CAUGHT BY A STRANGE PLANT
"Washington is in trouble!" exclaimed Mr. Henderson. Followed by the two
boys he ran to where the colored man stood in a stooping position over a
small pile of stones.
"What is it? Has something bit you?" asked the scientist, as he came up
on the run.
"No, but I can't git this stone up!" Washington said. "Look at what a
little stone it is, but I can't lift it. Something must have happened to
me. Maybe some one put th' evil eye on me! Maybe I'm bewitched!"
"Nonsense!" exclaimed the professor, "what did you want the stone for?"
"Nothin' in particular," replied Washington, still tugging away at the
stone, which was the size of his head. "I was just goin' t' throw it at
a big bird, but when I went to lift it this little stone 'peared t' be
glued fast."
Washington moved aside to give Mr. Henderson a chance to try to pick up
the piece of rock. As the scientist grasped it a look of surprise came
over his features:
"This is most remarkable!" he exclaimed. "I can't budge it. I wonder if
a giant magnet is holding it down."
He tugged and tugged until he was red in the face. Then he beckoned to
the two boys, and they came to his aid. There was barely room for them
all to each get one hand on the rock, and then, only after a powerful
tug did it come up. Almost instantly it dropped back to the earth.
"This is remarkable!" the professor said. "I wonder if the other stones
are the same."
He tried several others, and one and all resisted his efforts. It was
only the small stones he was able to lift alone, and these, he said,
were so weighty that it would have been a task to throw them any
distance.
"The water and the stones are strangely heavy in this land," he said. "I
wonder what other queer things we shall see."
"I saw a bird a little while ago, when I went to pick up that stone,"
observed Washington.
"What kind was it?" asked the inventor.
"I don't know, only it was about as big as an eagle."
The travelers wandered about a quarter of a mile from the ship. They
avoided the tall grass and the lofty nodding flowers that seemed to grow
in regular groves, and kept to places where they could walk with
comparative freedom.
"Have you formed any idea, Professor, as to the nature of this country?"
asked Mark, who liked to get at the bottom of things.
"I have, but it is only a theory," Mr. Henderson answered. "I believe we
are on a sort of small earth that is inside the larger one we live on.
This sphere floats in space, just as our earth does and we have passed
through the void that lies between our globe and this interior one. I
think this new earth is about a quarter the size of ours and in some
respects the same. In others it is vastly different.
"But we will not think of those things now. We must see what our
situation is, whether we are in any danger, and must look to repairing
our ship. There will be time enough for other matters later."
The travelers were walking slowly along, noting the strange things on
every side. As they advanced the vegetation seemed to become more
luxuriant, as if nature had tried to out-do herself in providing
beautiful flowers and plants. The changing lights added to the beauty
and weirdness of the scene.
The plain was a rolling one, and here and there were small hills and
hollows. As the travelers topped a rise Jack, who was in advance, called
out:
"Oh what queer plants! They are giant Jacks-in-the-pulpit!"
The others hastened forward to see what the boy had discovered. Jack was
too eager to wait, and pressed on. The hill which sloped away from the
top of the little plateau on which he stood, was steeper than he had
counted on. As he leaned forward he lost his balance and toppled, head
foremost, down the declivity, rolling over.
"Look out!" cried Mark, who had almost reached his comrade's side.
The scene that confronted the travelers was a strange one. Before them
in a sort of hollow, were scores of big plants, shaped somewhat like a
Jack-in-the-pulpit, or a big lily, with a curved top or flap to it.
The plants were about eight feet tall, three feet across the top, and
the flap or covering was raised about two feet. They were nodding and
swaying in the wind on their short stems.
"He's headed right for one of them!" Mr. Henderson exclaimed. "I hope
he'll not fall into one of the openings."
"Is there any danger?" asked Mark.
"I'm afraid there is," the inventor added. "Those plants are a variety
of the well-known pitcher plant, or fly-trap, as they are sometimes
called. In tropical countries they grow to a large size, but nothing
like these. They are filled, in the cup, with a sort of sticky, sweet
mixture, and this attracts insects. When one enters the cup the top flap
folds over, and the hapless insect is caught there. The plant actually
devours it, nature providing a sort of vegetable digestive apparatus.
These giant plants are the same, and they seem large enough to take in a
man, to say nothing of Jack!"
With anxious faces the adventurers turned to watch the fate of their
comrade. Jack was slipping, sliding and rolling down the hill. He could
not seem to stop, though he was making desperate efforts to do so. He
was headed straight for one of the largest of the terrible plants.
In vain, as he saw what was in front of him, did he try to change the
course of his involuntary voyage. Over and over he rolled, until, at
length, he struck a little grassy hummock, bounced into the air, and
right into the opening of a monster pitcher plant.
"It has him!" cried Mark. "We must save him! Come on everyone!"
He raced down the hill, while the others came closely after him. They
reached the plant into which Jack had bounced. The flap, or top piece,
had closed down, tightly over the unfortunate boy.
"Quick! We must save him or he will be smothered to death or drowned in
the liquid the cup contains!" Mr. Henderson exclaimed. "Attack the plant
with anything you can find!"
"Let's cut through the side of the flower-cup!" suggested Mark. "That
seems softer than the stem."
His idea was quickly put into operation. Andy's long hunting knife came
in very handy. While the sides of the long natural cup were tough, the
knife made an impression on them, and, soon, a small door or opening had
been cut in the side of the pitcher plant, large enough to enable a
human body to pass through.
When the last fibre had been severed by Andy, who was chosen to wield
the knife because of his long practice as a hunter, there was a sudden
commotion within the plant. Then a dark object, dripping water, made a
spring and landed almost at the feet of the professor.
It was Jack, and a sorry sight he presented. He was covered from head to
foot with some sticky substance, which dripped from all over him.
With hasty movements he cleared the stuff from his eyes and mouth, and
spluttered:
"It's a good thing you cut me out when you did. I couldn't have held on
much longer!"