by Jules Verne
CHAPTER FORTY-THIRD.
The Talabas.--The Pursuit.--A Devastated Country.--The Wind begins tofall.--The Victoria sinks.--The last of the Provisions.--The Leaps ofthe Balloon.--A Defence with Fire-arms.--The Wind freshens.--The SenegalRiver.--The Cataracts of Gouina.--The Hot Air.--The Passage of theRiver.
"Had we not taken the precaution to lighten the balloon yesterdayevening, we should have been lost beyond redemption," said the doctor,after a long silence.
"See what's gained by doing things at the right time!" replied Joe. "Onegets out of scrapes then, and nothing is more natural."
"We are not out of danger yet," said the doctor.
"What do you still apprehend?" queried Kennedy. "The balloon can'tdescend without your permission, and even were it to do so--"
"Were it to do so, Dick? Look!"
They had just passed the borders of the forest, and the three friendscould see some thirty mounted men clad in broad pantaloons and thefloating bournouses. They were armed, some with lances, and others withlong muskets, and they were following, on their quick, fiery littlesteeds, the direction of the balloon, which was moving at only moderatespeed.
When they caught sight of the aeronauts, they uttered savage cries,and brandished their weapons. Anger and menace could be read upontheir swarthy faces, made more ferocious by thin but bristling beards.Meanwhile they galloped along without difficulty over the low levels andgentle declivities that lead down to the Senegal.
"It is, indeed, they!" said the doctor; "the cruel Talabas! theferocious marabouts of Al-Hadji! I would rather find myself in themiddle of the forest encircled by wild beasts than fall into the handsof these banditti."
"They haven't a very obliging look!" assented Kennedy; "and they arerough, stalwart fellows."
"Happily those brutes can't fly," remarked Joe; "and that's something."
"See," said Ferguson, "those villages in ruins, those huts burneddown--that is their work! Where vast stretches of cultivated land wereonce seen, they have brought barrenness and devastation."
"At all events, however," interposed Kennedy, "they can't overtake us;and, if we succeed in putting the river between us and them, we aresafe."
"Perfectly, Dick," replied Ferguson; "but we must not fall to theground!" and, as he said this, he glanced at the barometer.
"In any case, Joe," added Kennedy, "it would do us no harm to look toour fire-arms."
"No harm in the world, Mr. Dick! We are lucky that we didn't scatterthem along the road."
"My rifle!" said the sportsman. "I hope that I shall never be separatedfrom it!"
And so saying, Kennedy loaded the pet piece with the greatest care, forhe had plenty of powder and ball remaining.
"At what height are we?" he asked the doctor.
"About seven hundred and fifty feet; but we no longer have the power ofseeking favorable currents, either going up or coming down. We are atthe mercy of the balloon!"
"That is vexatious!" rejoined Kennedy. "The wind is poor; but if we hadcome across a hurricane like some of those we met before, these vilebrigands would have been out of sight long ago."
"The rascals follow us at their leisure," said Joe. "They're only at ashort gallop. Quite a nice little ride!"
"If we were within range," sighed the sportsman, "I should amuse myselfwith dismounting a few of them."
"Exactly," said the doctor; "but then they would have you within rangealso, and our balloon would offer only too plain a target to the bulletsfrom their long guns; and, if they were to make a hole in it, I leaveyou to judge what our situation would be!"
The pursuit of the Talabas continued all morning; and by eleven o'clockthe aeronauts had made scarcely fifteen miles to the westward.
The doctor was anxiously watching for the least cloud on the horizon.He feared, above all things, a change in the atmosphere. Should he bethrown back toward the Niger, what would become of him? Besides, heremarked that the balloon tended to fall considerably. Since the start,he had already lost more than three hundred feet, and the Senegal mustbe about a dozen miles distant. At his present rate of speed, he couldcount upon travelling only three hours longer.
At this moment his attention was attracted by fresh cries. The Talabasappeared to be much excited, and were spurring their horses.
The doctor consulted his barometer, and at once discovered the cause ofthese symptoms.
"Are we descending?" asked Kennedy.
"Yes!" replied the doctor.
"The mischief!" thought Joe
In the lapse of fifteen minutes the Victoria was only one hundred andfifty feet above the ground; but the wind was much stronger than before.
The Talabas checked their horses, and soon a volley of musketry pealedout on the air.
"Too far, you fools!" bawled Joe. "I think it would be well to keepthose scamps at a distance."
