Prisoner of the Vampires of Mars by Gustave Le Rouge

Author:Gustave Le Rouge [Le Rouge, Gustave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC028010 Fiction / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure
ISBN: 9780803277137
Publisher: Bison Books
Published: 2015-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

II

The Villa des Lentisques

Built in the middle of a deep valley, the Villa des Lentisques rose like an island of white marble from a sea of flowers and greenery. It was a grandiose dream brought to life through the magical power of wealth.

The finest features of the Venetian style — its noble, magnificent lines and brilliant colors — had been harmoniously fused with the Oriental marvels of Arab architecture. Galleries carved à jour at great expense by sculptors from Morocco and Baghdad were balanced on slender white columns that stood out cleanly against mosaics that looked like sumptuous brocades and colored bricks that imitated the azulejos of the Alhambra.

The gilded roofs and azure cupolas sparkling in the sun seemed to encircle it with an otherworldly nimbus, with a dreamlike quality.

It was too beautiful to be real; one couldn’t help thinking that a gust of wind might dispel the glorious apparition like a mirage of an oasis that haunts the sterile sands of the great desert.

Following Alberte’s instructions, the old trees of the valley had been preserved; a single opening — to the north — permitted a glimpse of the yellow sands of the faraway coast and the Mediterranean, a narrow blue band against the deep azure of the sky.

Georges Darvel had stopped in his tracks, caught up by an admiration so deep that it bordered on stupefaction.

The ideal perfection of the Villa des Lentisques was beyond anything he had seen, or even read about, except perhaps Poe’s miraculous domain of Arnheim.

“What do you think of our little place?” asked Ralph Pitcher good-naturedly.

“I think,” said Georges, “that Aladdin’s palace would seem a squalid dump, an abject hovel, next to this villa.”

“Let’s not exaggerate, my young friend,” answered Ralph with an air of false modesty, “but it is true that the Villa des Lentisques unites in one structure the effort and genius of three civilizations.

“In it, the noble elegance of Italy combines with the languid opulence of the Arabs and, to complete the picture, the meticulous British knack for comfort.”

“It looks like part of the roof is made of glass.”

“Yes, that’s our laboratory built on the largest of the terraces; we also installed our telescope in one of the cupolas, all accomplished, I can say, without spoiling the architectural profile of this magnificent residence.

“No one would suspect that this fairytale palace is one of the most formidably armed arsenals of modern science.

“In any case, you will be able to judge for yourself . . .”

During this conversation, the blind Zarouk opened both sides of a tall cedar door with arabesque metalwork, revealing a spacious vestibule paved in mosaic and supported by stucco columns; from the vault hung an ancient Turkish lantern in finely worked copper, whose design was as complicated as a Gothic monstrance.

The vestibule opened by way of a triple oriel onto the patio, a vast interior courtyard planted with orange, lemon, and jasmine and cooled by the spray of a monumental fountain adorned with a bronze nymph.

A cloister with spindly

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