CHAPTER XXVII.
THE FATE OF THE DIRIGIBLE.
"Have you any idea what time the explosion will take place?" askedHarry, anxiously, almost dumbfounded by the other's cool manner.
"Soon after dark has fallen. Don't be scared, it won't hurt us; atleast I think not, but in the confusion that is certain to follow wemust make a dash for the Golden Eagle."
"It's a desperate chance."
"We are in a desperate fix," was the brief reply.
An hour later something occurred which caused Frank, who had in themeantime communicated his plan to the others, considerable anxiety.The despoilers of the adventurers' treasure hoard returned to the shipladen down with bar gold and ivory and, from what the captain wassaying to his minor officers, it seemed, though he spoke in a lowtone, that it was planned to sail right off back to the camp of themen the boys had now come justifiably to regard as their enemies.
"If they do that, we are lost," said Frank, after he had whispered hisfears to Harry.
"You mean they will discover the trick we have played on them?"
"No, I mean that the explosion will come off in midair and we shallall be dashed to death together."
"Phew!--Would it not be better to tell them what we have done and takeour chances?"
"If the worst comes to the worst I shall do that. It would beimperiling our lives uselessly to go aloft with the overheated gasthat is now in the bag."
But the "worst did not come to the worst." The little captain who hadpaid small or no attention to his prisoners, evidently realizing thatthey could not get away, didn't like the look of the weather, itseemed, and made frequent consultations of the barometer with hisfellows. The glass was falling fast and there was evidently a blizzardor sharp storm of some kind approaching.
At this time a fresh fear crossed Frank's mind. What if the Japs haddestroyed the Golden Eagle? So far as he could judge they had notmolested her, evidently not thinking it worth while to waste time theyjudged better spent on looting the Viking ship of its treasure. But ifthey had disabled her, the boy knew that in the event of hiscompanions escaping they faced an alternative between death byfreezing and starvation, or being shot down by the rifles of theircaptors. However, Frank resolved to put such gloomy speculations outof his mind. It was useless to worry. Things, if they were as he halffeared, would not mend for thinking about them.
Supper, a well-cooked, well-served meal, was eaten under this painfulstrain. The boys and the professor put the best countenance they couldon things, considering that their minds were riveted on the greatgasbag above them which even now, as they knew, was swollen almost tobursting point with its superheated gases.
"It is too bad that the weather threatens so," remarked their captor,who was politeness itself, to his prisoners; "otherwise we should nowbe in the air on our way back to my camp. In three more trips we shallbe able, however, to carry off the rest of the treasure. We were wellrepaid for keeping our eyes on you."
The boys answered something, they hardly knew what. Frank in hisnervousness looked at his watch. The strain was becoming painful. Atlast, to their intense relief, they rose from supper and the littleofficer shut himself in his own cabin. Outside, the boys could hearthe feet of the two armed sentries crunching on the snow.
"The outrush of gas will stupefy them," whispered Frank, "we shallhave nothing to fear from them after the explosion takes place."
"When is it due?" gasped Billy, with a ghastly attempt at a smile.
"At any moment now. It is impossible to calculate the exact time. Butwithin half an hour we should know our fate."
Silently the boys and the professor waited, although the scientist wasso nervous that he strode up and down the cabin floor.
Suddenly the silence was shattered by a loud shout from the engineroom.
"The gas! The gas! We are--"
The sentence was never finished.
There was a sudden convulsion of the entire fabric of the bigdirigible--as if a giant hand from without were shaking her like apuppy shakes a rat.
She seemed to lift from the ground in a convulsive leap and settledback with a crash that smashed every pane of glass and split her stoutsides.
At the same instant, there was an ear-splitting roar as if a boilerhad exploded and a flash of ruddy flame.
The exploding gas had caught fire--possibly from a spark from theelectric radiators as the bag and their supporting framework wasripped apart by the explosion.
Dazed and half stunned, the boys groped about in total darkness; forthe explosion had extinguished every light on the ship.
"Boys, where are you?"
It was Frank calling.
"Great heavens, what a sensation!" gasped the professor, half chokedby the powerful fumes of the hydrogen gas which filled the air.
Rapidly the others answered to Frank and groped through the darknesstoward his voice. Before them was the shattered side of the cabin.Through the gap was the sky. They could see the bright antarctic starsgleaming. Beyond the rent they knew lay freedom, provided themarauders had not molested their aeroplane.
It was the work of a second to stagger through the opening made by theexplosion and gain the fresh air, which they inhaled in greatmouthfuls. Then began the dash for the aeroplane.
