The following day we reached 95 degrees, experiencing no discomfort. I
awoke from a nap and found the _Propellier_ at a standstill, my three
interesting friends crowded at the window, gazing out with the liveliest
curiosity. I joined them and was astonished to see a strange, large
plant, resembling a cactus, about five feet high, with greenish, putrid
looking veins tracing through dull, brown leaves—a plant growing wild,
vigorous, amidst a vast snow plain! I made for the door, so did Sheldon.
As the first breath of air struck me it cut through my lungs like a
knife, so intense was the cold, but after I suffered no inconvenience;
in fact, the atmosphere was exhilarating, though close and thick, a
misty twilight. I approached the odd-looking plant, it was icy to the
touch, soft and pulpy like liver, with a sticky, moist surface. Saxe.,
Sheldon and Saunders hurried up, calling the plant various Latin names,
to all of which it refused to answer. Then Saxe. took out his knife and
cut one of the broad, thick leaves neatly down the middle. A
reddish-brown fluid spattered the snow, emitting such a stench that
Saxe. dropped that portion he held and the three learned ones bolted for
the car.
I watched with interest the cut leaf shriveling tip, then placed the
severed portion to the cut, making it fit exactly. At once a thin film
formed over the parting, which gradually thickened into a fine skin and
the shriveled leaf became soft and pulpy again with nothing but a faint
line to show where the wound had been. Something about the plant
nauseated me and I hastily returned to the car to find my three friends
in a noisy discussion about it. Saxe. declared it was flesh, not
vegetable. Saunders was positive it was a mineral product, and Sheldon
frankly told them both they were asses; the plant was vegetable, how
could it be anything else?
I never joined in their discussions, it was impossible to convince them
of anything. They generally yelled like mad for a few minutes, then
each, sure of his superior knowledge of all things, would gradually
simmer down and draw out of the argument. And as usual Saxe. rose with
that familiar know-it-all-air, and started the _Propellier_ going.
Sheldon and Saunders continued the debate for hours, in fact, till the
plants became so thick and common Sheldon called time.
We seemed to be passing through a forest of brown rubber trees, some
attaining a growth of ten feet, whose branches bruised against the car
windows, staining them with their foul smelling fluid. The snow was
thinning to slush and we jolted fearfully over the rocky, uneven road,
but not till we had passed the forest of unearthly plants would Saxe.
halt to remove the runners and fit the wheels. When we emerged from the
nightmare thicket a rocky territory stretched wide before us, snow and
ice traveling were at an end; our course appeared to be over the lava
bed of a monster crater.
“I was correct!” shouted Saunders and Sheldon simultaneously, while they
glared at each other. “I was positive when we reached the summit we
would discover the outlet of all equatorial eruptions. We travel upon
frozen lava beds, and——”
“Later on,” Saxe. cried impatiently; “we have work to do now.”
A few minutes later, muffled to the eyes, we trooped out into an
atmosphere of stifling cold (no other expression for it) to remove the
runners. Frequently I was seized with vertigo, but kept quiet as nobody
else complained.
Saunders informed us we had reached 97 degrees north latitude. Three
more degrees and we have discovered the Pole.
Saxe. worked, but at the same time watched us keenly, bawling
instructions, then wasted a whole hour carefully inspecting our work.
“Can’t afford accidents,” he explained, “will submit only to the
unavoidable;” and wheel after wheel was examined.
We watched him fooling away the time and amused ourselves cutting jokes
at his expense, but he was entirely oblivious. Suddenly we were startled
by the deep baying of hounds.
“Dogs!” gasped Saxe., “sounds like dogs!”
Saunders streaked it for the car, bawling to us to follow.
Sheldon suggested it might be the Relief Party, at the same time
striding mightily for safety. Saxe. in his hurry tumbled over himself,
and I, horrified, heavy man as he was, picked him up as though he were a
child and hurried with him to the car, securing the door just in time.
The great beasts rushed towards us and sprang upon either side of the
_Propellier_, which shook beneath their weight. Saxe. turned on the
siren, the monsters yelled and snapped at the steel, but held on,
differing from other animals we had encountered, which, now that I
mention the matter, are far from numerous despite the contrary
exaggerations written by some arctic tourists. But the few roving
animals we did meet renounced all curiosity at the first blast of the
siren, which Saxe. now kept going at one continual ear-splitting shriek
till the huge beasts finally dropped off and made for the car. What
magnificent animals they were, certainly resembling dogs, but assuredly
not dogs. Their monstrous bodies were covered with long, thick, white
fur, and they dragged great plume-like tails. The immense head was
ornamented with ridiculously small, pointed ears, with short, blunt
horns growing behind. The larger animal sprang at the window from which
we looked and broke it with his horns. He thrust in his great head; how
his eyes glared and what awful fangs, and how he snapped and snarled,
and strained and worked to lift his great bulk. Saxe. struck him with a
piece of iron; with a howl he fell back, tumbling to the ground. I
hurriedly took from the shelf two large fish that had been pounded to
tenderness and flung them to the enraged beasts. Each grabbed a
fish—what transformation! They sat on their haunches and regarded us
with gratitude—it was gratitude—purely an animal trait.
