Chapter 24 of Olga Romanov by George Griffith This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. War at its worst. Without even pausing to see the effects of his charge upon the three airships above Alexandria, Alan kept the Avenger going at full speed, soaring up into the higher regions of the atmosphere with her prowl pointed to the northeast. About three hours later she was floating at an elevation of nearly five miles above Moscow, not stationary, but sweeping round and round in vast circles on her quadruple wings after the manner of the condors of the Andes, which thus sustain themselves on almost motionless wings at vast elevations and very small expenditure of force. Below an immense expanse of country lay in unclouded clearness under the glasses of the captain of the ship, and George Cosmo, late engineer of the navel, who was now chief engineer of the Aryan flagship. Not only Moscow, but a dozen other towns lay at the mercy of the Avenger's 24 guns, and yet no shot was fired. For Alan, despite the tremendous debt of vengeance that he owed to her, who now, at last, in very fact crowned Tsarina of the Russias, held her court at Moscow, was yet extremely loath to involve non-combatants in the destruction which she knew must follow the discharge of his guns. Added to this, his present designs were rather to reconnoiter than to destroy. He was in command of the fastest and most powerful airship in the world, and the task that he had set himself was to supervise the whole of the complicated arrangements that had been made for repelling the coming attack upon the federation by the Muslims and Russians. Thus he had started soon after midnight from Gibraltar, one of the chief power stations and depots in Europe. Then he had run along the African coast over Iran, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, noting the sleepless activities of the brilliantly lighted towns, the swarming transports and battleships in their harbours, and the crowds of anxious watchers in their streets. Then he had got round to the south of Alexandria, and there struck the first blow in the war. Now his object was to discover what disposition of troops were being made for the invasion of Austria and Germany, and other scout ship would be by this time floating over St. Petersburg and another over Odessa, and these were to report to him at noon. He had kept the Avenger moving with sufficient rapidity to make extremely difficult for her to be seen from the earth as he wanted to see without being seen, and he remained undiscovered until nearly noon. All this time trains had been seen running in swift succession into Moscow from the east and out to the west, evidently conveying troops to the frontier. A large fleet of airships numbering apparently between two and three hundred vessels were seen lying in four squadrons on the open space above the Kremlin, and others were constantly flying into and out of the city in all directions. A few minutes after half past eleven Cosmo, after a long look through his glasses, called to Alan, who was looking out from the other side of the deck. I fancy they must have seen us at last. Three ships are coming up on this side as if they wanted to investigate. Alan crossed over and soon picked out the Russian vessels rising in long spiral sweeps from the earth, about three miles to the northward, and coming up very fast. They seem to have learned something in tactics during the year, he said. They evidently know better than to rise perpendicularly while they suspect we are up here. They think they'll be much more difficult to hit coming up like that. Yes, said Cosmo, but we can soon show them the mistake in that idea. What are you going to do with them? Destroy them, of course, replied Alan. It doesn't matter about giving the alarm now. I think it's pretty certain that the Russians are going to concentrate on Kiev, Weitbesk, Daneberg and Vilna, and those four squadrons down there are intended to cover them. We better let them concentrate and make the fighting as short and as sharp as possible. It would be a waste of time to destroy them here in detail, and the moral effect wouldn't be anything like as good. What do you think? I don't think there'll be any fighting, replied Cosmo, unless between the airships the most hardened troops of the nineteenth century would have broken and run like a lot of sheep under our shells, and these poor fellows who have never seen a battle in their lives will do the same. I don't believe we shall have any land fighting at all to speak of during the whole war. There'll be nothing but massacres from the air on both sides. Still, I think you're both wise and merciful in waiting until you can hit hard, though perhaps from the strict military point of view we ought to have Moscow in ruins by sundown. I won't do that, said Alan, shaking his head decisively. There are three or four millions of women and children in it who have done no harm, and I'll shed no more blood than I'm obliged to. We had better destroy those fellows, however, before they get too close. You know what to do. Very well, said Cosmo. You'll take the deck, I suppose. Alan nodded, and Cosmo saluted and went into the conning tower. The Avenger now altered her course so that her circling flight took her to the northward, above the three Russian airships that were sweeping round and round so fast that it would have been impossible to train a gun upon them. As soon as she got over them, the Avenger quickened her course until she was flying around in the same circles and at the same speed as the Russians. This, of course, made her relatively stationary with regard to them, and it was now possible to take aim. Two of the broadside guns, one on each side, were much shorter than the others, and had been specially constructed for firing almost vertically downwards. Alan stood by one of these and trained it on the first of the Russian vessels, which were coming up in a spiral line. At the right moment he pressed the button in the breach and released the projectile. The shot struck the Russian midship. They saw the glass deck of the roof splinter, then the blaze of the explosion flashed out. The air quaked, and the next moment the fragments of the Russian midship were falling back upon the earth. A second and a third shot followed as the other two came into position. And when Alan looked down towards the city again, he saw that the four squadrons had taken the alarm and were rising from the earth and scattering in all directions. This was just what he wanted, for it relieved him of the scruples which had prevented him from firing on them while they lay within the banks of the city. In an instant the crew of the Avenger were at their guns, and shell after shell spared on its downward way after the flying ships. Although under the circumstances the aim was necessarily hurried, for the captains of the Russian vessels seeing the terrible disadvantage at which they were placed had put on their utmost speed. The guns of the Avenger were so smartly handled that nearly a score of the Russians were either blown to fragments or crippled before the squadron escaped out of range. Well done! said Alan. That will teach them to keep a little smarter look out next time. And then he went on to himself. I wonder whether she was on board one of those that are lying in little pieces down there. I suppose that would be too good luck to hope for. And yet I don't know. I think her end ought to be something different to that. I wonder what it really will be. He ordered his men to cease firing now and placed the Avenger once more in her old position over Moscow, keeping her at a great elevation to guard against surprise from the squadron he had scattered. A few minutes later two airships were reported coming from the south and north. The flash of the sun on their blue hulls proclaimed them friends. They were the vessels bringing the reports from St. Petersburg and Odessa. And these reports were to the effect that during the whole of the morning trains had been pouring through from the eastward and all the surrounding country towards the Ostrow German frontier. Other reports from the westward had been received by the commanders of these two vessels to the effect that the Russian troops were massing along the frontier and seemingly prepared to invade the Federation area from the four points already selected by Alan. He at once dispatched orders by these two courier vessels to the depots at Konigsberg, Thorn, Breslau and Budapest to assemble four squadrons of 50 vessels each which were to be over the points of concentration at Daybreak on the following morning. These ships were to maintain their greatest possible elevation. That is to say about three miles and a half until the sun rose. Then if the sky were clear they were to bombard the towns at once from that height. If not, they were to use all precautions against surprising passing through the clouds and then the commanders were to use their own discretion as to the plan of operation, but Odessa, Kiev, Vitsplik and Donneberg were to be destroyed at all hazards as soon as it was certain that the invading forces were concentrated there and preparing to march eastward. As soon as these orders had been dispatched the Avenger left Moscow and started at full speed for Gibraltar where she arrived about four o'clock in the afternoon. Here, Alan, after once more inspecting the land batteries and the aerial defences of this important outpost of the Federation, received news of the annihilation of the four Muslim expeditions and heartily congratulated Admiral Ernstine on the complete success of his operation. It was at once apparent that the Sultan would not risk a second loss so enormous as this event if he heard sufficient transports left and could persuade any more of his people to brave the terrors of such another sea fight. This being so, only two alternatives would be open to him. Either he must give up all idea of invading Europe by land or sea, or else he must attempt to force the bridges across the Dardanelles and the Straits of Gibraltar and cross into Europe via Turkey and Spain. Both these bridges, the main highways between Europe, Africa and Asia Minor were guarded on the European side by batteries of enormous strength similar to those which guarded the Federation posts in the Mediterranean. They were magnificent structures. Each 400 feet broad carry in 12 lines of railway as well as carriage, drives and promenades and once in the hands of the enemy troops could be poured across them in tens of thousands every hour. Alan, after a brief conference with Ernstine decided to pursue the same tactics here as he was going to make use of on the Russian frontier. The bridges were to be left completely open but their supporting pillars were to be mined with torpedoes connected by electric wires with the batteries. If the Sultan attempted to force them his men were to be allowed to concentrate on the African and Asiatic shores and to occupy the bridges. Then the bridges were to be blown up and the forces on the opposite side to be