Books: The Land of the Changing Sun
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William N. Harben >> The Land of the Changing Sun
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When he awoke the next morning, the rosy glow of the sun was
shining in at his windows. On rising he was surprised to find a
delectable breakfast spread on a table in his sitting-room.
"Treating me like a lord, any way," he said drily. "I can't say I
dislike the thing as a whole." When he had satisfied his sharp
hunger he went out into a corridor and seeing an elevator he
entered it and went down to the throne-room. The king was just
leaving his throne, but seeing Thorndyke he turned to him with a
smile.
"How did you sleep?" he asked.
"Well, indeed," replied Thorndyke, with a low bow.
"I cannot talk to you now. I intended to, but I have promised my
people a 'War of the Elements' to-day and am busy. You will enjoy
it, I trust."
"I am sure of it, your Majesty."
"Well, be about the palace, for it is a good point from which to
view the display."
With these words he turned away and the Englishman, as if drawn
there by the memory of his last conversation with Bernardino,
sought the retreat where he had bidden her good-night. He sat down
on the seat they had occupied, and gave himself over to delightful
reveries about her beauty and loveliness of nature. Looking up
suddenly he saw a pair of white hands part the palm leaves in
front of him and the subject of his thoughts emerged into view.
She wore a regal gown and beautiful silken head-dress set with
fine gems, and gave him a warm glance of friendly greeting.
"I half hoped to find you here," she said, blushing modestly under
his ardent gaze; "that is, I knew you would not know where to go -
---" She paused, her face suffused with blushes.
"I did not hope to find you here," he said, coming to her aid
gallantly, "but it was a delight to sit here where I last saw
you."
She blushed even deeper, and a pleased look flashed into her eyes.
"It was important that I should see you this morning," she
continued, with a womanly desire to disguise her own feeling. "I
wanted to tell you where to meet me when the storm begins."
"Where?" he asked.
"On the roof of the palace, near the stairs leading down to your
chambers. At first it will be very dark, and it is then that we
must get out of sight of the palace. No other flying-machines will
be in the air, and Captain Tradmos thinks, if we are very careful,
we can get away safely before the display of lightning."
"If we find my friend what can we do with him?"
She hesitated a moment, a look of perplexity on her face, then she
said: "We can bring him back and keep him hidden in your chambers
till some better arrangement can be made. We shall think of some
expedient before long, but at present he must be saved from
starvation."
Thorndyke attempted to draw her to a seat beside him, but she
held back. "No," she said resolutely, "it would never do for us
to be seen together. If my father should suspect anything now,
all hope would be lost."
Thorndyke reluctantly released her hand.
"You are right, I beg your pardon," he said humbly. "I shall meet
you promptly. Of course I want to save poor Johnston, but the
delight of being with you again, even for a moment, so
intoxicates me that I forget even my duty to him."
After she left him he wandered out in the streets along the busy
thoroughfares, and into the beautiful parks, the flowers and
foliage changing color as each new hour dawned. The fragrance of
the flowers delighted his sense of smell, and the luscious fruits
hung from vine and tree in great abundance.
He was impatient for the time to arrive at which he was to meet
the princess. After awhile he noticed the people closing the shops
and booths, and in holiday dress going to the parks and public
squares. He hastened to the palace. The great rotunda and the
throne-room were energetically astir. Everybody wore rich apparel
and was talking of the coming fete. The king was on his throne
surrounded by his men of science. In a cluster of ladies in court
dress, the Englishman recognized Bernardino. Catching his eye, she
looked startled for an instant, and, then, with a furtive glance
at the king, she swept her eyes back to Thorndyke and raised them
significantly toward his chambers. He understood, and his quick
movement was his reply. He turned immediately to an elevator that
was going up, and entered it. Again he was alone on the palace
roof. The color of the sunlight looked so natural that he studied
it closely to see if he could not detect something artificial in
its appearance, but in vain. He found that it did not pain his
eyes to look at the sun steadily. He took from his pocket a small
sunglass, and focussed the rays on his hand, but the heat was not
intensified sufficiently to burn him.
Just then he heard a loud blast of a trumpet in a tall tower to
the left of the palace. It seemed a momentous signal. The jostling
crowds in the streets below suddenly stood motionless. Every eye
was raised to the sky. Not a sound broke the stillness. Following
the glances of the crowd a few minutes later, Thorndyke noticed a
dark cloud rising in the west, and spreading along the horizon. A
feeling of awe came over him as it gradually increased in volume,
and, in vast black billows, began to roll up toward the sun.
