04 Volcano Adventure

by Willard Price

  Forest fire

  Early the next morning the ship arrived and the bombs were transferred to the airfield where ten fighter-bombers, two observation planes and two amphibians were already waiting. They had come in at dawn from Luke Field, Honolulu, and were manned by twenty officers and thirty-seven men.

  Each plane was loaded with two six-hundred-pound demolition bombs, armed with 0-1 second delayed action fuse, and two three-hundred-pound practice bombs for sighting shots. The first attack-bomber took off at 8.45 a.m. and was followed by the others at twenty-minute intervals.

  The two observation planes flew to the point where the bombing was to take place and circled to watch the operation. The officers had invited Dr Janno and Dr Dan to accompany them in one observation plane, and Hal and Roger in the other. The boys looked down with the greatest interest at the bend in the black snake as the first bombing plane came over.

  A black object dropped from the plane. It struck the rock roof of the river just at the bend and sent up a grey ball of smoke. It did not seem to have damaged the roof.

  ‘That was just one of the three-hundred-pound practice bombs,’ said the officer beside Hal. ‘It contains only black powder and sand so it will send up a cloud of smoke that can be plainly seen. Then the bombers can tell whether they are on the target.’

  The fighter-bomber circled and came back over the bend. It climbed high, poised, pitched forward, and dropped another black object, much larger this time. This was one of the six-hundred-pound TNT bombs.

  It struck and exploded with a sound like a crash of thunder. The surface of the lava stream that had cooled and hardened into black rock was split into thousands of fragments that flew in all directions. The explosion had broken through the roof and a fountain of white-hot lava from the flowing river beneath shot up into the sky several hundred feet. There it turned to orange-red, glistened in the sun, spread out like a fan, and fell again. The black serpent had lost some of his life-blood. The officers were delighted with the result.

  The plane came in again and dropped another big bomb. This one broke a hole twenty or thirty feet wide and the great broken chunks of black rock fell into the lava river, partially choking it. Lava began to overflow from the hole and run off to the left.

  This was just what Hal had hoped for. He was greatly elated, but he reminded himself that there is many a slip, and something might go wrong yet. He waited eagerly for the next bomber.

  This one dropped a practice bomb but it went sadly off target. It came in and dropped another exactly on the bend. It circled again and this time let go a big fellow. This one enlarged the hole in the roof by twenty feet,

  and the lava crust, broken up into boulders, tumbled into the stream. The dam was building up higher. The second bomb added to the obstruction and increased the overflow. This had now formed a definite stream of glowing lava, as yet only six or seven feet wide, running off in the opposite direction into the valley that would carry it harmless to the sea.

  Every bomb continued the damage until the monster’s back was completely broken and the opening filled with rock. The choked river, seeking a way of escape, poured out at the side and down in a mighty river through the uninhabited valley.

  Hilo was saved. The liquid lava in the tube below the dam would continue for a while to ooze out at the lower end but would spread and harden before it could reach the town.

  Hal’s satisfaction was marred by a new anxiety. He noticed that the orange-red river in its new course down the wild valley was threatening at one point to climb over a ridge. On the other side of this ridge was a little settlement of a few houses that would be burned out if the river succeeded in reaching them.

  When the bombing mission was completed and the observation planes had returned to the airfield, Hal mentioned what he had seen to Dr Janno and Dr Dan.

  ‘Yes, I noticed that,’ said Dr Janno. ‘No use talking with the army men about it - it’s not a job for bombing planes. But I do think we ought to drive up there and investigate it. Unfortunately I have to get back to the observatory.’

  ‘Then suppose we investigate for you,’ proposed Dr Dan.

  ‘Good. But you’ll need a car. I think I can borrow an army jeep for you.’

  In the borrowed jeep, Dr Dan, Hal, and Roger drove northwest over a low range of hills, then west up the wild valley through which the new lava flow was crawling to meet them. The little-used road was really nothing more than a trail and made rough riding. Finally, they got to the ridge where they could see the settlement on one side and the lava river on the other.

