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"A bird, I do declare!" excitedly exclaimed the Doctor.
"And one of exceptionally sweet song, too," answered Temple, both rising to their feet as they spoke.
But nothing could be seen; and for several minutes the delicious music was hushed.
"Doctor, it is na bird at a'; it is a butterfly! See, there he is!" shouted Sandy, pointing, as he ran, to a small bush twenty paces ahead.
"Goodness gracious!" exclaimed the Doctor, in astonishment, "I believe Sandy is right!"
And right he was, for certain; for this singing insect fluttered lazily along, to a bush much nearer to us; and, poising on one of the topmost blooms, again warbled as sweetly as before.
"Truly, indeed," said the Doctor, in amazement, "we have reached a world of anomalies! To all intents and purposes that is a butterfly, yet its structure must be entirely different from any insect on Earth, or known to man."
Others now appeared. Their wings were of various colours and shapes, denoting, probably, several species; but one with light turquoise-blue pinions was by far the commonest.
Soon after we saw the insects, a flock of white birds, about the size of a thrush, appeared, flying quickly along the side of the lake in a very swallowlike manner. One of them Graham was fortunate enough to shoot; and we were surprised beyond measure to find that it was without legs, and pouched, like the Marsupalia, or kangaroos of Earth. In the pouch were several pinkish eggs; and we inferred that this creature hatched them as it carried them about the air, requiring no nest for the purpose. It was clothed in plumage more like scales than feathers, the filaments being similar to fine shreds of horn.
Many other species of these curious legless birds, and singing insects, were seen by us as we strolled along the shore. Just, however, as we were about to embark, a magnificent animal trotted down one of the valleys to the lake, to drink. It was certainly three times as big as the largest elephant, though slim and graceful of build as a fawn. Here all further resemblance ceased. It was something like a greyhound in appearance, but the ears were broad and very large, and the dark eye exceptionally prominent. Its tail was long and bushy; its hoof uncloven, and the colour of the skin was as dull copper. We were too much lost in admiration of the beautiful creature to shoot it down, and before we had recovered from our surprise, it bounded away towards the mountains with amazing speed. We subsequently counted eight more of these animals, grazing on the patches of red "grass" on the lower hills.
"Respecting the inhabitants of this new world," said the Doctor; "really, its fauna and flora, so far as we have observed them, are simply grand."
"Bar the serpents, Doctor," said Graham.
"More than satisfied," said Temple, "I am charmed and delighted, and now share your conviction that a higher type of animal still remains to be discovered. You know to what I refer – creatures of intellect, formed in the image of God, like ourselves."
"We had best now return, my friends. By the time we reach the Sirius the sun will be near setting, and it is not wise to pass through the swamp at dusk, after what we have already seen of its inhabitants," said the Doctor.
Laden with a great variety of specimens, we made our way to the boat, and were soon rowing across the lake again towards the swamp. The breeze had died away, so that our sail was useless, and we had to pull the entire distance. The sun was sinking behind the range of mountains we had just left, as we stopped and began to pack up our boat; and by the time we had got everything inside the Sirius, night had fallen.
Tired and hungry, we were glad to reach our "home" again, and as soon as we had eaten we all of us retired to rest, and passed a peaceful, uneventful night. If the monsters of the swamp were noisy, we did not hear them; not one of us woke until the sun had long risen.
After breakfast, we commenced our task of digging out the Sirius from the mud. The Doctor was busy preserving specimens, dissecting others, and writing his scientific journals. Six hours' hard work sufficed to get the Sirius clear enough to start. We also took the precaution of putting a considerable amount of ballast into our air-ship, to replace the stores which had been consumed, so that we should not again experience any difficulty in descending. By the time all this was done the afternoon was well advanced, yet so weary of the swamp were we, that we decided to leave it at once.
"We cannot do better than make for the beach where we landed this morning, on the other side of the lake, ascending about ten thousand feet as we cross. That will enable us to survey a good many miles of country," said the Doctor to Graham.
