Part 7

With the increasing frequency of houses, Robert and the professor became convinced that they were nearing a center of population. Their interest was keyed to the highest pitch as the agricultural district gave way to the outskirts of a Martian city.

The more Robert saw, the greater was his surprize at the striking similarity of things to those on Earth. Yet, on second thought, this did not seem so strange. After all, it was to be expected that the chief inventions of two such advanced worlds should, in the main, be similar. He might easily have imagined himself approaching some foreign metropolis.

One thing that they noticed particularly was the absence of the dirt and squalor which one so frequently sees from the train when approaching our large industrial centers. Buildings all seemed of substantial construction and everywhere were in excellent condition.

Now, beyond the buildings in the foreground they could see the tops of giant structures in the distance, their great white walls showing resplendent in the clean atmosphere and bright sunlight. It was certain that they were entering a very large city. They afterward learned that this city, called Parang, was next to the largest one on Mars, having a population more than four million souls.

* * * * *

Little conversation passed between Robert and the professor as they both eagerly studied the mysteries of Martian life passing before their eyes. Neither could yet quite bring himself to a full realization of the fact that they were actually viewing life upon the planet which had caused so much conjecture upon Earth.

“I wonder whether we shall pull in on the ‘elevated’ or the ‘subway,’” grinned Robert.

His question was answered a few minutes later as they plunged into the darkness of a tunnel. For ten minutes or more they roared swiftly through the darkness, dimly illuminated by the incandescents in the ceiling of their car. Then they emerged suddenly into a vast, brilliantly lighted underground chamber, filled with the din of noisy bustle, and came to a stop before a large barred area.

Here their hosts politely signified that they should get out.

News of their arrival had probably preceded them. A great, curious crowd thronged the area. Half of their body of guides led the way through one of the gates, forcing a passage for them through the dense, curious crowd. It was here that Robert caught his first sight of the Martian women. Unconsciously he was expecting to find the golden-haired type of his dream. But in this he was disappointed, for, without exception, they were dark-haired, and with complexions of a pale, olive tint, as were the men.

The women’s garments did not differ greatly from those of their men folk, in that they wore a variety of loose trousers like those worn by our Turkish women. Perhaps their garb is best described by stating that it was strikingly similar to that, of the women in the Mohammedan harems, without the face veil.

Passing through a massive archway, they walked up a few steps leading into a large waiting room not unlike one of ours. Through the throng they continued and entered a roomy elevator which whisked them upward. Emerging from this they found themselves once more in the daylight, and in a great vestibule leading to the street.

Outside, several closed conveyances waited, evidently engaged by prearrangement. Robert and Professor Palmer entered one of these with two of their beaming hosts, sinking down into the luxurious upholstering gratefully.

As they rolled along, Robert and the professor studied the scenes around them in suppressed excitement.

The first feature which struck Robert was the immense height of the buildings, practically all of which were of ten stories or more. Buildings of thirty stories were common, while several they passed were more than sixty stories. The rather narrow streets seemed like miniature canyons between the tall structures. Without exception the buildings appeared to be constructed of a fine cement, similar to the metallic product of which the railroad rails were made.

The street paving and walks were also made of the same material, and were in excellent condition. No poles or wires were visible; nor were any street-cars or tracks seen. Evidently with such excellently maintained pavings made possible by the weak gravity, the Martians preferred ordinary vehicles for city transportation.

Stores of all sorts seemed plentiful, though Robert could not see what kind they were, because they did not display their wares as we do. The Martians apparently bad outlived the practise of wasting window space in this manner, preferring merely to advertise their wares by signs. These signs, of course, were wholly unintelligible to Robert and the professor. The lettering was made up of a number of geometrical figures, among which the familiar triangle, square and “T,” with variations, predominated.

Once, when their conveyance was temporarily stalled in a traffic congestion, Robert got out a pencil and attempted to reproduce the characters which appeared in relief over the doorway of an imposing-looking building near by:

[Illustration: Martian words.]

No suggestion of a curve softened any of the characters, each one being made up of a series of straight lines and angles. In fact, Robert already had observed that this severe precision was a marked characteristic of all things Martian. It was particularly noticeable in the architecture. The impression borne upon him was that this people had reduced everything to a science of fine mathematics.

* * * * *

A ride of some twenty minutes brought them into a quieter section of the city. Here the streets were somewhat wider. The tall buildings gave way to more modest structures, which appeared to be dwellings not unlike our apartment buildings.

