close to him to point out the peculiar upsweep of his blue-tipped
eyebrows, Yank’s big red tongue came out of his mouth and scraped along
Mr. Garland’s cheek.
The teacher blushed at the renewed laughter as he wiped his face with
his handkerchief. Ted was worried lest Mr. Garland hold Yank’s behavior
against him. But the teacher was a good sport and said, with a grin,
“You win, Yank. Better take him outside, Ted. This will have to conclude
our study of Martian color bears for a while!”
Ted took Yank outside and tied him beneath the classroom window so that
he could watch him every now and then. Ted knew what the animal must be
thinking: “Please let me in! I’ll behave myself.”
When Ted returned, the class was quiet again. Mr. Garland set up the
projector for a color movie on American history. But this was not merely
a history lesson. The children were told to study the costumes and
architecture. It was actually several studies in one.
When the picture was over an hour later, Ted was blinking his eyes to
accommodate them to the harsh daylight again when one of the children
cried out, “Look!”
Every eye in the room did look. Following the pointing finger, they
turned their gaze to one of the transparent side walls. There was Yank
standing with his button nose pressed flat against the plastic, just
like a small child looking out a glass window. This brought another
round of laughter from the class. On this note, Mr. Garland dismissed
the class for lunch.
That afternoon, as Ted, Jill, and Randy were about to leave for the day,
Mr. Garland called them back just as they reached the door.
“Oh-oh,” Ted murmured with dread. “He’s going to give it to us now for
bringing that little cutup to school!”
Meekly the three of them stood in front of the teacher’s desk. He looked
up at them and smiled. “I don’t think that little bit of fun hurt us
this morning. But please don’t bring Yank back again! I’m afraid one day
of him is all I can stand.” He looked outside where they could see Yank
seated on the ground.
He smiled again, and the relieved children grinned back. They had
started toward the door, when Ted, who was looking back, pulled Randy
and Jill to a stop.
“Listen,” he said. He turned them around and they heard part of a
conversation Mr. Garland was having with one of the other pupils that
might very well work to their benefit.
“Did I hear that boy say he couldn’t make the trip?” Jill whispered
excitedly.
“I thought he did,” Ted replied.
They waited expectantly, hoping that the teacher would look up and call
them back. Ted felt a new surge of hope rise in him when Mr. Garland
finally motioned to them. The boy, meanwhile, had left.
“I’ve just had a cancellation,” Mr. Garland told them. “Randy, you can
make that trip after all, if you want to.”
“Do I?” Randy burst out, his face beaming. He fumbled around in his
pocket for the check his father had given him. Then he pulled out the
rumpled slip of paper.
The instructor smoothed it out and wrote Randy’s name on the list. The
children left the room and walked happily down the hall.
“That was a swell thing you did, Randy,” Jill said, “giving up your
place to one of us. I’m so glad that you really can go!”
[Illustration: “_Please don’t bring Yank back._”]
“I’m glad too,” Randy admitted. “After all we talked about last night, I
sure wanted to go badly!”
Yank hopped around excitedly as he saw his friends coming up to release
him.
“You’ll never see this place again, Yank,” Ted said to him sternly, as
he untied him. “I guess you’re just not cut out to be a school pupil.”
For this remark, Ted got a juicy lick on the side of his helmet.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
_Trouble in the Air_
Dr. Kenton arrived home the following afternoon. Ted could see that he
was a very different person from the one who had set out. His father
looked tired and beaten. Even the special meal of fresh fruits and
vegetables from their garden failed to interest him very much.
As they were eating supper, his wife asked him, “Why was this expedition
so important to you, John?”
“I suppose I had counted too much on its being a huge success,” the
scientist replied. “Then too, I thought it would solve that
all-important question of the disappearing ancient Martians that’s been
puzzling us ever since the first landing was made here ten years ago.”
“There’ll be other expeditions,” Mrs. Kenton said encouragingly. “Some
day you’ll find the answer, I’m sure.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Dr. Kenton said. But Ted could see that his father
was very downcast because of the expedition’s failure.
“I wish I had known you were coming when you did,” Mrs. Kenton said to
her husband. “I would have invited Mr. Matthews to eat with us. You knew
that Randy had found his father, didn’t you?”
