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
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This book has a firm place in British literature, for it was one of the
very first in the genre of science-fiction.
A German professor, living for some reason in London, takes on some
adventurous and rich Englishmen, and sets off with them in an airship
that is made of a material so light that it can rise vertically into
the air if you pump out some of the air in its ballast tanks. It can
also plunge into the depths of the ocean, because this special material,
aetherium, is so strong that it can withstand water pressure to a great
depth.
In this vehicle they visit the North Pole, having several adventures on
the way, including finding the remains of a Viking ship. They visit a
region in Africa where they depose the existing King and install a King
who is more to their taste. Then they head off for Mount Everest, where
they become the first persons to sit on the summit. Here again they
have more adventures of a perilous kind.
It's a good book, well worth reading, and I commend it to you. NH.
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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 full
well, one of the most cosy and comfortable clubs in the great
metropolis.
It is by no means a _famous_ club; the building itself has a very
simple, unpretentious elevation, with nothing whatever about it to
attract the attention of the passer-by; but its interior is fitted up in
such a style of combined elegance and comfort, and its domestic
arrangements are so perfect, as to leave nothing to be desired.
Its numerous members are essentially wanderers upon the face of the
earth--that is the one distinguishing characteristic wherein they most
widely 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 their
club are infrequent in the extreme; but, during the brief and widely
separated intervals when they have the opportunity to put in an
appearance there, they like to be made thoroughly comfortable; and no
pains are spared to secure their complete gratification in this respect.
The smoke-room of the "Migrants'" presented an appearance of especial
comfort and attractiveness on a certain cold and stormy February evening
a few years ago. A large fire blazed in the polished steel grate and
roared cheerfully up the chimney, in rivalry of the wind, which howled
and scuffled and rumbled in the flue higher up. An agreeable
temperature pervaded the room, making the lashing of the fierce rain on
the window-panes sound almost pleasant as one basked in the light and
warmth of the apartment and contrasted it with the state of cold and wet
and misery which reigned supreme outside. A dozen opal-shaded gas-
burners brilliantly lighted the room, and revealed the fact that it was
handsomely and liberally furnished with luxurious divans, capacious
easy-chairs, a piano, a table loaded with the papers and periodicals of
the day, an enormous mirror over the black marble mantel-piece, a clock
with a set of silvery chimes for the quarters, and a deep, mellow-toned
gong for the hours, and so many pictures that the whole available
surface of the walls was completely covered with them. These pictures--
executed in both oil and water-colour--represented out-of-the-way scenes
visited, or incidents participated in by the members who had executed
them, and all possessed a considerable amount of artistic merit; it
being a rule of the club that every picture should be submitted to a
hanging committee of distinctly artistic members before it could be
allowed a place upon the smoke-room walls.
The occupants of the room on the evening in question were four in
number. One, a German, known as the Professor Heinrich von
Schalckenberg, was half buried in the recesses of a huge arm-chair, from
the depths of which he perused the pages of the _Science Monthly_,
smoking meanwhile a pipe with a huge elaborately carved meerschaum bowl
and a long cherry-wood stem. From the ferocious manner in which he
glared through his spectacles at the pages of the magazine, from the
impatience with which he from time to time dashed his disengaged hand
through the masses of his iron-grey hair, and from the frequent
ejaculations of "Pish!" "Psha!" "Ach!" and so on which escaped his
lips, accompanied by vast volumes of smoke, it seemed evident that he
was 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 Sir
Reginald Elphinstone, sometimes called by his friends "the handsome
baronet," said to be _the_ richest commoner in England. At the age of
thirty-five, having freely exposed himself to all known sources of
peril, except those involved in a trip to the Polar regions, in his
eager pursuit of sport and adventure, Sir Reginald seemed, for the
moment, to have no object left him in life but to shoot as many rings as
possible of cigar-smoke through each other, as he lay there on the divan
in an attitude more easy than elegant.
Square in front of the fire, dreamily puffing at his cigar and
apparently studying the merits of a painting hanging behind him, and on
the reflected image of which in the mirror before him his eyes lazily
rested, sat Cyril Lethbridge, ex-colonel of the Royal Engineers, a
successful gold-seeker, and almost everything else to which a spice of
adventure could possibly attach itself.
And next him again, on the side of the fire-place opposite to the Herr
Professor, lounged Lieutenant Edward Mildmay, R.N.
The lieutenant was skimming through the daily papers. Presently he
looked up and remarked to the colonel:
"I see that some Frenchmen have been making experiments in the
navigation of balloons."
