Nevertheless he would not admit failure. If he were prevented from prosecuting his first plan, there was yet a desperate alternative left. Nor would he surrender Miriam. If the end of all things earthly were to come for him, she would perish with him. And perhaps, with her as a hostage, he might be able to parley with the enemy, and obtain terms which his unaided power was inadequate to secure. But, at best, the outlook was dark.
He left the castle by a private way, and was conveyed by an instantaneous subterranean route to the scene of the disaster to the laboratories. The spectacle was even more sinister than he anticipated.
The volume of water rushing down the river-bed was much greater than ever before, dark in color, and sweeping with it huge masses of drift and wreckage. Whirlpools had been formed at various points, which sucked in and again tossed aloft fragments of buildings and bodies of animals, some human ones among them. The ruins of No. 19 formed a sort of island in the midst of the headlong stream, against which it raged like a snarling wild beast, gnawing at it with its foaming fangs, and ever and anon tearing shreds of it away. The rocky headland on which No. 20 stood had been partly undermined, and the structure was held at a slant, threatening momentarily to subside altogether. Nos. 7 and 5 were out of sight round a bend of the river, but there was no reason to suppose that their plight was better than the others. The long-sought results of Toridian science were brought to naught.
The wild-looking figure of a man appeared round the headland of No. 20, and came running in Torpeon’s direction, tossing up his arms and shouting insanely. He was half naked, bony and hairy, and swung a sling in his hand. On catching sight of Torpeon he halted, and at first turned to flee; but, taking courage, faced about again, and snatching a sharp-cornered stone from his girdle sent it whizzing at the prince from his sling. Torpeon raised the truncheon that he carried, and the stone was deflected from its course and fell harmlessly. The man started to escape, but the truncheon, pointed at him, took the power from his legs, and he fell to the ground.
Torpeon went up to him as he lay groveling, and turned him over with his foot.
“So this is my friend, Krotox!” he said with a low chuckle. “It’s a pleasure to meet with you again so soon!”
“Sublime prince, spare me!” whimpered the creature. “I have done nothing. I will reveal all I know!”
“I should be sorry to give you that trouble,” Torpeon replied. “But I am looking for reports from No. 19; I will send you to hasten them.”
He took up the wriggling wretch by a leg and arm and carried him to the brink of the torrent. Krotox shrieked and chattered like a hyena. The prince swung him to and fro and far out into the turmoil of waters. The current snatched him, and in a moment dashed his head against an abutment of the steel dome. Torpeon watched the dead body drift downward, revolve in an eddy, and pass out of sight.
“Can it be Lamara who uses such instruments?” he muttered. “If this be a mere insurrection of the exiles, there is more hope than I feared.”