The Moon Metal
X
THE TOP OF THE GRAND TETON
The climbing soon became difficult, until at length we were going uphand over hand, taking advantage of crevices and knobs which aninexperienced eye would have regarded as incapable of affording a gripfor the fingers or a support for the toes. Presently we arrived at thefoot of a stupendous precipice, which was absolutely insurmountable byany ordinary method of ascent. Parts of it overhung, and everywherethe face of the rock was too free from irregularities to afford anyfooting, except to a fly.
"Now, to borrow the expression of old Bunyan, we are hard put to it,"I remarked. "If you will go to the left I will take the right and seeif there is any chance of getting up."
"I don't believe we could find any place easier than this," Hallreplied, "and so up we go where we are."
"Have you a pair of wings concealed about you?" I asked, laughing athis folly.
"Well, something nearly as good," he responded, unstrapping hisknapsack. He produced a silken bag, which he unfolded on the rock.
"A balloon!" I exclaimed. "But how are you going to inflate it?"
For reply Hall showed me a receptacle which, he said, contained liquidhydrogen, and which was furnished with a device for retarding thevolatilization of the liquid so that it could be carried with littleloss.
"You remember I have a small laboratory in the abandoned mine," heexplained, "where we used to manufacture liquid air for blasting. Thisballoon I made for our present purpose. It will just suffice to carryup our rope, and a small but practically unbreakable grapple ofhardened gold. I calculate to send the grapple to the top of theprecipice with the balloon, and when it has obtained a firm hold inthe riven rock there we can ascend, sailor fashion. You see the ropehas knots, and I know your muscles are as trustworthy in such work asmy own."
There was a slight breeze from the eastward, and the current of airslanting up the face of the peak assisted the balloon in mounting withits burden, and favored us by promptly swinging the little airship,with the grapple swaying beneath it, over the brow of the cliff intothe atmospheric eddy above. As soon as we saw that the grapple waswell over the edge we pulled upon the rope. The balloon instantly shotinto view with the anchor dancing, but, under the influence of thewind, quickly returned to its former position behind the projectingbrink. The grapple had failed to take hold.
"'Try, try again' must be our motto now," muttered Hall.
We tried several times with the same result, although each time weslightly shifted our position. At last the grapple caught.
"Now, all together!" cried my companion, and simultaneously we threwour weight upon the slender rope. The anchor apparently did not givean inch.
"Let me go first," said Hall, pushing me aside as I caught the firstknot above my head. "It's my device, and it's only fair that I shouldhave the first try."
In a minute he was many feet up the wall, climbing swiftly hand overhand, but occasionally stopping and twisting his leg around the ropewhile he took breath.
"It's easier than I expected," he called down, when he had ascendedabout one hundred feet. "Here and there the rock offers a little holdfor the knees."
I watched him, breathless with anxiety, and, as he got higher, myimagination pictured the little gold grapple, invisible above the browof the precipice, with perhaps a single thin prong wedged into acrevice, and slowly ploughing its way towards the edge with eachimpulse of the climber, until but another pull was needed to set itflying! So vivid was my fancy that I tried to banish it by noticingthat a certain knot in the rope remained just at the level of my eyes,where it had been from the start. Hall was now fully two hundred feetabove the ledge on which I stood, and was rapidly nearing the top ofthe precipice. In a minute more he would be safe.
Suddenly he shouted, and, glancing up with a leap of the heart, I sawthat he was falling! He kept his face to the rock, and came down feetforemost. It would be useless to attempt any description of myfeelings; I would not go through that experience again for the priceof a battleship. Yet it lasted less than a second. He had dropped notmore than ten feet when the fall was arrested.
"All right!" he called, cheerily. "No harm done! It was only a slip."
But what a slip! If the balloon had not carried the anchor severalyards back from the edge it would have had no opportunity to catchanother hold as it shot forward. And how could we know that the secondhold would prove more secure than the first? Hall did not hesitate,however, for one instant. Up he went again. But, in fact, his bestchance was in going up, for he was within four yards of the top whenthe mishap occurred. With a sigh of relief I saw him at last throw hisarm over the verge and then wriggle his body upon the ledge. A fewseconds later he was lying on his stomach, with his face over theedge, looking down at me.
