CHAPTER XIV.PLAN TO STEAL A BUILDING.Professor Quinn did not become unconscious. The frightful catastrophe that threatened Terra had preyed upon him at the expense of his strength. Easing him to the ground, I dropped beside him and held his head on my knee."Cheer up, professor," said I. "It surprises me to see you give way like this.""Mr. Munn," he returned brokenly, "if this rattle-brained monarch goes out into the universe with a picked company of fifty men and a hundred zetbais, it will mean that the whole solar system will get a set-back to a period corresponding with our Middle Ages!"These creatures of Njambai are far beneath those of Terra in civilization, and fate has placed in their hands the terrible zetbai, a weapon whose destructive powers are beyond compute."Oh, Mr. Munn, think of our government being overwhelmed by these four-handed, one-eyed creatures! Think of the word-box screeching through the lofty corridors of the Capitol at Washington, where the soul-stirring eloquence of Senators and Representatives has been thundered amain! Think of the——"The professor could give no added touch to the harrowing picture. Throwing his hands to his face, he groaned aloud."This hasn't happened yet," said I."No, but it will happen unless we can do something to circumvent the mad scheme. Anarchy will reign in our beloved land—over the whole earth—and I will be held responsible. Ah, me! In removing the trust magnates I have but paved the way for a mightier monopolist! I have but followed the sad example of Frankenstein, for out of my plans has sprung a monstrous project that will check progress and hurl civilization back five hundred years.""Don't give up hope," said I, but not very cheerfully, for I was greatly cast down. "Let us pretend to help them. We will lend our aid in making the car ready, and then, at the final moment, perhaps we can dart away and leave them behind; or, failing in that, we may be able to throw the zetbais from the car while in space. That will pull the fangs of the Baigadds, I think, and they will land on Earth as harmless as a lot of kittens."The professor took heart at this. He would have rallied any way, for his resourceful nature could not struggle long in the slough of despond.J. Archibald Meigs had been circling around the edge of our barrier seeking for another glimpse of Markham and even calling his name with all his lung power. But the food-trust magnate neither answered nor showed himself, being engaged in a house-to-house canvass for the pittance of provender that would keep him alive.Meigs finally turned to us and demanded the cause of the professor's downcast air. Quinn revealed the king's plot and Meigs tore off into an outburst of recrimination, just as I expected he would do.The professor bowed his head meekly to the tempest and even restrained me when I would have put a stop to the broker's intemperate language.By and by we had our noon meal, and with the attendants who brought it came Olox, seating himself on the ground and watching us as we ate. The high chief was quite amiable, and I began asking him questions relative to our surroundings.He indicated the king's private apartments in the palace, and pointed out his own residence, as well as the dwelling occupied by the late executioner-general, besides vouchsafing other information of interest."What is that small, square building under the wing of the palace?" I asked."That is the imperial exchequer," said he. "Within that building the king keeps the most priceless of all his treasures.""And what is that?" inquired the professor."The Bolla," was the startling answer.Quinn and I exchanged expressive glances. Here, through a chance remark by Olox, we were suddenly reminded of our duty to the king of Baigol. It was necessary that Olox should not see the startled looks which the professor and I were exchanging, and Mercurial eyes were preternaturally sharp."Bolla?" I allowed to come limpingly from the talk instrument. "What may that be?""A stone," answered Olox, and there was suspicion in his manner in spite of my attempt to avert it. "You already know of the Bolla. Your friend requested his majesty to have it brought out, and at that time you said that you had heard of it in the other kingdom.""So we did," I replied, trimming my sails to another breeze, "but what is it? Our information is rather vague.""A stone, as I just said," went on Olox. "It has a beneficial moral and physical effect on whoever touches it.""Where did it come from?""It has been in Njambai for ages," was the indefinite answer."How did King Gaddbai get hold of it?""He borrowed it from the king of Baigol.""And yet you call it one of his treasures! If it was borrowed, Olox, how could it possibly belong here?""King Gaddbai has taken it," was the calm response. "What he wants he makes his own. If King Golbai had not loaned the stone, there would have been a war.""Was that the right thing for your king to do?" inquired the professor."Whatever our sovereign does is right."There was no getting around a flat statement of that sort. Evidently the ruler of the country had drilled his subjects thoroughly."What did you do at the car, Olox?" said the professor."At the iron house?" The professor nodded.Nods and gestures were well understood by the people of Njambai, for, with four hands, they were well equipped for finger and whole arm movements."The king's orders were carried out, at the iron house," finished Olox."The paint was returned to its proper place?""Even so.""And the telescope——'"That matter was attended to.""I trust you handled the telescope with care? It is exceedingly fragile and could be easily injured.""After the king spoke as he did, death by zet would be meted out to the one who injured the instrument."There were several things I wanted to ask Olox, and the principal one had to do with Gilhooly, and the way he had been taken from the car and made to serve the traction interests of the kingdom. However, the professor was keeping Olox so busy with his word-box that my own questions were crowded out."The family of the executioner-general are anxious to have him returned," remarked Olox, while the professor was looking for the proper key on which to formulate his next question. "Could that be accomplished?""It might," replied the professor guardedly."What has become of him?""He disappeared as he was about to commit a deed of base injustice," said the professor grimly."We are aware of that," and Olox looked uneasily around as he punched the words, "but we are ignorant of the cause of his disappearance. He is a distant relative of mine, and I promised his next of kin to put these questions to you. Is he alive?""Undoubtedly."Olox pressed closer and muffled his word-box so that the sounds could not carry to dangerous limits."If you would tell us how to proceed in the matter of getting the executioner-general back," he whispered, "I can promise you and your friends help in getting out of the country.""Look out for the indexograph, Olox," said I. "If they should happen to give you a try out with it, the ideograph wouldn't look well to the king."Olox was greatly shaken—so shaken, in fact, that he could not pursue the subject further."I will talk with you later about the executioner-general," he finished, noting the empty dishes before the professor and Meigs and me, and the curious manner of those who had come with him. "Until then, pray consider that nothing has been said on the subject." With that, he arose and beckoned to his companions.After Olox had led the attendants away with the empty food receptacles, the professor and I got our heads together on the mission that had brought us to Baigadd.We did not think it necessary or advisable to let Meigs know of our purpose in regaining control of the Bolla."We are pledged to secure the mysterious stone if we can, Mr. Munn," said Quinn. "Undoubtedly the work will put us in bad odor here, and may interfere with our attempt to balk the king in his comprehensive scheme of conquest, but that does not release us from the task in question."A tingle of gratification shot along my nerves. The feeling of oppression that had burdened me was lifted, for I ever loved to crack a professional nut, and here was one that would certainly try me to the utmost.I surveyed the small building with critical eyes."Here is where my inches get the better of me, professor," said I. "For one of my size to get into that house is out of the question. And I wouldn't know where to lay hands on the Bolla if it were physically possible for me to effect an entrance.""I can make a suggestion, Mr. Munn," said Quinn, "which would get you safely around that difficulty.""What is that?""Whisper." I inclined my ear to his lips. "Why not run away with the imperial exchequer?""Eh?" I gasped."Steal it bodily, I mean. When you get to Baigol with it, let the king effect entrance, secure his Bolla, and then you return the exchequer to its original location. Of course, it would be