The Log of the Flying Fish: A Story of Aerial and Submarine Peril and Adventure

by Harry Collingwood

  Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

  The Log of the "Flying Fish"A Story of Aerial and Submarine Peril and Adventure

  By Harry Collingwood________________________________________________________________________This book has a firm place in British literature, for it was one of thevery first in the genre of science-fiction.

  A German professor, living for some reason in London, takes on someadventurous and rich Englishmen, and sets off with them in an airshipthat is made of a material so light that it can rise vertically intothe air if you pump out some of the air in its ballast tanks. It canalso plunge into the depths of the ocean, because this special material,aetherium, is so strong that it can withstand water pressure to a greatdepth.

  In this vehicle they visit the North Pole, having several adventures onthe way, including finding the remains of a Viking ship. They visit aregion in Africa where they depose the existing King and install a Kingwho is more to their taste. Then they head off for Mount Everest, wherethey become the first persons to sit on the summit. Here again theyhave more adventures of a perilous kind.

  It's a good book, well worth reading, and I commend it to you. NH.________________________________________________________________________THE LOG OF THE "FLYING FISH"A STORY OF AERIAL AND SUBMARINE PERIL AND ADVENTURE

  BY HARRY COLLINGWOOD

  CHAPTER ONE.

  PROFESSOR VON SCHALCKENBERG MAKES A STARTLING SUGGESTION.

  The "Migrants'" Club stands on the most delightful site in all London;and it is, as the few who are intimately acquainted with it know fullwell, one of the most cosy and comfortable clubs in the greatmetropolis.

  It is by no means a _famous_ club; the building itself has a verysimple, unpretentious elevation, with nothing whatever about it toattract the attention of the passer-by; but its interior is fitted up insuch a style of combined elegance and comfort, and its domesticarrangements are so perfect, as to leave nothing to be desired.

  Its numerous members are essentially wanderers upon the face of theearth--that is the one distinguishing characteristic wherein they mostwidely differ from their fellow-men--they are ceaseless travellers;mighty hunters in far-off lands; adventurous yachtsmen; eager explorers;with a small sprinkling of army and navy men. Their visits to theirclub are infrequent in the extreme; but, during the brief and widelyseparated intervals when they have the opportunity to put in anappearance there, they like to be made thoroughly comfortable; and nopains are spared to secure their complete gratification in this respect.

  The smoke-room of the "Migrants'" presented an appearance of especialcomfort and attractiveness on a certain cold and stormy February eveninga few years ago. A large fire blazed in the polished steel grate androared cheerfully up the chimney, in rivalry of the wind, which howledand scuffled and rumbled in the flue higher up. An agreeabletemperature pervaded the room, making the lashing of the fierce rain onthe window-panes sound almost pleasant as one basked in the light andwarmth of the apartment and contrasted it with the state of cold and wetand misery which reigned supreme outside. A dozen opal-shaded gas-burners brilliantly lighted the room, and revealed the fact that it washandsomely and liberally furnished with luxurious divans, capaciouseasy-chairs, a piano, a table loaded with the papers and periodicals ofthe day, an enormous mirror over the black marble mantel-piece, a clockwith a set of silvery chimes for the quarters, and a deep, mellow-tonedgong for the hours, and so many pictures that the whole availablesurface of the walls was completely covered with them. These pictures--executed in both oil and water-colour--represented out-of-the-way scenesvisited, or incidents participated in by the members who had executedthem, and all possessed a considerable amount of artistic merit; itbeing a rule of the club that every picture should be submitted to ahanging committee of distinctly artistic members before it could beallowed a place upon the smoke-room walls.

