CHAPTER XXI.FORGETTING REGAN.
The years passed changelessly in the Sun Island, an emotionless period of waiting, only serving to make her forget the past, forget everything which she ought to remember, Rondah thought.
She knew that in the continual perusal and study of the great books she was forgetting all else, knew that her very soul was changing character from them. When once in those books she had read words, it was impossible to forget them. The thoughts which were explained to her there were limitless, unpuzzled, perfectly finished. She never lost herself when trying to follow the mazes of her mind’s flight.
But, when she tried to think back, it was a dim remembrance, as one remembers a far-away dream.She could not sorrow deeply. Alone, she was never even lonely; there was the constant song humming in the air. It cheered her.
If the stranger were on the island, she never saw him. She concluded that he was asleep with the rest. She knew that the slumber came suddenly and irresistibly upon all.
The pink of Jupiter’s kiss had shimmered in the brilliance of the isle for months when there came into it a faint green tinge.
“I wonder if it is almost spring?” thought Rondah, looking up at the amber cliffs half-covered with diamond-leaved forests. “I wonder if it is almost spring?” and she looked longingly away at the one rift in the burning garnet walls, where beyond them she could see the purple sea and reddish froth. No more was it cold, icy and dark.
For a moment, with its old, terrible intensity, her heart woke to its misery, but only to still heavily again.
A step sounded on the soft leaves beside her.
“Regan!” she cried, gladly, and sprang to her feet.
No, no; it was that stranger, emerald and glistening and of angelic countenance.
“Is it spring now?” asked Rondah, without preliminary. Perhaps he had come to take her home!
“It is winter, drear, dead, white winter. No one has awakened yet.”
“Have you seen him?”
“Whom?”
“Regan!”
“No. I have searched the star and all the palace. I have not seen him.”
But this was false, for as the stranger entered again the island, from which he had been walled all these years, he had passed where Regan was lying. Even as he spoke, and with so radiant a face, he remembered where he lay, his black hair frozen into the drifts, one hand, with Rondah’s note crushed in its icy grasp, close to his heart, the other helplessly frozen at the base of that wall.He was certain that he should not be perplexed by his immediate presence. Still, he had admired his perseverance and pitied, almost, his human weakness when he had fallen.
Within these lovely vales once more with Rondah beside him, he cared little for the man of Earth, asleep in the snow outside the wall.
“We shall both be glad when spring is come, Rondah! I shall return to my own dear world. Will you remain forever in the Sun Island or go out into your little lava land again?”
“Oh, not here! I shall go home. How much longer must I wait?”
“Very long yet!”
“Very long?”
“I have been here now almost thirty-three years. This star, with all that it contains, or will ever contain, is not to be compared with one of the lesser mountains of my world! I was sent from it to bring home a spirit which is so powerful that it can carry through my world and to all its satellites the truths of revelation! I was toldwho she was, and specially selected to come for her!”
The stranger paused.
“Where is she?” questioned Rondah; she was only thinking: “Very long yet before spring, and I am forgetting, all the time forgetting Regan!”
“She is fairer than earthly women, mightier than all earth’s armies, than all its millions, for she can save nations, yes, worlds of men from Godless darkness. The fate of my sun and all its dependents is on her!”
“It is a strange, grand mission,” said Rondah, “greater than ours of humanity. Why do you waste these many years, while souls die, to find her?”
Then she forgot him in remembering the revelations of the books, what she had learned regarding some of the constellations, with their beginning, endurance and destinies. It was very likely. Revelations were to every world, but to none alike; they were taught by many differing agencies.
“She will surely go to my sun, for she is good and merciful. She is a wholly righteous spirit.”
“You should find her at once. Souls perish while you wait!” said Rondah.
“I have found her!”
“Where is she?” again questioned Rondah.
“People do not know their brightest destinies. Is not this a bewildering opportunity for one to offer to man’s ambition—a constellation, its ruling, its splendor and its salvation? Is not the bait tempting—the bait of worlds and souls?”
“I suppose so—to some,” answered Rondah. “I presume that to Regan such an opportunity would be impossible of rejection. If only Regan had such a sun as that!”
Then upon the stranger’s face there flashed a malignant lightning; his eyes shot phosphorescent, baleful gleams; but the expression fled in an instant, and Rondah saw it not.