very wrong to steal the king's treasury, and I would not counsel that under any consideration. You merely borrow it to obtain the Bolla; the stone returned to its rightful owners, you return the exchequer.""And get zetbaied for my pains!" I exclaimed."Let us hope," said the professor, "that before you can get zetbaied we shall be in a position to use the car and escape from the planet."I gave much thought to the matter."It is a long chance," I returned frankly, "but I have been taking long chances ever since I became a cracksman. I will put the plan in operation, professor, at the very first opportunity that presents itself."Thus we left the matter, the professor warmly congratulating me on my courage and expressing the hope that I would prove equally courageous in more worthy pursuits, if the chance ever offered.CHAPTER XV.SURVEYING OUR OWN PLANET.Day slipped along to its close, and shortly after the reflectors winked out the king came, accompanied by Olox, a guard of Gaddbaizets, and six attendants bearing the telescope.To our surprise and gratification, both Markham and Popham were in the midst of the royal guard."It struck me," said the king graciously, "that your friends might also wish to view the orb from which they came. It is a little thing and can be done without inconvenience, so I am pleased to favor them."The high chief traced an opening in the zet ring with the black tip of his weapon, and Meigs was first to rush through and hurl himself into the arms of Popham. The unfortunate gentlemen were long in each other's embrace.When they finally drew apart, Meigs groped through the black gloom by Markham, while the professor felt for the coal baron's hand and gave it a gentle and reassuring pressure."Professor Quinn," said Popham, "I am being badly treated. The king has put me on the night shift in one of the royal coal mines and the soldiers make me work like a galley slave. This is the first night I have had off since they set me to work."Popham was loud in his complainings, but was cut short by the king."We must proceed, gentlemen. I have word from above that the night is fine and everything propitious for an excellent view of your planet, but storms come suddenly and we can never be sure of the weather on the outer crust. It is well to make haste."We started stumblingly, each of us led by a soldier to whom the way was plain. We were jostled here and there through the gloom, and finally were made to mount some object which gave a metallic ring beneath our feet."This is the royal lift," explained the king. "When the heat of the day is suspended I often go above."He then addressed himself to Olox. "Give the signal at once."The signal was given and we shot aloft. The transformation from the fury of a storm to the light and tranquillity of the underworld had been great and astounding; but this second transformation was none the less impressive.We emerged into a wonderful night set with stars that were perfectly familiar to me. The Dipper and Polaris were in the north and occupying relatively the same positions that they do when viewed from Earth—so little effect has the immensities of distance upon their posts in the vault.But our own globe! It hung huge and tremulous in the blue of the evening sky, so plain that we could almost note the continents that gemmed its surface.Meigs gave a whimpering cry and he and Markham and Popham rushed together, fell upon each other's neck, and wept aloud."Oh, I wish I was back, I wish I was back!" moaned the broker."I'm lonesome enough to die!" sobbed Markham."Exiled, exiled, exiled!" was all the coal baron could murmur in husky tones.I will not say that I was proof against the sentiments that had unmanned the one-time magnates, but I will declare that both Quinn and myself had our feelings under better control. In silence I assisted the professor to plant the telescope and we each gazed longingly at the greenish star magnified to many times its diameter."There's the United States!" cried Popham."Can you see New York?" whispered Meigs hoarsely. "Look for New York, man!"Of course, a view of New York was out of the question, but the frantic ex-plutocrats imagined they could see it, and even look down into Wall Street for aught I know. Again were their emotions too much for them, and they gave way as they had done before."Mr. Munn," said the professor, "this is harrowing.""It is pretty hard on those gentlemen," I returned, "to be brought face to face with something they thought they owned and yet not be able to possess it.""That remark is unlike you," answered the professor, and turned to the king. "A thought occurred to me while we were coming up on the lift," he went on, "and I should like you to explain.""If it is in my power." answered the king, his eye to the telescope."When we dropped into the kingdom of Baigol there was a storm on the surface of this planet. That storm must have hidden the sun, and yet the reflectors below were sending day throughout the realm.""The reflection came from other and smaller reflectors arranged to take care of just such an emergency," explained the king. "Storms are only local, you know, and when one gathers over the giant reflector the smaller ones at the other points are brought into use. But let's not talk of this planet, but of that other one up here."And along that line the king's conversation ran for a full hour.At last, when we were ready to descend, so far from being dismayed by the enormity of the task before him, the royal zealot was fortified in his resolution to carry it out.His majesty was in great good humor, and when we had left the lift and marched back to the square he very graciously tendered us the freedom of the town.He could not understand why the professor and I should have any desire to escape from his country, and inasmuch as he had made us his honored guests, to return us to the circle of zet would be to besmirch his hospitality.The zet had been regathered into the high chief's zetbai and it was not again released. It was not necessary for Popham to return to the royal mines until the following night, so he remained with us, along with Markham, and we all bunked down in the centre of the plaza."Is there no way, Professor Quinn," quavered Popham, "whereby we can escape from the inhuman monsters who people this planet? The treatment I have suffered is monstrous! I feel as though I shall die if I have to go back to those royal coal mines again. Being a large man, they expect me to do the work of a dozen Mercurials. There are blisters on my hands and my feet are so sore I can hardly walk."This wail from the brusque and tyrannical Popham was in itself a highly edifying comment on his sad experiences."Your position was grace itself compared with mine," mourned Markham. "These people seemed determined to starve me to death. I am expected to travel from house to house, begging food, and they hardly give me enough at one house to take me to the next.""You are on the surface," returned Popham, "and you are not delving continually in the hot, unhealthy regions where I must do my work. I have to toil like a galley slave for a cent a day, and a cent's worth of this vegetable food, which seems to be all they have here, does not furnish me with enough strength for my labor.""You have your clothes, at least," whimpered Meigs. "Quinn ought to help us; hemusthelp us.""I shall do what I can, gentlemen," said the professor wearily. "I have not succeeded in showing you the error of your ways, but I must let that pass. A greater calamity menaces our planet than any you could possibly let loose upon our devoted country.""Meigs was saying something about that," spoke up Popham. "What is it this mad king thinks of doing?""Why, with fifty warriors, armed with zetbais, he intends making an attack upon Terra. He hopes to conquer our mother orb."Popham gave a faint cry of derision."Why; if that rascal ever landed on our planet," said he, "he and his warriors would be captured out of hand and turned over to some museum for exhibition purposes. IfIhappened to be around at the time of their capture," he finished angrily, "I would send every last one of them into mines that are mines. I'd make them toil with their four hands until they wore them off at the wrists. Gad, but that would be a revenge worth having!""This is not a time to think of revenge, Mr. Popham," spoke up the professor, more in sorrow than rebuke. "We have our planet to consider, and, next to the planet, ourselves.""Our planet is big enough to take care of itself," averred Markham. "Leave that out of the question, professor, and confine your attention to some way in which we can better our condition.""The danger that threatens Earth is greater than you appear to imagine," went on Quinn. "For whatever happened to our home-star because of King Gaddbai and his astounding plans of conquest, I should be responsible. The thought weighs upon me and will give me no rest. The king must be foiled.""How does he intend