"Ah, indeed!" responded the colonel, with his head thrown critically on
one 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 attempts
to navigate a balloon have hitherto failed?" asked the colonel.
"Begause, my dear zir, the aeronauts have never yed realised all the
requiremends of zuccess," replied the professor, laying down his
magazine 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 with
the utmost deliberation, carefully lighted it, gave a few vigorous
puffs, and replied:
"The requiremends of zuccess in balloon navigation are very zimilar to
those which enable a man to draverse the ocean. If a man wants to make
a voyage agross the ocean he embargs in a ship, not on a life-buoy. Now
a balloon is nothing more than a life-buoy; id zusdains a man, but that
is all. Id drifts aboud with the currends of air jusd as a life-buoy
drifts aboud with the currends of ocean, and the only advandage which
the aeronaud has over the man with the life-buoy is thad the former can
ascend or descend in search of a favourable air currend, whereas the
ladder is obliged do dake the ocean currends as they come."
"Very true," 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 do
as 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 a
buoy," returned the professor. "A _ship_ is a zomething gabable of
_moving_ in the elemend which zustains it; a balloon is ingabable of any
indebendend movement in the air; it drifts aboud at the mercy of every
idle wind that blows. Id is like a ship on a breathless sea; withoud
any means of brobulsion the ship lies motionless, or drifts at the mercy
of the currends. Bud give the ship a means of brobulsion, and
navigation ad once begomes bossible. And zo will it be with balloons."
"Well, that has already been tried," remarked the colonel; "but the
buoyancy of a balloon is too slight to permit of its being fitted with
engines and a boiler."
"My vriendt," said the professor impressively, "whad would you think of
the man who tried to pud the engines and boilers of an Atlantic liner in
a leedle boad?"
"I should think him an unmitigated ass," retorted the colonel.
"Jusd so. Yed thad is whad the aeronauds have been doing; they have
been drying to make the leedle boad-balloon garry the brobelling bower
of the aerial ship. In other words, they have not made their balloons
large enough."
"Then you think they have not yet reached the practical limit to the
size of a balloon?" asked the colonel.
"They have--very nearly--if balloons are do be made only of silk," was
the reply. "Bud if _navigable_ balloons are to be gonsdrugded,
aeronauds musd durn do other maderials and adobd another form. As I
said before, they musd build a _shib_, and she musd be of sufficiend
size to float in the air and to garry all her eguipments."
"But such an aerial ship would be a veritable _monster_" protested the
colonel.
"Zo are the Adlandic liners of the presend day," quietly answered the
professor.
"Phew!" whistled the colonel. The baronet rose from the divan, flung
away the stump of his cigar, and settled himself to listen, and perhaps
take part in the singular conversation.
"And of what would you build your aerial ship, professor?" asked the
colonel when he had in some measure recovered from his astonishment.
"Of the lighdesd and, ad the zame dime, sdrongesd maderial I gould
find," answered the professor. "Once get the aeronaud to realise thad
greadly ingreased bulk and a differend form are necessary, and id will
nod be long before he will find a suitable building maderial. Iv I were
an aeronaud I should dry medal."
"Metal!" exclaimed the colonel. "Oh, come, professor; now you are
romancing, you know. A ship of metal would never float in the
atmosphere."
"A zimilar remarg was made nod zo very many years ago when id was
suggesded that ocean shibs could be buildt of medal," retorted the
professor. "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 will
an aerial shib. The gread--in facd the _only_ diffiguldy in the madder
is thad air is eight hundred dimes lighder than wader; and an air shib
of given dimensions musd therefore be ad leasd eight hundred dimes
lighder 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, of
given dimensions, sdrong enough do hold dogether and withsdand the shock
of goming do earth, yed of less weighd than her own bulk of air? With
the medals hitherdoo ad our disbosal, I admid thad the dask is a
diffiguld one; bud I maindain thad id is by no means an imbossibilidy.
An ocean shib musd be buildt sdrong enough nod only do susdain the
weighd of her gargo--often amounding do upwards of a thousand dons--bud
also do withstand the dremendous and incessandly varying sdrain do which
she is exbosed when garrying thad gargo through a moundainous sea. This
enormous sdrength necessidades the use of a gorresbonding thickness--and
therefore weighd--of the medal used in her gonsdruction. Such brovision
would of gourse be unnecessary in the gase of an aerial shib; begause no
one would dream of garrying an ounze of unnecessary weighd through the
air; and there are no moundain seas in the admosphere to sdrain a shib.