“There the hills are diamonds, the rivers gold, the leaves of rose hue and fragrance. The great plains are of silver sheen.
“There merely human eyes would be blinded by the splendor. In the vast, jeweled cities there are the homes of men, the prosperity, excitement, learning, love and enjoyments of Earth. There are real people with noble hearts, perfect souls, intellects of powerful capacity, not baby bird men! There are huge and beautiful beasts, which are harnessed for men’s pleasure! The mighty and magnificent race are not of vegetable growth, who need this one spirit to save them!
“The sun is Jupiter! When it is so near that you can go back, it will be spring—time for Regan to wake. The sun is Jupiter! This star is lost among its satellites!”
Like bewitching music fell his words.
“Destiny is foreordained. The spirit whom I love will go. My measureless love for her is part of that ruling; her love for me must follow as fate!”
“Then you love this spirit? If so, I am sorry that you have sought her thirty-three years. You know how long have been these drear winteryears for me, while Regan sleeps in the snow outside the wall!”
There was a shuddering cry; from the air or clouds it seemed. It was like a laugh, a wail, some moan of a lost soul. It frightened Rondah.
She caught the momentary flash of hideous wrath on the man’s face, but it was so quickly gone that she was not certain she saw it.
“Will you accept your mission, Rondah?”
“I?”
“It is for you to save these souls!”
“I shall stay in Regan’s star!”
“This dwarf realm is only a stepping-stone toward a higher throne. Not here is your sphere, with bird men and women. Up there they wait for you!”
He raised his hand and the clouds above them cleared away; beyond the gold they saw Jupiter; his fiery globe was splotched with great, glowing surfaces of yellow.
“Do you see them? Those are my golden lakes. The little, smooth, green moon near thestar is one of the satellites which you can save. It is small, but three times the size of this star.”
Rondah answered nothing.
“That beautiful world has perishing multitudes. They wait for you, Rondah! Will you lose them their salvation for one man of Earth? You are waiting for one merely human. I am of a race more powerful, as my world is greater. You alone can reveal the truths to these worlds. You must teach them, save them. Rondah, Rondah, why do you not look at me?”
His strong, white hands clutched the air beside her, but they could not touch the woman of Earth.
“Rondah, you are the spirit, you are my love!”
“Do you not know I do not love you?” said Rondah, quietly. “Does one so mighty know so little of human hearts?”
“All my worlds are yours. Surely, you must take them. From their creation the scheme of their existence was for you!”
Like a caress the light of ruby and of green fell upon Rondah’s coronet and kissed her red-goldbraids. Her pale, perfect face was pink with the light. Her lovely eyes burned with the glory of both colors.
“I will not go! I will stay in Regan’s star!”
Slow, very slow, her answer, as if a sort of paralysis had touched her.
“He is a foe to Regan,” whispered her wifely faith, “triumphant and gorgeous while Regan is asleep in winter helplessness. Thank Heaven it is the last winter!”
“I hate you!” whispered her heart; almost her lips uttered the words.
“I love you!” cried the man, with an awful prayer in his voice. “I have waited years for a smile or a word. I will not return to my sun without you! Oh! come to your fate with me! You will come, Rondah, you will come?”
And now he caught her hands and turned her reluctant eyes to look at him.
It was not of duty—her strength—for duty with its care was forgotten in the dulling peace of the Sun Island. Love’s might was asleep fromthe same influence. No strength came from the puny star on which she stood. Rondah felt the words of this man’s speaking move her soul like Heaven. An ambition, which was the most powerful characteristic of her humanity, was wakened into quick, living unrest by his picture of the glorious world. His clinging hands seemed to hold her as a bond miraculous. Dead—faith, hope, trust, love—all dead with the Sun Island’s peace and the star’s cold!
Ah, it was from that Earth, that grand old Earth, away in space, remote, lost! It was the stern, narrow-fenced faith of her childhood which came now and stood in her heart and made her able to break all bonds of this unholy forging—that faith at which Regan had scoffed so often when it upheld Father Renaudin years before. It saved Rondah, his wife, when she had almost forgotten Regan.
