Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1911 — A Columbus of Space [ARTICLE]

A Columbus of Space

By Garrett P. Serviss.

Copyright by Frank A. Munsey Co. CHAPTER X. A Parley Ten Miles High. With a quick turn, Edmund dodged the nearest pursuer, and we rose so rapidly that in two seconds we were skirting the great tower. Then others saw' us, And forty airships joined in the chase. Jack’s spirits rose with the excitement. “Sorry to run away from these Venuses,” he said, “but no dungeons for me, if you please.” “We’re not away yet,” Edmund responded over his shoulder. Indeed, we were not! The airships swarmed out on every side, like hornets from their nests. The air seemed full of them. I gave up all hope of escape, but Edmund was like a racer who hears the thunder of rival hoofs behind him. He put on more and more speed, until we had to hang to anything handy to prevent being blown off by the wind we made, or whirled overboard on sharp turns. Crash! We had run straight into a hugh aeroplane that persisted in getting in our way., She dipped and rolled like a floating log. I saw the men on her deck tumble over one another as we shot by, but fortunately none fell off. I say fortunately, because surely it would not have bettered our case to kill any more of them just now. Busy as he was, dodging and turning, Edmund did not cease occasionally speaking to us. % “There’s just one chance to beat them,’’ he said, “and only one, and I’m going to try it as quick as I can get out of this press.” I had no notion of what he meant, but a few minutes later I divined his intention. All the while, I observed, he whs working higher and higher. The spectacle of that magnificent city, spreading every moment wider as we rose, and changing shapes and colors like a view in a kaleidoscope, would have held us enchained with admiration—if I had had time to fix my attention upon it. Still we shot upward, making the necessary circles as small as possible, and so recklessly had Edmund turned on the speed that at last it really began to look as if we should escape. Two-thirds of our pursuers were far below our level. But the others comprehended our plan and rose with us, some endeavoring to get ahead and cross our bows. While I saw that Edmund’s idea was to hold a skyward course I was far from guessing the particular reason he had for doing so. Finally Jack spoke up. C‘See here, Edmund,” he said, “if you keep on going up instead of running off one way or another, they’ll corner’ you in the middle of the sky. Don’t you see how they have circled out on all sides, so as to surround us' Then, when we get as high as we can go, they will simply close in all round, and we’ll be in a trap.” “Oh! no, we won’t," said Edmund. “I don’t see why.” “Because they can’t go as high as we can.”

“I’d like to know why they can’t. I guess they understand these things as well as you do.” “Can a fish live out of water?" asked Edmund, laughing. "What are you driving at?” “Why, it’s plain enough. These people are used to an atmosphere (two or three times as dense as that which we have on earth. It doesn't trouble our bre&thing much, having plenty of oxygen, but we can go where they would gasp for breath, because we cau stand the rare air at a great height. 1 “My only doubt is about the bouyancy of the aeroplane, but, luckily, this is a light car, and being under way, I think she’ll run as high as we need to go, and stay there. You'll see them dropping dll pretty soon." And they did drop off with great rapidity. Their own strategy, which Jack bad called attention to, was

simply a playing into our hands. They really thought to catch us in the middle of a gradually contracting circle, when to their amazement, we rose into a region of the atmosphere where they knew that they could not live. Edmund fairly roared with laughter when he saw the success of his ruse. But there was one thing that he had forgotten, and it struck to our hearts when we became aware of it. Poor Juba! He could endure this rare air no better than our pursuers. Already, unnoticed in the excitement, he had fallen upon the deck, where he lay gasping like a newly landed sturgeon. At last he ceased to struggle. ‘‘Good Heavens!” cried Jack, “the poor fellow is dying.” “We must save him,” said Edmund. “But how? You wouldn’t go back down there?” “If we drop down near the limit, that stops the others,” said Edmund, “he’ll revive, and then we can dodge up and down enough to keep out of danger both ways.” No sooner said than done, and we began to descend. I reflected that, here was the only mistake that Edmund had made during the whole trip—-I mean the mistake of bringing along the natives from the caverns. It was their presence that had prevented us from sailing triumphantly over the crystal mountains, at an elevation where there would have been no danger; it was because of them that we had wrecked the car, and now it was the presence of Juba that prevented up from keeping in a safe place. This wrought upon my mind so that finally I spoke about it to Edmund. Instantly Henry chimed in: “Better let him die 'than lose our own lives.” “Stop!” said Edmund sterply. “A thousand times I have cursed myself for my error. I thought that those fellows would be of use. Instead, they were an incumbrance. But it was not their fault that they came. It is i that am responsible for their fate, and I shall never forgive myself; neither shall I ever abandon the last one that is left. I’d give up my own life rather.” That ended the discussion. We continued to drop, until, with much chafing of his hairy hands and body, and the aid of a little stimulant poured into his mouth from a pocket flask, we brought poor Juba round. In the meantime the crowd of airships watching us from below began to close in their circle, evidently under the belief that we had been compelled to descend on account of the rarity of the atmosphere, and that at last they would have as sure. It was Impossible not to admire their preparations for catching the expected fish. There was such a multitude of the craft that they were able to form themselves into the semblance of a huge bagnet, the edge carried as high as they could go, while the sides and bottom composed of airships packed as close almost as meshes. This great "net” was a mile across. Edmund laughed again as he looked down into it. "No. no. messieurs,” he shouted. ‘ we’re no gudgeons. You’ll have to