A vasd saving in weighd would resuld from these zirgumsdances alone; and
a further saving--zufficiend, I believe, to aggomblish the desired
object--gan, no doubd, be effecded by skilful engineers, one of whose
greadesd driumphs id is do design sdrugdures in which the maximum of
sdrength is zecured with the minimum of weighd. Id musd nod be
forgodden, 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 heavier
than 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 is
indended do navigade. And the same with an air shib: bump out all or
nearly all the air which she gondains, and if she be gonsdrugded in
aggordanze with the brincibles I have indigaded, she will fload in the
lighder elemend."
"Upon my word, professor, you have argued your case extremely well,"
exclaimed the colonel. "I can see only one difficulty in the way; and
that is in the matter of _weight_."
"Which diffiguldy I have gombledely gonquered," triumphantly exclaimed
the professor, rising excitedly from his seat with flushed cheeks and
flashing eyes. "Do me, Heinrich von Schalckenberg, belongs the honour
and glory of having made dwo mosd imbordand disgoveries, disgoveries of
ingalgulable value do the worldt, disgoveries which will enable me do
soar ad will indo the highesd regions of the embyrean, do skim the
surface 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 undoubtedly
born to be an actor. But what are these two most important discoveries
of 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 he
extracted a small rectangular plate of--apparently--polished silver. It
measured about five inches long by four inches broad, and was about a
quarter 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 to
take it. "What is it? Silver? Phew! No; it can't be that," as his
fingers closed upon it; "it is far too light for silver. Why, it seems
to be absolutely devoid of weight altogether. What is it, professor?"
"Thad, my good sir, is my new medal, which I gall `_aethereum_' begause
of ids wonderful lighdness. See here."
There was a very handsome cut glass water-jug, full, standing on the
table in a capacious salver of hammered brass. The professor took up
the jug and emptied it into the salver, almost filling the latter. Then
he 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 box
constructed of the lightest cardboard. The professor raised the salver
from the table and agitated the water, to show that the metal actually
floated.
"Why, it floats as lightly as a cork!" exclaimed the colonel in the
utmost astonishment.
"Korg!" exclaimed the professor disdainfully, "korg is _heavy_ gombared
with this. This is the lighdesd solid known. Loog ad this."
The professor lifted the plate of metal out of the water, and, wiping it
dry very carefully with his silk pocket-handkerchief, held it suspended,
flat side downwards, between his finger and thumb. Then, when he had
poised it as nearly horizontal as he could guess at, he let it go. It
wavered about in the air as a thin sheet of paper would have done, and
finally sailed aslant and very gently to the ground, amid the astonished
exclamations of the beholders, by whom it was immediately examined with
the utmost curiosity.
"You have seen for yourselves and gan therefore judge how marvellously
lighd this medal is," continued the professor when the plate had been
handed back to him; "bud ids _sdrength_ you musd dake my word for, as I
have no means ad hand do illusdrade id. Ids sdrength is as wonderful as
ids lighdness, being--zo var as I have had 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 the
problem of aerial navigation," remarked the colonel. "But you spoke of
having also discovered a new power. What is it?"
The professor once more instituted a search in his pockets, and at
length produced a small paper packet, which, on being opened, was found
to contain about a table-spoonful of green metallic-looking crystals.
"There id is," he said, handing the packet to the colonel for
inspection.
"Um!" ejaculated the colonel, turning the crystals over slowly with his
finger. "Quite new to me; I don't recognise them at all. And what is
the nature of the power derivable from these crystals?"
"Dreated in one way they give off elegdricidy; dreated in another way
they yield an exbansive gas, which may be subsdiduded for either
gunbowder or sdeam," answered the professor.
"Are they explosive, then?" asked the colonel.
"Nod in their bresend form. You mighd doss all those crysdals indo the
fire with imbunidy; but bowder them and mix indo a baste with a zerdain
acid, and whad you now hold in your hand would develop exblosive bower
enough to demolish this building," was the quiet reply.
The professor's little audience looked at him incredulously; a look to
which he responded by saying:
"Id is quide drue, I assure you," in such convincing tones as left no
room for further doubt. They knew the professor well; knew him to be
quite incapable of the slightest attempt at deception or exaggeration.
"Then, if I have understood you aright, you will construct your aerial
ship of your new metal, and apply your new power to give motion to her
machinery?" said the colonel.
"Yes. Thad is do say, I _would_ if I bossessed the means do build such
a 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, I
shall find some wealthy man who, for the sake of science, will find der
money," said the professor hopefully.
"How much would it cost to build an aerial ship such as you have been
speaking of?" asked the baronet.
"Oh! I cannod say. Nod zo very much. Berhabs a hundred thousandt
bounds," was the reply.