“Never! I will not come!” she said, but she spoke so low, so hoarsely, that only the stranger heard it. “My God, my God, help me in this star! Come quickly, else I lose my soul!”
Ah, that was a cry which it seemed all the stars might hear. The brilliance lifted above the skylike fog, and all the snowy wastes outside were visible. There were troops of awakened bird people flinging themselves in flocks against the wall. There were ranks of elf men raging and hammering at the wall. There was Regan awake, desperately trying to break down the barrier. There was Father Renaudin hastening to the spot from the far distant palace.
Rondah did not see that the clouds had lifted but all the Star saw her, saw her with cries of horror and despair, and with increase of futile rage.
“You will go, oh, Rondah! I cannot leave you forever! I love you!”
“Go, go!” cried Rondah. “I will never leave the star!”
There was again that shuddering wail. An agony was in its sound which woke all the other sleepers in the snow. It was the wail of lost souls!
The man turned away, dashing Rondah’s handsfrom his hold. He flung shiny wings, which were hidden ’neath his robe, into the air, and in a second was in the clouds, his superb beauty changed to a loathsome darkness, his face grinning and horrid, as with his hands he clutched at her—the woman alone on the Sun Island. He howled at her and he shrieked at her.
The sky began to flicker with lights; these changed to seraphic faces. A thrilling, tremendous chorus of words sounded in the air around:
“Blessed art thou, woman of Earth! Millions of souls hast thou saved this day!”
Then it faded. The air was silent. The music of the Sun Island was dead forever.
Then came a crash as of icebergs breaking. The wall had fallen. Father Renaudin had rushed to it and struck it with his staff of glass. The staff fell shattered in a thousand pieces, but the wall fell too, for the time of angels and of spirits was past in the star. The days of its revelations were ended. It was Rondah’s star, and other instruments were not needed for its progression.
Regan in despair had dropped down as the stranger had flown. The elf men, bringing Regan, the bird men and Father Renaudin all rushed across the lava path, which the winter convulsions had uplifted from the water. They surrounded Rondah. They laid Regan at her feet. Jupiter’s day ended. Night fell.
Rondah sank upon her knees and, lifting his head in her arms, pressed kisses on Regan’s cold lips.
“He is dead! he is dead! Let time die, too, that I need not leave him!” she sobbed, and a moan of sympathy burst from the saddened hearts of the bird women. The elf men wept and wailed.
“No, not dead,” said Father Renaudin, “only overcome by the helpless horror of looking. He thought you would go. I thought you would go—the Star and all the angels thought you would go. It is an old, old tempter in a new sphere. You have saved a world from falling, Rondah. Your mission is here only. Jupiter is a fiery ball, unfit for life except of demons.”
Regan opened his eyes at last, slowly, wearily.
“Here,” he cried, with a half-sob, “here—not gone, not left me for a world of diamond mountains with golden rivers!” And he clasped Rondah in his ice-cold arms.
With all the anguish of the years in her voice, Rondah replied:
“Not for a universe of worlds, not for Heaven, until I must!”
CHAPTER XXII.THE GREEN MOON.
Once more in the palace, Rondah and Regan were happy. Father Renaudin sat beside the fire in the silver room, engrossed in his studies. The star—a satellite of Jupiter—in one soft, steady reign of a new sun, began to change.
From the elf men’s forest of pods a new and superior race, though still of a small-winged, dwarfish kind, bloomed out. From the transplanted pods in the new fields there blossomed wingless creatures, whose advent Regan hailed with delight, but the cause of this phenomenon—the absence of wings—was unsuspected until he informed the wonder-stricken bird men that he had amputated all wings at the time of removal and transplanting.
These differing races were not so harmoniousas were the previous classes. The bird people were strangely restless and cared nothing at all for those great architectural achievements which they had formerly been so pleased to pursue.
The elf men, always a trouble, were still more stubborn and destructive, so much so that Father Renaudin ordered their permanent removal from the continent to one great island of the sea, and with the help of the huge wings of the bird people, having reasoned them into an enthusiastic acceptance of the gift of the great island, they were conveyed there, where their destructive propensities could not affect the work of the superior races.
