Miela's Story

: The Fire People

When I reached the little Florida town Alan was there to meet me. He would

have none of my eager questions, but took me at once by launch to their

bungalow. No one was on the porch when we landed, and we went immediately

into the living room. There I found Beth and Professor Newland talking to

this extraordinary girl from another world, of whose existence, up to that

moment, I had been in complete ignorance. She was dressed especia
ly for

my coming, they told me afterward, exactly as she had been that morning

when Alan found her. They wanted to confound me, and they succeeded.



I stood staring in amazement while Beth quietly introduced me. And Miela

spread her wings, curtsied, and replied in a quaint, soft little voice: "I

am honored, sir." Then she laughed prettily and, extending her hand,

added: "How do you do, Bob--my friend?"



When I had partially recovered from my astonishment Miela put on the big

blue-cloth cape she wore constantly to cover her wings. Then Alan and Beth

plunged into an excited explanation of how he had found Miela, and how all

this time she had remained in seclusion with them there studying their

language.



"You never have seen such assiduous young people," Professor Newland put

in. "And certainly she has been a wonderful pupil."



He patted Miela's hand affectionately; but I noticed then that his eyes

were very sad, as though from some unvoiced trouble or apprehension.



They had decided, the professor said, to keep the girl's presence a secret

from the world until they had learned from her in detail what her mission

was. The vehicle in which she had come was still on the island up the

bayou. Alan had stationed there three young men of Bay Head whom he could

trust. They were living on the island, guarding it.



During these two months while Miela, with uncanny rapidity, was mastering

their language, the Newlands had of course learned from her all she had to

tell them. The situation in Wyoming did not necessitate haste on their

part, and so they had waited. And now, with a decision reached, they sent

for me.



That evening after supper we all went out on the bungalow porch, and Miela

told me her story. She spoke quietly, with her hands clasped nervously in

her lap. At times in her narrative her eyes shone with the eager, earnest

sincerity of her words; at others they grew big and troubled as she spoke

of the problems that were harassing her world and mine--the inevitable

self-struggles of humanity, whatever its environment, itself its own worst

enemy.



"I am daughter of Lua," Miela began slowly, "of the Great City in the

Country of Light. My mother, Lua, is a teacher of the people. My father,

Thaal, died when still I was a child. I--I came to your earth--"



She paused and, turning to Beth, added appealingly: "Oh, there is so

much--to begin--how can I tell--"



"Tell him about Tao," Beth said.



"Tao!" I exclaimed.



"He leads those who came to your earth in the north," Miela went on. "He

was my"--she looked to Alan for the word--"my suitor there in the Great

City. He wished me for his wife--for the mother of his children. But

that--that was not what I wished."



"You'd better tell him about conditions in your world first, Miela," said

Alan. He spoke very gently, tenderly.



I had already seen, during supper, how he felt toward her; I could readily

understand it, too, for, next to Beth, she seemed the most adorable woman

I had ever met. There was nothing unusually strange about her, when her

wings were covered, except her quaint accent and sometimes curious

gestures; and no one could be with her long without feeling the sweet

gentleness of her nature and loving her for it.



"Tell him about your women," Beth added.



I noticed the affectionate regard she also seemed to have for Miela; and I

noticed, too, that there was in her face that vague look of sorrow that

was in her father's.



The habitable world of Mercury, Miela then went on to tell me, was divided

into three zones--light, twilight and darkness. There was no direct

sunlight in the Light Country--only a diffused daylight like the light on

our earth when the sky is clouded over. The people of the Light Country,

Miela's people, were the most civilized and the ruling race.



In the twilight zone around them, grading back to the Dark Country,

various other peoples dwelt, and occasionally warred with their neighbors

for possession of land in the light.



In the center of the Light Country, directly underneath the sun--that is,

where the sun, would always appear near the zenith--was the Fire Country.

Here, owing to violent storms, the atmospheric envelope of the planet was

frequently disturbed sufficiently to allow passage for the sun's direct

rays. Then would ensue in that locality, for a limited time, a heat so

intense as to destroy life. This Fire Country was practically uninhabited.



"You see, Bob," Alan interrupted, "the dark part of Mercury--that is the

side that continually faces away from the sun--is also practically

uninhabited. Only strange animals and savages live there. And the twilight

zones, and the ring of Light Country, with the exception of its center,

are too densely populated. This has caused an immense amount of trouble.

The Twilight People are an inferior race. They have tried to mix with

those of the Light Country. It doesn't work. There's been trouble for

generations; trouble over the women, for one thing. Anyhow, the Twilight

People have been kept out as much as possible. Now this fellow Tao--"



"Let Miela explain about the women first," Beth interjected.



Then Miela went on to tell me that only the females of Mercury had

wings--given them by the Creator as a protection against the pursuit of

the male. At marriage, to insure submission to the will of her husband, a

woman's wings were clipped. For more than a generation now there had been

a growing rebellion on the part of the women against this practice. In

this movement Miela's mother, Lua, was a leader. To overcome this

masculine desire for physical superiority and dominance which he had had

for centuries seemed practically impossible. Yet, Miela said, the leaders

of the women now felt that some progress was being made in changing public

sentiment, although so far not a single man had been found who would take

for mate a woman with wings unclipped.



