CHAPTER XII
Space Fever
We counted seven successive returns of the peaks of the Andes, and beingby that time certainly six million miles from the Earth, we coulddistinguish them no longer. Then followed what I remember as a very longand unspeakably monotonous period, without any adequate method ofmarking the time. Our days became a full week long, for the only way wecould guess at the time was by the quarterings of the Moon. We couldstill see her about the size of a marble in the telescope, and as hercrescent began to wane, and finally her light entirely disappeared, weknew she was then just between us and the Earth, and shining upon thatplanet as a Full Moon. This was due to occur fifteen days after ourdeparture. Then we watched her grow from a thin crescent to a brightquarter, and we knew another week had elapsed.
"We shall soon be able to determine one date with absolute certainty," Isaid to the doctor, when we must have been some twenty days out. "I havebeen reading up your almanack, and I find there is a total eclipse ofthe Sun by the Moon on June 29th."
"You might as well try to eclipse him with a straw-hat, as far as we areconcerned," he replied. "The Moon will necessarily be on the furtherside of the Earth when that occurs, and the eclipse will barely reachthe Earth. It will fall short of us by a matter of some thirty millionmiles!"
It was soon after this that we gave up observing the Earth as a planet,put on our darkened lens, and proceeded to hold her as a spot in the Suna little to the left of his centre. The Moon remained a tiny spot oflight outside for a few days; but finally she entered the Sun also, andwas seen as a faint spot travelling toward the Earth-spot.
Although the dazzling quality of the light, into which we had emergedafter the second day, was finally beginning to wane and pale a little,Mars was still invisible. In fact, no stars or planets were visible;only the gleaming Sun with the Earth-spot upon it. Our thermometer waspoorly placed in the glare of the Sun at the rear; but it showed theheat was decreasing, and from a temperature of thirty-five degrees,observed at the end of the second day, it had now fallen to twelve, andwas diminishing regularly about two degrees daily as nearly as we couldreckon.
Our appetites were steadily failing, and for two very good reasons: theunsuitable foods and the impossibility of getting any exercise. Therewas no such thing as getting any healthy actions of the body. Nothinghad any weight, and such a thing as physical labour was impossible onthe face of it. I attempted to go through regular courses of gymnasticsat frequent intervals; but as my body and its members weighed nothing,my muscles found nothing whatever to expend their force upon. I thoughtmyself worse than Prometheus bound upon his rock, for he could at leaststruggle with the birds of prey and pull upon his chains! I might aswell have been utterly paralyzed, and I actually began to fear that Ishould lose all my strength, and that my muscles would forget theircunning.
And our foods could not have been more unsuitable. The light vegetablediet which this lack of exercise called for was impossible. We had neverhad any fresh vegetables or fruits, and our tinned and canned suppliesof these had been rapidly exhausted. We had plenty of solid, meaty foodsand beef essences; but our systems did not require these, and at lastabsolutely refused to have them. I lived for days at a time upon beerand biscuits, and looked longingly at my cigars. I believed I could haveexisted comfortably and luxuriously upon smoke alone. My dreams werefilled with visions of ripe, luscious fruits and fresh, crispvegetables. When I awoke, I loathed the only foods we had.
I believe I should finally have given up eating, had I not hit upon amethod of exercise at last. It was a sort of rowing or pulling machine,which I rigged up by running a bar through one end of the doctor'sspring scales, and fastening the other end to the foot of my bed. Ipulled vigorously against this spring for hours at a time, and wasdelighted to find that my strength had not left me, and that I couldeasily lift as much as these scales had been made to weigh. I rememberthe returned appetite with which I enjoyed potted meat and a tinnedpudding, after the first hour of as vigorous exercise as our rarefiedair would permit.