Suddenly out of the stillness came a faraway rumble like a
fusillade of cannon, now dying down low, again reaching such a
height that it pained the ears. Belated flying- machines darted
across the sky here and there, like storm-frightened birds, but
they soon settled to earth. Every eye was on the cloud which was
now gashed with dazzling, vivid, electric flashes. Thorndyke
looked over the vast roof. He was alone. He walked to the western
parapet to get a broader view.
The clouds had increased till almost a third of the heavens were
obscured by the madly whirling blackness. There was a rumble in
the cloud, or beyond it, like thunder, and yet it was not, unless
thunder can be attuned, for the sound was like the music of a
great orchestra magnified a thousand-fold. The grand harmony died
down. There was a blinding flash of electricity in the clouds, and
the Englishman involuntarily covered his eyes with his hands. When
he looked again the blackness was covering the sun. For a moment
its disk showed blood-red through the fringe of the cloud and
then disappeared. Total darkness fell on everything.
The silence was profound. The very air seemed stagnant.
Then the wind overhead, by some unseen force, was lashed into
fury, and all the sky was filled with whirlpools of deeper
blackness. Suddenly there was a flash of soft golden light; this
was followed by streams of pink, of blue and of purple till the
whole heavens were hung with banners, flags, and rain-bows of
flame. Again darkness fell, and it seemed all the deeper after the
gorgeous scene which had preceded it. Thorndyke strained his sight
to detect something moving below, but nothing could be seen, and
no sound came up from the motionless crowds.
Behind him he heard a soft footstep on the stone tiling. It drew
nearer. A hand was being carefully slid along the parapet. The
hand reached him and touched his arm.
It was the princess. "Ah, I have at last found you," she
whispered, "I saw you in the lightning, but lost you again."
He put his arm round her and drew her into his embrace. He tried
to speak, but uttered only an inarticulate sound.
"I could not possibly come earlier," she apologized, nestling
against him so closely that he could feel the quick and excited
beating of her heart. "My father kept me with him till only a
moment ago. Captain Tradmos will be here soon."
"When do we start?" he asked.
"That is the trouble," she replied. "We had counted on getting
away in the darkness, before the display of lightning, but there
is more danger now. If our flying-machine were noticed the search-
lights would be turned on us and we would be discovered at once."
"But even if we get safely away in the darkness when could we
return?"
"Oh, that would be easy," she replied. "As soon as the fete is
over, commerce will be resumed and the air will be filled with
air-ships that have been delayed in their regular business, and,
in the disguises which I have for us both, we could come back
without rousing suspicion. We could alight in Winter Park and
return home later."
"What is Winter Park?"
"You have not seen it? You must do so; it is one of the wonders of
Alpha. It is a vast park enclosed with high walls and covered with
a roof of glass. Inside the snow falls, and we have sleighing and
coasting and lakes of ice for skating. It was an invention of the
king. The snowstorms there are beautiful."
Thorndyke's reply was drowned in a harmonious explosion like that
of tuned cannon; this was followed by the chimes of great bells
which seemed to swing back and forth miles overhead.
"Listen!" whispered Bernardino, "father calls it 'musical
thunder,' and he declares that it is produced in no other country
but this."
"It is not; he is right." And the heart of the Englishman was
stirred by deep emotion. He had never dreamed that anything could
so completely chain his fancy and elevate his imagination as what
he heard. The musical clangor died down. The strange harmony grew
more entrancing as it softened. Then the whole eastern sky began
to flush with rosy, shimmering light.
"My father calls this the 'Ideal Dawn of Day,'" whispered
Bernardino. "See the faint golden halo near the horizon; that is
where the sun is supposed to be."
"How is it done?" asked the Englishman.
"Few of our people know. It is a secret held only by the king and
half a dozen scientists. The whole thing, however, is operated by
two men in a room in the dome of the palace. The musician is a
young German who was becoming the wonder of the musical world
when father induced him to come to us. I have met him. He says he
has been thoroughly happy here. He lives on music. He showed me
the instrument he used to play, a little thing he called a violin,
and its tones could not reach beyond the limits of a small room.
He laughs at it now and says the instrument that father gave him
to play on has strings drawn from the centre of the earth to the
stars of heaven."
