Through Space to Mars - Roy Rockwood (life changing books TXT) 📗
- Author: Roy Rockwood
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“Something’s happened to the motor!” exclaimed Jack. “Maybe it’s
going too fast! Come on!”
They ran to the engine-room. The sight that met their eyes was a
startling one.
Standing with his back to them was a strange man. Over his head
he was swinging a sledge hammer, which he brought down with great
force upon the Etherium motor.
“I’ll smash it! I’ll stop this machine! I’ll send us all to the
bottom of the universe!” the man was muttering.
“Quit that!” cried Jack, springing forward.
The man paused and turned.
“The crazy machinist!” shouted Jack. “Hell break the engine all
to pieces!”
“That’s what I will!” replied the infuriated man. “I’ll end this
voyage now!”
Once more he brought his hammer down on the machine, and the
motor, with a hissing of gas and a shower of sparks, stopped
working.
Jack and Mark were brave lads. They sprang upon the man, though
he was large and strong, and his strength was added to by his
insane fury.
In an instant they were in the midst of a fierce fight. The
maniac tossed them aside as if they were mere infants, but they
returned to the attack. They sought to hold his arms to prevent
him from doing any further damage with the hammer. Fortunately
for the lads, the man was forced to drop the weapon, to enable
him to grapple with his two assailants.
“Can you hold him?” cried Mark.
“Not very well,” panted Jack, as his grip of the man’s arms was
broken and he was flung across the room.
“Help! Help!” suddenly cried Mark. “The crazy machinist is
here!”
Washington and Andy, in the living-room, heard the yells of the
boys. They rushed to the scene, and, taking in the situation at
a glance, flung themselves upon the unfortunate man, aiding the
boys in holding him.
Even their strength was not sufficient, and it was not until Mr.
Roumann, leaving Professor Henderson in charge of the pilot
house, had come up, that they were able to secure the maniac.
He was quickly bound with ropes, and placed in the storeroom as a
prisoner, while the German turned his whole attention to the
motor, a part of which had been broken. Once more the Annihilator
had ceased to advance, and was falling through space.
“Can you fix it?” anxiously asked Jack, who was panting from the
terrible struggle.
“Yes,” replied Mr. Roumann. “Fortunately he did not smash a
vital part. I will soon have it running again.”
In less than half an hour the motor was repaired, and was
speeding the projectile on its way. It was not set at the
greatest power, however, as Mr. Roumann did not want to put too
much strain upon it.
“Now I have time to inquire how it happened,” he said to the
boys. “Tell me about it.”
They related how they had come upon the crazy machinist.
“Then he has been hidden on board all the while,” commented the
German. “I was not mistaken in thinking some one opened that
port after I closed it. He sneaked in here the night before we
started, and has been waiting his chance to do us some damage.
It was he who smashed the plates.”
“But where could he have concealed himself?” asked Jack.
“I don’t know. We’ll see if he will tell us.”
They went to the storeroom, where the maniac was bound.
“Why did you try to damage my machinery?” asked Mr. Roumann.
“Because it is an infringement on my patent,” was the surprising
answer. “I invented a perpetual motion machine, for making dog
biscuits, and you have used it to make your airship go.
Therefore I smashed it. I have the sole right to make dog
biscuits for the king of the cannibal islands. I’m his private
secretary.”
“He is hopelessly insane,” murmured Jack.
“I fear so,” agreed Mr. Roumann. Then he asked: “Where have you
been hiding?”
“Ah, I fooled you, all right,” said the man with a cunning laugh.
“It was just like a game of hide and seek to watch you hunting
for me, and me looking at you all the while. Ha, ha! Oh, I had
a good place.”
“Where was it?” asked Mr. Roumann soothingly.
“Right up there,” answered the machinist, pointing to the roof of
the storeroom. The German made an investigation, and discovered
a small compartment where it had been intended to make a port,
but the idea for which had not been carried out. This left a
space in the wall of the projectile, large enough for a man to
conceal himself in. No one would suspect he was there.
“I sneaked on board one night,” went on the man. “I managed to
open a port into the storeroom. And I lived high, I can tell
you.”
“Golly! He’s been at mah kitchen stuff!” exclaimed Washington.
“Did that other man come aboard with you?” asked Jack. He
referred to the tramp who had peered in the window of the
professor’s house.
“No. He’s been elected King of France,” was the answer. “He had
to go over there to get his crown fitted on. I’m all alone here.
A few minutes more and I would have smashed that engine.”
“I guess you would,” responded Mr. Roumann. “Well, we’ll take
good care that you do not get loose again.”
The bonds of the maniac were made more secure, and Washington
White was told to keep, close watch over him.
It was the day after this occurrence, though Jack and Mark had
not gotten over talking about it, that they were in the pilot
house with Professor Henderson. The projectile was speeding
along rapidly, and from calculations that had been made it was
believed they would arrive at Mars in about two days.
