards the rising sun, when the officer incharge of the navigating bridge happened to turn his glasses straightahead. He took them down from his eyes, rubbed the two object-glasseswith the cuff of his coat, and looked again. The sun was shining througha haze which so far dimmed the solar disc that it was possible to lookstraight at it without inconvenience to the eyes.

  The officer took another long squint, put his glasses down, rubbed hiseyes and took another, and murmured, "Well I'm damned!"

  Just then the Fourth Officer came up on to the bridge to relieve hissenior while he went down for a cup of coffee and a biscuit. The Secondtook him away to the other end of the bridge, out of hearing of thehelmsman and the quartermaster standing by, and said almost in awhisper:

  "Say, Norton, there's something ahead there that I can't make out. Justas the sun got clear above the horizon I saw a black spot go straightacross it, right through the upper and lower limbs. I looked again, andit was plumb in the middle of the disc. Look," he went on, speakinglouder in his growing excitement, "there it is again! I can see itwithout the glasses now. See?"

  The Fourth did not reply at once. He had the glasses close to his eyes,and was moving them slowly about as though he were following someshifting object in the sky. Then he handed them back, and said:

  "If I didn't believe the thing was impossible I should say that's anair-ship; but, for the present, I guess I'd rather wait till it gets abit nearer, if it's coming. Still, there _is_ something. Seems to begetting bigger pretty fast, too. Perhaps it would be as well to notifythe old man. What do you think?"

  "Guess we'd better," said the Second. "S'pose you go down. Don't sayanything except to him. We don't want any more excitement among thepeople than we can help."

  The Fourth nodded and went down the steps, and the Second began walkingup and down the bridge, every now and then taking another squint ahead.Again and again the mysterious shape crossed the disc of the sun, alwaysvertically as though, whatever it might be, it was steering a directcourse from the sun to the ship, its apparent rising and falling beingdue really to the dipping of her bows into the swells.

  "Well, Mr. Charteris, what's the trouble?" said the Skipper as hereached the bridge. "Nothing wrong, I hope? Have you sighted a derelict,or what? Ay, what in hell's that!"

  His hands went up to his eyes and he stared for a few moments at thepale yellow oblate shape of the sun.

  At this moment the _St. Louis'_ head dipped again, and the Captain sawsomething like a black line swiftly drawn across the sun from bottom totop.

  "That's what I wanted to call your attention to, sir," said the Secondin a low tone. "I first noticed it crossing the sun as it rose throughthe mist. I thought it was a spot of dirt on my glasses, but it hascrossed the sun several times since then, and for some minutes seemed toremain dead in the middle of it. Later on it got quite a lot larger, andwhatever it is it's approaching us pretty rapidly. You see it's quiteplain to the naked eye now."

  By this time several of the crew and of the early loungers on deck hadalso caught sight of the strange thing which seemed to be hanging andswinging between the sky and the sea. People dived below for theirglasses, knocked at their friends' state-room doors and told them to getup because something was flying towards the ship through the air; and ina very few minutes there were hundreds of passengers on deck in allvarieties of early morning costume, and scores of glasses, held toanxious eyes, were being directed ahead.

  The glasses, however, soon became unnecessary, for the passengers hadscarcely got up on deck before the mysterious object to the eastward atlength took definite shape, and as it did so mouths were opened as wellas eyes, for the owners of the eyes and mouths beheld just then thestrangest sight that travellers by sea or land had ever seen.

  Within the distance of about a mile it swung round at right angles tothe steamer's course with a rapidity which plainly showed that it wasentirely obedient to the control of a guiding intelligence, and hundredsof eager eyes on board the liner saw, sweeping down from the grey-blueof the early morning sky, a vessel whose hull seemed to be constructedof some metal which shone with a pale, steely lustre.

  It was pointed at both ends, the forward end being shaped something likea spur or ram. At the after end were two flickering, interlacing circlesof a glittering greenish-yellow colour, apparently formed by twointersecting propellers driven at an enormous velocity. Behind these wasa vertical fan of triangular shape. The craft appeared to beflat-bottomed, and for about a third of her length amidships the upperhalf of her hull was covered with a curving, domelike roof of glass.

