Chapter XX: In the Twilight Country

Mercer sat on the rear end of the platform and waved good-by vigorously as he was carried swiftly up and out over the water. Under him was a pile of blankets and a coat, and beside him a box of baked dough-like bread--the food he was to turn over to Tao’s emissaries when he set them free.

Anina flew at his side, at intervals smiling up at him reassuringly. Before him on the platform his captives huddled. Although all of them were trussed up securely, he menacingly kept his little wooden revolver pointed at them from the level of his knee.

He chuckled as he thought of the fight at the bayou. Everything was working out all right; it was surprising what one could do with his physical strength here on Mercury.

The girls had carried the platform up some five hundred feet above the sea. Mercer turned and looked back. The shore had already dropped almost to the rim of the close-encircling horizon. He leaned over toward Anina, resting one hand on the bamboo handle she was holding. “How long will it take us to get there, Anina?”

He knew the girl would understand his words, but he did not realize she had little basis for comparing time in his language.

“Long time,” she answered, smiling. “But we go quickly now.”

He sat back again and waited. It seemed like hours--it was hours probably, three or four--and still they swept onward straight as an arrow.

After another interminable interval Anina raised one hand and pointed ahead.

“Twilight Country--there,” she said.

Mercer saw, coming up over the horizon, the dim outlines of a rocky land sparsely covered with trees. It spread out rapidly before him as he watched, fascinated. It seemed a desolate land, a line of low, barren hills off to one side, and a forest of stunted, naked-looking trees in front. The platform swept on over the shore line, a rocky beach on which the calm sea rolled up in tiny white lines of breakers. Then in a great curve the girls circled to one side.

“Where are we going?” Mercer asked.

“A trail--near us somewhere. A trail to the Lone City. There we land.”

Mercer saw the trail in a moment. It came out of the woods and struck the shore by a little bight where boats could land. The girls swooped downward, and in a moment more the platform was lying motionless on the beach.

Mercer looked around. It was light enough to see objects in the immediate foreground--a gray twilight. The forest came almost to the water’s edge. He saw now the trees might have been firs, but with small, twisted trunks, few branches except near the top, and very few leaves. They seemed somehow very naked and starved--indeed, it surprised him that they could grow at all in such a rocky waste. The end of the trail was close before him. It appeared merely an opening in the trees with the fallen logs and underbrush cleared away.

The girls were obviously cold, standing idle now after their long flight. Mercer lost no time in preparing for the return journey. He tumbled his captives unceremoniously off the platform and set the box of food and blankets beside them.

“What’s this, Anina?”

He was holding in his palm a tiny metal cylinder.

Anina took it from him.

“For fire, see?”

She picked up a bit of driftwood, and, holding the end of the cylinder against it, pressed a little button. A curl of smoke rose from the wood, and in a moment a wisp of flame.

“A light-ray!” Mercer exclaimed.

“The ray--but different.”

She tossed the blazing bit of wood aside, and held her hand a foot or so in front of the cylinder.

“No danger! See?” She brought her hand closer. “Heat here--close--no heat far away.”

Mercer understood then that this was not a light-ray projector, but a method of producing heat with the property of radiation, but not of projection--a different and harmless form of the ray.

He took the little cylinder from the girl, inspected it curiously, then laid it on the blankets.

“They’ll need it, I guess, if it’s any colder where they’re going.”

He set one of the captives free.

“Anina, tell him to sit quiet until we’ve gone. Then he can cut the others loose.” He tossed a knife into the box. “Come on, Anina; let’s get away.”

They were about ready to start back, when Mercer suddenly decided he was hungry. He hopped off the platform. “They don’t need all that food.”

He gathered some of the little flat cakes of dough in his hands. “Want some?” He offered them to the girls, who smilingly refused.

“All right. I do. I’m hungry. Might as well take a blanket, too. It’s devilish cold.”

He was back on the platform in a moment, sitting down with the blanket about his knees and munching contentedly at the bread.

“All right, Anina. Start her off.”

They swung up into the air and began the return flight.

A few hours more and they would be back at the Great City. Then the real work would begin. Mercer squared his shoulders unconsciously as he thought of all there was to do.

But there was no danger to the Light Country from Tao, he thought with satisfaction. At least, there would be none when the other cities were rid of Tao’s men, as the Great City was now. The men would find their way back all right--

At the sudden thought that came to him Mercer dropped his bit of bread and sat up in astonishment. Tao no longer a menace? He remembered my reasoning in the boat coming down the bayou. Of course, Tao would have no reason to attack the Light Country by force of arms until he was sure his propaganda among the people had failed.

My argument was sound enough, but the utter stupidity of what we had done now dawned on Mercer with overwhelming force. Tao would await the results of his emissaries’ work, of course. And here we had gone and sent them straight back to their leader to report their efforts a failure! If anything were needed to precipitate an invasion from Tao, this very thing Mercer had just finished doing was it. He cursed himself and me fervently as he thought what fools we had been.

Then it occurred to him perhaps it was not too late to repair the damage. Not more than half an hour had passed since he had set the men free on the shore of the Twilight Country. He must go back at once. Under no circumstances must they be allowed to reach Tao and tell him what had occurred.

Anina was flying near Mercer as before. He leaned over the edge of the platform to talk with her, but the wind of their forward flight and the noise of the girls’ wings made conversation difficult.

“Anina! Come up here with me. Sit here. I want to talk to you. It’s important. They don’t need you flying now.”

Obediently the girl sat where he indicated, close beside him. And then as he was about to begin telling her what was in his mind Mercer suddenly remembered that they were still heading toward the Light Country, every moment getting farther away from Tao’s men, whose homeward journey he must head off some way.

“We must go back, Anina--back where we came from--at once. Tell them--now! Then I’ll tell you why.”

The girl’s eyes widened, but she did as he directed, and the platform, making a broad, sweeping turn, headed back toward the Twilight Country shore.