*CHAPTER XXIV.*
*AT THE PAVILION.*
'You said a little while ago that you could run if needs were,' saidMalto, addressing Malandris. 'You must try now, at any rate. I willhelp you.'
'I am quite recovered,' was the answer. 'We must look after these youngpeople.'
'Oh, that I had my wings! Why did I leave them behind this morning!'exclaimed Alondra.
'You may as well throw off those disguises,' Malto advised. 'They areof no use now, and will only hamper you.'
As yet their pursuers were a long way off, for after the reconnoitre atthe gateway the fugitives had stepped out briskly, and had coverednearly half the distance to the pavilion before the alarm had beengiven.
They now set off at a run, after discarding their disguises, and atfirst it seemed as though there would be no difficulty in reaching thetower well ahead of their pursuers. Indeed, the latter seemed, at onetime, to have almost given up the chase; for only a few were to be seencoming towards them; the rest had halted.
A few moments later, however, the cause of the delay became clear.Suddenly a man rose in the air on motor-wings and began to sail rapidlytowards them. He was armed with a trident. Convinced that he wouldeasily effect the capture of the fugitives, who had, as could be seen,neither shields nor tridents, the remainder of the crowd followedquietly in the rear. They would be in plenty of time, they reckoned, topick up the unconscious bodies when the man with the trident had dealtwith them.
Malto muttered something between his set teeth.
'I 'm afraid it is no use,' said Malandris despondently, as he ran alongbeside the others. 'He is bound to overtake us, and we are allunarmed.'
'Not quite,' Jack answered. 'If they think we are, so much the better;it may give us a chance to get on equal terms with that flying chap.His trident is no good at more than twenty yards. We have somethinghere which reaches farther than that.'
He and Gerald had drawn their revolvers, and were looking to the hammersas they raced onwards, to make quite sure that they were in workingorder. Everything would depend upon making good practice with theirfirst shots.
'You aim at one wing, Gerald,' said Jack; 'I will aim at the fellow'sarm which carries the trident. Take it easy! Don't run too fast; itwill make your hand shake.'
They continued on their way for some distance farther. The pavilion wasnow not far off; so also, unfortunately, was the flying man with histrident.
Jack gave a sign to Gerald, and they both turned and faced him. Alondrastopped too; and the others, although they did not exactly understandwhat was likely to happen, immediately halted, because they would notleave the three to their fate.
As it happened, this was the best thing they could have done. Theflying man interpreted their action as an abject surrender. Heslackened speed and came on carelessly.
Then two shots rang out. Jack's aim was true; his bullet struck theman's right arm, and the trident flew from the hand which had graspedit. Gerald's first shot missed, but his second struck one wing andsmashed the light framework. The wing drooped, and the flier fellheavily to the ground.
* The wing drooped, and the flier fell heavily to the ground (missing from source book)]*
'Good! Good! Capital!' Malto and Malandris cried out, in surprisedwonder and delight at this turn of affairs, for neither of themunderstood anything about pistols.
'Now, run for it, my friends! We shall get there first yet!' Jackcalled out.
'Let me have his trident, though,' said Alondra, as he picked up thefallen man's weapon. 'This may come in useful, you know.'
There was a great outcry behind them as the pursuers witnessed thediscomfiture of the aeronaut. The crowd at once took up the chase in amanner which showed how confidently they had been counting upon hisability to capture the fugitives without their aid.
As has been stated, the men in the dark-purple dresses were big, finemen, all of them. There was that in their aspect, too, which betokeneda fierce nature, used to warfare.
They quickly made it evident that they were good runners, and theystarted off now in earnest and came on swiftly. But they had lostwhatever chance they might at first have had of overtaking those theywere chasing, by trusting too confidently to the man with the wings.
By the time they reached the base of the tower the fugitives had alreadydashed up the steps leading to the entrance, had opened and passedthrough some barred gates, fastened them behind them, and gained theshelter of the doorway.
A minute or two afterwards they appeared upon a balcony, of which therewere several running round the tower on the outside, one above theother, and complacently smiled down upon their baffled foes.
'Well, we 've beaten 'em so far,' exclaimed Malto. 'I had almost givenup hope. We should have been done for if it hadn't been for those noisyplaythings of yours, young gentlemen. May I ask what they are, andwhere they come from? I have never met with that kind of weaponbefore.'
'They come from a far country, so far that your head would scarcelycarry the tale of the figures if I were to attempt to give them to you,'Alondra declared laughingly. 'Now, what is to be done next? Our foeswill be sending an airship against us, I suppose; and if assistancedoesn't reach us pretty soon I am afraid they will have the best of it,after all.'
