NATURE GONE MAD
The fat man came panting to the group surrounding Professor Henderson,
just as fast as he could move his feet. And never before had the boys,
or the professor, or Andy, or the black man beheld such an apparently
heavy man get over the ground at such speed.
"A very mysterious thing," the professor was saying again--and he did
not mean the roaring, spouting geyser that was shooting gas and debris
a couple of hundred feet into the air.
Nor did he have time then to explain what seemed so mysterious to him.
The descending debris threatened them all, and although they retired
in a more dignified way than had the Indians from the vicinity of the
spouting monster, they were all more or less disturbed by this new
phenomenon.
Stones weighing from ten to twenty pounds were projected into the air,
some of them crashing through the roof of the cabin when they descended.
The mud and water grew into a pool, then a lake, completely surrounding
the spot where the derrick had stood and where the geyser continued
to spout.
"We surely must move out," the oil man said, in much perturbation. "My
shop yonder seems to be a target for those rocks. There goes another!"
"And we have got to use a forge to weld and straighten these damaged
rods!" Mark cried, worriedly.
"Sorry, boy. I don't believe any of us will be able to get at my forge
till this shower of missiles stops," said Phineas Roebach.
"What needs to be done to the flying machine?" asked the professor,
briskly. "Are you sure it can be repaired, Mark?"
"Very sure, sir," replied the boy.
"And you, Jack?" repeated Professor Henderson.
"We could fix it up all right before midnight," declared the other.
"But we must have a forge."
"This geyser will stop playing after a bit, we will hope," said the
professor, encouragingly. "If the flying machine is not past repair
we need not worry. Nor need you, Mr. Roebach. We can all get away from
this region if it becomes necessary."
"Ma goodness!" gasped Washington White, who had listened to this speech
with his mouth ajar. "Don't you consider, Perfesser, dat dere has
erbout 'nuff happened yere fo' ter make it seem quite necessarious dat
we evacuate de premises sorter promscuous an' soon like? Why, I done
was sure de end ob He finish was at hand when dat las' big eart'quake
hit us--I suah did!"
"I must say I don't care to linger around here myself," muttered Andy.
"We must not lose our courage," said the professor. "Never before have
I been in a position to study seismic disturbances so closely. I only
regret I have not with me here the instruments I brought in the
_Snowbird_. And we must somehow learn the location of that volcano
which is in eruption."
"It's all right to learn the location of it," whispered Mark to Jack.
"But if we learn that we'll be pretty sure to fly in the opposite
direction--what do you think?"
"Believe me," said Jack, "I've got enough. The old professor is all
right, but he doesn't think about danger when his interest in any
natural phenomena is aroused."
The roaring of the geyser was a most unpleasant sound and the upheaval
of the stones was more than unpleasant--it threatened danger to them.
The vicinity of the oil-boring had been exceptionally free from small
stones; but in half an hour one might have picked up a two-horse
cartload weighing from ten to twenty pounds each.
Washington had run in and saved Buttsy in his cage, and they had all
retired now to the little plateau from the verge of which Washington
had made his famous leap to the backs of the two Indians. Phineas
Roebach had released the dogs from the shed where they had been
confined. There were twenty of the animals--three or four teams--fierce
and intractable brutes as a usual thing, unless under the sharp control
of their Indian drivers. But now they came whining and crouching to
the feet of the human beings grouped together on the plateau.
The evening was growing clear; but the geyser continued to roar like
the exhaust of some mighty engine and to throw off filth and
evil-smelling gas. Professor Henderson stood there, wrapped in his
furs, and penciled notes in his book with a grave enjoyment of the
scene that made his companions wonder.
But Andy Sudds read signs other than those of which the professor made
notes. Jack saw the old hunter watching the sledge dogs with a puzzled
frown wrinkling his brow.
"What's the matter with you, Andy?" queried the youth.
"Them dogs," declaimed the hunter.
"What about them?" "They're plumb scart. All this disturbance and
mystery has got in on them. They act just like they were seeing spooks."
"Spooks!" repeated Jack in surprise. "Do you mean to say dogs can see
ghosts?"
"All dogs can smell out when things is going to happen," declared Andy
Sudds. "They're better prophets than old women, you bet you! And these
dogs act to me as though we hadn't come by the worst of our trouble
yet."
Oddly enough it was Professor Henderson himself who took up the
suggestion that more trouble was in the offing.
"It is my opinion, Mr. Roebach," he said, to the oil man, "that you
had better remove such possessions as you can from this valley at once.
And put your dogs somewhere so that they cannot run away like your
Indians. If we are balked in attempting to repair the flying machine,
these dogs and sleds are what we must depend upon."
"To escape from this country, you mean, sir?" asked Mark.
"To reach Aleukan and the valley where the _Chrysothele-Byzantium_ is to
be found," replied the professor, promptly.
