CHAPTER XIII

Trial and Judgment

To our disappointment, we received no immediate explanation of the arrival of Captain Gavison and his men. A score of the natives, who stood frowning in the background, appeared disinclined to permit any extended conversation; and it was but a minute before they motioned the newcomers to follow them. I was interested to observe that all, from the Captain down to the humblest recruit, obeyed as readily as though in response to an absolute master, marching not in military formation and yet at a regular pace and with every appearance of discipline.

Having nothing better to do, Stranahan and I trailed in their wake, for at their first appearance Aelios had murmured a hasty “Good-bye” and had gone tripping out of sight around a bend in the colonnade.

In a few minutes we saw our comrades entering a building we well knew--the palace of sapphire and amber. Although expecting to be ordered out, we made bold to follow, and to our surprise passed through the gates of the building and into its gorgeous interior without attracting any noticeable attention. Arriving at the great central theatre, we observed that hundreds of the natives were assembled as though in solemn debate. Many an eye was turned upon the newcomers in curiosity and amazement; but there was no audible murmur at our entrance. And when Captain Gavison and his followers were motioned to seats, Stranahan and I had no hesitation about joining them.

But the unlucky Stranahan was doomed to still further boredom. For nearly an hour he was compelled to listen to a discussion of which he understood scarcely a word. Certainly, he had cause to envy me, for I easily followed the greater part of what was said--and most unusual and absorbing I found it!

The leader of the debate was a broad-browed woman, with a firm and distinguished manner, and more than a trace of beauty in spite of her graying hair. But she spoke comparatively little; and six or eight of the audience took turns in standing in the open space in front and delivering brief addresses. Their theme was not at first apparent to me; I thought that they were perhaps discussing some question of politics, or pleading the merits of some new law; and I was surprised to discover that what they were arguing was no mere practical matter, but concerned the architecture of a new building, to be known as the “Palace of the Ten Arts.” One, there was that suggested a lagoon fronting the edifice, a second who recommended rainbow fountains, and a third who favored an arcade of multi-colored crystal; and all the proposals were heard with equal respect and duly noted down by the leader of the debate, who smiled benignantly upon all the speakers and refrained from obtruding her personal preferences.

I was relieved when at length all who desired to speak had had their say. The leader now declared the meeting open for further business; and now it was that a tall young man, whom I recognized as one of the attendants of Captain Gavison and his men, rose quickly to his feet and advanced with a determined air toward the speaker’s space. A hush of expectation had come over the gathering; all eyes were fastened upon the tall young man as though he had a message of rare importance.

His first words were to justify this impression. “Fellow citizens,” said he, speaking in a deep-toned voice which had something of that musical quality common to his people, “I have to bring to your attention today a matter unique in the history of Atlantis. First, however, let me recall to your minds several facts with which you are no doubt familiar. Two months ago we were astonished to find in our midst two creatures whose sallow complexion, grotesque costume and still more grotesque features, proclaimed them not to be natives of Atlantis. How they had penetrated beneath the secluded dome of our country we could not imagine, but it was decided that the best course would be to educate them in our language, and, after they were thoroughly conversant with the tongue, to question them in the attempt to solve the mystery. This decision was only reinforced by the appearance of two more of the queer creatures a day or so later, and then again by the arrival of a third strange couple. While it was feared that our age-old seclusion had been broken and that we were being invaded by the upper world, still it was decided that for the present the best course would be to maintain an unperturbed but vigilant silence.”

The speaker paused, and cleared his throat as though the important part of his address were to follow. “Only yesterday, fellow citizens,” he continued, “you heard the startling sequel. A field naturalist, roaming along the Salty River in the wilderness beyond the furthest colonnades, made the most surprising discovery of his life--a peculiar ugly rod-like ship of unknown type, a ship that seemed to be fairly swarming with uncouth humans! Naturally, the scientist was alarmed; and, having made his escape, he hastened back to the city to secure aid in capturing the aliens. As he described them, they were in every respect like the barbarians of which ancient annals tell,--great, brawny humans of unkempt and ferocious appearance. But we knew that they could be no more redoubtable than their kindred who were already among us; we knew that they would be easily subdued by the superior minds and irresistible magnetic wills with which nature and a select inheritance have endowed our race. And when the twenty men of the searching expedition set out early this morning, we had reason to believe that the aliens would be present by evening to face trial before this assemblage.

“As you observe, we have not been disappointed. But now, fellow citizens, the great problem arises. The prisoners appear to be unclean as well as wanton and unprincipled men. Contrary to all regulations, they have been catching fish from the Salty River and using them for food. They have been slaying unoffending crabs and turtles, and--disgusting though the idea be--frying and eating them! They have been polluting water of the stream; they have been trampling down the rarest seaweeds, and beating to death the daintiest of water-flowers; they have been scrawling all sorts of crude and outlandish designs on the delicate pink and blue of the roof-bearing columns.

“But all this--criminal though it be--we may overlook for the moment. The chief problem presented by the arrival of these aliens is of such wide-reaching social consequence that their minor transgressions pale into insignificance. For the first time in more than three thousand years, the principles of Agripides have been violated. Visitors from outside have at last appeared; at last we are in danger of contamination by the passions and vices of the upper world. Whether the invasion was deliberate is not definitely known, but how it was made is sufficiently clear: the barbarian ship, which was equipped to travel under the sea, was sucked into the whirlpool at the ocean entrance of Atlantis and forced into the valve through which the waters of the Salty River find admittance. Of course, this trespass may have been merely accidental; but remembering the warlike and unfriendly ways of the upper world, I personally suspect that the intrusion was planned with cunning design, and that other invading craft--possibly a whole invading fleet--may be expected to arrive. Fellow citizens, what is your opinion?”

