by Jules Verne
CHAPTER FORTY-SECOND.
A Struggle of Generosity.--The Last Sacrifice.--The DilatingApparatus.--Joe's Adroitness.--Midnight.--The Doctor's Watch.--Kennedy'sWatch.--The Latter falls asleep at his Post.--The Fire.--The Howlings ofthe Natives.--Out of Range.
Doctor Ferguson's first care was to take his bearings by stellarobservation, and he discovered that he was scarcely twenty-five milesfrom Senegal.
"All that we can manage to do, my friends," said he, after havingpointed his map, "is to cross the river; but, as there is neither bridgenor boat, we must, at all hazards, cross it with the balloon, and, inorder to do that, we must still lighten up."
"But I don't exactly see how we can do that?" replied Kennedy, anxiousabout his fire-arms, "unless one of us makes up his mind to sacrificehimself for the rest,--that is, to stay behind, and, in my turn, I claimthat honor."
"You, indeed!" remonstrated Joe; "ain't I used to--"
"The question now is, not to throw ourselves out of the car, but simplyto reach the coast of Africa on foot. I am a first-rate walker, a goodsportsman, and--"
"I'll never consent to it!" insisted Joe.
"Your generous rivalry is useless, my brave friends," said Ferguson; "Itrust that we shall not come to any such extremity: besides, if we did,instead of separating, we should keep together, so as to make our wayacross the country in company."
"That's the talk," said Joe; "a little tramp won't do us any harm."
"But before we try that," resumed the doctor, "we must employ a lastmeans of lightening the balloon."
"What will that be? I should like to see it," said Kennedy,incredulously.
"We must get rid of the cylinder-chests, the spiral, and the Buntzenbattery. Nine hundred pounds make a rather heavy load to carry throughthe air."
"But then, Samuel, how will you dilate your gas?"
"I shall not do so at all. We'll have to get along without it."
"But--"
"Listen, my friends: I have calculated very exactly the amount ofascensional force left to us, and it is sufficient to carry us everyone with the few objects that remain. We shall make in all a weight ofhardly five hundred pounds, including the two anchors which I desire tokeep."
"Dear doctor, you know more about the matter than we do; you are thesole judge of the situation. Tell us what we ought to do, and we will doit."
"I am at your orders, master," added Joe.
"I repeat, my friends, that however serious the decision may appear, wemust sacrifice our apparatus."
"Let it go, then!" said Kennedy, promptly.
"To work!" said Joe.
It was no easy job. The apparatus had to be taken down piece by piece.First, they took out the mixing reservoir, then the one belonging to thecylinder, and lastly the tank in which the decomposition of the waterwas effected. The united strength of all three travellers was requiredto detach these reservoirs from the bottom of the car in which they hadbeen so firmly secured; but Kennedy was so strong, Joe so adroit, andthe doctor so ingenious, that they finally succeeded. The differentpieces were thrown out, one after the other, and they disappeared below,making huge gaps in the foliage of the sycamores.
"The black fellows will be mightily astonished," said Joe, "at findingthings like those in the woods; they'll make idols of them!"
The next thing to be looked after was the displacement of the pipesthat were fastened in the balloon and connected with the spiral. Joesucceeded in cutting the caoutchouc jointings above the car, but when hecame to the pipes he found it more difficult to disengage them, becausethey were held by their upper extremity and fastened by wires to thevery circlet of the valve.
Then it was that Joe showed wonderful adroitness. In his naked feet, soas not to scratch the covering, he succeeded by the aid of the network,and in spite of the oscillations of the balloon, in climbing to theupper extremity, and after a thousand difficulties, in holding on withone hand to that slippery surface, while he detached the outside screwsthat secured the pipes in their place. These were then easily taken out,and drawn away by the lower end, which was hermetically sealed by meansof a strong ligature.
The Victoria, relieved of this considerable weight, rose upright in theair and tugged strongly at the anchor-rope.
About midnight this work ended without accident, but at the cost of mostsevere exertion, and the trio partook of a luncheon of pemmican and coldpunch, as the doctor had no more fire to place at Joe's disposal.
