THE NEWS OF ATVATABAR IN THE OUTER WORLD.
The kingdom of Atvatabar lay before us like a continent drawn upon a
map, or, rather, upon the interior surface of a sphere or globe,
everywhere visible to the naked eye. Its green forests, its impressive
mountains, its rushing rivers, its white and many-colored cities, its
wide-stretching shores, fringed with the foam of an azure sea, lay
before the astonished eyes of our visitors.
When within a few miles of the city, Governor Ladalmir, accompanied by
Captains Pra and Nototherboc, advanced to meet us in a large magnetic
yacht, bearing the flag of Lyone. The governor hastened to inform us
that, in view of our victory, the city of Kioram had declared its
allegiance to the cause of Lyone, and invited myself and officers of
the fleet, as well as our distinguished allies from the outer world,
to a banquet in the fortress of Kioram. This news gave me great
satisfaction, as the city would be a splendid base of military
operations. The officers and seamen of the _Mercury_ and _Aurora
Borealis_ created quite as great a sensation in the streets of Kioram
as did the victorious sailors of the _Polar King_.
Landing on _terra firma_, Governor Ladalmir took the opportunity of
showing our guests the beauty of his bockhockids, who formed a guard
of honor to the fortress, where we were all royally received.
The two captains, together with their officers and sailors, were
astonished at the multitude of strange objects shown them. Captain
Adams would not remain satisfied until he was accoutred with a dynamo
and a pair of magnic wings, with which all the sailors and soldiers of
Atvatabar were supplied as part of their uniform. He was shown how
the battery of metals gave motion to the dynamo, which in turn acted
on the steel levers connected with the ribs of the wings. Although the
worthy captain was of considerable weight, yet his astonishment at
being able to skim through the air like a swallow was great. No sooner
did he touch the button than all his preconceived notions of
locomotion were destroyed, and he gasped with fear at his own
prodigious motion. The two facts of unfailing movement of wings and
exceptional buoyancy of body soon made him a fearless rider of the
wind. He alighted on the earth with the greatest enthusiasm over the
success of his experiment.
The magnic spear was another surprise for our guests. Sir John Forbes
was astonished at my being able to fight the fletyemings so long,
armed as they were by so potent a weapon of death. He would certainly
recommend its use in the British army and navy on his return to
England. Our allies were surprised at everything they saw,
particularly at the rapid movements of the fletyemings or wing-jackets
of the royal navy. They thought it an extraordinary thing the sailors
should fly by magnic wings.
After the banquet Captain Adams, who was a fine type of an American
seaman, bold, alert and courageous, gave us an account of how both the
United States and England came to send ships into the interior world.
It appeared that the story of Boatswain Dunbar first published in the
New York papers, that the _Polar King_ had sailed down the Polar Gulf
_en route_ to an interior world, had created a tremendous sensation on
the outer sphere, and all civilized nations immediately fitted out
vessels of discovery to follow up the _Polar King_ and make
discoveries for the benefit of their respective governments. So far as
any one knew, only two vessels had succeeded in entering the interior
sphere.
The recital of Captain Adams was frequently interrupted by Sir John
Forbes, the British captain, a courageous officer, who possessed all
the stately dignity of his race. He stated that since the discovery of
America by Columbus no other event had awakened such unbounded
enthusiasm as the discovery of a polar gulf and an interior world.
"I am most of all interested at present," said I, "in the story of how
Dunbar reached civilization again after parting with us. I forgive
you, Dunbar," I continued, addressing him, "for your mutinous conduct,
and now let us hear the story of your adventures in the Polar Sea."
"Admiral," said Dunbar, "had we known the terrible hardships we would
have to endure in making our way home, chiefly on foot and at the same
time burdened with the boat, we would never have left the ship. But
you must thank me for the presence of the two ships that are here
to-day and for the fame you already enjoy in the outer world."
"It's something tremendous," said Captain Adams.
"How did your geographers receive the news of the interior world?" I
inquired of Sir John Forbes.
"I need not say that the English geographers, in common with the
entire nation, were greatly excited at the news. The Royal
Geographical Society have already made you an honorary member, and it
was actually proposed at one of the meetings that the government
should proclaim a special holiday as a day of rejoicing for so great a
discovery. This would certainly have been done but for the fact that
the story rested entirely on the testimony of two sailors, and that
any public rejoicing should be postponed until the story of the
sailors would be verified by a special expedition sent from England.
Of course, many people think that Dunbar's story is a fable or a
hallucination that he himself believes in. On the other hand, hundreds
of professional and amateur astronomers and geographers are proving by
mathematics that the earth must be a hollow sphere, and the story of
the open poles an entirely physical possibility."
"The people of the United States," said Captain Adams, "are almost
unanimous in the belief that the interior world is a veritable
reality, and it only requires a return of my ship to convince every
one that Dunbar's story falls very short of the glorious reality."
"There is no man more famous to-day than Lexington White, Admiral of
Atvatabar!" said Sir John Forbes.
