Pharaoh's Broker

  CHAPTER XI

  Telling the Time by Geography

  After supper I went up into his compartment, and having arranged thebulkhead, began the tedious operation at the pump handle. It was amatter of pure muscular strength, as the effort had to be made to liftthe handle, which snapped back sharply when released. I was workingvigorously when I was suddenly struck dumb at seeing the handle breakoff just at the point of leverage, so that it was quite impossible tooperate it. The doctor heard the handle fall, and looked around in greatvexation.

  "That means asphyxiation within twenty-four hours!" he exclaimed.

  "Which is plenty of time to think it over," I answered.

  After all, why was this pumping necessary? If a way could be devised toopen a valve, all the air would rush out of my compartment as easily asbeer runs out of a bung-hole. In fact, it did rush out a little at atime, which is what made the handle go down of itself. But any such newvalve would have to be automatically closed, as it would be manifestlyimpossible to enter and shut it. I kept on thinking, and finally beganexamining the partition between the compartments. There seemed to beseveral long screws that went quite through it.

  "Doctor, did you ever hear of those wise people who, after everyfreshet, shipped the surplus water down the river in boats? Well, itstrikes me this air-pumping is just about as useless labour. Help mepull in the bulkhead and I will show you something."

  I went at once to the cylinder we used for discharging things from theprojectile. With a pair of pliers I chipped off a small piece of theedge of the closing lid in two places, one near each end. This made twolittle irregular holes into the cylinder about eight inches apart. ThenI pushed it half way out, so that one hole was outside and the otherinside. Of course the air rushed through the inner hole into thecylinder, and thence through the outer hole to the exterior.

  "Shut that thing!" cried the doctor, when he saw what I had done. "Doyou wish to suffocate us? That will let the air out perfectly, but howare you going to close it to admit the condensed air?"

  "People unskilled in these matters are so hasty!" I said rathersarcastically. "Wait until I have finished and you will see."

  I found he had a screw-driver, and I loosened one of the long screwsand enlarged the half of its hole toward my compartment. Then I whittleda block of soft wood, so that it would slide smoothly into this half ofthe hole. Driving the screw home again, I just allowed its tip to enterthe end of the block. Then I fastened a piece of stout twine to thecylinder and the other end to the block of wood, which was almostopposite it. Pushing the cylinder half way out, I made the twine taut,and hastening into the doctor's compartment, I thrust in the bulkhead.The air was rapidly escaping. Waiting long enough for all of it to haveleaked out, I then unscrewed the long screw, which gradually drew in theblock of wood and the twine, and thus pulled the cylinder into theprojectile so that there was no connection with the exterior. Then thedoctor let in the condensed air to a barometric pressure of twenty-six,and the whole operation was over in a few minutes. My compartment musthave been almost a complete vacuum. When it was over, I cried rathertriumphantly to the doctor,--

  "There, you see, one doesn't need a steam pump to make the water runover Niagara! At this distance from the surface, nature abhors a gas andprefers a vacuum!" He was inclined to be rather sulky at first, but hereally did not like pumping any better than I did.

  I should say it was about five hours later that we noticed it wasgrowing gradually lighter outside. Mars lost his ruddiness and grewpale in a grey field. Our view of the Earth was also becoming more andmore misty.

  "We are emerging from the black core of the shadow into thesemi-illuminated penumbra," said the doctor. Then he altered his courseexperimentally, and found a slightly darker path, but it soon beganchanging again to grey.

  "There is no use trying to keep in the umbra any longer. It is growingtoo narrow. The penumbra will last quite a long time yet, but it willgradually get fainter and fainter. We shall not plunge at once into thedreadful light you fear so much. Keep your eyes glued to the Earth. Ican scarcely see Mars any longer. The whole field is getting blank andwhite."

  The rear vista was also growing a pale white, and I could distinguishthe form of the Earth as a darker object slightly larger than a fullmoon when risen. But it was all growing dimmer and dimmer as thepenumbra faded toward the perfect light.

  "Mars is completely gone now," said the doctor. "The field of thetelescope is one pale curtain of light. I have steered to the left to goahead of him now, as there is no longer any reason for going behindhim."

  I heard him working at the telescope as if loosening it from itsfastenings, but I dared not take my eyes from the Earth to see what hewas doing. Presently he called out to me,--

  "Make room down there. I must bring the instrument down and observe theEarth now. Be careful you don't lose sight of her." But the instant heremoved the telescope from its bearings and uncovered his forwardwindow, I lost all view of the Earth. The new light now entering by hiswindow, from behind me, made it impossible to see so far.

  "Too late!" I cried; "I have lost her! We are alone in limitless space,without even the company of the planets!"

