CHAPTER VII.
HARD AT WORK.
In a few moments Ayrault returned with pencils, a pair ofcompasses, and paper.
"Let us see, in the first place," said Deepwaters, "how long thejourney will take. Since a stone falls 16.09 feet the firstsecond, and 64+ feet the next, it is easy to calculate at whatrate your speed would increase with the repulsion twice that ofthe ordinary traction. But I think this would be too slow. Itwill be best to treble or quadruple the apergetic charge, whichcan easily be done, in which case your speed will exceed themuzzle-velocity of a projectile from a long-range gun, in a fewseconds. As the earth's repulsion decreases, the attraction ofmars and Jupiter will increase, and, there being no resistance,your gait will become more and more rapid till it is necessary toreverse the charge to avoid being dashed to pieces or beingconsumed like a falling star by the friction in passing throughJupiter's atmosphere. You can be on the safe side by checkingyour speed in advance. You must, of course, be careful to avoidcollisions with meteors and asteroids but if you do, they will beof use to you, for by attracting or repelling them you can changeyour course to suit yourself, and also theirs in inverse ratio totheir masses. Jupiter's moons will be like head and stern linesin enabling you to choose the part of the surface on which youwish to land. With apergy it is as essential to have some heavybody on which to work, within range, as to have water about aship's propellers. Whether, when apergy is developed,gravitation is temporarily annulled, or reversed like the lateattraction of a magnet when the current is changed, or whether itis merely overpowered, in which case your motion will be theresultant of the two, is an unsettled and not very importantpoint; for, though we know but little more of the nature ofelectricity than was known a hundred years ago, this does notprevent our producing and using it."
"Jupiter, when in opposition," he continued, "is about380,000,000 miles from us, and it takes light, which travels atthe rate of 190,000 miles a second, just thirty-four minutes toreach the earth from Jupiter. If we suppose the average speed ofyour ship to be one- five-hundredth as great, it will take youjust eleven days, nineteen hours and twenty minutes to make thejourney. You will have a fine view of Mars and the asteroids,and when 1,169,000 miles from Jupiter, will cross the orbit ofCallisto, the fifth moon in distance from the giant planet. Thatwill be your best point to steer by."
"I think," said Ayrault, "as that will be the first member ofJupiter's system we pass, and as it will guide us into port, itwould be a good name for our ship, and you must christen her ifwe have her launched."
"No, no," said Deepwaters, "Miss Preston must do that; but wecertainly should have a launch, for you might have to land in thewater, and you must be sure the ship is tight."
"Talking of tight ships," said Bearwarden, passing a decanter ofclaret to Stillman, "may remind us that it is time to splice the'main brace.' There's a bottle of whisky and some water justbehind you," he added to Deepwaters, "while three minutes after Iring this bell," he said, pressing a button and jerking a handlemarked '8,' "the champagne cocktails will be on the desk."
"I see you know his ways," said Stillman to Bearwarden, droopinghis eyes in Deepwaters's direction.
"Oh, yes, I've been here before," replied Deepwaters. "You see,we navy men have to hustle now-a-days, and can't pass our time ina high-backed chair, talking platitudes."
At this moment there was a slight rumbling, and eight champagnecocktails, with the froth still on, and straws on a separateplate, shot in and landed on a corner of the desk.
"Help yourselves, gentlemen," said Bearwarden, placing them on atable; "I hope we shall find them cold."
"Do you know," said Deepwaters to Ayrault, while rapidly makinghis cocktail disappear, "the Callisto's cost with its outfit willbe very great, especially if you use glucinum, which, though theideal metal for the purpose, comes pretty high? I suggest thatyou apply to Congress for an appropriation. This experimentcomes under the 'Promotion of Science Act,' and any bill for itwould certainly pass."
"No, indeed," replied Ayrault; "the Callisto trip will be aprivilege and glory I would not miss, and building her will be apart of it. I shall put in everything conducive to success, butwill come to the Government only for advice."
"I will send a letter to all our ambassadors and consuls," saidStillman, "to telegraph the department anything they may know orlearn that will be of use in adjusting the batteries, controllingthe machine, or anything else, and will turn over to you in asuccinct form all information that may be relevant, for withoutsuch sorting you would be overwhelmed."
