CHAPTER XXV
THE PROFESSOR'S COUSIN
Though Professor Snodgrass worked desperately to keep his companionsawake, he was at a disadvantage, for he, too, was beginning to feel theinfluence of the unseen but deadly bushes. His eyes were heavy, and hisfeet began to lag as he hurried about the cabin, shaking first one andthen another of the men or boys.
"Wake up, Bob--Jerry!" he cried, but Bob only answered as he fell backin his bunk:
"Oh, let me alone! I'm so sleepy and tired!"
"Yes," murmured the scientist, "but it means rest forever if you sleepnow! Wake up!" and he punched Bob vigorously.
The professor himself was fighting like a Trojan to ward off sleep.
"I must do something to save them--save myself," he thought, as helooked on Tod and Nestor, both slumbering heavily, while it seemedthat Jerry's breathing was already becoming less vigorous as thedeadly fumes overcame him. "I can't move the airship alone," thoughtthe scientist, "and it would hardly be safe to do so in the darkness.Yet I must take some action. If there was only some way of overcomingthe fumes, or making them less harmful----" he paused suddenly in hismusing. His scientific mind was at work. Already he was recalling whathe knew of the fatal bushes. He had once analyzed the juice from them,for it was from the sap that the exhalation came, carrying death. Thebushes only gave off the odor at night. In the day they were harmless.
"I must make some other kind of fumes that will neutralize those of thebushes of death," reasoned Professor Snodgrass. "Let me see what willbe the most effective."
He had a small stock of chemicals with him, and it did not take himlong to decide which he would use. He made a mixture of sulphur,carbolic acid, creosote and some other acids, and placed them in a pan.This he placed on top of the gasolene stove, and lighted a fire beneathit. All the while the scientist himself was fighting off sleep, but ashe was vigorously moving about, and as he realized what it would meanto succumb, it served to keep him awake. The others were slumberingmore heavily.
Rapidly the professor worked. When the mixture was sending forththe badly smelling fumes, which, however, would serve to kill theexhalations from the bushes, the scientist carried the pan into thecabin. Then, suspending it over a small lamp, he caused a still greatervapor to be given off. The cabin was filled with the fumes.
"Wake up now! Wake up!" urged the scientist again, as he rousedthe sleepers. Already the good effects of the boiling mixture wereapparent, for Mr. Snodgrass felt less sleepy. Once he had aroused theothers, he knew they would be comparatively safe. He managed, afterstrenuous work, to shake them so that they opened their eyes. Jerrywas the hardest to arouse, for he had worked hard that day, and wasexhausted. But finally they were all sitting up, staring stupidlyabout them, scarcely aware of what had taken place, yet knowing it wassomething unusual. They sniffed the strong odor, and it served to driveout from their lungs the fumes of the bushes. In a little while theair of the cabin was entirely void of the dangerous exhalations. Thecarbolic acid and other chemicals had neutralized them.
"Now, Bob, make strong coffee," urged the professor. "That willcomplete the work I started and will make us all feel better."
"What happened?" asked Ned drowsily, while the others rubbed theirheavy eyes.
The professor explained. Soon Bob had made a big pot of the strongbeverage, and it was gratefully received.
"We'd better get away from this place as soon as we can," remarkedJerry, when he was himself again. "We must move the ship at once."
"There is no need of that," the professor assured him. "With the fumesfrom the chemicals filling the airship, it will be perfectly safe tostay here. It does not smell very nice, but it is better than beingkilled by sleep. We can now shut our eyes and take an ordinary nap,without fear. The chemicals will boil all night. In the morning therewill be no danger, for the plants only exhale an odor at night. Then,when it is light, we can see to move the ship to a place where thereare none of the bushes of death."
This plan was followed, but it was not without a little feeling offear that the adventurers stretched out once more for a needed rest.The night passed safely, however, though they all awoke with a heavyfeeling, due to the fumes they had been obliged to breathe in order topreserve their lives. They hurried out to the fresh air as soon as itwas daylight, and inhaled deeply of the oxygen.
"There are the dangerous bushes," announced the professor, pointingto a tangle of them near the bow of the airship. "I think we canfind a place where there are none. And I think we can move the shipthere without danger of the Indians seeing us. If I know anythingabout savages, they will avoid this end of the valley. It may be thatthey depend on the bushes of death to keep their white captives fromescaping this way, by impressing on them the danger of never-wakingsleep should they venture here."
The boys gathered about the scientist, and looked toward the clump ofpeculiar-looking bushes. The leaves resembled long green serpents, andwaved and wiggled uncannily in the breeze, not unlike so many reptiles.
After breakfast, following some cautious scouting on the part of theboys, the airship was slightly inflated, and, moving along but a shortdistance above the ground, was taken to another location, well awayfrom the bushes of death.
"Now," remarked Jerry, when they had all gathered in the cabin, "wemust consider how we are to save these poor people. What is to be ourfirst move?"
"We had first better get some information as to how the land lies,"remarked Jim Nestor. "We want to find where the houses of the whitesare located, what is the best time to attempt the rescue, when theIndians are least likely to be about, and information of that sort.Yes, we must do some scouting."
"That's what," agreed Tod, "and I was about to propose that Jim and Iundertake it. We know something of Indians, even if these redmen are ofa strange tribe. We'll get the information you need."
"Such information would certainly be desirable," put in Mr. Bell. "Mylate friend, Mr. Loftus, did not go much into details on those points.We must depend on a surprise to overcome the Indians. If we only couldget word to the whites that we are here, they could, perhaps, tell ushow to proceed."
"That's hardly possible," remarked Jerry. "I guess we will have todepend on Jim and Mr. Tod. Still, that's somewhat dangerous, for ifthey discover them it will be all up----"
Bob, who had gone out on the forward deck, came hurrying in, his facewhite with fear. He was trembling.
"What's the matter?" asked Jerry, noticing his chum's agitation.
"There's a man--outside--he's looking at the airship," stammeredChunky. "An old man, with a long white beard. He's coming this way."
"The Indians!" cried Ned. "They have discovered us!"
Jim Nestor and Sledge Hammer Tod reached for their rifles, and lookedto the revolvers at their side. Jerry, hardly knowing what he wasdoing, started from the cabin to go out on deck. He was followed by Mr.Bell and the professor.
As soon as they reached the deck they saw the old man. He was staringat the airship, as if in a dream, and it needed but a glance at him,to tell that he was a white, and not an Indian. At the sight of thefigures of Jerry and his friends, the man uttered a cry, and startedforward. At the same instant Professor Snodgrass fairly leapedoverboard from the ship to the ground. He rushed toward the old man,with outstretched arms.
"Amos Deering!" cried the scientist! "My long-lost cousin! AmosDeering, of all men in the world!"
The old man seemed dazed. He stood still. Then he spoke in a hollowvoice:
"Who are you, and why are you here?"
"I am your cousin, Uriah Snodgrass," was the reply, "and we have comein this airship to save you and all the others!"