A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future

by John Jacob Astor

  CHAPTER VI.

  MASTODON AND WILL-O'-THE WISPS.

  Bearwarden's bullet struck the mammoth in the shoulder, whileAyrault's aim was farther back. As the balls exploded, ahalf-barrelful of flesh and hide was shot from each, leaving twogaping holes. Instantly he rushed among the trees, making hiscourse known for some time by his roars. As he turned,Bearwarden fired again, but the hall flew over him, blowing offthe top of a tree.

  "Now for the chase!" said Ayrault. "There would be no excuse forlosing him."

  Quickly pushing their raft to shore and securing it to the bank,the three jumped off. Thanks to their rubber boots and galvanicoutfits which automatically kept them charged, they were as spryas they would have been on earth. The ground all about them, andin a strip twelve feet wide where the mammoth had gone, was tornup, and the vegetation trodden down. Following this trail, theystruck back into the woods, where in places the gloom cast by thethick foliage was so dense that there was a mere twilight,startling as they went numbers of birds of grey and sombreplumage, whose necks and heads, and the sounds they uttered, wereso reptilian that the three terrestrials believed they must alsopossess poison fangs.

  "The most highly developed things we have seen here," saidBearwarden, "are the flowers and fireflies, most of the birds andamphibians being simply loathsome."

  As they proceeded they found tracks of blood, which were rapidlyattracting swarms of the reptile birds and snakes, which,however, as a rule, fled at their approach.

  "I wonder what can have caused that mammoth to move so fast, andto have seemed so ill at ease?" said the doctor. "His motivecertainly was not thirst, for he did not approach the water in adirect line, neither did he drink on reaching it. One wouldthink nothing short of an earthquake or a land-slide couldtrouble him."

  "There can be no land-slide here," said Ayrault, for the countryis too flat."

  "And after yesterday's eruptions," added Bearwarden, "it wouldseem as though the volcanoes could have scarcely enough steamleft to make trouble."

  The blood-tracks, continuing to become fresher, showed them theywere nearing the game, when suddenly the trail took a sharp turnto the right, even returning towards the lake. A little fartherit took another sharp turn, then followed a series of doublings,while still farther the ground was completely denuded of trees,its torn-up and trampled condition and the enormous amount ofstill warm blood showing how terrific a battle had just takenplace.

  While they looked about they saw what appeared to be the trunk ofa tree about four feet in diameter and six feet long, with aslight crook. On coming closer, they recognized in it one of theforefeet of the mammoth, cut as cleanly as though with a knifefrom the leg just above the ankle, and still warm. A littlefarther they found the huge trunk cut to slivers, and, justbeyond, the body of the unfortunate beast with three of its feetgone, and the thick hide cut and slashed like so much paper. Itstill breathed, and Ayrault, who had a tender heart, sent anexplosive ball into its skull, which ended its suffering.

  The three hunters then surveyed the scene. The largest and mostpowerful beast they had believed could exist lay before themdead, not from the bite of a snake or any other poison, but frommechanical injuries of which those they had inflicted formed buta very small part, and literally cut to pieces.

  "I am curious to see the animal," said Cortlandt, "capable ofdoing this, though nothing short of dynamite bombs would protectus from him."

  "As he has not stopped to eat his victim," said Bearwarden, "itis fair to suppose he is not carnivorous, and so must have hadsome other motive than hunger in making the attack; unless we cansuppose that our approach frightened him away, which, with suchpower as he must possess, seems unlikely. Let us see," hecontinued, "parts of two legs remain unaccounted for. Perhaps,on account of their shape, he has been able the more easily tocarry or roll them off, for we know that elephant foot makes acapital dish."

  "From the way you talk," said Cortlandt, "one would suppose youattributed this to men. The Goliath we picture to ourselveswould be a child compared to the man that could cut through theselegs, though the necessity of believing him to have merely greatsize does not disprove his existence here. I think it probablewe shall find this is the work of some animal with incisors ofsuch power as it is difficult for us to conceive of."

  "There is no indication here of teeth," said Bearwarden, "eachfoot being taken off with a clean cut. Besides, we are coming tobelieve that man existed on earth during the greater part, if notthe whole, of our Carboniferous period."

  "We must reserve our decision pending further evidence," saidCortlandt.

  "I vote we take the heart," said Ayrault, "and cook it, sinceotherwise the mammoth will be devoured before our eyes."