dispersed by the batteries and the airships. The message to the Dardanelles bridge was matched by telephone over the cables connecting Gibraltar with Candia and Gallipoli. And similar instructions were sent on from Gallipoli to Constantinople in case any attempt should be made to force the bridge which spanned the Bosphorus. The Mediterranean patrol was to be maintained as before and three airships were sent out to reconnoiter the African coast from Souter to Port Said and learn what they could of the Sultan's intentions. The rest of the evening and the greater part of the night were spent by Alan receiving and answering reports from the northern coast of the Mediterranean, the Russian frontier and the principal cities of Europe and in assuring himself that everything was ready so far as was possible to meet the storm that must infallibly burst over the continent within the next few days. What would have been in the 19th century a matter of weeks was now only one of days and hours. The enormously developed system of intercommunication may transit even for very large numbers of men and between very distant points, rapid to a degree, undreamt of in the present century. Trains could travel at two hundred miles an hour along the hundreds of quadruple lines which covered the continent with their gigantic network, aerial cruisers could fly at more than twice the speed and squadrons of submarine battleships could cleave this silent and invisible way through the ocean depths at a hundred and fifty miles an hour. It was therefore almost impossible to tell without certain information where and how the blows of the enemy would be struck or from how many points the European area of the Federation might be assailed at once and vast indeed with the responsibilities and anxieties which weighed upon the man whose single brain was the centre of this vast and complicated system of defence and on whose decision would depend the safety or the destruction of millions of human beings. Alan had managed to get four hours sleep in the afternoon between Moscow and Gibraltar and he snatched two hours more before midnight. Then he was called and the adventure was just about to take the air to return to the Russian frontier so that he might supervise the operations there when the lookout on the summit of the rock of Gibraltar saw and answered the Aryan private signal from the sky and a few minutes later a fleet of more than a hundred airships dropped down out of the darkness and hovered over what is now called the neutral grounds between the rock and Spain. One of these alighted at the signal station itself. It was the Isma and within three minutes after she had touched the ground Alan was shaking hands with Alexis and asking him what brought him back so soon from the east. I have come back because there is nothing much more to do there said Alexis. Have you had any fighting here? Yes said Alan or at any rate a big massacre. And then he described what had befallen the Sultan's expeditions. Horrible but necessary I suppose replied Alexis not without a shudder at the news. I have been doing my damage on land. I didn't wait for the enemy to begin hostilities so as soon as day broke we got to work. We have wrecked Ekaterinburg, Slatonsk, Orenburg and Uralsk and blocked the four roads into Russia from Asia The Zarina's Asiatic forces had concentrated their enlarged numbers ready to come into Europe. We found some airships intending to cover them but we had the best of the elevation and smashed them up. The slaughter has been something perfectly frightful hide a hundred and fifty ships in action and there isn't a man left of the Asiatic troops that is not getting back to where he came from as fast as he can go. The towns are mere heaps of ruins and the railways utterly useless. I left twenty ships to patrol the frontier and stop any further movements into Russia and twenty more are strung out in a line from the Caspian to the head of the Red Sea to cut communications between Asia and Africa. We came westward over Odessa this morning and had a skirmish in which I am sorry to say I lost five ships but we destroyed twenty Russians blew up the dockyard and shelled the city by way of punishment and now I've got myself and a hundred and thirty ships to place at your disposal for the present. There is nothing more to be feared from the east for by tomorrow night I think the Asiatics will be thoroughly terrorised. You have done more than I have in the way of slaughter and destruction said Alan, but there will be some fear for work along the Russian frontier tomorrow morning. The Tsarina as you call her is concentrating her forces at Kiev, Witzburg, Wittbesk, Dullerburg and Vilna for a descent upon Germany. I have ordered those four places to be destroyed as soon as possible after sunrise and I am just starting now so you had better come with me and order your ships to follow us. Both the commanders felt as they combined squadrons were winging their way towards the Russian frontier that the events of the next twenty four hours or so would go far towards deciding the issues of the war and therefore the fate of the world. Alexis had given up the command of the Isma for the night to his first lieutenant and was travelling on board the Avenger in order that he and Alan might finally arrange their plans for the terrible deeds that were to be done on the following day. Both of them were serious almost a depression for it must be remembered that neither possessed that love of fighting and slaughter which distinguishes the professional soldier of the nineteenth century. Armed with the most awful weapons ever wielded by human hands they had already within the space of a few hours hurled millions of their fellow creatures into eternity and made thousands of homes desolate which a couple of days ago were happy. Now they were going to repeat the tragedy on how vast a scale neither of them knew before the next sunset a red line of blood and flame would mark the frontier between Russia and Germany. All the horrors of months of the old warfare would be concentrated into those few fatal hours. Those who were to do battle in the air would hurl their irresistible lightnings at each other more as gods than as men. While on earth the unresisting swarms could only stand in helpless agony of suspense waiting for the death from which there was no possibility of flying. Within a hundred miles of the frontier the two fleets stopped and Alexis went on board his own vessel. It was then a few minutes after three in the morning that is to say about an hour before sunrise and the warships were floating in a serene and cloudless atmosphere at an elevation of nearly four miles or about twenty thousand feet. It was already quite light enough at that elevation for signals to be plainly seen and a rapid interchange of these took place communicating the final instructions from the flagships to the commanders of the smaller squadrons into which the fleets were to be divided. Just as the last signal had been answered and the vessels were about to separate a tiny speck of light was seen far away to the westward. A hundred powerful field glasses were instantly turned upon it and soon showed it to be a hostile airship coming up very fast at an elevation of about three miles. The silvery sheen of her hull instantly betrayed the fact that she was neither an Arian nor a Federation vessel. For the former were blue and the latter painted dull grey. A moment's reflection showed that she must have sighted the Arian fleet and if she got past would take tidings of its presence to the frontier and destroy all hope a surprise. Within twenty seconds of her true nature being made out a signal was flying from the Misenmast of the Isma which read Shall I stop her? Yes, triple her if you can, don't fire unless necessary came the reply from the Avenger and the Isma at once darted away on her errand. Alexis of course understood that if he struck the enemy with a shell her fragments would fall to the earth and might probably give the impression that a battle was being fought in the air and as they were now so near to the Russian frontier this was to be avoided if possible. He therefore determined to triple her without destroying her and if he could manage it to capture her in mid-air a feat that had never been performed before under similar conditions he descended until the Isma was only floating about a thousand feet higher than the enemy and then began to fly round and round in a wide circle at a speed which made it practically impossible for her to be hit with a shell saved by the merest chance. The stranger, on sighting the fleet, slowed down and swung round to the northward so as to have the advantage of being able to present her stern chasers to the enemy. This gave Alexis the opportunity he wanted. The instant that her stern was visible the Isma swooped down and rushed at her at such a speed that she looked more like a stream of blue light rushing through the sky than a solid material body. Those on board her saw this flash dart past their stern. Their ship shivered from stern to stern with some shock that came so swiftly that not until the Isma was almost out of sight did they realize the damage that had been done. The ram of the Arian had cut through the barrels of the two stern guns and the shafts of the three propellers as cleanly as razors would have divided so many straws. Sustained and propelled only by her wings she dropped from two hundred miles an hour to about twenty-five. And then the Isma reappeared in the sky above her flying the signal, Will you surrender? Her commander saw that the brilliant and almost miraculous maneuver of the Isma had placed him utterly at her mercy. If he refused a single shell would send him and his ship and crew in fragments to the earth while none of his guns could touch the Arian floating as she did a thousand feet above him.  