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Updated: June 3, 2025
"I can't manage it," said Branasko hoarsely, "we'd as well give up." Just then Johnston noticed the mouth of a cave behind Branasko. "Look," he cried, "can't we get into it?" Branasko looked over his shoulder, and, as he saw the cave, he uttered a glad cry. He quickly turned the wheel and drew out a lever at his right.
In the darkness they slowly made their way down the stairs to the great room. "There ought to be some way of making a light," said the Alphian, and his voice sounded loud and hollow in the empty chamber. After several failures to find the stairs they descended to the door they had entered. Branasko opened it a little, and a breeze came in.
"The night is before us; we could not get a better time." As he spoke he entered the car and laid his hand on the wheel. Johnston, obeying his nod, followed, shuddering as he remarked the traces of blood on the floor. "All right!" Branasko turned the wheel slowly, and the wings outside began to flap, and the car mounted into the air like a startled bird and flew out quickly over the pit.
It is further on." Along this ledge they went for some distance, Branasko leading the way and holding the arm of the American. "Now here we are, the chasm is a little wider, but the ledge on the other side is broader." As he spoke he released Johnston's arm and prepared to jump. He filled his lungs two or three times. But he seemed to hesitate. "Pshaw, watching you back there has made me nervous.
"By some shifting of glasses through which the rays shine, I presume," returned the Alphian; "but the mechanism seems to be concealed in the walls of the globe." Not a word was spoken for an hour. They had lain down on the platform near the iron railing which encompassed it, and Branasko was dozing intermittently. Again the light began to change gradually. This time it was gray.
"Perhaps we would be safer in the streets," suggested Thorndyke, drawing Bernardino closer into his arms, "the palace may fall on us." But the princess shook her head. "Father would not know where to find me, I shall await him here." Branasko had edged nearer to her. His eyes were glued on her face and he hung on her words as if his fate were in her hands.
"That is true," he said; "besides, what matters it? We may not live to see another day." Johnston acted on a sudden impulse. He intended only to frighten Branasko by moving the wheel slightly, and he had turned it barely an eighth of an inch, when, as if controlled by some powerful spring, it whirled round at a great rate, making a loud rattling noise. To their dismay the light went out.
"And we have no light to find the cause of the trouble," added the Alphian, who had knelt down and was feeling about the wheel. Presently he rose. "I give it up," he sighed, "I cannot understand it. The machinery is somewhere inside." "It has grown colder," shuddered Johnston. "We were warmed by the light, of course," remarked Branasko, "and now we feel the dampness more.
And as she spoke Branasko crept toward her and raised the hem of her gown to his white lips. Something dark came between them and the far-off glare. It was a flying-machine. "It is father," cried Bernardino, and she called out to him: "Father! father! Here we are, waiting for you!" In a moment he was with them. "All right in the east," he said gloomily. "Baryonay is there.
And with a sob she sank on her knees, clasped her hands and raised them upward. Thorndyke tried to lift her up, but she shook her head and continued her prayer in silence. A marked change had come over Branasko. He looked at Johnston and Thorndyke in a strange, helpless way, and then, in a corner of the balcony the begrimed and tattered man fell on his knees.
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