Besides, the latter and Kennedy were dropping off their feet withfatigue.
"Lie down, my friends, and get some rest," said the doctor. "I'll takethe first watch; at two o'clock I'll waken Kennedy; at four, Kennedywill waken Joe, and at six we'll start; and may Heaven have us in itskeeping for this last day of the trip!"
Without waiting to be coaxed, the doctor's two companions stretchedthemselves at the bottom of the car and dropped into profound slumber onthe instant.
The night was calm. A few clouds broke against the last quarter of themoon, whose uncertain rays scarcely pierced the darkness. Ferguson,resting his elbows on the rim of the car, gazed attentively around him.He watched with close attention the dark screen of foliage that spreadbeneath him, hiding the ground from his view. The least noise arousedhis suspicions, and he questioned even the slightest rustling of theleaves.
He was in that mood which solitude makes more keenly felt, and duringwhich vague terrors mount to the brain. At the close of such a journey,after having surmounted so many obstacles, and at the moment of touchingthe goal, one's fears are more vivid, one's emotions keener. The pointof arrival seems to fly farther from our gaze.
Moreover, the present situation had nothing very consolatory about it.They were in the midst of a barbarous country, and dependent upon avehicle that might fail them at any moment. The doctor no longer countedimplicitly on his balloon; the time had gone by when he manoevred itboldly because he felt sure of it.
Under the influence of these impressions, the doctor, from time to time,thought that he heard vague sounds in the vast forests around him;he even fancied that he saw a swift gleam of fire shining between thetrees. He looked sharply and turned his night-glass toward the spot; butthere was nothing to be seen, and the profoundest silence appeared toreturn.
He had, no doubt, been under the dominion of a mere hallucination. Hecontinued to listen, but without hearing the slightest noise. When hiswatch had expired, he woke Kennedy, and, enjoining upon him to observethe extremest vigilance, took his place beside Joe, and fell soundasleep.
Kennedy, while still rubbing his eyes, which he could scarcely keepopen, calmly lit his pipe. He then ensconced himself in a corner, andbegan to smoke vigorously by way of keeping awake.
The most absolute silence reigned around him; a light wind shook thetree-tops and gently rocked the car, inviting the hunter to taste thesleep that stole over him in spite of himself. He strove hard to resistit, and repeatedly opened his eyes to plunge into the outer darkness oneof those looks that see nothing; but at last, yielding to fatigue, hesank back and slumbered.
How long he had been buried in this stupor he knew not, but he wassuddenly aroused from it by a strange, unexpected crackling sound.
He rubbed his eyes and sprang to his feet. An intense glare half-blindedhim and heated his cheek--the forest was in flames!
"Fire! fire!" he shouted, scarcely comprehending what had happened.
His two companions started up in alarm.
"What's the matter?" was the doctor's immediate exclamation.
"Fire!" said Joe. "But who could--"
At this moment loud yells were heard under the foliage, which was nowilluminated as brightly as the day.
"Ah! the savages!" cried Joe again; "they have set fire to the forest soas to be the more certain of burning us up."
"The Talabas! Al-Hadji's marabouts, no doubt," said the doctor.
A circle of fire hemmed the Victoria in; the crackling of the dry woodmingled with the hissing and sputtering of the green bran
ches; theclambering vines, the foliage, all the living part of this vegetation,writhed in the destructive element. The eye took in nothing but one vastocean of flame; the large trees stood forth in black relief in thishuge furnace, their branches covered with glowing coals, while the wholeblazing mass, the entire conflagration, was reflected on the clouds,and the travellers could fancy themselves enveloped in a hollow globe offire.
"Let us escape to the ground!" shouted Kennedy, "it is our only chanceof safety!"
But Ferguson checked him with a firm grasp, and, dashing at theanchor-rope, severed it with one well-directed blow of his hatchet.Meanwhile, the flames, leaping up at the balloon, already quivered onits illuminated sides; but the Victoria, released from her fastenings,spun upward a thousand feet into the air.
Frightful yells resounded through the forest, along with the report offire-arms, while the balloon, caught in a current of air that rose withthe dawn of day, was borne to the westward.
It was now four o'clock in the morning.