  The occupants of the room on the evening in question were four innumber. One, a German, known as the Professor Heinrich vonSchalckenberg, was half buried in the recesses of a huge arm-chair, fromthe depths of which he perused the pages of the _Science Monthly_,smoking meanwhile a pipe with a huge elaborately carved meerschaum bowland a long cherry-wood stem. From the ferocious manner in which heglared through his spectacles at the pages of the magazine, from theimpatience with which he from time to time dashed his disengaged handthrough the masses of his iron-grey hair, and from the frequentejaculations of "Pish!" "Psha!" "Ach!" and so on which escaped hislips, accompanied by vast volumes of smoke, it seemed evident that hewas not altogether at one with the author whose article he was perusing.He was an explorer and a scientist.

  Near the Herr Professor there reclined upon a divan the form of SirReginald Elphinstone, sometimes called by his friends "the handsomebaronet," said to be _the_ richest commoner in England. At the age ofthirty-five, having freely exposed himself to all known sources ofperil, except those involved in a trip to the Polar regions, in hiseager pursuit of sport and adventure, Sir Reginald seemed, for themoment, to have no object left him in life but to shoot as many rings aspossible of cigar-smoke through each other, as he lay there on the divanin an attitude more easy than elegant.

  Square in front of the fire, dreamily puffing at his cigar andapparently studying the merits of a painting hanging behind him, and onthe reflected image of which in the mirror before him his eyes lazilyrested, sat Cyril Lethbridge, ex-colonel of the Royal Engineers, asuccessful gold-seeker, and almost everything else to which a spice ofadventure could possibly attach itself.

  And next him again, on the side of the fire-place opposite to the HerrProfessor, lounged Lieutenant Edward Mildmay, R.N.

  The lieutenant was skimming through the daily papers. Presently helooked up and remarked to the colonel:

  "I see that some Frenchmen have been making experiments in thenavigation of balloons."

  "Ah, indeed!" responded the colonel, with his head thrown critically onone side, and his eyes still fixed on the reflection of the picture."And with what result?"

  "Oh, failure, of course."

  "And failure it always will be. The thing is simply an impossibility,"remarked the colonel.

  "No, bardon me, colonel, id is not an imbossibilidy by any means."

  This from the professor.

  "Indeed? Then how do you account for it, professor, that all attemptsto navigate a balloon have hitherto failed?" asked the colonel.

  "Begause, my dear zir, the aeronauts have never yed realised all therequiremends of zuccess," replied the professor, laying down hismagazine as though quite prepared to go thoroughly into the question.

  The colonel accepted the challenge, and, rousing himself from his semi-recumbent posture, said:

  "That is quite possible; but what _are_ the requirements of success?"

  The professor knocked the ashes out of his meerschaum, refilled it withthe utmost deliberation, carefully lighted it, gave a few vigorouspuffs, and replied:

  "The requiremends of zuccess in balloon navigation are very zimilar tothose which enable a man to draverse the ocean. If a man wants to makea voyage agross the ocean he embargs in a ship, not on a life-buoy. Nowa balloon is nothing more than a life-buoy; id zusdains a man, but thatis all. Id drifts aboud with the currends of air jusd as a life-buoydrifts aboud with the currends of ocean, and the only advandage whichthe aeronaud has over the man with the life-buoy is thad the former canascend or descend in search of a favourable air currend, whereas theladder is obliged do dake the ocean currends as they come."

  "Very t
rue," remarked the colonel; "and what do you deduce from that,professor?"

  "I deduse from thad thad the man who wands to navigade the air musd doas his brother the sailor does, he musd have a _ship_."

  "Well, is not a balloon a sort of air ship?"

  "You may gall it zo iv you like, colonel, I do nod; I call it merely abuoy," returned the professor. "A _ship_ is a zomething gabable of_moving_ in the elemend which zustains it; a balloon is ingabable of anyindebendend movement in the air; it drifts aboud at the mercy of everyidle wind that blows. Id is like a ship on a breathless sea; withoudany means of brobulsion the ship lies motionless, or drifts at the mercyof the currends. Bud give the ship a means of brobulsion, andnavigation ad once begomes bossible. And zo will it be with balloons."

