AN INNOCENT OFFENDER
“Mischief that may be helped, is hard to know,
And danger going on still multiplies;
When harm hath many wings, care comes too late.
(+Lord Brooke.+)
“I knew you’d have to send for me, Dennis, old man!” exclaimed Godfrey
Spenser, as he flung open the door, threw his coat on a seat close by
from which it fell unheeded to the floor, and sat down amongst the
three friends, all in a rush; “and here you are only back two days and
you’re stuck.”
“Yes, Godfrey, we’re stuck, as you say, and want your assistance,”
replied Dennis, smiling. “Can you go back with us?”
“When?”
“As soon as you like. It is now mid-September; can you go in a week?”
“I told you, Dennis, and you too, Ross, you’d never manage that ship
alone; with all your theoretical knowledge of electricity, you need
a practical hand; I will undertake that and help you out. I never
expected to see you again, and when you stuck on the Kidney so long, I
told folks it was very doubtful if you would be able to work her back,
reversed.”
“It was very good of you, Godfrey,” replied Dennis, laughing, as did
the others. “Very good indeed, but I think that between us we can
manage the working all right—anyway we have done so far. What we want
you for is not that at all.”
“Oh!” ejaculated Godfrey in surprise.
“While we were on Bona,” resumed Dennis, “the folks there told us of a
microbe that would stand fire of any degree of heat, and we have been
thinking you could help us to cultivate some for a little scheme we
have.”
“Microbe? Rubbish!” snapped Godfrey.
“We think it’s a microbe,” said Ross.
“Tell me all you know,” ordered Godfrey, now keenly interested.
“Tell him, Ross,” said Dennis.
“No, you,” said Ross; and Dennis began,—
“You are aware, from our ‘waves,’ that the Bonians supply the solar
system with vegetation of all kinds, even that which grows in hot
climates and, in some places, on volcanoes, for which purpose they
import a microbe from Jupiter, which in some way fertilises the plant,
or does something else——”
“That’s extremely lucid,” interrupted Godfrey; “we shall come to
something at this rate!”
“This microbe goes through several metamorphoses,” continued Dennis,
smiling, “and finally winds itself in a cocoon and then——”
“Microbe, did you say?” asked Godfrey, incredulously.
“Yes, certainly!”
“Why certainly? not grub, for instance?”
“Perhaps; microbe, or grub; they’re the same thing,” answered Dennis,
lightly.
“Are they? It’s about time you had a tutor, young man!” said Godfrey,
severely.
“Why! what’s the difference?”
“Poor fellow! get on with your story!” said Godfrey, wearily, and
Dennis proceeded,—
“Briefly, Godfrey, what we want is this. You are to go with us to
Jupiter—not to help us, or do anything at the vessel; you’ll have to
promise us that—but to lay in a stock of these microbes, or grubs, or
whatever you call them, and feed them up so that they’ll cocoon for us;
then you’ll unwind these cocoons or deal with them so as to give us
some material to make into fine gauze, or cloth, or net—we shall have
to experiment with it to see which form is best, and if things turn out
well we will all go to the sun!”
“The sun!” almost shouted Godfrey, in amazement, sitting bolt upright
with a jerk. “Are you mad?”
“Not at all,” said Ross, calmly; “and you are coming with us, Godfrey.
We can’t do without you.”
“But the heat! You would all be burnt up!”
“If our experiments are successful,” said Gilbert, “we shall not be
more than warm. The idea is startling at first, it startled us; but
if what the Bonians told us is correct—and we have no reason to doubt
it—this cocoon should not admit the passage of heat and flame; and
we thought that if the net really would withstand heat and was also
sufficiently strong to withstand passage through air, we would envelop
the whole ship in it and be proof against any heat, even that of the
sun.”
“But you might want millions and millions of grubs and cocoons, which
would probably take years,” broke in Godfrey, still incredulous.
“That’s why we want you, Godfrey,” replied Ross; “you see we don’t
understand these things.”
“Cela va sans dire!” observed Godfrey, drily.
“You must come with us,” pressed Dennis. “The folk in Jupiter will tell
you all about them, and you’ve got to provide us with enough net or
gauze to cover the ship. For doing this we’ll take you to the sun as a
specially privileged passenger. Now, is that a bargain?”
“If any one else had asked me that question but you two,” returned
Godfrey, looking at Dennis and Ross, whom he had known for many years,
“I should have said they had gone stark, staring mad. You, sir,”
looking at Gilbert, “I only know by repute; I never met you before,
so I have no means of gauging your mental balance, but if it is
anything like as far gone as theirs, there never was such a foolhardy,
crack-brained project as we four idiots will be engaged in.”