"And I," said Deepwaters, "will order the commanders of ourvessels to give you a farewell salute at starting, and to pickyou up in case you fail. When you have demonstrated thesuitability of apergy," he continued, "and the habitability ofJupiter and Saturn--,which, with their five and eight moons,respectively, and rings thrown in, must both be vastly superiorto our little second-rate globe--we will see what can be donetowards changing our orbit, and if we cannot swing a littlenearer to our new world or worlds. Then we'll lower, or ratherraise, the boats in the shape of numerous Callistos, and have alanding-party ready at each opposition, while a man or two can beplaced in charge of each projectile to bring it back in ballast.Thus we may soon have regular interplanetary lines."
"As every place seems to have been settled from some other," saidCortlandt, "I do not see why, with increased scientificfacilities, history should not repeat itself, and this be thepoint from which to colonize the solar system; for, for thepresent at least, it would seem that we could not get beyondthat."
"As it will be quite an undertaking to change the orbit, saidDeepwaters, "we shall have time meanwhile to absorb or run outall inferior races, so that we shall not make the mistake ofextending the Tower of Babel."
"He is putting on his war-paint," said Stillman, "and will soonwant a planet to himself."
"I see no necessity for even changing the orbit," saidBearwarden, "except for the benefit of those that remain. Ifthis attempt succeeds, it can doubtless be repeated. An increasein eccentricity would merely shorten the journey, if aphelionalways coincided with opposition, which it would not."
"Let us know how you are getting on," said Deepwaters to Ayrault,"and be sure you have the Callisto properly christened. Steplively there, landlubbers!" he called to Stillman; "I have anappointment at Washington at one, and it is now twenty minutespast twelve. We can lunch on the way."
Ayrault immediately advertised for bids for the construction of aglucinum cylinder twenty-five feet in diameter, fifteen feet highat the sides, with a domed roof, bringing up the total height totwenty-one feet, and with a small gutter about it to catch therain on Jupiter or any other planet they might visit. The sides,roof, and floor were to consist of two sheets, each one third ofan inch thick and six inches apart, the space between to befilled with mineral wool, as a protection against the intensecold of space. There were also to be several keels and supportsunderneath, on which the car should rest. Large, toughenedplate-glass windows were to be let into the roof and sides, andsmaller ones in the floor, all to be furnished with thick shadesand curtains. Ayrault also decided to have it divided into twostories, with ceilings six and a half to seven and a half feethigh, respectively, with a sort of crow's nest or observatory atthe top; the floors to be lattice- work, like those in theengine-room of a steamer, so that when the carpets were rolled upthey should not greatly obstruct the view. The wide, flat baseand the low centre of gravity would, he saw, be of use inwithstanding the high winds that he knew often prevailed onJupiter.
As soon as possible he awarded the contract, and then enteringhis smart electric trap, steered for Vassar University along whatwas the old post-road--though its builders would not haverecognized it with its asphalt surface, straightened curves, andeasy grades--to ask his idol to christen the Callisto when itshould be finished.
Starting from the upper end of Central Park, he stopped to buyher a bunch of
violets, and then ran to Poughkeepsie in twohours.
Sylvia Preston was a lovely girl, with blue eyes, brown hair, andperfect figure, clear white skin, and just twenty. She wasdelighted to see him, and said she would love to christen theCallisto or do anything else that he wished. "But I am so sorryyou are going away," she went on. "I hate to lose you for solong, and we shall not even be able to write."
"Why couldn't we be married now," he asked, "and go to Jupiterfor our honeymoon?"
"I'm afraid, dear," she answered, "you would be sorry a few yearshence if I didn't take my degree; and, besides, as you have askedthose other men, there wouldn't be room for me."
"We could have made other arrangements," he replied, "had I beenable to persuade you to go."
"Won't you dine with us at Delmonico's this evening, and go tothe play?" she asked. "Papa has taken a box."
"Of course I will," he said, brightening up. "What are you goingto wear?"
"Oh, I suppose something light and cool, for it's so hot," sheanswered.
"I'll go now, so as to be ready," he said, getting up and goingtowards the door to which Sylvia followed him.
A man in livery stood at the step of the phaeton. Ayrault got inand turned on the current, and his man climbed up behind.
On turning into the main road Ayrault was about to increase hisspeed, when Sylvia, who had taken a short cut appeared at thewayside carrying her hat in one hand and her gloves in the other.