  ‘It doesn’t look so bad from here,’ said Dr Dan. ‘The ridge is high enough to protect the village. I think we can report that all’s well.’ He looked at the approaching river. ‘It’s coming fast. Let’s get out of here.’

  They backed the jeep around and drove down again into the wild valley. The air was very hot. Smoke and steam drifted overhead, and curious strings of glassy thread. These accumulated on the bushes until they were loaded with them like decorated Christmas trees.

  ‘What are all those stringy things?’ Roger wanted to know.

  ‘It’s lava.’ said Dr Dan. ‘The superstitious natives call it Pele’s Hair. They say that the furious goddess is tearing her hair and casting it out on the winds. Actually it comes from the fountains of lava that spurt up from the river. The wind tears this sticky stuff apart and pulls it out into long threads and blows it all over the country to decorate the trees and bushes.’ The forest was high around them now and they could

  see the molten river. They should be getting farther from it - but, strangely enough, the heat seemed to be increasing. There was the crackling sound of burning trees.

  Then they came around a turn to find the road blocked by a stream of blazing lava ten feet high. They brought the jeep to a sudden halt.

  ‘No chance of going that way,’ said Dr Dan. ‘We’ll have to go back and see where this trail leads.’

  About they went and back up the trail.

  The increasing smoke made them cough. The bushes were burning now at the side of the road. The heat was intense.

  Suddenly the jeep again came to a halt, facing another yellow stream.

  Evidently the river had divided into two flows and they were neatly caught between them. Every tree or bush the lava touched burst into flame. The fire was licking the wheels of the jeep.

  ‘Let’s get out of this thing before it blows up,’ said Hal, and they tumbled out.

  They plunged into the woods with the fire close behind them. It was a tropical forest, full of logs and tangled with vines, and they had no machetes. They tore at the brambles and creepers and scratched their way through.

  They gasped and panted and fought and moved forward - but the fire was coming forward, too, and its fiery breath scorched their backs. Side by side, tense, terrified, they slashed their way through the jungle. Their arms ached, their hands bled. The fire was gaining on them. The burning of their legs, backs and the nape of their necks was hard to bear and they could smell their own scorched hair.

  Roger, the smallest, could wriggle through faster. He was some ten yards ahead. Hal came next with Dr Dan crashing along behind him. Suddenly this noise stopped and Hal looked around to see what had happened to Dr Dan.

  The doctor was no longer fighting. He was standing as rigid as a monument. Then his muscles suddenly let go and he crumpled in a heap on the ground.

  ‘Roger!’ Hal called. The Doctor!’

  They picked up the limp form of the scientist and struggled with it through the bush. Foot by foot they advanced and second by second the heat increased and all around them the leaves were shrivelling and crackling into fire.

  At last they burst through jumbled-up branches into an open stretch of gravelled ground. Breathless and choking, drenched with sweat, they carried their burden on down the valley. Behind them the wall of forest they had just left went up in flames with a great crackling roar.

  There was another sound now,
the drone of a motor, and an army jeep came rattling up the valley to stop beside them.

  ‘It looked pretty bad over here,’ said the driver. ‘We thought you might need help. Climb in.’

  Thankfully they loaded the still unconscious doctor into the car and got in after him.’

  ‘What happened to your buddy?’ said the officer at the wheel.

  ‘Went blank and won’t come out of it,’ Hal said. Tm afraid it’s not just an ordinary faint. Something basic. I think we’d better get him to the hospital right away.’

  ‘There’s a place in Hilo,’ said the officer. ‘But I think if it’s anything serious we’d better get him to Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu. It’s only five minutes more to the airfield and we’ll commandeer a plane for you. Within an hour he’ll be in bed.’

  Grateful for an army that can do more than fight, Hal and Roger saw the doctor transferred to an army plane and they flew with him to Honolulu. The hospital, notified by radio telephone, had an ambulance at the airfield to meet them and soon the unconscious scientist was under a physician’s care in the famous Queen’s Hospital.

