CHAPTER IV. THE PROFESSOR'S LITTLE EXPERIMENT.
Again those involuntary riders of the tornado were tossed violently toand fro in their seemingly frail ship, while the balloon itself appearedthreatened with instant dissolution, those eddying currents growingbroken and far less regular in action, while the fierce tumult grew insound and volume a thousandfold.
All around the air-ship now showed ugly debris, limbs and boughs andeven whole trunks of giant trees being whirled upward and outward, eachmoment menacing the vessel with total destruction, yet as frequentlyvanishing without infringing seriously upon their curious prison.
Sand and dirt and fragments of shattered rock whistled by in anapparently unending shower, only with reversed motion, flying upward inplace of shooting downward to earth itself.
Speech was utterly impossible under the circumstances, and thefate-tossed voyagers could only cling fast to the hand-rail, and holdthose precious air-tubes in readiness for the worst.
Never before had either of the trio heard such a deafening crash anduproar, and little wonder if they thought this surely must herald thecrack of doom!
The tornado seemed to reel backward, as though repulsed by an immovableobstacle, and then, while the din was a bit less deafening, ProfessorFeatherwit contrived to make himself heard, through screaming at the topof his voice:
"The mountain range, I fancy! It's a battle to the--"
That sentence was perforce left incomplete, since the storm-demon gaveanother mad plunge to renew the battle, bringing on a repetition of thatdrunken swaying so upsetting to both mind and body.
A few seconds thus, then the tornado conquered, or else rose higher inpartial defeat, for their progress was resumed, and comparative quietreigned again.
The higher clouds curved backward, affording a wider view of the heavensfar above, and, as all eyes turned instinctively in that direction,Bruno involuntarily exclaimed:
"Still daylight! I thought--how long has this lasted?"
"It's the middle o' next week; no less!" positively affirmed hisbrother. "Don't tell me! We've been in here a solid month, by my watch!"
Instead of making reply such as might have been expected from one of hismathematical exactness, Professor Featherwit gave a cry of dismay, whilehurriedly moving to and fro in their contracted quarters, for the timebeing forgetful of all other than this, his great loss.
"What is it, uncle Phaeton?" asked Bruno, rising to his knees in naturalanxiety. "Surely nothing worse than has already happened to us?"
"Worse? What could be worse than losing for ever--the camera, boys;where is the camera, I ask you?"
Certainly not where the professor was looking, and even as he roaredforth that query, his heart told him the sad truth; past doubting,the instrument upon whose aid he relied to place upon record thesemarvellous facts, so that all mankind might see and have full faith, waslost,--thrown from the aerostat, to meet with certain destruction, whenthe vessel first came within the tornado's terrible clutch.
"Gone,--lost,--and now who will believe that we ever--oh, this is enoughto crush one's very soul!" mourned the professor, throwing up hishands, and sinking back to the floor of the flying-machine in a limp anddisheartened heap for the time being.
Neither Bruno nor Waldo could fully appreciate that grief, sincethoughts and care for self were still the ruling passion with both; butonce more they were called upon to do battle with the swaying of thewinds, and once again were they saved only through that life-givingcylinder of compressed air.
Presently, the heart-broken professor rallied, as was his nature, and,with a visible effort putting his great loss behind him, endeavoured tocheer up his comrades in peril.
"So far we have passed through all danger without receiving materialinjury,--to ourselves, I mean,--and surely it is not too much to hopefor eventual escape?" he said, earnestly, pressing the hands of hisnephews, by way of additional encouragement.
"Yes," hesitated Bruno, with an involuntary shiver, as he glanced aroundthem upon those furiously boiling clouds, then cast an eye upward,towards yonder clear sky. "Yes, but--in what manner?"
"What'll we do when the cyclone goes bu'st?" cut in Waldo, withdisagreeable bluntness. "It can't go on for ever, and when it splitsup,--where will we be then?"
"I wish it lay within my power to give you full assurance on all points,my dear boys," the professor made reply. "I only wish I could ensureyour perfect safety by giving my own poor remnant of life--"
"No, no, uncle Phaeton!" cried the brothers, in a single breath.
"How cheerfully, if I only might!" insisted the professor, his homelyface wearing an expression of blended regret and unbounded affection."But for me you would never have encountered these perils, nor ever--"
Again he was interrupted by the brothers, and forced to leave thatregret unspoken to the end.
"Only for you, uncle Phaeton, what would have become of us when we wereleft without parents, home, fortune? Only for you, taking us in andtreating us as though of your own flesh and blood--"
"As you are, my good lads! Let it pass, then, but I must say that I dowish--well, well, let it pass, then!"
A brief silence, which was spent in gripping hands and with eyes givingpledges of love and undying confidence; then Professor Featherwit spokeagain, in an entirely different vein.
"If nothing else, we have exploded one fallacy which has never met withcontradiction, so far as my poor knowledge goes."
"And that is--what, uncle Phaeton?"
"Observe, my lads," with a wave of his hand towards those whirlingwalls, and then making a downward motion. "You see that we are floatingin a partial vacuum, yet where there is air sufficient to preserve lifeunder difficulties. And by looking downward--careful that you don't falloverboard through dizziness, though!"
