*CHAPTER VII.*
*FACING A MERCURIAL STORM.*
That our lives were preserved and the car saved from destruction was dueto two circumstances, one of them most peculiar and of far-reachingimportance.
The lesser of the two circumstances was this: the car had not dropped tothe plain, but had had its downward rush intercepted by an elevation, sothat the force of our fall was just about half what might have beenexpected.
As to the other and more vital circumstance, the fall itself was notwhat it would have been on our own sphere. The "pull" of gravity onMercury, as we afterward discovered, has only one-third the power it hason Terra. To this phenomenon were due many wonderful things, as thereader will discover before we have gone very far.
I was not the first of our party to open his eyes after the landing, forwhen I sat up and stared about me I saw the professor moving around thesteel chamber and ministering to the others.
Gilhooly was creeping toward the divan on all fours, muttering somethingabout "a great slump in the market" and chuckling over the way in whichhe had "got out from under."
J. Archibald Meigs was groaning and trying to lift himself on his elbow;Augustus Popham was on his knees, wobbling erratically and apparentlyundecided whether to say his prayers or to try and get up; HannibalMarkham was flattened out along the floor, the professor kneeling overhim and chafing his temples.
"What sort of a navigator are you, Quinn?" asked Meigs crossly. "Bygad, it is more dangerous to make port with you than it is to sailthrough space."
"Don't blame the professor for a fault of mine, Meigs," I spoke upwarmly.
The broker looked at me with something like contempt.
"I blame him for placing an incompetent and irresponsible person at suchan important post as the switch board," said Meigs. "He should haveknown that a man who holds your distorted views on the subject ofpersonal property is not to be trusted."
"That's right," added Popham, lifting himself to the divan.
"Gilhooly made an attack on me," said I. "He bore me down and camewithin one of strangling me."
"Quinn is the cause of Gilhooly's abnormal condition," persisted Meigs,who was bound to have Quinn at fault for every evil that overtook us.
I got up, rather more wrathful than the situation demanded. The fallhad jarred my temper no less than my body, and I was in a mood to havethe business out with Meigs at close quarters.
"Softly, Mr. Munn!" cautioned the professor. "It is well to have a deafear for these gentlemen at times. Help me lift Mr. Markham to thedivan."
The professor's words dispelled my anger. Without another word to MeigsI went over and assisted in getting the food trust magnate into a morecomfortable position.
Markham was not long in recovering, and when we took stock of ourselveswe found that we were not much the worse for our shaking up. Quinncalled to me to go upstairs with him and see if any havoc had beenwrought there.
We found that no particular damage had been done to the instruments orother material. When we descended to the lower chamber, after anabsence of fifteen or twenty minutes, Meigs had the key in the steeldoor and was standing at the entrance with Popham and Markham on eitherside of him.
"Where did you get that key?" demanded the professor, one hand gropingin his pocket.
Heretofore he had been careful to keep the key upon his person. Smallwonder that he was now surprised to find it in the possession of Meigs.
"I found it on the floor," replied the broker with a good deal ofdignity. "Probably you lost it out of your pocket when you fell fromthe stairs a few minutes ago."
"What are you intending to do?" asked the professor quietly.
"Professor Quinn, sir," returned Meigs with elaborate condescension, "wehave reached the parting of the ways. While we were traveling throughspace, I and my friends could do nothing less than bear with yourcompany, and with that of the rogue at your side; but now that we aresafely moored on Mercury, and can debark, we see fit to withdrawourselves and renounce further intercourse with you."
"Ah!" murmured Quinn, a slow smile hovering about his thin lips.
The smile caused some acerbity to manifest itself in the three gentlemenat the door. They drew themselves up haughtily.
"Quinn," went on the broker sharply, "you lured us into your castle andabducted us from our native orb, with small regard for the feelings ofour relatives or friends, and no consideration whatever for the businessinterests with which we were engaged; so----"
"Your business interests had my every consideration," interrupted theprofessor.
Meigs took no notice of the remark.
"So," he continued, "remembering these wrongs, we feel that we can nolonger associate with you. As for Munn"--here he turned a fastidiouseye in my direction--"he is utterly impossible to men of our socialstanding. This planet, you tell us, is three thousand miles indiameter. May we request that you and Munn take one end of the diameterand leave the other end to us?"
The professor laughed softly and seated himself.
"Sit down, Mr. Munn," said he. "We have been ostracized by ourfellow-exiles. Let us see how well they get along without us."
