by Roy Rockwood
CHAPTER XVIII
CAUGHT BY A STRANGE PLANT
"Washington is in trouble!" exclaimed Mr. Henderson. Followed by the twoboys he ran to where the colored man stood in a stooping position over asmall pile of stones.
"What is it? Has something bit you?" asked the scientist, as he came upon the run.
"No, but I can't git this stone up!" Washington said. "Look at what alittle stone it is, but I can't lift it. Something must have happened tome. Maybe some one put th' evil eye on me! Maybe I'm bewitched!"
"Nonsense!" exclaimed the professor, "what did you want the stone for?"
"Nothin' in particular," replied Washington, still tugging away at thestone, which was the size of his head. "I was just goin' t' throw it ata big bird, but when I went to lift it this little stone 'peared t' beglued fast."
Washington moved aside to give Mr. Henderson a chance to try to pick upthe piece of rock. As the scientist grasped it a look of surprise cameover his features:
"This is most remarkable!" he exclaimed. "I can't budge it. I wonder ifa giant magnet is holding it down."
He tugged and tugged until he was red in the face. Then he beckoned tothe two boys, and they came to his aid. There was barely room for themall to each get one hand on the rock, and then, only after a powerfultug did it come up. Almost instantly it dropped back to the earth.
"This is remarkable!" the professor said. "I wonder if the other stonesare the same."
He tried several others, and one and all resisted his efforts. It wasonly the small stones he was able to lift alone, and these, he said,were so weighty that it would have been a task to throw them anydistance.
"The water and the stones are strangely heavy in this land," he said. "Iwonder what other queer things we shall see."
"I saw a bird a little while ago, when I went to pick up that stone,"observed Washington.
"What kind was it?" asked the inventor.
"I don't know, only it was about as big as an eagle."
The travelers wandered about a quarter of a mile from the ship. Theyavoided the tall grass and the lofty nodding flowers that seemed to growin regular groves, and kept to places where they could walk withcomparative freedom.
"Have you formed any idea, Professor, as to the nature of this country?"asked Mark, who liked to get at the bottom of things.
"I have, but it is only a theory," Mr. Henderson answered. "I believe weare on a sort of small earth that is inside the larger one we live on.This sphere floats in space, just as our earth does and we have passedthrough the void that lies between our globe and this interior one. Ithink this new earth is about a quarter the size of ours and in somerespects the same. In others it is vastly different.
"But we will not think of those things now. We must see what oursituation is, whether we are in any danger, and must look to repairingour ship. There will be time enough for other matters later."
The travelers were walking slowly along, noting the strange things onevery side. As they advanced the vegetation seemed to become moreluxuriant, as if nature had tried to out-do herself in providingbeautiful flowers and plants. The changing lights added to the beautyand weirdness of the scene.
The plain was a rolling one, and here and there were small hills andhollows. As the travelers topped a rise Jack, who was in advance, calledout:
"Oh what queer plants! They are giant Jacks-in-the-pulpit!"
The others hastened forward to see what the boy had discovered. Jack wastoo eager to wait, and pressed on. The hill which sloped away from thetop of the little plateau on which he stood, was steeper than he hadcounted on. As he leaned forward he lost his balance and toppled, headforemost, down the declivity, rolling over.
"Look out!" cried Mark, who had almost reached his comrade's side.
The scene that confronted the travelers was a strange one. Before themin a sort of hollow, were scores of big plants, shaped somewhat like aJack-in-the-pulpit, or a big lily, with a curved top or flap to it.
The plants were about eight feet tall, three feet across the top, andthe flap or covering was raised about two feet. They were nodding andswaying in the wind on their short stems.
"He's headed right for one of them!" Mr. Henderson exclaimed. "I hopehe'll not fall into one of the openings."
"Is there any danger?" asked Mark.
"I'm afraid there is," the inventor added. "Those plants are a varietyof the well-known pitcher plant, or fly-trap, as they are sometimescalled. In tropical countries they grow to a large size, but nothinglike these. They are filled, in the cup, with a sort of sticky, sweetmixture, and this attracts insects. When one enters the cup the top flapfolds over, and the hapless insect is caught there. The plant actuallydevours it, nature providing a sort of vegetable digestive apparatus.These giant plants are the same, and they seem large enough to take in aman, to say nothing of Jack!"
With anxious faces the adventurers turned to watch the fate of theircomrade. Jack was slipping, sliding and rolling down the hill. He couldnot seem to stop, though he was making desperate efforts to do so. Hewas headed straight for one of the largest of the terrible plants.
In vain, as he saw what was in front of him, did he try to change thecourse of his involuntary voyage. Over and over he rolled, until, atlength, he struck a little grassy hummock, bounced into the air, andright into the opening of a monster pitcher plant.
"It has him!" cried Mark. "We must save him! Come on everyone!"
He raced down the hill, while the others came closely after him. Theyreached the plant into which Jack had bounced. The flap, or top piece,had closed down, tightly over the unfortunate boy.
"Quick! We must save him or he will be smothered to death or drowned inthe liquid the cup contains!" Mr. Henderson exclaimed. "Attack the plantwith anything you can find!"
"Let's cut through the side of the flower-cup!" suggested Mark. "Thatseems softer than the stem."
His idea was quickly put into operation. Andy's long hunting knife camein very handy. While the sides of the long natural cup were tough, theknife made an impression on them, and, soon, a small door or opening hadbeen cut in the side of the pitcher plant, large enough to enable ahuman body to pass through.
When the last fibre had been severed by Andy, who was chosen to wieldthe knife because of his long practice as a hunter, there was a suddencommotion within the plant. Then a dark object, dripping water, made aspring and landed almost at the feet of the professor.
It was Jack, and a sorry sight he presented. He was covered from head tofoot with some sticky substance, which dripped from all over him.
With hasty movements he cleared the stuff from his eyes and mouth, andspluttered:
"It's a good thing you cut me out when you did. I couldn't have held onmuch longer!"