Five Thousand Miles Underground; Or, the Mystery of the Centre of the Earth

by Roy Rockwood

  CHAPTER XVI

  THE NEW LAND

  "What is it? Tell us!" exclaimed Jack, almost in his last breath, for, afew seconds later he too toppled over senseless. Then Washington wentdown, while Andy, Bill and Tom succumbed to the terrible heat.

  Mark felt his head swimming. His eyes were almost bulging from theirsockets. He dimly remembered trying to force himself to go to thestoreroom and see what was there. He started toward it with thatintention, but fell half way to it.

  As he did so he saw something which impressed itself on his mind, halfunconscious as he was.

  The door of the storeroom suddenly opened, and from it came a giantshape, that seemed to expand until it filled the whole of the apartmentwhere the stricken ones lay. It was like the form of some monster, halfhuman, half beast. Mark shuddered, and then, closing his eyes, he felthimself sinking down into some terrible deep and black pit. A secondlater the whole ship was jarred as though it had hit something.

  How long he and the others remained unconscious Mark did not know. Hewas the first to revive, and his first sensation was one as though hehad slept hard and long, and did not want to get up. He felt verycomfortable, although he was lying flat on the floor, with his headjammed against the side of a locker. It was so dark that he could notdistinguish his hand held close to his face.

  "I wonder if I'm dead, and if all the others are dead too," he thoughtto himself. "What has happened? Let's see, the last I remember was somehorrible shape rushing from the storeroom. I wonder what it could havebeen? Surely that was not the secret the professor referred to."

  Mark shuddered as he recalled the monster that seemed to have grown moreterrible as each second passed. Then the boy raised himself up from hisprostrate position.

  "Well, at any rate, some one has turned off the heat," he murmured."It's very comfortable in here now. I wish I could strike a light."

  He listened intently, to learn if any of the others were moving about.He could hear them breathing, but so faintly as to indicate they wereinsensible. Mark stretched out his hand and felt that some one was lyingclose to him, but who of the adventurers it was he could not determine.

  "If only the dynamo was working we could have light," he said. "But itseems to have stopped," and, indeed there was a lacking of the familiarpurr and hum of the electrical machine. In fact none of the apparatus inthe ship was working.

  "The storage battery!" exclaimed Mark. "That would give light for awhile, if I can only find the switch in the dark."

  He began crawling about on his hands and knees. It was so intenselyblack that he ran into many things and received severe bruises. At lasthe came to a doorway, and as he did so his hand came in contact with aneasy chair. It was the only one aboard, and by that he knew he hadpassed into the sitting room. He had his general direction now, and knewif he kept straight on he would come to the engine room. There he wasfamiliar enough with the apparatus and levers to be able to turn theelectric switch.

  Crawling slowly and cautiously, he reached the room where all theengines were. Then he had to feel around the sides to locate the switch.At length he found it. There was a click, a little flash of greenishfire, and the copper conductors came together, and the ship was floodedwith the glow from the incandescents.

  Mark hurried back to where the others were lying. They were stillunconscious, but an uneasy movement on the part of Jack told that he wascoming out of the stupor. Mark got some ammonia and held it beneath hiscomrade's nose. The strong fumes completed the work that nature hadstarted and Jack opened his eyes.

  "Where am I? What has happened? Are any of them dead?" he asked quickly.

  "I hope no one is dead," Mark replied. "As to the other question, Ican't answer. I don't know whether we are a thousand miles underground,or floating on the ocean, though I'm more inclined to the former theory.But never mind that now. Help me to bring the others back to theirsenses. I'll work on the professor and you can begin on Bill or Tom.Washington seems to be all right," for at that moment the colored manopened his eyes, stared about him and then got up.

  "I thought I was dead for suah!" he exclaimed.

  "Some of the others may be if we don't hurry," said Mark. "Get to work,Wash!"

  With the colored man to help them the two boys, by the use of theammonia, succeeded in reviving Bill, Tom and old Andy. But theprofessor, probably on account of his advanced age, did not respond soreadily to the treatment. The boys were getting quite alarmed, as evensome of the diluted ammonia, forced between his lips, did not cause himto open his eyes, or increase his heart action.

  "If he should die, and leave us all alone with the ship in this terribleplace, what would we do?" asked Jack.