"We bid you farewell," finished Meigs loftily.
Thereupon he turned the key, threw open the door--and dropped on thethreshold as though he had been shot! Markham and Popham cried aloud,threw their arms across their faces and reeled back.
A blast as from a furnace drove in at the opening, filling the chamberlike a draft from Hades. I could scarcely breathe in the stiflingatmosphere.
"Hurry, Munn!" cried Quinn. "Drag Meigs away from the door or he'll beburned to a crisp!"
The broker was already smoking when I caught his ankles and jerked himinside. The professor slammed the door.
Presently the air within the car readjusted itself to normal conditions.Meigs, red as a beet and breathing heavily, was little the worse for hiswarm experience.
"I fancy, Mr. Meigs," cooed the professor, "that you will wish to availyourself of one of my anti-temperature baths before cutting loose frommyself and Mr. Munn. There is plenty of water left for all of us, and Iwill go aloft, set up the collapsible tub, and make the bath ready. Wehave alighted in the tropics, evidently, and at the period ofmid-summer. The temperature is about five hundred degrees, fahrenheit."
With that the professor took the key from the door to keep Gilhooly frommaking a dash outside, and started for the storeroom. I followed him,the three disgruntled gentlemen gazing after us mutely.
The professor and I were the first to fortify ourselves with theanti-temperature bath. After dipping our bodies, we rinsed our clothingin the liquid.
Aside from a pleasant, cooling sensation the bath gave no evidence ofits potent qualities. There was no hardening of the skin, as I fanciedthere might be, no change in its ruddy color, no inconvenience.
When we went down again we sent the other three gentlemen aloft, theprofessor instructing them as to the necessity of making their clothingas well as their bodies proof against the climate. In due course,Popham, Meigs, and Markham once more showed themselves.
Gilhooly, of course, had also to be made immune; and he struggledagainst it so fiercely that we were obliged to hold him in the tub whilethe professor poured three buckets of the mixture over him.
He was not disrobed, and when sufficiently drenched he leaped from thetub and fled, raving, to the lower chamber.
"Now," said the professor, "we are prepared to fare forth. Yougentlemen"--he addressed himself to Markham, Meigs, and Popham--"may gowith Mr. Munn and me, or keep by yourselves, as you may elect. But itwill be well to make this car our headquarters. Here we have food anddrink, also a stronghold in case of attack by the Mercurials--if therehappen to be any."
"How can there be any life in such an over-heated atmosphere?" inquiredMarkham.
"Nature is a great leveler of barriers," replied Quinn. "She is able toadjust life to its environ
ment, you may be sure, just as easily as shecan bridge the social chasm that separates a thief from a trustmagnate."
His eyes twinkled.
"Such a bridge," he added, "would not prove much of a tax on herresources. For my own part, I do not think the chasm either so wide orso deep as you gentlemen appear to imagine."
I chuckled at that, and Meigs and his two companions grew dulyresentful.
"As for Mr. Gilhooly," continued Quinn, "we cannot take him with us onour tour of observation. It will be best to leave him locked in the car.I will close the trap leading into the store-room and I do not think itwill be possible for him to work much damage in the room below."
"I don't know what good it will do me to go out with your exploringexpedition," said Popham dejectedly; "in a country as hot as this therecan be no earthly use for coal."
"Or wearing apparel," added Meigs listlessly. "Cotton couldn't grow insuch a temperature. And as for wheat!" He shook his head wearily.
Cotton and wheat were the abc of his Wall Street experience. Beyondthose commodities he groped in the dark.
"What sort of food can be grown on such a sun-baked planet?" grumbledMarkham.
The railway man was shouting something about watered stock, and hisbabbling was wafted up to us.
"Gilhooly," added Markham, "is the only fortunate man in the party.Realization will blast the hopes and mayhap prove the death of the restof us, while he--he cannot realize!"
"You gentlemen lose courage too quickly," said the professor. "In mylectures on Venus I told you how that planet was inclined to the planeof its orbit. The axis of Mercury has a still greater inclination; infact, the orb leans on itself as though about to fall. Its days are ofabout the same length as the days of Terra--only three minuteslonger--but its years, owing to its contracted orbit, are much shorter.In eighty-eight days Mercury makes its round, so that each season isonly twenty-two days in length.