  But while the doctor was carefully lowering the telescope, my eyes werestill searching, and presently I perceived a thin crescent of faintlybrighter light, growing gradually wider. It was like a new moon dimlyseen in a clear part of the sky when the afternoon sun is cloud-hidden.The doctor stopped to look where I pointed it out to him, and thenchanged the wheel a little.

  "That is a thin slice of the illuminated part of the Earth," he said."We can no longer see the dark side which has been visible to us whilein the shadow. Fortunately our new course a little ahead of Mars willgive us a constant view of this thin crescent."

  We now stood the instrument on end over the port-hole window, whichbrought the small end near the aperture between the compartments. Whenthe doctor had secured a focus, he called me to look. The crescent wasgreatly magnified, but the outline of the sphere on the other side couldnot be seen, nor could anything be distinguished in the centre. Boththe outer and inner edges of the crescent were ragged and irregular inplaces, and there were faint darker spots on its surface. I called thedoctor's attention to the fact that the ragged appearance was always inthe form of extending teeth on the outer side of the crescent, and inthe form of notches eaten into its inner edge. He studied all theseappearances carefully and finally said,--

  "This crescent is that part of Earth which is just coming into morning.It is gradually shifting from east to west with the Earth's rotation ofcourse. What we see now, however, is _land_ almost from pole to pole.There is a small sea just above the middle, which might be theMediterranean. Moreover, it must be mountainous land to cause the raggededges and the shadows inside."

  Then he turned away to get his globe, and I took the place at theinstrument. He was slowly turning the globe and examining itthoughtfully as he said to himself,--

  "The only continuous land from pole to pole with one interrupting seamust be over the two Americas or over Europe and Africa. The Americanmountain ranges run from north to south, while through Europe and Africathey are scarce, and almost uniformly run from east to west. Besides,the sand of Sahara would be sure to show as a large, bright, regularspot. A section from longitude 70 to 80 west would include the GreenMountains and the Alleghanies of North America and the Andes of SouthAmerica, and in that case the darker spot in the centre would be theCaribbean Sea."

  "Look here!" I cried. "Toward the lower end the inner outline is growingdarker but more regular, and faint streaks or shadows reach through thebrighter light toward the dark greenish regular surface which looks likewater."

  He observed closely and said,--

  "Those shadows must be cast to westward by the enormous peaks of theAndes, and the dark greenish surface they reach toward must be thePacific Ocean."

  Then he consulted his globe while I looked. "The first two to come intoview," he said, "would be the two great p
eaks in Bolivia, overtwenty-one thousand feet high."

  "There _are_ two of them together," I said, "and now others are rapidlycoming into view. There are five more scattered unequally, and then,lower down, three near together."

  "Then there is not the slightest doubt that we see the Lower Andes," hesaid. "These last you mention are scattered just as you say along theborder between Chili and Argentina, and the group of three are nearValparaiso, the peak of Aconcagua being the tallest. But watch now forthe group in Ecuador, about midway between the top and bottom of thecrescent. There are four very large peaks and numerous smaller ones."

  "The middle all looks bright yet, like land, with no shadows or greenishspots. But a queer thing is happening lower down, where the shadows haveceased lengthening and are now fading. There are several fine points oflight just beyond the outer edge of the crescent. They are mere brightspecks, but gradually they join with the surface, making a rough toothededge."

  "Ah, that phenomenon has been observed upon the Moon," said he. "That isthe sun shining on the snow-capped peaks first, and then, when thediminutive outline of the mountain comes into view, it looks like atooth."

  "The same is happening all down the coast," I reported. "Now I see it onthe lower group of three."

  "Give me the instrument," demanded the doctor. "That can be nothing butthe west coast of South America, and if that be the case, the wholething will be repeated for the tall group in Ecuador, dominated byChimborazo."

  As I surrendered the telescope to him, the whole lower part of thecrescent was dark, but with regular edges. Only in the middle, whichshould have been about the Equator, and in the upper part, was there thebright lustre of land reflection. He watched for fully half an hourbefore observing anything remarkable. At last he exclaimed,--

  "Now they are beginning! Five streaks near together and just at theEquator. They are almost equidistant from each other, and the next tothe lowest one is the longest. Now the top one begins to fade! Yes, anda point of light has appeared detached from the outer edge, and nowanother and another! They are growing inward toward the surface. Nowthey are all connected like five saw teeth; the bottom one is theshortest, and that next very high one is old Chimborazo."

  "Then it is morning at Quito and also at Pittsburg!" I said, tracing upthe 80th meridian.

  "Yes, and we have been one complete day and about five hours moretravelling the nine hundred thousand miles that lie between this andEarth," replied he.

  "That makes us one full meal behind time," I said; "but we havediscovered a way to make the Andes call us for breakfast. When thePacific Ocean has passed from view, Japan and Australia shall strikenoon for us, and we will have supper and call it night when the IndianOcean is gone and darkest Africa has come into view!"