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+Project Gutenberg's The Land of the Changing Sun, by William N. Harben
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Land of the Changing Sun
+
+Author: William N. Harben
+
+Posting Date: February 9, 2009 [EBook #3046]
+Release Date: January, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND OF THE CHANGING SUN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Judith Boss
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LAND OF THE CHANGING SUN
+
+
+By Will. N. Harben
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I.
+
+The balloon seemed scarcely to move, though it was slowly sinking toward
+the ocean of white clouds which hung between it and the earth.
+
+The two inmates of the car were insensible; their faces were bloodless,
+their cheeks sunken. They were both young and handsome. Harry Johnston,
+an American, was as dark and sallow as a Spaniard. Charles Thorndyke,
+an English gentleman, had yellow hair and mustache, blue eyes and a
+fine intellectual face. Both were tall, athletic in build and
+well-proportioned.
+
+Johnston was the first to come to consciousness as the balloon sank
+into less rarefied atmosphere. He opened his eyes dreamily and looked
+curiously at the white face of his friend in his lap. Then he shook him
+and tried to call his name, but his lips made no sound. Drawing himself
+up a little with a hand on the edge of the basket, he reached for a
+water-jug and sprinkled Thorndyke's face. In a moment he was rewarded by
+seeing the eyes of the latter slowly open.
+
+"Where are we?" asked Thorndyke in a whisper.
+
+"I don't know;" Johnston answered, "getting nearer to the earth, for we
+can breathe more easily. I can't remember much after the professor fell
+from the car. My God, old man! I shall never forget the horror in the
+poor fellow's eyes as he clung to the rope down there and begged us
+to save him. I tried to get you to look, but you were dozing off. I
+attempted to draw him up, but the rope on the edge of the basket was
+tipping it, and both you and I came near following him. I tried to keep
+from seeing his horrible face as the rope began to slip through his
+fingers. I knew the instant he let go by our shooting upward."
+
+"I came to myself and looked over when the basket tipped," replied the
+Englishman, "I thought I was going too, but I could not stir a muscle to
+prevent it. He said something desperately, but the wind blew it away and
+covered his face with his beard, so that I could not see the movement of
+his lips."
+
+"It may have been some instructions to us about the management of the
+balloon."
+
+"I think not--perhaps a good-bye, or a message to his wife and child.
+Poor fellow!"
+
+"How long have we been out of our heads?" and Johnston looked over the
+side of the car.
+
+"I have not the slightest idea. Days and nights may have passed since he
+fell."
+
+"That is true. I remember coming to myself for an instant, and it seemed
+that we were being jerked along at the rate of a gunshot. My God, it
+was awful! It was as black as condensed midnight. I felt your warm body
+against me and was glad I was not alone. Then I went off again, but into
+a sort of nightmare. I thought I was in Hell, and that you were with me,
+and that Professor Helmholtz was Satan."
+
+"Where can we be?" asked Thorndyke.
+
+"I don't know; I can't tell what is beneath those clouds. It may be
+earth, sea or ocean; we were evidently whisked along in a storm while we
+were out of our heads. If we are above the ocean we are lost."
+
+Thorndyke looked over the edge of the car long and attentively, then he
+exclaimed suddenly:
+
+"I believe it is the ocean."
+
+"What makes you think so?"
+
+"It reflects the sunlight. It is too bright for land. When we got above
+the clouds at the start it looked darker below than it does now; we may
+be over the middle of the Atlantic."
+
+"We are going down," said Johnston gloomily.
+
+"That we are, and it means something serious."
+
+Johnston made no answer. Half-an-hour went by. Thorndyke looked at the
+sun.
+
+"If the professor had not dropped the compass, we could find our
+bearings," he sighed.
+
+Johnston pointed upward. Thin clouds were floating above them. "We are
+almost down," he said, and as they looked over the sides of the car they
+saw the reflection of the sun on the bosom of the ocean, and, a moment
+later, they caught sight of the blue billows rising and falling.
+
+"I see something that looks like an island," observed Thorndyke, looking
+in the direction toward which the balloon seemed to be drifting. "It is
+dark and is surrounded by light. It is far away, but we may reach it if
+we do not descend too rapidly."
+
+"Throw out the last bag of sand," suggested the American, "we need it as
+little now as we ever shall."
+
+Thorndyke cut the bag with his knife and watched the sand filter through
+the bottom of the basket and trail along in a graceful stream behind the
+balloon. The great flabby bag overhead steadied itself, rose slightly
+and drifted on toward the dark spot on the vast expanse of sunlit water.
+They could now clearly see that it was a small island, not more than a
+mile in circumference.
+
+"How far is it?" asked Thorndyke.
+
+"About two miles," answered the American laconically, "it is a chance
+for us, but a slim one."
+
+The balloon gradually sank. For twenty minutes the car glided along not
+more than two hundred feet above the waves. The island was now quite
+near. It was a barren mound of stone, worn into gullies and sharp
+precipices by the action of the waves and rain. Hardly a tree or a shrub
+was in sight.
+
+"It looks like the rocky crown of a great stone mountain hidden in the
+ocean," said the Englishman; "half a mile to the shore, a hundred feet
+to the water; at this rate of speed the wind would smash us against
+those rocks like a couple of bird's eggs dropped from the clouds. We
+must fall into the water and swim ashore. There is no use trying to save
+the balloon."
+
+"We had better be about it, then," said Johnston, rising stiffly and
+holding to the ropes. "If we should go down in the water with the
+balloon we would get tangled in the ropes and get asphyxiated with the
+gas. We had better hang down under the basket and let go at exactly the
+same time."
+
+The water was not more than forty feet beneath, and the island was
+getting nearer every instant. The two aeronauts swung over on opposite
+sides of the car and, face to face, hung by their hands beneath.
+
+"I dread the plunge," muttered Thorndyke; "I feel as weak as a sick
+kitten; I am not sure that I can swim that distance, but the water looks
+still enough."
+
+"I am played out too," grunted the American, red in the face; "but it
+looks like our only chance. Ugh! she made a big dip then. We'd better
+let go. I'll count three, and three is the signal. Now ready. One, two,
+three!"
+
+Down shot the balloonists and up bounded the great liberated bag of
+gas; the basket and dangling ropes swung wildly from side to side. The
+aeronauts touched the water feet foremost at the same instant, and in
+half a minute they rose, not ten feet apart.
+
+"Now for it," sputtered Johnston, shaking his bushy head like a swimming
+dog. "Look, the shore is not very far." Thorndyke was saving his wind,
+and said nothing, but accommodated his stroke to that of his companion,
+and thus they breasted the gently-rolling billows until finally,
+completely exhausted, they climbed up the shelving rocks and lay down in
+the warm sunshine.
+
+"Not a very encouraging outlook," said Johnston, rising when his
+clothing was dry and climbing a slight elevation. "There is nothing
+in sight except a waste of stone. Let's go up to that point and look
+around."
+
+The ascent was exceedingly trying, for the incline was steep and it was
+at times difficult to get a firm footing. But they were repaid for the
+exertion, for they had reached the highest point of the island and could
+see all over it. As far as their vision reached there was nothing beyond
+the little island except the glistening waves that reached out till
+they met the sky in all directions. High up in the clouds they saw the
+balloon, now steadily drifting with the wind toward the south.
+
+"We might as well be dead and done with it," grumbled Thorndyke. "Ships
+are not apt to approach this isolated spot, and even if they did, how
+could we give a signal of distress?"
+
+Johnston stroked his dark beard thoughtfully, then he pointed toward the
+shore.
+
+"There are some driftwood and seaweed," he said; "with my sun-glass I
+can soon have a bonfire." He took a piece of punk from a waterproof box
+that he carried in his pocket and focussed the sun's rays on it. "Run
+down and bring me an armful of dry seaweed and wood," he added, intent
+on his work.
+
+Thorndyke clambered down to the shore, and in a few minutes returned
+with an armful of fuel. Johnston was blowing his punk into a flame, and
+in a moment had a blazing fire.
+
+"Good," approved the Englishman, rubbing his hands together over the
+flames. "We'll keep it burning and it may do some good." Then a smile of
+satisfaction came over his face as he began to take some clams from his
+pockets. "Plenty of these fellows down there, and they are as fat and
+juicy as can be. Hurry up and let's bake them. I'm as hungry as a bear.
+There is a fine spring of fresh water below, too, so we won't die of
+thirst."
+
+They baked the clams and ate them heartily, and then went down to the
+spring near the shore. The water was deliciously cool and invigorating.
+The sun sank into the quiet ocean and night crept on. The stars came out
+slowly, and the moon rose full and red from the waves, adding its beams
+to the flickering light of the fire on the hill-top.
+
+"Suppose we take a walk all round on the beach," proposed the
+Englishman; "there is no telling what we may find; we may run on
+something that has drifted ashore from some wrecked ship."
+
+Johnston consented. They had encompassed the entire island, which was
+oval in shape, and were about to ascend to the rock to put fresh fuel
+on the fire before lying down to sleep for the night, when Thorndyke
+noticed a road that had evidently been worn in the rock by human
+footsteps.
+
+"Made by feet," he said, bending down and looking closely at the rock
+and raking up a handful of white sand, "but whether the feet of savage
+or civilized mortal I can't make out."
+
+Johnston was a few yards ahead of him and stooped to pick up something
+glittering in the moonlight. It was a tap from the heel of a shoe and
+was of solid silver.
+
+"Civilized," he said, holding it out to his companion; "and of the very
+highest order of civilization. Whoever heard of people rich enough to
+wear silver heel-taps."
+
+"Are you sure it is silver?" asked the Englishman, examining it closely.
+
+"Pure and unalloyed; see how the stone has cut into it, and feel its
+weight."
+
+"You are right, I believe," returned Thorndyke, as Johnston put the
+strange trophy into his pocket-book, and the two adventurers paused a
+moment and looked mutely into each other's eyes.
+
+"We haven't the faintest idea of where we are," said Johnston, his tone
+showing that he was becoming more despondent. "We don't know how long we
+were unconscious in the balloon, nor where we were taken in the storm.
+We may now be in the very centre of the North Polar sea--this knob may
+be the very pivot on which this end of the earth revolves."
+
+The Englishman laughed. "No danger; the sun is too natural. From the
+poles it would look different."
+
+"I don't mean the old sun that you read so much about, and that they
+make so much racket over at home, but another of which we are the
+original discoverer--a sun that isn't in old Sol's beat at all, but one
+that revolves round the earth from north to south and dips in once a day
+at the north and the south poles. See?"
+
+The Englishman laughed heartily and slapped his friend on the shoulder.
+
+"I think we are somewhere in the Atlantic; but your finding that
+heel-tap does puzzle me."
+
+"We are going to have an adventure, beside which all others of our lives
+will pale into insignificance. I feel it in my bones. See how evenly
+this road has been worn and it is leading toward the centre of the
+island."
+
+In a few minutes the two adventurers came to a point in the road where
+tall cliffs on either side stood up perpendicularly. It was dark and
+cold, and but a faint light from the moon shone down to them.
+
+"I don't like this," said Johnston, who was behind the Englishman; "we
+may be walking into the ambush of an enemy."
+
+"Pshaw!" and Thorndyke plunged on into the gloomy passage. Presently the
+walls began to widen like a letter "Y" and in a great open space they
+saw a placid lake on the bosom of which the moon was shining. On all
+sides the towering walls rose for hundreds of feet. Speechless with
+wonder and with quickly-beating hearts they stumbled forward over the
+uneven road till they reached the shore of the lake. The water was so
+clear and still that the moon and stars were reflected in it as if in a
+great mirror.
+
+"Look at that!" exclaimed Thorndyke, pointing down into the depths,
+"what can that be?"
+
+Johnston followed Thorndyke's finger with his eyes. At first he thought
+that it was a comet moving across the sky and reflected in the water;
+but, on glancing above, he saw his mistake. It looked, at first, like a
+great ball of fire rolling along the bottom of the lake with a stream of
+flame in its wake.
+
+
+
+Chapter II.
+
+The two men watched it for several minutes; all the time it seemed to be
+growing larger and brighter till, after a while, they saw that the light
+came from something shaped like a ship, sharp at both ends, and covered
+with oval glass. As it slowly rose to the surface they saw that it
+contained five or six men, sitting in easy chairs and reclining on
+luxurious divans. One of them sat at a sort of pilot-wheel and
+was directing the course of the strange craft, which was moving as
+gracefully as a great fish.
+
+Then the young men saw the man at the pilot-wheel raise his hand,
+and from the water came the musical notes of a great bell. The vessel
+stopped, and one of the men sprang up and raised an instrument that
+looked like a telescope to his eyes. With this he seemed to be closely
+searching the lake shores, for he did not move for several minutes. Then
+he lowered the instrument, and when the bell had rung again, the vessel
+rose slowly and perpendicularly to the surface and glided to the shore
+within twenty yards of where the adventurers stood.
+
+"Could they have seen us?" whispered Thorndyke, drawing Johnston nearer
+the side of the cliff.
+
+"I think so; at all events, they are between us and the outlet; we may
+as well make the best of it."
+
+The men, all except the pilot, landed, and a dazzling electric
+search-light was turned on the spot where Thorndyke and Johnston stood.
+For a moment they were so blinded that they could not see, and then they
+heard footsteps, and, their eyes becoming accustomed to the light, they
+found themselves surrounded by several men, very strangely clad. They
+all wore long cloaks that covered them from head to foot and every man
+was more than six feet in height and finely proportioned. One of them,
+who seemed to be an officer in command, bowed politely.
+
+"I am Captain Tradmos, gentlemen, in the king's service. It is my duty
+to make you my prisoners. I must escort you to the palace of the king."
+
+"That's cool," said Johnston, to conceal the discomfiture that he felt,
+"we had no idea that you had a kingdom. We have tramped all over this
+island, and you are the first signs of humanity we have met."
+
+He would have recalled his words before he had finished speaking, if he
+could have done so, for he saw by the manner of the captain that he had
+been over bold.
+
+"Follow me," answered the officer curtly, and with a motion of his hand
+to his men he turned toward the odd-looking vessel.
+
+The two adventurers obeyed, and the cloaked men fell in behind them.
+Neither Johnston nor Thorndyke had ever seen anything like the peculiar
+boat that was moored to the rocky shore. It was about forty feet in
+length, had a hull shaped like a racing yacht, but which was made of
+black rubber inflated with air. It was covered with glass, save for a
+doorway about six feet high and three feet wide in the side, and looked
+like a great oblong bubble floating on the still dark water. As they
+approached the searchlight was extinguished, and they were enabled to
+see the boat to a better advantage by the aid of the electric lights
+that illuminated the interior. It was with feelings of awe that the two
+adventurers followed the captain across the gang-plank into the vessel.
+
+The electric light was brilliantly white, and in various places pink,
+red and light-blue screens mellowed it into an artistic effect that was
+very soothing to the eye. The ceiling was hung with festoons of prisms
+as brilliant as the purest diamonds, and in them, owing to the gently
+undulatory movement of the vessel, colors more beautiful than those of
+a rainbow played entrancingly. Rare pictures in frames of delicate
+gold were interspersed among the clusters of prisms, and the floor was
+covered with carpets that felt as soft beneath the foot as pillows of
+eider-down.
+
+As he entered the door the officer threw off his gray cloak, and his men
+did likewise, disclosing to view the finest uniforms the prisoners had
+ever seen. Captain Tradmos's legs were clothed in tights of light-blue
+silk, and he wore a blue sack-coat of silk plush and a belt of pliant
+gold, the buckles of which were ornamented with brilliant gems. His eyes
+were dark and penetrating, and his black hair lay in glossy masses on
+his shoulders. He had the head of an Apollo and a brow indicative of the
+highest intellect.
+
+Leaving his men in the first room that they entered, he gracefully
+conducted his prisoners through another room to a small cabin in the
+stern of the boat, and told them to make themselves comfortable on the
+luxurious couches that lined the circular glass walls.
+
+"Our journey will be of considerable length," he said, "and as you are
+no doubt fatigued, you had better take all the rest you can get. I see
+that you need food and have ordered a repast which will refresh you."
+As he concluded he touched a button in the wall and instantly a table,
+laden with substantial food, rare delicacies and wines, rose through
+a trap-door in the floor. He smiled at the expressions of surprise on
+their faces and touched a green bottle of wine with his white tapering
+hand.
+
+"The greater part of our journey will be under water, and our wines
+are specially prepared to render us capable of subsisting on a rather
+limited quantity of air during the voyage, so I advise you to partake of
+them freely; you will find them very agreeable to the taste."
+
+"We are very grateful," bowed Thorndyke, from his seat on a couch. "I am
+sure no prisoners were ever more graciously or royally entertained. To
+be your prisoner is a pleasure to be remembered."
+
+"Till our heads are cut off, anyway," put in the irrepressible American.
+
+Tradmos smiled good-humoredly.
+
+"I shall leave you now," he said, and with a bow he withdrew.
+
+"This is an adventure in earnest," whispered Johnston; "my stars! what
+can they intend to do with us?"
+
+"One of the first things will be to take us down to the bottom of this
+lake where we saw them awhile ago, and I don't fancy it at all; what if
+this blasted glass-case should burst? We may have dropped into a den of
+outlaws on a gigantic scale, and it may be necessary to put us out of
+the way to keep our mouths closed."
+
+"I am hungry, and am going to eat," said the American, drawing a
+cushioned stool up to the table. "Here goes for some of the wine;
+remember, it is a sort of breath-restorer. I am curious enough not to
+want to collapse till I have seen this thing through. He said something
+about a palace and a king. Where can we be going?"
+
+"Down into the centre of the earth, possibly," and the handsome
+Englishman moved a stool to the table and took the glass of
+green-colored wine that Johnston pushed toward him. "Some scientists
+hold that the earth is filled with water instead of fire. Who knows
+where this blamed thing may not take us? Here is to a safe return from
+the amphibious land!"
+
+Both drank their wine simultaneously, lowered their glasses at the same
+instant, and gazed into each other's eyes.
+
+"Did you ever taste such liquor?" asked Thorndyke, "it seems to run like
+streams of fire through every vein I have."
+
+Johnston shook his head mutely, and held the sparkling effervescing
+fluid between him and the light.
+
+"Ugh! take it down," cried the Englishman, "it throws a green color on
+your face that makes you look like a corpse." Johnston clinked the glass
+against that of his companion and they drained the glasses. "Hush, what
+was that?" asked Thorndyke.
+
+There was a sound like boiling water outside and as if air were being
+pumped out of some receptacle, and the vessel began to move up and down
+in a lithe sort of fashion and to bend tortuously from side to side like
+a great sluggish fish. Through the partitions of glass they saw one of
+the men closing the door, and in a moment the vessel glided away from
+the shore. The men all sank into easy positions on the couches, and
+delightful music as soft as an Aeolian lyre seemed to be breathed from
+the walls and floor. Then the music seemed to die away and a bell down
+in the vessel's hull rang.
+
+"We are in the middle of the lake," said Thorndyke, looking through
+the glass toward the black cliffy shore; "the next thing will be our
+descent. I wonder----"
+
+But he was unable to proceed, and Johnston noticed in alarm that
+his eyes were slightly protruding from their sockets. The air seemed
+suddenly to become more compact as if compressed, and the water was set
+into such violent commotion that it was dashed against the glass sides
+in billows as white as snow. Then Johnston found that he could not
+breathe freely, and he understood the trouble of the Englishman.
+
+Captain Tradmos came suddenly to the door. He was smiling as he motioned
+toward the wines on the table.
+
+"You had better drink more of the wine," he advised sententiously.
+
+Both of the captives rushed to the table. The instant they had swallowed
+the wine they felt relieved, but were still weak. The captain bowed and
+went away. Thorndyke's hand trembled as he refilled his friend's glass.
+"I thought I was gone up," he said, "I never had such a choky sensation
+in my life; you are still purple in the face."
+
+"Eat of what is before you," said the captain, looking in at the door;
+"you cannot stand the increasing pressure unless you do."
+
+They needed no second invitation, for they were half-famished. The fish
+and meat were delicious, and the bread was delightfully sweet.
+
+"Look outside!" cried Johnston. The water was now still, but it was
+gradually rising up the sides of the boat, and in a moment it had closed
+over the crystal roof. Both of the captives were conscious of a heavy
+sensation in the head and a dull roaring in the ears. Down they went, at
+first slowly and then more rapidly, till it seemed to them that they had
+descended over a thousand feet. Great monsters like whales swam to the
+vessel, as if attracted by the lights, and their massive bodies jarred
+against the glass walls as they turned to swim away. They sank about
+five hundred feet lower; and all at once the lights went out, and the
+boat gradually stopped.
+
+It was at once so dark that the two captives could not see each other,
+though only the width of the table separated them. Everything was
+profoundly still; not a sound came from the men in the other rooms.
+Presently Thorndyke whispered, "Look, do you see that red light
+overhead?"
+
+"Yes," said Johnston, "it looks like a star."
+
+"It is our bonfire," said Thorndyke, "that's what betrayed us."
+
+Again the vessel began to sink, and more rapidly than ever; indeed,
+as Thorndyke expressed it, he had the cool feeling that nervous people
+experience in going down quickly in an elevator.
+
+"If we go any lower," he added, as the great rubber hull seemed to
+struggle like some living monster, "the sides of this thing will
+collapse like an egg-shell and we will be as flat as pancakes."
+
+"You need not fear, we have much lower to go!" It was the captain's
+voice, but they could not tell from whence it came. Then they heard
+again the seductive music, and it was so soothing that they soon fell
+asleep.
+
+They had no idea how long they had slept, but they were awakened by the
+ringing of a bell and felt the vessel was coming to a stop. They were
+still far beneath the surface; indeed, the boat was resting on the
+bottom, for in the light of two or three powerful search-lights they saw
+a wide succession of submerged hills, vales, and rugged cliffs. Before
+them was a great mountain-side and in it they saw the mouth of a dark
+tunnel. They had scarcely noticed it before the vessel rose a little and
+glided toward the tunnel and entered it. Through the glass walls they
+could see that it was narrow, and that the ragged sides and roof were
+barely far enough apart to admit them.
+
+Suddenly one of the men came in and drew a curtain down behind them,
+and, with a vexed look on his face retired.
+
+When he was gone Johnston put his lips close to Thorndyke's ear and
+whispered:
+
+"Did you see that?"
+
+"See what?"
+
+"Just as he drew the curtain down I saw what looked to me like a cliff
+of solid gold. It had been dug out into a cavern in which I saw a vessel
+like this, and men in diving suits digging and loading it."
+
+This took the Englishman's breath away for a moment, then he remarked:
+"That accounts for the heel-tap we found; who knows, these people may be
+possessors of the richest gold and silver mines on earth."
+
+The bell rang again. "We are rising," said Johnston. "If this is the
+only way of reaching the king's domain, we could never get back
+to civilization unless they release us of their own accord, that's
+certain!"
+
+"Heavens, isn't it still!" exclaimed the Englishman. "The machinery
+of this thing moves as noiselessly as the backbone of an eel. I wish I
+could understand its works."
+
+"I am more concerned about where we are going. I tell you we are being
+taken to some wonderful place. People who can construct such marvels of
+mechanical skill as this boat will not be behind in other things; then
+look at the physiques of those giants."
+
+Just then the man who had drawn down the shade came in and raised it.
+Both the captives pretended to be uninterested in his movements, but
+when he had withdrawn they looked through the glass eagerly.
+
+"See," whispered Thorndyke, in the ear of his companion, "the walls are
+close to us, and are as perpendicular as those of the lake in which they
+found us."
+
+Johnston said nothing. His attention was riveted to the walls of rock;
+the vessel was rising rapidly. An hour passed. The soft music had
+ceased, and the air seemed less dense and fresher. Then the waters
+suddenly parted over the roof and ran in crystal streams down the oval
+glass.
+
+They were on the surface, and the vessel was slowly gliding toward the
+shore which could not be seen owing to there now being no light except
+that inside the boat. Captain Tradmos entered, followed by two of his
+men holding black silken bandages.
+
+"We must blindfold you," he said; "captives are not allowed to see the
+entrance to our kingdom."
+
+Without a word they submitted.
+
+"This way," said the captain kindly, and, holding to an arm of each, he
+piloted them out of the vessel to the shore. Then he led them through
+what they imagined to be a long stone corridor or arcade from the
+ringing echoes of their feet on the stone pavement. Presently they came
+to what seemed to be an elevator, for when they had entered it and sat
+down, they heard a metallic door slide back into its place, and they
+descended quickly.
+
+They could form no idea as to the distance they went down; but Thorndyke
+declared afterward that it was over ten thousand feet. When the elevator
+stopped Captain Tradmos led them out, and both of the captives were
+conscious of breathing the purest, most invigorating air they had ever
+inhaled. Instantly their strength returned, and they felt remarkably
+buoyant as they were led along over another pavement of polished stone.
+
+Tradmos laughed. "You like the atmosphere?"
+
+"I never heard of anything like it," said Thorndyke. "It is so
+delightful I can almost taste it."
+
+"It was that which made Alpha what it is--the most wonderful country in
+the universe," said the officer. "There is much in store for you."
+
+The ears of the two captives were greeted by a vague, indefinable hum,
+like and yet unlike that of a busy city. It was like many far-off sounds
+carefully muffled. Now and then they heard human voices, laughter, and
+singing in the distance, and the twanging of musical instruments.
+
+Then they knew that they were entering a building of some sort, for they
+heard a key turn in a lock and the humming sound in the distance was
+cut off. They felt a soft carpet under their feet, and the feet of their
+guards no longer clinked on the stones.
+
+When the bandages were removed they found themselves in a sumptuous
+chamber, alone with the captain. The brilliant light from a
+quaintly-shaped candelabrum, in the centre of the chamber, dazzled them,
+but in a few minutes their eyes had become accustomed to it.
+
+Tradmos seemed to be enjoying the looks of astonishment on their faces
+as they glanced at the different objects in the room.
+
+"It is night," he said smilingly. "You need rest after your voyage.
+Lie down on the beds and sleep. To-morrow you will be conducted to the
+palace of the king."
+
+With a bow he withdrew, and they heard a massive bolt slide into the
+socket of a door hidden behind a curtain. The two men gazed at each
+other without speaking, for a moment, and then they began to inspect the
+room.
+
+In alcoves half-veiled with silken curtains stood statues in gold and
+bronze. The walls and ceilings were decorated with pictures unlike any
+they had ever seen. Before one, the picture of an angel flying through a
+dark, star-filled sky, they both stood enchanted.
+
+"What is it?" asked Thorndyke, finding voice finally. "It is not done
+with brush or pencil; the features seem alive and, by Jove, you can
+actually see it breathe. Don't you see the clouds gliding by, and the
+wings moving?"
+
+"It is light--it is formed by light!" declared the other
+enthusiastically, and he ran to the wall, about six feet from the
+picture, and put his hand on a square metal box screwed to the wall.
+
+"I have it," he said quickly, "come here!"
+
+The Englishman advanced curiously and examined the box.
