CHAPTER XXI
Larry's Defiance
A clamour arose from all the chambers; stilled in an instant by amotion of Yolara's hand. She stood silent, regarding O'Keefe withsomething other now than blind wrath; something half regretful, halfbeseeching. But the Irishman's control was gone.
"Yolara,"--his voice shook with rage, and he threw caution to thewind--"now hear _me_. I go where I will and when I will. Here shall westay until the time she named is come. And then we follow her, whetheryou will or not. And if any should have thought to stop us--tell themof that flame that shattered the vase," he added grimly.
The wistfulness died out of her eyes, leaving them cold. But no answermade she to him.
"What Lakla has said, the Council must consider, and at once." Thepriestess was facing the nobles. "Now, friends of mine, and friends ofLugur, must all feud, all rancour, between us end." She glancedswiftly at Lugur. "The _ladala_ are stirring, and the Silent Onesthreaten. Yet fear not--for are we not strong under the Shining One?And now--leave us."
Her hand dropped to the table, and she gave, evidently, a signal, forin marched a dozen or more of the green dwarfs.
"Take these two to their place," she commanded, pointing to us.
The green dwarfs clustered about us. Without another look at thepriestess O'Keefe marched beside me, between them, from the chamber.And it was not until we had reached the pillared entrance that Larryspoke.
"I hate to talk like that to a woman, Doc," he said, "and a prettywoman, at that. But first she played me with a marked deck, and thennot only pinched all the chips, but drew a gun on me. What thehell! she nearly had me--_married_--to her. I don't know what the stuffwas she gave me; but, take it from me, if I had the recipe for thatbrew I could sell it for a thousand dollars a jolt at Forty-second andBroadway.
"One jigger of it, and you forget there is a trouble in the world;three of them, and you forget there is a world. No excuse for it, Doc;and I don't care what you say or what Lakla may say--it wasn't myfault, and I don't hold it up against myself for a damn."
"I must admit that I'm a bit uneasy about her threats," I said,ignoring all this. He stopped abruptly.
"What're you afraid of?"
"Mostly," I answered dryly, "I have no desire to dance with theShining One!"
"Listen to me, Goodwin," He took up his walk impatiently. "I've allthe love and admiration for you in the world; but this place has gotyour nerve. Hereafter one Larry O'Keefe, of Ireland and the little oldU. S. A., leads this party. Nix on the tremolo stop, nix on thesuperstition! I'm the works. Get me?"
"Yes, I get you!" I exclaimed testily enough. "But to use your ownphrase, kindly can the repeated references to superstition."
"Why should I?" He was almost wrathful. "You scientific people buildup whole philosophies on the basis of things you never saw, and youscoff at people who believe in other things that you think _they_ neversaw and that don't come under what you label scientific. You talkabout paradoxes--why, your scientist, who thinks he is the mostskeptical, the most materialistic aggregation of atoms ever gatheredat the exact mathematical centre of Missouri, has more blind faiththan a dervish, and more credulity, more superstition, than across-eyed smoke beating it past a country graveyard in the dark ofthe moon!"
"Larry!" I cried, dazed.
"Olaf's no better," he said. "But I can make allowances for him.He's a sailor. No, sir. What this expedition needs is a man withoutsuperstition. And remember this. The leprechaun promised that I'd havefull warning before anything happened. And if we do have to go out,we'll see that banshee bunch clean up before we do, and pass in ablaze of glory. And don't forget it. Hereafter--I'm--in--charge!"
By this time we were before our pavilion; and neither of us in a veryamiable mood I'm afraid. Rador was awaiting us with a score of hismen.
"Let none pass in here without authority--and let none pass out unlessI accompany them," he ordered bruskly. "Summon one of the swiftest ofthe _coria_ and have it wait in readiness," he added, as though byafterthought.
But when we had entered and the screens were drawn together his mannerchanged; all eagerness he questioned us. Briefly we told him of thehappenings at the feast, of Lakla's dramatic interruption, and of whathad followed.
