A Columbus of Space Read online

  CHAPTER II

  A TRIP OF TERROR

  I take up the story at the point where I dropped it to introduce Church'snarrative.

  As minute after minute elapsed and we continued in motion we changed ourminds about the descent, and concluded that the inventor was going togive us a much longer ride than we had anticipated. We were startled andpuzzled but not really alarmed, for the car traveled so smoothly that itgave one a sense of confidence. On the other hand, we felt a littleindignation that Edmund should treat us like a lot of boys, without willsof our own. No doubt we had provoked him, though unintentionally, butthis was going too far on his part. I am sure we were all hot with thisfeeling and presently Jack flamed out:

  "Look here, Edmund," he exclaimed, dropping his customary good-naturedmanner, "this is carrying things with a pretty high hand. It's a gooddeal like kidnapping, it seems to me. I didn't give you permission tocarry me off in this way, and I want to know what you mean by it and whatyou are about. I've no objection to making a little trip in your car,which is certainly mighty comfortable, but first I'd like to be askedwhether I want to go or no."

  Edmund shrugged his shoulders and made no reply. He was very busy justthen with the metallic knobs. Suddenly we were jerked off our feet as ifwe had been in a trolley driven by a green motorman. Edmund also wouldhave fallen if he had not clung to one of the handles. We felt that wewere spinning through the air at a fearful speed. Still Edmund utterednot a word, but while we staggered upon our feet, and steadied ourselveswith hands and knees on the leather-cushioned benches like so manydrunken men, he continued pulling and pushing at his knobs. Finally themotion became more regular and it was evident that the car had sloweddown from its wild rush.

  "Excuse me," said Edmund, then, quite in his natural manner, "the thingis new yet and I've got to learn the stops by experience. But there's nooccasion for alarm."

  But our indignation had grown hotter with the shake-up that we had justhad, and as usual Jack was spokesman for it:

  "Maybe there is no occasion for alarm," he said excitedly, "but will yoube kind enough to answer my question, and tell us what you're about andwhere we are going?"

  And Henry, too, who was ordinarily as mute as a clam, broke out stillmore hotly:

  "See here! I've had enough of this thing! Just go down and let me out. Iwon't be carried off so, against my will and knowledge."

  By this time Edmund appeared to have got things in the shape he wanted,and he turned to face us. He always had a magnetism that wasinexplicable, and now we felt it as never before. His features wereperfectly calm, but there was a light in his eyes that seemed electric.As if disdaining to make a direct reply to the heated words of Jack andHenry he began in a quiet voice:

  "It was my first intention to invite you to accompany me on a veryinteresting expedition. I knew that none of you had any ties of family orbusiness to detain you, and I felt sure that you would readily consent.In case you should not, however, I had made up my mind to go alone. Butyou provoked me more than you knew, probably, at the club, and after wehad entered the car, and, being myself hot-tempered, I determined toteach you a lesson. I have no intention, however, of abducting you. It istrue that you are in my power at present, but if you now say that you donot wish to be concerned in what I assure you will prove the mostwonderful enterprise ever undertaken by human beings, I will go back tothe shed and let you out."

  We looked at one another, in doubt what to reply until Jack, who, withall his impulsiveness had more of the milk of human kindness in his heartthan anyone else I ever knew, seized Edmund's hand and exclaimed:

  "All right, old boy, bygones are bygones; I'm with you. Now what do youfellows say?"

  "I'm with you, too," I cried, yielding to the spur of Jack's enthusiasmand moved also by an intense curiosity. "I say go ahead."

  Henry was more backward. But his curiosity, too, was aroused, and atlength he gave in his voice with the others.

  Jack swung his hat.

  "Three cheers, then, for the modern Archimedes! You won't take that amissnow Edmund."

  We gave the cheers, and I could see that Edmund was immensely pleased.

  "And now," Jack continued, "tell us all about it. Where are we going?"

  "Pardon me, Jack," was Edmund's reply, "but I'd rather keep that for asurprise. You shall know everything in good time; or at least everythingthat you can understand," he added, with a slightly malicious smile.

  Feeling a little more interest than the others, perhaps, in thescientific aspects of the business, I asked Edmund to tell us somethingmore about the nature of his wonderful invention. He responded with greatgood humor, but rather in the manner of a schoolmaster addressing pupilswho, he knows, cannot entirely follow him.