'No, I don't think there is any fear of that. They won't send an airshipagainst us,' said Malto.
Malandris shook his head too. 'Not during the day,' he assented. 'Theymight when it gets dark, if we are still here.'
'Why not?' asked Jack, in surprise.
'It would attract attention. You see, our master has visitors. PrinceAlondra, the son of King Ivanta, is staying here; and he, or some of hispeople, might be cruising about in his air-yacht or in some of theairships which came with him. If they caught sight of an airship engagedin fighting operations down here their curiosity might be aroused, andthey might come and ask inconvenient questions.'
At this Gerald and Jack glanced at one another and then at Alondra, andnearly burst out laughing; but the latter made a sign, and they turnedaway and said nothing. The young prince wished to keep his identity asecret a little longer, in order that he might have an opportunity ofquietly probing farther into the meaning of the extraordinary events ofthat eventful morning.
'What, then, do you suppose they will do?' Alondra went on.
'Oh, very likely nothing at all! Just loaf about to make sure that wedon't get away during the day. They know they can't break into thispavilion; it has been strongly built on purpose. Then at night theywill make sure of us. Our best hope is that we may see some passingairship and attract the attention of the people in her, and that theymay come and take us off.'
'That doesn't sound very hopeful. It might be one of Agrando'sairships,' Jack pointed out.
'On the other hand, it might be one belonging to his visitors,' saidMalto. 'Then, I imagine, we should be all right. I suppose you belongto their party, don't you? I have been thinking it over, and can'tguess who else you can be. You said you could take me to King Ivanta,and I don't see how you could make such a promise unless you belonged tothe prince's party.'
He looked searchingly at Alondra as he spoke, and there was in his toneand look a suggestion of reproach at their keeping him in the dark.
'You are quite right, my friend,' Alondra now said gravely. 'We dobelong to the party of visitors you speak of. I expect they are alreadywondering where we have got to, and will be coming out to look for usbefore long. So I hope our troubles are over, or soon will be. Andnow, as we have time for a little talk, I want to hear your stories--youtwo. Explain to me the meaning of all that has happened.'
But Malto shook his head.
'I wish to tell it all to King Ivanta, and to no one else,' he declared.'You have promised to take me to him, and I shall ask you to keep yourpromise, and to refrain from questioning me meantime. Cannot youunde
rstand that the king might not be pleased if he found I had beentalking freely of things which he may wish had been kept for his earalone?'
Alondra was silent. He felt that Malto was right, and could not butrespect him for his caution. At the same time, he was burning to havesome explanation of their adventures.
'But you said you wished for our testimony to back up yours,' hereminded him. 'How can we help in that way if you do not enlighten usas to what it is we are to testify about?'
It was now Malto's turn to ponder, and he remained for a space gazingout thoughtfully over the expanse of ground which lay upon the otherside of the pavilion.
The three followed his glance, and noted that the building formed partof the boundary wall of an extensive enclosure, which just hereconsisted of an extremely high and massive-looking stone fence, adornedat the top with formidable metal spikes.
Farther round, to right and to left, the boundary wall consisted ofprecipitous rocks, which shut the place in, and made it a kind of apark.
Alondra noted this, and, breaking off from the subject of his lastquestion, asked why they could not descend from the pavilion into thisenclosure. It seemed to him that it would be a difficult matter fortheir enemies to scale the wall in order to follow them.
Just as he had spoken there rose on the air a strange, weird, boomingsound. It was a sort of bellowing roar, but far louder and morestartling than the bellow of a bull or the roar of the largest lion everseen or heard of. The sound seemed to come from a distance; yet it wasso loud that it almost made the tower itself tremble. That it wasproduced by some member of the animal kingdom seemed pretty certain.But what horrible monster could it be which could make such a sound?There was something almost supernatural in its awful depth and power;something appalling in the menacing tones of the hoarse, ferocious growlinto which it changed as it gradually died away.
'What in the name of all that is horrible is that?' cried the startledyoung prince.
'It is the answer to your question,' returned Malto quietly. 'That isto say, it partly answers both your questions. I may go so far as toexplain that my original object in coming here, before we were found outand pursued, was that you might perhaps hear that terrible roar, andpossibly catch sight of the creature which gave utterance to it. But itis not at present in sight, and I imagine that, after what you heard,you will scarcely care to get out on the other side of the pavilion andgo to look for it?'
