A Trip to Mars

'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.

Agrando had made up his mind that this new crown was to be the most magnificent that ever adorned the head of mortal potentate. Had he not here at hand to advise him the greatest living authority upon such subjects – Zuanstroom to wit – who claimed that he had seen, handled, examined, and photographed the most splendid crowns which graced the various royal heads upon our planet?

Zuanstroom picked up the gems one by one, and placed them tentatively in the golden framework, stepping back from time to time to observe the effect, as does an artist with his picture. Then, if the result did not commend itself to his sense of the fitness of things, he would take some of them out, and replace them with others of a different size or colour.

Agrando looked on, a curious variety of expressions flitting across his face. He could not but admire the beauty of the work of art which was slowly growing under his eyes. Yet he grudged the worker the delight of handling the bewitching jewels.