“Then you’re going with us?” exclaimed all three excitedly.
“Of course I am! I’ve said so all along,” replied Godfrey, quietly,
“and if we come back in an uncremated form I shall be surprised.”
“Of course we shall test the thing severely first,” said Gilbert. “When
can you start?”
“Any time. Where’s Jupiter now?”
“I looked it up to-day,” replied Gilbert. “He is due to reach his
meridian about midnight, and will be visible all night. As seen from
here he will be opposite the sun—that is ‘in opposition’—on the 15th
of October, or a month from to-day, and at his best time for approach.
As viewed from here he will be moving towards the right in Aquarius,
and Luna will pass over him on the fourth and thirtieth of next month,
October.”
“And how will that fit in?”
“Excellently, if we start in a week, better still in four days.”
“Right!” said Godfrey. “And is the whole thing to be kept quiet?”
“As the grave!” replied Dennis. “We want to be off without any fuss
this time, and have decided to go on a cloudy night, and not show
ourselves till well away.”
“Then I’ll be mum,” said Godfrey, “and get off to find some apparatus;
we shall want a tidy pile of things. I’ll send them to the shed
to-morrow or the next day and be here myself the day following, that is
three days from now, and you can start the first cloudy night you like
after that. How will that fit in?”
“Splendidly,” they all cried, delighted.
Ten minutes later Godfrey’s airship was waiting outside a wholesale
store, the proprietor almost overcome at the magnitude of the orders
given.
On the nineteenth of September the night was very black and stormy,
with lowering clouds and a strong drizzle of rain. Very few ships were
out and none near, for no one suspected the _Regina_ would stay but
four or five days after being away three months, so that nobody thought
it worth while to commence a systematic watch on the shed so soon, and
on such a night those aloft were in their cabins, making themselves
as cosy as possible with nothing exposed to the elements except the
regulation guard and location-lights.
The four travellers, therefore, reached the shed unseen by any one, and
this time very silently, like a silver spirit, the _Regina_ rose in
the cold and pitiless rain. Every light in the vessel was concealed,
and in the saloon the only lights were a few hooded lamps over the
switch-board, at which stood Gilbert, directing the movements of the
vessel. Godfrey was standing at the other side of the room, his face
pressed close against the window, his nose flattened out like a piece
of rubber, quite unconscious of the grotesqueness of his appearance, so
absorbed was he, for he had, of course, never been up so high before.
“I say, Ross, she’s a beauty!” he exclaimed, as Ross came and stood
beside him. “She travels as sweetly as a swan, and I don’t feel
the least motion or vibration in the engines. It was a good thing
you joined Dennis, though I’d have found the thing out myself, if
he’d asked me. Just fancy such a fine ship being unapproachable for
centuries! Great Bona! what is that? She’s struck!” he cried, in
horror, as an enormous cloud that they had just cut through burst with
an awful simultaneous flash and roar; the same instant the _Regina_
became a mass of living flame which seemed to set fire to the
whole heavens, and the clouds around them became one solid sheet of
electricity.
“Now, how would you deal with that, Godfrey?” queried Ross, quietly.
“Say my prayers!” replied Godfrey, briefly, decidedly frightened,
though somewhat reassured by the general indifference of his companions
who, he saw, were paying no attention to the furies outside, so he
turned to Ross and inquired, “Is there not danger?”
“Not a bit!” answered Ross. “Every flash that strikes calls out the
same, or more, power from the ship to resist it. She has her repulsive
force on now, and no matter what force she is passing through, that
force is repulsed—unit for unit—and even more, so that it merely
amounts to splutter on both sides, and the forces being always equally
opposed, the result is nil, for the ship not only takes no hurt, but
proceeds in spite of everything.”
“It looks frightening enough, anyway,” observed Godfrey, considerably
awed by the sight which so engrossed his attention that he did not
notice Dennis letting out a small cup-shaped object which he caused to
fall, when it sank some distance on a flexible wire which ran off its
roller at enormous speed. All at once he saw it and asked what it was,
and its object.
“It’s a floating light,” replied Dennis; “it will fall till it is a
quarter of a mile over the shed, when it will meet its equilibrium
and remain poised—see, it is slowing up; now it has stopped and there
is slack, for its weight sank it too low and it has now risen and
is floating in perfect poise. I fire it through this switch on the
roller, which at the same time releases the cord by fusing the soft
connecting-wire, and you see the cord is rewinding; the shed and a mile
round it will be lit up with a red light for thirty hours. That’s our
good-bye signal.”