"Phew! That's rather `steep,' as the Yankees say. But--`a fool and his
money are soon parted'--if you are convinced that your scheme is really
practicable, professor, I will find the needful," remarked the baronet.
"Bragdigable! My dear sir, id is as bragdigable as id is to build a
shib which will navigade the ocean. I have thoughd the madder oudt, and
there is nod a single weak boindt anywhere in my scheme. Led me have
der money and I will brovide you with the means of zoaring above the
grest 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 here
at noon to-morrow, and we will go together to my bankers, where I will
transfer one hundred thousand pounds to your account. And--what say
you, gentlemen?--when this wonderful ship is completed will you join the
professor 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 already
began to feel doubtful as to the wisdom of his agreement with the
professor, "if it has no other good result it will at least afford
employment to a few of the unfortunate fellows who are now hanging about
idle 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 British
Workman,'" was the baronet's quiet reply.
"Am I do understandt thad you make the embloymend of English workmen a
gondition of the underdaking?" asked the professor somewhat sharply.
"By no means, my dear sir," answered Sir Reginald; "I shall not attempt
to impose conditions of any kind upon you. But I should naturally
expect that, if English workmen are as capable of executing the work as
foreigners, the former would be given the preference in a matter
involving the expenditure of say a hundred thousand pounds of an
Englishman's money."
"Quide zo," concurred the professor; "and you would be perfectly
justified in such an expegdation _if_ the Bridish workman was the
steady, 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 to
underdake a work of any imbordance withoudt the gonsdand haunting fear
that your brogress will be inderrubted--berhaps ad a most cridical
juncture--by a `sdrike,' The greadt quesdion which, above all others,
do-day agidades the British mind is: `Do whadt cause is the bresendt
debression of drade addribudable?' And, in my obinion, gendlemen, the
answer to that quesdion is thad id is very largely due do the consdandly
recurring sdrikes which have become almosdt _a habid_ with the Bridish
workman. The `sdrike' is the most formidable engine which has ever been
brought indo oberation do seddle the differences bedween embloyer and
embloyed; and, whilst I am willing to admid thad in certain cases id has
resulded in the repression and redress of long-sdanding oppression and
injusdice, id has been used with such a lack of discrimination as do
have almost ruined the drade of the goundry. With the invention of the
`sdrike' the workman thoughd he had ad lasd discovered the means of
enriching himself ad the expense of his embloyer, or of securing his
fair and righdful share of the brofids of his labour, as _he_ described
id; and, udderly ignorand of the laws of bolidigal egonomy, recognising
in the `sdrike' merely an insdrumend for forcing a higher rade of wages
from his embloyer, he has gone on recklessly using id undil the
unfordunade gabidalist, finding himself unable do produce his wares ad a
cost which will enable him do successfully gompede with the
manufagdurers of other goundries, has been gombelled to glose his works
and remove his gabidal and his energies to a spodt where he gan find
workmen less unreasonable in their demands. There is no more capable or
valuable workman in existence than the English artisan, if he gould only
be induced to do his honest _best_ for his embloyer; there is hardly any
branch of industry in which he is nod ad leasd the equal, if not very
greadly the suberior of the foreigner; and id is even yet in his power
to recover the command of the world's market by the suberior excellence
of his broductions, if he could only be brevailed upon do abandon
sdrikes and do be satisfied with a wage which will allow the cabidalist
a fair and moderade redurn for the use of his money and brains and for
the risks he has do run. If the British workman would gollecdively make
up his mind to do this, and would acquaindt the gabidalist with his
decision, we should speedily see a revival of drade and embloymend for
every really capable workman. Bud in the meantime there unfordunadely
seems do be very little chance of this; and in so delicade a madder as
the gonsdrugdion of this ship of ours, it would be nod only unwise, but
also unfair to you to run the risk of a failure through the embloymendt
of untractable or unreliable workmen; and if, therefore, you had
insisted on my embloying Englishmen, I should have been relugdandly
gombelled do wash my hands of the whole affair. Ad the same dime I feel
id due do myself do say thad, even had you nod mendioned the madder, I
should have done my best to secure Englishmen for the work, as of course
I shall now; bud I do nod feel very sanguine as do the resuldt."
"My dear professor!" exclaimed the baronet, smiling at the intense
earnestness of the German, "are you not laying on the colour rather
thickly? I admit with sorrow that your portrait is only _too_
truthful--as a portrait--still I cannot help thinking it rather highly
coloured. They are surely not _all_ as despicable as you have painted
them?"
