A Voyage to Arcturus Part 62

Maskull stared at him, not without friendliness. "What made you expect me, and how do you know my name?"

The stranger smiled, which made his face very handsome. "I'm Gangnet. I know most things."

"Haven't you a greeting for me too--Gangnet?" asked Krag, thrusting his forbidding features almost into the other's face.

"I know you, Krag. There are few places where you are welcome."

"And I know you, Gangnet--you man-woman.... Well, we are here together, and you must make what you can of it. We are going down to the Ocean."

The smile faded from Gangnet's face. "I can't drive you away, Krag--but I can make you the unwelcome third."

Krag threw back his head, and gave a loud, grating laugh. "That bargain suits me all right. As long as I have the substance, you may have the shadow, and much good may it do you."

"Now that it's all arranged so satisfactorily," said Maskull, with a hard smile, "permit me to say that I don't desire any society at all at present.... You take too much for granted, Krag. You have played the false friend once already.... I presume I'm a free agent?"

"To be a free man, one must have a universe of one's own," said Krag, with a jeering look. "What do you say, Gangnet--is this a free world?"

"Freedom from pain and ugliness should be every man's privilege,"

returned Gangnet tranquilly. "Maskull is quite within his rights, and if you'll engage to leave him I'll do the same."

"Maskull can change face as often as he likes, but he won't get rid of me so easily. Be easy on that point, Maskull."

"It doesn't matter," muttered Maskull. "Let everyone join in the procession. In a few hours I shall finally be free, anyhow, if what they say is true."

"I'll lead the way," said Gangnet. "You don't know this country, of course, Maskull. When we get to the flat lands some miles farther down, we shall be able to travel by water, but at present we must walk, I fear."

"Yes, you fear--you fear!" broke out Krag, in a highpitched, sc.r.a.ping voice. "You eternal loller!"

Maskull kept looking from one to the other in amazement. There seemed to be a determined hostility between the two, which indicated an intimate previous acquaintance.

They set off through a wood, keeping close to its border, so that for a mile or more they were within sight of the long, narrow lake that flowed beside it. The trees were low and thin; their dolm-coloured leaves were all folded. There was no underbrush--they walked on clean, brown earth, A distant waterfall sounded. They were in shade, but the air was pleasantly warm. There were no insects to irritate them. The bright lake outside looked cool and poetic.

Gangnet pressed Maskull's arm affectionately. "If the bringing of you from your world had fallen to me, Maskull, it is here I would have brought you, and not to the scarlet desert. Then you would have escaped the dark spots, and Tormance would have appeared beautiful to you."

"And what then, Gangnet? The dark spots would have existed all the same."

"You could have seen them afterward. It makes all the difference whether one sees darkness through the light, or brightness through the shadows."

"A clear eye is the best. Tormance is an ugly world, and I greatly prefer to know it as it really is."

"The devil made it ugly, not Crystalman. These are Crystalman's thoughts, which you see around you. He is nothing but Beauty and Pleasantness. Even Krag won't have the effrontery to deny that."

"It's very nice here," said Krag, looking around him malignantly. "One only wants a cushion and half a dozen houris to complete it."

Maskull disengaged himself from Gangnet. "Last night, when I was struggling through the mud in the ghastly moonlight--then I thought the world beautiful."

"Poor Sullenbode!" said Gangnet sighing.

"What! You knew her?"

"I know her through you. By mourning for a n.o.ble woman, you show your own n.o.bility. I think all women are n.o.ble."

"There may be millions of n.o.ble women, but there's only one Sullenbode."

"If Sullenbode can exist," said Gangnet, "the world cannot be a bad place."

"Change the subject.... The world's hard and cruel, and I am thankful to be leaving it."

"On one point, though, you both agree," said Krag, smiling evilly.

"Pleasure is good, and the cessation of pleasure is bad."

Gangnet glanced at him coldly. "We know your peculiar theories, Krag.

You are very fond of them, but they are unworkable. The world could not go on being, without pleasure."

"So Gangnet thinks!" jeered Krag.

They came to the end of the wood, and found themselves overlooking a little cliff. At the foot of it, about fifty feet below, a fresh series of lakes and forests commenced. Barey appeared to be one big mountain slope, built by nature into terraces. The lake along whose border they had been travelling was not banked at the end, but overflowed to the lower level in half a dozen beautiful, threadlike falls, white and throwing off spray. The cliff was not perpendicular, and the men found it easy to negotiate.

At the base they entered another wood. Here it was much denser, and they had nothing but trees all around them. A clear brook rippled through the heart of it; they followed its bank.

"It has occurred to me," said Maskull, addressing Gangnet, "that Alppain may be my death. Is that so?"

"These trees don't fear Alppain, so why should you? Alppain is a wonderful, life-bringing sun."

"The reason I ask is--I've seen its afterglow, and it produced such violent sensations that a very little more would have proved too much."

"Because the forces were evenly balanced. When you see Alppain itself, it will reign supreme, and there will be no more struggling of wills inside you."

"And that, I may tell you beforehand, Maskull," said Krag, grinning, "is Crystalman's trump card."

"How do you mean?"

"You'll see. You'll renounce the world so eagerly that you'll want to stay in the world merely to enjoy your sensations."

Gangnet smiled. "Krag, you see, is hard to please. You must neither enjoy, nor renounce. What are you to do?"

Maskull turned toward Krag. "It's very odd, but I don't understand your creed even yet. Are you recommending suicide?"

Krag seemed to grow sallower and more repulsive every minute. "What, because they have left off stroking you?" he exclaimed, laughing and showing his discoloured teeth.

"Whoever you are, and whatever you want," said Maskull, "you seem very certain of yourself."

"Yes, you would like me to blush and stammer like a b.o.o.by, wouldn't you!

That would be an excellent way of destroying lies."

Gangnet glanced toward the foot of one of the trees. He stooped and picked up two or three objects that resembled eggs.

"To eat?" asked Maskull, accepting the offered gift.