"Looks as though we were floating just above a bed of ugly wind!"declared Waldo, after taking a look below.
"Precisely; the aerostat rests upon an air-cushion amply solid enoughto sustain far more than our combined weight. But what is the generallyaccepted view, my dear boys?"
"You tell, for we don't know how," frankly acknowledged Waldo.
"Thanks. Yet you are now far wiser than all of the scientists who havewritten and published whole libraries concerning these storm formations,but whose fallacies we are now fully prepared to explode, once for all,through knowledge won by personal investigation--ahem!"
Strange though it may appear, the professor forgot the mutual dangerby which they were surrounded, and trotted off on his hobby-horse inblissful pride, paying no attention to the hideous uproar going on, onlyraising his voice higher to make it heard by his youthful auditors.
"The common belief is that, while these tornadoes are hollow, eventhrough the trunk or tongue down to its contact with the earth, thathollow is caused by a constant suction, through which a steady stream ofdebris is flowing, to be sown broadcast for miles around after emergingfrom the open top of the so-called balloon."
"But it isn't at all like that," eagerly cried Waldo, pointing to wherethe fragments were flowing upward through those walls themselves, yetfar enough from that hollow interior to be but indistinctly seen save onrare occasions. "Look at 'em scoot, will ye? Oh, if we could only climbup like that!"
Professor Featherwit was keenly watching and closely studying that veryphenomena through all, and now he gave a queer little chuckle, as henodded his head with vigour, before dryly speaking.
"Well, it might be done; yes, it might be done, and that with no veryserious difficulty, my lad."
"How? Why not try it on, then?"
"To meet with instant death outside?" sharply queried Bruno. "It wouldbe suicidal to make the attempt, even if we could; which I doubt."
Waldo gave a sudden cry, pointing upward where, far above thatdestructive storm, could be seen a brace of buzzards floating onmotionless wings, wholly undisturbed by the tumult below.
"If we were only like that!" the lad cried, longingly. "If aflying-machine could be built
like those turkey-buzzards! I wish--well,I do suppose they're about the nastiest varmints ever hatched, but justnow I'd be willing to swap, and wouldn't ask any boot, either!"
Apparently the professor paid no attention to this boyish plaint, forhe was fumbling in the locker, then withdrew his hand and uncoiled anordinary fish-line, with painted float attached.
Before either brother could ask a question, or even give a guess athis purpose, Professor Phaeton flung hook and cork into those circlingcurrents, only to have the whole jerked violently out of his grip, theline flying upward, to vanish from the sight of all.
That jerk was powerful enough to cut through the skin of his hand, butthe professor chuckled like one delighted, as he sucked away the fewdrops of blood before adding:
"I knew it! It CAN be done, and if the worst should come to pass, whyshould it not be done?"
Before an answer could be vouchsafed by either of the brothers, the pallswooped down upon them once more, and again the supply of natural airwas shut off, while their vessel was rocked and swayed crazily, just asthough the delayed end was at last upon them.
For several minutes this torture endured, each second of which appearedto be an hour to those imperilled beings, who surely must have perished,as they lay pinned fast to the floor of the aerostat by that pitilessweight, only for the precious air-tubes in connection with that cylinderof compressed air.
After a seeming age of torment the awful pressure was relaxed, leavingthe trio gasping and shivering, as they lay side by side, barelyconscious that life lingered, for the moment unable to lift hand or headto aid either self or another.
In spite of his far greater age, Professor Featherwit was first torally, and his voice was about the first thing distinguished by thebrothers, as their powers began to rally.
"Shall we take our chances, dear boys?" the professor was saying,in earnest tones. "I believe there is a method of escaping from thishell-chamber, although of what may lie beyond--"
"It can't well be worse than this!" huskily gasped Bruno.
"Anything--everything--just to get out o' here!" supplemented Waldo, foronce all spirits subdued.
"It may be death for us all, even if we do get outside," gravely warnedthe professor. "Bear that in mind, dear boys. It may be that not one ofus will escape with life, after--"
"How much better to remain here?" interrupted Bruno. "I felt death wouldbe a mercy--then! And I'd risk anything, everything, rather than gothrough such another ordeal! I say,--escape!"
"Me too, all over!" vigorously decided Waldo, lifting himself to bothknees as he added: "Tell us what to do, and here I am, on deck, uncle."
Even now Professor Phaeton hesitated, his eyes growing dimmer than usualas they rested upon one face after the other, for right well he knew howdeadly would be the peril thus invited.
But, as the brothers repeated their cry, he turned away to swiftlyknot a strong trail-rope to a heavy iron grapnel, leaving the other endfirmly attached to a stanchion built for that express purpose.
"Hold fast, if you value life at all, dear boys!" he warned, then added:"Heaven be kind to you, even if my life pays the forfeit! Now!"
Without further delay, he cast the heavy grapnel into that mass ofboiling vapour, then fell flat, as an awful jerk was given the aerostat.
The Lost City Page 4