And, as he spoke, he aimed at one of the horsemen who was farthest tothe front, and fired. The Talaba fell headlong, and, his companionshalting for a moment, the balloon gained upon them.
"They are prudent!" said Kennedy.
"Because they think that they are certain to take us," replied thedoctor; "and, they will succeed if we descend much farther. We must,absolutely, get higher into the air."
"What can we throw out?" asked Joe.
"All that remains of our stock of pemmican; that will be thirty poundsless weight to carry."
"Out it goes, sir!" said Joe, obeying orders.
The car, which was now almost touching the ground, rose again, amid thecries of the Talabas; but, half an hour later, the balloon was againfalling rapidly, because the gas was escaping through the pores of thecovering.
Ere long the car was once more grazing the soil, and Al-Hadji's blackriders rushed toward it; but, as frequently happens in like cases, theballoon had scarcely touched the surface ere it rebounded, and only camedown again a mile away.
"So we shall not escape!" said Kennedy, between his teeth.
"Throw out our reserved store of brandy, Joe," cried the doctor; "ourinstruments, and every thing that has any weight, even to our lastanchor, because go they must!"
Joe flung out the barometers and thermometers, but all that amountedto little; and the balloon, which had risen for an instant, fell againtoward the ground.
The Talabas flew toward it, and at length were not more than two hundredpaces away.
"Throw out the two fowling-pieces!" shouted Ferguson.
"Not without discharging them, at least," responded the sportsman; andfour shots in quick succession struck the thick of the advancing groupof horsemen. Four Talabas fell, amid the frantic howls and imprecationsof their comrades.
The Victoria ascended once more, and made some enormous leaps, likea huge gum-elastic ball, bounding and rebounding through the air. Astrange sight it was to see these unfortunate men endeavoring to escapeby those huge aerial strides, and seeming, like the giant Antaeus,to receive fresh strength every time they touched the earth. But thissituation had to terminate. It was now nearly noon; the Victoria wasgetting empty and exhausted, and assuming a more and more elongatedform every instant. Its outer covering was becoming flaccid, and floatedloosely in the air, and the folds of the silk rustled and grated on eachother.
"Heaven abandons us!" said Kennedy; "we have to fall!"
Joe made no answer. He kept looking intently at his master.
"No!" said the latter; "we have more than one hundred and fifty poundsyet to throw out."
"What can it be, then?" said Kennedy, thinking that the doctor must begoing mad.
"The car!" was his reply; "we can cling to the network. There we canhang on in the meshes until we reach the river. Quick! quick!"
And these daring men did not hesitate a moment to avail themselves ofthis last desperate means of escape. They clutched the network, as thedoctor directed, and Joe, holding on by one hand, with the other cut thecords that suspended the car; and the latter dropped to the ground justas the balloon was sinking for the last time.
"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the brave fellow exultingly, as the Victoria,once more relieved, shot up again to a height of three hundred feet.
The Talabas spurred their horses, which now came tearing on at a furiousgallop; but the balloon, falling in with a much more favorable wind,shot ahead of them, and was rapidly carried toward a hill that stretchedacross the horizon to the westward. This was a circumstance favorable tothe aeronauts, because they could rise over the hill, while Al-Hadji'shorde had to diverge to the northward in order to pass this obstacle.
The three friends still clung to the network. They had been able tofasten it under their feet, where it had formed a sort of swingingpocket.
Suddenly, after they had crossed the hill, the doctor exclaimed: "Theriver! the river! the Senegal, my friends!"
And about two miles ahead of them, there was indeed the river rollingalong its broad mass of water, while the farther bank, which was low andfertile, offered a sure refuge, and a place favorable for a descent.
"Another quarter of an hour," said Ferguson, "and we are saved!"
But it was not to happen thus; the empty balloon descended slowly upon atract almost entirely bare of vegetation. It was made up of long slopesand stony plains, a few bushes and some coarse grass, scorched by thesun.
The Victoria touched the ground several times, and rose again, but herrebound was diminishing in height and length. At the last one, it caughtby the upper part of the network in the lofty branches of a baobab,the only tree that stood there, solitary and alone, in the midst of thewaste.
"It's all over," said Kennedy.
"And at a hundred paces only from the river!" groaned Joe.
The three hapless aeronauts descended to the ground, and the doctor drewhis companions toward the Senegal.