Alexis then signaled again ordering him to unload all his guns and leave the breeches open and when he had seen this done he sank down to a level with her passed the steel wire rope on board her and towed her away in triumph to the fleet. The brilliant achievement delighted the Arians as much as it confounded the crew of the captured vessel especially when it was discovered that she was the Harun a Muslim warship taking a message from the Sultan to the Tsarina at Moscow. Kalid's letter which had been dispatched the night before from Algiers informed Olga of the disaster that had overtaken the Crescent in the Mediterranean and of his determination to avenge it by storming the bridges of Gibraltar the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus and pouring his remaining troops over them into Europe as soon as he could concentrate them. Far more important than this however was a notification of his intention to at once lead a fleet of 250 airships to the west of Europe and their destroy city after city on his eastward course until they joined forces and proceeded if necessary to devastate the rest of the continent. The Muslim guns were now rendered useless and she was left to her own devices to fall and easy prey to the first enemy that might attack her. The Aryan fleet then divided into 50 squadrons of five vessels each and these winged their way towards the Russian frontier ever soaring higher and higher until their wings were beating the rarefied air at an altitude of over three miles. Odessa, Kiev, Gromo, Fitbysk, Dunneberg and Riga were all covered by the time the sun rose. Scores of Russian airships were seen by the various squadrons darting about Hither and Bither along the frontier at varying elevations evidently on the lookout for an enemy. It was not many minutes before the Aryan squadron was discovered by these and they instantly got away out of range and then swerving round sort to rise to a similar attitude so as to place themselves on equal terms with the Aryans. But long before this attempt could be made the work of death had begun and 2,000 guns were reigning their projectiles charged with inevitable destruction upon their devoted cities. They were swarming with men who had come through the interior of Russia to fight for the invasion of Europe but there were no troops on land to oppose them for Alan had seen that there would be no need for these. Within an hour the six cities were so many vast shambles and still the relentless rain of death kept falling from the skies. Houses and public buildings crumbled into dust under the terrific impact of the explosions.  There was no escape even as there was no mercy thousands fled out into the country only to find the same rain of death falling upon the villages. It seemed as though the unclouded heavens of that May morning were raining fire and death from every point upon the devoted earth and yet no source of destruction was to be seen. But ere long new horrors were added to the desolation which had already befallen the cities. Terrific explosions burst out high up in the air vast dazzling masses of flame blazed out knocking the sunlight with their brightness and then vanishing in an instant and after them came showers of bits of metal and ragged fragments of human bodies all that remained of some great cruiser of the air and her crew. The Russian squadrons numbering in all about 300 warships by flying several miles to the eastward and then doubling on a constantly ascending course had by this time gained sufficient elevation to train their guns upon the Aryans and as soon as they had done this the aerial battle became general along a curved line more than a thousand miles in length extending from Odessa to Riga. George Cosmo had been right when he said that there would be little or no land fighting for along that line from the Baltic to the Black Sea there was scarcely a man left alive by midday who was not mad with fear and horror and the frightful effects of the aerial assault. On land as well as on sea fighting was impossible armies and fleet could exist only in the absence of the airships and they were everywhere cities lay utterly at their mercy and nothing shaped by the hand of man could withstand the impact of their projectiles but all day long the fight went on in the skies above the Russian frontier yet not at all after the fashion imagined by the poet of the 19th century who wrote as he thought prophetically of air navies grappling in the central blue. The first and chief endeavour of the captain of every vessel was to avoid the shots of his opponents and to get his own home. It was brains and machinery pitted against brains and machinery and grappling was never thought of. The airship which could gain and maintain a greater elevation than her opponent infallibly destroyed her and so too did the one that could fly unhurt at full speed along the line of battle and use her stern guns upon those who became relatively stationary enough for her to take aim at them. It would have been a magnificent spectacle for an observer who could have followed the contending squadrons in their swift and complicated evolutions. He would have seen the blue and silver hulls flashing to and fro as though apparently engaged in some harmless trial of speed then without the slightest warning, without a puff of smoke or the faintest sound of a report the long deadly guns would do their work. The moment advantage would come and the silent and invisible messengers of annihilation would be spared upon their way then with a roar and a shock that convulsed the firmament amidst a flame would envelop the ship that had been struck and when it vanished she would have vanished too falling in a rain of fragments towards the earth nearly twenty thousand feet below. It was a battle, not so much for victory as for destruction. There could be no victory saved to those who survived after having annihilated their enemies and this was the sole object of the struggle. High in the air above the contending squadrons the Avenger and Yzma swept to and fro along the line raised by their superior soaring powers beyond the zone of battle and from their decks the two admirals commanded the fight and, like very joves above the tempest, hurled the destroying boats from their terrible guns far and wide over the scene of strife. From morning to night both Alan and Alexis sought in vain for the blue hull of the revenge among the Russian squadrons unless Olga was on board one of the other ships she was either engaged in some work of destruction elsewhere or was directing the operations of her forces and learning the disasters that had overtaken them in her palace in Moscow or St. Petersburg. It had been previously ordered that as soon as it became too dark to take accurate aim with the guns those vessels of the Aryan fleet which had survived the battle were to fly westward and rendezvous at midnight on the summit of the Schneekhop one of the peaks of the giant mountains to the northeast of Bohemia whence as soon as the amount of damage had been ascertained the remainder of it, if strong enough was to set out and if possible intercept the Muslim fleet before it could form a junction with the Russians. When the last vessel had alighted on the summit of the mountains it was found that out of a fleet numbering 250 warships only 180 remained the rest was scattered in undistinguishable fragments along the Russian frontier as for the amount of damage that had been done to the enemy as a set off to this heavy loss the Aryan commanders could form no even approximate estimate of it all they knew was that the six frontier cities of Skor or so of smaller towns and villages were now mere heaps of ruins vast carnal houses choked with unnumbered corpses the Russian army of invasion must have been practically annihilated and certainly its remains would be too hopelessly demoralized by the unspeakable horrors it had survived to be of the slightest use for further fighting as soon as the role had been called the fleet in two squadrons of 90 vessels each took the air and crossed the mountain to Golits which had been selected a year before as a convenient spot for the establishment of an arsenal and power station standing as it does at the angle of intersection of two great mountains which form the natural bulwarks of Bohemia here the stock of motive power and the ammunition of all the vessels were renewed and at daybreak the squadrons were just about to take the air when a telephonic message was received from Paris that a large fleet of airships had appeared above the city and had begun to bombard it this message had been sent in compliance with a system of intercommunication which Allen had instituted between all the great cities of Europe and all the power stations and rendezvous throughout the continent the moment an enemy appeared over any town messages were to be sent to all the stations simultaneously and detachments of vessels were to be dispatched to the threatened point as soon as the warning was received it will be seen that this system would enable a very large force to be concentrated upon any threatened point and in fact before the sun was two degrees above the horizon of Paris eight squadrons of federation warships including the two under the command of Allen and Alexis were flying at full speed from all four points of the compass towards the city which for over half a century had been the acknowledged capital of the continent little more than an hour sufficed for the Avenger and the Isma to pass over the 600 miles which separated Gaulits from Paris flying at their utmost speed they left their squadrons to follow the two admirals knowing that every captain could be implicitly trusted to do the work allotted to his ship without further orders the object of Allen and Alexis was to get first to the scene of action and to avail themselves of the superior soaring powers of their two vessels to deliver an assault upon the Muslims which they could not reply to a fearful scene unfolded itself before them as they swept up out of the eastward over Paris the vast and splendid city was surrounded by a huge circle formed of at least 200 Muslim warships floating at an elevation of some three miles and pouring a tempest of projectiles from hundreds of guns indiscriminately into the area crowded with stately buildings and nearly ten millions of inhabitants nearly three miles above the center of the city floated a solitary scout ship ready to signal warning of the approach of an enemy fires were already raging in hundreds of places all over the city the streets were swarming with terrified throngs of citizens who had rushed out to escape the flames and the falling buildings only to meet the hundreds of shells that were constantly bursting among them rending their bodies to fragments by scores at a time such was the beginning of Caleb the Magnificent's revenge for the disaster of the Mediterranean a vengeance which proved that in his breast at least the savage spirit of the ancient warfare was still untamed the Avenger and the Isma gained an altitude of four miles above the doomed city half a dozen shells from their guns struck the scout ship and reduced her to dust before she had time to make a signal in warning and then the 44 guns began to send a radiating hail of projectiles upon the Muslim fleet shell after shell found its mark in spite of the vast range and ship after ship collapsed and dropped in fragments or blew up like a huge shell but before the fifth round had been fired a strange thing happened a single Aryan warship rushed up at full speed out of the south and as soon as she sighted the Avenger signalled orders from the council come alongside the newcomer soared upwards as they sank to meet her and the three ships met and stopped some three miles and a half above the earth the stern of the asriel as the messenger ship was named was brought close up to that of the Avenger the deck doors were opened a gangway thrown across and the captain boarded the flagship and placed a sealed dispatch in Alan's hand he opened it and to his unspeakable astonishment read area May 16th 6 p.m. all Aryans are to return at once with their ships to area and take no further part in the fighting the Federation fleets may be left in the hands of