+
+"Don't you see that tiny speck of light in the side towards the picture?
+Well, the view is thrown from this box on the wall, and it is the motion
+of the powerful light that gives apparent life to the angel. It is
+wonderful."
+
+In a commodious alcove, in a glow of pink light from above, was a
+life-sized group of musicians--statues in colored metal of a Spanish
+girl playing a mandora, an Italian with a slender calascione, a Russian
+playing his jorbon, and an African playing a banjo. Luxurious couches
+hung by spiral springs from the ceiling to a convenient height from the
+floor, and here and there lay rugs of rare beauty and great ottomans of
+artistic designs and colors.
+
+"We ought to go to bed," proposed Thorndyke; "we shall have plenty of
+time to see this Aladdin's land before we get away from it."
+
+There were two large downy beds on quaintly wrought bedsteads of brass,
+but the two captives decided to sleep together.
+
+Thorndyke was the first to awaken. The lights in the candelabrum were
+out, but a gray light came in at the top and bottom of the window. He
+rose and drew the heavy curtain of one of the windows aside. He shrank
+back in astonishment.
+
+
+
+Chapter III.
+
+"What is it, Thorndyke? What are you looking at?" And the American
+slowly left the bed and approached his friend.
+
+Thorndyke only held the curtain further back and watched Johnston's face
+as he looked through the wide plate-glass window.
+
+"My gracious!" ejaculated the latter as he drew nearer. It was a
+wondrous scene. The building in which they were imprisoned stood on a
+gentle hill clad in luxuriant, smoothly-cut grass and ornamented with
+beautiful flowers and plants; and below lay a splendid city--a city
+built on undulating ground with innumerable grand structures of white
+marble, with turrets, domes and pinnacles of gold. Wide streets paved
+in polished stone and bordered with lush-green grass interspersed with
+statues and beds and mounds of strange plants and flowers stretched away
+in front of them till they were lost in the dim, misty distance. Parks
+filled with pavilions, pleasure-lakes, fountains and tortuous drives and
+walks, dotted the landscape in all directions.
+
+Thorndyke's breath had clouded the glass of the window, and he rubbed
+it with his handkerchief. As he did so the sash slowly, and without
+a particle of sound, slid to one side, disclosing a narrow balcony
+outside. It had a graceful balustrade, made of carved red-and-white
+mottled marble, and on the end of the balcony facing the city sat a
+great gold and silver jug, ten feet high, of rare design. The spout was
+formed by the body of a dragon with wings extended; the handle was a
+serpent with the extremity of its tail coiled around the neck of the
+jug.
+
+The air that came in at the window was fresh and dewy, and laden with
+the most entrancing odors. Thorndyke led the way out, treading very
+gently at first. Johnston followed him, too much surprised to make any
+comment. From this position, their view to the left round the corner of
+the building was widened, and new wonders appeared on every hand.
+
+Over the polished stone pavements strange vehicles ran noiselessly, as
+if the wheels had cushioned tires, and the streets were crowded with an
+active, strangely-clad populace.
+
+"Look at that!" exclaimed the American, and from a street corner they
+saw a queer-looking machine, carrying half-a-dozen passengers, rise like
+a bird with wings outspread and fly away toward the east. They watched
+it till it disappeared in the distance.
+
+"We are indeed in wonderland," said the Englishman; "I can't make head
+nor tail of it. We were on an isolated island, the Lord only knows
+where, and have suddenly been transported to a new world!"
+
+"I can't feel at all as if we were in the world we were born in,"
+returned Johnston. "I feel strange."
+
+"The wine," suggested the Englishman, "you know it did wonders for us in
+that subwater thing."
+
+"No; the wine has nothing to do with it. My head never was clearer. The
+very atmosphere is peculiar. The air is invigorating, and I can't get
+enough of it."
+
+"That is exactly the way I feel," was Thorndyke's answer.
+
+"Look at the sunlight," went on Johnston; "it is gray like our dawn, but
+see how transparent it is. You can look through it for miles and miles.
+It is becoming pink in the east, the sun will soon be up, and I am
+curious to see it."
+
+"It must be up now, but we cannot see it for the hills and buildings. My
+goodness, see that!" and the Englishman pointed to the east. A flood of
+delicate pink light was now pouring into the vast body of gray and
+was slowly driving the more sombre color toward the west. The line
+of separation was marked--so marked, indeed, that it seemed a vast,
+rose-colored billow rolling, widening and sweeping onward like a swell
+of the ocean shoreward. On it came rapidly, till the whole landscape was
+magically changed. The flowers, the trees, the grass, the waters of the
+lakes, the white buildings, the costumes of the people in the streets,
+even the sky, changed in aspect. The white clouds looked like fire-lit
+smoke, and far toward the west rolled the long line of pink still
+struggling with the gray and driving it back.
+
+The sun now came into sight, a great bleeding ball of fire slowly rising
+above the gilded roofs in the distance.
+
+"By Jove, look at our shadows!" exclaimed Johnston, and both men gazed
+at the balcony floor in amazement; their shadows were as clearly defined
+and black as silhouettes. "How do you account for that?" continued
+the American, "I am firmly convinced that this sun is not the orb that
+shines over my native land."
+
+Thorndyke laughed, but his laugh was forced. "How absurd! and yet--" He
+extended his hand over the balustrade into the rosy glow, and
+without concluding his remark held it back into the shadow of the
+window-casement. "By Jove!" he exclaimed; "there is not a particle of
+warmth in it. It is exactly the same temperature in the shade as in the
+light." He moved back against the wall. "No; there is no difference; the
+blamed thing doesn't give out any warmth."
+
+Johnston's hands were extended in the light. "I believe you are right,"
+he declared in awe, "something is wrong."
+
+At that moment appeared from the room behind them a handsome youth,
+attired in a suit of scarlet silk that fitted his athletic figure
+perfectly. He rapped softly on the window-casement and bowed when they
+turned.
+
+"Your breakfast is waiting for you," he announced. They followed him
+into a room adjoining the one they had occupied, and found a table
+holding a sumptuous repast. The boy gave them seats and handed them
+golden plates to eat upon. The fruits, wine and meats were very
+appetizing, and they ate with relish.
+
+"I believe we are to be conducted to the palace of your king to-morrow,"
+ventured the Englishman to the boy.
+
+The boy shook his head, but made no reply, and busied himself with
+removing the dishes. As they were rising from the table, they heard
+footsteps in the hall outside. The door opened. It was Captain Tradmos,
+and he was accompanied by a tall, bearded man with a leather case under
+his arm.
+
+"You must undergo a medical examination," the captain said smilingly.
+"It is our invariable custom, but this is by a special order from the
+king."
+
+Johnston shuddered as he looked at the odd-looking instruments the
+medical man was taking from the case, but Thorndyke watched his
+movements with phlegmatic indifference. He stood erect; threw back his
+shoulders; expanded his massive chest and struck it with his clenched
+fist in pantomimic boastfulness.
+
+Tradmos smiled genially; but there was something curt and official in
+his tone when he next spoke that took the Englishman slightly aback.
+"You must bare your breast over your heart and lungs," he said; and
+while Thorndyke was unbuttoning his shirt, he and the medical man went
+to the door and brought into the room a great golden bell hanging in a
+metallic frame.
+
+The bell was so thin and sensitive to the slightest jar or movement
+that, although it had been handled with extreme care, the captives could
+see that it was vibrating considerably, and the room was filled with a
+low metallic sound that not only affected the ear of the hearer but set
+every nerve to tingling. The medical man stopped the sound by laying his
+hand upon the bell. To a tube in the top of the bell he fastened one end
+of a rubber pipe; the other end was finished with a silver device shaped
+like the mouth-piece of a speaking tube. This he firmly pressed over the
+Englishman's heart. Thorndyke winced and bit his lip, for the
+strange thing took hold of his flesh with the tenacity of a powerful
+suction-pump.
+
+"Ouch!" he exclaimed playfully, but Johnston saw that he had turned
+pale, and that his face was drawn as if from pain.
+
+"Hold still!" ordered the medical man; "it will be over in a minute;
+now, be perfectly quiet and listen to the bell!"
+
+The Englishman stood motionless, the sinews of his neck drawn and
+knotted, his eyes starting from their sockets. Thorndyke felt the rubber
+tube quiver suddenly and writhe with the slow energy of a dying snake,
+and then from the quivering bell came a low, gurgling sound like a
+stream of water being forced backward and forward.
+
+Tradmos and the medical man stepped to the bell and inspected a small
+dial on its top.
+
+"What was that?" gasped the Englishman, purple in the face.
+
+"The sound of your blood," answered Tradmos, as he removed the
+instrument from Thorndyke's flesh; "it is as regular as mine; you are
+very lucky; you are slightly fatigued, but you will be sound in a day or
+two."
+
+"Thank you," replied the Englishman, but he sank into a chair, overcome
+with weakness.
+
+"Now, I'll take you, please," said the medical man, motioning Johnston
+to rise.
+
+"I am slightly nervous," apologized the latter, as he stood up and
+awkwardly fumbled the buttons of his coat.
+
+"Nervousness is a mental disease," said the man, with professional
+brusqueness; "it has nothing to do with the body except to dominate it
+at times. If you pass your examination you may live to overcome it."
+
+The American looked furtively at Thorndyke, but the head of the
+Englishman had sunk on his breast and he seemed to be asleep. Johnston
+had never felt so lonely and forsaken in his life. From his childhood he
+had entertained a secret fear that he had inherited heart disease, and
+like Maupassant's "Coward," who committed suicide rather than meet a
+man in a duel, he had tried in vain to get away from the horrible,
+ever-present thought by plunging into perilous adventures.
+
+At that moment he felt that he would rather die than know the worst from
+the uncanny instrument that had just tortured his strong comrade till he
+was overcome with exhaustion.
+
+"I never felt better in my life," he said falteringly, but it seemed to
+him that every nerve and muscle in his frame was withering through fear.
+His tongue felt clumsy and thick and his knees were quivering as with
+ague.
+
+"Stand still," ordered the physician sternly, and Johnston was further
+humiliated by having Tradmos sympathetically catch hold of his arm to
+steady him.
+
+"Your people are far advanced in the sciences," went on the physician
+coldly, "but there are only a few out of their number who know that the
+mind governs the body and that fear is its prime enemy. Five minutes ago
+you were eating heartily and had your share of physical strength, and
+yet the mere thought that you are now to know the actual condition of
+your most vital organ has made you as weak as an infant. If you kept up
+this state of mind for a month it would kill you.
+
+"Now listen," he went on, as the instrument gripped Johnston's flesh and
+the rubber tube began to twist and move as if charged with electricity.
+The American held his breath. A sound as of water being forced through
+channels that were choked, mingled with a wheezing sound like wind
+escaping from a broken bellows came from the bell.
+
+"Your frame is all right," said the medical man, as he released the
+trembling American, "but you have long believed in the weakness of your
+heart and it has, on that account, become so. You must banish all fear
+from your thoughts. You perhaps know that we have a place specially
+prepared for those who are not physically sound. I am sorry that you do
+not stand a better examination."
+
+Tradmos regarded the American with a look of sympathy as he gave him a
+chair and then rang a bell on the table. Thorndyke looked up sleepily,
+as an attendant entered with a couple of parcels, and glanced
+wonderingly at his friend's white face and bloodshot eyes.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked; but Johnston made no reply, for the
+captain had opened the parcels and taken out two suits of silken
+clothing.
+
+"Put them on," he said, giving a suit of gray to Johnston and one of
+light blue to Thorndyke. "We shall leave you to change your attire, and
+I shall soon come for you."
+
+
+
+Chapter IV.
+
+In a few minutes the captain returned and found his prisoners ready to
+go with him. Thorndyke looked exceedingly handsome in his glossy tights,
+close-fitting sack-coat, tinsel belt and low shoes with buckles of gold.
+The natural color had come back into his cheeks, and he was exhilarated
+over the prospect of further adventure.
+
+It was not so, however, with poor Johnston; his spirits had been so
+dampened by the physician's words that he could not rally from
+his despondency. His suit fitted his figure as well as that of the
+Englishman, but he could not wear it with the same hopeful grace.
+
+"Cheer up!" whispered Thorndyke, as they followed the captain through
+a long corridor, "if we are on our way to the stake or block we are at
+least going dressed like gentlemen."
+
+Outside they found the streets lined with spectators eagerly waiting to
+see them pass. The men all had suits like those which had been given the
+captives, and the women wore flowing gowns like those of ancient Greece.
+
+"These are the common people," whispered Thorndyke to Johnston, "but
+did you ever dream of such perfect features and physiques? Every face is
+full of merriment and good cheer. I am curious to see the royalty."
+
+Johnston made no reply, for Captain Tradmos turned suddenly and faced
+them.
+
+"Stand here till I return," he said, and he went back into the house.
+
+"Where in the deuce do you think we are?" pursued Thorndyke with a grim
+smile.
+
+"Haven't the slightest idea," sighed Johnston, and he shuddered as he
+looked down the long white street with its borders of human faces.
+
+Thorndyke was observant.
+
+"There is not a breath of air stirring," he said; "and yet the
+atmosphere is like impalpable delicacies to a hungry man's stomach.
+Look at that big tree, not a leaf is moving, and yet every breath I draw
+is as fresh as if it came from a mountain-top. Did you ever see such
+flowers as those? Look at that ocean of orchids."
+
+"They think we are a regular monkey-show," grumbled the American. "Look
+how the crowd is gaping and shoving and fighting for places to see us."
+
+"It's your legs they want to behold, old fellow. Do you know I never
+knew you had such knotty knee-joints; did you ever have rheumatism? I
+wish I had 'em; they wouldn't put me to death--they would make me the
+chief attraction in the royal museum." Thorndyke concluded his jest with
+a laugh, but the face of his friend did not brighten.
+
+"You bet that medical examination meant something serious," he said.
+
+"Pooh!" and the Englishman slapped his friend playfully on the shoulder.
+
+"Since I have seen that vast crowd of well-developed people, and
+remember what that medicine man said, I have made up my mind that we are
+going to be separated." Poor Johnston's lip was quivering.
+
+"Rubbish! but there comes the captain; put on a bold front; talk up New
+York; tell 'em about Chicago and the Fair, and ask to be allowed to
+ride in their Ferris Wheel--if they ain't got no wheel, ask 'em when the
+first train leaves town."
+
+"This is no time for jokes," growled Johnston, as Tradmos returned.
+Tradmos motioned to something that in the distance looked like
+a carriage, but which turned out to be a flying machine. It rose
+gracefully and glided over the ground and settled at their feet. It
+was large enough to seat a dozen people, and there was a little
+glass-windowed compartment at the end in which they could see "the
+driver," as he was termed by Tradmos. The mysterious machinery was
+hidden in the woodwork overhead and beneath.
+
+"Get in," said the captain, and the door flew open as if of its own
+accord. Thorndyke went in first and was followed by the moody American.
+"Let up on the ague," jested Thorndyke, nudging his friend with his
+elbow; "if you keep on quivering like that you may shake the thing loose
+from its moorings and we'd never know what became of us."
+
+Johnston scowled, and the officer, who had overheard the remark, smiled
+as he leaned toward the window and gave some directions to the man in
+the other compartment.
+
+"You both take it rather coolly," he remarked to Thorndyke. "I took a
+man and a woman over this route several years ago and both of them were
+in a dead faint; but, in fact, you have nothing to fear. We never have
+accidents."
+
+"It is as safe as a balloon, I suppose, and we are at home in them,"
+said the Englishman, with just the hint of a swagger in his tone.
+
+"But your balloons are poor, primitive things at best," returned Tradmos
+in his soft voice. "They can't be compared to this mode of travel,
+though, of course, our machines would not operate in your atmosphere."
+
+"Why not?" impulsively asked the Englishman. "I thought----"
+
+But he did not conclude his remark, for they were rising, and both he
+and Johnston leaned apprehensively forward and looked out of one of the
+windows. Down below the long lines of people were silently waving their
+hats, scarfs and handkerchiefs as the machine swept along over their
+heads. As they rose higher the scene below widened like a great circular
+fan, and in the delicate roselight, the whole so appealed to Thorndyke's
+artistic sense that he ejaculated:
+
+"Glorious! Superb! Transcendent!" and he directed Johnston's attention
+to the wonderful pinkish haze which lay over the view toward the west
+like a vast diaphanous web of rosy sunbeams.
+
+"You ask why our air-ships would not operate in your atmosphere," said
+the captain, showing pleasure at Thorndyke's enthusiasm. "It is simple
+enough when you have studied the climatic differences between the two
+countries. You have much to contend with--the winds, for instance, the
+heat and cold, etc.; this is the only known country where the winds are
+subjugated. I have never been in your world, but from what I have heard
+of it I am not anxious to see it. Your atmosphere and climate are so
+changeable and so diverse in different localities that I have heard your
+people spend much of their time in seeking congenial climes. I think it
+was a man who came from London that claimed he once had a cold--'a bad
+cold,' I think he called it. It was a standing joke in the royal family
+for a long time, and he heard so much about it that he tried to deny
+what he had said!"
+
+Johnston glanced at the speaker non-plussed, but the captain was looking
+at Thorndyke.
+
+"Your climate is delightful here now," said the Englishman; "is it so
+long at a time?"
+
+"Perpetually; it is regulated every moment, and every year we perfect it
+in some way."
+
+"Perfect it?"
+
+"Yes, of course, why not? If it ever fails to be up to the usual high
+standard, it is owing to neglect of those in charge, and neglect is
+punished severely."
+
+Thorndyke's eyes sought those of the American incredulously. Seeing
+which Tradmos looked amused.
+
+"You doubt it," he smiled. "Well, wait till you have been here longer.
+The fact is, any one born in our climate could not live in yours. The
+king experimented on a man who claimed to have only one lung, but who
+had two sound ones when he was cut open. Well, the king sent him to
+China, or America, or some such place, and he wheezed himself to death
+in a week by your clocks. The weather was too fickle for him. Our system
+has been perfected to such an extent that we live four lives to your
+one, and our fruits and vegetables are a hundred per cent. better than
+those in other countries."
+
+"What is the name of your country?" asked Thorndyke, feeling that he was
+not losing anything by his boldness.
+
+"Alpha."
+
+"Where is it located?"
+
+"I don't know." Tradmos looked out at the window for a moment as if to
+ascertain that they were going in the right direction, then he fixed his
+dark eyes on Thorndyke and asked hesitatingly:--
+
+"I never thought--I--but do you know where your country is located?"
+
+"Why, certainly."
+
+"Well, I don't know where this one is. We are taught everything, I
+think, except geography." Nothing more was said for several minutes,
+then an exclamation of admiration broke from the Englishman. The color
+of the sunlight was changing. From east to west within the entire arc of
+their observation rolled an endless billow of lavender light leaving a
+placid sea of the same color behind it. On it swept, slowly driving back
+the pink glow that had been over everything.
+
+"I see you like our sunlight?" said Tradmos, half interrogatively.
+
+"Never saw anything like it before."
+
+"Yours is, I think, the same color all day long."
+
+"Except on rainy days."
+
+"Must be a great bore, monotonous--too much sameness. It is white, is it
+not?"
+
+"Yes, rather--between white and yellow, I call it."
+
+"Something like our sixth hour, I suppose; this is the fourth hour of
+morning. Then come blue, yellow, green, and at noon red. The afternoon
+is divided up in the same way. The first hour is green, then follow
+yellow, blue, lavender, rose, gray and purple. Yes, I should think you
+would find yours somewhat tiresome."
+
+"We can rely on it," said Johnston speaking for the first time and in a
+wavering voice, "it is always there."
+
+"Doing business at the old stand," laughed Thorndyke, attempting an
+Americanism.
+
+"Well, that is a comfort, anyway," said the captain seriously. "In my
+time they have had no solar trouble, but some of the old people tell
+horrible tales of a period when our sun for several days did not shine
+at all."
+
+"Can it be possible?" said the Englishman dubiously.
+
+"Oh, yes; and the early settlers had a great deal of trouble in
+different ways; but I am not at liberty to give you information on that
+head. It is the king's special pleasure to have new-comers form their
+own impressions, and he is particularly fond of noting their surprise,
+and, above all, their approval. People usually come here of their own
+accord through the influence of our secret force of agents all over the
+earth, but you were brought because you happened to drop on our island
+and would have found out too much for our good, and that red light you
+kept burning night and day might have given us trouble. There is no
+telling how long you could have kept alive on those clams."
+
+"We meant no offence," apologized Thorndyke; "we----"
+
+"Oh, I know it, I was only explaining the situation," interrupted the
+officer.
+
+"What is that bright spot to the right?" asked Thorndyke, to change the
+subject.
+
+"The king's palace; that is the dome. We shall soon be there. Now,
+I must not talk to you any longer. Somebody may be watching us with
+glasses. I have taken a liking to you, and some time, when I get the
+opportunity, I shall give you some useful advice, but I must treat you
+very formally, at least till you have had audience with the king."
+
+"Thank you," said the Englishman, and Tradmos stood up in the car to
+watch their progress through the circular glass of a little cupola on
+top. Thorndyke smiled at Johnston, but the American was in no pleasant
+mood. The indifference with which Tradmos had treated him had nettled
+him.
+
+The machine was now slowly descending. A vast pile of white marble, with
+many golden domes and spires, rose between them and the earth below.
+
+"To the balcony on the central dome," ordered Tradmos through the window
+of the driver's compartment; and the adventurers felt the car sweep
+round in a curve that threw them against each other, and the next moment
+they had landed on a wide iron balcony encircling a great golden cone
+that towered hundreds of feet above them.
+
+
+
+Chapter V.
+
+"Follow me," said the captain stiffly, for there were several guards in
+white and gold uniforms pacing to and fro on the battlement-like walls.
+He led the two adventurers through a door in the base of the dome. At
+first they were dazed by a brilliant light from above, and looking
+up they beheld a marvel of kaleidoscopic colors formed by a myriad of
+electric-lighted prisms sloping gradually from the floor to the apex
+of the dome. Thorndyke could compare it to nothing but a stupendous
+diamond, the very heart of which the eye penetrated.
+
+"Don't look at it now," advised Tradmos, in an undertone; "it was
+constructed to be seen from below, and to light the great rotunda."
+
+Mutely the captives obeyed. At every turn they were greeted with a new
+wonder. The captain now led them round a narrow balcony on the inside of
+the vast dome, and, looking over the railing down below, they saw a vast
+tessellated pavement made of polished stones of various and brilliant
+colors and so artistically arranged that, from where they stood,
+lifelike pictures of landscapes seemed to rise to meet the vision
+wherever the eye rested. Statues of white marble, gold and bronze were
+placed here and there, and, in squares of living green, fountains threw
+up streams of crystal water. Tradmos paused for them to look down and
+smiled at their evident admiration.
+
+"How far is it down there?" Thorndyke ventured to ask.
+
+"Over a thousand feet," replied Tradmos. "Look across opposite and you
+will see that there are fifty floors beneath us, and each floor has a
+balcony like this overlooking the court."
+
+"What is the sound that comes up from below?" asked the Englishman.
+
+"It is the voices of the people and their footsteps on the stone."
+
+"What people?"
+
+"Don't you see them? Your eyes are dazzled by the light; I ought to have
+warned you against looking up into the dome. The people are down there;
+do the views in the pavement not look a little blurred?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, if you will look more closely you will see that it is a multitude
+of people."
+
+"Great heavens!" exclaimed the Englishman, and he became deeply absorbed
+in the contemplation of the rarest sight he had ever seen. As he looked
+closely he noticed a black spot growing larger and nearer, and he
+glanced inquiringly at the captain.
+
+"It is an elevator. There are a great many of them used in the palace,
+but none have happened to rise as high as this since we came. The one
+you see is coming for us." The next moment the strange vehicle was
+floating toward them. The captain opened the door and preceded the
+captives into the interior.
+
+"The royal audience chamber," he said, carelessly, to the driver behind
+the glass of the adjoining compartment, and down they floated as lightly
+as a bubble--down past balcony after balcony, laden with moving throngs,
+until they alighted in a great conservatory.
+
+Near them was a tall fountain the water of which was playing weird music
+on great bells of glass, some of which hung in the fountain's stream
+and others rose and fell, giving forth strange, submerged tones in the
+foaming basin.
+
+"It is a new invention recently placed here by the king's son who is a
+musical genius," explained Tradmos. "You will be astonished at some of
+his inventions."
+
+He led them, as if to avoid the great crowds that they could now hear
+on all sides, down a long vista of palms, the branches of which met over
+their heads, to the wide door of the audience chamber. A party of men
+dressed in uniforms of white silk with gold and silver ornaments bowed
+before the captain and made way for him.
+
+The captives now found themselves in the most splendid and spacious room
+they had ever seen, at the far end of which was a long dais and on it an
+elaborate throne.
+
+"I shall be obliged to leave you when the king comes," said Tradmos to
+Thorndyke, "but I shall hope to see you again. Don't forget my name and
+rank, for I may send you a message some time that may aid you." "Thank
+you," replied the Englishman, and then as a throng of beautiful young
+women came from a room on the side and gathered about the throne he
+added inquisitively: "Who are they?"
+
+"The wives and daughters of the king and the wives of the princes," was
+the cautious answer, "but don't look at any one of them closely."
+
+"I don't see how a fellow can help it; they are ravishingly beautiful,
+don't you think so, Johnston?"
+
+"Don't be a fool," snapped the American, "don't you know enough to hold
+your tongue."
+
+Tradmos smiled as if amused, and when he had shown them to seats near
+the great golden throne, he said:
+
+"Stay where you are till the king sends for you, and then go and kneel
+before the throne. Do not rise till he bids you."
+
+The captives thanked him and the captain turned away. The eyes of all
+the royal party now rested on the strangers, and it was hard for them to
+appear unconscious of it. A great crowd was slowly filling the room
+and an orchestra in a balcony on the left of the dais began to make
+delightful music on instruments the strangers had never before seen.
+After an entrancing prelude a sound of singing was heard, and far up in
+a grand dome, lighted like the one the captives had just admired over
+the central court of the palace, they saw a bevy of maidens, robed in
+white, moving about in mid-air, apparently unsupported by anything.
+
+"How on earth is that done?" asked Thorndyke.
+
+"I don't know," returned Johnston, speaking more freely now that the
+captain had gone. "I am not surprised at anything."
+
+"Their voices are exquisite, and that orchestra--a Boston symphony
+concert couldn't be compared to it."
+
+"There goes the sunlight again," cried Johnston, "by Jove, it is blue!"
+
+The transition was sublime. They seemed transported to some other scene.
+The great multitude, the elegantly-dressed attendants about the throne,
+the courtiers, the beautiful women, all seemed to change in appearance;
+on the view through the wide doors leading to the conservatory, and the
+great swarming court beyond, the soft blue light fell like a filmy veil
+of enchantment.
+
+"Wonderful!" exclaimed the American.
+
+"It is ahead of our clocks, anyway," jested Thorndyke. "Any child that
+can count on its fingers could tell that this is the fifth hour of the
+day."
