A Columbus of Space
CHAPTER III
THE PLANETARY LIMITED
But Edmund had seen the meteor sooner than I, and as quick as thought heswerved the car, and threw us all off our feet once more. But we shouldhave been thankful if he had broken our heads, since he had saved us frominstant destruction.
The danger, however, was not yet passed. Scarcely had the immensedumb-bell (which Edmund declared must have been composed of solid iron,so great was its effect on his needles) disappeared, before there camefrom outside a blaze so fierce that it fairly slapped our lids shut.
"A collision!" Edmund exclaimed. "The thing has struck another bigmeteor, and they are exchanging fiery compliments."
He threw himself flat on the floor, and stared out of the peephole. Thenhe jumped to his feet and gave us another tumble.
"They're all about us," he faltered, breathless with exertion; then,having drawn a deep inspiration, he continued: "We're like a boat in araging freshet, with rocks, tree trunks, and cakes of ice threatening iton all sides. But we'll get out of it. The car obeys its helm as if itappreciated the danger. Why, I got away from that last fellow by settingup atomic reaction against it, as a boatman pushes with his pole."
Even in the midst of our terror we could not but admire our leader. Hisresources seemed boundless, and our confidence in him grew with everyescape. While he kept guard at the peepholes we watched for meteors fromthe windows. We must have come almost within striking distance of athousand in the course of an hour, but Edmund decided not to diminishour speed, for he said that he could control the car quicker when it wasunder full headway.
So on we rushed, dodging the things like a crow in a flock of pesteringjays, and we really enjoyed the excitement. It was more fascinating sportthan shooting rapids in a careening skiff, and at last we grew soconfident in the powers of our car and its commander that we were rathersorry when the last meteor passed, and we found ourselves once more inopen, unimpeded space.
After that the time passed quietly. We ate our meals and went to bed androse as regularly as if we had been at home. In one respect, however,things were very different from what they were on the earth. We had nonight! The sun shone continually, although the sky was black and alwaysglittering with stars. None of us needed to be told by our conductor thatthis was due to the fact that we no longer had the shadow of the earth tomake night for us when the sun was behind it. The sun was now neverbehind the earth, or any other great opaque body, and when we wished tosleep we made an artificial night, for our special use, by closing allthe shutters. And there was no atmosphere about us to diffuse thesunlight, and so to hide the stars. We kept count of the days by the aidof a calendar clock; there seemed to be nothing that Edmund hadforgotten. And it was a delightful experience, the wonder of which grewupon us hour by hour. It was too marvelous, too incredible, to bebelieved, and yet--_there we were!_
Once the idea suddenly came to me that it was astonishing that we had notlong ago perished for lack of oxygen. I understood, of course, from whatEdmund had said, that the mysterious machines along the wall absorbed thecarbonic acid, but we must be constantly using up the oxygen. When I putmy difficulty before Edmund he laughed.
"That's the easiest thing of all," he said. "Look here."
He threw open a little grating.
"In there," he continued, "there's an apparatus which manufactures justenough oxygen to keep the air in good condition. It is supplied withmaterials to last a month, which will be much longer than this expeditionwill take."
"There you are again," exclaimed Jack. "I was asking you about that whenwe ran into those pesky meteors. What _is_ this expedition? Where are wegoing, anyway?"
"Well," Edmund replied, "since we have become pretty good shipmates, Idon't see any objection to telling you. We are going to Venus."
"Going to Venus!" we all cried in a breath.
"To be sure. Why not? We've got the proper sort of conveyance, haven'twe?"
There was no denying that. Our conveyance had already brought us somemillions of miles out into space; why, indeed, should it not be able tocarry us to Venus, or any other planet?
"How far is it to Venus?" asked Jack.