  "She's an air-ship of some sort, there's no doubt about that," said theCaptain, "so I guess the great problem has got solved at last. And yetit ain't a balloon, because it's coming against the wind, and it'snothing of the aeroplane sort neither, because it hasn't planes or kitesor any fixings of that kind. Still it's made of something like metal andglass, and it must take a lot of keeping up. It's travelling at a prettyhealthy speed too. Getting on for a hundred miles an hour, I shouldguess. Ah! he's going to speak us! Hope he's honest."

  Everybody on board the _St. Louis_ was up on deck by this time, and theexcitement rose to fever-heat as the strange vessel swept down towardsthem from the middle sky, passed them like a flash of light, swung roundthe stern, and ranged up alongside to starboard some twenty feet fromthe bridge rail.

  She was about a hundred and twenty feet long, with some twenty feet ofdepth and thirty of beam, and the Captain and many of his officers andpassengers were very much relieved to find that, a
s far as could beseen, she carried no weapons of offence.

  As she ranged up alongside, a sliding door opened in the glass-domedroof amidships, just opposite to the end of the _St. Louis'_ bridge. Atall, fair-haired, clean-featured man, of about thirty, in greyflannels, tipped up his golf cap with his thumb, and said:

  "Good morning, Captain! You remember me, I suppose? Had a fine passage,so far? I thought I should meet you somewhere about here."

  The Captain of the _St. Louis_, in common with every one else on board,had already had his credulity stretched about as far as it would go, andhe was beginning to wonder whether he was really awake; but when heheard the hail and recognised the speaker he stared at him in blank and,for the moment, speechless bewilderment. Then he got hold of his voiceagain and said, keeping as steady as he could:

  "Good morning, my Lord! Guess I never expected to meet even you likethis in the middle of the Atlantic! So the newspaper men were right foronce in a way, and you _have_ got an air-ship that will fly?"

  "And a good deal more than that, Captain, if she wants to. I am justtaking a trial trip across the Atlantic before I start on a run roundthe Solar System. Sounds like a lie, doesn't it? But it's coming off.Oh, good morning, Miss Rennick! Captain, may I come on board?"

  "By all means, my Lord, only I'm afraid I daren't stop Uncle Sam'smails, even for you."

  "There's no need for that, Captain, on a smooth sea like this," was thereply. "Just keep on as you are going and I'll come alongside."

  He put his head inside the door and called something up a speaking-tubewhich led to a glass-walled chamber in the forward part of the roof,where a motionless figure stood before a little steering wheel.

  The craft immediately began to edge nearer and nearer to the liner'srail, keeping speed so exactly with her that the threshold of the doortouched the end of the bridge without a perceptible jar. Then theflannel-clad figure jumped on to the bridge and held out his hand to theCaptain.

  As they shook hands he said in a low tone, "I want a word or two inprivate with you, as soon as possible."

  The commander saw a very serious meaning in his eyes. Besides, even ifhe had not made his appearance under such extraordinary circumstances,it was quite impossible that one of his social position and his wealthand influence could have made such a request without good reason for it,so he replied:

  "Certainly, my Lord. Will you come down to my room?"

  Hundreds of anxious, curious eyes looked upon the tall athletic figureand the regular-featured, bronzed, honest English face as Rollo LenoxSmeaton Aubrey, Earl of Redgrave, Baron Smeaton in the Peerage ofEngland, and Viscount Aubrey in the Peerage of Ireland, followed theCaptain to his room through the parting crowd of passengers. He noddedto one or two familiar faces in the crowd, for he was an old Atlanticferryman, and had crossed five times with Captain Hawkins in the _St.Louis_.

  Then he caught sight of a well and fondly remembered face which he hadnot seen for over two years. It was a face which possessed at once thefair Anglo-Saxon skin, the firm and yet delicate Anglo-Saxon features,and the wavy wealth of the old Saxon gold-brown hair; but a pair of big,soft, pansy eyes, fringed with long, curling, black lashes, looked outfrom under dark and perhaps just a trifle heavy eyebrows. Moreover,there was that indescribable expression in the curve of her lips and thepose of her head; to say nothing of a lissome, vivacious grace in herwhole carriage which proclaimed her a daughter of the younger branch ofthe Race that Rules.

  Their eyes met for an instant, and Lord Redgrave was startled and even atrifle angered to see that she flushed up quickly, and that themomentary smile with which she greeted him died away as she turned herhead aside. Still, he was a man accustomed to do what he wanted: andwhat he wanted to do just then was to shake hands with Lilla ZaidieRennick, and so he went straight towards her, raised his cap, and heldout his hand saying, first with a glance into her eyes, and then withone upward at the _Astronef_:

  "Good morning again, Miss Rennick! You see it is done."

