04 Volcano Adventure

by Willard Price

  A puzzled look passed over the doctor’s face. He seemed surprised to find himself out of bed and standing. He turned out the light and crawled in.

  ‘What goes on?’ came the half-asleep voice of Roger.

  ‘Pipe down,’ warned Hal.

  The others were soon asleep again but Hal lay staring up into the darkness, wondering and worrying about the doctor’s strange behaviour.

  Why should the man be so terrified by an earthquake? Earthquakes were common in Japan. An average of four a day were reported, though most of them were too faint to be felt except by the seismograph. Especially a man who made a business of volcanoes should be used to such things.

  The doctor was no coward - Hal thought of how readily Dr Dan had faced danger during that exciting day. And yet, how about those two awful minutes at the edge of the crater when the doctor had frozen stiff as he looked down into the pit? When it was over he did not seem to remember what had happened but calmly descended into the crater at the end of a rope.

  It was all very puzzling. Could it be that at some time in the past the doctor had had a terrible experience in a volcano, had perhaps suffered mental shock or injury to his head or nervous system - something that would explain these moments when he seemed to lose all control of his actions? To Hal it seemed a dangerous situation - dangerous for the doctor and for Roger and himself. Were they going to explore fire-breathing volcanoes in the company of a half-crazy scientist? If he could just remain himself, there was no finer companion or abler volcano man. But suppose he lost his grip just at some critical moment? A bad accident might result.

  Hal wondered if he should talk to Dr Dan about it. But Dr Dan probably didn’t realize anything was wrong. If he had had a frightful experience, he would probably rather not talk about it.

  It might be better to say nothing to him. You could hardly step up to a man and say, ‘You’re crazy.’ Perhaps this shock, whatever it was, would wear off. In the meantime, thought Hal, he would just have to keep watch over the doctor day and night to prevent him from hurting himself or others.

  Anxiously pondering these problems, Hal lay awake the rest of the night.

  Chapter 7

  The diving bell

  Perched on camels, the volcano explorers jiggled and jounced their way up to the edge of another angry crater.

  The camel is not native to Japan; these animals had been brought from the Gobi Desert and for years had been used to carry visitors to the top of Mt Mihara.

  ‘What a view!’ cried Hal, scanning the sea below, dotted with steamers and sailing ships. Mihara stands on an island at the mouth of Tokyo Bay. At the north end of the bay lay the great city of Tokyo; to the west, blue mountain ranges; to the southwest, the beautiful cone of Mt Fuji. South and east stretched the mighty Pacific, speckled with islands.

  But Roger wasn’t looking at the view.

  ‘I wish this camel would stop trying to sharpen his teeth on me,’ he complained.

  The camel was continually turning its head to bite at Roger’s legs.

  ‘Don’t let him bite you,’ warned Dr Dan. ‘Camels don’t brush their teeth and their bite is poisonous.’

  Toguri and Machida had gone home, but Kobo, after a visit to his mother, had returned to spend a week with the volcano men. He was as happy now as he had been blue before. He kept chattering with anyone who would talk with him and was absorbing English as a sponge soaks up water.

  ‘How about that big surprise you promised us?’ Hal asked Dr Dan. ‘When are you going to tell us about it?’

  Dr Dan laughed. ‘Pretty soon you’ll see for yourself. But I can tell you a little now. You boys have been down in the sea in a diving bell. What would you think of going down into a burning crater in a diving bell?’

  The boys could only stare at Dr Dan. The question took their breath away.

  ‘When I was in Japan a year ago,’ went on Dr Dan, ‘I was talking with a Japanese friend of mine who is editor of a great newspaper, Yomiuri, He was asking about my volcano plans. I told him that I hoped some day to go down into Mihara crater. I would need something like the diving bells that are used at sea. Just as the diving bell is watertight so that it keeps out the sea, this would need to be airtight to keep out the poisonous gases.

  ‘The editor was much interested in my plan. He said his paper would like to work with me to carry it out. The Yomiuri would be glad to pay the cost of the experiment because it would make a big story for the paper. K I would tell them just how to do it they would construct the diving bell and have it ready for me on my return to Japan.