  "These knobs and handles on the walls," he said, "control the drivingpower, which, as I have told you, comes from the atoms of matter which Ihave persuaded to unlock their hidden forces. I push or turn one way andwe go ahead, or we rise; I push or turn another way and we stop, or goback. So I concentrate the atomic force just as I choose. It makes us go,or it carries us back to earth, or it holds us motionless, according tothe way I apply it. The earth is what I kick against at present, and whatI hold fast by; but any other sufficiently massive body would serve thesame purpose. As to the machinery, you'd need a special education inorder to understand it. You'd have to study the whole subject from thebottom up, and go through all the experiments that I have tried. Iconfess that there are some things the fundamental reason of which Idon't understand myself. But I know how to apply and control the power,and if I had Professor Thomson and Professor Rutherford here, I'd makethem open their eyes. I wish I had been able to kidnap them."

  "That's a confession that, after all, you've kidnapped us," put in Jack,smiling.

  "If you insist upon stating it in that way--yes," replied Edmund, smilingalso. "But you know that now you've consented."

  "Perhaps you'll treat us to a trip to Paris," Jack persisted.

  "Better than that," was the reply. "Paris is only an ant-hill incomparison with what you are going to see."

  And so, indeed, it turned out!

  Finally all got out their pipes, and we began to make ourselves at home,for truly, as far as luxurious furniture was concerned, we were ascomfortable as at the Olympus Club, and the motion of the strange craftwas so smooth and regular that it soothed us like an anodyne. It was onlythose unnamed, subtle senses which man possesses almost without beingaware of their existence that assured us that we were in motion at all.

  After we had smoked for an hour or so, talking and telling stories quitein the manner of the club, Edmund suddenly asked, with a peculiar smile:

  "Aren't you a little surprised that this small room is not choking fullof smoke? You know that the shutters are tightly closed."

  "By Jo," exclaimed Jack, "that's so! Why here we've been pouring outclouds like old Vesuvius for an hour with no windows open, and yet theair is as clear as a bell."

  "The smoke," said Edmund impressively, "has been turned into atomicenergy to speed us on our way. I'm glad you're all good smokers, for thatsaves me fuel. Look," he continued, while we, amazed, stared at him,"those fellows there have been swallowing your smoke, and glad to getit."

  He pointed at a row of what seemed to be grinning steel mouths, barredwith innumerable black teeth, and half concealed by a projecting ledge atthe bottom of the wall opposite the entrance, and as I looked I wasthrilled by the sight of faint curls of smoke disappearing within theirgaping jaws.

  "They are omnivorous beasts," said Edmund. "They feed on the carbon fromyour breath, too. Rather remarkable, isn't it, that every time you expelthe air from your lungs you help this car to go?"

  None of us knew what to say; our astonishment was beyond speech. We beganto look askance at Edmund, with creeping sensations about the spine. Aformless, unacknowledged fear of him entered our souls. It never occurredto us to doubt the truth of what he had said. We knew him too well forthat; and, then, were we not here, fl
ying mysteriously through the air ina heavy metallic car that had no apparent motive power? For my part,instead of demanding any further explanations, I fell into a hazy reverieon the marvel of it all; and Jack and Henry must have been seized thesame way, for not one of us spoke a word, or asked a question; whileEdmund, satisfied, perhaps, with the impression he had made, kept equallyquiet.

  Thus another hour passed, and all of us, I think, had fallen into a doze,when Edmund aroused us by saying:

  "I'll have to keep the first watch, and all the others, too, this night."

  "So then we're not going to land to-night?"

  "No, not to-night, and you may as well turn in. You see that I haveprepared good, comfortable bunks, and I think you'll make out very well."

  As Edmund spoke he lifted the tops from some of the benches along thewalls, and revealed excellent beds, ready for occupancy.

  "I believe that I have forgotten nothing that we shall really need," headded. "Beds, arms, instruments, books, clothing, furs, and good thingsto eat."

  Again we looked at one another in surprise, but nobody spoke, althoughthe same thought probably occurred to each--that this promised to be apretty long trip, judging from the preparations. Arms! What in the worldshould we need of arms? Was he going to the Rocky Mountains for a bearhunt? And clothing, and furs!

