The Land of the Changing Sun [52]
"Wake him -- wake him at once!" commanded the excited girl.
"I cannot, it would offend him," was the reply.
She did not pause an instant, but darting past the man and running to the king's couch, she drew the curtain aside and touched the sleeper. He waked in anger, but her first word disarmed him.
"Alpha is in danger."
"What!" he growled, half awake. "The sea is breaking through in the west, and running into the internal fires."
"How do you know that?"
"A dense cloud is rising in the west, and:----"
"Impossible!" the word came from far down in his throat, and he was ghastly pale. He ran to the table and touched a button and, to the astonishment of Thorndyke, the walls on the western side of the room silently parted, showing a little balcony overlooking the street below. The king went hastily out and looked toward the west. The others followed him. The princess stifled a cry of alarm when she glanced at the sky.
Great black, rolling clouds were rapidly spreading along the horizon.
The king looked at them as helplessly as a frightened child. "The air!" he groaned. "It is hot!" and then he held out his hand to the princess, and showed her a flake of soot on it, and he dumbly pointed to others that were falling about them.
"How did you discover it?" he asked, and Thorndyke saw that he was trying to appear calm.
"Mr.--this gentleman's friend has returned from banishment, and----"
"Returned! has the wall been destroyed?"
"No; he accidentally discovered the danger, and came in a flying- machine to warn you."
"Where is he? bring him to me, quick!"
"But you will not ----"
He waved his hand impatiently. "Go; if Alpha is saved he shall be at liberty--if it is not, what does it matter?"
Thorndyke hastened away after Johnston, who, when he was told of the king's words, readily accompanied his friend to the presence of the ruler. They found him with his daughter still on the balcony.
"How did you discover this?" asked the king, turning to the American.
As quickly as possible, Johnston related his adventures, and particularly the story of the shooting fountain and the fall of salt water. The king did not wait for him to conclude. He ran back into his chamber, touched another button, and the next instant alarm-bells were ringing all over the city.
"A signal to the protectors," explained the princess to Thorndyke; "by this time they are ringing all over Alpha. Oh, what will become of us?" as she spoke she leaned over the balustrade and looked down into the street. Vast crowds had gathered and were motionless, except at points where the purple-clad "protectors" rushed from public buildings to assemble in squads on the street corner.
Chapter XVII.
Bernardino turned to look after her father as he was leaving the room.
"He is going to the observatory," she said to Thorndyke and Johnston. "Let us go also." And they followed the king into the room with the glass roof and walls covered with mirrors which he had shown the strangers several days before. A white-headed old man stood at the stand, his fingers trembling over the half circle of electric buttons. In a mirror before him he was studying the reflection of a town of perhaps a hundred houses. The streets were filled with excited citizens, and a squad of protectors stood ready for action near a row of flying-machines.
"Ornethelo," said the king, and at the sound of his voice the old man turned and bowed humbly.
"All right," went on the king, "I will take your place a moment."
He went to the stand and touched a button. Instantly the scene changed; fields, forests, streams and hills ran by in a murky blur, and then a larger town flashed on the mirror. Here the same stir and alertness characterized the scene. The gaze of every inhabitant was fixed on the threatening horizon. Rapidly the scenes shifted at the king's will, till a hundred cities, towns and villages had been reviewed.
"Enough! They are all ready--all faithful," groaned the king, "and, Ornethelo, they may all have to perish to-day, and all for