"No," answered the professor with enthusiasm, "no they are nod. Id was
only a few weeks ago thad I read of the workmen of a cerdain firm
bresending their employers with a full week's work _free_, in order to
helb the firm out of their beguniary diffiguldies. Now, _they_, I
admid, were fine, noble, sensible fellows; they had indelligence enough
to regognize the diffiguldies of the siduation, and do grabble with them
in a sensible way. I warrand you _they_ always worked honesdly and
efficiendly whether their embloyer's eye was on them or nod. And they
will find their reward in due time; their embloyers will never rest
until they have recouped the men for their generous sacrifice. But
where will you find another body of men like them? They are only the
one 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 few
good, intelligent, reliable men to be found here and there, in addition
to those splendid fellows of whom you have just told us," said the
baronet. "But," he continued, "I will not attempt to constrain you in
any way. If you cannot find exactly what you want here, import men from
abroad, by all means. I have a great deal of sympathy for want and
suffering when they are the result of misfortune; but when they are
brought on by a man's own laziness or perversity he must go elsewhere
for sympathy and help; I have none to spare for people of that sort."
CHAPTER TWO.
THE REALISATION OF A SCIENTIST'S DREAM.
Punctual to the moment, Professor von Schalckenberg opened the door of
the smoke-room at the "Migrants'," and entered the apartment as the
deep-toned notes of Big Ben were heard sounding the hour of noon on the
day following that upon which occurred the conversation recorded in the
preceding chapter. Sir Reginald Elphinstone was already there; and
after a few words of greeting the two men left the club together, and,
entering the baronet's cab, which was in waiting, drove away to the
banker's, where the business of the money transfer was soon concluded.
The pair then separated; and for the next fortnight the professor was
busy all day, and during a great part of the night, with his drawings
and calculations. At the end of that time, having completed his work on
paper to his satisfaction, he took advantage of a fine day to make a
little excursion. Proceeding to London Bridge, he embarked in a river
steamer, about ten o'clock in the morning, and indulged himself in a run
down the river. He kept his eyes sharply about him as the boat sped
down the stream; and just before reaching Blackwall he saw what he
thought would suit him. It was a ship-building yard, "for sale, or to
let, with immediate possession", as an immense notice-board informed
him. Landing at the pier, he made his way back to the yard, and, having
with some difficulty found the man in charge of the keys, proceeded to
inspect the premises. They turned out to be as nearly what he wanted as
he could reasonably hope to find, being very spacious, with a full
supply of "plant," in perfect working order, and with enough spare room
to allow of the laying down of the special "plant" necessary for the
manufacture of his new metal. Having satisfied himself upon this point,
he next obtained the address of the parties who had the letting of the
yard and works, and proceeded back to town by rail. The parties of whom
he was now in search proved to be a firm of solicitors having offices in
Lincoln's Inn; and by them, when he had stated the object of his call,
he was received with--figuratively--open arms. The premises had been
lying idle and profitless for some time; and they were only too glad to
let them to him upon a two years' lease upon terms highly advantageous
to him and his client the baronet.
This important business settled, the next thing was to lay down the
special plant already referred to; and so energetic was the professor in
his management of this and the other necessary preliminaries that six
months sufficed to place the yard in a fit state for the commencement of
actual operations.
And now the professor's troubles began in real earnest. Impressed with
the idea that he was perhaps wrong after all, and the baronet right, in
his judgment of the British workman, Herr von Schalckenberg determined
to run the risk of giving the Englishmen another trial. He had no
difficulty whatever in engaging an efficient office staff; but when it
came to securing the services of foremen, mechanics, and labourers, the
unhappy German was driven almost to despair. He advertised his wants
widely, of course, and, in response to his advertisements, the
applications for employment poured in almost literally without number.
The great entrance-gates of the works were fairly besieged, and the
roadway outside blocked by the great army of applicants, who were
admitted into the presence of the professor in gangs of twenty at a
time. The professor had set out with the resolve that he would deal as
liberally with his employes as he possibly could, consistently with
justice to his client, the baronet; and with this object he had spared
no pains to ascertain the rate of wages then ruling for such men as he
wanted. With the data thus obtained he had drawn up a scale of pay
which he was prepared to offer, and beyond which he had resolved not to
go. Armed with this, he interviewed the countless applicants as they
presented themselves before him; and the result was enough to drive to
distraction even a more patient man than Herr von Schalckenberg. The
applicants proved to be, almost without exception, trades-unionists, out
on strike because their employers had declined or had been unable to
accede to the exorbitant demands of the workmen. These workmen had in
many cases been idle for months; yet they now unhesitatingly refused
employment, and refused it insolently too, because the wages offered by
the professor, though fully equal to those paid by other employers, were
less than they chose to consider themselves entitled to. Their wives
and children were, by their own admission, naked and starving, and here
was an opportunity to clothe and feed them, yet they rejected it
scornfully. And naked, starving though the families of these wretches
might be and actually were, almost every man of them, bearing out the
professor's criticism of them, had a short dirty pipe in his mouth and
smelt strongly of drink. There were a few exceptions to this rule--
about one in every fifty applicants, perhaps--and they were almost all
non-union men, who eagerly and thankfully accepted employment, careless
of the sneers, gibes, and threats of the others; and these proved to be,
with scarcely a single exception, steady, reliable, honest, and capable
men, who soon worked themselves into leading positions. The professor
wanted about two hundred men, and he succeeded in securing twenty; after
which his overtasked patience gave out, and in despair he obtained the
remainder from Germany.