“But they can’t see us, I suppose?” asked Godfrey, looking down and
seeing a glow come through the clouds below them like the effulgence of
a rising sun.
“No,” answered Dennis, “the clouds are too thick, but all will know by
the light that we are here, and Gilbert is ‘waving’ soon, so there’ll
be a fine scramble for the disk afterwards.”
“Really!” said Godfrey. “I read of that paper business the last time
you went up, but I thought there was nothing in it.”
“You unbelieving sinner! you’re as bad as the rest!” laughed Dennis,
and having wound the last of the cord, he attached another soft-wire
terminal so that it should be ready for any similar purpose at a
moment’s notice, and passed on to another part of the ship, leaving
Godfrey examining the wire reel. Whilst he was standing there Gilbert
passed on his way to the ‘wave’ apparatus and cautioned Godfrey, “Don’t
touch that, old man, or there’ll be trouble!”
“Oh, I know all about these things, Gilbert. I shall come to no harm,”
responded Godfrey, smiling confidently, and walking away.
A few minutes later, a blinding flash of light went across the room,
accompanied by the peculiar crackle of a powerful short-circuit,
immediately followed by a yell of pain and terror from Godfrey.
“You idiot!” shouted Ross, “why can’t you keep your fingers out of
mischief? Didn’t you promise us faithfully that you’d touch nothing?”
“I’m awfully sorry, Ross, I am indeed!” said Godfrey, contritely, but
whether from the broken promise, or from the pain he felt, only he
knew, as he turned away nursing his badly blistered hand. “I only moved
that switch on the roller to see what it would do.”
“Well, you’ve seen now! and if you do any more of your monkey tricks
we’ll put you in a cabin and keep you prisoner. You don’t know
what you’re doing when you move switches here, and you might kill
us all. Now don’t let it occur again!” and highly incensed Ross
attached another terminal on the wire, and the other two running up
gave the culprit a few forcible admonitions; after which Godfrey
humbly apologised, saying he would not transgress again, at the same
time protesting they were throwing his kindness in his face, when
electricity was his forte and he wanted to assist in order to relieve
them.
Tranquillity being restored, Godfrey strolled to a window to look out,
and very shortly he cried: “Oh! do look here, ‘triad’” (which word he
used when referring to the three), calling his friends to the window,
where they saw far behind them a great dark mass, getting slowly
smaller as they left it in the distance. “What is it? It has a halo of
light round it,” he cried, excitedly.
“It’s our Earth,” said Gilbert, quietly.
“That!” vociferated Godfrey. “Do you mean to say that we are now, so
soon, outside the Earth’s atmosphere?”
They all laughed at his surprise, and Gilbert went on, “At this moment
we are about fifty thousand miles distant from Earth, and what you see
is the illumined atmosphere of the further side. If you go to the end
window, you will see we are going straight to Jupiter.”
“Why straight?” queried Godfrey, staying where he was.
“Because we always travel in a straight line.”
“But can you not turn aside?”
“Certainly, but after turning, by our own desire or the force of some
other body, the original normal position—the straight line—will be
resumed and maintained till again altered.”
“Really!” exclaimed Godfrey. “But how about speed? How do you get it?”
“We get our repulsive force from the gravity of a heavy body,” answered
Dennis; “and in the old days when the ship was first used, the
inventors could not control a greater attractive or repulsive force
than the gravity of the object from which they obtained it; but that
was long ago, and since then science has made great strides. Adding the
science of to-day to the secret of the ship’s power, we can get a force
equal to the force of the gravity of any particular source multiplied
some thousands of times, which makes the _Regina’s_ power irresistible.
For instance, we could exert more than a hundred thousand times the
power of Jupiter’s gravity, or the sun’s, and could displace both if we
wished.”
“I should just like to see the sun go the other way round,” remarked
Godfrey, musingly. “Would it make much difference?” and as the trio
laughed, he continued, “Here, Gilbert, you’re the physicist! Give me
some particulars about this heat business, so that I can be thinking
things over by the time we get to Jupiter, to enable me to recognise
this fire-eating grub when I come across him. Give me his life-history
if you can; it will save a lot of trouble.”
They all laughed, and Gilbert replied,—“You’ve got to find all that out
for yourself, old fellow; we know nothing more than you know already.”
“But what _is_ heat? What temperature has the cocoon to stand, and how
and when and all the rest of it? You see, I’m working in the dark. Is
it heat as matter it must stand? And what is the effect of heat in
non-atmospheric space?”
