The Fire People Page 10

  CHAPTER X.

  MIELA'S STORY.

  When I reached the little Florida town Alan was there to meet me. He wouldhave none of my eager questions, but took me at once by launch to theirbungalow. No one was on the porch when we landed, and we went immediatelyinto the living room. There I found Beth and Professor Newland talking tothis extraordinary girl from another world, of whose existence, up to thatmoment, I had been in complete ignorance. She was dressed especially formy coming, they told me afterward, exactly as she had been that morningwhen Alan found her. They wanted to confound me, and they succeeded.

  I stood staring in amazement while Beth quietly introduced me. And Mielaspread her wings, curtsied, and replied in a quaint, soft little voice: "Iam honored, sir." Then she laughed prettily and, extending her hand,added: "How do you do, Bob--my friend?"

  When I had partially recovered from my astonishment Miela put on the bigblue-cloth cape she wore constantly to cover her wings. Then Alan and Bethplunged into an excited explanation of how he had found Miela, and how allthis time she had remained in seclusion with them there studying theirlanguage.

  "You never have seen such assiduous young people," Professor Newland putin. "And certainly she has been a wonderful pupil."

  He patted Miela's hand affectionately; but I noticed then that his eyeswere very sad, as though from some unvoiced trouble or apprehension.

  They had decided, the professor said, to keep the girl's presence a secretfrom the world until they had learned from her in detail what her missionwas. The vehicle in which she had come was still on the island up thebayou. Alan had stationed there three young men of Bay Head whom he couldtrust. They were living on the island, guarding it.

  During these two months while Miela, with uncanny rapidity, was masteringtheir language, the Newlands had of course learned from her all she had totell them. The situation in Wyoming did not necessitate haste on theirpart, and so they had waited. And now, with a decision reached, they sentfor me.

  That evening after supper we all went out on the bungalow porch, and Mielatold me her story. She spoke quietly, with her hands clasped nervously inher lap. At times in her narrative her eyes shone with the eager, earnestsincerity of her words; at others they grew big and troubled as she spokeof the problems that were harassing her world and mine--the inevitableself-struggles of humanity, whatever its environment, itself its own worstenemy.

  "I am daughter of Lua," Miela began slowly, "of the Great City in theCountry of Light. My mother, Lua, is a teacher of the people. My father,Thaal, died when still I was a child. I--I came to your earth--"

  She paused and, turning to Beth, added appealingly: "Oh, there is somuch--to begin--how can I tell--"

  "Tell him about Tao," Beth said.

  "Tao!" I exclaimed.

  "He leads those who came to your earth in the north," Miela went on. "Hewas my"--she looked to Alan for the word--"my suitor there in the GreatCity. He wished me for his wife--for the mother of his children. Butthat--that was not what I wished."

  "You'd better tell him about conditions in your world first, Miela," saidAlan. He spoke very gently, tenderly.

  I had already seen, during supper, how he felt toward her; I could readilyunderstand it, too, for, next to Beth, she seemed the most adorable womanI had ever met. There was nothing unusually strange about her, when herwings were covered, except her quaint accent and sometimes curiousgestures; and no one could be with her long without feeling the sweetgentleness of her nature and loving her for it.

  "Tell him about your women," Beth added.

  I noticed the affectionate regard she also seemed to have for Miela; and Inoticed, too, that there was in her face that vague look of sorrow thatwas in her father's.

  The habitable world of Mercury, Miela then went on to tell me, was dividedinto three zones--light, twilight and darkness. There was no directsunlight in the Light Country--only a diffused daylight like the light onour earth when the sky is clouded over. The people of the Light Country,Miela's people, were the most civilized and the ruling race.

  In the twilight zone around them, grading back to the Dark Country,various other peoples dwelt, and occasionally warred with their neighborsfor possession of land in the light.

  In the center of the Light Country, directly underneath the sun--that is,where the sun, would always appear near the zenith--was the Fire Country.Here, owing to violent storms, the atmospheric envelope of the planet wasfrequently disturbed sufficiently to allow passage for the sun's directrays. Then would ensue in that locality, for a limited time, a heat sointense as to destroy life. This Fire Country was practically uninhabited.

  "You see, Bob," Alan interrupted, "the dark part of Mercury--that is theside that continually faces away from the sun--is also practicallyuninhabited. Only strange animals and savages live there. And the twilightzones, and the ring of Light Country, with the exception of its center,are too densely populated. This has caused an immense amount of trouble.The Twilight People are an inferior race. They have tried to mix withthose of the Light Country. It doesn't work. There's been trouble forgenerations; trouble over the women, for one thing. Anyhow, the TwilightPeople have been kept out as much as possible. Now this fellow Tao--"

  "Let Miela explain about the women first," Beth interjected.

  Then Miela went on to tell me that only the females of Mercury hadwings--given them by the Creator as a protection against the pursuit ofthe male. At marriage, to insure submission to the will of her husband, awoman's wings were clipped. For more than a generation now there had beena growing rebellion on the part of the women against this practice. Inthis movement Miela's mother, Lua, was a leader. To overcome thismasculine desire for physical superiority and dominance which he had hadfor centuries seemed practically impossible. Yet, Miela said, the leadersof the women now felt that some progress was being made in changing publicsentiment, although so far not a single man had been found who would takefor mate a woman with wings unclipped.