foreign crews and commanders to whom the power stations and batteries are to be given up this order is to be obeyed with the least possible delay Alan Arnold president to the admiral's in command of the Federation fleets end of chapter 24 this recording is in the public domain chapter 25 of Olga Romanov by George Griffith this LibriVox recording is in the public domain a message from Mars in order to adequately explain the origin of the peremptory which although of course he obeyed it without question seems so incomprehensible to Alan it will be necessary to go back to the night of the 12th of May while all area was rejoicing over the return of the exiles and their restoration to the rights of citizenship there was one of the inhabitants of the valley who took little or no part in the festivities this was Vassilis Cosmo a man of between 46 and 47 an elder brother of the George Cosmo who had been chief engineer of the Nawal and was now first officer of the Avenger a striking distinction of personality and temperament had ever since he had reached a thinking age marked him as one apart from the rest of his fellow countrymen he had little or none of the gaiety of disposition and social cordiality that was the salient characteristics of the Aryans as a people he was serious almost to taciturnity solitary and studious unholy engrossed in a single pursuit the study of astronomy in its bearing on the great problem of interplanetary communication after 20 years of constant labour assisted by all the knowledge and inventive progress which had placed the Aryans so far ahead of the rest of the world he had at length solved this problem and realised the dream of ages six years before Olga Romanov had dropped her defiance from the skies as yet however his success had been confined to one planet and this as will have been learnt from the conversations between Alma and Isma on that memorable night on which Alan's letter had been received from the island was the planet Mars after infinite toil and innumerable failures he had at length succeeded in establishing an intelligible system of which may here be described as photo telegraphy in which the rays of light passing between the earth and Mars were made to perform the functions of the electric wires in modern telegraphy his alphabet so to speak consisted of a hundred great electric suns disposed at equal intervals on the mountain peaks round the great oval of the valley these were in direct communication with the observatory of Arya which was situated at a height of 16,000 feet on Mount Austral the highest of the two snow-capped peaks which stood at the southern end of the valley a single switch key enabled him when sitting by the huge telescope which embodied all the highest optical science of Arya to light and extinguish these brilliant globes as he chose and it was by lighting and extinguishing them at certain intervals that he was able to transmit his signals to the Martian astronomer who was waiting to receive them and to reply to them by similar means across the gulf of 34 million miles which separates the two planets at their nearest approach to each other momentous as were the events of the last few days they were dwarfed to utter insignificance by the irregular and apparently meaningless recurrences of a tiny point of light in the centre of a great concave mirror situated at the base of the huge barrel of the telescope through the side aperture of which Vasilis Cosmo was looking a few minutes before midnight on that memorable 12th of May the point of light appeared and vanished and reappeared again at irregular intervals which the astronomer noted on an automatic registered instrument beside him the moment the flash appeared he pressed a button which he held down till it disappeared then he released it waiting till the flash reappeared and repeated the operation so long as the signals came for nearly five hours he received and registered the signals recorded by his reflector in silence broken only by the monotonous ticking of the clockwork which working synchronously with the movements of the two orbs kept the image of Mars exactly in the centre of the object glass and by the soft whirring of the registering instrument never before had human eyes read such a message as he read sitting that night in silence and solitude in his observatory amid the snows far above the lovely valley in which his countrymen were still holding high revel well might his hands tremble and his eyes grow dim with something more than long watching when he reversed the mechanism of the register and a narrow slip of paper divided by cross lines into equal spaces a tenth of an inch long issued from a slit on one end and began to run slowly over a revolving drum on the tape was a series of straight black lines running longitudinally along it they were of unequal length and divided from each other by unequal spaces before the exact import of the message could be gained the length of each of these lines and that of the space which separated it next had to be accurately measured but facilities knew his own code so perfectly that he had been able to read the general drift of the communication that had been sent along the light rays from the sister world by approximately guessing the duration of the flashes and intervals between them day was beginning to dawn by the time the long tape had been unrolled and pinned down in equal lengths on a board for measuring for more than five hours he had not uttered a syllable or even an exclamation although he had received from another world what appeared to be tantamount not only to his own death sentence put to that of the whole human race but when the slips were at length pinned out and he had run his practice eye deliberately over the fatal marks his white lips parted and a deep groan broke from his chest he was alone in the observatory or perhaps not even this sign of emotion would have escaped him with his hand pressed to his temple as though his brain were reeling under the frightful intelligence that had just been conveyed to it he stood in front of the board and gasped in short broken sentences God, oh mercy! can that be really true? had the world only four months more to live? surely I have made some mistake and yet everything has worked as usual there has been no hitch it has been a splendid night for transmission and they no they had not made a mistake for a thousand years they are past it it must but no I can do nothing more this morning I should go mad if I did I must think of it quietly and sleep a little if I can and then I will transcribe it he left the telescope tower and went out onto a little platform at the rear of the observatory which commanded a view of the whole valley he looked out over the lovely landscape lying calm and silent beneath the paling stars and involuntarily exclaimed aloud is it for this that we have conquered the earth and abridged the abysses of space for this that we have made ourselves as God among men and thrown ourselves here in this lovely land lords of the world and masters of the nations how shall I tell them down yonder and yet has not the master told them already? his shape should be that of a flaming fire your children of the fifth generation shall hold his approach yes the two exiles we welcomed back last night are the fifth generation from the angel and that will truly be a flaming fire and truly it will go hard with this world and the men of it in the hour of its passing as the master has said after a vain attempt to seek refuge from his thoughts in sleep he boarded his aerial yacht and went to the city to mingle with the merry-makers more for appearance's sake than from inclination but he kept his own counsel strictly for more reasons than one the next night as soon as Mars was high enough in the heavens about half past ten the dwellers in the valley saw the great lights on the mountain tops flash out and darken at irregular intervals time after time and hour after hour until all but those on the sentinel ships went to rest saying faciless is talking to our neighbours in Mars he will have something to tell us tomorrow but when the next day came he had nothing to tell he had spent the night repeating the message sign for sign and word for word and asking for confirmation that he should have made any mistake in receiving it then in agonised anxiety he had waited for the reply on which he now felt the fate of mankind depended it came with a terrible clearness and brevity which let no room for doubt message read correctly there is no error in our calculations terrestrial humanity is doomed and must prepare to meet its fate so far as he was concerned he was satisfied he knew that a mistake was impossible to the finished science of the Martian astronomers compared with whom he was but as a little child in knowledge but still he kept his own counsel for there was no need for him to cast the sudden shadow of death over the rejoicings of his countrymen at length the fleets departed and area armed at all points was awaiting the possible onslaught of her foes these she would doubtless hurl back in triumphant disdain from her bullocks but far, far away in the depths of space beyond even the range of the great equatorial on mount austral there was approaching an enemy whose assault men could only meet with resignation or despair as the case might be resistance was as much out of the question as escape early on the morning of the sixteenth soon after the avenger had struck the first blow in the world war Vasilis presented himself at the president's palace and asked for an interview with him the president received him a few minutes later in his private room it was the first time in his life that the silent reserved astronomer had ever asked for an official interview and as the president entered the room he held at his hand saying good morning Vasilis we have seen very little of you lately even less than usual have you come to see me about the work which has kept you from joining in the general rejoicings I'm sure it must have been very important yes president it was the most important that a terrestrial student of astronomy could be engaged upon replied Vasilis speaking slowly and very gravely the president looked curiously for a moment into his clear thoughtful eyes and noticed the lines of care on his pale worn features so different to those of the rest of his countrymen then he said with an anxious ring in his voice what is the matter Vasilis you look worn and ill as though you had just passed through some great sorrow have you been keeping too long vigils with the stars tell me what is it Vasilis was silent for a moment as though he might have been wondering whether the president strong as he was would have the strength to bear the blow that he must strike in his next sentence the awful news had come to him slowly sign by sign and word by word and so he had been in a measure prepared for it when its full meaning became clear but upon Alan Arnold it must fall at a single stroke still the words had to be spoken and after a good minute's pause he said president I bring