The Moon-spot had disappeared and gone to her eclipse behind the Earth,when an incident occurred to vary the monotony of our existence alittle, and to suggest to me a diversion that had been hithertoforbidden. Our supply of water in the outer tank had long ago boiledaway, and I had lighted the gas to heat water for the doctor's coffee. Ihad taken the cup up to him and remained chatting with him, whenpresently I smelled something burning from the compartment below. Idescended quickly, and saw that my light bedclothes, which now weighedless than a feather, and often floated from their place, had been drawninto the flame by the draft of the burning gas. They were floating aboutthe compartment now, all aflame and threatening to set fire toeverything. We had not a drop of water to spare; but for once I thoughtof the right thing to do without hesitation. I pushed out theventilating cylinder, hurried back to the doctor's compartment andthrust in the bulkhead. Within two minutes all the air had escaped frommy room, and the fire had died for lack of oxygen. I waited a fewminutes longer for the smoke to escape, and then we admitted condensedair, but only to the remarkably low pressure of eighteen. Within fiveminutes the compartment was ready again, and there was not a trace ofsmoke or smell of fire to be perceived.
"I congratulate you on your quick perception and prompt action," saidthe doctor when it was over.
"Quick rubbish!" I exclaimed. "I have been a dundering fool for fourweeks by the Moon! I might just as well have been smoking ever since Icontrived this self-ventilating arrangement. The compartment becomes aperfectly clean vacuum at each operation, yet I had to wait for this bedclothing to catch fire before I could think of so simple a thing!"
It was at the meal time just preceding the next changing of air that Iopened the last tin of canned peas, as a sort of treat for the doctor tooffset my expected revel in fragrant tobacco. I prepared half thequantity for him, but left my portion in the tin until I should behungrier. With the prospects of a good smoke before me, I had noappetite for food. I put in the bulkhead to prevent the smoke fromentering his compartment and lighted my Havana. Then I took Two-spot onmy lap and stretched myself for a reverie. On Earth, smoking time hadbeen my period for reflection. And far back on that distant planet, whatwere they doing now? In that one busy corner that had known me, they hadprobably wondered at my disappearance for a day or two; but after themonth that had passed I was certainly forgotten. There were few backthere whom I cared for, and not many had much reason to remember me. Myinterests, my desires, my hopes were all ahead of me on a new planet.And what was waiting for me on Mars? Discovery, riches perhaps, and ameasure of fame when I returned. Then I thought of the numberlessproblems that the next few weeks must solve for us. Would there beintelligent inhabitants on Mars? Would they be in the forms of men orbeasts? Would they be civilized or savage? Would they speak a language,and how could we learn to communicate with them? Would they have foodssuitable to us; indeed, would the very air they breathed be fit tosustain our lives? Should we find them peaceable, or, if warlike, shouldwe be able to cope with them?
These thoughts were interrupted by the doctor, who called feebly to meto come up. "Don't eat any of the peas," he said weakly. "There was aqueer taste about them, and they have made me deathly sick."
He was very wretched, and grew rapidly worse. I immediately saw that itwas a severe case of poisoning, and I did everything I could to relievehim, but he groaned in agony for several hours. Finally he fell asleep,but his rest was disturbed by fits of delirium, in which he raved wildlyin German mixed with English. As he slept I had time to think the matterover carefully. After all, it was a thing which required only simpleremedies, and I had administered them. It was only a question of alittle nursing and a careful diet, and he would be well again.
But his fever increased and his delirium became more frequent, and Ibegan to appreciate that the derangement incident to the poisoning hadprepared the way for a more serious illness. During his ravings I caughta glimpse of the struggling and ambitious sid
e of his nature, which healways so carefully repressed.
Once I heard him mumble this to himself in German: "Kepler perceived alittle, he saw dimly; Newton comprehended the easy half; but Anderwelt,Anderwelt of Heidelberg, grasped the hidden meaning!"
In spite of all my attentions (I did not then understand the nature ofSpace Fever, of course), he was growing steadily worse, and I wasbecoming desperate. I could not afford to have him ill long. Thecurrents would probably continue to work fairly well until it becamenecessary to reverse them, and that time was not far off. Unless theywere reversed exactly at the right moment, we might fall into theneutral spot and be held there for ever. Even if I managed to stop thenegative current, and succeeded in falling towards Mars, I could notregulate the positive current so as to temper our fall and make a safelanding. It was equally dangerous to remain fixed in space, or to fallheadlong upon a planet and be smashed, or be buried miles deep if theprojectile did not collapse.