"I thank you, gentlemen, for your kind words," said I; "and now for
Dunbar's story."
"I think, admiral," said Captain Adams, "that if I were to read you
the article containing Dunbar's story written by a special
commissioner of the New York _Western Hemisphere_, who was the first
to interview Dunbar at Sitka, on learning of his arrival there, it
would be perhaps the best narration of his perilous adventures." As
the captain spoke he drew a copy of the _Western Hemisphere_ from his
pocket.
"By all means," I replied, "let us hear what the press said about
Dunbar and his adventures."
Thereupon Captain Adams read the New York _Western Hemisphere's_
account of Dunbar's adventures, as follows:
"AN ASTOUNDING DISCOVERY!
"THE NORTH POLE FOUND TO BE AN ENORMOUS CAVERN,
LEADING TO A SUBTERRANEAN WORLD!
"THE EARTH PROVES TO BE A HOLLOW SHELL ONE THOUSAND
MILES IN THICKNESS, LIT BY AN INTERIOR SUN!
"OCEANS AND CONTINENTS, ISLANDS AND CITIES SPREAD UPON
THE ROOF OF THE INTERIOR SPHERE!
"BOATSWAIN DUNBAR AND SEAMAN HENDERSON, OF THE 'POLAR
KING,' HAVING DESERTED THE SHIP AS SHE WAS ENTERING
PLUTUSIA, HAVE ARRIVED AT SITKA, ALASKA,
IN A DESPERATE CONDITION, AND HAVE
BEEN INTERVIEWED BY A 'WESTERN
HEMISPHERE' COMMISSIONER.
"THEY SAY LEXINGTON WHITE, COMMANDER OF THE 'POLAR
KING,' IS AT PRESENT SAILING UNDERNEATH CANADA
ON AN INTERIOR SEA!
"TREMENDOUS POSSIBILITIES FOR SCIENCE AND COMMERCE!
"THE FABLED REALMS OF PLUTO NO LONGER A MYTH!
"GOLD! GOLD! BEYOND THE DREAMS OF MADNESS!
"The story of the discovery of Plutusia and the Polar Gulf, as told by
the two shipwrecked survivors of the mutineers of the _Polar King_ now
at Sitka, Alaska, to the _Western Hemisphere_, will form an epoch in
the history of the world. The renown of Columbus and Magellan is
overshadowed by the glory of Lexington White, a citizen of the United
States, who fitted out a ship for polar discovery, and, taking the
command himself, has unravelled the mystery of the North Pole,
discovered the Polar Gulf and the interior world.
"Having penetrated the Polar Gulf about three hundred miles, and
having discovered the interior sun, a fear seized on a number of the
sailors, among whom were Boatswain Dunbar and his companion,
Henderson, who are the only survivors of twelve men who left the
_Polar King_ in an open boat to return home again, and to whose safe
arrival in Sitka the world is indebted for news of the important
discoveries that had been made.
"Dunbar and Henderson arrived in Sitka in a very forlorn condition,
almost starved to death and utterly exhausted with their terrible
journey homeward. They seem to forget largely the incidents of the
journey outward in the _Polar King_, but have a very clear
recollection of their own individual experiences in returning to
civilization again. Dunbar, with his eleven associates and the
Esquimaux dogs, were no sooner cut adrift from the _Polar King_ than
they began to realize their terrible position. Borne on the breast of
the immense tidal wave that vibrated up and down the polar cavern,
they were tossed helplessly to and fro, now flung almost out of its
mouth and again sucked back into its midnight recesses. They floated
for days in the gigantic tunnel of water that threatened to collapse
any moment and overwhelm them. They would fain have returned to the
ship, but the breeze blowing out of the cavern wafted them far from
their comrades, and they therefore bent all their energies to the task
of getting home again. The light of the polar summer that lit the
mouth of the gulf was their guide that led them back to the old
familiar world.
"Happily for the adventurers, the direction of the wind continued
favorable to their voyage. They made about a hundred miles a day, and
in five days reached the edge of the outer ocean. Here again the
grandeur of the scene appalled them. Let the reader imagine a little
boat carrying twelve souls out of that monstrous cavern five hundred
miles in diameter. Think of fifteen hundred miles of ocean forming the
mouth of the world that shone in the Arctic sunlight like molten
silver surrounding an abyss of darkness.
"Dunbar and his companions had no sooner emerged from the gulf and
seen once more the light of the sun--our own sun--than they wept for
joy. But again, when they thought of the terrible barrier of ice they
had to cross again they began to wish they had remained with the
_Polar King_. Thus man fluctuates between this or that impulse, as he
is moved.
"'I say, captain,' said Walker, one of the men, 'don't you think it
about as safe to go back and find the ship as to run the chance of
being frozen to death on the ice?'
"'Well,' said Dunbar, 'when we left the ship everybody knew it was for
good. Our shipmates have chosen their course, as we chose ours, and
it's too late to go back now. As likely as not she may have struck a
rock and has gone to the bottom by this time.'