The rose-light had spread over the horizon and climbed almost to
the zenith, and with the dying booming and gentle clangor it began
to fade till all was dark again.
"Captain Tradmos ought to be here now," continued the princess,
glancing uneasily toward the stairway. "We may not have so good an
opportunity as this."
Ten minutes went by.
"Surely, something has gone wrong," whispered Bernardino. "I have
never seen the darkness last so long as this; besides, can't you
hear the muttering of the people?"
Thorndyke acknowledged that he did. He was about to add something
else, but was prevented by a loud blast from the trumpet in the
tower.
Bernardino shrank from him and fell to trembling.
"What is the matter?" he asked.
"The trumpet!" she gasped, "something awful has happened!"
A moment of profound silence, then the murmuring of the crowd rose
sullenly like the moaning of a rising storm; a search-light
flashed up in the gloom and swept its uncertain stream from point
to point, but it died out. Another and another shone for an
instant in different parts of the city, but they all failed.
"Something awful has happened," repeated Bernardino, as if to
herself; "the lights will not burn!"
"Had we not better go down?" asked Thorndyke anxiously, excited by
her unusual perturbation.
For answer she mutely drew him to the eastern parapet. Far away in
the east there still lingered a faint hint of pink, but all over
the whole landscape darkness rested.
"See!" she exclaimed, pointing upward, "the clouds are thinning
over the sun, and yet there is no light. What can be the matter?"
At that juncture they heard soft steps on the roof and a voice
calling:
"Bernardino! Princess Bernardino!"
"It is Tradmos," she ejaculated gladly, then she called out
softly:
"Tradmos! Tradmos!"
"Here!" the voice said, and a figure loomed up before them. It was
the captain. He was panting violently, as if he had been running.
"What is it?" she asked, clasping his arm.
"The sun has gone out," he announced.
A groan escaped her lips and she swayed into Thorndyke's arms.
"The clouds are thinning over the sun, yet there is no light. The
king is excited; he fears a panic!"
"Has such a thing never happened?" asked Thorndyke.
"An hundred years ago; then thousands lost their lives. As soon as
the people suspect the cause of the delay they will go mad with
fear."
"What can we do?" asked the princess, recovering her self-
possession.
"Nothing, wait!" replied Tradmos. "This is as safe a place as you
could find. Perhaps the trouble may be averted. Look!"
The disk of the veiled sun was aglow with a faintly trembling
light; but it went out. The silence was profound. The populace
seemed unable to grasp the situation, but when the light had
flickered over the black face of the sun once more and again
expired, a sullen murmur rose and grew as it passed from
lip to lip.
It became a threatening roar, broken by an occasional cry of
pain and a dismal groan of terror. There was a crash as if a
mountain had been burst by explosives.
"The swinging bridge has been thrown down!" said Tradmos.
Light after light flashed up in different parts of the city, but
they were so small and so far apart that they seemed to add to the
darkness rather than to lessen it.
"The moon, it will rise!" cried the princess.
"It cannot," said Tradmos in his beard, "at least not for several
hours."
"They will kill my father," she said despondently, "they always
hold him responsible for any accident."
"They cannot reach him," consoled Tradmos. "He is safe for the
present at least."
"Is it possible to make the repairs needed?"
"I don't know. When the accident happened long ago the sun was
just rising."
"Has it stopped?"
"I think not; it has simply gone out; the electric connection has,
in some way, been cut off."
The tumult seemed to have extended to the very limits of the city,
and was constantly increasing. The smashing of timber and the
falling of heavy stones were heard near by.
Tradmos leaned far over the parapet. "They are coming toward us!"
he said; "they intend to destroy the palace; we must try to get
down, but we shall meet danger even there."
Chapter XIII.
Johnston and Branasko looked down at the great ball of light
below them in silent wonder. Johnston was the first to speak. He
pointed to the four massive cables which supported the sun at
each corner of the platform and extended upward till they were
enveloped in the darkness.
"They hold us up," he said, "where do they go to?"
"To the big trucks which run on the tracks near the roof of the
cavern; the endless cables are up there, too, but we can not see
them with this glare about us."
"We can see nothing of Alpha from here," remarked Johnston
disappointedly, "we can see nothing beyond our circle of light."
"I should like to look down from this height at night," said the
Alphian. "It would be a great view."
