Chapter XXVIII: The Message From the Observatory

The Queen listened with deep interest to the account which the party gave her of their sad adventures in the island. She acceded at once to the Professor’s wishes with regard to the burial of his faithful servant. Five days later the embalmed body of Tom was conveyed to the amphitheatre below the Pass of Amalona, and was laid there to rest amid the grief and regret of all the members of the palace. The Queen had a monument in the English style erected over him, and words of esteem and affection were inscribed in both languages.

The English part of the inscription ran thus:--

To the Memory of Thomas Jackson,
Faithful servant to the great
Terrestrial Expedition of the
Twentieth Christian Century.

He suffered martyrdom in the heathen temple for refusing to offer
sacrifice on the altar of the Sun God.

“To him that overcometh
A crown of life shall be;
He with the King of Glory
Shall reign eternally.”

The verse was repeated in Atalantan poetry, written by the Queen herself.

Abercromby asked that the Temple might be destroyed, while Radcliffe wished it to be converted into the first building for definite Christian worship in Atalanta.

Mayana urged, however, that, as a standing monument of rebellion and of treason, it ought to be burned to the ground. The four towers were spared for their artistic beauty. On the site of the Temple itself it was decided to erect a palace for the Queen and her colleague, while Mexitli gave Radcliffe permission to have a building erected in the upper part of the city for Christian worship and teaching as soon as matters were ripe for so decisive a step.

One day, shortly after his recovery, Minola was standing on the upper parapet of the terrace, looking fixedly at the blackened ruins of the Temple. Radcliffe asked her where Marcon had been laid to rest; he had looked for his monument, but had not found it.

“My father has suffered the last outrage which can wound the heart of an Atalantan,” she replied. “After they had put him to death, Lydon had his body cremated upon his idolatrous altar. I wish I could know for certain whether he was actually dead when they cremated him.

“When I was left desolate the Queen took me into her service, and I have had my home with her ever since. My father was a steadfast loyalist, and disdained the overtures that were made to him to win the pretended independence they offered, and that was why he suffered what he did. But I have repaid.” Then she said abruptly, “Would your religion approve my killing Lydon?”

“Your slaying a man who was in the condition of a wild beast, loose among people practically defenceless, was quite blameless. He would have killed Melanitis had you not killed him. Your slaying of Talmon is less excusable, for I am of opinion that the Queen ought to have tried him in the usual way, and he would certainly have been condemned for high treason.”

“The Queen said as much to me. I love the new religion, or, as some call it, the old one, very much, and read your manuscripts as fast as they appear; but I have read far enough to understand that Christ was not only a Saviour but a Master--at least in your world, and I suppose it ought to be so in this. I wonder whether He could so change me as to make it possible for me to cease to hate those men? Perhaps Marcon himself, in the Mansions of the Blest, would wish me to do so.”

The conversation was ended by the appearance of Mayana, who took Radcliffe aside, as she had something of importance to communicate.

“The box has been opened which nearly cost you your life to obtain, and the Queen and I have carefully perused its contents. It contains an ancient scroll (not very legible, I must confess) which simply repeats, in almost identical words, the narrative which King Malchon, who had learned it by heart, evidently related to you. It closes with the parting message of the Prince to our people, while on the other side are some extracts, written by His disciples, two of whose names are given--Calchon and Ixtilon--quoting certain sayings of their Master. These sayings are almost a transcript of those which are found in the book given to your own world, so that we have a strong proof of the authenticity both of them and of yours. He evidently gave to your world certain maxims of truth about God and duty which He had before given to us; and, indeed, if His teaching was divine, as I believe it was, there was no need for originality or change.”

Radcliffe went to the Queen’s apartment, where he found Melanitis turning the sentences into English as the Queen dictated them to her.

“A very few days’ labour will suffice to translate the whole manuscript,” said the Queen. “Let your companions take a translation of it to their own world, and let our own version be circulated all over our empire. I will have the Prince’s last appeal to be engraved on a tablet and set up in a public place, say, on the promenade by the Lake shore, where that hateful procession was paraded.”

It was several days after this that Carmichael and the engineer received an urgent summons to attend upon the Queen in her cabinet room. The time was gone by when such an announcement aroused fear and alarm. They had not a more sincere friend in Atalanta except Melanitis, if indeed she were an exception, for, try as they would, they could hardly conceal a certain feeling of uncanny repulsion when in her presence.

Nevertheless it was with great curiosity that they obeyed a more than usually categorical citation.

