Második fejezet

A strange conversation.

Trees of human form.

The castle.

Coming to myself out of my stupor, I opened my eyes and looked about me.

A country lay outspread, bathed in radiant sunshine: on the one hand a gently rising ridge of hills, on the left a river winding and glittering, with blue-green shrubs upon its banks.

Across the river a plain iron bridge led over, without a rail; toward a distant wood ran a white road, with strangely shaped trees on either side.

The road seemed very long, and lost itself in a bluish haze; and it appeared that there, where it met the wood, among the trees was some manner of gate or archway.

The whole prospect, with the sun above it grown unwontedly large, its disk near twice the ordinary size, was something improbable, fabulous, and strange, and yet at the same time inconceivably familiar, as though I trod this country not for the first time.

Later, in the midst of my astonishments, I pondered upon this, and I discovered whence I knew this landscape: I had walked here in my dreams, and that not once, above all in my childhood; it was a dream that returned unlooked-for at long intervals. At the first, in my childhood, I would stand upon the hither bank of the river and gaze longingly toward the wood, whence sounded some unknown, sweet music; then I dreamed also that I crossed the bridge and set out upon the sand of the white road.

As a soldier under training too I dreamed of it, and marched toward the wood with my knapsack upon my back; I knew likewise that some good thing awaited me there, fresh repose and quiet, but it seemed that we should never come so far.

Now, however, all this was palpable reality; I was awake, I felt thirst, and I made to stir.

Thereupon I felt a hard grip about my waist, and at the same moment some force lifted me out of my seat and dangled me for a minute in the air.

I looked thither in fright: to my waist there clung a narrow ring of metal, like a manner of joint, and this metal ring ended in a metal arm that thickened upward.

In the next instant this arm raised me higher yet, then slowly let me down and set me upon the ground, some three or four meters from the machine in which I had been sitting; then it released me, and the arm drew back.

I looked up, and beheld before me a strange contrivance, or machine, such as I had never seen: I can describe it only in confused outline, for I could not perhaps render a clear picture of it even in a drawing, albeit I have since often seen its like.

My first thought, understandably, was that I stood face to face with a flying-machine of an entirely new system, and infinitely intricate, whose frame, unlike any hitherto, stood upright upon the ground, with wings of silver set on either side.

Yet this frame was of an unspeakably strange form: above, an egg-shaped mass of gold, flattened at the top, of such a fashion as a very regular, stylized human head, the like of which the sculptors employ for the adorning of buildings; in the place of the two eyes, two glittering, round lenses of glass, behind which a reddish light flickered.

Beneath these lenses two pipe-like things stood out from the head, and below these an oblong, finely drawn aperture, covered over with a plate of gold, which rose and closed at regular intervals.

The trunk of the frame was shield-shaped, likewise of gold, and upon it very finely wrought, artistic inlays of precious stones, and below, about the waist, a ring of metal.

The contrivance stood upon two shapely supports that narrowed downward: these supports ended in an intricate system of wheels; the wheels moved freely, and with them the machine could raise itself and could step, and upon level ground they turned swiftly.

The two arms of the frame were the wings, but besides these there reached out from the waist several more narrow, pliant arms of metal, with divers terminations, and one of these it was that had lifted me out of the contrivance.

The whole machine, notwithstanding its intricacy, conveyed somehow the impression of simplicity and self-evident necessity; one felt that everything was in its place and worked together in wondrous harmony; but above all this it awakened also, at the first instant, a feeling inexpressibly pleasant, which stood in no connection with the impression that the machine was assuredly a masterwork of economical and perfect engineering, but, apart from that, worked upon me separately: I cannot express myself otherwise, and use but an approximate word, when I say that this machine was beautiful, meaning by beautiful not merely so much, but a great deal more, than we are wont to attach to the word when we apply it, for instance, to a painting, or rather to a woman.

I am a plain surgeon, and not versed in the art of words, but I remember that there came into my mind at that time rapturous epithets, such as amorous youths devise in their moments of transport.