"I couldn't let you go all by yourself," she said. "The fact is,I wanted to be with you."
"You are the sweetest thing that ever lived, and I'll love youall my days," he said, getting down and helping Sylvia to theseat beside him. "What a nuisance this fellow behind is!" hecontinued--referring to the groom-- "for, though he is a Russian,and speaks but little English, it is unpleasant to feel he isthere."
"You'll have to write your sweet nothings, instead of sayingthem," Sylvia replied.
"For you to leave around for other girls to see," answeredAyrault with a smile.
"I don't know what your other girls do," she returned, "but withme you are safe."
Ayrault fairly made his phaeton spin, going up the grades like ashot and down like a bird. On reaching New York, he left Sylviaat her house, then ran his machine to a florist's, where heordered some lilies and roses, and then steered his way to hisclub, where he dressed for dinner. Shortly before the time herepaired to Delmonico's--which name had become historical, thoughthe founders themselves were long dead--and sat guard at a tabletill Sylvia, wearing his flowers and looking more beautiful thanany of them, arrived with her mother and father, and Bearwarden,whom they knew very well.
"How are the exams getting on, Miss Preston?" Bearwarden asked.
"Pretty well," she replied, with a smile. "We had Englishliterature yesterday, and natural history the day before. Nextweek we have chemistry and philosophy."
"What are you taking in natural history?" asked Bearwarden, withinterest.
"Oh, principally physical geography, geology, and meteorology,"she replied. "I think them entrancing."
"It must be a consolation," said Ayrault, "when your best hat isspoiled by rain, to know the reason why. Your average," hecontinued, addressing Sylvia, "was ninety in the semi-annuals,and I haven't a doubt that the finals will maintain your recordfor the year."
"Don't be too sure," she replied. "I have been loafing awfully,and had to engage a 'grind' as a coach."
After dinner they went to the play, where they saw a presentationof Society at the Close of the Twentieth Century, which Sylviaand Ayrault enjoyed immensely.
A few days after the Delmonico dinner, while Bearwarden,Cortlandt, and Ayrault sat together discussing their plans, theservant announced Ayrault's family physician, Dr. TubercleGerminy, who had been requested to call.
"Delighted to see you, doctor," said Ayrault, shaking hands."You know Col. Bearwarden, our President, and Dr. Cortlandt--anLL. D., however, and not a medico."
"I have had the pleasure," replied Dr. Germiny, shaking handswith both.
"As you may be aware, doctor," said Ayrault, when they wereseated, "we are about to take a short trip to Jupiter, and, iftime allows, to Saturn. We have come to you, as one familiarwith every known germ, for a few precautionary suggestions andadvice concerning our medicine-chest."
"Indeed!" replied Dr. Germiny, "a thorough knowledge ofbacteriology is the groundwork of therapeutics. It ispractically admitted that every ailment, with the exception ofmechanical injuries, is the direct result of a specific germ; andeven in accidents and simple fractures, no matter what may be thenature of the bruise, a micro-organism soon announces itspresence, so that if not the parent, it is the inseparablecompanion, in fact the shadow, of disease. Now, though not thefirst cause in this instance, it has been indubitably proved,that much of the effect, the fever and pain, are produced andcontinued by the active, omnipresent, sleepless sperm. Eitherkill the micrococcus or heal the wound, and you are free fromboth. It being, therefore, granted that the ills of life are inthe air, we have but to find the peculiar nature of the case inhand, its habits, tastes, and constitution, in order to destroyit. Impoverish the soil on which it thrives, before its arrival,if you can foresee the nature of the inoculation to which youwill be exposed, by a dilute solution of itself, and supply itonly with what it particularly dislikes. For an alreadyestablished tubercle requiring rapid action of the blood, such asmay well exist among the birds and vertebrates of Jupiter andSaturn, I suggest a hypodermic rattlesnake injection, whilehydrocyanic acid and tarantula saliva may also come in well. Thecombinations that so long destroyed us have already become ourpanacea."
"I see you have these poisons at your fingers' ends," saidAyrault, "and we shall feel the utmost confidence in the remediesand directions you prescribe."