you the most terrible news that one man can bring to another the master's prophecy is about to be fulfilled three nights ago I received through the photo telegraph what I believe to be the death sentence of humanity upon earth here is the transcript of the message save for a sudden pallor and quick uplifting of the eyelids Alan Arnold betrayed no more emotion as he took the roll of paper which Vasilis handed to him than he had done when he received his son's letter from the island it does not come to me unexpected he said in his firm quiet tones your children and mine Vasilis are of the fifth generation and it was foretold that they should see the sign in the sky and so the threatening doom is not to pass us by no, replied Vasilis not unless some miracle happens and there are no miracles in the astronomy of the mathematics of Mars the Martians are long past the age of miracles or mistakes these are the data and the calculations upon which the conclusion is based I have repeated them back to Mars and received confirmation of them I have also verified the times and distances and velocities myself and have been unable to find the slightest error as far as I can see there is not the remotest chance of escape the human race has only four months five days and 23 hours to live from midnight to night it is the will of God said the president solemnly slightly bending his head as he spoke it is not for us to question the designs of eternal wisdom saving so far as we may strive to understand them death has always been inevitable to all of us and this will only be dying together instead of alone do you wish anything done with these calculations? yes, said Vasilis I would suggest that you appoint a committee of our best mathematicians and astronomers to examine and verify them once more detail by detail so that assurance may, if possible, be made sure I shall receive another message from Mars tonight and it will be well for the committee to be with me in the observatory with the public aspect of the question I have, of course, nothing to do that lies in the hands of yourself and the council very well, said the president what you wish should be done at once and the council will meet this morning to consider what public steps are to be taken within half an hour after the conclusion of the momentous interview the council had met and the most immediate result of its deliberations on the tremendous tidings that had come from the sister world was the issue of the order for the instant return of all Aryans who were abroad which had been delivered to Alan on the deck of the Avenger on the morning of the 18th immediately on receiving his father's letter, Alan signalled ceasefire and follow to the Isma and the three Aryan vessels started southward towards Gibraltar leaving Paris to its fate which was reached in two hours and a half he found that in accordance with the orders of the council messages had already been sent out to all the stations within the European area of the Federation for all Aryans to rendezvous at the rock as soon as possible the same orders had been transmitted along the telephone cables which connected the marine stations of the Mediterranean for all the battleships on service to go into their respective harbours so that their crew might land and be picked up by airships which had already been dispatched for them before the evening Aryan vessels had begun to come in from all parts of Europe where they had been stationed and their crews brought terrible descriptions of the scenes of carnage and destruction they had left to obey the summons and the operation leaders were in despair at their apparent desertion of their potent allies while their enemies were already rejoicing at the disappearance of the Aryan warships from all points of the scene of war by midnight the last Aryan vessel had come in and after the command of the rock the last station of which the Aryans retained command had been handed over to the British forces the flotilla, numbering nearly 400 warships rose into the air just as two large Muslim squadrons one fresh from the destruction of Paris and the other from Alexandria and the east of Europe converged upon the rock and without warning opened a furious fire of shells upon it the great guns from the batteries replied and the fleets under the command of Alan and Alexis after sending a rapid hail of shells among the Muslim vessels as a parting salute soared into the upper regions of the air and headed southward for home leaving a fiery chaos of death and destruction behind them two hours after daybreak on the 19th the fleet crossed the northern ridge and sank to earth on the sloping plateau behind the city Alan at once disembarked and went to his father's palace to report himself the sudden an unexpected return of the fleet which had left to do battle for the empire of the world about three days and a half before filled all the inhabitants of the valley with amazement for no one outside the council and the committee appointed to verify the message received from Mars yet knew of the doom that was menacing the world Alan was received at the door of his palace by his father who after their greetings had been exchanged took him at once to the room in which the council were already assembled and there in the presence of his colleagues made him acquainted with the reason for his recall he knew it as he was to the unsparing warfare in which human life had to be counted as almost a negligible quantity a warfare in which there was no middle course between life and death Alan after the first shock of surprise and horror had passed faced the tremendous crisis with the calmness and resignation worthy of the traditions of his family and his race for years he had carried his life in his hands and now that the end of all things seemed near he was prepared to look inevitable death calmly in the face he heard the reading of the message in silence and then when he saw that they were waiting for him to speak he said quietly what is to be must be we cannot argue with the workings of the universe then he paused for a moment and went on I have come back with my comrades in obedience to orders may I now ask why if death is coming to the whole human race we were not permitted to die in battle for the right against the wrong rather than to wait here in inaction and suspense until we are burned to death on the funeral pyre of the world he spoke the last words almost hotly for the first thought that had risen in his mind after hearing the doom that was about to overtake humanity was that the debt he owed to Olga Romanov must now forever remain unpaid at his hands this thought was so unbearable to him that before any reply could be made to his question he broke out again this time speaking rapidly and almost angrily if as you tell me the world has only a few weeks to live why should I wait here for death when I have work to do elsewhere what does it matter whether I die scorched to a cinder in the fire mist or in blown to pieces by a Russian shell I have a debt to pay a stain upon my honour and my manhood to wipe out before I die and so too has Alexis will you not give us an airship and let us find a crew of volunteers that we may go back to the war and hunt our enemy and the enemy of humanity down and either destroy her or find an honourable death in the attempt to do so as he ended his impassioned appeal his father rose from his seat and laid his hand upon his shoulder and said gravely and yet not without a note of admiration in his voice my son those are brave and honourable words and they prove that you are no unworthy son of the race that you belong to but they are still the words of passion rather than reason remember that in the presence of the universal doom that thou overhangs the human race not only private vengeance but even the strife of nations sinks into utter insignificance a heavier hand than yours will punish the sin for which she who has wronged you will soon have to answer at the bar of eternal justice remember how it was said of old vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord I will repay that is true father replied Alan now speaking in his habitual tone of respect but why should not the instrument of that vengeance be the hand of him whom she has so bitterly wronged you know what I mean and so do all in this room has she not so polluted my manhood and stained my honour that I must meet apart from Alma the fate that I could have shared with her with no more regret than that we had to die instead of live together is it not better that she should know I died in the attempt to wipe that stain away than see me waiting for death with it still upon me that is for Alma as well as for you to decide said Francis Tremaine rising from his seat as he spoke how do you know that she is unwilling to meet her end hand in hand with you I have looked into her eyes and seen no love in them replied Alan flushing to his temples with shame and anger her old love for me is dead as it may well be how could I expect her purity to mate with my stop Alan exclaimed his father before he had time to utter the shameful words that was on his lips those are no words for you to speak or for me to hear especially at such a time as this if any stain ever rested upon you you have more than purged it already the man who is found worthy the confidence of the rulers of area is worthy the respect if not the love of any woman in the state whether Alma loves you still or not there is no question for her own heart to answer but you must not call yourself unworthy in my hearing nor yet in mine said Alma's father warmly if the shadow of death had not fallen across all our lifeways as it has done there is no man who wears the golden wings that I would so willingly see Alma join hands with as yourself if I her father hold you worthy to live with her surely you cannot hold yourself unworthy to die with her as he spoke he held out his hand to Alan and he unable to find words to answer him grasped it in silence broken only by a murmur of approval from the assembled members of the council thank you my friend for saying that said the president to remain Alan can ask no better assurance unless he has it from Alma's own lips but now I have something more to say something that will give the true reason for my recall of all the Aryans who are beyond our borders let the words you are now going to hear be heard with all respect for they are not mine but those of the master himself amidst an expectant silence he now resumed his place at the head of the council table and bidding Alan and the vice president to be seated took a long parchment envelope brown with age from the breast of his tunic and said this contains the last words of him who prophesied the doom with which humanity now stands confronted and who thus speaks to us from the past and gives us good counsel and comfort in the hour of our perplexity and sorrow it has been handed down with its seal unbroken from father to son for four generations and now it has fallen to me to break the seal and read what no eyes but those of Natas