Part 11

The great wings closed round him, and the immense claws with which they were armed gripped him, striving to draw him within reach of the head, with its open mouth and shining fangs.

The wooden bar, however, was jammed against its breast, and prevented it for the moment from coming to close quarters. Just then Gerald and Jack, who had entered the cage behind Malto, fired their pistols simultaneously.

As a result, one wing could be seen to be hanging limply, broken by a bullet; and as the creature gave utterance to another scream, Jack rushed in and despatched it.

Gerald and Alondra assisted the plucky young fellow to struggle out of the enfolding wings. Directly he was clear he sprang up, and, seizing upon the prostrate man, began to drag him towards the opening.

'Quick, quick!' he cried. 'That scream was to call its mate to its aid, and it will be here in another minute!'

The man they had saved was unconscious; but the two chums laid hold of him, and, picking him up with comparative ease, carried him out of the cage.

Hardly had the gate been closed behind them when there was heard a repetition of the scream. A second monster came rushing out of the gloom and hurled itself against the bars with a force which shook them as though they had been but wire.

Malto, badly mauled as he was, hastily fastened the gate, and then, turning to the others, said hurriedly, 'There is no time to lose! If you can carry my friend, who has fainted, bear him this way. The noise will bring people here, and we shall be captured ourselves if they see us!'

Between them they bore the one they had rescued across the floor to a small door upon the side opposite that by which they had entered. Malto unlocked it, and when they were well inside closed it quickly.

There were here, amongst other things, a number of queer-looking dresses hung on pegs, and Malto took some down and urged the three friends to dress themselves in them.

'Make haste, while I attend to my friend!' he urged; and though Alondra strongly disliked the idea of dressing himself up in a disguise, there was that in their new friend's tone and manner which somehow silenced his objections. The stranger, meantime, had obtained a bowl of water from somewhere near, and sprinkled it in the face of the unconscious man. Then he drew from his pocket a flask, which he held to the man's lips, and a minute later the sufferer opened his eyes, gave a gasp, and sat up.

Presently he seemed to recollect what had happened, and, realising the need for action himself, he struggled to his feet. He looked a grotesque figure indeed, and the three who had helped to save him, busy though they were, trying to fit on their strange garments, could not help staring at him in wonder. He was evidently 'got up' in imitation of a great bat--that much seemed certain--but the reason of such an extraordinary get-up was for the time being a riddle to which they could find no answer.

Whatever the original intention in wearing the dress may have been, however, it was clear that Malto saw no use in its continuance, for he proceeded to assist the wearer to discard it and attire himself in some of the garments which were hanging on the pegs. Then he rolled up the whole affair into a bundle, and concealed it in a corner beneath a pile of skins.

They were now all garbed in a quaint kind of costume, the chief points of which consisted of a high hat and a loose cloak, which hid the clothes they were still wearing underneath. It was one of the dresses worn by the attendants of the palace, so Malto briefly explained, while peering out through a grating in the door to see what was going on in the place they had just left.

As he had expected would be the case, the noise of the revolver shots had brought some people upon the scene. He could see a group gathered near the cage, staring at the dead monster, while others were moving about in search of a clue to the mystery of how it had come by its death.

'They will be in here directly,' Malto said in a low tone, after a brief inspection. 'We had better be off!--Do you think you can walk, Malandris?'

'Ay, ay, and run too, if needs be,' returned the rescued man briskly. 'I am all right now. I owe you my life'----

'Never mind that now. This is no time for talk,' Malto interrupted. 'Just take a last look round, to make sure we have left nothing to tell that we have been here, and follow me!'

He unlocked a door on one side, and they passed out in silence into a passage, which was almost in darkness. A little farther on there were several flights of steps, and, having ascended these, they came out, after some careful reconnoitring through another door, into the open air in a spacious courtyard.

Malto locked the door behind him, and, enjoining caution upon his companions, led the way to a large gateway which they could see in front of them.

'If any one addresses you, say nothing, but leave it to me,' he said to Alondra and his friends. 'Your speech would betray you at once.'

As they drew near the gates they were pushed open, and a number of men in the purple dresses they had seen inside marched in, with soldierly bearing and military precision.

One, who seemed to be an officer, stopped and spoke to Malto; and again Alondra heard the strange tongue which he had noted before.

Malto remained a short time in talk, while his companions walked on with as good an imitation of carelessness as they could summon up on the spur of the moment.

When Malto came up with them he was smiling quietly to himself.

'It's lucky they did not see us come out of that door,' he said to Malandris, 'or they would have asked awkward questions as to how I came to have a key.'

'Ah, that is what has been puzzling me all this time,' observed Malandris.

'That is my secret for the present,' returned Malto. 'It is a little secret which would interest Kazzaro even more than it does you, if he happened to be aware that I had such a key.'