Slowly we soared away from the marsh forest, high over the reeds, up into the pure, fresh air of heaven, where from the balcony we could view the land and water below us. The swamp was enormous, many, many square miles in extent, and beyond it appeared a dense forest of quite a different kind of vegetation. The country, as far as we could see, from the base of the mountains to the shores of the lake and beyond it, was much the same throughout its area as that which we had already explored the previous day. Certainly none of it bore the appearance of civilisation – all seemed virgin wilderness, and our hearts sank within us. Beyond the belt of dark forest on the other side of the swamp, we could see the ocean; looking landwards, the highest of the mountains concealed the view.
"Do you think it advisable to go further to-day, Doctor?" asked Graham.
"Well, now we are up so high it will certainly be best to do as much surveying as possible, and then we can discuss our position and future movements to-night. Put us up a few more thousand feet, Graham, so that we may clear these mountains and see what the country is like beyond them."
The scene from above the mountain range was indescribably beautiful. We looked down upon lofty snow-capped peaks, romantic valleys, leaping waterfalls, and slumbering lakes; upon wild and lonely plateaux, glaciers, and snow-fields; upon steep cliffs, gentle slopes, cone-shaped summits, and others like unto pyramids, pinnacles, or spires. We went right over the yawning crater, and looked down into the smoke and fire which rose gently from its hidden depths, now calm and peaceful as a sleeping child. We saw the birthplace of rivers, high up the hillsides, and could trace them from their source to the distant ocean; we noticed the various belts of vegetation growing on the mountain slopes from the lake to the snow-line – but we saw no trace of anything shaped and fashioned as ourselves! Higher and higher we rose, and at last the country to the westward, or behind the mountains, gradually came into view. It was even more charmingly beautiful than the country we had just left behind us – more level, more wooded, better watered, and parts of it apparently under cultivation! Our hearts beat fast within us as we saw what looked like vast enclosures, with long, winding canals running through them; and even more excited still did we become when we distinctly made out a colossal bridge which spanned a deep valley between two hills.
"There! there are the signs of a higher intelligence at last; the brute creation does not reign supreme, as we feared," said Temple, bursting into tears, and unable to control his feelings longer.
Graham waxed eloquent over the engineering qualities of the bridge, the enormous width of its span making the mightiest bridges of Earth seem but as toys in comparison.
We were too far away (quite thirty miles) to see much detail, but we could distinguish, as Temple spoke, two vast cities, one on either hill, joined together by the bridge, with palaces and halls and lofty towers, apparently of white marble, glistening in the rays of the setting sun. Upon seeing this wonderful city, Doctor Hermann very wisely gave the word to descend as quickly as possible, in case we might be observed. In five minutes we were safe on the ground again, the Sirius snugly hidden in a beautiful grove of trees and underwood on the banks of a stream, in a spot where we should at all events be able to retreat and readily conceal ourselves in case of emergency.
"Yes, Temple, your fears were all unfounded," answered the Doctor. "Mars is inhabited by reasoning beings. I assure you it is most gratifying to find the speculations of my early days of study, and the conclusions of more matured years of experience, turning out to be absolute facts. When on Earth, I used to dream of a new race of intellectual beings, far away out here; to ponder over their pursuits and their appearance; to wonder if they were more highly developed, physically and mentally, than we. Now these strangers are but a few hours' walk away from us; and, if I mistake not, those beings that made and dwell in that fair city yonder are of a higher development even than ourselves. I prophesy their intellect is greater, their beauty fairer, their talents more numerous, their civilization more advanced, or not so much decayed as our own! To-morrow we will seek their acquaintance, and make ourselves known unto them!"
To-morrow! How can we spend the hours that divide us from then! But darkness is settling fast around us, and we must wait in patience the coming of a new day.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MORROW – AND WHAT CAME OF IT!
Never did four human beings await the coming of daylight with such feelings as ours. Not one of us slept for a moment, the livelong night; our excitement was too intense, and the result of our doings on the morrow too momentous. We were up and out of the Sirius by sunrise, looking westwards across the undulating expanse of country, to obtain a glimpse of the fair city we saw yesterday; but vain were our endeavours; a group of low hills hid all from view. On a hill about twenty miles to the north of where we stood, however, we saw three mighty domes, the central one being more than twice the size of the others. From the way in which they glistened in the sunlight, we concluded that they were roofed with gold, or some metal unknown to us of the same colour and brilliancy. A large wood that surrounded them hid the remainder of the buildings from sight, but their size appeared to be enormous, dwarfing all earthly structures into utter insignificance.