No sign of any growing thing was visible anywhere--not even a blade of grass. Evidently the painful scarcity of water upon the planet did not permit of floral culture for merely ornamental purposes. Theirs was a serious business of scientific economy.

In due time they turned into a broad driveway leading to an immense, official building of four stories. Here Robert saw the first bit of ground uncovered by cement or stone since they had arrived in the city. The grounds surrounding the building, and its drives, were covered with verdure similar to a fine clover, closely cut. Some trees grew about the place, but there were no flowers.

Their conductors were visibly excited as they drew up before a broad flight of stairs leading up to the main entrance of the massive building. A pompous person opened the door of their conveyance, and escorted them ceremoniously up the steps beyond which a small group of dignified-appearing Martians awaited their arrival.

As they drew nigh the group, a commanding figure of a man detached himself from it and advanced toward them. At this their escort fell back respectfully, leaving them to greet this evidently important personage.

In stature this man was several inches taller than the average Martian, being about the size of a well-built man of our own race. Imperious, resplendent in rich garments, he easily dominated the smart assemblage.

A smile played over his virile features as he stopped before them. Strangely enough at such a moment, his odd, square, and particularly luxuriant beard reminded Robert of a nonsensical little rime which he recalled, something like this:

Aha, it is as I feared, Two cocks and a hen, One owl and a wren, Have all made their home in my beard.

With an air of kingly elegance, this leader addressed them for several minutes in his strange tongue as in a welcome. Though it was mutually apparent that neither understood the other’s words, Robert responded briefly, thanking him for his evident welcome, Professor Palmer nodding his concurrence.

Indicating that they were to accompany him, the leader escorted them through the assembled, obsequious gathering of men and women, through the broad entrance into the building. Passing along a beautiful corridor of carved onyx, they presently entered a large, pleasant room with windows looking out upon the grounds.

Two attendants came forward at their entrance. These the leader addressed in a commanding tone, indicating Robert and the professor in a manner which convinced them that these men were to serve them during their stay at the establishment; and this they found to be the case. With a few more friendly words their host politely withdrew.

13

Robert and Professor Palmer found that they had been presented with an entire suite of rooms, the one into which they had been escorted serving as a sort of drawing room. The two attendants looked after their every want.

About noon a simple lunch was served them. It consisted of a dish resembling baked yams, some artichokes (at any rate they looked and tasted like artichokes), a bit of greens, and some very good wine.

That afternoon they were visited by an intelligent-looking Martian who quickly succeeded in making them understand that he was sent to act as instructor in the Martian tongue and also as an interpreter while they were learning. He signified that the emperor (the striking personage to whom they owed all this hospitality) had sent him.

The same evening they accepted the emperor’s invitation to dinner.

To their relief, Robert and the professor found that the dinner was to be attended by few besides themselves. The emperor sat between them at the head of the table. The interpreter sat next to Robert. But three other persons partook of the meal with them. These they understood to be certain learned men, probably astronomers.

The food seemed to be made up chiefly of well-cooked vegetables, several of which were quite similar to our own. A savory bit of roasted meat was also served them. This dish puzzled them. It did not seem to be of a fowl, though it certainly had the flavor of one, tasting much like duck. Not until some time later did they find out that this meat was that of an animal identical with our dog! It was, however, considered a delicacy by the Martians, who raised these animals with great care, they being quite scarce.

Though conversation was as yet very difficult, they managed to exchange a surprizing amount of information with the Martians, the interpreter proving quite resourceful. The emperor, especially, was intensely interested in them.

So keen was the interest of the Martians, that, after the repast was cleared away, paper of excellent texture was produced, and Robert and the professor were urged to do some sketching. Their hosts clearly were eager to overcome the barrier of languages and to partly satisfy their curiosity at once regarding our planet. A sort of stylograph was handed to Professor Palmer, and with it he proceeded first to make a simple diagram of the universe, showing the Earth and Mars thereon in their orbits round the sun, and indicating their journey from the Earth to Mars. This was followed by prompt nods of understanding and ejaculations on the part of the three Martian astronomers, as if their expectations had been confirmed. The professor then drew maps of the Earth’s continents, rivers and seas, and made sectional drawings of mountain ridges, volcanoes and ocean beds. The Martians’ intelligent minds seemed to grasp everything with remarkable perception.

The three technologists apparently would have been content to keep Robert and Professor Palmer up all night in their zeal for information, but the emperor had more consideration for his guests, insisting finally upon seeing them back to their comfortable quarters, where he took leave of them for the evening.

That night they rested in the welcome softness of luxurious beds. The day’s travel and excitement had fatigued them, and they slept soundly in spite of the strangeness of their surroundings.