"When we quit the earth," Edmund answered, "Venus was rapidly approachinginferior conjunction. You know what that is," addressing me, "it's whenthe planet comes between the sun and the earth. The distance from theearth is not always the same at such a conjunction, but I figured outthat on this occasion, after allowing for the circuit we should have tomake, there would be just twenty-seven million miles to travel. At anaverage speed of twenty miles a second we could do that distance infifteen days, fourteen and one half hours. But, of course, I had to losesome time going slow through the earth's atmosphere, for otherwise thecar would have taken fire, like a meteor, on account of the friction.Then, too, I shall have to slow up on entering the atmosphere of Venus,which appears to be very deep and dense; so, upon the whole, I don'tcount on landing upon Venus in less than sixteen days from the time ofour departure. We've already been out five days, and within eleven more Iexpect to introduce you to the inhabitants of another world."
The inhabitants of another world! Again Edmund had thrown out an ideawhich took us all aback.
"Do you believe there are any inhabitants on Venus?" I asked at length.
"Certainly. I know there are."
"For sure," put in Jack, stretching out his legs and pulling at his pipe."Who'd go twenty-seven million miles to pay a visit if he didn't knowthere was somebody at home?"
"Then that's what you put the arms aboard for," I remarked.
"Yes, but I hope we shall not have to use them."
"Strikes me that this is a sort of pirate ship," said Jack. "But whatkind of arms have you got, Edmund?"
For answer Edmund threw open a locker and showed us a gleaming array ofautomatic guns and pistols and even some cutlasses.
"Decidedly piratical!" exclaimed the incorrigible Jack. "You'd betterhoist the black flag. But, see here, Edmund, with all this inter-atomicenergy that you talk about, why in the world didn't you invent somethingnew--something that would just knock the Venustians silly, and blow theirold planet up if necessary? Automatic arms are pretty good at home, onthat unprogressive earth that you have spurned with your heels, butthey'll likely be rather small pumpkins on Venus."
"I didn't prepare anything else," Edmund replied, "because, in the firstplace, I was too busy with more important things, and in the second placebecause I don't really anticipate that we shall have any use for arms. Ionly took these as a precaution."
"You mean to try moral suasion, I suppose," drawled Jack. "Well, anyhow,I hope they'll be glad to see us, and since it is Venus that we are goingto visit, I don't look for much fighting. I'm glad you made it Venusinstead of Mars, Edmund, for, from all I've heard of Mars with itsfourteen-foot giants, I don't think I should like to try the piratebusiness in that direction."
We all laughed at Jack's fancies; but there was something tremendouslythrilling in the idea. Think of landing on another world! Think ofmeeting inhabitants there! Really, it made one's head spin.
"Confound it, this is all a dream," I said to myself. "I'm on my back inbed with a nightmare. I'll kick myself awake."
But do what I would I could make no dream of it. On the contrary, I feltthat I had never been quite so much awake in all my life before.
After a while we all settled down to take the thing in earnest. And thenthe charm of it began to master our imaginations. We talked over theprospects in all their aspects. Edmund said little, and Henry nothing,but Jack and I were stirred to the bottom of our romantic souls. Henrywas different. He had no romance in his make-up. He always looked at themoney in a thing. To his mind, going to Venus was playing the fool, whenwe had at our command the means of owning the earth.
"Edmund," he said, after mumbling for a while under his breath, "this isthe most utter tomfoolery that ever I heard of. Here you've got aninvention that would revolutionize mechanics, and instead of utilizing ityou rus
h off into space on a hairbrained adventure. You might have beentwenty times a billionaire inside of a year if you had stayed at home anddeveloped the thing. Why, it's folly; pure, beastly folly! Going toVenus! What can you make on Venus?"
Edmund only smiled. After a little he said:
"Well, I'm sorry for you, Henry. But then you're cut out on the ordinarypattern. But cheer up. When we go back, perhaps I'll let you take out apatent, and you can make the billions. For my part, Venus is moreinteresting to me than all the money you could pile up between theAtlantic Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. Why," he continued, warming up,and straightening with a certain pride which he had, "am I not theColumbus of Space?--And you my lieutenants," he added, with a smile.
"Right you are," cried Jack enthusiastically. "The Columbus of Space,that's the ticket! Where's old Archimedes now? Buried, by Jo! _He_couldn't go to Venus! And what need we care for your billionaires?"
