CHAPTER XXI.
A PENGUIN HUNT.
Although, as may be imagined, a closer watch than ever was kept duringthe period of darkness, nothing more was seen that winter of themysterious light. The dim twilight preceding spring began to appear inFebruary without there being any recurrence of the mysteriousincident. The coming of the season in which they hoped to accomplishsuch great things, found the camp of the adventurers in splendid trim.Everyone from Captain Hazzard down to the professor's albatross, whichby this time had become quite tame, was in fine health, and there hadbeen not the slightest trace of illness among the adventurers.
The motor-sledge was put together as soon as the September springbegan to advance, and was found to work perfectly. As it has not beendescribed in detail hitherto, a few words may be devoted to it at thispoint.
It was a contrivance, about twenty feet long by three wide, supportedon hollow "barrels" of aluminum. The sledge itself was formed of avanadium steel frame with spruce planking, and was capable of carryinga load of a thousand pounds at thirty miles an hour over even thesoftest snow, as its cylindrical supports did not sink into the snowas ordinary wheels would have done. The motor was a forty-horse powerautomobile machine with a crank-case enclosed in an outer case inwhich a vacuum had been created--on the principle of the bottles whichkeep liquids cold or warm. In this instance the vacuum served to keepthe oil in the crank-case, which was poured in warm, at an eventemperature. The gasolene tank, which held twenty gallons, was alsovacuum-enclosed, and as an additional precaution the warm gases fromthe exhaust were inducted around it, and the space used for storingextra cans of fuel.
Specially prepared oils and a liberal mixing of alcohol with thegasolene afforded a safeguard against any sudden freezing of the vitalfluids. The engine was, of course, jacketed, but was air-cooled, aswater circulation would have been impracticable in the polar regions.
The test of the weird-looking contrivance was made on a day in earlyspring, when, as far as the eye could reach, a great solid sea of icespread to the northward, and to the south only a vast expanse of snowylevel was visible,--with far in the distance the outlines of somemountains which, in Captain Hazzard's belief, guarded the plateau onthe summit of which perhaps lay the South Pole.
The Southern Cross lay sheathed in ice, and the open sea, throughwhich she had approached the Great Barrier, was now a solid ocean ofglacial ice. If it did not break up as the spring advanced theprospect was bad for the adventurers getting out that year, but atthis time they were too engrossed with other projects to give theirultimate release much thought.
But to return to the motor-sledge. With Frank at the steering wheel infront and Harry, Billy Barnes, the professor, and Rastus distributedabout its "deck," it was started across the snow, amid a cheer fromthe men, without a hitch. So splendidly did it answer that the boysdrove on and on over the white wastes without giving much thought tothe distance they traversed.
With the return of spring, Skua gulls and penguins had becomeplentiful and in answer to the professor's entreaties the boys finallystopped the sledge near a rookery of the latter, in which the queerbirds were busy over the nests. These nests are rough piles of stones,on which the eggs are laid. Soon the chickens--fuzzy little browncreatures--appear, and there is a lot of fuss in the rookery; thepenguins getting their families mixed and fighting furiously over eachsmall, bewildered chick.
It was egg-laying time, however, when the boys rolled up on theirqueer motor-sledge to the neighborhood of the breeding ground theprofessor had espied. The man of science was off the sledge in atrice, and while the boys, who wished to examine the motor, remainedwith the vehicle, he darted off for the penguins' habitat.
With him went Rastus, carrying a large basket, which the professor hadordered him to bring in case they needed it to carry back any finds ofinterest.
"Perfusser, is dem dar penguins good ter eat?" asked Rastus, as he andhis learned companion strode through the snow to the rookery.
"They are highly esteemed as food," was the reply. "Former expeditionsto the South Pole have eaten them and declare that their flesh is asgood as chicken."
"As good as chicking!" exclaimed Rastus, delightedly. "My, my, yo'make mah mouf watah. Don' you fink we could ketch one an' hev africassee, perfusser?"
"I am only going in search of eggs and would, of course, like to catcha flea--a penguin-flea, I mean," said the professor; "and I should notadvise you to meddle with any of the creatures, Rastus."
"Why, dey look as tame as elingfants in de Zoo," protested the coloredman, as he gazed at the penguins, who in turn gazed back at him withtheir beady black eyes.
"Yes, and ordinarily they are, but in the breeding season they getsavage if molested, although it is safe enough to walk among them."
"Huh," grunted Rastus to himself; "dis yer perfusser am a fusser fersho. Ef dem birds tas' lak chicking ah'm a-goin 'ter ketch one whilehe's a huntin' fer fleas and other foolishnesseses."
"What's that you said, Rastus?" inquired the professor, as they beganto thread their way among the piles of stones, each of which marked anest.
"Ah said de perfusser am a wonderful man wid his fleas and otherscientificnesses," rejoined the colored man.