+
+The music grew louder; there was a harmonious blare of mighty trumpets,
+the clang of gongs and cymbals, and then the music softened till it
+could scarcely be heard. There was commotion about the throne.
+
+The king was coming. Every person on the dais stood motionless,
+expectant. A page drew aside the rich curtain from a door on the right,
+and an old man, wearing a robe of scarlet ornamented with jewels and a
+crown set with sparkling gems, entered and seated himself on the throne.
+The music sank lower; so soft did it become that the tinkling bells of
+the great fountain outside could be heard throughout the room.
+
+The king bowed to the throng on the dais and spoke a few words to a
+courtier who advanced as he sat down. The courtier must have spoken of
+them, for the king at once looked down at Johnston and Thorn-dyke and
+nodded his head. The courtier spoke to a page, and the youth left the
+dais and came toward the captives.
+
+"We are in for it," cautioned Thorndyke, "now don't be afraid of your
+shadow; we'll come out all right."
+
+"The king has sent for you," said the page, the next instant. "Go to the
+throne."
+
+They were the cynosure of the entire room as they went up the carpeted
+steps of the dais and knelt before the king.
+
+
+
+Chapter VI.
+
+"Rise!" commanded the king, in a deep, well-modulated voice, and when
+they had arisen he inspected them critically, his eyes lingering on
+Thorndyke.
+
+"You look as if you take life easily; you have a jovial countenance," he
+said cordially.
+
+Thorndyke returned his smile and at once felt at ease.
+
+"There is no use in taking it any other way," he said; "it doesn't
+amount to much at best."
+
+"You are wrong," returned the king, playing with the jewels on his robe,
+"that is because you have been reared as you have--in your unsystematic
+world. Here we make life a serious study. It is our object to assist
+nature in all things. The efforts of your people amount to nothing
+because they are not carried far enough. Your scientists are dreaming
+idiots. They are continually groping after the ideal and doing nothing
+with the positive. It was for us to carry out everything to perfection.
+Show me where we can make a single improvement and you shall become a
+prince."
+
+"If my life depended on that, my head would be off this instant," was
+the quick-witted reply of the Englishman.
+
+This so pleased the king that he laughed till he shook. "Well said," he
+smiled; "so you like our country?"
+
+"Absolutely charmed; my friend (Thorndyke was determined to bring his
+companion into favor, if possible) and I have been in raptures ever
+since we rose this morning."
+
+A flush of pleasure crossed the face of the king. "You have not seen
+half of our wonders yet. I confess that I am pleased with you, sir. The
+majority of people who are brought here are so frightened that they grow
+morbid and desirous to return to their own countries as soon as they
+learn that such a thing is out of the question."
+
+Thorndyke's stout heart suffered a sudden pang at the words, but he
+did not change countenance in the slightest, for the king was closely
+watching the effect of his announcement.
+
+"Of course," went on the ruler, gratified by the indifference of the
+Englishman, "of course, it could not be done. No one, outside of a few
+of the royal family and our trusted agents, has ever left us."
+
+"I can't see how any one could be so unappreciative as to want to go,"
+answered Thorndyke, with a coolness that surprised even Johnston.
+"I have travelled in all countries under the sun--the sun I was born
+under--and got so bored with them that my friend and myself took to
+ballooning for diversion; but here, there is a delightful surprise at
+every turn."
+
+"I was told you were aeronauts," returned the ruler, deigning to cast
+a glance at the silent Johnston, who stood with eyes downcast, "and I
+confess that it interested me in you."
+
+At that juncture a most beautiful girl glided through the curtains at
+the back of the throne and came impulsively toward the king. Her brown
+hair fell in rich masses on her bare shoulders; her eyes were large,
+deep and brown, and her skin was exquisitely fine in texture and color;
+her dress was artistic and well suited to her lithe figure. She held an
+instrument resembling a lute in her hands, and stopped suddenly when she
+noticed that the king was engaged.
+
+"It is my daughter, the Princess Bernardino," explained the king, as
+he heard her light step and turned toward her; "she shall sing for you,
+and, yes (nodding to her) you shall dance also."
+
+As she took her position on a great rug in front of the throne, she kept
+her eyes on the handsome Englishman as if fascinated by his appearance.
+Thorndyke's heart beat quickly; the blood mantled his face and he stood
+entranced as she touched the resonant strings with her white fingers and
+began to play and sing. An innocent, artless smile parted her lips from
+her matchless teeth, and her face glowed with inspiration. Far above in
+the nooks and crannies of the vast dome, with its divergent corridors
+and arcades, the faint echoes of her voice seemed to reply to her during
+the pauses in her song. Then she ceased singing and to the far-away and
+yet distinct accompaniment of some stringed instrument in the orchestra,
+she began to dance. Holding her instrument in a graceful fashion against
+her shoulder as one holds a violin, and with her flowing white gown
+caught in the other hand, she bowed and smiled and instantly seemed
+transformed. From the statuesque and dreamy singer she became a marvel
+of graceful motion. To and fro she swept from end to end of the great
+rug, her tiny feet and slim ankles tripping so lightly that she seemed
+to move without support through the air.
+
+Thorndyke stood as if spell-bound, for, at every turn, as if seeking his
+approval, she glanced at him inquiringly. When she finished she stood
+for a moment in the centre of the rug panting, her beautiful bosom,
+beneath its filmy covering of lace, gently rising and falling. Then,
+asking her father's consent with a mute glance, she ran forward
+impulsively, and, kneeling at Thorndyke's feet, she took his hand and
+pressed it to her lips. And rising, suffused with blushes, she tripped
+from the dais and disappeared behind the curtain.
+
+The king frowned as he looked after her. "It is a mark of preference,"
+he said coldly. "It is one of our customs for a dancer or singer to
+favor some one of her spectators in that way. My daughter evidently
+mistook you for an ambassador from one of my provinces, but it does not
+matter."
+
+"She is wonderfully beautiful," replied the tactful Englishman,
+pretending not to be flattered by the notice of the princess.
+
+"Do you think our people fine looking as a rule?" asked the king, to
+change the subject.
+
+"Decidedly; I never imagined such a race existed."
+
+Again the king was pleased. "That is one of the objects of our system.
+Generation after generation we improve mentally and physically. We are
+the only people who have ever attempted to thoroughly study the science
+of living. Your medical men may be numbered by the million; your
+remedies for your ills change daily; what you say is good for the health
+to-day is to-morrow believed to be poison; to-day you try to make blood
+to give strength, and half a century ago you believed in taking it from
+the weakest of your patients. With all this fuss over health, you will
+think nothing of allowing the son of a man who died with a loathsome
+hereditary disease to marry a woman whose family has never had a taint
+of blood. Here no such thing is thought of. To begin with, no person who
+is not thoroughly sound can remain with us. Every heart-beat is heard by
+our medical men and every vein is transparent. You see evidences of
+the benefit of our system in the men and women around you. All our
+conveniences, the excellence of our products, our great inventions are
+the result."
+
+"I have been wondering about the size of your country," ventured
+Thorndyke cautiously.
+
+The king smiled. "That will be one of the things for you to discover
+later," he returned. "But this, the City of Moron, is the capital; our
+provinces, farming lands, smaller cities, towns and hamlets lie around
+us. Come with me and I will show you something."
+
+He waved his hand and dismissed a number of courtiers who were waiting
+to be called, and rose from the throne and led the two captives into a
+large apartment adjoining the throne-room. Here they found six men in
+blue uniforms looking into a large circular mirror on a table. They all
+bowed and moved aside as the king approached.
+
+"These men are the municipal police," explained the king, resting his
+hand on the gold frame of the glass; "they are watching the city." And
+when the strangers drew nearer they were surprised to see reflected,
+in the deeply concave glass, the entire city in miniature; its streets,
+parks, public buildings, and moving populace. And what seemed to be the
+most remarkable feature of the invention was, that the instant the eye
+rested on any particular portion of the whole that part was at once
+magnified so that every detail of it was clearly observable.
+
+"This is an improvement on your police system," continued the king. "No
+sooner does anything go wrong than a red signal is given on the spot of
+the trouble and the attention of these officers is immediately called
+to it. A flying machine is sent out and the offender is brought to the
+police station; but trouble of any nature rarely occurs, and the duties
+of our police are merely nominal; my people live in thorough harmony.
+Now, come with me and I will give you an idea of the surrounding
+country."
+
+As the king spoke he led them into a circular room, the roof of which
+was of white glass, and the walls were lined with large mirrors.
+
+"This is our general observatory from which every part of Alpha can be
+seen," said the king with a touch of pride in his tone. "Look at the
+mirror in front of you."
+
+They did as he requested, and at first saw nothing; but, as he went to a
+stone table in the centre of the room and touched an electric button,
+a grand view of green fields, forests, streams, lakes and farm-houses
+flashed upon the mirror. The king laughed at their surprise and touched
+another button. As he did so the scene shifted gradually; the landscapes
+ran by like a panorama. A pretty village came into sight, and passed;
+then a larger town and still a larger; then fields, hills and valleys
+and forests of giant trees.
+
+"It is that way all over my kingdom," said the king; "in an hour I can
+inspect it all."
+
+"But how is it done?" asked Thorndyke, forgetting himself in wonder.
+
+"Through a telescopic invention, aided by electricity and the clearness
+of our atmosphere," replied the king. "It would take too long to go
+into the details. The views, however, are reflected to this point
+from various observatories throughout the land. Such a system would be
+impossible in any other country on account of the clouds and atmospheric
+changes; but here we control everything."
+
+"I noticed," returned the Englishman, "that green fields lie beside
+ripening ones and those in which the grain is being harvested."
+
+"We have no change of seasons," answered the king. "Change of seasons
+may be according to nature, but it is in the province of man's intellect
+to improve on nature. But I must leave you now; I shall summon you again
+when I have the leisure to continue our conversation."
+
+"Well, what do you think of it?" asked Johnston, as the king disappeared
+behind a curtain in the direction of the audience chamber.
+
+"I give it up; I only know that the old fellow's daughter, the Princess
+Bernardino is the most beautiful, the most bewitching creature that ever
+breathed. Did you notice her eyes and form? Great heavens! was there
+ever such a vision of human loveliness? Her grace, her voice, her
+glances drove me wild with delight."
+
+"You are dead gone," grumbled the American despondently; "we'll never
+get away from here in the world. I can see that."
+
+"I gave up all hope in that direction some time ago," said Thorndyke;
+"and why should we care? We were awfully bored with life before we came;
+for my part I'd as soon end mine up here as anywhere else. Besides,
+didn't his majesty say that they live longer under his system than we
+do?"
+
+"I don't take stock in all he says," growled the American; "he talks
+like a Chicago real estate agent who wants to sell a lot. Why doesn't he
+chop off our heads and be done with it?"
+
+Thorndyke burst into a jovial laugh. "You are coming round all right;
+that is the first joke you have got off since we came here; his royal
+Nibs may need a court-jester and give you a job."
+
+"There goes that blamed sunlight again," exclaimed Johnston, grasping
+his companion's arm, "don't you see it changing?"
+
+"Yes, and this time it is white, like old Sol's natural smile; but isn't
+it clear? It seems to me that I could see to the end of the earth in
+that light. I want to know how he does it."
+
+"How who does it?"
+
+"Why, the king, of course, it is his work--some sort of invention; but
+we must keep civil tongues in our heads when we are dealing with a man
+who can color the very light of the sun."
+
+They were walking back toward the great rotunda, and, as they entered
+the conservatory, the crowds of men and women stared at them curiously.
+They had paused to inspect the statue of a massive stone dragon when a
+young officer in glittering uniform approached and addressed Johnston.
+
+"Follow me," he said simply; "it is the king's command."
+
+The American started and looked at Thorndyke apprehensively.
+
+"Go," said the latter; "don't hesitate an instant."
+
+Poor Johnston had turned white. He held out his hand to Thorndyke,
+"Shake," he said in a whisper, not intended for the ears of the officer,
+"I don't believe that we shall meet again. I felt that we were to be
+parted ever since that medical examination."
+
+Thorndyke's face had altered; an angry flush came in his face and his
+eyes flashed, but with an effort he controlled himself.
+
+"Tut, tut, don't be silly. I shall wait for you round here; if there is
+any foul play I shall make some one suffer for it. You can depend on me
+to the end; we are hand in hand in this adventure, old man."
+
+
+
+Chapter VII.
+
+Johnston followed his guide to a flying machine outside. He hesitated
+an instant, as the officer was holding the door open, and looked back
+toward the conservatory; but he could not see Thorndyke.
+
+"Where are you taking me?" he asked desperately. But the officer did not
+seem to hear the question. He was motioning to a tall man of athletic
+build who wore a dark blue uniform and who came hastily forward and
+pushed the American into the machine. Through the open door Johnston saw
+Thorndyke's anxious face as the Englishman emerged from the conservatory
+and strode toward them. The two officers entered and closed the glass
+door.
+
+Then the machine rose and Johnston's spirits sank as they shot upward
+and floated easily over the humming crowd into the free white light
+above the smokeless city. The poor captive leaned on the window-sill
+and looked out. There was no breeze, and no current of air except that
+caused by their rapid passage through the atmosphere.
+
+Up, up, they went, till the city seemed a blur of mingled white and
+gray, and then the color below changed to a vague blue as they flew over
+the fields of the open country.
+
+The first officer took a glass and a decanter from a receptacle under a
+seat, and, pouring a little red fluid into the glass, offered it to the
+American.
+
+"Drink it," he said, "it will put you to sleep for a time."
+
+"I don't want to be drugged."
+
+"The journey will try your nerves. It is harmless."
+
+"I don't want it; if I take it, you will have to pour it down my
+throat."
+
+The officer smiled as he put the glass and decanter away. Faster and
+faster flew the machine. They had to put the window down, for the
+current of air had become too strong and cool to be pleasant. The color
+of the sunlight changed to green, and then at noon, from the zenith,
+a glorious red light shimmered down and veiled the earth with such a
+beautiful translucent haze that the poor American for a moment almost
+forgot his trouble.
+
+The afternoon came on. The sunlight became successively green, white,
+blue, lavender, rose and gray. The sun was no longer in sight and the
+gray in the west was darkening into purple, the last hour of the day.
+Night was at hand. Johnston's limbs were growing stiff from inaction,
+and he had a strong desire to speak or to hear one of the officers say
+something, but they were dozing in their respective corners. The moon
+had risen and hung far out in space overhead, but they seemed to be
+leaving it behind. Later he felt sure of this, for its light
+gradually became dimmer and dimmer till at last they were in total
+darkness--darkness pierced only by the powerful search-light which threw
+its dazzling, trumpet-shaped rays far ahead. But, search as he would
+in the direction they were going, the unfortunate American could see
+nothing but the ever-receding wall of blackness.
+
+Suddenly they began to descend. The officers awoke and stretched
+themselves and yawned. One of them opened the window and Johnston heard
+a far-off, roaring sound like that of a multitude of skaters on a vast
+sheet of ice.
+
+Down, down, they dropped. Johnston's heart was in his mouth.
+
+The machine suddenly slackened in its speed and then hung poised in
+mid-air. The rays of the search-light were directed downward and slowly
+shifted from point to point. Looking down, the American caught glimpses
+of rugged rocks, sharp cliffs and yawning chasms.
+
+"How is it?" asked the first officer, through a speaking-tube, of the
+driver.
+
+"A good landing!" was the reply.
+
+"Well, go down." And a moment later the machine settled on the uneven
+ground.
+
+The same officer opened the door, and gently pushed Johnston out.
+Johnston expected them to follow him, but the door of the machine closed
+behind him.
+
+"Stand out of the way," cried out the officer through the window; "you
+may get struck as we rise."
+
+Involuntarily Johnston obeyed. There was a sound of escaping air from
+beneath the machine, a fierce commotion in the atmosphere which sucked
+him toward the machine, and then the dazzling search-light blinded him,
+as the air-ship bounded upward and sailed back over the course it had
+come.
+
+Johnston stood paralyzed with fear. "My God, this is awful!" he
+exclaimed in terror, and his knees gave way beneath him and he sank to
+the rock. "They have left me here to starve in this hellish darkness!"
+He remained there for a moment, his face covered with his hands, then
+he sprang up desperately, and started to grope through the darkness,
+he knew not whither. He stumbled at almost every step, and ran against
+boulders which bruised his hands and face, and went on till his strength
+was gone. Then he paused and looked back toward the direction from which
+he had come. It seemed to him that he could see the straight line of
+mighty black wall above which there was a faint appearance of light. A
+lump rose in the throat of the poor fellow, and tears sprang into his
+eyes.
+
+But what was that? Surely it was a sound. It could not have been the
+wind, for the air was perfectly still. The sound was repeated. It was
+like the moaning of a human voice far away in the dark. Could it be some
+one in distress, some poor unfortunate, banished being, like himself?
+Again he heard the sound, and this time, it was like the voice of some
+one talking.
+
+"Hello!" shouted the American, and a cold shudder went over him at the
+sound of his own husky voice. There was a dead silence, then, like an
+echo of his own cry, faintly came the word, "Hello!"
+
+Filled with superstitious fear, the American cautiously groped toward
+the sound. "Hello, there, who are you?"
+
+"Help, help!" said the voice, and it was now much nearer.
+
+Johnston plunged forward precipitately. "Where are you?"
+
+"Here," and a human form loomed up before him.
+
+For a moment neither spoke, then the strange figure said: "I thought
+at first that you were some one sent to rescue me, but I see you are
+alone--damned like myself."
+
+"It looks that way," replied Johnston.
+
+"When did they bring you?"
+
+"Only a moment ago."
+
+"My God, it is awful! A week ago I did not dream of such a fate as this.
+I had enemies. The medical men were bribed to vote against me. Am I not
+strong? Am I not muscular? Feel my arms and thighs."
+
+He held out an arm and Johnston felt of it. The muscles were like stone.
+
+"You are a giant."
+
+"Ah! you are right; but they reported that there was a taint in my
+blood. I was to marry Lallio, the most beautiful creature in our
+village--Madryl, you know, the nearest hamlet to the home of the Sun. I
+was rich, and the best farmer there. But Lyngale wanted her. She hated
+him and spat at him when he spoke against me. He proved by others that
+my lungs were weak, and showed them the blood of a slain dog in my
+fields that they said had come from my lungs. Ah, they were curs! My
+lungs weak! Strike my chest with all your might. Does it not sound like
+the king's thunder? Strike, I say!" and as the enfeebled American struck
+his bare breast he cried:--"Harder, harder! Pooh, you are a child, see
+this, and this," and he emphasized his words with thunderous blows on
+his resounding chest.
+
+"But it has been so for a century," he panted; "hundreds have been
+unjustly buried alive here. The king thinks it is not murder because
+they die of starvation. I have stumbled over the bones of giants here in
+the dark lands, and have met dying men that are stronger than the king's
+athletes."
+
+"What, are there others here?" gasped the American.
+
+The Alphian was silent in astonishment.
+
+"Why, where did you come from?" he asked, after a pause.
+
+"From New York City."
+
+"I don't know of it, and yet I thought I knew of all the places inside
+the great endless wall."
+
+Johnston was mystified in his turn. "It is not in your country--your
+world, or whatever you call it. It is far away."
+
+"Ah, under the white sun! In the 'Ocean Country,' and the world of
+fierce winds and disease. And you are from there. I had heard of it
+before they banished me; but two days since I came across a dying man,
+away over there. He was huddled against the wall, and had fallen and
+killed himself in his efforts to climb back to food and light.
+
+"I saw him die. He told me that he had come from your land when he was a
+child. His trouble was the lungs and he had fallen off to a skeleton. He
+talked to me of your wide ocean land. Is it, indeed so great? And has it
+no walls about it?"
+
+"No, it is surrounded by water."
+
+"I cannot understand," and, after a pause, in which Johnston could hear
+the great fellow's heart beating, he continued; "That must be the Heaven
+the man spoke about. And beyond the water is it always dark like this,
+and do they banish people there as the king has us?"
+
+"No; beyond are other countries. But is there no chance for us to escape
+from here?"
+
+The Alphian laughed bitterly. "None. What were you banished for?"
+
+"I hardly know."
+
+"Hold out your arm. There," as he grasped Johnston's arm in a clasp
+of iron, "I see; you are undeveloped, unfit--none but the healthy and
+strong are allowed to live in Alpha. It is right, of course; but it is
+hard to bear. But I must lie down. I am wearied with constant rambling.
+I am nervous too. I fell asleep awhile ago and dreamt I heard all my
+friends in a great clamoring body calling my name, 'Branasko!' and then
+I awoke and cried for help."
+
+As he spoke he sank with a sigh to the ground and rested his head on his
+elbows and knees and seemed asleep. The American sat down beside him,
+and, for a long time, neither spoke. Branasko broke the silence; he
+awoke with a start and eyed his companion in sleepy wonder.
+
+"Ugh, I dreamt again," he grunted, "are you asleep?"
+
+"No," was Johnston's reply. "I am hungry and thirsty and cannot sleep."
+
+"So am I, but we must wait till it is lighter, then we can go in search
+of food. When I was a boy I learned to catch fish in pools with my hands
+and it has prolonged my life here. When the light comes again, I shall
+show you how I do it."
+
+"Then the day does break? I thought it was eternally dark here."
+
+"It does not get very light, because we are behind the sun; but it is
+lighter than now, for we get the sun's reflection, enough at least to
+keep us from falling into the chasms."
+
+Branasko lowered his head to his knees and slept again, but the
+American, though wearied, was wakeful. Several hours passed. The Alphian
+was sleeping soundly, his breathing was very heavy and he had rolled
+down on his side.
+
+Far away in the east the darkness gradually faded into purple, and then
+into gray, and slowly hints of pink appeared in the skies. It was dawn.
+Johnston touched his companion. The man awoke and looked at him from his
+great swollen eyes.
+
+"It is day," he yawned, rising and stretching himself.
+
+"But the sun is not in sight."
+
+"No; it shows itself only in the middle of the day, and then but for a
+few minutes. We must go now and search for food. I will show you how to
+catch the eyeless fish in the black caverns over there." And he led the
+American into the blackness behind them. Every now and then, as they
+stumbled along, Johnston would look longingly back toward the faint pink
+light that shone above the high black wall. But Branasko hastened on.
+
+Presently they came to the edge of a black chasm and the American was
+filled with awe, for, from the seemingly fathomless depths, came a great
+roaring sound like that of a mighty wind and the air that came from it
+was hot, though pure and free from the odor of gas.
+
+"What is this?" he asked.
+
+"They are everywhere," answered Branasko, "if it were not for their hot
+breathing the Land of the Changing Sun would be cold and damp."
+
+"Then the sun does not give out heat?"
+
+"No."
+
+"It is cold?"
+
+"I believe so, I have never thought much about it."
+
+The American was mystified, but he did not question farther, for
+Branasko was carefully lowering himself into the hot gulf.
+
+"Follow me," he said; "we must cross it to reach the caves. I will guide
+you. I have been over this way before."
+
+"But can we stand the heat?"
+
+"Oh, yes; when we get used to it, it is invigorating. I perspire in
+streams, but I feel better afterward. Come on."
+
+Branasko's head only was above the ground. "I am standing on a ledge,"
+he said. "Get down beside me. Fear nothing. It is solid; besides, what
+does it matter? You can die but once, and it would really be better to
+fall down there into the internal fires than to starve slowly."
+
+Johnston shuddered convulsively as he let himself down beside Branasko.
+His foot dislodged a stone. With a crash it fell upon a lower ledge and
+bounded off and went whizzing down into the depths. Both men listened.
+They heard the stone bounding from ledge to ledge till the sound was
+lost in the internal roaring.
+
+"It is mighty deep," said Johnston.
+
+"Yes, but follow me; we cannot stop here; we must go along this ledge
+till we get to the point where the chasm is narrow enough to jump
+across. I have done it."
+
+"The American held to his companion with one hand and the rock with the
+other, and they slowly made their way along the narrow ledge, pausing
+every now and then to rest. At every step the path grew more perilous
+and narrower, and the cliff on their left rose higher and higher, till
+the reflected light of the sun had entirely disappeared. At certain
+points the hot wind dashed upon them as furiously as the whirling mist
+in 'The Cave of Winds' at Niagara Falls. Once Johnston's foot slipped
+and he fell, but was drawn back to safety by the strong arm of the
+Alphian.
+
+"Be careful; hold to the cliff's face," warned Branasko indifferently,
+and he moved onward as if nothing unusual had occurred. Presently they
+reached a point where a narrow boulder jutted out over the chasm toward
+the opposite side, and Branasko cautiously crawled out upon it. When
+he had got to its end, Johnston could not see him in the gloom, but his
+voice came to him out of the roaring of the chasm.
+
+"I can see the other side, and am going to jump." An instant later, the
+American heard the clatter of the Alphian's shoes on the rock, and his
+grunt of satisfaction. Then Branasko called out: "Come on; crawl out
+till you feel the end of the rock, and then you can see me."
+
+In great trepidation the American slowly crawled out on the narrow rock.
+Below him yawned the hot darkness, above hung that black ominous canopy
+of nothingness. Slowly he advanced on hands and knees, every moment
+feeling the sharp rock growing narrower, till finally he reached the
+end. He looked ahead. He could but faintly see the ledge and Branasko's
+tall form silhouetted upon it.
+
+"See, this is where you have to alight," cried the Alphian. "Jump, I
+will catch you!"
+
+"I am afraid I shall topple over when I stand up," replied the American.
+"The rock is narrow and my head is already swimming. I fear I cannot
+reach you. It is no use."
+
+"Tut, tut!" exclaimed Branasko. "Stand up quickly, and jump at once.
+Don't stop to think about it."
+
+Johnston obeyed. He felt his feet firmly braced on the rock and he
+sprang toward the opposite ledge with all his might. Branasko caught
+him.
+
+"Good," he grunted. "There is another place, we must jump again. It
+is further on." Along this ledge they went for some distance, Branasko
+leading the way and holding the arm of the American.
+
+"Now here we are, the chasm is a little wider, but the ledge on the
+other side is broader." As he spoke he released Johnston's arm and
+prepared to jump. He filled his lungs two or three times. But he seemed
+to hesitate. "Pshaw, watching you back there has made me nervous. I
+never cared before. If I should happen to fall, go back to where we met,
+it is safer there without a guide than here."
+
+Without another word Branasko hurled himself forward. Johnston held
+his breath in horror, for Branasko's foot had slipped as he jumped.
+The Alphian had struck the opposite ledge, but not with his feet, as
+he intended. He clutched it with his hands and hung there for a moment,
+struggling to get a foothold in the emptiness beneath him.
+
+"It's no use, I am falling; I can hold no longer!" And Johnston,--too
+terrified to reply,--heard the poor fellow's hands slipping from the
+rock, causing a quantity of loose stones to go rattling down below. With
+a low cry Branasko fell. An instant later Johnston heard him strike the
+ledge beneath, and heard him cry out in pain. Then all was still except
+the echoes of Branasko's cry, which bounded and rebounded from side to
+side of the chasm, and grew fainter and fainter, till it was submerged
+in the roaring below. Then there was a rattle of stones, and Branasko's
+voice sounded: "A narrow escape!" he said faintly. "I am on another
+ledge"--then after a slight pause, "it is much wider, I don't know how
+wide. Are you listening?"
