Part 13

"All of us whom you brought to Njambai," I proceeded, "are changed men. To you alone we owe this, and I wish to go on record, here and now, for giving you credit. I see my past as I thought I never should see it, and I realize how I have wasted a large part of my life. I shall prove a worthy citizen, if we succeed in getting back to Earth, and it is you who have brought about my reformation."

A glow came to the professor's face. He held up one hand protestingly.

"It is the truth," I insisted. "You have argued with me constantly ever since we were thrown together, and it was while on the road to Baigol that the truth of your arguments suddenly came home to me."

I stretched out my hand, but he held back.

"You are too shrewd a man, Mr. Munn," said he kindly, "to be so deceived. There have been times when your artlessness made me wonder, but you have never aroused my wonder quite so much as you have now."

"Why is that?" I asked, puzzled.

"Answer me this, Mr. Munn," he went on. "How did it chance that Mr. Gilhooly so suddenly recovered his reason?"

"He lost his wits suddenly, and crazed people have been known to regain their sanity as quickly as they lost it. It must have been so in Gilhooly's case."

"Indeed!" he said, smiling. "And was it merely a coincidence that you found your conscience, and Gilhooly his reason, at the same time?"

"Merely a coincidence," I replied.

He laughed, and it was his first happy laugh since King Gaddbai had announced his coming campaign in the direction of Terra.

"Let us go further," he went on. "What caused Markham, Popham and Meigs to change their points of view so miraculously? Was it the coal mines, the lack of food and the need of decent clothing?"

"All that merely paved the way," I averred. "Your arguments did the rest."

"You are blind, Mr. Munn! It was not the sufferings our friends endured, nor my arguments."

"Then what was it?" I demanded.

"The Bolla!"

I recoiled, staring blankly at the kindly face before me.

"Don't let me part from you, Professor Quinn," I whispered hoarsely, "feeling that I have left behind a man of unsound mind! If I thought that, I believe I should remain here with you at any cost."

"Unsound mind?" he returned. "My dear Munn! My brain was never clearer, nor my reasoning more sound, than at the present moment. You found the Bolla. The moment you picked it up, every unworthy thought vanished from your mind and you became morally the man you ought to be. You did not understand the cause of your salvation, and you hurled the stone from you. Gilhooly picked it up. What happened then? Did he not recover his senses and a true outlook upon life at one and the same time? Yet, as if this were not enough to prove a clear case for the Bolla, note the change in Popham, Markham and Meigs when I asked them to examine the stone. All this, sir, should prove my contention beyond all peradventure. I am filled with wonder because you have gone so far afield in trying to explain what has occurred."

The notion amazed, and, in a measure, disappointed me. A black stone had turned me from my evil course--a mere bit of insensate matter about which clustered the traditions and superstitious veneration of all Njambians! My regeneration had come from without, and not from within, and if there was no credit for the professor in my awakening, then there was still less for myself.

Not the operations of my own mind, urged and guided by the friendly counsels of the professor, but a stone which I had picked up to cast away, had worked my transformation!

The fact still remained, and would always remain, but it was in no way flattering to me. What was going on in my mind must have been divined by the professor, for he stepped close and took the hand which he had a moment before refused.

"The methods of Fate are inexplicable to us mortals, Mr. Munn," said he; "but what matters it how a thing is brought to pass so long as it really happens? And why should we concern ourselves with a failure to understand the underlying cause? Great is the Bolla, my friend, even though its powers pass our comprehension! I shall make it a point to see that it is returned to King Golbai, during my probation here. To accomplish that, and at the same time keep watchful eyes on King Gaddbai, will not let time hang heavy on my hands."

"And you will not reconsider----"

He knew what I was about to say, pressed my hand restrainingly and got up from his seat.

Presently he removed a few feet of rope from a bale, and took a last, long look around him. What his thoughts were I will not even hazard a guess.

Cutting loose from every tie that held him to Earth, I knew very well what my feelings would have been under the circumstances. But I have already stated that the professor was "queer" in his outlook upon life, and in his grasp of ways and means, so my pen hesitates to attempt a description of his emotions at this critical moment.

When we emerged from the steel shell, the king and his retainers crowded close to hear what my companion had to say. His majesty was greatly disappointed on learning that the start was not to be made until some hours had passed, but he smothered his impatience and busied himself with a communication to the regent giving the exact hour the expedition intended to take its departure.

The historian chosen to accompany the monarch and put into imperishable ideographs the history he was to make transcribed the king's message, and it was dispatched by courier to the capital. Following this business, his majesty entertained us with a review of the Gaddbaizets selected by Olox for the expedition.