All this took time; and it was not until nearly eight months after the
conversation in the "Migrants'" smoke-room that the professor was
actually able to commence work in the building yard. Then, however, the
operations proceeded apace. Day after day long mineral trains jolted
and clanked noisily along the siding and into the yard, where they
disgorged their loads and made way for still other trains; day after day
clumsy steam colliers hauled in alongside the yard wharf and under the
fussy steam-cranes to discharge their cargoes; and very soon the lofty
furnace chimneys began to belch forth a never-ending cloud of inky
smoke. Very soon, too, the belated wayfarer might possibly, had he been
so disposed, have obtained a chance glimpse, through accidental chinks
in the close palisading, of a long range of brilliantly lighted
buildings, wherein, if the doors happened to be inadvertently left open,
he would have witnessed huge outpourings of dazzling molten metal,
which, after being subjected to the action of certain chemicals, and
passing through divers strange processes, was passed as it solidified
through a series of powerful rolling mills, which relentlessly squeezed
and flattened it out, until it finally emerged, still glowing red with
fervent heat, in the shape of long flat symmetrically shaped sheets, or
angle-bars and girders of various sections. And, a little later on, an
inquisitive individual, could he have obtained a peep into the jealously
boarded-in building shed, might have seen a far-reaching series of light
circular ribs of glittering silver-like metal, of gradually decreasing
diameter as they spread each way from the central rib, rearing
themselves far aloft toward the ground-glass skylight which surmounted
the roof of the building. But perhaps the strangest sight of all, could
one but have gained admission into the forge to see it, was the huge
main shaft of the ship, which, after having been mercilessly pounded and
battered into shape by the giant Nasmith hammers, was coolly seized by
only a couple of men, and by them easily carried into the machine-shop,
there to receive its finishing touches in the lathe.
And so the work went on, steadily yet rapidly, until at length it so
nearly approached completion that the professor was every week enabled
to dispense with the services of and pay off an increasingly large
number of men. Finally, the day arrived when the score or so of
painters and decorators, who then constituted the sole remnant of the
professor's late army of workmen, completed their task of beautifying
the interior of the aerial ship, and, receiving their pay, were
dismissed to seek a new field of labour. The official staff now alone
remained, and to these, after making them a pleasant little
complimentary speech expressing his appreciation of the zeal and ability
with which they had discharged their duties, Herr von Schalckenberg
announced the pleasant intelligence that, although he had now no further
need of their services, Sir Reginald Elphinstone had, upon his--the
professor's--earnest recommendation, successfully used his influence to
secure them other and immediate employment. The professor then handed
each man a cheque for his salary, including three months' extra pay in
lieu of the usual notice of dismissal to which he was entitled, together
with a letter of introduction to his new employer, and, shaking hands
with the staff all round, bade them good-bye, wishing them individually
success in their new posts. Then, watching them file out of the office
for the last time, he waited until all had left the premises, when he
turned the key in the door, and making his way into the interior of the
building shed, found himself at length alone with his completed work.
How the professor spent the next few hours no man but himself can say;
but it is reasonable to suppose that, man of science though he was, he
was still sufficiently human to regard with critical yet innocent pride
and exultation the wonderful fabric which owed its existence to the
inventive ingenuity of his fertile brain. It is probable, too, that
when he had at length gratified himself with an exhaustive contemplation
of its many points of interest, he went on board the ship, and with his
own eyes and hands made a final inspection and trial of all her
machinery, to satisfy himself that everything was complete and ready.
At all events, however the professor may have passed those few hours of
precious solitude, when he finally handed over the keys to the yard
watchman and bade him "good-night" late on that summer evening, his
whole bearing and appearance was that of a thoroughly happy and
satisfied man.
CHAPTER THREE.
THE "FLYING FISH."
