Their progress was leisurely, and there were many halts. There were certain places where their coming was expected, and preparations had been made to give them a brilliant reception. Airships, splendidly decorated, came up to welcome them, and beg them to descend to receive addresses.
Then it was that the strangers saw how much diversity it was possible to introduce into the decoration of the various air-craft, and how their outward appearance could be varied and altered according to the taste and ingenuity of the owners. Every kind of bird was imitated upon a large scale. There were gigantic swans, eagles, swallows, and other birds such as are familiar to us upon Earth, and a number of strange bird-forms which exist only on Mars. There were grotesque creatures, too, representations of beasts and fish, and uncanny-looking monsters, some of the latter resembling what we know as dragons, griffins, wyverns, and so on.
At night there would be fêtes, when all these creatures were lighted up in curious and ingenious fashion, revealing to the astonished and delighted travellers most weird and marvellous effects, as they performed intricate evolutions and manoeuvres in the air in the dark. Then there were fireworks such as have probably never been dreamed of by even our most skilful pyrotechnists. Illuminated airships soared up into the heavens and formed brilliant constellations of huge coloured stars, or rained down showers of fire, like colossal, inverted, fiery fountains. Chariots of fire sailed to and fro and engaged in races, contests, or in sham-fights upon a grand scale. Fiery monsters, which left long, shining trails of light behind them like the tails of comets, darted to and fro with a roar which startled those who heard it for the first time. Luminous clouds—red, yellow, blue, or green—formed mysteriously, and aeronauts played hide-and-seek amongst them with their lighted cars, vanishing suddenly into them and reappearing quite unexpectedly in a different place.
Such were some—only a few—of the spectacles with which the travellers from our Earth were entertained by the hospitable inhabitants of the countries over which they passed in the course of their journey to Sedenia. It would require too much space to describe all the marvellous sights they gazed upon, the novelties they met with, the quaint costumes, manners, and customs of the various nations they encountered, or the numerous zoological curiosities which were brought under their notice. Weeks were occupied in this manner, and it may safely be said that each day brought some fresh surprise, something which was new, unexpected, or curiously interesting to the visitors.
Altogether, the two chums and their guardian had a memorable journey—one to be remembered with delight and wonder for the rest of their lives, one which was in every sense a truly royal progress. Not the least interesting part of it consisted in the frank curiosity displayed by the inhabitants in themselves as natives of another world. Many showed great surprise at finding that they were just human beings, very much the same as the Martians were, neither more nor less.
'I suppose,' remarked Gerald, 'they expected that we should turn out to be monsters like those which that philosopher of theirs, whose book I was reading on the way here, declared us to be: "ape-like creatures, with blue skins covered with green hair."'
But whatever the expectations of the Martians had been, they soon demonstrated that they were well pleased with the reality, for they overwhelmed the visitors with the most lavish hospitality, and accorded them places of great honour at every public function.
One note there was, however, not exactly of discord, but a jarring note—an undercurrent—of disappointment and dissatisfaction, nevertheless. In every place at which they arrived, one of the first questions addressed to Monck was: 'Have you brought the diamonds?' or 'When are the diamonds to be offered for sale?' These, or some similar inquiries concerning the great shipload of gems which it was now known throughout the Martian world had been brought by King Ivanta from the 'evening star,' met them at every halting-place.
It was evident that the answer which Monck, as the king's messenger, was compelled to make to these queries, caused considerable surprise and disappointment. In certain extreme cases they even threw a certain air of restraint into the exhibitions of public rejoicings.
'What has been done with the diamonds, Mr Monck?' asked Jack one day. 'What is going to be done with them? If they were brought here to be offered for sale to those who could afford to buy them, why are they kept back?'