To the pleased surprise of their scheming managers, as soon as they absolutely possessed the isle, instead of destroying they began to build and cultivate their vales and decorate their mountains. A grotesque and clumsy style of architecture was theirs, and a gaudy and clashing selection of hues adorned the walls, but they were proud and triumphant, and Father Renaudin, who visited thenew land with each week to teach and to preach, began soon to boast of his colonists. He was a monarch without knowing it.
The interior cities were almost deserted by the bird men. They would not even repair the damages of the winter drift. The wingless men, who took this labor in charge, were very slow, but had much more judgment than their brilliant brethren.
The cause of all this restlessness of these people seemed to be the continual rising of the beautiful emerald moon. When it came close to the star, the voices of the bird men made a clamor on the vales and hills. They did not seem to fear, although the two orbs were often dangerously close to each other. They only seemed wild as a fetterless flock of unreasoning birds.
The star was transforming itself into a dreamland. The silver trees of diamond leaves were transplanted from the Sun Island, and these bloomed freely everywhere. There came to life new forms of vegetation, new orders of annuals.The storms of intense violence gradually died in the air. The showers of rain became frequent and no longer frightful.
The southern lava seas so cooled that the snow of the polar regions settled in spots upon the islands. Earthquakes became of less power. There were many of the boiling spots in the sea which ceased to simmer, when one far-off island burst into a living volcano and closed these lesser outlets.
And as the softened years thus redly glided on, the children of man were born in the star, and Regan’s sons and daughters played under the silver trees.
The slow improvements continued without any material aid from the bird men. The wings which Regan had always so hated now gave them that supremacy which he had always foreseen. It was fully demonstrated that a winged race were only subject when they chose to be, “temporarily.”
CHAPTER XXIII.“FAREWELL!”
One sunset they were all upon the lake-cooled roof, where was the glass island with its golden temple; the sun was bathing the star in liquid ruby; the emerald moon, at a point seeming nearer than ever before, came glinting its green into their skies. There were other moons, too, but only a single green one.
The loud clamoring of the bird men was even more emphatic than usual. It resolved itself into words. These words were: “Farewell! farewell!”
“What does this mean?” exclaimed Regan, starting to hinder them; but he returned to his seat. They had their wings and they had spread them.
From all the vales, from all the hills they rosein black flocks, shadowing the palace, darkening the air. And with the thunder of many wings added to the music of their voices, they left the star, sailing till they changed into a black spot, and that soon lost to view in the distance.
“A migration to that emerald moon,” said Father Renaudin. “That explains their restlessness for the past years.”
“Yes, and that accounts for my half-finished cities and my slowly-built temples of commerce and art,” said Regan. “Do not grieve, Rondah,” he added. “They are gone, but more will soon blossom.”
“Not so,” said Father Renaudin. “Yesterday I visited the plain and found that the southern sea had penetrated the chasm. All the bird pods sleep beneath hundreds of feet of water.”
“Alas! alas! My beautiful, true friends! I did not dream that they would leave us like this!” said Rondah.
“It is better so. The race of men has now possession of the star,” said Regan. “I never likedthose wings, those black and breathful sheets of power. The elf men will improve into a humanity. The wingless race is almost, if not entirely, human. To us and to our children is the star, Rondah!”
CHAPTER XXIV.THE MYSTERY OF THE SUN ISLAND.
Of so great importance was the learning in the books that Regan and Rondah decided to explore the Sun Island and try to regain them.
Father Renaudin ventured to accompany them, although until he had entirely crossed the lava bridge he was not certain that the prohibition concerning his return had been removed. True, he had once stepped upon that sacred soil, but that was in what always seemed to him like a flash of lightning-like desperation and most dangerous presumption. He found no voice nor influence commanding him to retrace his steps, and the three proceeded to make a thorough exploration.
The beautiful isle lay before them, glowing like a gem, as much their own, it seemed, as any patch of earthly stubble. They had not seen it for severalbusy years. It was more enchanting than of yore. It even appeared larger. The rainbow cloud still hung above it, but the radiance of white, veiling light had gone with the wall. The heights of amber and garnet were clearly defined against the purplish sky of Jupiter. The amber palace stood, but no books were there.
For some days they had climbed the cliffs and penetrated to the ravines, when they were astonished to find near the sea a huge garnet gate. That it had been cut by men’s handicraft from a cliff near by they could see. It was hinged and bolted with silver.