“That’s a big order,” responded Gilbert. “To begin with, until we get
the web we cannot tell how heat will affect it. As for what _is_ heat
it is difficult to say. We cannot take touch as a criterion, as we
might say a certain substance ‘feels’ hot or cold, such as wool being
classed amongst the hot and metal amongst the cold. Some scientists
say heat is ‘ponderable’ and others consider it ‘caloric’—a form of
‘matter,’ but to me both are wrong.”
“How do you make that out?” queried Godfrey.
“The fact that it is _im_ponderable is fully proved in that it cannot
be weighed, for it is well known that a cold substance does not
increase its weight on receiving heat, but remains the same weight as
before being heated, and it cannot by any possibility be considered
‘matter’ or its ‘quantity’ would remain unchangeable so far as human
means could influence it.”
“How can that be?”
“Because there are innumerable instances in which heat can be and is
regularly produced without either flame or combustion, such as raising
the temperature by friction, and you know that if several materials of
different degrees of heat are placed in the same room they will all
become eventually of the same temperature; thus, if a bucketful of iced
water is placed in a hot room it will itself be warmed and the air in
the room cooled till both are equal. This, therefore, disproves the
‘materiality’ of heat.”
“But the laws of heat are constant, are they not?”
“Not at all,” resumed Gilbert. “In some cases it is governed by certain
laws; in others it seems to set the same laws at defiance, giving
strange contradictions. Take water, for instance; most substances
expand by heat and contract by cold, but in water there are strange
anomalies, the scientific causes of which are mere hypotheses, though
their utility is well known. Only to a certain degree is water
contracted by cold, when a further increase of cold expands it instead
of causing a greater contraction; thus water cooled will contract to
40° F., and if further cooled it expands till 32° F. is reached; it
then becomes solid, or ice, when it again expands, frequently bursting
the pipe or vessel in which it is contained.”
“But that serves a good purpose in the physical economy, I suppose?”
“Certainly; this departure from the general law of nature is wise and
providential, for as the water cools below 40° F. it increases in
buoyancy and rises, to float on the surface, and when ice forms below
it soon comes to the surface, on which it rests, protecting the water
under it from freezing and preserving the lives of fishes and insects,
for it is obvious that if rivers and seas were frozen to the bottom
all life in them would be destroyed. Many of the seas would become
nothing less than a constantly changing and unchartable conglomeration
of sunken rocks of ice, and would be altogether unnavigable, for all
the bergs would sink where no sun could get at them to melt and reduce
their bulk.”
“Go on, Gilbert!” said Godfrey, encouragingly, as his friend paused. “I
have nothing to do, and this is deeply interesting to me; besides, I
have for some time been experimenting in freezing micro-organisms.”
By no means loth to ride his pet hobby, Gilbert proceeded,—“An even
more wonderful anomaly lies in the fact that if we take, say, a pound
of hot water at, say, 100° and mix it with a pound of cold water at 0°,
we get two pounds of water at 50°, the temperature of the hotter being
reduced and the colder increased in equal ratio, but if one of them is
ice, the temperature of the whole is that of the colder.”
“I am afraid I don’t follow you there.”
“Suppose, then, we take a given quantity of ice and melt it over
a fire, it is utterly impossible—no matter what amount of heat is
applied—to raise the temperature till all the ice has been melted; thus
a pound of ice at 0° and a pound of water at 100° cannot possibly be
raised higher than 0°, but will remain two pounds of water at 0° till
the ice is melted, irrespective of the heat applied. And if we take
the same two pounds of water in experiment further, and bring it to
boiling-point, converting it into steam, no amount of heat given to it
will raise the temperature of the steam a fraction of a degree till
_all_ the water has become steam; but when all of it is steam, we can
then, by the application of more heat, get superheated steam, to an
explosive point of enormous force. These are but a few of the complete
violations of the ordinary laws of nature, and they answer their
purpose well in the economy of creation, for you will see that did heat
but raise the temperature of the ice in an equal ratio to its addition,
the ice would melt in a moment, and thus the first warm day, or the
first ray of sunshine, would cause every particle of snow and ice on
the hills and in the valleys to melt instantly, and the mighty glaciers
and bergs would also become almost instantly liquid, and a general
inundation of many parts of the world would be the inevitable result;
whilst in the case of steam, if that formed in equal ratio with the
heat applied to water, the water would immediately become _all_ steam
and would at once be superheated and explosive. The useful and harmless
saucepan, kettle, or boiler, would produce such a deadly explosive
as to require special apparatus and precautions to manufacture and
manipulate steam, or even hot water, and the mere drinking of a
harmless cup of any warm beverage, or eating steaming food, would have
more disastrous results and blow us to atoms more effectively than
drinking ‘corpsogen’ and then falling down.”
