Kitabı oku: «Fifteen Hundred Miles An Hour», sayfa 17

CHAPTER XX.
THE LAST WORDS FROM YONDER

Days and weeks have come and gone since the events recorded in the previous chapter. For seven days after the wedding, Edos was entirely given up to feasting, to rejoicing, and to revelry. Of Graham – Prince Tihernah now – and his beautiful wife, we saw little during this interval; for the day following their marriage they left Edos, to spend their honeymoon at the stately dwelling which had been given to them by the King for their own private use. Both Temple and the Doctor have come in for their share of honours, each having received a title conferring many privileges.

As soon as the actual wedding festivities were over, the Doctor was hard at work again, busy with his investigations, and planning out in microscopic detail project after project, for the ultimate benefit of humanity. He was a very Titan in his labours. He had called together – under the direct patronage of the King – in congress all the leading scientists of Gathma, all the wise men of Helmath, deeply skilled in the arts and sciences, with whom he discussed his plans and projects. The greatest and the most important of these was one for establishing regular communication between Earth and Mars. His views were accepted by his scientific compeers with the wildest enthusiasm, and a society was formed forthwith, pledged to carry out the daring scheme.

The loss of the Sirius did not prove so disastrous, after all. There are cunning artificers and skilful engineers in many parts of Gathma, able to work out the Doctor's designs with even greater exactness than the men of Earth. Another point, vastly favouring the Doctor's plans, was the wonderful development of electrical science, a branch of knowledge only in its infancy on Earth. How this marvellous force has become utterly subservient to human will, in Gathma, has been dimly hinted at in many parts of our narrative; but Doctor Hermann, whether wisely or not, has deemed it best to say little until we return to our native Earth again.

Already a new carriage is being constructed on the same plan as the Sirius, but embodying many improvements, some of them the result of our experience on the way hither, others the suggestions of cleverer engineers than we. Several years must of necessity elapse before the grand experiment will be tried, as the Doctor is anxious to acquire as much information as possible before returning. Already his five-and-sixty years of life begin to press heavily upon him, and he feels that if he once gets back to Earth, he will not be equal to the hardships and the risks of another journey here. Younger men, we doubt not, will be eager and willing to make this awful plunge across the sky, as soon as the tidings of our glorious success reach Earth, and they are put in possession of the secrets that will bear them triumphantly here.

And now, as these manuscripts already exceed in bulk and weight the measure that has been allowed them by Doctor Hermann in his calculations when making the machine that is to attempt to bear them to Earth, but few words are we permitted to say.

The result of our enterprise has been one unqualified triumph. Many perils, many hardships, many dangers have been encountered and have been overcome, as the reader of this stirring story, which is but a fragment of what we have to tell, already knows. We have piles upon piles of manuscripts dealing with scientific, social, and religious subjects; folios upon folios of sketches portraying objects upon which the eyes of earthly man have never rested, and of which he has not the faintest conception. A few of these we send with this.

Not only are we enriched with the knowledge we have gained for ourselves, but we are heavy-laden with the results of unnumbered centuries of scientific research, conducted by accomplished philosophers here.

Their discoveries in the science of astronomy are marvellous, and make us look upon our own attainments in this direction with supreme pity. The conditions of life upon this planet are exceptionally favourable to the advancement of this science, the grand age of the astronomers permitting them to perfect experiments and calculations, and observe phenomena which on our own world have to be left to posterity.

Many wondrous things have they told us of the movements of our own Earth, not the least remarkable being a sudden change in the inclination of her axis, four thousand two hundred and twenty-five years ago – that awful catastrophe, as we read in our own Holy Records, that flooded parts of the world even to the summit of her mountains, and so changed the conditions of life upon her surface that all creatures that dwell thereon have not recovered, and never will recover, from its direful results. Never can we forget the feelings of awe that crept over us as we read the record of our own tribulation and woe of our own fall from physical mightiness to nothingness, as observed – actually observed – by those men of Gathma, who scrutinised the heavens with such wondrous skill in days when the science of the firmament, with us, still lay unquickened in the womb of Time's futurity!

There in those stirring records, too, we read of the changing aspect of our own polar regions, as viewed from Gathma, more than thirty millions of miles away – of how the polar crescents of snow spread themselves lower and lower, higher and higher, devastating and depopulating continents!

The attainments of zoologists are none the less grand. Evolution, a theory that only dawned on earthly minds with the teaching of Pythagoras, about two thousand four hundred years ago, and was only elaborated towards the close of the nineteenth century of the Christian era, has here passed from speculation into fact, through the uninterrupted researches of ten thousand times ten thousand years! Here has the human animal confessed his glorious unbroken descent from lower types, for the proofs of his ancestry are complete, and his wondrous descent doth only magnify his Creator's glory in his sight. He has no bigoted past to wrestle with, and to shake his reason; no Genesis to warp his judgment, or to stay the march of his intellect by saying:

"Things are so since Time began; Man's wisdom and his knowledge are false!"