It may be that I was not even in a normal state, partly for that the former chords still rang in my ears, and partly for that from the machine there streamed some strange force, holding all my nerves in a taut numbness, something like an invisible electric beam of heat, betwixt warmth and flowing electricity.

From within the machine there sounded a constant, pleasant humming; the wings sank down to the ground.

I felt a certain tickling upon my face, and looking up I saw that the two glass lenses were fixed upon me.

At the same time one of the arms rose and touched me, then drew back again.

While I mused who this man might be that worked the machine from within, a valve stirred upon the head of the frame, and again there sounded, in a tone unspeakably sweet, that music which I had heard a while before, but now not in the notes fa-re-mi-dó, but another measure, deep and curling up at the end, which, alas, I cannot exactly express in the notes of the chromatic scale, but in something of this order: g, a, a, gis, g, gis.

Several times over I heard this measure, and meanwhile the eyes stared upon me.

These sounds awakened in me a strange feeling: as though they spoke to me in some unknown tongue that has no text.

I stood there in wonder, then opened my mouth and, essaying it clumsily several times, at last repeated the sounds with approximate correctness.

In that instant the music broke off, the machine stood still, and seemed to attend with a strained intentness.

I repeated the sounds more loudly.

The machine now made music of three other notes, and these too I sang after it.

Now another arm reached toward me and felt me over.

Then this game repeated itself several times more, with various other notes.

Of a sudden I heard a rushing, the wings began to hum, a blast of air struck my face, and in the next moment the machine rose up, circled several times above my head, then made toward the river, mounted, grew smaller, and at last vanished beyond the wood.

Dazed, I stood there some minutes, then looked about me.

Fine grass covered the place where I stood, and beneath it some very soft, yielding soil.

Now all at once my desperate situation flashed sharply upon my mind: I am in an unknown place, I said to myself, where I shall perish, helpless and at a loss, for I know not whether it be hostile territory or friendly.

On the other hand the fate of my comrades too gave me disquiet; I could not be sure whether any had escaped from the Bulwark, and that, were word brought that the commander and I had quit the sinking ship by flying-machine, a warrant would in all likelihood be put out against me, so that, did I not present myself, they would declare me a deserter and hale me before a court-martial.

Then I reasoned again thus: that where there are such perfect machines, there the men are plainly extraordinary and of advanced understanding, and will comprehend my sorry plight.

Only I knew not where I should find the city or camp whence this flying-machine came: of this I was assured, that I had not come into Germany, for our excellent spies would without fail have reported it, had machines of this kind stood at the disposal of the enemy's army.

I committed myself, therefore, to my fate, laid down my weapons upon the grass, and made ready my handkerchief, that, in the event I were in the enemy's territory, I might surrender myself, according to the tenor of the Hague convention, to the first whom I should meet.

Then I set out warily toward the river, looking about me, but without espying a single living soul.

Unhindered I made my way across the bridge, and resolved to set out upon the white road in the direction of the wood.

I drew near the nearest cluster of trees, which stood at the edge of the avenue.

Of a sudden I started back in alarm, and clutched involuntarily at my handkerchief.

For a moment it appeared that the tree to which I stood nearest was no tree at all, but a living creature.

Thus, from a distance of twenty paces, I could plainly make out its whole figure: it was decidedly of human form, though it worked upon me strangely.

In place of skin a brown bark covered its body; its two legs were rooted in the ground, and between its outspread arms a canopy of leaves, of an outlandish sort, was formed above its head.

The head was squat and low, the brown bark-face turned toward me.

Recovering from my surprise, I imagined I understood that I stood before some strange statue, or some jesting creation of the gardener's art: this was plainly a tree grown into human form, the peculiar curiosity of this country.

Relieved, I went close to the strange plant and felt it over.

Yes, bark it was indeed, but softer than that of common trees, and at my touch a rose-colored sap oozed from it.

I took fright a little again when the tree began to writhe, and drew back, but then grew calm.

I saw that the two leg-shaped roots clung fast in the ground and could not stir.

Yet the whole had human form, I say again; nay, even the features of the face could be made out: the eyes very empty and dry, but the nose almost regular, and the ingrown mouth curved downward on either side in a certain disheartening, bitter line.