“Then what do you consider heat to be?”
“I think it is only possible to consider heat as ‘energy,’ as
discovered by the experiments of Rumford and Davy in 1798 and 1799,
the latter’s experiments on the melting of ice by friction being too
well known to be detailed, and the same Davy, about 1812, discovered
that “the immediate cause of the phenomenon of heat is motion, and
the laws of its communication are precisely the same as the laws of
the communication of motion.” I consider this the only true idea,
notwithstanding the modern tendency to discard these old theories for
newer. I can only conceive of heat as particles in motion, and it
can only be measured satisfactorily by the speed or energy of the
disturbed particles, which in many cases causes a distinct vibration
in them, and in the case of gases a direct dashing and pressing of the
separate particles, not only against each other, but against the sides
or walls of the vessel in which they are confined, in their efforts to
expand by separation; and bearing all these things in mind, Godfrey,
if the idea on which we have embarked and in which we want your help
is successful, we can make some gauze, fasten it on the outside of
the ship, and instead of it and the ship setting up a fresh series of
_their own_ moving particles in the presence of heat—such as we shall
encounter when in close proximity to the sun—and becoming destroyed by
the energy or the intense vibration of their own particles, this net
will so far _itself_ resist this vibration and thus protect itself and
the ship within it. This resisting power will be considerably augmented
by the _Regina’s_ own repulsive force, which will be incalculable,
being obtained from the sun and capable of enormous augmentation,
and this will also assist and give great repulsive force to the net,
thus more than counterbalancing any tendency to its becoming heated
by so much as a degree. If this theory works out, as we feel sure it
will, assuming that the cocoon _is_ fireproof, while all around may be
molten in the terrific heat, the _Regina_ and all in her will be cool
as a cucumber, literally; for if the net acts as we have reason to
hope it will, the protecting force will de-atomise and repel anything
and everything—heat included—for at least a foot beyond the ship,
and covered with our net, we shall still be able to see what the sun
really is, go through his atmosphere and photosphere, which even our
telescopes have not been able to penetrate, and do excellent work for
science, and that whilst we ourselves are in no way inconvenienced.
“And now, Godfrey, you have our whole scheme complete, and whether
we are successful or not depends on you and you alone. It may be a
wild-goose chase we are on, but we believe the Bonians, and trust you
to bring the whole scheme to a successful issue, as we are sure you
will. What do you think?”
“Think!” cried Godfrey, enthusiastically, “think! I think it is
great—very great—and that you are a triad of very clever—idiots, shall
I say, for going to risk a flight to the sun! Never mind, if there is
any truth at all in what you have been told about this bug, it shall
succeed; I tell you it _shall!_ and we four will test the net on old
Sol himself. But I’m going too fast, I’m losing my reason. I must not
be carried away with enthusiasm; as yet I’m in my right mind, so I’ll
not go further than that, or talk about settling on the sun till we see
how my grubs turn out.”
During the whole of this conversation all had been so interested that
they had not paid any attention to the vessel, for there was little
danger of chance collision, as the great repulsive force would keep
any ordinary world or planetoid from her path, and in the case of a
more powerful world, any deviation from her straight flight, or any
strong attractive force which she might enter, would automatically
signal itself, and show the strength on the gravitometer. Also the
_Regina_ was, to a certain extent, self-adjusting, and would thus go
rounds or away from, any large and powerful object, and after the
influence had ceased to be felt, she would resume her original straight
course, for it is evident that if the force of A equals the force
of B, they are both equal, consequently neither can be drawn to the
other, and the nearer they approach the greater will be the repulsion
which drives both away, for the gravity and repulsion of both are
equal. The _Regina_, therefore, now she had been perfected as far as
modern science permitted, could never by any possibility collide with
anything, no matter how powerful, for her force would now always equal
the opposing force. In the case of landing, this could be effected
in two ways: by increasing the _Regina’s_ gravitating force, by
converting some of her repulsion into gravitation (or attraction), and
thus drawing the other world to her, because of her greater attractive
powers; or by retarding her repulsive force, and thus bringing her
within the attraction of the world on which she wished to settle. This
latter was the usual method of alighting, as the former would most
certainly have upset the fixed orbits of the worlds displaced.
Suddenly the needle on the indicator swerved, giving its familiar
tinkle, which signified the nearness of approach to a world or object
having gravitating force. Ross, who was nearest the observatory door,
rushed up and then called Dennis and Gilbert, who ran up the steps
and looked out of the dome, which gave them a view in every direction
except vertically downwards.