It was open.
“We have found the secret of the isle!” exclaimed Father Renaudin.
“I doubt not we have found one of the secrets of the universe!” answered Regan.
“But,” slowly said Rondah, “shall we go in?”
“Why not? No death in the star!”
“I may not see my little children for many years!”
“They are safe where there is no danger. Come!”
The two, Father Renaudin and Rondah, stood hesitating, looking at the strength of the gate.
“Of what are you two afraid?” asked Regan.
“That the gate will shut!” answered both together.
“Destiny is! Come!” said Regan.
They descended the hewn stairs; as they went into the depths of the star they heard the gate shut with a clang.
“What fate may unbar it?” said Rondah.
“Be sure something will unlock it for us,” said Father Renaudin.
“It has been built by humanity,” said Regan.
The ever-surging sea was silent. The roar of the many volcanoes was not heard.
They soon found that the air and lights in the underground realm existed independently of any outside atmosphere or illumination. At intervals hung above them meteors of large size, which whitely blazed.
For a long distance their uninterrupted progress was through great garnet halls. Then they came into a vast cavern of silver. Silver was everywhere, either frosted or shining. Among supporting columns and through branching tunnels they searched, until they came to a small, round door.
“The gate to Heaven!” whispered Regan, and now he paused and dared not enter upon the field before him.
Here Father Renaudin was brave. Notwithstanding his revelations, the sudden sight of these things made him believe that Gregg Dempster had prepared for them this miracle of brilliance and left it for their delight.
They crept through the door and stood gazing in bewilderment, unable, among the reflections of light, to see where to go. For far before them swept into distance a moving, whispering sea, which was of no water ever known before. It was a tossing sheet of emerald and fire; glittering gems sweeping in liquid flames rolled in long smooth swells to fall in music at their feet.
The shore around was like frost of winter. Many blazing meteors whitened all with brilliance. A palace built by hands stood beside the waters. It had doors made of the silver trees which grew outside on the island. When Regan saw this he began to recover his presence of mind, for never before on the star had he been so utterly confounded.
Then came toward them a giant man. His robes were of jewel-covered fabric. He was most noble, and looked at them with gentlest eyes from a strong, calm face. He held out his hand. As they approached, he said:
“For this hour the star has whirled. This is the measure of a cycle. Fear no further!”
Then he called, and from the palace came hundreds of people, yes, very people of Earth. They were strangely glorified, but men and women, who cried out, in glad acclaim, “The time is here at last!” and who looked with delighted countenances upon these three.
“The long years have passed,” said one.
“They speak as men,” said Rondah.
“Yes,” said the man who towered in majesty so superior to any that he could not be supposed to belong to the same race. “Listen while I tell you the secret of the Sun Island and how it came to be here.”
He moved his hand and a number of boys came forward and scattered upon the white rocks baskets of blossoms, making banks of flowers on which the three seated themselves while the man told them as follows:
“In time primeval, before the sun with its attendant worlds was spoken into being, where now we whirl, on this tiny orb, there rolled two stupendous, peopled worlds more vast than Jupiter. On these dwelt such as I, men whose lives were prolonged for ages. We reasoned for cycles. We built for great periods. We had years granted until we learned too much and grew weary of our knowledge.
“But woe and sin and hate, intensified in evil according to the size of the field and the capacityof the race, existed with us. For centuries my life was only part of a splendid pageant. Then I became troubled at the misery around me. I devoted my time to the unfortunate. Oh, there were so many! Their relief became the only pleasure of my life. I heard the prophecies about me. I noted the signs of impending disaster. I even heard the creaking of the sinews of our old world, and saw the continents being deserted for life beyond; but I was so busy. I hastened to get to a few more nations, and before I was there, while I was saying, ‘Some other time I will lay down my life,’ the globes, like two bubbles in air, burst into millions of fragments and my existence was indefinitely prolonged.
“Previously we had been instructed by agencies of a supernatural character, but I was vouchsafed no explanation, neither granted any instruction. On this fragment—a patch of my world—I floated for some chaotic cycles—somewhere! anywhere!
