Only one woman was in sight, and
instantly, at sight of me, she fled away. Not a body of the hundreds of
men and women aboard the ship was visible, and feeling relieved that I
was for a time safe, I stepped to the ship’s rail and peered over. Scores of the women were carrying the inert forms of the unconscious men
and women towards the nearby city. Stealthily I hurried below in search
of food and drink. Fears assailed me that the women had, in all
probability, preceded me and carried off everything edible. But I need
not have worried about food. I was yet to learn the horrible truth and
the gruesome habits of these red giantesses. The saloon, the corridors,
the staterooms, everything, had been searched, and every person upon the
vessel removed. In the pantry I found an abundance of food, and quickly
satisfied my hunger and thirst. I pondered on my next move. The
skipper’s cabin seemed my safest refuge. I placed a supply of provisions
within it, and locked myself in the little room again. For several days
nothing of great importance occurred. I say days, but there are no days
in this terrible place. There is no sun, no moon, no stars and no
darkness. The whole place is illuminated by a brilliant, greenish light
that issues from a distant mountain range, and which seems to be of the
same character as that which emanated from the spherical air machine. Fortunately I had presence of mind enough to keep my watch going, as
well as the captain’s chronometer, for otherwise I would have had no
knowledge of the passage of time. Once or twice the scarlet women
visited the ship, but seemed nervous and wary, and made no effort to
approach or molest me, merely gazed about as if searching for
something--perhaps for me--and then retiring. Several times, too, I
ventured on deck, and peered over the ship’s side, but saw none of the
giantesses, although with the glasses I could see crowds of the beings
about the city in the distance. “Also, I noticed among them, several individuals who were much smaller
than the rest, and who appeared to be men, although I could not be sure. I also discovered, and almost lost my life in the discovery, that the
atmosphere of this place is unfit for human beings to breathe, and is
thick with sulphurous fumes. Close to the ground these fumes are so
dense that a person would succumb in a few moments, but at the height of
the _Chiriqui’s_ decks, nearly seventy feet above the rocky bed on which
she rests, the air is breathable, although it causes one to choke and
cough after a few minutes. And I am sure that the houses of these giant
beings have been built on the summits of the basalt columns in order to
avoid the suffocating fumes of the lower levels. Later, too, I learned
that the membrane-like frills upon these creatures are a sort of gills,
or as I might say, natural gas-masks, which by some means enable the
beings to breathe the sulphur-laden air. But even with these, they avoid
the lower areas where the fumes are the worst, and only visit them when
necessity arises, which accounts for my being left in peace, with none
of the horrible women near the ship, for days at a time. I discovered
the presence of the sulphur gas on the first day when, attempting to
eat, I removed my gas-mask. Suffocating as I found the fumes, I was
compelled to endure them, and gradually I became slightly accustomed to
them, so that now I have little trouble in breathing during the short
time it takes me to eat my meals. At all other times I must wear the
apparatus, and I thank God that this is so, for I know now that it is
the gas-mask which so far has preserved my life. “On the tenth day after my arrival I noticed a number of the giantesses
gathering about the huge, spherical airship which still rested on its
cradle near the _Chiriqui_, but which, I have forgotten to state, ceased
to emit its green or red lights after it had landed. Lying there it
resembled nothing so much as a gigantic can-buoy or a floating mine, if
one can imagine a buoy two hundred yards in diameter. “On the day I mentioned, all interests seemed to be centered on the
thing, and cautiously peering from the shelter of the deck-house, I
watched the proceedings. Presently several of the women entered the
sphere through an opening in its middle band; the aperture closed behind
them, and immediately there was a low, humming sound as of machinery. As
the sounds issued from the sphere, the cables to which were attached the
smaller spheres (which glowed red when carrying the _Chiriqui_ through
the air) were drawn in until the two smaller spheres were resting in
recesses at the axes of the large sphere, and where they appeared merely
as hemi-spherical projections. Then, slowly at first, but with ever
increasing speed, the slender rods about the large sphere began to move
back and forth, or rather in an oscillating manner, until they were
vibrating with such rapidity that they appeared merely rays of light. Slowly, majestically, the immense globe rose from its cradle, and
gathering headway, leaped upward to an immense height. Then, tilting at
an angle, it passed over the city and headed for an immense pinnacle of
rock, which, fully seven miles from where I stood, reminded me of a
gigantic chimney or funnel. “Although it was barely visible to the naked eye, I could see it
distinctly through the glasses, and I watched it with the most intense
and concentrated interest. For a few moments it remained, poised a
hundred feet or so above the pinnacle. Then, from the towering, tapering
rock, a terrific jet of steam roared forth, and striking the great
spherical machine above it, hurled it upward and beyond my vision. Give
close heed to these words, whoever may, by God’s grace, be listening to
what I say, for upon them may hinge the fate of the human race. Only by
this means, by being shot upward by this titanic jet of steam, can the
airship leave this subterranean land and emerge through the crater by
which it entered bearing the _Chiriqui_. Within this place it can sail
at will; once above the crater opening it can travel anywhere, although
it cannot land; but by some unknown force or magnetic attraction or
freak of gravitation the machine cannot ascend through the crater,
although, when over it, it will drop like a plummet through the opening. And herein--for the sake of humanity, listen to this and remember my
words--lies a means of destroying the machine, for by surrounding the
crater with powerful guns the sphere can be shelled as it emerges and
utterly destroyed. To attempt to do so as it returns to the crater would
be suicidal, for once in the outer air, it emanates vast quantities of
most poisonous gas, and all living things within a radius of several
miles would be struck down unconscious, as were my companions on the
_Chiriqui_.