  ‘Now they have done as they promised and the bell is waiting at the edge of the crater.’

  ‘Has this sort of thing ever been done before?’ Hal inquired.

  ‘A few times. A man named Kerner went down 805 feet into the crater of Stromboli. Another explorer named Richard went down in a sort of wickerwork gondola into the crater of Raoung in Java - but he had a bad accident. The trouble was with his gondola. I think our diving bell will work very much better.’

  Hal could only hope fervently that the doctor was right. At least no one could say that Dr Dan lacked courage.

  Now the rim of the crater could be seen, a great column of smoke thundering up out of it.

  ‘There it is!’ cried Roger. At the edge of the crater a large object of steel and glass glittered in the sun and beside it was the crane that would lower it into the pit and bring it up again. A number of Japanese men were examining the steel-and-glass diving bell. The boys dug their heels into their camels’ sides and hurried to the scene.

  There they slid to the ground and were introduced by Dr Dan to Mr Sanada, editor of the Yomiuru and his friends.

  Dr Dan and the boys examined the diving bell. It was round, stood about seven feet high and was six feet in diameter. The lower part was of steel, the upper part of glass with steel supports. The steel was in two layers with an air chamber between. The glass also consisted of two panes with space between them, the purpose being to keep out the heat. The top was of steel and in the middle of the top was a large iron ring to which the cable was attached.

  Dr Dan opened the tightly-fitting steel door and went inside. A heavy asbestos mat covered the floor, and the walls and ceiling were also insulated.

  ‘I think you will find everything in order,’ the editor said. ‘You see we have put in a telephone so that you can keep in touch with us. If you get into any trouble just tell us and we will draw you up at once. And here is the dog.’

  At the end of a leash a small dog whined uneasily as the ground trembled under its feet and the explosions in the crater sent up clouds of smoke.

  ‘What’s the dog for?’ Hal asked.

  ‘The dog is a surprise to me,’ admitted Dr Dan. ‘But I think I know why Mr Sanada brought it. I had told him that when the man went down into Raoung he took a dog with him. A dog would warn him if there was any carbon monoxide gas. You see, this very deadly gas has no smell. It is heavier than air and therefore lies low. If any of this gas seeps into the bell it will lie near the floor and the dog will be affected first. When the man sees this happen he can signal to be hauled up before the gas rises in the bell high enough to kill him. It’s a good plan -except that it’s hard on the dog.’

  The little dog looked up at Dr Dan with pleading brown eyes and whined.

  ‘I think I’ll take my chances without the dog,’ Dr Dan said. ‘Now if you’ll give me that bag of instruments, Hal, I’ll get going.’

  ‘But you’re not going alone,’ objected Hal.

  ‘Why not?’

  Hal could not tell him why not. But the reason why not was very clear in his mind. Suppose the doctor should have one of his strange moments while in the depths of the volcano. Somebody must go with him. ‘You might need some help,’ Hal said. ‘I’ll go along.’ ‘Me too,’ chimed in Roger.

  Dr Dan smiled at them both. ‘I’ll make good volcano men of you yet,’ he said. ‘But you don’t seem to realize that this is a danger
ous experiment. The bell will go down all right but whether it will come up is another question. Any one of a number of things might happen. If you are still determined to go, Hal, I’ll take you. But there will be room for only two - Roger will have to stay topside.’

  Roger looked both relieved and disappointed. He was glad not to go down, yet sorry to miss the adventure.

  Hal and the doctor took their places inside the bell. The editor shook hands with them as if he expected never to see them again. The door was closed and locked. First Dr Dan tested the telephone. ‘Can you hear me, Sanada-san?’ Mr Sanada, with earphones clamped to his head, replied, ‘I hear you perfectly.’ ‘Very well. We’re ready to go.’ The crane’s motor whirred. The slack of the cable was taken up and the hook came tight on the ring with a clanking sound. The bell wobbled. The two men inside gripped a handrail on the wall to keep their footing.