Sheldon forgot prudence and leaned far out of the window, calling: “Poor
fellow!” and “Good dog!” With the fish secure in their teeth they jumped
about delighted, wagged their bushy tails, and trotted off contentedly
towards the south.
“They were desperate with hunger,” I remarked.
“They were not,” Saxe. snapped, “they looked well fed, were fat. They
feed upon those plants we’ve just passed, which are flesh, not
vegetable. If those dogs, or whatever they are, had been hungry they
would have devoured the fish at once.”
“If they were not hungry why did they come after us so fiercely?” I
asked.
“In our country,” Saxe. responded, “we produce every product under the
sun, yet we are continually importing foreign stuffs.”
This ended the discussion. When he thought it prudent, Saxe. ventured
out to finish his interrupted inspection of our work and travel was not
resumed till he was thoroughly satisfied.
“Hope we don’t run across any more queer animals,” he remarked to nobody
in particular.
“We won’t,” Saunders replied, “we are too far up to discover anything
but petrification and the Pole.”
“We are traveling upon lava beds,” Saxe. informed us, “and I believe we
are in the pit of a huge crater—what misfortune if it should come to
sudden eruption!”
“Ah, bosh!” sassed Saunders, “crater be blowed! we’re traveling upon
rocks, petrified earth.”
“Nonsense!” bawled Saxe.
“Order, order, boys!” called Sheldon from the tanks where he was brewing
quarts of coffee. “In case of necessity,” he murmured.
We were prepared for any emergency, the airpipes were stocked and
heaters in good working order. I was busy putting in a new pane of glass
in the damaged window, when I heard Saxe. say he saw cliffs ahead and
heard a roaring sound. I heard a roaring sound also, but it was rush of
blood to the head and I was attacked with a violent hemorrhage. But I
soon recovered under Sheldon’s excellent treatment, which was smoking
hot coffee. My three comrades suffered intensely from nausea, but each
remained at his post. Saxe. guiding the _Propellier_, Saunders ever
alert for his star, and Sheldon at the coffee stand serving out regular
instalments, with the encouraging words: “It’s the best and only
stimulant we can take.”
Though the air valves were opened wide, creating a slight draught, it
seemed heavy with drugs. Drowsiness was overpowering, and though sleep
meant death the eye-ball ached with weariness, yet we managed to keep
each other awake, but eventually endured a siege of suffocation that was
agonizing in the futile attempt to take a long breath, the gurgling
effort leaving a heavy, suppressed pain in the lungs. We were tortured
with every stage of suffocation except the last one—death. There was a
thin streak of life in the atmosphere. It took an hour to pass the
danger zone, yet not once did we think of turning back.
“Forward! forward!” always was the cry.
“We’re too expert, it’s got to be stronger to swamp us,” Saxe. declared,
and Sheldon has since expressed great faith in “Determination, grim
determination.” And during the trying time, possibly for the
encouragement of everybody, including themselves, both aired very grand,
lofty ideas about “will-vitality,” etc. I listened admiringly, but
gradually lost interest, and in spite of heroic efforts succumbed to a
stupor of weariness. I was dulled, not unconscious, and distinctly saw
Saxe., for all his high-faluting “will-vitality,” turn livid as he slid
from his seat. He was gasping, and limply moved his arms for assistance.
For the life of me I could not move, seemed tied as in a nightmare.
Sheldon flung the doors and windows wide, then rushed to Saxe.’s
assistance, who had fainted for the first time in his life. The icy
blast that swept through the car brushed the cobwebs from my brain and
thoroughly chilled the treacherous lethargy from us all. But it took
some time to recover from that “high air pressure,” and we had
considerable trouble with Saxe., who took to his bunk.
Saunders’s predictions were correct, only reversed. He declared the
atmosphere of the unknown circle to be charged with deadly gases (no
atmosphere), but up to the danger line we would encounter brisk, icy
winds. For upward of an hour we faced the “no atmosphere” problem, but
within the Pole circle brisk, icy breezes blew life to us—no one dared
mention the fact to Saunders.
