It was like turning into a hothouse from a keen winter walk, our arrivalat the beautiful but nerveless city after my life amongst the woodmen.
As for the people, they were delighted to have their princess back, butwith the delight of children, fawning about her, singing, clapping hands,yet asking no questions as to where she had been, showing no appreciationof our adventures--a serious offence in my eyes--and, perhaps mostimportant of all, no understanding of what I may call the political bearingsof Heru's restoration, and how far their arch enemies beyond the sea mightbe inclined to attempt her recovery.
They were just delighted to have the princess back, and that was theend of it. Theirs was the joy of a vast nursery let loose. Flowerprocessions were organised, garlands woven by the mile, a general orderissued that the nation might stay up for an hour after bedtime, and in thevortex of that gentle rejoicing Heru was taken from me, and I saw her nomore, till there happened the wildest scene of all you have shared with meso patiently.
Overlooked, unthanked, I turned sulky, and when this mood, one I cannever maintain for long, wore off, I threw myself into the dissipation aboutme with angry zeal. I am frankly ashamed of the confession, but I was "asailor ashore," and can only claim the indulgences proper to the situation.
I laughed, danced, drank, through the night; I drank deep of a dozen rosyways to forgetfulness, till my mind was a great confusion, full of flittingpictures of love- liness, till life itself was an illusive pantomime, and mywill but thistle-down on the folly of the moment. I drank with thosegentle roisterers all through their starlit night, and if we stopped whenmorning came it was more from weariness than virtue. Then the yellow-robed slaves gave us the wine of recovery--alas! my faithful An was notamongst them-- and all through the day we lay about in sodden happiness.
Towards nightfall I was myself again, not unfortunately with theheadache well earned, but sufficiently remorseful to be in a vein to makegood resolutions for the future.
In this mood I mingled with a happy crowd, all purpose- less and cheerful as usual, but before long began to feel the influence of one ofthose drifts, a universal turning in one direction, as seaweed turns whenthe tide changes, so char- acteristic of Martian society. It was dusk, alovely soft velvet dusk, but not dark yet, and I said to a yellow-robed fairyat my side:
"Whither away, comrade? It is not eight bells yet. Surely we arenot going to be put to bed so early as this?""No," said that smiling individual, "it is the princess. We are going tolisten to Princess Heru in the palace square. She reads the globe on theterrace again tonight, to see if omens are propitious for her marriage.
She MUST marry, and you know the ceremony has been unavoidablypostponed so far.""Unavoidably postponed?" Yes, Heaven wotted I was aware of thefact. And was Heru going to marry black Hath in such a hurry? Andafter all I had done for her? It was scarcely decent, and I tried to rousemyself to rage over it, but somehow the seductive Martian contentmentwith any fate was getting into my veins. I was not yet altogether sunk intheir slothful acceptance of the inevitable, but there was not the slightestdoubt the hot red blood in me was turn- ing to vapid stuff such as did dutyfor the article in their veins. I mustered up a half-hearted frown at thisunwelcome intelligence, turning with it on my face towards the slave girl;but she had slipped away into the throng, so the frown evaporated, andshrugging my shoulders I said to myself, "What does it matter? Thereare twenty others will do as well for me. If not one, why then obviouslyan- other, 'tis the only rational way to think, and at all events there is themagic globe. That may tell us something." And slipping my arm roundthe waist of the first disengaged girl--we were not then, mind you, inAtlantic City--I kissed her dimpling cheek unreproached, and gailyfollowed in the drift of humanity, trending with a low hum of pleasuretowards the great white terraces under the palace porch.
How well I knew them! It was just such an evening Heru hadconsulted Fate in the same place once before; how much had happenedsince then! But there was little time or in- clination to think of thosethings now. The whole phantom city's population had drifted to one common centre. The crumbling seaward ramparts were all deserted; nosoldier watch was kept to note if angry woodmen came from over seas; asoft wind blew in from off the brine, but told no tales; the streets wereempty, and, when as we waited far away in the southern sky the earthplanet presently got up, by its light Heru, herself again, came trippingdown the steps to read her fate.
They had placed another magic globe under a shroud on a tripod forher. It stood within the charmed circle upon the terrace, and I was closeby, although the princess did not see me.
Again that weird, fantastic dance commenced, the princess workingherself up from the drowsiest undulations to a hur- ricane of emotion.
Then she stopped close by the orb, and seized the corner of the webcovering it. We saw the globe begin to beam with veiled magnificence ather touch.
Not an eye wavered, not a thought wandered from her in all that silentmultitude. It was a moment of the keenest suspense, and just when it wasat its height there came a strange sound of hurrying feet behind theoutermost crowd, a murmur such as a great pack of wolves might makerushing through snow, while a soft long wail went up from the darkness.
Whether Heru understood it or not I cannot say, but she hesitated amoment, then swept the cloth from the orb of her fate.
And as its ghostly, self-emitting light beamed up in the darkness withweird brilliancy, there by it, in gold and furs and war panoply, huge, fierce,and lowering, stood--AR-HAP HIMSELF!
Ay, and behind him, towering over the crouching Mar- tians, blockingevery outlet and street, were scores and hundreds of his men. Never wassurprise so utter, ambush more complete. Even I was transfixed withastonishment, staring with open-mouthed horror at the splendid figure ofthe barbarian king as he stood aglitter in the ruddy light, scowling defianceat the throng around him. So silently had he come on his errand ofvengeance it was difficult to be- lieve he was a reality, and not some cleverpiece of stageplay, some vision conjured up by Martian necromancy.