  While Bearwarden and Ayrault delved for this, Cortlandt, withsome difficulty, parted the mammoth's lips and examined theteeth. "From the conical projections on the molars," said he,"this should be classed rather as a mastodon than as a mammoth."

  When the huge heart was secured, Bearwarden arranged slices onsharpened sticks, while Ayrault set about starting a fire. Hehad to use Cortlandt's gun to clear the dry wood of snakes,which, attracted doubtless by the dead mastodon, came in suchnumbers that they covered the ground, while huge pterodactyls,more venomous-looking than the reptiles, hovered about theopening above.

  Arranging a double line of electric wires in a circle about themastodon and themselves, they sat down and did justice to themeal, with appetites that might have dismayed the waiting throng.Whenever a snake's head came in contact with one wire, while histail touched the other, he gave a spasmodic leap and fell backdead. If he happened to fall across the wires, lie immediatelybegan to sizzle, a cloud of smoke arose, and lie was reduced toashes.

  "Any time that we are short of mastodon or other good game," saidAyrault, "we need not hunger if we are not above grilled snake."

  All laughed at this, and Bearwarden, drawing a whiskey-flask fromhis pocket, passed it to his friends.

  "When we rig our fishing-tackle," he continued, "and have freshfish for dinner, an entree of rattlesnake, roast mastodon for thepiece de resistance, and begin the whole with turtle soup andclams, of which there must be plenty on the ocean beach, we shallwant to stay here the rest of our lives."

  "I suspect we shall have to," replied Ayrault "for we shallbecome so like Thanksgiving turkeys that the Callisto's door willbe too small for us."

  While they sat and talked, the flowers and plants about themsoftly began their song, and, as a visual accompaniment, thefire-flies they had not before noticed twinkled through theforest.

  "My goodness! " exclaimed Cortlandt, "how time goes here! Westarted to get breakfast, and now it's growing dark."

  Hastily cutting some thick but tender slices from the mastodon,and impaling them with the remains of the heart on a sharpenedstake, they took up the wires, and the battery that had beensupplying the current, and retraced their steps by the way theyhad come. Their rubber-lined cowhide boots protected them fromall but the largest snakes, and as these were for the most partalready enjoying their gorge, they trampled with impunity onthose that remained in their path. When they had covered abouthalf the distance to the raft, a huge boa-constrictor, which theyhad mistaken for a branch, fell upon Cortlandt, pinioning hisarms and bearing him to the ground. Dropping their loads,Bearwarden and Ayrault threw themselves upon the monster withtheir hunting-knives with such vim that in a few seconds it beata hasty retreat, leaving, as it did so, a wake of phosphorescentlight.

  "Are you hurt?" asked Bearwarden, helping him up.

  "Not in the least," replied Cortlandt. "What surprises me isthat I am not. The weight of that boa-constrictor would be verygreat on earth, and here I should think it would be simplycrushing."

  Groping their way through the rapidly growing darkness, theyreached the raft without further adventure, and, once on thelake, had plenty of light. Two moons, one at three quarters andthe other full, shone brightly,
while the water was alive withgymnotuses and other luminous creatures. Sitting and living uponthe cross-timbers, they looked up at the sky. The Great Bear andthe north star had exactly the same relation to each other aswhen seen from the earth, while the other constellations and theMilky Way looked identically as when they had so often gazed atthem before, and some idea of the immensity of space was conveyedto them. Here was no change; though they had travelled threehundred and eighty million miles, there was no more perceptibledifference than if they had not moved a foot. Perhaps, theythought, to the telescopes--if there are any--among the stars,the sun was seen to be accompanied by two small, dark companions,for Jupiter and Saturn might be visible, or perhaps it seemedmerely as a slightly variable star, in years when sun-spots werenumerous, or as the larger planets in their revolutionsoccasionally intercepted a part of its light. As they floatedalong they noticed a number of what they took to beWill-o'-the-wisps. Several of these great globules of pale flamehovered about them in the air, near the surface of the water, andanon they rose till they hung above the trees, apparently havingno forward or horizontal motion except when taken by the gentlebreeze, merely sinking and rising.

  "How pretty they are!" said Cortlandt, as they watched them."For bodies consisting of marsh gas, they hold togetherwonderfully."