"Three _tal_," he said musingly; "three _tal_ the Silent Ones haveallowed--and Yolara agreed." He sank back, silent and thoughtful.[1]
"_Ja!_" It was Olaf. "_Ja!_ I told you the Shining Devil's mistresswas all evil. _Ja!_ Now I begin again that tale I started when hecame"--he glanced toward the preoccupied Rador. "And tell him not whatI say should he ask. For I trust none here in Trolldom, save the_Jomfrau_--the White Virgin!
"After the oldster was _adsprede_"--Olaf once more used thatexpressive Norwegian word for the dissolving of Songar--"I knew thatit was a time for cunning. I said to myself, 'If they think I have noears to hear, they will speak; and it may be I will find a way to savemy Helma and Dr. Goodwin's friends, too.' _Ja_, and they did speak.
"The red _Trolde_ asked the Russian how came it he was a worshipper ofThanaroa." I could not resist a swift glance of triumph towardO'Keefe. "And the Russian," rumbled Olaf, "said that all his peopleworshipped Thanaroa and had fought against the other nations thatdenied him.
"And then we had come to Lugur's palace. They put me in rooms, andthere came to me men who rubbed and oiled me and loosened my muscles.The next day I wrestled with a great dwarf they called Valdor. He wasa mighty man, and long we struggled, and at last I broke his back. AndLugur was pleased, so that I sat with him at feast and with theRussian, too. And again, not knowing that I understood them, theytalked.
"The Russian had gone fast and far. They talked of Lugur as emperorof all Europe, and Marakinoff under him. They spoke of the green lightthat shook life from the oldster; and Lugur said that the secret of ithad been the Ancient Ones' and that the Council had not too much ofit. But the Russian said that among his race were many wise men whocould make more once they had studied it.
"And the next day I wrestled with a great dwarf named Tahola, mightierfar than Valdor. Him I threw after a long, long time, and his backalso I broke. Again Lugur was pleased. And again we sat at table, heand the Russian and I. This time they spoke of something these_Trolde_ have which opens up a _Svaelc_--abysses into which all in itsrange drops up into the sky!"
"What!" I exclaimed.
"I know about them," said Larry. "Wait!"
"Lugur had drunk much," went on Olaf. "He was boastful. The Russianpressed him to show this thing. After a while the red one went out andcame back with a little golden box. He and the Russian went into thegarden. I followed them. There was a _lille Hoj_--a mound--of stonesin that garden on which grew flowers and trees.
"Lugur pressed upon the box, and a spark no bigger than a sand grainleaped out and fell beside the stones. Lugur pressed again, and a bluelight shot from the box and lighted on the spark. The spark that hadbeen no bigger than a grain of sand grew and grew as the blue struckit. And then there was a sighing, a wind blew--and the stones and theflowers and the trees were not. They were _forsvinde_--vanished!
"Then Lugur, who had been laughing, grew quickly sober; for he thrustthe Russian back--far back. And soon down into the garden cametumbling the stones and the trees, but broken and shattered, andfalling as though from a great height. And Lugur said that of _this_something they had much, for its making was a secret handed down bytheir own forefathers and not by the Ancient Ones.
"They feared to use it, he said, for a spark thrice as large as thathe had used would have sent all that garden falling upward and mighthave opened a way to the outside before--he said just this--'_beforewe are ready to go out into it!_'
"The Russian questioned much, but Lugur sent for more drink and grewmerrier and threatened him, and the Russian was silent through fear.Thereafter I listened when I could, and little more I learned, butthat little enough. _Ja!_ Lugur is hot for conquest; so Yolara and sothe Council. They tire of it here and the Silent Ones make their m
indsnot too easy, no, even though they jeer at them! And this they plan--torule our world with their Shining Devil."
The Norseman was silent for a moment; then voice deep, trembling--
"Trolldom is awake; Helvede crouches at Earth Gate whining to beloosed into a world already devil ridden! And we are but three!"
I felt the blood drive out of my heart. But Larry's was the fightingface of the O'Keefes of a thousand years. Rador glanced at him, arose,stepped through the curtains; returned swiftly with the Irishman'suniform.
"Put it on," he said, bruskly; again fell back into his silence andwhatever O'Keefe had been about to say was submerged in his wild andjoyful whoop. He ripped from him glittering tunic and leg swathings.