"Ah, Rastus," cried the professor, highly flattered; "if I can onlycatch the fur-bearing pollywog, then I shall, indeed, have some claimon fortune and fame, till then--let us hunt penguin eggs."
In the meantime the boys were busy examining the motor. They foundthat the specially prepared oil worked perfectly and that, although itchanged color in the low temperature, it showed no disposition tofreeze. The gasolene, too, was successfully kept at the righttemperature by means of the vacuum casing of the tank.
"We could go to the pole itself in this motor-sledge," cried Billy,enthusiastically.
"How would we pass the mountains?" asked Frank, pointing to the south,where stood the snowy sentinels guarding the mystery of the Antarctic.
"That's so," agreed Billy, hurriedly. "That's a job for the GoldenEagle."
"And she's going to do it, too," rejoined Frank, earnestly. "That isif it is humanly possible."
"You bet she is," began Harry, enthusiastically.
"Hullo, what's happened to the professor now?" he broke off.
Indeed, it seemed that some serious trouble had again overtaken theluckless naturalist.
"Oh, boys! boys!" came his cries from the direction of the penguinrookery. "Help! The menguins are plurdering us--I mean the penguinsare murdering us!"
"Fo' de Lawd's sake, come quick!" came a yell in Rastus's tones."We're done bin eated alive by dese yar pencilguins."
The rookery lay in a slight depression and was not visible from wherethe boys stood, so that they were unable to imagine what was takingplace.
"They are in serious trouble of some sort again," cried Frank. "Comeon, boys, let's go to their rescue."
The motor-sledge was soon speeding over the snow and in a few minuteswas at the edge of the declivity in which lay the penguin rookery.Gazing down into it the boys could hardly keep from laughing.
Indeed, Billy did burst into loud roars of merriment as he beheld thestrange figures cut by the professor and Rastus, as they strove toescape the onslaught of the whole colony of penguins, which, withsharp shrieks of rage were attacking them with their beaks and beatingthem with their wings.
"They Strove to Escape the Onslaught of the Penguins."]
"Oh, please, good Mistah Pencilguins, I didn't mean no harm," roaredRastus, who seemed to think the human-looking birds could understandhim. "Go afta' de perfusser, it was him dat tole me youalls tasted lakchicking."
"Stop that, you greedy black rascal," retorted the professor, layingabout him with the egg-basket. "If you hadn't tried to grab thatpenguin we wouldn't have been in this trouble."
This was true enough. The penguins had not seemed to resent theirnests being interfered with at all, but had gathered round theinvaders with much curiosity. The trouble all originated when Rastushad sneak
ed up to a small penguin while the professor was busyextracting an egg from a nest, and with a cry of:
"Oh, you lubly lilly chickin, ah hev yo fer supper, sho nuff," hadgrabbed the creature.
It instantly sent up a loud cry of fear and rage, which its matesseemed to regard as a battle cry, for they all fell on the rashinvaders of their realm at once.
As the boys dashed down the snowbank into the rookery, with theirrevolvers drawn, the professor, with a loud yell, fell backward into awell-filled nest. He arose with yellow yolks streaming from him andcovered with down, feathers and eggshell, that made him look like aspectacled penguin himself. Rastus fared no better and was beingbeaten and pecked unmercifully when the boys rushed down to therescue.
"Fire your revolvers in the air!" cried Frank. "Don't kill the poorthings."
"Fo' goodness sake kill dis big feller dat's a-peckin' mah nose off!"yelled Rastus, struggling on the ground in the midst of a mass ofbroken eggs.
The fusillade that went up from the boys' pistols made the penguinsstop their attack and waddle off in affright, while the professor andRastus, both sorry figures, scrambled to their feet and tried to brushoff some of the eggshells and yellow yolks that covered them from headto foot.
"Come on back to the auto," cried Frank, when he saw they were safe.
"What, aren't you going to kill some of the birds?" demanded theprofessor.
"No, certainly not," replied Frank. "What for?"
"Why they attacked us and frightened the life out of me," protestedthe professor.
"An' dem pesky pencilguins mos' bited mah nose off," roared Rastus,rubbing that not over prominent feature.
"Well, you had no business in their rookery, anyhow," rejoined Frank,unfeelingly. "Why did you go?"
"Why, my dear sir," said the professor, regarding him with sorrowfulegg-stained countenance; "in the interests of science, of course. Wewould not have been attacked at all if Rastus had not tried to catch apenguin. What for, I cannot imagine."
"Why, perfusser, you done say dey tas' lak chickin," ruefully criedthe black man.
"Did I?" exclaimed the man of science. "Well, bless my soul, so I did.That was very foolish of me. I ought to have known that Rastus wouldnot be able to resist such an idea."
"Ah dunno 'bout de idah," observed Rastus, as he cranked up themachine, and the boys and the professor climbed on board; "but ahcouldn' resis' de chicking."
Boy Aviators' Polar Dash; or, Facing Death in the Antarctic Page 21