The Extraordinary Adventures of a Russian Scientist Across the Solar System (Vol. 1)

by Georges Le Faure; Henri de Graffigny

  After his little speech, Ossipoff lifted his glass and everyone drank a toast to the success of the expedition. Two hours later, the payments having been made, the workmen and guides withdrew, marveling at the generous fashion in which their services had been remunerated. That same evening, Osipoff, his daughter and their three companions prepared to spend the night alone in the crater.

  “When are we leaving, Father?” asked Selena, before going to sleep.

  “On March 25, at 6:10 p.m.”

  “Are you sure that the eruption will take place at that moment? There’s no proof that it won’t be sooner or later.”

  Ossipoff shrugged his shoulders gently and replied: “The eruption will take place at the moment that suits me, and that moment is the one I’ve just indicated to you.”

  “But how?”

  “Quite simply, by means of the Bréguet detonator that the foreman brought with him.”

  “Ah!” murmured Selena, simply. She said no more, but it was easy to read on her face that her father’s reply had not satisfied her.

  “You don’t seem to have understood,” said Ossipoff.

  “To tell you the truth…”

  “It’s quite simple, though,” the old scientist went on, complacently. “At a height of 2000 meters, in the mountain-side, there’s a naturally-formed grotto. It’s in that shelter that the foreman will set up an induction apparatus that can generate a electric current, simply by moving a lever, which will reach the charges embedded in the obsidian rock at the appropriate moment, by means of a conductive wire uncoiled during the descent.”

  After a few minutes, she asked: “How long will the voyage take?”

  “100 hours. I calculated that we’ll reach the Moon on March 29, at the moment of its conjunction with the Sun. We could not have chosen a more propitious time.”

  Satisfied with this response, the young woman let her head fall on to the pillow of her bunk. Five minutes later, she had flown off in a dream to the celestial plain to which her father’s genius would transport her, in 48 hours time.

  Chapter X

  The Final Day on Earth

  When the moment came to make the colossal wager whose stake was the knowledge of the mysterious worlds in whose contemplation he had spent the greater part of his life, the aged scientist fell prey to an inexpressible anxiety. To have set himself, for so many years, a problem as gigantic as that of the celestial immensity, and to be on the point of resolving it! You would have to be made of marble, and never, on lifting your eyes to the blue vault of heaven, to have hoped for a miracle that would suddenly transport you into those unknown regions, to be unable to comprehend the emotion that was agitating the old man.

  At intervals, however, his ardent desire to know gave way to his paternal love; then, he raised his head and his gaze, leaving his sheets of paper blackened by algebraic calculations, would revert to Selena. The young woman, lying on her camp bed, was sleeping peacefully, with a smile on her face. Doubtless she could see herself, in a dream, united with the man she loved, and that vision was giving her face a radiant expression of contentment.

  Mikhail Ossipoff’s eyebrows furrowed then, and his lips became anxiously pursed. “Poor child,” he murmured. “Have I the right to risk her life in such a perilous enterprise?”

  Pensively, his head slumped over his breast, he remained absorbed in his reflections for long moments—for if, on the one hand, the dread of exposing his daughter to all the dangers that he was running tended to instruct him not to take her within him, he was also, on the other hand, worried that she might be left alone in life, responsible for herself, without guidance and support, if he left her on Earth. There was, of course, Gontran, who loved her and would protect her—but in that case, he would deprive himself of the company of the young diplomat, and that was a sacrifice to which he could not reconcile himself. From his viewpoint, Flammermont, with his vast knowledge, was as indispensable to the expedition as he might be himself, and he was conscious of the fact that it might compromise the result to exclude him from participation in the voyage. True, he would still have Alcide Fricoulet—but, even though the old man’s initial hostility to the young engineer had almost entirely disappeared, to be gradually succeeded by something akin to friendship, the scientist was nevertheless far from having absolute confidence in Fricoulet. As he had told him many times over, in his eyes, true science was never without a dose of natural modesty, and Ossipoff took the habit that the young engineer had of substituting himself for Flammermont for prideful boasting.