Behind them lay the stars in strange and almost unrecognisable
positions, for the various constellations and stars seen on Earth
as of fixed shape and position on a dome-shaped setting, were not
now on a setting at all, but all in different planes vast distances
apart, some viewed ‘end on,’ others at all degrees of angles, and
their constellatory shapes no longer distinguishable. Wherever the
travellers were, it was plain they were not going to Jupiter, for
they were leaving him far away on the left and were heading straight
for some strange, dark object which was looming before them in a wild
confusion of what seemed to be caverns, craters and mountains, and
the gravitometer-needle was slowly moving, already showing forward
resistance to the repulsion of the ship, proving the object had gravity
at that distance of about 0.10 compared with Earth as 1.
“What is it?” exclaimed Dennis, “and why have we altered our course.
Look, there is Jupiter in another direction altogether!”
It was inexplicable. None of them had moved the steering switches since
Gilbert had aimed for Jupiter after leaving Earth, and Godfrey was
not allowed in those parts of the sanctum and observatory where the
controlling switches were fixed, which parts were guarded. They had not
heard or read of the ship ever having gone wrong, and their knowledge
of the working principle made an accidental swerving seem impossible,
yet already the world they were approaching blotted out the whole of
the forward heavens in a dense mass of dark shade, save for a halo of
light which came from the sunlight on the opposite side, and in its
penumbra of diffusion into the deep shadows showed mountains and plains
and a dreary waste of country.
“Suppose we pull up and travel with it for a while,” suggested Gilbert,
“and then we’ll call up that idiot downstairs; he’ll perhaps tell us
something.”
“Certainly,” replied Dennis, who shouted Godfrey, and up came their
friend two steps at a time. Gilbert made the necessary alteration and
joined the others, as Dennis said, “Have you ever passed this barrier,
Godfrey?”
“No, not this one. I went behind that downstairs; I expect they’re the
same; they look it,” replied Godfrey, nonchalantly.
“When was that?”
“Just after we left Derwent.”
“Before you burnt your hand?”
“Certainly. You made me promise then on my honour not to touch
anything, and I have left all those things severely alone and have not
even stepped behind that rail since, which is hard lines on a fellow,
considering that electricity is my forte, and you are unnecessarily
busy when I could relieve you; but volunteered kindness is never
appreciated!” and Godfrey looked very much injured. “Can I help you
now?” he asked, brightening up.
Ignoring the question, Dennis asked, “Did you move anything whilst
there? Did you touch _anything?_”
“Well,—no ...yes—not to mean anything, though. I just moved a switch
off and on and looked round to see which lights it controlled, but
nothing happened, so I did not bother any more with it, but came out
and tried that reel thing immediately inside the barrier rail in the
saloon and burnt my hand, worse luck!”
“Would you mind going downstairs, Godfrey? We’ll be with you in a
minute,” said Dennis, politely, and Godfrey descended, surprised at
this unusual deference and wondering why they all looked so solemn.
When he had gone, Ross exclaimed, “Now what can you make of a fellow
like that! He means well and is mad on helping, but if this goes on
he’ll kill us all!”
“I don’t think so,” said Dennis; “he has kept his word, and will
continue to do so. I don’t think he will give us any further anxiety
or transgress again; however, we must not let him off lightly, but so
frighten him that he will never step on prohibited ground again. It
will not do to let any one go behind the barrier.”
“We will have everything in contact from this moment,” said Gilbert,
severely, “and run no risks either of accidents or of any of the
secrets leaking out. If any one except ourselves comes up to the rail
he will be held there till we come.”
“Yes, that will be best,” said Dennis; “we must, for the sake of our
general interests and safety, exercise every care, and from this moment
one of us at least must be in charge in turn.”
“The switch he moved must have been the one directing the steering, and
the vessel turned accordingly and kept the new course when he brought
the switch back to ‘block,’” said Gilbert; “had he understood the
mechanism, he would not have used that switch only and then we should
have resumed our original line, notwithstanding the deviation. As it
is—there is Jupiter! and here, in front is—what?”
“Let’s go down and deal with Godfrey,” proposed Ross, and they all
descended to the saloon, where the delinquent was whistling to himself
whilst curiously watching the great mass now below them. He turned at
their entrance, inquiring, “What is that? Is it Jupiter?”
