CHAPTER XII
THE SECRET EXIT
MIRIAM’S trance was physical only; and the disjunction of spirit from body was not so complete as to prevent occasional gleams of consciousness from passing from one to the other. But normal cooperation was suspended. The spirit, however, was beyond Torpeon’s reach, and his power over the body was limited to reducing its functions to quiescence. A far greater effort would be required to bring the living and conscious woman herself under his control. Such an effort, in the Saturnian environment, must prove futile; and all his art and ingenuity were therefore bent upon the enterprise of transferring her to his own place.
The plan of his attempt at the palace had been well and boldly laid, and Zarga had played her part efficiently. But in failing to consider an element in the problem so apparently humble as Jim they had committed a radical error. His devotion to Jack and Miriam was single-hearted and unreserved, and it had sharpened his insight into possible sources of danger. Zarga had aroused his suspicions from the first; and the fact that she was trusted so implicitly by the others served to render his own watchfulness only the more keen.
He had observed, while Lamara and her party were preparing for departure, leaving Jack and Zarga alone with Miriam, that one of the attendants, at Lamara’s direction, had transmitted a signal to the island through a certain instrument attached to a pillar of the portico of the palace. His fondness for mechanical devices had caused him to examine this contrivance after they were gone, and though the principle on which it worked was unlike anything he had seen on his own earth, he perceived readily enough by what means it was operated. He now applied himself, without compunction, to observing as well as he could what was going on between Jack and Zarga in Miriam’s chamber; and what he saw and heard augmented his suspicions of the girl’s good faith. He had almost made up his mind to send a signal to the island, on the chance that it might bring assistance, when, happening to glance upward, he saw the red planet Tor directly in the zenith, and, detaching itself therefrom, an object bearing some resemblance to a parachute, which sped toward Saturn with the swiftness of a meteorite. He delayed no longer, but with all his force pushed in the rod or plunger which had seen the attendant use. At the same time he gave vent to the scream, which Jack had overheard. The next instant he was bowled head over heels by what seemed to be a blast of fiery air; and he did not recover his senses until after the ensuing conflict was over.
We follow the movements of Zarga. Terrified and enraged at the miscarriage of the attempt, and at the ruin involved to her personal hopes, she had fled away, not heeding whither she went, until she was arrested by the towering figure of Torpeon in her path.
“Back to Tor, Prince!” she cried, “and take me with you. All is lost here!” “No; now is our best chance for success!” he returned, with fierce resolution. “The moment to strike home is when the enemy believes you defeated. The youth shall be my care; do you follow the woman. She has been take to the island, where they believe her secure; none can enter there but the initiates; but you are of the inner circle, and your privilege has not yet been canceled. Hear my instructions and follow them, and every end we aimed at will be gained. Throw aside all scruples; your career on Saturn is closed forever; you have nothing more to lose here. But I will make you great on Tor, and the man you love shall be at your feet. You are of my blood; be worthy of your lineage!”
“I fear nothing, because I hope nothing,” replied the girl gloomily; “but I am willing to make one trial more. He will never love me; but to part him from the woman he loves will be some consolation. Tell me your plan.”
“With beauty such as yours, and opportunity, no man can resist you,” said Torpeon; “you will need no help from me; but in serving you I shall serve myself. Listen to me and I will show you how fortune fights for those who defy her!”
After conferring together they separated, and Zarga made her way toward the seashore. Torpeon, after some minutes of intense thought, betook himself in another direction.
Miriam, in the soft silence and seclusion of the pavilion, drew a long breath and opened her eyes. Her first thought was of Jack, whom she had been preparing to meet at the time the trance overtook her. But this room, with its silvery gleams, was different from the one which she last remembered. She turned her mind back over the sequence of events since her arrival on Saturn. She recalled Zarga’s having told her of the planetary mirror, in which distant events were reflected; it might show her her lover, who was even then on his way to seek her. Unaware of the conditions under which alone the mirror could be safely consulted, she had unhesitatingly entered a small domed structure sunk in the solid rock which Zarga had designated. There, in the darkness, she had first discerned nothing; but presently she had seen, set in a metal frame, an oval object having the appearance of a giant eye, mysteriously luminous, the inner circle of the pupil black, and enlarging its diameter as she gazed into it. In those depths there were indistinct movements, evolutions, glimpse of things approaching and withdrawing, wide wastes of space; and the shining out of stars; the waving of trees in the wind; the foam of falling waters. Suddenly the circle of the pupil was filled with a ruddy glare, and seemed to grow immense; she was looking on the surface of a planet, wild chasms and pinnacles, the spouting of volcanoes, the rush of boiling waters. The figure of a man with shaggy black hair and fierce eyes appeared in the midst of it, sweeping toward her with incomprehensible velocity, a scarlet mantle waving out from his herculean shoulders. Now, apparently his actual self stood before her, his gaze meeting hers; in his right hand he carried a short staff that glowed like molten metal. He pointed it at her forehead; she felt a sensation like the touch of flame; she had seemed to sink down, and knew no more.