Part 16

Before them was a great hall filled with people in varied dresses, as though they had been brought together from many different parts. There were ragged, rough, but stalwart men, very much of the style of Fumenta's followers; and there were others, both soldiers and civilians, of different grades, some plainly, some richly dressed.

It was, in fact, a meeting gathered from far and near of those of the inhabitants of Iraynia who had secretly sympathised with Fumenta and his outlaws, and who had been hoping for, almost expecting, some such 'burst up' as had now taken place between Agrando and Ivanta. And they had been secretly planning to rise, when that time arrived, against Agrando themselves, and endeavour to throw off his yoke once and for all.

But they had not exactly expected what had actually happened. King Ivanta had always wielded such power, and had shown himself so strong, that the possibility of his ever being in his present position had never entered into their calculations. Consequently, Fumenta's words fell upon the assembly almost as a bombshell might have done--that is to say, with a temporarily stunning effect.

For a space there was silence--a dead silence, which seemed at first to be chilling, irresponsive. Then suddenly some one in the body of the hall jumped up and shouted, 'We have no quarrel with King Ivanta. We are ready to help him against Agrando! Fumenta, you have done well to tell the king that in his present difficulty he will find friends here.'

At once others seized the cue, and hastened to declare their approval of the words spoken. A few moments more, and the scene at Fumenta's stronghold was being repeated here.

'Long live King Ivanta!' was the cry which was taken up on all sides, and repeated till the roof shook.

Fumenta turned to Ivanta with a slight smile upon his usually hard-grained visage. 'You hear, oh king! These are the men of Iraynia! You see that I did not act without reason in bringing you here. All these will be henceforth your followers, and they, again, have more--a thousand times more--at their backs, who will flock to us as soon as the news spreads.'

Ivanta was visibly affected. Never in his life till this day had he known what it meant to stand in need of a few true friends. He who had led conquering armies, and had listened to the acclamations of vast multitudes representing nearly half the nations of the planet, and received the homage of their rulers as his vassals--he was now listening with gladness and gratitude to the kindly welcome of those whom he had--unknowingly, it is true--treated with injustice, and allowed Agrando to tyrannise over!

He now addressed them, telling them in simple but dignified language how he thanked them all for their welcome; and after a brief conference with their chiefs he gladly agreed to their request that he should become their leader himself, and for the future take the direction of the operations they had planned.

Then they conducted him to a large enclosure where a number of airships were lying.

'These we seized immediately we heard the news of Agrando's revolt,' Lymento explained. 'Their crews we made prisoners, and they are under lock and key. What we now need is a storage station to keep these craft supplied with electricity. They have enough reserve power to last a day or two, but not longer.'

'That station we can seize this very night,' Fumenta again declared. 'It is at a place called Crudia, some two hours' journey from here, and, as I have already said, I happen to know that it is at the present moment weakly held. But we have no time to lose, for one of the first things Agrando will do will doubtless be to reinforce the garrison as a precaution. Extra men and airships may even now be on their way there, so if we desire to get there first we must hasten. Which of these airships will you choose, sir, to sail in yourself?'

Rapidly Fumenta ran over the list of their sizes and special characteristics. At the end of it, Ivanta decided that he would keep to his own yacht.

'My two yachts,' he reminded his new friends, 'are, with the exception of my great vessel, the _Ivenia_, the fastest craft in the world. When they cannot fight they can always run away,' he went on meaningly. 'It may sound strange, perhaps, to some of you to hear me talk thus of running away; but there are others doubtless among you who will understand my meaning. Of late years you have not seen much fighting in the air, but you may nevertheless be aware that in such warfare swiftness and quick manoeuvring often count for as much as size and numbers.'

The cheers which greeted this speech showed that his words were understood and their meaning appreciated; and the few remaining preparations were quickly completed.

Half an hour later Ivanta and Alondra, in their respective yachts, sailed off at the head of a strong squadron of airships, all filled with crews of enthusiastic followers.

*CHAPTER XXXVI.*

*THE OLD WELL.*

Like weird, gigantic night-birds the fleet of flying craft sailed onwards through the night. The two moons of Mars--to which our astronomers have given the names of Deimos and Phobos--were just then in sight at the same time. The former was near to setting, while the latter had but just risen. Together they were throwing a faint, mellow light over the landscape, dimly illuminating hill and dale, rocky height and sombre valley, slumbering villages and isolated dwellings, as they seemed to slip away beneath the swift, silent airships.

Alondra was busy on board his yacht serving out tridents and shields and other necessary articles.

'You are forgetting me, Prince,' Jack presently observed, after patiently waiting some time, and finding that he had been left out in the distribution.

'And me,' Gerald put in. 'What have we done, friend Alondra, that we should be left out?'

Alondra looked perplexed.