and my own have ever seen this is the endorsement upon the cover to the son or daughter of my line who shall be the head of the house of Arnold in the fifth generation from me when the world is threatened with the final ruin that I have foreshadowed open this and read my words to all who are then dwelling in area Natas the president paused and everyone waited with most anxious expectations as he opened the envelope and took from it four square sheets of parchment he unfolded them and went on when Vassilius Cosmos brought me the transcription of the message from Mars I saw that the time had come to obey the injunction endorsed on this envelope I opened it and this is what I read the interpretation of the prophecy concerning the possible destruction of the world in the fifth generation from now written by me in the 25th year of the peace and commanded to be read every fifth year in the years of the descendants of those now dwelling in area when the war of the terror was over and it was peace on earth I devoted the declining years of my life to the study of that noblest of all sciences which teaches the law of the stars and the constitution of the universe in the 15th year of the peace that is to say in the year of the Christian era 1920 a new star appeared towards the constellation of Andromeda which shone with great brilliancy for 35 nights and then faded gradually away into the abyss of space seeking into the causes of this phenomenon I found that it was due to the collusion of two opaque bodies behind the bounds of the solar system which doubtless had been travelling towards each other for centuries through space so enormous was the heat evolved by the conversion of the motion of the two bodies that their materials were resolved into their component elements and what had been two bodies as solid as the earth though immensely larger now became an enormous fire mist a chaos of blazing storms and burning billows of incandescent matter I observed it closely from the time of its first appearance until the most powerful telescope at my command could no longer detect it I found it vastly remote as it was the course which it pursued and it was lost to view proved that it was still within the sphere of the sun's attraction and that therefore a time must come when it would reach its point of greatest distance and return such calculations as I was able to make during the brief period of my observation showed that it would re-enter the confines of the solar system in 112 years from then and travelling with constantly accelerated motion would become visible to the inhabitants of the earth five years later I learnt too that unless it should be deflected from its path by the attraction of bodies unknown to terrestrial astronomers it would cross the orbit of the earth in the month of September in the year 2037 that is to say in the fifth generation of men from my own day if my calculations are correct will during that month pass through an ocean of fire that will destroy all living things upon its surface both plants and animals for the space of ten hours or it may be well more while the planet is passing through the fire mist there will be no water upon the face of the earth but the whole globe will be surrounded with a vast nebulous mantle of steam at the end of this time it will emerge from the fiery sea the storm cloud will be recondensed and fall into a deluge upon the land and the world with a changed face with new oceans and new continents will pursue her impassive way lifeless through space but even in the face of so tremendous a cataclysm as this it is not for human genius to despair or human faith to be confounded the new earth may be repealed and you may be the parents of the new humanity though innumerable millions shall die yet the chosen few will be saved if the master of destiny shall permit and from among you the chosen few shall come the caverns of Mount Austral are deep and cool and enclosed by walls of living rock deep rooted in the foundation of the world in those days if you shall have made good use of the heritage we leave you you shall be almost as gods in skill and knowledge and you shall find a means to make this a fortress whose strength shall defy the convulsions of the elements and preserve a remnant of human life upon the earth when you have done this you that remain shall prepare to meet the inevitable end for only a few among your many thousands can be saved yet if you have grown in wisdom and faith as well as in knowledge and skill you shall not disquiet yourself about this for sooner or later death is certain to all and you will but pass together through the shadows instead of singularly when the final hour comes and the breath of the blazing firmament is hot upon your brows may he in whose hand the fates of worlds and races lie give you strength and wisdom to compose yourself for death as men who know that it is but the dreamless sleep that parts tomorrow from today those are the words of the master said the president reverently laying down the parchment sheets on the table before him and it is for us to hear and obey you will now see why it was necessary for all our sons that had gone forth the battle to be recalled for among them there are many who can justly lay claim to be the flower of Aryan manhood tomorrow I will read the message from Mars and the commands of the master in the temple to a congregation of all the fathers and mothers in area and then it shall be their task to repair their children for the doom which awaits them in common with the rest of humanity the remainder of today we will devote to the task of considering how the commands of the master may be best obeyed who had been summoned together to hear what may without exaggeration be described as the death sentence of the world and the funeral oration of the human race as had been previously decided by the president and council only the heads of families were present of these some had but just welcomed their first born into the world while others standing almost on the brink of the grave could see their children of the fourth generation growing up from infancy to youth when the president commenced his address by reading in solemnly impressive tones the prophecy of Natas those present knew instinctively what they had been called together to hear the possibility of the world being overwhelmed by such tremendous catastrophe in the fifth generation from the year of the peace was no new or unawaited prospect to the Aryans therefore there was no panic no sudden outburst of sorrow or dismay among the grave earnest congregation assembled in the temple when the president having read the prophecy went on to say it is now my solemn duty as chief magistrate of Aria to tell you the heads of the families of our race that in the mysterious workings of destiny which we can only accept with reverence and resignation the time has come for us to prepare to meet with the fortitude worthy of our position among the races of mankind the doom which is as inevitable as it is universal the confirmation of the prophecy of Natas has come to us across the abyss of space from one of those sister worlds which as the master said should see with fear and trembling the passing of the messenger of fate on the night of Tuesday last Viscillus Cosmo received from the planet Mars a photogramic message the transcript of which into our language reads thus a cometary body primarily formed by the meeting of two extinguished astral spheres at 10 hours 38 minutes 42 seconds on the night of the 13th of October in the year 1920 terrestrial reckoning will cross the orbit of the earth at 11 hours 55 minutes 22 seconds on the night of the 23rd of September next time corrected to the meridian of Aria at this hour the earth will arrive at the point of intersection and will pass obliquely through the central portion or nucleus of the body this portion is composed of incandescent metallic gases interspersed with semi fluid masses which on contact with the earth's atmosphere will probably be vaporized the constituents of the incandescent nucleus are iron gold, tellurium, chromium, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon with smaller quantities of many other substances which spectrum analysis will disclose to you on the appearance of the comet which will become visible for area at 8 hours 13 minutes p.m. on the 15th of July when its right ascension will be 15 hours 24 minutes 17 seconds and its declination north 10 degrees 42 minutes 17 seconds here follow the detailed calculations upon which the foregoing conclusions are based with these calculations continue the president this is neither the time nor the place to deal for I know that all here will be satisfied when I say that for the last three days they have been submitted to the critical examination of our best astronomers and mathematicians and that not the slightest flaw has been found in them this being so, the only course left open to us as reasonable beings is to prepare to look the inevitable in the face and to play our part in the closing scene of the life drama of humanity as men and women who believe that the life we are living here is but a stage on our journey through infinity and that the fiery sign which will soon appear in the heavens will be to us but a beacon of light on the ultimate shore of time casting a guiding ray over the ocean of eternity he paused for a moment and looked down upon the hushed throng at his feet the instantaneous silence was broken by a long low inarticulate murmur thousands of pale faces were turned upwards towards him from thousands of eyes they came at one appealing upward glance and then every head in the Great Assembly was bowed in silence and resignation the death sentence had been passed there was no appeal from it and there was no rebellion against it the voice of fate had spoken and it was not for such men as the Aryans to sacrifice their reason or their dignity by caveling at it the president bent his head with the rest and for several moments they were silenced throughout the vast area of the temple then he took up from the desk in front of the rostrum the four sheets of parchment which contained the last message the commands of Natas and read them out to the assembly the prusel was listened to in breathless silence it was like his voice speaking across the generations from the urn containing his ashes and standing there in their midst when the president had finished he laid the sheets down again and said thus the eye of the master looking across the years which separate his day from ours has seen one gleam of light one ray of hope piercing the black pal of desolation which is about to fall upon the world and it is for us to follow where he has pointed the way I have now discharged the first part of the solemn and terrible duty which has devolved upon me it is now for you to communicate the tidings you have heard to your families a task which however awful it may be for loving parents to be charged with you will find strength to perform even as your children shall find strength to hear their inevitable