Sheldon served around hot, fragrant coffee, and suggested lunch. When
the meal was ready Saxe. had sufficiently recovered to join us and felt
so invigorated after that he proposed we venture out and prospect. We
advised against it, of course, but Saxe. was known never to take advice,
and we might as well talk to the _Propellier_.
We discovered a broad plain stretching east to west to an infinite
distance, but straight ahead the road continued as though leveled from
the side of the mountains. Upon one side huge cliffs towered and upon
the other deep, unfathomable chasms. The boulders were perpendicular and
of glassy smoothness. A terrific gale was blowing, dark clouds scurried
across the sky with occasional breaks, letting a star gleam through, and
once a wide space cleared and the moon shone full, lighting up the
strange, weird, beautiful scenery.
“If this is the dead portion of the earth, then death is certainly
grand, sublime,” remarked Sheldon.
“According to the compass,” interrupted Saxe., whose mind apparently was
not upon the scenery, “we must travel straight ahead, and that narrow
road in front is the route. I judge it’s about fifteen feet wide,” he
continued, “inclines sharply, curving into the cliffs down there. We
must know what’s around that bend before we go splurging with the
machine.”
We started down the narrow road, but the cutting ice wind chilled us to
the heart and we huddled together with a distinct desire to avoid
moving. “We’ll petrify if we remain stationary,” warned Saunders, “keep
moving. But it’s not as frigid as it should be at this altitude. It’s
the atmosphere and earth——”
Saxe. grunted and rushed ahead; we quickly followed, glad of anything to
squelch Saunders, who once started upon his hobby was good for days. His
language was eloquent, his subject always learned and instructive, and
in a nice, warm room, we could have all gone comfortably to sleep, but
in an atmosphere of ice, with the Pole almost in sight.... We reached
the perilous bend in the road, it was engulfed in deep, black shadows,
cast by cliffs above, but farther on re-appeared, stretching along the
level for miles and miles, curving, undulating, like a gigantic serpent,
and gleaming like silver in the strange light, neither night nor day.
“It was once the bed of a river,” remarked Sheldon, who, like Saunders,
was daft on his hobby.
“Nonsense!” retorted Saxe., “it’s the main artery of a burnt-out
volcano.”
“Volcano in the frigid zone!” laughed Sheldon.
We returned to the _Propellier_, tired out and panting heavily, the
exertion made us perspire freely after a few seconds’ rest. Saxe. was
anxious to push forward at once. We voted consent. He flared the
search-light upon the road and the _Propellier_ cautiously started down
the incline. Up hill and down into deep, black hollows, we sped like the
wind and very little level was there to this riverbed, artery, or
whatever it was. Ever to our right were smooth, high cliffs, and to the
left unfathomable mist shrouded valleys. The wild, uncanny scenery,
magnetic in its monstrous, powerful unreality, chained the attention.
Granite, granite, mighty boulders reared to stupendous height, casting
shadows that stretched to the impenetrable, blue mist, shielding
mysterious chasms. Vegetation? God! Vegetation in this dreadful place
with its dull, horrible, mucky atmosphere? It was like a nightmare,
awe-inspiring, firing the imagination.
Dread silenced us, an intangible fear made our hearts flutter, and we
looked forward at any moment to what? It seemed we were among the
damned. Unmerciful, unjust, is the punishment inflicted upon the erring,
condemned to wander forever aimlessly alone in this terrible
shadow-land. It is hell—if there is a hell.
Sheldon came and sat beside me.
“Going at a pretty good rate,” he said. “Not far from the Pole. Saunders
informs me we’re at 99 degrees north latitude with some figuring to the
west and some minutes thrown in for luck. Great chap Saunders! Saxe. is
reckless to be rid of this place, the car is rocking enough to cause
sickness, and not far off the road curves sharply. Wonder if he intends
to risk it and go ahead.”
“Good heavens! Sheldon,” I gasped, “suppose the road ends there!”
“No, it doesn’t,” he quickly assured me, “I can see it farther on, but
it widens and changes altogether, seems to wind down into the valley. We
will certainly reach the Pole, very soon—then what?”
“And then what?” I repeated.