  After having debated this important point privately for a long time, Mikhail Ossipoff reached the conclusion that, being unable to trust Fricoulet completely, he had to take Gontran de Flammermont with him—and in consequence, in order not to deprive Selena of her natural protector, he had to take her too.

  Having established that, he plunged back into his studies, and the hours of darkness passed rapidly and silently, without him noticing the passage of time. The first rays of the rising Sun were gilding the summit of Cotopaxi when Mikhail Ossipoff put out his lamp—and he too was about to lie down, to seek in a few hours of sleep the strength that he would need in the course of the day, when he heard a gently scratching on the outside of the tent.

  He got up, tiptoed toward the canvas flap that served to seal the tent, and lifted it up. Fricoulet appeared in the frame.

  “You!” said the old man. “Why are you up so early?”

  “Please lower your voice, Monsieur Ossipoff,” said the young engineer. “It’s necessary that no one suspects that I’ve come to talk to you.” So saying, he pointed at Jonathan Farenheit’s tent.

  “What’s this about?” asked the old man, intrigued by Fricoulet’s manner.

  “Let’s go inside,” the latter replied. “I’ll explain why I came.”

  Ossipoff sat down on the foot of his bed; the engineer took possession of a trunk that served as a chair, and leaned toward his companion. “Seriously, Monsieur Ossipoff,” he said, “do you really intend to take the worthy Mr. Farenheit with you?”

  The old man could not conceal the surprise that this question occasioned. “What do you want me to do, then?” he asked. “You don’t, I suppose, intend to abandon the unfortunate on the summit of Cotopaxi?”

  “He has only to rejoin the others.”

  “It’s too late now. Remember that the eruption must take place at 6:10 p.m., and that anyone within a radius of several miles from Cotopaxi at that moment is doomed to certain destruction.”

  “Ah!” said the young engineer, with a gesture of impatience. “Would it be so terrible if that Yankee were to be torn to shreds? Do you suppose that the United States would put on mourning-dress for the loss of that citizen? You have a short memory if you’ve already forgotten the brutal declaration that he made to you at the Nice Observatory. Without our friend Gontran, who had a bright idea, thanks to divine inspiration, all your projects would have been reduced to nothing. And that’s the man—who is nothing to you but an enemy, since he furnished that thief Sharp with the means of making use of his theft—to whom you’re going to offer a place in your projectile?”

  Ossipoff smiled, and put his hand on Fricoulet’s arm. “Don’t you understand,” he said, in a low hiss, “that it’s my vengeance I’m taking with me? Personally, I despise and disdain this Sharp, but if he fell into my hands, I believe that I’d let him go. For Farenheit, on the contrary, it’s not the same. His fury is such that he’ll pursue his robber as far as the remotest lunar solitudes—and woe betide him if he allows himself to be caught! That will be God’s justice. Shouldn’t the wretch be punished for his double crime?”

  “Doubtless, from that particular viewpoint, you’re right,” the young engineer retorted. “It’s no less true that the inclusion of the American will upset your exceedingly well-laid plans. Think about it—an extra traveler!”

  “If that’s all that’s worrying you,” the old scientist relied, “you can rest easy. You haven’t forgotten th
at our stores have received provisions of liquid air, water and food somewhat grater than those initially planned. We shall therefore be as well-supplied as we were before, even though Farenheit is an extra passenger.”

  “Hmm!” grumbled Alcide. “These Yankees have terrible appetites, and this one, in particular, seems to have a stomach that could count for two—not to mention that lungs like his must swallow up at least a cubic meter of gas per hour.”

  “Bah!” Ossipoff replied. “Our provisions permit us to extend this charity.”

  Fricoulet shrugged his shoulders impatiently. “With regard to the consumption of air and food,” he said, “but there’s still the question of weight. Like me, you’ve observed that the man has a massive build, which will add at least 90 kilograms—have you included that surplus weight in your calculations? I don’t think so—for in an enterprise like ours, weight must be rigorously calculated and established.”