During the whole of the following week stores of various kinds necessary
to the comfort and sustenance of the voyagers were being constantly
delivered at the building yard, where they were received by the valet
and cook of Sir Reginald Elphinstone--the only servants or assistants of
any kind who were to accompany the expedition--and promptly stowed away
by them, under the direction of the professor, who was exceedingly
anxious to accurately preserve the proper "trim" of the vessel--a much
more important and difficult matter than it would have been had she been
designed to navigate the ocean only. By mid-day on Saturday the last
article had been received, including the personal belongings of the
travellers, the stowage was completed, and everything was ready for an
immediate start.
At three o'clock on the following Monday afternoon the voyagers met in
the smoke-room of the "Migrants'" as a convenient and appropriate
rendezvous, and, without having dropped the slightest hint to anyone
respecting the novel nature of their intended journey, quietly said
"Good-bye" to the two or three men who happened to be there, and,
chartering a couple of hansoms, made the best of their way to Fenchurch
Street railway station, from whence they took the train to Blackwall.
On emerging from the latter station they placed themselves under the
guidance of the professor, and were by him conducted in a few minutes to
the building yard. The professor was the only one of the quartette who
had as yet set eyes on the vessel in which they were about to embark;
and the remaining three naturally felt a little flutter of curiosity as
they passed through the gateway and saw before them the enormous
closely-boarded shed which jealously hid from all unprivileged eyes the
latest marvel of science. But they were Englishmen, and as such it was
a part of their creed to preserve an absolutely unruffled equanimity
under every conceivable combination of circumstances, so between the
whiffs of their cigars they chatted carelessly about anything and
everything but the object upon which their thoughts were just then
centred.
But the baronet's equanimity was for a moment upset when the professor,
after a perhaps unnecessarily prolonged fumbling with the key, threw
open the wicket which gave admission to the interior of the shed, and,
stepping back to allow his companions to precede him, exclaimed in tones
of exultant pride, in that broken English of his which it is unnecessary
to further reproduce:
"Behold, gentlemen, the embodiment of a scientist's dream--the _Flying
Fish_!"
The baronet advanced a pace or two, then stopped short, aghast.
"Good heavens!" he ejaculated. "What, in the name of madness, have you
done, professor? That huge object will _never_ float in the air; and I
should say it will be a pretty expensive business to get her into the
_water_, if indeed it is worth while to put her there."
The other two, the representatives of the army and of the navy, though
probably as much astonished as the baronet, said nothing. They knew
considerably more than the latter about the capabilities of science; and
though they might possibly entertain grave doubts as to the success of
the professor's experiment, they did not feel called upon to express an
off-hand opinion that it would prove a failure.
The baronet might well be excused his hasty expression of incredulity.
Towering above and in front of him, filling up the entire space of the
enormous shed from end to end and from ground to roof-timbers, he saw an
immense cylinder, pointed at both ends, and constructed entirely of the
polished silver-like metal which the professor had called aethereum.
The sides of the ship from stem to stern formed a series of faultless
curves; the conical bow or fore body of the ship being somewhat longer,
and therefore sharper, than the after body, which partook more of the
form of an ellipse than of a cone; the curvilinear hull was supported
steadily in position by two deep broad bilge-keels, one on either side
and about one-third the extreme length of the ship; and, attached to the
stern of the vessel by an ingeniously devised ball-and-socket joint in
such a manner as to render a rudder unnecessary, was to be seen a huge
propeller having four tremendously broad sickle-shaped blades, the palms
of which were hollowed in such a manner as to gather in and concentrate
the air, or water, about the boss and powerfully project it thence in a
direct line with the longitudinal axis of the ship. Crowning the whole
there was a low superstructure immediately over and of the same length
as the bilge-keels, very much resembling the upper works of a double-
bowed vessel such as are some of the small Thames river steamers. This
was decked over, and afforded a promenade about two hundred feet long by
thirty feet wide. And, lastly, rising from the centre of this deck
there was a spacious pilot-house with a dome-like roof, from the
interior of which the movements of the vessel could be completely
controlled. The entire hull of the vessel, excepting the double-bowed
superstructure, was left unpainted, and it shone like a polished mirror.
The superstructure, however, was painted a delicate grey tint, with the
relief of a massive richly gilded cable moulding all round the shear-
strake and the further adornment of a broad ribbon of a rich crimson hue
rippling through graceful wreaths of gilded scroll-work at bow and
stern, the name _Flying Fish_ being inscribed on the ribbon in gold
letters. Altogether, notwithstanding her unusual form, the aerial ship
was an exceedingly graceful and elegant object, and, but for her
enormous proportions, looked admirably adapted for her work.
