Ala had won over to her side, had publicly proclaimed their betrothal.
Ala, beautiful as I had never yet seen her, was already habited in white garments glittering with diamonds, and Edmund had been fitted out in appropriate dress which splendidly set off his magnificent figure, with a jeweled fillet resting amid his dark curls.
Preparing to Return to the Earth
While we waited thus in one of the upper apartments of the palace-tower an irresistible impulse came to me to examine the car, which had been removed to a neighboring tower. I do not know why I suddenly felt this desire—it may have been some suspicion of possible meddling by Ingra—but, at any rate, I immediately yielded to it.
I had a key to the chamber in which the car was locked, and I said to Edmund, who was in high spirits:
"I want to run over to look at the car."
"All right," he replied, "but you must be back in a quarter of an hour, without fail."
"I'll be back," I responded, and summoned an air-boat waiting at the landing.
Jack and Henry at once expressed a desire to accompany me, and I consented. We were not a minute in crossing the space separating the palace from the adjoining tower, and while Jack and Henry remained on the landing of the latter, admiring the scene before them, I approached the locked chamber containing the car. As I put the key in the door I asked myself:
"What am I here for? I'm hanged if I know. But, anyhow, I'll take a look."
I opened the door and entered. The car was apparently all right, and, while I was looking it over with no particular design, I heard Jack's voice raised in great excitement.
I ran to the door, and a gush of heat smote me in the face. A single glance showed me that the palace was in flames! Vast tongues of fire were leaping up from its lower stories, licking the innumerable brilliant balconies, which burst into flame as if they had been so much tinder.
Stunned for an instant by the awful sight, the next moment I leaped into the air-boat, pushing Jack and Henry before me, but even as we did this the material of the boat caught fire, and its engineer sprang back upon the platform of the tower.
"Quick!" I shouted. "We must get the car out.
We dashed into the apartment containing it, and now the value of Edmund's recent instructions was shown. But for them I should never have been able to manage it in such an emergency.
Madly we pushed it out into the furnace of heal, for our own tower had caught fire, and, as we sprang inside, I turned on the power. We rose like a shot out of the flame and smoke.
Immediately I swung round on the other side of the palace opposite to that where we had been. Here, as I hoped, the flames had not yet mounted to the level that they had attained on the other side. But a sight met my eyes that, for a moment, drove me mad with rage.
The Conflagration
There, with a single steersman in an air-boat, was Ingra, torch in hand, spreading the conflagration! Forgetting in ray fury what I had come for, I drove the car straight against him. He turned with startled eyes, and saw us bearing down upon him. He read death in my face, and his own grew pale.
Desperately he endeavored to evade the encounter, but the steel car struck his boat like a ram, crushed in its side, and sent Ingra and his unfortunate companion spinning into the flames below.
I exulted over the deed! I felt an unholy joy in having at last wrought vengeance upon this monster.
Then the thought of the time I had lost flashed upon me like an accusation.
"In Heaven's name!" I cried. "We must save Edmund and Ala!"
"And Juba!" shouted Jack.
I turned the car, and sped for the platform on which I knew that they must be.
We saw them! But—Heaven forgive me!—we were too late!
My vengeance had been purchased at an awful price. A minute earlier we might have saved them, but now they were in the midst of the flames. Edmund had Ala in his arms, and Juba, his long hair catching the sparks, stood resolutely beside them.
Edmund saw me, and, as I live, he smiled. He opened his lips, but in the awful roar of the fire I could not hear his voice.
Then he raised his hand, and seemed to be waving us off. He pointed upward, as if commanding us to go.
"I'll save them yet!" I yelled between my set teeth, and rushed the car into the flames.
But at this instant the whole vast structure of the tower gave way.
It crumbled like a pile of ashes, and they were gone.
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Earth
For a few minutes after this terrible consummation none of us spoke a word. Henry had swooned. Jack stood motionless by my side. Where the tower had been, and the leaping flames had raged, was a vast vacuity, with wreathes of smoke rising from far below.
The conflagration was now spreading all over the splendid city. A hundred towers were burning fiercely on all sides, the pointed flames licking the sky, and thousands of planes and air-ships that had also caught fire were dropping like flaming brands into the furnace.
The sight filled me at once with pity and with horror. I saw one large plane, filled with people, driven, in spite of the exertions of its engineers, directly over a burning tower. A long spire of flame reached up and touched it. It seemed to shrivel like a moth in a candle, and down it went with all its living freight.
"Getaway from here!" cried Jack, at last recovering his voice.
I turned the car and we sped away.
For hours we rushed on, not particular to choose