But he was good reality. In a minute comedy turned to tragedy. Arhap gave a sign with his hand, whereon all his men set up a terrible warcry, the like of which Seth had not heard for very long, and as far as I couldmake out in the half light began hacking and hewing my luckless friendswith all their might. Meanwhile the king made at Heru, feeling sure ofher this time, and doubtless intending to make her taste his vengeance tothe dregs; and seeing her handled like that, and hearing her plaintive cries,wrath took the place of stupid surprise in me. I was on my feet in asecond, across the intervening space, and with all my force gave the king ablow upon the jaw which sent even him staggering backwards. Before Icould close again, so swift was the sequence of events in those flyingminutes, a wild mob of people, victims and executioners in one disorderedthrong, was between us. How the king fared I know not, nor stopped toask, but half dragging, half carrying Heru through the shrieking mob, gother up the palace steps and in at the great doors, which a couple of yellow-clad slaves, more frightened of the barbarians than thoughtful of the crowdwithout, promptly clapped to, and shot the bolts. Thus we were safe for amoment, and putting the princess on a couch, I ran up a short flight ofstairs and looked out of a front window to see if there were a chance ofsuccouring those in the palace square. But it was all hopeless chaos withthe town already beginning to burn and not a show of fight anywherewhich I could join.
I glared out on that infernal tumult for a moment or two in an agony ofimpotent rage, then turned towards the harbour and saw in the shine of theburning town below the ancient battlements and towers of Seth begin togleam out, like a splendid frost work of living metal clear-cut against thesmooth, black night behind, and never a show of resistance there either.
Ay, and by this time Ar-hap's men were battering in our gates with a bigbeam, and somehow, I do not know how it happened, the palace itselfaway on the right, where the dry-as-dust library lay, was also beginning toburn.
It was hopeless outside, and nothing to be done but to save Heru, sodown I went, and, with the slaves, carried her away from the hall througha vestibule or two, and into an anteroom, where some yellow-girtindividuals were al- ready engaged in the suggestive work of tying up palace plate in bundles, amongst other things, alas! the great gold love-bowl from which--oh! so long ago--I had drawn Heru's marriage billet. Theseindividuals told me in tremulous accents they had got a boat on a secretwaterway behind the palace whence flight to the main river and so, faraway inland, to another smaller but more peaceful city of their race wouldbe quite practical; and joyfully hearing this news, I handed over to themthe princess while I went to look for Hath.
And the search was not long. Dashing into the banquet-hall, stilllittered with the remains of a feast, and looking down its deserted vistas,there at the farther end, on his throne, clad in the sombre garments heaffected, chin on hand, sedate in royal melancholy, listening unmoved tothe sack of his town outside, sat the prince himself. Strange, gloomyman, the great dead intelligence of his race shining in his face as weirdand out of place as a lonely sea beacon fading to nothing before the glowof sunrise, never had he appeared so mysterious as at that moment. Evenin the heat of excitement I stared at him in amazement, wishing in a hastythought the confusion of the past few weeks had given me opportun- ity topenetrate the recesses of his mind, and therefrom retell you things betterworth listening to than all the incident of my adventures. But now therewas no time to think, scarce time to act.
"Hath!" I cried, rushing over to him, "wake up, your majesty. TheThither men are outside, killing and burning!""I know it.""And the palace is on fire. You can smell the reek even here.""Yes.""Then what are you going to do?""Nothing.""My word, that is a fine proposition for a prince! If you care nothingfor town or palace perhaps you will bestir yourself for Princess Heru."A faint glimmer of interest rose upon the alabaster calm of his face atthat name, but it faded instantly, and he said quietly,"The slaves will save her. She will live. I looked into the book ofher fate yesterday. She will escape, and forget, and sit at anothermarriage feast, and be a mother, and give the people yet one more princeto keep the faint glimmer of our ancestry alive. I am content.""But, d--- it, man, I am not! I take a deal more in- terest in the younglady than you seem to, and have scoured half this precious planet of yourson her account, and will be hanged if I sit idly twiddling my thumbs whileher pretty skin is in danger." But Hath was lost in contempla- tion of hisshoe-strings.
"Come, sir," I said, shaking his majesty by the shoulder, "don't bedown on your luck. There has been some rivalry between us, but nevermind about that just now. The prin- cess wants you. I am going to saveboth her and you, you must come with her.""No.""But you SHALL come.""No!"By this time the palace was blazing like a bonfire and the uproaroutside was terrible. What was I to do? As I hesitated the arras at thefurther end of the hall was swept aside, a disordered mob of slaves bearingbundles and drag- ging Heru with them rushing down to the door near us.
As Heru was carried swiftly by she stretched her milk-white arms towardsthe prince and turned her face, lovely as a convolvulus flower even in itspallor, upon him.
It was a heart-moving appeal from a woman with the heart of a child,and Hath rose to his feet while for a mo- ment there shone a look ofresponsible manhood in his eyes. But it faded quickly; he bowed slowly asthough he had received an address of condolence on the condition of hisempire, and the next moment the frightened slaves, stumbling under theirburdens, had swept poor Heru through the doorway.
I glanced savagely round at the curling smoke overhead, the redtendrils of fire climbing up a distant wall, and there on a table by us was ahalf-finished flask of the lovely tinted wine of forgetfulness. If Hathwould not come sober perhaps he might come drunk.
"Here," I cried, "drink to tomorrow, you............