Under other circumstances the professor would probably have been
seriously offended at the baronet's incredulous exclamation; but as it
was he was so confident of his success--so gratified and triumphant
altogether--that he could afford to be not only forgiving but actually
tolerant. He therefore replied to Sir Reginald only with a mute smile
of amused compassion for the baronet's lamentable ignorance and
unbelief.
The professor's smile somewhat reassured Sir Reginald, though he still
continued to eye his novel possession very dubiously.
"You once spoke of Atlantic liners," he at last remarked to the
professor; "but surely this craft is larger than the largest Atlantic
liner afloat. What are her dimensions?"
"She is six hundred feet long, by sixty feet diameter at the point of
her greatest girth," quietly replied the professor.
"And do you mean to tell me that such a monster will ever float in the
air?" ejaculated the baronet, his incredulity returning and taking
possession of him with tenfold tenacity.
"I do," answered the professor firmly, his self-love at length becoming
slightly ruffled. "In that ship you shall to-night soar higher into the
empyrean than mortal has ever soared before; and after that you shall,
if you choose, sleep calmly until morning at the bottom of the English
Channel. By and by at the dinner-table I will endeavour to demonstrate
to you, my dear friend, that it is her immense proportions alone which
will enable her to float in so thin a fluid as air."
"Very well," said the baronet in the tones of a man still utterly
unconvinced; "if you say so, I suppose I must doubt no more. Now,
please, introduce to us the novel details of this wonderful craft of
yours."
"With pleasure," answered the professor, his brow clearing and a
gratified smile suffusing his countenance. "A few minutes will suffice
to show you all that can be seen from the outside. Those small circular
pieces of glass which you perceive let into the hull here and there are,
as you have no doubt already surmised, windows to enable us to observe
what is passing outside. The larger windows at the bow and stern
protect powerful electric lamps, and are exclusively for the purpose of
lighting up our surroundings when we are at the bottom of the sea.
This,"--pointing to what looked like a circular trap-door in the bottom
of the ship, some fifteen feet from the centre on the port side--"is the
anchor recess; and this,"--pointing to a corresponding arrangement on
the starboard side--"is the door through which we shall obtain egress
from and access to the ship when she is at the bottom of the sea."
"Do you mean by that, that we are going to leave the ship and walk about
on the bed of the ocean?" asked the baronet.
"Certainly," answered the professor with a look of surprise. "Our
exploration of the ocean's bed will probably be one of the most
interesting incidents of the expedition."
The baronet shrugged his shoulders and the professor continued:
"These bilge-keels serve a threefold purpose; they enable the ship to
rest steadily and firmly on the ground, as you see, which, from her
peculiar form, she could not otherwise do; they also form the sheaths,
so to speak, of four anchors to fasten her securely to the ground either
above or beneath the water--a most necessary precaution, believe me; and
they also add considerably to the cubical contents of the water-
chambers, with which they communicate, which will help to sink the ship
to the bottom. Lastly, there is the propeller, the only peculiarities
of which are its great diameter--fifty feet--its enormous surface area,
and the fact that it is attached to the hull in such a way as to admit
of its being turned freely in any direction, thus dispensing with all
necessity for a rudder."
"Why have you left the hull unpainted, professor? I suppose you had
some good reason for so doing?" remarked the colonel, chiming into the
conversation.
"I had no less than _three_ good reasons for leaving the hull of the
ship unpainted," answered the professor. "In the first place, aethereum
is quite insensible to the attacks of air and water--it never oxidises,
and paint was therefore unnecessary for its preservation. In the next
place, the quantity of paint necessary to cover that enormous surface
would weigh something considerable; and, as I have throughout the work
taken the utmost pains to keep down all the weight to the lowest ounce
consistent with absolute safety, I rejected it on that account. And
lastly, I take it that we are anxious to avoid all unnecessary
observation; and I believe this cannot be better accomplished than by
preserving the brilliant metallic lustre of the hull, which, especially
when we are floating in mid-air, will reflect the tints of the
surrounding atmosphere, and so make it almost impossible to distinguish
us."
"Except when the sun's rays fall directly upon us, eh, professor?"
remarked Mildmay.
"In that case," returned the professor, "observers will see a dazzling
flash of light in which all shape will be indistinguishable."
"And we shall thus be mistaken for a meteorite," exclaimed the baronet
somewhat sarcastically. "Excellent! admirable! I really must
congratulate you, professor, upon the wonderful foresight with which you
seem to have provided for every possible and impossible emergency. Now,
what is the next marvel?"