The Fire People Page 6

  CHAPTER VI.

  MIELA.

  The girl stood quiet beside the tree, watching Alan as he tied up hisboat. She continued smiling. Alan stood up and faced her. He wondered whathe should say--whether she could understand him any better than he couldher.

  "You speak English?" he began hesitantly.

  The girl did not answer at once; she seemed to be trying to divine hismeaning. Then she waved her hand--a curious movement, which he took to bea gesture of negation--her broadening smile disclosing teeth that weresmall, even, and very white.

  At this closer view Alan could see she was apparently about twenty yearsold, as time is reckoned on earth. Her body was very slender, gracefullyrounded, yet with an appearance of extreme fragility. Her slenderness, andthe long, sleek wings behind, made her appear taller than she really was;actually she was about the height of a normal woman of our own race.

  Her legs were covered by a pair of trousers of some silky fabric, grayishblue in color. Her bare feet were incased in sandals, the golden cords ofwhich crossed her insteps and wound about her ankles, fastening down thelower hems of the trousers. A silken, gray-blue scarf was wound about herwaist; crossing in front, it passed up over her breast and shoulders,crossing again between the wings behind and descending to the waist.

  Her hair was a smooth, glossy black. It was parted in the middle, coveredher ears, and came forward over each shoulder. The plaits were boundtightly around with silken cords; each was fastened to her body in twoplaces, at the waist and, where the plait ended, the outside of thetrouser leg just above the knee.

  Her skin was cream colored, smooth in texture, and with a delicate flushof red beneath the surface. Her eyes were black, her face small and oval,with a delicately pointed chin. There was nothing remarkable about herfeatures except that they were extraordinarily beautiful. But--and thispoint Alan noticed at once--there was in her expression, in the delicacyof her face, a spiritual look that he had never seen in a woman before. Itmade him trust her; and--even then, I think--love her, too.

  Such was the strange girl as Alan saw her that morning standing beside thetree on the bank of the little Florida bayou.

  "I can't talk your language," said Alan. He realized it was a silly thingto say. But his smile answered hers, and he went forward until he wasstanding close beside her. She did not appear so tall now, for he toweredover her, the strength and bigness of his frame making hers seem all thefrailer by contrast.

  He held out his hand. The girl looked at it, puzzled.

  "Won't you shake hands?" he said; and then he realized that, too, was asilly remark.

  She wrinkled up her forehead in thought; then, with a suddencomprehension, she laughed--a soft little ripple of laughter--and placedher hand awkwardly in his.

  As he released her hand she reached hers forward and brushed it lightlyagainst his cheek. Alan understood that was her form of greeting. Then shespread her wings and curtsied low--making as charming a picture, hethought, as he had ever seen in his life.

  As she straightened up her eyes laughed into his, and again she spoke afew soft words--wholly unintelligible. Then she pointed toward the sun,which was still low over the horizon, and then to the silver object lyingback near the center of the island.

  "I know," said Alan. "Mercury."

  The girl repeated his last word immediately, enunciating it almostperfectly. Then she laid her hand upon her breast, saying: "Miela."

  "Alan," he answered, indicating himself.

  The girl laughed delightedly, repeating the word several times. Then shetook him by the hand and made him understand that she wished to lead himback into the island.

  They started off, and then Alan noticed a curious thing. She walked asthough weighted to the ground by some invisible load. She did not raiseher feet normally, but dragged them, like a diver who walks on land in hisheavily weighted iron shoes. After a few steps she spread her wings, and,flapping them slowly, was able to get along better, although it wasobvious that she could not lift her body off the ground to fly.

  For a moment Alan was puzzled, then he understood. The force of gravity onearth was too great for the power of her muscles, which were developedonly to meet the pull of Mercury--a very much smaller planet.

  The girl was so exceedingly frail Alan judged she did not weigh, here onearth, much over a hundred pounds. But even that he could see was too muchfor her. She could not fly, and it was only by the aid of her wings thatshe was able to walk with anything like his own freedom of movement.

  He made her understand, somehow, that he comprehended her plight. Then,after a time, he put his left arm about her waist. She spread the greatred wings out behind him, the right one passing over his shoulder; and inthis fashion they went forward more easily.

  The girl kept constantly talking and gesturing. She seemed remarkablyintelligent; and even then, at the very beginning of theiracquaintanceship, she made Alan understand that she intended to learn hislanguage. Indeed, she seemed concerned about little else; and she wentabout her task systematically and with an ability that amazed him.

  As they walked forward she kept continually stooping to touch objects onthe ground--a stick, a handful of sand, a woodland flower, or a palmettoleaf. Or, again, she would indicate articles of his clothing, or hisfeatures. In each case Alan gave her the English word; and in each caseshe repeated it after him.

