IN THE STRANGE DRAUGHT
The boys ran to attend to the engines and apparatus to which they had
been assigned in view of this emergency. The professor, Washington,
Bill, Tom and Andy, who had kept to themselves since the descent, came
running out of the small cabin where they usually sat, and wanted to
know what it was all about.
"We may hit something, in spite of all precautions," Mr. Henderson
remarked. "Slow down the ship."
The _Mermaid_ was, accordingly checked in her downward flight, by a
liberal use of the gas and the negative gravity machine.
The bell continued to ring, and the dials pointed to the mark that
indicated the ship was more than one hundred and fifty miles down.
Mark, who had run to the engine room to check the descent, came back.
"Why didn't you slow her down?" asked the professor.
"I did," replied the boy. "The negative gravity and the gas machines are
working at full speed."
"Then why are we still descending?" asked the scientist. "For a while
our speed was checked, but now we are falling faster than before."
"I attended to the apparatus," Mark insisted.
Just then, from without the ship, came a terrible roaring sound, as
though there was a great cyclone in progress. At the same time, those
aboard the craft could feel themselves being pulled downward with
terrific force.
"We are caught in a draught!" Mr. Henderson cried. "We are being sucked
down into the depths of the earth!"
He ran to the engine room. With the help of the boys he set in motion an
auxiliary gravity machine, designed to exert a most powerful influence
against the downward pull of the earth. As they watched the great wheels
spin around, and heard the hum and whirr of the dynamos, the boys
watched the pointer which indicated how low they were getting.
And, as they watched, they saw that the needle of the dial kept moving,
moving, moving.
"Our efforts are useless! We can't stop!" the professor cried.
Grave indeed was the plight of the adventurers. In their ship they were
being sucked down into unknown regions and all their efforts did not
avail to save them. It was an emergency they could not guard against,
and which could not have been foreseen.
"What are to do?" asked Mark.
"We can only wait," Mr. Henderson replied. "The terrible suction may
cease, or it may carry us to some place of safety. Let us hope for the
best."
Seeing there was no further use in running the engines in an effort to
check the downward rush the machines were stopped. Then they waited for
whatever might happen.
Now that they seemed in imminent peril Washington was as cool as any
one. He went about putting his kitchen in order and getting ready for
the next meal as if they were sailing comfortably along on the surface
of the ocean. As for old Andy he was nervous and frightened, and plainly
showed it. With his gun in readiness he paced back and forth as if on
the lookout for strange beasts or birds.
Bill and Tom were so alarmed that they were of little use in doing
anything, and they were not disturbed in their staterooms where they
went when it became known that the ship was unmanageable.
The boys and the professor, while greatly frightened at the unexpected
turn of events, decided there was no use in giving way to foolish alarm.
They realized they could do nothing but await developments.
At the same time they took every precaution. They piled all the bedding
on the floor of the living room, so that the pillows and mattresses
might form a sort of pad in case the ship was dashed down on the bottom
of the big hole.
"Not that it would save us much," Jack observed with a grim smile, "but
somehow it sort of makes your mind easier."
All this while the ship was being sucked down at a swift pace. The
pointer of the gage, indicating the depth, kept moving around and soon
they were several hundreds of miles below the surface of the earth.
The professor tried, by means of several instruments, to discover in
which direction they were headed, and whether they were going straight
down or at an angle. But some strange influence seemed to affect the
gages and other pieces of apparatus, for the pointers and hands would
swing in all directions, at one time indicating that they were going
down, and, again, upward.
"There must be a strong current of electricity here," Mr. Henderson
said, "or else there is, as many suspect, a powerful magnet at the
center of the earth, which we are nearing."
"What will you do if the ship is pulled apart, or falls and is smashed?"
asked Mark with much anxiety.
"You take a cheerful view of things," said Jack.
"Well, it's a good thing to prepare for emergencies," Mark added.
"If the ship was to be separated by the magnetic pull, or if it fell on
sharp rocks and was split in twain, I am afraid none of us could do
anything to save ourselves," the professor answered. "Still, if we were
given a little warning of the disaster, I have means at hand whereby we
might escape with our lives. But it would be a perilous way of----"
"I reckon yo' all better come out an' have supper," broke in Washington.
"Leastways we'll call it supper, though I don't rightly know whether
it's night or mornin'. Anyhow I've got a meal ready."
"I don't suppose any of us feel much like eating," observed Mr.
Henderson, "but there is no telling when we will have the chance again,
so, perhaps, we had better take advantage of it."
For a while they ate in silence, finding that they had better appetites
than they at first thought. Old Andy in particular did full justice to
the food Washington had prepared.
"I always found it a good plan to eat as much and as often as you can,"
the hunter remarked. "This is a mighty uncertain world."
"You started to tell us a little while ago, Professor," said Mark,
"about a plan you had for saving out lives if worst came to worst, and
there was a chance to put it into operation. What is it?"
