CHAPTER IV
A Flashing Cylinder
Joan was caught in the mighty whirl of the blizzard, her parachuteopened with a spurt, and she was jerked back and forth like a featherwhile large chunks of ice shot against her face with sufficient forceto lacerate the skin. She was a brave girl but now a great fearoverpowered her, and she sent out a wild cry of terror.
Her scream reached the ears of her brother over the howling storm, andhis heart went dead. What was happening to Joan? Would it be possiblethat she could still have a thread of her parachute left, and that thewind was ripping it apart?
With feverish eyes he sought in every direction. He could not see her.Then he realized how puerile his thoughts were. If he chanced to seeher there was nothing that he could do to aid her.
Both parachutes had been made to stand up against hard storms, andthey held notwithstanding the fact that they were whirled over andover in the rushing air.
After that one wild shout of fear Epworth heard nothing more fromJoan, and now his own danger was such that he had little time to worryabout her. He had to give his own chute all his mind. Drifting swiftlyhe was held up by the wind that got under his parachute. Frequentlythe umbrella tilted and he thought that it would turn inside out buthis weight held it down in proper shape, and he raced onward. Suddenlya mountain of snow and ice shot up in front of him. He was on the peakso quickly that he had little time to think or act. Would he beslammed against a jagged rock by the terrible wind, and his headsmashed, or would he be dropped into a deep crevasse from which therewould be no possible escape—a place where he would freeze quickly orelse starve?
He was blown over the summit with a scarce twenty feet to spare, andfelt himself falling. He had not fallen far before he discovered thatthe mountain sheered off at this point with a deep precipitous cliff.This cliff shut off the wind, and he began to fall slowly. Lookingdown he saw no bottom. He was still in the air.
A sudden gust of wind, a wild shriek and something bumped against him.Before he realized what was taking place a pair of arms passed aroundhis waist, and clutched him spasmodically. He recovered his surpriseinstantly, and in turn threw his arms around Joan in order that theyshould not be separated. The two parachutes had bumped together in aneddy, and now the ropes were entangled so that they could not separateif they desired. With a gentle hand he pulled the girl up to hislevel.
“Oh, very well,” she said calmly, when she discovered the situation,“we will die together. It is best.”
She was cold, wet, frightened, but was taking her medicine like asoldier.
When he looked around the blizzard seemed to be losing its force. Heunderstood the reason. They had been blown over the top of themountains and were falling on the opposite side, and the mountainsshut off the wind. As they fell steadily and their parachutes becamemore stable he realized that so far as the storm was concerned theywere safe.
But what would they fall into? He could not look down and see butpresently they slipped into a deep recess in the mountains, and thenoise of the blizzard slackened materially, and they began to descendfaster. Epworth felt as if he wanted to guide the things that wereholding them up to a soft spot—if there was such a thing in this wild,terrible country—but he was helpless. All he could do was to hold hissister, and look wild-eyed in all directions.
They were laced together beyond separation, and this gave him comfort.They would land together; they would meet the same fate; and perhapshe might be able to save her from death after all.
Now he looked toward the north, and saw some mountains free from snow.How could this be in this land of perpetual ice? He glanced down, anddiscovered that they were falling into a valley several miles longprotected by four immense peaks. As they descended lower the airbecame milder, the intense cold, which almost froze his face,decreased perceptibly, and the wind stopped entirely.
Looking upward he saw the blizzard covering the sky with a sheet ofsnow; looking down he saw green spruce trees, and a stretch of sand.
“Snap into it, Joan!” he exclaimed cheerfully, sweet hope springing upin his heart. “We are going to make a safe landing.”
Joan opened her eyes and shivered.
“A-a-are—we—dead?” she gasped. “This is too awful for life.”
She lifted her head and looked around, and when she saw the ruggedmountains she blanched, but made no comment. He caught her suddenly inhis arms and lifted her above his head.
“W-w-what are you doing?” she whispered faintly. “Let me——”
They landed on a stretch of soft sand before she finished her remark,and he ran with her for a few steps and stopped. Then, still holdingher, he cut the cords that bound them to the two parachutes. Relievedof their burden the parachutes tumbled away and disappeared.
When they were able to stand steadily they discovered that they hadstopped just in time to keep from going over and down another steepprecipice.
“I see,” Joan grumbled, “trying to keep me from being hurt. I willhave you know, Mister Man, that I take my share of all the dangers.”
Epworth did not answer. He was looking down into a deep valley alivewith men, women and children—a valley heated by slow, splutteringvolcanic fires that came up out of the earth. While he was stillstaring there came a muffled explosion, a humming noise, and thereflashed into the sky a streak of bright aluminum. It shot upward withsuch swiftness that it was barely visible for a fraction of a second,leaving behind a somewhat lurid trail that hung in the air for asecond and then disappeared.
“W-w-what was it?” Joan gasped.
Epworth gave no heed to the question. He was staring, open-mouthed atthe spot where the cylinder came from. He was still staring when itseemed to him that the earth opened, and another flash of aluminumshot into the sky, followed by a muffled explosion.
“W-what the Sam Hill?”
Epworth could get no farther. His astonishment choked him.
The Moon Colony Page 4