  Ossipoff smiled again, with an air of profound commiseration. “If you knew how small a matter 100 kilos is,” he said. “If that were the only anxiety motivating your opposition to Farenheit’s departure…”

  “It’s not the departure I’m worried about,” Fricoulet said, “but the arrival. The addition of the Yankee might prevent us from reaching the lunar regions.”

  At that moment, a new outburst of laughter resounded behind the young man, who turned around immediately, quite astonished.

  Selena, leaning on her elbow, had been listening to the conversation for a few moments, and was very amused by the resistance that the young engineer was putting up to the inclusion of the American among his traveling companions. “Oh, Monsieur Fricoulet,” she said, “are you really so afraid of not reaching the beautiful Moon?”

  “Well, Mademoiselle, you’ll admit that it would be a great misfortune to take so much trouble and make such a long journey only to fall short…not to mention that if we don’t land up there, the Devil may devour me if I know where we’d end up.”

  The young woman looked at him with a comically mournful expression. “Oh, Monsieur Fricoulet,” he said. “How often have I lamented that you don’t have as much science as your friend Gontran! He, at least, doesn’t have these uncertainties. He has his itinerary at his fingertips.” Then, turning to the old man, she said: “Father, I’d like to know why we’re leaving today, although the Moon won’t be full for five days. I woke up just now, tormented by that idea and asking myself why we don’t wait for that date.”

  “Quite simply because, in order to land, it’s necessary that the Moon be full at the moment of our arrival—which is to say that having the face fully illuminated by the Sun will permit us to see clearly on our arrival—and because our journey will last four days.”

  Selena, satisfied with this explanation, fell silent for a few seconds, then continued: “Are you certain, though, that the eruption will take place at the precise moment fixed for the departure, and, above all, that it will be violent enough to send us across such a considerable distance.”

  Ossipoff looked at his daughter anxiously. “Are you afraid?” he asked. “If you are, there’s still time to think again.”

  Selena made a dismissive gesture. “Afraid, me!” she said. “Why would you think I’m afraid, Father? Between you and Monsieur de Flammermont, what have I to fear? Whether it be life or death that awaits me, what does it matter, provided that the two of you are at my sides?”

  The old man took the young woman’s hands. “Dear child,” he murmured.

  “I’m a woman, though,” Selena said, “and, in consequence, inclined to curiosity. It’s therefore quite natural that I want to know I advance what phenomena will surround our departure, simply for fear of mistaking entirely natural effects for dangers.”

  “In that case,” said Ossipoff, replying to his daughter’s question, “calm yourself; when the moment comes, the volcano, obedient to my will, will reawaken to release the vapors that have been so long compressed. At a signal from my hand, a path will be opened up to incandescent lava and subterranean gases, whose release will hurl us into space with a velocity of more than 12 kilometers per second.”

  Selena’s forehead creased slightly. “A frightful heat will then surround our vehicle,” she murmured. “Won’t we be asphyxiated and roasted?”

  Ossipoff smiled. “Child,” he replied,” there’s no fear of that; the release of gas will be so abrupt that we’ll be expelled from the deep well and Cotopaxi’s crater in less than a second. Besides, the heat won’t be able to reach us, given that the vehicle is resting on two caissons of compressed air, which block the chimney completely.”

  “Will these caissons accompany us into space?” asked Selena.

  “No, no. Once their role as brakes is over, the compressed air having escaped under the pressure of the subterranean gas, the vessels will probably fall into the crater, or perhaps on the cone—not far, in either case, from the point of departure.”

  “What a horrible noise we’ll hear—what a frightful detonation!” murmured the young woman.

  “Don’t deceive yourself, Mademoiselle,” Fricoulet put in. “We won’t hear anything at all.”

  “Why’s that?” she said, marveling already. “Have you found some means of preventing it?”

  “No,” retorted Ossipoff. “We have no need to worry about that—and to understand why, you have only to remember how many meters sound travels in a second.”

  “About 300 meters, if I’m not mistaken.”