When they got in, a select conclave was assembled. Around the canopied throne sat Radcliffe and Melanitis, Abercromby, Cleophon, and Mayana and her younger sister, while Minola was on her usual seat, close beneath the throne, bending over a map of the heavens, which she was intently studying.

“I give you greeting, my friends,” said Mexitli, a little ceremoniously. “A messenger has arrived from the Observatory on Aptaura, informing us, in reply to our recent enquiry, that your world will be in correct alignment with ours on the twentieth day of the month Cayamarca--that is, fifty-five days from now. We notify this to you, as it would be well for you to start on your great journey home five days before that date.”

There was deep silence. Melanitis took Radcliffe’s hand in hers. Abercromby fixed his eyes on the ground a trifle awkwardly. Then Carmichael said--

“Have we permission from your Majesty to depart?”

“Certainly, after you have agreed to certain conditions which we have been carefully considering. Do you still wish to leave us?”

“We have a duty to perform to our brothers whom we have left behind,” said Carmichael.

“Very good; so shall it be. Now these are the conditions: You must give us in writing an exact account of your secret; you must either promise to reveal it to none of your race, or, if you prefer it, you must plainly tell them that it will be certain death for any Karamandran to come to our world as you did, or in any other way. If you yourselves choose to return to us you may do so, but even this on condition only that you thenceforward live amongst us and return no more. This you may do if you desire it, and you shall resume the privileges of nobility which my father gave you.

“These conditions may seem hard, but I have to think for the good of my people. I have asked Clarence to tell me plainly all about his world, promising beforehand that nothing he revealed shall be used to your own injury. Melanitis is now able to confirm all he says, and Abercromby also, and they have told me the whole truth in the minutest particulars. Knowing it, I have decided to cut off for ever all personal communication until God shall otherwise ordain. But I grant you leave to take with you in the Asteroid products of our world of every sort, that your people may benefit by our music, our poetry, our arts, and even our fruits and flowers. In return, you will leave with us all the contents of the Asteroid which are not indispensable for your safety, and you may freely replace them by anything of Atalanta you may wish to bear away.

“Fifty days from now you will set out from the palace, and we will journey with you to Aptaura, from whence you will wing your final flight.”

“We agree to all these conditions fully and faithfully,” answered the Professor and the engineer.

“As to Cleito and Arniphon, it is essential for the happiness of our beloved sister, that, as they have refused to promise silence as to her secret of identity, they must pay the penalty. They have chosen to be more loyal to the late King than he was to himself, and therefore I had decided, with great reluctance, that they must die, though by a painless death of sleep. But Melanitis made a powerful appeal to me, and it seemed more just to take advantage of a position so unique, and to let them go back with you to the earth. They will be good and faithful servants to you, and, furthermore, will absolutely prove to your brother scientists the truth of your history. It will enable me to spare their lives, and yet to help and to benefit _you_. Of course, I do not force them upon you, but the only alternative must be what I have said.”

“We accept, of course,” said Carmichael. “But there is one question I would ask of your majesty--Will you permit us to make a strong endeavour to induce our brother Abercromby to reconsider his decision?”

“Certainly, make all the effort you can; but I think if two planets have a tussle over him, I know which will be the victor,” said the Queen, smiling.

“You will stay with us, won’t you?” said Minya pleadingly.

“I shall have a bad quarter of an hour with the Professor,” replied Abercromby.

Now that the end was in sight, every one worked with indefatigable industry. The Professor and the engineer were inflexibly resolved to go; it was no use denying that they did not, and never probably would, feel they could make a home in Atalanta. It was not the world for them, nor did the voice of duty call them to put up with it. But they took an immediate resolve to leave behind them a legacy of useful knowledge to the Atalantans; everything--books, instruments, tools, seeds, down to the piano and the chessboard, were made over to the palace and its occupants. Carmichael took the trouble to write a number of short essays on various social and political subjects, while Carysfort explained a great many mechanical and industrial arts.

Meanwhile a religious revolution was beginning to spread over the empire. The New Testament was rapidly finding its way into the homes of the people, though here and there opposition and even hostility were manifested.

The movement was, of course, purely elastic and invertebrate as yet; the time for the setting up of institutions and stated worship had not yet come, and the Professor told Radcliffe that then his troubles would begin. He had better enjoy the literary, poetic, and romantic epoch as long as he could.

The Queen and Mayana did not take an openly active part, but all their influence was thrown into the scale. The only point in which Mexitli was disinclined to show sympathy was the haranguing of the people in open-air assemblies; this was an absolute anomaly in the country, except in days of sedition and revolution.

