CHAPTER XIII.
THE END OF A PERILOUS JOURNEY.
A tall, gaunt figure, swathed in black robes, Stood waiting somedistance from me. I knew that it was Death, for under the hood I beheldthe grinning skull with its sightless eye-holes, and I turned away inloathsome dread. But even as I did so, the bony arms were stretched outin welcome, and to them ran a slight girlish form--it was Zarlah! For amoment I stood paralyzed with horror, then rushing toward the nowretreating figures, I called out wildly, "Zarlah! Zarlah! Flee not withDeath! I am here--your Harold is here!" Suddenly I was seized frombehind; instantly my strength seemed to be sapped from me and I fellback exhausted, crying in my despair, "Oh, my God! save her! save her!"
A cool, soft hand was laid upon my burning brow, and a sweet voicegently murmured, "Poor Harold! If you could only know that God in Hismercy has saved us both!"
It was the voice of the living, not the dead, and slowly the wordsformed a meaning in my confused brain, dragging me from the depths ofunconsciousness to the life that still existed about me, warmed as itwas by the wondrous power of a woman's love. Opening my eyes I beheldZarlah bending over me, her beautiful face full of compassionate love.It seemed as though in a dream my loved one had come to me, and for amoment I lay peacefully gazing into her face, feeling neither curiositynor alarm. Then, as my mind awoke to a realization of all that hadtranspired, a sudden bewilderment came upon me, and, clasping the handthat sought to ease my head, lest the vision should vanish, I cried:
"Zarlah, my beloved, speak to me! Are we by a miracle saved from thedeath that had engulfed us, or is this the strange meeting of our soulsafter death?"
At the sound of my voice, Zarlah clasped her hands in a fervent prayerof thankfulness, then, burying her face on my shoulder, gave way to aflood of tears.
"Oh, Harold, my love!" she sobbed. "Thank God, you have been spared tome! It is indeed by a miracle that this moon, intercepting our aerenoidsin their wild flight through space, thus brought us together at theeleventh hour, and laid you helpless and dying at my feet."
"The _moon_!" I gasped, raising myself and staring out of the window atmy side in astonishment, as my mind gradually comprehended ourhairbreadth escape from death.
A blazing orb of fire, shining from the intense blackness around it, wasall that met my gaze, and I sank back, exhausted with the effort, intothe arms that awaited me.
"Tell me more, darling," I said, as a great happiness came over me, andmy heart was filled with the simple desire to hear the gentle voice Iloved. What mattered it to me whether we ever reached Mars or not? Thefuture held no fears for me now; enough that I had Zarlah, for the wallsof the aerenoid that surrounded us seemed to compass the whole universe.
"Ah, my love!" sighed Zarlah, bending over me and nervously clasping myhands in hers, "now that the danger is past and you are restored to me,the long hours of agony seem like a dream. But, oh, the anguish of thatmoment when I beheld another aerenoid lying close to mine, upon thesurface of the moon that had intercepted my journey to Earth! My soulcried out that in it lay my beloved, suffocating to death. Who elsewould have followed me over the dreaded Pole! With wild haste I attachedan oxygen respirator to my mouth, and, releasing the air from the car,sprang out upon the surface, little suspecting the danger that lurkedthere. But so small is the force of gravity upon this moon that I waswithout perceptible weight, and the tendency to rise with every step Itook filled me with terror, and I crept upon my hands and knees to theaerenoid which lay a few yards away. Opening the door, I found you lyingapparently lifeless upon the floor. My heart told me that it was my lovewho lay within Death's grasp, and, desperate at the thought that you hadbeen so near to me, only to be torn away by the hand of Death, I liftedyou up and hastened with you back to the aerenoid I had left. The smallamount of gravity now aided me, and I carried you without feeling theburden.
"Filling the car with oxygen and applying regenerating rays, I waitedfor a sign of life. Oh, the agony of those moments, as in despair Ifrantically called your name! At last the sign came--a quiver of thelips, a faint breath--and I knew there was hope. Gradually yourbreathing became stronger, but a terrible fever raged within you.Through long, long hours on this strange globe I knelt beside you,listening to your piercing cries of delirium, as you lived that awfulexperience over and over again. Little by little, in the cries of agonythat rent my heart, I learned how you had come to me a moment too late;how you had followed my aerenoid, and, being unable to stop me, hadrushed to the fate that was mine, to be hurled into space, unpreparedfor such a journey; how you had suffocated, and--oh! my love, as you laythrough the long hours, gazing at me with wild unseeing eyes--evercalling my name--imploring me not to rush to my death--I at lastdespaired of your life, and my soul prepared itself to fly with yours tothe life beyond, leaving our bodies clasped in each other's arms, tocircle round the world which had denied us our love until the end oftime!