At this point the river sent forth a prolonged roaring; and whenFerguson reached its bank, he recognized the falls of Gouina. But nota boat, not a living creature was to be seen. With a breadth of twothousand feet, the Senegal precipitates itself for a height of onehundred and fifty, with a thundering reverberation. It ran, where theysaw it, from east to west, and the line of rocks that barred its courseextended from north to south. In the midst of the falls, rocks ofstrange forms started up like huge ante-diluvian animals, petrifiedthere amid the waters.
The impossibility of crossing this gulf was self-evident, and Kennedycould not restrain a gesture of despair.
But Dr. Ferguson, with an energetic accent of undaunted daring,exclaimed--
"All is not over!"
"I knew it," said Joe, with that confidence in his master which nothingcould ever shake.
The sight of the dried-up grass had inspired the doctor with a boldidea. It was the last chance of escape. He led his friends quickly backto where they had left the covering of the balloon.
"We have at least an hour's start of those banditti," said he; "let uslose no time, my friends; gather a quantity of this dried grass; I wanta hundred pounds of it, at least."
"For what purpose?" asked Kennedy, surprised.
"I have no more gas; well, I'll cross the river with hot air!"
"Ah, doctor," exclaimed Kennedy, "you are, indeed, a great man!"
Joe and Kennedy at once went to work, and soon had an immense pile ofdried grass heaped up near the baobab.
In the mean time, the doctor had enlarged the orifice of the balloon bycutting it open at the lower end. He then was very careful to expel thelast remnant of hydrogen through the valve, after which he heaped up aquantity of grass under the balloon, and set fire to it.
It takes but a little while to inflate a balloon with hot air. A head ofone hundred and eighty degrees is sufficient to diminish the weight ofthe air it contains to the extent of one-half, by rarefying it. Thus,the Victoria quickly began to assume a more rounded form. There was nolack of grass; the fire was kept in full blast by the doctor's assiduousefforts, and the balloon grew fuller every instant.
It was then a quarter to four o'clock.
At this moment the band of Talabas reappeared about two miles to thenorthward, and the three friends could hear their cries, and the clatterof their horses galloping at full speed.
"In twenty minutes they will be here!" said Kennedy.
"More grass! more grass, Joe! In ten minutes we shall have her full ofhot air."
"Here it is, doctor!"
The Victoria was now two-thirds inflated.
"Come, my friends, let us take hold of the network, as we did before."
"All right!" they answered together.
In about ten minutes a few jerking motions by the balloon indicated thatit was disposed to start again. The Talabas were approaching. They werehardly five hundred paces away.
"Hold on fast!" cried Ferguson.
"Have no fear, master--have no fear!"
And the doctor, with his foot pushed another heap of grass upon thefire.
With this the balloon, now completely inflated by the increasedtemperature, moved away, sweeping the branches of the baobab in herflight.
"We're off!" shouted Joe.
A volley of musketry responded to his exclamation. A bullet evenploughed his shoulder; but Kennedy, leaning over, and discharging hisrifle with one hand, brought another of the enemy to the ground.
Cries of fury exceeding all description hailed the departure of theballoon, which had at once ascended nearly eight hundred feet. A swiftcurrent caught and swept it along with the most alarming oscillations,while the intrepid doctor and his friends saw the gulf of the cataractsyawning below them.
Ten minutes later, and without having exchanged a word, they descendedgradually toward the other bank of the river.
There, astonished, speechless, terrified, stood a group of men clad inthe French uniform. Judge of their amazement when they saw the balloonrise from the right bank of the river. They had well-nigh taken it forsome celestial phenomenon, but their officers, a lieutenant of marinesand a naval ensign, having seen mention made of Dr. Ferguson's daringexpedition, in the European papers, quickly explained the real state ofthe case.
The balloon, losing its inflation little by little, settled with thedaring travellers still clinging to its network; but it was doubtfulwhether it would reach the land. At once some of the brave Frenchmenrushed into the water and caught the three aeronauts in their arms justas the Victoria fell at the distance of a few fathoms from the left bankof the Senegal.
"Dr. Ferguson!" exclaimed the lieutenant.
"The same, sir," replied the doctor, quietly, "and his two friends."
The Frenchmen escorted our travellers from the river, while the balloon,half-empty, and borne away by a swift current, sped on, to plunge,like a huge bubble, headlong with the waters of the Senegal, into thecataracts of Gouina.
"The poor Victoria!" was Joe's farewell remark.
The doctor could not restrain a tear, and extending his hands his twofriends wrung them silently with that deep emotion which requires nospoken words.