“I’ll be glad of it,” said Jack. “I want a chance to stretch my
legs.”
“And grow lighter,” added Mark. “You’re fatter than ever since
you began this trip.”
“That’s because I don’t have any exercise. But I’ll make up for
it. I understand that on Mars one can jump twice as far as he
can on the earth, due to the less dense atmosphere.”
“Well, we’ll soon see,” said Mark.
Mr. Henderson suddenly bent over one of the indicators. He
pressed a lever, turned a wheel, and then exclaimed:
“The Etherium motor has stopped working ‘again! I wonder if the
maniac is loose!”
“We’ll see!” cried Jack, as he and Mark hurried toward the
engine-room. They found Mr. Roumann there.
“The motor has stopped!” exclaimed Jack.
“I know it.”
“Has there been an accident?”
“No.”
“What’s the matter, then?”
“We have completed our journey through the ether. The motor will
only work in that.”
“And that means—” began Mark.
“That we have reached the atmosphere of Mars!” exclaimed Mr.
Roumann in triumph.
MARS AT LAST
Anticipating, as they had for some time past, such an
announcement, it was none the less startling to the boys.
“Then we are really nearing Mars?” exclaimed Jack.
“Not only nearing it, but we will be there within twenty-four
hours,” answered the German scientist. “I was looking for this.
I expected the Etherium motor to stop as soon as it reached the
atmosphere of the planet, and it has done so. We will not have
to start it again until we make the return trip. I will now
again put into operation the atmospheric motor, and we will see
how it behaves. Kindly inform Mr. Henderson, so he will
understand what is taking place.”
Mark hastened to the pilot house with this message, and then
returned to watch Mr. Roumann, the professor agreeing to remain
at the steering wheel until relieved by his friend.
Mr. Roumann began adjusting the second motor. It had been kept
in readiness for instant service, and did not require much
attention.
“I don’t see why we have to use it at all,” said Jack.
“Why shouldn’t we?” Mark wanted to know.
“Because if we are near Mars it ought to attract us, just as if
we were near the earth. We ought to fall right into it.”
“That is just the danger,” commented Mr. Roumann. “We don’t want
to fall. We want our projectile under perfect control, and I can
only attain that end by using the motor. Besides, we are not
near enough to Mars to be attracted by its force of gravitation,
even supposing it is the same as that of our earth. We might not
be attracted at all, and if we did not use the motor we might
float around the planet as if we were a moon. No, if we wish to
reach Mars we must use the atmospheric motor.”
A few minutes later it was started, and the Annihilator was once
more speeding along, this time under new power, and not quite so
fast. All on board the projectile found themselves anticipating
what they would see on the new and wonderful planet they were
soon to visit.
“It hardly seems possible,” murmured Jack, “that we have made
such a journey—the longest on record.”
“It will be more wonderful if we get back to earth,” spoke Mark.
“Oh, I don’t know,” went on his chum. “We may like it so on
Mars, that we’ll want to stay. And there isn’t any reason why we
shouldn’t, provided we find nice people there. We haven’t many
friends, Mark. Our best ones are right here with us. We could
just as well stay as not.”
“Yes, provided, as you say, that the Martians are nice people.
But you must remember that we’re going to be strangers in a
strange land.”
“Well, one always treats strangers politely,” declared Jack. “I
guess we’ll get along all right. Anyhow, I’m glad we’re near
there.”
“So am I,” declared Mr. Henderson. “I will be able to make some
scientific observations, and, perhaps, write a book about them
when I get back to earth. I might make some money out of it.”
“You won’t need to make money, if what I suspect is true,” said
Mr. Roumann.
“What is that?”
“Well, I can’t go into details now, but I hope to secure
something that will make our fortunes. There is only one thing I
fear.”
“What is that?”
“The Martians may prevent me taking any of it away. But I am not
going to borrow trouble. Let us see how the motor is working.”
They had all gone, with the exception of Andy and Washington, to
the pilot house, and they now returned to the engine-room.
“Ha! That is rather strange!” exclaimed Mr. Roumann as he looked
at the buzzing machinery.
“What’s the matter?” asked Mark.
“The atmospheric motor is running much faster than I ever saw it
go before. I wonder if that crazy machinist could have gotten
loose and meddled with it?”
“I’ll look,” volunteered Jack, but he soon ascertained that the
man was still securely bound.
The motor was humming and snapping away, and a gage connected
with it showed that it was forcing the Annihilator along at the
rate of two hundred miles a second.
“That is faster even than we moved when the Etherium machine was
working at its best,” said Mr. Roumann with a puzzled look. “Can
I have made a mistake in my calculations? I hardly think so.”
“Jack, run to the pilot house, and see if the automatic steering
apparatus is all right. Also see
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