'Well, you see,' he said hesitatingly, 'you are our guests. It is not fair to you to call upon you to take part in our quarrels, or help in fighting our battles.'

'Pooh, what nonsense!' exclaimed Jack. 'Why, what new idea is this? You did not talk like it in the pavilion, when we had to defend ourselves.'

'Because there was no help for it. My followers were far away, and we had to do the best we could. Here it is we who are going out to make an attack, and'----

'And we are going to join and help all we can,' Jack declared stoutly. 'Your quarrel is ours. Please say no more, but give us our share of your arms--or would you prefer that we should trust to our pistols?'

'Better have our usual weapons, if you are determined, and keep your own as a reserve,' Alondra decided.

And so it was settled; and not only the two chums, but Clinch and Reid--who had, during their visit, learned the use of the Martian weapons--were duly fitted out after the fashion of the rest of Ivanta's following.

As they proceeded, the exact direction and other necessary instructions were signalled from the leading yacht by means of curious devices in coloured points of light, which appeared from time to time like tiny coloured fireworks upon the masts.

After a run of a couple of hours, a halt was called, and Alondra was signalled to come alongside the king's yacht.

One moon had set, and the other had become obscured by clouds. The landscape was now in shadow, and the squadron was almost invisible from below; for, save the occasional twinkling of the signals, the flying craft showed no lights.

'The place we are going to attack,' Ivanta explained, when the leaders had been assembled in his cabin, 'may be, as our friend Fumenta declares, weakly held so far as the number of the garrison is concerned, but in other respects it is a most difficult place to assail. No one should know this better than I,' he continued, a little bitterly, 'because I myself designed the fortress and its defences. I knew that it lay in a very exposed region, where it would be difficult to keep a large garrison, and where a surprise might at any time be attempted. So I did everything that my ingenuity could devise to render it practically impregnable.'

'I know all that to be true, sir,' observed Fumenta quietly.

'It is neither more nor less than a great cavern--or, rather, series of caverns--in the side of a precipitous mountain,' Ivanta went on. 'One can neither approach it nor leave it except by flying-machine. There is no path, no ledge, which anything but a fly could cling to. There is only one defensive wall--that which closes the outer side of the caverns--and this has been so built in as to resemble a continuation of the precipice. One cannot tell by looking which is the natural rock and which is the artificial stone wall. There are gates, or rather iron doors, and these are specially defended by being connected with the electric storage batteries. When the current is turned on--as is supposed always to be the case at night, or when the doors are not in actual use--it is death to any one who touches them.'

'All that I know, oh king!' said Fumenta. 'There is also an underground waterfall--an immense body of water ever tumbling through the great caverns.'

'Yes. It works the engines which collect and store the electric power.'

'Exactly; and it cannot be used for any other purpose. It is of no use, for instance, for drinking purposes, because the water has a disagreeable, brackish taste. Therefore, there is a well of fresh water. Is it not so, sir?'

'True,' returned Ivanta, eying him keenly. 'But what of that?'

'That well was made by boring downwards till a stream of pure water was found. When this was met with it rushed into the bottom of the well and found its own way out, thus affording an ample supply for the garrison without further trouble. So no one bothered himself further about it as to whence the stream came or whither it went. But all that was many years ago. Since then, however, this fresh-water stream has been gradually drying up; and now there is not enough to supply the people on guard there. That is one reason why the garrison is now so small. Then another well was bored in another part, which gave a sufficient supply for the reduced garrison, and the very existence of the first well was almost forgotten. But where the stream once ran there is now an underground passage or tunnel, which starts from a grotto high up in another part of the mountain.'

Ivanto started.

'Say you so? Are you sure?' he exclaimed.

'Certain am I of what I say, oh king! No one seems to have noted that the drying up of this stream has opened a back way, so to speak, into the stronghold, which renders it possible to attack it by a surprise visit. No one seems to have troubled about it, or to have made it his business to report that so simple a fact has rendered useless all the work and time and trouble expended upon your elaborate defences.'

At this Ivanta frowned a little; then a smile passed over his countenance, and he cried, 'Said I not that you were a man after my own heart, friend Fumenta? Of a truth, the next time I design a fortress I shall ask you to look at my plan, and tell me of all its weak points before I carry it out. But this seems to happen most fortunately for us. Do you mean to say we can make our way in by the channel of that dried-up watercourse? Can you guide us to it?'

'That is my plan. It is a very simple one, after all,' returned the outlaw chief modestly; 'but I think you will find that it will suffice for our purpose. I suggest that you send out two parties, one to attack the place in front, while I will guide the rest, so that they can creep in by the route I have indicated. The other party must show no sign till we have gained the interior and manipulated the levers which cut off the electric current from the doorways. Then they can make a dash and help us to overpower the garrison.'