to reach the Earth?" asked Markham."By means of our car.""Is that in usable condition?" came joyously from Popham."So far as I can discover, it lies intact at the bottom of the crater on whose rim we landed. There is no reason why the car cannot be employed for a return to Terra; but," and here the professor's words became emphatic, "it shall not be so employed by King Gaddbai and his army of conquest. I shall prevent that at all hazards.""How?" came hoarsely from the three ex-millionaires."By destroying the car, as a last resort and when other means fail," was the calm rejoinder."You would not dare!" breathed Popham."You would not have the heart to take from us our sole means of escape!" added Markham."Madman!" ground out Meigs. "If I really thought that you would destroy our only means of salvation, I'd——""You wouldn't do a thing, Meigs," I chimed in. "Whatever the professor thinks best to do is going to be done, and no two ways about it.""I don't want to destroy the car," continued the professor, unmoved by this storm he had aroused, "if other means can be made to serve. And I may say that we shall exhaust every effort to make other means serve. I feel that it is my duty to return you gentlemen to the place from whence you were taken. I have not accomplished what I had hoped to do, but it is better to be disappointed in that rather than to let King Gaddbai get away in the car with his fifty warriors.""Certainly it is your duty to send us back," said Meigs, "and you should consider that duty before anything and everything else.""Exactly!" seconded Popham, "and we must take Gilhooly with us. If one goes, all must go.""Leave the matter to me, gentlemen," counseled the professor quietly. "I shall do everything possible."The coal baron and the food-trust magnate continued to dwell upon their harrowing experiences with various degrees of intensity until a command for silence came from a word-box somewhere around us. Our raucous tones were keeping the people awake all over the city, the talking machine averred, and unless we became instantly quiet the authorities would take the matter in hand.This threat had the desired result. We gave over our conversation and settled ourselves for the night.I do not know how long I slept, but it must have been some hours. I was aroused to find it still dark and to behold the professor with a lighted match in one hand and his other hand over my lips.The burning match threw a fitful glare around the open space and even reached to the roof tops beyond. Both the palace and the imperial exchequer were brought shadowily forth out of the gloom."Now is the time, Mr. Munn!" whispered the professor."The time?" I returned sotto voce. "Time for what?"Without a word he pointed to the square building under the wing of the palace. I understood. It was now or never if I intended to make my raid and secure the Bolla.I started erect."You have matches, Mr. Munn?" the professor asked in the very faintest of audible tones.I nodded."You must be very careful to keep to the street until you reach the country," the professor went on. "If you should make a misstep and wreck a block of houses the disaster would be irretrievable.""I will strike matches and light my way until I get well into the hills," said I."Just what I should have suggested," said he. "Good-by, Mr. Munn. Fail not to return with the exchequer as soon as the king of Baigol has secured the Bolla. Meantime I shall hope to get the car in readiness to speed our departure."We struck hands as men will when confronted by an issue of life and death. Then I stepped into the street, bent over the imperial exchequer, and wrenched it from its foundations.It was a well-constructed building, and, although its contents jingled like a rattle box when I took it under my arm, it did not give way in any part.Striking a match on the roof of the exchequer, I lighted my way down the street, picking my steps with care and caution.CHAPTER XVI.HOW ILL-LUCK OVERTOOK ME.Good fortune fared forth with me from the royal city and remained steadfastly at my right hand as long as the matches lasted; but when the last one had flickered out and left me in impenetrable gloom, my troubles began.I was well into the rough country when the lights failed, threading a road bordered by hills that in some places were shoulder high. About the first thing I did was to blunder off the trail; in trying to regain it I stumbled over a five-foot mountain and went down all of a heap.Had I fallen on the exchequer I should have smashed it into a cocked hat—a result only narrowly averted. Regaining my feet and smothering some good strong language that rose instinctively to my lips, I essayed once more to find the Baigol road.I had my trouble for my pains, and, after an hour spent in fruitless blundering, I sat down on a cliff, propped up the exchequer on the side of a cañon and nursed my barked shins until day began flashing from the reflectors.As I sat there waiting for the light my brain was filled with evil thoughts which I recall with contrition and chronicle with regret. I knew the exchequer must contain the king's wealth—golden pieces of eight of a rare fineness unknown to the mints of Terra.I was not of a mind to return the gold after allowing the king of Baigol to take his Bolla. Why not stow the treasure away about my clothes and rely upon my native tact and discretion to get me to the steel car in spite of the grasping monarch of Baigadd?I was much wrought up over the way I had lost the loot taken from the plutocrats. In my mind's eye I could see those four bulging handkerchiefs waxing and waning about the castle, and I had hoped they would fall to the surface of Mercury along with the car, so that I might still be able to secure them.In this I was disappointed. Once the Mercurial atmosphere was struck the loot and the revolver had fallen away from the castle like so many pieces of lead.The wallets, undoubtedly, had been incinerated by the sun's rays, together with the banknotes that were in them. I imagined that the intense heat had exploded the cartridges in the six-shooter and had warped and twisted the firearm until it was no longer serviceable.The other plunder also, even if found, could not by any possibility be utilized by me or any one else.All this had made me savagely eager to recoup my finances. And as I sat brooding on the cliff I asked myself why I should not do this at the expense of the Baigadd exchequer.I did not arouse myself at the first reflected flash of day. Although I had decided to appropriate the contents of Gaddbai's coffers, I was casting about for a suitable method that would gain my end with the least inconvenience.A maudlin chuckle from near at hand brought me abruptly out of my reflections. I turned, and there, on a neighboring elevation, stood Gilhooly, balancing the exchequer on the broad of his hand.I was brought up staring. What could the motive power of the B.&B. Interplanetary be doing there, at that time? His absence must have interfered sadly with the train schedule. Certainly the officers of the system, would not have countenanced this neglect of duty, had they known of it.Then it flashed over me that Gilhooly had run away. He had tired of racing up and down the V-shaped groove with a string of toy cars and had taken French leave of the system.The fire of insanity was still in his eyes, and he retreated step by step as I advanced upon him."Look here, Gilhooly," said I in my most persuasive tones, "that building you have in your hands is the imperial exchequer. Put it down, there's a good fellow. Don't juggle with it in that way. Suppose you were to drop it!"Gilhooly had begun shaking it up and down as though it were one of those cast-iron banks in which children sometimes deposit their coppers The jingle of the exchequer's contents appeared to please him."If you want this road you have got to bid up for it," said he. "I'm not so young that I don't know a good thing when I've got it in my grip.""That road has gone into the hands of a receiver," I returned, humoring his fancy, "and I'm the receiver. Give it here, Gilhooly.""I was not consulted when the receiver was appointed," he answered. "I have rights in the matter and those rights must be protected. It's a deal framed up to beat the pool. My, how it rattles!" and he shook the exchequer again.I was at my wits' end. I knew that tact was far and away more effective than violence when dealing with a crazed person."Put it down for a moment, Gilhooly," I wheedled, "and come over to the directors' meeting.""Who are the directors?" he asked suspiciously."Well, there are only two. I'm one, you know, and you're the other."He exploded a laugh, tossed the exchequer in the air like a strong man playing with a cannon ball, and then caught it deftly as it came down."I'm the boy to juggle with railroads!" he boasted. "Ask any one in the Street and they'll tell you.""Look out!" I gasped, "or you'll drop it.""Not I!" he mumbled. "I