Ted was glad to see his father smile as he turned to Randy. “Yes, we got
the news,” Dr. Kenton said. “I’m sure glad for you, Randy. You see, it
never pays to give up hope. I’ll be pleased to meet your father.”
Just then Yank came bounding in from the living room. The bear had taken
to the taste of lettuce leaves, and Ted would occasionally slip him a
leaf from the table. Yank sidled up to Ted, where he sat next to his
father, eyeing the crisp leaves on the boy’s plate. Yank’s other eye was
cast warily at Dr. Kenton, whom he still appeared not to regard as a
close friend.
“When are you and I going to be friends, Yank?” the scientist said as
Ted handed the bear a green leaf. He reached out to pet the little
Martian animal, but Yank drew back. “I can’t understand your attitude,
young fellow.”
Ted thought this the proper moment to bring up a very important matter.
“Dad,” he began, “Jill and Randy and I have signed up for a sight-seeing
plane tour of Mars with our school class. Mom says it’s all right for us
to go if you agree.”
Dr. Kenton thought a moment, and Ted felt doubtful. Then his father
said, “I think it would be a grand thing for you. You can get a lot
better picture of this planet from the air than you ever can from the
ground.”
“Goody, we can go!” Jill cried out.
Ted felt like shouting himself, for now the last barrier had been
removed and they were going for sure.
The next week found twenty-five eager students stepping into a sleek jet
craft from the roll-away ladder at Lowell Harbor. Randy and Ted found a
double seat together, and Jill sat with a girl friend. When all the
passengers were in, Mr. Garland said that they could remove their space
helmets.
When all were seated, they waved to their parents and relatives who
stood on the ground.
“I’m as excited as if I’d never made a trip like this!” Randy said.
“I’m excited too!” Ted admitted. He didn’t add that he had scarcely
slept the night before because he was in such a dither of anticipation.
Mr. Garland told the children to fasten their safety belts, as they were
almost ready to take off. In a few minutes they felt the ship moving
beneath them. Ted waved a final farewell to his parents and Mr.
Matthews, for he had a seat beside the window. When they waved back, Ted
felt a little uneasy. It was the first time he had ever been away from
his folks. He wondered fearfully if something would happen on the flight
so that he would never see them again.
Swiftly the rocket plane picked up speed. Then, with a whoosh of jets,
it launched itself into the air.
“We’re off!” one of the boys shouted gaily.
Soon Lowell Harbor was only a small circle in the red desert behind
them, and the vast stretches of wilderness began to come into view. Mr.
Garland pointed out the important natural formations as they cruised
along. By now almost all of Mars had been accurately mapped. There were
miles and miles of wind-ribbed sand dunes with rows of furrows like a
farmer’s carefully seeded fields.
Ted had never before realized the wonder of the canals until he saw them
from this height. They were straight as arrows, and some were tremendous
in size, even dwarfing the majesty of the Grand Canyon of Arizona. It
caused him to wonder again about those very accomplished engineers of
the ancient past who had built them and had since so mysteriously
disappeared.
Ted recognized much of the landscape from their geography study. Some of
the ocher-red deserts and forests had been named far back in the past
before the twenty-first century. They passed over the great oasis of
Solis Lacus and the dense woodland of Mare Sirenum. But always there
were canals, and more canals, draining the great icecaps and supplying
the entire planet.
“Isn’t the sky pretty?” Jill said to Ted and Randy who were sitting
behind her. “It seems we’re closer to the stars when we’re off the
ground.”
Ted had to agree with her. The heavens were a deep gorgeous violet, with
the starlight pulsing softly through. They traced the slow movement of
Phobos, the timeteller, and they could also pick out the distant tiny
moon, Deimos, that resembled a white arc light.
The hours passed all too quickly for the eager sight-seers.
“We’re over the Great Martian Forest,” Mr. Garland told them late that
afternoon. “It’s the end of the line. After we’ve covered this, we’ll
start back.”
Ted looked groundward, seeing what resembled a colossal, sprawling beast
spread out in all directions. Ted shuddered at the sight. Many explorers
had been trapped in this terrible wilderness and had never come out
alive. Wild animals, blind trails, and carnivorous whip plants were
thought to have destroyed them.
Suddenly someone called out as he pointed down, “Look, what’s that
moving?”
All stared where he pointed. In an open space inside the forest,
numerous creatures were rolling along like a tide.