"What is this?" Johnston went to one side of the platform and laid
his hand on the spokes of a polished metal wheel shaped like the
pilot-wheel of a steamboat. Branasko hastened to him.
"Don't touch it," he warned. "It looks as if it were to turn the
electric connection off and on. If the sun should go out, the
consequences would be awful. The people of Alpha would go mad
with fear."
The American withdrew his hand, and he and Branasko walked back to
the centre of the platform. Johnston uttered an exclamation of
surprise. "The light is changing."
And it was, for it was gradually fading into a purple that was
delightfully soothing to the eye after the painful brightness of a
moment before.
"I understand," said the Alphian, "we are running very
slow and are only now about to approach the great wall, for
purple is the color of the first morning hour."
"But how is the light changed?" asked Johnston curiously.
"By some shifting of glasses through which the rays shine, I
presume," returned the Alphian; "but the mechanism seems to be
concealed in the walls of the globe."
Not a word was spoken for an hour. They had lain down on the
platform near the iron railing which encompassed it, and Branasko
was dozing intermittently. Again the light began to change
gradually. This time it was gray. Johnston put out his hand to
touch Branasko, but the Alphian was awake. He sat up and nodded
smiling. "Wait till the next hour," he said; "it will be rose-
color; that is the most beautiful."
Slowly the hours dragged by till the yellow light showed that it
was the sixth hour. Branasko had been exploring the vast interior
below and came back to Johnston who was asleep on the floor of
the platform.
"I have just thought of something," said Branasko. "This is the
day appointed by the king to entertain his subjects with a grand
display of the elements."
"I do not understand," said Johnston.
"The king," explained the Alphian, "darkens the sun with clouds so
that all Alpha is blacker than night, and then he produces great
storms in the sky, and lightning and musical thunder. We may,
perhaps, hear the music, but we cannot witness the storm and
electric display on account of the light about us. It usually
begins at this hour; so be silent and listen."
After a few minutes there was a rumble from below like the roar of
a volcano and an answering echo from the black dome overhead. This
died away and was succeeded by a crash of musical thunder that
thrilled Johnston's being to its very core. Branasko's face was
aglow with enthusiasm.
"Grand, glorious!" he ejaculated, "but if only you could see the
lightning and the dawn in the east you would remember it all your
life. The sunlight is cut off from Alpha by the clouds, and there
is no light except the wonderful effects in the sky."
Johnston had gone back to the wheel and was examining it
curiously.
"I have a mind to turn off the current for a moment anyway," he
said doggedly; "if the sun is hidden they would not discover it."
Branasko came to him, a weird look of interest in his eyes.
"That is true," he said; "besides, what matters it? We may not
live to see another day."
Johnston acted on a sudden impulse. He intended only to frighten
Branasko by moving the wheel slightly, and he had turned it barely
an eighth of an inch, when, as if controlled by some powerful
spring, it whirled round at a great rate, making a loud rattling
noise. To their dismay the light went out.
"My God! what have I done?" gasped the American in alarm.
"Settled our fate, I have no doubt," muttered the Alphian from the
darkness.
Johnston had recoiled from the whirling wheel, and now cautiously
groped back to it, and attempted to turn it. It would not move.
"It has caught some way," he groaned under his breath.
"And we have no light to find the cause of the trouble," added the
Alphian, who had knelt down and was feeling about the wheel.
Presently he rose.
"I give it up," he sighed, "I cannot understand it. The machinery
is somewhere inside."
"It has grown colder," shuddered Johnston.
"We were warmed by the light, of course," remarked Branasko, "and
now we feel the dampness more. We are going at a frightful speed."
Just then there was a jar, and the sun swung so violently from
side to side that the two men were prostrated on the floor. The
speed seemed to slacken.
"I wonder if we are going to stop," groaned the American, and he
sat up and held to Branasko. "Perhaps they will draw us back to
rectify the mistake, and then----"
"It cannot be done," interrupted the Alphian. "The machinery runs
only one way. We shall simply have to finish our journey in
darkness."
"They may catch us on the other side before the sun starts back
through the tunnel," suggested the American.
"Not unlikely," returned Branasko. "There, we are going ahead
again. One thing in our favor is that we can more easily escape
capture in darkness than if the sun were shining."
"Does the sun stop before entering the tunnel?"