But it was to run the chance of a rain of death to go down into the
basin where the shop and cabin were situated. Further up the hillside
the dogs' quarters had been built, and the sleds were there, too. The
oil man and Andy Sudds looked at one another.
"All the stores are in the far end of the cabin," grunted Roebach.
"And you can see what that geyser is doing to the shed where the tools
are. There goes another stone through the roof!"
"If we could only get hold of that portable forge," said Mark.
"And that is what we _must_ get," exclaimed Jack. "Is the door of that
shanty locked, Mr. Roebach?"
"It's nothing but a skin door," replied the oil man. "But it's at the
far side--fronting that old mud-slinger. Did you ever see the beat of
that? _That_ stone must have weighed fifty pounds."
But Jack Darrow noticed a certain fact. That was that the debris from
the spouter was not shot so high as at first. Therefore, it was not
being spread abroad so far.
Only small stones, now, were dropping around the tool shed. And the
rear wall of the shanty was made of the most flimsy material.
Suddenly he slipped down to one side and got upon the level of the
valley. Nobody but Mark noticed his movements for a minute, and to him
Jack had given a warning glance.
The boy had crossed to the back of the tool-shed before the men of the
party noticed his absence from the knoll.
"Look at that reckless fellow!" ejaculated the professor. "Come back
here, Jack!"
But Master Jack was already at the shed. He tore away a part of the
rear wall in a moment. The mud rained down upon him, but fortunately
no rock came his way.
There was light enough yet for him to see inside the hut. Andy Sudds
had already started after Jack, and when the latter dragged the small
forge out of the shelter, the old hunter picked it up, flung it upon
his shoulder, and trotted back to the highland.
"Come away! Come away, Jack!" cried the professor again.
But the youth stopped long enough to obtain a sledge hammer and other
tools that he knew they should need. As he ran from the hut two stones
shot out by the geyser crashed through the roof; but he escaped all
injury.
He was plastered with mud from head to foot, however, when he regained
the high land.
"It was worth it," Jack declared, laughing, when he was safe. "I want
to get away from this neighborhood just as quick as we can. And if
we can fix the _Snowbird_ let us do it this very night and take our
flight for other climes. We don't know when another earthquake or
volcanic eruption will occur."
"Very true, my boy," admitted the professor, with a sigh. "At least,
we will endeavor to repair the damage done to your flying machine at
once. But there is much going on here that interests me."
Andy and Jack set up the forge and in a few minutes they had a glowing
fire in it. Then the boys set to work welding the broken rods and
straightening those that had become bent.
Meanwhile Mr. Roebach hauled out his sled and whipped the dogs into
line so that he could gear them up. The canines acted badly because
they were more used to their Indian masters. When the boys had done
their work, however, the oil man was ready to transport them all up
the mountainside to the plateau where the _Snowbird_ lay.
His cabin was by this time riddled by the flying stones and everything
in and about it was plastered with mud. It would have been foolhardy
indeed to attempt to get at the provisions.
"You see," Mark said, "we are forced to get away in the _Snowbird_
at once, or to escape to some town where we can get food. There isn't
much left of our stores on the flying machine." "And what will Mr.
Roebach do about his dogs? They must be fed," said Jack.
"He'll have to abandon them if he goes with us on the _Snowbird_,"
returned his chum.
It was now the long twilight of the Arctic evening. None of the party
had eaten since breakfast and they felt the need of sustenance. If
nothing else, this need of food would have hurried the party on to
their destination farther up the mountainside.
As they advanced the roaring of the mud geyser diminished. The professor
continued to be much interested in the condition of Nature about them
as they climbed the hill. The uprooted trees, and the huge trunks
broken off by the final upheaval of the earth, made the old gentleman
look very serious indeed.
"There has been a mighty change in the face of Nature," he said
thoughtfully. "You boys were saved from death by a miracle, I have no
doubt."
"We were all knocked senseless for a time," Mark told him.
"Indeed? And so were we at the camp. All of us lost consciousness.
Dear, dear! what happened during those minutes that we were all
unconscious? Something of the greatest importance--some great change
took place that now we can scarcely understand." "And what do you make
of that over yonder?" queried Jack, suddenly pointing toward the
northern horizon.
A deepening glow had appeared in that direction. Rapidly it increased
until there appeared above the horizon the edge of a huge disk. Its
light was mellow like the moon's; but whoever heard of the moon rising
in the North?
"What can that possibly be, Professor?" cried Mark as they all gazed
in wonder at the rapidly increasing body rising into complete view.
Professor Henderson shook his head slowly. For once he was surely at
a loss to explain a scientific phenomenon. The huge globe, evidently
reflecting palely the sun's light, mounted upward more rapidly than
the moon ever crossed the heavens.
"All nature has gone mad!" gasped Professor Henderson at length. "Have
we discovered a new celestial body? I never heard of such a thing--so
near to us, too! Come, hurry on, boys. Let me get and mount the
telescope. This new mystery must be solved."