  “Well, at the time the noise is produced, our vehicle will be animated by a velocity of 11,000 meters a second at the minimum. You’ll easily understand that the sound won’t have time to reach us.”

  “Yes, indeed—I understand…but it’s strange, all the same.” There was a pause; then the young woman suddenly cried: “But now I think about it, Father, I’ve cast an eye over the furniture of our vehicle, and I didn’t see any trace of bedding. Where shall we sleep at night, when we’re in our rooms?”

  Ossipoff smiled and shook his head. “You’ll understand, my child, that we didn’t have the room to install a sitting-room, a dining-room, a kitchen and five bedrooms. The big circular room will therefore be the common room. Messieurs de Flammermont, Fricoulet and Farenheit will sleep there; they’ll either lie down on the divans fixed to the wall or in hammocks suspended from the ceiling. The upper floor is divided into three rooms: a kitchen, a laboratory and a store-room. I’ll make the kitchen my bedroom; which is to say that I’ll hang up my hammock there when fatigue obliges me to rest—during the voyage, of course, we’ll be continuously bathed in solar radiation, so night won’t exist for us. As for you, the laboratory will be abandoned to you for 12 hours in every 24.”

  They had reached this point in their conversation when footsteps sounded outside, and the soon heard Flammermont asking whether it would be possible for him to present his respects to Mademoiselle Ossipoff.

  “Come in, come in, my dear Gontran,” shouted the old man. “Mademoiselle Ossipoff has been awake for some time.”

  “And has already been waiting for you for some time,” the young woman added, laughing.

  The canvas flap was lifted up, and the distressed face of the ex-diplomat appeared there at almost the same moment as the grave physiognomy of the American. “Mademoiselle,” said the latter, bowing ceremoniously, “I hope that you had a good night.”

  “An excellent night, Monsieur Farenheit,” Selena replied. “Thank you for your alacrity in enquiring after my health, but—as you can see—you and Monsieur de Flammermont have been preceded by Monsieur Fricoulet.”

  “Bah!” said the engineer, moved to pity by his friend’s expression in spite of himself. “One can’t expect too much of Gontran. Besides, it’s the first time he’s had to spend the night in a volcano and his tardiness can be forgiven.”

  The day passed slowly. In the morning they had finished packing the last things they had to take with them, and without his book and instruments, Mikhail Ossipoff was like a body witho
ut a soul. He had, however, conserved a pencil and paper; seated in a crevice in the rock, he killed time by making infinitesimal calculations, to assure himself that he had not forgotten any part of the great problem that he was about to resolve, and that he had taken account of all the variables and probabilities.

  Flammermont was so bored that he yawned widely enough to dislocate his jaw—as one says in vulgar terms. Occasionally, his breast also rose under the pressure of a profound sigh. The ex-diplomat was thinking about Paris, his lively and exciting Paris, and—as if to render the departure even sharper—hazard put before his eyes, as a gilded vision, his dear Boulevard des Italiens, with its entire crowd of Parisian silhouettes, the Allée des Poteaux, animated by bold cavaliers and graceful Amazones, and the racecourse at Auteuil on the day of the Grand International, with its queue of mail-coaches. It was like a magic lantern show.

  Even the placid Fricoulet was nervous; armed with a small hammer, he soothed his nerves by playing the mineralogist, but even the manner in which the steel fell upon the rock testified to the fact that the engineer was there in body only, and that his mind was elsewhere. Having initially sought to struggle against the various circumstances that had drawn him into this extraordinary adventure involuntarily, and having privately complained to Gontran of the pure folly of Mikhail Ossipoff’s project, the engineer had been forced for weeks to hear the journey discussed as a practical and feasible possibility, and had eventually come to consider it as such. As obstacles initially considered to be insurmountable had disappeared, and as the days and hours separating them from the moment of departure had gone by, he had become, if not as convinced a the old scientist himself of the possibility of reaching the Moon, at least as enthusiastic as he was that the attempt should be made to reach it. He frequently abandoned his hammer to consult his watch, in order to calculate the time he had to expend in breaking pebbles before the departure.