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Amid general silence the speaker took his seat--applause was apparently unknown among the Atlanteans. But this fact did not then enter into my thoughts; I was too much enraged at the tall young man’s misstatements. With a lack of self-consciousness that I can explain only by my blinding fury, I found myself doing the unprecedented.

Springing excitedly to my feet, I demanded, hotly, in the native tongue, “Friends, may I say a word?”

Instantly hundreds of pairs of eyes were turned upon me in surprise; I saw that I had no more been expected to speak than if I had been a tree or a stone. But the glances that were darted at me were not unfriendly, and as yet I was too much incensed to regret my words.

“Certainly, you may say all you wish,” rang out the clear, well-rounded tones of the lady leader of the debate. “This is the Hall of Public Enlightenment, you know, and any person with anything to say will gladly be heard.”

“Go on, old sport, give it to them good!” whispered Stranahan into my ear, although he could not have caught the drift of what was happening; and, with his words rankling in my mind, I started toward the speaker’s space.

But as I took my place before that silent, staring multitude, I wished that I could have been safely back in my seat. Something suspiciously like fear overcame me--what right had I to be addressing this strange assemblage? What reason to expect that I could speak their language intelligibly? Yet necessity prodded me on; and, after gaping stonily at the spectators, I found myself somehow uttering a series of more or less connected sounds. I did not say what I had intended, and I suspect that more than one English word got itself intertwined with my Atlantean vocabulary; but I was encouraged when I observed that all eyes were fixed upon me with apparent interest, and that no one openly laughed or so much as tittered, though one or two (and among them Stranahan) could hardly suppress a smile.

After a vague, sputtering introduction that I cannot begin to recall, I found myself on fairly solid ground. I declared that I could answer many of the questions which the previous speaker had put; I explained that my companions and myself were not barbarians, being representatives of the highest of modern civilizations; I stated that we had no evil intentions, having come to Atlantis by accident, and certainly not being the forerunners of a wave of invasion; and, at the same time, I offered our thanks for the treatment already accorded us, and expressed our intention to abide by the laws of Atlantis and to act in conformity with the best traditions of the land.

As I took my seat, I could see from the faces of my hearers that I had produced a favorable effect. Many were the nods of approval that greeted me, and many the sympathetic smiles. But at the same time I could perceive that I had not made myself perfectly clear; and when a score of voices simultaneously requested that I return to the platform, I had no other choice.

Questions regarding my native land were now rained upon me in profusion. But whether because of my limited knowledge of the language or because the experience of the Atlanteans differed so fundamentally from my own, I had great difficulty in making myself understood. My description of the growth and attainments of the modern world was listened to with interest, but with a lack of comprehension that I thought almost idiotic. Thus, when I declared that the United States was a leading nation because of its population of a hundred million, its rare inventions and its prolific manufactures, my hearers merely looked blank and asked how the country ranked in art; and when I stated (what surely is self-evident to all patriotic Americans) that New York is the greatest city on earth because of its tall buildings and its capacity for housing a million human beings in one square mile, my audience regarded me with something akin to horror, and one of the men--evidently a dolt, for he seemed quite serious--asked whether no steps had even been taken to abolish the evil.

But it was when describing my own career that I was most grievously misunderstood. Had I confessed to murder, the people could not have been more shocked than when I mentioned that I was one of the crew of a ship commissioned to ram and destroy other ships; and I felt that my prestige was ruined beyond repair when I stated that I had entered the war voluntarily. Even the most friendly hearers seemed to draw unconsciously away from me after my recital; loathing and disgust showed plainly in their faces, as though I had announced myself to be an African cannibal or a Polynesian head hunter. Only too plainly I perceived that what was termed heroism among my fellows was here regarded as villainy. It did little good to explain that war was a cherished custom in the upper world, and that patriotism was among the prime virtues; it was useless to plead that there might be reasons for taking the lives of men, whom one had never seen, and that such reasons were generally recognized among civilized nations. The more I argued, the greater the abhorrence I aroused; and beyond an occasional murmured “Agripides was right,” my words brought little direct reply. And at length I returned to my seat feeling myself to be in disgrace, yet curbing my embarrassment by inwardly cursing the stupidity of the Atlanteans.

The remaining business of the assemblage was disposed of quickly enough. Following my retreat, the tall young man again addressed the meeting, reminding his audience that they had not yet passed judgment upon us. “Fellow citizens,” said he, in conclusion, “I have a proposal to make, which, so far as I can see, is the only one possible under the circumstances. Whether we like it or not, we must recognize that the intruders are here; and, though we did not will their presence, we must treat them humanely. Since we cannot dispose of them by violence and since we must accept their assurance that no others of their kind are to follow, we must let them remain, and see that they are educated and put to work like all other citizens. But one thing we must insist upon above all else: the isolation of Atlantis must be protected, and the countries above seas must never learn of our existence. Hence we must decree that, no matter how many years go by, none of the aliens shall ever return to the upper world!”

And it was with a sinking heart, with the hopelessness of one being sentenced to life imprisonment, that I heard the assemblage endorse this recommendation.

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[Illustration: Half a dozen of the queerest beings we had ever seen came crowding into our path ... from the blank amazed stares with which they greeted us, it was evident that our appearance was as much a surprise to them as theirs was to us. But from a certain sternness and resolution which invested their faces following the first speechless astonishment, we concluded that they had probably seen others of our kind, and were not disposed to treat us leniently.]

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