Doubts And Philosophy

: SATURN

On reaching it, they climbed the ladder leading to the

second-story opening, and entering through this, they closed the

door, screwing it tightly in place.



"Now," said Cortlandt, "we can see what changes, if any, this

wonderful gust will effect."



"He made no strictures on our senses, such as they are," said

Bearwarden, "but implied that evolution would be carried much

fur her in us, from which I suppose we may infer that it has not

yet gone far. I wish we had recorked those brandy peaches, for

now they will be filled with poisonous germs. I wonder if our

shady friend could not tell us of an antiseptic with which they

might be treated?"



"Those fellows," thought Ayrault, who had climbed to the dome,

from which he had an extended view, "would jeer at an angel,

while the deference they showed the spirit seems, as usual, to

have been merely superficial."



"Let us note," said Cortlandt, "that the spirit thermometer

outside has fallen several degrees since we entered, though, from

the time taken, I should not say that the sudden change would be

one of temperature."



Just then they saw a number of birds, which had been resting in a

clump of trees, take flight suddenly; but they fell to the ground

before they had risen far, and were dashed to pieces. In another

moment the trees began to bend and sway before the storm; and as

they gazed, the colour of the leaves turned from green and purple

to orange and red. The wind blew off many of these, and they

were carried along by the gusts, or fluttered to the ground,

which was soon strewed with them. It was a typical autumnal

scene. Presently the wind shifted, and this was followed by a

cold shower of rain.



"I think the worst is over," said Bearwarden. "The Sailor's

Guide says:



'When the rain's before the wind,

Halliards, sheets, and braces mind;

When the wind's before the rain,

Soon you can make sail again.'



Doubtless that will hold good here."



This proved to be correct; and, after a repetition of the

precautions they had taken on their arrival on the planet in

regard to the inhalability of the air, they again sallied forth.

They left their magazine shot-guns, taking instead the

double-barrelled kind, on account of the rapidity with which this

enabled them to fire the second barrel after the first, and threw

away the water that had collected in the bucket, out of respect

to the spirit's warning. They noticed a pungent odour, and

decided to remain on high ground, since they had observed that

the birds, in their effort to escape, had flown almost vertically

into the air. On reaching the grove in which they had seen the

storm, they found their table and everything on it exactly as

they had left it. Bearwarden threw out the brandy peaches on the

ground, exclaiming that it was a shame to lose such good

preserves, and they proceeded on their walk. They passed

hundreds of dead birds, and on reaching the edge of the toadstool

valley were not a little surprised to find that every toadstool

had disappeared.



"I wonder," said the doctor, "if there can be any connection

between the phenomenon of the disappearance of those toadstools

and the death of the birds? We could easily discover it if they

had eaten them, or if in any other way the plants could have

entered their bodies; but I see no way in which that can have

happened."



Resolving to investigate carefully any other fungi they might

see, they resumed their march. The cold, distant-looking sun,

apparently about the size of an orange, was near the horizon.

Saturn's rotation on its axis occupying only ten hours and

fourteen minutes, being but a few minutes longer than Jupiter's,

they knew it would soon be night. Finding a place on a range of

hills sheltered by rocks and a clump of trees of the evergreen

species, they arranged themselves as comfortably as possible, ate

some of the sandwiches they had brought, lighted their pipes, and

watched the dying day. Here were no fire-flies to light the

darkening minutes, nor singing flowers to lull them to sleep with

their song but six of the eight moons, each at a different phase,

and with varied brightness, bathed the landscape in their pale,

cold rays; while far above them, like a huge rainbow, stretched

the great rings in effulgent sheets, reaching thousands of miles

into space, and flooded everything with their silvery light.



"How poor a place compared with this," they thought to

themselves, "is our world!" and Ayrault wished that his soul was

already free; while the dead leaves rustling in the gentle

breeze, and the nightwinds, sighing among the trees, seemed to

echo his thought. Far above their heads, and in the vastness of

space, the well-known stars and constellations, notwithstanding

the enormous distance they had now come, looked absolutely

unchanged, and seemed to them emblematic of tranquillity and

eternal repose. The days were changed by their shortness, and by

the apparent loss of power in the sun; and the nights, as if in

compensation, were magnificently illuminated by the numerous

moons and splendid rings, though neither rings nor satellites

shone with as strong a light as the terrestrial moon. But in

nothing outside of the solar system was there any change; and

could AEneas's Palinurus, or one of Philip of Macedon's

shepherds, be brought to life here, he would see exactly the same

stars in the same positions; and, did he not know of his own

death or of the lapse of time, he might suppose, so far as the

heavens were affected, that he had but fallen asleep, or had just

closed his eyes.



"I have always regretted," said Cortlandt, "that I was not born a

thousand years later."



"Were it not," added Ayrault, "that our earth is the vestibule to

space, and for the opportunities it opens, I should rather never

have lived, for life in itself is unsatisfying."



"You fellows are too indefinite and abstract for me," said

Bearwarden. "I like something tangible and concrete. The

utilitarianism of the twentieth century, by which I live,

paradoxical though it may seem, would be out of place in space,

unless we can colonize the other planets, and improve their

arrangements and axes."