+
+"Yes, but are you hurt?"
+
+"Not at all. Simply knocked the breath out of me for a moment. There is
+a cave behind me, and (for a moment there was silence) I can see a light
+ahead in the cave. I think it must be the reflection of the internal
+fire. Come down to me and we will explore the cavern, and see where the
+light comes from."
+
+"I can't get down there!" shouted Johnston, to make himself heard above
+a sudden increase in the roaring in the chasm, "there is no way."
+
+"Wait a moment!" came from the Alphian. "This ledge seems to incline
+upward."
+
+Johnston stood perfectly motionless, afraid to move from the ledge
+either to right or to left, and heard Branasko's footsteps along the
+rock beneath. "All right so far," he called up, and his voice showed
+that he had gone to a considerable distance to the left, "the ledge
+seems to be still leading gradually upward. I think I can reach you."
+
+Fifteen minutes passed. The lone American could no longer hear
+Branasko's footsteps. Johnston was becoming uneasy and the hot air
+was causing his head to swim. He was thinking of trying to retrace his
+footsteps to a place of more security when he heard footsteps, and then
+the cheery voice of Branasko nearly opposite him across the chasm:
+
+"Are you there?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It is well; I have discovered a good pathway down to the cave, and a
+pool of fish besides. I have saved some for you. I was so hungry I had
+to eat. Now, you must jump over to me."
+
+"I cannot," declared the American. "I cannot jump so far; besides, you
+failed."
+
+Branasko laughed. "I did not leap in the right direction. It is this
+point on which I am now standing that I should have tried to reach.
+Come, I will catch you."
+
+Johnston could not bear to be considered cowardly, so he stepped to the
+verge of the chasm and prepared to jump. His head felt more dizzy as he
+thought of the fathomless depths beneath, and the rush of hot air up the
+side of the cliff took his breath away, but he braced himself and said
+calmly: "All right, I am coming." The next instant he sprang forward.
+Branasko caught him into his arms and they both rolled back on the level
+stone.
+
+"Good," cried the Alphian, trying to catch his breath, which Johnston
+had knocked out of him by the fall. "You did better than I; you are
+lighter."
+
+"Where shall we go now?" asked Johnston, regaining his feet and feeling
+of his legs and arms to see if he had broken any bones.
+
+"Down this winding path to the place where I saw that light. I want to
+understand it. But you must first eat this fish. It is delicious. They
+are swarming in the pools below."
+
+"And water?" said Johnston.
+
+"An abundance of it, and as cold as ice."
+
+As Branasko preceded him down the tortuous path, Johnston ate the raw
+fish eagerly. Presently they came to a deep pool of water, and both men
+threw themselves down on their stomachs and drank freely. After this
+they proceeded slowly for several hundred yards, and finally reached
+the entrance to the cave in which Branasko had seen the light. At that
+distance it looked like the light of some great conflagration reflected
+from the face of a cliff.
+
+They entered the cave and made good progress toward the light, for it
+showed them the dangerous fissures, sharp boulders and stalactites. They
+had walked along in silence for several minutes when the Alphian
+stopped abruptly and turned to his companion. "What is the matter?" asked
+Johnston.
+
+"It cannot come from the internal fires," replied Branasko, "for the
+atmosphere grows cooler as we get nearer the light and away from the
+chasm."
+
+Johnston was too much puzzled to formulate a reply, and he simply waited
+for the Alphian to continue.
+
+"Let's go on," said Branasko; and in his tone and hesitating manner
+Johnston detected the first appearance of superstitious fear that he had
+seen in the brawny Alphian.
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII.
+
+As Thorndyke watched the flying machine that was bearing his friend
+away a genuine feeling of pity went over him. Poor Johnston! He had been
+haunted all day with the belief that he was to meet with some misfortune
+from which Thorndyke was to be spared, and Thorndyke had ridiculed
+his fears. When the air-ship had become a mere speck in the sky, the
+Englishman turned back into the palace and strolled about in the vast
+crowd.
+
+A handsome young man in uniform approached and touched his hat:
+
+"Are you the comrade of the fellow they are just sending away?" he
+asked.
+
+"Yes. Where are they taking him?"
+
+"To the 'Barrens,' of course; where do you suppose they would take such
+a man? He couldn't pass his examination. You are not a great physical
+success yourself, but they say you pleased the king with your tongue."
+
+"To the Barrens," repeated Thorndyke, too much concerned over the fate
+of his comrade to notice the speaker's tone of contempt; "what are they,
+where are they?"
+
+The Alphian officer changed countenance, as he looked him over with
+widening eyes.
+
+"Your accent is strange; are you from the other world?"
+
+"I suppose so,--this is a new one to me at any rate."
+
+"The world of endless oceans?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And the unchanging sun--forever white and----?"
+
+"Yes; but where the devil is the Barrens?"
+
+"Behind the sun, beyond the great endless wall."
+
+"Do they intend to put him to death?"
+
+"No, that would be--what do you call it? murder; they will simply leave
+him there to die of his own accord. And the king is right. I never saw
+such a weakling. He would taint our whole race with his presence."
+
+Without a word Thorndyke abruptly turned from the officer and hastened
+toward the apartment of the king. He would demand the return of poor
+Johnston or kill the king if his demand was not granted. In his haste
+and perturbation, however, he lost his way and wandered into a part of
+the palace he had not seen. At every step he was more and more impressed
+with the magnificent proportions of the structure and the grandeur of
+everything about it.
+
+Passing hurriedly through a large hall he saw an assemblage of beautiful
+women and handsome men dancing to the music of a great orchestra.
+Further on--in a great court--a regiment of soldiers were drilling,
+their rapid evolutions making no more sound than if they were moving in
+mid-air. In another room he saw a great body of men, women and children
+in vari-colored suits bathing in a pool of rose-colored, perfumed water.
+
+He was passing on when a woman, closely veiled and simply dressed,
+touched his arm.
+
+"Be watchful and follow me," she said, in a low, guarded tone.
+
+The heart of the Englishman bounded and his blood rushed to his face,
+for the speaker was the Princess Bernardino. She did not pause, but
+glided on into the shade of a great palm tree, and, behind a row of
+thick-growing ferns of great height and thickness, she waited for him.
+
+She lowered her veil as he approached and looked at him from her deep
+brown eyes in great concern. He stood spell-bound under the witchery of
+her beauty.
+
+"I came to warn you, Prince," she said, and her soft musical voice set
+every nerve in Thorndyke's body to tingling with delight. "My father
+has banished the faithful slave that you love, but you must not show
+the anger that you feel, else he will kill you. You must be exceedingly
+cautious if you would save him. My father would punish me severely if
+he knew that I had sought you in this way. I was obliged to come in
+disguise; this dress belongs to my most trusted maid."
+
+"And you came for my sake?" blurted out the Englishman, much
+embarrassed; "I am not worthy of such a high honor."
+
+She smiled and tears rose in her eyes.
+
+"Oh, Prince, don't speak to me so! You are far above me. I am weak. I
+know nothing. I never cared for other men than the king and my brothers
+till I saw you today, but now I would willingly be your slave."
+
+"I am yours forever, and an humble one," bowed the courteous Englishman.
+"The moment I saw you at the throne of your father my heart went out to
+you. You wound it up in your music and trampled it under your dancing
+feet. I have been over the whole world, and you are the loveliest
+creature in it. It is because I saw you, because you are here, that I do
+not want to leave your country. They may do as they will with me if they
+only will let me see you now and then."
+
+The princess was deeply moved. The blood rushed to her face and
+beautified it. Her eyes fell beneath his admiring glance. Thorndyke
+could not restrain himself. He caught her slender hand and pressed it
+passionately to his lips, and she made only a slight effort to prevent
+it.
+
+"I am your obedient slave; what shall I do?" he asked.
+
+"Do not try to rescue him now," she said softly. "I shall come to you
+again when we are not watched--you can know me by this dress. There is
+no need for great haste, he could live in the Barrens several days;
+I shall try to think of some way to save him, though such a thing has
+never been done--never."
+
+Footsteps were heard on the other side of the row of ferns. A man was
+passing and others soon followed him. The bathers were leaving the great
+pool.
+
+"I must leave you now," she whispered. "If the king honors you again by
+talking of his kingdom, continue to act as you did; your fearlessness
+and good humor have pleased him greatly."
+
+"Could I not persuade him to bring Johnston back?"
+
+"No; that would be impossible; those who are pronounced physically unfit
+are obliged to die. It has been a law for a long time; you must not
+count on that. I have, however, another plan, but I cannot tell you of
+it now, for they may miss me and wonder where I am, and then, too, my
+father may be looking for you. He will naturally desire to see you soon
+again."
+
+Bowing, she turned away and passed on toward the apartments of the king,
+which the Englishman now recognized in the distance. Thorndyke went
+into the bathing-room to watch those remaining in the great pool of
+rose-colored water. The sight was beautiful. The waves which lapped
+against the shelving shores of white marble were pink and white, and the
+deeper water was as red as coral.
+
+The Englishman was at once troubled over the fate of Johnston and elated
+over having won Bernardino's regard. Thoughtfully he strolled away from
+the bathers into a great picture-gallery. Here hung on the walls and
+stood on pedestals some of the rarest works of art he had ever seen. He
+passed through this room and was entering a shady retreat where plants,
+flowers and umbrageous trees grew thickly, when he heard a step behind
+him and the rustling of a silken skirt against the plants.
+
+It was Bernardino.
+
+"We can be unobserved here," she said, taking off her thick veil and
+arranging her luxuriant hair. "I hasten back. The king thinks, so
+my maid tells me, that I am asleep in my chamber. He is busy with an
+audience of police from a neighboring town and will not think of us."
+
+She sat down on a sofa upholstered in leather, and he took a seat beside
+her. "I am glad that we can talk alone," he said, "for I have much to
+ask you. First, tell me where we are,--where this strange country is on
+the map of the world."
+
+"It is a long story," she replied, "and it would greatly incense the
+king if he should find out that I had told you, for one of his chief
+pleasures is to note the surprise and admiration of new-comers over what
+they see here. But if you will promise to gratify his vanity in this
+particular I will try to explain it all."
+
+"I promise, and you can depend on my not getting you into trouble,"
+replied Thorndyke. "I never was so puzzled in my life, with that sullen
+sky overhead, the wonderful changing sunlight, and the remarkable
+atmosphere. I am both bewildered and entranced. Every moment I see
+something new and startling. Where are we?"
+
+"Far beneath the ocean and the surface of the earth. I only know what
+the king has let fall in my hearing in his conferences with his men of
+science and inventors; but I shall try to make you understand how it all
+came about."
+
+"It was a long time ago, two hundred years back, I suppose, that one of
+my ancestors discovered a little isolated island in the Atlantic Ocean.
+He was forced in a storm to land there with his ship and crew to make
+some repairs in his vessel. In wandering about over the island he
+discovered a narrow entrance to a cave, and, with two or three of his
+men, he began to explore it. When they had gone for a mile or two down
+into the interior of the cavern, which seemed to lead straight down
+toward the centre of the earth, they began to find small pieces of gold.
+The further they went the more they found, till at last the very cavern
+walls seemed lined with it.
+
+"They were at first wildly excited over their sudden good fortune and
+were about to load their ship with it and return to Europe at once, but
+the better judgment of my ancestor prevailed. He explained that, if the
+world were informed of the discovery of such an inexhaustible mine of
+gold, that the value of the precious metal would decline till it would
+be worth little more than some grosser metal, and that if they would
+only keep their secret to themselves they could in time control the
+finances of the world. So, acting on this suggestion, they only dug out
+a few thousand pounds and took part of it to Europe and part of it to
+America and turned it into money.
+
+"Then, to curtail my story, they elected my ancestor as ruler, and, with
+ships loaded with every available convenience that inexhaustible wealth
+could procure and a colony of carefully chosen men, they returned to the
+island.
+
+"After the men and their families had settled in the great roomy mouth
+of the cavern my ancestor supplied himself with several strong men and
+food and lights, and sought to explore the entire cavern.
+
+"To their astonishment they found that it was practically endless. When
+they had gone down about sixty or seventy miles below the sea level they
+found themselves on a vast, undulating plain, the soil of which was dark
+and rich, with the black roof of the cavern arching overhead like the
+bottom of a great inverted bowl. And when they had travelled about ten
+days and reached the other side my ancestor calculated that the cave
+must be over one hundred miles in diameter and almost circular in shape.
+But what elated and surprised them most was the remarkable salubrity
+of the atmosphere. In all parts of the cave it was exactly the same
+temperature, and they found that they scarcely felt any fatigue from
+their journey, and that they had little desire to eat the provisions
+with which they were supplied. Indeed, the very air seemed permeated
+with a subtle quality that gave them strength and energy of mind and
+body.
+
+"Finally, when, after a month had passed, and they returned to their
+anxious friends, these people overwhelmed them with exclamations of
+surprise over their appearance. And in the light of day the explorers
+looked at one another in astonishment, for, in the dim light of the
+lanterns they had carried, they had not noticed the great change that
+had come over them. They had all become the finest specimens of physical
+health that could be imagined. Their bodies had filled out; they were
+remarkably strong; their skins shone with healthful color and their eyes
+sparkled with intellectual energy, and their minds, even to the humblest
+burden-carrier, were astonishingly acute and active.
+
+"My ancestor was a remarkable man, and he had hitherto shown much
+inventive ability; but in that month in the cave he had developed
+into an intellectual giant. After mature deliberation, he proposed a
+prodigious scheme to his followers. He explained that, while they might,
+by using the utmost discretion, hold the financial world in their power
+by means of their inexhaustible wealth, that the laws and restrictions
+of different countries prevented men of vast wealth from really enjoying
+more privileges than men of moderate means. He grew eloquent in speaking
+of the underground atmosphere, and proposed that they light the great
+cavern from end to end and make it an ideal place where they could live
+as it suited them.
+
+"I see that you guess the end. My ancestor was a great student of the
+sciences and had already thought of putting electricity to practical
+use. You are surprised? Yes, it has been applied to our purposes for two
+hundred years, while your people have understood its use such a short
+time."
+
+"Great heavens!" exclaimed the Englishman. "I see it all; the sun is an
+electric one!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And it runs mechanically over its great course as regularly as
+clock-work."
+
+"More accurately, I assure you, but there probably never was a greater
+mathematical problem than they solved in deciding on the size the sun
+should be and amount of light necessary to fill up all the recesses of
+the great vacancy. It was all very crude at the start; for years a great
+electric light was simply suspended in the centre of the cavern's roof
+and the light did not vary in color. A son of the first king suggested
+the plan of giving the sun diurnal movement and the changing light. The
+moon and stars were a later development. They found, too, that the light
+could not be made to reach certain recesses in the cavern where the roof
+approached the earth, so they finally built a great wall to keep the
+inhabitants within proscribed boundaries, and to prevent them from
+understanding the machinery of the heavens."
+
+"Wonderful!" exclaimed Thorndyke. "But the temperature of the
+atmosphere, how does that happen to be so delightful and beneficial?"
+
+"I believe they do not themselves thoroughly comprehend that. The heat
+comes from the internal fires, and the fresh air from without in some
+mysterious way. At first, in a few places, the heat was too severe, but
+the scientific men among the first settlers obviated this difficulty by
+closing up the hottest of the fissures and opening others in the cooler
+parts of the cavern."
+
+"And the people, where did they come from?"
+
+"From all parts of the earth. We had agents outside who selected
+such men and women that were willing to come, and who filled all the
+requirements, mentally and physically."
+
+"But why do they desire to live here instead of out in the world, when
+they have all the wealth that they need to assure every advantage."
+
+"They dread death, and it is undoubtedly true that life is prolonged
+here; our medical men declare that the longevity of every generation is
+improved."
+
+"Is it possible? But tell me about the sun, when it sets, what becomes
+of it?"
+
+"It goes back to its place of rising through a great tunnel beneath us."
+
+Thorndyke sat in deep thought for a moment; then he looked so steadily
+and so admiringly into Bernardino's eyes that she grew red with
+confusion. "But you, yourself, are you thoroughly content here?"
+
+"I know nothing else," she continued. "I have heard little about your
+world except that your people are discontented, weak and insane, and
+that your changeable weather and your careless laws regarding marriage
+and heredity produce perpetual and innumerable diseases; that your
+people are not well developed and beautiful; that you war with one
+another, and that one tears down what another builds. I have, too,
+always been happy, and since you came I am happier still. I don't know
+what it means. I have never been so much interested in any one before."
+
+"It is love on the part of both of us," replied the Englishman
+impulsively, taking her hand. "I never was content before. I went roving
+over the earth trying to end my life at sea or in balloon voyages, but
+now I only want to be with you. I have never dreamed that I could be so
+happy or that I would meet any one so beautiful as you are."
+
+Bernardino's delight showed itself in blushes on her face, and
+Thorndyke, unable to restrain himself, put his arm around her and drew
+her to his breast and kissed her.
+
+She sprang up quickly and he saw that she was trembling and that all the
+color had fled from her face.
+
+"What is the matter?" he asked, in alarm.
+
+At first she did not answer, but only looked at him half-frightened,
+and then covered her face with her hands. He drew them from her face and
+compelled her to look at him.
+
+"What is the matter?" he repeated, a strange fear at his heart.
+
+"You have broken one of the most sacred laws of our country," she
+faltered, in great embarrassment; "my father would punish me very
+severely if he knew of it, and he would banish you; for, to treat me in
+that manner, as his daughter, is regarded as an insult to him."
+
+"I beg your pardon most humbly," said the contrite Englishman. "It was
+all on account of my ignorance of your customs and my impulsiveness. It
+shall never happen again, I promise you."
+
+Her face brightened a little and the color came back slowly. She sat
+down again, but not so near Thorndyke, and seemed desirous of changing
+the subject.
+
+"And do you love the man my father has transported?" she questioned.
+
+"Yes, he is a good, faithful fellow, and it is hard to die so far away
+from friends."
+
+"We must try to save him, but I cannot now think of a safe plan. The
+police are very vigilant."
+
+"Where was he taken?"
+
+"Into the darkness behind the sun--beyond the wall of which I spoke."
+
+A flush of shame came into Thorndyke's face over the remembrance that he
+had made no effort to aid poor Johnston, and was sitting listening with
+delight to the conversation of Bernardino. He rose suddenly.
+
+"I must be doing something to aid him," he said. "I cannot sit here
+inactive while he is in danger."
+
+"Be patient," she advised, looking at him admiringly; "it is near night;
+see, it is the gray light of dusk; the sun is out of sight. To-night,
+if possible, I shall come to you. Perhaps I shall approach you without
+disguise if you are in the throne-room and my father does not object to
+my entertaining you, but for the present we must separate. Adieu."
+
+He bowed low as she turned away, and joined the throng that was passing
+along outside. An officer approached him. It was Captain Tradmos, who
+bowed and smiled pleasantly.
+
+"I congratulate you," he said, with suave pleasantness.
+
+"Upon what?" Thorndyke was on his guard at once.
+
+"Upon having pleased the king so thoroughly. No stranger, in my memory,
+has ever been treated so courteously. Every other new-comer is put under
+surveillance, but you are left unwatched."
+
+"He is easily pleased," said the Englishman, "for I have done nothing to
+gratify him."
+
+"I thought he would like you; and I felt that your friend would have to
+suffer, but I could not help him."
+
+"He shall not suffer if I can prevent it."
+
+"Sh--be cautious. Those words, implying an inclination to treason, if
+spoken to any other officer would place you under immediate arrest.
+I like you, therefore I want to warn you against such folly. You are
+wholly in the king's power. Another thing I would specially warn you
+against----"
+
+"And that is?"
+
+"Not to allow the king to suspect your admiration for the Princess
+Bernardino. It would displease the king. She is much taken with you; I
+saw it in her eyes when she danced for your entertainment."
+
+Thorndyke made no reply, but gazed searchingly into the eyes of the
+officer. Tradmos laughed.
+
+"You are afraid of me."
+
+"No, I am not, I trust you wholly; I know that you are honorable; I
+never make a mistake along that line."
+
+Tradmos bowed, pleased by the compliment.
+
+"I shall aid you all I can with my advice, for I know you will not
+betray me; but at present I am powerless to give you material aid. Every
+subject of this realm is bound to the autocratic will of the king. It is
+impossible for any one to get from under his power."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"The only outlet to the upper world is carefully guarded by men who
+would not be bribed."
+
+"Is there any chance for my friend?"
+
+"None that I can see, but I must walk on; there comes one of the king's
+attendants."
+
+"The king has asked to speak to you," announced the attendant to
+Thorndyke.
+
+"I will go with you," was his reply, and he followed the man through the
+crowded corridors into the throne-room of the king. Thorndyke forced a
+smile as he saw the king smiling at him as he approached the throne.
+
+"What do you think of my palace?" asked the king, after Thorndyke had
+knelt before him.
+
+"It is superb," answered the Englishman, recalling the advice of
+Bernardino. "I am dazed by its splendor, its architecture, and its art.
+I have seen nothing to equal it on earth."
+
+The king rose and stood beside him. His manner was both pleasing and
+sympathetic. "I am persuaded," said he, "that you will make a good
+subject, and have the interest of Alpha always at heart, but I have
+often been mistaken in the character of men and think it best to give
+you a timely warning. An attendant will conduct you to a chamber beneath
+the palace where it will be your privilege to converse with a man who
+once planned to get up a rebellion among my people."
+
+There had come suddenly a stern harshness into the king's tone that
+roused the fears of Thorndyke. He was about to reply, but the king held
+up his hand. "Wait till you have visited the dungeon of Nordeskyne, then
+I am sure that you will be convinced that strict obedience in thought
+as well as deed is best for an inhabitant of Alpha." Speaking thus, he
+signed to an attendant who came forward and bowed.
+
+"Conduct him to the dungeon of Nordeskyne, and return to me," ordered
+the king.
+
+Thorndyke's heart was heavy, and he was filled with strange forebodings,
+but he simply smiled and bowed, as the attendant led him away. The
+attendant opened a door at the back of the throne-room and they were
+confronted by darkness. They went along a narrow corridor for some
+distance, the darkness thickening at every step. There was no sound
+except the sound of the guide's shoes on the smooth stone pavement.
+Presently the man released Thorndyke's arm, saying:
+
+"It is narrow here, follow close behind, and do not attempt to go back."
+
+"I shall certainly stick to you," replied the Englishman drily. They
+turned a sharp corner suddenly, and were going in another direction when
+Thorndyke felt a soft warm hand steal into his from behind, and knew
+intuitively that it was Bernardino. The guide was a few feet in advance
+of them and she drew Thorndyke's head down and whispered into his ear.
+
+"Be brave--by all that you love--for your life, keep your presence of
+mind, and----"
+
+"What was that?" asked the guide, turning suddenly and catching the
+Englishman's arm, "I thought I heard whispering."
+
+"I was saying my prayers, that is all," and the Englishman pressed the
+hand of the princess, who, pressed close against the wall, was gliding
+cautiously away.
+
+"Prayers, humph--you'll need them later, come on!" and he caught the
+Englishman's arm and hastily drew him onward. Thorndyke's spirits sank
+lower. The air of the narrow under-ground corridor was cold and damp,
+and he quivered from head to foot.
+
+
+
+Chapter IX.
+
+Branasko paused again in his walk towards the mysterious light.
+
+"It cannot be from the internal fires," said he, "for this light is
+white, and the glow of the fires is red."
+
+"Let's turn back," suggested Johnston, "it can do us no good to go down
+there; it is only taking us further from the wall."
+
+"I should like to understand it," returned the Alphian thoughtfully;
+"and, besides, there can be no more danger there than back among the hot
+crevices. We have got to perish anyway, and we might as well spice the
+remainder of our lives with whatever adventure we can. Who knows what we
+may not discover? There are many things about the land of Alpha that the
+inhabitants do not understand."
+
+"I'll follow you anywhere," acquiesced Johnston; "you are right."
+
+They stumbled on over the rocky surface in silence. At times, the roof
+of the cavern sank so low that they had to stoop to pass under it, and
+again it rose sharply like the roof of a cathedral, and the rays of the
+far-away, but ever-increasing light, shone upon glistening stalactites
+that hung from the darkness above them like daggers of diamonds set in
+ebony.
+
+"It is not so near as I supposed," said the Alphian wearily. "And the
+light seemed to me to be shining on a cliff over which water is pouring
+in places. Yes, you can see that it is water by the ripples in the
+light."
+
+"Yes, but where can the light itself be?"
+
+"I cannot yet tell; wait till we get nearer."
+
+In about an hour they came to a wide chasm on the other side of which
+towered a vast cliff of white crystal. It was on this that the trembling
+light was playing.
+
+"Not a waterfall after all," said Branasko; "see, there is the source
+of the reflection," and he pointed to the left through a series of dark
+chambers of the cavern to a dazzling light. "Come, let's go nearer
+it." He moved a few steps forward and then happening to look over his
+shoulder he stopped abruptly, and uttered an exclamation of surprise.
+
+"What is it?" And Johnston followed the eyes of the Alphian.
+
+"Our shadows on the crystal cliff," said Branasko in an awed tone; "only
+the light from the changing sun could make them so."
+
+Johnston shuddered superstitiously at the tone of Branasko's quivering
+voice, and their giant shadows which stood out on the smooth crystal
+like silhouettes. So clear-cut were they, that, in his own shadow, the
+American could see his breast heaving and in Branasko's the quivering of
+the Alphian's huge body and limbs.
+
+"If we have happened upon the home of the sun, only the spirit of the
+dead kings could tell what will become of us," said Branasko.
+
+"Puh! you are blindly superstitious," said Johnston; "what if we do come
+upon the sun? Let's go down there and look into the mystery."
+
+Branasko fell into the rear and the American stoutly pushed ahead toward
+the light which was every moment increasing. As they advanced the cave
+got larger until it opened out into a larger plain over which hung
+fathomless darkness, and out of the plain a great dazzling globe of
+light was slowly rising.
+
+"It is the sun itself," exclaimed Branasko, and he sank to the earth and
+covered his face with his hands. "I have not thought ever to see it out
+of the sky."
+
+The American was deeply thrilled by the grand sight. He sat down by
+Branasko and together they watched the vast ball of light emerge from
+the black earth and gradually disappear in a great hole in the roof of
+the cavern. It left a broad stream of light behind it, and, now that the
+sun itself was out of view, the silent spectators could see the great
+square hole from which it had risen.
+
+As if by mutual consent, they rose and made their way over the rocks
+to the verge of the hole, which seemed several thousand feet square.
+At first, owing to the brightness of the sun overhead, they could see
+nothing; but, as the great orb gradually disappeared, they began to see
+lights and the figures of men moving about below. Later they observed
+the polished parts of stupendous machinery--machinery that moved almost
+noiselessly.