"Come on!" he shouted. "It's all right."
When I had pulled myself over the brink at his side I grasped his handand pressed it without a word. We understood one another.
"It was pretty close to a miracle," he remarked at last. "Look atthis."
The rock over which the grapple had slipped was deeply scored by theunyielding point of the metal, and exactly at the verge of theprecipice the prong had wedged itself into a narrow crack, so firmlythat we had to chip away the stone in order to release it. If it hadslipped a single inch farther before taking hold it would have beenall over with my friend.
Such experiences shake the strongest nerves, and we sat on the shelfwe had attained for fully a quarter of an hour before we ventured toattack the next precipice which hung beetling directly above us. Itwas not as lofty as the one we had just ascended, but it impended tosuch a degree that we saw we should have to climb our rope while itswung free in the air!
Luckily we had little difficulty in getting a grip for the prongs, andwe took every precaution to test the security of the anchorage, notonly putting our combined weight repeatedly upon the rope, butflipping and jerking it with all our strength. The grapple resistedevery effort to dislodge it, and finally I started up, insisting on myturn as leader.
The height I had to ascend did not exceed one hundred feet, but thatis a very great distance to climb on a swinging rope, without a wallwithin reach to assist by its friction and occasional friendlyprojections. In a little while my movements, together with the effectof the slight wind, had imparted a most distressing oscillation to therope. This sometimes carried me with a nerve-shaking bang against aprominent point of the precipice, where I would dislodge loosefragments that kept Hall dodging for his life, and then I would swingout, apparently beyond the brow of the cliff below, so that, as Iinvoluntarily glanced downward, I seemed to be hanging in free space,while the steep mountain-side, looking ten times steeper than itreally was, resembled the vertical wall of an absolutely bottomlessabyss, as if I were suspended over the edge of the world.
I avoided thinking of what the grapple might be about, and in my hasteto get through with the awful experience I worked myself fairly out ofbreath, so that, when at last I reached the rounded brow of the cliff,I had to stop and cling there for fully a minute before I could summonstrength enough to lift myself over it.
When I was assured that the grapple was still securely fastened Isignalled to Hall, and he soon stood at my side, exclaiming, as hewiped the perspiration from his face:
"I think I'll try wings next time!"
But our difficulties had only begun. As we had foreseen, it was a caseof Alp above Alp, to the very limit of human strength andpatience. However, it would have been impossible to go back. In orderto descend the two precipices we had surmounted it would have beennecessary to leave our life-lines clinging to the rocks, and we hadnot rope enough to do that. If we could not reach the top we werelost.
Having refreshed ourselves with a bite to eat and a little stimulant,we resumed the climb. After several hours of the most exhausting workI have ever performed we pulled our weary limbs upon the narrow ridge,but a few square yards in area, which constitutes the apex of theGrand Teton. A little below, on the opposite s
ide of a steep-walledgap which divides the top of the mountain into two parts, we saw thesingular enclosure of stones which the early white explorers foundthere, and which they ascribed to the Indians, although nobody hasever known who built it or what purpose it served.
The view was, of course, superb, but while I was admiring it in allits wonderful extent and variety, Hall, who had immediately pulled outhis binocular, was busy inspecting the Syx works, the top of whosegreat tufted smoke column was thousands of feet beneath ourlevel. Jackson's Lake, Jenny's Lake, Leigh's Lake, and severallakelets glittered in the sunlight amid the pale grays and greens ofJackson's Hole, while many a bending reach of the Snake River shoneamid the wastes of sage-brush and rock.
"There!" suddenly exclaimed Hall, "I thought I should find it."
"What?"
"Take a look through my glass at the roof of Syx's mill. Look just inthe centre."
"Why, it's open in the middle!" I cried as soon as I had put the glassto my eyes. "There's a big circular hole in the centre of the roof."