"But suddenly the light of reason came into your eyes--your voice lostits wild accents, and I knew that you had been restored to me. In a fewhours now, Harold, the rays will have completed their work, and you willbe in full possession of your former strength."
What a happy future we now looked out upon! The danger of our positionupon a heavenly body but a few miles in diameter, with barely enoughgravity to hold us on its surface, was forgotten in the great joy ofbeing together and feeling that we should never again be parted.
I related to Zarlah all that had happened since I had left her; how Ihad encountered Reon at the observatory and learned of Almos' departureto Earth, and how I had later discovered the letter in which Almos gaveto us the great happiness we had despaired of ever possessing. And nowthe fast encroaching darkness warned us of the approach of a lunarnight. As darkness with us would necessarily mean daylight on that partof Mars to which we had come opposite in our journey round the planet, Ifelt that now had arrived the time for action, as Mars would becomevisible. Moreover, as the days and nights of this rapidly movingsatellite were but three and a half hours in duration, I realized thatno time should be lost in making the necessary preparations for ourhazardous journey. But although I was now able to get on my feet and hadthe use of my arms, I had not by any means regained all my strength, andupon laying my plans before Zarlah, she urged me not to undertake such ajourney until the rays had fully restored me. Therefore it was decidedto postpone our attempt to reach Mars until the following night.
But soon a strange and unforeseen incident warned us of the great dangerto which we were exposed on the surface of this diminutive moon, andleft us no alternative but immediate departure.
CHAPTER XIV.
HURLED FROM THE MOON.
Together we stood gazing in silence out into the abyss over the smallsurface of the moon that was visible to us, oppressed with a sense ofawe as the sun dropped from sight, leaving us plunged in darkness.
Suddenly there appeared from out of the inky blackness of the heavens ahuge crescent, stretching across the sky far above us. The sight of itfascinated us, and, as we stood lost in admiration at the majesticproportions of the beautiful arch of light, ever growing in width, wegradually realized that it was the sun-tipped rim of the planet whichour moon was journeying around--the world from which we had been hurledand to which we must return.
A sense of great reverence overpowered me; I realized that we lookedupon sights, and felt great forces never before bared to mortals.Through my mind ran lines of Addison's ode:
"The spacious firmament on high With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great _Original_ proclaim.
* * * * *
Forever singing as they shine The hand that made us is divine."
Slowly the light crept over the planet's surface until the hugeilluminated sphere, almost filling the entire heavens, made a scene ofthe most exquisite grandeur that human eyes have ever beheld.
"Dearest!" I exclaimed, with sudden impulse, as a most re
markable andterrifying fact occurred to me, "wonderful though our deliverance fromdeath seems to us, it is even more miraculous than we had any conceptionof! To meet with this moon in our journey through space, we must havedescribed an arc, as this satellite never passes over the pole."
"How can such a thing be possible?" returned Zarlah, in tremulousaccents, drawing closer to me as the awfulness of our narrow escapeappalled her.
"Ah, my love, we may never know that!" I answered. "The Great Creator ofall these wonders has, indeed, guided us to this haven in our wildflight through space. We can but theorize that the pole, being severalmiles in diameter, hurled us from its edge, the tremendous repellingforce not permitting our aerenoids to proceed over its surface. Therotary motion of the planet upon its axis would then cause us todescribe a curve in our flight from its surface, as only in the centerof the pole would this rotary motion lose its effect."
"Oh, Harold," whispered Zarlah, timidly, when I had finished speaking,"the thought of these terrible things and the sight of this immenseglobe hanging over us fill me with dread! Do you think we shall everreach our world again? It appears to be so near and yet is so far awayfrom us. What veritable atoms we are in the glory of this tumultuouswhirl!"
"I do not think we could possibly miss it, sweetheart," I answered,cheerfully, as I placed my arm about her and drew her away from thewindow which commanded a view of Mars. "Come, let us look out upon thelittle globe that supports us; we are entirely missing the beautifuleffect of this grand reflection of light"
The surface of the moon was now bathed in a beautiful diffused light,and our surroundings where once more visible. Indeed, many objects,which we had been unable to see in the dazzling brilliancy of the sun'slight, as it blazed forth from a heaven unsoftened by any atmosphere,were now clearly revealed. We had approached a window and were lookingat these new objects of interest, when Zarlah suddenly cried in dismay:"Look, Harold, look! The other aerenoid is moving!"