"As the boat cleared the cavern the sea fell down before them, until
at noonday the sun itself was visible, a joyful proof that they had at
last gained the normal surface of the earth again.
"When three days out of the gulf, the weather grew suddenly colder,
and the sky became obscured with clouds, completely hiding the sun
from sight. A furious snow-storm overtook the voyagers, who, benumbed
with cold, wished they were only back again under the hurricane-deck
of the _Polar King_. Fortunately, the wind blew steadily toward the
Arctic Circle, bringing them nearer home, but such was the anxiety and
suffering caused by insufficient protection from the inclement climate
that they cared not whither they drifted, so long as they could keep
alive.
"By the help of a little oil-stove they boiled their coffee under a
sail, which, spread horizontally above them, in some measure kept the
snow from burying them alive.
"The storm spent its fury in twenty-four hours, and when the air grew
clear again they were saluted with the sight of that enormous ridge of
ice through which the _Polar King_ found a passage a month before. The
ice was heaped up with the purest snow in places twenty feet in depth.
Thousands of icy peaks and pinnacles, as far as the eye could reach,
pierced the sky. Under other conditions the sight would have been
sublime, but to men frozen and famished with insufficient food it was
a scene of terror.
"The icy range was flanked by an ice-foot varying from thirty to sixty
miles in width, and from four to fifty feet above the sea-level.
"Here was the problem that confronted Dunbar--he had to travel over at
least thirty miles of icy splinters over an ice-foot whose surface was
broken into every possible contortion of crystallization. There were
mounds, hummocks, caverns, crevasses, ridges and gulfs of the hardest
and oldest ice. Then when this barrier was crossed there was the icy
backbone of the whole system, five hundred to a thousand feet in
height, to be crossed, as there was no lane or opening to be
discovered through so formidable a range of ice mountains. Even if he
succeeded in crossing the same, there would certainly be an
ice-foot of perhaps greater dimensions than the one before him to
cross, and that might prove to be only a valley of ice leading to
other and still more inaccessible cliffs to be surmounted.
[Illustration: WE SLOWLY DRAGGED OURSELVES ACROSS THE RANGE OF ICY
PEAKS.]
"'This is no place to die in,' said Dunbar, 'and so, boys, we've got
to hustle if we ever expect to get home.'
"'Ay, ay, sir,' said his companions, but when they reached the ice
they found that having remained in a cramped position for a month in
the boat had incapacitated them for walking.
"It was also found that Walker's feet and those of four other sailors
had been frostbitten, and that they were totally unable to be of any
service to themselves or the others.
"The outlook was mournful in the extreme. The only thing that cheered
them was the constant sunlight, and even that consolation would depart
in another month, and if in the mean time they did not get away from
the ice, hunger and the awful desolation of a polar winter would
terminate their existence.
"There was no chance of starting on their journey until they got
accustomed to the use of their limbs, and so they built a hut of
blocks of ice, which were solidly frozen together by a few buckets
full of sea water thrown over them.
"The dogs were glad to get on the ice again, and scampered about
totally oblivious of the fact that the supply of pork was getting very
low, and unless they got some fresh meat very soon they would be
obliged to feed on each other.
"They remained a fortnight in their Arctic abode exercising themselves
by cutting a passage in the ice. During this time four of the sailors
died. Finally the remainder, packing everything into the boat, yoked
the dogs thereto, and started in anything but hopeful spirits on their
arduous journey.
"It was found that Walker had to be carried along, but he did not long
continue a burden to his associates, for on the fourth day of the
march he died, and was buried in the snow. It was a toilsome journey.
Almost every foot of the way required to be hewn out of ice as hard as
adamant.
"The dogs suffered greatly from insufficient food and tireless
exertion. Several died from complete exhaustion, and were greedily
devoured by their fellows.
"After desperate exertions, Dunbar and his company, now reduced to
seven souls, gained the crest of the ice range and had the
satisfaction of seeing open water not twenty miles away. It took some
time to discover the best route for a descent, but at last they
reached the level of the ice-foot beyond, and struck for open sea. A
fortunate capture of several seals re-enforced their almost exhausted
supply of provisions.
"Dunbar cared nothing about latitude or longitude or scientific
information in such a desperate fight for life. It was a joyful moment
when he and his companions launched their boat safe into the sea again
after the incredible toil of dragging it forty miles across the
splintered ice peaks and the terrible ice-foot north and south of the
paleocrystic mountains.
"Dunbar hoisted his sail, abandoning the few dogs who yet remained
alive, and with his unhappy companions steered for Behring Strait,
first making for the coast of Alaska that faces the desolation of the
Arctic seas.
"It would be impossible to describe the horrors of that lonely voyage.
The terrible struggle with five hundred miles of ice-floes, with
snow-storms that piled the snow high upon the voyagers, and the
ferocious cold, proved too much for five of the seven sailors, and one
by one the poor fellows died, and were thrown overboard.
"Only two men--Dunbar and a sailor named Henderson--emerged from the
Arctic Sea, arriving in six months from the time they left the ship,
in Sitka, Alaska."