"I will tell you," the aged inventor said. "It is something about which
I have kept silent, as I did not want to frighten any of you. It was my
latest invention, and I had only perfected it when we started off on
this voyage. Consequently I had no chance to try it. The machine works
in theory, but whether it does in practice is another question. That is
why I say there is a risk. But we may have to take this risk. I have
placed aboard this ship a----"
The professor was interrupted in what he was about to say by a curious
tremor that made the whole ship shiver as though it had struck some
obstruction. Yet there was no sudden jolt or jar such as would have been
occasioned by that.
At the same time Washington, who was out in the kitchen, came running
into the dining room, crying:
"We're droppin' into a ragin' fire, Perfesser!"
"What do you mean?" asked Mr. Henderson.
"I jest took a look down through th' hole in th' bottom of the ship!"
cried Washington. "It's all flames an' smoke below us!"
"I wonder if it is the end," the professor muttered in a low voice.
Followed by the boys, the inventor hastened to the floor-window. The
lights were turned off to enable a better view to be had of what was
below them.
Leaning over the glass protected aperture the boys and the professor
saw, far, far down, a bright light shining. It was as if they were miles
above a whole town of blast furnaces, the stacks of which were belching
forth flames and smoke. The rolling clouds of vapor were illuminated by
a peculiar greenish light, which, at times, turned to red, blue, purple
and yellowish hues.
The effect was weird and beautiful though it was full of terror for the
travelers. It seemed as if they were falling into some terrible pit of
fire, for the reflection of what they feared were flames, could plainly
be seen.
"I wish I'd never come on this terrible voyage!" wailed Washington. "I'd
rather freeze to death than be burned up."
"Washington, be quiet!" commanded the professor sternly. "This is no
time for foolishness. We must work hard to save our lives, for we are in
dire peril.
"Mark, you and Washington, with Jack, start the engines. Turn on every
bit of power you can. Fill the gas holder as full as it will hold, and
use extra heavy pressure. I will see if I can not work the negative
gravity apparatus to better advantage than we did before. We must escape
if possible!"
The boys, as was also Washington, were only too glad to have something
to do to take their mind off their troubles. All three were much
frightened, but Mark and Jack tried not to show it. As for Washington he
was almost crying.
Soon the whirr and hum of the machinery in the _Mermaid_ was heard. The
craft, which was rushing in some direction, either downward, ahead or
backwards within the unknown depths, shivered from the speed of the
dynamos and other apparatus. Soon the boys could hear the professor
starting the negative gravity engine, and then began a struggle between
the forces of nature and those of mankind.
Once more the adventurers anxiously watched the gages and indicators.
For a while the ship seemed to be holding out against the terrible
influence that was sucking her down. She appeared to hesitate. Then, as
the downward force triumphed over the mechanical energy in the craft,
she began to settle again, and soon was descending, if that was the
direction, as fast as before.
"It is of no use," said the professor with a groan. "I must try our last
resort!"
He started from the engine room where Mark and Jack had gone. As he did
so, he glanced at a thermometer hanging on the wall near the door.
"Has any one turned on the heat?" he asked.
"It's shut off," replied Mark, looking at the electric stove.
"Then what makes it so hot?" asked the scientist.
He pointed to the little silvery column in the tiny tube of the
instrument. It registered close to one hundred degrees, though a few
minutes before it had been but sixty. And the starting of the machinery
could not account for the rise in temperature, since most of the
apparatus was run by electricity and developed little heat save in the
immediate proximity. The thermometer was fully ten feet away from any
machine.
"It's the fiery furnace that's doing it!" cried Washington. "We're
falling into th' terrible pit an' we're goin' t' be roasted alive!"
"It certainly is getting warmer," observed Mark, as he took off his
coat. Soon he had to shed his vest, and Jack and the professor followed
his example. The others too, also found all superfluous garments a
burden, and, in a little while they were going about in scanty attire.
Still the heat increased, until it was almost torture to remain in the
engine room. Nor was it much cooler elsewhere. In vain did the professor
set a score of big electric fans to whirring. He even placed cakes of
ice, from the small ice machine that was carried, in front of the
revolving blades, to cool off the air. But the ice was melted almost as
soon as it was taken from the apparatus.
"Them flames is gittin worser!" Washington cried a little later. "We's
comin' nearer!"
From the bottom window the professor and the boys looked down. True
enough the curious, changing, vari-colored lights seemed brighter. They
could almost see the tongues of flame shooting upward in anticipation of
what they were soon to devour.
The heat was increasing every minute. The sides of the ship were hot.
The heads of the travelers were getting dizzy. They could hardly talk or
move about.
"I must save our lives! I must trust to the----" The professor, who was
muttering to himself started toward the storeroom. As in a dream Mark
watched him. He remembered afterward that he had speculated on what
might be the outcome of the mystery the professor threw about the place.
"I will have to use it," he heard the scientist say softly.
Just as Mr. Henderson was about to open the door there came a fiercer
blast of heat than any that had preceded. At the same instant the
conditions in the _Mermaid_ became so fearful that each of the travelers
felt himself fainting away.
"Go to--storeroom--get cylinder--get in----" the professor murmured, and
then he fell forward in a faint.