  Presently one alighted on the water near them. It wasconsiderably brighter than any glow-worm, and somewhat largerthan an arc lamp, being nearly three feet in diameter; it did notemit much light, but would itself have been visible from aconsiderable distance. Cortlandt tried to touch it with araft-pole, but could not reach far enough. Presently a largefish approached it, swimming near the surface of the water. Whenit was close to the Jack-o'-lantern, or whatever it was, therewas a splash, the fish turned up its white under side, and, thebreeze being away from the raft, the fire-ball and its victimslowly floated off together. There were frequently a dozen ofthese great globules in sight at once, rising and descending, theobservers noticing one peculiarity, viz., that their brightnessincreased as they rose, and decreased as they sank.

  About two and a half hours after sunset, or midnight according toJupiter time, they fell asleep, but about an hour later Cortlandtwas awakened by a weight on his chest. Starting up, he perceiveda huge white-faced bat, with its head but a few inches from his.Its outstretched wings were about eight feet across, and itfastened its sharp claws upon him. Seizing it by the throat, hestruggled violently. His companions, awakened by the noise,quickly came to his rescue, grasping him just as he was in dangerof being dragged off the raft, and in another moment Bearwarden'sknife had entered the creature's spine.

  "This evidently belongs to the blood-sucking species," saidCortlandt. "I seem to be the target for all these beasts, andhenceforth shall keep my eyes open at night."

  As day would break in but little over an hour, they decided toremain awake, and they pushed the dead bat overboard, where itwas soon devoured by fishes. A chill had come upon the air, andthe incessant noise of the forms of life about them had in ameasure ceased.

  Cortlandt passed around a box of quinine as a preventive againstmalaria, and again they lay back and looked at the stars. Themost splendid sight in their sky now was Saturn. At thecomparatively short distance this great planet was from them, itcast a distinct shadow, its vast rings making it appear twice itsreal size. With the first glimmer of dawn, the fire-ballsdescended to the surface of the water and disappeared within it,their lights going out. With a suddenness to which the explorerswere becoming accustomed, the sun burst upon them, rising asperpendicularly as at the earth's equator, and more than twice asfast, having first tinged the sky with the most brilliant hues.

  The stream had left the forest and swamp, and was now flowingthrough open country between high banks. Pushing the raftashore, they stepped off on the sand, and, warming up the remainsof the mastodon's heart, ate a substantial breakfast.

  While washing their knives in the stream preparatory to leavingit--for they wished to return to the Callisto by completing thecircle they had begun--they noticed a huge flat jelly-fish inshallow water. It was so transparent that they could see thesandy bottom through it. As it seemed to be asleep, Bearwardenstirred up the water around it and poked it with a stick. Thejelly- fish first drew itself together till it touched thesurface of the water, being nearly round, then it slowly left thestream and rose till it was wholly in the air, and,notwithstanding the sunlight, it emitted a faint glow.

  "Ah!" exclaimed Bearwarden, "here we have one of ourJack-o'-lanterns. Let us see what it is going to do."

  "It is incomprehensible to me," said Cortlandt, "how it maintainsitself; for it has neither wings nor visible means of support,yet, as it was able to immerse itself in the stream, therebydisplacing a volume of liquid equivalent to its bulk, it must beat least as heavy as water."

  The jelly-fish remained poised in the air until directly abovethem, when it began to descend.

  "Stand from under!" cried Bearwarden, stepping back. "I, for one,should not care to be touched."

  The great soft mass came directly over the spot on which they hadbeen standing, and stopped its descent about three feet from theground, parallel to which it was slowly carried by the wind. Afew yards off, in the direction in which it was moving, lay along black snake asleep on the sand. When directly over itsvictim the jelly globule again sank till it touched the middle ofthe reptile's back. The serpent immediately coiled itself in aknot, but was already dead. The jellyfish did not swallow, butcompletely surrounded its prey, and again rose in the air, withthe snake's black body clearly visible within it.

  "Our Will-o'-the-wisp is prettier by night than by day," saidBearwarden. "I suggest that we investigate this further."

  "How?" asked Cortlandt.

  "By destroying its life," replied Bearwarden. "Give it onebarrel from your gun, doctor, and see if it can then defygravitation."

  Accordingly Cortlandt took careful aim at the object, abouttwenty-yards away, and fired. The main portion of the jellyfish,with the snake still in its embrace, sailed away, but many poundsof jelly fell to the ground. Most of this remained where it hadfallen, but a few of the larger pieces showed a faint luminosityand rose again.