We started off in the yet early morning, fully armed and equipped for our walk across country to the distant city, to make the acquaintance of its yet unknown inhabitants. That they were beings of noble stature we had not the slightest doubt; for only a race of giants could have reared such a colossal city; besides, the very physical conditions of Mars point to the existence of larger types of life than any now prevailing on earth.
We had not walked more than four miles on our way before we reached country evidently in a high state of cultivation. We passed large enclosures of red "grass," divided by hedges of a cactus-like plant, similar to the one we noticed growing in the swamp. These fields were evidently crops, the herbage being finer and longer than that growing wild on the mountain slopes. There were other enclosures full of a creeping plant, something like convolvulus, but bearing a long narrow pod, full of small bean-like seeds; and in others were bushes laden with fruit as big as melons, and very similar in appearance.
We were walking steadily along a broad kind of pathway between these enclosures, when an exclamation from Sandy caused us to halt, and immediately confine our attention to something which the cautious Scot was looking at on the ground before him.
It was the imprint of feet in the soft, bare ground, and evidently the impressions of a being shod with moccasins, and of mighty stature. As we were all stooping down, intently examining the first absolute traces of the intellectual inhabitants of Mars, we did not notice the approach of the being who had doubtless left these tracks behind. He came slowly along the path we were following – a being – shall we say a human being? for in all his outward frame he resembled ourselves, save that in stature he was a giant, quite nine feet in height. His features were noble-looking, almost like the Egyptians of old, and his skin was wonderfully fair and beautiful. His black beard swept downwards to his breast, and his long bushy hair, of the same tint, was confined simply by a ring of some metal which just encircled the crown of his shapely head. He was clothed in a loosely flowing robe of some soft material, almost like silk, which draped from his neck to his knees, girded at the waist with a broad strap, from which dangled several curious articles of which we knew not the use. His legs and feet were covered with the skins of some beast, curiously ornamented. Slowly but without a sign of fear he advanced towards us, carrying in his hands a long rod made of some metal. His expression was warlike; we had evidently to deal with no coward; but we could plainly see that his curiosity was most intense.
With the exception, perhaps, of the Doctor, all of us were visibly alarmed at this strange bold and haughty man, and had we not been assured by the calm confidence of our friend we should most certainly have felt inclined either to fight our visitor at once, or make the best of our way out of his presence. There was something uncanny about him. Had he even spoken, the awe and mystery surrounding him would not have been so terrible. But he came towards us in absolute silence; and when about a dozen paces away from where we stood, he paused and watched us intently.
Doctor Hermann, foolishly we thought, hailed him successively in German, in English, and in Latin, but he made no sound in reply. He was examining us minutely, evidently full of confidence in the superiority of his size and strength. He must have looked upon us with much the same contemptuous wonder as the old travellers viewed the race of dwarfs that they assure us inhabit the vast forests of Central Africa. Sandy at last hurled at him a perfect torrent of honest Gaelic, which only seemed to rouse his anger, and he uttered several sounds which were evidently meant for words of warning, in a loud, imperious, but not unpleasant voice. His arm was raised as if in threat towards us, and all of us felt thoroughly alarmed, except the Doctor, who advanced a step towards him with both hands held out as if in greeting. At this he pointed the long rod he was carrying towards one of the curious animals we had previously met with near the lake, which happened to be grazing quietly half-a-mile away, and within a second of time we saw the poor creature leap into the air and drop dead! We heard no report, we saw no flash! This was too much for Sandy, and before we could prevent him his revolver was drawn, pointed at the unknown stranger, and fired once, twice, three times into his stalwart body! At the first shot he screamed with pain, and tried to level his rod at us; at the second he fell to the ground; the result of the third we never learned, for we all turned and fled as if for our lives towards the friendly cover which sheltered the Sirius. As we ran behind the welcome shelter of the low hills we noticed several more of these strange beings, hastening from various directions to their fallen comrade; and as we had every reason to dread the deadly weapons with which they were most probably armed, we were glad to reach the wooded country and seek our refuge under the cover of the trees.