Robert dreamed again of his maid of the desert. As before, she faded suddenly away, even as he reached out eagerly to assure himself that she was real. One vivid impression that he received and retained upon waking was that she was in peril. The look of entreaty in her eyes, the repeated startled glances that she cast over her shoulder, convinced him that she needed him.

But, why should he worry over a mere dream! His practical mind reasserted itself. Of course the girl did not exist in reality. Still, there was no denying that the girl of his first vision and of the last one were one and the same. He could never forget a single detail of her exotic beauty and charm. For the first time in his life Robert felt the awakening of real love.

He laughed. In love with a dreamgirl! Nonsense. Nevertheless, his thoughts returned to her continually throughout the day. Unconsciously he found himself hoping to see her, somewhere, somehow. And more and more, in spite of his commonplace reasoning, he came to feel that there _was_ such a girl.

That day they saw nothing of the emperor. The interpreter labored faithfully with them part of the morning and again during the afternoon. Already they felt that they were making some genuine progress toward an understanding of the Martian tongue.

Their every comfort continued to be administered to. As they sat before the windows looking out upon the lawn bathed in the late afternoon sunlight, it required an effort indeed for them to fully realize that they were gazing upon a strange planet millions of miles from the Earth.

“What do you think we had best do about the _Sphere_, Robert?” asked Professor Palmer.

“The very thing that has been puzzling me. These people seem to be such an intellectual race that I can hardly believe them dangerous, though there is a certain elusive suggestion about the emperor’s face that I don’t fancy. However, I think the _Sphere_ would be just as safe or safer here, and with Taggert staying with us.”

“My idea exactly. Now that you mention it I think there is something in what you say about the emperor, but we’ll have to make the best of things. Let’s try to find out through our interpreter where it will be agreeable to keep the _Sphere_ hereabouts and then send a message to Taggert to bring it.”

So it was agreed. Explanation to the interpreter proved a comparatively simple matter. A few sketches and gestures and he signified his understanding. A short while later he returned to inform them that the emperor had assigned them a structure near the palace in which they could keep the _Sphere_. Further, that the emperor would be delighted, not only to view the _Sphere_, but to welcome their companion.

A note to Taggert was dispatched at once by a courier supplied by the emperor. The courier was instructed to accompany Taggert back in the _Sphere_, guiding him to the palace. As Taggert had thoroughly mastered the operation of the _Sphere_ under Robert’s tutelage, during the watches of their long journey through space, they felt no uneasiness about his ability to fly it to where they were.

This matter settled, Robert and the professor sat down before a sumptuous dinner served in their suite. They were becoming accustomed to the well-cooked Martian food, and they relished it.

The confinement in the building since the middle of the previous day, however, was becoming irksome. The interpreter had not encouraged any suggestion about going out, and they had politely refrained from pressing the matter. Left to themselves after dinner, they decided to take a stroll outdoors.

Robert had observed a secluded nook behind the palace. The windows of their bedchamber opened on this enclosure, which was entirely surrounded by a wall about twelve feet high. Apparently the wall was without any gate. A number of small trees marked the smooth lawn within, casting long shadows in the gathering twilight.

It was in this nook that Robert proposed they take a stroll.

As they reached the exit leading out upon the enclosure, one of their attendants appeared rather abruptly at a door to their left. He paused there a moment as if about to speak, then disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared.

“So--we are under surveillance, eh?” remarked Professor Palmer.

“I wonder. He did look at us rather suspiciously.”

“Well, let’s go ahead and see whether they stop us.”

But they were not molested as they stepped out upon the lawn.

The cool dry air refreshed and invigorated them. It was free from the dampness of the dew which we are accustomed to feeling on our clear terrestrial nights, while the rarity of the Martian atmosphere was probably made up by a greater percentage of oxygen, as evidenced by the ease and enjoyment with which they breathed it. This they later affirmed. Tubercular diseases upon Mars were virtually unknown. In fact, the Martians were afflicted with little sickness of any kind.

For perhaps fifteen minutes they walked about, smoking cigars from their slender store which they had carried from the _Sphere_ in their pockets. The fleeting Martian twilight was replaced by darkness--that is, if one can call night filled with the soft radiance of millions of stars “darkness.” Over the edge of the wall at the western end of the garden hung Phobus, one-half its disk lit in a dull orange glow. It appeared about one-quarter the size of our moon.

