CHAPTER XXXVI

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*THE OLD WELL.*

Like weird, gigantic night-birds the fleet of flying craft sailed onwards through the night. The two moons of Mars--to which our astronomers have given the names of Deimos and Phobos--were just then in sight at the same time. The former was near to setting, while the latter had but just risen. Together they were throwing a faint, mellow light over the landscape, dimly illuminating hill and dale, rocky height and sombre valley, slumbering villages and isolated dwellings, as they seemed to slip away beneath the swift, silent airships.

Alondra was busy on board his yacht serving out tridents and shields and other necessary articles.

'You are forgetting me, Prince,' Jack presently observed, after patiently waiting some time, and finding that he had been left out in the distribution.

'And me,' Gerald put in. 'What have we done, friend Alondra, that we should be left out?'

Alondra looked perplexed.

'Well, you see,' he said hesitatingly, 'you are our guests. It is not fair to you to call upon you to take part in our quarrels, or help in fighting our battles.'

'Pooh, what nonsense!' exclaimed Jack. 'Why, what new idea is this? You did not talk like it in the pavilion, when we had to defend ourselves.'

'Because there was no help for it. My followers were far away, and we had to do the best we could. Here it is we who are going out to make an attack, and'----

'And we are going to join and help all we can,' Jack declared stoutly. 'Your quarrel is ours. Please say no more, but give us our share of your arms--or would you prefer that we should trust to our pistols?'

'Better have our usual weapons, if you are determined, and keep your own as a reserve,' Alondra decided.

And so it was settled; and not only the two chums, but Clinch and Reid--who had, during their visit, learned the use of the Martian weapons--were duly fitted out after the fashion of the rest of Ivanta's following.

As they proceeded, the exact direction and other necessary instructions were signalled from the leading yacht by means of curious devices in coloured points of light, which appeared from time to time like tiny coloured fireworks upon the masts.

After a run of a couple of hours, a halt was called, and Alondra was signalled to come alongside the king's yacht.

One moon had set, and the other had become obscured by clouds. The landscape was now in shadow, and the squadron was almost invisible from below; for, save the occasional twinkling of the signals, the flying craft showed no lights.

'The place we are going to attack,' Ivanta explained, when the leaders had been assembled in his cabin, 'may be, as our friend Fumenta declares, weakly held so far as the number of the garrison is concerned, but in other respects it is a most difficult place to assail. No one should know this better than I,' he continued, a little bitterly, 'because I myself designed the fortress and its defences. I knew that it lay in a very exposed region, where it would be difficult to keep a large garrison, and where a surprise might at any time be attempted. So I did everything that my ingenuity could devise to render it practically impregnable.'

'I know all that to be true, sir,' observed Fumenta quietly.

'It is neither more nor less than a great cavern--or, rather, series of caverns--in the side of a precipitous mountain,' Ivanta went on. 'One can neither approach it nor leave it except by flying-machine. There is no path, no ledge, which anything but a fly could cling to. There is only one defensive wall--that which closes the outer side of the caverns--and this has been so built in as to resemble a continuation of the precipice. One cannot tell by looking which is the natural rock and which is the artificial stone wall. There are gates, or rather iron doors, and these are specially defended by being connected with the electric storage batteries. When the current is turned on--as is supposed always to be the case at night, or when the doors are not in actual use--it is death to any one who touches them.'

'All that I know, oh king!' said Fumenta. 'There is also an underground waterfall--an immense body of water ever tumbling through the great caverns.'

'Yes. It works the engines which collect and store the electric power.'

'Exactly; and it cannot be used for any other purpose. It is of no use, for instance, for drinking purposes, because the water has a disagreeable, brackish taste. Therefore, there is a well of fresh water. Is it not so, sir?'

'True,' returned Ivanta, eying him keenly. 'But what of that?'

'That well was made by boring downwards till a stream of pure water was found. When this was met with it rushed into the bottom of the well and found its own way out, thus affording an ample supply for the garrison without further trouble. So no one bothered himself further about it as to whence the stream came or whither it went. But all that was many years ago. Since then, however, this fresh-water stream has been gradually drying up; and now there is not enough to supply the people on guard there. That is one reason why the garrison is now so small. Then another well was bored in another part, which gave a sufficient supply for the reduced garrison, and the very existence of the first well was almost forgotten. But where the stream once ran there is now an underground passage or tunnel, which starts from a grotto high up in another part of the mountain.'

Ivanto started.

'Say you so? Are you sure?' he exclaimed.

'Certain am I of what I say, oh king! No one seems to have noted that the drying up of this stream has opened a back way, so to speak, into the stronghold, which renders it possible to attack it by a surprise visit. No one seems to have troubled about it, or to have made it his business to report that so simple a fact has rendered useless all the work and time and trouble expended upon your elaborate defences.'

