THE WORK OF AN ENEMY
Jack's first act, on arising from amid a mass of tools, into which he
had been tossed by the explosion, was to run to where Professor Roumann
lay in a semi-conscious condition. An instant later Mark slowly arose,
and made his way to where Professor Henderson was rubbing his forehead
in a dazed fashion.
"Are you hurt?" asked Mark, of his aged friend.
"I think not," answered Mr. Henderson slowly, "but I fear Mr. Roumann
is. See to him; I'm all right."
"He's breathing," cried Jack, who had bent over the German. "He isn't
dead, at any rate."
"But he may be, unless he gets attention," said Professor Henderson.
"Get my medicine chest, Mark, and we'll see what we can do for him."
Jack had raised the head of the injured man on his arm, and was giving
him some water from a glass. This partially revived the German, and he
opened his eyes. He looked around, into the faces of his friends, as if
scarcely comprehending what had happened, and then, as his gaze
wandered toward the disabled Cardite motor, he exclaimed:
"Some enemy has done this! The motor was tampered with. The resistance
block was loosened, and that caused the force of the Cardite to shoot
out at the rear. We must watch out for the work of this enemy!"
"Don't distress yourself about that now," urged Mr. Henderson. "Are you
badly hurt? Do you need a doctor?"
The German slowly drank the rest of the water which Jack gave him, and
then gradually arose to a standing position.
"I am all right," he said faintly, "except that I feel a trifle dizzy.
Something hit me on the head, and the fumes from the Cardite took away
my breath for a moment. I think I shall be all right soon."
"Here is the medicine chest!" exclaimed Mark, coming back into the
engine room. Mr. Henderson poured out some aromatic spirits of ammonia
into a graduated glass, added a little water, and gave it to his
fellow, inventor, who, after drinking it, declared that he felt much
better. There was a cut on his forehead, where a piece of the broken
motor had struck him, but, otherwise, he did not seem injured
externally.
As for the boys, they were only stunned, nor was Mr. Henderson more
than momentarily shocked. In a few minutes the German professor was
almost himself again.
"We must try to discover who our enemy is," he said earnestly, as he
looked over the disabled motor. "He might have blown up the whole
projectile by tampering as he did with the machinery. Had I been
testing the large, instead of the small motor, there would have been
nothing left of the _Annihilator_, or us, either. Who could have done
this? If that crazy machinist is around again----"
"I don't believe he could get here from Mars," interrupted Jack, with a
smile.
"Hardly," added Mark.
"No, I guess he is still on the Red Planet, so it couldn't have been
him," went on Mr. Roumann. "But it was some one."
Jack and Mark at once thought of the odd man who had sent Mark the
note, and then had run away.
"Could it have been him?" suggested Jack.
"It's possible," remarked Professor Henderson. "We must be on our
guard. I wonder if Washington----"
At that moment there sounded a violent pounding on the exterior of the
projectile, and the voice of the colored man could be heard calling:
"Am anything de mattah? Andy Sudds an' I is out heah, an' we heard
suffin goin' on in dere. Am anybody hurted?"
"It's all over now, Wash," replied Jack, for the two boys, and the two
professors, had shut themselves up in the projectile while they
conducted the experiment. Jack opened the door of the _Annihilator_ and
stepped out, being met by the colored man and the old hunter.
"You haven't seen any suspicious characters around, have you, Wash?"
asked Mark. "Some one has been tampering with a motor, and it exploded."
"Nobody's been around since I've been here," announced Andy Sudds, with
a significant glance at his gun.
"Maybe it's some ob dem moon-men, what don't laik de idea ob us goin'
dere arter dere diamonds," volunteered the colored man.
"Perhaps," admitted Jack, with a smile. "But certainly some one has
been around here who had no business to be, and we must find out who it
was. Better take a look around, Wash."
"I'll help him," said Andy, and, with his rifle in readiness for any
intruders, the old hunter followed the colored man outside the big shed.
Meanwhile Professor Roumann and Mr. Henderson were carefully examining
the exploded motor.
"I should have looked at the breech plug before turning on the power,"
said the German, "but I had no reason to suspect that anything was
wrong." He went on to explain that the explosion was something like
that which occurs when the breech-block of a big navy gun is not
properly in place. The force of the Cardite, instead of being directed
against the piston-heads of the motor, shot out backward, and almost
into the face of the professor, who was operating the machine.
"But what could be their object?" asked Mark. "Who would want to injure
us, or damage the projectile?"
"Some enemy, of course," declared Jack. "But who? The crazy machinist
is out of it, and as for that man who sent the note to you, he seemed
too big a coward to attempt anything like this."
"Some one evidently sneaked in here and loosened the breech-plug," went
on Mark, "and it was evidently done with the idea of delaying us. The
enemy could not have desired to utterly disable the projectile, or else
he would have tampered with the large motor, instead of the small one."
"Yes, the object seems to have been to delay us," admitted Professor
Henderson; "yet, I can't understand why. Whoever did it evidently knows
something about machinery."
"I hope they did not discover the secret of my Cardite motor," said
Professor Roumann quickly.
"They hardly had time," declared Mark. "We have been in or around the
projectile nearly every minute of the day, and whoever it was, must
have watched his chance, slipped in, stayed a few seconds, and then
slipped out again."
They went carefully over the entire projectile, but could find no
further damage done. Nor were there any traces of the person who had so
nearly caused a tragedy. Washington and Andy, after a careful search
outside the shed, had to admit that they had no clews.
"Well, the only thing to do is to go to work and build a new small
motor," announced Professor Roumann, after once more looking over the
_debris_ of the one that had exploded.
"Will it take long?" asked Jack.
"About two weeks. Fortunately, I can use some of the parts of this one,
or we would be delayed longer."
"Still two weeks is quite a while," suggested Mark. "Perhaps there'll
be no diamonds left on the moon when we get there, Jack," and he smiled
jokingly.
"Oh, I fancy there will. The article in the paper from Mars says there
was a whole field of them."
"This brings up another matter," said Professor Henderson. "What will
happen if we bring back bushels and bushels of diamonds?--which, in
view of what the paper says, may be possible. We will swamp the market,
and the value of diamonds will drop."
"Then we must not throw them upon the market," decided Professor
Roumann. "The scarcity of an article determines its value. If we do
find plenty of diamonds, it will give me a chance to conduct some
experiments I have long postponed because of a lack of the precious
stones. We can use them for laboratory purposes, and need not sell
them. In fact, with the Cardite we brought back from Mars, we have no
lack of money, so we really do not need the diamonds."
It was decided, in view of the shock and upset caused by the explosion,
that no further work would be done that day, and so, after carefully
locking the shed, and posting Andy on guard with his gun, the boys and
the professor went into the house to discuss matters, and plan for work
the next day.
"Mark," said Jack in a low voice, as they followed the two scientists,
"I think it's up to us to try to find that mysterious man who sent the
note. I think he did this mean trick!"
"So do I, and we'll have a hunt for him. Let's go now."