Part 26 (1/2)

”Quick, Jack, quick!” I shouted; ”Edmund is down!”

He had not got the locker open, but he darted to my side, and together we rushed out into the press. Shall I ever forget that moment! We were pushed, hustled, struck, hurled to and fro; but we had only a few steps to go, and we reached our leader where he lay. Seizing him, we succeeded somehow in carrying him into the car. Our clothes were torn, our hands and faces were bleeding, and there was blood on Jack's shoulder. Edmund was alive. We placed him on a bench, and then the fascination of the spectacle without again enchained us.

Suddenly my eyes fell upon Ingra, who had not previously made his appearance. He was as insane as the others, and like many of them had a knife in his hand. In a moment he pushed his way toward Ala, and my heart rose in my throat, for I did not know what mad thought might be in his mind. If I had had a weapon, I believe I should have shot him, but before he had arrived within three yards of the queen there came an explosion of flame--I do not know how else to describe it, for it was so sudden--and the great platform was instantly wrapped in licking tongues of fire.

The wickerwork caught like tinder, and the gauzy screws threw off streams of sparks like so many Fourth of July pinwheels. The gush of heat from the conflagration was terrible, and I turned my eyes in horror from the stricken mult.i.tude which seemed to have been shocked back into sanity by the sudden universal danger only to find itself a helpless prey to the flames.

”It's all over with them!” cried Jack.

His words awoke me to our own danger. We must get away instantly. Knowing the proper b.u.t.ton to touch to throw the mechanism into action, I pushed it forcibly and pulled out a k.n.o.b which I had often seen Edmund manipulate in starting the car. It responded immediately, and in a second we were afloat, and clear of the tower. Seeing that the direction which the car was taking would remove us from the reach of the flames, and that there was nothing ahead to obstruct its progress, and knowing that Edmund often left it to run of itself when the speed was slow, and there was no occasion to change its course, I now hurried with Jack to Edmund's side.

Henry all this time had been lying on a bench like one in a trance.

Jack and I stripped off Edmund's coat, and at once saw the nature of his wound. A knife had penetrated his side, and there was considerable effusion of blood, but I was surgeon enough to feel sure that the wound was not mortal. He roused up as he felt us working over him, and opening his eyes, said faintly:

”You will find bandages under the locker. What has happened? We are moving.”

”The tower is all in flames!” exclaimed Jack, before I could interrupt him, for I should have preferred not to tell Edmund the real situation just at that moment.

Jack's words roused him like an electric shock. He pushed us aside, and struggled to his feet. Then he sprang to a k.n.o.b, and brought the car to rest.

We had been moving slowly, and had not gone more than a quarter of a mile from the tower. The car had swung round so that the fire was not visible from the open door, but now, as Edmund arrested its progress, it swayed back again and the spectacle burst into view. The heat smote us in the face even at this distance. In the few minutes since I had last seen the tower the flames had made incredible progress. The whole of the immense structure was blazing. Spires of flame leaped and swayed from its summit, part.i.tions were falling, platforms giving way, and hundreds of air s.h.i.+ps caught by the sheets of fire were crumpling and falling in swooping curves like birds whose wings had been seared. I was thankful that we could not see the unfortunates who were peris.h.i.+ng in that furnace. It was but too evident that not a soul on the tower could have escaped.

I glanced at Edmund's face. It was pale and set--the face of a man gazing upon an awful tragedy with which he is absolutely powerless to interfere.

His breath came quick, but he did not utter a word. Then came the reaction, and, staggering, he leaned on my shoulder, and I led him to the bench from which he had risen. For a moment I thought he had fainted, but when I put a flask to his lips he swallowed a mouthful and immediately recovered sufficient strength to sit up, resting his head on his hand.

”Had we not better go on?” I asked.

”Ye-es,” he replied, after a moment's hesitation. ”We can do nothing.

They are all gone; the queen has perished with the rest! Pull out that k.n.o.b on the right, but gently, and then push this b.u.t.ton. We must circle round the outskirts until we see whether the fire will seize upon the other towers and extend to the city below.”

I followed his directions, and, as we started our circuit, the vast tower suddenly swayed aside, and then, tumbling in upon itself, it went down in a whirl of smoke and eddying sparks.

As far as we could see none of the other aerial structures had caught fire. The entire absence of wind was no doubt the favorable circ.u.mstance that saved them. But all the towers were swaying under the impulse imparted to them by the excited mult.i.tudes that crowded their platforms.

Although the light of the conflagration faded as soon as the princ.i.p.al tower fell, the others continued to s.h.i.+ne brilliantly in the solar rays, but suddenly, as we watched, the splendor failed, and the subdued illumination characteristic of the endless daylight under the great dome took its place. The rift in the clouds above had closed as unexpectedly as it had recently opened, and the sun was no longer visible. It had been in view less than an hour, but in that brief s.p.a.ce what scenes had been enacted!

Presently Edmund, shaking his head sadly, said:

”It is useless to stay longer. Even if the conflagration should spread we could do nothing to help the unfortunates. They must depend upon themselves.”

He then gave me directions for changing our course to a direct line away from the city, at the same time increasing the speed. In the meantime he himself aided in binding up his wound.

”If there were the slightest chance that Ala could have escaped,” he said, after a few minutes, ”I would remain here, and search for her, but it is only too clear what her fate has been. She was really our only friend, and now that she is gone, we must get away from the sight and memory of these things as quickly as possible.”

Seeing that his strength was gradually coming back to him, and secretly rejoicing that he bore this terrible blow so stoically, I felt that we might now converse about the catastrophe which we had witnessed.

”What do you think was the cause of the sudden outburst of fire?” I asked.

”It could hardly have been the direct action of the sunlight,” he replied. ”It must have resulted from some accidental concentration of the solar rays upon an inflammable substance by a mirror.”