Jim had been received by the dying king. For what seemed hours he sat
with Ren in a castle room waiting to be admitted to the royal bedside.
To Jim it was irksome. He was afraid the king would die, afraid
something would go wrong, and we would all be held as prisoners again.
But he finally saw the king. Jim took the oath of allegiance, swore he
would do what he could to rescue the prince.
They started back through the city streets. At this time I was with the
girls on the Island of the Virgins. The moon had just risen.
They were in the main lower street before our house. The moon was still
low at the horizon; its light was cut off by the houses. The street lamp
shone full on the railed flower bed, but close to the buildings, under
the pedestrian levels, the shadows were black. Jim suddenly became aware
of peering green eyes, a black shape that leaped at him. Other shapes,
with great wobbling heads.
A giant shape of human form had knocked Ren down. Another struck Jim,
bore him with its weight to the pavement. His senses faded from a blow
on the head, and blackness, smothered by clanging gongs in his ears as
he lost consciousness.
For a moment, after an interval of what length he never knew, knowledge
that he was still alive came to him. He seemed to remember that a giant
manlike shape with a bullet head had leaped upon him. It had another
head, huge, wobbling like a balloon. But the large head had fallen off
it; the large head lay on the ground, with tiny arms supporting it.
The phantasmagoria of a dream. But Jim’s head was clearing now, just a
little. Something was holding him, and he could feel movement—a
rhythmic jogging. He opened his eyes. A city street was passing. A great
hairy arm was about his middle; he was being carried by something that
walked; being held horizontal, his head, arms and legs dangling.
A giant, brown, hairy shoulder was over him; and above that, the great
bulge of a head—a smooth, dead-white inflated membrane—a head that
bounced and wobbled as the thing strode forward.
A brief consciousness, a vague, dreamlike impression, scarcely strong
enough to make a memory, and Jim’s senses again faded into a black void
of silence.
When Jim came fully to himself he was lying in a glow of yellow
moonlight. Beneath him was a smooth, curving metal surface. His head
ached horribly; a lump was upon it, and there was matted blood in his
hair.
He was sore, bruised all over, but with returning strength he realized
that he was not seriously injured.
He lay a moment, trying to remember what had happened, and the memory
came, distorted and vague. Over him spread the canopy of stars, with a
great yellow moon rising. The curving metal surface beneath him was
gently swaying. Was he on a boat? He was still no more than half
conscious. He murmured, “Ren! Ren!”
“Yes, Jim? Jim, is that you?”
Jim struggled up on one elbow. Ren was sitting hunched beside him.
Ren—alive, seemingly uninjured.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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