Quickly turning my gaze in the direction indicated, I saw the aerenoidin which I had made the journey from Mars move a space of several yardswith a jerky motion, then, to my intense horror, glide off the surfaceof the moon into space. At the same instant, the car in which we stoodrocked as though about to turn over upon its side.
Not a moment was to be lost! Some unknown force was exerting itsinfluence over the movable objects on the moon's surface. What thispower was I knew not, but the direction in which the aerenoid hadglided proved it to be other than Mars. Our position was now perilous inthe extreme, for were we suddenly to glide off into space we wouldundoubtedly be lost, as it was necessary to have air surrounding us inorder to propel the car. Without an atmosphere we would therefore behelpless and entirely at the mercy of the unknown and mysterious power.Indeed, it was evident that only our increased weight had saved us fromimmediately following the other aerenoid, and I felt that at any momentwe might do so. Although lacking the power of propulsion, my hope wasthat our repelling force, which I knew must be increased to an enormousextent by the slight gravity on the moon's surface, would hurl us offthat satellite straight upward into the influence of Mars' gravity.
Seizing the lever, I cried to Zarlah to He on the floor of the car, buteven as she did so, the aerenoid rocked again with still greaterviolence--in another moment it would be too late! Thrusting the leverover, I exposed the full repelling force to the moon's surface. Theshock hurled me to the floor, and so terrific was the force with whichwe shot upward, that I was held powerless to move hand or foot. For aspace of time which seemed to me hours I was obliged to remain thus,contenting myself with calling words of encouragement to my dear one,whom I greatly feared must have suffered severely from the awful shock.At last, finding that I could rise, I hastened to her side, and, to mygreat relief, discovered that she had entirely escaped injury.
As it was impossible in any way to control the aerenoid speeding upwardthrough space, it was useless for me to stand by the levers, and,assisting Zarlah to rise, we approached a window in the roof of the carand glanced upward at the planet to which we were rushing. A remarkablephenomenon met our eyes! Mars appeared to be no longer a sphere--thegreat globe that we had beheld from the moon--but instead a huge dome,which hung over us, ever deepening in the center as we rushed up towardit. Inconceivable though it seemed, I knew that, to produce such aneffect, we must already have covered more than half the distancebetween the two bodies. Upward we shot, and although there was no meansof ascertaining how fast we were travelling, I knew by the rapidlychanging appearance of the dome above us that our speed must beterrific.
We had steadily grown lighter, and now we discovered that we wereentirely without weight, and that it required some effort to keep ourfeet on the floor of the car.
Still upward we rushed into the center of the dome which now stretcheddown and encircled us on all sides like an immense umbrella, whensuddenly, without the slightest perceptible movement of the car, thedome appeared to swing around until it lay beneath us, and instantly wefelt our feet settling upon the floor of the car.
"We are safe from the unknown power now, dearest!" I exclaimed,anxiously examining the lever that controlled the descent, to make surethat the repelling metal was fully exposed. "We are dropping upon Mars,and our repelling metal should soon check our speed."
"Oh, Harold, my love," sighed Zarlah, timidly clinging to me, her eyesfilled with tears, and a look of great yearning coming into them, "myheart despairs at the dangers that encompass us! With you as my goal Iknew no fear; but now that I have you, I am a coward. Is our loveforbidden, that we should be thus pursued by these terrible dangers?"
"Courage, dearest!" I replied, reassuringly. "We shall soon be safe, andthen nothing shall interrupt the happiness for which we have endured somuch."
I hid from her the anxiety that lurked near my heart, and endeavored tointerest her by advancing several theories upon the phenomenalappearance of the planet's surface.
Like a huge cup the land now stretched up and around us, but we werestill descending with frightful velocity. I had noticed that the air inthe car was becoming warmer, and now, filled with apprehension, Istretched out my hand and touched the wall. Instantly I withdrew it--thewall was hot! Like a flash the full realization of our terrible dangerburst upon me. I had relied upon the repelling metal to check ourdescent before we entered the region of air, and had supposed that wewould float lightly to the ground under perfect control. But now I sawhow foolishly I had erred, in omitting to take into consideration theterrific momentum we would attain in our journey of six thousand milesthrough space. This momentum was now driving us to the ground, in spiteof our strong repelling force, and with such a frightful speed that heatwas being generated by friction with the air as we rushed through it.The creaking and straining sound coming from the bottom of the aerenoidwas evidence of the fight the repelling metal was making to overcomethis momentum before the surface of Mars was reached, but I shuddered asI realized what little effect it had upon this gigantic force.