do better than that.” “See here, Edmund,” dried Jack suddenly, "why don’t you make off and leave them? By keeping just out of their reachi as you have said, we can. easily escape.” “And leave the car?” was the reply. ’ “Jove!” said Jack, “I never thought of that. But, see here, in that case, what did you run away for at all?” i “Because,” gaid Edmund, quietly, “I thought it better to parley than to lie in prison?' “Parley! 1 How are you going to parley?” “That remains to be seen, but 1 guess well manage it.” We were now, as I estimated, about ten miles high. When we were highest, the great cloud dome that I have described was a little above our heads, nnd we might have gone into it and beeii lost from sight. , Our pursuers circled about to keep their positions a quarter of a mile or so below us. They were evidently parleying on their side, for waves of color flowed all about them, and the spectacle was so brilliant that we almost forgot our situation while watching it “I suppose you’ll play them a prismatic symphony?” said Henry, mockingly. “Perhaps. Who knows?” replied ■Edmund, cooly. "I’ve no doubt that the materials are aboardship.” A minute later he added: “If I'd been here a month, I'd do it surer But 7 haven’t had time to study that subject yet. We must manag? otherwise.” While we had been talking Edmund had not relaxed his vigilance, and two or three times he baffled a sudden dart of the enemy by circling derisively high above their heads, each time returning to a lower level as soon as Juba began to gasp. At last we noticed a movement among the crowd below which betokened something important. In if moment we saw what it was. A gorgeous aeroplane, by far the handsomest that we had seen, had arrived in the midst of the flotilla. The others made wgy for it, and it came on directly toward us, as high as it could get. Immediately Edmund dropped down as if to meet it. “I thought she’d come,” I heard him mutter. My heart jumped at the words, and in an instant my theory had possession of me again. I w r as sure that he had referred to Ala, and once more the conviction grew strong within me that there was at least the beginning es an understanding between her and

Edmund. A 1 felt glad, and, even in our apparently desperate situation, that feeling was not merely on account of the promise of escape. It partook of the sentiment which every human being experiences when he sees two young people’s hearts opening to each other “Love will pull ,us through, if nothing e|#e can,” I said to myself. But I gave no hint to Jack or Henry, who would probably have laughed at me. It was a very Cleopatra’s barge that approached us, and Edmund did not stop until we could se!e the eyes of the others. Then both airships, as b 7 common consent, came to rest, simply soaring in parallel circles to maintain their buoyancy. l Ala stood forward on the deck, with her female attendants about her. Exactly how they managed it I do not know, but I have already told you of {he strange power of mind-reading, or telepathy, or whatever it was, that these people possessed, and that Edmund had made some little progress in this mysterious method of thought transference. He and Ala looked at eqch other, and I could see signs of pleasure in her face. > For half an hour or more we hung there, slowly circling, but without change of distance, and all the time those two continued their silent converse, occasionally emphasized by gestures, which even we could understand. Finally it was plain that a conclusion had been reached. There was a flashing of colors between Ala’s aeroplane and the others, and they began to descend, we along with them. - After a while Edmund turned to us and said: “Well, boys, it’s ; coming out all right, and isn’t she a queen worthy of Venus?” “Is she really a queen?” asked Jack. “You’ll see,” Edmund replied, in his old manner, smiling a little. “Bui let me tell you the rest.”

Then he went on to tell us that the trouble had all come, as we had suspected, out of his having killed a person of very great importance. But we had never guessed how extremely important that person was from our own point of view. He was a prince of Venus! “My luck is almost as bad as that of OEdipus,” said Edmund. “But, prince or not, he acted like a blanked idiot, and, as you know, I had to kill him. —_ “Of course you understand that there is a certain amount of guesswork 1 in all of this. I have had to reason from analogy, putting this and that together. My ‘conversation’ with Aia was not exactly as free as a tete-a-tete at home. But the*faet that she

could read my thoughts with comparative ease helped us along, because it was more important that she should understand our side of the story than that I should be able to understand hers.

“I may be mistaken in the prince idea, but 1 think not. Anyway, the fellow was of that degree of importance that Ala did not dare to interfere with their bringing us to book about it. As I told you before, I had confidence that, once I could make clear my motives, we should come out all right. But when the chance of escape from the dungeon presented itself, this idea of getting beyond their reach in the high air, and holding a parley, flashed into my mind, and I determined to try it.” “It ought to have been plain to them .why you shot that, chap,” said Jack.

“It was plain to Ala,” Edmund replied, “and I know that she intended to use the fact for our exculpation. But I was afraid of the others. Remember that we are nothing to them, except objects of curiosity. If it had been a common fellow that I had killed it might have been different, and they would have done a little reasoning among themselves.” “But what are they going to do with us now?” I asked. “They’re going to bring us to a trial of some sort. But don’t forget that we’ve got a very powerful advocate.” (To be continued.)