'What has been puzzling me,' said Alondra, addressing Malandris, 'is how you came to be in that cage, and in such an extraordinary dress--if one can call it a dress. I suppose some one must have placed you there. Who could have been guilty of such an atrocious act?'

Malandris, who was a tall, elderly man, with grizzled hair and a worn, haggard-looking face, shook his head with a sigh, as he answered, 'That you should wonder, young sir, only shows that you must be a stranger hereabouts--one who knows not the master we serve, or what he is capable of.'

'Hark! what is that?' exclaimed Malto suddenly. 'I 'm afraid they 've got upon our track! Do you see that tower yonder?'

Before them lay a wide, grassy expanse, at the end of which was a sort of ornamental pavilion or small tower.

'That is the place we have to make for,' he went on. 'If we can reach it, we shall be safe--at all events, for a time--till assistance comes. If necessary, we must run for it.'

As he spoke, the low murmur which he had noted behind them grew into a clamorous shouting, and a moment later a crowd of pursuers came running through the gateway they had so recently passed through.

*CHAPTER XXIV.*

*AT THE PAVILION.*

'You said a little while ago that you could run if needs were,' said Malto, addressing Malandris. 'You must try now, at any rate. I will help you.'

'I am quite recovered,' was the answer. 'We must look after these young people.'

'Oh, that I had my wings! Why did I leave them behind this morning!' exclaimed Alondra.

'You may as well throw off those disguises,' Malto advised. 'They are of no use now, and will only hamper you.'

As yet their pursuers were a long way off, for after the reconnoitre at the gateway the fugitives had stepped out briskly, and had covered nearly half the distance to the pavilion before the alarm had been given.

They now set off at a run, after discarding their disguises, and at first it seemed as though there would be no difficulty in reaching the tower well ahead of their pursuers. Indeed, the latter seemed, at one time, to have almost given up the chase; for only a few were to be seen coming towards them; the rest had halted.

A few moments later, however, the cause of the delay became clear. Suddenly a man rose in the air on motor-wings and began to sail rapidly towards them. He was armed with a trident. Convinced that he would easily effect the capture of the fugitives, who had, as could be seen, neither shields nor tridents, the remainder of the crowd followed quietly in the rear. They would be in plenty of time, they reckoned, to pick up the unconscious bodies when the man with the trident had dealt with them.

Malto muttered something between his set teeth.

'I 'm afraid it is no use,' said Malandris despondently, as he ran along beside the others. 'He is bound to overtake us, and we are all unarmed.'

'Not quite,' Jack answered. 'If they think we are, so much the better; it may give us a chance to get on equal terms with that flying chap. His trident is no good at more than twenty yards. We have something here which reaches farther than that.'

He and Gerald had drawn their revolvers, and were looking to the hammers as they raced onwards, to make quite sure that they were in working order. Everything would depend upon making good practice with their first shots.

'You aim at one wing, Gerald,' said Jack; 'I will aim at the fellow's arm which carries the trident. Take it easy! Don't run too fast; it will make your hand shake.'

They continued on their way for some distance farther. The pavilion was now not far off; so also, unfortunately, was the flying man with his trident.

Jack gave a sign to Gerald, and they both turned and faced him. Alondra stopped too; and the others, although they did not exactly understand what was likely to happen, immediately halted, because they would not leave the three to their fate.

As it happened, this was the best thing they could have done. The flying man interpreted their action as an abject surrender. He slackened speed and came on carelessly.

Then two shots rang out. Jack's aim was true; his bullet struck the man's right arm, and the trident flew from the hand which had grasped it. Gerald's first shot missed, but his second struck one wing and smashed the light framework. The wing drooped, and the flier fell heavily to the ground.

*[Illustration: The wing drooped, and the flier fell heavily to the ground (missing from source book)]*

'Good! Good! Capital!' Malto and Malandris cried out, in surprised wonder and delight at this turn of affairs, for neither of them understood anything about pistols.

'Now, run for it, my friends! We shall get there first yet!' Jack called out.

'Let me have his trident, though,' said Alondra, as he picked up the fallen man's weapon. 'This may come in useful, you know.'

There was a great outcry behind them as the pursuers witnessed the discomfiture of the aeronaut. The crowd at once took up the chase in a manner which showed how confidently they had been counting upon his ability to capture the fugitives without their aid.

As has been stated, the men in the dark-purple dresses were big, fine men, all of them. There was that in their aspect, too, which betokened a fierce nature, used to warfare.

They quickly made it evident that they were good runners, and they started off now in earnest and came on swiftly. But they had lost whatever chance they might at first have had of overtaking those they were chasing, by trusting too confidently to the man with the wings.

By the time they reached the base of the tower the fugitives had already dashed up the steps leading to the entrance, had opened and passed through some barred gates, fastened them behind them, and gained the shelter of the doorway.