+
+Johnston caught sight of a great net-work of moving cables reaching
+from the machinery up through the hole above and exclaimed
+enthusiastically:--"A mechanical sun! electric daylight! What genius!
+A world in a great cave! Hundreds of square miles and thousands of well
+organized people living under the light of an artificial sun!"
+
+The Alphian looked at him astonished. "Is it not so in your country?" he
+asked.
+
+Johnston smiled. "The great sun that lights the outer world is as much
+greater than that ball of light as Alpha is greater than a grain of
+sand. But this surely is the greatest achievement of man. But while I
+now understand how your sun goes over the whole of Alpha, I cannot see
+how it returns."
+
+"Then you have not heard of the great tunnel of the Sun," replied the
+Alphian.
+
+"No,what is it?"
+
+"It runs beneath Alpha and connects the rising and setting points of the
+sun. There is a point beneath the king's palace where, by a staircase,
+the king and his officers may go down and inspect the sun as it is on
+its way back to the east during the day."
+
+"Wonderful!"
+
+"And once a year a royal party goes in the sun over its entire course.
+It is said that it is sumptuously furnished inside, and not too warm,
+the lights being only innumerable small ones on the outside."
+
+The two men were silent for a moment then Johnston said:
+
+"Perhaps we might be able to get into it unobserved and be thus carried
+over to the other side, or reach the palace through the tunnel."
+
+Branasko started convulsively, and then, as he looked into the earnest
+eyes of the American, he said despondently:
+
+"We have got to die, anyway; it may be well for us to think of it; but
+on the other side, in the Barrens, there is no more chance for escape
+than here. But the adventure would at least give us something to think
+about; let's try it."
+
+"All right; but how can we get down there where the sun starts to rise?"
+asked the American, peering cautiously over the edge of the hole.
+
+"There must be some way," answered Branasko. "Ah, see! further to the
+left there are some ledges; let's see what can be done that way."
+
+"I am with you."
+
+The rays of the departing sun were almost gone, and the electric lights
+down among the machinery seemed afar off like stars reflected in deep
+water. With great difficulty the two men lowered themselves from one
+sharp ledge to another till they had gone half down to the bottom.
+
+"It is no use," said Branasko, peering over the lowest ledge. "There
+are no more ledges and this one juts out so far that even if there were
+smaller ones beneath we could not get to them."
+
+"That is true," agreed the American, "but look, is not that a lake
+beneath? I think it must be, for the lights are reflected on its
+surface."
+
+"You are right," answered Branasko; "and I now see a chance for us to
+get down safely."
+
+"How?"
+
+"The workers are too far from the lake to see us; we can drop into the
+water and swim ashore."
+
+"Would they not hear the splashing of our bodies?"
+
+"I think not; but first let's experiment with a big stone."
+
+Suiting the action to the word, they secured a stone weighing about
+seventy-five pounds and brought it to the ledge. Carefully poising it
+in mid-air, they let it go. Down it went, cutting the air with a sharp
+whizzing sound. They listened breathlessly, but heard no sound as
+the rock struck the water, and the men among the machinery seemed
+undisturbed. Only the widening circles of rings on the lake's surface
+indicated where the stone had fallen.
+
+"Good," ejaculated the Alphian; "are you equal to such a plunge? The
+water must be deep, and we won't be hurt at all if only we can keep our
+feet downward and hold our breath long enough. Our clothing will soon
+dry down there, for feel the warmth that comes from below."
+
+The Alphian slowly crawled out on the sharpest projection of the ledge.
+"Are you willing to try it?" he asked, over his shoulder.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, wait till you see me swim ashore, and then follow."
+
+Johnston shuddered as the strong fellow swung himself over the ledge and
+hung downward.
+
+"Adieu," said Branasko, and he let go. Down he fell, as straight as
+an arrow, into the shadows below. For an instant Johnston heard the
+fluttering of the fellow's clothing as he fell through the darkness,
+and then there was no sound except the low whirr of the cables and the
+monotonous hum of the great wheels beneath. Then the smooth surface
+of the lake was broken in a white foaming spot, and, later, he saw
+something small and dark slowly swimming shoreward. It was Branasko, and
+the men to the right had not heard or seen him.
+
+Johnston saw him reach the shore, then he crawled out to the point
+of the projecting rock and tremblingly lowered himself till he
+hung downward as Branasko had done. He had just drawn a deep breath
+preparatory to letting go his hold, when, chancing to look down, he saw
+a long narrow barge slowly emerging from the cliff directly under him.
+For an instant he was so much startled that he almost lost his grip
+on the rock. He tried to climb back on the ledge, but his strength was
+gone. He felt that he could not hold out till the boat had passed. Death
+was before him, and a horrible one. The boat seemed to crawl. Everything
+was a blur before his eyes. His fingers began to relax, and with a low
+cry he fell.
+
+
+
+Chapter X.
+
+To Thorndyke the dark corridor seemed endless. The king's last words had
+now a sinister meaning, and Bernardino's whispered warning filled him
+with dread. "Keep your presence of mind," she urged; was it then, some
+frightful mental ordeal he was about to pass through?
+
+Presently they came to a door. Thorndyke heard his guide feeling for
+the bolt and key-hole. The rattling of the keys sounded like a ghostly
+threat in the empty corridors. The air was as damp as a fog, and the
+stones were cold and slimy. After a moment the guard succeeded in
+unlocking the door and roughly pushed the Englishman forward. The door
+closed with a little puff, and Thorndyke felt about him for the guide;
+but he was alone. For a moment there was no sound. With the closing
+of the door it seemed to him that he was cut off from every living
+creature. In the awful silence he could hear his own heart beating like
+a drum.
+
+"Stand where you are!" came in a hissing whisper from the darkness near
+by, and then the invisible whisperer moved away, making a weird sound as
+he slid his hand along a wall, till it died away in the distance.
+
+A cold thrill ran over him. He was a brave man and feared no living man
+or beast, but the superstitious fears of his childhood now came upon him
+with redoubled force. For several minutes he did not stir; presently he
+put out his hand to the door and his blood ran cold. There was no knob,
+latch, or key-hole, and he could feel the soft padding into which the
+door closed to keep out sound. Then he remembered the warning of the
+princess, and strove with all his might to fight down his apprehensions.
+"For your life keep your presence of mind," he repeated over and over,
+but try as he would his terror over-powered him. He laughed out loud,
+but in the dreadful silence and darkness his laugh sounded unearthly.
+
+A cold perspiration broke out on him. It seemed as if hours passed
+before he again heard the sliding noise on the wall. Some one was coming
+to him. The sound grew louder and nearer, till a firm hand was laid on
+his arm; it felt as cold as ice through his clothing.
+
+"Come," a voice whispered, and the Englishman was led forward. Presently
+another door opened--a door that closed after them without any sound.
+Here the silence was more intensified, the darkness thicker as if
+compressed like air.
+
+Hands were placed on the shoulders of Thorndyke and he was gently forced
+into a chair. As soon as he was seated two metal clamps grasped like
+a vise his arms between the elbows and the shoulders, and two more
+fastened round his ankles.
+
+There was a faint puff of air from the door and the prisoner felt
+that he was alone. Terror held him in bondage. He tried to think of
+Bernardino, but in vain. Did they intend to drive him to madness? He
+began to suspect that the king had discovered his natural superstition
+and had decided to put it to a test. What he had undergone so far he
+felt was but the introduction to greater terrors in store for him.
+
+There was a sigh far away in the darkness--then a groan that seemed to
+flit about in space, as if seeking to escape the dark, and then died
+away in a low moan of despair. Before him the blackness seemed to hang
+like a dark curtain about ten yards in front of him, and in it shone a
+tiny speck of light no larger than the head of a pin, and which was so
+bright that he could not look at it steadily. It increased to the size
+of a pea, and then he discovered that, at times, it would seem miles
+away in space and then again to draw quite near to hand. Glancing down,
+he noticed that it cast a bright round spot about an inch in diameter on
+the floor, and that the spot was slowly revolving in a circle so
+small that its motion was hardly observable. Surely the mind of a
+superstitious man was never so punished! When Thorndyke looked steadily
+at the spot, the black floor seemed to recede, and the spot to sink far
+down into the empty darkness below like a solitary star; So realistic
+was this that the Englishman could not keep from fancying that this
+chair was poised in some way over fathomless space. Presently he noticed
+that the spot had ceased its circular movement and was slowly--almost as
+slowly as the movement of the hand of a clock--advancing in a straight
+line toward him.
+
+No such terror had ever before possessed the stout heart of the
+Englishman. As the uncanny spot, ever growing brighter, advanced toward
+him, he thought his heart had stopped beating; his brain was in a whirl.
+After a long while the spot reached his feet and began to climb up his
+legs. With a shudder and a smothered cry, he tried to draw his feet
+away, but they were too firmly manacled.
+
+"It is searching for my heart," thought Thorndyke. "My God, when it
+reaches it, I shall die!" As the strange spot, gleaming like a burning
+diamond in whose heart leaped a thousand different colored flames, and
+which seemed possessed of some strange hellish purpose, crossed his
+thighs and began to climb up his body, the brain of the prisoner seemed
+on fire. He tried to close his eyes, but, horror of horrors! his eyelids
+were paralyzed. It was almost over his heart, and Thorndyke was fainting
+through sheer mental exhaustion when it stopped, began to descend
+slowly, and, then, with a rapid, wavering motion, it fell to the floor,
+flashed about in the darkness, and vanished.
+
+An hour dragged slowly by. What would happen next? The Englishman felt
+that his frightful ordeal was not over. To his surprise the darkness
+began to lighten till he could see dimly the outlines of the chamber. It
+was bare save for the chair he occupied against a wall, and a couch on
+the opposite side of the room. The couch held something which looked
+like a human body covered with a white cloth. He could see where the
+sheet rounded over the head and rose sharply at the feet.
+
+Something told him that it was a corpse and a new terror possessed him.
+For several minutes he gazed at the couch in dreadful suspense, then his
+heart stopped pulsing as the figure on the couch began to move. Slowly
+the sheet fell from the head and the figure sat up stiffly. There was
+a faint hum of hidden machinery at the couch, and a flashing blue and
+green line running from the couch to the wall betrayed the presence of
+an electric wire.
+
+Slowly the figure rose, and with creaking, rattling joints stood erect.
+Pale lights shone in the orbits of the eyes and the sound of harsh
+automatic breathing came from the mouth and nostrils. Slowly and
+haltingly the figure advanced toward Thorndyke. The poor fellow tried
+to wrench himself free from the chair, but he could not stir an inch.
+On came the figure, its long arms swinging mechanically, and its feet
+slurring over the stone pavement.
+
+When within ten feet of the Englishman it stopped, nodded its head three
+or four times, and slowly opened its mouth. There was a sharp, whirring
+noise, such as comes from a phonograph, and a voice spoke:
+
+"My voice shall sound on earth for a million years after my spirit has
+left my body; and I shall wander about my dark dungeon as a warning to
+men not to do as I have done."
+
+The voice ceased, but the whirring sound in the creature's breast went
+on. The figure shambled nearer to Thorndyke and the voice began again:
+
+"I disobeyed the laws of great Alpha and her imperial king and am
+to die. Beware of the temptation to search into the royal motives
+or attempt to escape. The fate of all the inhabitants of Alpha, the
+wonderful Land of the Changing Sun, is in the hands of its ruler.
+Beware! My death-torture is to be lingering and horrible. I sink into
+deepest dejection. I was eager to return to my native land and tried
+to escape. Behold my punishment! Even my bones and flesh will not be
+allowed to rest or decay. Beware, the king is just and good, but he will
+be obeyed!"
+
+Slowly the figure retreated toward the couch and lay down on it. The
+whirring sound ceased, the light along the wire went out, and the
+darkness thickened till the couch and the outlines of the chamber were
+obscured. Then Thorndyke's chair was lifted, as if by unseen hands, and
+he was borne backward. In a moment he felt the cool, damp air of the
+corridor, and some one raised him to his feet and led him back to the
+throne-room.
+
+In the bright light which burst on him as the door opened, the beautiful
+women and handsome men moving about the throne were to him like a
+glimpse of Paradise. The attendant left him at the door and he walked
+in, so dazed and weak that he hardly knew what to do. No one seemed to
+notice him and the king was engaged in an animated conversation with
+several ladies who were sitting at his feet.
+
+In a bevy of women Thorndyke noticed Bernardino. She gave him a quick,
+sympathetic glance of recognition and then looked down discreetly.
+Presently she left the others and moved on till she had disappeared
+behind a great carved wine-cistern which stood on the backs of four
+crouching golden leopards in a retired part of the room. Something in
+her sudden movement made the Englishman think she wanted to speak to
+him, and he went to her. He was not mistaken, for she smiled as he
+approached.
+
+"I am glad," she whispered, touching his arm impulsively, and then
+quickly removing her hand as if afraid of detection.
+
+"Glad of what?" he asked.
+
+"Glad that you stood that--that torture so well; several men have died
+in that chair and some went mad."
+
+"I remembered your advice; that saved me."
+
+"I have a plan for us to try to rescue your friend."
+
+"Ah, I had forgotten him! what is it?"
+
+"Captain Tradmos likes you and has consented to aid us. We shall need
+an air-ship and he has one at his disposal which is used only for
+governmental purposes."
+
+"What do you want with the air-ship?"
+
+"To go beyond and over the great wall."
+
+"But can we get away from here without being seen?"
+
+"Under ordinary circumstances, neither by day nor night, but tomorrow
+the king has planned to let his people witness a 'War of the Elements.'"
+
+"A War of the Elements?"
+
+"Yes, the grandest fete of Alpha. There will be a frightful storm in the
+sky; no light for hours; the thunder will be musical and the lightning
+will seem to set the world on fire. That will be our chance. When it
+is darkest we shall try to get away unseen. We may fail. Such a daring
+thing has never been attempted by any one. If we are detected we shall
+suffer death as the penalty, the king could never pardon such a bold
+violation of law."
+
+
+
+Chapter XI.
+
+Johnston clung tenaciously to the rock. He tried to look down to see if
+the barge had passed beneath him, but the intense strain on his arm now
+drew his head back, so that he could not do so. Once more he made an
+effort to regain his position on the rock, but he was not able to raise
+himself an inch.
+
+He felt certain that the fall would kill him, and he groaned in agony.
+His fingers were benumbed and beginning to slip. Then he fell. The air
+whizzed in his ears. He tried to keep his feet downward, but it was
+no use. He was whirled heels over head many times, and his senses were
+leaving him when he was restored by a plunge into the cold water.
+
+Down he sank. It seemed to him that he never would lose his momentum
+and that he would strangle before he could rise to the surface. Finally,
+however, he came up more dead than alive. He had narrowly missed the
+flat-boat, for he saw it receding from him only a few yards away. On the
+shore stood Branasko motioning to him; and, slowly, for his strength was
+almost gone, Johnston swam toward him.
+
+The latter waded out into the shallow water and drew him ashore.
+
+"You had a narrow escape," he said, with a dry laugh. "I saw the boat
+come from under the cliff just as you hung down from the ledge. At first
+I hoped that you would get back on the rock, but when I saw you try and
+do it and fail I thought that you were lost."
+
+The American could not speak for exhaustion; but, as he looked at the
+departing craft with concern, Branasko laughed again: "Oh, you thought
+it had a crew; so did I at first, but it has no one aboard. It is drawn
+by a cable, and seems to be laden with coal."
+
+"Did they notice our fall up there?" panted Johnston, nodding toward the
+lights in the distance.
+
+"No, they are farther away than I thought."
+
+"Well, what ought we to do?" "Hide here among the rocks till our
+clothing dries and then look about us. We have nearly twenty-four hours
+to wait for the sun to return through the tunnel."
+
+"Where is the tunnel?"
+
+"Over on the other side of that black hill. There, you can see the mouth
+of the tunnel through which the sun comes."
+
+"We need sleep," said the Alphian, when their clothing was dry, "and it
+may be a long time before we get a chance to get it. Let us lie down in
+the shadow of that rock and rest."
+
+Johnston consented, and, lying down together, they soon dropped asleep.
+They slept soundly.
+
+Johnston was the first to awake. He felt so refreshed that he knew he
+must have been unconscious several hours. He touched Branasko and the
+latter sat up and rubbed his eyes and looked about him bewildered.
+
+"I had a horrible dream," he said shuddering. "I thought that we were in
+the sun and over the capital city when it fell down. I thought the
+fall was awful, and that all Alpha was aflame. Then the fires went out.
+Everything was black, and the whole world rang with cries of terrified
+people. Ugh! I don't want to dream so again; I'd rather not sleep at
+all. But hush! what is that?"
+
+Far away, as if in the centre of the earth, they heard a low monotonous
+rumbling. They listened breathlessly. Every moment the sound increased.
+They could feel the ground trembling as if shaken by an earthquake.
+
+"It is the coming sun," said Branasko. "We must get nearer the tunnel
+and see what can be done. It would be useless to try to go back now."
+
+Stealing along in the shadow of the cliffs to keep from being seen by
+the workmen on the plateau above, they climbed over a rocky incline
+and saw in the side of a towering cliff, a great black hole. It was the
+mouth of the tunnel. Into it ran eight wide tracks of railway and six
+mammoth cables each twenty or thirty feet in diameter.
+
+"The sun cannot be far away now," remarked the Alphian.
+
+"Is it not lighted?"
+
+"I presume not; I think it comes through in darkness. The light is saved
+for its passage over Alpha."
+
+"Would it not be as safe for us to attempt to walk through the tunnel to
+the palace of the king?"
+
+"Never; it would be over fifty miles in utter darkness. There may be a
+thousand trestles and bridges over frightful chasms: for the most part,
+I have heard the tunnel is a natural channel or a succession of caverns
+united by tunnels. The other is the safer way, though it certainly is
+risky enough."
+
+Louder and nearer grew the rumbling noise, and a faint light began to
+shine from the tunnel and flash on the cliff opposite.
+
+"It is the sun's headlight," explained Branasko.
+
+Johnston was thrilled to the centre of his being as he saw the light
+playing over the polished tracks and cables and illuminating the walls
+of the great tunnel.
+
+Suddenly there was a deep, mellow-toned stroke of a bell in the sun,
+and, as the two men shrank involuntarily into the deeper shade of the
+cliff, the great globe, a stupendous ball of crystal, five hundred feet
+in height, slowly emerged from the mouth of the tunnel and came to a
+stop under the opening in the rock which led to the space above.
+
+"What had we better do now?" said Johnston.
+
+"Wait," cautioned Branasko, and he drew the American to a great boulder
+nearer the sun, from behind which they could, without being seen, watch
+the action of the crowd of workmen that was hurriedly approaching. They
+placed ladders of steel against the sides of the sun and swarmed over it
+like bees.
+
+"They are cleaning the glass and adjusting the lights," said the
+Alphian; "wait till they go round to the other side. Don't you see that
+square opening near the ground?"
+
+The American nodded.
+
+"It is the door," said Branasko, "and we must try to enter it while they
+are on the other side. Let us slip nearer; there is another rock ahead
+that we can hide behind." Suiting the action to the word, Branasko led
+the way, stooping near to the ground until both were safely ensconced
+behind the boulder in question. They were now so near that they could
+hear the electricians rubbing the glass.
+
+One who seemed to be superintending the work opened the door and went
+into the sun and lighted a bright light. From where they were crouched
+Johnston and Branasko caught a view of a little hall, a flight of
+stairs, and some pictures on the walls.
+
+Presently the man extinguished the light and came out.
+
+"They are removing their ladders from this side," said Branasko in a
+whisper. "Be ready; we must act quickly and without a particle of sound.
+Run straight for that door and climb up the steps immediately."
+
+The men had all gone round to the other side, and no one was in sight.
+
+"Quick! Follow me," and bending low to the earth the Alphian darted
+across the intervening space and into the doorway. Johnston was quite
+as successful. As he entered the door he saw Branasko crawling up the
+carpeted stairs ahead of him, and, on his all-fours, he followed. The
+first landing was large, and there in the wall they found a closet. It
+would have been dark but for a dim light that streamed down from above.
+Branasko opened the closet door. "We must hide here for the present," he
+whispered.
+
+They had barely got seated on the floor and closed the door when a
+bright light broke round them and they heard somebody ascending the
+stairs. The person passed by and went on further up. The two adventurers
+dared not exchange a word. They could hear the footsteps above and the
+sound of the electricians outside as they polished the lights and moved
+their ladders from place to place.
+
+"If he should stay, what could we do?" asked Johnston, after a long
+pause, and when the footsteps sounded farther away.
+
+"There are two of us and one of him," grimly replied the brawny Alphian.
+
+Johnston shuddered. "Let's not commit murder in any emergency," he said.
+
+"It would not be murder; every man has a right to save his own life."
+
+Nothing more was said just then, for the footsteps were growing nearer.
+The man was descending. He crossed the landing they were on and went
+down the last flight of stairs and out of the door.
+
+Branasko rubbed his rough hands together. "We are going alone," he said
+with satisfaction.
+
+There was a sound of sliding ladders on the walls outside. The workmen
+had finished their task. A moment later a great bell overhead rang
+mellowly; the colossal sphere trembled and rocked and then rose and
+swung easily forward like the car of a balloon.
+
+"We are rising," said the Alphian, in a tone of superstitious awe.
+Johnston said nothing. There was a cool, sinking sensation in his
+stomach and his head was swimming. Branasko, however, was in possession
+of all his faculties.
+
+"We shall soon be through the shaft we first discovered and throw our
+light over Alpha." As he spoke the space about them broke into blinding
+brightness and for a few moments they could only open their eyes for
+an instant at a time. After a while Branasko opened the closet door and
+they went up the stairs.
+
+The first apartment they entered was most luxuriously furnished. Sofas,
+couches and reclining-chairs were scattered here and there over the
+elegant carpet, and statues of gold and marble stood in alcoves and
+niches and strange stereopticon lanterns, hanging from the ceiling threw
+ever-changing and life-like pictures on the walls. The light streamed in
+from without through small circular windows. After they had walked about
+the room for some minutes, the Alphian pointed to a half-open door and a
+staircase at one side of the room.
+
+"I think it leads to some sort of observatory on top," he said. "I have
+heard that when the royal family makes this voyage they are fond of
+looking out from it. Suppose we see." Johnston acquiesced, and Branasko
+opened the door. From the increased brightness that came in they were
+assured that the stairs led outward.
+
+Ascending many flights of stairs and traversing a narrow winding gallery
+which seemed to be gradually sloping upward, they finally reached the
+outside, and found themselves on a platform about forty feet square
+surrounded by iron balustrades. Above hung impenetrable blackness, below
+curved a majestic sphere of white light.
+
+
+
+Chapter XII.
+
+The sunlight was fading into gray when the princess turned to leave
+Thorndyke. Night was drawing near.
+
+"Have they assigned you a chamber yet?" she paused to ask.
+
+"No."
+
+"Then they have overlooked it; I shall remind the king."
+
+Her beautiful, lithe form was clearly outlined against the red glow of
+the massive swinging lamp as she moved gracefully away, and Thorndyke's
+heart bounded with admiration and hope as he thought of her growing
+regard for him. He resumed his seat among the flowers, listening, as if
+in a delightful dream, to the seductive music from bands in different
+parts of the palace and the never-ceasing sound in the air which seemed
+to him to be the concentrated echo of all the sounds in the strange
+country rebounding from the vast cavern roof.
+
+It grew darker. The gray outside had changed to purple. In the palace
+the brilliant electric lights in prismatic globes refused to allow the
+day to die. He was thinking of returning to the throne-room when a page
+in silken attire approached from the direction of the king's quarters.
+
+"To your chambers, master," he announced, bowing respectfully.
+
+Thorndyke arose and followed him to an elevator near by. They ascended
+to the highest balcony of the great rotunda. Here they alighted and
+turned to the right, the page leading the way, a key in his hand.
+Presently the page stopped at a door and unlocked it and preceded
+the Englishman into the room. As they entered an electric light in a
+chandelier flashed up automatically.
+
+It was a sumptuous apartment, and adjoining it were several connecting
+rooms all elegantly furnished. The page crossed the room and opened a
+door to a little stairway.
+
+"It leads to the roof," he said. "The princess told me to call your
+attention to it, that you might go out and view the starlight."
+
+When the page had retired, Thorndyke, feeling lonely, ascended the
+stairs to the roof. It was perfectly flat save for the great dome which
+stood in the centre and the numerous pinnacles and cupolas on every
+hand, and was very spacious. The Englishman's loneliness increased, for
+no matter in what direction he looked, there was not a living soul in
+sight. Far in front of him he saw a stone parapet. He went to this and
+looked down on the city. The electric lights were vari-colored, and
+arranged so that when seen from a distance or from a great height they
+assumed artistic designs that were beautiful to behold.
+
+The regular streets and rows of buildings stretched away till the light
+in the farthest distance seemed an ocean of blending colors. Overhead
+the vault was black, and only here and there shone a star; but as he
+looked upward they began to flash into being, and so rapidly that the
+sky seemed a vast battlefield of electricity.
+
+"Wonderful! Wonderful!" he ejaculated enthusiastically, when the black
+dome was filled with twinkling stars. He leaned for a long time against
+the parapet, listening to the music from the streets below, and watching
+the flying-machines with their vari-colored lights rise from the little
+parks at the intersection of the streets and dart away over the roofs
+like big fireflies. Then he began to feel sleepy, and, going back to his
+chambers, he retired.
+
+When he awoke the next morning, the rosy glow of the sun was shining
+in at his windows. On rising he was surprised to find a delectable
+breakfast spread on a table in his sitting-room.
+
+"Treating me like a lord, any way," he said drily. "I can't say I
+dislike the thing as a whole." When he had satisfied his sharp hunger he
+went out into a corridor and seeing an elevator he entered it and went
+down to the throne-room. The king was just leaving his throne, but
+seeing Thorndyke he turned to him with a smile.
+
+"How did you sleep?" he asked.
+
+"Well, indeed," replied Thorndyke, with a low bow.
+
+"I cannot talk to you now. I intended to, but I have promised my people
+a 'War of the Elements' to-day and am busy. You will enjoy it, I trust."
+
+"I am sure of it, your Majesty."
+
+"Well, be about the palace, for it is a good point from which to view
+the display."
+
+With these words he turned away and the Englishman, as if drawn there by
+the memory of his last conversation with Bernardino, sought the retreat
+where he had bidden her good-night. He sat down on the seat they had
+occupied, and gave himself over to delightful reveries about her beauty
+and loveliness of nature. Looking up suddenly he saw a pair of white
+hands part the palm leaves in front of him and the subject of his
+thoughts emerged into view.
+
+She wore a regal gown and beautiful silken head-dress set with fine
+gems, and gave him a warm glance of friendly greeting.
+
+"I half hoped to find you here," she said, blushing modestly under his
+ardent gaze; "that is, I knew you would not know where to go----" She
+paused, her face suffused with blushes.