  This was partly from personal pride and partly because the laws of thecountry made such a union illegal, its parties moral outlaws, its childrenillegitimate, and thus not entitled to the government benefits bestowedupon all offspring of legitimate parentage. It was this man-made law thewomen were fighting, and of recent years fighting more and moremilitantly.

  This was the situation when Tao suddenly projected himself into publicaffairs as the leader of a new movement. Tao had paid court to Mielawithout success. He was active in the fight against the woman movement--abrilliant orator, crafty, unscrupulous, a good leader. Leadership was tohim purely a matter of personal gain. He felt no deep, sincere interest inany public movement for any other reason.

  Interplanetary communication had become of latter years a possibility;science had invented and perfected the means. So far these vehicles hadonly been used for short trips to the outer edge of the atmosphere ofMercury--trips that were giving scientific men much valuable knowledge ofatmospheric conditions, and which it was thought would ultimately enablethem to counteract the storms and make the Fire Country habitable. Notrips into space had been made.

  Tao now came forward with the proposition to undertake a new worldconquest--a conquest of Venus or the earth. These planets recently hadbeen observed from the vehicles. This, he said, would solve the landquestion, which, after all, was more serious than the clipping of women'swings.

  He found many followers--adventurers, principally, to whom thepossibilities for untold personal gain in such a conquest appealed. Thenabruptly the women took part. Dropping for the time their own fight, theyopposed Tao vigorously. If Venus or the earth were inhabited, as it wasthought they were, such an expedition would be a war against humanity. Itwould result in the needless destruction of human life.

  In this controversy the government of the Light Country remained neutral.But the women finally won, and Tao and his followers, a number of them menof science, were all banished by the government, under pressure of popularsentiment, into the Twilight Country.

/>   Here Tao's project fell upon fertile soil. The Twilight People had everyreason to undertake such a conquest; and Tao became their leader inpreparing for it. These preparations were known in the Light Country. Thegovernment made no effort to prevent them. It was, indeed, rather glad ofthe possibility of being rid of its disturbing neighbors.

  Only the women were concerned, but they alone could do nothing, since byprinciple they were as much opposed to offensive warfare against theTwilight People as against the possible inhabitants of the earth. Mielapaused at this point in her narrative. The thing was getting clearer to menow, but I could not reconcile this feeble attempt to conquer the earthwhich we were then fighting in Wyoming with the picture she drew. I saidso.

  "She hasn't come to that," Alan broke in. "You see, Bob, Tao, with about ahundred followers, was banished to the Twilight Country a couple of yearsago. There was plenty of brains in the party, scientific men and such.They had only one vehicle, but they have been at work ever since buildinga lot of others.

  "This expedition of Tao to Wyoming--with only about a hundred of theTwilight People with him--is not intended to be an offensive operation atall. He's only looking the situation over, finding out what they're upagainst. They decided before they started that the light-ray would protectthem from anything on earth, and they have only come to look around.

  "Right now up there"--Alan leaned forward earnestly, and in the moonlightI could see the flush on his handsome face--"right now up there in theTwilight Country of Mercury they're working their damnedest over all kindsof preparations. This Wyoming business this summer does not mean a thingTao will quit it any minute. You'll see. Some morning we'll wake up andfind them gone. Probably they'll destroy their apparatus, and not botherto take it back.

  "And then, in a year or two, they'll be here again. Not one vehicle nexttime, but a hundred. They'll land all over the earth at once, not on adesert--Tao probably only picked that this time to avoidcomplications--but in our big cities, New York, Paris, London, all of themat once. That's what we've got to face.

  "If Tao comes back as he plans, we have not got a chance. That's why Mielastole this little vehicle and, without it being publicly known in Mercury,came here to warn us. That's what she was after, to help us, risked herlife to warn us people of another world."

  Alan stopped abruptly, and, dropping to the floor of the porch besideMiela, laid his arm across her lap, looking up into her face as though shewere a goddess. She stroked his hair tenderly, and I could see her eyeswere wet with tears.

  There was a moment's silence. I could not have known what ProfessorNewland and Beth were thinking, but a moment later I understood.

  Then I realized the sorrow that was oppressing them both.

  "What can be done?" I asked finally.

  Alan jumped to his feet. He began pacing up and down the porch before us;evidently he was laboring under a great nervous excitement.

  "There's nothing to be done," he said--"nothing at all--here on earth. Wehave not got a chance. It's up there the thing has got to be foughtout--up there on Mercury--to keep them from returning."

  Alan paused again. When he resumed his voice was pitched lower, but wasvery tense.

  "I'm going there, Bob--with Miela."

  I heard Professor Newland's sharply indrawn breath, and saw Beth's dearface suddenly whiten.

  "I'm going there to fight it out with them. I may come back; I may not.But if I am successful, _they_ never will--which is all that matters.

  "Miela's mother gave her up to come down here and help us. It is a littlething to go back there to help us, also. If I can help her people withtheir own problems, so much the better."

  He pulled Miela to her feet beside him and put his arm protectingly abouther shoulders.

  "And Miela is going back to her world as my wife--her bodyunmutilated--the first married woman in Mercury with wings as God gavethem to her!"