Even to summarise our impressions of this beautiful planet-world of Mars, or Gathma, would require the space already taken by this narrative. But what appealed most forcibly to us, after a long sojourn upon its fair surface, was the vastness and stability of everything – its freedom from crime and from strife; the crusted age of all its institutions and customs; the superiority of its uniform religious dogma over our own divers beliefs; the calm dignity of its civilised inhabitants; and the arrangement of all things to harmonise with the extraordinary longevity of its people. In fine, it is a world at the very zenith of its long and gradually accumulated splendour – an ideal world at the summit of its glorious course, which can only be described as the bright and comely Heir of Time itself!

Having witnessed the splendours of this sister-world, and knowing the indescribable benefits which may accrue to the men of Earth through intercourse with its people, we are anxious that our fellows shall partake, and that speedily, of the riches with which this world is blessed. We have therefore written this narrative partly as a message of hope, as tidings of humanity's great coming joy, trusting that it may reach Earth, and be found, and published to all men.

We may soon follow our messenger across the sky. Even by the time that it falls upon the surface of our native world, we may be on our way thereto, bringing with us new ideas, novel inventions from the planet we have visited. We reserve the disclosure of our discoveries, and our secrets, until we reach Earth again; for we feel it due to ourselves that we should proclaim them in person; and practical John Temple considers that we should at least receive some financial return for the information it has cost us so much to obtain.

One, however, of our little band elects to remain behind in Gathma. Graham, as yet, evinces no desire to visit his native world. The tender ties that bind him here are stronger than those earthly ones which may still linger within him. Besides, we hear that already his union with this handsome maid of Edos has been blessed! and that all in good time the link between Earth and here will be forged yet more strongly in Volinè's maternity!

Two days after the above lines were penned, Temple and the Doctor are engaged in an anxious consultation. The despatch of our manuscripts to Earth forms the subject of discussion. The delicate-looking piece of mechanism lying on the table before us has been thoroughly tested, and proved successful. It is a small electrical engine, carrying enough motive force to propel it beyond the limits of this planet's attraction, attached to a cylinder of iron, in which our precious message is first to be encased, and then the two halves fixed together as one.

"Temple, if we can only get our messenger far enough into space, it will not be affected by attraction here, and the next body that should draw it onwards will be the Earth."

"Well, I have but to add a few more lines, and then all may be sealed, and we can despatch our message on its stupendous flight across space. Are your notes complete?"

"A few more words of instruction, and I have done."

On the morrow following this discussion our message is about to be despatched. It is a great day in Edos. From far and wide the people of Gathma have journeyed hither to see our words depart. In two hours' time we seal these manuscripts in their iron covering, and attach them to the motors.

Time is speeding on. The scene around us here is a curious and imposing one. We stand upon the summit of one of the hills on which the fair city of Edos is built. A forge and brawny smiths, who have come hither from Pamax to complete our task, are in the foreground; the King, surrounded by Ministers and servants, by Princes and Priests, watches Doctor Hermann and Temple with heightening wonderment, the latter busy writing these few last words. Volinè and her husband peer over Temple's shoulder as his fluent pen races across the sheets of white paper, describing this closing scene. A dense multitude lines the background, equally filled with curiosity and wonder.

"What message, O King, may I send from you to my own people on the star-world Earth?" said Temple, pausing for a moment and turning towards the King of Gathma.

"A message of Peace and Goodwill! Tell thy brothers yonder that the hand of fellowship is reaching out towards them from our world to thine, and that great things shall come to pass for their good and ours."

"And your last words, Doctor?"

"Are words of encouragement to the men of science at home. To my dear old friend Darwin I especially address them. Tell my brethren that I long to be amongst them, once more, to tell of my discoveries, and to increase the scope of their labours to an extent they have hitherto not dared even to dream!"

"Have you aught to say, Graham – or, rather, Prince Tihernah?" said Temple, smiling.

"I will answer for him," said Volinè, playfully. "Tell the dwellers on thy star-world yonder that when the carriage which this message heralds doth arrive thereon, a Princess of the Royal House of Gathma shall visit them."

"Let it be as you say, darling. If it is your wish to visit my world out there beyond the sky, then will I relinquish my desire to remain here in Gathma always, and go with you; for, of a truth, there is nothing that I can deny you," said Graham, his eyes filled with admiration and love for his peerless wife.

We are now about to place this last page of our manuscript with the roll of others in their iron resting-place, and in ten more minutes from now they will have winged their flight away! Adieu!

"Now, my comrades, your signatures, please."

Signed

HEINRICH HERMANN, F.R.S.,

JOHN TEMPLE,

HARRY GRAHAM, M.INST.C.E.

Adieu! Adieu!!

End of Extract from the MSS.