+
+"I did not hope to find you here," he said, coming to her aid gallantly,
+"but it was a delight to sit here where I last saw you."
+
+She blushed even deeper, and a pleased look flashed into her eyes. "It
+was important that I should see you this morning," she continued, with a
+womanly desire to disguise her own feeling. "I wanted to tell you where
+to meet me when the storm begins."
+
+"Where?" he asked.
+
+"On the roof of the palace, near the stairs leading down to your
+chambers. At first it will be very dark, and it is then that we must get
+out of sight of the palace. No other flying-machines will be in the
+air, and Captain Tradmos thinks, if we are very careful, we can get away
+safely before the display of lightning."
+
+"If we find my friend what can we do with him?"
+
+She hesitated a moment, a look of perplexity on her face, then she said:
+"We can bring him back and keep him hidden in your chambers till some
+better arrangement can be made. We shall think of some expedient before
+long, but at present he must be saved from starvation."
+
+Thorndyke attempted to draw her to a seat beside him, but she held
+back. "No," she said resolutely, "it would never do for us to be seen
+together. If my father should suspect anything now, all hope would be
+lost."
+
+Thorndyke reluctantly released her hand.
+
+"You are right, I beg your pardon," he said humbly. "I shall meet you
+promptly. Of course I want to save poor Johnston, but the delight of
+being with you again, even for a moment, so intoxicates me that I forget
+even my duty to him."
+
+After she left him he wandered out in the streets along the busy
+thoroughfares, and into the beautiful parks, the flowers and foliage
+changing color as each new hour dawned. The fragrance of the flowers
+delighted his sense of smell, and the luscious fruits hung from vine and
+tree in great abundance.
+
+He was impatient for the time to arrive at which he was to meet the
+princess. After awhile he noticed the people closing the shops and
+booths, and in holiday dress going to the parks and public squares.
+He hastened to the palace. The great rotunda and the throne-room were
+energetically astir. Everybody wore rich apparel and was talking of
+the coming fete. The king was on his throne surrounded by his men
+of science. In a cluster of ladies in court dress, the Englishman
+recognized Bernardino. Catching his eye, she looked startled for an
+instant, and, then, with a furtive glance at the king, she swept
+her eyes back to Thorndyke and raised them significantly toward his
+chambers. He understood, and his quick movement was his reply. He turned
+immediately to an elevator that was going up, and entered it. Again
+he was alone on the palace roof. The color of the sunlight looked
+so natural that he studied it closely to see if he could not detect
+something artificial in its appearance, but in vain. He found that it
+did not pain his eyes to look at the sun steadily. He took from his
+pocket a small sunglass, and focussed the rays on his hand, but the heat
+was not intensified sufficiently to burn him.
+
+Just then he heard a loud blast of a trumpet in a tall tower to the left
+of the palace. It seemed a momentous signal. The jostling crowds in the
+streets below suddenly stood motionless. Every eye was raised to the
+sky. Not a sound broke the stillness. Following the glances of the crowd
+a few minutes later, Thorndyke noticed a dark cloud rising in the west,
+and spreading along the horizon. A feeling of awe came over him as it
+gradually increased in volume, and, in vast black billows, began to roll
+up toward the sun.
+
+Suddenly out of the stillness came a faraway rumble like a fusillade of
+cannon, now dying down low, again reaching such a height that it pained
+the ears. Belated flying-machines darted across the sky here and there,
+like storm-frightened birds, but they soon settled to earth. Every eye
+was on the cloud which was now gashed with dazzling, vivid, electric
+flashes. Thorndyke looked over the vast roof. He was alone. He walked to
+the western parapet to get a broader view.
+
+The clouds had increased till almost a third of the heavens were
+obscured by the madly whirling blackness. There was a rumble in the
+cloud, or beyond it, like thunder, and yet it was not, unless thunder
+can be attuned, for the sound was like the music of a great orchestra
+magnified a thousand-fold. The grand harmony died down. There was
+a blinding flash of electricity in the clouds, and the Englishman
+involuntarily covered his eyes with his hands. When he looked again the
+blackness was covering the sun. For a moment its disk showed blood-red
+through the fringe of the cloud and then disappeared. Total darkness
+fell on everything.
+
+The silence was profound. The very air seemed stagnant.
+
+Then the wind overhead, by some unseen force, was lashed into fury, and
+all the sky was filled with whirlpools of deeper blackness. Suddenly
+there was a flash of soft golden light; this was followed by streams
+of pink, of blue and of purple till the whole heavens were hung with
+banners, flags, and rain-bows of flame. Again darkness fell, and it
+seemed all the deeper after the gorgeous scene which had preceded it.
+Thorndyke strained his sight to detect something moving below, but
+nothing could be seen, and no sound came up from the motionless crowds.
+
+Behind him he heard a soft footstep on the stone tiling. It drew nearer.
+A hand was being carefully slid along the parapet. The hand reached him
+and touched his arm.
+
+It was the princess. "Ah, I have at last found you," she whispered, "I
+saw you in the lightning, but lost you again."
+
+He put his arm round her and drew her into his embrace. He tried to
+speak, but uttered only an inarticulate sound.
+
+"I could not possibly come earlier," she apologized, nestling against
+him so closely that he could feel the quick and excited beating of
+her heart. "My father kept me with him till only a moment ago. Captain
+Tradmos will be here soon."
+
+"When do we start?" he asked.
+
+"That is the trouble," she replied. "We had counted on getting away in
+the darkness, before the display of lightning, but there is more danger
+now. If our flying-machine were noticed the search-lights would be
+turned on us and we would be discovered at once."
+
+"But even if we get safely away in the darkness when could we return?"
+
+"Oh, that would be easy," she replied. "As soon as the fete is over,
+commerce will be resumed and the air will be filled with air-ships that
+have been delayed in their regular business, and, in the disguises which
+I have for us both, we could come back without rousing suspicion. We
+could alight in Winter Park and return home later."
+
+"What is Winter Park?"
+
+"You have not seen it? You must do so; it is one of the wonders of
+Alpha. It is a vast park enclosed with high walls and covered with a
+roof of glass. Inside the snow falls, and we have sleighing and coasting
+and lakes of ice for skating. It was an invention of the king. The
+snowstorms there are beautiful."
+
+Thorndyke's reply was drowned in a harmonious explosion like that of
+tuned cannon; this was followed by the chimes of great bells which
+seemed to swing back and forth miles overhead.
+
+"Listen!" whispered Bernardino, "father calls it 'musical thunder,' and
+he declares that it is produced in no other country but this."
+
+"It is not; he is right." And the heart of the Englishman was stirred
+by deep emotion. He had never dreamed that anything could so completely
+chain his fancy and elevate his imagination as what he heard. The
+musical clangor died down. The strange harmony grew more entrancing
+as it softened. Then the whole eastern sky began to flush with rosy,
+shimmering light.
+
+"My father calls this the 'Ideal Dawn of Day,'" whispered Bernardino.
+"See the faint golden halo near the horizon; that is where the sun is
+supposed to be."
+
+"How is it done?" asked the Englishman.
+
+"Few of our people know. It is a secret held only by the king and half a
+dozen scientists. The whole thing, however, is operated by two men in a
+room in the dome of the palace. The musician is a young German who was
+becoming the wonder of the musical world when father induced him to come
+to us. I have met him. He says he has been thoroughly happy here. He
+lives on music. He showed me the instrument he used to play, a little
+thing he called a violin, and its tones could not reach beyond the
+limits of a small room. He laughs at it now and says the instrument
+that father gave him to play on has strings drawn from the centre of the
+earth to the stars of heaven."
+
+The rose-light had spread over the horizon and climbed almost to the
+zenith, and with the dying booming and gentle clangor it began to fade
+till all was dark again.
+
+"Captain Tradmos ought to be here now," continued the princess, glancing
+uneasily toward the stairway. "We may not have so good an opportunity as
+this."
+
+Ten minutes went by.
+
+"Surely, something has gone wrong," whispered Bernardino. "I have never
+seen the darkness last so long as this; besides, can't you hear the
+muttering of the people?"
+
+Thorndyke acknowledged that he did. He was about to add something else,
+but was prevented by a loud blast from the trumpet in the tower.
+
+Bernardino shrank from him and fell to trembling.
+
+"What is the matter?" he asked. "The trumpet!" she gasped, "something
+awful has happened!"
+
+A moment of profound silence, then the murmuring of the crowd rose
+sullenly like the moaning of a rising storm; a search-light flashed up
+in the gloom and swept its uncertain stream from point to point, but it
+died out. Another and another shone for an instant in different parts of
+the city, but they all failed.
+
+"Something awful has happened," repeated Bernardino, as if to herself;
+"the lights will not burn!"
+
+"Had we not better go down?" asked Thorndyke anxiously, excited by her
+unusual perturbation.
+
+For answer she mutely drew him to the eastern parapet. Far away in the
+east there still lingered a faint hint of pink, but all over the whole
+landscape darkness rested.
+
+"See!" she exclaimed, pointing upward, "the clouds are thinning over the
+sun, and yet there is no light. What can be the matter?"
+
+At that juncture they heard soft steps on the roof and a voice calling:
+
+"Bernardino! Princess Bernardino!"
+
+"It is Tradmos," she ejaculated gladly, then she called out softly:
+
+"Tradmos! Tradmos!"
+
+"Here!" the voice said, and a figure loomed up before them. It was the
+captain. He was panting violently, as if he had been running.
+
+"What is it?" she asked, clasping his arm.
+
+"The sun has gone out," he announced.
+
+A groan escaped her lips and she swayed into Thorndyke's arms.
+
+"The clouds are thinning over the sun, yet there is no light. The king
+is excited; he fears a panic!"
+
+"Has such a thing never happened?" asked Thorndyke.
+
+"An hundred years ago; then thousands lost their lives. As soon as the
+people suspect the cause of the delay they will go mad with fear."
+
+"What can we do?" asked the princess, recovering her self-possession.
+
+"Nothing, wait!" replied Tradmos. "This is as safe a place as you could
+find. Perhaps the trouble may be averted. Look!"
+
+The disk of the veiled sun was aglow with a faintly trembling light;
+but it went out. The silence was profound. The populace seemed unable
+to grasp the situation, but when the light had flickered over the black
+face of the sun once more and again expired, a sullen murmur rose and
+grew as it passed from lip to lip.
+
+It became a threatening roar, broken by an occasional cry of pain and
+a dismal groan of terror. There was a crash as if a mountain had been
+burst by explosives.
+
+"The swinging bridge has been thrown down!" said Tradmos.
+
+Light after light flashed up in different parts of the city, but they
+were so small and so far apart that they seemed to add to the darkness
+rather than to lessen it.
+
+"The moon, it will rise!" cried the princess.
+
+"It cannot," said Tradmos in his beard, "at least not for several
+hours."
+
+"They will kill my father," she said despondently, "they always hold him
+responsible for any accident."
+
+"They cannot reach him," consoled Tradmos. "He is safe for the present
+at least."
+
+"Is it possible to make the repairs needed?"
+
+"I don't know. When the accident happened long ago the sun was just
+rising."
+
+"Has it stopped?"
+
+"I think not; it has simply gone out; the electric connection has, in
+some way, been cut off."
+
+The tumult seemed to have extended to the very limits of the city, and
+was constantly increasing. The smashing of timber and the falling of
+heavy stones were heard near by.
+
+Tradmos leaned far over the parapet. "They are coming toward us!" he
+said; "they intend to destroy the palace; we must try to get down, but
+we shall meet danger even there."
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII.
+
+Johnston and Branasko looked down at the great ball of light below them
+in silent wonder. Johnston was the first to speak. He pointed to the
+four massive cables which supported the sun at each corner of the
+platform and extended upward till they were enveloped in the darkness.
+
+"They hold us up," he said, "where do they go to?"
+
+"To the big trucks which run on the tracks near the roof of the cavern;
+the endless cables are up there, too, but we can not see them with this
+glare about us."
+
+"We can see nothing of Alpha from here," remarked Johnston
+disappointedly, "we can see nothing beyond our circle of light."
+
+"I should like to look down from this height at night," said the
+Alphian. "It would be a great view."
+
+"What is this?" Johnston went to one side of the platform and laid his
+hand on the spokes of a polished metal wheel shaped like the pilot-wheel
+of a steamboat. Branasko hastened to him.
+
+"Don't touch it," he warned. "It looks as if it were to turn the
+electric connection off and on. If the sun should go out, the
+consequences would be awful. The people of Alpha would go mad with
+fear."
+
+The American withdrew his hand, and he and Branasko walked back to the
+centre of the platform. Johnston uttered an exclamation of surprise.
+"The light is changing."
+
+And it was, for it was gradually fading into a purple that was
+delightfully soothing to the eye after the painful brightness of a
+moment before.
+
+"I understand," said the Alphian, "we are running very slow and are only
+now about to approach the great wall, for purple is the color of the
+first morning hour."
+
+"But how is the light changed?" asked Johnston curiously.
+
+"By some shifting of glasses through which the rays shine, I presume,"
+returned the Alphian; "but the mechanism seems to be concealed in the
+walls of the globe."
+
+Not a word was spoken for an hour. They had lain down on the platform
+near the iron railing which encompassed it, and Branasko was dozing
+intermittently. Again the light began to change gradually. This time it
+was gray. Johnston put out his hand to touch Branasko, but the Alphian
+was awake. He sat up and nodded smiling. "Wait till the next hour," he
+said; "it will be rose-color; that is the most beautiful."
+
+Slowly the hours dragged by till the yellow light showed that it was the
+sixth hour. Branasko had been exploring the vast interior below and came
+back to Johnston who was asleep on the floor of the platform.
+
+"I have just thought of something," said Branasko. "This is the day
+appointed by the king to entertain his subjects with a grand display of
+the elements."
+
+"I do not understand," said Johnston.
+
+"The king," explained the Alphian, "darkens the sun with clouds so that
+all Alpha is blacker than night, and then he produces great storms in
+the sky, and lightning and musical thunder. We may, perhaps, hear the
+music, but we cannot witness the storm and electric display on account
+of the light about us. It usually begins at this hour; so be silent and
+listen."
+
+After a few minutes there was a rumble from below like the roar of a
+volcano and an answering echo from the black dome overhead. This died
+away and was succeeded by a crash of musical thunder that thrilled
+Johnston's being to its very core. Branasko's face was aglow with
+enthusiasm.
+
+"Grand, glorious!" he ejaculated, "but if only you could see the
+lightning and the dawn in the east you would remember it all your life.
+The sunlight is cut off from Alpha by the clouds, and there is no light
+except the wonderful effects in the sky."
+
+Johnston had gone back to the wheel and was examining it curiously.
+
+"I have a mind to turn off the current for a moment anyway," he said
+doggedly; "if the sun is hidden they would not discover it."
+
+Branasko came to him, a weird look of interest in his eyes. "That
+is true," he said; "besides, what matters it? We may not live to see
+another day."
+
+Johnston acted on a sudden impulse. He intended only to frighten
+Branasko by moving the wheel slightly, and he had turned it barely an
+eighth of an inch, when, as if controlled by some powerful spring, it
+whirled round at a great rate, making a loud rattling noise. To their
+dismay the light went out.
+
+"My God! what have I done?" gasped the American in alarm.
+
+"Settled our fate, I have no doubt," muttered the Alphian from the
+darkness.
+
+Johnston had recoiled from the whirling wheel, and now cautiously groped
+back to it, and attempted to turn it. It would not move.
+
+"It has caught some way," he groaned under his breath.
+
+"And we have no light to find the cause of the trouble," added the
+Alphian, who had knelt down and was feeling about the wheel. Presently
+he rose.
+
+"I give it up," he sighed, "I cannot understand it. The machinery is
+somewhere inside."
+
+"It has grown colder," shuddered Johnston.
+
+"We were warmed by the light, of course," remarked Branasko, "and now we
+feel the dampness more. We are going at a frightful speed."
+
+Just then there was a jar, and the sun swung so violently from side to
+side that the two men were prostrated on the floor. The speed seemed to
+slacken.
+
+"I wonder if we are going to stop," groaned the American, and he sat
+up and held to Branasko. "Perhaps they will draw us back to rectify the
+mistake, and then----"
+
+"It cannot be done," interrupted the Alphian. "The machinery runs only
+one way. We shall simply have to finish our journey in darkness."
+
+"They may catch us on the other side before the sun starts back through
+the tunnel," suggested the American.
+
+"Not unlikely," returned Branasko. "There, we are going ahead again. One
+thing in our favor is that we can more easily escape capture in darkness
+than if the sun were shining."
+
+"Does the sun stop before entering the tunnel?"
+
+"I do not know," replied Branasko; "perhaps somebody will be there to
+see what is wrong with the light. We must have our wits about us when we
+land."
+
+Johnston was looking over the edge of the platform. "If the king's
+display is taking place down there I can see no sign of it."
+
+"How stupid of us!" ejaculated Branasko. "Of course, clouds sufficiently
+dense to hide the sun from Alpha would also prevent us from seeing the
+display below. I ought to----"
+
+He was interrupted by a grand outburst of harmony. The whole earth
+seemed to vibrate with sublime melody. "Our blunder has not been
+discovered yet," finished Branasko, after a pause, "else the fete down
+below would have been over. I am cold; shall we go inside?"
+
+Johnston's answer was taken out of his mouth by a loud rattling
+beneath the floor, near the wheel he had just turned; the sun shook
+spasmodically for an instant, and its entire surface was faintly
+illuminated, but the light failed signally.
+
+"It must have been an extra current of electricity sent to relight the
+lamps," remarked Johnston; and, as he concluded, the sun trembled again,
+and another flash and failure occurred. "Look," cried the American,
+"the clouds are thinning; see the lights below! They have discovered the
+accident!"
+
+They both leaned over the railing and looked below. As far as the eye
+could reach, within the arc of their vision, they could see fitful
+lights flashing up, here and there, and going out again. And then they
+heard faint sounds of crashing masonry and the condensed roar of human
+voices, which seemed to come from above rather than from below. The
+Alphian turned. "I cannot stand the cold," he said.
+
+Johnston followed him. The rapid motion of the swinging sphere made him
+dizzy, and he caught Branasko's arm to keep from falling.
+
+"How can we tell when we go over the wall?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"We shall have to guess at it," was the answer. "At any rate we must be
+near the lower door so as to get out quickly if it is necessary to do so
+to escape detection."
+
+In the darkness they slowly made their way down the stairs to the great
+room.
+
+"There ought to be some way of making a light," said the Alphian, and
+his voice sounded loud and hollow in the empty chamber. After several
+failures to find the stairs they descended to the door they had entered.
+Branasko opened it a little, and a breeze came in. They sat down on
+the stone, and after a while, in sheer fatigue, they fell asleep. Hours
+passed. Branasko rose with a start, and shook Johnston.
+
+"Our speed is lessening," he exclaimed. "We must be going down. Be ready
+to jump out the instant we stop. There, let me open the door wider."
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV.
+
+When Tradmos spoke the words of warning, Thorndyke put his arm round
+the princess and drew her after Tradmos, who was hastening away in the
+gloom.
+
+"Wait," she said, drawing back. "Let us not get excited. We are really
+as safe here as there; for in their madness they will kill one another
+and trample them under foot." She led him to a parapet overlooking the
+great court below. "Hear them," she said, in pity, "listen to their
+blows and cries. That was a woman's voice, and some man must have struck
+her."
+
+"Tell me what is best to do," said the Englishman. "I want to protect
+you, but I am helpless; I don't know which way to turn."
+
+"Wait," she said simply, and the Englishman thought she drew closer to
+him, as if touched by his words.
+
+There was a crash of timbers--a massive door had fallen--a scrambling
+of feet on the stone pavement, and they could see the dark human mass
+surging into the court through the corridors leading from the streets.
+
+"What are they doing?" asked Thorn dyke.
+
+She shrank from the parapet as if she had been struck.
+
+"Tearing the pillars down," she replied aghast; "this part of the palace
+will fall. Oh, what can be done!"
+
+There was a grinding of stone upon stone, a mad yell from an hundred
+throats, the crash of glass, and, with a thunderous sound, a colossal
+pillar fell to the earth. The roof beneath the feet of the princess and
+Thorndyke trembled and sagged, and the tiling split and showered about
+them.
+
+Raising Bernardino in his arms, as if she were an infant, Thorndyke
+sprang toward the stairway leading to his chambers, but the roof had
+sunken till it was steep and slippery. One instant he was toppling
+over backward, the next, by a mighty effort, he had recovered his
+equilibrium, and finally managed to reach a safer place. As he hurried
+on another pillar went down. The roof sagged lower, and an avalanche of
+mortar and tiling slid into the court below. Yells, groans, and cries of
+fury rent the air.
+
+Bernardino had fainted. Thorndyke tried to restore her to consciousness,
+but dared not put her from him for an instant. On he ran, and presently
+reached a flight of stairs which he thought led to his chambers. He
+descended them, and was hastening along a narrow corridor on the floor
+beneath when Bernardino opened her eyes. She asked to be released from
+his arms. He put her down, but supported her along the corridor.
+
+"We have lost our way," he said, as he discovered that the corridor,
+instead of leading to his chambers, turned off obliquely in another
+direction.
+
+"Let's go on anyway," she suggested; "it may lead us out. I have never
+been here before. I--" A great crash drowned her words. The floor
+quivered and swayed, but it did not fall. On they ran through the
+darkness, till Thorndyke felt a heavy curtain before. He paused
+abruptly, not knowing what to do. Bernardino felt of its texture,
+perplexed for an instant.
+
+"Draw it aside, it seems to hang across the corridor," she said. He
+obeyed her, and only a few yards further on they saw another curtain
+with bars of light above and below it. They drew this aside, and found
+themselves on the threshold of a most beautiful apartment.
+
+In the mosaic floor were pictures cut in colored stones, and the ceiling
+was a silken canopy as filmy and as delicately blue as the sky on a
+summer's night. The floor was strewn with richly embroidered pillows,
+couches, rugs and ottomans; and here and there were palm trees and beds
+of flowers and grottoes. A solitary light, representing the moon, showed
+through the silken canopy in whose folds little lights sparkled like
+far-off stars.
+
+Thorndyke looked at the princess inquiringly. She was bewildered.
+
+"I have no idea where we are," she murmured. "I am sure I have never
+been here before; but there is another apartment beyond. Listen! I hear
+cries."
+
+"Some one in distress," he answered, and he drew her across the room and
+through a door into another room more beautiful than the one they had
+just left. Here, huddled together at a window overlooking the court,
+were six or eight beautiful young women. They were staring out into the
+darkness, and moaning and muttering low cries of despair.
+
+"It is my father's ladies," ejaculated the princess aghast. "He would
+be angry if he knew we had come here. No one but himself enters these
+apartments."
+
+Just then one of the women turned a lovely and despairing face toward
+them, and came forward and knelt at the feet of Bernardino.
+
+"Oh, save us, Princess," she cried.
+
+"Be calm," said the princess, touching the white brow of the woman. "The
+danger may soon pass; this portion of the palace is too strongly built
+for them to injure it." Then she turned to Thorndyke: "We must hasten on
+and find our way down; it would never do for us to be seen here." Then
+she turned to the kneeling woman and said gently: "I hope you will say
+nothing to the king of this; we lost our way in trying to get down from
+the roof."
+
+"I will not," gladly promised the woman, and seeing that Bernardino
+knew not which way to turn, she guided them to a door opening into a
+dimly-lighted corridor. "It will take you out to the balconies and down
+to the audience-chamber," she said. The princess thanked her, and she
+and the Englishman descended several flights of stairs. Reaching one
+of the balconies they met the denser darkness of the outside and the
+deafening clang and clamor of the multitude. There was no light of
+any kind, and Thorndyke and his charge had to press close against the
+balustrade of the balcony to keep from being crushed by the mad torrent
+of humanity.
+
+Now and then a strident voice would rise above the din:--
+
+"Down with the palace! Death to the king!"
+
+The trumpet in the tower sounded again and again.
+
+"It is my father trying to attract their attention," explained the
+princess. "Something very serious has happened for once. In speaking
+of the time the sun went out before, he told me that he had made an
+invention which, in such a crisis, would instantly restore confidence to
+the people. I cannot understand why he does not use it. Oh, I am afraid
+they will kill him!"
+
+Thorndyke tried to console her, for he saw that she was weeping, but
+just then there was a strange lull in the general tumult. What could
+have happened?
+
+"The dawn! the ideal dawn!" cried Bernardino, pointing to the eastern
+sky. Thorndyke looked in wonder. A purple light had spread along the
+horizon, and as it gradually softened into gray and slowly turned to
+pink, the noise of the populace died down. No sound could now be heard
+save the low groans of wounded men and women. What a sight met the view
+as the rose-light shimmered over the city! The dead and dying lay under
+the feet of the crowd. Almost every creature bore some mark of violence.
+Eyes were blood-shot, clothing torn, limbs were bleeding, and mingled
+fury and sudden hope struggled in each ashen face. The young trees and
+shrubbery had been trampled under foot, and walls, arcades and triumphal
+arches had been thrown down. The fragments of statues lay here and
+there, and the bodies of human beings filled the basins of broken
+fountains.
+
+"It is not the sun," explained Bernardino; "but the invention my father
+spoke of. He is doing it to calm them."
+
+Thorndyke made no answer. He stood as if transfixed, gazing at the
+horizon. The rose-light had spread over a third of the sky when
+gradually there appeared in its centre a bright circle of yellow light.
+The yellow light faded, leaving a perfect picture of the throne of the
+king; and as the now silent masses looked at the picture, a curtain
+behind the throne parted and the king himself appeared. He advanced and
+sat on the throne, and turned a calm face towards his subjects.
+
+"Wonderful!" ejaculated Bernardino, and her face was full of hope. "See
+what he will do!"
+
+"Where is the picture?" asked Thorndyke; "can it be seen by all of--of
+the people?"
+
+"Yes, by all Alpha, for it is on the sky."
+
+Thorndyke said nothing further, for the king had stood up, and with
+hands out-stretched was bowing. Above the circle of light, as if cut out
+of the solid blackness, in flaming letters stood the word,
+
+"SILENCE!"
+
+And there was silence. Even the lips of the wounded men closed as the
+king began to speak. The sound of his voice seemed as far away as the
+stars, and to permeate all space:--
+
+"All danger is over. Tidings from the west state that the sun is
+setting. No harm has come to it. It will rise in the morning, and the
+moon and stars will be out in a few hours. Let the dead be removed, the
+wounded cared for, and everything be repaired. This is my will."
+
+That was all. The king bowed sedately and retired from the throne, and
+the circle and pink glow faded from the black sky. The stillness
+was unbroken for a moment, then glad murmurings were heard in all
+directions.
+
+"They are lighting the palace," cried the princess. "See, down there is
+the arcade leading to the rotunda."
+
+"I am glad it is over," said Thorndyke.
+
+She grasped his arm and impulsively looked into his face. "But your
+friend, we have forgotten him, and done nothing to save him, and now it
+is too late."
