Limanora the island of progress
Through the idrovamolan I could hear the grating keels as they struck
the sand and pebbles at full speed. The crash seemed to awaken the
crews and the soldiers, who rubbed their eyes as if roused from a
dream. Before them the bows of their ships were burrowing themselves in
the blown sand of the beach; but already I could see the pilots winging
their way through the sky back to Limanora.
There was a silent power in the lilaran which I had not investigated:
its power of magnetism. This it could exercise several miles off;
but it grew feebler with the distance. In this aspect, then, the
lilaran could not be used as a weapon of defence far from the shore of
Limanora. If, however, there was a mass of iron or like magnetisable
metal in the ship that contained its victims, its power had been
discovered to be as great far as near. It was only recently that
they had so far developed their personal power of arresting the
consciousness by sudden sleep-petrifaction as to be able to exercise
it at a distance. This they accomplished by material aids to the
magnetic faculty. The sudden flashing of brilliant objects before the
eyes and the use of powerful magnets had been found to intensify the
somnifactive power of the eye and the magnetic sense. This led them to
make experiments with the concentrated power of magnets all brilliant
with irelium jewels. The result was that they found the somnifactive
power to reside even more in things than in persons. They tried it
through the lilaran on Limanorans of the most powerful will at the
farthest corner of the island, and found it to be the more effective
the more power they concentrated and the more iron or metals of similar
quality were near the patient.
This result had been reached about the time they had come to see that
the invasion of their island by Choktroo was inevitable without some
other than the mere wind-power of the lilaran. Step by step the Lilamo
brought their new weapon to perfection; at any moment they could
concentrate the forces of Rimla into this faculty of the lilaran. They
experimented on Limanorans in boats out at sea, and finally could
tabulate the magnetic powers at various distances. This explained to
me the flashings I had often seen on the horizon and had taken for
an effect of the idrovamolan; but they were too near the surface of
the sea for that. This explained the perfect calm with which the
Limanorans watched the approach of Choktroo’s expedition and the
thrilling keenness of the flashes that swept over his fire-ships.
I watched for many days the effect of this great blow upon the nature
and fortunes of my old cabin-boy. Over his immediate staff and army he
was able to regain his full sway as soon as they recovered from the
shock; but his power over the other islanders was completely shaken.
Bodies of them launched the boats from the steamers and made off for
their own islands before the leaders were aware of their intentions.
The moment Choktroo realised the position he turned his still uninjured
guns in the direction of the sea and commanded all issue from the beach
where his ships were buried. For wholesome example he sank several
boats which had almost got out of his reach. Then he set his army to
dig canals around one of his fire-ships; but no sooner was she ready
for floating than the whole force of the lilaran was turned in her
direction; the waves rose and a single night’s surf completely undid
the labour of days. The ship was as deeply embedded as ever; and her
sisters had almost disappeared beneath the sand-dunes. The weight of
metal in them shortened the process of burial.
It was clear that nothing could be done to save the expedition or bring
its material back to Broolyi. Before many days we saw the soldiers
embark somewhat sadly in the boats and find their way across the ocean
to the adjacent islands. Piecemeal the whole army retraced its steps to
Broolyi.
It was not likely that Choktroo would allow this slur to rest on his
fame and eat into his power like rust, for there was clear evidence
that his influence over even the Broolyians had greatly suffered. By
means of his advertising and his histrionic abilities he had brought
them to believe that he was invincible; they now began to feel that
he had the same limitations as themselves: he was powerless against
the magic of the Isle of Devils. All his wiles were needed to check
the spread of panic and distrust. He first of all minimised the defeat
in his proclamations, and before many months were over he had come to
speak of it as a victory marred by the invincible powers of nature. He
had been quick to recognise the similarity of the phenomenon to that
we had experienced in the _Daydream_ when running the gauntlet
of the fog circle, and he sent out party after party to explore the
ring of mystery and to come back with tales of its magical powers of
inducing sleep. Thus was he soon able to convince the archipelago that
the failure of his great expedition was due, not to the inhabitants
of the Isle of Devils, but to the forces of nature. He had in his
own eye and will great mesmeric power, and by practice was able to
develop it into something that he could exercise at pleasure. Then
he made public exhibition of his capacity in the various islands. He
threw numbers into mesmeric sleep, nor would he or could he release
them from its thrall. They became his willing slaves and lived only to
please him. A milder form of mesmeric fascination he used in order to
rivet his despotism on his armies. He would address sections of them
with bombastic self-glorification of his deeds and powers and with
flatteries of them and their glorious courage. His personal magnetism
worked upon them as they gazed at him, and by the close of his speech
he had them enthralled to his will.
