“What do you mean?”
“I refer to one Lukor of Ganatol,” the doctor said shortly, with a little gleam of malicious humor in his eye. “That gentleman and I have been at odds to a certain extent, as many of the members of this council must be aware. Now that my principal duties have been accomplished, and my further presence aboard this flagship has become superfluous, I should dearly love to take part in the rescue of Lukor of Ganatol, if only to view the expression on that gentleman’s face when he discovers that, for his rescue, he is at least in part beholden to me!”
We laughed over that, as you may imagine. I can well picture how discomfited Lukor would be, to find out that the conceited little Soraban whom he had delighted in baiting, had taken part in the dangerous mission to effect his rescue!
Following this, the council ended its meeting, deciding to give the Xaxar thirteen days in which to search for the lost prince and his companions, before rejoining the expedition at a locale specifically noted on the map. As did Dr. Abziz and Ergon and Glypto, I then went to my quarters, packed my gear, and moved to new quarters aboard the Xaxar.
A short while later the armada formed again into its chevron formation and, exchanging by means of signal flags a salute and best wishes with the Xaxar, sailed off into the east and, before long, dwindled from sight, vanishing motes in the glaring golden skies.
Then began the lonely quest of the Xaxar to find out what peculiar fate had overcome Jandar of Shondakor …
As the armada had already searched, in a general fashion, the vicinity of the mountains of the Zarkoon, as we later learned was their name, we first voyaged rather extensively to the south, then the west, and then the north. Much new geographical information was added to our maps during these specific ventures, each of which, I might add, consumed on the average about three days and nights. It was purely an accident of chance which caused us to waste these nine days in searching in the wrong direction for the lost members of the expedition, although we could not of course have known this at the time.
Only when, on the morning of the eleventh day after we separated from the armada, with our voyage into the east, did we come to fly over those territories in which Jandar had actually adventured. Our previous ventures, of course, had discovered nothing concerning the fate of our friends; but before long, as we were flying over the ring of mountains which encircled the mysterious and jungle-clad plateau, we experienced the thrill of the long-anticipated discovery.
For there on the smooth and sandy shores of an immense lake we sighted the wreckage of the skiff. It was, I believe, Ergon the Perushtarian who first spotted the wreckage, and the excited cry he voiced aroused the ship’s company. Those who were below came pelting up the stairs to the mid-deck or the various observation belvederes to see what Ergon had discovered.
It was unmistakably the wreckage of the skiff. There was no question about this, for it lay imbedded in the sand in such a position as to cause the one unbroken wing to thrust up at a sharp angle which cast a long shadow across the sand―a shadow of such regularity as to be undoubtedly an artificial, indeed, a man-made, object.
Zantor brought the aerial galleon to a halt and we began to descend to investigate further. From our height at that time it was impossible to tell if any bodies lay strewn about the wreck. We lined the deckrail, jostling shoulder-to-shoulder for the best view, watching with eyes which ached from the strain, dreading to hear―the anticipated cry that some keen-eyed observer had sighted the first body.
But no such cry came, to our immense relief. It would seem, unless they had perhaps been carried off by whatever predators might haunt the unexplored jungles of the plateau, that none of our comrades had been killed in the crackup of the skiff. (We did not at once realize, you will understand, that the skiff had actually fallen into the lake; this fact was not discerned until later, and at this time it was understandable to guess that the skycraft had for some reason crashed into the shore.)
Flying ships such as the Xaxar cannot safely come to rest on the ground, save in special docks specifically designed to that purpose. So, having descended to as low an altitude as Captain Zantor deemed safe, the craft came to a halt and crewmen slid down ropes lowered over the side. The first of these to reach the sand was Ergon, who sprinted for the wreckage, prowled about it, and then emerged to call up to us the wonderful news that no one was in the wreck.
Ergon did not, for some reason, perceive the cairn. In fact, it was Glypto―who stood near me on the deck―who spotted it first and called the attention of those down on the shore to the pile of stones.
Again, we watched with great suspense and excitement as Ergon and the other men carefully pulled the pile of stones apart, found the hole Jandar had caused to be dug beneath it, and drew out the bundle of manuscript the lost prince had therein concealed. This was brought up to the ship at once, and I was summoned to the captain’s stateroom to examine it.
With trembling hands I opened it, and announced to Zantor and the other officers who stood ringed about that it was indeed, as we had naturally already guessed, the work of Prince Jandar. Instead of the paper we Shondakorians employ, the narrative had been set down on some smooth, thin, white substance which resembled bark. And, instead of ink, the writer had used a muddy fluid of indeterminate hue, difficult in several places to make out. As it would obviously take me some hours to read the manuscript, Zantor and the others left me alone in the stateroom for that purpose, and while the rest of the day dragged on, parties of men descended to explore the shore in both directions and to penetrate the edge of the jungle at various points to see if some further traces of our lost companions might be discovered.
I read the manuscript as swiftly but as closely as I could, and thus learned for the first time of the existence of the Zarkoon-world on the interior of one of the mountain-peaks, and of the primitive tribes who inhabited the plateau. All of this material you will have already perused, for I have added this last installment to the large bundle of manuscript Jandar had already completed during the opening phase of our voyage hither.
It was the matter in the final pages, of course, that was most pertinent to our expedition. While it was wonderful to learn that Jandar and Tomar, together with Lukor and Koja, had thus far managed to escape death and to elude their pursuers, the desperate straits in which they stood in peril of momentary recapture just prior to the concealment of the manuscript were of immediate and transcendent importance.
Night had already fallen across the world as I hurried up the winding stair into the pilothouse to apprise the impatient Zantor of what had transpired. I found the giant warrior pacing the bridge with heavy tread. With words tumbling over each other on my tongue, I communicated the perils in which Jandar and the others had stood, according to the last passages of the document, together with information as to what the Prince had planned to do next.
“Then we had best weigh anchor for this peak whereat Jandar had hoped to deposit further information concerning the route they would choose to take, should they manage to elude recapture by the jungle savages,” Zantor murmured. I confirmed his words, and described as best I could the crater-like opening which marked the entrance to the subterranean world of the Zarkoon. This was, you will recall, the landmark Jandar had indicated in the last pages of the manuscript.
We flew thither that very night. By the brilliant light of the moons it was not particularly difficult for us to sight the crater-like hole in the flanks of the mountain. We had, of course, noticed it already, during our search of these very mountains, but at that earlier time we had no particular reason to examine it. Now, towards early morn, we came to hover above the approach to this crater. With archers at the ready, in case the winged men should come out of their cavern home and attempt any action against the ship, we lowered well-armed warriors to the side of the mountain.