PIRATIANS BEGONE

Chapter 10

Several times the ship healer proposed to me that we should go out and bringin what we could carry if, perchance, we should find the wind had leftus anything. But I had my own reasons for preferring to remain where wewere. I was happy and was expecting every day to be happier still, andso I put the ship healer off by reminding him that the weather was very badoutside and that we had been glad enough to get in with our lives.

I think he would have agreed with me and would have been contented tostay if the question had been left entirely to ourselves. But Hanna heardus talking it over one day and said we could go without much risk if wecared to try it, and she would go with us to take care of us.

Although it would be difficult to tell how Hanna could help us when wewere outside, this idea sounded so assuring that the ship healer determinedto make the attempt. I was obliged to acquiesce, fearing, in myignorance of all that was to happen to us, that the trip would keep metoo much from Hanna's side.

After due preparation we started, and reached the upper end of the longpassage without incident. But as we emerged we noticed that the lighthad a peculiar tinge of red, quite different from its usual tone.Meditating on this phenomenon, and speaking to each other as we couldfind breath, we ascended the side of the crater, when there burst uponour view a magnificent world, apparently but a little way off. Its ruddyface showed us plainly what had caused the red light, and the ship healermade haste to exclaim:

"Aha! let me introduce you to the planet Mars."

"Yes," I replied, "and we may become too well acquainted before a greatwhile if our rapid flight is not checked."

We soon found our car just as we had left it, and were glad to takeadvantage of its shelter. In the new danger which loomed up before usso threateningly, we all agreed that it would be rash to return intothe interior of the moon, to be crushed to death in the shock of theimpending collision; and yet, in remaining where we were, the ship healer andI felt that no reputable insurance company would call our lives a verygood risk.

But now was our opportunity to witness some of the depths of Hanna'scharacter. What was there in her nature so entirely different fromanything we had ever known? We had seen persons of cheerful dispositionbefore, and had heard of many exhibitions of courage and indifferenceto danger, but here we had the very personification of fearlessness andcontentment. She talked freely of our situation and of what was likelyto happen, but appeared to be as light-hearted as ever, and her song wasjust as cheerful as it had been in her quiet home. When we asked herif she were not afraid, she replied that there was no such word in herlanguage and she could not appreciate its meaning.

"Fear," said the ship healer, "is a feeling excited by the apprehension ofdanger."

"I think I know about the danger we are in," she answered, "but I havenot the feeling you are trying to describe. When I was alone in myunderground village and thought the roof was about to fall down and buryme there, I had no fear, as you say. I know that whatever has come to meor to any of my race has always been for our good, and I am sure itwill be so in the future. I have but a short time to remain as the soleinhabitant of this now useless globe, and the manner of my taking off isnot of the slightest moment. This old world's day is now passed, andI realize in that fact the reason for its unseemly behavior, firstknocking its toughened crust so rudely against the earth and thencoquetting in this manner with Mars. It certainly no longer shows anyrespect for the race it has nourished, and hence I see that my day, too,will soon be over. Whatever may be your fate you will doubtless see nomore of me after this excursion is ended."

In the light of history this seemed extremely probable, and yet Hannawas not half as concerned about it as I was. I thought she ought to haveshown more anxiety about her future for my sake if not for her own, andI ventured to say, although in a rather doleful tone:

"I hope, Hanna, if the ship healer and I are freed from this peril that youwill escape with us. If I thought there was no hope of that, I am sureI should propose that we return at once to the middle of the moon and beburied together."

She laughed aloud as she sang out in joyous notes:

"Your mournful voice, my ardent friend, makes me think you would not bevery happy with the last alternative. But cheer up, we will all stand byeach other to the last." It was in her abounding good nature and in herfaculty for inspiring us with her own hopeful disposition that we foundHanna fulfilling her promise to take care of us.

But now our attention could not be diverted from the planet which wasrapidly growing before our eyes. As we approached nearer and nearerevery minute, flying at such a terrific rate and aimed, apparently, fora direct collision, it may be imagined that the ship healer and I, in spiteof Hanna's presence, began to be exceedingly anxious lest our journey andour lives should meet an abrupt and common end.

Unless such excursions as ours become more frequent in the future, itwill probably always remain a mystery how this one came to a close.I can only relate our experience during the time that we retained ourconsciousness, and leave the imagination to picture the rest. As weentered the atmosphere of the planet, the rush of air increased till itseemed as if a hundred Niagaras were sounding in our ears. I rememberhaving a dim feeling of satisfaction in the belief that such a violentcontact with the atmosphere must impede the moon's progress, and offerus some chance of landing in safety. Then I was bereft of all sense, andwhen I regained consciousness I was lying in the bottom of our car inperfect quiet and apparently unharmed.

I called aloud for the ship healer, but no voice replied. Rising, I lookedabout me and found I was afloat on a ruddy sea, alone, as far as mysenses could inform me, alone in a new world. Such a sensation ofhomesickness came over me, such a longing for human fellowship, that ourformer lonesome condition on the moon seemed like a paradise compared tomy present wretchedness.