'And thus easily,' murmured Ivanta, with, a sigh--'thus simply are all my elaborate and complicated defences to be set at nought and overcome--laughed at, in fact! However, so be it! 'Tis a good plan; and if it succeeds, the possession of such a stronghold, with its machinery and underground waterfall, will be a piece of good fortune indeed.'

'And we will take good care,' said Alondra, laughing, 'to have that back entrance well guarded in future. Now, I want to be one of your party, friend Fumenta. That will suit me better than waiting about with the rest till some one else, having done all the fighting, opens the door to us.'

At this Gerald and Jack and their party asked to be allowed to go with Alondra, and pressed their claims so eagerly that at last Ivanta acceded.

'I shall myself make one,' he said. 'And since you so much desire it, you shall all join.'

Later on, the fleet of airships divided into two bodies, and one, the smaller portion, made direct for the heights of the mountain in which the stronghold was situated. The rest were to wait about till the time should come for making their presence known by a direct frontal attack.

Fumenta led his section into a small cave, which opened out, first into a gallery, and then into a spacious grotto. All were provided with small glow-lamps, ropes, metal staples for climbing, and other requisites, in addition to their arms, which consisted of tridents, shields, and the usual swords or spears.

The grotto had several galleries running out of it, and selecting one of these, Fumenta followed its windings for some distance, till he came to a small stream running into a deep cutting. A little farther on, this little watercourse took a sudden turn and disappeared into a hole on the left.

'That,' said the outlaw chief, 'is all that is left of the stream which formerly completely filled the tunnel it here plunges into. Nowadays you can walk along its bed and the water will not in any place reach to your knees.'

'How do you know?' Ivanta asked.

'I have traversed the whole distance,' was the answer. 'I even climbed up the sides of the well to see whether it was fenced off in any way, and I found it quite open. Moreover, the place where I emerged was empty and deserted. One could see it is never used now.'

Fumenta then directed that some of the tridents and shields should be tied into bundles, and these were given to bearers to carry on their shoulders clear of the water. By this means the leading adventurers were left free to climb the sides of the well and attach ropes, which could then be utilised, first to pull up the bundles, and afterwards to assist the ascent of the rest of the party.

These details having been duly arranged, they entered the waterway in twos and threes, wading in the water, which at first reached nearly to their knees, but became much more shallow as they proceeded.

Presently those in front arrived at the well and halted, the others crowding up as closely as they could get, some passing into the waterway on the farther side, where they stood awaiting orders.

Fumenta and his lieutenants, Duralda and Landris, began the ascent, pushing iron staples into the chalk sides to assist those who came after them. Behind them followed Malto, Malandris, and others. Upon another side of the well Ivanta and Alondra, with the two chums and the sailors, imitated this operation. All worked in perfect silence, and almost in darkness, only the carefully screened gleams from their glow-lamps being visible.

The leaders reached the top in safety, and found themselves in a roomy cavern, which was in complete darkness. No sound was to be heard; and, satisfied that their presence was unsuspected, they secured one of the ropes they had brought with them and threw the end down, that the bearers below might attach their bundles to it.

Not until they had hauled up these indispensable weapons, and had them in their hands, could they hope, should they be discovered and attacked, to hold the mouth of the well long enough for the body of followers behind to climb up to their assistance. Every one lent a hand, for it was necessary that their plan should be carried out as expeditiously as possible.

Tom Clinch and Bob Reid were hauling up the first bundles, when the former, in his zeal, leaned over too far, lost his balance, and fell headlong into the well. About half-way down, coming into collision with one of the bundles, he managed to grip the rope, and thus saved himself from going farther. His weight, however, broke away the cord by which it was fastened, and sent the whole lot of tridents clattering to the bottom, where they created a panic by falling upon the heads of the crowd waiting there. A chorus of cries and shouts, mingled with groans and shrieks of pain, followed, which sounds were magnified as they came up the well as though it had been an immense speaking-trumpet, and were echoed back from the rocky roof of the cavern.

There followed a brief silence--deep, tense, and anxious. Then a high, wide door swung open, the place was flooded with light, and a number of armed men burst in and made a rush at the group gathered round the mouth of the well.

*CHAPTER XXXVII.*

*THE FIGHT FOR THE STRONGHOLD.*

It was a critical moment for those of the adventurers who had gained the top of the well. Being without tridents and shields, they were absolutely at the mercy of any enemy who carried them. They were armed only with swords, spears, or daggers, which were useless against the other weapons. It seemed as though they must all inevitably, within a few minutes, be lying at the mercy of their foes.

A second glance, however, revealed an unexpected piece of good fortune. Their enemies were no better armed than themselves! The members of the garrison had dwelt in the place so long in peace and security that it had become their habit to stack away their tridents in their stores, as articles for which they had no use from day to day. Moreover, they knew that their stronghold was reputed to be impregnable, and they never dreamed of its being thus suddenly attacked.