never yet wrecked a railroad.""Where did you come from, Gilhooly?" I asked, seeking to get him into conversation while I edged closer to him by degrees."From distant parts," he replied. "I've been the whole thing for a big transcontinental line that I'm adding to the Gilhooly System." He chuckled craftily. "They thought they had me, but I got out from under with the rolling stock. I've hid the cars in a gully, and my next move will be to steal the right of way. I'm the big railroad man of the country. Just ask anybody who knows what's what in transportation circles and they'll tell you the same thing."I had arrived within a few feet of him, and suddenly I leaped forward. But he was wary and sprang aside, the exchequer jingling sharply."No, you don't," said he. "You're trying to serve a subpoena on me and I'm too foxy for you. Get out of here or I'll have you thrown downstairs.""Come over to the directors' meeting, Gilhooly," I urged, turning and walking away from him. "You've got to look after your interests, you know."But the vagaries of a shattered mind are hard to deal with. Gilhooly laughed at me, sat down on a rock and took the exchequer on his knees. He was wary, and never for an instant permitted me to lose his eyes."You can't fool me," he cried, "so you'd better take the next train for home. I hold a majority of the stock, and after I've watered it a little I'll have enough to buy another line. It's easy being a railroad magnate when you know how. Clear out, you annoy me.""Gilhooly," said I, with a gentleness I was far from feeling, "don't you want to know something about Popham?""Don't know him," snarled Gilhooly, "but if he's trying to break into this railroad game, just tell him that I control the whole bag of tricks and that it's not worth his while."Hugging the exchequer in his arms, he rocked back and forth and began to sing."Well," said I, starting away again, "if you don't want to attend this directors' meeting I'll have to look after it myself."He made no reply but kept on hugging the exchequer, rocking back and forth, and timing his monotonous croon to the rattle of treasure in the king's strong rooms.Warily as I could, I circled about, creeping on all fours and screening myself by the little hills and ridges. My design was to come up on Gilhooly from behind and snatch the exchequer away from him.But he heard me. Before I had come within a dozen feet of him, he stopped his singing, leaped to his feet, and whirled around. The next moment he had placed himself at a safe distance."I'm too many for you," he shouted. "Go away, or I'll call the police."I was in a sweat for fear some of King Gaddbai's soldiers would locate us and develop their zetbais. One flash of that violet fire would do the business for both Gilhooly and me, and the professor's cherished plans would go by the board. Besides, I had plans of my own, and it seemed as though Gilhooly was destined to make a mess of everything."Oh, come, now," I cried, in a bit of a temper. "That won't do you any good, Gilhooly. It doesn't belong to you, and you haven't any right to keep it.""Don't we ever keep anything that don't belong to us?" he asked sarcastically. "I'm not that sort of a fellow, for I keep everything in the railroad line that I can get my hands on."Logic and reason were utterly dead in his mind. Whims he had, but they were but fancies of the moment. As I stood there looking at him, I wondered how the people of Baigadd had ever managed to keep him hauling their trains as long as they had."Good-by," he called suddenly, taking the exchequer under his arm. "I think I'll go to the office and——"Just then I made a dash at him. With a mocking laugh he whirled about and raced off across the hills, myself in hot pursuit.Gilhooly's course intersected the Baigol highway and he turned into it, roaring defiantly as he sped along. Suddenly he stumbled and fell, and a cry of dismay escaped me.He had fallen squarely on the exchequer and wrecked it completely!Kyzicks—yellow coins the size of a gold dollar and worth five times as much—rolled, everywhere about the road, diverging from a heap that lay revealed by the collapsed walls of the building. Flinging forward, I went to my knees and began plunging my hands into the pile.I believe that just then I was as daft as Gilhooly himself. In those days the glimmer of gold always had a demoralizing effect on me.As I raked my outspread fingers through the yellow pile I brought up a round, jet-black stone the size of my fist. I regarded it as a bit of chaff in the bin of wealth and hurled it from me down the road. With a loud yell, Gilhooly leaped after it.Then I became aware of a weird and inexplicable feeling that laid itself like an axe at the root of my professional instinct. What right had I to all this treasure? It belonged to the king of Baigall; he was an unworthy creature, perhaps, but still it belonged to him. What had I been about to do? My heart sickened and I sprang up, spurned the kyzicks with my heel and turned my back.That was my awakening. In one instant the iron of repentance had pierced my soul. The past rolled its turgid waters in front of me. I shivered and drew back from that wave of evil, covering my eyes to blot it from my sight.How should I atone for the days that had been? Could I do it by an unflinching rectitude in the days there were to be? Conscience was belaboring me with telling blows. I had not been on intimate terms with my conscience for many years, and to have it thus suddenly overmaster me and drive me into reformation was a mystery beyond my power to explain.While I stood there consumed with regret and hoping against hope for the future, a voice hailed me from down the road."Did you say your name was Munn?"Could that calm, contained voice have come from Emmet Gilhooly? I looked in his direction and found him leaning against a jutting spur of rocks, his right hand clutching convulsively the black stone I had flung from me.The crazed light had vanished from his eyes. An expression of wonder was on his face, but it was a rational wonder developed by an awakening as abrupt and complete as mine had been."You have it right, Mr. Gilhooly," I answered, the extreme mildness of my voice surprising me. "My full name is James Peter Munn and——""You are the thief who just came into the castle and relieved myself and my friends of their valuables?"Gilhooly's normal condition had come back to him at the point where it had been dropped. I was not slow in reasoning how this might be."I was a thief in the letter and spirit less than ten minutes back," I humbly answered, "but now, sir, I have turned a leaf. I promise you that the rest of the book shall read better than what has gone before."Gilhooly passed his left hand across his forehead."Where—where am I?" he faltered."In the kingdom of Baigadd," I returned, "some distance out of the royal city.""Baigadd? Royal city? You talk strangely, Mr. Munn. Where is the castle? Where are Meigs, Markham, and Popham? And Professor Quinn? Are we";—he started forward and looked wildly around—"still in the castle? But no, that can't be. You just said we were somewhere else. I beg your pardon, Mr. Munn. I am confused and hardly know what I am saying."I began an explanation, going patiently into every detail, and when I finally finished Gilhooly knew as much about our situation as I did.For some time Gilhooly walked up and down the road, passing and repassing the heap of gold. At last he paused beside it."We should return this treasure to its owner, Mr. Munn," said he, and he dropped the black stone on the yellow pile. "From what you tell me, this is a strange planet and strangely peopled. Yet there is superstition here as well as in our native orb—as these wonder tales about the Bolla will bear evidence.""I think with you, sir," said I. "The Bolla is simply a fetish and its miraculous powers are purely imaginary.""That is the sensible way to look at it. Suppose we load our pockets with the gold and start back with it to the city from whence it was taken?"I assented and suggested using our coats as improvised bags for the easier transportation of the king's wealth, and we stripped to our shirt sleeves and set about our work. In half an hour we had collected all the scattered treasure, had bound it up in our coats and had started back.Gilhooly preserved a pensive silence. His thoughts were far away and he seemed entirely oblivious of the fact that I was trudging along at his side. It was only when we turned an angle in the road and came face to face with Quinn, Meigs, Markham, and Popham that Gilhooly showed any interest in our present situation.
CHAPTER XIV.
PLAN TO STEAL A BUILDING.
Professor Quinn did not become unconscious. The frightful catastrophe that threatened Terra had preyed upon him at the expense of his strength. Easing him to the ground, I dropped beside him and held his head on my knee.
"Cheer up, professor," said I. "It surprises me to see you give way like this."