“They’re blue rovers,” Mr. Garland said. “They’re something like the old
American bison that roamed the plains of the United States.”
More strange animals were seen, and still the plane was not out of the
huge forest. If anything, the jungle grew even more densely, and now
rocky cliffs and shallow gorges could be seen among the thick
vegetation. Mars had no extremely deep or high natural formations such
as the Earth had.
“Most of the forest turns brown in the winter,” Mr. Garland addressed
his students, “but when the polar cap melts in the spring, everything
pops out green again.”
Ted knew that the seasons were twice as long on Mars as they were on
Earth, even though the days and nights were just about the same. How
frightfully cold must be the winters, he thought. But on the other hand,
what a long, nice summer to enjoy!
Finally the dense growth began thinning out again as the outer fringe of
the forest was reached. Suddenly, without warning, the plane careened
sharply on its side. Some of the students were flung out of their seats,
and they screamed in terror. Mr. Garland, who had been standing by a
window, was thrown backward onto the floor. When the ship had righted
itself, Mr. Garland climbed slowly to his feet.
“Anybody hurt?” the teacher asked.
No one else appeared to be, but Ted saw Mr. Garland grimace in pain. He
seemed to have injured his ankle.
“Mr. Garland, _you’re_ hurt!” Ted said.
“Never mind me!” the instructor said. “Put your safety belts
on—quickly!”
His students did so, and then the plane started bucking again. Poor Mr.
Garland was flung against the wall this time, but he recovered himself
and hobbled into the pilot’s cabin to see what was wrong. Ted heard his
classmates babbling in fright all around him. He and Randy tried to
quiet Jill’s mounting terror.
“Take it easy,” Ted said to her. “It may not be anything serious.”
Mr. Garland was back in a few minutes, and Ted could see that his face
was grave.
“We’ve got to bail out, kids,” he told the class grimly.
“Into that?” cried one of the boys, pointing to the forest below.
“We’ve no other choice, the pilot tells me,” Mr. Garland replied, his
voice shaky. “There’s a fire in the jets, and we can’t crash-land
without wrecking the plane.”
Terrified, the students stared at him, as though they still could not
believe what he was saying.
“He says there’s an open space ahead of us where we can parachute down,”
Mr. Garland went on. “He’s sending a message for help now. We’ve got
enough supplies and air to last us until a search party comes from
Lowell Harbor. There’s no cause for alarm.”
There was no more time for talk. Despite his obviously painful injury,
the teacher quickly distributed chutes and showed the children how to
put them on. The chutes were specially designed for use in Mars’s rare
atmosphere. Next, space helmets were donned. Then Mr. Garland lined the
children up with their rip cords fastened to an overhead cord for
automatic opening of the chutes when they jumped. Ted, his sister, and
Randy had stayed together, and they found themselves the first three in
line to jump.
Chutes with supplies had been shoved out first by hand, and then Mr.
Garland signaled to Ted for the first jump. Things had moved so swiftly
that Ted hardly had time to become scared. Randy and Jill seemed to feel
the same way. The ship was still jerking erratically and plumes of smoke
swirled about. The oval door was open, and Ted saw yawning space beneath
him. At Mr. Garland’s word, he took a deep breath and sprang out. He
felt the straps on his back yank him sharply as the chute popped open.
[Illustration: _Down, down he went._]
Down, down he went. Finally he glanced upward and saw two other
parachutes above him. They would be Jill and Randy, he thought. He
looked groundward again to see where he was heading. Just as Mr. Garland
had said, a flat open space lay beneath.
Once more he glanced upward. There were still only two other chutes
above. Where were the others? Hadn’t they jumped too? Then he spied the
ship at a considerable distance away. It was careening downward as
though heading for a crash!
Ted felt a sick tug in his stomach. It looked as though the three of
them were the only ones who were going to escape alive. The ship must
have gone out of control before the others could jump!
CHAPTER NINETEEN
_Terror in the Night_
As soon as Ted reached the ground, he made for the spot where he had
seen the supply chutes land. If these were lost, especially the one with
the spare air cartridges, Randy and Jill and he could never survive
until help came.
Ted ran down a dusty ravine. His eyes searched clumps of bushes and
spiky cactus, and a momentary panic came over him. The chutes were not
in sight. Just then he was aware that a strong wind was blowing. The
chutes had probably carried farther than he had thought. He searched
some more, and his heart quickened with joy when he found the two
parachutes within yards of each other, half buried in the sand beyond a
big boulder.