Edmund patted Jack on the back, and I rather sympathized with hisenthusiasm myself.
The time ran on, and we watched anxiously the day-hand of the calendarclock. Soon it had marked a week; then ten days; then a fortnight. Weknew we must be getting very close to our goal, yet up to this timeneither Jack, nor Henry, nor I had caught a glimpse of Venus. Edmund,however, had seen it, but he told us that in order to do so he had beenobliged to alter our course because the planet was directly in the eye ofthe sun. In consequence of the change of course we were now approachingVenus from the east--flanking her, so to speak--and Edmund described herappearance as that of an enormous crescent. Finally he invited us to takea look for ourselves.
I shall never forget that first view! It was only a glimpse, for Edmundwas nervous about meteors again, and would allow us only a moment at thepeephole because he wished to be continually on the watch himself. But,brief as was the view, that vast gleaming sickle hanging in the black skywas the most tremendous thing I ever looked upon!
Soon afterwards Edmund changed the course again, and then we saw her nomore. We had not come upon the swarms of meteors that Edmund had expectedto find lurking about the planet, and he said that he now felt safe inrunning into her shadow, and making a landing on her night hemisphere.You will allow me to remind you that Schiaparelli had long before foundout that Venus doesn't turn on her axis once every twenty-four hours,like the earth, but keeps always the same face to the sun; theconsequence being that she has perpetual day on one side and perpetualnight on the other. I asked Edmund why he should not rather land on thedaylight side; but he replied that his plan was safer, and that we couldeasily go from one side to the other whenever we chose. It didn't turnout to be so easy after all, but that is another part of the story.
"I hardly expect to find any inhabitants on the night side," Edmundremarked, "for it must be fearfully cold there--too cold for life toexist, perhaps; but I have provided against that as far as we areconcerned. Still, one can never tell. There _may_ be inhabitants there,and at any rate I am going to find out. If there are none, we'll juststop long enough to take a look at things, and then the car will quicklytransport us to the daylight hemisphere, where life certainly exists. Bylanding on the uninhabited side, you see, we shall have a chance toreconnoiter a little, and can approach the inhabitants on the other sideso much the more safely."
"That sounds all right enough," said Jack, "but if Venus is correctlynamed, I'm for getting where the inhabitants are as quick as possible."
When we swung round into the shadow of the planet we got her between thesun and ourselves, and as she completely hid the sun, we now hadperpetual night about the car. Out of the peephole she looked like astupendous black circle, blacker than the sky itself, but round the rimwas a beautiful ring of light.
"That's her atmosphere," Edmund explained, "lighted up by the sun frombehind. But, for the life of me, I cannot tell what those immense flamesmean."
He referred to a vast circle of many-colored spires that blazed andflickered like a burning rainbow at the inner edge of the ring of light.It was one of the most awful, and yet beautiful, sights that I had evergazed upon.
"That's something altogether outside my calculations," Edmund added. "Ican't account for it at all."
"Perhaps they are already celebrating our arrival with fireworks,"suggested Jack, always ready to take the humorous view of everything.
"That's not fire," Edmund responded earnestly. "But what it is I confessI can't imagine. We'll find out, however, for I haven't come all thisdistance to be scared off."
And here I must try to explain a very curious thing which had puzzled oursenses, though not our understanding (because Edmund had promptlyexplained it), throughout the voyage, and that was--levitation. On ourfirst day out from the earth, we began to notice the remarkable ease withwhich we handled things, and the strange tendency we had to bump into oneanother because we seemed to be all the time employing more strength thanwas necessary and almost to be able to walk on air. Jack declared that hefelt as if his head had become a toy balloon.