“No one knows. We are lost!” said Dennis, gloomily, “and it is your
doing!” And then the three of them proceeded to frighten the poor
microscopist almost out of his wits, with suggestion of the fearful
doom they would have met, had not their position been noticed in
time to prevent the ship crashing to destruction. They succeeded in
instilling into him such consternation as kept him away from the
barrier ever after, nor would he come near that part of the saloon or
observatory again, though he often begged to be allowed to ‘drive’ the
vessel, for he said it only needed a switch moving and she’d go on for
ever, which opinion only drew a benign and soothing smile from his
friends, which he could not quite understand.
Godfrey disposed of, Dennis turned to Ross and said, “Just test the
atmosphere, Ross, will you?” and in a short time he returned saying
the atmosphere was variable, and he thought they had better go across
the world to get several samples before they thought of landing.
Accordingly, the _Regina_ shot ahead till she came into the sunshine
forward and then back into the sunshine at the opposite side, about
half a dozen bags being filled with atmospheric air at different points
easily located. Whilst Gilbert and Ross were testing these samples,
Dennis took measurements of distances, gravity on surface, speed
travelled, etc. They had come about 245,000 miles, but having altered
their course, it was probable that this measurement was in excess of
the actual distance of the object from Earth, as measured on a straight
line, which is, of course, the shortest distance between two points.
The diameter would be, roughly speaking, about 2160 miles, and the
total surface was, as near as could be ascertained without going all
round, about 14,500,000 square miles or a little over, or O.074 of
Earth, and its volume about 5,300,000,000 cubic miles; its density was
about 3.57 of Earth-water, or 0.63 of earth, reckoning earth as 1; it
was travelling in its orbit with a velocity of 2273 miles per hour, and
had an equatorial velocity of rotation of a little over ten miles an
hour.
Just as these calculations were complete Gilbert and Ross came in
laughing, and asked Dennis, “Where are we, do you think?”
“On the shady side of old Luna,” replied Dennis, “or I’ll eat her!”
“Right!” said Ross; “we can’t be anywhere else. You, Godfrey, have
shot us to Luna instead of Jupiter, and now we know where we are, the
positions of the other planets can be fixed also.”
“Luna! and after all those elaborate calculations!” exclaimed Godfrey,
sarcastically. “What remarkable brain-power there is on board, triad,
to discover it at last—but better late than never!”
No one on Earth has ever seen the dark side of the moon, owing to the
illuminated or convex edge always being turned towards the sun; there
is, therefore, continual light on one side of the moon and constant
comparative darkness on the other, the crescent altering in shape by
becoming increased or diminished as we on Earth see more or less of the
illumined side as the moon changes its position; consequently, the dark
side is hidden from Earth in almost every phase except occasionally
when, owing to libration, it is possible to see those parts beyond the
edge, or border, of the lunar disc, which alternately come into view
and are hidden. It was, therefore, perhaps not unprofitable, whilst
they were there, to gain, a little information on several points about
which the scientists of Earth had been in dispute for centuries.
So the travellers sailed round Luna and once for all set at rest
all disputes by actual observation. It was proved beyond the shadow
of a doubt that the planet did possess an atmosphere of extreme
variableness. On the bright side, towards the edges, or what would be
the edges seen from Earth, this atmosphere was extremely transparent,
but capable of supporting life as we know it. There were no mists,
clouds, or vapour, consequently the sight penetrated through the
atmosphere without the softening effect of that delicate and beautiful
variety of colour of terrestrial scenery. On the shadow side, the
atmosphere was much more dense, and this darker hemisphere was palled
in a faint twilight, in which could be seen considerable stretches of
morass, peopled by strange beings who became frantically aggressive
when the _Regina_ swooped down amongst them in order to land. Gifts
were let down from the ship, and every known effort was made to show
the inhabitants the friendly spirit of their visitors, but without
avail; the self-deluded Lunians worked themselves into rage so violent
and impotent as to cause many to become cataleptic. This was repeated
at all parts of the surface, so that in kindness to them the _Regina_
sailed round to the sunny side, where she was again seen by the
astronomers on Earth, and noted on the bright disc of the full moon,
not as a flashing shadow as at her first encircling of the satellite,
but this time as a tiny, floating cloud of flittering light and shade
and brilliant iridescence, as her bright sides alternately were shaded
and then reflected the rays of the sun to Earth in dazzling spots.
Having traversed the whole surface of the moon Luna, they then waved
this message to Earth,—
“We are investigating Luna, and while on the spot we can clear up all
those points on which Earth information is at present uncertain.