In the wild confusion that reigned following the explosion, theirabsence, so far as they could perceive, had not been noticed. As Frankhad guessed, the two sentries were knocked senseless by the explosionand the fugitives stumbled over their unconscious figures recumbent onthe snow.
Gasping and staggering they plunged on in the direction they knew theGolden Eagle lay. It was not more than a mile distant, but before theyreached their goal the professor gave out and the boys had tohalf-drag, half-carry him over the frozen surface. They were bitterlycold, too, and the thought of the blankets and warm clothing aboardthe Golden Eagle lent them additional strength--as much so, in fact,as the peril that lay behind them.
"Can you see her?" gasped Harry, after about fifteen minutes of thisheart-breaking work.
"Yes. I think so at least. There seems to be a dark object on the snowahead. If only they have not molested her," panted Frank.
"If they have, it's all up," exclaimed Billy Barnes. At the samemoment Harry breathed:
"Hark!"
Borne over the frozen ground they could hear shouts.
"They have discovered our escape!" exclaimed Frank, "it's a race forlife now."
"It's a Race for Life Now."]
His words threw fresh determination into all. Even the professor madea desperate struggle. A few more paces and there was no doubt that thedark object ahead was the Golden Eagle. Only one anxiety now remained.Was she unharmed?
Bang!
It was a shot from the men of the dirigible.
"They are firing after us," exclaimed Billy.
"They can fire all they want to if they come as wide of the mark asthat," said Frank; "they are shooting at random to scare us."
A few seconds later they gained the side of the Golden Eagle and, wornand harried as they were, they could not forbear setting up a cheer asthey found that the aeroplane was in perfect shape.
Hastily they cranked the Golden Eagle motor up, blue flame and sharpreports bursting from her exhausts as they did so. The engine wasworking perfectly,--every cylinder taking up its work as the sparksbegan to occur rhythmically.
"We've put the fat in the fire now," exclaimed Frank, as he took hisseat at the steering wheel. "If they could not locate us before, thenoise of the exhaust and the blue flame will betray us to them."
"Well, it can't be helped," shouted Harry, above the roar of theengine. "We've got to get every ounce of power out of her to-night."
The other lad nodded and as he did so a sound like a bee in flightfell on the adventurers' ears--a bullet.
It was followed by several reports.
"They've got the range," cried Harry.
"They won't have it long," said his brother as he threw in the clutchand
rapidly the Golden Eagle sped forward, crashing faster and fasterover the frozen surface as her young driver worked the engine up tofull speed.
In a few seconds more they felt the aeroplane begin to lift and soarinto the night air.
They were exploding skyward to safety, while far below them theirbaffled captors were firing aimlessly in the hope of a random shotshattering some vital part of the aeroplane.
But no such thing happened and as the boys sped toward the west, boundfor Camp Hazzard, they sent out a wireless message. Again and againthey tried but without success. They could not raise an answer.
"Of course we can't raise them. They are on the march!" shouted Franksuddenly.
"On the motor-sledge bound for the Viking ship," cried Billy, "theyshould be there to-morrow."
"Say, fellows, we have done it now," cried Frank, with a suddentwinge.
"What's the matter?" inquired the professor.
"Why, they will arrive there to find the others in possession and nosign of us. They'll think we ran away without even putting up afight."
"We'll have to try to pick them up in the daylight," was the reply;"we know about the route along which they'll drive and from thisaltitude we can't miss them if they are anywhere within miles of us."
The boys were then at a height of about 1,500 feet. The air was bitterchill and warm wraps and furs had been donned long before. Suddenlythe aeroplane gave a sickening sidewise dip and seemed about tocapsize. Frank caught and righted her just in time. The gyroscopicbalance whizzed furiously.
A curious moaning sound became perceptible in the rigging and a wind,which they had not noticed before, lashed their faces with a stingingsensation. The recollection of the falling barometer flashed acrossFrank's mind. They were in for a storm.
The boy gazed at the compass beneath its binnacle light. As he did sohe gave a gasp.
"We are way off our course," he cried, "the wind is out of the northand it is blowing us due south."
"Due south!" exclaimed Harry.
"That's it. And the worst of it is I can do nothing. With this load onboard I don't dare try to buck the wind and it's freshening everyminute."
"But if we are being blown due south from here, where on earth will wefetch up?" cried Billy, in dismayed tones.
They all looked blank as they awaited the reply. Frank glanced at hiswatch and then at the compass and made a rapid mental calculation.
"At the rate we are going we should be over the South Pole, roughlyspeaking, at about midnight," he said.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC.
The professor was the first to break the tense silence that followedFrank's words.
