Lost on the Moon - Roy Rockwood (year 7 reading list .txt) 📗
- Author: Roy Rockwood
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“I don’t know. We must try to avoid it. Boys, notify Professor Roumann
at once. We are in grave danger!”
TURNING TURTLE
Together Mark and Jack leaped for the engine room. Their faces showed
the fear they felt. Even before they reached it, they realized that, at
the awful speed at which they were travelling, and the fearful velocity
of the meteor, there might be a crash in mid-air which would destroy
the projectile and end their lives.
“I wonder if we can steer clear of it?” gasped Jack.
“If it’s possible the professor will do it,” responded his chum.
The next instant they were in the engine room, where Mr. Roumann was
bending over the Cardite motor.
“Shut off the power!” yelled Jack.
“We are going to hit a meteor!” gasped Mark.
The German looked up with a startled glance.
“Slow down?” he repeated. “It is impossible to slow down at once! We
are going ninety miles a second!” He pointed to the speed gauge.
“Then there’s going to be a fearful collision!” cried Jack, and he
blurted out the fact of the nearness of the heavenly wanderer.
“So!” exclaimed Professor Roumann. “Dot is bat! ferry bat!” and he
lapsed into the broken language that seldom marked his almost perfect
English. Then, murmuring something in his own tongue, he leaped away
from the motor, calling to the boys:
“Slow it down gradually! Keep pulling the speed lever toward you! I
will set in motion the repelling apparatus and go to help Professor
Henderson steer out of the way. It is our only chance!”
Mark and Jack took their places beside the Cardite motor, which was
still keeping up a fearful speed, though not so fast as at first. To
stop it suddenly would mean that the cessation of strain could not all
be diffused at once, and serious damage might result.
The only way was to come gradually down to the former speed, and, while
Mark kept his eyes on the indicator, Jack pulled the lever toward him,
notch by notch.
“She’s down to seventy-five miles a second,” whispered Mark. They were
as anxious now to reduce speed as they had been before to increase it.
Meanwhile Professor Roumann had set in motion a curious bit of
apparatus, designed to repel stray meteors or detached bits of comets.
As is well known, bodies floating in space, away from the attraction of
gravitation, attract or repel each other as does a magnet or an
electrically charged object.
Acting on this law of nature, Professor Roumann had, with the aid of
Mr. Henderson, constructed a machine which, when a negative current of
electricity was sent into it, would force away any object that was
approaching the Annihilator. In a few moments the boys at the
Cardite motor heard the hum, the throb and crackling that told them
that the repelling apparatus was at work.
But would it act in time? Or would the meteor prove too powerful for
it? And, if it did, would the two scientists be able to steer the
swiftly moving projectile out of the way of the big, black stone, as
the old hunter called it?
These were questions that showed on the faces of the two lads as they
bent over the motor.
“We’re only going fifty miles a second now,” whispered Jack.
Mark nodded his head. “Can’t you pull the lever over faster?” he asked.
“I don’t dare,” replied his chum. There was nothing to do but to wait
and gradually slow up the projectile as much as possible. The boys
could hear the professors in the pilothouse shifting gears, valves and
levers to change the course of the projectile. Andy Sudds and
Washington White, with fear on their faces, looked into the engine
room, waiting anxiously for the outcome.
“Hab—hab we hit it yet?” asked Washington, moving his hands nervously.
“I reckon not, or we’d know it,” said the hunter.
“No, not yet,” answered Jack, in a low voice. “How much are we making
now, Mark?”
“Only thirty a second.”
“Good! She’s coming down.”
Hardly had he spoken than there sounded a noise like thunder, or the
rushing of some mighty wind. The projectile, which was trembling
throughout her length from the force of the motor, shivered as though
she had plunged into the unknown depths of some mighty sea. The roaring
increased. Mark and Jack looked at each other. Washington White fell
upon his knees and began praying in a loud voice. Old Andy grasped his
gun, as though to say that, even though on the brink of eternity, he
was ready.
Then, with a scream as of some gigantic shell from a thousand-inch
rifle, something passed over the Annihilator; something that shook
the great projectile like a leaf in the wind. And then the scream died
away, and there was silence. For a moment no one spoke, and then Jack
whispered hoarsely:
“We’ve passed it.”
“Yes,” added Mark, “we’re safe now.”
“By golly! I knowed we would!” fairly yelled Washington, leaping to his
feet. “I knowed dat no old meteor could kerflumox us! Perfesser
Henderson he done jumped our boat ober it laik a hunter jumps his boss
ober a fence. Golly! I’se feelin’ better now!”
“How did you avoid it?” asked Mark of the professor.
“With the help of the repelling machine and by changing our course. But
we did it only just in time. It was an immense meteor, much larger than
at first appeared, and it was blazing hot. Had it struck us, there
would have been nothing left of us or the projectile either but star
dust. But we managed to pass beneath it, and now we are safe.”