“That surface of Luna which is illumined by the sun is rock, sand,
stone and earth, covered in places with rich and beautiful vegetation,
both wild and cultivated, but all the trees are small and bush-like,
the colour a peculiar russet-brown and gold, which on Earth seems like
bare rock or ice; on a few of the highest peaks snow and ice are seen,
though not in great quantity. The people on the two sides are entirely
different races of beings, but all extremely unfriendly to us, so we
are not landing. The atmosphere is exceedingly dry and clear, with no
clouds and very little vapour. The ramparts and waterways which we
see from Earth are not natural but made by the people, and the quays
and locks are now almost generally being constructed and repaired.
At present there is little water on the illumined portion, though it
seems plentiful on the dark side; there are also many springs, and the
people are certainly preparing for a rainy season, or some other source
of irrigation; they seem intelligent, and all work proceeds on highly
scientific lines.
“With regard to the so-called seas and lakes, the _Mare Crisium_ is a
plain of dark vegetation, oval in shape and situated near the edge of
a new moon, as seen from Earth. The irregular, dark plain, _Oceanus
Procellarum_, is thickly wooded with the small and dark brown trees
already mentioned. It has open places of rock, thickly covered, and
veined with metals which are exceedingly abundant over the whole of
the planet, and can be seen lying on the surface and in rich strata
everywhere, as volcanic action has exposed them, so that they reflect
the sun’s rays like mirrors and are dazzling to view. We should say
these are the cause of the strange, bright lights and flashes often
seen through telescopes, for, of course, on the moving moon they are
always changing. Luna is exceedingly rich in all kinds of metals,
including gold, much of which is on the surface. What we have been
accustomed to consider marsh, we found to be grass-land, plentifully
spotted with darker grass and earth and some peculiar loose earth
containing unknown minerals in fine grains. An old lake bed, as we
expected to find it, is now used, apparently, as an amphitheatre for
games and sports. The broad white ‘rays’ which have been a mystery
to astronomers of all ages, and which diverge from many of the
lunar ring-plains, comprise seven distinct systems, each composed
of many hundreds of rays. They pass over the surface of the plains
and mountains parallel to the configuration of them, thus partaking
of their shape and, as seen from Earth, differ from them only in
brightness; they vary from eight to fifteen miles in breadth and many
are of enormous length. Perhaps the longest are from Tycho, but instead
of being two thousand miles, as measured on Earth, we find these, from
actual measurement, to be two thousand six hundred and twenty-four
miles in extent. These hitherto inexplicable streaks are caused by
peculiar effects of refraction.
“Most of the country is highly volcanic, and there are numerous
mountains, volcanoes and craters of all sizes. On many of these
the greater part of the surface is covered with metallic deposits
which throw upwards the strong reflections of the sun’s rays; these
reflections are caught by the atmosphere which is in perceptible layers
not seen from Earth. These layers maintain the same height above the
ground, regular or irregular, the lower being about two miles deep,
the next being a shade more dense, unlike the atmosphere of Earth,
which is more dense as it approaches the ground. The reflection,
therefore, readily penetrates the lighter and more transparent layer
and, on striking the more dense, becomes refracted by it and is carried
along in enormous streaks at the junction of the two, as from the
surface of a mirror or from a silvery cloud, thus forming great rays
which follow the curvature of the ground at a height of about two
miles, and, partaking of the colour of the sun and being transparent,
so colour the ground below them that on Earth there appears little
difference except in brightness. We are just now sinking through that
proceeding from Tycho, and you will be convinced that this explanation
is correct by noticing that we cut off all the rays from beyond us on
the shadow side. Now we are in the lower stratum, and you will see
the rays proceeding for thousands of miles as before—we see them over
our heads like a transparent golden cloud on which is a faint shadow
of our vessel, though not sufficiently strong to be distinguishable
from Earth. Now we have left the lower plane and are rising again;
our dome has just cut through the rays, casting a long shadow like a
triangle, the apex of which is our dome, and this shadow may appear
to you as a faint line or pencilling of shade. In this place we have
also measured the depth of the stratum from the ground and find it
is exactly two miles, as elsewhere, so will you correct your present
measurements to this. Earth-sighted instruments are in error because
they must first penetrate through the fifty miles, or thereabouts, of
Earth’s atmosphere, then travel through the thousands of miles of space
minus the atmosphere, and have then to penetrate another and altogether
different atmosphere, and Earth measurements at best are only
comparative. It is impossible for you on Earth to see, measure, and
understand as we do here, for you cannot allow for unbounded vacuum and
these strange atmospheres without coming into them, especially as Earth
measurements _in vacuo_ must necessarily be made through the flask or
vessel bounding the vacuum, and consequently are not strictly reliable.
We give you only what we verify by actual measurement and experiment
made on the spot, and you may rely upon all details being correct.
“We are now leaving Luna without landing and are going straight to
Jupiter. Good-bye!”