"Into the heart of the Antarctic," he breathed.
There seemed to be something in the words that threw a spell of awedsilence over them all. Little was said as on and on through the polarnight the aeroplane drove,--the great wind of the roof of the worldharassing her savagely, viciously,--as if it resented her intrusioninto the long hidden arcana of the polar Plateau.
It grew so bitter cold that the chill ate even through their furs andair-proofed clothing. The canvas curtains were hoisted for a shortdistance to keep off the freezing gale. They dared not set them fullyfor fear they might act as sails and drive the ship before the gale sofast that all control would be lost.
At ten o'clock Frank, his hands frozen almost rigid, surrendered thewheel to Harry.
It now began to snow. Not a heavy snowfall but a sort of frozen flurrymore like hail in its texture. Frank glanced at his watch.
Eleven o'clock.
"How's she headed?" shouted Harry, above the song of the polar gale.
"Due south," was the short reply as the other boy bent over thecompass.
"Well, wherever we are going, we are bound for the pole, there's somegrim satisfaction in that," remarked Frank.
On and on through the cold they drove. The snow had stopped now andsuddenly Billy called attention to a strange phenomenon in thesouthern sky.
It became lit with prismatic colors like a huge curtain, gorgeouslyilluminated in its ample folds by the rays of myriad coloredsearchlights.
"Whatever is it?" gasped Billy in an awed tone as the mystic lightsglowed and danced in almost blinding radiance and cast strange coloredlights about the laboring aeroplane.
"The Aurora Australis," said the professor in an almost equallysubdued voice, "the most beautiful of all the polar sky displays."
"The Aurora Australis," cried Frank, "then we are near the poleindeed."
Half past eleven.
The lights in the sky began to dim and soon the aeroplane was drivingon through solid blackness. The suspense was cruel. Not one of theadventurers had any idea of the conditions they were going to meet. Anameless dread oppressed all.
Suddenly Frank, after a prolonged scrutiny of the compass, voiced whatwas becoming a general fear.
"What if we are being drawn by magnetic force toward the pole?"
"And be dashed to destruction as we reach it?" the professor finishedfor him.
Brave as they were, the adventurers gave a shudder that was not bornof the gnawing cold as the possibility occurred to them. Frank glancedat the barograph. Fifteen hundred feet. They were then holding theirown in altitude. This was a cheering sign.
Ten minutes to twelve.
The strange lights began to reappear. Glowing in fantastic forms theyseemed alive with lambent fire. As the boys gazed at each other theycould see that their features were tinted with the weird fires of thepolar sky.
Twelve o'clock.
Frank gave a hurried dash toward the compass and drew back with ashout.
"Look," he shouted, "we are within the polar influence."
The needle of the instrument was spinning round and round at an almostperpendicular angle in the binnacle with tremendous velocity. Thepointer tore round its points like the hands of a crazy clock.
"What does it mean?" quavered Harry.
"The South Pole, or as near to it as we are ever likely to get,"exclaimed Frank, peering over the side.
Far below illuminated fantastically by the lights of the dancing,flickering aurora he could see a vast level plain of snow stretching,so it seemed, to infinity. There was no open sea. No strange land.Nothing but a vast plateau of silent snow.
"Fire your revolvers, boys," shouted Frank, as, suiting the action tothe word, he drew from his holster his magazine weapon and saluted thesilent skies.
"The South Pole--Hurrah!"
It was a quavering cry, but the first human sound that had ever brokenthe peace of the mysterious solitudes above which they were winging.
Suddenly in the midst of the "celebration" the aeroplane was violentlytwisted about. Every bolt and stay in her creaked and strained underthe stress, but so well and truly had she been built that nothingstarted despite Frank's fears that the voyage to the pole was to endright there in disaster.
The adventurers were thrown about violently. All, that is, but Frank,who had now resumed the wheel and steadied himself with it. As theyscrambled to their feet Billy chattered:
"Whatever happened--did a cyclone strike us?"
For answer Frank bent over the compass and gave a puzzled cry.
"I don't understand this," he exclaimed.
"Don't understand what?" asked Harry, coming to his side.
"Why look here--what do you make of that?"
"The needle has steadied and is pointing north!" cried Harry, as hegazed at the compass.
"North," echoed the professor.
"There's no question about it," rejoined Frank, knitting his brows.
"What is your explanation of this sudden reversal of the wind?" askedthe professor.
"I know no more than you," replied the puzzled young aviator, "theonly reason I can advance is that at the polar cap some strangeinfluences rule the wind currents and that we are caught in a polareddy, as it were."
