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"The people he belonged to must be near by," I said. "Very likely he was a watch on guard."
"But I see no signs of a habitation."
"True, but you observe there is a thick hedge on the side of the road opposite the canal. If we get through that perhaps we shall catch sight of something."
A Palace in View.
Cautiously we pushed our way through the hedge, which was composed of shrubs as large as small trees, and very thick at the bottom, and, having traversed it, found ourselves in a great meadow-like expanse which might have been a lawn. At a considerable distance, in the midst of a clump of trees, a large building towered skyward, its walls of some red metal, gleaming like polished copper in the soft light that fell from the cloud dome.
There were no lights around the building itself, and we saw nothing corresponding to windows on that side which faced us, but toward the right a door was evidently open, and out of this streamed a brilliant shaft of illumination, which lay bright upon the lawn, then crossed the highway through an opening in the hedge, and gleamed on the water of the canal beyond.
Where we stood the ground had evidently been recently cleared, and there was no obstruction, but as we crept closer to the house—for our curiosity had now become irresistible—we found ourselves crawling through grass so tall that if we had stood erect it would have risen well above our heads.
Taking Precautions.
"This affords good protection," said Colonel Smith, recalling his adventures on the Western plains. "We can get close in to the Indians—I beg pardon, I mean the Martians—without being seen."
Heavens, what an adventure was this! To be crawling about in the night on the face of another world and venturing, perhaps, into the jaws of a danger which human experience could not measure!
But on we went, and in a little while we had emerged from the tall grass and were somewhat startled by the discovery that we had got close to the wall of the building.
Carefully we crept around toward the open door.
As we neared it we suddenly stopped as if we had been stricken with instantaneous paralysis.
Out of the door floated, on the soft night air, the sweetest music I have ever listened to.
A Monstrous Surprise.
It carried me back in an instant to my own world. It was the music of the earth. It was the melodious expression of a human soul. It thrilled us both to the heart's core.
"My God!" exclaimed Colonel Smith. "What can that be? Are we dreaming, or where in heaven's name are we?"
Still the enchanting harmony floated out upon the air.
What the instrument was I could not tell; but the sound seemed more nearly to resemble that of a violin than of anything else I could think of.
Magnificent Music.
When we first heard it the strains were gentle, sweet, caressing and full of an infinite depth of feeling, but in a little while its tone changed, and it became a magnificent march, throbbing upon the air in stirring notes that set our hearts beating in unison with its stride and inspiring in us a courage that we had not felt before.
Then it drifted into a wild fantasia, still inexpressibly sweet, and from that changed again into a requiem or lament, whose mellifluous tide of harmony swept our thoughts back again to the earth.
"I can endure this no longer," I said. "I must see who it is that makes that music. It is the product of a human heart and must come from the touch of human fingers."
We carefully shifted our position until we stood in the blaze of light that poured out of the door.
The doorway was an immense arched opening, magnificently ornamented, rising to a height of, I should say, not less than twenty or twenty-five feet and broad in proportion. The door itself stood widely open and it, together with all of its fittings and surroundings, was composed of the same beautiful red metal.
A Beautiful Girl!
Stepping out a little way into the light I could see within the door an immense apartment, glittering on all sides with metallic ornaments and gems and lighted from the centre by a great chandelier of electric candles.
In the middle of the great floor, holding the instrument delicately poised, and still awaking its ravishing voice, stood a figure, the sight of which almost stopped my breath.
It was a slender sylph of a girl!
A girl of my own race: a human being here upon the planet Mars!
Her hair was loosely coiled and she was attired in graceful white drapery.
"By ——!" cried Colonel Smith, "she's human!"
Chapter XII.
Still the bewildering strains of the music came to our ears, and yet we stood there unperceived, though in the full glare of the chandelier.
The girl's face was presented in profile. It was exquisite in beauty, pale, delicate with a certain pleading sadness which stirred us to the heart.
An element of romance and a touch of personal interest such as we had not looked for suddenly entered into our adventure.
Colonel Smith's mind still ran back to the perils of the plains.
A Human Prisoner.
"She is a prisoner," he said, "and by the Seven Devils of Dona Ana we'll not leave her here. But where are the hellhounds themselves?"
Our attention had been so absorbed by the sight of the girl that we had scarcely thought of looking to see if there was any one else in the room.
Glancing beyond her, I now perceived sitting in richly decorated chairs three or four gigantic Martians. They were listening to the music as if charmed.
The whole story told itself. This girl, if not their slave, was at any rate under their control, and she was furnishing entertainment for them by her musical skill. The fact that they could find pleasure in music so beautiful was, perhaps, an indication that they were not really as savage as they seemed.
Yet our hearts went out to the girl, and were turned against them with an uncontrollable hatred.
They were of the same remorseless race with those who so lately had lain waste our fair earth and who would have completed its destruction had not Providence interfered in our behalf.
Singularly enough, although we stood full in the light, they had not yet seen us.
Martians Guarding Her.
Suddenly the girl, moved by what impulse I know not, turned her face in our direction. Her eyes fell upon us. She paused abruptly in her playing, and her instrument dropped to the floor. Then she uttered a cry, and with extended arms ran toward us.
But when she was near she stopped abruptly, the glad look fading from her face, and started back with terror-stricken eyes, as if, after all, she had found us not what she expected.
Then for an instant she looked more intently at us, her countenance cleared once more, and, overcome by some strange emotion, her eyes filled with tears, and, drawing a little nearer, she stretched forth her hands to us appealingly.
Meanwhile the Martians had started to their feet. They looked down upon us in astonishment.