"Mr. Munn," he returned brokenly, "if this rattle-brained monarch goes out into the universe with a picked company of fifty men and a hundred zetbais, it will mean that the whole solar system will get a set-back to a period corresponding with our Middle Ages!
"These creatures of Njambai are far beneath those of Terra in civilization, and fate has placed in their hands the terrible zetbai, a weapon whose destructive powers are beyond compute.
"Oh, Mr. Munn, think of our government being overwhelmed by these four-handed, one-eyed creatures! Think of the word-box screeching through the lofty corridors of the Capitol at Washington, where the soul-stirring eloquence of Senators and Representatives has been thundered amain! Think of the——"
The professor could give no added touch to the harrowing picture. Throwing his hands to his face, he groaned aloud.
"This hasn't happened yet," said I.
"No, but it will happen unless we can do something to circumvent the mad scheme. Anarchy will reign in our beloved land—over the whole earth—and I will be held responsible. Ah, me! In removing the trust magnates I have but paved the way for a mightier monopolist! I have but followed the sad example of Frankenstein, for out of my plans has sprung a monstrous project that will check progress and hurl civilization back five hundred years."
"Don't give up hope," said I, but not very cheerfully, for I was greatly cast down. "Let us pretend to help them. We will lend our aid in making the car ready, and then, at the final moment, perhaps we can dart away and leave them behind; or, failing in that, we may be able to throw the zetbais from the car while in space. That will pull the fangs of the Baigadds, I think, and they will land on Earth as harmless as a lot of kittens."
The professor took heart at this. He would have rallied any way, for his resourceful nature could not struggle long in the slough of despond.
J. Archibald Meigs had been circling around the edge of our barrier seeking for another glimpse of Markham and even calling his name with all his lung power. But the food-trust magnate neither answered nor showed himself, being engaged in a house-to-house canvass for the pittance of provender that would keep him alive.
Meigs finally turned to us and demanded the cause of the professor's downcast air. Quinn revealed the king's plot and Meigs tore off into an outburst of recrimination, just as I expected he would do.
The professor bowed his head meekly to the tempest and even restrained me when I would have put a stop to the broker's intemperate language.
By and by we had our noon meal, and with the attendants who brought it came Olox, seating himself on the ground and watching us as we ate. The high chief was quite amiable, and I began asking him questions relative to our surroundings.
He indicated the king's private apartments in the palace, and pointed out his own residence, as well as the dwelling occupied by the late executioner-general, besides vouchsafing other information of interest.
"What is that small, square building under the wing of the palace?" I asked.
"That is the imperial exchequer," said he. "Within that building the king keeps the most priceless of all his treasures."
"And what is that?" inquired the professor.
"The Bolla," was the startling answer.
Quinn and I exchanged expressive glances. Here, through a chance remark by Olox, we were suddenly reminded of our duty to the king of Baigol. It was necessary that Olox should not see the startled looks which the professor and I were exchanging, and Mercurial eyes were preternaturally sharp.
"Bolla?" I allowed to come limpingly from the talk instrument. "What may that be?"
"A stone," answered Olox, and there was suspicion in his manner in spite of my attempt to avert it. "You already know of the Bolla. Your friend requested his majesty to have it brought out, and at that time you said that you had heard of it in the other kingdom."
"So we did," I replied, trimming my sails to another breeze, "but what is it? Our information is rather vague."
"A stone, as I just said," went on Olox. "It has a beneficial moral and physical effect on whoever touches it."
"Where did it come from?"
"It has been in Njambai for ages," was the indefinite answer.
"How did King Gaddbai get hold of it?"
"He borrowed it from the king of Baigol."
"And yet you call it one of his treasures! If it was borrowed, Olox, how could it possibly belong here?"
"King Gaddbai has taken it," was the calm response. "What he wants he makes his own. If King Golbai had not loaned the stone, there would have been a war."
"Was that the right thing for your king to do?" inquired the professor.
"Whatever our sovereign does is right."
There was no getting around a flat statement of that sort. Evidently the ruler of the country had drilled his subjects thoroughly.
"What did you do at the car, Olox?" said the professor.
"At the iron house?" The professor nodded.
Nods and gestures were well understood by the people of Njambai, for, with four hands, they were well equipped for finger and whole arm movements.
"The king's orders were carried out, at the iron house," finished Olox.
"The paint was returned to its proper place?"
"Even so."
"And the telescope——'
"That matter was attended to."
"I trust you handled the telescope with care? It is exceedingly fragile and could be easily injured."
"After the king spoke as he did, death by zet would be meted out to the one who injured the instrument."
There were several things I wanted to ask Olox, and the principal one had to do with Gilhooly, and the way he had been taken from the car and made to serve the traction interests of the kingdom. However, the professor was keeping Olox so busy with his word-box that my own questions were crowded out.
"The family of the executioner-general are anxious to have him returned," remarked Olox, while the professor was looking for the proper key on which to formulate his next question. "Could that be accomplished?"
"It might," replied the professor guardedly.
"What has become of him?"
"He disappeared as he was about to commit a deed of base injustice," said the professor grimly.
"We are aware of that," and Olox looked uneasily around as he punched the words, "but we are ignorant of the cause of his disappearance. He is a distant relative of mine, and I promised his next of kin to put these questions to you. Is he alive?"
"Undoubtedly."
Olox pressed closer and muffled his word-box so that the sounds could not carry to dangerous limits.
"If you would tell us how to proceed in the matter of getting the executioner-general back," he whispered, "I can promise you and your friends help in getting out of the country."
"Look out for the indexograph, Olox," said I. "If they should happen to give you a try out with it, the ideograph wouldn't look well to the king."
Olox was greatly shaken—so shaken, in fact, that he could not pursue the subject further.
"I will talk with you later about the executioner-general," he finished, noting the empty dishes before the professor and Meigs and me, and the curious manner of those who had come with him. "Until then, pray consider that nothing has been said on the subject." With that, he arose and beckoned to his companions.
After Olox had led the attendants away with the empty food receptacles, the professor and I got our heads together on the mission that had brought us to Baigadd.
We did not think it necessary or advisable to let Meigs know of our purpose in regaining control of the Bolla.
"We are pledged to secure the mysterious stone if we can, Mr. Munn," said Quinn. "Undoubtedly the work will put us in bad odor here, and may interfere with our attempt to balk the king in his comprehensive scheme of conquest, but that does not release us from the task in question."
A tingle of gratification shot along my nerves. The feeling of oppression that had burdened me was lifted, for I ever loved to crack a professional nut, and here was one that would certainly try me to the utmost.
I surveyed the small building with critical eyes.
"Here is where my inches get the better of me, professor," said I. "For one of my size to get into that house is out of the question. And I wouldn't know where to lay hands on the Bolla if it were physically possible for me to effect an entrance."
"I can make a suggestion, Mr. Munn," said Quinn, "which would get you safely around that difficulty."
"What is that?"
"Whisper." I inclined my ear to his lips. "Why not run away with the imperial exchequer?"
"Eh?" I gasped.
"Steal it bodily, I mean. When you get to Baigol with it, let the king effect entrance, secure his Bolla, and then you return the exchequer to its original location. Of course, it would be very wrong to steal the king's treasury, and I would not counsel that under any consideration. You merely borrow it to obtain the Bolla; the stone returned to its rightful owners, you return the exchequer."
"And get zetbaied for my pains!" I exclaimed.