  "You cannot kill that which is simply a mass of protoplasm," saidCortlandt. "Doubtless each of those pieces will form a neworganism. This proves that there are ramifications anddevelopments of life which we never dreamed of."

  CHAPTER VII.

  AN UNSEEN HUNTER.

  They calculated that they had come ten or twelve miles from theplace at which they built the raft, while the damp salt breezeblowing from the south showed them they were near the ocean.Concluding that large bodies of water must be very much alike onall planets, they decided to make for a range of hills due northand a few miles off, and to complete the circuit of the square inreturning to the Callisto. The soft wet sand was covered withhuge and curious tracks, doubtless made by creatures that hadcome to the stream during the night to drink, and they noticedwith satisfaction as they set out that the fresher ones led offin the direction in which they were going. For practice, theyblew off the heads of the boa-constrictors as they hung from thetrees, and of the other huge snakes that moved along the ground,with explosive bullets, in every thicket through which theypassed, knowing that the game, never having been shot at, wouldnot take fright at the noise. Sometimes they came upon greatmasses of snakes, intertwined and coiled like worms; in thesecases Cortlandt brought his gun into play, raking them withduck-shot to his heart's content. "As the function of thesereptiles," he explained, "is to form a soil on which higher lifemay grow, we may as well help along their metamorphosis byartificial means." They were impressed by the tremendouscannon-like reports of their firearms, which they perceived atonce resulted from the great density of the Jovian atmosphere.And this was also a considerable aid to them in making muscularexertion, for it had just the reverse effect of rarefied mountainair, and they seldom
had to expand their lungs fully in order tobreathe.

  The ground continued to be marked with very large footprints.Often the impressions were those of a biped like some huge bird,except that occasionally the creature had put down one or bothforefeet, and a thick tail had evidently dragged nearly all thetime it walked erect. Presently, coming to something they hadtaken for a large flat rock, they were surprised to see it move.It was about twelve feet wide by eighteen feet long, while itsshell seemed at least a foot thick, and it was of course thelargest turtle they had ever seen.

  "Twenty-four people could dine at a table of this size withease," said Bearwarden, "while it would make soup for a regiment.I wonder if it belongs to the snapping or diamond-backedspecies."

  At this juncture the monster again moved.

  "As it is heading in our direction," resumed Bearwarden, "I votewe strike for a free pass," and, taking a run, he sprang with hisspiked boots upon the turtle's shell and clambered upon the flattop, which was about six feet from the ground. He was quicklyfollowed by Ayrault, who was not much ahead of Cortlandt, for,notwithstanding his fifty years, the professor was very spry.The tortoise was almost the exact counterpart of the Glyptodonasper that formerly existed on earth, and shambled along at ajerky gait, about half as fast again as they could walk, andwhile it continued to go in their direction they were greatlypleased. They soon found that by dropping the butts of theirrifles sharply and simultaneously on either side, just back ofthe head, they could direct their course, by making their steedswerve away from the stamping.

  "It is strange," said Ayrault, "that, with theexception of the mastodon and this tortoise, we have seennone of the monsters that seem to appear at the close ofCarboniferous periods, although the ground is coveredwith their tracks."

  "Probably we did not reach the grounds at the right time of day,"replied Bearwarden. "The large game doubtless stays in the woodsand jungles till night."

  "I fancy," said Cortlandt, "we shall find representatives of allthe species that once lived upon the earth. In the case of thesinging flowers and the Jack-o'-lantern jelly-fish, we have, inaddition, seen developments the existence of which no scientisthas ever before even suspected."

  Occasionally the tortoise stopped, whereupon they poked it frombehind with their knives. It was a vicious-looking brute, andhad a huge horny beak, with which it bit off young trees thatstood in its way as though they had been blades of grass. Theywere passing through a valley about half a mile wide, bordered oneach side by woods, when Bearwarden suddenly exclaimed, "Here wehave it!" and, looking forward, they unexpectedly saw a head riseand remain poised about fifteen feet from the ground. It was adinosaur, and belonged to the scaled or armoured species. In afew moments another head appeared, and towered several feet abovethe first. The head was obviously reptilian, but had a beaksimilar to that of their tortoise. The hind legs were developedlike those of a kangaroo, while the small rudimentary forepaws,which could be used as hands or for going quadruped-fashion, nowhung down. The strong thick tail was evidently of great use tothem when standing erect, by forming a sort of tripod.