doom from those lips which will best know how to soften the tidings of death to them when you have done this we were set about making the choice of those who if it shall please the master of destiny shall be the children of deliverance and the parents of the new race that shall re-people the earth when cosmos once more succeeds to chaos if that shall be permitted then we who shall never see the new world may yet go down to the grave knowing that we will live again in our children for those will be the children not only of a few families among us but sons and daughters of area the most perfect flower of our race and in them if we choose them wisely the world purged by the fire of the dross of human wickedness we'll find a new destiny and the golden age shall return to earth once more as the president finished speaking he held up his hands as though in blessing and once more every head was bent then the great doors of the temple swung open and assembly divided into four streams and passed silently as a congregation of shadows out of the building that night the story of the world's approaching doom was told in every home in area children on the threshold of youth learnt that for them youth would never come youths and maidens on the verge of manhood and womanhood learnt that the bright promise of their lives could now never be fulfilled and lovers just about to join hands for life saw the grave opening at their feet and parted them in their earthly personalities forever that they would meet again upon a higher plane of existence was the first and most firmly held article of their faith but so far as the affairs of this world were concerned the end was in sight in a less highly developed a less perfectly organized state of society the almost immediate result would have been the end of all control and the dissolution of all but the most elementary bonds of interest or affection that exists between men and men but in area this was not possible the firm belief ingrained into the very being of all who had reached the age of thought that where men left off here whether in good or evil they would begin their lives again hereafter precluded even the thought of such a lapse into social anarchy and individual sin for happily for them the union of true religion with true philosophy had now been accomplished in a national faith and the result was that even the terrors of the universal end which was so near failed to shake the fortitude that was founded on a basis firmer than that of the world itself though every home in the valley had its tragedy that night a tragedy too sacred in its unspeakable solemnity for any mere words to describe it when the next morning came the first bitterness of death had already passed saving only the little children who too young to understand laughed and played and sang in the sunlight as usual in happy unconsciousness of their coming fate the dwellers in area rose with the next sunrise from their sleepless couches and went about their daily associations much as they had the day before they did so rather as a matter of routine and discipline than of necessity for now nothing more was necessary on earth they had ample supplies of food to last them beyond the time when they would have no more need of it it was of no use to dress the gardens and vineyards or to till the fields that would be blasted into wilderness before the harvest could be reaped there was no need to pursue further the triumphs of creative art and science which had transfigured area into a paradise and a fairyland for in a few weeks all these would be crumbled to dust with their own sepulchres and yet they took up the work that lay nearest to their hands and went on with it as though they believed that there were still ages of life before humanity and that the empire of area was to endure forever they knew that in work only lay the refuge from the torment of apprehension which might in the end drive even their highly disciplined minds into the delirium of despair and transform their orderly paradise into a pandemonium of anarchy and terror as soon as the first shock of inevitable horror had passed as it did during that first terrible night when the death sentence went from lip to lip throughout the land their proud spirits rose superior to their physical fears and conquered them and they resolved that until the fatal hour came nothing short of the dissolution of the world should put an end to social order in area they were the royal race of earth and when death came they would meet it crown and sceptred in the gates of their palaces and die as men who had solved the secret of life and death and so had no fear with the war that was raging beyond their borders they had now no personal concern the quarrels of men and nations were as the bickering of children in the presence of the fate that would so soon involve the world in ruin and yet the rulers of area were not willing and this fate should overtake their fellow men in the delirium of blood drunkenness they recognized that their duty to the nations bade them send the warnings of the world's approaching fate far and wide through the earth and called for the cessation of strife so that humanity might set its house in order and prepare to meet its end whether the warning would be received or not was another matter it was possible that both the Zarina and the Sultan wanted to scorn and pursue their path of now certain conquests through carnage and devastation to the end that however was their concern as soon as the council decided to dispatch an envoy to summon the warring nations to cease their strife for the now more than ever worthless prize of earthly empire and to prepare for the cataclysm which would so soon dissolve all empires and kingdoms to nothing in the fiery crucible of the coming chaos Alan at once renewed his petition and asked to be allowed to man the Avenger with a crew of volunteers and convey the warning to the Sultan and the Zarina since his second return to area no word of love had passed between him and Alma he was still too proud to become a suitor even to her knowing as he did that she had looked upon him now as polluted by his involuntary relations with Olga as before they had met as friends whose friendship was warmed by the memory of an early but bygone love they had talked calmly and dispassionately of the coming end of earthly things but neither of them had let fall any hint of a desire to meet it hand in hand with the other his lips were sealed by the pride and anger of humiliation and hers by a spiritual exultation which in the presence of approaching death raised her above the consideration of earthly love to the contemplation of even more solemn and holier things then there happened an entirely unexpected event which completely changed their relationship in an instant on the third day after the delivery of the message in the temple a company composed of twenty old men the heads of the noblest families in area presented to the president in council a petition signed by every father and mother in the nation praying that all in whose veins flowed the blood of Natas Richard Arnold and Alan Tremaine should irrespective of all other considerations be included among those who were destined to seek in the caverns of Mount Austral the one chance of escape from the universal doom so obvious and so weighty were the reasons advanced in support of the petition that when like all other matters of state it was put to the vote of the council the only dissenting voices were those of the president and the vice president the immediate effect of this decision from which by the law of area there was no appeal was that Alma, Isma and Alan were exempted from the ordeal of selection and numbered beforehand among the children of deliverance the president took upon himself the duty of communicating this decision to those whom it's so deeply concerned he told Alan first and this was the half expected reply that he received no father I have never dissipated you or the council as you know but I tell you now frankly that I will not take advantage of what is after all only the accident of birth to save my life in such a crisis as this not only are there thousands of others in the area as good as I am but I have already told you that save under one condition which you know as well as I do can never be realized I have not the slightest desire to survive the ruin of the world you may call this disobedience, rebellion if you will but it is my last resolve and in such a time as this one does not make resolves likely Alan said this standing facing his father in his private study the president looked at him for a moment or two with eyes which though grave were neither reproving nor reproachful then he said with the shadow of a smile upon his lips it is both disobedience and rebellion my son but though the chief magistrate must condemn it your father cannot I know too that not even the council of area can now enforce its commands after all the last penalty is but death and that is a mockery now I fully understand too the spirit in which you refuse the reprieve from the general doom and prefer instead a mission which can scarcely end saving honorable death it is the most noble one that you can choose and you of all other men are the man to perform it you have shown our enemies that you can strike hard in battle so if they believe anyone they will believe you when you go to them with a message of peace enforced by such a solemn warning as you will take thank you father replied Alan simply not for what you say of me but for the consent that your words imply but what about the airship in her crew I can do nothing without them yet I cannot have them without the consent of the council can you get that for me I believe so said the president and if I can I will since you are resolved to go and since the honour of our name compels me to consent but I must tell you that I feel sure that it will only be given conditionally and what will the condition be that if you survive a mission you will return to area before the end comes they will have a right to demand that for it is no part of your duty to deprive your companions of the chance of life slender though it may be that will remain for those who may be among the chosen that is true replied Alan bending his head in acquiescence if we escape with our lives we will return though I shall not you will not return Alan why where are you going surely you are not going to leave area again and at such a time as this you who are already one of the chosen a first born son of the master's line it was Alan's mother who spoke she had entered the room just as he had uttered the last sentence and the ominous word struck a sudden chill to her heart she came towards him with her eyes full of tears of apprehension and her hands stretched out pleadingly towards him now that the first terror of crisis was passed and there was one definite however slender hope of safety she clung to it passionately for Alan's sake with a faith that made light of all the fearful difficulties which lay in the way of its realization