A minute or two afterwards they appeared upon a balcony, of which there were several running round the tower on the outside, one above the other, and complacently smiled down upon their baffled foes.

'Well, we 've beaten 'em so far,' exclaimed Malto. 'I had almost given up hope. We should have been done for if it hadn't been for those noisy playthings of yours, young gentlemen. May I ask what they are, and where they come from? I have never met with that kind of weapon before.'

'They come from a far country, so far that your head would scarcely carry the tale of the figures if I were to attempt to give them to you,' Alondra declared laughingly. 'Now, what is to be done next? Our foes will be sending an airship against us, I suppose; and if assistance doesn't reach us pretty soon I am afraid they will have the best of it, after all.'

'No, I don't think there is any fear of that. They won't send an airship against us,' said Malto.

Malandris shook his head too. 'Not during the day,' he assented. 'They might when it gets dark, if we are still here.'

'Why not?' asked Jack, in surprise.

'It would attract attention. You see, our master has visitors. Prince Alondra, the son of King Ivanta, is staying here; and he, or some of his people, might be cruising about in his air-yacht or in some of the airships which came with him. If they caught sight of an airship engaged in fighting operations down here their curiosity might be aroused, and they might come and ask inconvenient questions.'

At this Gerald and Jack glanced at one another and then at Alondra, and nearly burst out laughing; but the latter made a sign, and they turned away and said nothing. The young prince wished to keep his identity a secret a little longer, in order that he might have an opportunity of quietly probing farther into the meaning of the extraordinary events of that eventful morning.

'What, then, do you suppose they will do?' Alondra went on.

'Oh, very likely nothing at all! Just loaf about to make sure that we don't get away during the day. They know they can't break into this pavilion; it has been strongly built on purpose. Then at night they will make sure of us. Our best hope is that we may see some passing airship and attract the attention of the people in her, and that they may come and take us off.'

'That doesn't sound very hopeful. It might be one of Agrando's airships,' Jack pointed out.

'On the other hand, it might be one belonging to his visitors,' said Malto. 'Then, I imagine, we should be all right. I suppose you belong to their party, don't you? I have been thinking it over, and can't guess who else you can be. You said you could take me to King Ivanta, and I don't see how you could make such a promise unless you belonged to the prince's party.'

He looked searchingly at Alondra as he spoke, and there was in his tone and look a suggestion of reproach at their keeping him in the dark.

'You are quite right, my friend,' Alondra now said gravely. 'We do belong to the party of visitors you speak of. I expect they are already wondering where we have got to, and will be coming out to look for us before long. So I hope our troubles are over, or soon will be. And now, as we have time for a little talk, I want to hear your stories--you two. Explain to me the meaning of all that has happened.'

But Malto shook his head.

'I wish to tell it all to King Ivanta, and to no one else,' he declared. 'You have promised to take me to him, and I shall ask you to keep your promise, and to refrain from questioning me meantime. Cannot you understand that the king might not be pleased if he found I had been talking freely of things which he may wish had been kept for his ear alone?'

Alondra was silent. He felt that Malto was right, and could not but respect him for his caution. At the same time, he was burning to have some explanation of their adventures.

'But you said you wished for our testimony to back up yours,' he reminded him. 'How can we help in that way if you do not enlighten us as to what it is we are to testify about?'

It was now Malto's turn to ponder, and he remained for a space gazing out thoughtfully over the expanse of ground which lay upon the other side of the pavilion.

The three followed his glance, and noted that the building formed part of the boundary wall of an extensive enclosure, which just here consisted of an extremely high and massive-looking stone fence, adorned at the top with formidable metal spikes.

Farther round, to right and to left, the boundary wall consisted of precipitous rocks, which shut the place in, and made it a kind of a park.

Alondra noted this, and, breaking off from the subject of his last question, asked why they could not descend from the pavilion into this enclosure. It seemed to him that it would be a difficult matter for their enemies to scale the wall in order to follow them.

Just as he had spoken there rose on the air a strange, weird, booming sound. It was a sort of bellowing roar, but far louder and more startling than the bellow of a bull or the roar of the largest lion ever seen or heard of. The sound seemed to come from a distance; yet it was so loud that it almost made the tower itself tremble. That it was produced by some member of the animal kingdom seemed pretty certain. But what horrible monster could it be which could make such a sound? There was something almost supernatural in its awful depth and power; something appalling in the menacing tones of the hoarse, ferocious growl into which it changed as it gradually died away.

'What in the name of all that is horrible is that?' cried the startled young prince.

'It is the answer to your question,' returned Malto quietly. 'That is to say, it partly answers both your questions. I may go so far as to explain that my original object in coming here, before we were found out and pursued, was that you might perhaps hear that terrible roar, and possibly catch sight of the creature which gave utterance to it. But it is not at present in sight, and I imagine that, after what you heard, you will scarcely care to get out on the other side of the pavilion and go to look for it?'