They found that, in addition to their medicine-chest, they wouldhave to make room for the following articles, and also many more:six shot-guns (three double-barrel 12-bores, three magazine10-bores,) three rifles, three revolvers; a large supply ofammunition (explosive and solid balls), hunting-knives,fishing-tackle, compass, sextant, geometrical instruments, cannedfood for forty days, appliance for renewing air, clothing, rubberboots, apergetic apparatus, protection-wires, aneroid barometer,and kodaks.
CHAPTER VIII.
GOOD-BYE.
At last the preparations were completed, and it was arranged thatthe Callisto should begin its journey at eleven o'clock A. M.,December 21st--the northern hemisphere's shortest day.
Though six months' operations could hardly be expected to haveproduced much change in the inclination of the earth's axis, theautumn held on wonderfully, and December was pronounced verymild. Fully a million people were in and about Van CortlandtPark hours before the time announced for the start, and thosenear looked inquiringly at the trim little air-ship, that, havingdone well on the trial trip, rested on her longitudinal andtransverse keels, with a battery of chemicals alongside, to makesure of a full power supply.
The President and his Cabinet--including, of course, the shininglights of the State and Navy Departments--came from Washington.These, together with Mr. and Mrs. Preston, and a number of peoplewith passes, occupied seats arranged at the sides of theplatform; while sightseers and scientists assembled from everypart of the world.
"There's a ship for you!" said Secretary Stillman to theSecretary of the Navy. "She'll not have to be dry-docked forbarnacles, neither will the least breeze make the passengerssick."
"That's all you landlubbers think of," replied Deepwaters. "Iremember one of the kings over in Europe said to me, as heintroduced me to the queen: 'Your Secretary of State is a greatman, but why does he always part his hair in the middle?'
"'So that it shall not turn his head,' I replied.
"'But with so gallant and handsome an officer as you to leanupon,' he answered, 'I should think he could look down on all theworld.' Whereupon I asked him what he'd take to dr
ink."
"Your apology is accepted," replied Secretary Stillman.
Cortlandt also came from Washington, where, as chief of theGovernment's Expert Examiners Board, he had temporary quarters.Bearwarden sailed over the spectators' heads in one of theTerrestrial Axis Straightening Company's flying machines, whileAyrault, to avoid the crowd, had come to the Callisto early, andwas showing the interior arrangements to Sylvia, who hadaccompanied him. She was somewhat piqued because at the lastmoment he had not absolutely insisted on carrying her off, oroffered, if necessary, to displace his presidential andDoctor-of-Laws friends in order to make room.
"You will have an ideal trip," she said, looking over someastronomical star-charts and photographic maps of Jupiter andSaturn that lay on the table, with a pair of compasses, "and Ihope you won't lose your way."
"I shall need no compass to find my way back," replied Ayrault,"if I ever succeed in leaving this planet; neither willstar-charts be necessary, for you will be a magnet stronger thanany compass, and, compared with my star, all others are dim."
"You should write a book," said Sylvia, "and put some of thosethings in it." She was wearing a bunch of forget-me-nots andviolets that she had cut from a small flower-garden of pottedplants Ayrault had sent her, which she had placed in her father'sconservatory.
At this moment the small chime clock set in the Callisto'swood-work rang out quarter to eleven. As the sounds died away,Sylvia became very pale, and began to regret in her womanly waythat she had allowed her hero to attempt this experiment.
"Oh," she said, clinging to his arm, "it was very wrong of me tolet you begin this. I was so dazzled by the splendour of yourscheme when I heard it, and so anxious that you should have theglory of being the first to surpass Columbus, that I did notrealize the full meaning. I thought, also, you seemed ratherready to leave me," she added gently, "and so said little; you donot know how it almost breaks my heart now that I am about tolose you. It was quixotic to let you undertake this journey."
"An undertaker would have given me his kind offices for one evenlonger, had I remained here," replied Ayrault. "I cannot live inthis humdrum world without you. The most sustained excitementcannot even palliate what seems to me like unrequited love."
"O Dick!" she exclaimed, giving him a reproachful glance, "youmustn't say that. You know you have often told me my reason forstaying and taking my degree was good. My lot will be very muchharder than yours, for you will forget me in the excitement ofdiscovery and adventure; but I--what can I do in the midst of allthe old associations?"
"Never mind, sweetheart," he said, kissing her hand, "I haveseemed on the verge of despair all the time."