At last, after several attempts which had not been very successful, Radcliffe yielded to the Queen’s earnestly expressed wishes, all the more readily because she did not enforce them by arbitrary power. Melanitis, moreover, came to the rescue by a very ingenious suggestion. Poetry was constantly sung and recited in the public promenades: why should not the flower of English hymns he turned into Atalantan verse and adapted, sometimes to the music of one world, sometimes to that of another?

This proved a notable success; in every district the idea was acclaimed with enthusiasm. The Queen was so delighted that she promised to take a personal share in the composition of both music and verse.

Thus, to cite but one instance, an ancient hymn to the Sun God was modelled in a new setting:--

Look not to me, but turn to Him who set
My throne above your far extending sky;
He, my Creator, never will forget
To listen to His humblest creature’s cry.

Unseen, He rules the Mansions of the Blest,
The Sun of worlds more glorious and more great,
From whence the Prince came down to give you rest,
And soon will make you heirs of His estate.

Let not the viceroy intercept the King,
Nor yet the creature vaunt an arrogant claim;
Look to the throne from whence all mercies spring,
And seek them in the banished Exile’s Name.

“I tell you what it is, Radcliffe,” said the Professor; “thanks to a marvellous conjuncture of events, you are walking on roses just now in your missionary crusade, but the thorns will come, and will have to come. I don’t know much about these matters, but you are running ahead too fast. I shall not be here to see it, but allow me as a friend, who has a different mission to fulfil, just to observe that if Christ is ever to be King of Atalanta in any sense intelligible at present to me, He will have to be an Atalantan Christ. Let these queer people, who are more after your taste than mine, go their own way and walk in their own customs; let the Queen be the despot she really is, despite all her smiles; let her rulers and workers rule and work for the bodies of their subjects, and do you be satisfied, and your remarkable consort also, with looking after their souls. Don’t touch anything else, stick to doctrines for the present. You had better give them a poetic version of the Athanasian Creed than ask them to substitute crimson for sky-blue, and so on. Don’t think me blasphemous, you will find there is sense in what I say, though I am not an interplanetary parson.”

Carmichael also made one effort, and only one, to induce Abercromby to return with him.

“Radcliffe can do without you, for he has got Melanitis. Melanitis can even more easily do without you, for she has got _him_. I don’t think you are quite cut out for a missionary, for I believe you would ask the last surviving sun worshipper in Venus why the deuce he wasn’t a Christian. Mexitli doesn’t want you to give her a helping hand in politics, and, if I were you, I would not offer it. Now, Abercromby, just use your imagination for a minute. Can’t you see yourself looking up at the sky and wishing you could get a peep at the old Asteroid? It will be too late then, Abercromby.”

“But, Professor, I’m beastly sorry, as Gilbert Rice said to me when I had to go down, but really--there, it is no use making a fuss. It had better come out. I’ve been and gone and done it.”

“What am I to understand by this?”

“Why, I have popped the question to Mayana’s dear little sister Minya, you know--we are awfully sweet. We shall be up to the level of Melanitis and Clarence if we only try. We mean to. So now I will retort your accusation as to my unclassical language, and ask, ‘Where the deuce do _you_ come in, Professor?’”

“Good-night, Abercromby, I’m off to bed,” said Carmichael.

* * * * *

There were two subjects that greatly interested both the Professor and the Atalantan court. One was the exploration of the eastern side of the continent, the other the far more daring problem of interplanetary communication.

Carmichael and Carysfort went in the Asteroid on their own account on a journey of about 350 miles from the vale of Meloria to the eastern coast-line. So fully were the terrestrials now trusted that they were left to travel by themselves, with the understanding that they would return to Atalanta in a fortnight’s time. Neither Radcliffe nor Abercromby accompanied them, the latter saying that they would have plenty of opportunities for exploring all the habitable parts of Venus.

“That is nonsense,” replied the Professor. “You cannot even wait till my back is turned for beginning your love-making with Minya. Clarence, I admit, has some arrearages to make up.”

Cleito and Arniphon accompanied Carmichael and the engineer, for they were now counted as terrestrials.

The other matter, that of interplanetary signalling, greatly exercised the minds of all the learned in the empire. Andron, the ex-governor of Melandria, who was in constant touch with the recluses on Aptaura, begged that the Queen would allow the travellers to earth to spend a few days in the island. Leave was granted, and it was settled that on the first day of the month Cayamarca the start from the city should be made.

The travellers returned from their eastward explorations. They had found the scenery very rich and beautiful, and they had stayed at several country houses in the first hundred miles of the journey. The coast scenery had been very grand, though they once encountered a severe storm.