Hence, when the outcry arose in the cavern in which was the old disused well, they had rushed in on the spur of the moment, wondering what the noise could be, and armed only with those weapons which formed part of their everyday equipment.

Swords flashed from their scabbards on both sides, and a moment later the two parties were engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand fight. A number of Fumenta's people had followed him up his side of the well, while those on the other side were hauling at their rope. Thus, for the time being, the adversaries were about equally matched in point of numbers as well as weapons. It was pretty certain, however, that the defenders would be reinforced at a much greater rate than the assailants could be, to say nothing of the fact that at any moment some of the former might arrive on the scene bringing with them the dreaded tridents.

Ivanta turned to Jack and Gerald, and whispered a few words at the moment of drawing his sword.

'You have your pistols! Try to close the door and hold it fast. That will give us time!'

The hint was sufficient. The two acted upon it at once, and calling to Bob Reid to follow, they made a circuit, and avoiding the rush of the defenders, got round to their rear. The first group passed without noticing them, and there was no one else inside the door. But upon the other side of it they could see another group, who were running to the support of their friends, and two of them, who were in advance, were carrying tridents.

It was doubtful which would reach the door first; but two shots rang out, and the trident-bearers dropped their weapons. They had each been wounded in the arm. Their comrades, wondering what was wrong, and, startled by the reports of the firearms--added to by a hundred echoes from the rocky vault overhead--paused in their advance, and crowded round the wounded men.

The three near the door on the inside took advantage of their halt to bang it to, and hastily shoot some bolts which they found upon it.

Then they turned to ascertain how it fared with their friends, and see what they could do to help them.

Ivanta and Fumenta had apparently been singled out for special attack, and each was defending himself against two or three adversaries. Both were fighting like heroes of old, and for a brief space the two chums paused to watch them, spellbound by the fascination of the combat.

Fumenta was fighting as such an old war-dog might be expected to fight. Grim, hard-visaged, and stalwart, his grizzled locks shaking at every turn of his head, he rained blows so quickly upon his foes that two had already fallen under them; and the others now seemed more anxious to keep at arm's length than to trust themselves near enough to strike.

Ivanta, on his side, was fighting not less valiantly, but in somewhat different fashion. As Gerald subsequently expressed it, he fought 'like the king that he was.' In his flashing glance there was nothing of the cold gleam of hatred, bred of long experience as a hunted outcast, which showed in the eyes of the outlaw chief. Rather was there dignified disdain, and even something of pity for those with whom circumstances forced him into conflict. In his whole appearance there was that which reminded the spectators of a lion defending himself in contemptuous fashion against the attacks of a number of curs; while Fumenta might be likened rather to an old wolf driven to bay.

Suddenly one of those opposed to Ivanta lowered his sword, and stepped backward, as if in surprise, crying out loudly, 'It is the king! Down with your swords! It is the king!'

At this there was a general pause. The man's comrades imitated his action, and the rest of the defending force desisted also in surprise. Thus, for a space, there was a cessation of hostilities all round.

'What said you, Sedla?' cried one near the speaker. 'The king! What king? We serve Agrando! He is not here!'

'This is Agrando's overlord, King Ivanta,' the first one answered. 'We must not fight against him.'

'How do you know?' 'What does it mean?' 'How can we tell?' 'How can such a thing have come about?' such were the questions which were called out, first from one and then from another.

Evidently the garrison of this isolated post knew nothing as yet of Agrando's revolt. No news of it had reached them, nor had any messengers come from Agrando instructing them that he was now at war with his overlord, and expected them to espouse his cause. Neither, as it seemed, were they--with one or two exceptions--acquainted with Ivanta's person. Of those then present, only the one who had first spoken knew him by sight.

Ivanta was quick to take advantage of this favourable turn.

'It is well that you spoke,' he haughtily said. 'It explains, I suppose, why you and your friends have attacked me. Otherwise, you would be guilty of treason! Down with your weapons, all of you!'

'But,' objected one who was evidently an officer, 'if you are King Ivanta--I ask, sir, with all respect--why have you forced an entrance in this strange fashion?'

'And,' said another dubiously, 'how comes it that the great King Ivanta is here attacking us hand and glove with the outlaw Fumenta and his band--the sworn enemies of our master Agrando?'

Ivanta smiled.

'I can understand your perplexity, my friends. Strange things have happened outside these walls of which I see you have as yet heard nothing. Let your chief officers confer with me, and I will give them the information which I see you are in need of.'

There ensued some discussion, carried on in a low tone amongst three or four who were the leaders of the garrison. Evidently there were differences of opinion among them. Some were for submitting to Ivanta; while the others, doubtful of his identity, and fearing some trick, were for continuing the combat.