As soon as he had found these, he thought immediately of Randy and Jill.
He should have seen them by now. He returned to the spot where he had
come down, but they were nowhere around. A new terror crept into his
breast. Could the wind have carried them farther up into the forest,
possibly into the dangerous part where the brush grew dense as jungle
and deadly whip plants thrived? The wind was stronger than ever now, but
he ducked into it and renewed his search.
He made a thorough examination of the territory all around, but after a
half hour’s time he still had not located Jill and Randy. For the sixth
time he returned to his original spot where he had left the parachutes
of supplies. By now the blood red of approaching sunset was filling the
sky, and grotesque shadows were creeping over the ground.
Ted could not remember when he had felt any more depressed and lonely
than he did at this moment. He could imagine all sorts of terrible
things happening to his sister and friend. By now, the wind had died
down. Thank goodness the blow had not brought on one of those violent
dust storms, he thought.
Suddenly he heard a noise overhead that quickened hope in him. It had
sounded like the drone of a plane! He leaped to his feet from where he
had been slumped on the ground and searched the darkening starry sky.
Yes, there was a plane! He could hardly believe it when he saw that the
number on the wedge-shaped wing was the same as that of the ship from
which he had bailed out. That meant that the plane had not crashed after
all!
As the plane roared overhead, he ran back and forth and waved his hands
frantically to get the attention of someone in it. To his dismay the
plane kept on going and presently was lost in the approaching twilight.
He thought the world had ended for him now. Jill and Randy were gone,
and hopes of rescue too. But then he heard a crashing of bushes near by.
His heart thudded against his ribs in fear. He was remembering that wild
animals inhabited this district, and he was totally unarmed.
Then he heard his name called. A moment later Randy and Jill came
running up! He was never so glad to see two people in his life as he was
then.
“What happened to you?” he asked them.
“The wind carried us down into the forest a little way,” Jill answered.
“Oh, Ted, I was scared to death! Those whip plants throw out arms like
an octopus at anything that comes near them! I almost got caught by
one!”
Ted showed them the chutes that held spare air cartridges and food.
Unfortunately, Mr. Garland had thrown out only a few supply chutes, not
all of them.
They had never eaten with space helmets on, but they had learned about
the tiny air-lock opening in the facepiece of the helmet that made this
possible.
“These will last us through the night,” Ted said. “I don’t know what
we’ll do after that. A search party probably won’t get here that quick.”
Just then Jill heard the plane returning. Ted hurriedly explained that
this was the one they had been on and that it had not crashed after all.
He said that all three of them should run back and forth and wave like
everything to try to attract their attention this time.
Ted thought that the plane had missed them again, but then he saw it
bank and head back toward them. The ship circled overhead for several
minutes, and the children saw a parachute drop out. They followed the
chute to the ground with their eyes and ran over to it.
“Here’s a note,” Ted said, untying an envelope from the chute. He opened
it. “It says: ‘Open the long case and you will find a walkie-talkie
radio in it. Turn it on, and we’ll speak with you.’”
They did this. Then Ted spoke into the mike, “Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” came Mr. Garland’s voice. “We had just about given up hope of
sighting you. The ship went out of control just after you three jumped.
But the fire in the engine burned out soon after, and the pilot regained
control. We should be able to get back to Lowell Harbor all right, even
though we’re crippled. Are you three hurt?”
“No, sir, just scared,” Ted answered.
“We’ll send you down all the rest of our air cartridges and more food
and water,” the teacher went on. “They’ll last you through tomorrow, and
by that time a search party should be back in a helicopter. We can’t
possibly land, ourselves, because of the terrain and our damaged engine.
I’d come down myself to stay with you, but my ankle is broken and I’m
afraid I wouldn’t be much help. However, if you want me to....”
“I think we’ll be all right,” Ted said bravely, yet feeling an
encroaching dread even as he said it.
“There’s an electron rifle and flashlights in with the other stuff,” Mr.
Garland said. “I don’t think anything will bother you, though; otherwise
I wouldn’t leave you alone. Most of the animals stay back in the
thickest part of the forest.”
“Will you be going now?” Ted asked.