in the sublime egotism of her mother-love the fate of the world shrank into insignificance in comparison with the one chance of safety for her only son yes mother replied Alan taking her hands in his and bending down until his lips touched her upturned brow I am going to leave area again to proclaim the truce of God against the hour of his judgment and I have just told my father that I shall not return no no my boy you must not say that you must not rob us of the one ray of light in this awful darkness that is falling upon us of our one hope in the world's despair cried his mother letting go his hands and laying her own upon his shoulders as she looked up into his face with eyes that were now overflowing with tears you will not leave us now surely for if we lost you we could not even take the chance of life ourselves for it would not be worth having nor would it be worth having my mother either to you or to me he replied gently laying his hands on hers if I lived and left untried the attempt that is my plain duty to make you would see me a lonely and unmated man among the parents of the new race a man with a shadow upon his name and the memory of an unfulfilled duty behind him remember that it is I who have brought the guilt of blood back again upon earth would you have me outlive all the millions of my fellow creatures with the knowledge that I had not made one effort to bring back that peace on earth which was lost through me before the last summons comes to all humanity Alan is right wife interrupted the president before she could make any reply to her son's appeal it is his duty to save if he can his fellow creatures from being overwhelmed in the midst of their madness and their sin remember that according to our faith as all these millions who are now drunk with battle and slaughter and mad with the rage of conquest and revenge end this life so they must begin the next there is time for him to speak and for them to hear but whether they hear him or not if he has spoken he has done his duty is it not better that if he needs to be he should die doing it then live and leave it undone the weighty words spoken as they were in a tone of blended affection and authority found a fitting echo in his wife's breast she stood for a moment between her husband and her son looking from the one to the other then she dried her tears and replied in a tone of gentle dignity and resignation yes I see you are right and I was wrong it is his duty to go and he must go but she continued turning to Alan with the sudden light of a new hope in her eyes if I bid you God speed my son you will promise one thing won't you yes mother I will whatever it is then promise me that if it shall be proved possible for you to live in happiness as well as in honour you will come back yes he replied smiling gravely as he once more took her outstretched hands I will promise that as gladly as I would promise to enter heaven if I saw the gates open before me then you shall go and God go with you and bring you back in safety to us she said then turning abruptly she went out of the room leaving them both wondering at her words this took place early on the morning of the 21st of May an hour later the president had applied in Alan's name for the permission of the council for him to select a crew of twenty volunteers and to take the Avenger to Europe on his mission to the warring peoples and to proclaim peace on earth and breathing space for humanity to prepare for its end but then a new difficulty presented itself Alexis in spite of Alan's remonstrances to the contrary declared that he should never leave area without him I have shared in your exile and your return he said in answer to all arguments and by the honour of the golden wings I swear that I will either go with you now or you shall see me fall dead the moment that you leave the earth this was the only oath that ever was heard upon the lips of an Arian and it was irrevocable so as there was no choice Alan was forced to consent and Alexis made ready to bid a last farewell to area and all its dear associations End of Chapter 26 Chapter 27 of Olga Romanov by George Griffith This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Alma Speaks That night Alan with his heart too full even for the society of his own home went out of the city a little before midnight and walked down towards the western shore of the lake where they still stood the same grove of palms in which more than 130 years before Natasha and Richard Arnold had plighted their despairing troth and under the shadow of what threatened to be an eternal separation spoke the first words of love that had ever passed their lips it was not altogether accident that guided his steps in this direction for all day he had been reviewing the strange chain of events which united the fate of his ancestors with his own and it was natural that the most romantic episode in their lives should inspire him with a desire to see the scene of it once more so it came about that he stood on what he believed to be his last night in area beneath the self-same ancient palms which five generations before had heard Natasha confess her love for the man who had sworn to give her in exchange for it that empire of peace which he, their descendant had been the means of losing the story was of course familiar to him in its minutest detail and as he stood there his own heavy heart with a hopeless sorrow he pictured his great ancestor standing on the same spot holding the means of universal conquest in his hands and yet accounting all things as worthless because the empire within his grasp must lack the supreme crown of a woman's love then looking back through the mists of the years that had gone by since then he seemed to see the very shape of the angel moving over the soft green sword and now the broad marble paved roadway gleamed white beneath the trees and to hear the musical murmur of her voice even as Richard Arnold had heard it on that eventful night Alan was he dreaming or was it the voice of his ancestors speaking to his soul in that hour of his lonely sorrow a pale shimmering ghostly shape flitted across the quivering plumes of the palm trees dropped softly to the ground and Alma stood before him in the well of her aerial boat before his amazement had permitted him to utter a word she had stepped out and was coming towards him with outstretched hands saying they told me I should find you here Alan I have come to ask you to forgive me if you before you go upon this mission of yours if go you must to forgive you Alma she explained recoiling a pace in sheer astonishment at her presence and her words what can I have to forgive you is it not rather no Alan it's not she said quickly still holding out her hands to him and looking up at him with faintly flushing cheeks and shining eyes I see it all clearly now Isma was right it is I who have sinned against you and it is for me to ask forgiveness how can you ask that of me Alma how have you harmed me he asked still bewildered by her beauty and the enigmas that she spoke in yet taking her hands and as if by instinct drawing her towards him I will answer that afterwards she said quickly as though inspired by some sudden thought but tell me first are you quite resolved to go upon this mission yes he said with an almost imperceptible quiver in his voice have I not had a great if not guilty share in bringing this curse upon the world and is it not fitting that I should give my last days to the task however hopeless of bringing back peace on earth so that men may die sane and not mad but Alan is that a higher duty than you owe to your family and your people you know that in you centre all the hopes for the future if there is to be one with you would die the name of Arnold the direct line of Natas and Natasha and with me they would die even if I went with the children of deliverance into the caverns of Mount Austro and survive the ruin of the world how can you mock me like that Alma have I not suffered enough for my weakness and my folly an exile in the wilderness that the world will be when it has passed through its baptism of fire what is the swift death of battle or the short agony of the conflagration of the world compared with the long death in life that I should drag out alone in the new world that may arise from the ruins of this one and why alone Alan why alone can you ask me that Alma surely you are mocking me now can you ask why I should be alone if I survived with the remnants of our people do you not even yet know why I choose the certainty of death rather than the challenge of life but Alan what if I were to tell you that you would not go alone to the caverns and that if the chosen few survive you will not wander alone on the wilderness of the new world I should tell you Alma that you meant to sacrifice yourself to save me and that I would not accept sacrifice even at your hands sacrifice no Alan I would not outlive the world even with you on those terms a woman of area does not sell herself even for sentiment this is no time for secrets or false shame and I tell you frankly that if you had accepted the order of the council you should have lived and I would have died but your rebellion proved to me that Isma was right when she rebuked my false pride by saying the man who has fallen and risen again is better and stronger than he who has never suffered but Alma remember no you must not interrupt me now or what ought to be said may never be spoken I know what you were going to say you were going to tell me to remember that Olga Romanov is still alive let her live and let God judge her for her sins in the judgment that is so soon to come what have we to do with her nothing Alma after you have said that for it tells me that in your eyes the stain is purged and the fault forgiven I will take the message to her as to the rest of the world if she receives it in peace and God shall judge between us and if not then I will pit my single ship against hers and her fleet and only one of us if either shall see the end and if that is you what then then it will be for you under heaven to speak the words of life or death for only you can bid me live Alma as he spoke with lights of the mountaintop suddenly blazed out shorn for a few moments and were extinguished again it was the answering signal to one from Mars but it joined two souls as well as two worlds for by its light Alan saw on Alma's face and in her eyes the one reprieve from death that honor would permit him to accept without waiting for the words that her now smiling lips were opening to utter he took her unresisting in his arms then her proudly carried wing crowned head drooped at last in sweet submission and rested on his heart and as he turned her face up to his to take hercus of re-betrothal he said that tells me that I may live now we are immortal you and I for this kiss is our eternity then their lips met and for the instant time had no more beginning or end the impending ruin of the world was forgotten for love had spoken and the very voice of doom itself was silent amidst the happiness of their heedless souls