  "Well, that has already been tried," remarked the colonel; "but thebuoyancy of a balloon is too slight to permit of its being fitted withengines and a boiler."

  "My vriendt," said the professor impressively, "whad would you think ofthe man who tried to pud the engines and boilers of an Atlantic liner ina leedle boad?"

  "I should think him an unmitigated ass," retorted the colonel.

  "Jusd so. Yed thad is whad the aeronauds have been doing; they havebeen drying to make the leedle boad-balloon garry the brobelling bowerof the aerial ship. In other words, they have not made their balloonslarge enough."

  "Then you think they have not yet reached the practical limit to thesize of a balloon?" asked the colonel.

  "They have--very nearly--if balloons are do be made only of silk," wasthe reply. "Bud if _navigable_ balloons are to be gonsdrugded,aeronauds musd durn do other maderials and adobd another form. As Isaid before, they musd build a _shib_, and she musd be of sufficiendsize to float in the air and to garry all her eguipments."

  "But such an aerial ship would be a veritable _monster_" protested thecolonel.

  "Zo are the Adlandic liners of the presend day," quietly answered theprofessor.

  "Phew!" whistled the colonel. The baronet rose from the divan, flungaway the stump of his cigar, and settled himself to listen, and perhapstake part in the singular conversation.

  "And of what would you build your aerial ship, professor?" asked thecolonel when he had in some measure recovered from his astonishment.

  "Of the lighdesd and, ad the zame dime, sdrongesd maderial I gouldfind," answered the professor. "Once get the aeronaud to realise thadgreadly ingreased bulk and a differend form are necessary, and id willnod be long before he will find a suitable building maderial. Iv I werean aeronaud I should dry medal."

  "Metal!" exclaimed the colonel. "Oh, come, professor; now you areromancing, you know. A ship of metal would never float in theatmosphere."

  "A zimilar remarg was made nod zo very many years ago when id wassuggesded that ocean shibs could be buildt of medal," retorted theprofessor. "Yed there are thousands of medal shibs in exisdenze do-day;and there can be no doubt as do the facd thad they fload. And zo willan aerial shib. The gread--in facd the _only_ diffiguldy in the madderis thad air is eight hundred dimes lighder than wader; and an air shibof given dimensions musd therefore be ad leasd eight hundred dimeslighder than her ocean sisder do enable her do fload in the atmosphere.The broblem, then, is this: How are you to gonsdrugt a medal shib, ofgiven dimensions, sdrong enough do hold dogether and withsdand the shockof goming do earth, yed of less weighd than her own bulk of air? Withthe medals hitherdoo ad our disbosal, I admid thad the dask is adiffiguld one; bud I maindain thad id is by no means an imbossibilidy.An ocean shib musd be buildt sdrong enough nod only do susdain theweighd of her gargo--often amounding do upwards of a thousand dons--budalso do withstand the dremendous and incessandly varying sdrain do whichshe is exbosed when garrying thad gargo through a moundainous sea. Thisenormous sdrength necessidades the use of a gorresbonding thickness--andtherefore weighd--of the medal used in her gonsdruction. Such brovisionwould of gourse be unnecessary in the gase of an aerial shib; begause noone would dream of garrying an ounze of unnecessary weighd through theair; and there are no moundain seas in the admosphere to sdrain a shib.A vasd saving in weighd would resuld from these zirgumsdances alone; anda further saving--zufficiend, I believe, to aggomblish the desiredobject--gan, no doubd, be effecded by skilful engineers, one of whosegreadesd driumphs id is do design sdrugdures in which the maximum ofsdrength is zecured with the minimum of weighd. Id musd nod beforgodden, either, thad an air shib musd, in one imbordand bardigular,be dreated exactly like her ocean sisder. An ocean shib gonsdrugded,say, of sdeel, will sink if filled with wader, begause sdeel is heavierthan wader, bulk for bulk; bud bump oud all the wader from her inderior,and if she be proberly gonsdrugded, she will fload on the elemend she isindended do navigade. And the same with an air shib: bump out all ornearly all the air which she gondains, and if she be gonsdrugded inaggordanze with the brincibles I have indigaded, she will fload in thelighder elemend."