  The bell left the ground and went straight up about ten feet, then it swung out over the crater. There it rested for a moment as if to give its occupants a last chance to change their minds.

  Hal had a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He suddenly hated to leave this beautiful upper world and go down into, who could tell what? He looked out to the white sails on the sea, the sweep of the Japanese mainland, and tranquil Mt Fuji in the distance.

  The Japanese were looking up from the crater’s edge. A little farther along, other visitors were reciting Buddhist prayers and throwing lighted incense sticks into the crater. They were worshipping the gods, gods very much like devils, that lurked at the bottom of the pit.

  Hal looked down through a small glass window in the floor of the bell. The sight made him a little dizzy. Red cliffs dropped away to unknown depths. As the swirls of smoke parted he could see hundreds and hundreds of feet down, and still no bottom. He felt as he had in dreams when he had stepped off a high precipice into space. This was almost the same, except that now he was not dreaming. Fire flashed far below, an explosion shook the mountain and the bell swayed. The thought of going down into that awful pit…

  But the doctor was calling over the telephone, ‘Lower away I’

  The bell began to descend. The doctor was already busy with his observations. He was looking at his pocket altimeter.

  ‘We are now 2,512 feet above sea level,’ he said.

  The far view disappeared. They were now below the edge of the crater. Down they went past the blood-coloured walls. Here and there were patches of bright green or deep blue. Everything went down in Dr Dan’s notebook.

  Now and then he called for a halt so that he could study the deposits more carefully. He made readings with his spectroscope. Then he looked again at the altimeter.

  ‘We’re one hundred feet down.’ On down. ‘Two hundred feet.’ Down, down. ‘Three hundred feet.’

  Hal was looking through the floor window. ‘There’s a ledge of rock projecting from the wall. I’m afraid we’re going to strike it.’

  ‘We may just be able to clear it.’ Dr Dan phoned to the men above, ‘Slowly, please. Very slowly.’

  But the bell could not quite get by the ledge. One edge settled on it and the rest of the bell began to tip over into empty space.

  ‘Stop!’ called Dr Dan. ‘Stop lowering.’

  The order was not obeyed quickly enough. The bell tipped farther, suddenly slipped off the ledge and swung out into space. It swung back and crashed into the wall with a shock that jarred and bruised the men and nearly smashed the thick glass. Out it swung again and in for another crash, but not so severe as the first. Three more bangs, and the bell swung without touching the wall.

  Hal, clinging to the handrail, forgot his own terror when he looked at Dr Dan’s face. It was very pale and the eyes began to stand out strangely.

  Hal put a hand on his arm. ‘Dr Dan, look! That geyser of hot water shooting out of the cliff. That’s something for your notebook.’

  The volcano man seemed to come to himself. He turned to look at the geyser and out came his little book. Then he grinned at Hal.

  ‘Ready to go on down?’

  ‘Ready if you are.’

  Four hundred feet down. Five hundred feet. Six hundred. Seven hundred. Still no bottom to be seen. Nothing below but the orange of the flames seen through coils of rose and blue smoke.

  Eight hundred feet. Nine hundred feet.

  As they neared the hidden lake of fire the bell was shaken more and more by the explosions. It was repeatedly thrown against the wall. Hal was thankful that the volcano was really not in violent eruption. If it had been it could have tossed this little steel-and-glass thing half a mile, into the air. Hal spoke his thoughts to Dr Dan.

  ‘Half a mile?’ said the doctor. ‘That would be easy. Mihara could do better than that if she really got down to business. In one eruption she threw rocks bigger than this bell three miles out to sea. Now there’s a strange deposit.’

  He was looking at some white object on a flat ledge.

  ‘Skeletons!’ exclaimed Dr Dan. ‘There must be three or four of them. It must have happened recently. Even the bones will crumble away quickly in this heat.’

  Hal wiped the sweat out of his eyes. In spite of the insulation, the heat inside the bell was becoming intense. The flames below were getting much too close. He had been sorry for the people who had fallen or jumped in -now he was beginning to be sorry for himself.

  The bell was not descending smoothly, but in jerks. Dr Dan spoke through the telephone.