"Richard is himself again!" he shouted; and each garment as he donnedit, fanned his old devil-may-care confidence to a higher flame. Thelast scrap of it on, he drew himself up before us.
"Bow down, ye divils!" he cried. "Bang your heads on the floor and dohomage to Larry the First, Emperor of Great Britain, Autocrat of allIreland, Scotland, England, and Wales, and adjacent waters andislands! Kneel, ye scuts, kneel."
"Larry," I cried, "are you going crazy?"
"Not a bit of it," he said. "I'm that and more if Comrade Marakinoffis on the level. Whoop! Bring forth the royal jewels an' put a wholenew bunch of golden strings in Tara's harp an' down with the Sassenachforever! Whoop!"
He did a wild jig.
"Lord how good the old togs feel," he grinned. "The touch of 'em hasgone to my head. But it's straight stuff I'm telling you about myempire."
He sobered.
"Not that it's not serious enough at that. A lot that Olaf's told usI've surmised from hints dropped by Yolara. But I got the full key toit from the Red himself when he stopped me just before--before"--hereddened--"well, just before I acquired that brand-new brand of souse.
"Maybe he had a hint--maybe he just surmised that I knew a lot morethan I did. And he thought Yolara and I were going to be loving littleturtle doves. Also he figured that Yolara had a lot more influencewith the Unholy Fireworks than Lugur. Also that being a woman shecould be more easily handled. All this being so, what was the logicalthing for himself to do? Sure, you get me, Steve! Throw down Lugur andmake an alliance with me! So _he_ calmly offered to ditch the red dwarfif I would deliver Yolara. My reward from Russia was to be saidemperorship! Can you beat it? Good Lord!"
He went off into a perfect storm of laughter. But not to me in thelight of what Russia has done and has proved herself capable, did thisthing seem at all absurd; rather in it I sensed the dawn ofcatastrophe colossal.
"And yet," he was quiet enough now, "I'm a bit scared. They've got the_Keth_ ray and those gravity-destroying bombs--"
"Gravity-destroying bombs!" I gasped.
"Sure," he said. "The little fairy that sent the trees and stoneskiting up from Lugur's garden. Marakinoff licked his lips over them.They cut off gravity, just about as the shadow screens cut offlight--and consequently whatever's in their range goes shooting justnaturally up to the moon--
"They get my goat, why deny it?" went on Larry. "With them and the_Keth_ and gentle invisible soldiers walking around assassinating atwill--well, the worst Bolsheviki are only puling babes, eh, Doc?
"I don't mind the Shining One," said O'Keefe, "one splash of adowntown New York high-pressure fire hose would do for it! But theothers--are the goods! Believe me!"
But for once O'Keefe's confidence found no echo within me. Notlightly, as he, did I hold that dread mystery, the Dweller--and avision passed before me, a vision of an Apocalypse undreamed by theEvangelist.
A vision of the Shining One swirling into our world, a monstrous,glorious flaming pillar of incarnate, eternal Evil--of peoplespassing through its radiant embrace into that hideous, unearthlylife-in-death which I had seen enfold the sacrifices--of armiestrembling into dancing atoms of diamond dust beneath the green ray'srhythmic death--of cities rushing out into space upon the wings ofthat other demoniac force which Olaf had watched at work--of a hauntedworld through which the assassins of the Dweller's court stoleinvisible, carrying with them every passion of hell--of the rallyingto the Thing of every sinister soul and of the weak and theunbalanced, mystics and carnivores of humanity alike; for well I knewthat, once loosed, not any nation could hold this devil-god for longand that swiftly its blight would spread!
And then a world that was all colossal reek of cruelty and terror; awelter of lusts, of hatreds and of torment; a chaos of horror in whichthe Dweller waxing ever stronger, the ghastly hordes of those it hadconsumed growing ever greater, wreaked its inhuman will!
At the last a ruined planet, a cosmic plague, spinning through theshuddering heavens; its verdant plains, its murmuring forests, itsmeadows and its mountains manned only by a countless crew of soulless,mindless dead-alive, their shells illumined with the Dweller'sinfernal glory--and flaming over this vampirized earth like a flarefrom some hell far, infinitely far, beyond the reach of man's farthestflung imagining--the Dweller!