"Let us hope," said the professor, "that before you can get zetbaied we shall be in a position to use the car and escape from the planet."
I gave much thought to the matter.
"It is a long chance," I returned frankly, "but I have been taking long chances ever since I became a cracksman. I will put the plan in operation, professor, at the very first opportunity that presents itself."
Thus we left the matter, the professor warmly congratulating me on my courage and expressing the hope that I would prove equally courageous in more worthy pursuits, if the chance ever offered.
CHAPTER XV.
SURVEYING OUR OWN PLANET.
Day slipped along to its close, and shortly after the reflectors winked out the king came, accompanied by Olox, a guard of Gaddbaizets, and six attendants bearing the telescope.
To our surprise and gratification, both Markham and Popham were in the midst of the royal guard.
"It struck me," said the king graciously, "that your friends might also wish to view the orb from which they came. It is a little thing and can be done without inconvenience, so I am pleased to favor them."
The high chief traced an opening in the zet ring with the black tip of his weapon, and Meigs was first to rush through and hurl himself into the arms of Popham. The unfortunate gentlemen were long in each other's embrace.
When they finally drew apart, Meigs groped through the black gloom by Markham, while the professor felt for the coal baron's hand and gave it a gentle and reassuring pressure.
"Professor Quinn," said Popham, "I am being badly treated. The king has put me on the night shift in one of the royal coal mines and the soldiers make me work like a galley slave. This is the first night I have had off since they set me to work."
Popham was loud in his complainings, but was cut short by the king.
"We must proceed, gentlemen. I have word from above that the night is fine and everything propitious for an excellent view of your planet, but storms come suddenly and we can never be sure of the weather on the outer crust. It is well to make haste."
We started stumblingly, each of us led by a soldier to whom the way was plain. We were jostled here and there through the gloom, and finally were made to mount some object which gave a metallic ring beneath our feet.
"This is the royal lift," explained the king. "When the heat of the day is suspended I often go above."
He then addressed himself to Olox. "Give the signal at once."
The signal was given and we shot aloft. The transformation from the fury of a storm to the light and tranquillity of the underworld had been great and astounding; but this second transformation was none the less impressive.
We emerged into a wonderful night set with stars that were perfectly familiar to me. The Dipper and Polaris were in the north and occupying relatively the same positions that they do when viewed from Earth—so little effect has the immensities of distance upon their posts in the vault.
But our own globe! It hung huge and tremulous in the blue of the evening sky, so plain that we could almost note the continents that gemmed its surface.
Meigs gave a whimpering cry and he and Markham and Popham rushed together, fell upon each other's neck, and wept aloud.
"Oh, I wish I was back, I wish I was back!" moaned the broker.
"I'm lonesome enough to die!" sobbed Markham.
"Exiled, exiled, exiled!" was all the coal baron could murmur in husky tones.
I will not say that I was proof against the sentiments that had unmanned the one-time magnates, but I will declare that both Quinn and myself had our feelings under better control. In silence I assisted the professor to plant the telescope and we each gazed longingly at the greenish star magnified to many times its diameter.
"There's the United States!" cried Popham.
"Can you see New York?" whispered Meigs hoarsely. "Look for New York, man!"
Of course, a view of New York was out of the question, but the frantic ex-plutocrats imagined they could see it, and even look down into Wall Street for aught I know. Again were their emotions too much for them, and they gave way as they had done before.
"Mr. Munn," said the professor, "this is harrowing."
"It is pretty hard on those gentlemen," I returned, "to be brought face to face with something they thought they owned and yet not be able to possess it."
"That remark is unlike you," answered the professor, and turned to the king. "A thought occurred to me while we were coming up on the lift," he went on, "and I should like you to explain."
"If it is in my power." answered the king, his eye to the telescope.
"When we dropped into the kingdom of Baigol there was a storm on the surface of this planet. That storm must have hidden the sun, and yet the reflectors below were sending day throughout the realm."
"The reflection came from other and smaller reflectors arranged to take care of just such an emergency," explained the king. "Storms are only local, you know, and when one gathers over the giant reflector the smaller ones at the other points are brought into use. But let's not talk of this planet, but of that other one up here."
And along that line the king's conversation ran for a full hour.
At last, when we were ready to descend, so far from being dismayed by the enormity of the task before him, the royal zealot was fortified in his resolution to carry it out.
His majesty was in great good humor, and when we had left the lift and marched back to the square he very graciously tendered us the freedom of the town.
He could not understand why the professor and I should have any desire to escape from his country, and inasmuch as he had made us his honored guests, to return us to the circle of zet would be to besmirch his hospitality.
The zet had been regathered into the high chief's zetbai and it was not again released. It was not necessary for Popham to return to the royal mines until the following night, so he remained with us, along with Markham, and we all bunked down in the centre of the plaza.
"Is there no way, Professor Quinn," quavered Popham, "whereby we can escape from the inhuman monsters who people this planet? The treatment I have suffered is monstrous! I feel as though I shall die if I have to go back to those royal coal mines again. Being a large man, they expect me to do the work of a dozen Mercurials. There are blisters on my hands and my feet are so sore I can hardly walk."
This wail from the brusque and tyrannical Popham was in itself a highly edifying comment on his sad experiences.
"Your position was grace itself compared with mine," mourned Markham. "These people seemed determined to starve me to death. I am expected to travel from house to house, begging food, and they hardly give me enough at one house to take me to the next."
"You are on the surface," returned Popham, "and you are not delving continually in the hot, unhealthy regions where I must do my work. I have to toil like a galley slave for a cent a day, and a cent's worth of this vegetable food, which seems to be all they have here, does not furnish me with enough strength for my labor."
"You have your clothes, at least," whimpered Meigs. "Quinn ought to help us; hemusthelp us."
"I shall do what I can, gentlemen," said the professor wearily. "I have not succeeded in showing you the error of your ways, but I must let that pass. A greater calamity menaces our planet than any you could possibly let loose upon our devoted country."
"Meigs was saying something about that," spoke up Popham. "What is it this mad king thinks of doing?"
"Why, with fifty warriors, armed with zetbais, he intends making an attack upon Terra. He hopes to conquer our mother orb."
Popham gave a faint cry of derision.
"Why; if that rascal ever landed on our planet," said he, "he and his warriors would be captured out of hand and turned over to some museum for exhibition purposes. IfIhappened to be around at the time of their capture," he finished angrily, "I would send every last one of them into mines that are mines. I'd make them toil with their four hands until they wore them off at the wrists. Gad, but that would be a revenge worth having!"
"This is not a time to think of revenge, Mr. Popham," spoke up the professor, more in sorrow than rebuke. "We have our planet to consider, and, next to the planet, ourselves."
"Our planet is big enough to take care of itself," averred Markham. "Leave that out of the question, professor, and confine your attention to some way in which we can better our condition."
"The danger that threatens Earth is greater than you appear to imagine," went on Quinn. "For whatever happened to our home-star because of King Gaddbai and his astounding plans of conquest, I should be responsible. The thought weighs upon me and will give me no rest. The king must be foiled."
"How does he intend to reach the Earth?" asked Markham.
"By means of our car."
"Is that in usable condition?" came joyously from Popham.
"So far as I can discover, it lies intact at the bottom of the crater on whose rim we landed. There is no reason why the car cannot be employed for a return to Terra; but," and here the professor's words became emphatic, "it shall not be so employed by King Gaddbai and his army of conquest. I shall prevent that at all hazards."