"Look inside! Look inside!" repeated Hall, impatiently.
"I see nothing there except something bright."
"Do you call it nothing because it is bright?"
"Well, no," I replied, laughing. "What I mean is that I see nothingthat I can make anything of except a shining object, and all I canmake of that is that it is bright."
"You've been in the Syx works many times, haven't you?"
"Yes."
"Did you ever see the opening in the roof?"
"Never."
"Did you ever hear of it?"
"Never."
"Then Dr. Syx doesn't show his visitors everything that is to beseen."
"Evidently not since, as we know, he concealed the double tunnel andthe room under the furnace."
"Dr. Syx has concealed a bigger secret than that," Hall responded,"and the Grand Teton has helped me to a glimpse of it."
For several minutes my friend was absorbed in thought. Then he brokeout:
"I tell you he's the most wonderful man in the world!"
"Who, Dr. Syx? Well, I've long thought that."
"Yes, but I mean in a different way from what you are thinking of. Doyou remember my asking you once if you believed in alchemy?"
"I remember being greatly surprised by your question to that effect."
"Well, now," said Hall, rubbing his hands with a satisfied air, whilehis eyes glanced keen and bright with the reflection of some passingthought, "Max Syx is greater than any alchemist that ever lived. Ifthose old fellows in the dark ages had accomplished everything theyset out to do, they would have been of no more consequence incomparison with our black-browed friend down yonder than--than my headis of consequence in comparison with the moon."
"I fear you flatter the man in the moon," was my laughing reply.
"No, I don't," returned Hall, "and some day you'll admit it."
"Well, what about that something that shines down there? You seem tosee more in it than I can."
But my companion had fallen into a reverie and didn't hear myquestion. He was gazing abstractedly at the faint image of the waningmoon, now nearing the distant mountain-top over in Idaho. Presentlyhis mind seemed to return to the old magnet, and he whirled about andglanced down at the Syx mill. The column of smoke was diminishing involume, an indication that the engine was about to enjoy one of itsperiodical rests. The irregularity of these stoppages had always beena subject of remark among practical engineers. The hours of labor wereexceedingly erratic, but the engine had never been known to work atnight, except on one occasion, and then only for a few minutes, whenit was suddenly stopped on account of a fire.
Just as Hall resumed his inspection two huge quarter spheres, whichhad been resting wide apart on the roof, moved towards one anotheruntil their arched sections met over the circular aperture which theycovered like the dome of an observatory.
"I expected it," Hall remarked. "But come, it is mid-afternoon, and weshall need all of our time to get safely down before the light fades."
As I have already explained, it would not have been possible for us toreturn the way we came. We determined to descend the comparativelyeasy western slopes of the peak, and pass the night on that side ofthe mountain. Letting ourselves down with the rope into the hollow waythat divides the summit of the Teton into two pinnacles, we had nodifficulty in descending by the route followed by all previousclimbers. The weather was fine, and, having found good shelter amongthe rocks, we passed the night in comfort. The next day we succeededin swinging round upon the eastern flank of the Teton, below the moreformidable cliffs, and, just at nightfall, we arrived at thestation. As we passed the Syx mine the doctor himself confrontedus. There was a very displeasing look on his dark countenance, and hissneer was strongly marked.
"So you have been on top of the Teton?" he said.
"Yes," replied Hall, very blandly, "and if you have a taste for thatsort of thing I should advise you to go up. The view is immense, asfine as the best in the Alps."
"Pretty ingenious plan, that balloon of yours," continued the doctor,still looking black.
"Thank you," Hall replied, more suavely than ever. "I've been planningthat a long time. You probably don't know that mountaineering used tobe my chief amusement."
The doctor turned away without pursuing the conversation.
"I could kick myself," Hall muttered as soon as Dr. Syx was out ofearshot. "If my absurd wish to outdo others had not blinded me, Ishould have known that he would see us going up this side of the peak,particularly with the balloon to give us away. However, what's donecan't be undone. He may not really suspect the truth, and if he doeshe can't help himself, even though he is the richest man in theworld."