  But we were really sleepy, and none of us was very long in taking Edmundat his word and leaving him to watch alone. He considerately drew a shadeover the light, and then noiselessly opened a shutter and looked out.When I saw that, I was strongly tempted to rise and take a look myself,but instead I fell asleep. My dreams were disturbed by visions of thegrinning nondescripts at the foot of the wall, which transformedthemselves into winged dragons, and remorselessly pursued me through themeasureless abysses of space.

  When I woke, windows were open on both sides of the car, and brilliantsunshine was streaming in through one of them. Henry was still asleep,Jack was yawning in his bunk, and Edmund stood at one of the windowsstaring out. I made a quick toilet, and hastened to Edmund's side.

  "Good morning," he said heartily, taking my hand. "Look out here, andtell me what you think of the prospect."

  As I put my face close to the thick but very transparent glass coveringthe window, my heart jumped into my mouth!

  "In Heaven's name, where are we?" I cried out.

  Jack, hearing my agitated exclamation, jumped out of his bunk and ran tothe window also. He gasped as he gazed out, and truly it was enough totake away one's breath!

  We appeared to be at an infinite elevation, and the sky, as black as ink,was ablaze with stars, although the bright sunlight was streaming intothe opposite window behind us. I could see nothing of the earth.Evidently we were too high for that.

  "It must lie away down under our feet," I murmured half aloud, "so thateven the horizon has sunk out of sight. Heavens, what a height!"

  I had that queer uncontrollable qualm that comes to every one who findshimself suddenly on the edge of a soundless deep.

  Presently I became aware that straight before us, but afar off, was amost singular appearance in the sky. At first glance I thought that itwas a cloud, round and mottled, But it was strangely changeless in form,and it had an unvaporous look.

  "Phew!" whistled Jack, suddenly catching sight of it and fixing his eyesin a stare, "what's _that?_"

  "_That's the earth!_"

  It was Edmund who spoke, looking at us with a quizzical smile. A shockran through my nerves, and for an instant my brain whirled. I saw that itwas the truth that he had uttered, for, as sure as I sit here, his wordshad hardly struck my ears when the great cloud rounded out and hardened,the deception vanished, and I recognized, as clearly as ever I saw themon a school globe, the outlines of Asia and the Pacific Ocean!

  In a second I had become too weak to stand, and I sank trembling upon abench. But Jack, whose eyes had not accommodated themselves as rapidly asmine to the gigantic perspective, remained at the window, exclaiming:

  "Fiddlesticks! What are you trying to give us? The earth is down below, Ireckon."

  But in another minute he, too, saw it as it really was, and hisastonishment equaled mine. In fact he made so much noise about it that heawoke Henry, who, jumping out of bed, came running to see, and when wehad explained to him where we were, sank upon a seat with a despairinggroan and covered his face. Our astonishment and dismay were too great topermit us quickly to recover our self-command, but after a while Jackseized Edmund's arm, and demanded:

  "For God's sake, tell us what you've been doing."

  "Nothing that ought to appear very extraordinary," answered Edmund, withuncommon warmth. "If men had not been fools for so many ages they mighthave done this, and more than this long ago. It's enough to make oneashamed of his race! For countless centuries, instead of grasping thepower that nature had placed at the disposal of their intelligence, theyhave idled away their time gabbling about nothing. And even since, atlast, they have begun to do something, look at the time that they havewasted upon such petty forces as steam and 'electricity,' burning wholemines of coal and whole lakes of oil, and childishly calling upon windsand tides and waterfalls to help them, when they had under their thumbsthe limitless energy of the atoms, and no more understood it than a babyunderstands what makes its whistle scream! It's inter-atomic force thathas brought us out here, and that is going to carry us a great dealfarther."

  We simply listened in silence; for what could we say? The facts were moreeloquent than any words, and called for no commentary. Here we _were_,out in the middle of space; and _there_ was the earth, hanging onnothing, like a summer cloud. At least we knew where we were if we didn'tquite understand how we had got there.

  Seeing us speechless, Edmund resumed in a different tone:

  "We made a fairly good run during the night. You must be hungry by thistime, for you've slept late; suppose we have breakfast."

