ON THE WING AGAIN
There was no member of the party who was not amazed and disturbed by
the strange happenings of the last few hours. The earthquake and
volcanic disturbances, followed by the outburst of the geyser, and now
capped by the appearance of a new and wondrous planet on the northern
horizon, were happenings calculated to make more than Washington White
shake with terror.
What Professor Amos Henderson really thought about this new celestial
body it would be hard to tell. While the others chattered in their
amazement--after his first statement--he remained strangely quiet.
But the moment the party reached the spot where the flying machine
rested he went at once to the locker where he had stowed the very
powerful telescope that he had insisted upon bringing with them from
home. With Washington's help he was an hour in setting up the telescope
and properly adjusting it, while the boys and Andy worked steadily
upon the repairing of the flying machine. Roebach had loosed his dogs
again and threw them the last bits of fish he had for them, and they
were fighting over the putrid flesh at one side. The oil man watched
the repairs with interest. He had agreed to travel as far as Aleukan
with the party and there hire fresh Indians and sleds, hoping to find
these dogs on his return. He had to have assistants and provisions
before he could go on with his work for the Universal Oil Company.
"Merely that yonder oil-shoot turned into a mud-bath doesn't feaze
him," chuckled Jack to Mark. "Earthquakes and volcanoes don't seem to
bother that chap any more than they do the professor."
"Just watch him now," suggested Mark, suddenly.
"Watch who--Roebach?"
"The professor," explained Mark.
The old gentleman was certainly deeply interested at that moment in
his study of the great pale globe that was rising toward the zenith
so much more quickly than any moon that the boys had previously seen.
The professor was crouched at the mirror of the telescope gazing into
it through the powerful lens. Suddenly he threw up his hands and
staggered back from the instrument, turning a pallid face upon his
companions. "What done happened yo', Perfesser?" cried Washington
White. "What done skeer yo' now? Dis suah am de startlin'est place dat
we ebber got into. Gollyation! Ain't dat moon risin', dough?"
"It is no moon!" declared the professor.
"A most mysterious thing," Mark said. "Is it some great planet out of
its orbit, sir?"
"It is a planet--of course it is a planet," admitted the professor,
going back to his telescope with eagerness.
"And how light it is getting--almost like day," said Jack. "No moonlight
was ever like this."
"Why, we're not as far away from that planet as the moon is from the
earth," said Mark. "Suppose it bumps us?"
"All the more reason for our getting the _Snowbird_ into flying
shape," responded Jack. "Maybe we'll be able to escape the bump!"
"You can laugh," grumbled Mark. "But I don't like the look of that
thing."
"Evidently the professor does not like it, either," agreed Jack. "See
him now."
Professor Henderson was gazing first into the telescope and then drawing
upon a paper before him. For several minutes he was thus engaged.
Finally he beckoned the boys to him.
"What do your eyes tell you that looks like?" he demanded of Jack and
Mark, pointing to the outline he had drawn upon the paper.
The boys gazed on his drawing in surprise. It was Jack who exclaimed:
"Why, Professor, that looks a whole lot like an outline map of the
Hudson Bay Territory, Canada, and Newfoundland. There's the mouth of
the St. Lawrence, sure! What are you doing?"
"I have been drawing," said the gentleman, solemnly, "an outline of
what I see upon that luminous body floating there in space," and he
pointed a trembling finger at the strange planet.
"Impossible!" cried Mark.
"I do not think I am losing my mind," said the professor, testily. "It
remains, however, that the outline of certain bodies of water and of
land upon that luminous globe seem to be the exact counterpart of
land-bodies and water-bodies on the Earth."
"But what does it mean?" questioned Jack.
"If I knew that," grumbled the professor, returning to his instrument,
"I should feel better satisfied."
That some strange--some really wonderful--change had taken place in
their physical surroundings, too, there could be no doubt. But what
it was the boys could not imagine. Of one thing they were sure, however:
The law of gravitation had been partly overcome. And a second fact was
discernible: There was a surprising rarity to the air they breathed,
and had been since the fall of volcanic ashes had ceased.
In lifting the heavier tools they handled it was noticeable that they
seemed lighter. And Andy Sudds surprised them all, when it became
necessary to roll a log out of the way of the flying machine, by seizing
the heavy timber and lifting it with the ease with which one might
lift a small sapling.
"We've all become strong men--professional strong men," gasped Jack.
"Wash is the champion jumper and Andy beats old Samson, I declare!
What do you make of it, Mark?"
"If the professor cannot explain it, don't expect me to do so," returned
his chum.
"It am de seriousest question dat has ebber come befo' us," declared
Washington, looking wondrous wise. "Disher jumpin' has always been in
ma fambly, howebber. We had some great jumpers down Souf befo' de War."
The boys hurried to finish the repairs. It was some time after midnight
when they pronounced the _Snowbird_ again ready for flight.
The professor had to be urged more than once to leave his telescope,
however; and then he insisted upon setting it up on the deck of the
flying machine. He would not discuss the situation at all; but his
serious visage and his anxious manner betrayed to them all that he
was disturbed indeed by the strange, pale planet he had so closely
examined.
Mr. Roebach turned loose his dogs again and climbed gingerly aboard
the flying machine.
"I've never been up in the air," he said, "and I must admit that I am
somewhat more afraid of a flying machine than I am of an earthquake."
"No more earthquakes in mine, thank you!" cried Jack. "I'd rather sail
on a kite than go through what we did yesterday."
They had studied the chart and laid the course for Aleukan without any
difficulty. Now Jack strapped himself into the operator's seat and the
others took their places, Washington White stowing his rooster carefully
amidships as he had before.
Jack started the motor and the _Snowbird_ began to quiver throughout her
frame. He touched the lever by which the propellers were started. With a
whir and a bound the flying machine left the earth.
Never had it sprung into the air so quickly before. It shot up at a
sharp incline and was over the tree-tops in a breath. The indicator
registered eighty miles an hour before the plateau was behind them.
Then the pointer whirled to ninety--to a hundred--to a hundred fifteen
miles an hour, and both Jack, in the pilot's seat, and the others
gasped for breath.
Faster than when shot out of Professor Henderson's catapult the
_Snowbird_ winged her way into the northwest. Jack managed to keep her
on an even keel. But he had the same feeling that he would have had, had
he been hanging to the bit of a runaway horse.
Indeed, the _Snowbird_ was practically out of his control.