The diminutive soldiers were well-drilled, well-equipped, and presented a dazzling spectacle in their gilt war paint and yellow kirtles.

They were truly the flower of the country. Each carried a pair of zetbais, filled to the white tip with a special supply of zet.

Quinn, now that his mind was made up to defeat the king and to remain on Njambia, displayed much interest in the maneuvres, even going so far as to applaud them. Stores of prepared food had been collected in bales, which were piled in a heap beside the car, ready for loading.

One bale was opened toward the close of day, and we used its contents for our supper rations. Night fell, and the professor asked me to enter the car and light the lamp on the table. I did so, and in the glow that came through the car windows we who were not gifted with the owl-sight of the Njambaians were able to see a little of what went on around us.

As the night advanced, and King Gaddbai evinced his impatience and excitement by walking back and forth in front of his picked guard, strains of the national anthem were borne to us from a distance. Louder and louder swelled the tones of the word-boxes, and at last the regent arrived, accompanied by a host from the town.

They were there to give their monarch a rousing send-off, and I smiled a little as I thought of the disappointment that was likely to overtake them.

While felicitations were being exchanged between the king and his people, Professor Quinn asked me to consult my watch. I found that we were within fifteen minutes of midnight.

My timepiece was not strictly accurate, inasmuch as in the exciting events of the morning I had neglected my usual custom of setting the hand three minutes back. However, the indicated time was close enough for all practical purposes.

"Into the car with you, Mr. Munn," said the professor as calmly as though his command were not going to separate him from his kind for all eternity. I would have taken his hand had he not observed the movement and said quickly.

"Be careful! We must not let these people suspect, by a word or gesture, the sort of _coup_ we are planning. Take the others with you--I will speak to the king and cover your movements as I have already outlined."

Those were Professor Quinn's last words to me. My final glimpse of him showed me his resolute face and slender form drifting away into the gloom in the direction of King Gaddbai.

I felt as though I must run after him and drag him into the car whether he would or no. How I succeeded in fighting down the mad impulse has ever since been a mystery to me; but I did, and a word to Popham, Meigs, Markham, and Gilhooly, who had already been informed that they were to expect a startling denouement, brought them after me into the steel structure.

I heard Olox give a loud command for us to turn back, but his word-box was suddenly quieted, and I presumed that the professor had already gone far enough with his part of the ruse to lull any suspicions that had arisen.

"Rope that steel door on the inside, Gilhooly!" I cried as I bounded up the iron stairs.

Gilhooly did not know what had been planned, but leaped instantly to the task. With a quick pull of the lever I opened the oxygen tank and dashed below once more.

Something had gone wrong outside--I did not know what, and do not know to this day. The mysterious violet fire which accompanied a discharge of the zetbais was rolling all around the steel wall that hemmed us in, and a perfect tumult of shrieks and cries came frantically to our cars.

Violent hands were laid on the door, pushing it inward against the rope made fast by Gilhooly. Gilhooly and the others hurled themselves at the portal and flung it back, holding it so by main strength.

"We'll be killed!" shouted Meigs.

"No," I yelled, and jumped to the switch board.

The next instant the switch was thrown, and the billows of fire faded from the car windows as if by magic.

We were saved! Again had we plunged into space, and behind us--living or dead I knew not--we had left Professor Quinn.

Sinking down on my knees I buried my face in my hands.

*CHAPTER XIX.*

*BACK TO EARTH.*

I have heard some one say that life is only a dream, and that when we awaken in the other country we shall find it so. Far be it from me to dispute this or affirm it, yet I know, of my own experience, that our waking moments furnish events that seem as illusory as the stuff that dreams are made of.

Of all our strange adventures, the flight from Njambai has been the one that I recall with most vividness, and, at the same time, as seeming the most unreal. The tension of my nerves at the moment may account for this.

As I stated somewhere close to the beginning of this narrative, what I set out to write was a description of the planet Mercury in so far as my limited abilities for observation enabled me to gather knowledge. In looking back over my manuscript, I find I have made it more of an adventurous tale than I intended.

Now, when near the close, I can hold more closely to my text and deal only generally with our return trip to Terra. It is needless to dwell upon the way we missed and mourned the professor. At every turn some want developed which he could easily have satisfied had he been with us.

However, his wisdom had started us correctly, and we had perforce to make shift and get along without him as best we could. As captain of the car, the weight of a great responsibility rested on me. I was almost constantly at the telescope, and I kept Gilhooly--in whom I had the most confidence--about as constantly at the switch board.