“Then I saw your sun, with worlds, called into that place where before all had been dark. Ages,oh, ages ago, my island dashed into the mass of hot vapor wherein were floating in steam Earth’s oceans, for then the gaseous ball was very large. Later, I saw the oceans fall upon lava, to be sent off in clouds. I saw continents form, like black ice in scarlet seas, and saw them dashed into pieces to leave no record.
“I saw such forests as these on the star, and saw them with their hot marshes sunken under temporary seas. I began to wonder why was all this. Time became a long sorrow to me. The Earth was a break in its monotony, and when it became the abode of man I could scarce endure my long exile. For each short visit I must away to Saturn’s kingdom out in distance. With farseeing eyes, such as we have, I could look through some years, and see the deeds and also read the hearts of men.
“The souls on earth were as a page to me. All schemes in lives or mysteries of nature I could understand. I could recite to you long histories of the pre-Adamites. I saw the glory of Atlantisbefore the oceans submerged it. Its wisdom was superior to that of the race now on Earth, its achievement beyond all later achievement. So like gods grew those men that the Earth trembled at their power, and the mandate went forth to destroy their wicked brilliance and unpeople almost all the Earth.
“As I looked at the burnish of its wealth and saw its miraculous prosperity, I bethought me to fly down and save a few souls from the doomed land. With a great air-ship, such as we used in my world, I gathered from the Earth a few, and these are their descendants. Then there was a removal of oceans, an uplifting of other areas. The learning of ages, the temples of nations slept under the sun as I neared the Earth, and slept under the water as I left.
“Then the fragment was too small for us and I bethought me to capture a half-cooled ball of lava not far away. By means of heavy chains and air-ships I hitched my island to this star, and later grafted its roots into the soil. According to thelaw of my great sphere, the lesser plant began at once to absorb the greater, and then it was revealed to me that when the Sun Island had extended over the entire star, absorbing all the lava substance, transforming all the seas to emerald and flame, I might proceed to realms more fair.
“I still watched Earth, through the glory into which the history of Egypt dies, into the progress of moderns where hope of history lives.
“More than a thousand souls I influenced from time to time. At last, there was born in an English hamlet a boy, Gregg Dempster. His mother died with a mad prayer on her lips: ‘Let him not worship gold! Oh, take him to another, easier world than this!’ In all the years I had not heard so simple a prayer uttered with so awful power of death. From his cradle I watched the child through friendless youth, loveless manhood, monomaniac age, and saw him in abject poverty, yet ever shielded from the greatest grief of men. Often I urged him on, often I taught him secrets, often I gave him courage. I spoke when he layupon his bier. It was not he. I stood here to meet him when he came first upon the star. I walled for him the Sun Island.
“Then, Regan, my eyes saw you forsaken in the forest, with your little sister in a wilderness. Your mother prayed not but cast herself to death. I thought, ‘Where is some man to save these souls?’ Father Renaudin had had no visions then. While you and Isabella sobbed in the forest, she freezing and you despairing, I lighted for Father Renaudin that vision of his duty which flashed into his eyes and burned into his soul. It made him shake off his habit of slothful luxury, and sent him to where you stood. That very night he found good homes for both of you. Do you remember that, Regan?”
“I shall remember that when the suns have grown cold!” answered Regan.
“I noted that, with all your heavy curse, the curse of the father and the curse of the mother also, you were yet strangely noble. You chose for yourself the humble home of poverty, and gaveall the brightness of life to your sister. I wondered would you too forget. Through the imposed silence concerning the relationship I saw you always faithful, always in human love bound beyond power of separation to sever. I was near you when you fought your path through disgrace and poverty in life. In your deepest troubles, in your darkest disgrace, I was there, but I could not excuse your course. I could only pity your weakness and remember the curse of the father, the curse of the father!
“I did not note Rondah until she came, like a ministering spirit, to care for Gregg Dempster when he was near death. The prayer of Gregg Dempster’s mother was answered from Heaven. Father Renaudin and yourself I watched and aided. Rondah was blessed by the kindness of the angel-man!”
“You came to me,” said Father Renaudin, “when I stood on the cliff and with despairing misery looked over the star. You whispered in the air: ‘Man, you have dreamed a god’s dreamwith human strength! You have been given a field where humanity can accomplish the godlike dream!’ It was time for you to come. My soul fainted, my faith faltered!”