  "Upon my word, professor, you have argued your case extremely well,"exclaimed the colonel. "I can see only one difficulty in the way; andthat is in the matter of _weight_."

  "Which diffiguldy I have gombledely gonquered," triumphantly exclaimedthe professor, rising excitedly from his seat with flushed cheeks andflashing eyes. "Do me, Heinrich von Schalckenberg, belongs the honourand glory of having made dwo mosd imbordand disgoveries, disgoveries ofingalgulable value do the worldt, disgoveries which will enable me dosoar ad will indo the highesd regions of the embyrean, do skim thesurface of the ocean, or do blunge do ids lowesd debths."

  "Bravo, professor; that was positively dramatic!" exclaimed the baronet."You have mistaken your business, my dear sir; you were undoubtedlyborn to be an actor. But what are these two most important discoveriesof which you so exultantly speak?"

  "They are a new medal and a new power," exclaimed the professor. Then,fumbling in his breast-pocket, he drew forth a wallet from which heextracted a small rectangular plate of--apparently--polished silver. Itmeasured about five inches long by four inches broad, and was about aquarter of an inch thick.

  "There, Sir Reginald," he exclaimed, offering the plate to the baronet,"dell me whad you think of thad."

  "Very pretty indeed," commented Sir Reginald, as he held out his hand totake it. "What is it? Silver? Phew! No; it can't be that," as hisfingers closed upon it; "it is far too light for silver. Why, it seemsto be absolutely devoid of weight altogether. What is it, professor?"

  "Thad, my good sir, is my new medal, which I gall `_aethereum_' begauseof ids wonderful lighdness. See here."

  There was a very handsome cut glass water-jug, full, standing on thetable in a capacious salver of hammered brass. The professor took upthe jug and emptied it into the salver, almost filling the latter. Thenhe laid the glittering slab of metal down on the surface of the water,where it floated as buoyantly as though it had been an empty boxconstructed of the lightest cardboard. The professor raised the salverfrom the table and agitated the water, to show that the metal actuallyfloated.

  "Why, it floats as lightly as a cork!" exclaimed the colonel in theutmost astonishment.

  "Korg!" exclaimed the professor disdainfully, "korg is _heavy_ gombaredwith this. This is the lighdesd solid known. Loog ad this."

  The professor lifted the plate of metal out of the water, and, wiping itdry very carefully with his silk pocket-handkerchief, held it suspended,flat side downwards, between his finger and thumb. Then, when he hadpoised it as nearly horizontal as he could guess at, he let it go. Itwavered about in the air as a thin sheet of paper would have done, andfinally sailed aslant and very gently to the ground, amid the astonishedexclamations of the beholders, by whom it was immediately examined withthe utmost curiosity.

  "You have seen for yourselves and gan therefore judge how marvellouslylighd this medal is," continued the professor when the plate had beenhanded back to him; "bud ids _sdrength_ you musd dake my word for, as Ihave no means ad hand do illusdrade id. Ids sdrength is as wonderful asids lighdness, being--zo var as I have ha
d obbordunidy do desd id--exactly one hundred dimes thad of the besd sdeel."

  "If that be the case, professor, then I should say you have solved theproblem of aerial navigation," remarked the colonel. "But you spoke ofhaving also discovered a new power. What is it?"

  The professor once more instituted a search in his pockets, and atlength produced a small paper packet, which, on being opened, was foundto contain about a table-spoonful of green metallic-looking crystals.

  "There id is," he said, handing the packet to the colonel forinspection.

  "Um!" ejaculated the colonel, turning the crystals over slowly with hisfinger. "Quite new to me; I don't recognise them at all. And what isthe nature of the power derivable from these crystals?"

