CHAPTER XXVI
SEEKING FOOD
"Well, if this isn't the limit!" burst out Jack, when he had stood andcontemplated the silent city for several moments, which also hiscompanions did. "After all our wanderings and troubles, when we do finda place, it isn't any good to us. I don't suppose there is a squaremeal in the whole town! Isn't it wonderful, though--every person turnedto stone!"
"Wonderful!" gasped old Andy. "I never saw anything like it in all mylife! What do you reckon did it, boys?"
"The same thing that turned the man in the hut, and the one Washingtonthought was a ghost, into stone," answered Mark. "There was a rain ofsome lime-water, or a liquid charged with similar chemicals, and thepeople were turned to rocks."
It was uncanny, and for a moment they hesitated on the edge of thecity, which lay in a sort of cup-like valley, surrounded on all sidesby towering peaks of the moon mountains. The bridge over which they hadcome afforded the only entrance to the city, and in times of war(provided the inhabitants of the moon ever fought) the passage musthave been well guarded.
It was evidently a time of peace when the calamity that turned theinhabitants to stone came upon them, for only one soldier was in theguard hut--doubtless being there merely to give an alarm, or possiblyto keep out undesirable strangers.
"Well, are we going to stand here all day?" asked Jack of hiscompanions, when they had contemplated the silent city for five minuteslonger.
"I say, let's go down there and see what we can find. I'm gettinghungry."
"There'll be nothing there to eat," declared Mark. "If there ever wasanything, it's now stone. Think of a loaf of bread like a brick, and achunk of meat like some great rock!"
"Let's go down, anyhow," added Andy, and they advanced.
As they got down into the streets, the weird effect came over them morestrongly. It was as if they had suddenly entered some large town, andat their advent every living person had been turned into an image.
"Wonderful, wonderful!" murmured Jack.
"I've read of the uncovering of the ancient buried cities, and how theyfound women in the kitchen baking bread, and men at their work, butthis goes ahead of that, for here the people are not dust--they arestatues!"
"It certainly is wonderful," agreed Mark. "I only wish the twoprofessors could see this. They could write several books about it.This proves that the moon was once inhabited, though it is dead now.The projectile should have come to this part of the moon."
"Maybe they'll bring it here, when we get back and tell them what we'veseen," suggested Jack.
"Yes, if we ever do get back," went on his chum, with a return of hisgloomy thoughts.
The strangeness of the scenes all about them can scarcely be imagined.Think of looking at a city street teeming with life, men and womenhurrying here and there, dogs running about, children at their play,and then suddenly seeing that same street become as dead as somemountain, with the people represented as stones on that same mountain,and you can get some idea of what our friends looked upon.
Here was a woman, looking in a store window, probably at some bargains,though even the very window and store itself was now stone, and thewoman was like a block of marble. Near her was a little child, alsoturned to stone, and there were a number of men, standing together on astreet corner as if they had been talking politics when the calamityovertook them.
There were shops where the workers had been turned to stone at theirbenches, there were houses at the windows of which stone faces peeredout, and there were parks on the benches of which sat men, women andchildren, stiff and solid--creatures of stone! Truly it was a city ofthe dead!
The wanderers walked about, seeing new wonders on every side. Theyspoke in whispers at times, as though at the sound of a loud voice thesilent ones would awaken and resume the occupations or pleasures theyhad left off centuries ago.
Another strange part of it was that the people were not so verydifferent from those of the earth. They were exactly the same in sizeand feature, but their clothing, as nearly as could be told from thestone garments, seemed of a bygone fashion, such as was in voguehundreds of years ago. There were no horses observed, though there werestone dogs and cats, and the shops given over to the sale of foodcontained in the windows what seemed to be chunks of meat, loaves ofbread, and pies and cakes, though now they were only pieces of rock.
"It's just as if one of our cities and the people in it should besuddenly petrified," said Mark. "It's almost like the earth up here;only they don't seem to have gotten to trolley cars yet."
"Maybe they would if the moon hadn't cooled off when it did, and killedthem all," suggested Jack. "But, I say, let's get down to somethingmore practical than theorizing."
"What, for instance?" asked Mark.
"Looking for something to eat," went on Jack. "I'm nearly starved, andI have only half a sandwich left. I want to eat it, yet, if I do, Idon't know where I'm going to get more. And as for water, I'd give ahandful of diamonds, if I had them, for half a glass of even warmwater."
"Yes, we do need food and water badly," said Andy.
"Then let's look for it," suggested Jack. "If we can find food in anyof these houses or shops, I don't believe the people will care if wetake it."
"Find food here?" cried Mark. "Why, you must be crazy! All the food isturned to stone, and what isn't would be spoiled! Why, no one has beenalive here for thousands and thousands of years!"
"That's nothing," asserted Jack. "Don't you remember reading how, inthe arctic regions, they have found the bodies of prehistoric elephantsand mastodons encased in blocks of ice, where they have been forcenturies. The meat is perfectly preserved because of the cold. Andwhat of the grains of wheat they find in the coffins of Egyptianmummies? Some of that is three thousand years old, yet it grows whenthey plant it, and they can make bread of it.
"Now, maybe we can find some wheat or something to eat in some of thesehouses. If there's meat, it will be perfectly preserved, for thetemperature is below freezing."
"That may be," admitted Mark, convinced, in spite of himself, "but it'sturned to stone, I tell you."
"The outside part may be," said Jack, "but if we can crack off theoutside layer of stone we may find some good meat inside. I'm going tolook, anyhow."
"That's not a bad idea!" cried Andy with enthusiasm. "Think of having aloaf of bread and some beefsteak thousands of years old. I suppose theyhad beefsteak here," he added cautiously.
"Some kind of meat, anyhow," agreed Jack. "Well, let's look for a placethat was once a restaurant or hotel, and we'll see what luck we have.Come on."
They walked along the silent streets, with their silent occupants, andfinally Jack found what he was seeking. It was an eating place, tojudge by the appearance, and at tables inside were seated stone men andwomen.
"Back to the kitchen!" cried Jack with enthusiasm. "There's where we'llfind food, if there is any!"
"It'll be all stone," declared Mark, but he and Andy followed Jack.
They came to the place where was what appeared to be a stove. It wasmore like a brick oven, however, than a modern range, though in dishesthat were now stone something was being cooked when the catastropheoccurred.
"There's meat, I'll wager!" cried Jack, pointing to several objects ona table. They looked like chunks of beef, but when Mark struck themwith the end of his life-torch they gave forth a sound as if a rock hadbeen tapped.
"What did I tell you?" Mark asked, "Nothing but rocks. And the bread isalso a stone," he added bitterly.
"You're right," admitted Jack, with a sigh. "And I'm getting hungrierthan ever." They all were. For days they had been without sufficientfood, and now, when it was almost within their reach, they were deniedit by this curious trick of nature. With pale and wan faces they gazedat each other, wetting their parched lips, for they had some time sincetaken the last of their scant supply of water, and they were verythirsty.
"I guess it's all up with us," murmured Mark. "We'll soon be like thesepoor people here--blocks
of stone."
"If we only could change this meat back into it's original shape,"spoke Jack musingly, smiting his fist against a block of beef.
Suddenly Andy uttered a cry.
"I have it!" he fairly shouted.
"What?" asked Jack.
"I have a plan to get meat out of this hunk of stone!"
The two boys gazed at the old hunter as though they thought he had losthis reason, but, chuckling gleefully, Andy took from his pouch severalcartridges, and proceeded to remove the wads, and pour the powder fromthe paper shells out on the stone table.
"I'll have some meat for us," he muttered. "We shan't starve now!"