“Yes, it was time. Humanity has so little faith. It has so little revelation. But from this time on I may reveal much. Come!”
They walked along the shore of the emerald sea, the people of Earth about them, but like an angelhood. Wisdom of deathless years was in their eyes.
“From what a race are we degenerate!” said Father Renaudin.
“To what a height may we not rise!” answered Regan.
Rondah had not been so long from Earth as to feel so keenly the wonder as she mingled with a crowd of mankind.
Before them rose a white-walled city; into its streets they walked. The old song was in the air, the song of the Sun Island.
Beyond were fields of sapphire blue, each leaf with the slightest touch of gold upon it.
“These are our fields; these are our seas; here is our city; humanity is our people,” said their guide. “See here!”
They looked to see where the roots of silver had crowded the lava above the branching stems. Seeing them entirely bewildered at the ideas so swiftly presented to them, the man of the old world said:
“Can you not understand? Do you know how a coral builds an island? Can you not believe that a world may be a plant, and a plant may have animal life? They almost, if not quite, approach to it even in your Earth. The star belongs to your sun, but our world was the property of another sun and had a different order to follow. The great ball could think and move, and when we too deeply wrought its brilliant breast, it groaned with an awful voice. We were not astonished at that, as were you, in horror, when the island cried aloud. Look here!”
They saw the ocean, drop by drop, falling through the silver rocks into the emerald sea.
“How long shall I be here?” mused the guide. “Until, drop by drop, the sea of the Sun Island has swallowed the seas of the star! How many drops are there in your seas, Regan? When they are all gone you will be sole monarch of the most lovely star whirling in this portion of the heavenly constellations!
“Let me tell you what you are destined to do here. Not to dwell with bird people nor to wait for the development of elf men. Here is your own race. You have now to select for your outside world twelve such as you choose, and of these will be the kingdoms of the future. Look never for a human soul to evolve from a vegetable nor to rise into the body of a goblin elf man.
“As the star floats you shall teach it all things; make better laws than ever Earth dreamed of; create a paradise! Man should learn to lay each stone to stand for a thousand years. Your records should be on walls of amber, not in books of silver.
“Among the bird people there is no sin, butthe human race is still burdened with its taint. When the star is builded with colossal cities, the sea spanned with silver bridges, the hills scintillating with diamond forests, whether or not sin be eradicated remains with you, Regan. Rondah has saved all the bird people; to save humanity is for the king of the star! Come yet further!”
Like a giant marble statue given a life he seemed as he moved in grandeur, the radiance of his robes blinding them. The crowd about were wrapped in cloud-mist of pink, and folds of rainbow were their draperies. The music of the many footfalls was like the tinkling of numberless silver bells.
“Would you see a remembrance of the pre-Adamites?”
There rose before them a vision of altars, robed priests and cloudy incense, flowers, gold, mystery of musical incantation.
“That is one of the old fair scenes of worship. So did primeval man worship a mystery above him.”
Then the vision fled. Another rose.
“That is my world! Oh, blessed home!” said the man of might.
They looked on works of such magnitude that the surface of the star had not been able to uphold them—steeds of immense strength and majestic in motion, vehicles moving a thousand men at once. As this vision also vanished, Regan asked:
“Is then our Earth so inferior?”
“In size and in beauty, yes; in revelation from God blessed above many others.”
Then rose their star as it was to look in the future.
“The dearest land of all!” exclaimed Rondah. “Parzelia!”
“What moving thing is that? What crosses in those swallowing waters?” cried Regan. “Is it a ship for my seas at last?”
“Why need a ship where silver bridges span all channels?” and the man laughed, which strangely shocked them all till they remembered he was not a god. He was even no angel. Theisland grew as a plant; the visions might be the product of any mind which had had so long to invent. A holier man of greater length of life. This only.
And still in the picture moved the immense vehicle safely through the sea. The sides were veiled in silver and diamond foliage. Sometimes the water surged on its sides, sometimes it was hidden behind smoke of volcano. It moved on. Then Regan saw stone paws stamping in the water heavily.
“It is the island—the island, which lives!” cried he, in triumph.