'I--I think not,' said Alondra. 'I will take your word for it that we are probably safer even here than we should be down there.'

'You are,' answered Malto drily. 'It is a creature upon which neither your trident nor the strange weapons of your young friends would make more impression than upon yonder rocks! Now you will be able, if we ever come before King Ivanta, to confirm one part of what I wish him to know. King Agrando has a name as a collector of all kinds of curiosities and monstrosities. King Ivanta has himself helped him to make his collection the most comprehensive that has ever been seen'----

'Yes, yes, I know all that,' Alondra put in impatiently.

'Ay, but what you do not know is this--that Agrando's object in gathering these out-of-the-way things about him is not altogether a mere harmless love of the curious. He is a monster of cruelty'----

'A perfect fiend!' Malandris interjected.

'His craze--for such it is--is a sort of madness,' Malto continued. 'It is to set men to fight for their lives with the most terrible creatures he can find to pit against them. That is the amusement he and that demon Kazzaro delight in! That is why they have constructed all these secret places, which none know of save themselves and their myrmidons. Little does the noble-minded Ivanta dream of the proceedings of these two, or of the way in which he has himself contributed to them. If he but knew'----

'Eh, what? How dare--I mean, how can King Ivanta have contributed to such horrible cruelties as you are hinting at?' demanded Alondra hotly.

'I don't wonder that you are moved to indignation, young sir. But I am not blaming King Ivanta. He has been deceived. For instance, he, it is said, paid a visit to another planet, and brought back with him many strange and horrible monsters never seen or heard of on our globe. Is it not so?'

'Well?'

'Many of them were the young of fearful creatures. But, young or old, he presented Agrando with specimens for his collection.'

'Very likely. What then? I see no harm in that.'

'No. For King Ivanta little guessed the use which the tyrant's ingenious brain would put them to. Agrando gave out that most of them died in captivity, that the climate here did not suit them, and so on. Was it not so?'

'Very likely. I have heard something of the sort. What then?'

'It is untrue that they died--at least, as regards most of them. The greater part--some of the most ferocious, terrible creatures amongst them--he nursed with perverted tenderness and care. He has reared them and brought them to maturity. Now his sole use for them is to pit them against any one who happens to incur his anger; which means, of course, simply dooming the hapless wretch to a cruel and terrible death. You have just heard the voice of one; you saw others--monster bats which they call krudias--in the cage below; you have also seen one of the intended victims, and helped me to rescue him at the last moment.'

'Ay, he sent me there--sentenced me to that awful fate merely in a fit of passing temper,' Malandris declared. 'My crime was only that I had mistaken an order he gave me!'

'Horrible! Incredible!' cried Alondra, his eyes flashing with indignation and disgust.

'You may well say incredible,' muttered Malto. 'That is why I wished you to see some of the creatures for yourselves, you three, so that King Ivanta might have your testimony to confirm mine. Otherwise, he might think my statements, as you say, incredible. Little did I imagine then, however, that you would witness such a convincing proof or that I should find my friend Malandris in that cage!'

'And why were you dressed up in that grotesque fashion?' Alondra asked of Malandris.

'Oh, that is one of Kazzaro's little jokes! It is a whim of his sometimes to dress his victims up like the creatures they are doomed to fight against.'

'But he wasn't there to look on to-day,' Jack commented.

'I suppose he happened to be particularly busy over something else, or he would have been,' said Malandris grimly. He shuddered, and looked around half-apprehensively. 'Now you can understand how much depends upon our being able to escape from here, and what it will mean if we fall again into his power.'

Gerald and Jack stared at one another, almost stupefied with horror.

'Did ever two such miscreants exist before, I wonder?' said Jack. 'How right, Gerald, you were when you called Kazzaro the Ogre!'

'I am in for it, too, now, of course,' Malto added. 'They know by this time what I have done; and I shall find no mercy there if I am dragged back into their clutches.'

'But you sha'n't be!' cried Alondra, impulsively. 'I will not allow it! And King Agrando, strong as he may deem himself upon his own ground, dares not attempt to take you against my will.'

Malto and Malandris looked at him in astonishment at this unexpected outburst.

'Your feelings do you credit, young sir,' said the elder man; 'but I fear your brave words will not avail us much.' He smiled slightly and sighed.

'But who are you, then, to talk like that?' exclaimed Malto incredulously.

'This is King Ivanta's son, Prince Alondra!' said Jack.

*CHAPTER XXV.*

*AGRANDO THROWS OFF THE MASK.*

King Agrando sat in his own particular sanctum, watching, with absorbed attention, the proceedings of the Diamond King, who was engaged in fitting together, by way of trial, the several parts of a new crown.

Upon the table before him were spread out several heaps of lustrous, sparkling loose stones, some of which must have been among the finest of their kind in existence.