I had no way of telling how much time passed, but it seemed to me a verylong period, and he grew steadily worse as we approached the neutralpoint. I tried to rouse him from his delirium. I addressed himjocularly, then commandingly, then beseechingly. And he answered mealways with reflections from that other side of his nature which onerarely saw when he was well.
"Hast thou seen red ants crawling upon a cherry? Such are the merecircumnavigators of a globe! What! Hath not the world forgotten aColumbus? How long, then, will it remember---- Hast thou no coolerwater? This is tepid and bitter!"
Ever since the last quarter of the Moon, which must have been ten daysago, there had not been the slightest perceptible evidence of movement.The standards by which we judge motion on the Earth had failed eversince we left the atmosphere. There was no rushing or whizzing; wepassed nothing; all the ordinary evidences of speed were absent. Whenyou lie in the state-room of a smoothly moving steamer, no forwardmotion is perceptible. If you see another ship pass near by, you get asudden surprising idea of the speed. If you watch the receding water,you appear to be going forward slowly; and if you watch the spray at thebow or the wake astern, you appreciate the movement more fully. But ifthe waves or the tide happen to be running with the ship, she hasapparently almost stopped, when really her speed has been somewhataccelerated. If you watch the distant stars, you can scarcely perceiveany motion at all; and if the clouds should be moving in the samedirection as the ship, her motion appears reversed.
We had none of these things by which to judge, and we appeared to behanging perfectly still in space, though the doctor had assured me wewere travelling at least five hundred miles a minute. This was rational,as it agreed with the diminishing size of the Earth; but it required aneffort of faith on my part to believe that we had been moving at all.
But suppose we should gradually lose our speed and stop in a neutralpoint, how should I know it? The Earth now was, and had been for tendays, a mere spot on the Sun. While Mars had been visible, he had neverincreased in size in the telescope, and he was now invisible. The onlyway I could tell would be to wait until after many days had elapsed, andif Mars did not finally come into view, I should know something waswrong. But it would be too late then; there would be no winds or tides,no weight or buoyancy, nothing to move us out of that dreadful calmwhere even gravity does not exist. That must be avoided at every cost!But might we not be very near it now? Weight had been practicallynothing for a month, within an hour it might be positively nothing,and----
The doctor's mutterings interrupted these thoughts. "The power withwhich to travel was so simple and so vast! It all lay hidden in thatelementary law of magnetism, like poles repel and unlike poles attract.But the road to travel and the problems by the way, those were the hardthings!"
He was putting them all in the past tense, as if he had already solvedthem! But what was that law of magnetism he mentioned? Perhaps he wouldreveal his secrets to me in his ravings! I must mark every word he said;for it was clear I must solve the problem, he would not be well in time.I must brush the cobwebs from my meagre science and struggle with hisinvention.
"Unlike poles attract," he had said. Then Earth and matter must normallyhave unlike poles, and to make Earth repel matter it would only benecessary to change the polarization of the matter. Yes, he had told meit was all accomplished by polarizing the steel and iron of theprojectile! When they were made the same pole as the Earth, then sherepelled them. But if the whole thing were so simple, why had it neverbeen discovered before? Ah, that is the strong shield behind whichincredulity always takes refuge!
I ventured near the gravity apparatus and examined it carefully. Therewas a small thing which looked like the switchboard of a telegraphoffice. The perforations in it were all in a row, and the ten holes werenow filled with little brass pegs, which were suspended from above onsmall spiral springs. These were evidently the points of communicationof the negative current to the framework of the projectile. It certainlywould do no harm to pull out one of these pegs, as that would onlyslightly diminish the current. At least I would risk it. My fingers hadscarcely closed upon the brass, when I was given such a violent shock asto be thrown powerfully across the compartment; and had my body weighedanything, my bones would certainly have been broken by the concussion.My arm and shoulder did not recover from the stinging and deadeningsensation for some time. I noted the little peg I had pulled out hangingby its spiral spring just above the hole it had filled. It would beworth my life to remove the other nine in the same way.