  "Dreated in one way they give off elegdricidy; dreated in another waythey yield an exbansive gas, which may be subsdiduded for eithergunbowder or sdeam," answered the professor.

  "Are they explosive, then?" asked the colonel.

  "Nod in their bresend form. You mighd doss all those crysdals indo thefire with imbunidy; but bowder them and mix indo a baste with a zerdainacid, and whad you now hold in your hand would develop exblosive bowerenough to demolish this building," was the quiet reply.

  The professor's little audience looked at him incredulously; a look towhich he responded by saying:

  "Id is quide drue, I assure you," in such convincing tones as left noroom for further doubt. They knew the professor well; knew him to bequite incapable of the slightest attempt at deception or exaggeration.

  "Then, if I have understood you aright, you will construct your aerialship of your new metal, and apply your new power to give motion to hermachinery?" said the colonel.

  "Yes. Thad is do say, I _would_ if I bossessed the means do build sucha ship as I have described. Bud I am a scientist, and therefore boor.Never mind; I have no doubt thad, when I make my discoveries known, Ishall find some wealthy man who, for the sake of science, will find dermoney," said the professor hopefully.

  "How much would it cost to build an aerial ship such as you have beenspeaking of?" asked the baronet.

  "Oh! I cannod say. Nod zo very much. Berhabs a hundred thousandtbounds," was the reply.

  "Phew! That's rather `steep,' as the Yankees say. But--`a fool and hismoney are soon parted'--if you are convinced that your scheme is reallypracticable, professor, I will find the needful," remarked the baronet.

  "Bragdigable! My dear sir, id is as bragdigable as id is to build ashib which will navigade the ocean. I have thoughd the madder oudt, andthere is nod a single weak boindt anywhere in my scheme. Led me haveder money and I will brovide you with the means of zoaring above thegrest of Mount Everest, or of exbloring the deepest ocean valleys,"exclaimed the professor enthusiastically.

  "Good!" remarked the baronet quietly. "That is a bargain. Meet me hereat noon to-morrow, and we will go together to my bankers, where I willtransfer one hundred thousand pounds to your account. And--what sayyou, gentlemen?--when this wonderful ship is completed will you join theprofessor and me in an experimental trip round the world?"

  "I shall be delighted," exclaimed the colonel.

  "Nothing would please me better," remarked the lieutenant.

  And so it was agreed.

  "Well," remarked the baronet reflectively, and as though he alreadybegan to feel doubtful as to the wisdom of his agreement with theprofessor, "if it has no other good result it will at least affordemployment to a few of the unfortunate fellows who are now hanging aboutidle day after day."

  The professor looked up sharply.

  "What!" he exclaimed. "Of whom are you sbeaging, my dear Sir Reginald?"

  "I am speaking of the unfortunate individual known as `the BritishWorkman,'" was the baronet's quiet reply.

  "Am I do understandt thad you make the embloymend of English workmen agondition of the underdaking?" asked the professor somewhat sharply.

  "By no means, my dear sir," answered Sir Reginald; "I shall not attemptto impose conditions of any kind upon you. But I should naturallyexpect that, if English workmen are as capable of executing the work asforeigners, the former would be given the preference in a matterinvolving the expenditure of say a hundred thousand pounds of anEnglishman's money."

