Part 18 (1/2)
Picking my steps over the rough rocks like one who treads on air, I hastened to the brink of the platform. If the car were on the further side of the summit I should be able to see the wide ocean, but if, as I fondly hoped, it were on the hither side, I should enjoy a far-off glimpse of the city and its holy island, which had become a heaven to me. How different was the scene which met my view!
I was looking away over a vast plain towards a distant range of volcanic mountains. A broad river wound through the midst between isolated volcanoes, curling with smoke, and thick forests of a sable hue, or expanded into marshy lakes half lost in brakes of grisly reeds, on the margin of which living monsters were plas.h.i.+ng in the mud, or soaring into the air on dusky pinions.
My first shock of surprise pa.s.sed into a fearful admiration for the savage and gloomy grandeur of the primeval landscape; but as that feeling wore away the old irritation against my fellow-travellers came back. From all I had heard or seen there was no such place as this in Womla, and as it dawned upon me that they had migrated to some other island, or perhaps continent in Venus, I forgot my good resolution, and shouted indignantly,
”Gazen, Gazen! Hallo there! Hallo!”
There was no response, and the dead silence that swallowed up my voice was awful. Had anything happened to my companions, and was I left alone in this appalling solitude? Was I in my right senses, or was I not? I shouted again at the very pitch of my voice, and this time an answering cry came to my relief. On turning in the direction from which it proceeded, I observed Professor Gazen coming slowly towards me, round a ma.s.s of turretted rocks.
”What is the meaning of all this?” I demanded petulantly, as he came near, gingerly stepping from stone to stone.
He made no reply, but seemed to be meditating what he would say.
”A nice trick you've played me! Wherever have we got to?”
”Mercury,” replied Gazen coolly.
”_Mercury!_” I exclaimed, fairly astounded. ”Impossible!”
”Not at all.”
”Oh, come!” said I sarcastically, ”that won't do. A joke is a joke; but I'm not in a merry mood this morning.”
”So I see. A laugh would do you good.”
”Well, where are we?”
”In Mercury.”
”What nonsense!” I e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. ”Last night I went to bed in Venus, and you want me to believe that I've woke up on Mercury. Tell that to the marines.”
”Last night you say; but do you know how long you have slept? And have you forgotten that we are now so near the sun--that the attraction of the sun on the car has a.s.sisted the machines to propel us through the intermediate s.p.a.ce?”
I had not thought of that.
”Then it is true.”
”Of course.”
”And why have you come here--what authority--what right--had you to carry me off in this manner without my consent?” I burst out angrily.
”You knew I had made up my mind to stay in Venus. I took you into my confidence and told you about my love affair. Why have you betrayed that confidence, and kidnapped me like a slave or a lunatic?”
”Hear me, old friend,” said Gazen softly. ”We have all noticed a decided change in you of late--ever since the day of the ceremony on the island.
You have been like a different person--absent in your mind--incoherent in your speech--abrupt in your manner. You have forsaken your old friends completely, and apparently lost all interest in their doings, all desire for their company. In short, you have behaved like a man beside himself, distraught. We could not make it out, and we had many anxious consultations about the matter. I wondered whether you had had a sunstroke. Carmichael suggested that the stimulating air of Venus had affected your brain. Miss Carmichael alone suspected that you were in love; but I would not believe her. I had been so much in your society without having seen anything to justify her suspicion, and you yourself had never breathed a word to lend it colour. Carmichael and I sought to question you about your health, and the influence of the sun and air upon you, while Miss Carmichael tried to draw you on the subject of the ladies. All in vain. We could not solve the mystery, and as your condition was evidently growing worse and worse, we resolved to leave the planet. Although it was not in the original programme, we had sometimes talked of extending our journey to Mercury, so as to visit all the inferior planets, and give me an opportunity of getting as near the sun as possible for my observations, and this project was made the pretext for hastening our departure.
”We submitted the plan to you, and you know the rest. After you had given us your word of honour that you would break with the lady and return home with us for the sake of your friends, after we had made all our preparations to start, you came back at the eleventh hour, and declared that you had made up your mind to stay behind. If anything had been wanted to prove to us that you were hopelessly infatuated--hypnotised--mad--it would have been that; and as we were morally bound to fetch you back with us, we took the bull by the horns, and carried you off in spite of yourself.”
”You had no business to do anything of the kind,” I replied hotly. ”I am chiefly responsible for this expedition.”