  He lay with eyes wide open staring fixedly at the ceiling. His breathing was rapid and his pulse fast. He evidently knew nothing whatever of what was going on. Hal and Roger sat near while the physician, Dr James Clark, made his examination. Then the doctor sat down and faced Hal.

  ‘Tell me, how did this happen?’

  ‘We were working our way through the brush to escape a forest fire. Suddenly he went rigid and fell down.’

  ‘But if he had merely fainted he would have been out of it long before this. Was he subject to such seizures?’

  ‘Sometimes he would freeze up and stand like a marble statue for a minute or two. His eyes would be prominent and staring and his face would go pale and then blue. When I took hold of his arm I would find the muscles as hard as ropes.’ ‘In what circumstances did this happen?’ ‘Well, the first time was when he looked down into the crater of Asama. He looked as if he recalled some horrible experience.’

  ‘After it was over, did he remember what he had done’?’ ‘No, he didn’t remember a thing.’ ‘Did the attack ever take some other form?’ ‘Once when there was an earthquake during the night he jumped up screaming and beat the walls as if he had suddenly gone mad. Then there was the time he got deep-sea happy when we were diving at Falcon Island. And sometimes he would burst out singing in a wild way.’

  ‘Very interesting,’ said Dr Clark. ‘I’m beginning to see a pattern. How about his disposition - was he sometimes irritable?’

  ‘He became very suspicious. He thought we were all conspiring against him.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Dr Clark. ‘It sounds very much like petit mal,’ ‘What’s that?’ asked Roger curiously. ‘Well, it’s a mild form of epilepsy.’ Hal was startled. ‘I never thought of that. I always supposed an epileptic was - well - weak in the head, a bit insane. But Dr Adams is a very intelligent man, even brilliant.’

  ‘My friend,’ said Dr Clark, ‘don’t forget that we are all weak in the head and a bit insane. And as for epileptics, some of them have been men of unusual mental ability.

  Julius Caesar, Petrarch, Peter the Great, Mohammed, Napoleon - every one of them an epileptic, and a genius. Some forms of epilepsy are very terrible. Since you don’t say anything about convulsions, I assume that this is the mild form, petit mal. Don’t be deceived by the word mild. It is mild compared with the extreme form called grand mal, but even petit mal can be fatal.’

  ‘But what could have been the cause of it?’

  ‘There are many possible causes. Mental shock could do it, or a physical injury. In his line of work, I would guess that some time he might have had a nerve-racking experience, or an accident, or both.’

  ‘He once began to tell our captain about some terrible experience he had had, but then stopped. He evidently didn’t want to talk about it.’

  ‘Did he ever complain of chronic pain in any part of his body?’.

  ‘Nothing but a headache in his left temple. He didn’t seem to attach much importance to it.’

  ‘Ah, but it may be very important. I think we’ll take an X-ray of that head.’

  The patient was still unconscious when brought back from the X-ray room. The physician closeted himself with two other doctors and together they went over the negatives. Then Dr Clark returned to Hal, still carrying the pictures. He held one up to the light.

  ‘There’s the cause of the trouble,’ he said. ‘That dark wedge - it’s an internally broken piece of the skull and it presses upon a nerve centre. At some time or other he has suffered a blow on the head as well as severe psychological shock. That wedge must come out and it is important that the operation be performed at once or he may never regain consciousness. Can we get the consent of his nearest of kin?’

  ‘I don’t know anything about them.’ said Hal. ‘He’s employed by the American Museum of Natural History in New York. They would know.’

  ‘We’ll cable them at once. But there’s no time to be lost. While we’re waiting for a reply we’ll go ahead with preparations just as if we were sure the answer would be yes.’

  Dr Dan was already on the operating table and the surgeon standing by when consent came from the scientist’s father in New York. The operation proceeded at once.

  In the corridor outside the operating room was a row of chairs for anxious friends - ‘worry row’ as Roger called it. He and Hal waited there for word from within. They realized now how fond they had become of the young scientist, in spite of his sick suspicions. Brain surgery was a delicate and dangerous business. The patient, already weakened by shock, might pass out under the strain.