Rador jumped to his feet; walked to the whispering globe. He bent overits base; did something with its mechanism; beckoned to us. The globeswam rapidly, faster than ever I had seen it before. A low hummingarose, changed into a murmur, and then from it I heard Lugur's voiceclearly.
"It is to be war then?"
There was a chorus of assent--from the Council, I thought.
"I will take the tall one named--_Larree_." It was the priestess'svoice. "After the three _tal_, you may have him, Lugur, to do with asyou will."
"No!" it was Lugur's voice again, but with a rasp of anger. "All mustdie."
"He shall die," again Yolara. "But I would that first he see Laklapass--and that she know what is to happen to him."
"No!" I started--for this was Marakinoff. "Now is no time, Yolara,for one's own desires. This is my counsel. At the end of the three_tal_ Lakla will come for our answer. Your men will be in ambush andthey will slay her and her escort quickly with the _Keth_. But nottill that is done must the three be slain--and then quickly. WithLakla dead we shall go forth to the Silent Ones--and I promise youthat I will find the way to destroy them!"
"It is well!" It was Lugur.
"It _is_ well, Yolara." It was a woman's voice, and I knew it for thatold one of ravaged beauty. "Cast from your mind whatever is in it forthis stranger--either of love or hatred. In this the Council is withLugur and the man of wisdom."
There was a silence. Then came the priestess's voice, sullenbut--beaten.
"It is well!"
"Let the three be taken now by Rador to the temple and given to theHigh Priest Sator"--thus Lugur--"until what we have planned comes topass."
Rador gripped the base of the globe; abruptly it ceased its spinning.He turned to us as though to speak and even as he did so its bell notesounded peremptorily and on it the colour films began to creep attheir accustomed pace.
"I hear," the green dwarf whispered. "They shall be taken there atonce." The globe grew silent. He stepped toward us.
"You have heard," he turned to us.
"Not on your life, Rador," said Larry. "Nothing doing!" And then inthe Murian's own tongue. "We follow Lakla, Rador. And _you_ lead theway." He thrust the pistol close to the green dwarf's side.
Rador did not move.
"Of what use, _Larree_?" he said, quietly. "Me you can slay--but inthe end you will be taken. Life is not held so dear in Muria that mymen out there or those others who can come quickly will let youby--even though you slay many. And in the end they will overpoweryou."
There was a trace of irresolution in O'Keefe's face.
"And," added Rador, "if I let you go I dance with the Shining One--orworse!"
O'Keefe's pistol hand dropped.
"You're a good sport, Rador, and far be it from me to get you in bad,"he said. "Take us to the temple--when we get there--well, yourresponsibility ends, doesn't it?"
The green dwarf nodded; on his face a curious expression--was itrelief? Or was it emot
ion higher than this?
He turned curtly.
"Follow," he said. We passed out of that gay little pavilion that hadcome to be home to us even in this alien place. The guards stood atattention.
"You, Sattoya, stand by the globe," he ordered one of them. "Shouldthe _Afyo Maie_ ask, say that I am on my way with the strangers evenas she has commanded."
We passed through the lines to the _corial_ standing like a greatshell at the end of the runway leading into the green road.
"Wait you here," he said curtly to the driver. The green dwarfascended to his seat, sought the lever and we swept on--on and outupon the glistening obsidian.
Then Rador faced us and laughed.
"_Larree_," he cried, "I love you for that spirit of yours! And didyou think that Rador would carry to the temple prison a man who wouldtake the chances of torment upon his own shoulders to save him? Oryou, Goodwin, who saved him from the rotting death? For what did Itake the _corial_ or lift the veil of silence that I might hear whatthreatened you--"
He swept the _corial_ to the left, away from the temple approach.
"I am done with Lugur and with Yolara and the Shining One!" criedRador. "My hand is for you three and for Lakla and those to whom sheis handmaiden!"
The shell leaped forward; seemed to fly.
[1] A _tal_ in Muria is the equivalent of thirty hours of earth surfacetime.--W. T. G.