"I do not know," replied Branasko; "perhaps somebody will be there
to see what is wrong with the light. We must have our wits about
us when we land."
Johnston was looking over the edge of the platform. "If the
king's display is taking place down there I can see no sign of
it."
"How stupid of us!" ejaculated Branasko. "Of course, clouds
sufficiently dense to hide the sun from Alpha would also prevent
us from seeing the display below. I ought to----"
He was interrupted by a grand outburst of harmony. The whole
earth seemed to vibrate with sublime melody. "Our blunder has not
been discovered yet," finished Branasko, after a pause, "else
the fete down below would have been over. I am cold; shall we go
inside?"
Johnston's answer was taken out of his mouth by a loud rattling
beneath the floor, near the wheel he had just turned; the sun
shook spasmodically for an instant, and its entire surface was
faintly illuminated, but the light failed signally.
"It must have been an extra current of electricity sent to relight
the lamps," remarked Johnston; and, as he concluded, the sun
trembled again, and another flash and failure occurred. "Look,"
cried the American, "the clouds are thinning; see the lights
below! They have discovered the accident!"
They both leaned over the railing and looked below. As far as the
eye could reach, within the arc of their vision, they could see
fitful lights flashing up, here and there, and going out again.
And then they heard faint sounds of crashing masonry and the
condensed roar of human voices, which seemed to come from above
rather than from below. The Alphian turned. "I cannot stand the
cold," he said.
Johnston followed him. The rapid motion of the swinging sphere
made him dizzy, and he caught Branasko's arm to keep from falling.
"How can we tell when we go over the wall?" he asked anxiously.
"We shall have to guess at it," was the answer. "At any rate we
must be near the lower door so as to get out quickly if it is
necessary to do so to escape detection."
In the darkness they slowly made their way down the stairs to the
great room.
"There ought to be some way of making a light," said the Alphian,
and his voice sounded loud and hollow in the empty chamber. After
several failures to find the stairs they descended to the door
they had entered. Branasko opened it a little, and a breeze came
in. They sat down on the stone, and after a while, in sheer
fatigue, they fell asleep. Hours passed. Branasko rose with a
start, and shook Johnston.
"Our speed is lessening," he exclaimed. "We must be going down. Be
ready to jump out the instant we stop. There, let me open the door
wider."
Chapter XIV.
When Tradmos spoke the words of warning, Thorndyke put his arm
round the princess and drew her after Tradmos, who was hastening
away in the gloom.
"Wait," she said, drawing back. "Let us not get excited. We are
really as safe here as there; for in their madness they will kill
one another and trample them under foot." She led him to a parapet
overlooking the great court below. "Hear them," she said, in pity,
"listen to their blows and cries. That was a woman's voice, and
some man must have struck her."
"Tell me what is best to do," said the Englishman. "I want to
protect you, but I am helpless; I don't know which way to turn."
"Wait," she said simply, and the Englishman thought she drew
closer to him, as if touched by his words.
There was a crash of timbers--a massive door had fallen--a
scrambling of feet on the stone pavement, and they could see the
dark human mass surging into the court through the corridors
leading from the streets.
"What are they doing?" asked Thorn dyke.
She shrank from the parapet as if she had been struck.
"Tearing the pillars down," she replied aghast; "this part of the
palace will fall. Oh, what can be done!"
There was a grinding of stone upon stone, a mad yell from an
hundred throats, the crash of glass, and, with a thunderous sound,
a colossal pillar fell to the earth. The roof beneath the feet of
the princess and Thorndyke trembled and sagged, and the tiling
split and showered about them.
Raising Bernardino in his arms, as if she were an infant,
Thorndyke sprang toward the stairway leading to his chambers, but
the roof had sunken till it was steep and slippery. One instant he
was toppling over backward, the next, by a mighty effort, he had
recovered his equilibrium, and finally managed to reach a safer
place. As he hurried on another pillar went down. The roof sagged
lower, and an avalanche of mortar and tiling slid into the court
below. Yells, groans, and cries of fury rent the air.
Bernardino had fainted. Thorndyke tried to restore her to
consciousness, but dared not put her from him for an instant. On
he ran, and presently reached a flight of stairs which he thought
led to his chambers. He descended them, and was hastening along
a narrow corridor on the floor beneath when Bernardino opened her
eyes. She asked to be released from his arms. He put her down,
but supported her along the corridor.
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