"At the poles of Mercury, in what answers to the polar regions of ourown earth, there must be a more tempered climate----"
"Then let us get there, by all means," cut in Popham.
"In whatever we do," answered Quinn, "we must make haste slowly."
"Let's get out and look around, anyhow," cried Meigs. "It may happen,after all, that we have a world to conquer here, and I have not thepatience to remain longer in this steel cell of yours."
"Very good," returned the professor. "We will make our preparations andgo forth."
He shut off the flow of oxygen from the tank and then followed the restof us to the under apartment, closing a steel door over the trap at thehead of the stairs and locking it. Gilhooly, imagining himself aconductor, was walking around the edge of the circular divan collectingtickets from imaginary passengers.
"Sing Sing!" he called out as the professor unlocked the door at theentrance and pulled it open.
"Here's where you get off, Munn," said Meigs maliciously.
"Here's where we all get off," returned the professor, smiling.
Thereupon we passed hastily into the blinding glare of the Mercurialday. For several minutes our eyes rebelled at the brightness; whenfinally they became inured to it, we looked around us upon a desolationthat struck dismay to our hearts.
We saw then that our car had alighted upon an elevation which wasnothing less than the rim of an extinct volcano of vast proportions.From ridge to ridge across the abysmal crater at least half a mile couldbe measured.
It was beyond the power of our eyes to penetrate to the black depths ofthe great pit.
"Listen!" cried the professor, his voice resounding so thunderously asalmost to deafen us--some trick of the atmosphere.
We stood silently, our ears alert, and heard a confused babel of soundproceeding apparently out of the very core of the volcano.
"Sub-Mercurial fires may be at work down there," whispered theprofessor, nodding toward the crater.
Even the whisper sounded unpleasantly loud to us.
"What a world!" came from Augustus Popham in bellowing tones. "Withfire within and without, what chance is there for life, liberty, and thepursuit of happiness?"
Some of Meigs' peevishness had got into the coal man, and he rent theair with it. We remained mule after this outburst, I with my gazehopefully on the professor and the professor blinking at the sun.
In a little time I allowed my own eyes to falter zenithward, and theglory of the sun in Mercury's mid-heaven has ever since been one of thetreasured memories of my life. Its disk was six times its diameter asviewed from Earth, and the grandeur of its flaming surface is beyond thepowers of my feeble pen to make known.
I was oppressed and held captive by a feeling of awe and wonder. Therewas a red tinge to the atmosphere, caused by a reflection from the redof the planet's brick-like crust; through this warm color pulsed thegolden streamers--yellow and scarlet overhead, fading to faintest orangeon the horizon.
"Think you, Mr. Popham," murmured the professor, his voice awakening usas from a trance, "that all yon splendor, which has been in these skiesfor ages upon ages, was created for the enjoyment of no living thing?If so, you are wrong. There are now, as there have always been, beingswith an intelligence capable of appreciating all this magnificentprofusion of light and color. But enough. We have looked down into thecrater and up into the heavens; suppose we turn our eyes another way andsee what there is to offer."
He faced about as he spoke, and gazed down the bare rocky slope of thevolcano and off across an equally bare and forbidding plain.
"No trees, no water, no life of any kind," muttered Meigs querulously.
"There is a bright spot over there," said Quinn, shading his eyes andpointing.
Our eyes followed his finger and encountered a glittering object on aslight elevation. As we gazed, the object, whatever it was, slowlyvanished.
"We might investigate that," suggested Popham excitedly. "Perhaps itwas a Mercurial wearing a sort of armor to protect him from the heat.It may be that there are people here, and that they live underground."
He would have started forthwith, but the professor stretched out a handand detained him.
"Just a moment," said Quinn. "Before we get too far from the car, letme make sure that all of you are sufficiently immune from the heat. Doyou feel that you are fully protected in that respect, gentlemen?"
So far as I was personally concerned, I had not felt the slightestinconvenience from the sun's rays. I declared as much, and the otherslikewise so expressed themselves.
"There's another one of the things!" spoke up Meigs, pointing in anotherdirection.
We were just able to detect a glow on another low elevation when it alsoflashed into thin air. Then we began looking for the little hills, andcounted no less than a dozen within our range of vision.
Some of the hills were capped with the mysterious gleam, which dazzledfor a time and then twinkled out.
The professor was perplexed, as I could see plainly.
"We'll examine one of those hills," said Meigs, "and find out what thismeans."