A strange feeling of oppression, which he could not understand, possessed Robert. Try as he would he could not shake it off. Then he realized for the first time the intense silence which pervaded the night. There was a total absence of the countless sounds of nature which we are so accustomed to associating with summer nights. Apparently there were no insects upon Mars, or, if there were, they were voiceless. Their own voices startled them when they broke the stillness, and unconsciously they took to speaking in hushed whispers.

A few feet to the right of their doorway the palace wall ran out into the garden at a right angle for about fifty feet, thence it again turned off at a right angle to the right. The garden ran around this extension and back into a recess on the other side like the lower part of a large letter L.

Suddenly a woman’s stifled scream tore the silence apart. It ceased abruptly, suggestive of the clapping of a hand over the mouth of the one who had screamed. The sound seemed to come from the recess at the far side of the garden.

In a dozen lithe bounds Robert had rounded the wing of the palace, and was in sight of the far end of the garden. He fancied that he caught a fleeting glimpse of some light, loose garment in the dark shadows of the recess. A faint sound as of the stealthy turning of a lock followed and all was again quiet.

A moment later Professor Palmer joined him.

“What’s up?” he asked huskily, puffing from his exertion of attempting to keep pace with Robert.

“Don’t know. Imagined I saw a woman’s garment fluttering a moment ago. Suppose we have a look over there in that black corner.”

A solitary dark window looked out sinisterly from the recess. Robert had an uncomfortable feeling that they were being watched from it as they approached.

As they drew close to the wall where it joined the building Robert caught sight of something they had failed to notice before in the darkness. This was a massive, closed door in the corner of the wall.

“The door I heard locked a minute ago,” whispered Robert.

He put his shoulder to it, but failed to move it.

The night again was as silent as a grave. In vain they listened for some sound beyond the locked door till finally they gave it up and returned to the comfortable warmth of their suite.

* * * * *

That night Robert tossed about nervously until he despaired of sleeping. He envied the professor, whose measured breathing he could hear from the adjoining room. Later he dropped off into troubled slumber and dreamed once more of the maid of the desert.

This time the scene was a different one, the palace garden the setting instead of the desert. Step by step the incident of that evening was enacted again with this difference: in some strange manner he could see all that occurred in a garden which was on the other side of the wall with the locked door.

A maid--his maid--emerged from a door in the palace and hurried across the garden. Reaching the wall she fumbled among a mass of vines which clung to its side. She pulled something from behind them which he could not at first make out in the shadow. As she propped it against the wall he recognized it as a small ladder.

This she mounted quickly, looking back several times as if fearing pursuit. Just as she reached the top of the wall a man ran out of the doorway from which she had first appeared, and looked around swiftly. He was immediately joined by another. Both caught sight of the girl as she paused to drop on the other side of the wall.

Held by some invisible force Robert found it impossible to go to her assistance. He was obliged to remain merely a spectator.

The girl’s pursuers dashed across the garden and scrambled over the wall after her. She tripped over her long gown and fell. Before she could recover, one of them was upon her.

Together they lifted her struggling form and carried it back toward the massive door in the wall. There they halted while one of them fitted a key to the lock. A moment later it swung open. Just as they were taking her through the door, she screamed, and one of her captors clapped his hand over her mouth roughly. Then the door shut softly, but the sound of a heavy lock shot home reached Robert.

With the shutting of the door Robert suddenly was released from his trance. With a mighty bound he made for the wall--only to find himself standing awake in the middle of the floor of his bedchamber!

The vividness of his dream had left him trembling with excitement. He felt convinced that he had just visioned a review of the actual events of earlier in the evening. Prompted by the impulse of the moment, and realizing the impossibility of further sleep that night, Robert donned his clothes and quietly passed out into the garden.

He shivered as the chilled atmosphere struck him, and turned up his coat collar. The glory of Phobus no longer lit the crystal-clear sky, but in the soft light from the brilliant stars he could make out the wall running into the recess.

He found the stout door as securely locked as before.

Remembering his increased agility on Mars, Robert decided not to be restricted by a mere door while his reckless mood lasted. A jump and a clutching of the cornice quickly put him astride the wall with no discomfort save a bumped knee. A drop on the other side and he found himself in the garden of his dream.

“Now that I’ve arrived, what next!” he mused.

Looking round the enclosure he observed that it corresponded exactly in size and shape to the one on their side of the wall. All windows were dark. There was nothing to suggest the disturbance of the early evening. The ladder--if indeed, there had been a ladder there--was gone. But the mass of vines on the wall corresponded exactly to that in his dream!

“I suppose if I were a real hero I would dash in and rescue the distressed maiden in some way or other,” Robert muttered, scratching his head in perplexity.