The Land of the Changing Sun Part 23

Bernardino turned to look after her father as he was leaving the room.

"He is going to the observatory," she said to Thornd.y.k.e and Johnston.

"Let us go also." And they followed the king into the room with the gla.s.s roof and walls covered with mirrors which he had shown the strangers several days before. A white-headed old man stood at the stand, his fingers trembling over the half circle of electric b.u.t.tons.

In a mirror before him he was studying the reflection of a town of perhaps a hundred houses. The streets were filled with excited citizens, and a squad of protectors stood ready for action near a row of flying-machines.

"Ornethelo," said the king, and at the sound of his voice the old man turned and bowed humbly.

"All right," went on the king, "I will take your place a moment."

He went to the stand and touched a b.u.t.ton. Instantly the scene changed; fields, forests, streams and hills ran by in a murky blur, and then a larger town flashed on the mirror. Here the same stir and alertness characterized the scene. The gaze of every inhabitant was fixed on the threatening horizon. Rapidly the scenes shifted at the king's will, till a hundred cities, towns and villages had been reviewed.

"Enough! They are all ready--all faithful," groaned the king, "and, Ornethelo, they may all have to perish to-day, and all for our ambition.

Poor mortals!"

Ornethelo's face was half submerged in the beard on his breast, but he looked up suddenly and spoke:

"For their sakes, then, we ought not to delay; there may yet be hope."

"You are right, Ornethelo." There was a ring of hope in the voice of the king. "Quick! show me my capitol, that I may see if all the protectors are ready."

Ornethelo touched another b.u.t.ton, and, as if seen from a great height, the fair and wondrous city dawned before the eyes of the spectators.

In every street policemen and protectors and flying-machines stood in orderly readiness. The housetops were colored with the variegated costumes of men, women and children. Over all lay the wondrous sunlight, through the green splendor of which the flakes of soot were falling like black snow.

The king touched the old man's arm. "I must see beyond the walls; are the connections made?"

"Ready, sir."

"Try them; they must not fail me now!"

The old man tremblingly unlocked a cabinet on the table, and another row of electric b.u.t.tons was displayed. Ornethelo touched one. Immediately there was a sharp clicking sound under the stand, and the view was swept from the mirror. Nothing could be seen but a dark suggestion of towering cliffs and yawning caverns.

"Not the east, Ornethelo," cried the king impatiently. "Go on! the west!

the west!"

The black landscape flashed by like a glimpse of night from a flying train, and then a blur of redly illuminated smoke in rolling billows seemed to swell out from the surface of the mirror into the room.

"There, slow!" cried the king, and then a frightful scene burst upon their sight. They beheld a great belching pit of fire and flames. The sky from the earth to the zenith was a vast expanse of illuminated smoke, and the black landscape round about was cut by rivulets of molten lava rolling on and on like restless streams of quicksilver.

The king leaned against the stand as if faint with despair. "Call Prince Arthur!" he ordered, and almost at that instant the young man appeared.

"Father!"

The king pointed a quivering finger at the mirror, and said huskily:

"Let not the sun go down! Let its light be white as at noon."

"But, father, it has never been done before; it----"

"Alpha has never faced such danger. All our dream is about to end. Go!"

Without a word the young man hastened away, and it seemed scarcely a moment before the sunlight streaming in at the oval gla.s.s roof changed from green to white.

The king pushed Ornethelo impatiently aside; his eyes held a dull gleam of despair, and he seemed to have grown ten years older. He touched a b.u.t.ton, and the awful scene at the pit gave place to a bright view of the capitol, which was plainly seen from its crowded centre to its scattering suburbs. The squads of "protectors" stood like armies ready for battle, their rigid faces still toward the awful west.