We were menaced by frequent dangers during the trip, our course being literally strewn with meteoroids which it required much deft maneuvring to evade; but we came safely out of these perils, and, as if to compensate us for them, we formed a most happy juncture with the Earth's orbit at a time when that planet was approaching and nearly upon us.

With Gilhooly at the lever, and myself at the telescope, we accomplished a very successful landing. So evenly balanced did the car hang between the cubes and the drawing power of gravity that the last thousand feet of our descent was merely a floating earthward, and we alighted with so slight a shock that none of us experienced a particle of inconvenience.

The land that claimed us was a deserted island in mid-Pacific, where we remained for two weeks, living off our food supply and keeping a sharp lookout for a sail.

We had not been more than a day on the island before I remembered the document Professor Quinn had given me. I had been directed to open it while on our way through the great void, but I had been so burdened with responsibilities during that time that I had not once thought of the packet.

With my four companions as auditors, I read aloud one of the papers inclosed in the packet, which was addressed to all of us jointly.

"MY DEAR FRIENDS: When you read this, I trust that the plans of myself and Mr. Munn will have proved so far successful that an impassable gulf will stretch between you and the undersigned--and I write this out of a desire to have you speeding on your return to our native planet, not because I would willingly separate myself from you were circumstances here different from what we have found them.

"As long as I live, I shall stand between King Gaddbai and any monstrous plan he may form, and attempt to carry out, looking to the subjugating of the world we know and love so well. I am convinced that the king has resources of which we know nothing, and it shall be my aim to fathom the resources of Njambai and assist in their development along other and more peaceable lines. This is to be my work, and I enter upon it with a tranquil soul.

"No doubt I took what you gentlemen may think was an unwarranted liberty in luring four of your number to my castle and casting it adrift in the unknown. As for myself, I believe I had ample warrant for doing what I did; I will not dwell on that motive, as it is already familiar to you.

"The experience each of you has had on Njambai has been most salutary. You have undergone a change of heart, and reform has wrought its great work. Had I not been assured of this, none of you would ever have left this sphere for that other one which has been the cradle of your pet schemes in speculation.

"You are not the same men you were. As reformers, you will do your share to preserve our noble country from dire calamities that threaten it. That is your mission, and see to it that you fail not in its performance.

"It is my prayerful hope that you will reach your destination in safety, and with Mr. Munn at the helm I am prone to think that this result will be achieved. If a civilized country claims you, immediately upon landing it is my wish that you give full power to the anti-gravity cubes and send the car into space; it is my wish that none of you give a record of his experiences to the papers, either wholly or in part, until five years have passed, and then that this duty devolve upon Mr. Munn; and it is my final wish that Mr. Munn accept the enclosed deed to my Harlem lot, and the enclosed check making payable to him all the funds I have in bank. I would have him return to the other four of you an equivalent for the funds and valuables stolen the night we left Earth in the car.

"My second wish, as to the revelations you gentlemen could make, is born of a desire to save the earth dwellers any unnecessary fear on the score of King Gaddbai and his undertakings. If he has not invaded Terra with his terrifying zetbais by the time five years have elapsed, it is my conviction that the danger will be done away with forever.

"Gentlemen, adieu. As you read this, I give you hail from Njambai. QUINN."

A fortnight after the reading of the above document, we sighted a sail on the horizon, and, by means of a rope reaching from the switch board through a window, the lever was pulled and Professor Quinn's castle shot into the clouds and vanished for all time. Three hours later we were picked up by a whale boat, conveyed to the tramp steamer _Mollie O.,_ and in a month sailed through the Golden Gate into San Francisco harbor.

* * * * *

The five years have passed, and I have set my hand to the foregoing. Gilhooly and Meigs have crossed to the great majority, but the strenuous work they did in the interests of the people is an imperishable monument to their memory. Popham and Markham are still laboring for the good of the cause.

The return to home and friends of these four, long given up for dead, caused a sensation throughout the country. True to the expressed wish of Professor Quinn, none of them has breathed a whisper of the marvelous things he saw, or of the weird experiences that fell to his lot while journeying to and from Njambai, and while sojourning upon that planet.

So far as I am concerned, my life since my return to Earth has been as spotless as a thorough reformation could make it. As far as I could, I have reimbursed those from whom I took what was not rightfully mine, I have pleaded the cause of the poor man, and helped him liberally out of the generous fortune bestowed upon me by Professor Quinn, and I intend to pursue this line of action until the last day of my life.

Could a reformed burglar have a more suitable occupation?

THE END.

* * * * * * * *

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