It was not long before he was feared as a magician by all who did
not mesmerically worship him; and tens of thousands were eager to
do the most wicked and shameful deeds, if only he bade them. Yet he
dared not shrink from another fall with the inhabitants of the Isle
of Devils; else even this preternatural fascination that he exercised
might vanish. For years he racked the wealth of the islands and built
an enormous fleet of still more powerful fire-ships, and armed it with
still more powerful guns. To supply the funds for the expedition,
those who were not trained fighting men became slaves, who toiled for
him all but their few hours of sleep. Rebellion against this galling
and impoverishing despotism was slowly forming in the breasts of the
people. Many of them were disappearing mysteriously. They had betaken
themselves to unapproachable caverns like Nookoo, and my dreamer of
Swoonarie was arming them with his plague-pellets. A few more months
and revolution would have broken out against the despot, and he at
least would have perished; but the expedition sailed in all its pomp,
again deeply impressing the imaginations of the islanders. This time
he had taken precautions against the somnifaction of his army by
means of a sleep-expelling drug. Every man was furnished with a dose
of it to take as soon as they came near the dreaded isle. The Lilamo
had been busy for some time, I had seen; but the Limanorans were as
unconcerned at this approach as at the former one. What new defence
had they? I could see no more preparation than there had been on the
previous occasion. The calm which prevailed reassured me; yet soon I
grew restless with the fear that this fire-eating cabin-boy with the
mystery in his eyes would sully the shores of Limanora with his vulgar
ambitions.
My fear became alarm as I saw on the horizon the smoke of the fleet
and heard through the idrovamolan the shout of triumph rise from the
army when the peak of Lilaroma had burst on their view. I could see
each man drink his drug; and I thought that all was lost. Suddenly
there came a roar from every ship; and I could see that it accompanied
a plume of steam that escaped from the sides. The boiler of every
fire-ship had evidently been punctured; and soon I could see that it
cost those on board unceasing effort to keep afloat. The soldiers were
about to take to the boats when a deeper-mouthed roar numbed every
other sound. It was the lilaran at work, and the whole fleet soon
vanished over the horizon before its compulsive blast.
The puncturing had been accomplished by submarine action. The Lilamo
had sent through the waters their floating batteries, which by nicely
adjusted weights lay beneath the surface right on the track of the
fleet. The electric cables by which they were secured could shift them
hither and thither; and through them immense force could be applied,
sending a volley of keen darts up towards whatever iron there was above
them. These darts had entered the hulls of the ships just beneath the
water-line and made their way into the iron of the engines; one or
other told on the boilers and disabled the ships. The electric floats
were unseen by the expedition, and the wounding of the fleet was as
mysterious and magical as the sleep had been on the previous attempt.
Panic seized on every soldier and sailor, and they thanked their gods
when the blast of the lilaran hurried them to the shelving beach of a
low island and they heard the keels grate on shingle and sand. They
scrambled on shore through the surf and found shelter from the wind
behind the mounds that covered the former fleet or under their gaunt
ribs or sides.
But a new panic overcame them when they discovered that their leader
was gone and could nowhere be found. Then it was remembered that in the
worst of the storm which blew from Lilaroma a giant bird had swooped
down towards his ship and rested for a moment on the platform, where
he stood in solitary meditation, and as suddenly soared up again. It
was two messengers of the Lilamo who had been sent in one of their
bird-shaped airships to make an end of these warlike expeditions. They
had alighted beside Choktroo, and by the powerful means they commanded
had sent him into a deep sleep in spite of his drug; they tossed him
into their airship and in a few moments were high in the azure rushing
before the blast of the lilaran. Away they fled with him all day and
all night across the belt of fog, and having reached the outer world
they let him down still tranced on the shore of a lonely coral islet of
the Pacific close to a group inhabited by a savage and warlike tribe.
Choktroo had their instincts and ambitions; let him master the savages
when he awakened. A wild beast could do no harm amongst wild beasts.
His memory and example haunted the archipelago like an evil dream
for generations. Some thought that he had been borne aloft to heaven
by a messenger of the gods, and worshipped him as divine; his cruel
tyranny and wars goaded on his worshippers to wild fury of injustice
and slaughter. Others who were keener of brain and had perceived the
earthly character of their leader and his purposes were incited to like
ambitions. The romance of his life was glorified in verse and prose by
every new school of literature and fired the imaginations of boyhood
to warlike exploits. War, piracy, plunder came to be the favourite
forms of dishonesty in the archipelago. It was marvellous how much the
peaceful and obscure suffered from the romance of this cabin-boy’s
adventures.
But no man of the islands dared again to approach the Isle of Devils.
Even he whom so many of them reputed a god had been unable to break
in; and the mishap to the last fleet had been more bewildering than
that to the first. Magical powers were possessed by the inhabitants
of this island without a doubt; there seemed to be no limit to their
transcendence of the order of nature. Evil they were, and the fear