Seeing that their separation must shortly begin, Ayrault tried toassume a cheerful look; but as Sylvia turned her eyes away theywere suspiciously moist.
Just one minute before the starting-time Ayrault took Sylvia backto her mother, and, after pressing her hand and having one lastlong look into her--or, as he considered them, HIS--deep-seaeyes, he returned to the Callisto, and was standing at the footof the telescopic aluminum ladder when his friends arrived. Asall baggage and impedimenta bad been sent aboard and properlystowed the day before, the travellers had not to do but climb toand enter by the second-story window. It distressed Bearwardenthat the north pole's exact declination on the 21st day ofDecember, when the axis was most inclined, could not be figuredout by the hour at which they were to start, so as to show whatchange, if any, had already been brought about, but theastronomers were working industriously, and promised that, if itwere finished by midnight, they would telegraph the result intospace by flash-light code.
Raising his hat to his fiancee and his prospectiveparents-in-law, Ayrault followed them up. To draw in and foldthe ladder was but the work of a moment. As the clocks in theneighbouring steeples began to strike eleven, Ayrault touched theswitch that would correspond to the throttle of an engine, andthe motors began to work at rapidly increasing speed. Slowly theCallisto left her resting-place as a Galatea might her pedestal,only, instead of coming down, she rose still higher.
A large American flag hanging from the window, which, as theystarted, fluttered as in a southern zephyr, soon began to flap asin a stiff breeze as the car's speed increased. With a finalwave, at which a battery of twenty-one field-pieces made the airring with a salute, and the multitude raised a mighty cheer, theydrew it in and closed the window, sealing it hermetically inorder to keep in the air that, had an opening remained, wouldsoon have become rarefied.
Sylvia had waved her handkerchief with the utmost enthusiasm, inspite of the sadness at her heart. But she now had other use forit in trying to hide her tears. The Callisto was still goingstraight up, with a speed already as great as a cannon ball's,and was almost out of sight. The multitude then began todisperse, and Sylvia returned to her home.
Let us now follow the Callisto. The earth and Jupiter not beingexactly in opposition, as they would be if the sun, the earth,and Jupiter were in line, with the earth between the two, butrather as shown in the diagram, the Callisto's journey wasconsiderably more than 380,000,000 miles, the mean oppositiondistance. As they wished to start by daylight--i. e., from theside of the earth turned towards the sun--they could not steerimmediately for Jupiter, but were obliged to go a few hundredmiles in the direction of the sun, then change their course tosomething like a tangent to the earth, and get their final rightdirection in swinging near the moon, since they must becomparatively near some material object to bring apergy intoplay.
The maximum power being turned on, the projectile shot from theearth with tremendous and rapidly increasing speed, by theshortest course--i. e., a straight line--so that for the presentit was not necessary to steer. Until beyond the limits of theatmosphere they kept the greatest apergetic repulsion focused onthe upper part of their cylinder, so that its point went first,and they encountered least possible resistance. Looking throughthe floor windows, therefore, the travellers had a most superbview. The air being clear, the eastern border of North Americaand the Atlantic were outlined as on a map, the blue of the oceanand brownish colour of the land, with white snow- patches on theelevations, being very marked. The Hudson and the Sound appearedas clearly defined blue ribbons, and between and around the twothey could see New York. They also saw the ocean dotted formiles with points in which they recognized the marine spiders andcruisers of the North Atlantic squadron, and the ships on thehome station, which they knew were watching them through theirglasses.
"I see," said Cortlandt, "that Deepwaters has been as good as hisword, and has his ships on the watch to rescue us in case wefail."
"Yes," replied Bearwarden, "he is the right sort. When he gavethat promise I knew his men would be there."
They soon perceived that they had reached the void of space, for,though the sun blazed with a splendour they had never beforeseen, the firmament was intensely black, and the stars shone asat midnight. Here they began to change their course to a curvebeginning with a spiral, by charging the Callisto apergetically,and directing the current towards the moon, to act as an aid tothe lunar attraction, while still allowing the earth to repel,and their motion gradually became the resultant of the twoforces, the change from a straight line being so gradual,however, that for some minutes they scarcely perceived it. Thecoronal streamers about the sun, such as are visible on earthduring a total eclipse, shone with a halo against theultra-Cimmerian background, bursting forth to a height of twentyor thirty thousand miles above the surface in vast cyclonicstorms, producing so rapid a motion that a column of incandescentgas may move ten thousand miles in less than ten minutes.Whether these great streaks were in part electrical phenomenasimilar to the aurora borealis, or entirely of intensely heatedmaterial thrown up by explosions within the sun's mass, theycould not tell even from their point of vantage.