"How?" came hoarsely from the three ex-millionaires.
"By destroying the car, as a last resort and when other means fail," was the calm rejoinder.
"You would not dare!" breathed Popham.
"You would not have the heart to take from us our sole means of escape!" added Markham.
"Madman!" ground out Meigs. "If I really thought that you would destroy our only means of salvation, I'd——"
"You wouldn't do a thing, Meigs," I chimed in. "Whatever the professor thinks best to do is going to be done, and no two ways about it."
"I don't want to destroy the car," continued the professor, unmoved by this storm he had aroused, "if other means can be made to serve. And I may say that we shall exhaust every effort to make other means serve. I feel that it is my duty to return you gentlemen to the place from whence you were taken. I have not accomplished what I had hoped to do, but it is better to be disappointed in that rather than to let King Gaddbai get away in the car with his fifty warriors."
"Certainly it is your duty to send us back," said Meigs, "and you should consider that duty before anything and everything else."
"Exactly!" seconded Popham, "and we must take Gilhooly with us. If one goes, all must go."
"Leave the matter to me, gentlemen," counseled the professor quietly. "I shall do everything possible."
The coal baron and the food-trust magnate continued to dwell upon their harrowing experiences with various degrees of intensity until a command for silence came from a word-box somewhere around us. Our raucous tones were keeping the people awake all over the city, the talking machine averred, and unless we became instantly quiet the authorities would take the matter in hand.
This threat had the desired result. We gave over our conversation and settled ourselves for the night.
I do not know how long I slept, but it must have been some hours. I was aroused to find it still dark and to behold the professor with a lighted match in one hand and his other hand over my lips.
The burning match threw a fitful glare around the open space and even reached to the roof tops beyond. Both the palace and the imperial exchequer were brought shadowily forth out of the gloom.
"Now is the time, Mr. Munn!" whispered the professor.
"The time?" I returned sotto voce. "Time for what?"
Without a word he pointed to the square building under the wing of the palace. I understood. It was now or never if I intended to make my raid and secure the Bolla.
I started erect.
"You have matches, Mr. Munn?" the professor asked in the very faintest of audible tones.
I nodded.
"You must be very careful to keep to the street until you reach the country," the professor went on. "If you should make a misstep and wreck a block of houses the disaster would be irretrievable."
"I will strike matches and light my way until I get well into the hills," said I.
"Just what I should have suggested," said he. "Good-by, Mr. Munn. Fail not to return with the exchequer as soon as the king of Baigol has secured the Bolla. Meantime I shall hope to get the car in readiness to speed our departure."
We struck hands as men will when confronted by an issue of life and death. Then I stepped into the street, bent over the imperial exchequer, and wrenched it from its foundations.
It was a well-constructed building, and, although its contents jingled like a rattle box when I took it under my arm, it did not give way in any part.
Striking a match on the roof of the exchequer, I lighted my way down the street, picking my steps with care and caution.
CHAPTER XVI.
HOW ILL-LUCK OVERTOOK ME.
Good fortune fared forth with me from the royal city and remained steadfastly at my right hand as long as the matches lasted; but when the last one had flickered out and left me in impenetrable gloom, my troubles began.
I was well into the rough country when the lights failed, threading a road bordered by hills that in some places were shoulder high. About the first thing I did was to blunder off the trail; in trying to regain it I stumbled over a five-foot mountain and went down all of a heap.
Had I fallen on the exchequer I should have smashed it into a cocked hat—a result only narrowly averted. Regaining my feet and smothering some good strong language that rose instinctively to my lips, I essayed once more to find the Baigol road.
I had my trouble for my pains, and, after an hour spent in fruitless blundering, I sat down on a cliff, propped up the exchequer on the side of a cañon and nursed my barked shins until day began flashing from the reflectors.
As I sat there waiting for the light my brain was filled with evil thoughts which I recall with contrition and chronicle with regret. I knew the exchequer must contain the king's wealth—golden pieces of eight of a rare fineness unknown to the mints of Terra.
I was not of a mind to return the gold after allowing the king of Baigol to take his Bolla. Why not stow the treasure away about my clothes and rely upon my native tact and discretion to get me to the steel car in spite of the grasping monarch of Baigadd?
I was much wrought up over the way I had lost the loot taken from the plutocrats. In my mind's eye I could see those four bulging handkerchiefs waxing and waning about the castle, and I had hoped they would fall to the surface of Mercury along with the car, so that I might still be able to secure them.
In this I was disappointed. Once the Mercurial atmosphere was struck the loot and the revolver had fallen away from the castle like so many pieces of lead.
The wallets, undoubtedly, had been incinerated by the sun's rays, together with the banknotes that were in them. I imagined that the intense heat had exploded the cartridges in the six-shooter and had warped and twisted the firearm until it was no longer serviceable.
The other plunder also, even if found, could not by any possibility be utilized by me or any one else.
All this had made me savagely eager to recoup my finances. And as I sat brooding on the cliff I asked myself why I should not do this at the expense of the Baigadd exchequer.
I did not arouse myself at the first reflected flash of day. Although I had decided to appropriate the contents of Gaddbai's coffers, I was casting about for a suitable method that would gain my end with the least inconvenience.
A maudlin chuckle from near at hand brought me abruptly out of my reflections. I turned, and there, on a neighboring elevation, stood Gilhooly, balancing the exchequer on the broad of his hand.
I was brought up staring. What could the motive power of the B.&B. Interplanetary be doing there, at that time? His absence must have interfered sadly with the train schedule. Certainly the officers of the system, would not have countenanced this neglect of duty, had they known of it.
Then it flashed over me that Gilhooly had run away. He had tired of racing up and down the V-shaped groove with a string of toy cars and had taken French leave of the system.
The fire of insanity was still in his eyes, and he retreated step by step as I advanced upon him.
"Look here, Gilhooly," said I in my most persuasive tones, "that building you have in your hands is the imperial exchequer. Put it down, there's a good fellow. Don't juggle with it in that way. Suppose you were to drop it!"
Gilhooly had begun shaking it up and down as though it were one of those cast-iron banks in which children sometimes deposit their coppers The jingle of the exchequer's contents appeared to please him.
"If you want this road you have got to bid up for it," said he. "I'm not so young that I don't know a good thing when I've got it in my grip."
"That road has gone into the hands of a receiver," I returned, humoring his fancy, "and I'm the receiver. Give it here, Gilhooly."
"I was not consulted when the receiver was appointed," he answered. "I have rights in the matter and those rights must be protected. It's a deal framed up to beat the pool. My, how it rattles!" and he shook the exchequer again.
I was at my wits' end. I knew that tact was far and away more effective than violence when dealing with a crazed person.
"Put it down for a moment, Gilhooly," I wheedled, "and come over to the directors' meeting."
"Who are the directors?" he asked suspiciously.
"Well, there are only two. I'm one, you know, and you're the other."
He exploded a laugh, tossed the exchequer in the air like a strong man playing with a cannon ball, and then caught it deftly as it came down.
"I'm the boy to juggle with railroads!" he boasted. "Ask any one in the Street and they'll tell you."
"Look out!" I gasped, "or you'll drop it."
"Not I!" he mumbled. "I never yet wrecked a railroad."