This was partly from personal pride and partly because the laws of the

country made such a union illegal, its parties moral outlaws, its children

illegitimate, and thus not entitled to the government benefits bestowed

upon all offspring of legitimate parentage. It was this man-made law the

women were fighting, and of recent years fighting more and more

militantly.



This was the situation when Tao suddenly projected himself into public

affairs as the leader of a new movement. Tao had paid court to Miela

without success. He was active in the fight against the woman movement--a

brilliant orator, crafty, unscrupulous, a good leader. Leadership was to

him purely a matter of personal gain. He felt no deep, sincere interest in

any public movement for any other reason.



Interplanetary communication had become of latter years a possibility;

science had invented and perfected the means. So far these vehicles had

only been used for short trips to the outer edge of the atmosphere of

Mercury--trips that were giving scientific men much valuable knowledge of

atmospheric conditions, and which it was thought would ultimately enable

them to counteract the storms and make the Fire Country habitable. No

trips into space had been made.



Tao now came forward with the proposition to undertake a new world

conquest--a conquest of Venus or the earth. These planets recently had

been observed from the vehicles. This, he said, would solve the land

question, which, after all, was more serious than the clipping of women's

wings.



He found many followers--adventurers, principally, to whom the

possibilities for untold personal gain in such a conquest appealed. Then

abruptly the women took part. Dropping for the time their own fight, they

opposed Tao vigorously. If Venus or the earth were inhabited, as it was

thought they were, such an expedition would be a war against humanity. It

would result in the needless destruction of human life.



In this controversy the government of the Light Country remained neutral.

But the women finally won, and Tao and his followers, a number of them men

of science, were all banished by the government, under pressure of popular

sentiment, into the Twilight Country.



Here Tao's project fell upon fertile soil. The Twilight People had every

reason to undertake such a conquest; and Tao became their leader in

preparing for it. These preparations were known in the Light Country. The

government made no effort to prevent them. It was, indeed, rather glad of

the possibility of being rid of its disturbing neighbors.



Only the women were concerned, but they alone could do nothing, since by

principle they were as much opposed to offensive warfare against the

Twilight People as against the possible inhabitants of the earth. Miela

paused at this point in her narrative. The thing was getting clearer to me

now, but I could not reconcile this feeble attempt to conquer the earth

which we were then fighting in Wyoming with the picture she drew. I said

so.



"She hasn't come to that," Alan broke in. "You see, Bob, Tao, with about a

hundred followers, was banished to the Twilight Country a couple of years

ago. There was plenty of brains in the party, scientific men and such.

They had only one vehicle, but they have been at work ever since building

a lot of others.



"This expedition of Tao to Wyoming--with only about a hundred of the

Twilight People with him--is not intended to be an offensive operation at

all. He's only looking the situation over, finding out what they're up

against. They decided before they started that the light-ray would protect

them from anything on earth, and they have only come to look around.



"Right now up there"--Alan leaned forward earnestly, and in the moonlight

I could see the flush on his handsome face--"right now up there in the

Twilight Country of Mercury they're working their damnedest over all kinds

of preparations. This Wyoming business this summer does not mean a thing

Tao will quit it any minute. You'll see. Some morning we'll wake up and

find them gone. Probably they'll destroy their apparatus, and not bother

to take it back.



"And then, in a year or two, they'll be here again. Not one vehicle next

time, but a hundred. They'll land all over the earth at once, not on a

desert--Tao probably only picked that this time to avoid

complications--but in our big cities, New York, Paris, London, all of them

at once. That's what we've got to face.



"If Tao comes back as he plans, we have not got a chance. That's why Miela

stole this little vehicle and, without it being publicly known in Mercury,

came here to warn us. That's what she was after, to help us, risked her

life to warn us people of another world."



Alan stopped abruptly, and, dropping to the floor of the porch beside

Miela, laid his arm across her lap, looking up into her face as though she

were a goddess. She stroked his hair tenderly, and I could see her eyes

were wet with tears.



There was a moment's silence. I could not have known what Professor

Newland and Beth were thinking, but a moment later I understood.



Then I realized the sorrow that was oppressing them both.



"What can be done?" I asked finally.



Alan jumped to his feet. He began pacing up and down the porch before us;

evidently he was laboring under a great nervous excitement.



"There's nothing to be done," he said--"nothing at all--here on earth. We

have not got a chance. It's up there the thing has got to be fought

out--up there on Mercury--to keep them from returning."



Alan paused again. When he resumed his voice was pitched lower, but was

very tense.



"I'm going there, Bob--with Miela."



I heard Professor Newland's sharply indrawn breath, and saw Beth's dear

face suddenly whiten.



"I'm going there to fight it out with them. I may come back; I may not.

But if I am successful, they never will--which is all that matters.



"Miela's mother gave her up to come down here and help us. It is a little

thing to go back there to help us, also. If I can help her people with

their own problems, so much the better."



He pulled Miela to her feet beside him and put his arm protectingly about

her shoulders.



"And Miela is going back to her world as my wife--her body

unmutilated--the first married woman in Mercury with wings as God gave

them to her!"



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