+
+"We could not help it; we had to think of our own safety."
+
+"I shall send for Captain Tradmos and try to devise some other plan,"
+she said, as they descended the stairs.
+
+"We should not be seen together," she added, as they approached the
+throne-room; "besides, you ought to go to your chambers. No one is
+allowed to be out when the dead is being removed."
+
+"Where is the dead taken?"
+
+"Over the wall, to be burned in the internal fires," she concluded, as
+she was leaving him.
+
+He found everything in order in his rooms and he lay down and tried to
+sleep, but he was too much excited over the happenings of the day. Hours
+must have passed when his attention was drawn to a bright light shining
+on the wall of his room. He went to a window and looked out on the
+court. The light came from the rising moon.
+
+Below lay the ruins of fallen columns, capitals, cornices and statues.
+Figures in black cloaks and cowls were removing the dead from the
+debris. With a fluttering sound something swooped down past his window
+to the ground. It looked like a great bird, carrying the car of a
+flying-machine. Thorndyke watched its circular descent to the earth, and
+shuddered with horror as the black figures filled the car with bodies
+and the gruesome machine spread its wings and rose slowly till it was
+clear of the domes and pinnacles of the palace, and then flew away
+westward.
+
+Other machines came, and, one after another, received their ghastly
+burdens and departed. In a short time all the dead was removed, and
+hundreds of workmen came from the palace and began repairing the fallen
+masonry.
+
+Thorndyke went back to his couch and tried to sleep, but in vain. Slowly
+the hours of night passed, and as the purple of dawn rose in the east he
+dressed himself and went up on the roof. The moon had gone down and the
+stars were fading from the sky. The dark earth below showed no signs of
+life; but as the purple light softened into gray he saw that the streets
+of the city were filled with silent expectant people, all watching the
+eastern sky. And, as the gray light flushed into rose, and the rose
+began to scintillate with gold, they began to stir, and a hum of joyful
+voices was heard. The promised day had come.
+
+
+
+Chapter XV.
+
+The sun was, indeed, slowing up. The two men peered out at the door.
+
+"It would be unlucky for us if it should not come so near to the earth
+as it did on the other side," whispered Branasko.
+
+"I can hardly feel any motion to the thing at all," replied the
+American. "Look! for some reason it is not so dark below. I can see the
+rocks. Surely we have already passed over the wall."
+
+"That's so," returned the Alphian. "Come; we must be quick and watch our
+opportunity to land. I can't imagine where the light comes from unless
+it be from the people waiting for the arrival of the sun." Every instant
+the speed was lessening. Overhead the cables were beginning to creak
+and groan, and, now and then, the great globe swung perilously near some
+tall stony peak, or passed under a mighty stalactite. Slower and slower
+it got till, when within a few feet of the ground, it stopped its onward
+motion and only swung back and forth like a pendulum.
+
+"Quick," whispered Branasko, "we must get down while it is swinging, no
+time to lose--not an instant!" And as the sun moved backward, with his
+hand on the doorsill, he leaped to the earth. Johnston followed him.
+They were not a moment too soon, for about fifty yards away they saw a
+body of sixty or seventy men with lights in their hands hastening toward
+them.
+
+"Just in time," exulted Branasko, and he quickly drew Johnston into a
+little cave in the face of a cliff. Crouching behind a great rock, they
+saw and heard the men as they approached.
+
+Some of them walked around the sun, and two, evidently in authority,
+entered the door. The others were placing ladders against the side of
+the sphere, when suddenly there was a loud clattering in the interior, a
+whirling of wheels under the platform above, and the surface of the sun
+burst into light.
+
+The two refugees were momentarily blinded. Branasko had the presence of
+mind to quickly draw his companion down close to the earth behind the
+rock. "They could see us in the light," he whispered.
+
+There was a joyous clamoring of voices among the men, and they withdrew
+several yards to look at the sun. This drew them nearer the hiding-place
+of the two refugees.
+
+"Only an accident," said a voice; "it won't happen again."
+
+Then one of them went into the sun and the lights died out. In a moment
+the sun began to move. Slowly and majestically it swept over the rocky
+earth, followed by the crowd, till it reached a great hole and sank into
+it.
+
+"Gone into the tunnel," said the Alphian, as the crowd disappeared
+behind the cliff.
+
+"What are we to do now?" asked Johnston. "We certainly can't go through
+with the sun."
+
+"Wait till the next trip," grimly replied Branasko.
+
+The rumbling noise from the big hole gradually died away, and the two
+men left their hiding-place.
+
+"What is that?" asked Johnston. He pointed to the west, where a red
+light shone against the towering cliffs.
+
+"It must be the internal fires," answered Branasko, with a noticeable
+shudder. "Let's go nearer; I have heard that there is a point near here
+where one can look down into the Lake of Flame."
+
+"The Lake of Flame!" echoed the American, "What is that?" "It is where
+all of the dead of Alpha is cast by the black 'vultures of death.'"
+
+Johnston said nothing, for it was difficult to keep up with the Alphian,
+who was bounding over rocks and dangerous fissures toward the red glow
+in the distance.
+
+At every step the atmosphere got warmer, and they detected a slight
+gaseous odor in the air. Finally, after an arduous tramp of an hour,
+they climbed up a steep hill and looked sharply down into a vast
+bubbling lake of molten matter more than a thousand yards below.
+Branasko noticed a stone weighing several tons evenly balanced on the
+verge of the great gulf, and pushed it with both his hands. It rocked,
+broke loose from its slender hold on the cliff and bounded out into the
+red space. Down it went, lessen-ing as it sank till it became a mere
+black speck and then disappeared.
+
+"That's where the dead go," said Branasko gloomily.
+
+Just then the American, happening to glance up, saw something like a
+huge black bird with outspread wings circling about in the red light
+over the pit. Branasko saw it, too, and his face paled and a tremolo was
+in his voice when he spoke.
+
+"It is one of the 'vultures of death;' don't stir; we won't be seen if
+we remain where we are!" The strange machine sank lower over the lake
+of fire, till, as if buoyed up on the hot air, with faintly quivering
+wings, it paused. A man opened a door of the black car and carelessly
+threw out the bodies of a woman and a child.
+
+The bodies whirled over and over and disappeared in the pit, and the man
+closed the door. The machine then rose and gracefully winged its flight
+to the east. In a moment others came with their grim burdens, and still
+others, till the mouth of the pit was dark with them.
+
+"Something has happened," whispered Branasko, "some great calamity, for
+surely so many people do not die in Alpha in a single day."
+
+For an hour they watched the coming and going of the vultures, till,
+finally the last one hovered over the lake of fire. Suddenly the machine
+swerved so near to Branasko and Johnston that they shrank close to the
+earth to keep from being seen. Something was evidently wrong with the
+machine, for there was a wild look of desperation on the driver's face
+as he tugged excitedly at the pilot-wheel. But all his efforts only
+caused the air-ship to dart irregularly from side to side, and, now and
+then, to strike the rocks of the pit's mouth, to shoot up suddenly, or
+to sink dangerously down toward the fire.
+
+"He is losing control of it," whispered Branasko, "he does not know what
+to do. See, he is trying to lighten the load, by kicking out the body."
+
+That was true, and, as the machine made a sudden plunge toward the cliff
+a few yards to the left of the refugees, the dead body, which the driver
+had managed to move to the door with his feet, fell out and lodged upon
+the edge of the cliff instead of falling into the fiery depths. The
+machine bounded up a few yards and paused, now apparently under the
+control of its driver. The man looked down hesitatingly at the corpse
+for a moment and then lowered the machine to the sloping rock near where
+the body lay. He alighted and cautiously crept down the steep incline
+to the body. He raised it in his arms and was about to cast it from him
+when his foot slipped, and with a cry of horror he fell with his burden
+over the cliff's edge into the red abyss.
+
+Johnston uttered an exclamation of horror, but Branasko was unmoved.
+After a moment he rose, and carefully scanning the space overhead,
+he crawled on hands and knees toward the machine. Johnston heard him
+chuckling to himself and uttering spasmodic laughs, and he watched him
+closely as he reached the machine. For several minutes he seemed to be
+inspecting it critically, both inside and out; then he stood away from
+it, a bold, black silhouette on a background of flame, and motioned the
+American to come to him.
+
+Johnston promptly, but not without many misgivings, obeyed his signal.
+"What are you up to?" asked he, as the Alphian assisted him to rise from
+his hands and knees.
+
+Branasko touched the machine and smiled. His face was shining with
+enthusiasm.
+
+"The question of our returning to Alpha is settled," he said
+sententiously.
+
+"How?"
+
+"We can go in this."
+
+"Can you manage it?"
+
+"Easily; that fellow must have been drunk; the machine is in good order,
+I think."
+
+"When do you propose to start?" and the American eyed the funeral-car
+dubiously.
+
+"The night is before us; we could not get a better time." As he spoke
+he entered the car and laid his hand on the wheel. Johnston, obeying
+his nod, followed, shuddering as he remarked the traces of blood on the
+floor.
+
+"All right!" Branasko turned the wheel slowly, and the wings outside
+began to flap, and the car mounted into the air like a startled bird and
+flew out quickly over the pit.
+
+Branasko bit his lip, and Johnston heard him stifle an exclamation of
+impatience. As for the American, he was at once thrilled and fascinated
+by the awful sight below; he could now see beneath the overhanging mouth
+of the pit, and look far down into a boundless lake of molten matter
+that seemed as restless as an ocean in a storm.
+
+Then the air became so hot he could hardly breathe. He looked at the
+Alphian in alarm. The latter was whirling the wheel first one way and
+then another with a startled look of fear in his eyes, and then Johnston
+noticed that the walls of the pit were rising about them, and the black
+canopy overhead rapidly receding.
+
+They were sinking down into the fire.
+
+Almost wild with terror, the American sprang toward the wheel, but
+Branasko pushed him away roughly.
+
+"Stand back," he ordered gruffly. "It is the heat; let me alone!"
+
+The American sank into his seat. The heat became more and more intense.
+Both men were purple in the face, and the perspiration was rolling from
+their bodies in streams. Down sank the machine.
+
+"I can't manage it," said Branasko hoarsely, "we'd as well give up."
+Just then Johnston noticed the mouth of a cave behind Branasko.
+
+"Look," he cried, "can't we get into it?"
+
+Branasko looked over his shoulder, and, as he saw the cave, he uttered a
+glad cry. He quickly turned the wheel and drew out a lever at his right.
+The machine obeyed instantly; it swerved round suddenly and dived
+into the cave. The cool air soon revived them, and Branasko had little
+trouble in bringing the car to a resting-place on the rocky floor of the
+cave. Before them hung impenetrable darkness, behind a curtain of red
+light.
+
+"We are in a pretty pickle now," said Johnston despondently, as they
+alighted from the car.
+
+"Nothing to do but to make the best of it," sighed Branasko.
+
+"Perhaps this cave may lead out into some place of safety."
+
+Johnston's eyes had become somewhat accustomed to the gloom, and he
+began to peer into the darkness.
+
+"I see a light," he exclaimed; "it cannot be a reflection from the fire
+in the pit, for it is whiter."
+
+The Alphian gazed at it steadily for a moment, then he said decidedly:
+"We must go and see what it is." Without another word he started toward
+the white, star-like spot, sliding his hand over the rocky wall, and
+springing over a fissure in the floor.
+
+Gradually the light grew brighter, till, as they suddenly rounded a
+cliff, a grand sight burst upon their view. They found themselves in a
+vast dome-shaped cavern, thousands of yards in diameter and height.
+And almost in the centre of the floor, from a red and purple mound of
+cooling lava, leapt a white stream of molten matter from the floor to
+the dome. And in the black dome, where the lava turned to molten spray,
+hung countless stalactites of every color known to the artistic eye. And
+from the foot of the fountain ran a tortuous rivulet that lighted the
+walls and roof of a narrow chamber that extended for miles down toward
+the bowels of the earth.
+
+Branasko was delighted.
+
+"The king does not know of this," he declared, "else he would make it
+accessible to his people, and call it one of the wonders of Alpha.
+By accidentally sinking into the pit we have discovered it. But," he
+concluded, "we must at once try to find some way out other than that by
+which we came."
+
+They turned from the beautiful fountain, and, holding to each other's
+hands, and aided by the light behind them, they stumbled laboriously
+through the semi-darkness. Branasko's ears were very acute. He paused to
+listen.
+
+"Hark ye!" he cautioned.
+
+The combined roar of the pit and the fountain of lava had sunk to a low
+murmur, but ahead of them they now heard a rushing sound like a distant
+tornado.
+
+"Come on," said the Alphian, and he drew his companion after him with an
+eagerness the American was slow to understand. The light in the
+cavern gradually grew brighter. By a circuitous route they were again
+approaching the pit of fire, though it was still hidden from sight.
+
+Finally they reached a point where the wind was blowing stiffly, and
+further on a volume of cold spray suddenly dashed upon them and wet them
+to the skin. And when their eyes had become accustomed to the rolling
+mist, they saw a great lake, and pouring into it from high above was a
+mighty waterfall.
+
+"Mercy!" ejaculated the Alphian, in great alarm. "If this is salt water
+we are lost. All Alpha will come to an end!"
+
+"What do you mean?" And Johnston wondered if Branasko's trials and
+struggle could have turned his brain.
+
+"If it be salt water, then it has broken in from the ocean above Alpha,"
+he explained. "The king has often said that not a drop of the ocean has
+ever entered the great cavern."
+
+Branasko stooped and wet his hand in a little pool at his feet. "I am
+almost afraid to taste it," said he, holding his hand near his mouth.
+"It would settle all our fates." He waited a moment and then touched his
+fingers to his tongue.
+
+"Salt!" That was all he said for several moments. He folded his arms and
+looked mutely toward the boiling lake. Presently he raised his eyes
+to the great hole in the roof, and groaned: "The break is gradually
+widening. These stones are freshly broken, and the great bowl is
+filling."
+
+"It will fill all Alpha with water and drown every soul in it," added
+the terrified American.
+
+"That, however, is not the most immediate danger," said Branasko wisely.
+"They would first suffocate, and later their bodies would be swallowed
+up in the stomach of the earth."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+Branasko shrugged his shoulders. "As soon as this bowl is filled with
+water, which would not take many hours, it would run over into the lake
+of fire and produce an explosion that would rend Alpha from end to end."
+
+"Who knows, it might turn the whole Atlantic into the centre of the
+earth, and destroy the entire earth." But Branasko was unable to grasp
+the full magnitude of the remark, for to him the world was simply a
+vast cavern lighted by human ingenuity. He fastened a narrow splinter
+of stone upright in the shallow water at his feet, and, lying down on his
+stomach with his eyes close to it, he studied it for several minutes.
+When he got up, a desperate gleam was in his dark eyes.
+
+"It is rising fast," he said. "We must attempt to get to the capitol and
+warn the king. It is possible that he may be able to stop the opening.
+The only thing left to us is to try our machine again."
+
+Johnston found it hard to keep pace with him as he bounded out of the
+mist and on toward the faint glow ahead. Reaching the flying machine
+Branasko entered it and turned on a small electric light.
+
+"Ah," he grunted with satisfaction, "I have found a light. I can now see
+what is the matter with it."
+
+Johnston stood outside and heard him hammering on the metal parts in the
+car, and became so absorbed in thinking of the peril of their position
+that he was startled when Branasko cried out to him:--"All right. I
+think we can make it do; a pin has lost out, but perhaps I can hold the
+piece in place with my foot. If only we can stand the heat of the pit
+long enough to rise above it, we may escape."
+
+Johnston followed him into the car. Branasko seated himself firmly and
+gave the wheel a little turn. Slowly the machine rose. "See!" cried
+Branasko, "it is under control. We must not be too hasty. Now for the
+pit!"
+
+The heart of the American was in his mouth as the long black wings waved
+up and down and the air-ship, like some live thing, shuddered and swept
+gracefully out of the mouth of the cave into the glare and heat of the
+pit.
+
+"Hold your breath!" yelled Branasko, and he bent lower into the car to
+escape the shower of hot ashes that was falling about them. Far out
+over the lake in a straight line they glided, and there came to a sudden
+halt. Johnston's eyes were glued on his companion's face. Branasko sat
+doubled up, every muscle drawn, his eyes bulging from their sockets.
+Would he be strong enough? To Johnston everything seemed in a whirl. The
+walls of the pit were rising around them.
+
+
+
+Chapter XVI.
+
+Thorndyke went down into his chambers to make his toilet and was ready
+to leave when there was a soft rap on his door. He opened it, and to his
+surprise saw Bernardino modestly draw herself back into the shadow of
+the hall.
+
+"Pardon me, but I must speak to you," she stammered in confusion.
+
+"What is it?" he asked, going out to her.
+
+"I want to advise you to avoid my father to-day. He is greatly
+disappointed with the accident of yesterday, and he is never courteous
+to strangers when he is displeased. He was particularly anxious to have
+you entertained by the fete."
+
+"Thank you; I shall keep out of his way," promised the Englishman.
+"Where had I better stay--here in my rooms?"
+
+"No, he might send for you. If you would care to see Winter Park, I can
+go with you as your guide."
+
+"I should be delighted; nothing could please me more."
+
+"But," (as a servant passed in the room with a tray) "that is your
+breakfast. Meet me at the fountain at the north entrance of the palace
+in half an hour." And, drawing her veil over her face, she vanished in
+the darkness of the corridor.
+
+After he had breakfasted and sent the man away, he hastened below to the
+place designated by the princess. She was waiting for him under the palm
+trees, and was so disguised that he would not have known her but for her
+low amused laugh as he was about to pass her.
+
+"It would not do for any one to suspect me," she explained; "my father
+would never forgive me for doing this." She pointed to a flying-machine
+near by. "We must take the air; I have made all the arrangements. Winter
+Park is beyond the limits of the city."
+
+He followed her across the grass to the machine and into the car. They
+could see the driver behind the glass of the narrow compartment in which
+he sat, and when he turned the polished metal wheel the machine rose
+like a liberated balloon.
+
+Thorndyke looked out of the window. The blue haze of the fifth hour of
+the morning was breaking over everything, and as the domes, pinnacles,
+and vari-colored roofs fell away in the beautiful light, the breast of
+the Englishman heaved with delightful emotions. Bernardino was watching
+his face with a gratified smile.
+
+"You like Alpha," she said, half anxiously, half inquiringly.
+
+"Very much," he replied; "but I want to show you the great world I came
+from;--and some day perhaps I can."
+
+The blood ran into her cheeks suddenly, and then as quickly receded,
+leaving a wistful expression in her eyes. She sighed. "It has been my
+dream for a long time. I have always imagined that it is more wonderful
+than Alpha; but you know there is no chance for you to return now."
+
+"I shall manage to escape some way and you shall go with me as my wife."
+
+Her blushes came again. "I did not know that you cared that much for
+me," she said. Then, as if to change the subject, she pointed through
+the window. "See, we are approaching the Park, and shall descend in a
+moment."
+
+He looked out of the window and then drew his head in quickly.
+
+"We are coming down into a big lake!" he cried out. "Oh, no, it is only
+the glass roof of the park," she laughed; "true, it does look like water
+in the sunlight."
+
+The machine sank lower and finally rested on a plot of grass in a little
+square ornamented with beds of flowers and white statues. Thorndyke
+saw a seemingly endless wall, so high that he could not calculate its
+height. Bernardino preceded him in at a great arching door in the wall,
+and they found themselves in a stone-paved vestibule several hundred
+feet square.
+
+A maid servant came forward at once and brought heavy fur clothing
+for them and invited them into separate toilet rooms. When he came out
+Bernardino was waiting for him. He could hardly breathe, so thick were
+the furs he had put on.
+
+"It is warm here, but it will be colder in a moment," said the princess.
+And she led him to a door across the room. When the door was opened,
+Thorndyke uttered an exclamation of astonishment. Before their eyes lay
+a wide expanse of snow-covered roads, woodlands and frozen lakes and
+streams. The air was as crisp and invigorating as a Canadian winter.
+
+Bernardino led him to a pavilion where a number of pleasure-seekers were
+gathered and selected a sleigh and two mettlesome horses. She took
+the reins from the man, and sprang lightly into the graceful cutter.
+Thorndyke followed her and wrapped the thick robes about her feet. Away
+they sped like the wind down the smooth road, through a leafless forest.
+Overhead the glass roof could not be seen, but a lowering gray cloud
+hung over them and a light snow was falling.
+
+"Winter Park is a great resort," the princess explained; "we get tired
+of the unchanging climate, and it is pleasant to visit such a place as
+this. There is a winter park in every town of any size in Alpha."
+
+They drove along the shore of a beautiful lake, on the frozen surface
+of which hundreds of skaters were darting here and there, and passed
+hillsides on which crowds of young people were coasting in sleds. When
+they had driven about ten miles in a circuitous route she turned the
+horses round.
+
+"We had better return," she said; "you have not seen all of the Park,
+but we can visit it some other time."
+
+Outside they found their flying-machine awaiting them, and were soon on
+the way back to the city. They parted at the fountain in the park, she
+hastening to the palace, and he turning to stroll through the little
+wood behind him.
+
+He was passing a thick bunch of trees when he was startled by hearing
+his name called. He turned round, but at first saw no one.
+
+"Thorndyke!" There it was again, and then he saw a hand beckoning to him
+from a hedge of ferns at his right. He stepped back a few paces; a man
+came out of the wood.
+
+It was Johnston, his face was white and haggard, his clothing rent and
+soiled.
+
+"My God, can it be you?" gasped the Englishman.
+
+"Nobody else," groaned Johnston, cautiously advancing and laying a
+trembling hand on the arm of Thorndyke; "but don't talk loud, they will
+find me."
+
+"Where did you come from?"
+
+Johnston pointed first to the east, and then swept his hand over the sky
+to the west.
+
+"Over the wall," he said despondently. "From the dead lands behind the
+sun."
+
+"How did you get back here?"
+
+For reply Johnston parted the fern leaves and pointed to the lank figure
+of the tall Alphian, who lay curled up on the grass as if asleep.
+"He brought me in that flying-machine there; but he has spent all his
+strength in trying to manage the thing, which was out of order, and now
+he is helpless. Twice we came within an inch of sinking down into the
+internal fires. The last time we escaped only by the breadth of a hair;
+if he had not had the endurance of a man of iron he would have succumbed
+to the heat and we would have been lost. We sank so far down that I
+became insensible and never knew a thing till the fresh air revived me.
+See, my beard and hair are singed, and look how he is blistered. Poor
+fellow! He is a hero." Johnston stepped back and shook the Alphian, but
+the poor fellow's head only rolled to one side, showing his bloodshot
+eyes. He was insensible.
+
+"He is in a bad fix," said Thorndyke; "where did he come from?"
+
+"Banished like myself; we met over there in the dark and roamed about
+together."
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"I don't know; I was following his lead. We will both be put to death if
+we are discovered."
+
+"Did he not tell you his plan?"
+
+Johnston started visibly. "Oh, I forgot," he exclaimed. "He declares
+that all this vast cavern is in danger. Over in the west we discovered
+a hole in the roof through which the ocean is streaming in a torrent.
+He calculated that before many hours the water would overflow into the
+internal fires and produce a volcanic eruption that will swallow up all
+of Alpha."
+
+"Merciful Heaven! and you are hiding here at such a moment? The king
+must be informed at once."
+
+Johnston had grown suddenly paler. "It may not be as bad as Branasko
+feared, and the king would have no mercy on me and him."
+
+"Leave that to me," said Thorndyke; "I have made a good friend of the
+Princess Bernardino. She will tell me what is best to do. Remain here."
+
+In breathless haste, Thorndyke went into the audience chamber.
+Fortunately the king was not on his throne, and he caught sight of the
+confidential maid of the princess.
+
+She saw him approaching, and withdrew behind a cluster of tall white
+jars of porcelain containing rare plants.
+
+"I must see your mistress," he said; "tell her to come to me at once; we
+are in great peril!"
+
+The girl swept her eyes over the balconies and the throne and said: "She
+is in her apartments, sir; I shall bring her."
+
+"Tell her to meet me at the fountain where we last met," and he hastened
+back to the spot mentioned.
+
+She soon came. "What is it?" she asked excitedly.
+
+"Johnston is back," he replied. "He is in the wood there with a fellow
+who escaped with him in a disabled flying-machine. He says the sea
+has broken through over in the west and is streaming into Alpha in a
+torrent."
+
+"Surely there is some mistake," she said; "such a thing has never
+happened."
+
+"It may have been caused by the explosives during the storm," went on
+Thorndyke. "Branasko, the Alphian who was with Johnston, says we are in
+imminent peril."
+
+"There must be some mistake," she repeated incredulously, as she looked
+to westward. The green glow of the second hour of the afternoon lay
+over everything. She stood mute and motionless for a long time,
+looking steadily at the horizon; then she started suddenly, changed her
+position, and shaded her eyes from the sunlight.
+
+"It really does seem to me that there is a cloud rising, and it is
+unlike any cloud I ever saw."
+
+"I see it too!" cried the Englishman; "it must be that the water has
+already reached the internal fires."
+
+Bernardino was very pale when she turned to him.
+
+"My father must know this at once; come with me."
+
+Into the palace, through the vast rotunda, past the throne, and into
+the very apartment of the king himself she led him hastily. A royal
+attendant met them and held up his hands warningly. "The king is
+asleep," he said in an undertone.
+
+"Wake him--wake him at once!" commanded the excited girl.
+
+"I cannot, it would offend him," was the reply.
+
+She did not pause an instant, but darting past the man and running to
+the king's couch, she drew the curtain aside and touched the sleeper. He
+waked in anger, but her first word disarmed him.
+
+"Alpha is in danger."
+
+"What!" he growled, half awake. "The sea is breaking through in the
+west, and running into the internal fires."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"A dense cloud is rising in the west, and:----"
+
+"Impossible!" the word came from far down in his throat, and he was
+ghastly pale. He ran to the table and touched a button and, to the
+astonishment of Thorndyke, the walls on the western side of the room
+silently parted, showing a little balcony overlooking the street
+below. The king went hastily out and looked toward the west. The others
+followed him. The princess stifled a cry of alarm when she glanced at
+the sky.
+
+Great black, rolling clouds were rapidly spreading along the horizon.
+
+The king looked at them as helplessly as a frightened child. "The air!"
+he groaned. "It is hot!" and then he held out his hand to the princess,
+and showed her a flake of soot on it, and he dumbly pointed to others
+that were falling about them.
+
+"How did you discover it?" he asked, and Thorndyke saw that he was
+trying to appear calm.
+
+"Mr.--this gentleman's friend has returned from banishment, and----"
+
+"Returned! has the wall been destroyed?"
+
+"No; he accidentally discovered the danger, and came in a flying-machine
+to warn you."
+
+"Where is he? bring him to me, quick!"
+
+"But you will not ----"
+
+He waved his hand impatiently. "Go; if Alpha is saved he shall be at
+liberty--if it is not, what does it matter?"