"They are ready--the signal!" yelled the king, waving his hand, "the signal!" Ornethelo caught his breath suddenly and tottered as he went across the room, and touched a b.u.t.ton on the wall. The king's eyes were glued on the mirrored view of the capitol, his trembling hands held out, as if commanding silence. Then a deafening trumpet blast broke on the ear. The ma.s.ses of citizens pressed near the edges of the roofs and close against the walls along the streets, as the protectors rushed into the flying-machines. Another trumpet-blast, and away they flew, a long black line, every instant growing smaller as it receded in the murky distance. The princess, white and silent, led Thornd.y.k.e and Johnston back to the balcony. The line of machines was now a mere thread in the sky, but the ominous cloud in the west had increased, and fine sand and ashes were added to the fall of soot.

"What was that?" gasped the princess. It was a low rumble like distant thunder, and the balcony shook violently.

"An earthquake," said Thornd.y.k.e. "I am really afraid there is not a ghost of a chance for us; the water running into the fire is sure to cause an eruption of some sort, and even a slight one would be likely to enlarge the opening to the ocean."

Johnston nodded knowingly as he looked into his friend's face, but, considering the presence of the princess, he said nothing.

"My brother, Prince Marentel, is the greatest man in our kingdom," she re marked. "He has taken enough explosives to remove a mountain."

"How will he use them?" asked Thornd.y.k.e.

"I don't know, but I fancy he will try to close the opening in some way."

The latter slowly shook his head. "I fear he will fail. The fall must be as voluminous as Niagara by this time."

"My father must have lost hope, or he would not have stopped the sun,"

sighed the princess, and she cast a sad glance towards the west. The rolling clouds had become more dense, and the rumbling and booming in the distance was growing more frequent. A thin gray cloud pa.s.sed before the sun, and a dim shadow fell over the city.

"That is a natural cloud," said Thornd.y.k.e; "it comes from the steam that rises from the pit."

"It is exactly like our rain clouds," returned the princess; "but it comes from the steam, as you say. But let us go into the Electric Auditorium and hear the news. As soon as anything is done we will hear of it there." The others had no time to question her, for she was hastening into the corridor outside. She piloted them down a flight of stairs into a large circular room beneath the surface of the ground. It was filled with seats like a modern theatre, and in the place where the stage would have been, stood a mighty mirror over an hundred feet square. She led them to a private box in front of the mirror. The room was filled from the first row of chairs to the rear with a silent, anxious crowd. In the ma.s.sive frame of the mirror were numerous bell-shaped trumpets like those on the ordinary phonograph, though much larger.

"Watch the mirror," whispered Bernardino as she sat down.

And at that instant the surface of the great gla.s.s began to glow like the sky at dawn, and all the lights in the room went out. Then from the trumpets in the frame came the loud ringing of musical bells.

"They are ready," whispered Bernardino; "now watch and listen."

The pink light on the mirror faded, and a life-like reflection appeared--the reflection of a young man standing on a rock in bold relief against a dark background of rugged, slabbering cliffs and the forbidding mouths of caves.

"Waldmeer!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the princess, and she relapsed into silence.

The young man held in his hand a cup-shaped instrument from which extended a wire to the ground. He raised it to his lips, and instantly a calm, deliberate voice came from the mirror, soft and low and yet loud, enough to reach the most remote parts of the great room.

"The ocean," began he, "is pouring into the 'Volcano of the Dead' in a gradually increasing torrent. Prince Marentel hopes temporarily to delay the crisis by partially turning the torrent away from the pit into the lowlands of the country. For that purpose a portion of the endless wall is being torn down, and Marentel's forces are placing their explosives.

After this is done an attempt will be made to stop the original break.

There is, however, little hope. The prince has warned the king to be prepared for the worst."

At this point, the speaker turned as if startled toward the red glare at his right. He quickly picked up another instrument attached to a wire and put it to his ear. A look of horror changed his face as he turned to the audience and began to speak:--"The opening in the wall is not progressing rapidly. Workmen are drowning and the tunnel of the sun is filling with water. It will be impossible for the sun to go through to the east."

Just then there was a far-away crash, and instantly the mirror was void.

There was now no sound except the low groans of women in the audience and the subdued curses of maddened men. The silence was profound. Then the mirror began to glow, and the image of another man took Waldmeer's place.

"It is the Mayor of Telmantio," whispered the princess, "a place near the western limits of Alpha."