"I believe," said Cortlandt, pointing to the streamers, "thatthey are masses of gas thrown beyond the sun's atmosphere, whichexpand enormously when the pressure to which they are s
ubjectedin the sun is removed--for only in space freed from resistancecould they move at such velocities, and that their brilliancy isincreased by great electrical disturbance. If they were entirelythe play of electrical forces, their change of place would bepractically instantaneous, which, however rapid their movement,is not the case."
BOOK II.
CHAPTER I.
THE LAST OF THE EARTH.
Finding that they were rapidly swinging towards their propercourse, and that the earth in its journey about the sun wouldmove out of their way, they divided their power between repellingthe body they had left and increasing the attraction of the moon,and then set about getting their house in order.
Bearwarden, having the largest appetite, was elected cook, theothers sagely divining that labour so largely for himself wouldbe no trial. Their small but business- like-looking electricrange was therefore soon in full blast, with Bearwarden incommand. It had enough current to provide heat for cooking forfour hundred hours, which was an ample margin, and it had thisadvantage, that, no matter how much it was used, it could notexhaust the air as any other form of heat would.
There were also a number of sixteen-candle-power incandescentlamps, so that when passing through the shadow of a planet, or atnight after their arrival on Jupiter, their car would be brightlyilluminated. They had also a good search-light for examining thedark side of a satellite, or exploring the spaces in Saturn'srings. Having lunched sumptuously on canned chicken soup, beefa la jardiniere, and pheasant that had been sent them by some oftheir admirers that morning, they put the bones and the glass canthat had contained the soup into the double-doored partition orvestibule, placing a large sheet of cardboard to act as a wadbetween the scraps and the outside door. By pressing a buttonthey unfastened the outside door, and the articles to be disposedof were shot off by the expansion of the air between thecardboard disk and the inside door; after which the outside doorwas drawn back to its place by a current sent through a magnet,but little power being required to reclose it with no resistingatmospheric pressure. As the electricity ran along a wirepassing through a hermetically sealed opening in the floor, therewas no way by which more air than that in the vestibule couldescape; and as the somewhat flat space between the doorscontained less than one cubic foot, the air- pressure inside theCallisto could not be materially lessened by a few openings.
"By filling the vestibule as full as possible," said Bearwarden,"and so displacing most of its air, we shall be able to open theoutside door oftener without danger of rarefaction."
The things they had discharged flew off with considerable speedand were soon out of sight; but it was not necessary for them tomove fast, provided they moved at all, for, the resistance beingnil, they would be sure to go beyond the range of vision,provided enough time was allowed, even if the Callisto's speedwas not being increased by apergy, in which case articles outsideand not affected would be quickly left behind.
The earth, which at first had filled nearly half their sky, wasrapidly growing smaller. Being almost between themselves and thesun, it looked like a crescent moon; and when it was only abouttwenty times the size of the moon they calculated they must havecome nearly two hundred thousand miles. The moon was now on whata sailor would call the starboard bow--i. e., to the right andahead. Being a little more than three quarters full, and onlyabout fifty thousand miles off, it presented a splendid sight,brilliant as polished silver, and about twenty-five times aslarge as they had ever before seen it with the unaided eye.
It was just ten hours since they had started, and at that moment9 A. M. in New York; but, though it was night there, the Callistowas bathed in a flood of sunlight such as never shines on earth.The only night they would have was on the side of the Callistoturned away from the sun, unless they passed through some shadow,which they intended to avoid on account of the danger ofcolliding with a meteor in the dark. The moon and the Callistowere moving on converging lines, the curve on which they hadentered having swung them to the side nearest the earth; but theysaw that their own tremendous and increasing speed would carrythem in front of the moon in its nearly circular orbit. Wishingto change the direction of their flight by the moon's attraction,they shut off the power driving them from the earth, whereuponthe Callisto turned its heavy base towards the moon. They werealready moving at such speed that their momentum alone wouldcarry them hundreds of thousands of miles into space, and werethen almost abreast of the earth's satellite, which was but a fewthousand miles away. The spectacle was magnificent. As theylooked at it through their field glasses or with the unaided eye,the great cracks and craters showed with the utmost clearness,sweeping past them almost as the landscape flies past a railwaytrain. There was something awe-inspiring in the vast antiquityof that furrowed lunar surface, by far the oldest thing thatmortal eye can see, since, while observing the ceaselesspolitical or geological changes on earth, the face of this deadsatellite, on account of the absence of air and water andconsequent erosion, has remained unchanged for bygone ages, as itdoubtless will for many more.