“Man of Earth, that is the last of this kind of revelation,” said the man of might. “Remember well all I shall show you, for after the gate closes when you return to the outer star it will never be again unbarred! It will be a barrier as impassable as the gulf which separates the lost from happiness! I, under the star, you, upon it, will have our separate existences from now forever! When I depart, you will not know, you will neverhear a whisper of our life again! Therefore learn now. The island shall take you to volcanic south or to north no longer arctic. It shall carry your colonists to every land where Jupiter shines.
“See the faint remembrances of my former life! I have made all the models very much smaller than they were of old!”
Then they entered a great building and looked on mysteries innumerable, and on devices for purposes unknown, superseding all earthly art. Machines were there which walked through mountains to tunnel them, others for lifting a continent, if the feat were necessary; machines for flying, contrivances for communicating with other spheres. These were a few among the many of which they could comprehend the use, but not the principle. There were walls of lace-work in gold, temples of lace-work in amber, masses of gem-sheened fabrics, piles of jewels, long lines of golden statuary, and marvels of wind harps with pipes to make mystic music without hands.
When they were weary the man said: “Come float on the sea!”
A circular boat of silver and sailed with pink clouds came to meet them. Around the circular edge sat fifty red-robed oarsmen, wearing high white caps all glinting with gems; they moved the boat across the sea by means of paddles of circular sheets of hammered silver, fastened upon the ends of long staves of blue pearl. The craft was in two sections. The central part was a half-sphere of amber separate from the rest and merely floated by its encircling. On this was a silver canopy where they reposed to watch the scene.
They paused before a length of smooth rising shore, and there were assembled the shimmering multitudes, hailing in earthly voices the advent of the earth-king, Regan. Each one was in robes of jeweled cloth, for it was a gala day. Twelve were to be chosen to go outside the gates, and each one desired to be one of the twelve. They had been happy there for ages, in their constantly expanding kingdom, but they were human and they wanted change. And another thing, they wanted the glory of building a world, for they wereof the Atlantean race. They moved like flashes of light.
A group of seers was admitted upon the craft to bring to Father Renaudin books of great importance, sealed bottles of amber, curious flasks of medicines and boxes of precious perfumes. These were laid most reverently at his feet, and, amid his thanks, the seers, with obeisance, moved away.
“I would there were more of these compounds and mixtures,” said the man of the old world. “They are powerful and most necessary. I have not been able to remember a millionth part of the alchemy of old, there were so many things to do, there was so much which I did not prepare. If I had only had more time, it would have been better!”
“And were you,” asked Rondah, “you, who lived for cycles, hurried in your lifetime?”
“Oh, yes! I could not do half. I left all my noblest dreams unrealized; my highest hopes proved fruitless!”
“Impossible!” sighed Father Renaudin.
“Shall we accomplish our mission? Shall we bring a finished life’s work to a world’s end?” asked Rondah.
“Never! never! Eternity is too short to finish the endless labor of a universe! I doubt if God Himself has ever ended his work! From time beginningless to time eternal the march of labor goes on, from little sphere to larger, from lesser soul to greater, from duller intellect to one more brilliant! It is the changeless law for men and for angels alike! Onward, ceaselessly move onward, is the united aim of all dissevered instruments!
“There can come no pause. No man has ever moved an iota back since chaotic universes were spoken into moveless black of horrified space. Nor demon, nor angel, nor God on high has stopped the course, from its accomplished lower task on the path to do its unfinished higher task, of atom or of sun since first the blistering balls of howling, hissing fire were whirled away upon their non-clashing cycles. There is no end to labor!Labor is the duty of suns! Labor is the delight of Heaven!”
“When shall I chain my star? When may I drive it like the isle? When may I say to adverse fate, ‘Stand still?’” asked Regan.
“When you have eradicated sin from the hearts of all this humanity, now removed from the curse of Earth, when you shall have grown more aged and more wise than am I, for I cannot do that,” answered their guide; “no, I cannot do that!”
“What is the limit of our power?” asked Father Renaudin.
“There is no bound to what knowledge humanity may attain, save the clog of sin! Time, strength and study will overcome all other barriers!”
“Monarch of Fate is man! Man yet shall chain the stars; shall drive the harnessed worlds!” said Regan Farmington.