"If it holds we are saved," cried the professor, who had begun to
fearthat they might never be able to emerge from their newly discoveredregion.
Hold it did and daybreak found the aeroplane above the sameillimitable expanse of snow that marked the pole, but several miles tothe north.
"I'm going down to take an observation," said Frank, suddenly, "andalso, has it occurred to you fellows that we haven't eaten a bitesince last night?"
"Jiminy crickets," exclaimed Billy Barnes, his natural flow of spiritsnow restored, "that's so. I'm hungry enough to eat even a fur-bearingpollywog, if there's one around here."
"Boys," began the professor solemnly as Billy concluded, "I have aconfession to make."
"A confession?" cried Harry, "what about?"
"Why for some time I have entertained a doubt in my mind and thatdoubt has now crystallized to a certainty. I don't believe there issuch a creature as the fur-bearing pollywog."
"Then Professor Tapper is wrong?" asked Harry, amazed at thescientist's tone.
"I am convinced he is. I shall expose him when we return--if we everdo," declared the scientist.
A few minutes later they landed on the firm snow and soon a heartymeal of hot canned mutton, vegetables, soup, and even a can of plumpudding, warmed on their stove and washed down with boiling tea, wasbeing disposed of.
"And now," said Frank, as he absorbed the last morsels on his plate,"let's see whereabouts on the ridgepole of the earth we have lighted."
The boy's observation showed that they were at a point some twohundred miles to the southwest of the spot in which they had left thecrippled dirigible and the Viking ship. The wind had dropped, however,and conditions were favorable for making a fast flight to the placethey were now all impatient to reach Frank, after a few minutes'figuring, announced that dusk ought to find them at the Viking shipand, if all went well, in communication with their friends.
No time was lost in replenishing the gasolene tank from the reserve"drums," and carefully inspecting the engine and then a long farewellwas bade to the Polar plateau. Without a stop the Golden Eagle wingedsteadily toward the northeast, and as the wonderful polar sunset wasbeginning to paint the western sky they made out the black form of thedisabled dirigible on the snow barrens not far from the Viking ship'sgully.
As they gazed they broke into a cheer, for advancing toward the otherdark object at a rapid rate was another blot on the white expanse,which a moment's scrutiny through the glasses showed them was themotor-sledge packed with men on whose rifles the setting sun glintedbrightly. The Golden Eagle ten minutes later swooped to earth at aspot not twenty yards from her original landing place and a fewmoments later the boys were shaking hands and executing a sort of wardance about Captain Barrington and Captain Hazzard, while Ben Stubbswas imploring some one to "shiver his timbers" or "carry away histop-sails" or "keel-haul him" or something to relieve his feelings.
Eagerly the officers pressed for details of the polar discovery, butFrank, after a rapid sketching of conditions as they had observed themat the world's southern axis, went on to describe the events that hadled up to their wild flight and urged immediate negotiations with therival explorers. Both leaders agreed to advance at once, convincedthat their force was sufficiently formidable to overcome the Japs.
"Steady, men, and be ready for trouble but make no hostile move tillyou get the word," warned Captain Hazzard, as the somewhat formidablelooking party advanced on the stricken dirigible. At first no sign oflife was visible about her, but as they neared the ship Frank saw thatthe wrecked cabin had been patched up with canvas, and parts of theballoon bag that had not burned, till it formed a fairly snug tent.They were within a hundred paces of it before anyone appeared to havetaken any notice of their arrival and then the little officer, who haddirected the capture of the adventurers, appeared.
As Billy said afterward, he "never turned a hair," over the conditionsthat confronted him. He was a beaten man and knew it; but his mannerwas perfectly suave and calm.
"Good evening, gentlemen," was all he said, with a wave of his handtoward the Viking ship and the pile of ivory and gold that still layon the edge of the gully, "to the victors belong the spoils and youare without doubt the victors."
He gazed at the array of armed men that backed up the two officers andthe boys.
"We have come to take formal possession in the name of the UnitedStates, of the remains of the Viking ship," said Captain Hazzard,somewhat coldly, for, after what he had heard from the boys, he feltin no way amiably disposed toward the smiling, suave, little man.
"If you have pen and ink and paper in your cabin we will draw up aformal agreement which will hold good in an international court,"supplemented Captain Barrington.
A flash of resentment passed across the other's face but it was gonein an instant.
"Certainly, sir, if you wish it," he said, "but, if it had not beenfor those boys we should by this time have been far away."
"I do not doubt it," said Captain Barrington, dryly, "and, now, if youplease, we will draw up and sign the paper."