  "How I wish we could take a pair of those creatures with us whenwe return to the earth!" said Cortlandt.

  "They would be trump cards," replied Bearwarden, "in a zoologicalgarden or a dime museum, and would take the wind out of the sailsof all the other freaks."

  As they lay flat on the turtle's back, the monsters gazed at themunconcernedly, munching the palm-tree fruit so loudly that theycould be heard a long distance.

  "Having nothing to fear from a tortoise," resumed Cortlandt,"they may allow us to stalk them. We are in their eyes likehippocentaurs, except that we are part of a tortoise instead ofpart of a horse, or else they take us for a parasite or fibrousgrowth on the shell."

  "They would not have much to fear from us as we really are,"replied Bearwarden, "were it not for our explosive bullets."

  "I am surprised," said Ayrault, "that graminivorous animalsshould be so heavily armed as these, since there can be no greatstruggle in obtaining their food."

  "From the looks of their jaws," replied Cortlandt, "I should saythey are omnivorous, and would doubtless prefer meat to what theyare eating now. Something seems to have gone wrong with theanimal creation hereabouts to-day."

  Their war-horse clanked along like a badly rusted machine,approaching the dinosaurs obliquely. When only about fifty yardsintervened, as the hunters were preparing to aim, their attentionwas diverted by a tremendous commotion in the woods on their leftand somewhat ahead. With the crunching of dead branches andswaying of the trees, a drove of monsters made a hasty exit andsped across the open valley. Some showed only the tops of theirbacks above the long grass, while others shambled and leaped withtheir heads nearly thirty feet above the ground. The dinosaursinstantly dropped on all-fours and joined in the flight, thoughat about half-minute intervals they rose on their hind legs andfor a few seconds ran erect. The drove passed about half a milebefore the travellers, and made straight for the woods opposite;but hardly had the monsters been out of sight two minutes whenthey reappeared, even more precipitately than before, and fled upthe valley in the same direction as the tortoise.

  "The animals here," said Bearwarden, "behave as though they weregoing to catch a train; only our friend beneath us seems superiorto haste."

  "I would give a good deal to know," said Cortlandt, "what ispursuing those giants, and whether it is identical or similar tothe mutilator of the mastodon. Nothing but abject terror couldmake them run like that."

  "I have a well-formed idea," said Bearwarden, "that a hunt isgoing on, with no doubt two parties, one in the woods on eitherside, and that the hunters may be on a scale commensurate withthat of their victims."

  "If the excitement is caused by men," replied Cortlandt, "ourexploration may turn out to be a far more difficult undertakingthan we anticipated. But why, if there are men in those woods,do they not show themselves?--for they could certainly keep pacewith the game more easily in the open than among the trees."

  "Because," replied Bearwarden, "the men in the woods aredoubtless the beaters, whose duty it is to drive the game intoand up the valley, at the end of which the killing will be done."

  "We may have a chance to see it," said Ayrault, "or to take ahand, for we are travelling straight in that direction, and shallbe able to give a good account ourselves if our rights arechallenged."

  "Why," asked Cortlandt, "if the hunting parties that have been inour vicinity were only beaters, should they have mutilated themastodon in such it way that he could not walk? And how werethey able to take themselves off so quickly--for man in hisnatural state has never been a fast mover? I repeat, it willupset my theories if we find men."

  It was obvious to them that tortoises were not much troubled bythe apparently general foe, for the specimen in which they werejust then interested continued his course entirely unconcerned.Soon, however, he seemed to feel fatigue, for he drew his feetand head within his shell, which he tightly closed, and afterthat no poking or prodding had the desired effect.

  "I suspect we must depend on shank's mares for a time," saidBearwarden, cheerfully, as they scrambled down.

  "We can now see," said Cortlandt, "why our friend was sounconcerned, since he has but to draw himself within himself tobecome invulnerable to anything short of a stroke of lightning;for no bird could have power enough to raise and drop him from agreat height upon rocks, as the eagles do on earth."

  "I suspect, if anxious for turtle soup," said Bearwarden, "wemust attach a lightning--rod, and wait for a thunderstorm toelectrocute him."