  "Good morning, Lord Redgrave!" she replied, he thought, a littleawkwardly. "Yes, I see you have kept your promise. What a pity it is toolate! But I hope you will be able to stop long enough to tell us allabout it. This is Mrs. Van Stuyler, who has taken me under herprotection on my journey to Europe."

  His lordship returned the bow of a tall, somewhat hard-featured matronwho looked dignified even in the somewhat nondescript costume which mostof the ladies were wearing. But her eyes were kindly, and he said:

  "Very pleased to meet, Mrs. Van Stuyler. I heard you were coming, and Iwas in hopes of catching you on the other side before you left. And now,if you will excuse me, I must go and have a chat with the Skipper." Heraised his cap again and presently vanished from the curious eyes of theexcited crowd, through the door of the Captain's apartment.

  Captain Hawkins closed the door of his sitting-room as he entered, andsaid:

  "Now, my Lord, I'm not going to ask you any questions to begin with,because if I once began I should never stop; and besides, perhaps you'dlike to have your own say right away."

  "Perhaps that will be the shortest way," said his lordship. "The factis, we've not only the remains of this Boer business on our hands, butwe've had what is practically a declaration of war from France andRussia. Briefly it's this way. A few weeks ago, while the Allies thoughtthey were fighting the Boxers, it came to the knowledge of my brother,the Foreign Secretary, that the Tsung-li-Yamen had concluded a secrettreaty with Russia which practically annulled all our rights over theYang-tse Valley, and gave Russia the right to bring her Northern Railwayright down through China.

  "As you know, we've stood a lot too much in that part of the worldalready, but we couldn't stand this; so about ten days ago an ultimatumwas sent declaring that the British Government would consider anyencroachment on the Yang-tse Valley as an unfriendly act.

  "Meanwhile France chipped in with a notification that she was going tooccupy Morocco as a compensation for Fashoda, and added a few nastythings about Egypt and other places. Of course we couldn't stand thateither, so there was another ultimatum, and the upshot of it all wasthat I got a wire late last night from my brother telling me that warwould almost certainly be declared to-day, and asking me for the use ofthis craft of mine as a sort of dispatch-boat if she was ready. She isintended for something very much better than fighting purposes, so hecouldn't ask me to use her as a war-ship; besides, I am under a solemnobligation to her inventor--her creator, in fact, for I've only builther--to blow her to pieces rather than allow her to be used as afighting machine except, of course, in sheer personal self-defence.

  "There is the telegram from my brother, so you can see there's nomistake, and just after it came a messenger asking me, if the machinewas a success, to bring this with me across the Atlantic as fast as Icould come. It is the duplicate of an offensive and defensive alliancebetween Great Britain and the United States, of which the details hadbeen arranged just as this complication arose. Another is coming acrossby a fast cruiser, and, of course, the news will have got to Washingtonby cable by this time.

  "By the time you get to the entrance of the Channel you will probablyfind it swarming with French cruisers and torpedo-destroyers, so ifyou'll be advised by me, you'll leave Queenstown out and get as farnorth as possible."

  "Lord Redgrave," said the Captain, putting out his hand, "I'mresponsible for a good bit right here, and I don't know how to thank youenough. I guess that treaty's been given away back to France by some ofour Irish statesmen by now, and it'd be mighty unhealthy for the _St.Louis_ to fall in with a French or Russian cruiser----"

  "That's all right, Captain," said Lord Redgrave, taking his hand. "Ishould have warned any other British or American ship. At the same time,I must confess that my motives in warning you were not entirelyunselfish. The fact is, there's some one on board the _St. Louis_ whom Ishould decidedly object to see taken off to France as a prisoner ofwar."

  "And may I ask who that is?" said Captain Hawkins.

  "Why
not?" replied his lordship. "It's the young lady I spoke to on deckjust now, Miss Rennick. Her father was the inventor of that craft ofmine. No one would believe his theories. He was refused patents both inEngland and America on the ground of lack of practical utility. I methim about two years ago, that is to say rather more than a year beforehis death, when I was stopping at Banff up in the Canadian Rockies. Wemade a travellers' acquaintance, and he told me about this idea of his.I was very much interested, but I'm afraid I must confess that I mightnot have taken it up practically if the Professor hadn't happened topossess an exceedingly beautiful daughter. However, of course I'm prettyglad now that I did do it; though the experiments cost nearly fivethousand pounds and the craft herself close on a quarter of a million.Still, she is worth every penny of it, and I was bringing her over tooffer to Miss Rennick as a wedding present, that is to say if she'd haveit--and me."