With thankful hearts we reached the Sirius, finding everything as we had left it. Doctor Hermann was angry beyond all measure with Sandy for his foolishness in shooting without just provocation, and threatened that if he did not keep more command over himself in future, he should not carry firearms at all.
"This, Temple, is a most unfortunate occurrence – most unfortunate for us all," continued the Doctor, after he had finished lecturing Sandy, who was now all contrition, and cursing himself for his stupid blunder. "There is no telling what may happen now; it is impossible to estimate the amount of misfortune this unwarranted attack on a harmless being may bring upon us. It is folly now to think of visiting that fair city yonder, on foot, as I so much desired."
"I quite agree with you, Doctor; yet, after all, there is some little excuse for poor Sandy. Matters certainly looked threatening; my own hand, too, was on my revolver at the time."
"Well," continued Temple, "all our arguments will avail us nothing now. Regrets are useless; we are in a serious position. Like all Englishmen, we have readily got ourselves into a mess; and let us hope, like our countrymen, we shall display the usual quickness of resource in the time of difficulty and danger, and soon see a way out of it."
"True, true, my dear Temple," remarked the Doctor, regaining his usual sang froid; "time is pressing. We may rest assured that this morning's work is well noised abroad, and ere long, there will be a hue and cry after us. Although my remarks may savour of egotism, I can frankly say, I have no fear of any living being on this planet. From what little I have seen of its civilisation, I am confident that we shall, at any-rate, receive justice at the hands of its inhabitants. If a low-born labourer of the field – for such I take this Martial, whom we have slain, to be – can show such courage, and be possessed of a weapon that makes the arms of Earth seem but as the toys of barbarians, in comparison – if, I say, the lower classes of this planet's people are so much in advance of ourselves, then its aristocracy must be gifted with intelligence far higher than aught we wot of; and with such a people we have nought to fear, provided we can make them understand who we are, whence we came, and what is our mission. Let us lose no time in getting away from here; let us visit the city yonder in the Sirius, boldly and with brave hearts; and I feel sure we shall be received in a manner worthy of our confidence and our courage."
"Doctor, I am afraid your naturally brave nature makes you feel too sanguine. I frankly own that I am unable to acquiesce with all you say; still, I cannot suggest anything so good as an alternative, and am ready to act on your suggestion. Let us hope all may yet be well," said Temple.
"We could start off elsewhere," said Graham. "The good Sirius can carry us to some other part of this Martial world, where we may have better luck with the natives."
"Gently, Graham," rejoined the Doctor; "you overlook the fact that we have nearly worn out our machinery. Everything requires a thorough overhaul; as things are now, I much doubt if the Sirius would carry us a couple of hundred miles. I ascertained this before we started this morning."
"As an engineer I ought to have known this, Doctor; but, really, the excitement of the last few days seems to have knocked everything out of me. By all means let us visit the city with what little electric force is still left to us, and take our chance," answered Graham, and his remarks were seconded by Temple.
Our conversation was suddenly interrupted by a mighty blast from what we judged to be some instrument like a horn. It sounded so near that we each sprang up to look, fully expecting that the alarm had already been given and that our hiding-place was discovered. As we cautiously peeped between the trees, whilst standing on the balcony of the Sirius, we beheld dozens of this mighty race of people, searching everywhere about the countryside; and another blast from the horn, which sounded much nearer than the previous one, informed us that some at least of our pursuers were coming in our direction, and that the discovery of our hiding-place was but a matter of a very short time. The climax was reached a few minutes afterwards when a black-bearded giant of herculean strength burst through the low underwood, and with a curious unearthly shout as of triumph rushed towards the Sirius. Perhaps fortunately for us he carried no rod-like weapon – his sole equipment seemed to be a mighty horn, whose bright and gleaming gold-like coils encircled his body several times!
But he came too late! For ere he could get within twenty paces of the Sirius the command was given by Doctor Hermann, and Graham set the engines in motion. We shot upwards towards the sky with great speed, and before our astonished pursuer could recover from his surprise we were a thousand feet above him in the air. However superior to us in their intelligence the people of Mars might be, they were evidently nonplussed at our escape, and appeared to be utterly ignorant of aerial navigation in any form whatever. At least we thought so then, as we watched them gathering into terror-stricken groups below us, and ever and anon pointing to the Sirius, now almost at rest four thousand feet above them.