They closely watched the Callisto's course. At first it did notseem to deflect from a straight line, and they stood ready toturn on the apergetic force again, when the car very slowly beganto show the effect of the moon's near pull; but not till they hadso far passed it that the dark side was towards them were theyheading straight for Jupiter. Then they again turned on fullpower and got a send-off shove on the moon and earth combined,which increased their speed so rapidly that they felt they couldsoon shut off the current altogether and save their supply.
"We must be ready to watch the signals from the arctic circle,"said Bearwarden. "At midnight, if the calculations are finished,the result will be flashed by the searchlight." It was then tenminutes to twelve, and the earth was already over four hundredthousand miles away. Focusing their glasses upon the region nearthe north pole, which, being turned from the sun, was towardsthem and in darkness, they waited.
"In this blaze of sunlight," said Cortlandt, "I am afraid we cansee nothing."
Fortunately, at this moment the Callisto entered the moon'stapering shadow.
"This," said Ayrault, "is good luck. We could of course havegone into the shadow; but to change our course would have delayedus, and we might have lost part of the chance of increasing ourspeed."
"There will be no danger from, meteors or sub-satellites here,"said Bearwarden, "for anything revolving about the moon at thisdistance would be caught by the earth."
The sun had apparently set behind the moon, and they wereeclipsed. The stars shone with the utmost splendour against thedead-black sky, and the earth appeared as a large crescent, stillconsiderably larger than the satellite to which they wereaccustomed. Exactly at midnight a faint phosphorescent light,like that of a glow-worm, appeared in the region of Greenland onthe planet they had left. It gradually increased its strengthtill it shone like a long white beam projected from a lighthouse,and in this they beheld the work of the greatest search-lightever made by man, receiving for a few moments all the electricitygenerated by the available dynamos at Niagara and the Bay ofFundy, the steam engines, and other sources of power in thenorthern hemisphere. The beam lasted with growing intensity forone minute; it then spelled out with clean-cut intervals,according to the Cable Code: "23@ no' 6". The southernhemisphere pumps are now raising and storing water at full blast.We have already begun to lower the Arctic Ocean."
"Victory!" shouted Bearwarden, in an ecstasy of delight. "Nearlyhalf a degree in six months, with but one pole working. If wecan add at this rate each time to the speed of straighteningalready acquired, we can reverse our engines in five years, andin five more the earth will be at rest and right."
"Look!" said Ayrault, "they are sending something else." Theflashes came in rapid succession, reaching far into space. Withtheir glasses fixed upon them, they made out these sentences:"Our telescopes, in whatever part of the earth was turned towardsyou, h
ave followed you since you started, and did not lose sightof you till you entered the moon's shadow. On your presentcourse you will be in darkness till 12.16, when we shall see youagain."
On receiving this last earthly message, the travellers sprang totheir searchlight, and, using its full power, telegraphed backthe following: "Many thanks to you for good news about earth,and to Secretary Deepwaters for lending us the navy. Result ofwork most glorious. Remember us to everybody. Shadow's edgeapproaching."
This was read by the men in the great observatories, whoevidently telephoned to the arctic Signal Light immediately, forit flashed back: "Got your message perfectly. Wish you greatestluck. The T. A. S. Co. has decked the Callisto's pedestal withflowers, and has ordered a tablet set up on the site tocommemorate your celestial journey."
At that moment the shadow swept by, and they were in the fullblaze of cloudless day. The change was so great that for amoment they were obliged to close their eyes. The polished sidesof the Callisto shone so brightly that they knew they were easilyseen. The power temporarily diverted in sending them the messagethen returned to the work of draining the Arctic Ocean, which, asthe north pole was now returning to the sun, was the thing to do,and the travellers resumed their study of the heavenly bodies.
A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future Page 7