“Saxe. says Asia is on the other side. He intends to make the return
trip through Asia, declares he wouldn’t pass this way again for
millions. And say, Sally,” he whispered confidentially, “we might as
well come out in the open and state what we came up here for. None of us
have been fooled as to the other’s intentions and secretly worked in
search of the object, to wit: _The other side of the earth_. Saxe. raves
of the Pole, but did not work years upon the _Propellier_ merely to
travel to the highest northern altitude with it. Saunders pretends to be
daft about his star, yet every astronomer in the world is aware of the
existence of that star. It is not the star he wishes to discover, but
that portion of the world it sparkles upon. And the great reservoir of
fresh water is certainly not bubbling in the polar zone. But you, Sally,
you have deceived no one. Boy, you mutter continually in your sleep and
the passionate murmurs could never be roused by a star, a country, or a
man. An exquisite vision, an alluring phantom has fired you—a woman, by
Jove!” He nudged me. “The woman on the other side of the globe. We know
all about it. That’s why you joined the expedition and fooled poor old
Middleton, at the last.”
I gasped. Chuckling and winking, he left me. And my secret had been
known all along, commented upon, and undoubtedly they joshed me among
themselves. I felt odd for the second, then laughed the silliness away.
Sheldon attempted to astonish Saxe. and Saunders as he had me, but they
were ready for him and foreclosed. Then we all came “out in the open,”
and had an eager consultation about the undiscovered country we expected
to find. Each had theories which of course were different and superior
to the other’s, but upon one point we all agreed—there was another side
to this globe, figuratively speaking, a new world.
Columbus believed the “land where the sun set” to be a continuation of
Asia, a new continent did not occur to him. We are more bigoted than
people of those days. Superficial knowledge and science declares the
earth orange shaped, divided into two hemispheres, with a handful of
islands to cap the dejeuner. This vast globe never was and never will be
fully explored. There are continents upon continents, teeming with
civilization, I believe, vastly superior to our own with one
exception—their world, like ours, does not extend any farther than their
knowledge, otherwise they would have discovered us.
As we neared the sharp curve in the road Saxe. slackened speed and
cautiously steered around it into a steep, narrow lane, partially
obscured by elongated shadows. The search-light revealed the road
widening farther on, then the cliffs ended abruptly and we speeded over
a level, low country, one of those valleys that seemed so mysterious. A
strong wind came up and whistled around the car, and upon it was borne
the roar and boom of some far distant ocean. We dashed through the
valley which was filled with death-like odors, up a steep mountain path,
and were once more on the old familiar road, banked with cliff and
precipice. Saxe. vowed we traveled in a circle, but the atmosphere
suddenly cleared, the heavy mists floated upwards, and the black chasms
we took for valleys were but a continuation of cliffs and ceaseless
hills backed with a dismal vista of rugged plains, fringed by a lofty
range of black mountains capped with a strange, soft glow.
“We are nearing the summit,” Saxe. told us; “if the road continues like
this we should reach it in an hour.”
We reached the North Pole in less than an hour. The road we had followed
so faithfully gradually zigzagged to the summit of a precipitous
mountain, then parted abruptly at the sharp lip of a deep, unfathomable
pit. The view was magnificent, grand, diabolical, and in the strange
half light fantastic shadows seemed to dance and beckon. Our route
gleamed like a silver thread as it widened through the valley beneath to
be submerged in far distant ice and snow fields. And down in the deep,
black mountain pit, surrounded by high walls of shining petrification,
was the ocean, whose roar had so puzzled us. An ocean? A wide pool of
dark, glassy substance, without ripple or disturbance, yet the roar
blared, deafening, like a great horn.
“Any amount,” said Sheldon, “that water down there is hot.”
“Won’t take your bet,” Saxe. answered, “but it’s hot all right, it’s
lava—don’t care to investigate. But, gentlemen,” he suddenly exclaimed,
“gentlemen, gentlemen, we have discovered the Pole!”
We gave three rousing cheers; the echo was like a thousand voices.
Saunders, after taking observations, told us we had reached 100 degrees
north latitude. Time, 5.20 A. M.
“Onward!” cried Saxe.
But Sheldon called our attention to the sudden disturbance in the black
waters below. Even as he spoke we heard a sizzling, bubbling sound, and
a great column of water shot upward hundreds of feet, falling with
tremendous roar; then another column mightier than the first rolled
upward, while the mountain quaked to the detonation.
“Onward!” shouted Saxe.
The _Propellier_ shot down the side of that quivering mountain like a
rocket. Looking back I saw column after column of fiery, steaming
substance boil upward in rapid succession. With lightning speed we got
out of the vicinity of that strange pool with its marvelous geyser-like
action, and did not slacken up till we were miles away; then—glory be to
glory! we had reached the North Pole, and passed it.