  Half an hour, and still no word. Then a nurse came out of the operating room and scurried down the hall. Hal was after her in a flash. ‘How’s it going?’ The girl shook her head and hurried on.

  Hal went back and sat down heavily in his chair. Now what did that shake of the head mean? That the nurse wasn’t allowed to talk - or that the worst had happened? A full hour went by. The boys were out of their chairs

  now and pacing up and down the corridor, as anxious as expectant fathers.

  Then the operating room door opened and a body covered by a white sheet was wheeled out and down the hall. The boys waited impatiently for the doctors. At last Dr Clark and the surgeon came out and hurried past.

  ‘Wait a minute!’ demanded Hal, and the physician turned back.

  ‘Is he all right?’

  ‘He’ll do,’ the doctor said. ‘The operation was successful. We got the wedge out but of course the whole area is inflamed. Your friend will need a long rest - six months or so before he goes poking into any more volcanoes. Now, if you’ll excuse me…’ and he was off.

  With mixed feelings Hal and Roger walked back to their patient’s room. Their chief feeling was of relief that the operation had been a success. But they were unhappy to learn that their volcano expedition was ended.

  Again they sat beside Dr Dan’s bed. He was still unconscious, but it was different now, and better. The staring eyes had closed and the breathing was slower and relaxed.

  ‘Just a good, normal sleep,’ the doctor said. ‘Why don’t you boys go and get something to eat?’

  Roger went out while Hal stayed beside the patient. When Roger returned Hal set forth, but as he passed the reception desk on the main floor he heard a man asking for Dr Dan Adams.

  Hal stopped. ‘I heard you inquiring for Dr Adams,’ he said.

  ‘Yes. I’m a reporter for the Honolulu Advertiser. I wanted to interview him about the bombing.’

  ‘Sorry, he’s in no shape to be interviewed. He’s just had an operation and now he’s asleep.’

  ‘Could you be his assistant, Hal Hunt?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘Then perhaps you could give me the story.’

  Hal hesitated. ‘I’d rather he’d do it - but I don’t know when he’ll be able to. Very well, I’ll tell you wh
at I can.’

  Hal had hardly finished with the reporter when two more men came inquiring for Dr Adams. The reception clerk told them he could not be seen and they were just turning away when Hal introduced himself.

  ‘I’m Dr Adams’s assistant,’ he said. ‘Can I do anything for you?’

  This is Mr Sinclair and my name is Scott. Like Dr Adams, we work for the American Museum. The museum has just cabled us that Adams is in this hospital and we came to see if there is anything we can do.’

  ‘That’s very good of you,’ said Hal. ‘He’s asleep now,

  and I was just going out to get a bite to eat. Perhaps you’ll join me and we can talk about it in the restaurant.’

  Over pancakes and bacon with coconut cream and coffee, Hal told the scientists of the stirring events of that day - the bombing of the lava flow, the escape from the forest fire, the flight to Honolulu, and the operation. ‘The doctor says he’ll have to take six months’ rest.’

  ‘Where does that leave you?’ said Sinclair.

  ‘At a loose end, I guess,’ said Hal. ‘But it doesn’t matter about us. The important thing is for him to get well. You haven’t told me what sort of work you are doing for the museum.’

  ‘It’s an interesting job,’ said Sinclair. ‘They are trying to collect some information about whales and whaling. It’s easy enough to learn about modern whaling methods - what they want to know is how whaling was done in the exciting days of sailing ships and whaleboats. There are just a few of those famous old ships still on the seas. We’ve discovered one that still goes after whales and we’re going to go with her.’

  Hal’s eyes sparkled. ‘You are in for some fun,’ he said. ‘I’d like to hear more about that - but just now I want to get back to our patient. How about dropping around again tomorrow morning? He may be awake then and able to see you.’

  Dr Dan slept all the rest of the day and all night. The boys would have liked to stay by him but hospital rules did not permit it. They went to a hotel and came back in the morning.

  Chapter 19

  Understanding