  So saying, he opened a locker, took out a folding table, covered itwith a white cloth, turned on something resembling a little electricrange, and in a few minutes had ready as appetizing a breakfast of eggsand as good a cup of coffee as I ever tasted. It is one of thecompensations of human nature that it is able to adjust itself to themost unheard-of conditions provided only that the inner man is notneglected. The smell of breakfast would almost reconcile a man topurgatory--anyhow it reconciled us for the time being to our unparalleledsituation, and we ate and drank, and indulged in as cheerful goodcomradeship as that of a fishing party in the wilderness after a bigmorning's catch.

  When the breakfast was finished we began to chat and smoke, whichreminded me of those gulping mouths under the wainscot, and I leaned downto catch a glimpse of their rows of black fangs, thinking to ask Edmundfor further explanation about them; but the sight gave me a shiver, and Ifelt the hopelessness of trying to understand their function.

  Then we took a turn at looking out of the window to see the earth. Edmundfurnished us with binoculars which enabled us to recognize manygeographical features of our planet. The western shore of the Pacific wasnow in plain sight, and a few small spots, near the edge of the ocean, weknew to be Japan and the Philippines. The snowy Himalayas showed as acrinkling line, and a huge white smudge over the China Sea indicatedwhere a storm was raging and where good ships, no doubt, were battlingwith the tossing waves.

  After a time I noticed that Edmund was continually going from one windowto the other and looking out with an air of anxiety. He seemed to bewatching for something, and there was a look of mingled expectation andapprehension in his eyes. He had a peephole at the forward end of the carand another in the floor, and these he frequently visited. I now recalledthat even while we were at breakfast he had seemed uneasy andoccasionally left his seat to look out. At last I asked him:

  "What are you looking for, Edmund?"

  "Meteors."

  "Meteors, out here!"

  "Of course. You're something of an astronomer; don't you know that theyhang about all the planets? They didn't give me any r
est last night. Iwas on tender hooks all the time while you were sleeping. I was halfinclined to call one of you to help me. We passed some pretty uglyfellows while you slept, I can tell you! You know that this is anunexplored sea that we are navigating, and I don't want to run on therocks."

  "But we seem to be a good way off from the earth now," I remarked, "andthere ought not to be much danger."

  "It's not as dangerous as it was, but there may be some of them yetaround here. I'll feel safer when we have put a few more million milesbehind us."

  _A few more million miles!_ We all stood aghast when we heard the words.We had, indeed, imagined that the earth looked as if it might be amillion miles away, but, then, it was merely a passing impression, whichhad given us no sense of reality; but now when we heard Edmund say thatwe actually had traveled such a distance, the idea struck us withoverwhelming force.

  "In the name of all that's good, Edmund," cried Jack, "at what rate arewe traveling, then?"

  "Just at present," Edmund replied, glancing at an indicator, "we'remaking twenty miles a second."

  _Twenty miles a second!_ Our excited nerves had another shock.

  "Why," I exclaimed, "that's faster than the earth moves in its orbit!"

  "Yes, a trifle faster; but I'll probably have to work up to a littlebetter speed in order to get where I want to go before our goal begins torun away from us."

  "Ah, there you are," said Jack. "That's what I wanted to know. What isour goal? Where are we going?"

  Before Edmund could reply we all sprang to our feet in affright. A loudgrating noise had broken upon our ears. At the same instant the car gavea lurch, and a blaze of the most vicious lightning streamed through awindow.

  "Confound the things!" shouted Edmund, springing to the window, and thendarting to one of his knobs and beginning to twist it with all his force.

  In a second we were sprawling on the floor--all except Edmund, who kepthis hold on the knob. Our course had been changed with amazing quickness,and our startled eyes beheld a huge misshapen object darting past thewindow.

  "Here comes another!" cried Edmund, again seizing the knob.

  I had managed to get my face to the window, and I certainly thought thatwe were done for. Apparently only a few rods away, and rushing straightat the car, was a vast black mass, shaped something like a dumb-bell,with ends as big as houses, tumbling over and over, and threatening uswith annihilation. If it hit us, as it seemed sure that it would do, Iknew that we should never return to the earth, unless in the form ofpulverized ashes!