Besides, how would I know when the time came to remove them? My eyesfell upon the two large leaden balls suspended from short copperchains. I had seen these before, but now I thought I understood them.They would swing whichever way gravity attracted. They hung down towardmy compartment now, and if we ever passed the dead line, they would hangforward toward Mars. But in the neutral point what would they do? Whenthe gravity of planets neutralized each other, the steel of theprojectile would repel these balls towards its centre, which would tendto put them both in the same spot and thus bring them together.Moreover, they would slightly attract each other. Yes, it was quitecertain that these had been devised as a Gravity Indicator, and theywould tell me when we were approaching a dead line, when we were in it,and when it was safely passed. But all that would do me but little goodunless I could manage the currents.
I sat thinking this over a long time, when it suddenly occurred to methat the doctor would recognise, even in his delirium, the importance ofaction when these two balls came together. As soon as they hadapproached each other, I must lift him up and show them to him. Thebrain that had made them would know their meaning, and know how to acteven in illness! Perhaps I was like a drowning man clutching at a straw;but from the moment I thought of this I believed firmly that thesolution of the whole problem would come in this manner. My hopes wereready to hang on the slightest peg. It consoled me to remember someinstances where men temporarily insane had been brought to consciousnessby impending danger, or by the sight of what last weighed upon theirmind.
When I glanced at the balls next, I saw that their chains lacked an inchof being parallel. They were already moving slowly inward toward eachother. I noted that the chains, which ran through the balls and wereconnected with a small copper plate on the bottom of each, were justlong enough to allow the bottom edges to touch, if they were drawn asfar toward each other as possible.
The doctor's fever was at its very worst, but that did not dampen myhopes. The balls were gradually drawing nearer together. I wished themto be quite close before I made the supreme trial which was to liberateus or leave us prisoners in space for ever! Presently I loosened theknotted sheets which held him to his bed, and lifted the feverish man,as I might have carried a doll, and brought him in full view of theapproaching balls.
"Doctor, listen now and look," I said firmly and commandingly.
"Always stubborn and unbelieving!" he raved. "I must take it to a newcountry, to America, where they invent things themselves, and arewilling to listen, and anxious to try!"
"Doctor, don't you know me? It is I, Werner, who helped you. This is acrisis for us! Do you see those approaching balls? You know what theymean! You must save us."
"Thou'rt too busy, like all the rest! Why, then, remember that to-morrowwill despise those who are so busy with to-day! Opportunity has knockedand listened for thee and thou hast bade her begone!"
"Listen, Doctor. I am he who heard you and gave you the pink cheque. Iam he who refused three times to go with you and then came at last. I amhe who was afraid of the light, who dodged the Moon, and chaffed youabout the pump. Do you not remember it all? Come, you are no longer ill.There is work to do. Have you forgotten the leaden balls? See! they aretouching each other now, and we are in the dead-line, the neutral spot,the one danger of the trip which you acknowledged."
But it was useless. He remembered nothing, his eyes were dim and vacant,and the great brain that had planned all this was overthrown by fever.The experiment had failed and we were lost!
I tied him gently back on his bed and turned in desperation to theapparatus, deciding to risk my life to pull out those nine pegs with myhands, one after another.
My God! they were already out! Every one of them was hanging by itsspiral spring, just above the hole it had filled. The switchboard hadopened a little and released them. It was all automatic! The contact ofthe copper surface of the balls had completed a short circuit which cutthe negative current. He had thought of it all, even to this emergency,and the machine could take care of itself!
And in the wave of thankfulness and rejoicing which swept over me, Isank on my knees and kissed the forehead of the feverish old man againand again!