  "He's not going to die!" exclaimed Mark. "Here I have another plan.Washington bring that medical electrical battery from the engine room."This was a small machine the professor had brought along forexperimental purposes.

  Quickly adjusting it, Mark placed the handles in the nerveless fingersof Mr. Henderson. Then he started the current. In about a minute theeyelids of the aged inventor began to quiver, and, in less than fiveminutes he had been revived sufficiently to enable him to sit up. Hepassed his hand across his forehead.

  "What has happened?" he asked in a faint voice.

  "I don't know; none of us knows," Mark answered. "We all lost our senseswhen it got so hot, and there seemed to be some peculiar vapor in theair. The last I remember was seeing some horrible shape rush from thestoreroom, soon after the ship struck. Then I fainted away. When I wokeup I managed to turn the lights on, and then I came back here."

  "I wonder where we are," the old man murmured. "I must find out. We musttake every precaution. Washington, go and look at the gage indicatingour depth."

  The colored man was gone but a few seconds. When he returned his eyeswere bulging in terror.

  "What is it?" asked Mr. Henderson, who, thanks to the battery, hadalmost completely recovered.

  "It ain't possible!" gasped Washington. "I'll never believe it!"

  "What is it?" asked Mr. Henderson, while the others waited in anxietyfor the answer.

  "We're five hundred miles down!" declared Washington.

  "Five hundred miles!" muttered the inventor. "It does not seem possible,but it must be so. We fell very rapidly and the terrible draught suckedus down with incredible rapidity. But come, we must see what oursituation is, and where we are. We are stationary, and are evidently onsome solid substance."

  They all felt much recovered now, and, as the terrible fright of beingconsumed in a fiery furnace had passed, they all were in better spirits.

  At the suggestion of the professor, the boys and Washington made a tourof the ship. They found, for some unaccountable reason, that nearly allthe engines and apparatuses were out of gear. In some the parts hadbroken, and others were merely stopped, from the failure of some othermachine, on which they were dependent.

  "I'm afraid this is the end of the _Mermaid,"_ said Mark, in a sorrowfultone.

  "Nonsense!" replied Jack, who was of a more cheerful nature. "Things arenot so bad as they look. The professor can fix everything."

  "I'm sure I hope so," Mark went on, not much encouraged, however, byJack's philosophy. "It would be no joke to have to stay five hundredmiles underground the rest of our lives."

  "You don't know," retorted Jack. "Don't judge of a country you've neverseen. This may be as fine a place as it is on the surface of the earth.I want a chance to see it," and Jack began to whistle a cheerful tune.

  They completed the tour of the ship, and found, that, aside from thedamage to the machinery, the _Mermaid_ had not sustained any harm. Thehull was in good order, though of course they could not tell about thegas holder. It was not possible to see this except by going into theconning tower or out on the small deck, and this they did not venture todo. The connections between the holder and the main ship seemed to beall right, and there was still a small quantity of gas in the big tank,as Mark found on
opening a stop-cock.

  They went back to the professor and told him what they had observed. Heseemed somewhat alarmed, the more so as the experience he had justpassed through had weakened him considerably.

  "I hope I shall be able to make the repairs," he said. "It is our onlyhope."

  As he spoke he looked up at the electric lights that shone overhead fromwall brackets.

  "Who is shutting down the power?" he asked.

  "There is no power on, Professor," replied Mark. "I am running thelights from the storage battery. But something is the matter, for theyare growing dim."

  The filaments were now mere dull red wires, and the ship was beingshrouded in gloom again.

  "The battery is failing!" exclaimed Mr. Henderson. "We shall be left indarkness, and there is no other way to produce light. I ought to havebrought some lamps or candles along in case of emergency."

  The next instant the _Mermaid_ became as black as Egypt is popularlysupposed to be, and something like an exclamation of terror came fromthe professor.

  For several minutes they all sat there in the blackness and gloom,waiting for they knew not what. Then, suddenly, there sounded throughoutthe ship, a creaking as of metal sliding along metal. Some big levercreaked, and, a second later the whole place was flooded with light.

  "What has happened?" cried the professor, starting to his feet in alarm.

  "We are going to be burned up!" exclaimed old Andy.

  "It's all right! It's all right!" yelled Washington from the engine roomwhere the boys had left him. "Don't git skeered! I done it! I opened theport holes, by yanking on the lever. Golly, but we's arrived at the newland! Look out, everybody!"