Ten minutes later, with the boys' signatures on it as witnesses, theimportant document was drawn up and sealed with a bit of wax thatCaptain Hazzard had in his pocket writing-set. And so ended theepisode of the attempt to seize the treasure of the Viking ship.
Now only remains to be told the manner of its transporting to theSouthern Cross and the last preparations before bidding farewell tothe inhospitable land in which they had spent so much time. First,however, the castaways of the dirigible were given transportation onthe motor-sledge to their ship which, to the astonishment of all theAmerican party, they found was snugly quartered in a deep gulf, notmore than twenty miles to the westward of the berth of the SouthernCross. This accounted for the light and the buzzing of the air-shipbeing heard so plainly by the Southern Crucians. The defeated Japssailed at once for the north, departing as silently as they hadarrived.
It took many trips of the motor-sledge before the last load of theViking ship's strange cargo was snugly stored in the hold of theSouthern Cross. At Captain Hazzard's command the dead Viking wasburied with military honors and his tomb still stands in the "Whitesilence." Then came the dismantling of the Golden Eagle and thepacking of the aeroplane in its big boxes.
"Like putting it in a coffin," grunted Billy, as he watched the lastcover being screwed on.
All the time this work was going forward the nights and days weredisturbed with mighty reports like those of a heavy gun.
The ice was breaking up.
The frozen sea was beginning to be instinct with life. The time forthe release of the Southern Cross was close at hand.
At last the tedious period of waiting passed and one night with amighty crash the ice "cradle" in which the Southern Cross restedparted from the ice-field and the ship floated free. The engineers'force had been busy for a week and in the engine-room all was readyfor the start north, but another tedious wait occurred while theywaited for the field-ice to commence its weary annual drift.
At last, one morning in early December, Captain Barrington and CaptainHazzard gave the magic order:
"Weigh anchor!"
"Homeward bound!" shouted Ben Stubbs, racing forward like a boy.
A week later, as the Southern Cross was ploughing steadily northward,a dark cloud of smoke appeared on the horizon. It was not made outpositively for the relief ship Brutus till an hour had passed and thenthe rapid-fire gun crackled and the remainder of the daylight rocketswere shot off in joyous celebration.
In the midst of the uproar Billy Barnes appeared with a broom.
"Whatever are you going to do with that?" demanded Captain Hazzard,with a smile, as the lad, his eyes shining with eagerness, approached.
"Please, Captain Hazzard, have it run up to the main-mast head,"beseeched Billy.
"Have halliards reeved and run it up, Hazzard," said CaptainBarrington, who came up at this moment, "the lads have certainly madea clean sweep."
So it came about that a strange emblem that much puzzled the captainof the Brutus was run up
to the main-mast head as the two ships drewtogether.
"That's the Boy Aviators' standard," said Billy, proudly surveying it."We win."
Shortly afterward a boat from the Brutus came alongside with the mail."Letters from home," what magic there is in these words to adventurerswho have long sojourned in the solitary places of the earth! Eagerlythe boys seized theirs and bore them off to quiet corners of the deck.
"Hurrah," cried Billy, after he had skimmed through his epistles. "I'mcommissioned to write up the trip for two newspapers and a magazine.How's your news, boys, good?"
The boys looked up from their pile of correspondence.
"I'm afraid we're going to have a regular reception when we get home,"said Frank rather apprehensively.
"Hurray! Brass-bands--speeches--red-fire and big-talk," cried Billy.
"None of that for us," said Harry, "I guess we'll retire to thecountry for a while, till it blows over."
But they did not escape, for on the arrival of the Polar ships in NewYork the boys and the commanders of the expedition were seized on andlionized till newer idols caught the popular taste. Then, and not tillthen, were they allowed to settle down in peace and quiet to tabulatethe important scientific results of the expedition.
As for the Professor, what he wrote about Professor Tapper--a screedby the way that nearly caused a mortal combat between the twosavants--may be read in his massive volume entitled "The Confutationof the Tapper Theory of a South Polar Fur-Bearing Pollywog, byProfessor Simeon Sandburr." It weighs twelve pounds, and can be foundin any large library.
CONCLUSION.
And here, although the author would dearly like to detail theirfurther adventures, we must bid the Boy Aviators "Farewell." Those whohave followed this series know, however, that the lads were not likelyto remain long inactive without seeking further aerial adventures.Whether the tale of these will ever be set down cannot at this time beforecast. The Chester boys adventures have been recorded, not as thedeeds of paragons or phenomenons, but as examples of what pluck, energy,and a mixture of brains, can accomplish,--and with this valedictory wewill once more bid "God speed" to "The Boy Aviators."
THE END.
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