  Once she stopped stock still, and with astonishing rapidity and accuracyrattled off the whole list--some fifteen or twenty wordsaltogether--pointing out each object as she enunciated the word.

  Alan understood then--and he found out afterward it was the case--that thegirl's memory was extraordinarily retentive, far more retentive than isthe case with any normal earth person. He discovered also, a little later,that her intuitive sense was highly developed. She seemed, in manyinstances, to divine his meaning, quite apart from his words or thegestures--which often were unintelligible to her--with which heaccompanied them.

  After a time they reached the Mercutian vehicle. It was a cubical box,with a pyramid-shaped top, some thirty feet square at the base, andevidently constructed of metal, a gleaming white nearer like silver thananything else Alan could think of. He saw that it had a door on the sidefacing him, and several little slitlike windows, covered by a thick,transparent substance which might have been glass.

  As they got up close to it Alan expected the girl's companions to comeout. His heart beat faster. Suddenly he raised his voice and shouted:"Hello, inside!"

  The girl looked startled. Then she smiled and made the negative gesturewith her hand.

  Alan understood then that she was alone. They went inside the vehicle. Itwas dark in there. Alan could make out little, but after a moment his eyesgrew accustomed to the darkness.

  He noticed first that the thing was very solidly constructed. He expectedto see some complicated mechanism, but there was little or nothing of thekind so far as he could make out in the darkness in this first hurriedinspection.

  Fastened to one wall was an apparatus which he judged was for the makingof oxygen. He looked around for batteries, and for electric lights, butcould see nothing of the kind.

  All this time Alan's mind had been busily trying to puzzle out the mysteryof the girl's presence here alone. Evidently she came in the most friendlyspirit; and thus, quite evidently, her mission, whatever it was, must bevery different from that of the invaders who had landed almostsimultaneously in Wyoming.

  Whatever it was that had brought her--whatever her purpose--he realized itmust be important. The girl, even now, seemed making no effort to show orexplain anything to him, but continued plying him with questions that gaveher the English words of everything about them that she could readilyindicate.

  Alan knew then that she must have something important tocommunicate--something that she wanted to say as quickly as possible. Andhe knew that she realized the only way was for her to learn his language,which she was doing with the least possible loss of time, and with anutter disregard of everything
else that might have obtruded.

  Alan decided then to take the girl back home with him--indeed, it hadnever been in his mind to do anything else--and let Beth care for her.Meanwhile he would do everything he could to help her get the knowledgenecessary to make known what it was that had brought her from Mercury.That she had some direct connection with the Wyoming invaders he did notdoubt.

  Alan had just reached this decision when the girl made him realize thatshe had the same thought in mind. She pointed around the room and then toherself, and he knew that she was insisting upon a general word to includeall her surroundings.

  Finally Alan answered: "House."

  After pointing to him, she waved her hand vaguely toward the countryoutside the open doorway, and he understood she was asking where his housewas.

  Alan's decision was given promptly. "We'll go there," he said.

  He put his arm about her and started out. By the way she immediatelyresponded he knew she understood, and that it was what she wished to do.

  They got back to Alan's launch in a few moments. He seated her in thestern of the boat, where she half reclined with her wings spread out alittle behind her. So assiduous was she--and so facile--in her task oflearning English, that before she would let him start the motor she hadlearned the names of many of the new objects in sight, and several verbsconnected with his actions of the moment.

  There was a large tarpaulin in the launch, and this Alan wrapped about thegirl's shoulders. He did not want her vivid red wings to be seen by anyone as they passed down the bayou.

  Finally they started off.

  Professor Newland's home was some three miles from the village of BayHead, on the shore of a large bay which opened into the Gulf of Mexico.The bayou down which they were heading flowed into this bay near where thehouse stood. Their home was quite isolated, Alan thought withsatisfaction. There was no other habitation nearer than Bay Head except afew negro shacks. With the girl's wings covered he could take her home andkeep her there, in absolute seclusion, without causing any comment thatmight complicate things.

  On the way down the bayou the girl showed extreme interest in everythingabout her. She seemed to have no fear, trusting Alan implicitly in hisguidance and protection of her in this strange world. She continued herquestions; she laughed frequently, with almost a childlike freedom fromcare. Only once or twice, he noticed, as some thought occurred to her, thelaughter died away, her face suddenly sobered, and a far-away, misty lookcame into her beautiful eyes.

  Alan sat close beside her in the stern, steering the launch andoccasionally pulling the tarpaulin back onto her shoulders when itthreatened to slip off because of her impetuous gestures.

  They saw only a few negroes as they passed down the bayou, and these paidno particular attention to them. Within an hour Alan had the girl safelyinside the bungalow, and was introducing her, with excited explanations,to his astonished father and sister, who were just at that moment sittingdown to breakfast.