They congratulated each other on their lucky escape, and then busied
themselves about various duties aboard the air-craft. The rest of the
day was spent in making minor adjustments to some of the machines,
oiling others, and in planning what they would do when they reached the
moon.
In this way three days and nights passed, mainly without incident. They
slept well on board the Annihilator, which was speeding so swiftly
through space—slept as comfortably as they had on earth. Each hour
brought them nearer the moon, and they figured on landing on the
surface of that wonderful and weird body in about three days more.
It was on the morning of the fourth day when, as Mark and Jack were
taking their shift in the engine room, that Jack happened to glance
from the side observation window, which was near the Cardite motor.
What he saw caused him to cry out in surprise.
“I say, Mark, look here! There’s the moon over there. We’re not heading
for it at all!”
“By Jove! You’re right!” agreed his chum. “We’re off our course!”
“We must tell Professor Henderson!” cried Jack. “I’ll do it. You stay
here and watch things.”
A few seconds later a very much alarmed youth was rapidly talking to
the two scientists, who were in the pilothouse.
“Some unknown force must have pulled us off our course,” Jack was
saying. “The moon is away off to one side of us.”
To his surprise, instead of being alarmed, Mr. Roumann only smiled.
“It’s true,” insisted Jack.
“Of course, it is,” agreed Mr. Henderson. “We can see it from here,
Jack,” and he pointed to the observation window, from which could be
noticed the moon floating in the sky at the same time the sun was
shining, a phenomenon which is often visible on the earth early in the
morning at certain of the moon’s phases.
“Will we ever get there?” asked Jack.
“Of course,” replied Mr. Roumann. “You must remember, Jack, that the
moon is moving at the same time we are. Had I headed the projectile for
Luna, and kept it on that course, she would, by the time we reached
her, been in another part of the firmament, and we would have overshot
our mark. So, instead, I aimed the Annihilator at a spot in the
heavens where I calculated the moon would be when we arrived there.
And, if I am not mistaken, we will reach there at the same time, and
drop gently down on Luna.”
“Oh, is that it?” asked the lad, much relieved.
“That’s it,” replied Mr. Henderson. “And that’s why we seem to be
headed away from the moon. Her motion will bring her into the right
position for us to land on when the time comes.”
“Then I’d better go tell Mark,” said the lad. “He’s quite worried.” He
soon explained matters to his chum, and together they discussed the
many things necessary to keep in mind when one navigates the heavens.
That day saw several thousand more miles reeled off on the journey to
the moon, and that evening (or rather what corresponded to evening, for
it was perpetual daylight) they began to make their preparations for
landing. Their wonderful journey through space was nearing an end.
“I guess that crazy Axtell fellow was only joking when he said we’d
never reach the moon,” ventured Jack. “Nothing has happened yet.”
“Only the meteor,” said Mark, “and he couldn’t know about that. I guess
he didn’t get a chance to damage any of the machinery.”
“No, we seem to be making good time,” went on his chum. “I think I’ll
go and–-”
Jack did not finish his sentence. Instead he stared at one of the
instruments hanging from the walls of the engine room. It was a sort of
barometer to tell their distance from the earth, and it swung to and
fro like a pendulum. Now the instrument was swinging out away from the
wall to which it was attached. Further and further over it inclined.
Jack felt a curious sensation. Mark put his hand to his head.
“I feel—feel dizzy!” he exclaimed. “What is the matter?”
“Something has happened,” cried Jack.
The instrument swung over still more. Some tools fell from a work
bench, and landed on the steel floor with a crash. The boys were
staggering about the engine room, unable to maintain their balance.
There came cries of fear from the galley, where Washington White was
rattling away amid his pots and pans. Andy Sudds was calling to some
one, and from the pilothouse came the excited exclamations of
Professors Henderson and Roumann.
“We’re turning turtle!” suddenly yelled Jack. “The projectile is
turning over in the air! Something has gone wrong! Perhaps this is the
revenge of that crazy man!” and, as he spoke, he fell over backward,
Mark following him, while the Annihilator was turned completely over
and seemed to be falling down into unfathomable depths.
AT THE MOON
Confusion reigned aboard the Annihilator. It had turned completely
over, and was now moving through space apparently bottom side up. Of
course, being cigar shaped, this did not make any difference as far as
the exterior was concerned, but it did make a great difference to those
within.
The occupants of the great shell had fallen and slid down the rounded
sides of the projectile, and were now standing on what had been the
ceiling. Objects that were not fast had also followed them, scattering
all about, some narrowly missing hitting our friends. Of course, the
machinery was now in the air, over the heads of the travellers.
This was one of the most serious phases of the accident, for the great
Cardite motor was built to run while in the other position, and
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