“Yes, there’s no way else we can help you except send rescuers as
quickly as possible,” Mr. Garland declared. “Whatever you do, don’t
leave that spot.”
That ended their conversation. Presently the other supply chutes filled
the air, and Randy and the two young Kentons retrieved them. Then,
lonesomely, the three watched the plane disappear into the sunset.
“I’m afraid,” Jill murmured, casting an anxious glance around her at the
forbidding woodland.
“I am too, Sis,” Ted confessed. He looked at Randy, and his eyes were
enough to tell that he was frightened too.
They looked around for some place of protection overnight. As the sun
disappeared behind a distant ridge, they found a shallow opening under a
clump of rocks that would shield them on three sides at least. Then they
ate from a food packet, and after this they admitted that they felt
better.
“If we get through this night safely,” Ted said, “we’ll probably make it
all right.”
At last darkness set in. Phobos was making one of his frequent trips
across the heavens, but his light was weaker than moonglow on Earth.
However, it seemed to Ted that it wasn’t quite so lonely now, with the
sky burning with its millions of cold lights. Yet it was still
frightening to know that the three of them were off by themselves in
probably the most perilous region of Mars.
They decided it was best not to use their flashlights unnecessarily,
lest they attract wild beasts. They kept the atomic rifle handy in case
it was needed in a hurry. Ted suggested that two of them sleep while one
stood watch. Jill said she’d like to take the first watch because she
was too nervous to sleep anyhow.
Ted was just about to doze off some minutes later when Jill’s scream
blasted into his radio and brought him springing to his feet.
“There!” Jill said, pointing.
Randy too was wide awake now, and the three of them stared,
fear-stricken, across the dark drifts at a giant creature which stood at
a distance looking at them. The light of Phobos and the stars was bright
enough to show his awesome outline.
“What is it?” Ted whispered to Randy.
“It’s an elephant ant,” Randy whispered softly. “See that trunklike
sucker on its head? Get the gun, Ted. These things are mean.”
Ted caught up the atomic rifle and set it for fire, thinking all the
while how Mr. Garland had missed his guess about their not being
troubled by animals. Slowly the enormous insect approached the opening
in the rocks. It was indeed the height of an elephant. Ted could hear
the rustle of its hard-shelled body as it walked nearer.
The Martian animal’s slowness up until now deceived Ted, for, without
warning, the insect broke into a rapid run. Bravely Ted tried to take
careful aim and protect the two unarmed ones with him. But even as he
fired the gun, Jill bumped him in her mad dash to escape the oncoming
horror.
Ted saw a blinding glare that lit up the scene for a moment as brightly
as noonday. In that shocking instant Ted got a vivid view of the
elephant ant, its brown spindly legs and antenna shining glossily, its
curling trunk out-thrust at them menacingly. But as the blast of the
rifle died out and the ant continued to charge, Ted knew he had missed
his mark.
[Illustration]
There was no time to fire again. Ted couldn’t carry much, but he dropped
his useless weapon and gathered up the spare air cartridges. Then
swiftly he darted after Jill and Randy, who seemed to have found a way
of escape. He saw them disappearing through a narrow passage beside the
rock. He was glad to see that Randy had managed to hang onto one of the
flashlights and was leading the way with it.
Ted didn’t know how long they ran up and down rocky inclines and
gullies. But they seemed to be leaving their enemy behind. They ducked
in and out of clutching vines and creepers. More than once, Ted dropped
one of the bulky air tanks, but he retrieved them, for they were the
most precious things they possessed. Finally he caught up with Randy.
“Help me take these!” he urged Randy.
The boy took some and they hurried on after Jill, whose fear seemed to
have given her unusual speed. At last they reached the point where they
could punish themselves no longer. Jill had fallen exhausted to the
ground, and Ted felt as if he were ready to drop too. If the ant reached
them now, it simply couldn’t be helped. Ted had sacrificed the rifle for
the precious air cartridges, but he was not sorry he had done so.
They sprawled breathlessly on the ground, their chests heaving, their
eyes staring fearfully in the direction they had come. Any instant they
expected to see the horrible creature bearing down on them again. But
after several minutes, during which time the animal had not appeared,
Ted felt they had eluded it. For the first time since the terrifying
adventure, he felt that he could relax.
And yet he could not relax, really, even now. For the balance of the
night still lay before them.
CHAPTER TWENTY
_Lost Underground_