The Land of the Changing Sun Part 22

See, my beard and hair are singed, and look how he is blistered. Poor fellow! He is a hero." Johnston stepped back and shook the Alphian, but the poor fellow's head only rolled to one side, showing his bloodshot eyes. He was insensible.

"He is in a bad fix," said Thornd.y.k.e; "where did he come from?"

"Banished like myself; we met over there in the dark and roamed about together."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know; I was following his lead. We will both be put to death if we are discovered."

"Did he not tell you his plan?"

Johnston started visibly. "Oh, I forgot," he exclaimed. "He declares that all this vast cavern is in danger. Over in the west we discovered a hole in the roof through which the ocean is streaming in a torrent.

He calculated that before many hours the water would overflow into the internal fires and produce a volcanic eruption that will swallow up all of Alpha."

"Merciful Heaven! and you are hiding here at such a moment? The king must be informed at once."

Johnston had grown suddenly paler. "It may not be as bad as Branasko feared, and the king would have no mercy on me and him."

"Leave that to me," said Thornd.y.k.e; "I have made a good friend of the Princess Bernardino. She will tell me what is best to do. Remain here."

In breathless haste, Thornd.y.k.e went into the audience chamber.

Fortunately the king was not on his throne, and he caught sight of the confidential maid of the princess.

She saw him approaching, and withdrew behind a cl.u.s.ter of tall white jars of porcelain containing rare plants.

"I must see your mistress," he said; "tell her to come to me at once; we are in great peril!"

The girl swept her eyes over the balconies and the throne and said: "She is in her apartments, sir; I shall bring her."

"Tell her to meet me at the fountain where we last met," and he hastened back to the spot mentioned.

She soon came. "What is it?" she asked excitedly.

"Johnston is back," he replied. "He is in the wood there with a fellow who escaped with him in a disabled flying-machine. He says the sea has broken through over in the west and is streaming into Alpha in a torrent."

"Surely there is some mistake," she said; "such a thing has never happened."

"It may have been caused by the explosives during the storm," went on Thornd.y.k.e. "Branasko, the Alphian who was with Johnston, says we are in imminent peril."

"There must be some mistake," she repeated incredulously, as she looked to westward. The green glow of the second hour of the afternoon lay over everything. She stood mute and motionless for a long time, looking steadily at the horizon; then she started suddenly, changed her position, and shaded her eyes from the sunlight.

"It really does seem to me that there is a cloud rising, and it is unlike any cloud I ever saw."

"I see it too!" cried the Englishman; "it must be that the water has already reached the internal fires."

Bernardino was very pale when she turned to him.

"My father must know this at once; come with me."

Into the palace, through the vast rotunda, past the throne, and into the very apartment of the king himself she led him hastily. A royal attendant met them and held up his hands warningly. "The king is asleep," he said in an undertone.

"Wake him--wake him at once!" commanded the excited girl.

"I cannot, it would offend him," was the reply.

She did not pause an instant, but darting past the man and running to the king's couch, she drew the curtain aside and touched the sleeper. He waked in anger, but her first word disarmed him.

"Alpha is in danger."

"What!" he growled, half awake. "The sea is breaking through in the west, and running into the internal fires."

"How do you know that?"

"A dense cloud is rising in the west, and:----"

"Impossible!" the word came from far down in his throat, and he was ghastly pale. He ran to the table and touched a b.u.t.ton and, to the astonishment of Thornd.y.k.e, the walls on the western side of the room silently parted, showing a little balcony overlooking the street below. The king went hastily out and looked toward the west. The others followed him. The princess stifled a cry of alarm when she glanced at the sky.

Great black, rolling clouds were rapidly spreading along the horizon.

The king looked at them as helplessly as a frightened child. "The air!"

he groaned. "It is hot!" and then he held out his hand to the princess, and showed her a flake of soot on it, and he dumbly pointed to others that were falling about them.

"How did you discover it?" he asked, and Thornd.y.k.e saw that he was trying to appear calm.

"Mr.--this gentleman's friend has returned from banishment, and----"

"Returned! has the wall been destroyed?"

"No; he accidentally discovered the danger, and came in a flying-machine to warn you."

"Where is he? bring him to me, quick!"

"But you will not ----"

He waved his hand impatiently. "Go; if Alpha is saved he shall be at liberty--if it is not, what does it matter?"

Thornd.y.k.e hastened away after Johnston, who, when he was told of the king's words, readily accompanied his friend to the presence of the ruler. They found him with his daughter still on the balcony.

"How did you discover this?" asked the king, turning to the American.

As quickly as possible, Johnston related his adventures, and particularly the story of the shooting fountain and the fall of salt water. The king did not wait for him to conclude. He ran back into his chamber, touched another b.u.t.ton, and the next instant alarm-bells were ringing all over the city.

"A signal to the protectors," explained the princess to Thornd.y.k.e; "by this time they are ringing all over Alpha. Oh, what will become of us?"

as she spoke she leaned over the bal.u.s.trade and looked down into the street. Vast crowds had gathered and were motionless, except at points where the purple-clad "protectors" rushed from public buildings to a.s.semble in squads on the street corner.

Chapter XVII.