The top of the volcano, where we were standing, was perhaps five hundredfeet from the plain. As Meigs spoke, he leaped for a rock a yard or sobelow him.
To the astonishment of all of us, he rose in the air like a humanballoon, soared over the rock by a score of feet, and alighted severalrods down the slope.
It was a titanic jump, but Meigs had regained a foothold with thelightness of a piece of down. He was a large man, was Meigs, hisponderosity exceeding two hundred pounds, Fairbanks.
He was as much surprised at his agility as we were, and began to essayvarious feats. He leaped straight upward, gaining a maximum height of adozen yards and returning lightly and easily to his original position.
Next he coupled his leap with an aerial somersault, and carried on withan abandon much beneath the dignity of a Wall Street broker, as itstruck me. In fact, he acted like a schoolboy out for a holiday, and sofull of animal spirits he hardly knew what to do with himself.
/> "You'd think he belonged to a circus," observed the disgusted Popham."I'll go down there and put a stop to the performance."
"And I'll go along and help," added Markham, visibly distracted becauseof the broker's folly.
They started down the steep with rod-long steps; and presently one wouldhave thought they wore seven-league boots from the amount of speed theydeveloped.
Instead of putting a stop to the broker's performance they joined in.By and by they were playing leapfrog, every bound taking them forwardhalf a hundred feet.
"Gravity here is far from having the force it has on Terra," remarkedthe professor. "Exertion comes easy and gives most astonishing results.Those men, Mr. Munn, are not used to such activity, yet their marvelousgymnastics do not seem to tire them in the least. Suppose that weourselves make a test of the Mercurial gravity?"
I needed no second bidding, and Quinn and I took the descent asbuoyantly as thistle-down before the wind. Somehow the lightness of ourheels got into our heads, and the staid professor and myself begancavorting like a pair of ten-year-olds.
The delightful freedom of movement, was as novel as it was exhilarating.Liberty of muscle bred license of mind; had we been smoking opium wecould not have acted more outrageously.
Nor was there any fatigue apparent. I felt that I could have run ahundred miles in as many minutes and never paused for breath.
Carried away by the wonderful effects of diminished gravity, we forgotall about our projected investigation of the little hills. In the midstof a game of tag we were suddenly brought to our senses with a roundturn.
A pall had fallen over the landscape. The sun was blotted out by inkyclouds, and a tremendous wind began to blow.
"We must get back to the car!" cried Quinn.
His voice, great in volume though it was, was all but drowned in theshriek and roar of the blast. The lightness that had afforded us somuch enjoyment in still air now became a source of grave danger, for wecould not keep our feet in the fury of the tempest.
"Merciful powers!" roared Popham, as he and Meigs were driven againsteach other with a terrific impact.
Although sorely put to it to keep myself from being blown away, Imanaged to cling to a rock and watch the weird gyrations of the twomillionaires. Their collision had caused them to lose their footing,and, clinging desperately to each other, they were hurled back andforth, touching the ground now and then, only to rebound from it likerubber balls. And all the time this ground-and-lofty tumbling was goingon both men were whooping frantically for some one to come to their aid.
I was too hard beset to think of leaving my place of temporary refuge,and it was only when I saw the professor and Markham, their right handsclasped, staggering toward the two men, that I made up my mind to jointhem. Three of us, in a chain, might be able to do something towardrescuing Popham and Meigs.
Breathing deep, like a swimmer about to plunge through a whirlpool, Icast myself adrift and allowed the wind to drive me in the direction ofthe professor and Markham. No matter how strongly I braced backwardagainst the blast, every time I lifted a foot I was hurled onward andalmost overturned. Finally, more by good luck than anything else, Icame close enough to catch the professor's hand.
"Popham and Meigs will be killed if we can't get to them!" shoutedMarkham.
There were eddies in the wind, like those in the swift current of astream, and Popham and Meigs had become entangled in them. Had theybeen blown off on a straightaway course, they would long since have beentoo far away for us to do anything toward laying hands on them andgetting them upright.
The professor had taken note of the gyratory movements of our haplesscompanions, and he called upon Markham and me to plant ourselves asfirmly as possible and remain in our present positions. This was easiersaid than done; yet, by calling upon every ounce of our reservestrength, we contrived, after a fashion, to keep our places.
Popham and Meigs were bounding and leaping through the arc of a greatcircle. All we had to do was to remain where we were and wait for them.