"It's the lack of weight," said Edmund. "Every time we double ourdistance from the earth we lose another three quarters of our weight. IfI had thought to bring along a spring dynamometer, I could have shownyou, Jack, that when we were 4,000 miles above the earth's surface the200 good pounds with which you depress the scales at home had diminishedto 50, and that when we had passed about 150,000 miles into space youweighed no more than a couple of ounces. From that point on, it has beenthe attraction of the sun to which we have owed whatever weight we had,and the floor of the car has been toward the sun, because, at thatdistance from the earth, the latter ceases to exercise the master force,and the pull of the sun becomes greater than the earth's. But as weapproach Venus the latter begins to restore our weight, and when wearrive on her surface we shall weigh about four fifths as much as when westarted from the earth."
"But I don't look as if I had lost any avoirdupois," said Jack, glancingat his round limbs. "And when you give us a fling I seem to strike prettyhard, though in other respects I confess I do feel a good deal like anangel."
"Ah," said Edmund, laughing, "that's the _inertia of mass_. Your mass isthe same, although your weight has almost disappeared. Weight dependsupon the distance from the attracting body, but mass is independent ofeverything."
"Do you mean to say that angels are massive?"
"They may be as massive as they like provided they keep well away fromgreat centers of gravitation."
"But Venus is such a center--then there can't be any angels there."
"I hope to find something better than angels," was Edmund's smilingreply.
Now, as we drew near to Venus, the truth of Edmund's statements becameapparent. We felt that our weight was returning, and our muscularactivity sinking back to the normal again. We imagined that every minutewe could feel our feet pressing more heavily upon the floor.
Our approach was so rapid that the immense black circle grew visiblyminute by minute. Soon it was so large that we could no longer see itsboundaries through the peephole in the floor.
"We're now within a thousand miles," said Edmund, "and must be close tothe upper limits of the atmosphere. I'll have to slow down, or else we'llbe burnt up by the heat of friction."
He proceeded to slow down a little more rapidly than was comfortable. Itwas jerk after jerk, as he dropped off the power, and put on the brakes,but at last we got down to the speed of a fast express train. Soon wewere so close that the surface of the planet became dimly visible, simplyfrom the starlight. We were now settling down very cautiously, andpresently we began to notice curious shafts of light which appeared toissue from the ground, as if the surface beneath us had been sprinkledwith iron founderies.
"Aha!" cried Edmund, "I believe there _are_ inhabitants on this sideafter all. Those lights don't come from volcanoes. I'm going to make forthe nearest one, and we'll soon know what they are."
Accordingly we steered for one of the gleaming shafts. It was a thrillingmoment, I can tell you--that when we first saw another world than o
ursunder our feet! As we approached the light it threw a pale illuminationon the ground around. Everything appeared to be perfectly flat and level.It was like dropping down at night upon a vast prairie. But the featuresof the landscape were indistinguishable in the gloom. Edmund boldlycontinued to approach until we were within a hundred feet of the shaft oflight, which we could now perceive issued directly from the ground.Suddenly, with the slightest perceptible bump, we touched the soil, andthe car came to rest. We had landed on Venus!
"It's unquestionably frightfully cold outside," said Edmund, "and we'llnow put on these things."
He dragged out of one of his many lockers four suits of thick furgarments, and as many pairs of fur gloves, together with caps and shieldsfor the face, leaving only narrow openings for the eyes. When we had gotthem on we looked like so many Esquimaux. Finally Edmund handed each ofus a pair of small automatic pistols, telling us to put them where theywould be handy in our side pockets.
"Boarders all!" cried the irrepressible Jack. "Pirates, do your duty!"
Our preparations being made, we opened the door. The air that rushed inalmost hardened us into icicles!
"It won't hurt you," said Edmund in a whisper. "It can't be down toabsolute zero on account of the dense atmosphere. You'll get used to itin a few minutes. Come on."
His whispering gave us a sense of imminent danger, but nevertheless wefollowed as he led the way straight toward the shaft of light. On nearingit we saw that it came out of an irregularly round hole in the ground.When we got yet nearer we were astonished to see rough steps which leddown into the pit. The next instant we were frozen in our tracks! For amoment my heart stopped beating.
Standing on the steps, just below the level of the ground, and intentlywatching us, with eyes as big and luminous as moons, was a creatureshaped like a man, but more savage than a gorilla!