Mixed with Ayrault's philosophical and metaphysical thoughts were

the memories of his sweetheart at Vassar, and he longed, more

than his companions, for the spirit's return, that he might ask

him if perchance he could tell him aught of her, and whether her

thoughts were then of him.



Finally, worn out by the fatigue and excitement of the day, they

set the protection-wires, more from force of habit than because

they feared molestation and, rolling themselves in their

blankets--for the night was cold--were soon fast asleep;

Ayrault's last thought having been of his fiancee, Cortlandt's of

the question he wished to ask the spirit, and Bearwarden's of the

progress of his Company in the work of straightening the

terrestrial axis. Thus they slept seven hundred and ninety

million miles beyond their earth's orbit, and more than eight

hundred million from the place where the earth was then. While

they lay unconscious, the clouds above them froze, and before

morning there was a fall of snow that covered the ground and them

as they lay upon it. Soon three white mounds were all that

marked their presence, and the cranes and eagles, rising from

their roosts in response to the coming day, looked unconcernedly

at all that was human that they had ever seen. Finally, wakened

by the resounding cries of these birds, Bearwarden and Cortlandt

arose, and meeting Ayrault, who had already risen, mistook the

snowy form before them for the spirit, and thinking the dead

bishop had revisited them, they were preparing to welcome him,

and to propound the questions they had formulated, when Ayrault's

familiar voice showed them their mistake.



"Seeing your white figures," said he, "rise apparently in

response to those loud calls, reminded me of what the spirit told

us of the last day, and of the awakening and resurrection of the

dead."



The scene was indeed weird. The east, already streaked with the

rays of the rising far-away sun, and the pale moons nearing the

horizon in the west, seemed connected by the huge bow of light.

The snow on the dark evergreens produced a contrast of colour,

while the other trees raised their almost bare and whitened

branches against the sky, as though in supplication to the

mysterious rings, which cast their light upon them and on the

ground. As they gazed, however, the rings became grey, the moons

disappeared, and another day began. Feeling sure the snow must

have cleared the air of any deleterious substances it contained

the day before, they descended into the neighbouring valley,

which, having a southerly exposure, was warm in comparison with

the hills. As they walked they disturbed a number of small

rodents, which quickly ran away and disappeared in their holes.



"Though we have seen none of the huge creatures here," said

Cortlandt, "that were so plentiful on Jupiter, these burrowers

belong to a distinctly higher scale than those we found there,

from which I take it we may infer that the evolution of the

animal kingdom has advanced further on this planet than on

Jupiter, which is just what we have a right to expect; for

Saturn, in addition to being the smaller and therefore more

matured of the two, has doubtless had a longer individual

existence, being the farther from the sun."



Notwithstanding the cold of the night, the flowers, especially

the lilies, were as beautiful as ever, which surprised them not a

little, until, on examining them closely, they found that the

stems and veins in the leaves were fluted, and therefore elastic,

so that, should the sap freeze, it could expand without bursting

the cells, thereby enabling the flowers to withstand a short

frost. They noticed that many of the curiously shaped birds they

saw at a distance from time to time were able to move with great

rapidity along the ground, and had about concluded that they must

have four legs, being similar to winged squirrels, when a long,

low quadruped, about twenty-five feet from nostrils to tail,

which they were endeavouring to stalk, suddenly spread two pairs

of wings, flapping the four at once, and then soared off at great

speed.



"I hope we can get one of those, or at least his photograph,"

said Cortlandt.



"If they go in pairs," said Bearwarden, "we may find the

companion near."



At that moment another great winged lizard, considerably larger

than the first, rose with a snort, not twenty yards on their

left. Cortlandt, who was a good shot with a gun at short range,

immediately raised his twelve-bore and fired both barrels at the

monster; but the double-B shots had no more disabling effect than

if they had been number eights. They, however, excited the

creature's ire; for, sweeping around quickly, it made straight

for Cortlandt, breathing at him when near, and almost

overpowering the three men with the malodorous, poisonous cloud

it exhaled. Instantly Bearwarden fired several revolver bullets

down its throat, while Ayrault pulled both barrels almost

simultaneously, with the muzzles but a few inches from its side.

In this case the initial velocity of the heavy buckshot was so

great, and they were still so close together, that they

penetrated the leathery hide, tearing a large hole. With a roar

the wounded monster beat a retreat, first almost prostrating them

with another blast of its awful breath.



"It would take a stronger light than we get here," said

Bearwarden, "to impress a negative through that haze. I think,"

he continued, "I know a trick that will do the business, if we

see any more of these dragons." Saying which, he withdrew the

cartridges from his gun, and with his hunting-knife cut the tough

paper shell nearly through between the wads separating the powder

from the shot, drawing his knife entirely around.



"Now," said he, "when I fire those, the entire forward end of the

cartridge will go out, keeping the fifteen buckshot together like

a slug, and with such penetration that it will go through a

two-inch plank. It is a trick I learned from hunters, and,

unless your guns are choke-bore, in which case it might burst the

barrel, I advise you to follow suit."



Finding they had brought straight-bored guns, they arranged their

cartridges similarly, and set out in the direction in which the

winged lizards or dragons had gone.