They came to us in mid-air, and we had literally to reach up and pullthem down. For a space the five of us were tangled in an indiscriminateheap, our united weight offering greater resistance to the wind andgiving us an opportunity to rest and collect our scattered wits.
"Join hands," cried the professor, "and we'll get under the lee of thatrock. Careful, now! We must not get separated again."
By desperate work we succeeded in getting to our feet and claspinghands; then, hurled and buffeted, we gained the rock and fell breathlessunder the leeward side of it.
"What a place, what a place!" groaned Popham.
"I wish Venus hadn't been out of our course," wailed Meigs. "Certainlywe couldn't have been any worse off there than here."
"No wonder nothing can grow on this sun-scorched world," growledMarkham. "Even if plants could stand the heat such a wind would pullthem up by the roots."
"What are we to do now?" demanded Popham. "You got us into this, Quinn,and you've got to get us out of it."
"Now's a good time for you three to go off to the other side of theplanet," I remarked. "Whenever there's danger, you suddenly realize thatyou can't get along without the professor. Oh, you're a fine lot ofnabobs, you are."
"Peace, Mr. Munn," called the professor. "We have enough to occupy ourminds without wasting time in useless bickering. I was at fault, for Iknew what terrible gales visit this planet, and that they come suddenly.It was a mistake to venture so far from the car."
"A mistake," breathed Meigs, with some heat, "that came near havingtragic consequences. Popham and I were knocked about like a couple offootballs."
"What's to be done, what's to be done?" cried Popham impatiently. "Thegale is increasing, and who knows but this rock may be plucked up bodilyand rolled over us? We can't stay here."
"That is true," said the professor. "We must get back to the car."
"There's no telling what will become of us if we try that," calledMarkham.
"And there's no telling what will become of us if we remain here,"answered the professor. "If we form a chain, it is quite possible thatwe may succeed in getting back to our refuge."
"Even the car may not be able to stand up against this wind," clamoredMeigs.
"We shall have to take our chances with it, nevertheless," went onQuinn. "If we should get separated, each of us must make the bestpreparations he can to weather the gale, and then, when it has blownitself out, hunt for the car. That must be our rendezvous during thetime we are here."
The professor got up slowly, bracing himself against the fierce swirlthat came around the side of the rock.
"Come," he called; "it is now or never."
I could see that the gale had increased alarmingly. Its force seemedirresistible, and yet I knew that we could not remain where we were.
We clasped hands again, but were unable to cling together, being liftedhigh and thrown helter-skelter in all directions. Lightningflashed--such lightning as I have never seen before or since.
It snapped and crackled overhead and ran like trailing serpents over therocks. We were in a sea of flame.
And the thunder! It seemed to split the heavens and crack open thelava-like hills. Rain came; yet not rain, for it turned to damp vaporin the red-hot atmosphere. The Mercurial elements were at war--wind,steam, thunder, and lightning all marshaling their hosts and charging toconflict.
To regain the steel car was impossible. We were lost in the fearsomefury of darkness and storm, driven helplessly and with smashing forceacross the vast plain.
I was hurled against something which I gripped with convulsive energy.The something gripped me in return.
"Help!" I cried, bereft of my wits and eager only for rescue.
"Munn!" shouted a voice. "Is this you?"
"Quinn!" I exclaimed.
"We must hang together." said Quinn.
And then, tightly locked in each other's arms, we were lifted high on abillow of fog and
driven relentlessly I know not how far.
When the blast released us, we fell to the rocks and rolled over andover; then the surface beneath us gave way and we dropped.
The distance we fell could be only a matter of guesswork, and evenguesswork was out of the question in the disordered state of our mindsat that moment. Suffice to say the fall did not render us unconscious,and we struck on something that vibrated under the impact of our bodies.We were still in blank darkness, and the turmoil of the tempest nolonger beat about us, but could be heard crashing somewhere overhead.
"Thank Heaven!" murmured the professor, withdrawing himself from me."Are you alive, Mr. Munn?"
"I believe so," I answered. "What has happened to us, professor?"
"We have been flung into some sort of a shelter, it seems to me," hereplied.
"But we are not on stable ground," he added. "We are sitting on anobject that is descending with us, descending rapidly and--ah, wonder ofwonders!"
Abruptly we fell into broad day, surrounded by such sights and soundsthat I thought myself dealing with the mysteries of a disordered dream.
Adrift in the Unknown; or, Queer Adventures in a Queer Realm Page 7