'I--I think not,' said Alondra. 'I will take your word for it that weare probably safer even here than we should be down there.'
'You are,' answered Malto drily. 'It is a creature upon which neitheryour trident nor the strange weapons of your young friends would makemore impression than upon yonder rocks! Now you will be able, if weever come before King Ivanta, to confirm one part of what I wish him toknow. King Agrando has a name as a collector of all kinds of curiositiesand monstrosities. King Ivanta has himself helped him to make hiscollection the most comprehensive that has ever been seen'----
'Yes, yes, I know all that,' Alondra put in impatiently.
'Ay, but what you do not know is this--that Agrando's object ingathering these out-of-the-way things about him is not altogether a mereharmless love of the curious. He is a monster of cruelty'----
'A perfect fiend!' Malandris interjected.
'His craze--for such it is--is a sort of madness,' Malto continued. 'Itis to set men to fight for their lives with the most terrible creatureshe can find to pit against them. That is the amusement he and thatdemon Kazzaro delight in! That is why they have constructed all thesesecret places, which none know of save themselves and their myrmidons.Little does the noble-minded Ivanta dream of the proceedings of thesetwo, or of the way in which he has himself contributed to them. If hebut knew'----
'Eh, what? How dare--I mean, how can King Ivanta have contributed tosuch horrible cruelties as you are hinting at?' demanded Alondra hotly.
'I don't wonder that you are moved to indignation, young sir. But I amnot blaming King Ivanta. He has been deceived. For instance, he, it issaid, paid a visit to another planet, and brought back with him manystrange and horrible monsters never seen or heard of on our globe. Isit not so?'
'Well?'
'Many of them were the young of fearful creatures. But, young or old,he presented Agrando with specimens for his collection.'
'Very likely. What then? I see no harm in that.'
'No. For King Ivanta little guessed the use which the tyrant'singenious brain would put them to. Agrando gave out that most of themdied in captivity, that the climate here did not suit them, and so on.Was it not so?'
'Very likely. I have heard something of the sort. What then?'
'It is untrue that they died--at least, as regards most of them. Thegreater part--some of the most ferocious, terrible creatures amongstthem--he nursed with perverted tenderness and care. He has reared themand brought them to maturity. Now his sole use for them is to pit themagainst any one who happens to incur his anger; which means, of course,simply dooming the hapless wretch to a cruel and terrible death. Youhave just heard the voice of one; you saw others--monster bats whichthey call krudias--in the cage below; you have also seen one of theintended victims, and helped me to rescue him at the last moment.'
'Ay, he sent me there--sentenced me to that awful fate merely in a fitof passing temper,' Malandris declared. 'My crime was only that I hadmistaken an order he gave me!'
'Horrible! Incredible!' cried Alondra, his eyes flashing withindignation and disgust.
'You may well say incredible,' muttered Malto. 'That is why I wished youto see some of the creatures for yourselves, you three, so that KingIvanta might have your testimony to confirm mine. Otherwise, he mightthink my statements, as you say, incredible. Little did I imagine then,however, that you would witness such a convincing proof or that I shouldfind my friend Malandris in that cage!'
'And why were you dressed up in that grotesque fashion?' Alondra askedof Malandris.
'Oh, that is one of Kazzaro's little jokes! It is a whim of hissometimes to dress his victims up like the creatures they are doomed tofight against.'
'But he wasn't there to look on to-day,' Jack commented.
'I suppose he happened to be particularly busy over something else, orhe would have been,' said Malandris grimly. He shuddered, and lookedaround half-apprehensively. 'Now you can understand how much dependsupon our being able to escape from here, and what it will mean if wefall again into his power.'
Gerald and Jack stared at one another, almost stupefied with horror.
'Did ever two such miscreants exist before, I wonder?' said Jack. 'Howright, Gerald, you were when you called Kazzaro the Ogre!'
'I am in for it, too, now, of course,' Malto added. 'They know by thistime what I have done; and I shall find no mercy there if I am draggedback into their clutches.'
'But you sha'n't be!' cried Alondra, impulsively. 'I will not allow it!And King Agrando, strong as he may deem himself upon his own ground,dares not attempt to take you against my will.'
Malto and Malandris looked at him in astonishment at this unexpectedoutburst.
'Your feelings do you credit, young sir,' said the elder man; 'but Ifear your brave words will not avail us much.' He smiled slightly andsighed.
'But who are you, then, to talk like that?' exclaimed Maltoincredulously.
'This is King Ivanta's son, Prince Alondra!' said Jack.