  "Quide zo," concurred the professor; "and you would be perfectlyjustified in such an expegdation _if_ the Bridish workman was thesteady, indusdrious, reliable fellow he once was. Bud, unfordunadely,he is _nod_ the same, zo var ad leasd as _reliabilidy_ is concerned.You gannod any longer debend ubon him. Id is no longer bossible tounderdake a work of any imbordance withoudt the gonsdand haunting fearthat your brogress will be inderrubted--berhaps ad a most cridicaljuncture--by a `sdrike,' The greadt quesdion which, above all others,do-day agidades the British mind is: `Do whadt cause is the bresendtdebression of drade addribudable?' And, in my obinion, gendlemen, theanswer to that quesdion is thad id is very largely due do the consdandlyrecurring sdrikes which have become almosdt _a habid_ with the Bridishworkman. The `sdrike' is the most formidable engine which has ever beenbrought indo oberation do seddle the differences bedween embloyer andembloyed; and, whilst I am willing to admid thad in certain cases id hasresulded in the repression and redress of long-sdanding oppression andinjusdice, id has been used with such a lack of discrimination as dohave almost ruined the drade of the goundry. With the invention of the`sdrike' the workman thoughd he had ad lasd discovered the means ofenriching himself ad the expense of his embloyer, or of securing hisfair and righdful share of the brofids of his labour, as _he_ describedid; and, udderly ignorand of the laws of bolidigal egonomy, recognisingin the `sdrike' merely an insdrumend for forcing a higher rade of wagesfrom his embloyer, he has gone on recklessly using id undil theunfordunade gabidalist, finding himself unable do produce his wares ad acost which will enable him do successfully gompede with themanufagdurers of other goundries, has been gombelled to glose his worksand remove his gabidal and his energies to a spodt where he gan findworkmen less unreasonable in their demands. There is no more capable orvaluable workman in existence than the English artisan, if he gould onlybe induced to do his honest _best_ for his embloyer; there is hardly anybranch of industry in which he is nod ad leasd the equal, if not verygreadly the suberior of the foreigner; and id is even yet in his powerto recover the command of the world's market by the suberior excellenceof his broductions, if he could only be brevailed upon do abandonsdrikes and do be satisfied with a wage which will allow the cabidalista fair and moderade redurn for the use of his money and brains and forthe risks he has do run. If the British workman would gollecdively makeup his mind to do this, and would acquaindt the gabidalist with hisdecision, we should speedily see a revival of drade and embloymend forevery really capable workman. Bud in the meantime there unfordunadelyseems do be very little chance of this; and in so delicade a madder asthe gonsdrugdion of this ship of ours, it would be nod only unwise, butalso unfair to you to run the risk of a failure through the embloymendtof untractable or unreliable workmen; and if, therefore, you hadinsisted on my embloying Englishmen, I should have been relugdandlygombelled do wash my hands of the whole affair. Ad the same dime I feelid due do myself do say thad, even had you nod mendioned the madder, Ishould have done my best to secure Englishmen for the work, as of courseI shall now; bud I do nod feel very sanguine as do the resuldt."

  "My dear professor!" exclaimed the baronet, smiling at the intenseearnestness of the German, "are you not laying on the colour ratherthickly? I admit with sorrow that your portrait is only _too_truthful--as a portrait--still I cannot help thinking it rather highlycoloured. They are surely not _all_ as despicable as you have paintedthem?"

  "No," answered the professor with enthusiasm, "no they are nod. Id wasonly a few weeks ago thad I read of the workmen of a cerdain firmbresending their employers with a full week's work _free_, in order tohelb the firm out of their beguniary diffiguldies. Now, _they_, Iadmid, were fine, noble, sensible fellows; they had indelligence enoughto regognize the diffiguldie
s of the siduation, and do grabble with themin a sensible way. I warrand you _they_ always worked honesdly andefficiendly whether their embloyer's eye was on them or nod. And theywill find their reward in due time; their embloyers will never restuntil they have recouped the men for their generous sacrifice. Butwhere will you find another body of men like them? They are only theone noble, grand exception which goes do brove my rule."

  "Well, professor, though what you have said is, in the main, only _too_true, I cannot agree with you altogether; I believe there are a fewgood, intelligent, reliable men to be found here and there, in additionto those splendid fellows of whom you have just told us," said thebaronet. "But," he continued, "I will not attempt to constrain you inany way. If you cannot find exactly what you want here, import men fromabroad, by all means. I have a great deal of sympathy for want andsuffering when they are the result of misfortune; but when they arebrought on by a man's own laziness or perversity he must go elsewherefor sympathy and help; I have none to spare for people of that sort."