At this Ivanta frowned a little; then a smile passed over his countenance, and he cried, 'Said I not that you were a man after my own heart, friend Fumenta? Of a truth, the next time I design a fortress I shall ask you to look at my plan, and tell me of all its weak points before I carry it out. But this seems to happen most fortunately for us. Do you mean to say we can make our way in by the channel of that dried-up watercourse? Can you guide us to it?'

'That is my plan. It is a very simple one, after all,' returned the outlaw chief modestly; 'but I think you will find that it will suffice for our purpose. I suggest that you send out two parties, one to attack the place in front, while I will guide the rest, so that they can creep in by the route I have indicated. The other party must show no sign till we have gained the interior and manipulated the levers which cut off the electric current from the doorways. Then they can make a dash and help us to overpower the garrison.'

'And thus easily,' murmured Ivanta, with, a sigh--'thus simply are all my elaborate and complicated defences to be set at nought and overcome--laughed at, in fact! However, so be it! 'Tis a good plan; and if it succeeds, the possession of such a stronghold, with its machinery and underground waterfall, will be a piece of good fortune indeed.'

'And we will take good care,' said Alondra, laughing, 'to have that back entrance well guarded in future. Now, I want to be one of your party, friend Fumenta. That will suit me better than waiting about with the rest till some one else, having done all the fighting, opens the door to us.'

At this Gerald and Jack and their party asked to be allowed to go with Alondra, and pressed their claims so eagerly that at last Ivanta acceded.

'I shall myself make one,' he said. 'And since you so much desire it, you shall all join.'

Later on, the fleet of airships divided into two bodies, and one, the smaller portion, made direct for the heights of the mountain in which the stronghold was situated. The rest were to wait about till the time should come for making their presence known by a direct frontal attack.

Fumenta led his section into a small cave, which opened out, first into a gallery, and then into a spacious grotto. All were provided with small glow-lamps, ropes, metal staples for climbing, and other requisites, in addition to their arms, which consisted of tridents, shields, and the usual swords or spears.

The grotto had several galleries running out of it, and selecting one of these, Fumenta followed its windings for some distance, till he came to a small stream running into a deep cutting. A little farther on, this little watercourse took a sudden turn and disappeared into a hole on the left.

'That,' said the outlaw chief, 'is all that is left of the stream which formerly completely filled the tunnel it here plunges into. Nowadays you can walk along its bed and the water will not in any place reach to your knees.'

'How do you know?' Ivanta asked.

'I have traversed the whole distance,' was the answer. 'I even climbed up the sides of the well to see whether it was fenced off in any way, and I found it quite open. Moreover, the place where I emerged was empty and deserted. One could see it is never used now.'

Fumenta then directed that some of the tridents and shields should be tied into bundles, and these were given to bearers to carry on their shoulders clear of the water. By this means the leading adventurers were left free to climb the sides of the well and attach ropes, which could then be utilised, first to pull up the bundles, and afterwards to assist the ascent of the rest of the party.

These details having been duly arranged, they entered the waterway in twos and threes, wading in the water, which at first reached nearly to their knees, but became much more shallow as they proceeded.

Presently those in front arrived at the well and halted, the others crowding up as closely as they could get, some passing into the waterway on the farther side, where they stood awaiting orders.

Fumenta and his lieutenants, Duralda and Landris, began the ascent, pushing iron staples into the chalk sides to assist those who came after them. Behind them followed Malto, Malandris, and others. Upon another side of the well Ivanta and Alondra, with the two chums and the sailors, imitated this operation. All worked in perfect silence, and almost in darkness, only the carefully screened gleams from their glow-lamps being visible.

The leaders reached the top in safety, and found themselves in a roomy cavern, which was in complete darkness. No sound was to be heard; and, satisfied that their presence was unsuspected, they secured one of the ropes they had brought with them and threw the end down, that the bearers below might attach their bundles to it.

Not until they had hauled up these indispensable weapons, and had them in their hands, could they hope, should they be discovered and attacked, to hold the mouth of the well long enough for the body of followers behind to climb up to their assistance. Every one lent a hand, for it was necessary that their plan should be carried out as expeditiously as possible.

Tom Clinch and Bob Reid were hauling up the first bundles, when the former, in his zeal, leaned over too far, lost his balance, and fell headlong into the well. About half-way down, coming into collision with one of the bundles, he managed to grip the rope, and thus saved himself from going farther. His weight, however, broke away the cord by which it was fastened, and sent the whole lot of tridents clattering to the bottom, where they created a panic by falling upon the heads of the crowd waiting there. A chorus of cries and shouts, mingled with groans and shrieks of pain, followed, which sounds were magnified as they came up the well as though it had been an immense speaking-trumpet, and were echoed back from the rocky roof of the cavern.

There followed a brief silence--deep, tense, and anxious. Then a high, wide door swung open, the place was flooded with light, and a number of armed men burst in and made a rush at the group gathered round the mouth of the well.

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