  Captain Hawkins looked up and said rather seriously:

  "Then, my Lord, I presume you don't know----"

  "Don't know what?"

  "That Miss Rennick is crossing in the care of Mrs. Van Stuyler, to bemarried in London next month."

  "The devil she is! And to whom, may I ask?" exclaimed his lordship,pulling himself up very straight.

  "To the Marquis of Byfleet, son of the Duke of Duncaster. I wonder youdidn't hear of it. The match was arranged last fall. From what peoplesay she's not very desperately in love with him, but--well, I fancy it'slike rather too many of these Anglo-American matches. A couple ofmillion dollars on one side, a title on the other, and mighty littlereal love between them."

  "But," said Redgrave between his teeth, "I didn't understand that MissRennick ever had a fortune; in fact I'm quite certain that if her fatherhad been a rich man he'd have worked out his invention himself."

  "Oh, the dollars aren't his. In fact they won't be hers till shemarries," replied the Captain. "They belong to her uncle, old RussellRennick. He got in on the ground floor of the New York and Chicago icetrusts, and made millions. He's going to spend some of them on makinghis niece a Marchioness. That's about all there is to it."

  "Oh, indeed!" said Redgrave, still between his teeth. "Well, consideringthat Byfleet is about as big a wastrel as ever disgraced the Englisharistocracy, I don't think either Miss Rennick or her uncle will make avery good bargain. However, of course that's no affair of mine now. Iremember that this Russell Rennick refused to finance his brother whenhe really wanted the money. He made a particularly bad bargain, too,then, though he didn't know it; for a dozen crafts like that, properlyarmed, would simply smash up the navies of the world, and make sea-powera private trust. After all, I'm not particularly sorry, because then itwouldn't have belonged to me. Well now, Captain, I'm going to ask you togive me a bit of breakfast when it's ready, and then I must be off. Iwant to be in Washington to-night."

  "To-night! What, twenty-one hundred miles!"

  "Why not?" said Redgrave; "I can do about a hundred and fifty an hourthrough the atmosphere, and then, you see, if that isn't fast enough Ican rise outside the earth's attraction, let it spin round, and thencome down where I want to."

  "Great Scott!" remarked Captain Hawkins inadequately, but with emphasis."Well, my Lord, I guess we'll go down to breakfast."

  But breakfast was not quite ready, and so Lord Redgrave rejoined MissRennick and her chaperon on deck. All eyes and a good many glasses werestill turned on the _Astronef_, which had now moved a few feet away fromthe liner's side, and was running along, exactly keeping pace with her.

  "It's so wonderful, that even seeing doesn't seem believing," said thegirl, when they had renewed their acquaintance of two years before.

  "Well," he replied, "it would be very easy to convince you. She shallcome alongside again, and if you and Mrs. Van Stuyler will honour her byyour presence for half an hour while breakfast is getting ready, I thinkI shall be able to convince you that she is not the airy fabric of avision, but simply the realisation in metal and glass and other thingsof visions which your father saw some years ago."

  There was no resisting an invitation put in such a way. Besides, theprospect of becoming the wonder and envy of every other woman on boardwas altogether too dazzling for words.

  Mrs. Van Stuyler looked a little aghast at the idea at first, but shetoo had something of the same feeling as Zaidie, and besides, therecould hardly be any impropriety in accepting the invitation of one ofthe wealthiest and most distinguished noblemen in the British Peerage.So, after a little demur and a slight manifestation of nervousness, sheconsented.

  Redgrave signalled to the man at the steering wheel. The _Astronef_slackened pace a little, dropped a yard or so, and slid up quite closeto the bridge-rail again. Lord Redgrave got in first and ran a lightgangway down on to the bridge. Zaidie and Mrs. Van Stuyler werecarefully handed up. The next moment the gangway was drawn up again, thesliding glass doors clashed to, the _Astronef_ leapt a couple ofthousand feet into the air, swept round to the westward in a magnificentcurve, and vanished into the gloom of the upper mists.