The Skylark of Space - E. E. Smith (e book reading free txt) 📗

in them. This is the warning I had to give you. Its urgency explains the use of my untried mechanical educator; the hope that my party could escape with yours, in your vessel, explains why you saw me, the Kofedix of Kondal, prostrate myself before that arch-fiend Nalboon.”

“How do you, a captive prince of another nation, know these things?” asked Crane, doubtfully.

“I read Nalboon’s ideas from the brain of that officer whom the Karfedix Seaton killed. He was a ladex of the guards⁠—an officer of about the same rank as one of your colonels. He was high in Nalboon’s favor, and he was to have been in charge of the work of breaking into the Skylark and killing us all. Let me caution you now; do not let any Mardonalian touch our hands with a wire, for if you do, your thoughts will be recorded and the secrets of the Skylark and your many other mysterious things, such as smoking, matches, and magic feats, will be secrets no longer.”

“Thanks for the information,” responded Seaton, “but I want to correct your title for me. I’m no Karfedix⁠—merely a plain citizen.”

“In one way I see that that is true,” replied the Kofedix with a puzzled look. “I cannot understand your government at all⁠—but the inventor of the Skylark must certainly rank as a Karfedix.”

As he spoke, a smile of understanding passed over his face and he continued:

“I see. Your title is Doctor of Philosophy, which must mean that you are the Karfedix of Knowledge of the Earth.”

“No, no. You’re way off. I’m⁠ ⁠…”

“Certainly Seaton is the Karfedix of Knowledge,” broke in DuQuesne. “Let it go at that, anyway, whatever it means. The thing to do now is to figure a way out of this.”

“You chirped it then, Blackie. Dunark, you know this country better than we do; what do you suggest?”

“I suggest that you take my party into the Skylark and escape from Mardonale as soon as possible. I can pilot you to Kondalek, the capital city of our nation. There, I can assure you, you will be welcomed as you deserve. My father, the Karfedix, will treat you as a Karfedix should be treated. As far as I am concerned, nothing I can ever do will lighten the burden of my indebtedness to you, but I promise you all the copper you want, and anything else you may desire that is within the power of man to give you.”

Seaton thought deeply a moment, then shook Dunark’s hand vigorously.

“That suits me, Kofedix,” he said warmly. “I thought from the first that you were our friend. Shall we make for the Skylark right now, or wait a while?”

“We had better wait until after the second meal,” the prince replied. “We have no armor, and no way of making any. We would be helpless against the bullets of any except a group small enough so that you could kill them all before they could fire. The kam after the second meal is devoted to strolling about the grounds, so that our visiting the Skylark would look perfectly natural. As the guard is very lax at that time, it is the best time for the attempt.”

“But how about my killing his company of guards and blowing up one wing of his palace? Won’t he have something to say about that?”

“I don’t know,” replied the Kofedix doubtfully. “It depends upon whether his fear of you or his anger is the greater. He should pay his call of state here in your apartment in a short time, as it is the inviolable rule of Osnome, that any visitor shall receive a call of state from one of his own rank before leaving his apartment for the first time. His actions may give you some idea as to his feelings, though he is an accomplished diplomat and may conceal his real feelings entirely. But let me caution you not to be modest or soft-spoken. He will mistake softness for fear.”

“All right,” grinned Seaton. “In that case I won’t wait to try to find out what he thinks. If he shows any signs of hostility at all, I’ll open up on him.”

“Well,” remarked Crane, calmly, “if we have some time to spare, we may as well wait comfortably instead of standing in the middle of the room. I, for one, have a lot of questions to ask about this new world.”

Acting upon this suggestion, the party seated themselves upon comfortable divans, and Dunark rapidly dismantled the machine he had constructed. The captives remained standing, always behind the visitors until Seaton remonstrated.

“Please sit down, everybody. There’s no need of keeping up this farce of your being slaves as long as we’re alone, is there, Dunark?”

“No, but at the first sound of the gong announcing a visitor we must be in our places. Now that we are all comfortable and waiting, I will introduce my party to yours.

“Fellow Kondalians, greet the Karfedo Seaton and Crane,” he began, his tongue fumbling over the strange names, “of a distant world, the Earth, and the two noble ladies, Miss Vaneman and Miss Spencer, soon to be their Karfediro.

“Guests from Earth, allow me to present to you the Kofedir Sitar, the only one of my wives who accompanied me upon our ill-fated hunting expedition.”

Then, still ignoring DuQuesne as a captive, he introduced the other Kondolians in turn as his brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, and nephews⁠—all members of the great ruling house of Kondal.

“Now,” he concluded, “after I have a word with you in private, Doctor Seaton, I will be glad to give the others all the information in my power.”

He led Seaton out of earshot of the others and said in a low voice:

“It is no part of Nalboon’s plan to kill the two women. They are so beautiful, so different from our Osnomian women, that he intends to keep them⁠—alive. Understand?”

“Yes,” returned Seaton grimly, his eyes turning hard, “I get you all right⁠—but what he’ll do and what he