In a few seconds the air became unbearably hot, and, with a gasp, Zarlahlay limp in my arms, as she turned her face to me to speak. Laying hertenderly upon the floor, I hastily wrapped wet blankets around her, and,dashing water over myself, I staggered across the car to the windowagain. We were still descending rapidly, but, as I felt the walls of thecar, I found that they were now cooler, proving that our terrific speedhad been reduced. The increased pressure of my feet upon the floor ofthe car was also evidence that our descent was being steadily checked.A wild hope surged within me that the repelling metal would overcome themomentum in time to save us from destruction.
Glancing down, I saw white specks lying far beneath us. My heart stoodstill as I realized that these were buildings. We could not be more thana few miles from the surface, yet down, down we sped. A few moments moreand the buildings became plainly visible, and my heart thumped wildly,as they seemed to rush up to meet us. We would be dashed to pieces! Therepelling force could not possibly stop us in time! Turning, in
despair,I threw myself down beside Zarlah, and enfolded her in a last embrace.
Instantly there was a terrific shock--a deafening crash. Then all wasdark, while a flood of water came pouring in upon us. I staggered to myfeet with Zarlah in my arms, only to be thrown to the floor again by anupward bound of the aerenoid. Sunlight once more filled the car, and, asI struggled to my feet, a cool breeze wafted in through the shatteredwindows. To what further extremes of temperature and mediums were we tobe subjected?
I was still too dazed by the shock to realize how we had escaped from adeath that seemed inevitable, but I knew that we were flying upward withthe full force of our repelling metal. Tenderly lifting Zarlah to asafer and more comfortable place, I seized the lever and graduallydecreased the repelling power, until we rested motionless in the air.
We had already attained a considerable height, and, as I eagerly gazeddown, I beheld far beneath us the glistening surface of a lake. With agasp of horror, I realized what a narrow escape had been ours. Into thislake we had plunged with a velocity sufficient to have dashed us topieces had we struck the ground; the damage which the car had sustainedupon striking the water was evidence of this. Our descent being stopped,the repelling metal, which was fully exposed, had then sent us boundinginto the air again, and in all probability had thus saved us from beingdrowned beneath the waters of the lake.
Death had indeed been close to us many times during our strangeadventure, and now that all the dangers were past, I breathed aheartfelt prayer of thankfulness for our safe deliverance.
Freeing Zarlah from the wet blankets I had wrapped around her duringthe intense heat, I gazed anxiously down upon the beautiful, unconsciousface.
"My love! my love!" I murmured, passionately. "How much you haverisked--how much you have suffered for my sake! Oh, cruel the fate thatthus delays our happiness!"
The sun was setting, and I now realized the importance of descendingnearer to the ground, that I might ascertain our whereabouts, as fromour present altitude, even with Almos' knowledge of Mars, I was unableto recognize any familiar landmark, and I knew that darkness would soonbe upon us.
Bending once again over the form of my loved one, I tenderly kissed thesilent lips, but as I did so, her arms closed about my neck, anddreamily opening her eyes, she smiled up at me as a child awakening froma peaceful sleep.
"We are safe now, darling, all the danger is past!" I murmured, andfalling on my knees beside her, I took her up into my arms, with theprayer that I might ever shield her in the days to come.
The shadows lengthened; quickly the gloom gathered, and darkness closedin upon us, but still we remained suspended in the cool night air underthe dome of the starry heavens, unmindful of all in the joy of our greatlove; for with the fulfillment of our hearts' long cherished desire,came the realization that our journey was ended.
* * * * *
PARIS, February 17, 19--.
Six months have elapsed since that memorable evening when Harold andZarlah--radiant with their new-found happiness--were portrayed upon theinstrument in Paris at which I anxiously waited, after having exchangedmy existence on Mars for one on Earth. The account of his strangeadventures, which Harold has since given me, I have endeavored to recordin the foregoing pages, as nearly as possible in his own words, trustingthat this narration of the events connected with the opening ofcommunication between Earth and Mars will prepare the way for thegreater developments soon to be announced by scientists.
ALMOS.
THE END.
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