+
+Thorndyke hastened away after Johnston, who, when he was told of the
+king's words, readily accompanied his friend to the presence of the
+ruler. They found him with his daughter still on the balcony.
+
+"How did you discover this?" asked the king, turning to the American.
+
+As quickly as possible, Johnston related his adventures, and
+particularly the story of the shooting fountain and the fall of salt
+water. The king did not wait for him to conclude. He ran back into his
+chamber, touched another button, and the next instant alarm-bells were
+ringing all over the city.
+
+"A signal to the protectors," explained the princess to Thorndyke; "by
+this time they are ringing all over Alpha. Oh, what will become of us?"
+as she spoke she leaned over the balustrade and looked down into the
+street. Vast crowds had gathered and were motionless, except at points
+where the purple-clad "protectors" rushed from public buildings to
+assemble in squads on the street corner.
+
+
+
+Chapter XVII.
+
+Bernardino turned to look after her father as he was leaving the room.
+
+"He is going to the observatory," she said to Thorndyke and Johnston.
+"Let us go also." And they followed the king into the room with the
+glass roof and walls covered with mirrors which he had shown the
+strangers several days before. A white-headed old man stood at the
+stand, his fingers trembling over the half circle of electric buttons.
+In a mirror before him he was studying the reflection of a town of
+perhaps a hundred houses. The streets were filled with excited
+citizens, and a squad of protectors stood ready for action near a row of
+flying-machines.
+
+"Ornethelo," said the king, and at the sound of his voice the old man
+turned and bowed humbly.
+
+"All right," went on the king, "I will take your place a moment."
+
+He went to the stand and touched a button. Instantly the scene changed;
+fields, forests, streams and hills ran by in a murky blur, and then
+a larger town flashed on the mirror. Here the same stir and alertness
+characterized the scene. The gaze of every inhabitant was fixed on the
+threatening horizon. Rapidly the scenes shifted at the king's will, till
+a hundred cities, towns and villages had been reviewed.
+
+"Enough! They are all ready--all faithful," groaned the king, "and,
+Ornethelo, they may all have to perish to-day, and all for our ambition.
+Poor mortals!"
+
+Ornethelo's face was half submerged in the beard on his breast, but he
+looked up suddenly and spoke:
+
+"For their sakes, then, we ought not to delay; there may yet be hope."
+
+"You are right, Ornethelo." There was a ring of hope in the voice of the
+king. "Quick! show me my capitol, that I may see if all the protectors
+are ready."
+
+Ornethelo touched another button, and, as if seen from a great height,
+the fair and wondrous city dawned before the eyes of the spectators.
+In every street policemen and protectors and flying-machines stood
+in orderly readiness. The housetops were colored with the variegated
+costumes of men, women and children. Over all lay the wondrous sunlight,
+through the green splendor of which the flakes of soot were falling like
+black snow.
+
+The king touched the old man's arm. "I must see beyond the walls; are
+the connections made?"
+
+"Ready, sir."
+
+"Try them; they must not fail me now!"
+
+The old man tremblingly unlocked a cabinet on the table, and another row
+of electric buttons was displayed. Ornethelo touched one. Immediately
+there was a sharp clicking sound under the stand, and the view was swept
+from the mirror. Nothing could be seen but a dark suggestion of towering
+cliffs and yawning caverns.
+
+"Not the east, Ornethelo," cried the king impatiently. "Go on! the west!
+the west!"
+
+The black landscape flashed by like a glimpse of night from a flying
+train, and then a blur of redly illuminated smoke in rolling billows
+seemed to swell out from the surface of the mirror into the room.
+
+"There, slow!" cried the king, and then a frightful scene burst upon
+their sight. They beheld a great belching pit of fire and flames. The
+sky from the earth to the zenith was a vast expanse of illuminated
+smoke, and the black landscape round about was cut by rivulets of molten
+lava rolling on and on like restless streams of quicksilver.
+
+The king leaned against the stand as if faint with despair. "Call Prince
+Arthur!" he ordered, and almost at that instant the young man appeared.
+
+"Father!"
+
+The king pointed a quivering finger at the mirror, and said huskily:
+
+"Let not the sun go down! Let its light be white as at noon."
+
+"But, father, it has never been done before; it----"
+
+"Alpha has never faced such danger. All our dream is about to end. Go!"
+
+Without a word the young man hastened away, and it seemed scarcely a
+moment before the sunlight streaming in at the oval glass roof changed
+from green to white.
+
+The king pushed Ornethelo impatiently aside; his eyes held a dull gleam
+of despair, and he seemed to have grown ten years older. He touched a
+button, and the awful scene at the pit gave place to a bright view
+of the capitol, which was plainly seen from its crowded centre to its
+scattering suburbs. The squads of "protectors" stood like armies ready
+for battle, their rigid faces still toward the awful west.
+
+"They are ready--the signal!" yelled the king, waving his hand, "the
+signal!" Ornethelo caught his breath suddenly and tottered as he went
+across the room, and touched a button on the wall. The king's eyes were
+glued on the mirrored view of the capitol, his trembling hands held out,
+as if commanding silence. Then a deafening trumpet blast broke on the
+ear. The masses of citizens pressed near the edges of the roofs and
+close against the walls along the streets, as the protectors rushed into
+the flying-machines. Another trumpet-blast, and away they flew, a long
+black line, every instant growing smaller as it receded in the murky
+distance. The princess, white and silent, led Thorndyke and Johnston
+back to the balcony. The line of machines was now a mere thread in the
+sky, but the ominous cloud in the west had increased, and fine sand and
+ashes were added to the fall of soot.
+
+"What was that?" gasped the princess. It was a low rumble like distant
+thunder, and the balcony shook violently.
+
+"An earthquake," said Thorndyke. "I am really afraid there is not a
+ghost of a chance for us; the water running into the fire is sure to
+cause an eruption of some sort, and even a slight one would be likely to
+enlarge the opening to the ocean."
+
+Johnston nodded knowingly as he looked into his friend's face, but,
+considering the presence of the princess, he said nothing.
+
+"My brother, Prince Marentel, is the greatest man in our kingdom," she
+re marked. "He has taken enough explosives to remove a mountain."
+
+"How will he use them?" asked Thorndyke.
+
+"I don't know, but I fancy he will try to close the opening in some
+way."
+
+The latter slowly shook his head. "I fear he will fail. The fall must be
+as voluminous as Niagara by this time."
+
+"My father must have lost hope, or he would not have stopped the sun,"
+sighed the princess, and she cast a sad glance towards the west. The
+rolling clouds had become more dense, and the rumbling and booming in
+the distance was growing more frequent. A thin gray cloud passed before
+the sun, and a dim shadow fell over the city.
+
+"That is a natural cloud," said Thorndyke; "it comes from the steam that
+rises from the pit."
+
+"It is exactly like our rain clouds," returned the princess; "but
+it comes from the steam, as you say. But let us go into the Electric
+Auditorium and hear the news. As soon as anything is done we will
+hear of it there." The others had no time to question her, for she was
+hastening into the corridor outside. She piloted them down a flight of
+stairs into a large circular room beneath the surface of the ground. It
+was filled with seats like a modern theatre, and in the place where
+the stage would have been, stood a mighty mirror over an hundred feet
+square. She led them to a private box in front of the mirror. The room
+was filled from the first row of chairs to the rear with a silent,
+anxious crowd. In the massive frame of the mirror were numerous
+bell-shaped trumpets like those on the ordinary phonograph, though much
+larger.
+
+"Watch the mirror," whispered Bernardino as she sat down.
+
+And at that instant the surface of the great glass began to glow like
+the sky at dawn, and all the lights in the room went out. Then from the
+trumpets in the frame came the loud ringing of musical bells.
+
+"They are ready," whispered Bernardino; "now watch and listen."
+
+The pink light on the mirror faded, and a life-like reflection
+appeared--the reflection of a young man standing on a rock in bold
+relief against a dark background of rugged, slabbering cliffs and the
+forbidding mouths of caves.
+
+"Waldmeer!" ejaculated the princess, and she relapsed into silence.
+
+The young man held in his hand a cup-shaped instrument from which
+extended a wire to the ground. He raised it to his lips, and instantly a
+calm, deliberate voice came from the mirror, soft and low and yet loud,
+enough to reach the most remote parts of the great room.
+
+"The ocean," began he, "is pouring into the 'Volcano of the Dead' in a
+gradually increasing torrent. Prince Marentel hopes temporarily to delay
+the crisis by partially turning the torrent away from the pit into the
+lowlands of the country. For that purpose a portion of the endless wall
+is being torn down, and Marentel's forces are placing their explosives.
+After this is done an attempt will be made to stop the original break.
+There is, however, little hope. The prince has warned the king to be
+prepared for the worst."
+
+At this point, the speaker turned as if startled toward the red glare
+at his right. He quickly picked up another instrument attached to a wire
+and put it to his ear. A look of horror changed his face as he turned
+to the audience and began to speak:--"The opening in the wall is not
+progressing rapidly. Workmen are drowning and the tunnel of the sun is
+filling with water. It will be impossible for the sun to go through to
+the east."
+
+Just then there was a far-away crash, and instantly the mirror was void.
+There was now no sound except the low groans of women in the audience
+and the subdued curses of maddened men. The silence was profound. Then
+the mirror began to glow, and the image of another man took Waldmeer's
+place.
+
+"It is the Mayor of Telmantio," whispered the princess, "a place near
+the western limits of Alpha."
+
+He held a like instrument to the one used by Waldmeer, and through
+it spoke:--"Venus, one of the great stars, has been shaken from the
+firmament. It fell in the suburbs of Telmantio, and many lives were
+lost."
+
+That was all, and the figure vanished. Presently Waldmeer reappeared.
+He seemed to be standing nearer the pit, for the entire background was
+aflame; volumes of black smoke now and then hid him from view, and a
+thick shower of ashes and small stones were falling round him. He
+spoke, but his voice was drowned in a deafening explosion, and the
+whole landscape about him seemed afire. In the semi-darkness hundreds of
+protectors could be seen struggling in the rushing water, moving stones
+and building a dam. Waldmeer again faced his far-off audience and
+spoke:--"Prince Marentel has turned the course of the stream. All now
+depends on the success or failure of his final test with explosives,
+which will take place in about half an hour."
+
+"We ought to go outside again," suggested Bernardino, as Waldmeer's
+image disappeared; "my father might want us."
+
+Seeing no one in the king's apartment, they passed through it to the
+balcony. Half the sky was now covered with mingled fog and smoke, and
+the sun could be seen only now and then. A drizzling rain was falling--a
+rain that brought down clots of ashes and soot. But this made no
+difference to the throngs in the now muddy and slippery streets. They
+stood shivering in damp and soiled clothing, their blearing eyes fixed
+hopelessly on the lowering signs in the west. Johnston noticed a bent
+figure crouched against a wall beneath them. It was Branasko.
+
+"Who is it?" inquired the princess.
+
+"Branasko, the companion of my adventures," he replied.
+
+"Call him to us," she said eagerly, and the American went down to the
+Alphian.
+
+As they entered together, Branasko uncovered his dishevelled head and
+bowed most humbly.
+
+"You look tired and sick and hungry; have you eaten anything today?" she
+asked.
+
+"Not in two days," he replied.
+
+The princess called to a frightened maid who was wringing her hands in a
+corridor.
+
+"Give this man food and drink at once," she ordered, and Branasko, with
+a grateful bow and glance, withdrew. Johnston followed him to the door.
+
+"Fear nothing," he said. "If the danger passes we are safe; the king has
+promised to pardon me, and he will do the same for you."
+
+"There is no hope for any of us," replied Branasko grimly; "but I do not
+want to die with this gnawing in my stomach; adieu."
+
+"If the worst comes, is there any chance for us to escape from here to
+the outer world?" the Englishman was asking the princess when Johnston
+turned back to them.
+
+"For a few hundred, yes,--by the sub-water ships, but for all, no; and,
+then, my father would not consent to rescue a part and not the whole of
+his subjects. He would not try to save himself or any of his family."
+
+The clouds still covered the sun; but on the eastern sky its rays were
+shining gloriously. Ever and anon there sounded from afar a low rumbling
+as if the earth were swelling with heat.
+
+Johnston left the two lovers together and went to the door of the
+Electric Auditorium, and over the heads of the breathless crowd he
+watched the great mirror. After a few moments Waldmeer appeared and
+spoke:
+
+"Prince Marentel is operating with great difficulty. A large quantity of
+his explosives has been injured by water, but he hopes there is enough
+left intact to serve his purpose. The final explosion will soon take
+place. The greatest peril hangs over Alpha."
+
+Waldmeer's reflection was becoming in-distinct, and sick at heart the
+American elbowed his way through the muttering crowd into the corridor.
+Here he met Branasko, and together they walked back to Thorndyke and the
+princess, who were mutely watching the signs in the east. Just then the
+sun slowly emerged from the cloud.
+
+"Look!" cried Bernardino in horror. "The cloud is not moving; the
+sun has not stopped! It is going down and we shall soon be in utter
+darkness. Oh, it is awful--to die in this way!"
+
+The king had just returned, and he over-heard her words. He came hastily
+to the edge of the balcony, and gazed at the sun. The others held their
+breath and waited. His face became more rigid; he swayed a little as he
+turned to her.
+
+"You are right, my daughter," he groaned; "it is going down; the
+cowardly dogs in the east have deserted their posts. It is going down!
+It will sink into a tunnel filled with water, and the light of Alpha
+will be extinguished forever. We are undone! Say your prayers, my
+child, your prayers, I tell you, for an Infinite God is angry at our
+pretensions!"
+
+"Don't despair, father," and Bernardino put her arms gently round the
+old man's neck. "You understand the solar machinery; could you not stop
+the sun?"
+
+The eyes of the old man flashed. He seemed electrified as he drew
+himself from her embrace and looked anxiously over the balustrade to a
+flying-machine in the street below.
+
+"I might reach the east in time," he cried; "yes, you are right, I was
+acting cowardly. The fastest air-ship in Alpha is ready, and Nanleon
+can drive it to its utmost speed. If the worst comes, I shall see you no
+more, good-bye!" He kissed her brow tenderly, and her eyes filled as
+he hastened away. Down below they saw him spring lightly into the
+gold-mounted car, and the next instant the graceful vessel rose above
+the palace roof and sped like an arrow across the sky toward the east.
+
+A faint cheer broke from the lips of the crowd which seemed suddenly to
+take new hope from the king's departure. Some of them waved their hats
+and scarfs, and many watched the air-ship till it had disappeared in the
+murky distance.
+
+"He may not get there in time!" cried the princess; "it seems to be
+going down faster than it ever did before, and he has a great distance
+to go."
+
+The little party on the balcony were silent for a long time. Presently
+Bernardino turned her tearful eyes to the face of Thorndyke.
+
+"The smoke and steam do not seem so voluminous, do you think all will go
+well?"
+
+The Englishman slowly shook his head. "I don't want to depress you more
+than you are; but I think at such a time we ought to realize the worst.
+It is true, the clouds are not so heavy, and the earth-quakes are less
+frequent, but, unfortunately, it is owing to the fact that the volume of
+water has been turned away from the pit into the tunnel. Be prepared for
+the worst. If your father cannot reach the machinery in the east soon
+enough, our light will go out; and, worse than that, if Prince Marentel
+should fail in his next venture with explosives, all hope will be gone."
+
+"I have never desired to live so much as now," she answered, inclining
+with an air of tenderness toward him. "I never knew what it was to fear
+death till--till you came to us."
+
+He made no reply. There was a lump in his throat and he could not trust
+his voice to speech. Branasko and Johnston left them together to go into
+the Electric Auditorium. They returned in great haste.
+
+"The prince is ready for the explosion," panted Johnston. "Thorndyke, old
+man, this is simply awful! It is not like standing up to be shot at, or
+being jerked through the clouds in a balloon. It seems to me that out
+there is the endless space of infinity, and that all the material world
+is coming to an end. My God! look at that hellish fire, the awful smoke
+and that black sky! Oh, the blasphemy of a such a paltry imitation of
+the handiwork of the Creator! We are damned! I say damned, and by a just
+and angry God!"
+
+"Don't be a fool," said Thorndyke, and he threw a warning glance at
+Bernardino, who, with staring, distended eyes was listening to Johnston.
+
+"No, he is right," she said in a low tone. "I have never seen your
+world, but I know my people must be woefully wrong. In your land they
+say men teach things about Infinity and an eternal life for the soul;
+and that one may prepare for that life by living pure, and in striving
+to attain a high spiritual state. Oh, why have you not told me about
+that? It is the one important thing. I have long wanted to know if my
+soul will be safe at death, but I can learn nothing of my people. They
+have always tried to rival God, and, in their mad pursuit of perfection
+in science, they have been reduced to--this. That black cloud is the
+frown of God, hose mad flames may burst forth at any moment and engulf
+us."
+
+She uttered a low groan and hung her head as if in prayer. Johnston and
+Thorndyke were awed to silence. Never had the Englishman loved her as at
+that moment. She was no longer simply a beautiful human creature, but
+a divinity, speaking truths from Heaven itself. He felt too unworthy to
+stand in her presence, and yet his heart was aching to comfort her.
+
+She raised her pallid face heavenward and extended her fair, fragile
+hands toward the lowering sky and began to pray. "My Creator," she said
+reverently, childishly, "I have never come to Thee, but they say that
+people far away from this dark land, under Thy own sun, moon and stars
+do ask aid of Thee, and I, too, want Thy help. Forgive me and my people.
+They have been sinful, and vain, and thoughtless, but let them
+not perish in utter gloom. Forgive them, O thou Maker of all that
+exists--thou Creator of pain that we may love joy, Creator of evil that
+we may know good, turn not from us! We are but thoughtless children--and
+Thy children--give us time to realize the awful error of our hollow
+pretensions! Give them all now, at once, if they are to die, that spirit
+which is awakened in me by the awful majesty of Thy anger! Hear me, O
+God!" And with a sob she sank on her knees, clasped her hands and raised
+them upward. Thorndyke tried to lift her up, but she shook her head and
+continued her prayer in silence. A marked change had come over Branasko.
+He looked at Johnston and Thorndyke in a strange, helpless way, and
+then, in a corner of the balcony the begrimed and tattered man fell on
+his knees. He knew not the meaning of prayer, but there was something
+in the reverent attitude of the princess that drew his untutored being
+toward his Maker. He covered his face with his hands and his shaggy head
+sank to his knees.
+
+Johnston hastened back into the Auditorium. Returning in a moment, he
+found the Englishman tenderly lifting Bernardino from her knees and
+Branasko still crouching in a corner.
+
+"What is the news?" asked Thorndyke.
+
+"Everything is ready for the explosion. The prince seems only waiting
+because he dreads failure. The people in there are so frightened that
+they cannot move from their seats."
+
+Just then Branasko raised a haggard face and looked appealingly at the
+princess. She caught his eye.
+
+"Fear nothing, good man," she said; "the God of the Christians will not
+harm us; we are safe in His hands. I felt it here in my heart when I
+prayed to Him. Oh, why has my father and the other kings of Alpha not
+taught us that grand simple truth! But before I die I want to leave this
+dark pit of sin, and look out once into endless, world-filled space."
+
+A joyous flush came into the face of the Alphian. His fear had vanished.
+She had promised him safety. He bowed worshipfully, but he spoke not,
+for Bernardino was eagerly pointing to the sun.
+
+"Look!" she cried gleefully, with the merry tremolo of a happy,
+surprised child. "The sun is not moving. Father has been successful! It
+is a good omen! God will save us!"
+
+It was true; the sun was standing still. A deep silence was on the city.
+The crowds in the street neither moved nor spoke. Without a murmur or
+complaint they stood facing the frowning west. Suddenly the silence was
+interrupted by a low volcanic rumble. The earth heaved, and rolled, and
+far away in the suburbs of the city the spire of a public building fell
+with a loud crash. A groan swept from mouth to mouth and then died away.
+
+"The cloud is increasing rapidly," said Thorndyke. "I can really see
+little hope. I shall return in a moment."
+
+While he was gone Bernardino knelt and prayed. Again overcome with fear
+Branasko crouched down in his corner. Another shudder and rumble from
+the earth, another long moan from the people. Thorndyke came back. He
+spoke to the princess:
+
+"The dam built by Prince Marentel has been swept away. The ocean is
+pouring into the internal fires. There is scarcely any hope now."
+
+Branasko groaned, but Bernardino's face was aglow with celestial faith.
+She shook her head.
+
+"They will not be destroyed in this way," she said; "they have had no
+chance to know God."
+
+"It all depends on the explosion which may take place at any moment,"
+and Thorndyke took her into his arms and whispered into her ear, "I do
+not care for myself; but I cannot bear to think of your suffering pain."
+
+She answered only by pressing his hand. The clouds were now rolling
+upward in greater volume than ever. It was growing darker. The little
+group on the balcony could now scarcely see the people below them. The
+fall of damp ashes was resumed. The air had grown hot and close.
+
+Boom! Boom! Boom! the streets of the city rose and fell with the
+undulating motion of a swelling sea. Blacker and blacker grew the sky;
+closer and closer the atmosphere; damper and damper became the fog;
+thicker and thicker fell the wet sand and ashes.
+
+"Perhaps we would be safer in the streets," suggested Thorndyke, drawing
+Bernardino closer into his arms, "the palace may fall on us."
+
+But the princess shook her head. "Father would not know where to find
+me, I shall await him here." Branasko had edged nearer to her. His eyes
+were glued on her face and he hung on her words as if his fate were in
+her hands. He had no regard for the opinions of the others.
+
+"The explosion will soon take place now unless something has happened
+contrary to the expectations of the prince," said the Englishman.
+
+Boom! Boom! kr-kr-kr-kr-boom! The noise seemed to shake the earth to
+its centre. Now the far-away pit was belching forth fire and molten
+lava rather than steam and smoke. The flames had spread out against the
+sloping roof of the cavern, and seemed to extend for a mile along the
+horizon. "They can do nothing in that heat," exclaimed Johnston; "they
+could not get near enough to the pit. Thorndyke, old fellow, I can't see
+a ghost of a chance. We might as well say good-bye."
+
+"Hush!" It was the voice of the princess. "I feel that we shall not be
+lost, I say." And as she spoke Branasko crept toward her and raised the
+hem of her gown to his white lips. Something dark came between them and
+the far-off glare. It was a flying-machine.
+
+"It is father," cried Bernardino, and she called out to him: "Father!
+father! Here we are, waiting for you!" In a moment he was with them.
+
+"All right in the east," he said gloomily. "Baryonay is there. They
+deserted him, but they returned when the flames went down. This is
+awful, daughter; it means death! It means annihilation!"
+
+She put her arms round his neck and drew his face close to hers. "No,
+no," she said earnestly; "I see with a new light--a new spiritual light.
+There is mercy in the divine heart of Him that made the walls of our
+little world and constructed countless other worlds. I have prayed for
+mercy, and into my heart has come a sweet peace I never knew before. We
+shall not be lost. He will give us time to give up our sinful life here
+and seek Him."
+
+The old man quivered as with ague; he searched her face eagerly, drew
+her spasmodically into his arms, and then sank to the floor, overcome
+with exhaustion.
+
+The roar in the west was increasing. Hot ashes, gravel and small stones
+were falling on the roofs and the people. Now and then a cry of pain was
+heard, but they would not seek the shelter of the buildings. If they had
+to die they wanted to fall facing the enemy. Suddenly the king rose. He
+looked to the west and groaned. Something told them that the explosion
+was coming. Expectation, horrible suspense was in the air. There was a
+mighty flare of light. The entire heavens were lighted from horizon to
+horizon, and then the light went out.
+
+"Oh, I thought it----" but the princess did not finish her sentence.
+
+"The explosion," said Thorndyke, "the sound will follow in a moment."
+
+"My God, have mercy on us!" cried the king. But his prayer was drowned
+in a deafening sound. Bernardino had leaned into the arms of her
+lover. "Don't despair," he said tenderly, "the prince may have been
+successful."
+
+"I feel that he has," she replied. "But, oh, it is dreadful!"
+
+The crowds below seemed to understand that their fate depended on the
+news that would reach them in a few minutes.
+
+Boom! Boom! kr-kr-kr-kr-boom! There seemed to be no lessening of the
+volcanic disturbance, and the earth groaned and rocked and quivered as
+before.
+
+"It is impossible to tell yet," groaned the king. "Oh, God, save us;
+give us a chance to escape this awful doom!"
+
+Johnston bethought himself that he might learn something in the Electric
+Auditorium and he went into it. It was empty and dark; not a soul was
+there save himself. He was turning to leave when his eye was drawn to
+the great mirror by a faint pink glow appearing upon it. He stood still,
+a superstitious fear coming over him as he thought of being alone with
+a possible messenger from the far-away scene of disaster. The light went
+out tremblingly; then it flashed up again, and the American thought
+he saw the face of Waldmeer. The light grew steadier, stronger. It was
+Waldmeer, but he was submerged in smoke. Hark! he was speaking.
+
+"Marentel is successful! Entrance closed temporarily, and will be
+strengthened!"
+
+Johnston rushed out to the balcony. "I have been to the Auditorium," he
+announced. "I have seen Waldmeer. He says the experiment was successful.
+It is closed temporarily, and can be strengthened."
+
+The king grasped the hand of the American. "Thank God!" he ejaculated,
+"if I can only save my people I shall desire nothing more." The princess
+moved toward him affectionately, but he put her aside and retired into
+the palace.
+
+"He will at once communicate with the people," remarked Bernardino
+hopefully, and she turned her face again toward the west. The red glare
+was dying down, and the dense clouds in the sky were thinning. In
+an hour the face of the sun broke through the smoke, and the
+flying-machines of the protectors began to return.
+
+That night the king caused the pink light of the "Ideal Dawn" to flood
+the eastern sky, and, as before, he appeared in a circle of dazzling
+light and addressed his subjects:
+
+"All danger to life is over; but the ultimate fate of Alpha is sealed.
+Prince Marentel has effectually closed the entrance of the ocean, but
+the internal fires are gradually burning through the rocky bed of the
+ocean. In a couple of years Alpha will be demolished. All our wealth
+shall be equally distributed among you, and my ships shall transport you
+to whatever destination you desire. Let there be no haste. Order shall
+be preserved throughout."
+
+That was all. The king bowed and the picture faded from view. A deep
+silence was over everything. The only light came from the stars and
+from the moon. Then there was a sound like the wind passing over a vast
+forest of dry-leaved trees--the people were returning to their homes.
+
+"I should have thought they would greet the king's announcement with a
+cheer of joy," said Thorndyke to the princess, as they returned to the
+palace.
+
+"They don't know whether to weep or laugh," she replied. "They love
+Alpha, and the other world will be strange to most of them. As for
+myself, now that I am to leave, I feel a few misgivings."
+
+"I shall see that you are perfectly happy," he said tenderly. "You are
+to be my wife. I shall always love you and care for you; you need have
+no fears."
+
+And a moment later, with joyous tears and face aglow, she assured him
+she had none.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Land of the Changing Sun, by William N. Harben
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