  ‘Go easy, boys. No jerks. It’s not comfortable - besides it might break the telephone wires.’

  ‘The motor is giving us a little trouble,’ came the answer.

  Hal, in spite of the heat, felt a cold prickle in his backbone. What if the motor should conk out entirely and leave them down in the pit!

  Another hard jerk, and a snapping sound above. Dr Dan looked up anxiously. He spoke into the telephone. ‘Hello! We’ve descended far enough. Haul us up now! Hello! Hello!’

  There was no answer. The wires had snapped. It was easy to understand what had happened. The cable supporting the bell could stand the jerks, but the telephone wires which ran up alongside the cable had not been able to bear the strain.

  Did the men above realize that the wires were broken? If so, they would immediately haul up the bell. But the bell kept going down. It went more smoothly now and the men were probably congratulating themselves on having fixed the motor.

  A thousand feet down and still descending. The heat was suffocating. White-hot lava bubbled out of cracks in the cliff. Eleven hundred feet down. Impossible to signal for a stop.

  ‘Our only chance is that they’ll try to use the phone and find it doesn’t work.’

  Twelve hundred feet. Now they could plainly see the lava lake close below. It was a raging sea of orange and vermilion lava, boiling, rolling over upon itself, leaping up in bloody fountains. Mammoth bubbles threw up fireworks around the bell. The explosions were deafening.

  Hal felt as if he must cry out. He must scream as the doctor had in the night. He looked at the doctor, expecting to see terror in his face. But the doctor was too busy to be frightened just now. He was making notes. He would probably keep on making notes until the bell sank into the blazing lake.’

  The bell jerked to a stop. Perhaps the men at the crane had tried to use the telephone and found no connection. The bell wavered and waited for what seemed a long time. Then it began to rise.

  Dr Dan pulled out his altimeter, and made a note in his book. He showed the note to Hal.

  ‘Total descent, 1,250 feet.’

  He grinned with the happiness of a scientist who has done his job well. Whether they would get back safely to the top did not seem to worry him.

  It worried Hal a lot. The bell jumped like a scared cat when explosions went off beneath it. The sudden blasts sent it bouncing against the cliff, then spinning and swinging in space. He noticed that at one point the outer layer of glass was broken. If the inner layer also was smashed, the poisonous gases woul
d pour in.

  Sky-rockets soared up through the smoke and a volley of rocks struck the bottom of the bell. There was a long rumbling and then a terrific crash as if a hundred locomotives were meeting head-on. The crater god lifted the bell as easily as if it had been a baseball and hurled it against the cliff. Broken glass tumbled into the bell. Smoke and gas flooded in through the gaping hole.

  Hal stuffed his shirt into the hole. It was not a very good cork. Some gas would come through it and around it. But if the crane motor didn’t fail and if there was nothing to interrupt their ascent they might reach the top in time.

  The light was changing from firelight to daylight. Now and then they could catch a glimpse of the sky through the smoke. But Hal’s rising hope was checked when Dr Dan reminded him of the ledge on which they had stuck during the descent.

  ‘Well strike it again on the way up,’ said Dr Dan. ‘If we hit it too hard we might break the cable. Too bad I can’t telephone those fellows to slow down.’

  He had hardly finished speaking when the roof of the cage struck the ledge with a jarring bump and the bell’s ascent was checked. Fortunately the cable still held. But the margin of the rocky shelf firmly pressed down upon the roof of the bell so that further ascent was impossible.

  ‘I was hoping we could slide by,’ said the volcano man. ‘But it doesn’t seem to be on the cards. There’s not very much that we can do. If we had a boat hook we could push ourselves off. But this tub doesn’t seem to be equipped with boat hooks. Perhaps the chaps upstairs will have an idea.’

  He tucked the shirt more tightly into the hole.

  ‘Breathe as lightly as you can so that we don’t use up the good air any faster than necessary.’

  The men above did realize what had happened for they could see the bell clearly when the smoke parted. They tried lowering it a few feet and then raising it. This was done repeatedly, but every time the steel roof caught under the ledge and refused to slip by.