"Where did you come from, Gilhooly?" I asked, seeking to get him into conversation while I edged closer to him by degrees.
"From distant parts," he replied. "I've been the whole thing for a big transcontinental line that I'm adding to the Gilhooly System." He chuckled craftily. "They thought they had me, but I got out from under with the rolling stock. I've hid the cars in a gully, and my next move will be to steal the right of way. I'm the big railroad man of the country. Just ask anybody who knows what's what in transportation circles and they'll tell you the same thing."
I had arrived within a few feet of him, and suddenly I leaped forward. But he was wary and sprang aside, the exchequer jingling sharply.
"No, you don't," said he. "You're trying to serve a subpoena on me and I'm too foxy for you. Get out of here or I'll have you thrown downstairs."
"Come over to the directors' meeting, Gilhooly," I urged, turning and walking away from him. "You've got to look after your interests, you know."
But the vagaries of a shattered mind are hard to deal with. Gilhooly laughed at me, sat down on a rock and took the exchequer on his knees. He was wary, and never for an instant permitted me to lose his eyes.
"You can't fool me," he cried, "so you'd better take the next train for home. I hold a majority of the stock, and after I've watered it a little I'll have enough to buy another line. It's easy being a railroad magnate when you know how. Clear out, you annoy me."
"Gilhooly," said I, with a gentleness I was far from feeling, "don't you want to know something about Popham?"
"Don't know him," snarled Gilhooly, "but if he's trying to break into this railroad game, just tell him that I control the whole bag of tricks and that it's not worth his while."
Hugging the exchequer in his arms, he rocked back and forth and began to sing.
"Well," said I, starting away again, "if you don't want to attend this directors' meeting I'll have to look after it myself."
He made no reply but kept on hugging the exchequer, rocking back and forth, and timing his monotonous croon to the rattle of treasure in the king's strong rooms.
Warily as I could, I circled about, creeping on all fours and screening myself by the little hills and ridges. My design was to come up on Gilhooly from behind and snatch the exchequer away from him.
But he heard me. Before I had come within a dozen feet of him, he stopped his singing, leaped to his feet, and whirled around. The next moment he had placed himself at a safe distance.
"I'm too many for you," he shouted. "Go away, or I'll call the police."
I was in a sweat for fear some of King Gaddbai's soldiers would locate us and develop their zetbais. One flash of that violet fire would do the business for both Gilhooly and me, and the professor's cherished plans would go by the board. Besides, I had plans of my own, and it seemed as though Gilhooly was destined to make a mess of everything.
"Oh, come, now," I cried, in a bit of a temper. "That won't do you any good, Gilhooly. It doesn't belong to you, and you haven't any right to keep it."
"Don't we ever keep anything that don't belong to us?" he asked sarcastically. "I'm not that sort of a fellow, for I keep everything in the railroad line that I can get my hands on."
Logic and reason were utterly dead in his mind. Whims he had, but they were but fancies of the moment. As I stood there looking at him, I wondered how the people of Baigadd had ever managed to keep him hauling their trains as long as they had.
"Good-by," he called suddenly, taking the exchequer under his arm. "I think I'll go to the office and——"
Just then I made a dash at him. With a mocking laugh he whirled about and raced off across the hills, myself in hot pursuit.
Gilhooly's course intersected the Baigol highway and he turned into it, roaring defiantly as he sped along. Suddenly he stumbled and fell, and a cry of dismay escaped me.
He had fallen squarely on the exchequer and wrecked it completely!
Kyzicks—yellow coins the size of a gold dollar and worth five times as much—rolled, everywhere about the road, diverging from a heap that lay revealed by the collapsed walls of the building. Flinging forward, I went to my knees and began plunging my hands into the pile.
I believe that just then I was as daft as Gilhooly himself. In those days the glimmer of gold always had a demoralizing effect on me.
As I raked my outspread fingers through the yellow pile I brought up a round, jet-black stone the size of my fist. I regarded it as a bit of chaff in the bin of wealth and hurled it from me down the road. With a loud yell, Gilhooly leaped after it.
Then I became aware of a weird and inexplicable feeling that laid itself like an axe at the root of my professional instinct. What right had I to all this treasure? It belonged to the king of Baigall; he was an unworthy creature, perhaps, but still it belonged to him. What had I been about to do? My heart sickened and I sprang up, spurned the kyzicks with my heel and turned my back.
That was my awakening. In one instant the iron of repentance had pierced my soul. The past rolled its turgid waters in front of me. I shivered and drew back from that wave of evil, covering my eyes to blot it from my sight.
How should I atone for the days that had been? Could I do it by an unflinching rectitude in the days there were to be? Conscience was belaboring me with telling blows. I had not been on intimate terms with my conscience for many years, and to have it thus suddenly overmaster me and drive me into reformation was a mystery beyond my power to explain.
While I stood there consumed with regret and hoping against hope for the future, a voice hailed me from down the road.
"Did you say your name was Munn?"
Could that calm, contained voice have come from Emmet Gilhooly? I looked in his direction and found him leaning against a jutting spur of rocks, his right hand clutching convulsively the black stone I had flung from me.
The crazed light had vanished from his eyes. An expression of wonder was on his face, but it was a rational wonder developed by an awakening as abrupt and complete as mine had been.
"You have it right, Mr. Gilhooly," I answered, the extreme mildness of my voice surprising me. "My full name is James Peter Munn and——"
"You are the thief who just came into the castle and relieved myself and my friends of their valuables?"
Gilhooly's normal condition had come back to him at the point where it had been dropped. I was not slow in reasoning how this might be.
"I was a thief in the letter and spirit less than ten minutes back," I humbly answered, "but now, sir, I have turned a leaf. I promise you that the rest of the book shall read better than what has gone before."
Gilhooly passed his left hand across his forehead.
"Where—where am I?" he faltered.
"In the kingdom of Baigadd," I returned, "some distance out of the royal city."
"Baigadd? Royal city? You talk strangely, Mr. Munn. Where is the castle? Where are Meigs, Markham, and Popham? And Professor Quinn? Are we";—he started forward and looked wildly around—"still in the castle? But no, that can't be. You just said we were somewhere else. I beg your pardon, Mr. Munn. I am confused and hardly know what I am saying."
I began an explanation, going patiently into every detail, and when I finally finished Gilhooly knew as much about our situation as I did.
For some time Gilhooly walked up and down the road, passing and repassing the heap of gold. At last he paused beside it.
"We should return this treasure to its owner, Mr. Munn," said he, and he dropped the black stone on the yellow pile. "From what you tell me, this is a strange planet and strangely peopled. Yet there is superstition here as well as in our native orb—as these wonder tales about the Bolla will bear evidence."
"I think with you, sir," said I. "The Bolla is simply a fetish and its miraculous powers are purely imaginary."
"That is the sensible way to look at it. Suppose we load our pockets with the gold and start back with it to the city from whence it was taken?"
I assented and suggested using our coats as improvised bags for the easier transportation of the king's wealth, and we stripped to our shirt sleeves and set about our work. In half an hour we had collected all the scattered treasure, had bound it up in our coats and had started back.
Gilhooly preserved a pensive silence. His thoughts were far away and he seemed entirely oblivious of the fact that I was trudging along at his side. It was only when we turned an angle in the road and came face to face with Quinn, Meigs, Markham, and Popham that Gilhooly showed any interest in our present situation.