"Doctor, how I wish we could manage to well clean our machinery, and be able to rely upon our electricity for safety. This is beating the enemy with a vengeance," said Graham.
"But, my young friend, you forget that we cannot live in the air; our mission is to make friends with these people, not to shun them; to fraternise with them in the common interests of humanity. Now that we are here, a serious responsibility rests upon each and all of us – the teeming millions of our fellow-men, left behind on earth, will expect us to make the very most of our glorious opportunities, and to carry back to them a full history of the wonders of this new world and new race. 'Advance' must be our watchword, until our work is done; even though our lives are lost in the effort. Recall the words you uttered, Graham, years ago, on that fateful evening, when you solemnly pledged yourself to this mission, nay, even devoted your life to its full accomplishment. Our course is clear; put the Sirius up another ten thousand feet, and we will let her head towards the beautiful city yonder. We will come to rest on that elevation above it, and then be guided by events."
The country below us seemed teeming with people, spreading about in all directions; and dense bodies of what looked like troops, could be distinguished coming from the city in the direction of the place where the Sirius had rested the previous night. Evidently these people had some very rapid means of communication, one with the other. The entire district appeared to be thoroughly aroused, and the commotion was evidently increasing each moment. That we were seen was manifest – thousands of upturned faces told us that the Sirius was the centre of attraction, and every movement was keenly noted. We had now a much better view of the three glittering domes; they appeared to be the roof of some magnificent temple, whose walls seemed of white marble; but the dense growth of trees round the entire edifice, still concealed much of its rare beauty from our gaze.
Just as we came over the outskirts of this wonderful town, the Sirius received a terrible blow from some missile, which made her quiver from top to bottom, and we quite expected that we were about to fall to the ground. Had the projectile struck us fairly, nothing could have saved us; but by good fortune it glanced obliquely along the sides of the Sirius, and spent itself in space.
"If I mistake not, that has been fired at us from the city below; but what the force was that hurled that bullet so high, and with such marvellously accurate aim is unknown to me, for no explosion accompanied it," said the Doctor, with rather a disconcerted air.
"It is time we descended of our own free will, Doctor," answered Temple, "otherwise we shall be brought down as ignominiously as a winged hawk, and there will then be a speedy end to us and our projects."
We were now directly over the city. And such a noble city, too! The buildings were all of colossal grandeur, the streets wide, and at right angles; no smaller houses mingled with the rest – all were uniformly grand, though the variety of the architecture prevented the slightest monotony. There were several magnificent buildings which we concluded were palaces or seats of government, on the larger of the two hills on which the city rested, and some of these were surrounded by gardens. The top of each hill had been levelled, and the bridge between them was a superb structure, quite half a mile in width, and perhaps three miles in length! What surprised us beyond everything was the total absence of conveyances, or of any kind of beasts of burthen whatever in the spacious thoroughfares, which were crowded with people alone.
"What palaces! What domes! What halls and towers! What streets!" shouted Graham, carried away by his admiration for the architects and engineers who had planned and reared them.
After earnest consultation we decided to descend at once, choosing a vast open square before one of the largest edifices, but which appeared to be deserted of people, as the exact spot. Slowly we dropped through the air. Nearer and nearer to the ground we came, each moment the magnificence of the city increasing as our eager scrutiny became closer. One thousand feet more! Five hundred! One hundred only left! Not a living creature in view! Our hearts beat fast; our excitement became agony in its intensity. The courtyard seemed paved with precious stones of every hue, as large as ostrich-eggs; certainly no common stones of Earth are like them, and none known to man, even the most rare, so large. Curious plants and trees grew in well-kept beds; fountains of perfumed water shot like crystal rockets to the sky! All this, and more, we noted in the short time that we were descending the last few feet; but ere the Sirius could touch the ground, a thousand stalwart warrior-giants rushed out from every side! In an instant we were the centre of an excited frenzied throng, and our lives were apparently not worth another moment's purchase!
